Courses

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.

New art and new definitions of art and artist are discussed. Major attention is paid to the New York scene with guest lectures by artists and visits to galleries, museums, and other major sites in the current art system.

Course investigates art education as deployed through art organization partnerships with contemporary artists as a means to instigate dialogue with local communities. Topics include social justice, object-based learning, and the broader cultural context surrounding art education. Through critical reading/discussion and site visits, students form an approach to community collaboration and situate themselves within practitioner debates about art’s broader relevance. Literature includes sociology of culture, contemporary art theory, museum education, and museum studies.

From furniture to digital devices, virtually everything that exists is designed. Why and how does design play such an important role in society? This seminar examines its expanding impact beginning with the post World War II era, with an emphasis on how design shapes consumer culture and how consumer culture conversely influences design. The course analyzes contemporary design in the context of architecture, interiors and the decorative arts, products, graphics, fashion, and interactive media.

Covers production, distribution & consumption of food in the context of social, cultural, technological & biological processes under conditions of globalization. Employing approaches from the humanities & the social sciences, this course prepares students to initiate the process of analyzing the current American food system, its global connections, & proposed local alternatives that is developed further in other courses. Through lectures, readings & research the students master established facts & concepts about contemporary urban food cultures & produce new knowledge of the same.

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.

Drawing from contemporary issues in education, this course analyzes the ways in which education contributes to attitudes and behaviors, which in turn influence social processes such as democratization, peace, conflict, and development around the world. Using current events as a point of departure, the course explores the different ways that education can contribute to social change.

In-depth study of selected topics in music since 1945 emphasizing developments in the recent avant-garde.

No course description available.

Performance of standard and contemporary literature for percussion instruments.

This advanced course involves in-depth explorations of contemporary frameworks in music therapy such as community music therapy, feminist music therapy, and resource-oriented music therapy. The course uses a colloquium format with student-led discussions. Students will develop the ability to critically evaluate the arguments underlying these orientations and to apply the thinking that characterizes contemporary orientations to their own clinical approaches.

This course examines critical issues related to contemporary K–12 teacher policies and labor movements, focusing on factors affecting the equitable distribution of teachers, the fundamentals of modern teacher policy reforms, and the political and social conditions underlying recent teacher labor movements. Students leave this course with a strong overview of current teacher policy and labor market issues as well as an in-depth examination of a focus area they select.

Immerses the student composer in creating music for a range of visual media including movies, shorts, television, and animation. Topics of inquiry include the visual, aural, narrative, textual and subtextual components of communication with moving images; the aesthetics, techniques and technicalities of spotting and synchronizing music; orchestration, both traditional and digital; production
and mixing; and compositional practices unique to the work of scoring for moving images. Weekly scoring assignments and in-class critiques.

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.

This course seeks to cover the landscape in contemporary theorizing and research on cultural globalization. It is organized broadly around three partially competing/partially complementary theories of globalization - homogenization, enduring cultural differences, and hybridization. We will attempt to bring each of these theories to life with case studies of the production, distribution, and reception of cultural forms and experiences from across the globe. We will also review research methods, including cross-national comparative research design, ethnography, in-depth interviews, content analysis, and historical/archival research methods, focusing in particular on the methods used in course readings.

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.

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

This course provides a detailed exploration of the ways in which the modern classical singer, musical theatre performer, and pop singer must use their talents and intuition on social media to develop and market their brand, personal sensibility and point of view on the world. Vocals and live performance style techniques for the camera will be addressed in a laboratory environment, as well as techniques to target audiences on Tik-tok, Instagram, Facebook, websites, virtual auditions, and self-submissions.

This course provides a detailed exploration of the ways in which the modern
classical singer, musical theatre performer, and pop singer must use their talents and intuition on social media to develop and market their brand, personal sensibility and point of view on the world. Vocals and live performance style techniques for the camera will be addressed in a laboratory environment, as well as techniques to target audiences on Tik-tok, Instagram, Facebook, websites, virtual auditions, and self-submissions.

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.