Category Archives: Liberal Arts & Sciences – Electives

All Liberal Arts Elective Courses: Quantitative Reasoning, Physical Science OR Life Science, Societies & the Social Sciences, Expressive Culture, General Liberal Arts Electives

The Art of Play (ARTS-UG 1110)

We know that for children play is more than just fun; it is the work through which they develop. But what about when adults play? Through play we find our freedom, spontaneity, and our aesthetic. What is there in human beings that enables us to play? Why is play considered an innate capacity of people from the beginning of recorded history? What qualifies as play? When does play become art? In this course, everyone plays and in doing so examines the historic and contemporary uses of play as a potentially universal impulse of humans, across generations, time and space. Play’s capacity to create and sustain community will be considered. We will examine play as it is reflected through theories of child development, dramatic improvisation, fine art, politics, social construction and identities, music, religion and spirituality, literature and social media. Students will examine the necessity of play in their own child and adult lives—the creative spirit, the adventurer, the empathic connection with humanity, and laughter, too. Books may include: Nachmanovitch’s Free Play, Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment, Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, and selected readings from Lorca, Nietzche, Piaget, Postman, Solomon.

Arts Workshops (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

ARTS-UG 1110-000 (9410)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Thu8:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hodermarska, Maria

Expressive Culture Fall 2025 Undergraduate

Film, Race and Representation (IDSEM-UG 9650)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Thu

This course examines filmic representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and corresponding political, cultural, and social ideologies. Our aim will be to understand dominant and subversive storytelling techniques in films that focus on racialized subjects, sexual identity and class privilege in the US. The goal is to illuminate how meanings of race are constructed and can be read through filmic aspects. We will focus on contemporary films by diverse filmmakers paying particular attention to matters of film authorship, narrative and rhetorical strategy, and technologies of cinema. Our analysis will illuminate how operations of power function filmically to produce both conventional and transgressive gazes. Screenings include work by and about people of color in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Expressive Culture Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate

History of Biotechnology (IDSEM-UG 2111)

What becomes of life when researchers can materially manipulate and technically transform living things? In this course, we will historically investigate biotechnology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, paying attention to how efforts to engineer life are grounded in social, cultural, and political contexts. Topics include reproductive technologies, genetic engineering and cloning, genetically modified foods, bioprospecting, genomics, stem cells, and biosafety and biosecurity. The course is organized around five crosscutting domains in which we will explore the ethical, legal, and social impacts of biotechnology: (1) food, (2) property and law, (3) sex and reproduction, (4) disease and drugs, and (5) genomic identities. We will read and discuss historical and anthropological accounts of biotechnology, primary scientific publications, legal cases, and speculative fiction. We will learn to evaluate the social constitution and impact of biotechnology on daily life, as well as how to place contemporary issues and debates about biotechnology in sociopolitical and historical contexts. Case studies cover topics such as the Green Revolution, the Recombinant DNA controversy, BRCA gene patents, egg freezing, the Mexican Genome Project, and CRISPR-Cas9. Secondary sources include articles and book excerpts from historians, anthropologists, and sociologists of the life sciences, including but not limited to Cori Hayden, Sarah Franklin, Ruha Benjamin, Kim TallBear, Alondra Nelson, and Amade M’Charek.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Physical Science OR Life Science Undergraduate

Asian/American Labor: Past, Present, and Future (IDSEM-UG 2923)

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the role of labor in the making of Asian America. Much of the course will connect the past to the present, paying close attention to historical analyses and community-engaged research. Using a site-based approach, this course will use our surroundings in New York City, to investigate Asian American labor. Each week, we will study interdisciplinary themes around work as it relates to Asian communities, such as “food and migration,” “race-making in New York’s nail salons,” “care work,” etc. Through close readings and film screenings, we will discuss the ways in which laboring Asian Americans have organized, resisted, created, and mobilized from the bottom-up, challenging their bosses and the state. How have Asian/American workers shaped, pushed back against, and transformed New York? How can we understand racial formation and immigration in New York’s labor movements? And what about transnational contexts? Through discussions of the readings and films, we will reflect questions that unpack “work” and “labor.” Students will study and write OpEds, making arguments with evidence to comment about the past, present, and future of Asian/American labor. Texts by scholars of Asian American Studies and labor histories, such as Lisa Lowe, Vivek Bald, and Miliann Kang, will guide students and encourage their writing. Film screenings will include From Spikes to Spindles (1976) and Nailed It (2019), which capture the stories of garment and nail salon workers (respectively), to facilitate our discussions about Asian/American labor studies.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

IDSEM-UG 2923-000 (9718)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Mon,Wed12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Bae, Minju

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Documentary Traditions (FMTV-UT 1032)

14 sessions will be devoted to a history of the genre, screening essential films both inside and outside the canon, with a focus on the changes in style, technique, and subject matter which influenced the form from its earliest beginnings to the present. Undergraduates who take the course for three points are required to keep journals in which they respond to each session and compare observations with those made when viewing at least one documentary of their choice seen outside class, as well as in response to critical essays provided at each session and references in the text.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 16647
Section #: 001
Meets: R 6:20-9p

Fall 2025 Fall 2026 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Social Work – Family Violence (UNDSW-US 62)

Family violence is an overarching term for many areas in the study of interpersonal abuse, aggression, and violence. This course will provide an introduction to the multiple aspects of the study of family violence and is intended to provide a foundational knowledgebase for further study in the context of social work practice, research, and policy. The course will cover both historical and current controversies and standpoints of family violence research, practice, and policy. This course is structured as a critical examination of family violence from a social work perspective. Family violence is a dynamic and complex issue, posing diverse challenges for clinical, legal, research, and policy professionals. A multidisciplinary approach to the study of abuse, aggression, and violence in the context of familial relationships including partner violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, elder abuse and sibling violence informs the basic structure of the course. Using a critical analysis framework that considers ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and sexual orientation in context, the course will cover topics including: the meaning, nature, and types of family violence; biological, psychological, and sociological theories that attempt to explain interpersonal abuse, aggression, and violence; the outcomes and consequences of violence; a range of family violence prevention and intervention strategies in clinical and judicial settings. The primary focus of the course is on the American family, though references will be made to other countries and cultures, particularly issues relevant to immigrant families.

Undergrad Social Work (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

UNDSW-US 62-000 (16276)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Fri11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Chaparro, Edith

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Love and Relationships (UNDSW-US 90)

In this course, we will explore different types and aspects of love and relationships and examine how our lived experiences, identities, worldviews, and sense of curiosity influence how we encounter, make sense of, and respond to love. While there is no greater determinant of happiness and health than our access to and engagement in loving and healthy relationships, our questions and dilemmas about how to define what love is, how to choose the “right” people to experience it with, and how to develop and maintain satisfying relationships persist. Though these core questions and challenges are undoubtedly centuries-old, the nature and complexity of them continue to evolve over time and many of their “answers” and “solutions” remain elusive. The primary objective of this course is to engage you in a process of inquiry and self-examination, critical dialogue, and reflection about your own ideas, beliefs, values, and experiences with love and relationships. Together, through your engagement with the course materials and our group discussions, we will wrestle with the following questions, share ideas, and generate possible answers (and likely more questions!): * Where do our ideas, beliefs and assumptions about love come from? How have they changed over time? * What determines or influences one’s capacity to give and receive love? Are these capacities different and/or related? * How do societal and cultural influences help or hinder our freedom and ability to love well and be loved? * What happens to us biologically, emotionally, and psychologically, when we are in love? * What determines satisfaction, resiliency, and longevity in relationships? How does this change across the lifespan? * What enables some to heal and move on after heartbreak, loss, or betrayal? * How do you want to show up differently in your relationships? What/Who might help you do so?

Undergrad Social Work (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

UNDSW-US 90-000 (16281)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Mon2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Michaels, Vera

UNDSW-US 90-000 (16282)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Thu4:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cosse, Jackie

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Speaking Our Minds – Narrating Mental Illness (CAMS-UA 192)

Stories of mental illness are all too often told from the perspective of those who study or treat it. By contrast, this course examines mental illness through the lens of those who experience it first-hand and creatively transform their experience into something that can be shared with others. Narrative has the unique ability to relate the felt experience of mental illness in a way that the conventional patient history, chart, or any strictly medical documentation cannot. Through close examination of video testimony, memoir, autobiographical fiction, theater and film, students will learn to receive and interpret the illness experience, with a focus on applications for public health, advocacy and social justice.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Expressive Culture General Elective Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

Technology and Society (MCC-UE 1034)

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

An inquiry into the ways that technology — mechanical, electronic, analog, and digital — shapes and is shaped by cultural, political, and social values. Students become acquainted with key concepts and approaches to understanding the interplay of technology and society (e.g. technological determinism, social construction of technology, actor networks, affordances) and how these have been applied to such cases as the clock, the automobile, the assembly line, household technology, the telephone, and more recent communication technology.

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

Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Morality in Childhood (CAMS-UA 9145)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:

How do children come to know right from wrong? Do we enter the world as blank moral slates who must learn right and wrong, or are we born with an innate moral sense? How do parents, peers, school, culture, and the media influence and shape our moral development? To answer these questions, this course explores the science of morality, a burgeoning field that has emerged at the intersection of developmental, social, and evolutionary psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience, and now forms a core component of the scientific study of human nature. In this course, we first define morality and learn about how it is studied scientifically. We then talk about babies, beasts, and brains, and what research with each of these can tell us about morality, where it comes from, and how it develops during childhood. Next, we consider in more detail the role of parents, peers, school, and society in shaping moral development from infancy to adulthood. We will consider how today’s youth negotiate the challenges of the modern world, including bullying in school and on the Internet, the influence of the media and popular culture, and hate and prejudice.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Food, Culture & Globalization: London (FOOD-UE 9184)

Credits: 2
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon
Credits: 2
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Mon

This course investigates current transformations in the food systems and cultures of London under conditions of globalization. A people’s diet is dependent on their geography, although no people on earth eat everything edible in their environment, and they seek distant stimulants that their locales cannot support. Through lectures, readings, field trips students will master established facts and concepts about contemporary urban food cultures and produce new knowledge of the same.

Food Studies (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 14 Weeks

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

Adv Sem: Global Persp in Child & Adolescent Mh (CAMS-UA 9202)

Children and adolescents suffer worldwide from significant mental health stressors, but how mental health and illness are perceived and addressed varies greatly around the world. The first part of the course will provide a brief overview of human rights, child development, social determinants of mental health, trauma and resilience, and the global public health significance of mental illness. Using this framework, the impact of selected salient cross-cultural factors affecting mental health (i.e. poverty, war and conflict, and gender-based exploitation) on children’s development and wellbeing will be studied. Throughout the course, various perspectives will be considered, while dominant paradigms will be recognized and critically examined. Lastly, the course will conclude on a pragmatic level—deliberating specific settings, available resources, barriers, and preventative proposals. Selected case studies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East will be used to illustrate key concepts. Through lectures, readings, documentaries, and active discussion this course will provide an engaging forum to consider and debate child and adolescent mental health issues globally.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 13 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

CAMS-UA 9202-000 (19900)09/01/2025 – 12/04/2025 Thu5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at NYU London (Global)Instructed by

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2024

Cities and Citizenship: Readings in Global Urbanism (IDSEM-UG 1880)

Cities have long been viewed as the crucible of citizenship. “But over the last few decades, the rapid urbanization of the global South has recalibrated Western derived models of cities and citizenship. “This course draws on interdisciplinary readings from urban studies, geography, anthropology, and history to grapple with this global “urban revolution.” Rejecting the language of crisis, chaos, and exception that is so often used to characterize cities in the global South, it will provide theoretically informed perspectives on social, cultural, and political life in rapidly urbanizing places throughout the postcolonial world. Attention will be paid to histories and legacies of colonialism alongside novel forms of governance and claims to the city. “Though focused primarily on cities in the global South, the class is intended to probe how these cities reconfigure conventional understandings of being a citizen in the city (anywhere), and will also examine the global South within the “North”. “Topics may include the rights to the city, infrastructure and planning, gentrification, political ecologies, technologies of rule, informality and slum upgrading, and urban social movements. “”Selected authors may include Ananya Roy, James Holston, Mamadou Diouf, Nikhil Anand, and AbdouMaliq Simone.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

IDSEM-UG 1880-000 (12439)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Thu2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Fredericks, Rosalind

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2024

The Evolution and History of the Entertainment Business (MKTG-UB 27)

The course is designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the entertainment, media and technology industries through the context and prism of history. Using the evolution of communication and media, students will explore how various formats, technologies and regulations have informed and shaped how we interact with entertainment and media today.

Marketing (Undergraduate)
1-2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

MKTG-UB 27-000 (5178)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hardart, Paul

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Digital Revolution: History of Media III (IDSEM-UG 1042)

We are in the midst of a revolution. Computers permeate nearly every aspect of our life, yet we understand relatively little about how they work, their historical development, and their impact on our thought and actions. As with previous technological and communications revolutions like the rise of print and the ascendency of the image, computing is transforming our economic and political landscape, bringing with it new possibilities as well as new problems. In this course, we explore this ever-changing and rapidly expanding terrain, paying special attention to how computers and the Internet are transforming how we experience and understand identity and community, control and liberation, simulation and authenticity, creation and collaboration, and the practice of politics. Authors whose works we read may include Donna Haraway, Jean Baudrillard, Jorge Luis Borges, Yochai Benkler, Nicholas Carr, the Critical Art Ensemble, Galileo, Lawrence Lessig, Sherry Turkle, Lewis Mumford, Plato, the RAND Corporation, and Ellen Ullman.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Summer 2024

Law, Business & Society (SOIM-UB 6)

Every professional businessperson must be aware of how legal systems work and affect business decisions. Furthermore, the interaction between law and business is multidimensional, involving international, ethical, and technological considerations. In this course, students examine how key areas of business law, including contracts, torts, and business organizations, influence the structure of business relationships. Students actively participate in legal studies designed to enhance business skills such as analytical thinking, written communication, oral presentation, conflict resolution, and teamwork problem solving.

Social Impact (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 2 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2024)

SOIM-UB 6-000 (4174)

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Sustainability and Health (FOOD-UE 1184)

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

The concept of sustainability is important in our current moment, yet we use the term in a variety of ways and via different frameworks of understanding. This course explores how we talk about and understand the concept of sustainability, including as environment and climate change, food production and consumption, and individual and community health. Students will examine the concept of sustainability through these different lenses, exploring the connections among them.

Food Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2024

The Making of Economic Policy in the White House (ECON-UB 217)

This course shows students how economic policy gets made, and should get made, at the highest levels of federal government. It draws upon almost fifty years of economic policy-making, and the challenges that have confronted the men and women who have sat in positions of power in the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Economic Council. These challenges include the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and the transition to a predominantly floating exchange rate world, the era of rampant inflation, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to market economies, the shock of 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008, and the Great Recession that followed. Lectures and discussions will lead to in-class exercises, in which students will role- play as advisers to US presidents from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. What is it like to sit in the Oval Office and discuss policy with the president? To know that your input into his decisions will impact millions of people? To know that the wrong advice could be calamitous? Students will learn how to analyze policy problems and design solutions, taking into account the multi-dimensional aspects of making federal policy and the many constraints upon those decisions, including of course the influence of Congress. As part of the learning process, students will also have the opportunity to hear from guest speakers who have worked at the very top of economic policy-making in the executive branch of government, and played a role in the policy-making process through their work in the media.

Economics (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate