Category Archives: IMA Electives (Legacy Structure – Seminar/Studies)

Courses that count in IMA’s Seminar/Studies category

History of Computing (MCC-UE 1170)

This umbrella course focuses on specific time periods, technological developments and cultural contexts relevant to understanding the development of digital computing technology over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. This course familiarizes students with the social forces and techno-cultural innovations that shaped the computing industry. Specific themes may include: personal computing; Cold War computing; computing and globalization; the quantified self; computational aesthetics; artificial intelligence and machine learning; computing and gender.

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

Sections (Fall 2024)


MCC-UE 1170-000 (14061)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Mon,Wed3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hassein, Nabil

On Becoming: Finding Your Artist Voice (ITPG-GT 3023)

On Becoming is a two-part professional development course. Finding Your Artist Voice (part one) filters your fears and apprehensions so you can declare your creative process and practice courageously. The seven-week system will help you proclaim your artistic identity, theoretical underpinnings, and trajectory with clarity, precision, and commanding written language. Students will build personalized masterplans and workflows to facilitate measurable professional growth while learning to catalog and archive their work. Students will develop a working artist biography, artist statement, and fully documented work samples. For the final project, students will be supported in selecting and submitting a post-graduate fellowship, residency, grant, or open call!

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)


ITPG-GT 3023-000 (11387)09/05/2025 – 10/17/2025 Fri9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Williams, Tanika

Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (STS-UY 1002)

This course introduces contemporary topics in Science and Technology Studies, emphasizing the relations among science, technology and society from philosophical, historical, and sociological points of view. This course is required for STS majors and satisfies an HuSS General Education Elective for all other majors.

Science and Technology (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2024)


STS-UY 1002-000 (3854)07/03/2024 – 08/15/2024 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at ePolyInstructed by Alvarez-Maldonado, Mel


STS-UY 1002-000 (3853)07/03/2024 – 08/15/2024 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at ePolyInstructed by Alvarez-Maldonado, Mel

What is Technology (IDSEM-UG 9353)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

It would be a misnomer to assume that technology is something we “use.” Rather, the human appears as embedded in a matrix of the socio-techno-material. In this sense, there is something quite non-technical about technology which has an intrinsically social nature and can take the form of bodily and socializing techniques, the canalization of creative powers, becomings of all sorts, and of course the mechanical and material manipulation of ourselves and our life-worlds. We must thus speak of a biological and technical habitus of dependency and over-coming, one constituted by everything from creating art, to language, to ideological persuasion, to human enhancement and post-humanism, and various forms of convergence. What is the relationship between these various techniques and technologies and their respective effects (ethical, cultural, aesthetic) on the category of the human? Social transformation and technology cannot be theorized in isolation. The technological, mediological, and digital have to be unearthed as constitutive of our shared “material culture” and milieu. Within such a milieu, which is both internal and external to actors and agents implicated within it, the “essence” of the human is not only potentially redefined, but indeed dissolved. In such a potential redefinition and dissolution, one finds a radically new ethical and political threshold that has yet to be adequately theorized. This course attempts to reveal this threshold through developing a critical heuristic which maps the topoi of the socio-eco-techno system. Drawing on mediology, ethics, and the French school of the anthropology of techniques, we explore such topoi in terms as both “deep” historical sediment and also futurology with a view to illuminating how our values are negotiated and transformed in our rapport with the technological.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Electronic Rituals, Oracles and Fortune-Telling (IMNY-UT 289)

According to anthropologists Filip de Boeck and René Devisch, divination “constitutes a space in which cognitive structures are transformed and new relations are generated in and between the human body, the social body and the cosmos.” In this class, students will learn the history of divination, engage in the practice of divination, and speculate on what forms divination might take in a world where the human body, the social body, and even the cosmos(!) are digitally mediated. Starting with an understanding of ritual and folk culture, we will track the history of fortune-telling from the casting of lots to computer-generated randomness to the contemporary revival of Tarot; from reading entrails to astrology to data science; from glossolalia to surrealist writing practices to the “ghost in the machine” of artificial intelligence. Weekly readings and assignments culminate in a final project.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)


IMNY-UT 289-000 (21942)09/07/2022 – 12/14/2022 Mon,Wed5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Parrish, Allison

Reverse Engineering: New Paradigm Shifts in Art, Curatorial and Technological Practices (ITPG-GT 2097)

This course provides critical and curatorial insight into global art practices and interactive technologies from a post colonial perspective. Designed to provide a critique of imperialism the course is underpinned by ideas pertaining to the rise of the Global South, decoupling, indigenous knowledge and ancient and contemporary innovation through contemporary art, emergent technologies, new media and exhibition practices. Students will also investigate the role of shifting digital landscapes and conservation of new media coupled with museum collecting practices, from both a deconstructive and ethical lens, providing regular opportunities to reflect upon their own respective practices. Presented as a combination of presentations/ critiques, seminars, readings, virtual field trips as well as special guest visits with noted experts, the course presents a compact and timely overview of globalization, and the effects of rapid interactive and technological innovative, in lieu with ideating towards a more equitable and diverse art and technological ecosystem.

Interactive Telecommunications (Graduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)


ITPG-GT 2097-000 (22306)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Mon9:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Raza, Sara

Social Media Practicum (MCC-UE 9032)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

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 – 14 Weeks

Video Game Economies (MCC-UE 9008)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

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

Advanced Seminar: (SOC-UA 9942)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:

This interdisciplinary course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German speaking writers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life, which continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individuality. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these prominent traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in modern social theories and poetics. Hence, the course will also include references to the writings of their contemporaries, as well as explications of the direct and indirect influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud on other writers.

Sociology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

SERVICE DESIGN INNOVATION (MG-UY 3734)

Products are used not in isolation but as part of a wider mesh of artifacts and interactions, both digital and non-digital. The discipline of service design takes this holistic view of a process or product, considering not just the use of an artifact but the wider service it is situated within across several ‘touch points’. With a growing service-based economy, in many cases the product is the service, which challenges conventional views of what the designer creates. Services are complex to understand and design, and require a participatory approach with deep engagement with stakeholders. This Service Design Innovation course is for students with various backgrounds and diverse interests for their future careers: technologists who want to understand how the technology can support service innovation; designers who want to broaden their skills; product and project managers who want to understand the relationship between products, services, and design; policy makers who want to understand how to develop human-centered policies that create real impact; managers and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to create new innovative and sustainable system offerings.

Management (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)


MG-UY 3734-000 (17835)

Tisch Goes Coast to Coast (SPEC-UT 81)

This course provides an introductory framework for understanding the dynamics of entering the entertainment and media industry within New York and Hollywood. Through live, synchronous, online meetings with industry professionals in Film, Television, Music, Theatre, Dramatic Writing, Games and Interactive Media and Casting, you will learn expectations, industry standards, and professional practices to apply when transitioning from student to a creative professional. You will also understand the specific job functions that are required to effectively and efficiently complete productions. The course aims to build a body of knowledge and information through understanding the various roles and professions that cut across all the competencies required for the industry professional to effectively function as a key member and in most cases, the leader of the creative and business team, assembled to complete a project.

TSOA Special Programs (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 2 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2020)


SPEC-UT 81-000 (6058)

Psychology of Human-Machine Communication and Relationships (PSYC-SHU 344)

From the perspective of psychological science, developments in machine-learning and AI raise many interesting questions. AI technologies are already proving useful in their ability to monitor and assess human behaviors, emotions, and decision patterns. This is becoming possible through the sheer volume of information available online in connection with individuals, groups, and through the sophistication of predictive algorithms that can see patterns that the human mind cannot. As AI systems, machines, and robots are increasingly built to mimic human beings, will we begin to communicate with, react to, or feel the same towards them as we do to other human beings? If an AI system can assist in an online purchase or a psychological intervention (e.g., a chatbot), can they also become our friends? Could we fall in love with an artificial agent or a robot? In this course, we use the lens of psychological science to investigate these and other aspects of human-machine communication and their effects on human-human relationships. Prerequisite: Introduction to psychology (PSYC-SHU 101) OR Introduction to Neural Science (NEUR-SHU 201) OR Introduction to Computer Science (CSCI-SHU 101) Fulfillment: Core STS; IMA/IMB elective; Neural Science elective; Social Science Focus Psychology 300 level.

Psychology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2022)


PSYC-SHU 344-000 (4390)07/04/2022 – 08/12/2022 Mon,Wed1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Nyman, Thomas

Industrial Revolutions and the Future of Work (CCOL-UH 1074)

How has the automation of work changed the ways we live? What challenges and opportunities does automation of work pose for the future? This multidisciplinary colloquium draws on materials in social science, science, and the humanities to explore how societies have organized themselves relative to technology in the past, and what changes are currently taking place. As we are now in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and dislocated by covid-19, how we live and work is undergoing profound change. New technologies pose new global challenges in the areas of equality, sustainable development, and education. Students will examine the wave of technology-driven transformations occurring on a global scale, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 3D printing. The future of work is explored through literature, policy, and scientific expression, as we anticipate how humans will spend their time as current-day work becomes automated and permanently changed by the impacts of covid-19. They will consider the 4IR as an opportunity to critique theories of technological change and construct their own narratives of change in individual case study analysis assignments.

Core: Colloquium (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)


CCOL-UH 1074-000 (20368)08/25/2025 – 12/10/2025 Mon,Wed9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Gleason, Nancy

Future of Medicine (CCOL-UH 1010)

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

One of the biggest challenges in medicine is to prevent disease and ensure personalized treatment. This is now becoming possible thanks to high-resolution DNA sequencing technology that can decipher our individual information. These developments are already impacting global health, but they raise global challenges such as equality. How will these new technologies blend into healthcare systems? What regulations are needed to ensure that personalized medicine reaches all layers of society? How do we prevent discrimination based on our genes? Through an inquiry-based approach we will examine the science, economics, and politics behind medicine and evaluate the ethical issues that arise in this fast-developing field.

Core: Colloquium (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Imagining the Future through the Arts (OART-UT 300)

The world-wide pause caused by the pandemic created a space of reflection and concern, and brought us to a consideration of meaning. As artists and scholars, we have been called to make sense of the ways we have told the stories of our communities, and been summoned to imagine a future world that is vibrant, inclusive and just, one that embraces our deepest values. As the vanguards of culture, we are now recording and creating new history together, constructed from examples of reexamined experience and awakened by new ideas. The important work of reinvigorating arts education, of imagining and designing the future through the arts, now more than ever before, must be a part of our mission as a school in a great research university. A Tisch education has always been about access to the people who create our community: the great thinkers and creators among our faculty, staff and alumni in cross collaboration with NYU, New York City and the globe. Together, we have already led transformative change, and continue to be leaders in fields that will adapt to our changing times. You too are the advocates, artists, innovators, scholars, and storytellers who collectively reflect upon the past, record the present, and imagine our future. We are co-creators of humanity’s most important re-set. Spark your imagination of the future through conversations with the leading creators in their fields. NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dean Allyson Green will moderate twelve talks with outstanding faculty and alumni of the school from a range of artistic disciplines. Create your own role in a movement to catalyze innovation and creativity to create a more beautiful, more just, more inclusive and more connected world. Please reach out to tisch.openarts@nyu.edu if you have any questions about the course.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

Technology and the Future of Work (TCHL-UE 1021)

This course offers students the opportunity to discuss trends in technology and learn about the changing nature of work. Students explore the accelerating rate of technological development by doing independent research on forthcoming innovations and sharing their discoveries through class presentations and Socratic discussions. Students analyze how we view work as a society, what work means to us as individuals, and explore possible solutions to mass unemployment and automation. Guest speakers join us for class discussions and all classes are recorded and shared.

Teaching & Learning (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

The Politics of New Media: How the Internet Works and For Whom (PRACT-UG 1460)

This course will examine the communication of ideas online, and how that communication is shaped by commerce and surveillance. We will begin by considering the role of the public sphere in a democratic society, and then turn to the early anonymous days of the internet, the rise of social media platforms, and finally the Snowden revelations, debates over digital free speech, and new technologies like TikTok and virtual reality. We will experiment with simple counter-surveillance techniques like encrypted texts that are increasingly fundamental to the sensible practice of modern journalism and media work. The course will feature occasional guests. Students will finish the course with an understanding of the relationship between modern media forms and the expression of ideas in the public sphere.

Practicum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)


PRACT-UG 1460-000 (9642)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Fri2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Leonard, Sarah

Social Impact: Advertising for Social Good (MCC-UE 1042)

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, the field of social good advertising has rapidly expanded as brands seek social relevance, governments and nonprofits look to inform, and activists try to persuade. In this course, students will learn to plan and execute powerful social advertising campaigns, while thinking critically about the blurred lines between advertising and information, and branding and politics, in what Sarah Banet-Weiser calls “Shopping for Change.

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

Sections (Spring 2023)


MCC-UE 1042-000 (12498)at Washington SquareInstructed by

What is Science and Technology Studies (HUMN-SHU 110)

This course is an introduction to Science and Technology Studies (STS), an interdisciplinary field treating science and technology as socially embedded enterprises. We will examine how social, political, cultural, and material conditions shape scientific and technological activity and how science and technology, in turn, shape society. You will become familiar with the basic concepts and methods developed by STS scholars in history, sociology, and anthropology and explore how the scope of the field has expanded to include a variety of empirical case studies, theoretical arguments, and scholarly debates. The kinds of questions we will explore include: What counts as scientific knowledge? How is it produced? How do scientists establish credibility? Can there be a scientific study of scientific inquiry? To what extent are science and technology shaped by historical context? Prerequisite: None.

Humanities (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)


HUMN-SHU 110-000 (23807)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Mon,Wed2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by