Urban Studies is a field of study that creates innovative, real-world knowledge of the challenges and opportunities of city life.  Both inside and outside the classroom, the Urban Studies Department reaps the advantage of the immense complexity and diversity both of New York City as a preeminent global city, and Queens as one of the most diverse counties in the United States. In Urban Studies, we emphasize a multi-disciplinary approach and offer perspectives and faculty expertise in anthropology, sociology, political science, urban planning, history, and other fields.

The theme of social justice is woven throughout our curriculum which is centered on understanding historic and contemporary forms of urban inequities, transnational migration and related demographic change and inter-group dynamics, social movements and activism, and current public policy debates in environmental, food, and economic justice, public health, social welfare, land use and public space, criminal justice, and urban infrastructure including transportation, housing, and education.

Our mission is to help students to understand cities and think critically about them and their environs, to prepare students for active and engaged participation in civic life, and to provide students with the knowledge and skills they will need for successful careers in the public, non-profit, and private sectors, as well as for advanced studies.