Recent Urban Studies Department Scholarship

New CityLab Report

Urban Studies faculty and students have recently released a new CityLab report, Suspension in Worcester: A Continuing Conversation.

Written by Dr. Thomas Conroy and Dr. Madeline Otis Campbell with Urban Studies students Dannielle Morrow and Jennifer Velez, the report explores the reasons behind a suspension disparity in Worcester Public Schools. In that disparity, Latino students, who comprise 38% of the WPS population receive 53% of the total system suspensions. The report solicited input from students, parents, teachers, and principals to better understand the story behind the statistics.

The Vincent "Jake" Powers CityLab is a research instiute and archives housed in and managed by the Department of Urban Studies. Its mission is to engage in informative projects with and for the people, groups, and organizations of Central Massachusetts about topics of interest to their lives and the world around them.

Student To Present Paper at Conference

Kaitlyn Benoit, a junior Urban Studies/History major, will present a paper at the April 2014 Meeting of the New England Historical Association.

The paper, entitled "Illusion Wrapped in Superficiality": The Civil Rights Movement in Worcester, MA, came out of her Urban Studies coursework last semester and the title comes from a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech delivered in the Temple Emanuel in Worcester, across from Worcester State University.

Katie will join 5 other WSU students from the History Department, and history professors Dr. Tona Hangen, Dr. Erika Briesacher, and Prof. Bruce Cohen in presenting papers at the conference. For more see: http://www.newenglandhistorians.org/

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New Article by Urban Studies Faculty Member, Professor Shiko Gathuo

Not in This Together: COVID-19 and People of Color by Shiko Gathuo, Ph.D. Shiko Gathuo, Ph.D. Professor and Graduate Program Director of Urban Studies Presidents, prime ministers, royalty, celebrities. These and other rich, powerful and famous people have contracted COVID-19. When the pandemic first took hold, it was easy to throw around phrases like “we are in this together,” “the pandemic does not discriminate,” and “united in the fight.” These warm and comforting sentiments quickly became hollow as it became apparent that, in fact, the pandemic does discriminate and it has negatively affected the poor and people of color disproportionately and in many different ways. People of color are experiencing the health aspect of COVID-19 including infection, testing and treatment differently. The virus has also exacerbated other already existing conditions such as economic deprivation, food insecurity, and the education achievement gap. COVID-19 has also had a significant negative effe...

Students Present Research at a National Conference in Washington DC

front, l-r: Elizabeth Stone, Abigail Holden back, l-r: Dr. Conroy, Kael Briesacher, Dr. Briesacher WSU students Elizabeth Stone '24 (Urban Studies/Environmental Science) and Abigail Holden '24 (Sociology) presented their recent research at the Eastern Sociological Society national conference in Washington DC. Their qualitative project is a deeper look beyond an earlier quantitative report on Advanced Placement Exam participation and performance at Worcester Public Schools that showed since AY 2007, and amid a 300% increase in AP test taking, WPS students fail more than half of their AP Exams. On average over that period, 62.2% of students outright failed their exams (scored a 1-2) with some years reaching 68%. Furthermore, another 20.6% of test takers earned scores of 3, which are also not worth college credit at a growing list of the nation's higher education institutions. Supported in part by a Summer Undergraduate Research Grant from the WSU Foundation, Liz, Abby, and ...

Fieldwork for "Worcester: A City & Its People"

Students in Dr. Conroy's Worcester: A City & Its People class ( UR 312) took to the city for a second time this semester to do some fieldwork. The first trip was to North Main Street -- this one was to Coes Pond and Webster Square. Here they are on the eastern edge of the pond along the boardwalk. The student field packets contained old maps and images of city buildings and spaces at various historical points. For example, the packets contained plates from the 1896 and 1911 Worcester Real Estate Atlases as well as pictures of the "old" Webster Square Cinema when it was in operation, the "old" Stop'n Shop that's not the Asian Market, the Coes Wrench Factory, and the Roller Skating Arena that is now called Arena Plaza (where a Little Caesars is located). Students located the sites along the way and compared the old images and maps to what remains of them today. Then they were encouraged to speculate about the changes before they dug into source mat...

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