Geography of Opportunity: Landscapes of College (In)Access

Catalog description

Who has access to opportunity -and how is that opportunity mapped onto a city? This course examines the subfield of urban geography and its application to education and higher education scholarship. Drawing from research on college access and choice, students analyze the educational landscape of the City of Philadelphia through field-based inquiry. Treating the city as both site and text, we explore how opportunity is spatially produced, distributed, and experienced. Through community-based fieldwork, students engage questions such as: How do residential communities define and experience “education”? How do colleges and universities engage their surrounding neighborhoods in expanding (or limiting) access? How is opportunity conceived, structured, and contested? What are the spatial and non-spatial dimensions of educational inequality? What constitutes educational opportunity in Philadelphia? Students integrate urban geography and higher education research to critically examine how place shapes access, aspiration, and mobility.