mit phd urban studies and planning

Landscape + Urbanism at MIT

Doctoral Degrees

A doctoral degree requires the satisfactory completion of an approved program of advanced study and original research of high quality..

Please note that the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Science (ScD) degrees are awarded interchangeably by all departments in the School of Engineering and the School of Science, except in the fields of biology, cognitive science, neuroscience, medical engineering, and medical physics. This means that, excepting the departments outlined above, the coursework and expectations to earn a Doctor of Philosophy and for a Doctor of Science degree from these schools are generally the same. Doctoral students may choose which degree they wish to complete.

Applicants interested in graduate education should apply to the department or graduate program conducting research in the area of interest. Some departments require a doctoral candidate to take a “minor” program outside of the student’s principal field of study; if you wish to apply to one of these departments, please consider additional fields you may like to pursue.

Below is a list of programs and departments that offer doctoral-level degrees.

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Urban Studies and Planning

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At Sustainability Connect 2024, a look at how MIT is decarbonizing its campus

The event featured updates from faculty and staff from across MIT, as well as a panel on communicating climate in the media.

March 4, 2024

Anushree Chaudhuri: Involving local communities in renewable energy planning

As societies move to cleaner technologies, the MIT senior seeks to make the transition more sustainable and just.

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February 13, 2024

Nancy Hopkins awarded the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal

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Co-creating climate futures with real-time data and spatial storytelling

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Building technology that empowers city residents

Kwesi Afrifa, a senior majoring in urban planning and computer science, wants to create cultural hubs that are inviting to everyone.

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Climate action, here and now

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The City Science Network empowers local communities to collaborate globally

Led by the Media Lab’s City Science research group, the CSN is a collaboration of institutions and researchers sharing a common goal of enabling more livable, equitable, and resilient communities.

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Inaugural Fast Forward Faculty Fund grants aim to spur new work on climate change and deepen collaboration at MIT.

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Bachelor of Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science

In the years to come, solutions to the complex global problems, which are increasingly urban, will require an understanding of large amounts of data and a facility with analysis, visualization, sensors, and even the integration of artificial intelligence into planning and policy-making contexts in a democratic and ethical manner. At the same time, the fields of computer science and machine learning can benefit from the urgency and “hands-on” nature of the sorts of challenges presented in policy-making and urban planning contexts and can lead to democratic and ethical innovations of technology. In short: urban planners have excellent problems, and computer scientists have excellent tools.

The 11-6 degree aims to help undergraduates use their computer science skills to make positive social impacts. Students will learn the theory and practice of (1) urban planning and policy-making including ethics and justice; (2) statistics, data science, geospatial analysis, and visualization, and (3) computer science, robotics, and machine learning.

To accomplish these ends, the required subjects include core courses in both computer science and urban planning fundamentals, as well as lab and project-based courses that will help students synthesize and integrate across the two departments. On the Urban Studies and Planning side, students will also receive a grounding in the political, sociological, legal, and ethical aspects of collecting and using new information flows. On the Computer Science side, they will enhance their skills in programming, statistics, data visualization, applied spatial analysis and machine learning.

For the predominantly technically-minded undergraduates at MIT, working within real urban contexts and environments will expose them to:

• Fundamental and socially-relevant questions of equity, fairness, diversity, and implementation in a global context;
• Specific applications of technology and systems in environmental management, transportation, infrastructure financing, cybersecurity, provision of housing, and job creation.
• Diverse contexts in which technology is tested and used, especially at the critical intersections between government and industry; policy-making and implementation; and in both the developed and developing world.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Read more on events.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

Do you have questions about the major, classes, or on-going research? Want to get involved with the new major or discuss how 11-6 would prepare you for future endeavors? Listed below are volunteer faculty and staff who are eager to answer your questions, please reach out to them directly via the provided email address.

Eran Ben-Joseph Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning [email protected]

Eran Ben-Joseph is the Class of 1922 Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Eran served as Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT from 2013 to 2020.

DUSP Faculty Page

Sarah Williams Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning [email protected]

Sarah Williams is an Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning. She also is Director of the Civic Data Design Lab at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. The Civic Data Design Lab works with data, maps, and mobile technologies to develop interactive design and communication strategies that expose urban policy issues to broader audiences. Trained as a Geographer (Clark University), Landscape Architect (University of Pennsylvania), and Urban Planner (MIT), Williams’s work combines geographic analysis and design. Williams is most well known for her work as part of the Million Dollar Blocks team which highlighted the cost of incarceration, Digital Matatus which developed the first data set on a informal transit system searchable in Google Maps, and a more a recent project that uses social media data to understand housing vacancy and Ghost Cities in China.

• Civic Data Design Lab
• Million Dollar Blocks

David Hsu Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning [email protected]

David is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and teaching areas focus on how to use environmental policy and planning to shape cities to become more efficient in their use of resources, more livable, and healthier. Much of his work seeks to assist local policymakers and environmental advocates directly in the stages of policy design and implementation.

Joe Ferreira Professor, Post-Tenure [email protected]

Professor Ferreira was the founding director of the Planning Department’s Computer Resource Lab and is now head of Urban Information Systems. He teaches analytical methods and computer-based modeling for planning and urban management including courses involving extensive use of geographic information systems (GIS) and database management. Both Prof. Ferreira’s undergraduate degree (in electrical engineering) and his PhD degree (in operations research) are from MIT. His research uses GIS and interactive spatial analysis tools to model land use, transportation, and environmental interactions and to build sustainable information infrastructures for supporting urban and regional planning. He is a past-president of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and has been principal investigator of numerous research projects studying job‐housing balance, urban performance measures, and urban information infrastructure. His current research includes the Future Urban Mobility project within the Singapore/MIT Alliance for Research and Technology where he is the SMART Research Professor of Urban Information Systems.

• Urban Information Systems

Andres Sevtsuk Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning [email protected]

Andres Sevtsuk is a Charles and Ann Spaulding Career Development Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, where he also leads the City Form Lab. His work bridges urban design with spatial analysis and urban technology. He has led various international research projects; exhibited his research at TEDx, the World Cities Summit and the Venice Biennale; and received the President’s Design Award in Singapore, International Buckminster Fuller Prize and Ron Brown/Fulbright Fellowship. Before joining MIT, Andres was an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He holds a PhD from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and an SMArchs in Architecture and Urbanism from MIT.

Catherine D’Ignazio Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning [email protected]

Catherine D’Ignazio is an Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. She is also Director of the Data + Feminism Lab which uses data and computational methods to work towards gender and racial equity, particularly as they relate to space and place. D’Ignazio is a scholar, artist/designer and hacker mama who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy and civic engagement. Prior to joining DUSP, D’Ignazio was an Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media at Emerson College in the Journalism Department, taught for seven years in the Digital + Media graduate program at Rhode Island School of Design and did freelance software development for more than ten years. She holds an MS from the MIT Media Lab, an MFA from Maine College of Art, and a BA in International Relations (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Tufts University.

Eric Huntley Lecturer of Urban Science and Planning [email protected]

Eric Huntley joined DUSP in August 2017 as a Technical Instructor of GIS, Data Visualization and Graphics. Huntley’s work combines methods and forms of representation in novel ways to produce compelling and visually-rich narratives that draw from geography, data science, and design. He has years of GIS teaching experience and an expansive skillset that includes data visualization, GIS and spatial analysis, web mapping, urban design representation, and media production. His design work has been exhibited at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning.

Do you have general questions about the 11-6 major such as: is this the right major for me? How can I be involved as a faculty advisor? Feel free to reach out to any of the individual faculty or staff members above or contact Sandra M. Elliott ( [email protected] ).

Course 11: Bachelor of Science in Planning (SB)

Course 11-6: bachelor of urban science and planning with computer science (sb), sb/mcp: bachelor of science + master in city planning, minor programs, hass concentrations, undergraduate.

Group photo at the School of Architecture and Planning undergraduate thesis poster session

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers two undergraduate majors 11 and 11-6, providing a wide-ranging and in-depth undergraduate education in the fields of urban planning and urban science.

The Bachelor of Science in Planning (SB, Course 11) provides a solid foundation, practical hands-on experience, and real-life problem solving and geared toward students intending to work in law, public policy, economic development, urban design, non-profit management, development, and planning. 

The Bachelor of Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science (SB, Course 11-6) , a joint major with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science builds on theory and the urban studies foundation, integrating social and technical skills that are grounded in real-world applications.

Those students who choose to major in the Department earn a Bachelor of Science in Planning (SB), an interdisciplinary pre-professional major designed to prepare students for careers in both the public and private sectors. A course 11 degree provides a sound foundation for students intending to do graduate work in law, public policy, economic development, urban design, management, and planning.

The courses in the major teach students how the tools of economics, policy analysis, political science, and urban design can be used to solve social and environmental problems in the United States and abroad. In addition, students learn the skills and responsibilities of planners who seek to promote effective and equitable social change. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers many possibilities for creating a concentration tailored to your needs and interests in the following categories.

• Designing the Urban Environment
• Environmental Policy
• Urban History & Society
• Policy Analysis and Urban Problems
• International Development

For more information about specific degree requirements, see the MIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.mit.edu/degree-charts/planning-course-11/

Those students who choose the joint major with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will earn a Bachelor of Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science(SB), a major integrating social and technical skills with theoretical foundations and applied experience, designed to prepare students for careers in both the public and private sectors. The major provides a foundation for students intending to do graduate work in applied data analytics, public policy, economic development, urban design, management, and planning.

Majors take a set of common core courses in one of four streams:

• fundamentals of computer science
• fundamentals of urban planning
• machine learning, probability, and statistics
• policy and ethics

In addition, students will participate in an applied urban science synthesis lab, where high-tech tools will be brought together to solve real-world problems.

The courses in the major teach students how the tools of ethics and justice, statistics, data science, geospatial analysis, visualization, robotics, and machine learning can be applied to craft solutions to complex problems that require new strategies, technologies, types of data, and approaches to science. Students will also learn the skills and responsibilities of planners who seek to promote effective and equitable social change. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science offer a diverse range of possibilities for creating a major tailored to your needs and interests in the following categories:

• Urban planning and policy
• Statistics, data science, geospatial analysis and visualization
• Computer science and machine learning
• Integrated, hand-on experience working with data and new technologies to address real urban problems

For more information about specific degree requirements, see the MIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.mit.edu/interdisciplinary/undergraduate-programs/degrees/urban-science-planning-computer-science/

Undergraduate majors in Course 11 or 11-6 may apply for admission to the department's Master in City Planning (MCP) program in their junior year. Students accepted into the five-year program receive both the Bachelor of Science and the MCP at the end of five years of study. Admission is intended for those undergraduates who have demonstrated exceptional performance in the major and show commitment to the field of city planning. Criteria for admission include:

• Strong academic record in Course 11 subjects
• Letters of reference from departmental faculty
• Practical experience in planning which could be gained through internships, practicums, studios, UROPs, summer jobs, etc.
• A mature and passionate interest for the field which warrants further study

In the fall semester of the senior year, five-year students are considered participants in the MCP program and begin meeting its requirements. At the same time, they can be completing requirements for the undergraduate degree.

The Department offers three minors:

• Minor in Urban Studies and Planning
• Minor in Public Policy
• Minor in International Development

Students who successfully complete a minor program will have the field of study specified on their student transcript, thus giving recognition of focused work in the discipline.

Minor in Urban Studies and Planning The six-subject Minor in Urban Studies and Planning offers students the opportunity to explore issues in urban studies and planning in some depth. Students initially take two Tier I subjects that establish the political, economic, and design contexts for local, urban, and regional decision making. In addition, students choose four Tier II elective subjects, which provide an opportunity to focus on urban and environmental policy issues or to study urban problems and institutions. Students are encouraged to craft a minor that reflects their own particular interests within the general parameters of the minor program requirements and in consultation with the minor advisor.

Learn more about the requirements via the MIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.mit.edu/schools/architecture-planning/urban-studies-planning/#urban-studies-planning-minor

Minor in Public Policy Public policy is an academic field that looks at the nature of public problems and how we attempt to address those problems through government action. The interdisciplinary HASS Minor in Public Policy is intended to provide a single framework for students in engineering and sciences who are interested in the role of public policy in the field of their technical expertise. The six-subject minor is organized in three tiers.

The first tier provides a foundation in the study of the public and private institutions in which public policy decisions are made and implemented. All students are required to take two subjects that introduce them to rationales for government action, justifications that form the fundamental basis for making public policy. The second tier explores methods of analyzing and assessing the impacts of policy change. The aim is to provide a basic level of competence so that students are knowledgeable about the range of approaches that professionals use to analyze public policies. The third tier offers an in-depth program of study in one substantive field of policymaking. All minors select one substantive policy field and take three subjects within that area of specialization. Students may substitute a semester-long internship for one subject in their chosen field, with the approval of their minor advisor. The internship must be at least 9 units and must be for a letter grade.

The Public Policy Minor is administered jointly by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Department of Political Science. 

Students interested in this minor should begin by contacting Professor Justin Steil. Majors in Urban Studies are not permitted to minor in Public Policy. Political Science majors can minor in Public Policy, however they can not use any course for the minor that they are using to fulfill their major.

Learn more about the requirements via the MIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.mit.edu/interdisciplinary/undergraduate-programs/minors/public-policy/

Minor in International Development MIT students have enormous interest in tackling problems of global poverty and economic development in the poor regions of the world. The minor in international development will increase the capability to understand, analyze and tackle today's problems in emerging countries, including the challenges of dealing with increasing urbanization, the need for industrial growth and jobs for increasing number of educated youth, the crisis of resources and infrastructure, the fragmentation of state capacity and rising violence, the ethical and moral issues raised by development planning, the role of appropriate technology and research, and the challenge of dealing with popular discontent. Through research and teaching, we combine a robust introduction to the theoretical framework of the field, with a strong analytical orientation and problem-solving method tested through field engagement. Taught by faculty from one of the worlds premier academic centers of expertise in planning, at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and with more than a quarter century of experience in dealing with problems of international development, the minor is a new offering to MIT students that emphasizes problem-solving, multidisciplinarity and an understanding of institutions at various levels from the local to the global as the key to solving todays problems in emerging countries.

The six-subject minor is structured into two tiers. The first tier gives students a general overview of the history of international development and major theories and debates in the field, and an introduction to the dilemmas of practice. It will also introduce students to the challenges of applying models of interventions across contexts and the importance of understanding local institutional frameworks and political economies across scales and levels of governance. The second tier of classes offers an array of more specialized and advanced subjects to allow students greater depth in specific sectors and international development issues with faculty immersed in a variety of disciplines. These sectors range from public finance, infrastructure and energy, sustainability, the role of technology policy, the form and the structure of cities, the politics of urban change and development, the role of law and public policy in development and the rethinking of development in terms of human rights.

The courses seek to combine the real world resources of experienced practitioners by taking advantage of fifteen mid-career international development and planning practitioners (Spurs/Humphrey fellows), who are hosted by DUSP each year, and who can serve as a major resource for connecting MIT undergraduates to the international world of development planning practice.

Learn more about the requirements via the MIT Course Catalog: http://catalog.mit.edu/schools/architecture-planning/urban-studies-planning/#international-development-minor

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers many HASS concentrations tailored to a wide variety of student needs and interests. The following list suggests some of the most popular combinations of subjects. 

You can also create an individually-crafted HASS concentration that fits your particular interests while taking account of Institute guidelines. The Department will assist you in selecting three HASS subjects that suit your concerns and background. Subject offerings change on an annual basis and students should check with Sandra Elliott , for the latest information.

Current HASS Concentrations: 

Big Data and Cyber Security 

• 11.138 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping
• 11.154 Big Data, Visualization, and Society
• 11.155[J] Data and Society
• 11.074 Cybersecurity Clinic*

Climate Change and Environmental Planning  

• 11.148 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy
• 11.169 Global Climate Policy and Sustainability
• 11.171 Indigenous Environmental Planning

Designing the Urban Environment 

• 11.001[J] Introduction to Urban Design and Development
• 11.016[J] The Once and Future City
• 11.123 Big Plans and Mega-Urban Landscapes

Energy and Infrastructure 

• 11.142 Geography of the Global Economy
• 11.165 Urban Energy Systems and Policy
• 11.173[J] Infrastructure Design for Climate Change

Housing, Land Use Law, and Social Change

• 11.041 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development
• 11.067 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law

International Development and Human Rights 

• 11.005 Introduction to International Development
• 11.025[J] D-Lab: Development
• 11.164[J] Human Rights at Home and Abroad

Negotiation and Leadership 

• 11.011 The Art and Science of Negotiation
• 11.111[J] Leadership in Negotiation: Advanced Applications

Policy Analysis and Urban Problem-Solving 

• 11.002[J] Making Public Policy 
• 11.003[J] Methods of Policy Analysis

Urban History 

• 11.013[J] American Urban History
• 11.015[J] Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History 

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) provides a unique opportunity for students to participate in ongoing faculty research, off-campus research, or other related field experiences. UROP offers students a chance to apply classroom learning to a real-world problem. UROP projects can supplement coursework and provide opportunities for professional experience. Learn more about UROP.

Recent UROP projects in DUSP have explored such areas as legal studies, housing and real estate, computer mapping, economic and social development, energy, environmental impact, and social welfare. For information about UROP opportunities, contact Cherie Abbanat. 

We welcome any questions you have about the DUSP undergraduate programs. 

• Questions, concerns, and/or complaints regarding registration, enrollment, leaves, exams and/or other student requirements should be addressed to Sandra Elliott .
• Questions, concerns, and/or complaints regarding regarding the masters programs' student process should be addressed to the undergraduate Committee co-Chairs ( see DUSP Governance )

Urban Studies & Planning: Resources

• Real Estate & Housing
• Journal List

Journal Articles and Theses

Start your search

• Search our collections Start by searching our collections. Results include databases, articles, books, and government documents.
• Urban Studies Abstracts Urban Studies Abstracts includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to the study of cities and regions, such as urban affairs, community development, urban history and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. This database contains more than 120,000 records from key discipline reso1939 - present.
• Google Scholar Free scholarly database. Link to MIT libraries for full text and Web of Science citations.

Other article databases and resources

• ABI/Inform Complete Database of journals in business, trade, and industry. Not included in Barton Plus.
• Agricultural and Environmental Science Database Journal & conference articles, reports, books & government publications with comprehensive coverage of environmental & pollution issues.
• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals Comprehensive listing of journal articles on architecture since 1934, covering the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation and interior design and decoration. 1934 - present.
• Compendex Articles, conference papers, and reports in all fields of engineering. 1884 - present.
• IEEE Explore Full-text journal and conference articles published by IEEE and IET. IEEE books and standards are also included. 1988 - present for most publications
• MIT Theses Search for MIT theses in Barton catalog
• Oxford Handbooks Online Offers thorough introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in various disciplines,
• Proquest Dissertations and Theses Indexing and abstracting of non-MIT dissertations and theses 1861 - present. Full text for most dissertations 1997-present and selective full-text for earlier dissertations. Comprehensive coverage of North American universities and selective coverage worldwide.
• SSRN (Social Science Research Network) SSRN is an open-access online preprint community.

Relevant databases

• Fitch Connect Industry sector, economic, political and company research on various countries. Includes political and economic risk analysis.
• CQ Researcher Comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news including criminal justice, the economy, education, the environment, health, international affairs, social trends and technology.
• Encyclopedia of Urban Studies
• Hein Online Full-text legal history collection of image-based documents. Includes more than 1,700 legal journals and over 3000 books. Also includes world constitutions, treaties, US Supreme Court reports, US Code, Statutes at Large, Code of Federal Regulations, Congressional Record, presidential papers, Foreign Relations of the United States, federal agency reports and records, and resources for researching legislative histories. 1700s - present.
• OECD iLibrary The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) online library of statistical databases, books and periodicals. Search for statistics or get the fulltext of any OECD publication.
• Political Handbook of the World 2010 to present
• Proquest Congressional Indexing and abstracts for U.S. Congressional publications 1789 - present. Includes the full text of reports, bills, public laws, and legislative histories; full text of Congressional hearings 1824 - 1979; and links to selected full text documents, committee prints, and Congressional hearings testimony 1980 - present. Also contains information on members of Congress, campaign financial data, Congressional voting records, and other information about the legislative process.
• Data Axle (ReferenceUSA) Search US businesses by industry, size, geography, and more
• Simply Analytics Create customized maps, detailed location reports, and rank locations using thousands of variables and business points. Data can be exported as images, shapefiles or in tabular formats. You must create an account to use this database.
• Social Explorer Provides easy access to US demographic information. Thousands of interactive data maps and tables going back to 1790.
• Statista Portal providing access to statistics from market researchers, trade associations, scientific publications, and government sources. Starting place for research on industries, markets, demography, countries & economies.

General News Databases

• Proquest Global Newsstream Access to over 2500 US and international news sources.
• Factiva Factiva has more than 30,000 sources from more than 200 countries in 28 languages.
• Nexis Uni Nexis Uni, formerly Lexis Nexis Academic, provides access to the full-text of many news, business, and legal resources, including the New York Times.
• Press Reader Current editions of hundreds U.S. and international newspapers from scores of countries in dozens of languages in full-color, full-page format. For use online or as an app. Current three months only.
• More news sources

Maps, Case Studies, and Reports

• Sanborn Maps of Massachusetts
• Brookings Institute reports, Cities & Regions
• Urban Institute reports
• ULI Development Case Studies

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• Materials Science and Engineering (Course 3-​A)
• Materials Science and Engineering (PhD)
• Mechanical Engineering (Course 2)
• Mechanical and Ocean Engineering (Course 2-​OE)
• Engineering (Course 2-​A)
• Nuclear Science and Engineering (Course 22)
• Engineering (Course 22-​ENG)
• Anthropology (Course 21A)
• Comparative Media Studies (CMS)
• Writing (Course 21W)
• Economics (Course 14-​1)
• Mathematical Economics (Course 14-​2)
• Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (MASc)
• Economics (PhD)
• Global Studies and Languages (Course 21G)
• History (Course 21H)
• Linguistics and Philosophy (Course 24-​2)
• Philosophy (Course 24-​1)
• Linguistics (SM)
• Literature (Course 21L)
• Music (Course 21M-​1)
• Theater Arts (Course 21M-​2)
• Political Science (Course 17)
• Science, Technology, and Society/​Second Major (STS)
• Business Analytics (Course 15-​2)
• Finance (Course 15-​3)
• Management (Course 15-​1)
• Biology (Course 7)
• Chemistry and Biology (Course 5-​7)
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Course 9)
• Chemistry (Course 5)
• Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (Course 12)
• Mathematics (Course 18)
• Mathematics with Computer Science (Course 18-​C)
• Physics (Course 8)
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
• Chemistry and Biology
• Climate System Science and Engineering
• Computation and Cognition
• Computer Science and Molecular Biology
• Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science
• Humanities and Engineering
• Humanities and Science
• Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science
• African and African Diaspora Studies
• American Studies
• Ancient and Medieval Studies
• Applied International Studies
• Asian and Asian Diaspora Studies
• Biomedical Engineering
• Energy Studies
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Environment and Sustainability
• Latin American and Latino/​a Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Polymers and Soft Matter
• Public Policy
• Russian and Eurasian Studies
• Statistics and Data Science
• Women's and Gender Studies
• Advanced Urbanism
• Computational and Systems Biology
• Computational Science and Engineering
• Design and Management (IDM &​ SDM)
• Joint Program with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Leaders for Global Operations
• Microbiology
• Music Technology and Computation
• Operations Research
• Real Estate Development
• Social and Engineering Systems
• Supply Chain Management
• Technology and Policy
• Transportation
• School of Architecture and Planning
• School of Engineering
• Aeronautics and Astronautics Fields (PhD)
• Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making (Course 6-​4)
• Biological Engineering (PhD)
• Nuclear Science and Engineering (PhD)
• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• Humanities (Course 21)
• Humanities and Engineering (Course 21E)
• Humanities and Science (Course 21S)
• Sloan School of Management
• School of Science
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences (PhD)
• Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Fields (PhD)
• Interdisciplinary Programs (SB)
• Climate System Science and Engineering (Course 1-​12)
• Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science (Course 6-​14)
• Interdisciplinary Programs (Graduate)
• Computation and Cognition (MEng)
• Computational Science and Engineering (SM)
• Computational Science and Engineering (PhD)
• Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science (MEng)
• Leaders for Global Operations (MBA/​SM and SM)
• Music Technology and Computation (SM and MASc)
• Real Estate Development (SM)
• Statistics (PhD)
• Supply Chain Management (MEng and MASc)
• Technology and Policy (SM)
• Transportation (SM)
• Aeronautics and Astronautics (Course 16)
• Aerospace Studies (AS)
• Civil and Environmental Engineering (Course 1)
• Comparative Media Studies /​ Writing (CMS)
• Comparative Media Studies /​ Writing (Course 21W)
• Computational and Systems Biology (CSB)
• Computational Science and Engineering (CSE)
• Concourse (CC)
• Data, Systems, and Society (IDS)
• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Course 12)
• Economics (Course 14)
• Edgerton Center (EC)
• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6)
• Engineering Management (EM)
• Experimental Study Group (ES)
• Global Languages (Course 21G)
• Health Sciences and Technology (HST)
• Linguistics and Philosophy (Course 24)
• Management (Course 15)
• Media Arts and Sciences (MAS)
• Military Science (MS)
• Music and Theater Arts (Course 21M)
• Naval Science (NS)
• Science, Technology, and Society (STS)
• Special Programs
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Women's and Gender Studies (WGS)

Introductory Subjects

11.001[j] introduction to urban design and development.

Same subject as 4.250[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Surveys the ideas of a wide range of people who have addressed urban problems. Stresses the connection between values and design. Demonstrates how physical, social, political and economic forces interact to shape and reshape cities over time. Introduces links between urban design and urban science.

L. Vale (fall); A. Sevtsuk (spring)

11.002[J] Making Public Policy

Same subject as 17.30[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 4-0-8 units. HASS-S; CI-H

Examines how the struggle among competing advocates shapes the outputs of government. Considers how conditions become problems for government to solve, why some political arguments are more persuasive than others, why some policy tools are preferred over others, and whether policies achieve their goals. Investigates the interactions among elected officials, think tanks, interest groups, the media, and the public in controversies over global warming, urban sprawl, Social Security, health care, education, and other issues.

11.003[J] Methods of Policy Analysis

Same subject as 17.303[J] Prereq: 11.002[J] ; Coreq: 14.01 Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides students with an introduction to public policy analysis. Examines various approaches to policy analysis by considering the concepts, tools, and methods used in economics, political science, and other disciplines. Students apply and critique these approaches through case studies of current public policy problems.

11.004[J] People and the Planet: Environmental Histories and Engineering

Same subject as STS.033[J] Subject meets with 11.204[J] , IDS.524[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units. HASS-E

Explores historical and cultural aspects of complex environmental problems and engineering approaches to sustainable solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to understand environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of historical and cultural analyses of environmental challenges and their engineering responses. Builds writing, quantitative modeling, and analytical skills in assessing environmental systems problems and developing engineering solutions. Through environmental data gathering and analysis, students engage with the challenges and possibilities of engineering in complex, interacting systems, and investigate plausible, symbiotic, systems-oriented solutions. Students taking graduate version complete additional analysis of reading assignments and a more in-depth and longer final paper. 

A. Slocum, R. Scheffler, J. Trancik

11.005 Introduction to International Development

Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces the political economy of international economic development planning, using an applied, quantitative approach. Considers why some countries are able to develop faster than others. Presents major theories and models of development and underdevelopment, providing tools to understand the mechanisms and processes behind economic growth and broader notions of progress. Offers an alternative view of development, focusing on the persistence of dichotomies in current theory and practice. Using specific cases, explores how different combinations of actors and institutions at various scales may promote or inhibit economic development. Students re-examine conventional knowledge and engage critically with the assumptions behind current thinking and policy.

11.006 Poverty and Economic Security

Subject meets with 11.206 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the US within a global context. Examines the impacts of recent economic restructuring and globalization. Reviews current debates about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

A. Glasmeier

11.007 Urban and Environmental Technology Implementation Lab

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 2-2-8 units

Real-world clients and environmental problems form the basis of a project in which teams of students develop strategies for analysis and implementation of new sensor technology within cities. Working closely with a partner or client based on the MIT campus or in Cambridge, students assess the environmental problem, implement prototypes, and recommend promising solutions to the client for implementation. Equipment and working space provided. Limited to 12.

11.008 Undergraduate Planning Seminar (New)

Prereq: None U (Fall) 2-0-4 units Can be repeated for credit.

A weekly seminar that includes discussions on topics in cities and urban planning, including guest lectures from DUSP faculty and practicing planners. Topics include urban science, zoning, architecture and urban design, urban sociology, politics and public policy, transportation and mobility, democratic governance, civil rights and social justice, urban economics, affordable housing, environmental policy and planning, real estate and economic development, agriculture and food policy, public health, and international development. Weekly student presentations on local planning issues and current events; occasional walking tours or arranged field trips. May be repeated for credit. Enrollment may be limited; preference to Course 11 and 11-6 sophomores and juniors.

11.011 The Art and Science of Negotiation

Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduction to negotiation theory and practice. Applications in government, business, and nonprofit settings are examined. Combines a "hands-on" personal skill-building orientation with a look at pertinent tactical and strategic foundations. Preparation insights, persuasion tools, ethical benchmarks, and institutional influences are examined as they shape our ability to analyze problems, negotiate agreements, and resolve disputes in social, organizational, and political circumstances characterized by interdependent interests. Enrollment limited by lottery; consult class website for information and deadlines.

11.013[J] American Urban History

Same subject as 21H.217[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 2-0-7 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Seminar on the history of institutions and institutional change in American cities from roughly 1850 to the present. Among the institutions to be looked at are political machines, police departments, courts, schools, prisons, public authorities, and universities. Focuses on readings and discussions.

11.014[J] History of the Built Environment in the US

Same subject as 21H.218[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Seminar on the history of selected features of the physical environment of urban America. Among the features considered are parks, cemeteries, tenements, suburbs, zoos, skyscrapers, department stores, supermarkets, and amusement parks.

R. M. Fogelson

11.015[J] Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History

Same subject as 21H.226[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

See description under subject 21H.226[J] .

11.016[J] The Once and Future City

Same subject as 4.211[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Examines the evolving structure of cities, the dynamic processes that shape them, and the significance of a city's history for its future development. Develops the ability to read urban form as an interplay of natural processes and human purposes over time. Field assignments in Boston provide the opportunity to use, develop, and refine these concepts. Enrollment limited.

11.021[J] Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Pollution Prevention and Control

Same subject as 1.801[J] , 17.393[J] , IDS.060[J] Subject meets with 1.811[J] , 11.630[J] , 15.663[J] , IDS.540[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Analyzes federal and state regulation of air and water pollution, hazardous waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and production/use of toxic chemicals. Analyzes pollution/climate change as economic problems and failure of markets. Explores the role of science and economics in legal decisions. Emphasizes use of legal mechanisms and alternative approaches (i.e., economic incentives, voluntary approaches) to control pollution and encourage chemical accident and pollution prevention. Focuses on major federal legislation, underlying administrative system, and common law in analyzing environmental policy, economic consequences, and role of the courts. Discusses classical pollutants and toxic industrial chemicals, greenhouse gas emissions, community right-to-know, and environmental justice. Develops basic legal skills: how to read/understand cases, regulations, and statutes. Students taking graduate version explore the subject in greater depth.

N. Ashford, C. Caldart

11.022[J] Regulation of Chemicals, Radiation, and Biotechnology

Same subject as 1.802[J] , IDS.061[J] Subject meets with 1.812[J] , 10.805[J] , 11.631[J] , IDS.436[J] , IDS.541[J] Prereq: IDS.060[J] or permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Focuses on policy design and evaluation in the regulation of hazardous substances and processes. Includes risk assessment, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food contaminants, pharmaceuticals, radiation and radioactive wastes, product safety, workplace hazards, indoor air pollution, biotechnology, victims' compensation, and administrative law. Health and economic consequences of regulation, as well as its potential to spur technological change, are discussed for each regulatory regime. Students taking the graduate version are expected to explore the subject in greater depth.

11.024 Modeling Pedestrian Activity in Cities

Subject meets with 11.324 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Investigates the interaction between pedestrian activity, urban form, and land-use patterns in relatively dense urban environments. Informed by recent literature on pedestrian mobility, behavior, and biases, subject takes a practical approach, using software tools and analysis methods to operationalize and model pedestrian activity. Uses simplified yet powerful and scalable network analysis methods that focus uniquely on pedestrians, rather than engaging in comprehensive travel demand modeling across all modes. Emphasizes not only modeling or predicting pedestrian activity in given built settings, but also analyzing and understanding how changes in the built environment — land use changes, density changes, and connectivity changes — can affect pedestrian activity. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

A. Sevtsuk 

11.025[J] D-Lab: Development

Same subject as EC.701[J] Subject meets with 11.472[J] , EC.781[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-2-7 units. HASS-S

See description under subject EC.701[J] . Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

S. L. Hsu, B. Sanyal

11.026[J] Downtown

Same subject as 21H.321[J] Subject meets with 11.339 Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.321[J] .

11.027 City to City: Comparing, Researching, and Reflecting on Practice

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: U (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces students to practice through researching, writing, and working for and with nonprofits. Students work directly with nonprofits and community partners to help find solutions to real world problems; interview planners and other field experts, and write and present findings to nonprofit partners and community audiences.

11.029[J] Mobility Ventures: Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems

Same subject as 15.3791[J] Subject meets with 11.529[J] , 15.379[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-3-6 units

Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Preference to juniors and seniors.

J. Zhao, J. Moavenzadeh, J. Larios Berlin

11.041 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.401 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides a critical introduction to the shape and determinants of political, social, and economic inequality in America, with a focus on racial and economic justice. Explores the role of the city in visions of justice. Analyzes the historical, political, and institutional contexts of housing and community development policy in the US, including federalism, municipal fragmentation, and decentralized public financing. Introduces major dimensions in US housing policy, such as housing finance, public housing policy, and state and local housing affordability mechanisms. Reviews major themes in community economic development, including drivers of economic inequality, small business policy, employment policy, and cooperative economics. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version.

11.045[J] Power: Interpersonal, Organizational, and Global Dimensions

Same subject as 15.302[J] , 17.045[J] , 21A.127[J] Subject meets with 21A.129 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject 21A.127[J] .

11.067 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law

Subject meets with 11.367 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Explores conceptions of spatial justice and introduces students to basic principles of US law and legal analysis, focused on property, land use, equal protection, civil rights, fair housing, and local government law, in order to examine who should control how land is used. Examines the rights of owners of land and the types of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use, and discusses why and when government regulation, rather than private market ordering, might be necessary to control land use patterns. Explores basic principles of civil rights and anti-discrimination law and focuses on particular civil rights problems associated with the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, residential segregation, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and gentrification. Introduces basic skills of statutory drafting and interpretation. Assignments differ for those taking the graduate version.

11.074 Cybersecurity Clinic

Subject meets with 11.274 Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units. REST

Provides an opportunity for MIT students to become certified in methods of assessing the vulnerability of public agencies (particularly agencies that manage critical urban infrastructure) to the risk of cyberattack. Certification involves completing an 8-hour, self-paced, online set of four modules during the first four weeks of the semester followed by a competency exam. Students who successfully complete the exam become certified. The certified students work in teams with client agencies in various cities around the United States. Through preparatory interactions with the agencies, and short on-site visits, teams prepare vulnerability assessments that client agencies can use to secure the technical assistance and financial support they need to manage the risks of cyberattack they are facing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

L. Susskind

11.092 Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic (New)

Subject meets with 11.592 Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

Presents methods for resolving facility siting disputes, particularly those involving renewable energy. After completing four modules and a competency exam for MITx certification, students work in teams to help client communities in various cities around the United States. Through direct interactions with the proponents and opponents of facilities subject to local opposition, students complete a stakeholder assessment and offer joint fact-finding and collaborative problem-solving assistance. The political, legal, financial, and regulatory aspects of facility siting, particularly for renewable energy, are reviewed along with key infrastructure planning principles. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

Specialized Subjects

11.100 introduction to computational thinking in cities.

Prereq: None. Coreq: 6.100B Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 1-0-2 units

Highlights how computer science may inform and impact how cities are conceptualized, planned, designed, regulated, and managed. The first half of the class explores the history of computational approaches in urban planning between around 1950 and 2020. The second half attempts to connect the data science concepts learned in 6.100B to topics in city planning and design. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students.

11.107 Tools and Techniques for Inclusive Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.407 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces tools and techniques in economic development planning. Extensive use of data collection, analysis, and display techniques. Students build interpretive intuition skills through user experience design activities and develop a series of memos summarizing the results of their data analysis. These are aggregated into a final report, and include the tools developed over the semester. Students taking graduate version complete modified assignments focused on developing computer applications.

11.111[J] Leadership in Negotiation: Advanced Applications

Same subject as 17.381[J] Prereq: 11.011 or permission of instructor U (Fall) 4-0-8 units. HASS-S

Building on the skills and strategies honed in 11.011 , explores advanced negotiation practice. Emphasizes an experiential skill-building approach, underpinned by cutting-edge cases and innovative research. Examines applications in high-stakes management, public policy, social entrepreneurship, international diplomacy, and scientific discovery. Strengthens collaborative decision-making, persuasion, and leadership skills by negotiating across different media and through personalized coaching, enhancing students' ability to proactively engage stakeholders, transform organizations, and inspire communities. Limited by lottery; consult class website for information and deadlines.

11.113 The Economic Approach to Cities and Environmental Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.413 Prereq: 1.010 , 14.30 , 18.650[J] , or permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Can be repeated for credit.

Provides a systematic framework of the interplay (both tension and synergy) between urbanization and environmental sustainability from a global perspective. Enhances analytical reasoning and quantitative skills to assist evidence-based empirical study and policy design evaluation. Explores the causes and consequences of urban environmental quality dynamics, and provides econometric tools to quantify such relationships. Examines state-of-the-art research in this field by introducing empirical studies from both developing and developed countries (highlighting fast urbanization). Themes include urban production, households, transportation and form, as well as political economy and climate resilience. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.119 NEET Seminar: Digital Cities

Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 1-0-2 units Can be repeated for credit.

Seminar for students enrolled in the Digital Cities NEET thread. Focuses on topics around clean energy and sustainability in cities via guest lectures and research discussions.

11.122[J] Law, Technology, and Public Policy

Same subject as IDS.066[J] Subject meets with 11.422[J] , 15.655[J] , IDS.435[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject IDS.066[J] .

11.123 Big Plans and Mega-Urban Landscapes

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-6 units. HASS-S

Explores the physical, ecological, technological, political, economic and cultural implications of big plans and mega-urban landscapes in a global context. Uses local and international case studies to understand the process of making major changes to urban landscape and city fabric, and to regional landscape systems. Includes lectures by leading practitioners. Assignments consider planning and design strategies across multiple scales and time frames.

11.124[J] Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Looking Back on Education

Same subject as CMS.586[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H

See description under subject CMS.586[J] . Limited to 25.

11.125[J] Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education

Same subject as CMS.587[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H

See description under subject CMS.587[J] . Limited to 25.

11.127[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning

Same subject as CMS.590[J] Subject meets with 11.252[J] , CMS.863[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-6-3 units. HASS-H

See description under subject CMS.590[J] .

11.129[J] Educational Theory and Practice I

Same subject as CMS.591[J] Prereq: None. Coreq: CMS.586[J] U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject CMS.591[J] . Limited to 15; preference to juniors and seniors.

G. Schwanbeck

11.130[J] Educational Theory and Practice II

Same subject as CMS.592[J] Prereq: CMS.591[J] U (IAP) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject CMS.592[J] .

11.131[J] Educational Theory and Practice III

Same subject as CMS.593[J] Prereq: CMS.592[J] U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject CMS.593[J] .

11.133[J] Dilemmas in Biomedical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?

Same subject as 21A.302[J] , WGS.271[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

An introduction to the cross-cultural study of biomedical ethics. Examines moral foundations of the science and practice of western biomedicine through case studies of abortion, contraception, cloning, organ transplantation and other issues. Evaluates challenges that new medical technologies pose to the practice and availability of medical services around the globe, and to cross-cultural ideas of kinship and personhood. Discusses critiques of the biomedical tradition from anthropological, feminist, legal, religious, and cross-cultural theorists.

E. C. James

11.134[J] Infections and Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Health

Same subject as HST.431[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines case studies in infectious disease outbreaks to demonstrate how human health is a product of multiple determinants, such as biology, sociocultural and historical factors, politics, economic processes, and the environment. Analyzes how structural inequalities render certain populations vulnerable to illness and explores the moral and ethical dimensions of public health and clinical interventions to promote health. Limited to 25.

E. James, A. Chakraborty

11.135 Violence, Human Rights, and Justice

Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

An examination of the problem of mass violence and oppression in the contemporary world, and of the concept of human rights as a defense against such abuse. Explores questions of cultural relativism, race, gender and ethnicity. Examines case studies from war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, anti-terrorist policies and other judicial attempts to redress state-sponsored wrongs. Considers whether the human rights framework effectively promotes the rule of law in modern societies. Students debate moral positions and address ideas of moral relativism.

11.136 Global Mental Health

Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Provides skills to critically analyze issues of mental health in historical and cross-cultural contexts. Studies mental illness as a complex biopsychosocial experience embedded in particular political and economic frameworks. Examines the relationships among culture, gender, embodiment, and emotional distress; power inequalities and ideas of the "normal" and "abnormal;" and how such conceptions influence care-giving practices, whether in traditional or biomedical contexts. Evaluates how the disciplines of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry have developed in the West, and considers their influence on mental health interventions in global settings. Limited to 25.

11.137 Financing Economic Development and Housing

Subject meets with 11.437 Prereq: None U (Spring) 4-0-8 units

Studies financing tools and program models to support and promote local economic development and housing. Overview of public and private capital markets and financing sources helps illustrate market imperfections that constrain economic and housing development and increase race and class disparaties. Explores federal housing and economic development programs as well as state and local public finance tools. Covers policies and program models. Investigates public finance practice to better understand how these finance programs affect other municipal operations. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.138 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping

Subject meets with 11.458 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Investigates the use of social medial and digital technologies for planning and advocacy by working with actual planning and advocacy organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate prototype digital tools. Students use the development of their digital tools as a way to investigate new media technologies that can be used for planning. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

S. Williams, C. D'Ignazio

11.139 The City in Film

Subject meets with 11.239 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 2-2-5 units. HASS-H; CI-H

Surveys important developments in urbanism from 1900 to the present, using film as a lens to explore and interpret aspects of the urban experience in the US and abroad. Topics include industrialization, demographics, diversity, the environment, and the relationship between the community and the individual. Films vary from year to year but always include a balance of classics from the history of film, an occasional experimental/avant-garde film, and a number of more recent, mainstream movies. Students taking undergraduate version complete writing assignments that focus on observation, analysis, and the essay, and give an oral presentation. Limited to 18.

11.140 Urbanization and Development

Examines developmental dynamics of rapidly urbanizing locales, with a special focus on the developing world. Case studies from India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa form the basis for discussion of social, spatial, political and economic changes in cities spurred by the decline of industry, the rise of services, and the proliferation of urban mega projects. Emphasizes the challenges of growing urban inequality, environmental risk, citizen displacement, insufficient housing, and the lack of effective institutions for metropolitan governance.

11.142 Geography of the Global Economy

Subject meets with 11.442 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Analyzes implications of economic globalization for communities, regions, international businesses and economic development organizations. Uses spatial analysis techniques to model the role of energy resources in shaping international political economy. Investigates key drivers of human, physical, and social capital flows and their roles in modern human settlement systems. Surveys contemporary models of industrialization and places them in geographic context. Connects forces of change with their implications for the distribution of wealth and human well-being. Looks backward to understand pre-Covid conditions and then returns to the present to understand how a global pandemic changes the world. Class relies on current literature and explorations of sectors. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.143 Research Methods in Global Health and Development

Subject meets with 11.243 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-3-6 units. HASS-S

Provides training for students to critically analyze the relationship between "health" and "development." Draws upon the theory and methods of medical anthropology, social medicine, public health, and development to track how culture, history, and political economy influence health and disease in global communities. Students work in teams to formulate research questions, and collect and analyze qualitative data in clinical and community settings in the greater Boston area, in order to design effective development interventions aimed at reducing health disparities in the US and abroad. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.144 Project Appraisal in Developing Countries

Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Covers techniques of financial analysis of investment expenditures, as well as the economic and distributive appraisal of development projects. Critical analysis of these tools in the political economy of international development is discussed. Topics include appraisal's role in the project cycle, planning under conditions of uncertainty, constraints in data quality and the limits of rational analysis, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary appraisal team. Enrollment limited; preference to majors.

11.145 International Housing Economics and Finance

Prereq: 14.01 U (Spring) 3-0-6 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.355

Presents a theory of comparative differences in international housing outcomes. Introduces institutional differences in the ways housing expenditures are financed, and the economic determinants of housing outcomes, such as construction costs, land values, housing quality, and ownership rates. Analyzes the flow of funds to and from the different national housing finance sectors. Develops an understanding of the greater financial and macroeconomic implications of the mortgage credit sector, and how policies affect the ways housing asset fluctuations impact national economies. Considers the perspective of investors in international real estate markets and the risks and rewards involved. Draws on lessons from an international comparative approach, and applies them to economic and finance policies at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels within a country of choice. Meets with 11.355 when offered concurrently. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.147 Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector

Subject meets with 11.487 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines globally relevant challenges of adequately and effectively attending to public sector responsibilities for basic services with limited resources. Particular attention to the contexts of fiscal crises and rapid population growth, as well as shrinkage, through an introduction to methods and processes of budgeting, accounting, and financial mobilization. Case studies and practice exercises explore revenue strategies, demonstrate fiscal analytical competencies, and familiarize students with pioneering examples of promising budget and accounting processes and innovative funding mobilization via taxation, capital markets, and other mechanisms (e.g., land-value capture). Students taking graduate version explore the subject in greater depth.

G. Carolini

11.148 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy

Subject meets with 11.368 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Introduces frameworks for analyzing and addressing inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, particularly by race and by class. Explores the foundations and principles of the environmental justice movement from the perspectives of social science, public policy, and law. Introduces basic principles of US constitutional and environmental law, with a focus on equal protection and civil rights. Applies environmental justice principles to contemporary issues in urban policy and planning, including effects of and responses to climate change and global heating. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.149 Decarbonizing Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.449 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-3-6 units

Focuses on measuring and reducing emissions from passenger transportation. After examining travel, energy, and climate conditions, students review existing approaches to transport decarbonization. Evaluates new mobility technologies through their potential to contribute to (or delay) a zero emission mobility system. Students consider the policy tools required to achieve approaches to achieve change. Frames past and future emission reductions using an approach based on the Kaya Identity, decomposing past (and potential future) emissions into their component pieces. Seeks to enable students to be intelligent evaluators of approaches to transportation decarbonization and equip them with the tools to develop and evaluate policy measures relevant to their local professional challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Zhao, A. Salzberg

11.150[J] Metropolis: A Comparative History of New York City

Same subject as 21H.220[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.220[J] .

11.151[J] Youth Political Participation

Same subject as STS.080[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject STS.080[J] . Limited to 40.

J. S. Light

11.152[J] The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem

Same subject as 21H.385[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

See description under subject 21H.385[J] .

11.153[J] Shanghai and China's Modernization

Same subject as 21H.351[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units. HASS-H

See description under subject 21H.351[J] .

11.154 Big Data, Visualization, and Society

Subject meets with 11.454 Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 6.C35[J] , 6.C85[J] , 11.454 , 11.C35[J] , 11.C85[J]

Data visualizations communicate the insights found in data to non-technical audiences. Students develop technical skills to work with big data to expose societal issues and communicate the insights. Focuses on different topics each year. After framing that topic, the first half of the subject focuses on learning to analyze the data with Python. The second half of the subject focuses on learning web-based data visualization tools (JavaScript and D3). Students learn data storytelling concepts and produce web-based data visualizations for their final projects. Throughout, students learn ethical data practices. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

S. Williams

11.C35[J] Interactive Data Visualization and Society

Same subject as 6.C35[J] Subject meets with 6.C85[J] , 11.C85[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-1-8 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 11.154 , 11.454

See description under subject 6.C35[J] . Enrollment limited.

C. D'Ignazio, A. Satyanarayan, S. Williams

11.155[J] Data and Society

Same subject as IDS.057[J] , STS.005[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H

See description under subject STS.005[J] .

E. Medina, S. Williams

11.156 Healthy Cities: Assessing Health Impacts of Policies and Plans

Subject meets with 11.356 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the built, psychosocial, economic, and natural environment factors that affect health behaviors and outcomes, including population-level patterns of disease distribution and health disparities. Introduces tools designed to integrate public health considerations into policy-making and planning. Provides extensive practical, budgeting, and programming training in the application of health impact assessment tools meant to integrate Health in All Policies, including Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology, which brings a health lens to policy, budgeting, and planning debates. Emphasizes health equity and healthy cities, and explores the relationship between health equity and broader goals for social and racial justice. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 30.

11.157[J] China's Growth: Political Economy, Business, and Urbanization

Same subject as 15.2391[J] Subject meets with 11.257[J] , 15.239[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Examines different aspects of the growth of China, which has the second largest economy in the world. Studies the main drivers of Chinese economic growth and the forces behind the largest urbanization in human history. Discusses how to understand China's booming real estate market, and how Chinese firms operate to attain their success, whether through hard-working entrepreneurship or political connections with the government. Explores whether the top-down urban and industrial policy interventions improve efficiency or cause misallocation problems, and whether the Chinese political system in an enabler of Chinese growth or a potential impediment to the country's future growth prospects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

Y. Huang, S. Zheng, Z. Tan

11.158 Behavioral Science, AI, and Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.478 Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Integrates behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and transportation technology to shape travel behavior, design mobility systems and business, and reform transportation policies. Introduces methods to sense travel behavior with new technology and measurements; nudge behavior through perception and preference shaping; design mobility systems and ventures that integrate autonomous vehicles, shared mobility, and public transit; and regulate travel with behavior-sensitive transport policies. Challenges students to pilot behavioral experiments and design creative mobility systems, business and policies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.159 Entrepreneurial Negotiation

Subject meets with 11.259 Prereq: None U (Fall; partial term) 1-3-2 units

Combines online weekly face-to-face negotiation exercises and in-person lectures designed to empower budding entrepreneurs with negotiation techniques to protect and increase the value of their ideas, deal with ego and build trust in relationships, and navigate entrepreneurial bargaining under constraints of economic uncertainty and complex technical considerations. Students must complete scheduled weekly assignments, including feedback memos to counterpart negotiators, and meet on campus with the instructor to discuss and reflect on their experiences with the course. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.162 Politics of Energy and the Environment

Focuses on the politics of making local, state, national and international decisions on energy and the environment. Topics include implementing energy efficiency measures, siting nuclear and alternative energy plants, promoting oil and gas development offshore and in wilderness, adapting to climate change, handling toxic waste, protecting endangered species, and conserving water. Case studies include Cape Wind, disputes over oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and efforts to craft and comply with the greenhouse gas emissions limits.

11.164[J] Human Rights at Home and Abroad

Same subject as 17.391[J] Subject meets with 11.497 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units. HASS-S

Provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the history, foundation, structure, and operation of the human rights movement. Focuses on key ideas, actors, methods and sources, and critically evaluates the field. Addresses current debates in human rights, including the relationship with security, democracy, development and globalization, urbanization, equality (in housing and other economic and social rights; women's rights; ethnic, religious and racial discrimination; and policing/conflict), post-conflict rebuilding and transitional justice, and technology in human rights activism. No prior coursework needed, but work experience, or community service that demonstrates familiarity with global affairs or engagement with ethics and social justice issues, preferred. Students taking graduate version are expected to write a research paper.

B. Rajagopal

11.165 Urban Energy Systems and Policy

Subject meets with 1.286[J] , 11.477[J] Prereq: 14.01 or permission of instructor U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.166 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience

Subject meets with 11.496 Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. Case studies explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current issues, such as gender, race, labor, trade, climate change/environment, and LGBTQ rights. Introduces theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15.

11.167[J] Global Energy: Politics, Markets, and Policy

Same subject as 14.47[J] , 15.2191[J] , 17.399[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Credit cannot also be received for 11.267[J] , 15.219[J]

See description under subject 15.2191[J] . Preference to juniors, seniors, and Energy Minors.

11.169 Global Climate Policy and Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.269 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S

Examines climate politics both nationally and globally. Addresses economic growth, environmental preservation, and social equity through the lens of sustainability. Uses various country and regional cases to analyze how sociopolitical, economic and environmental values shape climate policy. Students develop recommendations for making climate policy more effective and sustainable. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

J. Knox-Hayes

11.170 Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation

Subject meets with 11.270 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Can be repeated for credit.

Examines climate adaptation and mitigation responses at the city level. Discusses factors of greatest concern in adapting cities to climate change, including infrastructure; energy, food, and water systems; health; housing; and environmental justice. Various city and regional cases are used to analyze how cities are mobilizing to face climate change and integrate core considerations into urban planning. Working on independent case studies, students analyze how cities make urban planning decisions with respect to climate adaptation. In the process, students practice analytical skills to better understand how urban policies are made, and how they can be improved. Students develop recommendations for making climate adaptation more effective and sustainable at the city level. Assignment requirements differ for students completing the graduate version. Limited to 25.

11.171 Indigenous Environmental Planning

Subject meets with 11.271 Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how Indigenous peoples' relationships to their homelands and local environments has been adversely affected by Western planning. Explores how these relationships have changed over time as American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other groups indigenous to North America and Hawai'i have adapted to new conditions, including exclusion from markets of exchange, overhunting/overfishing, dispossession, petrochemical development, conservation, mainstream environmentalism, and climate change. Seeks to understand current environmental challenges and their roots and discover potential solutions to address these challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Knox-Hayes, L. Susskind

11.173[J] Infrastructure Design for Climate Change

Same subject as 1.103[J] Subject meets with 1.303[J] , 11.273[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall) 0-2-4 units

See description under subject 1.103[J] . Enrollment limited; preference to juniors and seniors.

H. Einstein

Laboratories

11.188 introduction to spatial analysis and gis laboratory.

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 3-3-6 units. Institute LAB Credit cannot also be received for 11.205

An introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a tool for visualizing and analyzing spatial data. Explores how GIS can make maps, guide decisions, answer questions, and advocate for change. Class builds toward a project in which students critically apply GIS techniques to an area of interest. Students build data discovery, cartography, and spatial analysis skills while learning to reflect on their positionality within the research design process. Because maps and data are never neutral, the class incorporates discussions of power, ethics, and data throughout as part of a reflective practice. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided.

S. Williams, C. D'Ignazio, E. Huntley

Tutorials, Fieldwork, and Internships

11.uar[j] climate and sustainability undergraduate advanced research (new).

Same subject as 1.UAR[J] , 3.UAR[J] , 5.UAR[J] , 12.UAR[J] , 15.UAR[J] , 22.UAR[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall, Spring) 2-0-4 units Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 1.UAR[J] . Application required; consult MCSC website for more information.

D. Plata, E. Olivetti

11.UR Undergraduate Research

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Undergraduate research opportunities in Urban Studies and Planning. For further information, consult the Departmental Coordinators.

11.URG Undergraduate Research

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.THT[J] Thesis Research Design Seminar

Same subject as 4.THT[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

Designed for students writing a thesis in Urban Studies and Planning or Architecture. Develop research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame research questions and arguments, choose an appropriate methodology for analysis, and draft introductory and methodology sections.

11.THU Undergraduate Thesis

Prereq: 11.THT[J] U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Program of research leading to the writing of an SB thesis. To be arranged by the student under approved supervision.

11.189-11.190 Urban Fieldwork

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Practical application of city and regional planning techniques to towns, cities, and regions, including problems of replanning, redevelopment, and renewal of existing communities. Includes internships, under staff supervision, in municipal and state agencies and departments.

11.191-11.192 Independent Study

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects.

11.193-11.194 Supervised Readings

Reading and discussion of topics in urban studies and planning.

11.S03 Special Subject: Transportation Shaping Sustainable Urbanization: Connections with Behavior, Urban Economics and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall; partial term) 2-0-1 units

Explores changes in the built environment expected from transportation investments, and how they can be used to promote sustainable and equitable cities. Reflects on how notable characteristics of cities can be explained by their historical and current transportation features. Introduces theoretical basis and empirical evidence to analyze the urban transformation autonomous vehicles will bring and how shared mobility services affect travel behavior, and its implications from an urban planning perspective. Lectures interspersed with guest speakers and an optional field trip. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students. Licensed for Fall 2023 by the Committee on Curricula. Limited to 18.

F. Duarte, A. Borges Costa

11.S04 Special Subject: Topics in Affordable Housing

Prereq: None U (Spring) 1-0-2 units

Weekly seminar-style discussions on topics in affordable housing, including federal funding programs, homelessness prevention and shelters, local land use and zoning for affordability, innovative housing models/designs, fair housing laws, the history of public housing in the US, and international comparisons. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first year students.

 Ezra Haber Glenn

11.S187 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study or fieldwork in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S188 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S189 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s195 special subject: urban studies and planning.

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S196-11.S199 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

For undergraduates wishing to pursue further study or fieldwork in specialized areas of urban studies or city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.S198 is graded P/D/F.

Master's Core Subjects

11.200 gateway: urban studies and planning 1.

Prereq: None G (Fall) 4-1-7 units

Introduces the theory and practice of planning and urban studies through exploration of the history of the field, case studies, and criticisms of traditional practice.

11.201 Gateway: Urban Studies and Planning 2

Prereq: 11.200 G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 4-1-7 units

Builds on 11.200 by exploring in more detail contemporary planning tools and techniques, as well as case studies of planning and urban studies practice.

11.202 Planning Economics

Prereq: 11.203 G (Fall; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Students use economic theory tools acquired in 11.203 to understand the mutual processes of individual action and structural constraint and investigate crises in search of opportunities for mitigation and reparation. Investigates a variety of structural crises from throughout the realms of planning, such as: capitalism, climate change, and (in)action; white supremacy, segregation, and gentrification; colonialism, informality, and infrastructure; autocentricity and other legacies of the built environment.

11.203 Microeconomics

Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Students develop a suite of tools from economic theory to understand the mutual processes of individual action and structural constraint. Students apply these tools to human interaction and social decision-making. Builds an understanding of producer theory from the collaborative possibilities and physical constraints that unfold as production is scaled up. Presents consumer theory as the process of individuals doing the best for themselves, their families, and their communities -- subject to the sociostructural constraints under which they operate. Considers alternative frameworks of social welfare, with a specific focus on marginalization and crisis, as well as common policy interventions and their implications under different constructions of welfare.

11.204[J] People and the Planet: Environmental Histories and Engineering

Same subject as IDS.524[J] Subject meets with 11.004[J] , STS.033[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units

Explores historical and cultural aspects of complex environmental problems and engineering approaches to sustainable solutions. Introduces quantitative analyses and methodological tools to understand environmental issues that have human and natural components. Demonstrates concepts through a series of historical and cultural analyses of environmental challenges and their engineering responses. Builds writing, quantitative modeling, and analytical skills in assessing environmental systems problems and developing engineering solutions. Through environmental data gathering and analysis, students engage with the challenges and possibilities of engineering in complex, interacting systems, and investigate plausible, symbiotic, systems-oriented solutions. Students taking graduate version complete additional analysis of reading assignments and a more in-depth and longer final paper.

11.205 Introduction to Spatial Analysis and GIS

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring; first half of term) 2-2-2 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.188

An introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a tool for visualizing and analyzing data representing locations and their attributes. GIS is invaluable for planners, scholars, and professionals who shape cities and a political instrument with which activists advocate for change. Class includes exercises to make maps, query databases, and analyze spatial data. Because maps and data are never neutral, the class incorporates discussions of power, ethics, and data throughout as part of a reflective practice. Limited enrollment; preference to first-year MCP students.

11.206 Poverty and Economic Security

Subject meets with 11.006 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

11.220 Quantitative Reasoning and Statistical Methods for Planning I

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 4-2-6 units

Develops logical, empirically based arguments using statistical techniques and analytic methods. Covers elementary statistics, probability, and other types of quantitative reasoning useful for description, estimation, comparison, and explanation. Emphasizes the use and limitations of analytical techniques in planning practice. Restricted to MCP students.

Department-wide Subjects

11.222 introduction to critical qualitative methods.

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-3 units

Introduces qualitative methods as an approach to critical inquiry in urban planning research and practice. Emphasizes the importance of historical context, place-specificity, and the experiences and views of individuals as ways of knowing relationships of power and privilege between people, in place, and over time. Explores a range of critical qualitative methods including those used in archival, interview, observational, visual, and case study analysis.

K. Crockett

11.228[J] Collectives: New Forms of Sharing

Same subject as 4.229[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject 4.229[J] . Limited to 15.

Consult R. Segal

11.233 Research Design for Policy Analysis and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Develops skills in research design for policy analysis and planning. Emphasizes the logic of the research process and its constituent elements. Topics include philosophy of science, question formulation, hypothesis generation and theory construction, data collection techniques (e.g. experimental, survey, interview), ethical issues in research, and research proposal preparation. Limited to doctoral students in Course 11.

11.234 Making Sense: Qualitative Methods for Designers and Planners

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

Surveys uses of qualitative methods and social theory in urban design and planning research and practice. Topics include observing environments, physical traces, and environmental behavior; asking questions; focused interviews; standardized questionnaires; use of written archival materials; use of visual materials, including photographs, new media, and maps; case studies; and comparative methods. Emphasizes use of each of these skills to collect and make sense of qualitative data in community and institutional settings.

11.236 Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces students to participatory action research (PAR), an approach to research and inquiry that enables communities to examine and address consequential societal problems. Explores theoretical and practical questions at the heart of partnerships between applied social scientists and community partners. Focus includes the history of PAR and action research; debates regarding PAR as a form of applied social science; and practical, political, and ethical questions in the practice of PAR. Guides students through an iterative process for developing their own personal theories of practice. Covers co-designing and co-conducting research with community partners at various stages of the research process .Examines actual cases in which PAR-like methods have been used with greater or lesser success; and interaction with community members, organizations, and individuals who have been involved in PAR collaborations. 

11.238[J] Ethics of Intervention

Same subject as 21A.409[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

An historical and cross-cultural study of the logics and practices of intervention: the ways that individuals, institutions, and governments identify conditions of need or states of emergency within and across borders that require a response. Examines when a response is viewed as obligatory, when is it deemed unnecessary, and by whom; when the intercession is considered fulfilled; and the rationales or assumptions that are employed in assessing interventions. Theories of the state, globalization, and humanitarianism; power, policy, and institutions; gender, race, and ethnicity; and law, ethics, and morality are examined.

11.239 The City in Film

Subject meets with 11.139 Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 2-2-5 units

Surveys important developments in urbanism from 1900 to the present, using film as a lens to explore and interpret aspects of the urban experience in the US and abroad. Topics include industrialization, demographics, diversity, the environment, and the relationship between the community and the individual. Films vary from year to year but always include a balance of classics from the history of film, an occasional experimental/avant-garde film, and a number of more recent, mainstream movies. Students taking undergraduate version complete writing assignments that focus on observation, analysis, and the essay, and give an oral presentation.

11.243 Research Methods in Global Health and Development

Subject meets with 11.143 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

11.244[J] Race, History, and the Built Environment

Same subject as STS.424[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how the development of the built environment produces and reproduces conceptions of race - sociobiological theories of human difference. Using historical and cross-cultural cases, tracks the social and political lives of material objects, infrastructures, technologies, and architectures using projects of settler colonialism, nation-building, community development and planning, and in post-conflict and post-disaster settings. Analyzes social theories of race, place, space, and materiality; power, identity, and embodiment; and memory, death, and haunting. Explores how conceptions of belonging, citizenship, and exclusion are represented and designed spatially through analysis of examples, such as the appropriation of land for infrastructure programs, the erasure and commemoration of heritage in public spaces, and the use of the built environment to impose colonial ideologies. Limited to 14 students.

Erica James

11.245[J] DesignX Entrepreneurship

Same subject as 4.245[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (IAP) 4-0-2 units

Students in teams accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator begin work on their ventures in this intense two-week bootcamp. Participants identify the needs and problems that demonstrate the demand for their innovative technology, policy, products, and/or services. They research and investigate various markets and stakeholders pertinent to their ventures, and begin to test their ideas and thesis in real-world interviews and interactions. Subject presented in workshop format, giving teams the chance to jump-start their ventures together with a cohort of people working on ideas that span the realm of design, planning real estate, and the human environment. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.

S. Gronfeldt, D. Frenchman, G. Rosenzweig

11.246[J] DesignX Accelerator

Same subject as 4.246[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 2-4-6 units

Students continue to work in their venture teams to advance innovative ideas, products, and services oriented to design, planning, and the human environment. Presented in a workshop format with supplementary lectures. Teams are matched with external mentors for additional support in business and product development. At the end of the term, teams pitch their ventures to an audience from across the school and MIT, investors, industry, and cities. Registration limited to students accepted to the MITdesignX accelerator in the fall.

11.250 Transportation Research Design

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) 2-0-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

Seminar dissects ten transportation studies from head to toe to illustrate how research ideas are initiated, framed, analyzed, evidenced, written, presented, criticized, revised, extended, and published, quoted and applied. Students learn by mimicking and learn by doing, and design and execute their own transportation research. Limited to 20.

11.251 Frontier of Transportation Research

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 1-0-2 units Can be repeated for credit.

Surveys the frontier of transportation research offered by 12 MIT faculty presenting their latest findings, ideas, and innovations. Students write weekly memos to reflect on these talks, make connections to their own research, and give short presentations.

Jinhua Zhao

11.252[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning

Same subject as CMS.863[J] Subject meets with 11.127[J] , CMS.590[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-6-3 units

See description under subject CMS.863[J] .

11.255 Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in the Public Sector

Prereq: None G (Spring) 4-0-8 units

Investigates social conflict and distributional disputes in the public sector. While theoretical aspects of conflict and consensus building are considered, focus is on the practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. Comparisons between unassisted and assisted negotiation are reviewed along with the techniques of facilitation and mediation.

11.256[J] Encounters and Ruptures: Writing About the Modern City

Same subject as 4.256[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units

Through extensive reading and writing, students explore the promise and perils of the variegated city, focusing on topics that demand urgent attention: migration, climate change, inequality, racial injustice, and public space. Class strives to create artful narratives by examining how various forms — essay, memoir, longform journalism, poetry, fiction, film, and photography — illuminate our understanding of cities. Special emphasis on the writer as the reader's advocate and on the indispensability of the writer-editor relationship, with the goal of writing with greater creativity and sophistication for specialized and general interest audiences. Limited to 12 students.

11.257[J] China's Growth: Political Economy, Business, and Urbanization

Same subject as 15.239[J] Subject meets with 11.157[J] , 15.2391[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

11.258 Sustainable Urbanization Research Seminar (New)

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

Reviews the seminal as well as latest research on the driving forces of urbanization, real estate markets, urban sustainability in both developed and developing economies. Examines the tensions as well as synergies between urbanization and sustainability, and designs and evaluates policies and business strategies that can enhance the synergies while reduce the tensions. Covers various research topics under the umbrella of urbanization under three modules (sustainable urbanization; sustainable real estate; urbanization in emerging economies) where students study the initiation of an idea to its publication, including but not limited to, analyzing, framing, writing and critiquing as parts of the process. Sessions are organized as a semi-structured dialogue.

11.259 Entrepreneurial Negotiation

Subject meets with 11.159 Prereq: None G (Fall; partial term) 1-3-2 units

11.260 Sustainable Development and Institutions

Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Explores the theory and application of the principles of sustainable development as they relate to organizational change management, decision-making processes, goal setting methodology and solution development. Leverages the MIT campus as a living laboratory to gain unique insight into the change management and solution development process. Limited to 18.

11.263[J] Urban Last-Mile Logistics

Same subject as 1.263[J] , SCM.293[J] Prereq: SCM.254 or permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) 2-0-4 units

See description under subject SCM.293[J] .

M.  Winkenbach

11.267[J] Global Energy: Politics, Markets, and Policy

Same subject as 15.219[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.167[J] , 14.47[J] , 15.2191[J] , 17.399[J]

See description under subject 15.219[J] .

11.268 Laws of the Land: Land Use and Environmental Law and Policy (New)

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-3 units

Environmental justice and climate change are pressing contemporary concerns.  Crucial dimensions of the exposure of households to environmental harms and benefits are determined by land use and environmental laws.  Land use and environmental laws are also central to reducing carbon emissions and building environmentally sustainable and resilient communities.  Introduces students to the legal and social science dimension of these two crucial areas of law that is well-covered in the current curriculum. Enrollment limited to 30.

11.269 Global Climate Policy and Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.169 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines climate politics both nationally and globally. Addresses economic growth, environmental preservation, and social equity through the lens of sustainability. Uses various country and regional cases to analyze how sociopolitical, economic and environmental values shape climate policy. Students develop recommendations for making climate policy more effective and sustainable. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.270 Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation

Subject meets with 11.170 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

11.271 Indigenous Environmental Planning

Subject meets with 11.171 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines how Indigenous peoples' relationships to their homelands and local environments has been adversely affected by Western planning. Explores how these relationships have changed over time as American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other groups indigenous to North America and Hawai'i have adapted to new conditions, including exclusion from markets of exchange, overhunting/overfishing, dispossession, petrochemical development, conservation, mainstream environmentalism, and climate change. Seeks to understand current environmental challenges and their roots and discover potential solutions to address these challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25.

11.273[J] Infrastructure Design for Climate Change

Same subject as 1.303[J] Subject meets with 1.103[J] , 11.173[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 0-2-4 units

See description under subject 1.303[J] .

11.274 Cybersecurity Clinic

Subject meets with 11.074 Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

Program Group Subjects

11.301[j] introduction to urban design and development.

Same subject as 4.252[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the physical and social structure of cities and ways they can be changed. Includes significant thinkers in urban form, 20th-century American city design, urban design and society, global urban design, and design of neighborhoods and streets. Core lectures are supplemented by student papers examining the relationship of contemporary projects to history and theory, and factors of high quality global urban design and development. Guest speakers present cases involving current projects or research illustrating scope and methods of urban design theory and practice. Intended for those seeking an introduction to fundamental knowledge of theory and praxis in city design and development.

11.302[J] Urban Design Politics

Same subject as 4.253[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries.

11.303[J] Real Estate Development Studio

Same subject as 4.254[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 6-0-12 units

Focuses on the synthesis of urban, mixed-use real estate projects, including the integration of physical design and programming with finance and marketing. Interdisciplinary student teams analyze how to maximize value across multiple dimensions in the process of preparing professional development proposals for sites in US cities and internationally. Reviews emerging real estate products and innovative developments to provide a foundation for studio work. Two major projects are interspersed with lectures and field trips. Integrates skills and knowledge in the MSRED program; also open to other students interested in real estate development by permission of the instructors.

11.304[J] Site and Environmental Systems Planning

Same subject as 4.255[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 6-0-9 units

Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies.

E. Ben-Joseph, M. A. Ocampo

11.305 Doing Good by Doing Well: Planning and Development Case Studies that Promote both the Public Good and Real Estate Value

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-1 units

Seminar studies how the messy and complex forces of politics, planning and the real estate market have collectively shaped Boston's urban fabric and skyline in the last two decades. Using some of the city's most important real estate development proposals as case studies, students dissect and analyze Boston's negotiated development review and permitting process to understand what it takes beyond a great development concept and a sound financial pro forma to earn community and political support. Throughout the term, students identify strategies for success and pitfalls for failure within this intricate approval process, as well as how these lessons can be generalized and applied to other cities and real estate markets.

11.307[J] China Urban Design Studio

Same subject as 4.173[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 0-21-0 units

Design studio that includes architects, urban designers, and city planners working in teams on a contemporary development project of importance in China, particularly in transitional, deindustrializing cities. Students analyze conditions, explore alternatives, and synthesize architecture, city design, and implementation plans. Lectures and brief study tours expose students to history and contemporary issues of urbanism in China. Offered every other spring at MIT in parallel with urban design studio at Tsinghua University, Beijing, involving students and faculty from both schools. Field visit to China will occur in January prior to studio. Limited to 10.

11.308[J] Ecological Urbanism Seminar

Same subject as 4.213[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Weds the theory and practice of city design and planning as a means of adaptation with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Presents ecological urbanism as critical to the future of the city and its design, as it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity — such as climate change, rising sea level, and environmental and social justice — while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, welfare, meaning, and delight. Applies a historical and theoretical perspective to the solution of real-world challenges.  Enrollment limited.

11.309[J] Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry

Same subject as 4.215[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, poetics, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design and planning, among other issues. Recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their theses.  Enrollment limited.

11.312 Engaging Community: Models and Methods for Strengthening Democracy

Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the demographic complexity of cities and their fundamental design challenges for planners and other professions responsible for engaging the public. Working with clients, participants learn design principles for creating public engagement practices necessary for building inclusive civic infrastructure in cities. Participants also have the opportunity to review and practice strategies, techniques, and methods for engaging communities in demographically complex settings.

C. McDowell

11.313 Advanced Research Workshop in Landscape and Urbanism

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

In-depth research workshop on pressing socio-economic and environmental design issue of our time, includes discussion and practices with real-world stakeholders experimenting with new development typologies and technologies. The goal is to generate well-grounded, design-based solutions and landscape infrastructural responses to the physical design problem being addressed. Specific focus and practicum status is adjusted on a year-to-year basis.

11.315[J] Disaster Resilient Design

Same subject as 4.217[J] Subject meets with 4.218 Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

See description under subject 4.217[J] . Limited to 15.

Consult M. Mazereeuw

11.318 Senseable Cities

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Studies how ubiquitous and real-time information technology can help us to understand and improve cities and regions. Explores the impact of integrating real-time information technology into the built environment. Introduces theoretical foundations of ubiquitous computing. Provides technical tools for tactile development of small-scale projects. Limited to 24.

11.320 Digital City Design Workshop

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Students develop proposals, at the city and neighborhood scales, that integrate urban design, planning, and digital technology. Aims to create more efficient, responsive, and livable urban places and systems that combine physical form with digital media, sensing, communications, and data analysis. Students conduct field research, build project briefs, and deliver designs or prototypes, while supported by lectures, case studies, and involvement from experts and representatives of subject cities. Limited to 12.

11.321 Data Science and Real Estate

Introduces the principles of data science and how data science is impacting cities and real estate, with a combination of fundamental lectures, guest speakers, and use cases. Explores how data science has been adopted by the real estate industry — from developers to city planners. Presents practical skills in data science and provides the opportunity for students to produce their own work and practice basic coding skills applied to real estate.

11.323 International Real Estate Transactions

Prereq: None G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Focuses on analyzing a variety of unique international real estate investment and development transactions. Blends real estate investing and development decision-making with discussion-based learning from a multidisciplinary standpoint. Seeks to facilitate a richer understanding of domestic (US) real estate transaction concepts by contextualizing them in the general analytical framework underpinning international real estate investment decision-making.

M. Srivastava

11.324 Modeling Pedestrian Activity in Cities

Subject meets with 11.024 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.325 Technological Change & Innovation for Real Estate and Cities

Prereq: None G (Fall; second half of term) 2-0-4 units

Seeks to examine the technological change and innovation that is disrupting the foundation of how we create the built environment. Through a series of educational workshops, students scout, catalog, and track technologies by looking at new real estate uses, products, processes, and organizational strategies at MIT labs and around the globe. Participants contribute to an interactive web tool, "The Tech Tracker," which provides technology intelligence to students and real estate professionals to enhance their understanding of technological progress.

F. Duarte, J. Scott

11.328[J] Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City

Same subject as 4.240[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 4-2-2 units

Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329[J] .

E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo 

11.329[J] Advanced Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City

Same subject as 4.248[J] Prereq: 11.328[J] or permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) 4-2-4 units

Through a studio-based course in planning and urban design, builds on the foundation acquired in 11.328[J] to engage in creative exploration of how design contributes to resilient, just, and vibrant urban places. Through the planning and design of two projects, students creatively explore spatial ideas and utilize various digital techniques to communicate their design concepts, giving form to strategic thinking. Develops approaches and techniques to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment and offer propositions that address policies and regulations as well as the values, behaviors, and wishes of the different users.

E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo

11.330[J] The Making of Cities

Same subject as 4.241[J] Prereq: 11.001[J] , 11.301[J] , or permission of instructor G (Spring) Units arranged

See description under subject 4.241[J] .

L. Jacobi, R. Segal

11.332[J] Urban Design Studio

Same subject as 4.163[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 4.163[J] .

11.333[J] Urban Design Seminar: Perspectives on Contemporary Practice

Same subject as 4.244[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 2-0-7 units

Examines innovations in urban design practice occurring through the work of leading practitioners in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Features lectures by major national and global practitioners in urban design. Projects and topics vary based on term and speakers but may cover architectural urbanism, landscape and ecology, arts and culture, urban design regulation and planning agencies, and citywide and regional design. Focuses on analysis and synthesis of themes discussed in presentations and discussions.

11.334[J] Advanced Seminar in Landscape and Urbanism

Same subject as 4.264[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Explores theories, practices, and emerging trends in the fields of landscape architecture and urbanism, such as systemic design, landscape urbanism, engineered nature, drosscapes, urban biodiversity, urban mobility, megaregions, and urban agriculture. Lectures, readings, and guest speakers present a wide array of multi-disciplinary topics, including current works from P-REX lab. Students conduct independent and group research that is future-oriented.

11.337[J] Urban Design Ideals and Action

Same subject as 4.247[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-7 units

Examines the relationship between urban design ideals, urban design action, and the built environment through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. Analyzes the diverse design ideals that influence cities and settlements, and investigates how urban designers use them to shape urban form. Provides a critical understanding of the diverse formal methods used to intervene creatively in both developed and developing contexts, especially pluralistic and informal built environments.

11.338 Urban Design Studio

Prereq: 11.328[J] or permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) Units arranged

Examines the rehabilitation and re-imagination of a city, region, or territory. Analyzes human settlement at multiple scales: regional, citywide, neighborhood, and individual dwellings. Aims to shape innovative design solutions, enhance social amenity, and improve economic equity through strategic and creative geographical, urban design and architectural thinking. Intended for students with backgrounds in architecture, community development, urban design, and physical planning. Limited to 12 via application and lottery.

11.339 Downtown

Subject meets with 11.026[J] , 21H.321[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units

Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late 19th century to the late 20th. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Topics considered include subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.344[J] Innovative Project Delivery in the Public and Private Sectors

Same subject as 1.472[J] Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 2-0-4 units

Develops a strong strategic understanding of how best to deliver various types of projects in the built environment. Examines the compatibility of various project delivery methods, consisting of organizations, contracts, and award methods, with certain types of projects and owners. Six methods examined: traditional general contracting; construction management; multiple primes; design-build; turnkey; and build-operate-transfer. Includes lectures, case studies, guest speakers, and a team project to analyze a case example.

C. M. Gordon

11.345[J] Entrepreneurship in the Built Environment

Same subject as 1.462[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall; first half of term) 2-0-4 units

Introduction to entrepreneurship and how it shapes the world we live in. Through experiential learning in a workshop setting, students start to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills. Through a series of workshops, students are introduced to the concept of Venture Design to create new venture proposals for the built environment as a method to understand the role of the entrepreneur in the fields of design, planning, real estate, and other related industries.

S. Gronfeldt, G. Rosenzweig

11.350 Sustainable Real Estate: Economics & Business

Offers insight into tension and synergy between sustainability and the real estate industry. Considers why sustainability matters for real estate, how real estate can contribute to sustainability and remain profitable, and what investment and market opportunities exist for sustainable real estate products and how they vary across asset classes. Lectures combine economic and business insights and tools to understand the challenges and opportunities of sustainable real estate. Provides a framework to understand issues in sustainability in real estate and examine economic mechanisms, technological advances, business models, and investment and financing strategies available to promote sustainability. Discusses buildings as basic physical assets; cities as the context where buildings interact with the built environment, policies, and urban systems; and portfolios as sustainable real estate investment vehicles in capital markets. Enrollment for MSRED, MCP, and MBA students is prioritized.

Zheng, Siqi; Tan, Zhengzhen

11.351 Real Estate Ventures I: Negotiating Development-Phase Agreements

Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to control, entitle, capitalize, and construct a mixed-use real estate development. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss, and negotiate the most important business issues in right of entry, purchase and sale, development, and joint-venture agreements, as well as a construction contract and construction loan agreement. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and Columbia University and New York University. Enrollment limited to approximately 25; preference to MSRED students. No listeners.

W. T. McGrath

11.352 Real Estate Ventures II: Negotiating Leases, Financings, and Restructurings

Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to lease, finance, and restructure a real estate venture. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss and negotiate the most important business issues in office and retail leases, and permanent loan, mezzanine loan, inter-creditor, standstill/forbearance, and loan modification (workout) agreements. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and New York University and Columbia University. Single-asset real estate bankruptcy and the federal income tax consequences of debt restructuring are also addressed. Limited to 25; preference to MSRED students; no Listeners.

11.353[J] Securitization of Mortgages and Other Assets

Same subject as 15.429[J] Prereq: 11.431[J] , 15.401 , or permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units

Investigates the economics and finance of securitization. Considers the basic mechanics of structuring deals for various asset-backed securities. Investigates the pricing of pooled assets, using Monte Carlo and other option pricing techniques, as well as various trading strategies used in these markets. Limited to 55.

11.355 International Housing Economics and Finance

Prereq: 11.202 , 11.203 , 14.01 , or permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-6 units Credit cannot also be received for 11.145

Presents a theory of comparative differences in international housing outcomes. Introduces institutional differences in ways housing expenditures are financed, and economic determinants of housing outcomes (construction costs, land values, housing quality, ownership rates). Analyzes flow of funds to and from the different national housing finance sectors. Develops an understanding of the greater financial and macroeconomic implications of mortgage credit sector, and how policies affect ways housing asset fluctuations impact national economies. Considers perspective of investors in international real estate markets and risks and rewards involved. Draws on lessons from international comparative approach, applies them to economic and finance policies at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels within country of choice. Meets with 11.145 when offered concurrently. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.356 Healthy Cities: Assessing Health Impacts of Policies and Plans

Subject meets with 11.156 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.360 Community Growth and Land Use Planning

Seminar, workshops, and fieldwork on strategies to use municipal land use regulations to shape urban growth and equity. Practicum workshop builds skills in civic engagement, policy-relevant research, zoning regulations, and physical design and planning. The workshop begins with implementation of qualitative and quantitative research into the existing built environment, social, economic, and political context. It continues with the planning, design, and implementation of community engagement strategies to shape goals and vision for the projects. The practicum then explores land use scenarios, design and innovative zoning and regulatory techniques, to improve equity in the areas of housing, environment, economic development, mobility, and the public realm. Projects arranged with small teams serving municipal clients experiencing pressures of urban growth and change in Massachusetts. Preference to MCP second year students.

11.365 Sustainable Urbanization Practicum

Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Working with a city development client (city government/real estate developer/NGO) in a fast-urbanizing region, practicum provides students an opportunity to synthesize policy, planning or urban science solutions towards sustainable urbanization, within the constraints of a client-based project. Priority is given to MCP students.

11.367 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law

Subject meets with 11.067 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Explores conceptions of spatial justice and introduces students to basic principles of US law and legal analysis, focused on land use, equal protection, civil rights, fair housing, and local government law, in order to examine who should control how land is used. Examines the rights of owners of land and the types of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use. Explores basic principles of civil rights and anti-discrimination law and focuses on particular civil rights problems associated with the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, residential segregation, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and gentrification. Introduces basic skills of statutory drafting and interpretation. Assignments differ for those taking the graduate version.

11.368 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy

Subject meets with 11.148 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.371[J] Sustainable Energy

Same subject as 1.818[J] , 2.65[J] , 10.391[J] , 22.811[J] Subject meets with 2.650[J] , 10.291[J] , 22.081[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 22.811[J] .

M. W. Golay

11.373[J] Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy

Same subject as 12.885[J] Subject meets with 12.385 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-6 units

See description under subject 12.885[J] .

S. Solomon, J. Knox-Hayes

11.381 Infrastructure Systems in Theory and Practice

Prereq: ( 14.01 and ( 11.202 or 11.203 )) or permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines theories of infrastructure from science and technology studies, history, economics, and anthropology in order to understand the prospects for change for many new and existing infrastructure systems. Examines how these theories are then implemented within systems in the modern city, including but not limited to, energy, water, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure. Seminar is conducted with intensive group research projects, in-class discussions and debates.

11.382 Water Diplomacy: The Science, Policy, and Politics of Managing Shared Resources

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the history and dynamics of international environmental treaty-making, or what is called environmental diplomacy. Emphasizes climate change and other atmospheric, marine resource, global waste management and sustainability-related treaties and the problems of implementing them. Reviews the legal, economic, and political dynamics of managing shared resources, involving civil society on a global basis, and enforcing transboundary agreements. Focuses especially on principles from international relations, international law, environmental management, and negotiation theory as they relate to common-pool resource management.

11.383[J] People and Profits: Shaping the Future of Work

Same subject as 15.662[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 15.662[J] .

A. Stansbury

11.387 Environmental Finance and Political Economy

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Examines the sociopolitical, cultural and economic dimensions of the financialization of environmental goods and services. Provides an introduction to key financial terms, practices, and institutions; analyzes the logics and origins of environmental finance, as well as the operation and implications of particular systems such as carbon-trading, REDD and ecosystem service pricing and swapping. Limited to 15.

11.388[J] Dimensions of Geoengineering

Same subject as 1.850[J] , 5.000[J] , 10.600[J] , 12.884[J] , 15.036[J] , 16.645[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-4 units

See description under subject 5.000[J] . Limited to 100.

J. Deutch, M. Zuber

11.401 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.041 Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.402 Urban Politics: Race and Political Change

Examines the place of US cities in political theory and practice. Particular attention given to contemporary issues of racial polarization, demographic change, poverty, sprawl, and globalization. Specific cities are a focus for discussion.

J. P. Thompson

11.403 Urban China Research Seminar

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-7 units Can be repeated for credit.

Examines the behavioral foundations and key policy issues of urban development, real estate markets, and sustainability in China. Discusses urban agglomeration economies, place-based investment, and urban vibrancy; economic geography of innovation and entrepreneurship; real estate dynamics and housing policies; land use and transportation; and urban quality of life and green cities, focusing on China but with some international comparisons.

11.404 Housing Policy and Planning in the US and Abroad

Explores the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement housing strategies at local, state and federal levels. Topics include America's housing finance system and the causes of instability in mortgage markets; economic and social inequity in access to affordable housing; approaches to meeting community housing needs through local and state planning programs; programs for addressing homelessness; and emerging ideas about sustainable development and green building related to housing development and renovation. Introduces comparative policy approaches from other countries.

11.405 Political Economy & Society

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

Focuses on the connection (or not) between mind (theory) and matter (lived experience). Examines basic tenets of classical and recent political economic theories and their explication in ideas of market economies, centrally planned economies, social market economies, and co-creative economies. Assesses theories according to their relation to the lived experiences of people in communities and workplaces.

11.407 Tools and Techniques for Inclusive Economic Development

Subject meets with 11.107 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces tools and techniques in economic development planning. Extensive use of data collection, analysis, and display techniques. Students build interpretive intuition skills through user experience design activities and develop a series of memos summarizing the results of their data analysis. These are aggregated into a final report, and include the tools developed over the semester. Students taking graduate version will complete modified assignments focused on developing computer applications.

11.409 The Institutions of Modern Capitalism: States and Markets

Prereq: None G (Fall) 2-0-10 units

Investigates the relationship between states and markets in the evolution of modern capitalism. Critically assesses the rise of what Karl Polanyi and Albert Hirschman have referred to as "market society:" a powerful conceptual framework that views the development of modern capitalism not as an outcome of deterministic economic and technological forces, but rather as the result of contingent social and political processes. Exposes students to a range of conceptual tools and analytic frameworks through which to understand the politics of economic governance and to consider the extent to which societal actors can challenge its limits and imagine alternative possibilities. Sub-themes vary from year to year and have focused on racial capitalism, markets and morality, urban futures, and the global financial crisis. Limited to 25.

11.411 The Political Economy of Planning

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Introduces students to key planning ideas and practices that shape the political economy of planning: the way that planning interventions generate distributional effects that create winners and losers across different spatial and temporal scales. Highlights ways in which planning interventions seek to order society and shape spaces, as well as the ways these efforts have been contested and resisted. Takes a global and comparative perspective, surveying planning ideas and experiences across diverse contexts. Develops analytic tools to understand the broad field of planning theory and the asymmetries of power that these imply in planning practice. Planning is a complex and multifaceted set of endeavors, and as such the class is interdisciplinary, drawing from planning theory and history as well as sociology, political science, geography, history, and the design disciplines.

11.413 The Economic Approach to Cities and Environmental Sustainability

Subject meets with 11.113 Prereq: 11.220 , 14.300 , or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.

11.422[J] Law, Technology, and Public Policy

Same subject as 15.655[J] , IDS.435[J] Subject meets with 11.122[J] , IDS.066[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject IDS.435[J] .

11.427[J] Labor Markets and Employment Policy

Same subject as 15.677[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject 15.677[J] . Preference to graduate and PhD students.

11.429[J] Real Estate Markets: Macroeconomics

Same subject as 15.022[J] Prereq: 11.431[J] or permission of instructor G (Spring; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Applies the latest economic thinking and research to the task of analyzing aggregate real estate market time series, assessing risk, and developing forecasts. Presents the premise that because of capital durability and construction lags, real estate markets exhibit some degree of mean reversion and as such are at least partially predictable. Examines the extent and causes of market volatility across different markets and types of property. Long-term aggregate trends impacting the real estate sector, from demographics to technology, discussed. Limited to 30.

11.430[J] Leadership in Real Estate

Same subject as 15.941[J] Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Designed to help students deepen their understanding of leadership and increase self-awareness. They reflect on their authentic leadership styles and create goals and a learning plan to develop their capabilities. They also participate in activities to strengthen their "leadership presence" - the ability to authentically connect with people's hearts and minds. Students converse with classmates and industry leaders to learn from their insights, experiences, and advice. Limited to 15.

11.431[J] Real Estate Finance and Investment

Same subject as 15.426[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 4-0-8 units

Concepts and techniques for analyzing financial decisions in commercial property development and investment. Topics include property income streams, discounted cash flow, equity valuation, leverage and income tax considerations, development projects, and joint ventures. An introduction to real estate capital markets as a source of financing is also provided. Limited to graduate students.

11.433[J] Real Estate Economics

Same subject as 15.021[J] Prereq: 14.01 , 15.010 , or 15.011 G (Fall) 4-0-8 units

Develops an understanding of the fundamental economic factors that shape the market for real property, as well as the influence of capital markets in asset pricing. Analyzes of housing as well as commercial real estate. Covers demographic analysis, regional growth, construction cycles, urban land markets, and location theory as well as recent technology impacts. Exercises and modeling techniques for measuring and predicting property demand, supply, vacancy, rents, and prices.

11.435 Mixed-Income Housing Development

Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 3-0-3 units

Provides an overview of affordable and mixed-income housing development for students who wish to understand the fundamental issues and requirements of urban scale housing development, and the process of planning, financing and developing such housing. Students gain practical experience assembling a mixed-income housing development proposal.

L. Reid, W. Monson

11.437 Financing Economic Development and Housing

Subject meets with 11.137 Prereq: None G (Spring) 4-0-8 units

11.438 Economic Development Planning

Prereq: 11.203 , 11.220 , and permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement local economic development strategies. Includes an overview of economic development theory, discussion of major policy areas and practices employed to influence local economic development, a review of analytic tools to assess local economies and how to formulate strategy. Coursework includes formulation of a local economic development strategy for a client. Limited to 15.

11.439 Revitalizing Urban Main Streets

Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 4-0-11 units

Workshop explores the integration of economic development and physical planning interventions to revitalize urban commercial districts. Covers: an overview of the causes of urban business district decline, revitalization challenges, and the strategies to address them; the planning tools used to understand and assess urban Main Streets from both physical design and economic development perspectives; and the policies, interventions, and investments used to foster urban commercial revitalization. Students apply the theories, tools and interventions discussed in class to preparing a formal neighborhood commercial revitalization plan for a client business district. Limited to 15.

11.440 Housing and Social Stratification in the United States

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Investigates how housing — markets, policies, and individual and collective actions — stratifies society. Students develop structural frameworks to understand the processes of stratification. Grounding work and research in history, students identify the ways that housing markets and housing market interventions reflect, reinforce, and (occasionally) combat social inequities. Through extensive writing and rewriting, students frame their work in terms of overlapping crises, including gentrification, flight, shortage, and homelessness.

D. M. Bunten

11.441 Planning, Economic Development, and Municipal Public Finance

Explores the relationship between municipal planning initiatives and local public finance. Introduces a variety of tools, including annual fiscal year budgeting, development of capital improvement plans, user fees, and local property taxation. Municipal powers to levy taxes on items such as meals, hotel rooms, and sales and their effects on land use decisions are analyzed. Tools for economic development, such as tax increment finance, explored in the context of the potential benefits and drawbacks of such tools for a local economy. Also explores how planners can encourage more inclusive budgeting decisions through tools such as participatory budgeting. Students complete a final project on a municipal finance tool and its relationship to local planning goals.

11.442 Geography of the Global Economy

Subject meets with 11.142 Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.449 Decarbonizing Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.149 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-3-6 units

11.450 Real Estate Development Building Systems

Prereq: None G (Fall; first half of term) 2-0-1 units

Provides students with a concise overview of the range of building systems that are encountered in professional commercial real estate development practice in the USA. Focuses on the relationship between real estate product types, building systems, and the factors that real estate development professionals must consider when evaluating these products and systems for a specific development project. Surveys commercial building technology including Foundation, Structural, MEP/FP, Envelope, and Interiors systems and analyzes the factors that lead development professionals to select specific systems for specific product types. One or more field trips to active construction sites may be scheduled during non-class hours based on student availability.

11.452 Planning against Evictions and Displacement

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Spring) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 3-0-9 units

Combines state-of-the-art research on evictions and displacement globally (in the context of the global crisis of evictions, land grabbing, and gentrification) with the study of policy and practical responses to displacement, assisted by selected case studies. First half covers explanations about the mechanisms and drivers of displacement, while the second half introduces and evaluates policy and legal responses developed by many actors. Analyzes the use of UN and national standards on displacement as well as the use of tools such as the Eviction Impact Assessment Tool. Limited to 15 graduate students.

11.454 Big Data, Visualization, and Society

Subject meets with 11.154 Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 6.C35[J] , 6.C85[J] , 11.154 , 11.C35[J] , 11.C85[J]

11.C85[J] Interactive Data Visualization and Society

Same subject as 6.C85[J] Subject meets with 6.C35[J] , 11.C35[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-8 units Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530 , 11.154 , 11.454

See description under subject 6.C85[J] .

11.457 More than Data: Smart Cities, Big Data, Civic Technology and Policy

Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

Discussions of future directions in the 'smart cities' debate. Begins by framing the current smart city with past trends such as the efficient city movement of the 1930s and the Modernist city of the 1950s and 60s. Examines current trends in big data, civic apps, Code for America, the open data movement, DIY data collections devices, and their policy impacts.

11.458 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping

Subject meets with 11.138 Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.461[J] Technocracy

Same subject as STS.463[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

See description under subject STS.463[J] .

11.466[J] Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development

Same subject as 1.813[J] , 15.657[J] , IDS.437[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject IDS.437[J] .

11.469 Urban Sociology in Theory and Practice

Introduction to core writings in urban sociology. Explores the nature and changing character of the city and the urban experience, providing context for the development of urban studies research and planning skills. Topics include the changing nature of community, neighborhood effects, social capital and networks, social stratification, feminist theory and critical race theory, and the interaction of social structure and political power. Subject will take place in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk with half of the class from MIT and half of the class from MCI-Norfolk. Limited to 25.

11.472[J] D-Lab: Development

Same subject as EC.781[J] Subject meets with 11.025[J] , EC.701[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-2-7 units

See description under subject EC.781[J] . Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session.

S. L. Hsu, A. B. Smith, B. Sanyal

11.474 D-Lab: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Subject meets with EC.715 Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on disseminating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) innovations in low-income countries and underserved communities worldwide. Structured around project-based learning, lectures, discussions, and student-led tutorials. Emphasizes core WASH principles, appropriate and sustainable technologies at household and community scales, urban challenges worldwide, culture-specific solutions, lessons from start-ups, collaborative partnerships, and social marketing. Mentored term project entails finding and implementing a viable solution focused on education/training; a technology, policy or plan; a marketing approach; and/or behavior change. Guest lecturers present case studies, emphasizing those developed and disseminated by MIT faculty, practitioners, students, and alumni. Field trips scheduled during class time, with optional field trips on weekends. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20.

S. E. Murcott, S. L. Hsu

11.477[J] Urban Energy Systems and Policy

Same subject as 1.286[J] Subject meets with 11.165 Prereq: 11.203 , 14.01 , or permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate.

11.478 Behavioral Science, AI, and Urban Mobility

Subject meets with 11.158 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

11.480 Urbanization and Development

Examines developmental dynamics of rapidly urbanizing locales, with a special focus on the developing world. Case studies from India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa form the basis for discussion of social, spatial, political and economic changes in cities spurred by the decline of industry, the rise of services, and the proliferation of urban mega projects. Emphasizes the challenges of growing urban inequality, environmental risk, citizen displacement, insufficient housing, and the lack of effective institutions for metropolitan governance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.484 Project Appraisal in Developing Countries

Covers techniques of financial analysis of investment expenditures, as well as the economic and distributive appraisal of development projects. Critical analysis of these tools in the political economy of international development is discussed. Topics include appraisal's role in the project cycle, planning under conditions of uncertainty, constraints in data quality and the limits of rational analysis, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary appraisal team. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited; preference to majors.

11.485 Southern Urbanisms

Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: G (Fall) Acad Year 2024-2025: Not offered 2-0-10 units

Guides students in examining implicit and explicit values of diversity offered in "Southern" knowledge bases, theories, and practices of urban production. With a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, considers why the South-centered location of the estimated global urban population boom obligates us to examine how cities work as they do, and why Western-informed urban theory and planning scholarship may be ill-suited to provide guidance on urban development there. Examines the "rise of the rest" and its implications for the making and remaking of expertise and norms in planning practice. Students engage with seminal texts from leading authors of Southern urbanism and critical themes, including the rise of Southern theory, African urbanism, Chinese international cooperation, Brazilian urban diplomacy, and the globally-driven commodification of urban real estate.

G. Carolini 

11.486 Peace and Conflict Geographies

Explores the spatialization of conflict and peace from perspectives within the humanities and social sciences. Examines claims on territory, resources, and homeland; traces the legacies of violence in landscapes both personal and public; considers the use of planning and architecture to build peace; and attends to experiences of displacement and dispossession. Discusses how conflict and peace geographies provide insight into various scales of power and repair that shape how individuals live together.

11.487 Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector

Subject meets with 11.147 Prereq: None G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

11.490 Law and Development

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units

Examines the role of law in development and introduces economic and legal theories. Topics include formality/informality of property, contracts and bargaining in the shadow of the law, institutions for transparency and accountability, legitimation of law, sequencing of legal reform, and international economic law aspects. Studies the roles of property rights in economic development, the judiciary and the bureaucracy in development, and law in aid policy. Includes selected country case studies. Limited to 15.

11.493 Property and Land Use Law for Planners

Examines legal and institutional arrangements for the establishment, transfer, and control over property and land under American and selected comparative systems, including India and South Africa. Focuses on key issues of property and land use law regarding planning and economic development. Emphasizes just and efficient resource use; institutional, entitlement and social relational approaches to property; distributional and other social aspects; and the relationship between property, culture, and democracy.

11.494 Cities of Contested Memory

Explores relationships between built environments and memory to consider the spaces and spatial practices in which the future of the past is imagined, negotiated, and contested. Focuses on three areas of critical importance to understanding the nature of memory in cities today: the threats that rapid urban development pose to the remembrance of urban pasts; the politics of representation evident in debates over authorized and marginalized historical narratives; and the art and ethics of sensitively addressing the afterlives of violence and tragedy. Emphasizes group discussions and projects as means to explore collective and counter memories, the communities that are formed therein, and the economic, social, and political forces that lift up certain memories over others to shape the legacy of the past. Limited to 15.

11.495 Governance and Law in Developing Countries

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-0-10 units

Examines the multiple dimensions of governance in international development with a focus on the role of legal norms and institutions in the balance between state and the market. Analyzes changes in the distribution of political and legal authority as a result of economic globalization. Topics include the regulation of firms; forms of state and non-state monitoring; varieties of capitalism, global governance and development; and good governance, including transparency and accountability mechanisms, the role of the judiciary and legal culture, and tools for measuring governance performance.

11.496 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience

Subject meets with 11.166 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

11.497 Human Rights at Home and Abroad

Subject meets with 11.164[J] , 17.391[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Fall) 2-0-10 units

Provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the history, foundation, structure, and operation of the human rights movement. Focuses on key ideas, actors, methods and sources, and critically evaluates the field. Addresses current debates in human rights, including the relationship with security, democracy, development and globalization, urbanization, equality (in housing and other economic and social rights; women's rights; ethnic, religious and racial discrimination; and policing/conflict), post-conflict rebuilding and transitional justice, and technology in human rights activism. Students taking graduate version expected to write a research paper.

11.499 Master of Science in Real Estate Development Thesis Preparation

Prereq: None G (Spring; first half of term) 2-0-1 units

Designed to give students the tools and information needed to successfully complete a master's level thesis. Seminar topics include, but are not limited to: research data sets, different types and styles of theses, the writing and editing process, library services, and the use of humans as experimental subjects in research. CRE faculty share their areas of interest to assist in choosing an advisor. Seminar assignments guide students toward developing a thesis topic and realistic work plan to adequately achieve their research and writing goals. Objective is for each student to have sufficient knowledge to author a fully developed thesis topic and formal proposal by the end of the term. Limited to MS in Real Estate Development candidates.

11.520 Workshop on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring; second half of term) 2-2-2 units

Includes spatial analysis exercises using real-world data sets, building toward an independent project in which students critically apply GIS techniques to an area of interest. Students build data discovery, cartography, and spatial analysis skills while learning to reflect on power and positionality within the research design process. Tailored to GIS applications within planning and design and emphasizes the role of reflective practice in GIS. Enrollment limited; preference to MCP students.

11.521 Spatial Database Management and Advanced Geographic Information Systems

Prereq: 11.205 and Coreq: 11.220 ; or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units

Extends the computing and geographic information systems (GIS) skills developed in 11.520 to include spatial data management in client/server environments and advanced GIS techniques. First half covers the content of 11.523 , introducing database management concepts, SQL (Structured Query Language), and enterprise-class database management software. Second half explores advanced features and the customization features of GIS software that perform analyses for decision support that go beyond basic thematic mapping. Includes the half-term GIS project of 11.524 that studies a real-world planning issue.

J. Ferreira

11.522 Research Seminar on Urban Information Systems

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 2-4-6 units Can be repeated for credit.

Advanced research seminar enhances computer and analytic skills developed in other subjects in this sequence. Students present a structured discussion of journal articles representative of their current research interests involving urban information systems and complete a short research project. Suggested research projects include topics related to ongoing UIS Group research.

11.523 Fundamentals of Spatial Database Management

Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor G (Fall; first half of term) 2-2-2 units

Develops technical skills necessary to design, build, and interact with spatial databases using the Structured Query Language (SQL) and its spatial extensions. Provides instruction in writing highly contextual metadata (data biographies). Prepares students to perform database maintenance, modeling, and digitizing tasks, and to critically evaluate and document data sources. Databases are implemented in PostgreSQL and PostGIS; students interface with these using QGIS.

E. Huntley 

11.524 Advanced Geographic Information System Project

Prereq: ( 11.205 and 11.220 ) or permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Provides instruction in statistical approaches for analyzing interrelation, clustering, and interdependence, which are often key to understanding urban environments. Covers local and global spatial autocorrelation, interpolation, and kernel density methods; cluster detection; and spatial regression models. Develops technical skills necessary to ask spatial questions using inferential statistics implemented in the R statistical computing language. Prior coursework or experience in geographic information systems (GIS) at the introductory level required; prior coursework or experience in R is preferred.

11.526[J] Comparative Land Use and Transportation Planning

Same subject as 1.251[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Focuses on the integration of land use and transportation planning, drawing from cases in both industrialized and developing countries. Highlights how land use and transportation influence the social organization of cities, assigning privileges to certain groups and segregating or negating access to the city to other groups. Covers topics such as accessibility; the use of data, algorithms, and bias; travel demand and travel behavior; governance; transit-oriented development; autonomous vehicles; transportation and real estate; and social, environmental, and health implications of land use and transportation. Develops students' skills to assess relevant policies, interventions, and impacts.

11.529[J] Mobility Ventures: Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems

Same subject as 15.379[J] Subject meets with 11.029[J] , 15.3791[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-3-6 units

Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

11.540 Urban Transportation Planning and Policy

Examines transportation policymaking and planning; its relationship to social and environmental justice; and the influences of politics, governance structures, and human and institutional behavior. Explores the pathway to infrastructure, how attitudes are influenced, and how change happens. Examines the tensions and potential synergies among traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency, and "sustainability." Explores the roles of the government; analysis of current trends; transport sector decarbonization; land use, placemaking, and sustainable mobility networks; the role of "mobility as a service;" and the implications of disruptive technology on personal mobility. Assesses traditional planning methods with a critical eye, and through that process considers how to approach transportation planning in a way that responds to contemporary needs and values, with an emphasis on transport justice.

11.543[J] Transportation Policy, the Environment, and Livable Communities

Same subject as 1.253[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. Investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as a facilitator of economic development and environmental sustainability. Analyzes a variety of international policy problems, including government-business relations, the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; as well as transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. Provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to develop policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

J. Coughlin

11.544[J] Transportation: Foundations and Methods

Same subject as 1.200[J] , IDS.675[J] Subject meets with 1.041[J] , IDS.075[J] Prereq: 1.000 , ( 1.00 and 1.010 ), or permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-1-8 units

See description under subject 1.200[J] .

11.547[J] Global Aging & the Built Environment

Same subject as SCM.287[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Combines classroom lectures/discussion, readings, site visits, and field study to provide students with experience in various research techniques including stakeholder analysis, interviewing, photography and image analysis, focus groups, etc. Students examine the impacts of global demographic transition, when there are more older than younger people in a population, and explore emerging challenges in the built environment (e.g., age-friendly community planning, public transportation access, acceptance of driverless cars, social wellbeing and connectivity, housing and community design, design and use of public and private spaces, and the public health implications of climate change and aging).

J. F. Coughlin

11.592 Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic (New)

Subject meets with 11.092 Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 2-4-6 units

11.601 Theory and Practice of Environmental Planning

Required introductory subject for graduate students pursuing the Environmental Planning Certificate. Strongly suggested for MCP students pursuing EPP as their specialization. Also open to other graduate students interested in environmental justice, environmental ethics, environmental dispute resolution, and techniques of environmental problem-solving. Taught comparatively, with numerous references to examples from around the world. Four major areas of focus: national environmental policymaking, environmental ethics, environmental forecasting and analysis techniques, and strategies for collaborative decision-making. 

11.630[J] Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Pollution Prevention and Control

Same subject as 1.811[J] , 15.663[J] , IDS.540[J] Subject meets with 1.801[J] , 11.021[J] , 17.393[J] , IDS.060[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

11.631[J] Regulation of Chemicals, Radiation, and Biotechnology

Same subject as 1.812[J] , IDS.541[J] Subject meets with 1.802[J] , 10.805[J] , 11.022[J] , IDS.061[J] , IDS.436[J] Prereq: IDS.540[J] or permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units

Focuses on policy design and evaluation in the regulation of hazardous substances and processes. Includes risk assessment, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food contaminants, pharmaceuticals, radiation and radioactive wastes, product safety, workplace hazards, indoor air pollution, biotechnology, victims' compensation, and administrative law. Health and economic consequences of regulation, as well as its potential to spur technological change, are discussed for each regulator regime. Students taking the graduate version are expected to explore the subject in greater depth.

N. Ashford, C.Caldart

11.651[J] USA Lab: Bridging the American Divides

Same subject as 15.679[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-1-5 units

See description under subject 15.679[J] .

L. Hafrey, C. McDowell

11.652[J] Research Seminar on Technology and the Work of the Future

Same subject as STS.465[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2023-2024: Not offered Acad Year 2024-2025: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

See description under subject STS.465[J] . Limited to 15.

D. Mindell, E. B. Reynolds

11.701 International Development Planning: Foundations

Offers a survey of the histories and theories of international development, and the main debates about the role of key actors and institutions in development. Includes a focus on the impact of colonialism, the main theoretical approaches that have influenced the study and practice of development, as well as the role of actors such as states, markets, and civil society in development. Focuses on the interactions between interventions and institutions on local, national, and global/transnational scales. Offers an opportunity to develop a focus on selected current topics in development planning, such as migration, displacement, participatory planning, urban-rural linkages, corruption, legal institutions, and post-conflict development. Restricted to first-year MCP and SPURS students.

Tutorials, Research, and Fieldwork Subjects

11.800 reading, writing and research.

Prereq: 11.233 ; Coreq: 11.801 G (Spring) 3-0-6 units

Required subject intended solely for 1st-year DUSP PhD students. Develops capacity of doctoral students to become independent scholars by helping them to prepare their first-year papers and plan for their dissertation work. Focuses on the process by which theory, research questions, literature reviews, and new data are synthesized into new and original contributions to the literature. Seminar is conducted with intensive discussions, draft writing, peer review, revisions, and editing. Guest speakers from faculty and advanced students discuss strategies and potential pitfalls with doctoral-level research.

11.801 Doctoral Research Paper

Prereq: None. Coreq: 11.800 ; permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-6 units

Students develop a first-year research paper in consultation with their advisor.

11.901 Independent Study: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Opportunity for independent study under regular supervision by a faculty member.

11.902 Independent Study: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.903 Supervised Readings in Urban Studies

11.904 supervised readings in urban studies.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.905 Research Seminar in Urban Studies and Planning

Special research issues in urban planning.

11.906 Research Seminar in Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.907 Urban Fieldwork

Practical application of planning techniques to towns, cities, and regions, including problems of replanning, redevelopment, and renewal of existing communities. Includes internships, under staff supervision, in municipal and state agencies and departments.

11.908 Urban Fieldwork

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.909 Graduate Tutorial

Prereq: None G (Fall) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Planned programs of instruction for a minimum of three students on a planning topic not covered in regular subjects of instruction. Registration subject to prior arrangement with appropriate faculty member.

11.910 Doctoral Tutorial

Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-3 units

Required subject exclusively for first-year DUSP PhD candidates, but with multiple colloquium sessions open to the full department community. Introduces students to a range of department faculty (and others) by offering opportunities to discuss applications of planning theory and planning history. Assists in clarifying the departments intellectual diversity. Encourages development of a personal intellectual voice and capacity to synthesize and respond to the arguments made by others.

L. Vale, J. Zhao

11.912[J] Advanced Urbanism Colloquium

Same subject as 4.275[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) 1-1-1 units Can be repeated for credit.

See description under subject 4.275[J] . Preference to doctoral students in the Advanced Urbanism concentration.

Consult S. Williams

11.919 PhD Workshop (New)

Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 0-1-0 units Can be repeated for credit.

The workshop features doctoral student progress on dissertation formulation and findings across all years, panels of particular interest to doctoral students as identified by their representatives on the PhD Committee, and an intellectual space for the sharing of ideas and initiatives within the doctoral community and across the department, including faculty.  Limited to all doctoral students in residence.

11.920 Planning in Practice

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Familiarizes students with the practice of planning, by requiring actual experience in professional internship placements. Enables students to both apply what they are learning in their classes in an actual professional setting and to reflect, using a variety of platforms, on the learning -- personal and professional -- growing out of their internship experience. Through readings, practical experience and reflection, empirical observation, and contact with practitioners, students gain deeper general understanding of the practice of the profession.

11.930 Advanced Seminar on Planning Theory

Prereq: None G (Spring) 2-0-10 units

Introduces students to key debates in the field of planning theory, drawing on historical development of the field of urban/regional/national planning from 1900 to 2020 in both the US and in newly industrializing countries. Class objectives are for students to develop their own theory of action as they become sensitized to issues of racial and gender discrimination in city building, and understand how planning styles are influenced by a range of issues, including the challenge of ethical practice.

11.960 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.961 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: None G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.962 Fieldwork: Real Estate

Practical application of real estate techniques in the field.

11.963 Independent Study: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.964 Independent Study: Real Estate

11.985 summer field work.

Prereq: None G (Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Practical application of planning techniques over the summer with prior arrangement.

S. Wellford

11.S938 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: None G (Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S939 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S940-11.S944 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S948 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S945-11.S949 Special Subject: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s950-11.s957 special seminar: urban studies and planning.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction

11.S958 Special Seminar: Urban Studies and Planning

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S959 Special Seminar: Urban Studies and Planning

11.s965 special subject: real estate.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall; second half of term) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

Small group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of real estate not covered in regular subjects of instruction.

11.S966 Special Subject: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S967 Special Subject: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring; first half of term) Not offered regularly; consult department Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

11.S968 Special Seminar: Real Estate

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.

11.S969 Special Seminar: Real Estate

11.s970 special seminar: real estate.

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring; second half of term) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Consult Catalog Faculty

11.THG Graduate Thesis

Program of research and writing of thesis; to be arranged by the student with supervising committee.

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Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Urban Planning, Policy and Design

The Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning, Policy and Design aims to prepare students for interdisciplinary research and teaching on the management of urban development as well as for leadership in the design and evaluation of urban policies and plans for cities in North America and the world. The program will focus on five identified areas of urban planning (land use planning and urban design; environmental planning; transportation planning; international development planning; real estate and economic development). Students are expected to spend the first two years of study taking courses, preparing for their comprehensive examination and writing their dissertation proposal. The remaining two (or more) years are spent conducting research and writing a thesis.

Required Courses (9 credits)

Every student must take courses worth at least 18 credits. Only one reading course can be included in this minimum requirement. The Advisory Committee may raise the requirement up to 24 credits (up to 36 credits for students entering as Ph.D. 1) in order to meet the specific needs of the student. With approval of their committee, students may elect to take a larger number of courses than is required, but in no case will the number of credits exceed thirty unless the student enters the program in Ph.D.1.

Offered by: Urban Planning ( Faculty of Engineering )

Administered by: Graduate Studies

Urban Planning : A review of planning history and theories of planning. These are examined under three categories: explanation of urban phenomena, substantive theory, and theories of process.

Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Urban Planning : Presentation of comprehensive review papers covering material central to the student's dissertation research, with an oral defense before an Advisory Committee.

Urban Planning : Exploration of concepts and methods pertinent to the development of the dissertation project proposal and comprehensive exam reading list.

Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken URBP 702 .

Urban Planning : Discussion of selected topics in theory and methodology with continued development of dissertation project proposal and comprehensive exam reading list.

Prerequisite: URBP 703

Urban Planning : Preparation of a detailed dissertation research proposal, with an oral defense before an Advisory Committee.

Prerequisite: URBP 701

Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken URBP 705 .

Complementary Courses (6 credits)

3 credits in advanced research methods at the 600 level or higher. It may be taken in any academic unit at McGill or another university, subject to the approval of the Graduate Program or School Director.

3 credits in advanced theory at the 600 level or higher. It may be taken at McGill or at another university and must be approved by the Graduate Program or School Director.

Elective Courses (3 credits)

Minimum 3 credits at the 500 level or higher,, or more if the Advisory Committee so decides.

These credits may be taken in any academic unit at McGill or at another university, subject to the approval of the Advisory Committee.

The Advisory Committee may require that the number of electives be increased to improve the student's preparation in certain areas. Other courses, at the 500 level or higher, may be added with the approval of the Advisory Committee. In general, students will be asked to limit their elective coursework to 9 credits. In no case will they be allowed to take more than 15 credits in elective courses.

Up to two reading courses may be taken and only one may be included in the minimum 18 credits of course work. A reading course is taken when no appropriate course is available and is (at least) equivalent to a 3-credit course in terms of work load. Procedures for reading courses are outlined in the Reading Course guidelines.

Department and University Information

Faculty Links

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School of Planning and Public Affairs

Certificate in Transportation Planning

The field of transportation planning has become much broader in the past several decades, expanding from its focus on relieving traffic congestion to questions related to social equity, accessibility, climate impacts, and the benefits of physically active travel. This change has underscored the need to attract people from diverse disciplinary and social/ethnic backgrounds to the field. The next generation of transportation professional cannot simply be one in a team of specialists. They need to have a range of knowledge that allows them to see and solve problems without disciplinary boundaries.  

The Certificate in Transportation Planning at the UI School of Planning & Public Affairs prepares professionals who can address this challenge.

• Students study and work with different disciplines and learn to develop sustainable, equitable and safe transportation systems.
• Certificate is advantageous for employment, professional development or advancement.
• The Transportation Planning Certificate is credentialed and will appear on the student's UI transcript.
• Certificate courses may be applied to a master's degree in Urban Planning at the University of Iowa if the student pursues a graduate degree after the certificate is completed.

Completion of the certificate provides students a robust background in transportation, methods and techniques for transportation analysis, and real-world project experience to improve their expertise and employability in a variety of professional transportation roles.

Fields of employment for students with the Transportation Certificate include: •    transportation planning •    transit or freight management •    bike/pedestrian policy advocacy •    public health through active mobility •    sustainability •    climate mitigation

Who should apply?

•    Those with a bachelor’s degree in urban studies, planning, engineering and other fields who want to increase      their employment options in transportation planning.

•    Planners interested in further professional development.

•    Graduate students at the University of Iowa.

Required Curriculum

Courses are taught primarily online with both real-time interaction and recorded lectures. Some elective courses are offered in-person to accommodate student preferences. However, the certificate can be completed entirely online by selecting courses available in that format. Courses are taught by faculty in the School of Planning and Public Affairs and College of Public Health. See the   most recent catalog of planning courses for course descriptions .

The first semester of the certificate program introduces students to the fundamentals of transportation planning history and practice, and to the relationships between transportation systems, urban form, equity, and sustainability.

The second semester deepens knowledge through specialization in public policy, travel behavior analysis, infrastructure finance, and traffic safety. Finally, in the summer studio course, students undertake a real-world transportation project for a community partner through the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC).

The certificate can be completed in one calendar year including a summer studio capstone. It may also be completed over two or more years for part-time students who complete fewer courses per semester. The two-year option accommodates students currently enrolled in two-year masters degrees at the University of Iowa.

Apply to Certificate Program

Current university of iowa students.

•    All UI students in good standing enrolled in any graduate program are eligible to complete the certificate. •    Admission for the certificate is considered on a rolling basis. •    Application deadline: Must be admitted to certificate program before completing all certificate courses. Requires that the student either have one course left to complete the certificate or is currently enrolled in final course necessary for the certificate.

To Apply Current UI graduate students should contact Abbi Castle in the School of Planning and Public Affairs.

Completion deadline During the semester of the student's final certificate course, the certificate completion form must be submitted before the established deadline for the Degree Application set by the Graduate College (approximately 10 weeks before graduation).

Non-University of Iowa Students

We are currently not admitting students who aren't University of Iowa graduate students into an online program.

For more information about the certificate program, please contact the Transportation Planning Certificate Coordinator: Steve Spears Associate Professor of Instruction School of Planning and Public Affairs [email protected]

For questions about the application process, please contact: Abbi Castle School of Planning and Public Affairs [email protected]

*Tuition rate for non-degree seeking students