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

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I (CM-UY 2213)

This course covers chemistry of organic molecules: structure, nomenclature, properties and reactions of carbon compounds with emphasis on aliphatic compounds. It also introduces reaction mechanisms and stereochemistry. | Prerequisite: CM-UY 1004 or CM-UY 1024. Co-Requisite: EX-UY 1

Chemistry (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)


CM-UY 2213-000 (5214)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Mon,Wed11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Ainsworth, Jasper

General Chemistry II (CM-UY 1024)

This course covers states of matter, chemical thermodynamics and equilibria, kinetics, acid-base chemistry, electrochemistry, introduction to organic chemistry, natural and synthetic polymers. The course is required for students in the Biomolecular Science Program. | Prerequisite: CM-UY 1004 or CM-UY 1014. Corequisite: EX-UY 1.

Chemistry (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)


CM-UY 1024-000 (19120)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Tue3:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Pollack, Myron


CM-UY 1024-000 (19121)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Tue2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Pollack, Myron


CM-UY 1024-000 (19122)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Mon6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Evening)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Mishiyev, Robert


CM-UY 1024-000 (19123)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Mon5:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Mishiyev, Robert


CM-UY 1024-000 (19124)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Fri9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Roy, Debasish


CM-UY 1024-000 (19125)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Fri8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Roy, Debasish


CM-UY 1024-000 (19126)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Fri12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Roy, Debasish


CM-UY 1024-000 (19127)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Fri11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Roy, Debasish


CM-UY 1024-000 (19128)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Sun, Donghong

Biochemistry II (CM-UY 3324)

This course continues Biochemistry I. It covers principles of intermediary metabolism: energetic membrane structure and transport; structure and function of DNA and RNA; principles of molecular biology; the immune system; and hormonal regulation and cancer. | Prerequisite: CM-UY 3314 or instructor’s permission.

Chemistry (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2021)


CM-UY 3324-000 (16938)01/28/2021 – 05/10/2021 Tue,Thu2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Mitra, Somdeb


CM-UY 3324-000 (22918)01/28/2021 – 05/10/2021 Tue,Thu2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mitra, Somdeb

Global Media Flows (MCC-UE 1306)

This class examines the intersecting dynamics of media genres and geo-linguistic cultural markets in the configuration of global and regional media flows. It looks in particular at the way media genres travel and how their circulation raises issues about the cultural power of certain media narratives in specific historical, political and social conditions of consumption. We will examine the battle for national, regional, and global media markets as a struggle for the ’Slegitimate’ cultural and political view of the world expressed through information (news), scientific discourse (documentaries), and popular culture (films, tele novels, reality television, music) to understand the complex global flow of television programs and films.

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

Sections (Fall 2025)


MCC-UE 1306-000 (8089)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Pinon, Juan

Intro to Game Studies (GAMES-UT 110)

This class is an overview of the field of games that approaches them from several theoretical and critical perspectives. No special theoretical background or prior training is needed to take the course, but to have had a broad practical experience with and basic knowledge of games is a distinct advantage. Also, an interest in theoretical and analytical issues will help. You are expected to actively participate in the lectures, which are dialogic in form, with ample room for discussion. The course will prepare the student to: Understand and discuss games from a theoretical perspective, as well as the components of a game; Apply new theories and evaluate them critically; Assess and discuss game concepts and the use of games in various contexts; Analyze games, and understand and apply a range of analytical methods.

Undergraduate

Performance Studies: An Introduction with Richard Schechner (PERF-UT 200)

Performance Studies — An Introduction explores the wide world of performance – from theatre, dance, and music to ritual, play, political campaigns, social media, and the performances of everyday life. Performance studies also ranges across cultures — Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas. And it spans historical periods from the art of the paleolithic caves to YouTube and the avant-garde. This course is devised by Richard Schechner, one of the pioneers of performance studies, in dialogue with more than a dozen expert scholars and artists. Performance Studies — An Introduction puts students in dialogue with the most important ideas, approaches, theories, and questions of this dynamic, new academic field. Performance Studies — An Introduction is a “flipped” course: students will read and watch lessons online, blog about the material, and participate in a weekly interactive seminar guided by Professor Erin B. Mee — a theatre director and scholar — who has worked with Schechner for years.

Performance Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)


PERF-UT 200-000 (15424)01/27/2020 – 05/11/2020 Thu2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mee, Erin

Popular Music in Germany: History (REMU-UT 9811)

From Karlheinz Stockhausen and Kraftwerk to D.A.F. and the Euro disco of Snap! – the first seven weeks of class considers the history of German electronic music prior to the Fall of the Wall. We will particularly look at how electronic music developed in Germany before the advent of house and techno in the late 1980s. One focus will be on regional scenes such as the Düsseldorf school of electronic in the 1970s with music groups such as Cluster, Neu! And Can, the Berlin school of synthesizer pioneers like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Manuel Göttsching or Giorgio Moroder’s Sound of Munich. Visits will be made to experience Oskar Sala’s Trautonium – an early proto-synthesizer with which he created the sounds for Hitchcock’s The Birds – at the Musikinstrumenten Museum and the location of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, an experimental club founded by Conrad Schnitzler and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Students will be expected to competently identify key musicians and recordings of this creative period. The second half of the course looks more specifically at the arrival of Techno, a new musical movement, and new technology in Berlin and Germany in the turbulent years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, up to the contemporary moment. Indeed, Post-Wall East Berlin, full of abandoned spaces and buildings and deserted office blocks, was the perfect breeding ground for the youth culture that would dominate the 90s and led Techno pioneers and artists from the East and the West to take over and set up shop. Within a short space of time Berlin became the focal point of a new culture, attracting enthusiastic followers from all over the world to clubs such as ‘Tresor’ and ‘E-Werk’. Among those early techno aficionados were writers, artists, photographers, musicians and fashion designers. Techno quickly developed into a lifestyle and mass movement, finding its most exhilarating expression in the Love Parade and, recently, the club/movement Berghain. As students consider Berlin’s slow transformation from divided city in those anarchic and pioneering days of the early 90s into the bustling, world-class nightlife capital it is today, they will also consider the changing and controversial cultural and socio-economic landscape of the city, and how Berlin continues to retain its uncompromising, avant-garde ethos. Students will be expected to write final research paper drawing on issues discussed in class and in the readings.

Recorded Music (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

Marx, Nietzsche, & Freud (GERM-UA 9240)

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.

German (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2020)


GERM-UA 9240-000 (9424)02/03/2020 – 05/14/2020 Mon5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Late afternoon)at NYU Berlin (Global)Instructed by Steilen, Felix

Introduction to US Education (HSED-UE 1005)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course introduces students to the central themes, issues, & controversies in American education. What is the purpose of “school”? How did schools begin, in the United States, & how have they evolved across time? How do children learn? How are they different from each other, & why & when should that matter? How should we teach them? & how should we structure schools & classrooms to promote learning? Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Society & Social Sciences for Steinhardt students.

History of Education (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Art: Practice & Ideas (ARTCR-UE 10)

’Art: Practice and Ideas’ examines key developments in the visual arts from modernity to the present. Focusing on the ways in which representations both create and reflect the values of a society, the course introduces students to the full range of expressive possibilities within the visual arts, covering painting and sculpture, as well as photography, film, video, conceptual art, and computer media. Topics to be covered include classical, modern, and postmodern relationships to politics, vision, the mind, the body, psychology, gender, difference, and technological innovation. Students will see and understand how artists have integrated perceptions of their historical moment, as well as physical and social space, into creative practices that have, in turn, had a significant impact on the culture of the time. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Expressive Cultures

Art Theory & Critical Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)


ARTCR-UE 10-000 (12834)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Mon1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Gookin, Kirby

Theory of Computation (CSCI-UA 453)

This course takes a mathematical approach in studying topics in computer science, such as: regular languages and some of their representations (deterministic finite automata, non-deterministic finite automata, regular expressions); proof of non-regularity. Context free languages and pushdown automata; proofs that languages are not context free. Elements of computability theory. Brief introduction to NP-completeness.

Computer Science (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)


CSCI-UA 453-000 (9017)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Khot, Subhash

Numerical Computing (CSCI-UA 421)

Introduction to numerical computation: the need for floating-point arithmetic, the IEEE floating-point standard. Importance of numerical computing in a wide variety of scientific applications. Fundamental types of numerical algorithms: direct methods (e.g., for systems of linear equations), iterative methods (e.g., for a nonlinear equation), and discretization methods (e.g., for a differential equation). Numerical errors: How can you tell if you can trust your answers? The use of graphics and software packages such as Matlab. Programming assignments.

Computer Science (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)


CSCI-UA 421-000 (7822)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Overton, Michael

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

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

Introduction to Media Studies (MCC-UE 1)

Introduces students to the study of media, culture, and communication. The course surveys models, theories, and analytical perspectives that form the basis of study in the major. Topics include dialogue, discourse, mass and interpersonal communication, political economy, language, subject-formation, critical theory, experience, and reception.

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

Sections (Fall 2023)


MCC-UE 1-000 (11261)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Rajagopal, Arvind


MCC-UE 1-000 (11262)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Yates, Katie Lane


MCC-UE 1-000 (11263)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Yates, Katie Lane


MCC-UE 1-000 (11264)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hytower, Courtney


MCC-UE 1-000 (11265)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hytower, Courtney


MCC-UE 1-000 (11266)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Ainomugisha, Mary


MCC-UE 1-000 (11267)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Ainomugisha, Mary


MCC-UE 1-000 (11268)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri8:00 AM – 9:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Ọládélé, Noah


MCC-UE 1-000 (11269)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Ọládélé, Noah


MCC-UE 1-000 (11270)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cilman, Eva


MCC-UE 1-000 (11271)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Cilman, Eva


MCC-UE 1-000 (11272)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Procter, Alice


MCC-UE 1-000 (11273)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Procter, Alice


MCC-UE 1-000 (11302)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Fattaleh, Nadine


MCC-UE 1-000 (11303)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Fri2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Fattaleh, Nadine


MCC-UE 1-000 (11615)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Brooklyn CampusInstructed by Fotsch, Paul

Methods in Media Studies (MCC-UE 14)

Introduces students to several methods of analyzing the content, production, and contexts of media in society. Students explore the basic approaches of textual analysis, political economy, and ethnography. Students adopt, adapt and employ these methods in their own analyses, survey and data collection, and ethnographies. Students create their work by means of digitally mediated image annotation and manipulation, data collection and visualization, and audio/video production.

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

Art and Social Change (OART-UT 1018)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue

This course challenges us to foster a tactile understanding of the relationship between art and social change. How do artists address social issues? Can art transform lives? How can art serve as a force for encouraging ethical dialogue and action within the public sphere? How do we make our ideas and revelations actually matter within our collective place and space? To better facilitate our understanding of this relationship, and in an effort to get inside these key questions and others, this course will unfold in two parts. Part I (Conversations on Art and Social Change) will be run as an interactive seminar in which we will explore how the desire to change the world has led some artists to align themselves with wider social movements. Through lectures, discussions and presentations, we will set about to engage ourselves with the work of contemporary artists who have addressed issues related to the environment, racial and cultural identity, human rights, healthcare, and social justice. We will assume that understanding the work of others is necessary if we are to appreciate the potentiality of our own impact on the world. Part II of this course (A Collective Gesture Toward) will entail challenging ourselves to participate more fully in our immediate surroundings vis-à-vis the development and implementation of a work (or works) of art.

Open Arts Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Energy and the Environment (CCEX-SHU 203)

This course explores the scientific foundations of current environmental issues and their implications for public policy. The syllabus is divided into sections that each examines a current environmental theme in depth. The first sections investigate the composition of the atmosphere and the chemical processes that cause air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming. Moving to the study of water, the course explores the properties of this unique solvent and the effect of various aqueous pollutants. The course also includes an investigation of energy from chemical reactions, our continuing reliance on fossil fuels, and the potential of alternative energy sources. The laboratory experiments are closely integrated with the lecture topics and provide hands-on explorations of central course themes. Throughout the course we also will examine how scientific studies of the environment are intimately connected with political, economic and policy concerns.

Exper Discovery in Nat World (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2019)


CCEX-SHU 203-000 (18237)09/02/2019 – 12/13/2019 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Amrita, Pal


CCEX-SHU 203-000 (18238)09/02/2019 – 12/13/2019 Fri10:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at ShanghaiInstructed by Amrita, Pal

Children of Divorce (CAMS-UA 162)

This course provides an overview of current research on divorce in American families. The instructor is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who has researched trauma and resilience and has worked clinically with children and families affected by divorce. The course emphasizes how divorce impacts children and their capacity to grow into loving, well-functioning, relationship-forming adults. Theories of attachment, intimacy, and communication are examined in the context of successful and failed marital relationships.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks