Karen C. Seto
Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science, Director of the Hixon Center for…
Urban Specialization
The Urban Specialization prepares students to engage deeply in the management of urban ecosystems. Students will learn to understand and assess key environmental challenges and possible policy and business solutions to address these issues.
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The focus students choose will prepare them for their career goals – which may include, for example, working at a city-level on environmental policy, providing research or policy analysis to international development organizations, or joining a scientific research organization, among many other possibilities.
Note that a capstone course used to fulfill the MEM capstone requirement cannot also be used toward fulfilling an MEM Specialization requirement; a capstone course taken once cannot be used to fulfill multiple requirements. Learn more about YSE capstone courses by visiting the MEM Capstone page.
Program Courses
Core
Two required courses.| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 573 Urban Ecology for Local and Regional Decision Making |
Grove W 1:00-3:50 |
Grove Tentative |
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| ENV 645 Urbanization, Global Change and Sustainability |
Seto Tu 1:00-3:50 |
Seto |
Electives
Students must select four additional courses, including one course from each of the following four bins below. There is no guarantee that faculty will accept YSE students in classes offered outside of YSE.Bin 1: Urban Spatial Analysis
| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 704 Workshop on Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry with Drones |
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| ENV 726 Observing Earth from Space |
Lee Tu,Th 9:00-10:20 |
Lee | ||
| ENV 730 Environmental Data Science in R: Introduction to Data Integration and Machine Learning |
Malone Tu 2:30-5:20 |
Malone | ||
| ENV 755 Modeling Geographic Space |
Tomlin Th 1:00-3:50 |
Faculty Tentative |
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| ENV 756 Modeling Geographic Objects |
Tomlin Th 1:00-3:50 |
Faculty Tentative |
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| ENV 819 Measuring and Visualizing Urban Environments |
Salazar Miranda Th 2:30-5:20 |
Bin 2: Urban Environmental Resource Management
| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 608 Our Air, Our Health |
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| ENV 694 Invasive Species: Ecology, Policy, and Management |
Duguid Tu,Th 10:30-11:50 |
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| ENV 697 Science for Policy and Practice: A Seminar |
Bradford Tu 1:00-2:20 |
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| ENV 712 Water Management |
Anisfeld M,W 1:00-2:20 |
Anisfeld | ||
| ENV 744 Conservation Science and Landscape Planning |
Schmitz M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Schmitz | ||
| ENV 745 Global Human-Wildlife Interactions |
Harris M,W 2:30-3:45 |
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| ENV 768 Data-Driven Urban Forestry |
Murphy-Dunning Tu,Th 10:30-11:50 |
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| ENV 791 Climate Adaptation |
Mach M 2:30-5:20 |
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| ENV 794 Climate Ethics: Principles and Model Applications |
Rao Tu 1:00-2:20 |
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| ENV 814 Energy Systems Analysis |
Rao M,W 9:00-10:20 |
Rao | ||
| ENV 884 Industrial Ecology |
Yao Tu,Th 10:30-11:50 |
Yao | ||
| ENV 963 Case Studies in Water Management: Conflict and Cooperation |
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ARCH 2250 Demo: Demonstration Projects for the Viable Reuse of Aging Buildings |
De la Selle | |||
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ARCH 3306 Adaptive Reuse in Karachi:History, Documentation & Intervention |
Bald | |||
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GLBL 7155 Co-existing with Complexity: Institutional Architecture for Environmental Change |
Seddon |
Bin 3: Land Use and the Built Environment
| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 588 Climate Tech Innovation and Commercialization |
Faculty Tu 2:40-5:40 |
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| ENV 782 Globalization Space: International Infrastructure and Extrastatecraft |
Easterling Tentative |
Easterling Tentative |
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| ENV 817 Urban, Suburban, and Regional Planning Practice |
Kooris W 4:00-6:50 |
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| ENV 835 Seminar on Land Use Planning |
Bacher Th 1:00-3:50 |
Bacher Tentative |
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| ENV 892 Introduction to Planning |
Smotrich M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Faculty Tentative |
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| ENV 894 Green Building: Issues and Perspectives |
Kops Tu 9:00-11:50 |
Kops | ||
| ENV 908 Urban and Environmental Economics |
Faculty M,W 9:00-10:20 |
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| ENV 956 Strategies for Land Conservation |
Gentry Tu 2:30-5:20 |
Gentry Tentative |
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| ENV 966 Sustainability Implementation: Change Management in Institutional Settings |
Smiley Smith Th 9:00-11:50 |
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| ENV 971 Land Use Clinic |
Bacher W 10:30-11:50 |
Bacher Tentative |
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ARCH 2021 Environmental Design |
Lokko | |||
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ARCH 2249 Bad Buildings: Decarbonization Through Reuse, Retrofit, and Proposition |
McNamara | |||
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ARCH 2251 Technology and Practice Regenerative Building Research |
Organschi | |||
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ARCH 3107 American Architecture and Urbanism |
Rubin (Tentative) | |||
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ARCH 4011 Introduction to Urban Design |
Plattus & Venable | |||
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ARCH 4246 Introduction to Urban Studies |
Venable | |||
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ARCH 4290/MGT 632 Housing Connecticut: Developing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods |
Cooney/Harwell/Singh | |||
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MGT 894 Connected Cities and Urban Ecosystems |
Darwish | |||
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MGT 895 International Real Estate |
Gray |
Bin 4: Cities and Civil Society
| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 561 Energy Justice Seminar |
Torres Tentative |
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| ENV 620 History of Environmental Thought and Activism |
Taylor Tu,Th 1:00-2:20 |
Taylor Tentative |
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| ENV 642 Environmental Justice/Climate Justice |
Torres M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Torres Tentative |
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| ENV 759 Power, Knowledge, and the Environment: Social Science |
Dove M 1:00-3:50 |
Dove Tentative |
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| ENV 774 "Framing" Climate Migration: Science, Policy, Ethics & Politics of a Growing Crisis |
Gelobter Tu 2:30-5:20 |
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| ENV 857 Financing Climate Change Adaptation in Developing Countries |
Kurukulasuriya Tentative |
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| ENV 860 Developing Environmental Policies and Winning Campaigns |
Alt M 2:30-5:20 |
Faculty Tentative |
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| ENV 878 Climate and Society: Past to Present |
Dove Th 1:30-3:20 |
Dove Tentative |
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| ENV 959 Clinic in Climate Justice, and Public Health |
Faculty Th 1:00-2:50 |
Faculty Tentative |
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| ENV 960 Urban Climate Solutions Capstone: Topic TBD |
Seto Tu 1:00-3:50 |
Seto Tentative |
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AFST 465 Infrastructures of Empire: Control and (In)security in the Global South |
Gross-Wirtzen | |||
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ARCH360/URBN 360 Urban Lab: An Urban World |
Hsiang | |||
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ARCH 3303 Urban Century |
Vyjayanthi Rao | |||
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ARCH 3113 Field Methods in American Architectural and Urban History |
Rubin | |||
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ARCH 3319 Race and the Built Environment |
Carver | |||
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ARCH 4247 Difference and the City |
Moore | |||
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EPH 507a Social Justice and Health Equity |
Keene | |||
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MGMT 536 Urban Poverty and Economic Development |
Cooney | |||
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MGMT 537 Inequality and Social Mobility |
Biasi | |||
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MGT 826 Inclusive Economic Development Lab: Special Topics |
Cooney |
Additional Electives
In addition to the two required courses and the four electives, students may select additional electives to complete the requirements for the MEM degree. Additional electives that may support students’ focus area in the Urban Specialization are listed below.| Course | Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 |
| ENV 594 Global Carbon Cycle |
Denning M,W 9:00-10:20 |
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| ENV 636 Carbon Dioxide Removal |
O’Rourke M 2:30-5:20 |
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| ENV 701 Seminar on Climate Change Economics |
Mendelsohn M,W 10:30-11:50 |
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| ENV 705 Global Climate Change: Simple, Serious, and Solvable |
Denning M,W 1:00-2:15 |
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| ENV 707 Introduction to Environmental Chemistry |
Benoit Tu,Th 1:00-2:15 |
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| ENV 790 Managing the Clean Energy Transition: Contemporary Energy and Climate Change Policy Making |
Simons F 9:25-11:15 |
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| ENV 829 Pathways to a Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions Future |
Esty Tu 4:00-6:50 |
Esty Tentative |
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| ENV 855 Climate Change Mitigation in Urban Areas (Dates TBD) |
Seto |
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AMST 623/CPLT 880
Working group on Globalization |
Denning | |||
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ARCH360/URBN 360 Urban Lab: An Urban World |
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ARCH 1248 Cartographies of Climate Change |
Hsing | |||
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ARCH 4011 Introduction to Urban Design |
Plattus, Venable | Plattus, Venable | ||
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ARCH 4219
Urban Research and Representation |
Rubin | |||
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EVST 473 Abrupt Climate Change and Societal Collapse |
Weiss | |||
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GLBL 5085 Planetary-Scale Data Institutions: Maximizing Access to Environmental Data for the Public Interest |
Sundwall | |||
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URBN 305/ARCH 3265
Destruction, Continuation, and Creation –Architecture and Urbanism of Modern Japan/ Architecture & Urbanism- Japan |
Yoko Kawai | |||
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URBN 341 Globalization Space |
Learning Community
There is a corresponding “Learning Community” for each specialization, where anyone interested in the topic can find related news, spotlights, colleagues, and events.
Faculty Coordinator