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Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)
Urbanism and the Built Environment
A new M.P.H. track in Urbanism and the Built Environment began in the fall of 2002.
As the world's population has become concentrated in cities, the well-being of population groups is increasingly determined by the structure and function of the urban area.
Communities within cities are stratified by wealth, culture, race/ethnicity, and other factors, which determine the flow of resources and opportunities.
The health of a given community is thus intimately tied to the modes of distribution that exist within the city, as well as those that situate the individual city within the local, national and global matrix of urban areas.
This ecological approach sees the identified community as part of a larger whole, and furthermore identifies excess morbidity and mortality in the community as part of the pattern of relationships among the parts and the whole.
The corollary of these propositions is that the larger city is implicated in solving the problems of the constituent communities.
The Urbanism and the Built Environment track offers a public health perspective on cities that encompasses both applied and policy dimensions, and provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the special public health challenges of an urbanized population.
The program is designed for students who have an interest in city life and are seeking a public health Perspective.
This program is also relevant to a broad array of public health professionals, including those who lead community agencies, provide community-level needs assessment, or work in conjunction with city agencies to plan for any and all aspects of the city's future.
In addition to the required School of Public Health and Sociomedical Sciences courses core curriculum, students will take a core course, Urban Space and Health.
They will also select other courses relevant to urbanism from a list of offerings in public health and urban planning.
These courses are designed to provide the student with a foundation of knowledge in basic concepts of urbanism, as well as key skills for urban analysis, such as use of geographic information systems for the analysis of health problems.
For more information about Urbanism and the Built Environment, please contact the track coordinator Lourdes Hernandez-Cordero (ljh19@columbia.edu).
SMS Programs
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