Upcoming Events

"China: Cities Afer Socialism"

Tuesday, February 28 - 10:30am - 5pm

Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute for International Affairs

This conference, a Brown University Year of China event, is supported by the Vice President of International Affairs and the Dean of the Faculty and has been organized by S4 and the Urban Studies Program.

Co-sponsors: David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University; Urban China Research Network, University at Albany; University of London; and Hong Kong University Strategic Research Theme on Contemporary China Studies.

China's decisive shift from a centrally planned economy four decades ago has greatly affected urban life. Housing - previously in short supply but treated as a welfare good - has been largely privatized. Economid growth in old and new cities has been fueled by a labor force recruited from the countryside, a majority of people now live in urban areas, and cities have sprawled far beyond their previous borders. New divisions have been created by class inequality and official discrimination against ruling migrants. This conference brings together many of the leading scholars on China's urban transformation to examine key aspects of these changes, to anticipate future changes, and to assess the challenges these pose for urban research.

For more information, please visit www.s4.brown.edu/china2012

Welcome to Urban Studies!

The Brown Urban Studies Program is the quintessential interdisciplinary program. Our core faculty members come from 8 academic disciplines and our students draw on very diverse ideas and methods. Yet we are a cohesive intellectual group, for our studies are all focused on the city. We organize our approach around a set of basic research and teaching areas that reflect the depth and diversity of the program: urban development and economics, urban politics and community, the urban built environment, American urban history, suburbanization, and literary representations of urban space and social relations.

The demanding academic work attracts the best students, many of whom are supported with summer research fellowships and internships doing fieldwork, often followed by an honors thesis. Roughly twenty-five seniors a year graduate in Urban Studies; six-to-eight typically write an honors thesis. Our students have a distinct spirit -- reflected in their newsletter, the department undergraduate group (DUG), and student-led conferences.