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Contact:
800.345.SFAI
Contact:
800.345.SFAI
Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies
Urban Studies at SFAI is a new studio and research-based program developed specifically to address the contributions of art, artists, and researchers to the urban domain.
The rapid growth of urban populations and the rise of cities as the primary spaces of human dwelling have transformed the way we think of social, political, economic, and cultural relationships. Migration, displacement, economic instability, and political turmoil have all affected settlement patterns. Meanwhile, population density has exacerbated the compass of cities and strained their coping and carrying capacities. These changes bring to the fore demands for new ways of constituting community, ethnicity, citizenship, kinship, and belonging. The pressures of a perpetually growing world have affected spatial dynamics and necessitate new regimes of urban geography and forms of living.
The challenges posed by urbanization offer new opportunities for artistic practice through the pursuit of creative and imaginative solutions to urban paradigms. The solutions provided by artists are quite distinct from the work of architects, urban planners, and civic industries. Artistic responses to the city tend to be subjective in nature, a valorization of creativity over the atomization of bureaucracy. From graffiti to other forms of urban intervention, public art to neighborhood-centered cultural workshops, urban ethnography to activism, artists across the globe continue to propose interesting and emancipatory models for linking the city to the individual, the individual to community, the community to circuits of exchange.
The Urban Studies program at SFAI integrates courses and resources from both the School of Studio Practice and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies to create a unique platform for learning and engaging with the world. By intersecting our exceptional studio offerings with our programs in critical thinking, research, and interdisciplinary study, and our community education, training, and outreach projects, the Urban Studies program ensures that students will be steeped in both studio and research methodologies. This allows for an in-depth study of urban forms, habitat, and habitus. Students learn different approaches for studying and acting upon the changing dynamics of the urban fabric by working with professionals, practitioners, theorists, and historians. Students address the intersection between micro communities (neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, migration, etc.) and macro communities (suburbia, metropolitan complexes, networks of social, ethnographic, and economic interaction). The broad vision of the program allows students to design their own course of study and research.
How to Apply to the BA in Urban Studies Program
Urban Studies at SFAI is a new studio and research-based program developed specifically to address the contributions of art, artists, and researchers to the urban domain.
The rapid growth of urban populations and the rise of cities as the primary spaces of human dwelling have transformed the way we think of social, political, economic, and cultural relationships. Migration, displacement, economic instability, and political turmoil have all affected settlement patterns. Meanwhile, population density has exacerbated the compass of cities and strained their coping and carrying capacities. These changes bring to the fore demands for new ways of constituting community, ethnicity, citizenship, kinship, and belonging. The pressures of a perpetually growing world have affected spatial dynamics and necessitate new regimes of urban geography and forms of living.
The challenges posed by urbanization offer new opportunities for artistic practice through the pursuit of creative and imaginative solutions to urban paradigms. The solutions provided by artists are quite distinct from the work of architects, urban planners, and civic industries. Artistic responses to the city tend to be subjective in nature, a valorization of creativity over the atomization of bureaucracy. From graffiti to other forms of urban intervention, public art to neighborhood-centered cultural workshops, urban ethnography to activism, artists across the globe continue to propose interesting and emancipatory models for linking the city to the individual, the individual to community, the community to circuits of exchange.
The Urban Studies program at SFAI integrates courses and resources from both the School of Studio Practice and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies to create a unique platform for learning and engaging with the world. By intersecting our exceptional studio offerings with our programs in critical thinking, research, and interdisciplinary study, and our community education, training, and outreach projects, the Urban Studies program ensures that students will be steeped in both studio and research methodologies. This allows for an in-depth study of urban forms, habitat, and habitus. Students learn different approaches for studying and acting upon the changing dynamics of the urban fabric by working with professionals, practitioners, theorists, and historians. Students address the intersection between micro communities (neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, migration, etc.) and macro communities (suburbia, metropolitan complexes, networks of social, ethnographic, and economic interaction). The broad vision of the program allows students to design their own course of study and research.
How to Apply to the BA in Urban Studies Program
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