On Brown Anniversary, Steinhardt Hosts Civil Rights Activist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Writer Calvin Trillin

On May 17th, the 59th anniversary of the Brown decision, the Department of Teaching and Learning hosted Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Calvin Trillin for a conversation on civil rights.

Hunter-Gault and the late Hamilton Holmes – with the support of an all-star legal team– desegregated the University of Georgia in 1961.  An award-winning journalist, Hunter-Gault is the author of  In My Place, and To The Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement.

Trillin – best known as a novelist, humorist, food and travel author —  wrote a series of articles for The New Yorker on the UG desegregation in the 1960s and published them as An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia.

The event was the final session of the Teaching American History workshop series for New York City public school teachers, and was co-sponsored by NYU, the New York City Department of Education, and the New York Historical Society.

“Our goal is to connect teachers to the best scholarship in American history so that they can become more effective history teachers,” said Robby Cohen, professor of social studies education in Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning, and lead historian on this federally funded professional development program.

“Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Calvin Trillin have written very powerful books about the black freedom movement and the struggle to implement the Brown decision, to tear down the color line in public education.  Charlayne lived this history, which makes her story all the more compelling for our teachers,” Cohen said.

The session was attended by teachers from NYU’s partnerships schools, as well as NYU America Reads tutors. Prior sessions focused on U.S. constitutional history with sessions led by renowned historians, including Eric Foner, Linda Greenhouse, Linda Kerber, Richard Bernstein, Maeva Marcus, Waldo Martin, and Melvyn Urofsky.

Hunter-Gault offered the audience a vivid portrait of her coming-of-age as a civil rights activist.  After, she took questions from the audience on a range of topics, and encouraged teachers to engage deeply with their students.

“You might have to be the mother, the father, and the auntie,” Hunger-Gault said.  “What goes on in your classroom could save a kid from a dangerous and unproductive life.”

 

(Photos:  Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Calvin Trillin:  Debra Weinstein/NYU Steinhardt)

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 21, 2013 4:32 pm | |

Graduation Profile: The Complicated Journey of Andrew Cory Greene

Among NYU Steinhardt’s 2,100 graduates this week is Andrew Cory Greene, banner bearer at the Baccalaureate Ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

The road to Radio City was a complicated one for Greene who dropped out of high school at sixteen, spent eight years in jail for his part in a homicide, enrolled in LaGuardia Community College upon his release, then transferred to NYU Steinhardt.   Through the support of NYU’s Community College Transfer Opportunity Program, Greene will earn a B.S. degree from the Department of Applied Psychology.

“Cory Greene is a great example of the transformative power of education,” says Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of education and history. “To me, Cory embodies the best ideals of the liberal arts: curiosity, enthusiasm, and especially persistence in the face of challenge. Few of us have faced the kind of circumstances and obstacles that Cory has overcome. But all of us struggle every day to make meaning of the world and also to make it a better place for human beings to live.”

Greene credits his young son with helping him turn his life around.  He’s committed to helping others, too, through H.O.L.L.A.!, a community-mentoring organization he founded.  H.O.L.LA! holds group sessions for middle school students in Brownsville, Brooklyn on Saturdays, “encouraging, engaging, and empowering them both socially and academically,” Greene says.

To many, Greene serves as an example of what can be achieved through sheer determination.  His struggle to rise above circumstance is the subject of Christine Pigott’s short documentary film, From Prison to NYU.

His journey continues next fall at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY),  where he has been accepted to the Ph.D. program in psychology.

(Photo:  Debra Weinstein/NYU Steinhardt)

Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 20, 2013 3:39 pm | |

Internationally Renowned Fashion Designer, Charlotte Ronson, is 2013 Alumni Achievement Award Recipient

Fashion designer Charlotte Ronson launched her first collection in 2000, opened her flagship boutique two years later in New York’s Nolita neighborhood, and shows her collections at New York Fashion Week.  A 1999 graduate of the Studio Art Program within Steinhardt’s Department of Art and Art Professions, Ms. Ronson is one of the 2013 Alumni Achievement Award recipients. She will accept her award on Monday, May 20 at the Steinhardt baccalaureate ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.


Ms. Ronson took a few minutes to speak with At-A-Glance about life after Steinhardt and offers words of wisdom to the 2013 grads.

So, what is a typical day in the life of Charlottle Ronson?
In the mornings I grab a coffee and quick bite to eat on the way to the office. I meet with my design team and we go over any approvals that are needed for either my “I ‘Heart’ Ronson” collection for JCPenny or my runway collection. This can range from fabrics to color to design ideas and fittings. I usually have interview questions or shoots to attend and collaborations that I work on.

A typical day is usually pretty great, I feel very lucky to be able to do what I love every day. In the evenings, I try to relax and meet up with friends for dinner or just spend time at home catching up on my TiVo.

How did your education at Steinhardt prepare you for your career?
Steinhardt prepared me by instilling in me the knowledge, awareness, and strength to follow my dreams and create my own company and business as a woman.  Now, I’m able to do what I love everyday.

The Steinhardt mission seeks to impact social change. How do you incorporate the Steinhardt mission into your everyday life?
As a woman, I have never let gender stop me from starting my company or being seen as serious designer.  We should all take advantage of the times we’re living in as limitations are fewer and far between.  I truly believe that you can do anything if you are passionate, & put your mind and heart into it, and work hard.

I’m also involved in numerous charities. I think it is imperative to do your part and to give back and carry on a positive message. One must encourage the next generation of women to be their own role models.

What advice do you have for current students and soon to be graduates?
Follow your true passions and give it your all. That is the key to success and happiness and your job will never feel like work.

 

Posted by Courtney Bowe on May 15, 2013 4:51 pm | |

Graduation Season Begins at NYU Steinhardt with Doctoral Convocation

This week the Steinhardt School launches graduation season with its annual Doctoral Convocation at NYU’s Skirball Center for Performing Arts.  More than 100 students will receive advanced degrees for dissertations that span topics ranging from Kari Hensley’s ‘The Politics of Nostalgic in Postindustrial Brooklyn’ to Mellie Torres’ ‘Perceptions of Masculinity, Racial, Ethnic and Academic Identity among Latino Students.’

On Monday, May 20th, 2,100 undergraduate and master’s degree recipient will receive their diplomas on stage at Radio City Music Hall.

The school will honor Charlotte Ronson (BS ’99 Studio Art), Marilyn Moffat (MA ’64 Physical Therapy; Ph. D. ’73 Health Education), and Young Yang Chung (MA ’74 Studio Art; Ph.D. ’76 Art Education).

Learn more about Steinhardt’s Graduation Events.

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 13, 2013 3:33 pm | |

Award-Winning Film by Doctoral Student Tasha Darbes Explores the Experience of Undocumented Students

Tasha Darbes, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Teaching and Learning, is the winner of the American Educational Research Association’s Best Amateur Film competition. Admissions: Student Stories from Undocumented America, created with with Chloe Smolarski, is a character driven, feature-length creative nonfiction film exploring the stories of four undocumented students at American universities.

“Taking its cue from its subjects, Admissions is a brilliant un/documentary on the psychological textures and folds of undocumented students,” writes Chuck Jackson, an associate professor at the University of Houston.

 

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 10, 2013 1:05 pm | |

Applied Psychology Students Present Original Research at Professional Conferences

Academic achievement, gender socialization, and children’s early understanding of emotions were some of the research topics tackled by Department of Applied Psychology students in their final projects.  Sijia Wang, Amy Seunghee Baeg, and Emerald Shee presented original research undertaken at Steinhardt’s Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education at three separate professional conferences this spring.

“These students dedicated two years to projects that entailed at least ten hours a week of research responsibilities,” said faculty mentor Professor Catherine Tamis-LeMonda. “Their hard work and dedication will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst to their professional development for years to come.”

Photo, from left:  Scarlett Wang, Catherine Tamis-Lemonda, Amy Seunghee Baeg, and Emerald Shee.  (Photo credit:  Brady Galan)

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 10, 2013 1:12 am | |

Faculty Member Ron Sadoff Writes the Score to End Gun Violence

Ron Sadoff, director of Steinhardt’s program in film scoring, wrote the soundtrack for a new public service ad demanding an end to gun violence.

The ad asks viewers to send members of congress a clear message that “now is the time to pass common sense legislation to end gun violence and save lives.”

The ad also features the acting talents of Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffmann.

Sadoff, an associate professor of music and music education, has produced scores for film, radio, television programs.  Among his many credits: “Obama Revealed,” broadcast throughout the presidential campaign on CNN, and John Canemaker’s, The Moon and The Son: An Imagined Conversation, starring John Turturro and Eli Wallach

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Posted by Debra Weinstein on May 3, 2013 2:00 pm | |

Steinhardt Recommends: Carol Bove’s Art on the Highline

Sculptures by Carol Bove (BS ’00) are on display on the final underdeveloped stretch of New York City’s Highline. Caterpillar, a series of large-scale sculptures, punctuate the derelict contour of the abandoned rail line.

Bove was the subject of a New York Time’s Art and Design profile, ‘Once Upon A Landscape,” and will have a solo exhibition of new pieces at the Museum of Modern Art in July.  She is a clinical associate professor of studio art in Steinhardt’s Department of Art and Art Professions.

Read More About Carol Bove:

Steinhardt’s School’s Carol Bove and Trisha Donnelly Among the Artists in the 54th Venice Biennale

(Photo:  Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)

 

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on April 30, 2013 2:02 pm | |

Steinhardt is Part of NYU’s New Media and Games Network (MAGNET)

New York University is launching the Media and Games Network (MAGNET), a facility in Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center that will bring together NYU and Polytechnic Institute of NYU faculty whose teaching and research bridge technology and culture.The facility, adjacent to the campus for NYU-Poly and NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), is expected to open in the fall of 2013.

The new multi-school cluster will co-locate teaching and research programs in games as a creative art form, game design, digital media design, computer science, and engineering – with each program retaining its department affiliation and school identity. It will include undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students from NYU and NYU-Poly. It will serve as the first space at NYU to co-locate faculty from different schools – including NYU-Poly, which will become the school of engineering at NYU in 2014 – creating a shared facility for collaborative teaching and research.

Christopher Hoadley, an associate professor in Steinhardt’s Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology will be part of the team leading the effort. The team is comprised of R. Luke DuBois, an assistant professor of Integrated Digital Media at NYU-Poly and director of its Brooklyn Experimental Media Center; Katherine Isbister, associate professor jointly appointed between Computer Science and Engineering at NYU-Poly and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Game Center, and research director of NYU-Poly’s Center of Innovation for Technology and Entertainment Game Innovation Lab; Frank Lantz, an associate arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and director of the NYU Game Center; and Ken Perlin, a professor of computer science in the Media Research Lab at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and director of the Games for Learning Institute.

“What new forms of culture are being made possible by digital media? How are games and other interactive systems transforming our lives, our ideas, and the world we live in? MAGNET is a new approach to answering these questions by bringing together faculty and students from different disciplines in the same physical space,” explained Lantz. “It’s an opportunity to cut across institutional boundaries and discover powerful new combinations of concepts, techniques, disciplines, and talent in order to learn from the past, engage with the present, and invent the future.”

“We believe this facility will enable exactly the sort of learning that research shows is best: hands-on, with access to peer and expert feedback, as students apprentice to the wealth of research and design that our faculty bring,” said Hoadley, director of the dolcelab, the Laboratory for Design of Learning Collaboration and Experience, and co-director of Steinhardt’s educational technology graduate programs. “This space will be truly ready for technology as a core part of the learning. Students and faculty will have access to everything from whiteboards to projection throughout the facility to share ideas and spark creativity.”

“MAGNET will not only be a great enabler of collaboration within NYU—it will be a powerful attractor for students deciding where to go for undergraduate or graduate study,” added Isbister. “I’ve already had students tell me this combination of faculty and programs coming together in this new cluster was a deciding factor.

“Brooklyn has a vibrant arts and independent gaming community that already participates in many events at the NYU-Poly Game Innovation Lab. Having MAGNET in place will bring a much larger and diverse group of students and faculty into the mix, creating even more cross-traffic between Brooklyn indies, artists, and start-ups and the NYU/NYU-Poly community.”

“This is truly a rare opportunity to break down the walls that too often divide technology and the arts,” noted Perlin.

“The opportunity to collaborate in a single facility with colleagues from so many other NYU programs that have invested in media research, gaming, and education is tremendous,” said DuBois, who also has appointments in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch and in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at Steinhardt. “Our research is explicitly interdisciplinary and outward-facing, and we look forward to having such a great, state-of-the-art facility right in Downtown Brooklyn.”

The facility is designed to allow faculty and students working in complementary fields to share resources and forge connections. The new space—designed collaboratively by the partner schools—will enable inter-school and inter-disciplinary collaboration, and will provide flexibility to accommodate current needs, future technology, and the development of new curriculum. Among the site’s features are: power and data infrastructure to support gallery-like shows, research studies, and student projects; classrooms equipped with instructional technology; and specialized spaces for audio engineering, motion capture, and digital arts.

“NYU has emerged as one of the top universities in the country in game design and game studies, a tribute to its faculty strengths in the multiple disciplines making up the field,” said NYU Provost David McLaughlin. “The creation of MAGNET, which grew organically out of the interlocking and vibrant research collaborations that had already brought together faculty in these programs, will only enhance NYU’s profile in this cutting-edge sector of technology.”

Beginning in the fall semester of 2013, the space will house graduate programs in Game Design (MFA, Tisch); Games for Learning (MS), Digital Media Design for Learning (MA), and Educational Communications and Technology (Ph.D.) from Steinhardt; and Integrated Digital Media (MS, NYU-Poly). MAGNET will also house undergraduate majors in Integrated Digital Media (BS, NYU-Poly) and minors in Game Engineering (Computer Science and Engineering, NYU-Poly).

MAGNET will be located in newly renovated space of nearly 40,000 square feet on the 8th floor of 2 MetroTech Center. It has been designed by Gensler Architects, in collaboration with the facility’s partner schools, to provide offices, studio and work spaces, teaching labs, and research areas.

Read More about NYU Steinhardt & Gaming

A Grant to Study How Badges and Trophies Influence Learning

NYU Steinhardt 4 Games

On Writing and Cheating (At Video Games): An Interview with Liel Liebovitz

(Photo:  Steinhardt Associate Professor Christopher Hoadley)

 

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on April 29, 2013 3:13 pm | |

NYU Steinhardt Hosts Steven Van Zandt’s Rock & Roll Foundation; Celebrates Launch of Media-Rich Music Curriculum

At a press conference held on April 24th at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Steven Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation announced its new partnership with The GRAMMY Museum, and debuted Rock and Roll: An American Story (RRAAS), an interdisciplinary middle and high school curriculum that explores Rock and Roll from its roots in blues, country music, gospel, and R&B to its latest incarnations today.

The curriculum examines the influence of Rock and Roll on society and social movements, politics, American culture, and history over the last seven decades.

“Today, we debut a very special middle and high school curriculum project, one with which we are proud to be associated,” NYU Steinhardt Dean Mary Brabeck stated in her opening remarks. “It’s a project very much in the spirit of our school in that it uses the arts to revitalize education.”

RRAAS is currently being piloted in four NYU Steinhardt partner schools in New York City: Edward R. Murrow High School, Fannie Lou Hammer Freedom High School, the Institute for Collaborative Education (ICE) Middle School in the Bronx, and M.S. 223, the Laboratory School for Finance and Technology.

“The reasons for this project are many, obviously. But as I looked into it, I saw one word recur in discussions of the drop-out epidemic: ‘Engagement,’” Van Zandt explained to reporters, educators, and partners in attendance. “At-risk students are very often the students who do not feel engaged in school. Put another way, they are not seeing how the classroom relates to their lives.”

Van Zandt continued, “I met an educator—in my case, a librarian—who saw my interest in Bob Dylan. She encouraged me to make connections between Dylan’s songs and the world of literature. She helped me to see that ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ was part of a cultural legacy that included the Beats, and that the Beats were part of a story that included the very youth culture that was springing up around me. Suddenly the classroom came alive for me. I was engaged. Learning related to my life.”

According to Warren Zanes, executive director of the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, there are lessons on Gospel music, the Social Soul of the early seventies, the genre’s connection to early Hip-Hop, and many other subjects.

“The lessons aren’t just about Rock and Roll music but are truly interdisciplinary, tapping into culture, politics, and society,” Zanes explained. “One lesson, for example, uses Elvis Presley’s first single, ‘That’s All Right,’ to explore the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.”

Van Zandt and Zanes offered audience members a glimpse of the media-rich, indisciplinary curriculum that will launch this fall with 100 lesson plans that integrate music, history, and the visual arts.

“Rock and Roll is experienced not simply as a sound culture, but as a cinematic and televisual culture, a literary culture, a fashion culture, a political culture, a dance culture, and more,” said GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli. “I’ve worked on a number of music-based education programs. But Rock and Roll: An American Story is a special one. I think it is positioned to do something very significant in broadening the base of how music is approached in schools.”

In conjunction with NYU Steinhardt, the Foundation will offer a week-long teacher institute on the NYU campus this summer to train educators on how to use the curriculum in the classroom. In addition, the Foundation will join with the GRAMMY Museum to provide teacher training events across the country after the curriculum rolls out in the fall.

Robbie Cohen, professor of history and social studies education serves as the liaison with the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and has aided in the development and implementation of the curriculum.  Lee Frissell, Steinhardt’s director of field projects, arranged for several New York City public schools to pilot the program with the assistance of Stacie Brensilver, a graduate student, who also wrote a unit about dance that is included in the curriculum.

The GRAMMY museum joins a prestigious team of partners and supporters. Scholastic Inc. has been involved with the Foundation since its inception, and will create support materials for teachers, including a microsite and poster teaching guide that will launch in time for back to school. Additionally, the curriculum has been officially endorsed by the National Association for Music Education and the National Council for the Social Studies.

The pilot phase will continue over the next two years in New York City and New Jersey schools. The curriculum, which meets Common Core State Standards, will be available this fall to schools, at no cost.

(Steven Van Zandt; Steven Van Zandt and Steinhardt Professor Robbie Cohen, Dean Mary Brabeck:  credit Debra Weinstein/NYU Steinhardt)

 

Posted by Debra Weinstein on April 25, 2013 11:40 pm | |