Your City and Communities
Don’t Just Study the City. Help Change It.
Urban Studies students use research to take on real challenges facing Chicago communities. In the Urban Studies Capstone, you’ll join faculty, researchers, and community partners to produce knowledge that can inform action, strengthen communities, and advance social change.
Research That Goes Somewhere
This isn’t research that ends with a paper for your professor.
Through the Urban Studies Capstone courses, co-facilitated with Loyola’s Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), Urban Studies students join collaborative research teams working on questions identified with community partners. The goal: rigorous research that communities can actually use.
Strengthening Communities Through Housing
Partner: Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago
Urban Studies students analyzed oral histories documenting how NHS Chicago pioneered collaborative approaches to housing and community development, helping preserve lessons from decades of work in Chicago neighborhoods.
Putting Communities in the Driver’s Seat
Partners: United Way + Cook County Bureau of Economic Development
Students are helping evaluate an innovative effort in Chicago’s south suburbs that puts networks of local organizations at the center of decisions about community investment.
Advancing Racial & Economic Justice
Partners: The Chicago Community Trust and MAPSCorps via We Rise Together
Urban Studies students contributed to research examining investments in historically marginalized communities, including neighborhood development, quality jobs, and minority-owned businesses.