Barnard Architecture + Design Summer Ins

Architecture + Design Ins

The Barnard Architecture + Design Summer Institute explores how design impacts the
built environment through hands-on design projects, field trips, and opportunities to
meet designers and makers throughout the city.
This program introduces high school students to architecture and related fields that
contribute to the design of our city. This three-week program includes on-campus work
in the architecture design studio, computer lab, and the Barnard Design Center, as well
as field trips throughout the city to see design offices, construction projects, and
exhibitions. Students will design through drawings and models - by hand and digitally.
Summer students will be mentored by current college students majoring in architecture
and will have opportunities to meet design professionals and those who help imagine
and construct the built environment.

• MTWRF 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Lindsay Harkema
  Info
• 0 points

Fashion and Dress in World Cultures

Fashion and dress are considered markers of individual and social identities, used to express religious beliefs, group association, class, ceremonial functions, domestic functions, gender dynamics, and sexuality dynamics. This course will explore global fashion and dress— focusing on textiles and body ornaments used in different cultures throughout history. The course will be organized geographically—Asia, Africa, the Americas, etc. — spanning from the early modern period to the contemporary era. The course will encourage students to engage with theoretical frameworks from material culture, anthropology, history, and textile and fashion study.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Summer Food Institute

Barnard’s 2-Week Sustainable Food and the City introduces students to the U.S food system, examining food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management through four key lenses: agriculture; health, policy and justice; food systems and climate change; and soil health.
 
Each week, students will explore farms all across the city and New York state to learn hands-on from farmers growing our food. The program will invite experts and professionals from each unit to guide student's learning experience. Students will take a deep dive into each of these units to imagine a food system that produces food in an ecologically mindful way while supporting our communities and the planet.

• MTWRF 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Leading by Example: Theories of Leadersh

How should those in positions of power use it? What is the role of society, mentorship, education, and individuals in preparing people for leadership roles? This course will take a historical view at the ways in which people in various cultures and societies across different time periods have sought to answer these questions. In approaching this topic, we will consider the role of exemplarity—the idea that someone else’s actions, behaviors, and political ideas might inform our own practice. To this end, we will read texts that use exemplarity to model political and non-political leadership. This class will consist of several readings, brief writing assignments, and a final in-class symposium in which students will present the results of a research project.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Alejandro Cuadrado
  Info
• 0 points

Leading by Example: Theories of Leadersh

How should those in positions of power use it? What is the role of society, mentorship, education, and individuals in preparing people for leadership roles? This course will take a historical view at the ways in which people in various cultures and societies across different time periods have sought to answer these questions. In approaching this topic, we will consider the role of exemplarity—the idea that someone else’s actions, behaviors, and political ideas might inform our own practice. To this end, we will read texts that use exemplarity to model political and non-political leadership. This class will consist of several readings, brief writing assignments, and a final in-class symposium in which students will present the results of a research project.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Alejandro Cuadrado
  Info
• 0 points

Research and Professional Skills in STEM

Research & Professional S

This course will introduce students to concepts and methods that allow them to develop their research voice, navigate the virtual research landscape, and develop an online professional presence.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Research and Professional Skills in STEM

Research & Professional S

This course will introduce students to concepts and methods that allow them to develop their research voice, navigate the virtual research landscape, and develop an online professional presence.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Sustainability, Diversity, and Inclusion

Sustainability Diversity

The course seeks to address the social movements of "sustainability" and "inclusion" with a focus on their respective claims regarding "(bio)diversity" as essential to a healthy planet and an equitable society. These principles will be explored in the context of our contemporary geopolitics and political economy to examine why difference is often - to the contrary - characterized by inequality. Furthermore, scholarship in sociobiology and sustainable development will raise our consciousness about how the destruction of the material world is intimately tied to increasing stratification in the social world. Finally, we will turn our attention to the culture wars: great disagreements, misunderstandings, and contests of expressive values that include inauthentic and well-intentioned ignorance and inconsistency regarding these social movements. In this context we will also consider the political economy of knowing and being to define our own praxes for living in and making a more enduring and just social world.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Sex and Gender Across Long Time

The idea of gender is a relatively recent formulation, often complicated by the ferocity distinction between the sexes found across history. This course (divided into two parts) uses art objects, literary texts, philosophy, psychology and finally film and digital media to interrogate the ideas of sex and gender, to explore the violent ways in which female sexuality has been denied or constrained, that same sex desire was erased or pathologized, and how the transgender experience, even as it works to deny sexual difference, complicates the relations between both sex and gender.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 0 points

Sex and Gender Across Long Time

The idea of gender is a relatively recent formulation, often complicated by the ferocity distinction between the sexes found across history. This course (divided into two parts) uses art objects, literary texts, philosophy, psychology and finally film and digital media to interrogate the ideas of sex and gender, to explore the violent ways in which female sexuality has been denied or constrained, that same sex desire was erased or pathologized, and how the transgender experience, even as it works to deny sexual difference, complicates the relations between both sex and gender.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 0 points

Global Modernism

The aim of this course is to explore the history and discourses of modern art, modernism, and the
avant-garde via the social and theoretical questions understood to have driven the development
of artistic modernism around the globe from roughly 1789 to 1968. The course will be organized
according to four major lenses of inquiry: “Aesthetic Categories within Social Art Histories,”
“Formalism and Autonomy,” “Perception and Artistic Production,” and “the Role of the Mind,
or, the Beholder’s Share.” Each of these lenses, or themes, will be driven by a set of readings,
images, and key terms that together constitute “conversations,” or orientations toward the history
of modern art. An aim of this course is to enable students to identify and ultimately enter into
focused, art-historical conversations and to understand their positioning within the broader
discourse. However, because there is a fair amount of conceptual overlap among the course’s
themes, the foremost goal is to enable critical analysis of modern, visual artworks from multiple
perspectives, or within multiple frameworks. In considering the many, dynamic engagements of
theory, history, and visual artworks, this course will provide not only a strong knowledge of
modern art, modernism, and the avant-garde, it will also help students develop a sense of the
methods used to study the histories and theories of modern art.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Flash Forms

An Intro to Reading/Writi

The most compelling creative nonfiction usually balances two things on a scale: looking inward and looking outward. The writer usually commands the attention of the reader with personal fixation, urgent inquisition, and/or evocative occurrence before allowing the self to move beyond and observe, digest, and/or criticize the world with a keen eye. To learn how to do so, we will be reading diverse works of nonfiction that center an honest, complex, and incredibly porous narrative, each combining the reflective and the analytical in its distinct style. We will also approach major genres of nonfiction, including memoir and personal essay, and other miscellaneous forms such as diary and writing with archival materials. There will be voluntary in-class and take-home exercises that encourage students to practice techniques exemplified by assigned texts, while weekly writing assignments will give students opportunities to adopt these skills to fit their own language and style.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Women & Comedy

“Women and Comedy” focuses on the intersection between comedy and gender, race, class and sexuality. Aware that as Judith Butler says, “the process of securing greater freedom for women requires an ongoing rethinking of this category,” we use the term “woman” not as a fixed position but an entry point into discussing history – specifically to interrogate and challenge comedy’s all-too-long and enduring history of making a punchline out of marginalized groups. We will explore laughter as a subversive act and how the identity of a “funny woman” can be both dangerous and liberating. As Margo Jefferson writes, “Given the history of social restriction and sexual regulation, how many women have been in a position to -- or been willing to -- take these risks?” We will explore how the tools of comedy can be used to make mischief, to transgress the bounds of genre and form and to contest popular ideas about difference and power. How can humor be illuminating? How can humor be feminist? How can humor be intersectional? How can humor help us tell the hard truths? Can we laugh at oppression without laughing it off? This course does exclusively focus on humorists and welcomes writers of all genres who want to get playful. Rather than “funny,” we focus on “fun,” explore playfulness as it occurs in myriad ways across a diverse variety of texts. As we do, we will find models, key writerly moves, to adapt into our own writing whatever shape or form it takes. As we shift to sharing our own thoughts and work, we will do so from a place of generosity. As Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim “Howard” Johnson put it: “A truly funny scene is not the result of someone trying to steal laughs at the expense of his partner, but of generosity – of trying to make the other person (and his ideas) look as good as possible.” Let’s share and discuss from this place of generosity. Rather than prescriptive critiques, let’s ask one another “what’s the fun of this story?” Let’s urge each other to see how can that fun remain, adhere, and grow through our time together.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Nina Sharma
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 0 points

Health and Society Institute

This program examines the interplay of science, medicine, and the experience of health and illness by way of epistemological questions—“How do we know what we know?”—to appreciate not only what becomes defined and recognized as a disease, but the power relationships that produce these effects. This program takes up current and historical examples to interrogate how the benefits of advances in science and medicine remain unequally shared, while exploring critical tools social scientists have offered as possible interventions. Major themes from this session will address biomedicine as a cultural system, the politics of surveillance and care, the performance and rituals of healing, the structure of the US public health system, and others. Students will be engaging with work from a range of scholars, including anthropologists, philosophers, historians, physicians, scientists, and journalists, also with an eye to how these perspectives can inform the health experience of living in New York City.

• MTWRF 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Maxine Weisgrau
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 0 points

Race, Ethnicity, and US Society

Race, Ethnicity, & US Soc

What is “race”? What is “ethnicity”? How are they related and how do they shape the life chances of people in the United States? In this class, we discuss racism’s origin story, particularly how capitalist interests motivated the creation of racial hierarchy. We focus on how White-controlled institutions and elite actors mediate racial and ethnic groups’ access to material and social resources, leading to Whites disproportionately benefiting from U.S. social processes. We investigate social processes through intersectional—noting relationships between race, class, and gender—and historical lens, highlighting how racism evolves over time in response to resistance. We also examine the consequences of racism across social domains. Our course concludes by grappling with the questions: (1) How effective have social movements, and other forms of social organization, been in resisting and ending racism? (2) What are the implications for current racial justice activism?

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Angela Simms
  Info
• 0 points

Flash Forms

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." In six words, the unidentified writer (sometimes attributed as Ernest Hemingway) prompts the reader to imagine a whole story. Who are the parents? What happened to the baby? Where are the parents selling the shoes? Who will buy them? A work of flash fiction or nonfiction gives us just enough information to suggest narrative and character, while leaving us to fill in the gaps with our imagination. In this workshop, we'll practice writing very short essays, stories, and prose poems, assessing what makes them evocative and memorable. We'll read very short works by Jamaica Kincaid, John Edgar Wideman, Lydia Davis, George Saunders, and others, with attention to how these writers create meaning through very few words, while gesturing towards context off the page. We'll practice writing flash with prompts given in class. Writers will come away with not only a toolbox for crafting this short form, but also with strategies for crafting vivid scenes and dynamic characters in fiction more broadly.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexandra P Watson
  CULPA: 16 Info
• 0 points

Health and Society Institute Section 2

Health & Society Institut

This program examines the interplay of science, medicine, and the experience of health and illness by way of epistemological questions—“How do we know what we know?”—to appreciate not only what becomes defined and recognized as a disease, but the power relationships that produce these effects. This program takes up current and historical examples to interrogate how the benefits of advances in science and medicine remain unequally shared, while exploring critical tools social scientists have offered as possible interventions. Major themes from this session will address biomedicine as a cultural system, the politics of surveillance and care, the performance and rituals of healing, the structure of the US public health system, and others. Students will be engaging with work from a range of scholars, including anthropologists, philosophers, historians, physicians, scientists, and journalists, also with an eye to how these perspectives can inform the health experience of living in New York City.

Students will also take a concurrent course on understanding the lived experiences of health and wellness through qualitative research techniques.

• MTWRF 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Gina A Jae
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 0 points

The Perzine Is Political: Critical Think

The Perzine Is Political, will use zines in the Barnard Library's extensive collection of creative nonfiction texts written by authors holding a wide range of identities, along with excerpts from the book Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism, scholarly articles, and lay publications The class will include a digital element, doing textual analysis with the zine corpus, and will explore how critical making challenges the research paper as the default or only way of demonstrating knowledge.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Science In Your Life: Through the Eyes o

What do Diet Coke, solar panels, and synthetic organs have in common? They are all things that a chemical engineer can work on improving! Whether it's making batteries more efficient to electrify the nation, designing instruments for space exploration, or creating new, vegan products for skin care, chemical engineers are influential in all aspects of society. Ever wonder what's inside a vanadium flow battery? Have you heard of using gene therapy to cure cancer? Do you wish you knew a little more about microrobots that are used for water purification?

This course gives you a taste of everyday science in your life and shows you how chemical engineers are working towards solving the prevalent issues of the world. You'll become more knowledgeable about what goes into objects and processes you might normally overlook. We will show you what engineering hurdles the world faces today along with how you can get involved. Hopefully, you'll finish this course marveling at the recent advances of engineering and inspired to become an engineer!

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Science In Your Life: Through the Eyes o

What do Diet Coke, solar panels, and synthetic organs have in common? They are all things that a chemical engineer can work on improving! Whether it's making batteries more efficient to electrify the nation, designing instruments for space exploration, or creating new, vegan products for skin care, chemical engineers are influential in all aspects of society. Ever wonder what's inside a vanadium flow battery? Have you heard of using gene therapy to cure cancer? Do you wish you knew a little more about microrobots that are used for water purification?

This course gives you a taste of everyday science in your life and shows you how chemical engineers are working towards solving the prevalent issues of the world. You'll become more knowledgeable about what goes into objects and processes you might normally overlook. We will show you what engineering hurdles the world faces today along with how you can get involved. Hopefully, you'll finish this course marveling at the recent advances of engineering and inspired to become an engineer!

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Latine NYC: A Critical View of Hispanics

New York City is the largest Hispanic city in the United States with a population of 2.3 million Latinxs representing 29% of the population, with a total of 19% in the whole state. At the same time, this same population is one of the most under-served and under-represented with 38% Hispanics living under the line of poverty and 40% being uninsured. Within a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, during the four weeks students will be able to learn about some of the challenges the Hispanic communities experience while living in the city (i.e. racism, classism, gentrification, etc.) and the way these are translated into real life experiences.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Maria E Lozano
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 0 points

History of Photography 1839-1945

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the big questions associated with photography
and its history as an art form, a technology, and a mode of social and cultural communication. By
the end of this course, students will have a rich understanding of the history of the emergence of
photography and photographic theory. They will be able to engage with aesthetic, technological,
and social discourses surrounding photography’s invention and development from 1839 through
the second World War. Students will be able to relate theory with the practice of photography,
and understand the roles photography plays in the histories of art, society, and communication.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

The DNA of Fiction Filmmaking

At the heart of every movie is its story. In this immersive workshop, you will develop your visual storytelling skills to create a short screenplay – the DNA of a winning film.

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 the classic three-act structure, plot, character development, conflict, and dialogue. Through notes and discussion of your work, we will help pick the lock on the stories only you can tell. While the world you create on the page may be fictional, you will get at the emotional truth of the characters’ lives through specifics. Perhaps paradoxical and even a bit counterintuitive, Greta Gerwig said it best, “The more particular you make something, the more universal it becomes.” 

Since the script illuminates the story for everyone who helps bring your vision to the screen, you’ll also discover how best to collaborate with actors, directors, cinematographers, and designers. And in short exercises, you’ll get a chance to experience the many aspects of filmmaking – including acting, storyboarding, shooting, production designing, and location scouting.
 
While sharing work will be the focus of the course, we’ll also take full advantage of New York City as both a set and source of inspiration. After all, this is a fantastic place to eavesdrop, people watch, and capture the magic for all to see.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

The Politics of Remembrance: Black Women

This course is a general overview of the methods and approaches to the histories written on slavery and resistance. In it, we will consider the expansive reach of the Transatlantic slave trade to the Americas, its relationship to modern-day capitalism, and the contemporary debates on reparations. Students will learn to interpret and read various sources that contemplate the political and socioeconomic realities of slave societies. We will mainly examine the experiences of enslaved African-descended people through Black feminist approaches and methods. Therefore, the course will mainly focus on the location of women in these societies and the construction of gendered and racialized identities within these frameworks. In effect, this course explores how Black people, particularly Black women, have organized resistance strategies during slavery and through the re-narration of slave histories in academic and public spaces.

In the second half of the course, students will consider the relationship between studies on slavery and the collective public memory of slavery in Europe, coastal Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South America. To better understand activism and the construction of memory, students will visit various “memory spaces” in New York City, including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the African Burial Ground, and the Flatbush Burial Ground. As this course demonstrates, the history of slavery is often written and narrated outside of official institutions and academic spaces. From this perspective, we will also engage with alternative methods (i.e., the body/corporeal forms) to narrate the slave past in theater, public protest, and “rest as activism” through outlets like the “Unheard Voices” theater workshop and yoga/ meditative practices. Overall, the course will unpack issues of gender and race by studying slavery and its narration throughout the transatlantic world and how the descendants of enslaved people have “rewrote” these histories in their intellectual work, art, and political activism

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Uses of Violence

In this course, we’ll explore the use of violence in short stories and fiction. We’ll look
at how violence, be it emotional, political, or physical, can serve to develop conflict
and character in fiction. How does fictional violence serve to disrupt and unsettle
not only the narrative, but the reader as well? To explore this, we’ll move from the
philosophical exploration of violence in works by Dostoyevsky and Moravia to the
more raucous display in Cormac McCarthy’s Westerns and Highsmith and
Thompson’s noirs, from the repressed, lurking violence in short stories by writers
Such as Carver and Gaitskill to the textual violence found in postmodern writers like
Acker. Along the way, we’ll meet assassins, prisoners, skinheads, schoolgirls, and
gangsters. How and why do these characters excite or repel us? How far can we
push the characters in our own fiction, and how far should we? How can violence
illuminate the larger political or societal forces that exist in specific moments of
history? How does violence in fiction create an often unexpected, yet deeply
significant, catharsis and consequence?

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Design Interactions

What differentiates acts of design from other, everyday processes? Looking across our environments, we might sense the spaces we occupy are the result of hyper-controlled, coordinated procedures. From this vantage point, design seems to be everywhere, and so, how do we locate it? This course will revisit historic and contemporary design methods, artifacts, and visions to better see the ways we conceive of, represent, and mobilize design to act on the world. Design will be presented across multiple scales--from the molecular to the bodily to the planetary--as both a normalizing and potentially subversive tool. We will question its limitations and push its capacity to address existing inequities through activist and interdisciplinary approaches. Guest speakers and field trips will supplement lectures and readings. Students will apply concepts presented in class to exercises conducted in design workshops.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Sex, Power, God

This course will also consider shifting notions of sex, power, and god that represent the increasingly complex relationship between identity, knowledge, and media in the modern era as we explore the concurrent changes in the social, political, and economic systems that made it possible for millions to worship the massive media culture icons of the 20th century: the Disney princess, First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and Princess Diana. By exploring these changes in the works of scholars like Tim Wu and Bernard Harcourt we will gain a deeper sense of contemporary sexual politics in “expository society” as we determine the criteria for evaluating the success of the modern celebrity. Finally, we will consider how the celebrity reality tv industrial-complex shifts notions of sex, power, and god by exploring the emergence of icons “famous for being famous” in the 21st century whose command of attention and social influence in the digital age represents power, capital, and divine myth befitting a queen: Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian West.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Queer Studies

QUEER STUDIES

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!

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas March
  Info
• 0 points

Queer Studies

QUEER STUDIES

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!

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas March
  Info
• 0 points

Poetry on Page and Stage: Spoken Word Po

POETRY ON PAGE AND STAGE

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Quincy Jones
  Info
• 0 points

Dystopia in the Margins

“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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Mimi Wong
  Info
• 0 points

Art History of the Exploited Feminist Se

AHIS of the Exploited Fem

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Sarah Hoover
  Info
• 0 points

The Arguments in Your Head: Playwriting

THE ARGUMENTS IN YOUR HEA

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Athena Summer Innovation Institute

ASII

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.

• MTWR 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Discover Dance in New York City

Discover Dance in NYC

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Discover Dance in New York City

Discover Dance in NYC

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Caitlin Trainor
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 0 points

Writing Harlem: Identity, Image, and Ide

WRITING HARLEM

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan P Gill
  Info
• 0 points

Lean in or Dig Deep

LEAN IN OR DIG DEEP

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Michelle R Smith
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 0 points

Lean in or Dig Deep

LEAN IN OR DIG DEEP

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Michelle R Smith
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 0 points

Leadership in Action Series

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION SERI

Leadership in action series.

• TW 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Leadership in Action Series

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION SERI

Leadership in action series.

• TW 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• 0 points

Screenwriting: The Short Form

SCREENWRITING: SHORT FORM

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.

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Elisabeth E Frankel
  Info
• 0 points

Chemical Connections and Happening

CHEM CONNECTIONS & HAPPEN

Transferring electrons. Making and breaking chemical bonds. These are among the atomic- and molecular-scale happenings that we will explore in this course, combining discussions of chemical principles with hands-on laboratory experiments. \ This is an auspicious year for chemistry: 2019 has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, in honor of the 150th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev’s publication of his periodic table. Along these lines, we will investigate some elemental properties through laboratory experiments on oxidation-reduction reactions and acid-base chemistry. We will also use hand-held models and computer software to visualize three-dimensional molecular structures and to calculate the distribution of electrons within molecules. Finally, we will consider connections of chemistry to philosophical, artistic, and literary questions, such as levels of “truth” in scientific theories. Curiosity and interest in chemistry are pre-requisites, but no special chemistry knowledge or background is required.

Appropriate for Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Christian Rojas
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 0 points

Forensic Psychology

FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

This course is an examination of the interaction between the discipline of psychology and the criminal justice system. It examines the aspects of human behavior directly related to the legal process such as eyewitness memory, testimony, jury decision making, and criminal behavior in addition, the course focuses on the ethical and moral tensions that inform the law.

Appropriate for Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11

• R 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Joshua M Feinberg
  Info
• 0 points

NEW YORK CITY IN FILM

This course will explore the representation of New York City in film. We will examine the way that film portrays social problems and either creates or responds to “social panics.” We will also examine the way in which film actively creates an idea of “New York” through cinematography, directing, acting and other aspects of filmmaking.  Some topics to be considered are utopia/dystopia, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, art, immigration, houselessness, and gentrification. The course follows three main themes: 1. How the filmmaking process (camera movements, lighting, dialogue, acting, etc.) is used as a method to describe space (filmmaking as a geographic method). 2. How various genres of film have been used to portray the social geography of New York City (the geography of film). 3. The relationship between the viewer’s “place” and the places portrayed in the film (communication geography). Finally, we will also consider how our personal sense of place towards New York City has altered throughout the course.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

NEW YORK CITY IN FILM

This course will explore the representation of New York City in film. We will examine the way that film portrays social problems and either creates or responds to “social panics.” We will also examine the way in which film actively creates an idea of “New York” through cinematography, directing, acting and other aspects of filmmaking.  Some topics to be considered are utopia/dystopia, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, art, immigration, houselessness, and gentrification. The course follows three main themes: 1. How the filmmaking process (camera movements, lighting, dialogue, acting, etc.) is used as a method to describe space (filmmaking as a geographic method). 2. How various genres of film have been used to portray the social geography of New York City (the geography of film). 3. The relationship between the viewer’s “place” and the places portrayed in the film (communication geography). Finally, we will also consider how our personal sense of place towards New York City has altered throughout the course.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

FEMINIST LIFE WRITING

Feminists have famously claimed that "the personal is political." Accordingly, life writing--in various genres--has been an important form for feminists across generations. In this class, we will explore the different ways in which feminists have used these modes to create visions of the self, to challenge the roles and self-images given to them, and to imagine new narratives. In particular, we'll explore questions of genre: so many of these writers have developed hybrid genres or challenged the boundaries of genre in order to write their lives. Looking at examples of life writing including letters, diaries and journals, graphic memoirs, and "traditional" autobiographies, we will examine these forms through the lens of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability. Readings are subject to change, but may include: Audre Lorde,
Zami
; Alison Bechdel,
Fun Home
; Cherrie Moraga,
Loving in the War Years
; Maggie Nelson,
The Argonauts
; Maxine Hong Kingston,
Woman Warrior
; poems by Adrienne Rich; Carmen Maria Machado,
In the Dream House
;
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
; Janet Mock,
Redefining Realness
, and selected shorter pieces. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider our primary texts from various critical approaches: including sexuality studies, critical race studies, disability studies, and transgender studies.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Meredith A Benjamin
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 3 points

BAD LOVE

This seminar reads stories of love gone bad, of romances that end catastrophically, that damage lovers or leave victims along the way.   We will illuminate the consuming fantasy of the romance genre in its quest for “true love,” as well as a range of emotions – rage and revenge, narcissism and self-protection, obsession and oblivion – that surface in its wake.  We will also look at shifting interpretations of “bad love,” from Plato, to the Galenic theory of the humors, to the sociology of court-culture, to Freudian and finally contemporary neurobiological explanations of feelings.  Students are welcome to propose texts of their own interests to open this course to the widest range of interests.  In addition to seminar discussion, there will be weekly individual tutorials with Professor Hamilton as well as zoom interviews with a neurobiologist and a psychologist if it can be arranged.

• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

BAD LOVE

This seminar reads stories of love gone bad, of romances that end catastrophically, that damage lovers or leave victims along the way.   We will illuminate the consuming fantasy of the romance genre in its quest for “true love,” as well as a range of emotions – rage and revenge, narcissism and self-protection, obsession and oblivion – that surface in its wake.  We will also look at shifting interpretations of “bad love,” from Plato, to the Galenic theory of the humors, to the sociology of court-culture, to Freudian and finally contemporary neurobiological explanations of feelings.  Students are welcome to propose texts of their own interests to open this course to the widest range of interests.  In addition to seminar discussion, there will be weekly individual tutorials with Professor Hamilton as well as zoom interviews with a neurobiologist and a psychologist if it can be arranged.

• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

FEMINISM, SCIENCE, & REPRODUCTIVE TECH

FEMINISM SCI & REPRO TECH

Reproductive technologies can refer to a wide range of techno-medical tools—contraceptives, pharmaceuticals, prenatal/genetic testing, ultrasound imaging, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs)—all of which powerfully influence reproductive experiences across the spectrum of pregnancy. We’ll analyze the sociocultural dimensions of these often highly controversial reproductive technologies. How does reproductive technology shape how we relate to reproduction—how we imagine, experience, and construct identities around reproductive processes? How do they both perpetuate and disrupt notions of race, gender, class, and ability? What freedoms do these reproductive technologies promise, and for whom? Course material will focus on the intersections between feminist science and technology studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and reproductive health.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Cecelia B Lie-Spahn
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

FEMINISM, SCIENCE, & REPRODUCTIVE TECH

FEMINISM SCI & REPRO TECH

Reproductive technologies can refer to a wide range of techno-medical tools—contraceptives, pharmaceuticals, prenatal/genetic testing, ultrasound imaging, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs)—all of which powerfully influence reproductive experiences across the spectrum of pregnancy. We’ll analyze the sociocultural dimensions of these often highly controversial reproductive technologies. How does reproductive technology shape how we relate to reproduction—how we imagine, experience, and construct identities around reproductive processes? How do they both perpetuate and disrupt notions of race, gender, class, and ability? What freedoms do these reproductive technologies promise, and for whom? Course material will focus on the intersections between feminist science and technology studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and reproductive health.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Cecelia B Lie-Spahn
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

DEAD MOTHERS AND WICKED STEPMOTHERS: THE

DEAD MOTHER-WICKED STEPMO

You know them well: on one side, the scheming, jealous stepmother, obsessed with her fading youth. On the other, her husband’s virginal, naive, and beautiful daughter – whose own mother is usually dead. The conflict between them is so familiar that it feels inevitable. Where, though, did these nearly universal figures come from? Why are they so ingrained in the imaginations of people around the world and across the millennia? In this course, we’ll explore the roots of the maternal in folk and fairy tales. We’ll analyze a variety of stories and films to investigate the “absent mother,” “virginal daughter,” and “wicked stepmother” from different critical perspectives, paying special attention to analytical psychology and feminist psychoanalytic theories, to try to figure out why these figures are so compelling, so ubiquitous, and so hard to shake.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Wendy C Schor-Haim
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 3 points

DEAD MOTHERS AND WICKED STEPMOTHERS: THE

DEAD MOTHER-WICKED STEPMO

You know them well: on one side, the scheming, jealous stepmother, obsessed with her fading youth. On the other, her husband’s virginal, naive, and beautiful daughter – whose own mother is usually dead. The conflict between them is so familiar that it feels inevitable. Where, though, did these nearly universal figures come from? Why are they so ingrained in the imaginations of people around the world and across the millennia? In this course, we’ll explore the roots of the maternal in folk and fairy tales. We’ll analyze a variety of stories and films to investigate the “absent mother,” “virginal daughter,” and “wicked stepmother” from different critical perspectives, paying special attention to analytical psychology and feminist psychoanalytic theories, to try to figure out why these figures are so compelling, so ubiquitous, and so hard to shake.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Wendy C Schor-Haim
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 3 points

Food Journeys in the New York Metropolit

Food Journeys: New York

This course will provide an introduction to food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management through four key lenses: agriculture and soil health; human health and nutrition; justice and equity; and food systems and climate change. Policy will be a unifying theme across all four lenses. The course will have a central focus on the NYC region but will include a global perspective. Students explore these units to imagine a food system that produces food in an ecologically mindful way while supporting our communities and the planet.  Most units will culminate with a shared meal inspired by the topics explored that week.  Students will engage with experts and practitioners in each field and explore a hands-on learning experience through field trips to locations including farm centers, community gardens, and food distribution centers in New York City and the Hudson Valley region. These field trips will be held on the following Fridays: May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16 and students will be expected to attend all field trips. The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Columbia Climate School will be key partners in the course.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• 3 points

Food Journeys in the New York Metropolit

Food Journeys: New York

This course will provide an introduction to food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management through four key lenses: agriculture and soil health; human health and nutrition; justice and equity; and food systems and climate change. Policy will be a unifying theme across all four lenses. The course will have a central focus on the NYC region but will include a global perspective. Students explore these units to imagine a food system that produces food in an ecologically mindful way while supporting our communities and the planet.  Most units will culminate with a shared meal inspired by the topics explored that week.  Students will engage with experts and practitioners in each field and explore a hands-on learning experience through field trips to locations including farm centers, community gardens, and food distribution centers in New York City and the Hudson Valley region. These field trips will be held on the following Fridays: May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16 and students will be expected to attend all field trips. The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Columbia Climate School will be key partners in the course.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• 3 points

DISORDERS OF THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

DISORDERS OF MIND/BRAIN

This course explores how neural processes giving rise to the mind can become disordered, resulting in devastating mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, autism, and depression. Students will review structural and functional neuroimaging research findings showing changes in the brain associated with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. This course will cover the empirical and theoretical accounts of the biological mechanisms that underlie mental illness. Throughout the course, students will gain exposure to neuroimaging, and behavioral methods commonly used to study brain function and cognition in clinical populations. By studying how changes in the brain result in cognitive dysfunction and mental illness, students will deepen their understanding of the biological foundations of human thought, perception, emotion, and social behavior.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Luca Iemi
  Info
• 3 points

DISORDERS OF THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

DISORDERS OF MIND/BRAIN

This course explores how neural processes giving rise to the mind can become disordered, resulting in devastating mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, autism, and depression. Students will review structural and functional neuroimaging research findings showing changes in the brain associated with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. This course will cover the empirical and theoretical accounts of the biological mechanisms that underlie mental illness. Throughout the course, students will gain exposure to neuroimaging, and behavioral methods commonly used to study brain function and cognition in clinical populations. By studying how changes in the brain result in cognitive dysfunction and mental illness, students will deepen their understanding of the biological foundations of human thought, perception, emotion, and social behavior.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Luca Iemi
  Info
• 3 points

World Dance History

A survey of the major dance traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and the Americas. Lectures and discussions address primary written and visual sources, ethnographic and documentary films, workshops, and performances.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul A Scolieri
  CULPA: 19 Info
• 3 points

World Dance History

A survey of the major dance traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and the Americas. Lectures and discussions address primary written and visual sources, ethnographic and documentary films, workshops, and performances.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul A Scolieri
  CULPA: 19 Info
• 3 points

The Hudson: Art, Industry and Ecology

Hudson: Art, Industry Eco

How has the human material and imaginative relationship to the local natural world changed as we transformed that world through development and use?  How have artists from different backgrounds documented and responded to these changes?  How have they envisioned responses that healed the environmental and social wounds caused by this development?

In the nineteenth century, painters who depicted sites along the Hudson River helped establish New York City as the capital of America’s art world.  During the same decades painters and tourists traveled upriver on steamboats to visit New York’s sublime landscapes, industrialists were building factories, foundries and mines along the Hudson’s shores, taking advantage of those same steamboats to move their products to market.  The profound, transformative industrialization of the Hudson continued and expanded through the second half of the twentieth century, at which point a nascent environmentalist movement effected the passage of laws that began to address the environmental damage it caused. 

Although the Hudson River School is seen as focusing exclusively on natural subjects, the painters recorded this history and, at times, responded critically to it.  In fact, artists have played a vital role in calling attention to the Hudson’s history of industrialization and its potential for recovery throughout the past two centuries.  At the same time, the aesthetic value of the river has been essential to the passage of environmental regulations. This course traces that story by looking closely at works of art and visiting sites associated with this history.  In addition to studying works of art tracing from early landscape painting to realist depictions of the social tolls of industry from the turn of the century to the environmental critiques of land artists and others from recent decades.  In addition, we will look at objects produced by artisans and other workers which shed light on diverse groups’ experiences of the history of the Hudson, including Native Americans, African-Americans, and immigrant laborers.

The class will combine lecture, discussion, and several field trips.  Students will produce two short critical papers and one longer essay and participate in an industrial site mapping project.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Hutchinson
  CULPA: 9 Info
• 3 points

The Hudson: Art, Industry and Ecology

Hudson: Art, Industry Eco

How has the human material and imaginative relationship to the local natural world changed as we transformed that world through development and use?  How have artists from different backgrounds documented and responded to these changes?  How have they envisioned responses that healed the environmental and social wounds caused by this development?

In the nineteenth century, painters who depicted sites along the Hudson River helped establish New York City as the capital of America’s art world.  During the same decades painters and tourists traveled upriver on steamboats to visit New York’s sublime landscapes, industrialists were building factories, foundries and mines along the Hudson’s shores, taking advantage of those same steamboats to move their products to market.  The profound, transformative industrialization of the Hudson continued and expanded through the second half of the twentieth century, at which point a nascent environmentalist movement effected the passage of laws that began to address the environmental damage it caused. 

Although the Hudson River School is seen as focusing exclusively on natural subjects, the painters recorded this history and, at times, responded critically to it.  In fact, artists have played a vital role in calling attention to the Hudson’s history of industrialization and its potential for recovery throughout the past two centuries.  At the same time, the aesthetic value of the river has been essential to the passage of environmental regulations. This course traces that story by looking closely at works of art and visiting sites associated with this history.  In addition to studying works of art tracing from early landscape painting to realist depictions of the social tolls of industry from the turn of the century to the environmental critiques of land artists and others from recent decades.  In addition, we will look at objects produced by artisans and other workers which shed light on diverse groups’ experiences of the history of the Hudson, including Native Americans, African-Americans, and immigrant laborers.

The class will combine lecture, discussion, and several field trips.  Students will produce two short critical papers and one longer essay and participate in an industrial site mapping project.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Hutchinson
  CULPA: 9 Info
• 3 points

Making Change: Activism, Social Movement

Activism and Education

Making Change: Activism, Social Movements and Education will look at the ways people power has pushed for change in the United States educational landscape. We will study historical and current social political education movements to answer questions such as: What does education/teacher activism look like? Who engages in educational social activism, and why? What do different models for organizing look like, past to present? We will learn from the examples of the Freedom Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Tucson Unified School District fight for ethnics studies, BLM at Schools, Teacher Activist Groups and more. We will engage in readings, watch documentaries and hear from education activist guest lecturers.

Learning Outcomes: 


You will explore the historical relationships between and across social movements in education and its social contexts. 

You will reflect on major educational justice movements from across the country and analyze its impact and importance. 

You will evaluate the changing role of education and schools in our society and propose actions that could be taken to improve education and schools in the future.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Natalia Ortiz
  Info
• 3 points

Making Change: Activism, Social Movement

Activism and Education

Making Change: Activism, Social Movements and Education will look at the ways people power has pushed for change in the United States educational landscape. We will study historical and current social political education movements to answer questions such as: What does education/teacher activism look like? Who engages in educational social activism, and why? What do different models for organizing look like, past to present? We will learn from the examples of the Freedom Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Tucson Unified School District fight for ethnics studies, BLM at Schools, Teacher Activist Groups and more. We will engage in readings, watch documentaries and hear from education activist guest lecturers.

Learning Outcomes: 


You will explore the historical relationships between and across social movements in education and its social contexts. 

You will reflect on major educational justice movements from across the country and analyze its impact and importance. 

You will evaluate the changing role of education and schools in our society and propose actions that could be taken to improve education and schools in the future.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Natalia Ortiz
  Info
• 3 points

Economics of Work and Play

Is human activity the locus of human freedom? Is human wellbeing more or less to do with the consumption of goods and services (as the neoclassical economist would have us believe) or with the status of human actions (whether as play or work)? Do human institutions--the state, patriarchal households, educational establishments, corporations, factories, prisons, retirement homes--impact individual preferences, dispositions, tolerances? Or, do fixed and stable human preferences (underlying assumption of neoclassical consumer theory) underpin such hierarchical institutions around which human life is organized? What aspects of labor--lack of ownership of means of production, minimal control over the work process, simplification (deskilling) of tasks-- lead to alienation of the worker? Can we imagine alternative structures of social work that is cooperative and non-hierarchical? What factors are implicated in the recent increase in so-called "bullshit jobs" over the past 40 years or so? What does the future of work look like?

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lalith Munasinghe
  CULPA: 33 Info
• 3 points

Economics of Work and Play

Is human activity the locus of human freedom? Is human wellbeing more or less to do with the consumption of goods and services (as the neoclassical economist would have us believe) or with the status of human actions (whether as play or work)? Do human institutions--the state, patriarchal households, educational establishments, corporations, factories, prisons, retirement homes--impact individual preferences, dispositions, tolerances? Or, do fixed and stable human preferences (underlying assumption of neoclassical consumer theory) underpin such hierarchical institutions around which human life is organized? What aspects of labor--lack of ownership of means of production, minimal control over the work process, simplification (deskilling) of tasks-- lead to alienation of the worker? Can we imagine alternative structures of social work that is cooperative and non-hierarchical? What factors are implicated in the recent increase in so-called "bullshit jobs" over the past 40 years or so? What does the future of work look like?

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lalith Munasinghe
  CULPA: 33 Info
• 3 points

Art & Performance in the Time of AIDS

Art & Perf in the Time of

This seminar explores the varied ways artists responded to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s through performance, theatre, and activist art.  As government indifference persisted and deaths soared, artists became radicalized and contemporary art and performance became a vehicle for activism.  We will follow different tactics in artwork responding to AIDS including the use of gay desire as a weapon and emblem of the fight for visibility.  The work we will view, think about, discuss, and write about is political, often angry, and always suffused with loss.  Because AIDS affected marginalized communities whose histories are still being told, we will examine a range of artists and materials that includes but also moves beyond the gay white male perspective.  We will spend time with theatre work by Reza Abdoh, Tony Kushner, and María Irene Fornés, videos by Juanita Mohammad, visual art by Kia LaBeija, Felix González-Torres, Martin Wong, and David Wojnarowicz, music by Mark Adamo and Diamanda Galás, among other lesser known artist/activists.  We will approach these works alongside critical and creative writing by José Esteban Muñoz and Audre Lorde among others.  The final project will be a research paper, built in stages throughout the semester, that engages critically with artwork that intersects with AIDS activism.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Alice A Reagan
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Art & Performance in the Time of AIDS

Art & Perf in the Time of

This seminar explores the varied ways artists responded to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s through performance, theatre, and activist art.  As government indifference persisted and deaths soared, artists became radicalized and contemporary art and performance became a vehicle for activism.  We will follow different tactics in artwork responding to AIDS including the use of gay desire as a weapon and emblem of the fight for visibility.  The work we will view, think about, discuss, and write about is political, often angry, and always suffused with loss.  Because AIDS affected marginalized communities whose histories are still being told, we will examine a range of artists and materials that includes but also moves beyond the gay white male perspective.  We will spend time with theatre work by Reza Abdoh, Tony Kushner, and María Irene Fornés, videos by Juanita Mohammad, visual art by Kia LaBeija, Felix González-Torres, Martin Wong, and David Wojnarowicz, music by Mark Adamo and Diamanda Galás, among other lesser known artist/activists.  We will approach these works alongside critical and creative writing by José Esteban Muñoz and Audre Lorde among others.  The final project will be a research paper, built in stages throughout the semester, that engages critically with artwork that intersects with AIDS activism.

• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Alice A Reagan
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

THE ART OF THE ESSAY

What makes the essay of personal experience an essay rather than a journal entry? How can one's specific experience transcend the limits of narrative and transmit a deeper meaning to any reader? How can a writer transmit the wisdom gained from personal experience without lecturing her reader? In The Art of the Essay, we explore the answers to these questions by reading personal essays in a variety of different forms. We begin with Michel de Montaigne, the 16th-century philosopher who popularized the personal essay as we know it and famously asked, “What do I know?,” and follow the development of the form as a locus of rigorous self-examination, doubt, persuasion, and provocation. Through close reading of a range of essays from writers including Annie Dillard, George Orwell, Jamaica Kincaid, and June Jordan, we analyze how voice, form, and evidence work together to create a world of meaning around an author's experience, one that invites readers into conversations that are at once deeply personal and universal in their consequences and implications.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Wendy C Schor-Haim
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Alexandra P Watson
  CULPA: 16 Info
• Instructor: Wendy C Schor-Haim
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Alexandra P Watson
  CULPA: 16 Info
• 3 points

QUEER GENRES

In this class, we will focus on queer narratives of the self to explore how authors represent queerness across centuries and genres, and how these queer narratives are informed by various historical, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into account the particularities of each author’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions: How do various cultural, national, linguistic, religious or political contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and represented in literature? How do these authors represent the intersections of queerness with race, class, ethnicity, disability and citizenship? How have queer narratives developed over time and across cultures in conversation with local and global modes of conceptualizing gender and sexuality? How do queer authors utilize the particularities of each genre to create new forms of self-expression?

Texts will span various genres such as short stories, poems, memoirs, graphic novels, novels and personal essays by authors such as James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Sappho, Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Adrienne Rich, Casey Plett and Imogen Binnie. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider these works from a range of perspectives, such as queer studies, feminist studies, disability studies, and transgender studies.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Duygu Ula
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 3 points

QUEER GENRES

In this class, we will focus on queer narratives of the self to explore how authors represent queerness across centuries and genres, and how these queer narratives are informed by various historical, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into account the particularities of each author’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions: How do various cultural, national, linguistic, religious or political contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and represented in literature? How do these authors represent the intersections of queerness with race, class, ethnicity, disability and citizenship? How have queer narratives developed over time and across cultures in conversation with local and global modes of conceptualizing gender and sexuality? How do queer authors utilize the particularities of each genre to create new forms of self-expression?

Texts will span various genres such as short stories, poems, memoirs, graphic novels, novels and personal essays by authors such as James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Sappho, Carmen Maria Machado, Alison Bechdel, Adrienne Rich, Casey Plett and Imogen Binnie. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider these works from a range of perspectives, such as queer studies, feminist studies, disability studies, and transgender studies.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Duygu Ula
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 3 points

CONSUMER CULTURE IN MOD EUROPE

The development of the modern culture of consumption, with particular attention to the formation of the woman consumer. Topics include commerce and the urban landscape, changing attitudes toward shopping and spending, feminine fashion and conspicuous consumption, and the birth of advertising. Examination of novels, fashion magazines, and advertising images.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lisa Tiersten
  CULPA: 45 Info
• 3 points

CONSUMER CULTURE IN MOD EUROPE

The development of the modern culture of consumption, with particular attention to the formation of the woman consumer. Topics include commerce and the urban landscape, changing attitudes toward shopping and spending, feminine fashion and conspicuous consumption, and the birth of advertising. Examination of novels, fashion magazines, and advertising images.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lisa Tiersten
  CULPA: 45 Info
• 3-4 points

Global Activism: The Politics and Dynami

GLBL ACTIV:POL OF SOCIAL

#Metoo #Kony2012 #Fake News #BLM, #Loveislove, #IIcantbreathe, and etc are just a few examples of modern social movements.

 This class will examine the processes of collective action in Social Movements. This course will investigate social movements from collective action from domestic and international perspectives. The course will focus on the hitherto success and failure of social movements: waves of feminism, the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ+ movement. Students will learn the many methods of successful social movements such as peaceful protesting, sit-in’s, acts of civil disobedience, and riots. The transdisciplinary academic boundaries of Global Social Movements combine and draw from sociology, political science, and anthropology. From the use of case studies, students will comparatively be able to understand issues in the power of the social problems (not to be limited) such as police brutality that has resulted in collective action that resulted in the Egyptian Revolution from the 2020 unrest around the globe.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Camara Silver
  Info
• 3 points

Global Activism: The Politics and Dynami

GLBL ACTIV:POL OF SOCIAL

#Metoo #Kony2012 #Fake News #BLM, #Loveislove, #IIcantbreathe, and etc are just a few examples of modern social movements.

 This class will examine the processes of collective action in Social Movements. This course will investigate social movements from collective action from domestic and international perspectives. The course will focus on the hitherto success and failure of social movements: waves of feminism, the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ+ movement. Students will learn the many methods of successful social movements such as peaceful protesting, sit-in’s, acts of civil disobedience, and riots. The transdisciplinary academic boundaries of Global Social Movements combine and draw from sociology, political science, and anthropology. From the use of case studies, students will comparatively be able to understand issues in the power of the social problems (not to be limited) such as police brutality that has resulted in collective action that resulted in the Egyptian Revolution from the 2020 unrest around the globe.

• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Camara Silver
  Info
• 3 points

THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD

The theater of the absurd was a theatrical movement that emerged in Paris in the 1950s. Plays such as Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot
and Eugène Ionesco’s
The Bald Soprano
challenged the conventions of traditional theater, staging a darkly humorous, “absurd” vision of human existence. In this course, we will conduct close readings of some of the major plays of the movement, and explore its links to the Existentialist philosophy of post-WWII France (especially the philosophy of Albert Camus). We will pay particular attention to the social and political context of the movement’s emergence; the challenge to conventions of bourgeois drama; popular and critical reception of the plays. After brief contextualization of the period to be studied and some indications as to how to read dramatic texts, we will proceed to a close analysis of the text, performance and reception of some of the key works of the theater of the absurd, beginning with Eugène Ionesco’s
The Bald Soprano
and T
he Lesson
, followed by Samuel Beckett's Waiting for
Godot
 (1953). Analysis of these plays will allow us to identify the primary characteristics and themes of absurdist drama (purposelessness and hopelessness of human existence; godlessness of the modern world; futility of action; collapse of logic; impossibility of communication etc) as well as the hallmarks of the absurdist theatrical style (its debt to mime, vaudeville, and the circus; the use of humor, ritual, and violence; theater within theater; absence of action/plot etc). With a good grasp of what constitutes absurd theater we will then familiarize ourselves with some of its literary and intellectual origins: the existentialist philosophy of J.-P. Sartre and especially Albert Camus (“The Myth of Sisyphus”); parallels to absurdism in the writings of Franz Kafka; Antonin Artaud’s "theater of cruelty”; Alfred Jarry’s 
Ubu Roi
 (1896); the manifestos of the Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti; the "static drama" of the Belgian Symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck.

• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter T Connor
  CULPA: 13 Info
• 3 points

MAJOR WOMEN FILMMAKERS

Traditional film history has consigned a multitude of cinema practices to an inferior position. By accepting Hollywood’s narrative model as central, film scholars have often relegated non-male, non-white, non-Western films to a secondary role. Often described as “marginal” or “peripheral” cinemas, the outcomes of these film practices have been systematically excluded from the canon. Yet… are these motion pictures really “secondary”? In relation to what? And according to whom? This course looks at major films by women filmmakers of the 20th Century within a tradition of political cinema that 1) directly confronts the hegemonic masculinity of the Hollywood film industry, and 2) relocates the so-called “alternative women’s cinema” at the core of film history. Unlike conventional feminist film courses, which tend to be contemporary and anglocentric, this class adopts a historical and worldwide perspective; rather than focusing on female directors working in America today, we trace the origins of women’s cinema in different cities of the world (Berlin, Paris, New York) during the silent period, and, from there, we move forward to study major works by international radical directors such as Lorenza Mazzetti, Agnès Varda, Forough Farrokhzad, Věra Chytilová, Chantal Akerman, Lina Wertmüller, Barbara Loden, Julie Dash, and Mira Nair. We analyse how these filmmakers have explored womanhood not only as a source of oppresion (critique of patriarchal phallocentrism, challenge to heteronormativity, etc) but, most importantly, as a source of empowerment (defense of matriarchy, equal rights, lesbian love, inter- and transexuality...). Required readings include seminal texts of feminist film theory by Claire Johnston, Laura Mulvey, Ann Kaplan, bell hooks, and Judith Butler. Among the films screened in the classroom are silent movies –
Suspense
(Lois Weber, 1913),
The Seashell and the Clergyman
(Germaine Dulac, 1928)—, early independent and experimental cinema –
Girls in Uniform
(Leontine Sagan, 1931),
Ritual in Transfigured Time
(Maya Deren, 1946)—, “new wave” films of the 1950s and 1960s –
Cléo from 5 to 7
(Varda, 1962),
Daisies
(Chytilová, 1966)–,
auteur
cinema of the 1970s –
Seven Beauties
(Wertmüller, 1974),
Jeanne Dielman
(Akerman, 1975)–, and documentary films –

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Breixo Viejo Vinas
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 3 points

MAJOR WOMEN FILMMAKERS

Traditional film history has consigned a multitude of cinema practices to an inferior position. By accepting Hollywood’s narrative model as central, film scholars have often relegated non-male, non-white, non-Western films to a secondary role. Often described as “marginal” or “peripheral” cinemas, the outcomes of these film practices have been systematically excluded from the canon. Yet… are these motion pictures really “secondary”? In relation to what? And according to whom? This course looks at major films by women filmmakers of the 20th Century within a tradition of political cinema that 1) directly confronts the hegemonic masculinity of the Hollywood film industry, and 2) relocates the so-called “alternative women’s cinema” at the core of film history. Unlike conventional feminist film courses, which tend to be contemporary and anglocentric, this class adopts a historical and worldwide perspective; rather than focusing on female directors working in America today, we trace the origins of women’s cinema in different cities of the world (Berlin, Paris, New York) during the silent period, and, from there, we move forward to study major works by international radical directors such as Lorenza Mazzetti, Agnès Varda, Forough Farrokhzad, Věra Chytilová, Chantal Akerman, Lina Wertmüller, Barbara Loden, Julie Dash, and Mira Nair. We analyse how these filmmakers have explored womanhood not only as a source of oppresion (critique of patriarchal phallocentrism, challenge to heteronormativity, etc) but, most importantly, as a source of empowerment (defense of matriarchy, equal rights, lesbian love, inter- and transexuality...). Required readings include seminal texts of feminist film theory by Claire Johnston, Laura Mulvey, Ann Kaplan, bell hooks, and Judith Butler. Among the films screened in the classroom are silent movies –
Suspense
(Lois Weber, 1913),
The Seashell and the Clergyman
(Germaine Dulac, 1928)—, early independent and experimental cinema –
Girls in Uniform
(Leontine Sagan, 1931),
Ritual in Transfigured Time
(Maya Deren, 1946)—, “new wave” films of the 1950s and 1960s –
Cléo from 5 to 7
(Varda, 1962),
Daisies
(Chytilová, 1966)–,
auteur
cinema of the 1970s –
Seven Beauties
(Wertmüller, 1974),
Jeanne Dielman
(Akerman, 1975)–, and documentary films –

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Breixo Viejo Vinas
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 3 points

Curating Islam in NYC

This course focuses on the ways in which museums conceptualize, contextualize, curate and display Islamic art.  In the process, it interrogates the degree to which the orientalist past and the secular present shapes our understanding of the Muslim world.  Students will not just engage with material objects from Muslim societies but also consider the choices museums make about their display and presentation.  These choices, in turn, speak to the role of museums in defining a specific understanding of the “sacred.” Finally, students will learn to thoughtfully and critically pose questions about the roles that museums as public institutions play in sharping public and private understandings of Islam.

The course begins with a general discussion of material objects in the study of religion.  This is followed by a broad survey of Islamic Art which both describes and critiques the category as it has been framed in the Academy.  Students then visit a number of museums to learn about the style and content of their Islamic collections.  The course concludes by engaging a different kind of curation, namely oral histories in the Brooklyn Museum.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Najam I Haider
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 4 points

Curating Islam in NYC

This course focuses on the ways in which museums conceptualize, contextualize, curate and display Islamic art.  In the process, it interrogates the degree to which the orientalist past and the secular present shapes our understanding of the Muslim world.  Students will not just engage with material objects from Muslim societies but also consider the choices museums make about their display and presentation.  These choices, in turn, speak to the role of museums in defining a specific understanding of the “sacred.” Finally, students will learn to thoughtfully and critically pose questions about the roles that museums as public institutions play in sharping public and private understandings of Islam.

The course begins with a general discussion of material objects in the study of religion.  This is followed by a broad survey of Islamic Art which both describes and critiques the category as it has been framed in the Academy.  Students then visit a number of museums to learn about the style and content of their Islamic collections.  The course concludes by engaging a different kind of curation, namely oral histories in the Brooklyn Museum.

• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Najam I Haider
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 4 points