Category Archives: Undergraduate

Courses for All IMA Students

Fall 2022

The Ethics of Big Tech & Social Media: Technoethics (DANC-UT 701)

This course offers a look at the lack of ethics and affects and effects upon humanity in the development of big tech, social media and the internet. Kicking off with the viewing of the number one doc on this topic “The Social Dilemma”, we begin a conversation around the impact of social media and technology on our lives and how to address it. Students will view documentaries, read books and engage in conversations in break out think tank groups in order to come up with solutions in a midterm one page manifesto for the greater good of humanity. Required readings include from “Understanding New Media Extending Marshall McLuhan” by Robert K Logan to set a framework of what technology is, followed by reading Jaron Lanier, “10 arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now”, and dipping into the spirituality side with “igods” by Craig Detweiler, ending with “Irresistible” by our very own NYU Professor Adam Alter. In partnership with the center for Humane Technology and their curricula support for academics, this course seeks to ask hard questions, dispel mistruths, host constructive conversations, test experiments and create a dialogue around how we must change the ways we develop and interact with tech for our survival. A willingness to take part in class experiments and experience based learning around topics of social media and technology is required. Final culmination of work from the course is a utopian project pitch deck that students design with the task of creating seedlings for new sustainable and humane business models for social media, big tech, and entrepreneurial situations, in hopes that some may go on to grow, bloom and fruit necessary change for the greater good of all. Students at the end of the semester will ethically assess their work and assign their own grade based on their self evaluation.

Dance (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

DANC-UT 701-000 (14794)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Introduction to Studio Art (ART-SHU 310)

This course will be an introduction to studio art for students, to traverse both cultural and temporal barriers of visual arts. Students will examine the content of artwork, and build various skills to translate ideas into reality. Class time will be devoted to individual projects and critiques, lectures, and group discussions. This course is open to all students with or without an art background. Note that attendance in the first class meeting is mandatory, otherwise you will be dropped from the course. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: general elective

Art (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

ART-SHU 310-000 (17746)02/07/2022 – 05/13/2022 Wed5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Late afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Edelstein, Barbara · Zhang, Jian

Expressive Culture Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Cities on the Move: Migration and Urban Landscapes (SASEM-UG 9104)

The rapid expansion of urban areas is the major driving force of global environmental change. As most urban landscapes expand in number and size, their inhabitants place increasing demands on resources and energy. These demands pose great challenges for ensuring human welfare and protecting biodiversity. Urban land use change has always been a question for urban planners and researchers, but understanding contemporary competition for urban land and associated resources is perhaps more urgent than ever. The inflow of large numbers of migrants, not only from the rural counterparts of larger cities but also from all over the world, poses new challenges to environmental processes and the functioning of urban systems. A critical question emerges: how can we sustainably integrate new migrants into large urban areas without compromising the environmental wellbeing and livelihood of existing local populations? Urban development concepts like smart growth, eco-cities and sponge cities have previously grappled with this question; through them, researchers, urban planners, architects, and other professionals have imagined new forms and functions for buildings, material infrastructure, and open or vegetated spaces. The central challenge is to improve the resilience capacity of urban landscapes. Here, the notion that cities themselves may be reinvented in more ecologically vital ways portends to offer solutions to the dire environmental stresses that climate change, natural resource scarcity, and geopolitical instability promise. There is an important interdisciplinary dimension to this challenge: different stakeholders speak different scientific and functional languages. This course emphasizes inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches in an effort to highlight the multiple and distinct knowledge forms and data types relevant to understanding linkages between landscape structure, landscape function, and urban socio-natural transformation.

Study Away Seminar (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

SASEM-UG 9104-000 (18839)at NYU Berlin (Global)Instructed by

Cultures and Contexts Undergraduate

Place-Building-Time:The Architecture of Berlin (ARTH-UA 9651)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon

Berlin is a unique modern Metropolis. Its alternating history with often drastic changes offers a comprehensive background to explore and investigate the nature of architecture in correlation to the various developmental processes of urban life and culture. Architecture is embedded in the urban fabric in which place and time serve as the main threads, constantly changing their multifaceted and layered relationships. This urban fabric provides the fertile soil for urban life and culture, which literally takes place in various scales between the public and the private realm, two further threads intertwined in the urban fabric. Experiencing the city through walking is essential for learning how to observe, see and read “Place, Building and Time” in Berlin. Tours will alternate with classroom discussions and workshops.

Art History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

The Cultural Poltics of Bad Taste (IDSEM-UG 1738)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Fri

This seminar investigates the ideological, political and historical parameters of “taste” in popular culture. Through examination of media artifacts that exemplify “trash,” the course examines how “taste” is constituted as a cultural category that reflects, produces and maintains the social structures of American society. What is meant by designations such as “good” and “bad” media, “high and “low” art, “offensive” or “artistic” and who is empowered to make these distinctions? How do “bad objects” reveal the ideological basis of “taste,” and what is their relationship to “legitimate” art forms? Does “trash” pose a challenge to cultural standards of taste and “the mainstream?’ What is the relationship between “bad” art and spectatorship and why might audiences find “trash” so enthralling? Readings are drawn from Bourdieu’s Distinction , Glynn’s Tabloid Culture , Ross” No Respect , and the anthology Trash Culture , while screenings include cult films such as Freaks, Pink Flamingos, Plan 9 From Outer Space,South Park, and The Room , and a selection of reality TV programs, music and viral videos.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2022 Spring 2022

Politics of Portraiture (OART-UT 826)

This course explores the pictorial articulation of individual human likeness and its fiction in the public forum. The art of portraiture has survived its own origins in myth making and archetype building. The human image, or icon, forever landmarks the voices, textures, physicality, spirituality, symbols, politics, aesthetic concerns and military contexts, religious rituals, government, calendar ceremonies, daily functions, heroic acts and social disorders of diverse cultures throughout recorded history. It is the history of creation, the story of romance, the mark of progress, the record of royalty and the profile of democracy. It is the revolution of fine art and a catalyst of discipline. Imaging the individual in the public eye is the story of humankind. This course bridges the worlds of the oral and written mythologies which inhabit and empower us and the creative manifestation (conscious and unconscious) of these ancient archetypes into contemporary art, media and design. Students will critically rethink the implied and material presence of portraiture in everyday life. Students will gain practical knowledge and insight into the origins and potential power of the archetypes which permeate our collective unconscious.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

OART-UT 826-000 (14196)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Thu2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cameron, Donna

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2022 Spring 2022

Media Moguls in the 20th Century (OART-UT 562)

This course attempts to track the American entertainment industry from its plebian origins through its rise to becoming the predominant mass entertainment culture in the world. Students discover the origins of the production practices that are employed in the entertainment industry today by following the legendary characters, movie moguls, and media titans of the early 20th century and the companies they built. The emphasis is on the way the visionaries of the time impacted seemingly risk-averse systems to invigorate and sometimes completely revolutionize them. These innovative men and women include, but are not limited, to Louis B. Mayer, George Lucas, Maya Deren, Shirley Clark, Nam Jun Paik, Lucille Ball, Russell Simmons, Clive Davis, Julie Taymor, and Steve Jobs.

Undergraduate

Class #
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Meets

Class #: 2377
Section #: 001
Meets: MW 9:45a-12:50p


Class #: 2428
Section #: 060
Meets: MW 9:45a-12:50p

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Summer 2025 Summer 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Power Ground Water (OART-UT 22)

This is an entry-level, hands on electronics course for students who are interested in working with electronic hardware as part of their creative practice. Throughout the semester we will gain a familiarity with electronic components, learn to create electronic circuits, solder and use Eagle CAD for PCB (printed circuit board) design layout. Topics will include powering circuits, LEDs, switches, transistors, digital logic, memory, timing circuits, programmable microcontrollers (Arduino), analog input (sensors) and motor control. We will also survey past and contemporary work of artists in this field. In this course we approach electronic hardware with the intention of dissolving technological opacity and inspiring our creative practice. Our goal is to shift the way we may usually think about electronics, as inaccessible, complex, difficult and intimidating. And think about it just as physical stuff that we can dig up and use as material and subject for creative expression. This course is aimed at students with little or no experience working in this field. Lectures will be supported by physical lecture notes, a custom electronics learning kit designed by the instructor. Assignments will include assembling and soldering physical lecture notes, weekly creative assignments (with or without electronics) and a final project. There is a $55 lab fee for custom printed circuit boards used in class, which must be returned if dropping the course.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Physical Computing & Experimental Interfaces) Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Business in Film (MULT-UB 122)

This course explores how films are vehicles for understanding business. In doing so, it also explores some key issues facing the business community. For example, the class examines the impact of business on society, the ethical obligations of firms, the power and role of firms as social organizations, the impact of the globalization of business and how different cultures come together in global firms. To better understand these topics, students view important films covering these issues, which are paired with scholarly or popular works focused on the same issues.

Multidisciplinary (Undergraduate)
1 credits – 5 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

MULT-UB 122-000 (11038)

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Multi-disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice of Group Work in Arts (OART-UT 1017)

Whether you are a filmmaker looking to better understand how to build a cohesive and productive film crew; a theatre maker excited about building a performance project or theatre company; a multi-media artist looking for ways to innovate your ideas for artistic work in collaboration with others; an artist looking for tools for building an artistic ensemble, or a multi-disciplinary artist looking to take your creative work out into communities as social practice, this combination lecture/activity-based class provides you with tools for better understanding how to enter into and engage others in collective creative work of purpose. Multi-Disciplinary Arts Practice with Community Groups: Theories and Practice explores the challenges and benefits of making artistic work with others and the tools needed to create meaningful collaborative projects. In this class we interrogate definitions of community and group, explore the balance between group process and producing an artistically excellent project, and examine the processes of creating artistic work with others to strengthen our own artistic voices while helping raise the creative voices of others. With its focus on social practice, this course provides a foundation for working with small group structures in a variety of community settings and professional creative work environments. The course satisfies a CA major requirement as well as a social science requirement for all other Tisch students.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

OART-UT 1017-000 (18613)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Thu2:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Bitel, Mary

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2022

The Language of Film (FMTV-UT 4)

Language of Film is an introduction to the craft, history and theory of filmmaking and film-watching. The main challenge facing all filmmakers is to show the story: in other words, to visualize the drama. Over the past century, narrative, experimental and documentary filmmakers have developed a variety of creative strategies and techniques designed to give their audiences compelling, multi-sensorial experiences. The goal of this class is to explore how filmmakers in different historical and cultural settings have contributed to the evolution of film as a powerful, complex and captivating art form.. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.

Undergraduate

Class #
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Meets

Class #: 12709
Section #: 001
Meets: W 6:20-9:50p


Class #: 12710
Section #: 002
Meets: R 11a-12:15p


Class #: 12711
Section #: 003
Meets: R 12:30-1:45p


Class #: 12712
Section #: 004
Meets: F 11a-12:15p


Class #: 12713
Section #: 005
Meets: F 12:30-1:45p


Class #: 12714
Section #: 006
Meets: T 6:20-7:35p


Class #: 12715
Section #: 007
Meets: F 9:30-10:45a

Expressive Culture Fall 2026 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2025 Summer 2025 Summer 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Tibetan Buddhism (RELST-UA 835)

Identical to EAST-UA 833. Offered periodically. 4 points. An introduction to Tibetan Buddhism doctrine and practice. Approaches the subject from historical and thematic perspectives, beginning with a close study of one of the classic Tibetan guides to Tibetan Buddhism for a solid foundation in the principles of the tradition. Proceeds along a historical track, beginning with the seventh-century arrival of Buddhism in Tibet to the present-day encounter with Western devotees of exiled Tibetan lamas. Topics include doctrinal innovation, ritual, myth, art, sacred geography, revelation, and the role of Buddhism in Tibet’s relationship with its neighbors. Readings consist of primary texts in translation and secondary literature on the study of religion and Tibetan Buddhism.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Cultures and Contexts Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Major Texts in Critical Theory (ENGL-UA 712)

Major texts in critical theory from Plato to Derrida, considered in relation to literary practice. The first half of the course focuses on four major types of critical theory: mimetic, ethical, expressive, and formalist. The second half turns to 20th-century critical schools, such as Russian and American formalism, archetypal criticism, structuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, feminism, reader theory, deconstruction, and historicism.

English (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Creating a Good Society: Christian and Jewish Perspectives (HBRJD-UA 428)

This course explores Greek, Christian and Jewish responses to the problem: How does one create a good society? Central questions to be explored include: What is the best form of government? What economic system is ideal? Should the government actively promote a vision of the good life or leave it to individual to decide the good for themselves? Should the government prioritize the freedom, equality, or happiness of its inhabitants? What role should religion and nationhood play in society? What models of education should the government promote? How does gender inform these considerations? The course will focus on careful analysis of primary texts. Thinkers to be studied include: Plato, Maimonides, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mendelssohn, Marx, Hess. Having first taken the course: Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives is highly desirable.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

HBRJD-UA 428-000 (10015)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Wed11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Gottlieb, Michah

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Foundations in Painting: Painting in Practice and Theory (ART-SHU 211)

Painting is an incredibly versatile medium and its dynamic evolution across cultures and through millennia continues up until the present. The medium’s relevance and capacity for reinvention are evidenced in the work of a number of contemporary painters who have incorporated inventive materials and/or methods into their practice to both push its limits and explore contemporary concerns. In this class, students will get an introduction to the fundamental technical, formal, and conceptual principles of painting. Using watercolor, gouache, and acrylic, students will explore color theory, composition, texture, form, and surface using a wide range of techniques. Through selected readings, students will also examine the theoretical questions and historical precedents that have informed painting’s development, see how they relate to or have been challenged by the work of contemporary painters and be able to connect select concerns to their own practice. In addition to acquiring basic technical skills and conceptual know-how, students will also gain competency in art critiques and writing artist statements. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: general elective

Art (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

ART-SHU 211-000 (19569)02/07/2022 – 05/13/2022 Mon1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Kramer, Maya

Expressive Culture Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Spring 2022 Spring 2024

Microeconomics (MG-UY 2524)

The course is an introduction to microeconomics. It assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. The course examines the fundamentals of microeconomics needed by technologists, relying to a considerable extent upon mathematical expression and representation. The principle topics covered are price theory, production and cost theory, the theory of the firm and market theory, including the practical relevance of these to the management of technology-intensive enterprises. The role of the state and of government regulation will be considered as a special topic. Students who take this course cannot receive credit for ECON-UA 2 or FIN-UY 2003. | Prerequisite: MA-UY 1024 or MA-UY 1054 or MA-UY 1324 or an approved equivalent.

Management (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

MG-UY 2524-000 (18845)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Tue,Thu10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by D’Emic, Michael

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2022

World Dance Cultures (OART-UT 701)

This class used to be called History of Dance. This course explores why and how dance acts as a vital participant in cultural practices around the world. Looking back through the perspective of present research, we will examine how dance is inherently a reflection of the culture it represents. A wide overview of dance and its myriad purposes will be covered, from a means of worship in India, Turkey, and Haiti; its inclusion in the rituals of Bali; noh and kabuki theatrical traditions of Japan; fertility and death ceremonies of the Wodaabe, Yoruba, and Dogon tribes of Africa; the healing zar dances of North Africa, and the rituals/activism of Native American tribes. The presentation of court dance as a symbol of power will be examined in Hawai’i, Java, and Cambodia, as well as in Catherine de Medici’s Renaissance pageants and in the French Baroque spectacles of Louis XIV’s Versailles and the Paris Opera. The inevitable impact of politics on dance will be examined in viewing the bloody genocide of Cambodia’s Royal Dancers; the propagandist works of China’s Cultural Revolution; the French Revolution’s influence upon Romantic ballets such as La Sylphide and Giselle; and how the repression of a Gitano culture led to the emergence of flamenco in Spain. In addition to written texts and video documentation, we will review examples of related art forms (visual arts, music, and drama).

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

OART-UT 701-000 (14352)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Mon5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Beaman, Patricia

Expressive Culture Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Statistics for The Behavioral Sciences (PSYCH-UA 10)

No prerequisite. PSYCH-UA 10 and 11 may be taken in either order. Bauer. Offered every semester. 4 points. Students gain familiarity with data description, variance and variability, significance tests, confidence bounds, and linear regression, among other topics. Students work on psychological data sets, learn approaches to statistical prediction, and learn to interpret results from randomized experiments.

Psychology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Quantitative Reasoning Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

History of Children’s Television (FMTV-UT 1022)

Through lectures, discussion, program viewing, projects, guests, and our own lives, this course explores the state of children’s media for pre-schoolers to adolescents. The goal is to understand how we all have been affected by the media and how we can determine change for the next generation. We will consider the role television, videos, and the internet play in regard to family and peer relationships, education and social issues. We will also examine the broadcasting and cable industry as well as the success and failure of the government and such media groups as ACT (Action for Children’s Television) in regulating content of children?s programs. Assignments will include interviews of pre-schoolers and adolescents, website presentations, critique of children’s programs, and a proposal for children’s media. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.

Undergraduate

Class #
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Meets

Class #: 21432
Section #: 001
Meets: T 9:30a-12:15p

Fall 2026 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2025 Undergraduate