Undergraduate Electives

We strongly encourage you to enroll in or attend some of the guest lectures in our fall colloquium, Landscapes of Migration, Incarceration, and Resistance. While this 1-unit course does not fulfill the elective requirement, it will introduce you to core urban humanities questions.


Recommended curriculum:
1. Summer lecture course: Hidden in Plain Sight: Public History in Public Space
2. Future Histories Lab Studio Course (complete list here)
3. Future Histories Lab Studio Course (complete list here)


As an alternative, you may take:
1. Future Histories Lab Studio Course (complete list here)
2. Elective in the College of Environmental Design (see below)
3. Elective in the College of Letters & Science (see below)

Our program is intended to broaden your education and so we ask you to cross over to disciplines outside your home major or department. 

Therefore, if you are in a humanities discipline such as art history, literature or history, we encourage you to take courses that deepen your exposure to spatial or social science methods. 

If you are in a social science discipline such as anthropology, sociology, geography, or urban studies, we strongly encourage you to take a humanities course that looks at urban life through art, literature, music, or history. 

The following is a partial list of electives that will fulfill the elective requirement for the Certificate in Urban Humanities. In addition to these courses,  you can petition for other courses to count toward your elective requirement. For ideas on additional possible courses (which must be approved by petition), please look at these lists of undergraduate courses and graduate courses.

If you are a faculty member who would like one of your courses to be considered as an elective for the Certificate in Urban Humanities, please contact susanmoffat@berkeley.edu.


Spring 2023 Electives:

Asian American Studies 20A: Introduction to the History of Asians in the United States, Catherine Ceniza Choy

Asian American Studies 20AC: Introduction to the History of Asian Americans

Asian American Studies 121: Chinese American History, Harvey Dong

Asian American Studies 122: On Identity, Community, and Civil Rights:  Historical and Contemporary Japanese American Experiences, Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani

Asian American Studies 190: Radical History of SF Chinatown: Designing a Digital Tour, Lok Siu

College Writing R4B 006: Perspectives on Immigration 2022 Jordan A Ruyle

Ethnic Studies 22AC: An Introduction to Abolition Pedagogy and Practice, Victoria Robinson

History 7B: Introduction to the History of the United States: The United States from Civil War to Present, Ronit Stahl

History 100D: Special Topics in the History of the United States: Latinx Histories, Bernadette Perez

History 131B: Social History of the United States: Creating Modern American Society: From the End of the Civil War, Daniel Kelly

History 135B: Encounter & Conquest in Indigenous America, Brian DeLay

History 137AC: Immigrants and Immigration as U.S. History, Hidetaka Hirota

History Art 37: Contemporary Art + Architecture from Asia, ca. 1945-present, Atreyee Gupta

Ethnic Studies 22AC: An Introduction to Abolition Pedagogy and Practice, Victoria Robinson

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures 157: Reel Arabs: Film and Fiction in the Middle East, Ahmad Diab

Rhetoric 240G 003: Ecological Aesthetics: Reflections and Interventions for a More-Than-Human World, Shannon Jackson

Theater 14: Asian American Pacific Islander Theater Workshop, Philip Gotanda

Theater 25AC: The Drama of American Cultures — Race & Performance, Roshanak Kheshti


Past Electives

Fall 2022 Electives:

American Studies 102/History 128AC: California, the West, and the World, Mark Brilliant

American Studies C112/Geography C160: The American Landscape: Place, Power, and Culture, Alexander Craghead

Asian American Studies 141: Law in the Asian American Community, Michael Chang

Chicano 159: Mexican Immigration, Pablo Gonzalez

Chicano 180: Art & Social Justice: Politics, Methods, and Practice for Community Based Work Jesus Vicente Barraza

College Writing R4B 006: Perspectives on Immigration 2022 Jordan A Ruyle

College Writing R4B 021: Images of History Patricia Steenland

Comparative Literature 100: Memoir and Immigration Sophie Y Volpp

English 31AC: Literature of American Cultures: The Wild, Wild West – California and the Politics of Possibility, Poulomi Saha

Ethnic Studies 12: Contemporary Issues in Ethnic Studies: Pandemics, Catherine Ceniza Choy

Ethnic Studies 190AC: Inside and Beyond Walls: Migra, Masses and the Carceral State Victoria Robinson

History 103D 002: History of American Immigration Law and Policy, Hidetaka Hirota

History Art 37: Contemporary Art + Architecture from Asia, ca. 1945-present Atreyee Gupta

Legal Studies C134/SociologyC146: Migration and Membership  Sarah Seong-Sim Song, Irene Bloemraad

Letters & Sciences 25: Thinking Through Art and Design@Berkeley: Creativity and Practice Lisa Wymore

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures 157: Reel Arabs: Film and Fiction in the Middle East Ahmad Diab

Theater 114 Performance Research Workshop: Acts of Solidarity, Chelsea M Gregory


Summer 2022 / College of Environmental Design: list in-progress

ENV DES 133AC Hidden in Plain Sight: Public History in Public Space, Prof. Catherine Covey

Theater 117AC California Stories: Theatrical Representations of Race, Labor, and Tourism, Shannon Steen


Summer 2022 / College of Letters & Science Electives: list in-progress

HUM 133AC / AMERSTD 110AC Hidden in Plain Sight: Public History in Public Space, Prof. Catherine Covey


To see current and upcoming Future Histories Lab courses, visit the Course Offerings page.