Urban Challenges. Innovative Answers.
Broadly speaking, Urban Studies is any scholarly approach to understanding the city.
UWM’s Urban Studies Programs focus on social science research methods. USP students and faculty use methodological approaches including ethnographic, archival, quantitative, GIS, and survey research. We take a metropolitan view of the “urban,” studying both cities and suburbs and regions. Much of the research conducted in Urban Studies is focused on the United States in general and the Milwaukee area in particular, but our faculty also includes international specialists.
What can I do with an Urban Studies degree?
Like other degree programs housed in UWM’s College of Letters and Science, Urban Studies’ educational program nourishes students’ broad analytical skills, with an eye toward researching and understanding cities. Urban Studies students learn to read urban scholarship, research and understand the urban world from a social science perspective, and write from an academic perspective.
Alumni of our programs take their skills into many professional arenas, including government, the non-profit sector, all levels of education, law, and the business world. The kind of critical analysis and writing skills taught in USP are transferable to many interesting careers where students can apply their passion for understanding metropolitan areas.
Director’s Welcome
Urban Studies Program Director
Welcome to the Urban Studies Programs of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee! Founded in the 1960s as the Department of Urban Affairs, the Urban Studies Programs combine passion for social justice with hard-edged social science research. In our programs, undergraduates and graduate students can learn about cities and suburbs from faculty with urban expertise from multiple UWM departments. We offer an extensive array of extracurricular, urban-themed activities, including an annual State of the City Summit every fall and graduate-student run conference every spring.
We welcome graduate applications from students of all ages and a wide variety of intellectual backgrounds. Previous experience in Urban Studies is not necessary. The small size of our student body means that students can receive lots of attention from program staff. If you are interested in learning more, please feel free to contact me or USP Associate Director Jamie Harris at jmh@uwm.edu.
Dr. Joel Rast, USP Director
Professor of Political Science
The Urban Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was founded in 1963 in part to engage with the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Through our curriculum, programming, and other activities, we seek to study inequalities in our cities and communities. It is our goal to better understand and address current issues within our institutions, our behavior, and our society as a whole.
Get to know us!
Take a virtual tour or view our Undergraduate Admissions info or Graduate Admissions info to start an application today!
Department News
- Focus on Jordan Villegas and His WorkRead the story on urban studies major BA alum Jordan Villegas and his work at Acts Housing in this month’s In Focus magazine. https://uwm.edu/letters-science/in-focus/alumni-student-news/what-can-you-do-with-an-urban-studies-major/ …
- New e.polis Issue Out: “Resistance, Justice, and Belonging in the City” (Fall 2025)The 2025 fall issue of e.polis, Resistance, Justice, and Belonging in the City, is out. This issue brings together writing on how people contest power and …
- Congratulations, Prof. Amanda SeligmanCongratulations to USP faculty affiliate Prof. Amanda Seligman (History and Urban Studies) and Jaclyn Kelly (UWM History Department alum and Executive Director of the Wisconsin Labor History Society) …
- Congratulations, Assoc. Prof. Derek HandleyCongratulations to USP faculty affiliate Assoc. Prof. Derek Handley (English and Urban Studies) who has won the 2025 Outstanding Book Award from the Coalition for Community Writing for …
