All Things Urban

The Master of Urban Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) is a two-year, English-language program focused on contemporary urbanism. The program combines history, theory and practice to rethink prevailing understandings of urbanization, and to contribute to building more equitable urbanisms than the current ones. The main premise of the program is that the subject of urban studies is irreducible to the “city”: the global urban arena today, more than ever before, is where struggles over our collective future play out. This transdisciplinary program builds on insights from critical urban geography, urban planning and architectural history. Urbanism is seen through the conceptual lenses of socio-spatial dialectics and uneven urban development. Themes addressed in the program include housing and gentrification; urban nature and ecology; infrastructure and global networks. Urban Studies will introduce you to the basics of urban design and planning, as well as to a range of skills such as how to conduct a field work and write critically about urbanism. The art school/architectural department where you will study provide a great environment to combine critical thought and creative imagination. The core of the Urban Studies curriculum is our signature urban research studio, in which students analyze and participate in actual urban situations through a combination of desk research, field work and multi-sited interventions. The research studio allows for different outcome formats, such as essays/written reports, documentary videos and urban interventions. Recent or ongoing student projects focused on sites in Estonia, Poland, US, Chile and Pakistan (among other places), to explore, across a range of scales, topics such as gentrification, socio-environmental justice and care, and the role of ecological and digital imaginaries in contemporary urbanism, along with many other issues pertaining to how cities are shaped by relations of power. Additionally the curriculum consists of lecture courses, seminars, thematic workshops and skill-based training sessions, as well as experimental teaching methods such as collective reading retreats. Academic staff and guests The program is coordinated by Keiti Kljavin, Andra Aaloe and Sean Tyler. Tutors include Maroš Krivý, Kaija-Luisa Kurik, Hanna Husberg, Jussi Jauhiainen, Tahl Kaminer, Flo Kaserau, Leonard Ma, Kristi Grišakov, Mattias Malk, Agáta Marzec, Chiara Rabbiosi, Karlis Ratnieks, Helen Runting and Paco Ulman. Past guest speakers and critics include: Ross Exo Adams, Sandra Jasper, SECRETARY: Office for Architecture, SELIM, Helena Mattson and Tuomas Toivonen. **NB! Online open house: 1 February, 2024 at 4pm EET (Tallinn time)**. More information and registration: [https://www.artun.ee/en/calendar/urban-studies-msc-programme-online-info-session-2/](https://bit.ly/3Oov0Zz)

Suitable MSc candidate has a Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent qualification in architecture, landscape architecture, geography, construction, art history, sociology, urban planning, political science, or other arts & humanities fields.

- Application submitted through DreamApply - Copy of your Bachelor’s degree certificate or equivalent - Copy of your transcript of records - Certificate of English language skills - CV - Sample of your previous work (architecture/urban design portfolio, writing sample or a combined sample of your design and written work) - Motivational letter More information: [https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/urban-studies/admissions/](https://bit.ly/48PdVQB) or [email protected] **Please specify in your application that you found this opportunity through All Things Urban**

120 ECTS

The Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), founded in 1914, is the only public university in Estonia offering higher education in architecture, design, fine arts and art culture. It is an active study and research institution and the leading national center of innovation in visual culture. EKA is listed among Top 200 Architecture and Design Universities in the World by QS World University Rankings. Twelve hundred students currently enrolled at EKA are taught by nearly three hundred professors, associate professors, lecturers and workshop managers from Estonia and abroad. Small groups of carefully selected students enable a more personal, one-on-one approach to instruction and family-like, close-knit atmosphere, and EKA prides itself on the low student-to-faculty ratio. Studies take place in a new award-winning building with an innovative and inspiring environment. EKA offers twelve international programmes, including a 2-year Urban Studies MSc and a 4-year Architecture and Urban Planning PhD.

A scholarship is available, click "Register" to find out more.