SOCIOL 191NY
Undergraduate Seminar: Urban and Suburban Sociology in New York City
Description: Seminar, eight hours. Limited to students in summer UCLA Travel Study Program. Cutting-edge urban issues in country's largest city, including New York's attempt to plan for city of 9.2 million, rebuilding of World Trade Center, Robert Moses (New York's master builder), urban economic development, green New York, transportation systems, urban politics, house and architectural styles, including New York's famous skyscrapers, historic preservation, crime and police departments, ghetto, education, urban poor, public housing, and search for affordable housing. Offered in summer only. Letter grading.
Units: 0.0
Units: 0.0
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2022 - I’m really glad I went to New York, made the friends I did and participated in this program. I learned a lot about the city and myself during this summer course. The travel study program is 10 units total, comprised of 191NY and 191R, but Professor Halle formats it as one large class. As a result, you get 1 grade for the two courses. The grade is composed of 2 quizzes (kinda like a midterm and final, 25% each), a group project where you had to interview a New Yorker (15% of final grade, but a group grade), and a research paper (35%). The class often felt overly complicated for such an easy course. The group project had no reason to be collaborative and would have been more straightforward if it was independent work. The research paper was very open ended, allowing for you to research almost anything of your choosing. The multiple choice quizzes were straightforward if you attended the tours and lecture, even if you didn’t take notes. There were multiple out of class assignments/mini presentations that were not graded and often felt as if they had little merit. I wish the professors could have given us better answers than “google it” when we asked questions on the course material. I also did not appreciate the lack of analytical thinking required of this course and how students were discouraged from participating in discussion. I wish the professors had updated the material more and were willing to take part in constructive conversations about difficult topics such as police brutality etc. All of this being said, if you want to learn about urban sociology, get a glimpse of what it is like to live in New York, push yourself and meet other sociology students, or simply have a fun summer I would highly recommend. I walked out of the class having learned much about how cities work, but wish the professors had been more clear and willing to adapt their course to fit the needs of their students.
Summer 2022 - I’m really glad I went to New York, made the friends I did and participated in this program. I learned a lot about the city and myself during this summer course. The travel study program is 10 units total, comprised of 191NY and 191R, but Professor Halle formats it as one large class. As a result, you get 1 grade for the two courses. The grade is composed of 2 quizzes (kinda like a midterm and final, 25% each), a group project where you had to interview a New Yorker (15% of final grade, but a group grade), and a research paper (35%). The class often felt overly complicated for such an easy course. The group project had no reason to be collaborative and would have been more straightforward if it was independent work. The research paper was very open ended, allowing for you to research almost anything of your choosing. The multiple choice quizzes were straightforward if you attended the tours and lecture, even if you didn’t take notes. There were multiple out of class assignments/mini presentations that were not graded and often felt as if they had little merit. I wish the professors could have given us better answers than “google it” when we asked questions on the course material. I also did not appreciate the lack of analytical thinking required of this course and how students were discouraged from participating in discussion. I wish the professors had updated the material more and were willing to take part in constructive conversations about difficult topics such as police brutality etc. All of this being said, if you want to learn about urban sociology, get a glimpse of what it is like to live in New York, push yourself and meet other sociology students, or simply have a fun summer I would highly recommend. I walked out of the class having learned much about how cities work, but wish the professors had been more clear and willing to adapt their course to fit the needs of their students.
1 of 1
