Category Archives: Undergraduate

Courses for All IMA Students

Fall 2024

Universe in a Blender (COART-UT 508)

Blender is a dynamic tool that can be used to design real world sets, physical objects and virtual assets for various media and live performance. It can render robust animations and impose visual effects on recorded video. It has the capacity to interface easily with interactive softwares like Unity and Unreal, while having the potential to output hi-fidelity renders for print. But beyond that it’s just a software. The ability to create any believable world comes from you. In this class we will explore a variety of techniques to create living, breathing fictional worlds while honing the skills in Blender to bring them to life. Students will be asked to create food, buildings, clothing, people and traffic signs from their fictional universe – building consistency of aesthetic, narrative allusion, and the fine details that make any world “believable”. The class will involve dissecting and discussing media on this world building, technical tutorials and instruction in Blender, and hands on workshops that tackle the conceptual questions of world building while exploring how to interface Blender with an outside medium: (3D printing, Pattern Making, Asset Development, Unity, Unreal, After Effects, recorded video). Students will be expected to watch technical tutorials and read short pieces on these topics for homework. Students will also complete weekly deliverable assignments.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13570
Section #: 001
Meets: R 5-8p

Fall 2025 Fall 2026 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) Spring 2027 Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Collective Curating (ARTS-UG 1251)

This course will explore curatorial theory and practice toward a collaboratively produced exhibition of contemporary painting. Tracing the changing role of the curator in assembling art and argument, our work will culminate in an exhibition installed in The Gallatin Galleries. Working with local artists toward an emergent thematic premise, we will follow and examine the steps of exhibition-making to understand their intellectual underpinnings, historical import, and political urgency. The practical tasks of mounting an exhibition will include studio visits, work lists, shipping and delivery, exhibition design and installation, graphic design, and public programming. Throughout, we will expand the possibilities of the collective teaching gallery, emphasizing the relations between theoretical and material processes in thinking with (and in) exhibitions.

Arts Workshops (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

General Elective 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
Fall 2024

The Softness of Things: Technology in Space and Form (OART-UT 32)

Through a series of lectures and weekly prompts, this hands-on course introduces a methodology that facilitates the process from thinking to making. Softness is used as both a theoretical and material framework that asks students to rethink the edges of the real and to to engage with structures, organizations, materials and relationships as malleable, fluid, and open to transformation. Students are introduced to foundational concepts through a wide range of examples and readings, and are invited to critically reflect on how these concepts inform and guide their own practice and creative journey. The weekly assignments are meant to help students become comfortable with a variety of techniques and making practices, and in a rapid, playful and experimental manner engage with ideas in an embodied and enacted way. Given that they have a week to complete each assignment, the goal is to help students delve into the core and essential properties of each concept and find ways to express and explore them in their work. The cadence of the lectures and survey of a wide range of artistic practices aims to expose students to different approaches to making, and importantly help them understand how theory and practice are not separate realms but indeed intertwined.

Collaborative Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

OART-UT 32-001 (17897)
09/03/2024 – 12/12/2024 Thu 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington Square
Instructed by Papadopoulos, Despina

Featured IMA Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Negotiation & Consensus Building (MGMT-UB 30)

Effective negotiation and consensus-building skills are essential for success in almost any work life domain—whether your goal is to be an entrepreneur, film producer, business manager, or political leader. In this course, students study how people reach agreement and develop an analytical approach for reaching more effective agreements in organizational settings. The course draws from research in psychology and economics to provide academic content, while making use of role-playing exercises and experiential learning to emphasize key applied lessons.

Management (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 14 Weeks

General Elective 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

The Contemporary Literature Lab (ENGL-UA 9995)

Credits: 2
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course bridges scholarly and professional training by providing students with an intensive introduction to the world of contemporary literature: its writers, its communities, and its organizations and institutions. Built around the English Department’s Contemporary Literature Series (CLS), which brings noted authors who are on course syllabi that semester to the NYU campus, the focus of the CLS Lab varies each semester depending on the featured authors. Some of the topics to be explored include: literary publishing, forums for literary discussion and criticism, literary organizations and institutions, and the possibilities and challenges of writing scholarly literary criticism about contemporary literature. By the end of the CLS Lab, students will have a firm grasp of the contemporary literary landscape and they will be better prepared to translate their interests and skills as English majors into the intellectual and professional contexts of the literary world.

English (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 General Elective Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Seeing London’s Architecture (ARTH-UA 9674)

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

This course is designed to work in three ways. First, it is an opportunity to learn about London’s architecture and history by physically exploring the city’s historic and modern built environment. Second, this class is an introduction to sketching and keeping a travel notebook, a fulfilling skill that any liberal arts student should experience. Third, and perhaps most important, this course teaches students how to ‘read’ a building and a town or city. The ability to visually make sense of the built environment of this major capital should help in understanding the architecture of New York City and other towns and cities throughout the world. Our course is formed of a series of site visits through London’s extraordinary and diverse environment, considering significant architectural developments from many periods, while learning to record and describe what we see. We will study the architectural vocabulary of London and learn how to accurately and elegantly depict buildings and places in both word and image. Please note that it is very important that students attend the first class, which covers the introductory information, lecture and drawing session.

Art History (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Spring 2026 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

Architecture as Narrative (IDSEM-UG 2003)

In this course, students explore the relationships between architecture and narrative-based cultural expressions such as film, novels and even games, analyzing current developments from a critical perspective. As part of their study, students will focus on space as medium for storytelling. The course is divided in two parts in order to progress from homo spectator to homo faber. In the first half students develop their theoretical framework through lectures, group discussions and workshops on different sources that may include films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Japanese Studio Ghilbi’s Spirited Away, architectural work from Rem Koolhaas and Toyo Ito, and cyberpunk texts from William Gibson, Lebbeus Woods, and others. Students’ newly-acquired conceptual background is summarized in a midterm essay. In the second part of the course, students apply their skills on a series of short projects for Manhattan, located at the intersection between architecture and narrative. For the production of their projects, students are expected to bring to the class their own set of interests and abilities —ranging, for example, from music to computer gaming, or from academic research to Internet literacy.

Interdisciplinary Seminars (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

General Elective 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

Migration and Cultural Diversity in Spain: Anthropological Approaches (in English) (SPAN-UA 9475)

Migration and Cultural Diversity in Spain analyzes current migratory flows and their implications, one of the key topics in Spain and the European Union today. This course explores anthropological approaches to developing theoretical and analytical frameworks for understanding the diversity and complexity of migrations and their effects on society and culture. Taught in English.

Spanish (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

SPAN-UA 9475-000 (21153)at NYU Madrid (Global)Instructed by

Cultures and Contexts Undergraduate

Intro to Urban Agriculture (FOOD-UE 1030)

Credits: 2
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed
Credits: 2
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course provides a practical introduction to urban agriculture. Students will learn horticultural skills while performing tasks at the NYU Urban Farm Lab. They will also learn about the biological processes that these tasks manage & how they fit together in a system. Through visits to other sites around the city, students will be exposed to a wide variety of strategies for practicing horticulture in the urban environment.

Food Studies (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 General Elective Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2021

Ecology of New York Theater (THEA-UT 679)

New York City is celebrated in the English speaking world as a center of theatrical production, making a consequential contribution to the culture. The sheer volume, range and scope of activity can make the theater scene challenging to navigate, especially as an emerging professional. The course “Ecology of New York Theater” unpacks the power structures, operating systems and business models currently underpinning the live theater industry. From the commercial theater to not-for-profit companies to presenting organizations and festivals, how does each part of the sector function and where do they interact? Who are the power brokers within the current ecosystem and, perhaps more importantly, who are the influencers that are driving innovation – the makers and disrupters moving the field forward? With which producing companies, unions and institutions is it essential to become familiar as amatter of professional literacy? And who are the creatives and power brokers that are most significant in the field right now? How is new work developed in both the commercial and the not for profit theater? Who really decides what gets produced – how and why? Upon what should one rely for cultural information? Do critics still matter? What about new trends such as immersive theater, illusion, hybrid concerts, autobiographical and testimony theater, circus and burlesque? And what of the audience? What does the live experience offer – and has the responsibility of the artist toward the audience changed? Who is coming to the theater and who is not? While it will not be possible to cover every linchpin organization, company or creator, students will know how to find out what they need to know when they need to know it.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 15120
Section #: 001
Meets: W 11a-1:45p

General Elective Spring 2027 Summer 2025 Summer 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2024

Playful Performance Props (COART-UT 505)

TouchDesigner is a powerful software hub for live audiovisual performance and installation art. With a cutting-edge buffet of inputs and outputs at our disposal, what new, evolved, or remixed types of art can we create? If you’re a musician, you’ll make and play an instrument that didn’t exist before. If you’re a dancer, your movements will become the music and visuals, instead of the other way around. If you’re a visual artist, you’ll collage with code, sculpt with magic, and create installations that respond to your audience instantly. If you’re all of the above, you’ll have fun in this class. The course starts with video art — live camera feeds, visual effects, and projection mapping — then weaves in audio reactivity and sound generation for DJ/VJing. We will use the MediaPipe plugin to detect our faces, bodies, and objects and use that data to make music, control systems, and modulate visual effects. We will scan objects, people, and environments with our phones to create virtual scenes and 3D animations rendered live. We will learn communication protocols — MIDI to send input and receive output from MIDI controllers or DAWs such as Ableton; OSC to wirelessly connect to other computers, software, and livecode environments; and NDI to send high-resolution and low-latency video feeds between devices. By the end of the course, students will be able to use TouchDesigner to connect and control any modern art/performance/game software. Assignments are time-intensive: creating original work to be shown in class and watching recorded lessons of the next week’s concepts. Classtime is a mix of homework performances, collaborative exercises, concept walkthroughs, and studio time. The final is a small group performance or interactive installation that is a part of a public show. No previous coding, fabrication, or performance experience necessary. Note: There is no longer mandatory use of Arduino in this course, though students with interest in Arduino microcontrollers can still create custom hardware interfaces that send sensor input or receive command signals and turn TouchDesigner into a hub for interactive installations or performance props.

Undergraduate

Class #
Section #
Meets

Class #: 13552
Section #: 001
Meets: T 5:30-8:30p

Fall 2025 Fall 2026 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) 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