Please note that the course calendar may be subject to change.
Introductory courses
Period: Block 1 (September)
Course coordinators: Dr Anitra Baliga and Dr Bahar Sakizlioglu
Contemporary Debates in Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary course that critically examines the contemporary landscapes of cities and urbanisation worldwide. As urbanisation accelerates and transforms societies, this course invites students to engage with the latest debates, theories, and challenges shaping urban life today. Issues that are addressed include spatial boundaries, political economy of cities, AI and datafication, and posthuman urbanisms.
Period: Block 1 (October)
Course coordinators: Dr Jan Fransen and Dr Sofia Pagliarin
This course focuses on the question why cities are in equal parts changing dramatically and stuck in the same place for a long time. Urban development is often path-dependent but also features transformative changes. As a consequence, cities neither develop in the same direction and at the same pace, nor do successful ‘recipes’ in one place work in another location. So, how can we understand this complexity and how can we harness it for a more aware urban development and management? That is the core question of this course.
Period: Block 1 (2 days in October)
Course coordinator: Dr Pamela Duran-Diaz
Effective urban resilience depends on strategically aligning city capacities with risks, and community needs through a comprehensive resilience strategy. This hands-on workshop equips future urban planners, policymakers, and stakeholders with practical skills to navigate the complexities in resilience strategy development, fostering sustainable urban development and proactive resilience-building efforts.
This 2-day workshop comprises two sessions based on the City Resilience Framework of the Resilient Cities Network. In the first session, participants will work on assessing urban risks (acute shocks and chronic stresses) in a selected city. They will prioritize short-term and long-term threats and categorize them by severity of impact and likelihood of occurrence. In the second session, participants will develop a resilience diagnosis based on the 12 guiding principles, drivers, and actions of the “Resilience Wheel”. The diagnostic helps identify the city’s existing resources or strengths to tackle the identified threats. Participants will then develop specific strategies that tackle the most threats with the least actions and investment. Participants will work in teams, and present their processes, strategies, and conclusions at the end of the workshop.
Period: Block 1 (November)
Course coordinator: Dr Paula Nagler
Like the course on qualitative methods, this course introduces students to the design of quantitative research and analysis of quantitative data in urban studies. It is a short but encompassing introduction to the nuts and bolts of quantitative research.
Period: Block 1 ((end-November - mid-December))
Course coordinator: Dr Bahar Sakizlioglu
This course introduces students to the design, practice and analysis of qualitative research in the field of urban studies. It provides a compact but comprehensive foundation, covering qualitative data collection and analysis.
Specialisation core modules
Period: Blocks 1&2 (November-February)
Course coordinators: Dr Qian Ke and Dr Paul Rabé
Please note that the content of this course will be published soon.
Period: Blocks 1&2 (November-February)
Course coordinator: Dr Alexander Los
Please note that the content of this course will be published soon.
Additional courses
Period: Block 2 (January-March)
Course coordinator: Dr Anitra Baliga
The Master's programme at IHS includes a significant focus on designing and implementing academic research in urban studies. The Research Design (RD) course is essential for guiding students in creating academic research within the social sciences and independently developing their Master’s thesis. Alongside the two Methods and Analysis (Quantitative and Qualitative), the RD course equips students with the necessary skills and knowledge to design, implement, and compose a research project that meets the standards of a Master’s thesis.
Period: Block 2 (TBD)
Course coordinator: Dr Alexander Los
Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, allow to capture and analyse geographic data and spatial information easily and efficiently. Already decades ago their usefulness and popularity prompted companies as well as the open source community to develop high-level GIS software solutions, applicable to many disciplines and publicly accessible (QGIS is ahigh-level open-source tool, used in this course).
GIS tools include plenty of possibilities to process, analyse and visualise quantitative as well as qualitative information typically used in research in the social sciences. This course will explain frequently used GIS techniques and demonstrate their applicability across typical cases covered in the Master's programme. With lectures, examples and point-and-click instructions, you will learn how to create new insights for your research by solving geographic problems with GIS tools.
Advanced research methods
Period: Block 2 (February)
Course coordinators: Dr Paula Nagler and Dr Beatriz Calzada Olvera
Urban policy questions are increasingly complex and often involve difficult trade-offs, demanding a strong evidence base for sound decision-making. Do restrictions on short-term rentals like Airbnb increase housing availability? Can improved transport links reduce neighbourhood poverty? Do carbon taxes make construction firms more sustainable? This course focuses on how the effects of urban policies can be assessed.
Period: Block 2 (February)
Course coordinators: Dr Beatriz Calzada Olvera and Dr Alberto Gianoli
As cities and societies become more digitalised, vast streams of data—from satellite imagery to social media—demand new analytical approaches. Machine-learning (ML) methods have expanded rapidly in recent years, yet they are often presented in highly technical ways with little connection to socio-economic or policy questions. This course remedies that gap. It provides statistical-learning foundations that combine econometric inference and machine-learning techniques, enabling students to analyse diverse datasets, and build and validate predictive models.
Period: Block 2 (February)
Course coordinators: Dr Bahar Sakizlioglu and Dr Sofia Pagliarin
When we travel to another city, we might observe differences from where we live: the language spoken by people and food can change, opening hours of shops as well, or even the side of the road where cars are allowed to drive. We might also identify similarities: people might still meet in urban spaces and at the dehors of cafés. Simply put, cities around the world can be similar and different to a certain degree. How to then analytically approach and examine differences and similarities across cities rigorously? This course addresses these questions.
(Please note the content of this course is subject to change.)
Period: Block 2 (February)
Course coordinators: Dr Pamela Durán-Díaz and Dr Maartje van Eerd
This course equips students with the knowledge and skills to design and conduct participatory and action-oriented research in urban settings. It provides a critical understanding of how research can move beyond extractive practices towards a tool for co-creation, reciprocity, and locally grounded impact. The course also provides guidance for the ethical and political challenges of doing research in different urban settings.
(Please note the content of this course is subject to change)
Deepening specialisation modules
Period: Block 2 (March)
Course coordinator: Elena Marie Enseñado
Please note that the content of this course will be published soon.
Period: Block 2 (March)
Course coordinators: Dr Alonso Ayala and Dr Maartje van Eerd
Please note that the content of this course will be published soon.
Period: Block 2 (March)
Course coordinator: Dr Alberto Gianoli
Please note that the content of this course will be published soon.
Thesis period
Designing and implementing academic research in the field of urban studies is a major component of the master's programme at IHS. During this period students will write their master thesis on their chosen topic guided by a supervisor.