Undergraduate Courses

This course examines music video as a site where cultural identities are constructed, negotiated, and contested. Drawing on scholarship from music theory, multimedia, cognition, and cultural studies, students analyze how audiovisual global media shape understandings of race, gender, sexuality, national identity, and politics. By situating videos within their sociocultural contexts, the course explores how artists engage power and influence cultural narratives through popular media. Satisfies Liberal Arts CORE requirement for Cultures and Contexts for Steinhardt students.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions
• Liberal Arts Core: Cultures and Contexts

This course offers students the opportunity to engage with theories of communication & culture through the context of consumption & contemporary consumer society. Our focus will be on the role of commodities & consumer practices in everyday life & in culture at large. We will give particular attention to consumption's role in the construction of social & cultural identities. Students will consider critical responses to consumer culture, including the resistance & refusal of consumption as well as the attempted mobilization of consumption toward social change.

• Department: Media, Culture, and Communication

This seminar course explores strategies for building a resilient and sustainable artistic practice in today's rapidly changing social, political, cultural, and technological landscape. Students develop tools to advance their work as emerging artists, focusing on portfolio preparation, exhibition opportunities, residencies, and grant applications. Emphasizing how contemporary art is experienced across various contexts, the class features meetings with artists, curators, directors, and other professionals working in the New York art world.

• Department: Art and Art Professions

This seminar course will include didactic coursework and site visits during which time students will observe interdisciplinary clinical service provision at sites in the metropolitan London area. Students will observe evaluation and treatment sessions of children and adults receiving clinical services across disciplines such as speech language pathology, audiology, counseling, nursing, art, music, or drama therapy, and physical and occupational therapy. Seminar discussions will focus on the role of the interdisciplinary team in treating individuals with various disorders and provide an introduction to the practice of health fields specific to the United Kingdom and will explore attitudes toward disability and the allocation of health care resources in the UK. Comparisons between the US and UK health care systems will also be emphasized.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This hands-on course will both sharpen a composer’s aesthetic & raise the level of proficiency in their use of an industry-standard complex of the software necessary for composing & producing in film and media production. In tandem with incorporating the ever-increasing quality & availability of digital audio production software, including virtual instruments, media composers will deliver the pristine, professional sounding music now expected for film, TV, video games, songs & even Broadway.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

An overview of the artistic and administrative demands of being a professional
singer in the 21st century, including music production, collaboration, distribution, publishing, and digital marketing. Students receive guidance in developing short and long term career plans rooted in their unique identities, interests, and creative pursuits.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course prepares the contemporary vocalist for professional opportunities in live performance. Students collaborate with each other to book, manage, promote, and perform gigs at New York City music venues using the skills learned throughout their degree. Culminates in a showcase concert at an on- or off-campus venue for
friends, family, and invited industry guests

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course focuses on the mastery of vocal performance across a range of contemporary genres, with a particular emphasis on stylistic integrity, performance adaptability, and vocal health. Through workshops, guided listening, and peer critique, students will perform material in multiple genres and create a curated Repertoire Book reflecting their vocal identity, strengths, and growth areas.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course is a laboratory environment where students explore all aspects of live
contemporary vocal performance. The course culminates in a final performance at an on-campus venue where the students participate in each of the technical elements of an amplified contemporary concert, including musical arrangement.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

: This course explores the relationship between phonetics and acoustics as they
pertain to the text setting of song lyrics. Using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in conjunction with practical exercises and performance, students learn the technical concept of “vowel modification.” Skills developed in the course will allow singers to transpose covers of existing songs into keys well-suited for their voices and to improvise and embellish melodies with intentionality.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

A laboratory environment where students prepare for and execute all aspects of recording and releasing an Extended Play (EP) album. Students select songs, create accompaniment tracks and band charts, record vocals in a professional studio, mix and master final tracks, and release their EP on all major streaming and download
platforms.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

A laboratory environment where students explore all elements of contemporary songwriting (structure, harmony, melody and lyric). Students analyze and perform existing songs as well as compose their own original songs.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course trains the singer in the methods used to create studio recordings. Students learn the protocols of a recording studio environment (Dolan Recording Studio) and record professional background vocals in small groups.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course offers an in-depth exploration of contemporary vocal styles with a strong emphasis on visual storytelling, music video production, and the creation of short-form performance content. Students will examine and perform material from a wide range of styles—including rock, pop, country, R&B, folk, disco, rap, and poetic/lyric-driven music—while learning to identify and embody the vocal traits that make each genre unique. The semester culminates in the creation of a personalized music video and short-form performance recordings suitable for social media or promotional materials.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

Examines the basic tenets and operative principles of the global copyright system. Considers the ways in which media industries, artists, and consumers interact with the copyright system and assesses how well it serves its stated purposes: to encourage art and creativity. Special emphasis on the social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a result of new communicative technologies.

• Department: Media, Culture, and Communication

Examines the basic tenets and operative principles of the global copyright system. Considers the ways in which media industries, artists, and consumers interact with the copyright system and assesses how well it serves its stated purposes: to encourage art and creativity. Special emphasis on the social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a reult of new communicative technologies.

Costume Design for the modern stage and the history of fashion. Three hours of practical laboratory a week.

• Department: Music and Performing Arts Professions

This course is designed to be accessible and approachable for people
who will be future teachers of elementary school mathematics. It is
also intended for people who want to broaden their knowledge in mathematics
and experience it as a relevant, challenging, and enjoyable field. It is
not intended for math majors. It will be taught as a problem-based course,
that allows for students to explore and develop new ideas, and apply them
to real life situations. The course builds on intuitive understandings of
fundamental ideas of counting and chance and moves gradually to more
formal knowledge of combinatorics and probability concepts and techniques.
The learning experiences offered throughout the course are designed
to facilitate student interactions and active role in the learning process.

Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Quantitative Reasoning for Steinhardt students.

• Department: Teaching and Learning
• Liberal Arts Core: Quantitative Reasoning

Aimed at students who expect to read & interpret, rather than conduct, statistical analyses, this course is designed to help students become better & more critical consumers of quantitative evidence. Using research studies discussed in the popular media & focused on currently debated questions in education & social policy, the course covers key concepts in quantitative reasoning, basic statistics, & research design. Research readings will focus on topical issues regarding early childhood & K-12 education & other social policy issues that affect children.

Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Quantitative Reasoning for Steinhardt students.

• Department: Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities
• Liberal Arts Core: Quantitative Reasoning