Category Archives: Undergraduate

Courses for All IMA Students

Critical Video: Theory & Practice (MCC-UE 1142)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue

This course introduces students to critical video—the use of documentary, ethnographic, and research-based video to investigate and critique contemporary culture. Students gain 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 apply texts on video’s history, culture, and distribution, as well as the ethical challenges of video production, to their own, research-based video project. No prior experience required.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2020 Spring 2022

The Psychic Life of Media (MCC-UE 1105)

This seminar develops themes addressed in “MCC-UE 1009 Psychoanalysis: Desire and Culture.” The course expands and deepen understanding of core Freudian and post-Freudian concepts via texts by Melanie Klein, W.R. Bion, Jacques Lacan, Jean Laplanche, and others. These texts will be considered alongside a series of media-cultural artifacts selected for study by seminar participants.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

MCC-UE 1105-000 (21640)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Wolk, Shari

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

Forensic Media (MCC-UE 1035)

What are the distinctions between facts, data, information, opinion, and understanding? Through what techniques of argumentation are these concepts discovered and/or achieved? Course introduces students to rhetoric—the art of persuasion. We explore techniques of rhetoric related to truth telling and opinion formation. We consider the significance of these activities to the city (polis) and matters held in common (res publica). Activities include participant observations of persuasion in courtroom settings. Optimal for students considering law careers.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1035-000 (8119)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Moore, Kelli

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2020 Spring 2022 Spring 2023

Crime, Violence and Media (MCC-UE 9012)

Debates about the role of crime in the media have been among the most sustained and divisive in the field of communications, and they are dependent on a foundation of equally divisive debates about “media influence.” This course will broaden this discussion to consider the culture of crime in relation to conventions of news and entertainment in the mass media, and its larger social and political context. Topics will include crime reporting, the role of place in crime stories, the aesthetics of crime, moral panics and fears, crime and consumer culture, and the social construction of different kinds of crimes and criminals.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

MCC-UE 9012-000 (12446)01/26/2023 – 05/05/2023 Wed1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at NYU Paris (Global)Instructed by Wallace, Aurora

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

Cultural Memory (MCC-UE 1413)

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.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1413-000 (8117)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Mon,Wed12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by De Silva, Weligama

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2020

Hollywood Films and American Life (MCC-UE 1141)

This course examines the vast & rich myth-making power of Hollywood film narratives that influence dominant cultural views of American identity. Students view films that explore problems & promises of American culture & society such as equality, democracy, justice, class, gender, sexual orientation, & race/ethnicity. Students analyze films while considering the work of historians, sociologists, film critics, media studies scholars, anthropologists & journalists. Students will screen films outside of class. Assignments include creating a short film that explores the city where myths are both lived out & refuted on a daily basis.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

MCC-UE 1141-000 (21565)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Wed9:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Gary, Brett · Demissie, Yemane

Undergraduate

Social Media Practicum (MCC-UE 1032)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

In this workshop-based course, students will become well versed in contemporary debates on social media and its impact on self and society, share their own experiences and observations in this area, design an original research project (using methods such as discourse analysis, virtual ethnography, and interviewing), and write a long-form analysis paper.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Fashion and Power (MCC-UE 9345)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon

This course examines fashion both from its diffusion in a globalized society, and as a form of communication and culture. We will examine how fashion has been valued through social sciences – history and sociology on the one hand, and economy on the other hand, from its production to its consumption. The course will address fashion in terms of issues of consumerism and sustainability in a post-industrialized society.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Disability, Technology and media (MCC-UE 1026)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon

This course examines the significance of technology to the definition and experience of disability; the relationship between disability and new media; the politics of representation; and debates between disability studies and media studies. Topics include biomedical technology; “assistive technology”; cyborgs and prostheses as fact and metaphor; inclusive architecture and design; visual rhetorics of disability in film and photography; staring and other practices of looking; medical and counter-medical performance; media advocacy, tactical media, and direct action.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2020

Cultural History of The Screen: (MCC-UE 1347)

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.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)

MCC-UE 1347-000 (21568)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Lariviere, Jason

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

Organizational Comm (MCC-UE 1745)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

This course is designed especially for students entering business, health care, and educational settings who are assuming or aspiring to positions of leadership. Through case studies and class discussion, course work focuses on strengthening communication competency in presentation skills, persuasive ability (i.e., marketing and sales), leadership in meetings, and problem-solving skills.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

General Elective Spring 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Communicating Gender and Identity (MCC-UE 1700)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

This course explores the ways people create, maintain, and augment the meaning of gender, developing insight into understanding gender ideology and the media representation of gender. The course examines how ideas about gender shape our communication practices, and how our practices of communication produce gender.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Gender, Sex and The Global (MCC-UE 1407)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

This course examines how globalization impacts the construction of gender and sexuality. Through discussions of contemporary issues in various global sites, the course addresses the politics of gender as it is shaped by trans-border flows of media, people and cultural products.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Media and Globalization (MCC-UE 1300)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

This course examines the broad range of activities associated with the globalization of media production, distribution, and reception. Issues include: the relationship between local and national identities and the emergence of a ’global culture’ and the impact of technological innovations on the media themselves and their use and reception in a variety of settings.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Advertising and Consumer Society (MCC-UE 1015)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Fri

This course surveys the history of advertising, branding, and consumer culture in a US and global context. It examines the history of advertising media, consumer practices, the spaces of consumerism, the role that consumption plays in identity, and the environmental impact of consumerism as well as the impact of digital media, social media, and data gathering on the emergence of brand culture.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Latino Media (MCC-UE 1022)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

This course examines the production, representation and cultural meaning of Latino media in the U.S. Provides a general survey of Latino media in the U.S. with particular focus on the cultures of production of Spanish and English language television, radio, film, advertising, newspapers, magazines and internet-based media.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Media and Migration (MCC-UE 1011)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

The course examines the role of media in the lives and cultures of transnational immigrant communities. Using a comparative framework and readings drawn from interdisciplinary sources, the course explores how media practices and media representations define and enable new conceptions and practices of national belonging, identity and culture in the context of global migration.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Crime, Violence & Media (MCC-UE 1012)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Mon,Wed

The cultural context of crime in relation to conventions of news and entertainment in the mass media. Topics include competing theories of criminogenic behavior, news conventions and crime reporting, the aesthetics and representation of crime in the media, the role of place in crime stories, moral panics and fears, crime and consumer culture, and the social construction of different kinds of crimes and criminals.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Video Game Economies (MCC-UE 1008)

The course approaches video games through the lens of political economy. This means examining games foremost as commodities, transactional goods through which various modes of economic life occur. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and economics of the game industry since its emergence in the 1970s, particularly across the United States, China, and Japan. Special attention is brought to the dramatic industry changes catalyzed by digital distribution, mobile gaming, live streaming, and other contemporary developments.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1008-000 (8037)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Fri11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Nooney, Laine

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate