The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) offers four degree programs: a Bachelor of Science in Planning; a two-year professional Master in City Planning (MCP); a one-year Master of Science in Urban Studies and Planning (usually reserved for mid-career students); and a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning. In addition, DUSP has three kinds of nondegree programs and affiliations; the Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies (for mid-career professionals from developing countries); the Community Innovators Lab (which engages mid-career professionals from communities of color in the United States and beyond); and the SENSEable City Lab, a research center concerned with the relationship between technology and cities. DUSP also offers special-student status for part-time mid-career professionals interested in taking individual subjects. Once students are admitted and enrolled at MIT, it is possible to apply for certificate programs in urban design (offered jointly with the Department of Architecture) or environmental planning.
City and regional planners in the United States and other parts of the world are involved not only in physical and economic development, but also in management of the environmental, social, and design consequences of development. They engage in a variety of activities aimed at shaping the pattern of human settlements, and at providing people with housing, public services, employment opportunities, and other crucial support systems that comprise a decent living environment. Planning encompasses not just a concern for the structure and experience of the built environment, but also a desire to harness the social, economic, political, and technological forces that give meaning to the everyday lives of men and women in residential, work, and recreational settings. Planners operate at the neighborhood, metropolitan, state, national, or international level, in both the public and the private sectors. Their tasks are the same: to help frame the issues and problems that receive attention; to formulate and implement projects, programs, and policies responsive to individual and group needs; and to work with and for various communities in allocating economic and physical resources most efficiently and most equitably.
Planners are often described as "generalists with a specialty." The specialties offered at MIT include city design and development; housing, community, and economic development; international development; and environmental policy and planning, as well as cross-cutting opportunities to study urban information systems, regional planning, and transportation. These planning specialties can be distinguished by the geographic levels at which decision making takes place—neighborhood, city, regional, state, national, and global. Subspecialties have also been described in terms of the roles that planners are called upon to play, such as manager, designer, regulator, advocate, educator, evaluator, or futurist. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning is committed to educating planners who can advocate on behalf of underrepresented constituencies.
A focus on the development of practice-related skills is central to the department's mission, particularly for students in the MCP professional degree program. Acquiring these skills and integrating them with classroom knowledge are advanced through the department's field-based practicum subjects and research, and through internship programs. In fieldwork, students acquire competence by engaging in practice and then bringing field experiences back into the academic setting for reflection and discussion. Students may work with community organizations, government agencies, or private firms under the direction of faculty members involved in field-based projects with outside clients. In some cases, stipends may be available for fieldwork or internship programs.
During the month of January, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers a series of "mini-subjects" in specialized fields not covered by the regular curriculum, including both noncredit and for-credit offerings.
Specific opportunities for concentration and specialization available to students are detailed in the descriptions of the degree programs that follow.
The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers a Bachelor of Science in Planning, a HASS Minor in Urban Studies and Planning, a HASS Minor in Public Policy, and a variety of HASS concentrations. There is also an accelerated SB/MCP program which allows exceptional students to complete their undergraduate and master's degree work in five years.
In addition, DUSP also hosts MIT's Teacher Education Program (TEP), described in the section on Career and Professional Options in the Undergraduate Education chapter in Part 1. TEP provides an option for students interested in exploring new ideas in teaching and learning as applied to K-12 schools. Studies in TEP can also lead to licensure in math or science teaching at the high school or middle school levels.
The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers an interdisciplinary preprofessional undergraduate major designed to prepare students for careers in both the public and private sectors. The major also provides a foundation for students who are considering graduate work in law, public policy, international development, urban design, management, and planning. The subjects 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.
After satisfying the core requirements listed below, students must use their electives to pursue a specific track. We suggest one of the following, but will accept self-designed options to better meet a student's interest: urban and environmental policy and planning; urban society, history, and politics; or urban and regional public policy. The required laboratory emphasizes urban information systems and offers skills for measurement, representation, and analysis of urban phenomena. In the laboratory subject, students also explore the ways emerging technology can be used to improve government decision making.
Students are encouraged to develop a program that will strengthen their analytic skills, broaden their intellectual perspectives, and test these insights in real-world applications. Students must complete a senior project that synthesizes what they have learned. This project may consist of an analysis of a public policy issue, a report on a problem-solving experience from an internship or other field experience, or a synthesis of research on urban affairs.
Undergraduate Course 11 majors 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. Admission is limited to those undergraduates who have demonstrated exceptional professional promise. Students can obtain more information on the five-year program from Sandra Wellford, undergraduate administrator, Room 7-346A, 617-253-9403.
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 government, economic, and design contexts for local, urban, and regional decision making. Next, students choose three Tier II elective subjects, which provide an opportunity to focus on urban and environmental policy issues or to study urban problems and institutions. When undergraduate electives are unavailable in the student's field of interest, the student may choose from a variety of graduate courses, subject to the instructor's permission. Finally, students take 11.123 Big Plans, a subject that aims to synthesize past and present efforts to implement knowledge about large-scale projects and policies. 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.
| Tier I | |
Two subjects: |
| 11.001J | Introduction to Urban Design and Development | |
| and | ||
| 11.002J | Making Public Policy |
|
| Tier II | Three subjects from the following: | |
| 11.005 | Introduction to International Development | |
| 11.007 | Public Policy Disputes | |
| 11.011 | The Art and Science of Negotiation | |
| 11.013J | American Urban History I | |
| 11.014J | American Urban History II | |
| 11.016J | The Once and Future City | |
| 11.020 | Poverty, Public Policy, and Controversy | |
| 11.023 | Bridging Cultural and Racial Differences | |
| 11.024 | Great Cities | |
| 11.025 | D-Lab: Development | |
| 11.026J | Downtown | |
| 11.102J | Theories of Economic Development | |
| 11.122 | Society and Environment | |
| 11.126J | Economics of Education | |
| 11.166 | Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy |
|
| Tier III | ||
| 11.123 | Big Plans |
The interdisciplinary HASS Minor in Public Policy is intended to provide a single framework for students interested in the role of public policy in the field of their technical expertise. Course 11 majors are not eligible for the public policy minor. A detailed description and list of requirements for this minor can be found in the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Programs and Minor section in Part 3. Students can obtain additional information from Sandra Wellford, undergraduate administrator, Room 7-346A, 617‑253‑9403
DUSP offers clusters of subjects that satisfy the Institute requirement. These three-subject clusters allow students either to develop competence within a specific discipline or to explore a particular policy problem. Six areas are suggested: designing the urban environment, environmental policy, urban history, policy analysis and urban problems, legal issues and social change, and education. Sample programs are available from Sandra Wellford, undergraduate administrator, Room 7-346A, 617-253-9403.
The DUSP concentration focusing on education can also lead to Massachusetts licensure in teaching math and science at the middle and high school levels. This requires taking 11.129, 11.130, and 11.131 in addition to the core subjects 11.124 and 11.125. More information is available from Eric Klopfer, Room 10-337, 617-253-2025.
The Department of Urban Studies and Planning offers graduate work leading to the Master in City Planning and the Doctor of Philosophy. In conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, the department also offers a Master of Science in Real Estate Development. These programs are open to students from a variety of backgrounds. Urban studies, city planning, architecture, urban design, environmental planning, political science, civil engineering, economics, sociology, geography, law, management, and public administration all offer suitable preparation. For further information concerning academic programs in the department, application for admission, and financial aid, contact Graduate Admissions, Room 7-346, 617-253-9403.
The principal professional degree in the planning field is the Master in City Planning (MCP). The Department of Urban Studies and Planning provides graduate education for men and women who will assume professional roles in public, private, and nonprofit agencies, firms, and international institutions, in the United States and abroad. The department seeks to provide MCP students with the skills and specialized knowledge needed to fill traditional as well as emerging planning roles. The MCP is accredited by the American Planning Association.
The two-year Master in City Planning Program emphasizes mastery of tools for effective practice and is therefore distinct from undergraduate liberal arts programs in urban affairs or doctoral programs that emphasize advanced research skills. MCP graduates work in a broad array of roles, from "traditional" city planning to economic, social, and environmental planning. In addition to its basic core requirements, the program offers four areas of specialization: city design and development; environmental policy and planning; housing, community, and economic development; and international development. MCP students, in their application to the department, select one of these areas of specialization and, when applicable, indicate interest in the department programs in Transportation Policy and Planning, Urban Information Systems, and Regional Planning.
Each student's plan of study in the MCP Program is set forth in a program statement developed jointly by the student and faculty advisor during the student's first term. Linked to career development goals, the program statement describes the purposes and goals of study, the proposed schedule of subjects, the manner in which competence in a specialization is developed, and an indication of a possible thesis topic.
Degree Requirements. Students are expected to take a minimum of 36 credit units each term (at least three subjects, though more frequently four), yielding at least 126 total units, in addition to the thesis.
A collection of subjects and requirements to be taken during the student's two years in the MCP program constitute a "core experience" viewed as central to the professional program. The core subjects and requirements include the following:
Students identified as having weaker writing skills are also encouraged to take a writing course.
All students are required to submit a thesis on a topic of their choice. The department encourages MCP students to avoid the traditional perception of the thesis as a "mini-dissertation," and to think instead of a client-oriented, professional document that bridges academic and professional concerns. While most of the thesis work occurs during the last term of the second year, students are urged to begin the process of defining a thesis topic early in the second year through their participation in a required thesis preparation seminar.
Students in the MCP Program are encouraged to integrate fieldwork and internships with academic coursework. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning provides a variety of individual and group field placements involving varying degrees of faculty participation and supervision. Academic credit is awarded for field experience, although some students choose instead to participate in the work-study financial aid program. The department also sponsors a variety of seminars in which students have an opportunity to reflect on their field experiences.
The City Design and Development group is concerned with shaping the built and natural environment of cities and suburbs. Graduates work in a variety of private, public, and nonprofit roles: as urban designers, developers, planning and design consultants, municipal and regional planners, managers of public agencies to improve the environment, advocates of historic preservation and public art, and planners of transportation systems. The group is closely associated with faculty and students in the Department of Architecture and the Center for Real Estate, and many subjects are cross-listed with these programs. While the educational offerings are diverse and every student can develop unique competence in the area, there are at least three clusters of skills in city design and development: urban design, for those who wish to be involved in shaping the public realm; land use planning, for those who wish to work as municipal planners or consultants, or wish to be involved in planning large-scale development projects in the United States and abroad; and urban development, for those who wish to manage development projects for private companies or public sector organizations.
The Environmental Policy and Planning group emphasizes the study of the ways in which society conserves and manages its environmental resources. Areas of concern include the role of science in environmental policy making: climate change, sustainable development and adaptive ecosystem management, environmental justice, global environmental treaty making, environmental regulation, energy efficiency and renewable energy, the role of private corporations in environmental management, and the mediation of environmental disputes. Students examine the interactions between built and natural systems: techniques for describing, modeling, and evaluating changes in environmental quality, approaches to environmental policy analysis, strategies for stakeholder involvement in environmental planning, and mechanisms for assessing the choices posed by the environmental impacts of new technology in local, state, national, and international contexts.
The Housing, Community, and Economic Development (HCED) group's mission is to prepare professionals with the skills and knowledge to be responsible leaders of nonprofit, governmental, and private sector organizations engaged in building equitable and sustainable urban communities, and to advance knowledge of effective and innovative policies and practices to build such communities. This mission is pursued through teaching and research based on collaboration with local people and institutions to take action to improve their communities. The planning focus encompasses the design, location, organization, and financing of housing, economic, and community development programs and the capital and labor markets that impact such development at the local level. The group is concerned with understanding how public policy and private markets affect housing, economic development, and the local economy; employing techniques for assessing community needs, including housing, community services facilities, and sources of jobs; and developing and implementing programs, policies, and strategies that are directed at meeting these needs. HCED places a strong emphasis on practice and effective action at the state, local, and neighborhood levels and emphasizes that strategic analysis of the institutional context within which action occurs is central to such effectiveness.
The International Development Group (IDG) draws on the experiences of developing and newly industrializing countries throughout the world as the basis for advice about planning at the local, regional, and national levels. IDG provides students with an integrated view of the institutional, historical, economic, technological, and socio-political factors that have shaped successful planning experiences, and how they translate into action. Class content and faculty expertise include economic development at various scales; regional planning (including decentralization); finance and project evaluation; housing, human settlements, and infrastructure services (transportation, telecommunications, water, sewerage); institutions of economic growth; industrialization and industrial policies (including privatization); poverty-reducing and employment-increasing interventions, including informal sector, nongovernment organizations, and small enterprises; community, urban, and metropolitan politics and policy; property rights, collective action, and common property issues (water, forestry, grazing, agriculture); human rights; and globalization and governance.
Urban Information Systems (UIS) is a cross-cutting group that connects faculty, staff, and students who are interested in the ways information and communication technologies impact urban planning. Research topics include building neighborhood information systems to facilitate public participation in planning; exploring the complex relationships underlying urban spatial structure, land use, transportation, and the environment; modeling urban futures and metropolitan growth scenarios; and experimenting with mobile computing, location-based services, and the community building, planning, and urban design implications of ubiquitous computing. Our Responsive City Initiative fosters interaction among students, faculty, and staff, and across research groups and projects. Through seminars and related activities, we share experiences and find ways to collaborate on the technical, planning, and social science aspects of making information technology–enabled urban futures more responsive to public and private interests in ways that are transparent and equitable.
Much of UIS's work involves the development and use of planning-related software and the spatial analysis tools and systems (such as GIS and distributed geoprocessing) that are increasingly important parts of metropolitan information infrastructures. However, UIS interests go beyond the development and use of specific technologies and extend to an examination of the ripple effects of computing, communications, and digital spatial information on current planning practices and on the meaning and value of the impacted communities and planning institutions.
Students who have been admitted to either the Department of Urban Studies and Planning or the Department of Architecture can propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Degree combinations may be MCP/MArch or MCP/SMArchS. A student must apply by the January deadline prior to beginning the last full year of graduate study for the first degree: MCP and SMArchS. SMArchS students must apply during their first year at MIT (by the end of the first term); MArch students must apply during or before their second year. Students are first approved by the Dual Degree Committee and then considered during the spring admissions process. All candidates for simultaneous degrees must meet the requirements of both degrees, but may submit a joint thesis.
Students who have been admitted to study for the Master in City Planning or the Master of Science in Transportation may apply to the other program during their first year of study and propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Details of this program are provided under Interdepartmental Programs in the Civil and Environmental Engineering section.
Students who have been admitted to the Master in City Planning Program or the Master of Science in Real Estate Development Program may apply to the other program during their first year of study and propose a program of joint work in the two fields that will lead to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees. Students may submit a joint thesis.
Under special circumstances, admission may be granted to candidates seeking a one-year Master of Science (SM) degree. The SM is intended for professionals with a number of years of distinguished practice in city planning or related fields who have a clear idea of the courses they want to take at MIT, the thesis they want to write, and the DUSP faculty member with whom they wish to work. That faculty member must be prepared to advise the candidate when at MIT and to submit a letter of recommendation so indicating as part of the candidate's application. This process means that prior to submitting an application the candidate must contact the appropriate DUSP faculty member to establish such a relationship. The SM does not require the candidate to take the core courses, which are mandatory for MCP candidates. As indicated above, a thesis is required. For further information concerning the SM option, contact Graduate Admissions, Room 7-346, 617-253-9403.
Students in the MCP, MArch, or SMArchS programs who complete a specific curriculum of subjects in history and theory, public policy, development, studios and workshops, and a thesis in the field of urban design are awarded a Certificate in Urban Design by the school. For further information contact the Joint Program in City Design and Development office, Room 10-485, 617-253-5115.
Students in the MCP and PhD program who complete a prescribed set of subjects are awarded a Certificate in Environmental Planning. For further information contact the EPP office, Room 9-334, 617-253-1509.
The PhD is the advanced research degree in urban planning or urban studies. Admission requirements are substantially the same as for the master's degree, but additional emphasis is placed on academic preparation, professional experience, and the fit between the student's research interests and the department's research activities. Nearly all successful applicants have previously completed a master's degree.
The doctoral program emphasizes the development of research competence and flexibility in exploring questions that no single academic discipline can answer. Examples include the role of institutions in economic development and the rapid diffusion of information and communication technologies into urban planning and design. Students work under the mentorship of a faculty advisor. They may center their activities on any subfield in which the faculty have expertise.
After successful completion of coursework, students are required to take oral and written qualifying general exams in two fields: a broad intellectual discipline (city design and development, international development economics, public policy, planning information systems, urban and regional economics, or urban sociology) and a field to which this discipline is applied and which coincides with the student's research interest and possible dissertation topic. Doctoral candidates are expected to complete the qualifying general examinations before beginning their third year of residence. Upon completing the qualifying general examination, a PhD candidate must write and successfully defend a doctoral dissertation that gives evidence of the capacity to do independent and innovative research.
A minimum of 72 units plus 36 units for the dissertation (a minimum of 108 units) is required for the PhD degree.
Interested and qualified students can undertake joint doctoral programs with the Department of Political Science, the Department of Economics, or the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
A limited number of nondegree students are admitted to the department each term. This special student status is especially designed for professionals interested in developing specialized skills, but is also available to others.
The Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) promotes social justice by expanding access to and engagement with the knowledge developed by people working on the ground in disenfranchised, low-income communities. CoLab aims to both empower and learn from those individuals who, in the face of injustice, inequality, and exclusion, have dedicated themselves to making their communities healthier and more vibrant places to live. The knowledge that is formed in the face of struggles to create lasting change, by those who are least served by society, is significant, sophisticated, and essential for framing and solving today's most urgent social problems.
By focusing its efforts on helping community practitioners "know what they know," CoLab has successfully supported resident-directed change in underserved communities across the United States since 1998. Today CoLab hosts a variety of projects and guides the community-based work of up to 20 fellows each year. CoLab advances the use of practitioner and community knowledge through three strategic pathways:
CoLab is located in Room 7-307. Further information can be found on the CoLab website at http://colab.mit.edu/, by emailing ruhfel@mit.edu, or calling 617-253-3216.
The Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) provides an opportunity for a small number of highly qualified mid-career professionals from developing countries. Fellows spend a year at MIT studying the problems of urban and regional change in the broad context of international development. SPURS is an intentionally flexible program, offering the option of a nondegree or an MS degree program. For further information contact Nimfa de Leon, Room 9-435, 617-253-5915 or visit http://web.mit.edu/spurs/www/.
Amy Glasmeier, PhD
Professor of Geography and Regional Planning
Department Head
Alice H. Amsden, PhD
Barton L. Weller Professor of Political Economy
Brian A. Ciochetti, PhD
Professor of the Practice of Real Estate
Thomas G. Eastman Chair
Chairman and Director, Center for Real Estate
Phillip Clay, PhD
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
Chancellor
Diane E. Davis, PhD
Professor of Political Sociology
(On leave)
Joseph Ferreira, Jr., PhD
Professor of Urban Planning and Operations Research
Chair, Master in City Planning Program
Robert M. Fogelson, PhD
Professor of Urban Studies and History
Dennis Frenchman, MCP, MArch
Norman B. and Muriel Leventhal Professor of Urban Design
David Geltner, PhD
George Macomber Professor of Real Estate Finance
Director of Research, Center for Real Estate
Frank Levy, PhD
Daniel Rose Professor of Urban Economics
Ceasar McDowell, MEd, EdD
Professor of the Practice of Community Development
Karen R. Polenske, PhD
Professor of Regional Political Economy and Planning
Bishwapriya Sanyal, MCP, PhD
Ford International Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Director, Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies in Developing
Countries
Anne Spirn, MLA
Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning
Lawrence E. Susskind, MCP, PhD
Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning
Judith Tendler, PhD
Professor of Political Economy
Lawrence Vale, SMArchS, DPhil
Professor of Urban Design and Planning
(On leave, fall)
William C. Wheaton, PhD
Professor of Urban Economics
Eran Ben-Joseph, PhD
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning
Chair, PhD Program
(On leave, fall)
Alan Berger, MLA
Associate Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
JoAnn Carmin, PhD
Associate Professor of Environmental
Policy and Planning
Acting Chair, PhD Program (fall)
Xavier de Souza Briggs, PhD
Associate Professor of Community Development and Public Policy
(On leave)
Lynn Fisher, PhD
Ford Career Development Associate Professor of Real Estate
(On leave)
Lorlene Hoyt, PhD
Associate Professor of Technology and Planning
Eric Klopfer, PhD
Associate Professor of Education
Director, Teacher Education Program
Judith Layzer, PhD
Edward H. and Joyce Linde Career Development Associate Professor of Environmental
Policy
Chair, Undergraduate Program
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, SJD
Associate Professor of Law and Development
Carlo Ratti, PhD
Associate Professor of the Practice
Director, SENSEable City Lab
J. Phillip Thompson, PhD
Associate Professor of Urban Politics and Community Development
Michael Flaxman, PhD
Charles H. and Ann Spaulding Career Development
Assistant Professor of Urban Technologies and Information Systems
Annette Kim, PhD
Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
(On leave, spring)
P. Christopher Zegras, PhD
Ford Career Development Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Transportation
Richard Sennett, PhD
Bemis Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies
Terry Szold, MRP
Adjunct Associate Professor of Land Use Planning
Karl Seidman, MPP
Cherie Abbanat, MCP
David Fairman, PhD
Ezra Glenn, MA, AICP
Christopher Gordon, MS
YuHung Hong, PhD
John Kennedy, MS
W. Tod McGrath, MBA
Harvey Michaels, MCP
James Pennington, MSRED
Jonathan Raab, PhD
Gloria Schuck, PhD
Susan Silberberg-Robinson, MCP
Yanni Tsipis, MS
Christie Baxter, PhD
Thomas Piper, MArch
Steward Pickett, PhD
MLK Visiting Scholar
Manuel Castells, PhD
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Sociology and Planning
Herman Karl, PhD
Visiting Lecturer
Donyun Kim, PhD
Visiting Associate Professor
Sam Bass Warner, PhD
Visiting Professor of Urban History
John de Monchaux, MArch
Professor of Architecture and Planning, Emeritus
Ralph Gakenheimer, MRP, PhD
Professor of Urban Planning, Emeritus
Gary Hack, MArch, MUP, PhD
Professor of Urban Design, Emeritus
Frank Jones, MBA
Ford Professor of Urban Affairs, Emeritus
Langley C. Keyes, PhD
Ford Professor of City and Regional Planning, Emeritus
Melvin H. King, MEd
Director, Community Fellows Program, Emeritus
Tunney F. Lee, BArch
Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning, Emeritus
Gary Marx, PhD
Professor of Sociology, Emeritus
Lisa Redfield Peattie, PhD
Professor of Urban Anthropology, Emerita
Senior Lecturer
Martin Rein, MSW, PhD
Professor of Social Policy, Emeritus
Clarence G. Williams, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Emeritus