Undergraduate Semester
Program

(Pathways:  Technology and Society).  This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), designed to equip students across disciplines with foundational knowledge and practical competencies. Students will critically examine core concepts, methodologies, and ethical dimensions of AI, while exploring its societal, cultural, and professional implications. AI is transforming our relationships with technology and with others, our senses of self, as well as our approaches to health care, banking, democracy, and the criminal justice system. But while AI in its many forms has become ubiquitous and its benefits to society and the individual have grown, its impacts are varied. Concerns about its unintended effects and misuses have become paramount in conversations about the successful integration of AI in society. This course explores the many facets of artificial intelligence: its technology, its potentials, its impact on labor and the economy, its relationship with inequalities, its role in law and governance, its challenges to national security, and what it says about humanity and our collective futures.

(Pathways:  Performing Arts; Advocacy and Social Justice).  The relation between jazz and hip-hop is not only tied to their shared roots in African American musical traditions, nor only to the influence of jazz’s rhythms and harmonies on hip-hop’s sampling. Some particular elements of jazz—such as its improvisational spirit or its polyrhythmic drums—laid the groundwork for the techniques and innovations of hip-hop. This course will investigate how both of these genres emerged as powerful forms of artistic expression and social commentary, rooted in the experiences of African American communities and particularly intertwined with the urban landscape of New York City. By exploring their evolution from bebop’s defiance in the 1940s to hip-hop’s rise as a global phenomenon in the 1990s and beyond, we will uncover how these genres have shaped and been shaped by the cultural, political, and social dynamics of their time, while continuing to resonate deeply within the vibrant soundscape of the city.

(Pathways:  Economics and Finance).  Money moves the world — but how? This course introduces the fundamentals of economics and finance through the lens of real-world markets, business, and everyday decision-making. Designed for students with no prior background, it blends core concepts of supply and demand, markets, trade, risk, and financial decision-making with practical insights drawn from the global economy. Rather than learning economics only from graphs and theories, students will see how currencies, markets, and policy choices ripple through daily life — from the cost of groceries to the strength of the dollar, from stock market swings to job opportunities. Drawing on the instructor’s experience as a global markets professional, the course will bring to life what it means to think like an economist and act with financial awareness in the real world. By the end of the course, students will not only understand the basics of economics and finance, but also develop practical skills to interpret news headlines, analyze trade-offs, and make smarter personal and professional financial decisions.

(Pathways:  Advocacy and Social Justice; International Affairs).  Reproductive rights and health are under threat in many countries around the world, but this is not new. People have always struggled with the restrictive conventions of their societies, and societies are always changing.  In this course, students will learn how governments, activists and ordinary people have responded to reproductive health challenges -- from overpopulation to underpopulation, from sexually transmitted diseases to abortion to gender violence to maternal mortality.  By the end of the course, students will be able to assess reproductive health policies for both their effectiveness and their human rights implications. In addition to lectures and seminar-style discussions, there will be small group exercises where students will debate an issue or develop a policy.  Students will also conduct an Actor Analysis activity in which they will interview stakeholders involved in activism, policy making or service delivery related to a reproductive health issue in New York City. 

(Pathways: Economics and Finance; International Affairs).  The objective of this course is to explore the reconstitution of local structures of marginalization by the increasing economic integration of the global economy over the last three and a half decades. We place particular emphasis on the increasing dominance of finance in both advanced and developing societies and explore the impact of this process of financialization and the associated financial integration of the world on marginalized constituencies identified on the basis of class, gender, and ethnic identity. We further explore the interplay of the global ascendance of finance capitalism with transnational flows of human beings and commodities that together comprise the economic face of globalization and question the neoliberal assertion that globalization will necessarily empower the marginalized, basing our exploration on both theoretical insights drawn from multiple disciplines and documented evidence. There are no prerequisites for this course; students do NOT need a background in Economics or quantitative analysis. 

(Pathways:  International Affairs).  This course is essentially about the relationship between information, analysis, risk and decision makers. On one level, this means that it is about something you do yourself all the time -- but we will be looking specifically at how analysis is produced for those who work in both the public and the private sectors and face critical political, investment, or even humanitarian decisions. Concentrating on three crucial components – collection, analysis and communications – the goal is to understand processes behind the production of good analysis and the ways in which it can be conveyed to decision makers. At the same time as studying some of the instances in which intelligence analysis has resulted in success -- and, because it tends to be more revealing, those where it has not -- we will be trying out some of the techniques involved in professional analysis, including writing, presentations, and team work, and looking at analysts working in the government, financial, and non-profit sectors. The intention is to offer an appreciation of what professional analysts do in an intelligence and political risk context, and how their work can feed into the conduct of international relations and international business.

(Pathways: Sustainability and Climate Action; Advocacy and Social Justice).  Cities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and they are also where some of the most innovative solutions are taking shape. This course uses New York City as a learning laboratory for students to explore how social entrepreneurs, communities, and public institutions drive innovation for sustainability and our understanding of resilience in complex urban systems while balancing environmental, economic, and social needs.  Learning takes place in the classroom and across the city. Students will visit museums, cultural centers, and sustainability sites that document and demonstrate resilience in action. Students will learn the fundamentals of social entrepreneurship through the lens of urban climate resilience. Readings and discussions will provide grounding in social entrepreneurship, systems thinking, and climate change, while field activities will connect theory to collective memory in the urban landscape. Guest speakers will range from climate entrepreneurs and nonprofit founders to city officials to medical experts on resilience who will share expertise on designing for resilience and impact in complex systems.  By semester’s end, students will synthesize their insights to develop both a Theory of Change articulating how social innovation can advance climate resilience in urban contexts, as well as a personal resilience plan, integrating the emotional, cognitive, and leadership skills needed to sustain long-term impact work.

(Pathways: Visual Arts).  This class will survey recent developments in the visual arts. We will take advantage of New York’s unparalleled richness of museums and art galleries by having several class meetings at exhibitions of contemporary art, including visits to artists’ studios. Presentations in class will survey the backgrounds of recent artistic developments. These will be supplemented by readings of classic texts about contemporary art, plus articles and reviews about the artists whose exhibitions we will be seeing. Students will give two presentations to the class about selected contemporary artists, and will write a midterm and a final paper, plus short responses to a few of their favorite readings.

(Pathways:  Advocacy and Social Justice).  This course offers a dynamic introduction to the nonprofit sector through the lens of equity, community impact, and systems thinking. Students will explore the historical and contemporary role of nonprofits, with a focus on New York City-based organizations as case studies. Through guest speakers, site visits, and analysis of funding models, governance, and mission alignment, students will strengthen their understanding of how nonprofits operate within—and challenge—systems of power. Emphasis will be placed on self-reflection, intersectionality, and building a “community of practice” where students connect theory to lived experience and imagine their own pathways into social change work.

(Pathways:  Economics and Finance, International Affairs).  Why do financial crises keep happening? Why do they matter for Main Street and not only Wall Street? This course explores the history of Wall Street’s rise and its complicated relationship with the economy, society, and politics. The course traces the history of financialized capitalism from the Great Depression to the 2008 financial meltdown, uncovering how markets, politics, and society collided to shape the world we live in today. Along the way, it examines themes like the growing power of finance on society, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the global consequences of decisions made in New York trading rooms. No prior background in economics is required—just curiosity about how money, power, and people interact.

(Pathways:  Media and Publishing; International Affairs).  This course will provide a survey of international affairs writing, ranging across a variety of genres, including war reportage, the profile, the book review, the editorial and the essay. Since the focus of the course is writing, students will be expected not only to study these genres but to practice them. The course will also include extensive discussion of the peculiar set of challenges involved in writing about countries other than our own, notably the problems of perspective and cultural and political bias. At the end of this course, students should emerge with a sharper, more nuanced understanding of what it means to report and write from abroad, and with a tool kit from which they can draw as they go out into the field. The requirement will be two short articles, and a longer work of either reportage or essay writing, the subject and scope of which would be determined in consultation with the instructor.

(Pathways:  Performing Arts).  An introductory writing course that looks at creative approaches to writing short films and dialogue scenes. Starting with personal histories, lineage, and identities, students learn the tools to write invigorating, character-driven short screenplays. Building characters through transcription and investigation to enhance character development and story arc ultimately creating a visual language, students develop and workshop a short screenplay (maximum 10-15 pages). This course will require extensive outside research and you are responsible for committing to a writing and rewriting process.