Expressive Culture: Museum in Washington Field Study (CORE-UA 9723)

With its vast array of institutions dedicated to distinct cultural groupings and its formation inextricably linked to the halls of power, the museum culture in our nation’s capitol is uniquely Washington D.C. Taking advantage of behind-the- scenes access to some of the most prestigious museums in the world and their staff, students will explore various approaches to interpreting art and will develop tools for appreciating their aesthetic experiences. We will also look critically at the ways in which museums—through their policies, programs, exhibitions, and architecture—can define regional or national values, shape cultural attitudes, inform social and political views, and even effect one’s understanding of the meaning of a work of art. Starting our class at The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, we will visit other pioneering private and public museums both old and new and have the opportunity to meet with staff members actively involved in different activities. We will explore the collections, learn about the inner workings of the exhibition process, and investigate the diverse educational missions these museums fulfill. Against the backdrop of the Capitol Building where legislation is made influencing museums on the National Mall and beyond, we will examine the political sides of this cultural history and the unusual array of institutions that have been legislated into existence, specifically museums dedicated to defined constituencies.

College Core Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)


CORE-UA 9723-000 (4978)
at NYU Washington DC (Global)
Instructed by

Private Influence in Public Policy (POL-UA 9341)

Topics: analysis of mechanisms of influence (selection of sympathetic incumbents, the provision of incentives for public officials, and the provision of information); objects of influence (voter choices, legislative behavior, bureaucratic decisions); collective action; and organizational maintenance.

Politics (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)


POL-UA 9341-000 (4273)
at NYU Washington DC (Global)
Instructed by

Cultures & Contexts: The Black Atlantic (CORE-UA 9534)

This course considers the Black Atlantic as a socio-cultural economic space from the first arrival of Africans in the ‘New World,’ beginning around in the 15th century, through the rise of slavery in the Americas. During this class we will trace the origins and importance of the concept of the Black Atlantic within broad political contexts, paying special attention to the changing social, cultural and economic relations that shaped community formation among people of African descent and laid the foundations for modern political and economic orders. Once we have established those foundations, we will think about the Black Atlantic as a critical site of cultural production. Using the frame of the Atlantic to ask questions about the relationship between culture and political economy. We will explore a range of genres–film, fiction, music, as well as formal scholarship–so as to explore questions of evidence in the context of the real and the imaginary. Topics to be covered include African enslavement and settlement in Africa and the Americas; the development of transatlantic racial capitalism; variations in politics and culture between empires in the Atlantic world; creolization, plantation slavery and slave society; the politics and culture of the enslaved; the Haitian Revolution; slave emancipation; and contemporary black Atlantic politics and racial capitalism.

College Core Curriculum (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 13 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)


CORE-UA 9534-000 (4806)
09/02/2024 – 12/05/2024 Mon
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Morning)
at NYU Paris (Global)
Instructed by


CORE-UA 9534-000 (2315)
08/29/2024 – 12/05/2024 Tue
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Early afternoon)
at NYU Accra (Global)
Instructed by Baku, Kofi


CORE-UA 9534-000 (2746)
at NYU London (Global)
Instructed by


CORE-UA 9534-000 (2516)
at NYU London (Global)
Instructed by


CORE-UA 9534-000 (2618)
08/29/2024 – 12/05/2024 Mon,Wed
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)
at NYU Washington DC (Global)
Instructed by