Who Invented This Anyway? A History of Fiction
: Who decided fantasy has magic in it? Why are there so many different kinds of science fiction? What is literary fiction and why are people such snobs about it? In this course, students will learn about the different types of fiction, their origin stories, and how to write in the different genres and crossovers. Students will also read short stories and interviews by current authors about the state of fiction and what it means to be a writer in today's diverse landscape.
Without understanding the obstacles and discrimination that a group has faced, on cannot fully appreciate that their demand for equal treatment is in fact a struggle for civil rights. Covering queer U.S. History and Culture from the early 20th Century through the present, this course introduces students to how enforcement of and reaction against institutionalized discrimination have shaped the LGBTQ experience in this country. Students will learn not just about events but often-overlooked people who shaped the course of this history - often heroically. Our study of historical sources will be supplemented by visits from influential and dynamic guest speakers in the arts and humanities. Students will have an opportunity to study our guests' work in advance and discuss it with them when they visit. This course is not restricted to students who identify as LGBTQ - this history is important for everyone, so allies are welcome and encouraged!
Without understanding the obstacles and discrimination that a group has faced, on cannot fully appreciate that their demand for equal treatment is in fact a struggle for civil rights. Covering queer U.S. History and Culture from the early 20th Century through the present, this course introduces students to how enforcement of and reaction against institutionalized discrimination have shaped the LGBTQ experience in this country. Students will learn not just about events but often-overlooked people who shaped the course of this history - often heroically. Our study of historical sources will be supplemented by visits from influential and dynamic guest speakers in the arts and humanities. Students will have an opportunity to study our guests' work in advance and discuss it with them when they visit. This course is not restricted to students who identify as LGBTQ - this history is important for everyone, so allies are welcome and encouraged!
Poetry on Page and Stage offers students an introduction to the craft of poetry with a focus on the transition from textual performance to oral performance. As a hybrid of creative writing and performance workshops, students will spend half the semester focusing on the written word. Students will perform weekly exercises to practice and explore traditional forms, discuss predecessors of American performance poetry, and offer critical exegesis on each other’s work. The second half of the class will be spent in performance. We will study current spoken word performances, voice training techniques, and intersections between acting and poetic theories. Students will critique each other’s individual deliveries, collaborate on group performances, and ultimately construct an hour long performance synthesizing a semester’s worth of work. Readings will include such authors as Sonia Sanchez, Bushra Rehman, Franny Choi, Morgan Parker, and Ntosake Shange.
“Dystopia in the Margins” will explore dystopian fiction from the perspective of minority writers, specifically those belonging to the Asian diaspora. Over the course of three weeks, we will read and discuss three contemporary novels: Severance by Ling Ma, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee. The course is designed to cultivate critical reading and writing skills, while engaging with topics such as identity, race, class, globalization, and the impact of capitalism.
This course will teach a history of feminist artists from the 1960s forward who have used their own trauma in their art, and explore how that has led to their personal and professional growth. Does making art out of trauma lead to exploitation of the self? Does exploitation of the self lead to empowerment? How have feminist artists navigated systems meant to oppress them, and can they operate within these systems successfully? We will explore how the trauma informed personal story can be utilized for art making, fame building, accumulation of resources and healing, and how this can be both beneficial and compromised.
We will visit galleries, museums and internationally recognized artists’ studios—a triple threat of experience normally not available to the public. Class will be a mix of traditional art history lecture and discussions of our visits, assigned texts, and works viewed.
In The Arguments in Your Head: Playwriting Workshop, we’ll explore and develop the foundational skills, techniques, and instincts that you’ll need to write a full-length play. The goal of this class is not to write a perfect play (doesn’t exist!) Rather, the goal is to let go of what you think you should be writing to impress others and instead learn to become the stewards of your own urgent questions and aesthetics principles. This workshop will be process-focused rather than outcome-focused. As your teacher, my concern is not perfection— I care about pulse. Everyone will be bringing in new, unfinished work that is a little raw and uncomfortable. No one knows what they’re doing, we’re all in the same boat! My goal for you is not to get stuck when you get lost (because if I do my job right you will get lost), but instead I hope to give you tools that help you find your way in the dark, take bold risks, and above all keep going. Every play is different and has its own rules. In order to fashion those rules autonomously we have to learn to listen deeply, follow an inarticulate hunch, and above all, be willing to fail. Be brave, playwright! This is where the wildness lives, where all the scary fun is to be had. And in the end… it’s just words on a page, ink on paper— you can always tear it up and start over. By the end of this class, you will have written a draft of a full-length play, learned how to give thoughtful feedback on the plays of your classmates, and developed a more critical eye to the plays that you read.
The Athena Summer Innovation Institute is an intensive, 3-week boot camp that provides young women with the practical skills and knowledge they need to develop ideas that will make a difference in the world. Students will work in teams to create a new venture — start-up businesses, non-profit organizations, or advocacy campaigns — that have the power to disrupt traditional ways of doing things and create lasting change.
The goal of this course is to explore the art of dance on a global scale and gain insight into its many purposes, meanings, and functions across cultures around the world. Students will gain a deeper understanding of why and how dance has persevered and grown as a form of human expression used to convey cultural, social, or political ideas.Students will experience dance in New York City through live class and performance viewing. We will travel across the globe to witness how dance has engaged humanity for centuries, through ritual and community, identity and culture, entertainment and performance, and technology and protest.
The goal of this course is to explore the art of dance on a global scale and gain insight into its many purposes, meanings, and functions across cultures around the world. Students will gain a deeper understanding of why and how dance has persevered and grown as a form of human expression used to convey cultural, social, or political ideas.Students will experience dance in New York City through live class and performance viewing. We will travel across the globe to witness how dance has engaged humanity for centuries, through ritual and community, identity and culture, entertainment and performance, and technology and protest.
This course uses a diverse variety of cultural materials produced in and about Harlem, from poetry and fiction to music, art, and film to manifestoes, sermons, and political speeches, in order to offer a broad and deep introduction to the history of uptown Manhattan. While Black Harlem forms the focal point of our investigation, the wide varieties of identities that found a home in uptown Manhattan, from the Native American, Dutch, and British periods, to the early American era, to the rise of German, Italian, Jewish, and Latinx Harlem, to the "New Renaissance" currently underway uptown, are also covered. Of particular interest is the role of women in Harlem, as farmers and traders in the Native American, Colonial, and early American periods, to writers, musicians, and sculptors during the Harlem Renaissance, to the current generation of uptown politicians, artists, and educators. A special bonus will be twice-weekly walking tours, including the opportunity to conduct oral histories with contemporary Harlemites.
We examine the theory and practice of two “models” of feminist leadership: liberal-individualist and radical-collective. Advocates of both models seek women’s empowerment. However, they disagree over the means and ends of women’s activism. Broadly, liberal feminists seek equal power in political institutions and corporations as well as equal access to the means for social and economic advance. Liberal feminists may pursue “reproductive rights” and consider gender-equality the mark of feminist success. Social justice feminists seek nothing less than the end of sexism and all forms of subjugation (racial, class, sexual orientation ETC.) which sustain existing anti-egalitarian, sexist, racist and hetero-normative structures. Social justice feminists may pursue “reproductive justice” and consider the transformation of existing gender, social and economic relations success.
We examine the theory and practice of two “models” of feminist leadership: liberal-individualist and radical-collective. Advocates of both models seek women’s empowerment. However, they disagree over the means and ends of women’s activism. Broadly, liberal feminists seek equal power in political institutions and corporations as well as equal access to the means for social and economic advance. Liberal feminists may pursue “reproductive rights” and consider gender-equality the mark of feminist success. Social justice feminists seek nothing less than the end of sexism and all forms of subjugation (racial, class, sexual orientation ETC.) which sustain existing anti-egalitarian, sexist, racist and hetero-normative structures. Social justice feminists may pursue “reproductive justice” and consider the transformation of existing gender, social and economic relations success.
Leadership in action series.
Leadership in action series.
From film festivals to our phones, short films are everywhere. Bring your stories to the screen in this immersive workshop, which will demystify the art of screenwriting and give you the tools you need to write a great short script. You will learn how to grab viewers by their collective shirt collar and more importantly, hold their attention until the final credits roll. Emphasis will be placed on visual storytelling, the classic three-act structure, plot, character development, conflict, and dialogue. While sharing work will be the heart of the course, we’ll also take full advantage of New York City’s many great film screenings and festivals as well as its ample opportunities for eavesdropping and people-watching – an excellent source of story inspiration. By the end of the course, each student will have written three short screenplays as well as revised one of these scripts.
Most broadly, ethics is concerned with how it is best for us, as human individuals and communities, to live – how we understand and relate to ourselves, each other, and beyond. What goals or values should we pursue? What kinds of lives are good and worthy of choice (for anyone)? What moral duties do we have – are there individual actions or social policies which are (morally) required or forbidden? And to whom or what do we owe them – in virtue of what do entities have moral standing? Is acting morally good for us and, if so, would this compromise the ethical worth of so acting? What is the source of our knowledge, if any, about these matters, and how do we resolve conflicting answers to these questions?
While attending some to ‘meta-ethics’, the course focuses on normative ethics and its application. After an introduction to philosophical and ethical inquiry and an orientation in foundational ethical questions, the course surveys several approaches to ethics – consequentialism (especially utilitarianism), rule- or duty-based theories (particularly ‘Kantianism’ and ‘contractualism’), and some of the traditions of ‘virtue ethics’. The course then applies these theories to several concrete topics, including the distribution of material resources in society, sex and gender, race and racism, and free speech.
Our authors include Audre Lorde, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, John Stuart Mill, Kongzi (Confucius), Peter Singer, Plato, Robin S. Dillon, Susan Moller Okin, and W.E.B. Du Bois.
The course has three main goals for students:
1
) To describe, explain, and provisionally assess some important philosophical perspectives – historical and contemporary, Western and non-Western – on ethics;
2
) To identify, logically analyze and evaluate, and construct (logically valid and sound) philosophical arguments;
3
) To use spoken and written language clearly, concisely, and convincingly.
There are no prerequisites for the course. The course includes asynchronous work, which students are expected to complete between class sessions.
An intensive course designed to develop logic and programming skills through immersion in the fundamentals of C. Programming projects involving mathematical problems and word games challenge students to develop their logical reasoning, systematic thinking, and problem-solving skills. Students learn the structure and features of a fundamental programming language as they implement solutions in C. In addition to teaching programming techniques, the course will cover an overview of fundamental computing concepts such as data structures, library design, and memory management.