Undergraduate Courses

Critical making is hands-on hardware practice as a form of reflection & analysis: a way of thinking through what (& how) computing & digital media mean by understanding how they work, building on the literature of media studies & the digital humanities. By turning from software to hardware, to the physicality of computation & communications infrastructure, we will take objects apart, literally & figuratively, & in the process will learn to interpret & to intervene -- using prototyping, reverse engineering, hardware hacking & circuit bending, design fiction, electronics fabrication & other approaches -- in the material layer of digital technologies.

This course will introduce students to critical video—the use of documentary, ethnographic, and research-based video to investigate and critique contemporary culture. The class offers students a theoretical overview of documentary video, a set of conceptual tools to analyze video, and an introduction to the practice of video production for small and mobile screens. Students will apply texts on video’s history, culture and distribution, as well as on the ethical challenges of video production, to their own research-based video project. No prior experience in video production is required.

This course explores the multi-faceted nature of New York City as a cultural & economic hub for food & media. Food is never just something we eat, but in New York City food has taken on an increasing prominence in public life. Food shapes communities & is an increasingly important marker of social & cultural identities. Media of all types fuel & shape our connections to food. Tastes are defined; diets & food habits are promoted & demoted; food fortunes & food celebrities are made. How has New York City become so important to the business of taste? What goes on behind-the-scenes? Topics include: Food-related publishing & broadcasting; green markets, food trucks, & systems of supply & distribution; marketing; Chinatowns, diversity, fusion, & identity. Open to majors & non-majors including special students. Classroom instruction is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, & field research.

This course explores the multi-faceted nature of New York City as a cultural & economic hub for food & media. Food is never just something we eat, but in New York City food has taken on an increasing prominence in public life. Food shapes communities & is an increasingly important marker of social & cultural identities. Media of all types fuel & shape our connections to food. Tastes are defined; diets & food habits are promoted & demoted; food fortunes & food celebrities are made. How has New York City become so important to the business of taste? What goes on behind-the-scenes? Topics include: Food-related publishing & broadcasting; green markets, food trucks, & systems of supply & distribution; marketing; Chinatowns, diversity, fusion, & identity. Open to majors & non-majors including special students. Classroom instruction is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, & field research.

This course explores the multi-faceted nature of New York City as a cultural and economic hub for media and the arts, arguably the cultural capital of the world. Classroom instruction is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, and field research to develop an appreciation of the ways that media and the arts have shaped the work and leisure of life in New York City for the past one hundred years. How did New York City become such a focal point for the creative industries? What goes on behind-the-scenes? Topics include: Time Square and live spectacle, the Broadway theatre, Madison Ave and modern advertising, the museum of New York, galleries, artists, and the art market, the Harlem Renaissance, alternative media and Bohemian arts.

Whether large, small, wide, high-definition, public, personal, shared, or handheld, screens are one of the most pervasive technologies in everyday life. From spaces of work to spaces of leisure, screens are sites for collaboration, performance, surveillance, and resistance. This course traces the cultural history of screens from a range of forms - from the panorama to the cinema, from the radar system to the television, and from the terminal to the mobile device - to provide a way of thinking about the development of the screen as simultaneously architectural, material, representational and computational.

This course examines how cultural memory is enacted through visual culture in a comparative global context. It looks at the rise of a memory culture over the last few decades, in particular in the United States, Europe & Latin America, & how this engagement with memory demonstrates how the politics of memory can reveal aspects of nationalism & national identity, ethnic conflict & strife, the legacies of state terrorism, & the deployment of memory as a means for further continued conflict.

What does it mean to be "urban" in China and how is Chinese urbanism mediated by new cultural formations? In this course we will examine the culture and media that define city life in China, including Chinese state and popular media, television and film, music, fashion, verbal art and literature (in print and online) and visual art. we will focus on the period from the building booms of the mid-to-late nineties to the present. Students will work in teams to make presentations on urban culture, and use primary sources in translation and secondary sources to write individual essays. Chinese language ability appreciated but by no means required.

A veritable buzzword globalization refers to several newly emerged trends. To name the three most visible ones these are the economy, culture and politics. Media do not only describe and interpret globalization but also are its important part. A study of globalization is inherently diverse and eclectic. So is this course. Students will read, watch, analyze and discuss. In class discussions and writings they are expected to engage questions connected to globalization, culture and the media. Through a series of lectures and discussions the course explores how the process of globalization transforms the media and examines the impact of new technologies on global communications. Emphasizing the transnational context of media and culture the course approaches global media and cultural production from a wide range of theoretical frameworks relevant to contemporary condition.

This course will investigate the cultural geography of a specific commodity, assessing historical and contemporary issues that inform modes of production and development of international or domestic trade. The subtopic may vary. Students will work as a team to produce a project that analyzes the intricacies of the commodity"in this case, coffee. The course will include on-the-ground research and site visits.

Critical evaluation of recent research through seminars and class discussions.

Social Studies as a field is reviewed historically and its theoretical base is analyzed. Examines the nature of socialization inherent in different concepts of knowledge and introduces the problems of selecting, organizing, and teaching various approaches to history and the social sciences

Dance is an integral & defining component of cultures throughout the world & throughout history. This course introduces students to dance as a live & performing art through a variety of experiences including attendance at live performances, examination of videos & theoretical texts, & physical participation in the practice & performance of dance. Through discussions, written assignments, & the creation of original dance compositions, students will explore the history & cultural relevance of a variety of forms of dance within their own lives, larger society, & the global community beyond.

Liberal Arts Core/CORE-MAP Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Expressive Cultures

Not Available.

An introduction to the sources and uses of data as a strategic asset in the music industry. Students gain literacy in the methods decision makers use to analyze data about music itself, music discovery and music consumption in the effort to drive competitive advantage. Students interact with the data sources and analytic tools in wide use; learn the basics of data storage,manipulation, and modeling techniques; and become familiar with the practical applications and business benefits of data analysis in the music in the music industry.

Data is often considered the domain of scientists and statisticians, but its increasing dominance across nearly all aspects of life – from political and advertising campaigns to social media, dating, education, and public health — has social, political, and ethical consequences, presenting both new possibilities and new hazards. In this course we think critically about how collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data affects individual and social life, with a focus on the ways in which it reproduces and creates new structural inequalities and power asymmetries.

Not Available.

Explores early and obsolete media technologies. After an intensive introduction to the theory and methods of media archaeology, students will venture into local archives, libraries, and museums in search of texts, images, and sounds to be assembled into dossiers. Projects will be undertaken collaboratively, with regular reports and critiques throughout the semester.

Based on three pillars of experiential learning--exploration, collaboration, and engagement--this course introduces students to pathways of academic, personal and professional achievement. The course includes three main components: self-assessment, understanding mentorship, and understanding leadership. Students will conduct individual and group self-assessments and interest inventories; identify and cultivate mentoring relationships in their field of study; and examine and practice leadership in both traditional and non-traditional modes. Course includes high-profile guest speakers, a high level of student involvement in constructing learning activities, and experiential learning trips to complement the on-campus experience.

Not Available.