Archives

Video Game Economies (MCC-UE 9008)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

The course approaches video games through the lens of political economy. This means examining games foremost as commodities, transactional goods through which various modes of economic life occur. This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and economics of the game industry since its emergence in the 1970s, particularly across the United States, China, and Japan. Special attention is brought to the dramatic industry changes catalyzed by digital distribution, mobile gaming, live streaming, and other contemporary developments.

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Rethinking Public Relations (MCC-UE 1750)

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

Public relations means different things to different things to different people but it has one undeniable element: communication. This course is concerned with arranging, handling, and evaluating public relations programs. Students work with actual case histories and deal with contemporary topics such as the use of the computer in public relations.

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

Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2023

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

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

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

Sections (Spring 2023)

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

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Queer and Trans Game Studies (MCC-UE 1043)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course examines the political movement of queer and transgender artists and programmers who are creating games and computational media. Throughout the semester, we read work by queer, trans, and feminist scholars and designers and play the games they created in order to situate today’s queer and trans games movement within the histories, contributions, and politics of queer and trans people and people of color. How might we re-imagine the radical potentiality of video games and software by centering game studies on queer and trans life, history, and politics?

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Revolution and Media (MCC-UE 1352)

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

This course examines the role of media in the history of empires and revolutions and the history of media empires. It focuses on the investment in media forces by both empires and revolutions, and the tendency of media to form empires that are subject to periodic ’revolution’ in the marketplace with the contexts of colonization, decolonization and globalization.

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Queer and Trans Identity (MCC-UE 1408)

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

In this course, we explore queer and transgender identity through practice, theory, and politics. Approaching media from queer, trans, and intersectional lenses can inform the way we understand the circulation of power around media technologies, and enable us to better understand their histories and cultural contexts. Our approach is grounded in theories, case studies, and readings from communication and media studies. Students are equipped to bring tools from queer theory & trans studies to their everyday encounters with media, technology, and culture.

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Data and Society (MCC-UE 1349)

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

Data is often considered the domain of scientists and statisticians, but its increasing dominance across nearly all aspects of life – from political and advertising campaigns to social media, dating, education, and public health — has social, political, and ethical consequences, presenting both new possibilities and new hazards. In this course we think critically about how collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data affects individual and social life, with a focus on the ways in which it reproduces and creates new structural inequalities and power asymmetries.

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Summer 2021 Summer 2023 Summer 2024

Cultural Capital: Food & Media in NYC (MCC-UE 1162)

This course explores the multi-faceted nature of New York City as a cultural & economic hub for food & media. Food is never just something we eat, but in New York City food has taken on an increasing prominence in public life. Food shapes communities & is an increasingly important marker of social & cultural identities. Media of all types fuel & shape our connections to food. Tastes are defined; diets & food habits are promoted & demoted; food fortunes & food celebrities are made. How has New York City become so important to the business of taste? What goes on behind-the-scenes? Topics include: Food-related publishing & broadcasting; green markets, food trucks, & systems of supply & distribution; marketing; Chinatowns, diversity, fusion, & identity. Open to majors & non-majors including special students. Classroom instruction is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, & field research.

Media, Culture & Communication (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2024)

MCC-UE 1162-000 (2919)07/03/2024 – 08/15/2024 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Cultural Capital: Media and Arts in New York City (MCC-UE 1152)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Wed

This course explores New York City as a cultural and economic hub for media and the arts, arguably the cultural capital of the world. Classroom work is supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, and field research to explore the ways that media and the arts have shaped work and leisure in NYC life in the past century. Topics include: Time Square and live spectacle, the Broadway theatre, Madison Ave and modern advertising, the museum of New York, galleries, artists, and the art market, the Harlem Renaissance, alternative media and Bohemian arts.

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

General Elective Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2021 Spring 2024

Visual Cultures of the Modern and Global City (MCC-UE 1038)

Examines visual culture of the city, from the dynamics of visuality in the 19th-century modern cityscape to the mega cities of globalization. It addresses the visual dynamics, infrastructure, architecture, public art and design imaginaries of urban spaces, taking New York City and Paris as primary case studies and including other cities from the 19th century to the present. The course will examine the politics of urban design, the city as a site of division, disaster, memory, and political activism. Meets Liberal Arts Core requirement for Societies and Soc Sciences.

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

Sections (Spring 2024)

MCC-UE 1038-000 (11427)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Mon,Wed11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Sturken, Marita

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate
Spring 2021

Resisting Dystopia (MCC-UE 1041)

A deep sense of a descending dystopian future has become more pronounced with the global pandemic, economic shutdowns, and the rise of extremism and authoritarianism. Scholars, novelists, journalists, filmmakers, and activists around the world have been writing and speaking about political systems and leadership classes incapable of addressing such issues for decades. Students explore dystopia through literature, film, and scholarly works, and examine strategies for resisting dystopia. Students participate in a social action project and create video projects.

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

Sections (Spring 2021)

MCC-UE 1041-000 (23974)01/28/2021 – 05/10/2021 Wed2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Gary, Brett

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Spring 2021 Spring 2025

History of Computing: How the Computer Became Personal (MCC-UE 1171)

This course focuses on technological developments and cultural contexts relevant to understanding the development of digital computing technology. The course familiarizes students with the social forces and technocultural innovations that shaped the personal computing industry, and uses primary documents, academic history and critical theory to contextualize and problematize popular frameworks of technological progress and challenge narratives of computing’s inevitability.

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

Sections (Spring 2025)

MCC-UE 1171-000 (18059)01/21/2025 – 05/06/2025 Wed2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Yates, Katie Lane

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Fame (MCC-UE 1346)

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

Fame, notoriety, renown – the desire to be recognized and immortalized — is the most enduring and perhaps most desirable form of power. Culture, commerce, politics, and religion all proffer promises of fame – whether for fifteen minutes or fifteen centuries. What is fame? Why do people want it? How do they get it? What can they do with it? Drawing on texts from history, ethnography, theory, literature, philosophy, and contemporary media, this course reflects on the ethics, erotics, pragmatics and pathologies of fame.

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

Fall 2025 Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Creative Coding (MCC-UE 1585)

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

This is a practice-based course designed to teach basic programming skills in the context of critical and cultural media studies and digital humanities. Requires no prior programming experience, simply a willingness to explore code at a more technical level with the aim of using computation as an expressive, analytical, critical and visualizing medium. Students learn basic coding techniques such as variables, loops, graphics, and networking, all within a larger conversation on the social, cultural, and historical nature of code and coding practices.

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

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) Spring 2026 Undergraduate

Business of Media (MCC-UE 1020)

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

This course provides an in-depth examination of the core economic conditions and various business models and practices that characterize the media industries. Special attention is paid to video and audio streaming, gaming, and social media platforms. This course is designed to track and assess current business trends and strategies in the US, as well as major markets and regions around the world.

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

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Spring 2026 Undergraduate

The Culture Industries (MCC-UE 1005)

This course is for students who intend to seek employment in the media industry. Its focus is the modern history of those industries — film, TV, radio, newspapers, music, magazines, book publishing — with special emphasis on the pressures that affect them now. Student are required to do extensive background reading, and we will hear from various professionals with long experience in the industries under consideration.

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

Sections (Fall 2025)

MCC-UE 1005-000 (8032)09/02/2025 – 12/11/2025 Mon,Wed3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Parmer, Amanda

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate