WSU Urban Studies Blog

Dr. Conroy and Urban Studies students Abby Rickert, Ben Barter, and Alexa James attended a Central Mass Regional Planning Commission event this week entitled, "Walking Through the Past, Present, and Future with [Urban Planner] Jeff Speck." The event was to present recent developments associated with the  Vernon Connected  Project, and Speck was the keynote. While he presented conclusions from his writing -- the 4 core rules of creating walkable places --   he also talked about these principles might be used in Worcester.     The Vernon Connected Project, in fact, which is being done by Speck's firm (Speck-Dempsey), seeks to apply principles of a walkable city to the Vernon Sr. corridor and bridge that leads into Kelley Square.  As it notes on a website, it is pursuing a " reimagined interchange designed for connecting; where a dividing highway is now transformed into a unifying corridor; where community art, reduced noise pollution, and sustainabl...

Urban Studies graduate students enrolled in Professor Timothy Murphy’s course, NM-901 The Nonprofit World, collaborated on group presentations that focused on initiatives of one of WSU's community partners - a Rio de Janeiro based nonprofit called Catalytic Communities (CatComm).  The students considered how CatComm’s four initiatives - Favala 101 , Narrative Shifting , Sustainable Favelas , and Land Rights - relate to the organization’s mission, which is to  "generate models for effective community-led and people-centered development of informal settlements in cities across the globe, based on the experience of Rio de Janeiro, with the city’s favelas achieving recognition of their heritage status and residents being served as equal citizens. This is done through a combination of education, research, training, networking exchanges, strategic communications, technology, mapping, advocacy, and participatory planning." A major takeaway from the presentations was the degree ...

On February 5, Dr. Conroy's Urban Art class (UR 275) visited the Worcester Art Museum. Armed with field journals, their job was to enjoy themselves but also to observe the pieces, people, and places in the museum.   After our visit, we wondered why people visit the museum and spent a class divided into focus groups to determine what sorts of things could be done in the museum to improve attendance and broaden its appeal to a younger and more diverse audience. 

 In the course Power, Politics, and Decision-making, students studied the relationship between art and urban social movements, including as a tool to mobilize people for a cause and as a means to communicate with a broad audience and share information. Students chose social issues that were important to them and spent a class period learning the art of protest printmaking, using found materials, wood blocks, glue, and ink.  Students used stencils to craft messages that they came up with to help communicate the struggle for social justice underlying the issues on which they were focusing. 

On a chilly Tuesday in November, Dr. Murphy’s Public Policy and Cultural Diversity class met at Baystate Cafe and Market on Water Street in Worcester’s Canal District. The objective for the day was for students to wander around the neighborhood taking note of representations of different types of diversity in the built environment that have been discussed in the class - ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status etc. They explored the neighborhood taking photos of store fronts, signs, murals, holiday decorations, advertisements, pavement, sidewalks, buildings, and architectural styles. Afterwards, the class reconvened at Baystate Cafe and Market for some Middle Eastern snacks and sweets as they reviewed their photos and engaged in a discussion of how diversity takes shape in the Canal District's built environment. The class considered which specific groups of Worcester’s residents are visibly represented, which groups appear to be l...

The year's Metro class -- for the uninitiated, "Metro" is Urban Studies-speak for UR 212 American Metropolitan Evolution -- did a little fieldwork in the Canal District today.  Walking along Green Street to Kelley Square and about halfway up Water Street, the class took in the city on foot, catching glimpses of all the little things you cannot see when you are driving through the area. This was a practical approach to help them see how to approach the research and writing for their semester term papers, The Neighborhood Paper . At the corner of Green and Winter Streets, for instance, we all wondered, what's the story here? It was a scene in which the build-out of an older house gives the impression that it was just dropped into the middle of an international grocery.  We'll have to investigate it more closely in the Worcester House Directories in CityLab.  Sometimes we had an easier time making connections across decades as with the building at 97 Water Street.  A...

  On Friday, October 17th, Urban Studies professors Dr. Thomas Conroy and Dr. Timothy Murphy moderated panels at the  PEAS Symposium: Meeting the Moment, Protecting Education Pathways for Latino students in MA schools , which was held at Worcester State.  This symposium convened educators, policymakers, youth, and community leaders to reflect on key themes from the newly published book Critical Perspectives on Latino Education in Massachusetts , to which Drs. Conroy and Murphy contributed a chapter along with Worcester State co-authors Professor of Sociology, Alex Briesacher and Mary Jo Marion, Associate Vice President of University and Community Engagement.  The symposium was a day of learning, dialogue, and collective action, featuring voices from practitioners, superintendents, college presidents, and experts who each offer unique perspectives aimed at fostering meaningful dialogue and impactful collaboration. Dr. Conroy’s panel explored how current and emerging f...

The results of the 2025 Manhattan Short Film Festival are in!   Here's the word from the Manhattan Short website:  " We Have Sinned Before You , written and directed by Ifat Nener Orgad (Israel), is the Gold Medal Winner of the 28th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival. We Have Sinned Before You , a family drama set around a game designed to pass the time on Yom Kippur, resonated with viewers around the world."   In second place worldwide and winning the silver medal was  Passarinho , directed by Natalia García Agraz (Mexico). This film was "about two teenage girls who try to meet their favorite soccer player, but their plan is threatened when one of them gets a red card. The film is dedicated to all the Messi Mums in the world."   Finally, winning the bronze medal was Beyond Silence , written and directed by Marnie Blok (The Netherlands). This film "tells the story of two women from two generations who experience a singular trauma. One retre...

The Department of Urban Studies and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences are pleased to announce that the Manhattan Short Film Festival is running THIS WEEK on campus! The festival will run every day from Monday, September 29 - Thursday, October 2, in the Eager Auditorium (S-146). Its 10 short films will run on a continuous loop from 9 am to 3 pm each day and from 6 pm to 9 pm on Tuesday night.  Catch the films all at once or in parts over multiple days. It is free for faculty and students. The Ten MANHATTAN SHORT Finalists hail from seven countries with films from Spain, Israel, United Kingdom, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Mexico, alongside three films from the USA.  The Final Ten are: Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting (USA), Al Fresco (Spain), Chasing the Party (USA), Paradise Man (USA), We Have Sinned Before You (Israel), I Have My Reasons (United Kingdom), Ovary-Acting (Norway), Beyond Silence (The Netherlands), Zodiac (Belgium), Pass...