Summer Programs

Summer 2026 Programs
 

• This core seminar is designed to connect ethical and social theory to the contemporary American workplace. As the world becomes more interconnected with the rise of AI, globalization, and the impacts of the pandemic, how has the workplace developed and changed? What role does ethics play in the workplace on the individual, organization, and societal level? We will apply ethical theories to specific workplace cases as well as examine our own ethical values.  On a practical level, we will also consider what it means to be a working adult in the 21st century with a liberal arts education. What is fundamental to what I am looking for in a career? How am I growing in my internship? How do I navigate work culture and proper work etiquette? How can one be ethical in the workplace?
• Summer internship program participants must enroll in one of the core seminars as their required class; NOT an elective option for Pride or AI programs. 

• This course examines core concepts in art and aesthetics from three different angles. First, there is the historical development of an idea of beauty from perceptive cognition and its integrated discourses into a proper field of study and philosophical realm, following a long and erratic trajectory from Ancient Greece to post-modernity. Second, there is the internal layering of art into a couple of main interpretive facets, such as the anthropological vocabulary of symbols, the sociological categories of taste, and the psychological speculations of imagination, all of which enhance the very notion of aesthetic object into a constellation of meanings. Third, there are the more contemporary debates, particularly in New York and since the 1950s, around the status of art as an external form of technology, and industry, itself profoundly shaped by the material conditions of intersectional identities and a new openness to affective dispositions. Through these three approaches, supported as they will be by punctual examples and case studies from a variety of artforms, genres, and geographies, this course aims at allowing students to develop their own sensibility into a more imaginative and critical faculty, as well as gather a wider range of references, a richer palette for expressing their experiences, and a more diverse and robust reserve of tools to face the abundance of art.
• Summer internship program participants must enroll in one of the core seminars as their required class; NOT an elective option for Pride or AI programs. 

• Course description coming soon
• Required for Pride program participants; elective option for others

• This course explores the history of technology through the lens of New York City, tracing how innovations in infrastructure, communication, transportation, and surveillance have shaped—and been shaped by—the city’s dynamic social, political, and economic life. From the construction of the Erie Canal to the rise of the telegraph, from the electrification of Times Square and Coney Island to the algorithmic governance of today’s urban systems, students will examine how technological developments have transformed the city’s landscape and its inhabitants’ everyday experiences. Emphasis will be placed on the entanglement of technology with race, labor, capital, and resistance in the making of modern New York. Field visits, archival materials, and digital mapping tools will help students engage the city as both a subject and source of historical inquiry.
• Required for AI & Society program participants; elective option for others

• This course offers an in-depth exploration of New York City as a dynamic and ever-evolving urban  landscape, blending insights from history, sociology, economics, urban studies, and environmental science.  By examining NYC’s past, present, and future, students will uncover how the city has been shaped by forces  such as immigration, labor movements, public policy, cultural innovation, and economic transformation.  Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course investigates how historical legacies continue to influence  contemporary challenges and future possibilities. Key topics include the development of NYC’s  neighborhoods, the ethics of gentrification, the environmental and social implications of urban planning,  and the role of public spaces in fostering community and civic engagement. Students will engage with case  studies, such as the transformation of Times Square, the development of Central Park, and efforts to  combat climate change through initiatives like the Green New Deal for NYC. Co-curricular activities will  include site visits to locations such as the Municipal Archives and the Brooklyn Bridge, alongside  discussions with community leaders and urban planners.
• Elective option for all summer programs

• The election of Donald Trump and his “America First” approach to foreign policy ignited fierce debates among scholars and policy-makers alike about the future of the liberal international order.  Created after the Second World War and led by the United States, this order is embedded in a dense web of international institutions and agreements that aim to promote the values of liberal democracy, market liberalization, respect for human rights and interstate cooperation.  Suddenly, with rise of illiberal democracies, the global pandemic, and the return of great power rivalry, this order has been thrown into crisis.  Can the liberal international order withstand these challenges from within and without?  This course critically examines the ways in which the international system has been ordered over space and time so to better understand this contemporary moment.  We begin by considering predominant theoretical and conceptual accounts of international order.  What is an international order?  How do hegemonic actors use power to order the system?  What conditions produce order in the system and how?  How do international orders (re)produce the power and values of leading states?  Then, we compare the current international order to those of the past.  What factors shape the durability of an international order?  What is distinctive about the post-World War II international order and how has it changed over time?  How important is American leadership to the stability of the current international system?   The course concludes by thinking about contemporary challenges to the liberal international led order, the durability and desirability of American global leadership and the implication of the rise of new great powers.
• Elective option for all summer programs

• 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. 
• Elective option for all summer programs