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

Fall 2024 Spring 2023

Film, Literature and Mental Health (UNDSW-US 89)

Artists often explore powerful issues of mental health through literature and film. “No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.” (Ingmar Bergmann 1918-2007) In this course, we will draw on classic examples from literature and film to highlight and understand aspects of mental health in ways that are more vivid and visceral than any text book can illustrate. Materials will be chosen from novels, poems, and films to illustrate various mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), dissociative identity disorder (DID), and schizophrenia. We will look at how some of the disorders fare in psychological treatments that either succeed or fail. Guest speakers may be invited to highlight some topics.

Undergrad Social Work (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

UNDSW-US 89-000 (16283)09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Mon11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Michaels, Vera

Expressive Culture Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Fall 2023

Ethnicity & The Media (SCA-UA 232)

Examines media images in relation to the making of ethnic and racial identities in the United States. Surveys some of the theoretical approaches to the study of images, paying particular attention to the intersection of history and ideologies or representation. Looks into the nature and politics of stereotypes; inquires into their reproduction through discourses, representations, and practices; and then moves to a comparative examination of media images in relation to the making of African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American images in the media, looking specifically at changes and continuities in the representation of these four minority groups in the media.

Social and Cultural Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

SCA-UA 232-000 (20866)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Davila, Arlene

Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

Counting and Chance (MTHED-UE 1051)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates:

This course is designed to be accessible and approachable for people who will be future teachers of elementary school mathematics. It is also intended for people who want to broaden their knowledge in mathematics and experience it as a relevant, challenging, and enjoyable field. It is not intended for math majors. It will be taught as a problem-based course, that allows for students to explore and develop new ideas, and apply them to real life situations. The course builds on intuitive understandings of fundamental ideas of counting and chance and moves gradually to more formal knowledge of combinatorics and probability concepts and techniques. The learning experiences offered throughout the course are designed to facilitate student interactions and active role in the learning process. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Quantitative Reasoning for Steinhardt students.

Mathematics Education (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 Quantitative Reasoning Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Principles of Macroeconomics (ECI-UF 101)

This course provides an introduction to the fundamental topics in macroeconomics, the analysis of the economy as a whole. After an overview of introductory economic concepts, such as comparative advantage, opportunity costs, and supply and demand, the course focuses on the determinants of aggregate income, employment, and prices. Other topics include the study of long-run economic growth, the business cycle, the financial system, as well as monetary and fiscal policy. *ECI-UF 101 and ECII-UF 102 may meet some of the equivalent course requirements for the College of Arts and Science. Students may take ECI-UF 101 and ECII-UF 102 in any order; neither course is a pre-requisite for the other.

Economics I (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

ECI-UF 101-000 (19798)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mejorado, Ascension

ECI-UF 101-000 (13426)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mejorado, Ascension

ECI-UF 101-000 (13352)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mejorado, Ascension

ECI-UF 101-000 (19799)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ECI-UF 101-000 (19800)at Washington SquareInstructed by

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

Urban Ethnography (SCA-UA 9868)

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

Through a focus on contemporary Paris, this course aims to explore the insights offered by anthropological approaches to cities and urban life. We will consider the relationships between urban spatial organization and an array of social, economic and political phenomena; the relevance of consumption and display to the shaping of urban identities; and the shifting dynamics of social groups and boundaries within the urban context. This will be accomplished through course readings and also through training in urban ethnographic research methods, supporting each student’s own systematic observation over the semester of one locus of everyday Parisian life. The final project for the course will be a piece of ethnographic analysis based on this field research.

Social and Cultural Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2021 Fall 2023

Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives (RELST-UA 422)

Key questions: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life a happy life, or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the good life? Study of primary texts by Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Avot, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Hermann Cohen.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

RELST-UA 422-000 (20451)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Mon,Wed11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Gottlieb, Michah

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Fall 2023

Engaging Early Christian Theology (RELST-UA 840)

What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ was both human and divine? How can the Christian divinity be one yet three? How are the sacraments such as baptism effective? Do we have freewill? These were some of the pressing questions the Church Fathers addressed in the early centuries of Christian history and their answers contributed to the Christian theological tradition for centuries to come. In this course we will examine some of the classic works of early Christian theology. Despite the often highly rhetorical and polemical character of their writings the Church Fathers nevertheless developed an intellectually rigorous field of knowledge, one that has had a significant intellectual historical as well as socio-political impact in the history of the Church. This is not a theological course but rather an introduction to some of the key texts in a historically significant mode of theological inquiry.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

RELST-UA 840-000 (19704)09/05/2023 – 12/15/2023 Mon,Wed9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Becker, Adam

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Kafka and His Contexts (COLIT-UA 9136)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue

The course is focused on exploring Franz Kafka’s work – stories, novels, diaries and letters – in the context of fin de siècle Prague and the birth of modernism. We will take a closer look at the cultural and social context of Central Europe (literature and the arts, but also the Modernist architecture of Adolf Loos, Simmel’s sociology of the metropolitan life, Freud’s analysis of the unconscious, Brentano’s psychology, the resonance of Nietzsche’s philosophy, or the emergence of new media like phonograph and silent film) in the first two decades of the 20th century. In addition, we will discuss the adaptations of Kafka’s work and its impact on later art, fiction and film (Borges, Welles, Kundera, Roth, Švankmajer). The topics discussed through Kafka’s writings and other related works include: man and metropolis, family, estrangement, authorship, time, writing and media, travelling, territories and identities, languages, animals, art and pain. We will be especially interested in how these phenomena transform when represented in and through the medium of literary fiction.

Comparative Literature (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Texts and Ideas Undergraduate
Fall 2023

Quantified Self (CCOL-UH 1059Q)

Self-tracking. Biohacking. Personal informatics. Quantified self. The contemporary “quantified self” movement makes claims of “self-knowledge through numbers” and improving health and human welfare. There are clearly other elements to self-tracking culture that deserve critical investigation. What does the self become through the lens of data? What is the dark side of data that can be used against us, and without regard for social justice and equality? This multidisciplinary course takes both a theoretical and a practical look at the pressing issue of data aggregation about human beings. It looks to the past for historical forms of self-quantification and to the future of a rapidly expanding globalized landscape of app tracking and wearable technologies. With the question of human data in mind, the course examines the unsure futures of humanity in a variety of domains: medicine and aging, education, the arts, marketing, and the Internet of Things. Students will situate themselves critically within this increasingly dense data landscape by creating data about themselves that can be analyzed and interpreted using a variety of data visualization and storytelling frameworks.

Core: Colloquium (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

CCOL-UH 1059Q-000 (22917)08/29/2023 – 12/15/2023 Tue,Thu12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Wrisley, David

Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2022

Monsters and Their Humans (RELST-UA 649)

Humanity has long imagined monstrous transformations of ourselves. What do these creatures mean to us, historically and today? What do we think we are becoming? Investigates the supernatural in popular culture through vampires and zombies. Places them in the context of our imagination of the divine through history and ethnography, and also alongside our intimate problems of managing sex, gender, race, and class. The archives of religions, psychologies, philosophy, film, TA, and novels provide rich source material, Requires a short midterm essay and a longer final project, while posting to a forum most weeks.

Religious Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2022)

RELST-UA 649-000 (20380)01/24/2022 – 05/09/2022 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Zito, Angela · Rubino, Rena

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

Dancing in the Here and Now: Making Dances, Knowing Bodies (ARTS-UG 1221)

Both dancing and everyday movement offer continual opportunities for embodied experience. Those who regularly dance or engage in movement practices such as yoga, jogging, cycling, and walking typically develop an appetite, even a need, for moving and the breadth of experience it brings. Whether you already feel this appetite or want to explore embodied experience for the first time, this Arts Workshop offers the opportunity for deep investigation of movement, focusing on active and contemplative exploration of bodies in space and time. We will be guided by several research strands linked to the existence and power of embodiment, noting experimental choreographer Susan Rethorst’s term, “the body’s mind”: ways of knowing (individually, culturally) through our bodies. Through many movement options, including dancing and somatic practices, walking and other everyday actions, and personal/cultural/political movement histories, we will encounter or create relationships between what we do and who we are. In the studio and elsewhere, we will consider how our lives as movers, and our sense of ourselves as embodied, bring us into contact with others—walkers, dancers, friends and family—and with our spaces, places, and sociocultural worlds. In this course (open to anyone with/without previous training), our research-in-action will be supported by interdisciplinary scholarship engaged with dance, embodiment, space, everyday culture, phenomenology, environmental studies, and life writing. Readings may include works by Thomas DeFrantz, Anna Halprin, Victoria Hunter, Einav Katan, Marcel Mauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Andrea Olsen, Steve Paxton, Georges Perec, Yvonne Rainer, Susan Rethorst, Kathleen Stewart, and Yi-Fu Tuan.

Arts Workshops (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

ARTS-UG 1221-000 (9703)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Wed11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Satin, Leslie

Expressive Culture Fall 2025 Undergraduate
Fall 2023

Conserving Our Global Heritage through Science (CCOL-UH 1006)

What is “global heritage”? Is it simply our collective legacy as human societies – how we want to be remembered by future generations – or must we confront more difficult questions about identity, the ownership of culture, and conflicts between local and global stewardship of the cultural treasures and historical evidence? With time, negligence, and even military conflict working to erase the past, we must ask: Can a better understanding of our shared heritage assist us in addressing cultural differences in the present day? And how can science both help us understand the historic record and work to preserve it? This class examines ways in which scientific methods can help define “global heritage” and protect it for future generations. Students explore the history and the science behind the creation of paintings, frescoes, parchments, sculptures, ancient mummies, historical buildings, musical instruments, and other artifacts. They will also examine the methods used to differentiate between an authentic object and a fake and ask how some objects come to be valued more than others: distinctions that can lead, and have led, to cultural conflict in recent years.

Core: Colloquium (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2023)

CCOL-UH 1006-000 (17210)08/29/2023 – 12/15/2023 Mon,Wed11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Arneodo, Francesco · Parthesius, Robert

Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate

Cultural Appropriation (CCEA-UH 1069)

Virtually unknown outside of academic discourse until recently, the term cultural appropriation has become a commonplace in social and popular media, as activists and public intellectuals have highlighted what they see as problematic uses (or abuses) of cultural symbols, artifacts, or expressive modes connected to marginalized groups. But what exactly is cultural appropriation, and under what circumstances can it be said to constitute a form of exploitation or violence? This course approaches these questions both philosophically and empirically, asking, on the one hand: What is culture, and how can it be “owned” or “stolen”? and on the other: How have practices of adopting or using culture been implicated in processes of social subjugation or marginalization? Course readings are drawn from a range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences, including cultural anthropology, art theory, music studies, and philosophy. By engaging with a rich corpus of ideas through in-class discussions, oral presentations, and written reflections, students will develop critical perspectives on cultural appropriation as well as the broader concepts of culture, race, and ethnicity.

Core: Cultural Exploration & Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

CCEA-UH 1069-000 (20400)08/25/2025 – 12/10/2025 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Eisenberg, Andrew Jarad

Fall 2025 Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2023

Introduction to Psychology and Its Principles (APSY-UE 2)

Introduction to the fundamental principles of psychology, emphasizing both the unity & the diversity of a field that spans major theoretical & research areas, including biological bases of human behavior, learning, development, motivation, & social and abnormal behavior. Links between theory & classic as well as contemporary research are a recurrent theme. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent – satisfies the requirement for Society & the Social Sciences

Applied Psychology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

APSY-UE 2-000 (11013)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Brito, Natalie

APSY-UE 2-000 (12169)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Thu7:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by Collado, Amarfi

APSY-UE 2-000 (12170)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Thu8:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by Collado, Amarfi

APSY-UE 2-000 (12171)at Washington SquareInstructed by

APSY-UE 2-000 (12172)at Washington SquareInstructed by

APSY-UE 2-000 (12337)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Fri10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Sanchez, Nathalia

APSY-UE 2-000 (12338)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Fri11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Sanchez, Nathalia

APSY-UE 2-000 (21776)at Washington SquareInstructed by

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

Disability Justice and Radical Inclusion (OT-UE 1403)

Explores the implications and meaning of having a disability in global contexts by introducing students to experts’ voices, especially disabled activists, as they seek to advance disability justice and inclusion and demand systemic change in spheres of influence including education, politics, healthcare, the arts, culture, social welfare, and everyday life. Examines how public (government) and private (outside of the government) policies and practices in these sectors affect the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Students explore and identify how international trends in disability and inclusion, local cultural beliefs, and biases influence inclusion.

Occupational Therapy (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 7 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2025)

OT-UE 1403-000 (12899)09/02/2025 – 10/21/2025 Wed11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Onwumere, Dora

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

Concepts of Film and New Media (FILMM-UH 1011)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates:

This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of film and new media studies. The course provides an overview of the historical development of film as an art, technology, and industry and the role of new media as an extension to and reinvention of models for production, distribution, exhibition, and reception. Students are introduced to documentary, experimental, narrative, and new media within different historical and cultural contexts, comparative aesthetics, and the lines of critical enquiry that have been developed for film and new media in dialogue with other fields in the arts and humanities.

Film and New Media (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Expressive Culture Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

In With The Old, Out With The New: Debates on “Tradition” in Western Music (IDSEM-UG 1823)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

Contests between stalwart custodians of “tradition” and rebels searching for new, untested modes of expression pervade Western music history. This course surveys some of the most contentious debates on music’s past, present, and future waged between music theorists, critics, artists, and audiences, spanning the last five hundred years. Our focus is on the seemingly inevitable tension between what music is, what it should be, and what it can be. Starting with the Greek philosophers of antiquity, we explore debates on the music of Claudio Monteverdi, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Carmen Miranda, John Cage, Bob Dylan, and The Slits. We also examine the backlash against and subsequent defense of styles like jazz, rock and roll, punk rock, rap, and 2000s pop. Our goal is to better understand how culture is “made” precisely during these moments of charged debate, where a particular music”s perceived merits or transgressions serve as the pretext for larger often controversial ideological issues. Art in this sense–and music in particular–becomes a platform by which to observe how competing aesthetic value systems reveal deep social and cultural rifts. Each unit within this course has two parts. First, we scrutinize and discuss primary sources related to the debate: letters, scores, newspaper and magazine articles, journal entries, singles, albums, and films. Secondly, we read and discuss secondary sources by scholars, critics, and investigative journalists for context, using this new information as a way to think critically about the primary sources and our own aesthetic judgments. What we will see is that debating music in terms of what’s “good” and “bad,” classical and avant-garde, edifying and dangerous, traditional and innovative, is, in the Western world, a long-standing tradition in its own right.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Abrupt Climate Change (OART-UT 1058)

Combining science and the art of storytelling, this course will tackle one of the most pressing issues facing the future of humanity: Abrupt Climate Change. In a unique collaboration with NYU physical climate scientist Professor David Holland, students will research and create work that bridges the divide between science and the public through accurate, creative science-based storytelling. This highly multidisciplinary, hands-on course welcomes students from all backgrounds and fields of study to imagine and invent creative ways of telling stories about this global phenomenon and to investigate solutions. Weekly assignments will lead to a final collaborative project and an exhibition open to the public.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13511
Section #: 001
Meets: W 10a-1p

Fall 2026 Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Spring 2027 Undergraduate

Sailors, Convicts, and Pilgrims: The Indian Ocean Since 1500 (IDSEM-UG 2067)

Can oceans be the subject of historical inquiry? Maritime spaces help in thinking beyond nations and national borders that dominate modern global histories, leading us into a world of connected pasts. This course investigates the Indian Ocean’s long expanse from the early modern to the modern period from 1500 to the early 20 th century. What changed about movement and exchange across land and sea in the longer transition from empires to nation-states? In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, despite growing European presence in the Indian Ocean littoral, pre-existing networks between East Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Indian sub-continent, and Southeast Asia remained resilient. Yet, by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, new shipping technologies, the monitoring of movement across borders, and the introduction of travel documents like the passport became crucial in the formation of nation-states that emerged from colonial empires. From sailors, moneylenders, and pilgrims to convicts and indentured laborers, cultures of mobility connected vast geographies, often defying the logic of nation-states and colonialism. In examining this history, we will cover themes ranging from encounters in port-cities, commodities, smuggling, piracy, and pilgrimage to documents of identity and travel. Readings may include: Broeze’s Brides of the Seas, Ewald’s Motley Crews: Indian and African Seafarers, Tagliacozzo’s Secret trades, porous borders , and Torpey’s The Invention of the Passport , and translations from Samarqandi’s Account of Calicut and Vijayanagar, Afonso De Albuquerque’s Letter from Aden , Linschoten’s Itinerario , Munshi Rahman Khan’s Autobiography of an Indian Indentured Laborer, and Nawab Sikandar Begam’s A Pilgrimage to Mecca .

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate

The Art of Sound (FMTV-UT 1007)

This is a critical studies course exploring the aesthetics and psycho-acoustics of sound: how sound works in art and life; how it affects emotions and stimulates the imagination; and how it is used in film, radio, television and other creative or artistic contexts, particularly its application as a key element in storytelling. This course examines the meaning and character of the soundscape (the acoustic environment) and the ways it has technically and aesthetically evolved throughout film history from the Kinetophone to the iPhone. The course includes reading in the theory of sound, and listening to examples of sound work by composers and sound designers. In previous semesters we have looked at the soundtrack in such films as: Playtime; Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Aliens, The Evil Dead II, Saving Private Ryan, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Class meetings will be devoted to: 1) lecture and discussion based on assigned readings and listening and viewing assignments; and 2) screening of selected audio and video works. Students are graded on class participation, journals, a paper, and exams. This course allocates as History & Criticism for Film & TV majors.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 16624
Section #: 001
Meets: W 3:30-6:10p

Expressive Culture Fall 2025 Fall 2026 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2025 Spring 2026 Spring 2027 Undergraduate