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About

The Norman B. Leventhal Center of Advanced Urbanism and Departments of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning have established a collaborative doctoral-level program in Advanced Urbanism. Urbanism is a rapidly growing field that has many branches.

At MIT, we speak of Advanced Urbanism as the field which integrates research on urban design, urbanization, and urban culture.

The concentration in Advanced Urbanism seeks doctoral applicants (one to two per year) who have: 1) at least one professional design degree (in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, etc.); 2) research interests in urbanism that would draw upon both ARCH and DUSP faculty advising; and 3) a commitment to engage with the research community at the LCAU and within their home department throughout their time at MIT. Applicants should apply for admission to an existing ARCH or DUSP PhD program and must meet all specific admissions requirements of the respective PhD program.  Thus, interested applicants should consider which of the existing doctoral programs best fits their research background and interest, apply to that program, and mention in that application their additional interest in the field of urbanism. Department admissions committees will nominate applicants who fit the urbanism program to a joint advanced urbanism admissions committee. The selected applicants are admitted by their home department discipline group (Department of Urban Studies and Planning; Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture, Building Technology, Computation, History Theory and Criticism) with financial support and research assistantships from LCAU.

Information

Program Requirements

Candidates will be required to fulfill the PhD coursework and exams in their home department programs*. In Advanced Urbanism, they will have no additional exams. Instead, doctoral exam committees will be encouraged to include urbanism topics as part of existing exams. Students will take a set of four required urbanism subjects to establish their expertise in the field. These four subjects would count as electives in their home department programs, so no additional credit hours or time to degree are required. The four subjects include one required seminar on the history and theory of urbanism (12 credits) and three elective urbanism seminars (existing, 12 credits). Additionally students are required to take a continuing colloquium each semseter (new, 3 credits per semester). The Advanced Urbanism students will commit to a research project and Research Assistantship at LCAU, and they will be actively engaged in LCAU-centered activities.

*The following links detail home department coursework and exam requirements of each program: Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and for Department of Architecture visit group pages: AKPIA, BT, COMP, HTC.

Financial Aid

The LCAU is able to provide four years of full graduate-level Research Assistant funding for work on LCAU research, as well as one year of graduate-level Teaching Assistant funding for support of urbanism subjects in ARCH and DUSP. Required extended single-student medical insurance will be provided for the full five-year commitment.

Curriculum in Advanced Urbanism

Year Fall Spring
All years
(10 terms)
Required Colloquium** (3 cr) co-organized by Advanced Urbanism students, faculty & LCAU staff (new subject) Required Colloquium (3 cr) co-organized by Advanced Urbanism students, faculty & LCAU staff (new subject)
Y1 Colloquium (3 cr)
Urbanism Elective Seminar (9-12cr) taken in home department
*LCAU RA 10hrs/wk
Colloquium (3 cr)
Required Urbanism Seminar (12cr)
*LCAU RA 10hrs/wk
Y2 Colloquium (3 cr)
Urbanism Elective
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Colloquium (3 cr)
Urbanism Elective
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Y3 Colloquium (3 cr)
Dissertation lab research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Colloquium (3 cr)
Dissertation lab research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Y4 Colloquium (3 cr)
Complete all doctoral exams
Dissertation research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Colloquium (3 cr)
Complete all doctoral exams
Dissertation research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Y5 Colloquium (3 cr)
Dissertation writing
LCAU research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk
Colloquium (3 cr)
Dissertation writing
LCAU research
*LCAU RA 20hrs/wk

 

Inquiries

Prospective students with questions pertaining to the doctoral studies in Advanced Urbanism should reach out to their prospective home doctoral program and to LCAU doctoral committee members (i.e., the LCAU director, DUSP CDD director, and SMArchS Urbanism coordinator) and lcau-phd-advu@mit.edu.