In this seminar, students will learn to research, organize, and write an original research paper on a subject of their choice. The paper may take the form of a research paper or policy report, that engages current issues or policy debates, and can be used to fulfill the Final Project required for graduation.

This course invites students to build on their knowledge and experience to formulate an original research question that they will explore in depth. As you know, Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary field that does not have a methodology all its own. Your research may deploy any of a range of methods: a field study, a survey, intensive interviewing, ethnography, a community study, demography, archival research. Or you might use a mixed method approach. It is also possible to develop a study based on secondary sources. However, such research must be based on an original research question that can be addressed with library or archival research. In any case, the method deployed should conform to the research question.

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Erin earned her doctorate in Environmental Psychology at The Graduate Center, CUNY and has been an adjunct lecturer in Urban Studies at Queens College since 2016. Her research interests include housing and gentrification, Black Geographies of resistance, race, predatory capitalism, and Marxism.

View Erin’s CV here.