About the Program

The 21st century will be an urban century with more people around the world residing in metropolitan regions than in any other form of human settlement. This urbanization is taking place in both the global North and the global South. Its implications are widespread: from environmental challenges to entrenched patterns of segregation to new configurations of politics and social movements. The Global Metropolitan Studies Initiative is concerned with this urban condition. This multidisciplinary endeavor brings together numerous faculty and supports research and houses graduate and undergraduate curricula. It is one of a handful of strategic initiatives selected by the UC Berkeley campus to mark a new generation of scholarship and to consolidate an emerging academic field.

The objective of the designated emphasis (DE) is to encourage and support multidisciplinary doctoral-level education and research on global metropolitan issues. Multidisciplinary training will be provided through a wide range of course offerings as well as through participation in seminars and conferences organized by GMS.

The Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies is for selected UC Berkeley PhD students with interest in metropolitan and regional issues. Students may come from any discipline across campus. The designated emphasis provides students with certification as well as with a context for the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and development of research.

Visit Program Website

Admissions

Applicants must already be enrolled or accepted into an existing PhD program at Berkeley (master’s students and students at other institutions are not eligible). Students should apply at least two semesters before the PhD qualifying examination.

Interested students must apply for the designated emphasis. They are selected on the basis of academic qualifications, appropriateness of their interests to the program's teaching resources, and the enrollment capacity of the required courses.

Admission to the GMS Designated Emphasis is determined by the GMS co-chairs. Applications are due one week prior to the last day of the fall and spring semester.

The GMS DE application, and list of additional required documents, can be found here.

Designated Emphasis Requirements

The Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies offers two concentrations: 1) Comparative Urban Studies; or 2) Infrastructure and Environment.

Curriculum

Students in the designated emphasis program must complete two core courses required for the designated emphasis.

In addition to the two core courses, students in the Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies are required to take three additional courses for graduate credit on topics in metropolitan studies. The courses must be selected from the approved list for the student’s chosen concentration unless a substitution is authorized by the GMS Graduate Group’s Curriculum Committee (see below). The lists of breadth courses will be reviewed and updated by the committee annually.

Elective courses should be completed prior to advancing to candidacy and no more than one elective course for the designated emphasis can be taken from the student’s home department. Students may substitute no more than one course not on the list, with the approval of the Curriculum Committee. 

Elective Courses for Comparative Urban Studies Concentration

Elective Courses for the Infrastructure and Environment Concentration

Qualifying Exam

The student’s PhD qualifying exam committee must include at least one member of the Global Metropolitan Studies Graduate Group core faculty, who will evaluate the student’s knowledge related to the designated emphasis.

Once the student has completed the Application for the Qualifying Exam and the GMS qualifying exam checklist (located in the student handbook), they should submit both forms to the GMS DE graduate office in 226 Wurster Hall for the head graduate adviser’s signature.

Dissertation

The student’s dissertation topic also must be related to Global Metropolitan Studies and the dissertation committee must include at least one member of the GMS Graduate Group core faculty who can evaluate the dissertation from that perspective. 

Courses

Global Metropolitan Studies

Faculty and Instructors

+Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

+ Nezar Alsayyad, Professor. Virtual reality, urban history, Architectural history, Middle Eastern Studies, cross-cultural design, cities and cinema, cultural studies of the built environment, environmental design in developing countries, housing and urban development, Islamic architecture and urbanism, traditional dwelling and settlements, urban design and physical planning.
Research Profile

Christopher Ansell, Professor. Political science, social movements, political sociology, network analysis, organization theory, public administration, political parties, Western Europe.
Research Profile

Peter C. Bosselmann, Professor. Urban design, architecture, city and regional planning, landscape architecture.
Research Profile

Teresa Caldeira, Professor. Comparative urban studies, urbanization in the global south, social theory, ethnography. qualitative methodology.

Anthony J. Cascardi, Professor. English, comparative literature, literature, Spanish, Portuguese, philosophy, aesthetics, early modern literature, French, Spanish Baroque.
Research Profile

Ralph Catalano, Professor. Mental health services, economic antecendents, stress related illness.
Research Profile

Karen Chapple, Professor. Poverty, economic development, regional planning, metropolitan spatial patterns, labor markets, community development, neighborhood change, gentrification.
Research Profile

Jason Corburn, Associate Professor. Urban health, informal settlements, global public health, urban climate change, environmental impact assessment, mediation, environmental justice.
Research Profile

C. Greig Crysler, Associate Professor. Architecture, geopolitics of architectural discourse, globalization and social production of the built environment, architecture and identity.
Research Profile

Mia Fuller, Associate Professor. Anthropology, Italy, fascism, urban design, architecture, Italian colonialism.
Research Profile

James Holston, Professor. Citizenship, Brazil, architecture, law, planning, the United States, cities, democracy, political and social anthropology, urban ethnography, the Americas.
Research Profile

Arpad Horvath, Professor. Life cycle assessment, LCA, sustainability, green design, transportation, water, construction, biofuels, energy, environmental management, infrastructure systems.
Research Profile

You-Tien Hsing, Professor. China, geography, political economy of development in East Asia, the process of international economic restructuring, cultural and institutional configuration in the processes of Taiwanese direct investment, growth in Chinese cities, business networks.
Research Profile

Daniel Kammen, Professor. Climate Change, Engineering, Environment, Energy, Renewable and Clean Energy, Energy Forecasting, Health and Environment, International R&D Policy, Race and Gender, Rural Resource Management.
Research Profile

Adib Kanafani, Professor of the Graduate School. Transportation economics, air transportation, transportation planning, transportation systems analysis, aviation policy and planning, urban and regional planning.
Research Profile

G. Mathias Kondolf, Professor. Ecological restoration, landscape architecture, environmental planning, fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, environmental geology, environmental impact assessment, riparian zone management.
Research Profile

Michel Laguerre, Professor. Globalization, information technology, urban studies.
Research Profile

Elizabeth S. Macdonald, Associate Professor. Urban design.
Research Profile

Samer M. Madanat, Professor. Transportation systems analysis, transportation infrastructure management, transportation sustainability.
Research Profile

Aihwa Ong, Professor. Cultural anthropology, anthropology, transnationalism, citizenship, global cities, migration, Southeast Asia, urbanism.
Research Profile

Alison Post, Assistant Professor. Regulation, infrastructure, water and sanitation.
Research Profile

Isha Ray, Associate Professor. Water and development; Gender, water and sanitation; technology and development.
Research Profile

William Satariano, Professor.
Research Profile

Sandra Smith, Associate Professor. Trust, urban poverty, joblessness, race and ethnic inequality, social capital and social networks.
Research Profile

Joan Walker, Professor. Behavioral modeling, with an expertise in discrete choice analysis and travel behavior.
Research Profile

Emeritus Faculty

Robert B. Cervero, Professor Emeritus. Transportation planning, city and regional planning, transportation & land use, transportation & urban development, international transportation.
Research Profile

Karen Christensen, Professor Emeritus. Evaluation, intergovernmental relations, city and regional planning, housing policy, planning theory, organizational theory.
Research Profile

Jan De Vries, Professor Emeritus. Economics, demography, history.
Research Profile

Elizabeth A. Deakin, Professor Emeritus. Urban design, city and regional planning, transportation policy, planning and analysis, land use policy and planning; legal and regulatory issues, institutions and organizations, energy and the environment, new technologies.
Research Profile

Peter Evans, Professor Emeritus. Sociology.
Research Profile

Paul Groth, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, vernacular architecture, urban geography, suburban America, cultural landscape studies, housing (US).
Research Profile

Michael Hanneman, Professor Emeritus.

Judith E. Innes, Professor Emeritus. Innovation, governance, collaborative planning and policy making, regionalism, interpretive methods, complexity and adaptation.
Research Profile

Michael Southworth, Professor Emeritus. Management, analysis, design, city and regional planning, landscape architecture, environmental planning, morphology of the post-industrial city, design of public space.
Research Profile

Richard Walker, Professor Emeritus. Race, environment, urbanism, politics, geography, resources, economic geography, regional development, capitalism, cities, California, class.
Research Profile

Margaret M. Weir, Professor Emeritus. Political science, political sociology, sociology, American political development, urban politics and policy, comparative studies of the welfare state, metropolitan inequalities, city-suburban politics in the United States.
Research Profile