I have led the following classes at Global Liberal Studies, an undergraduate interdisciplinary program that mixes a “Great Books” curriculum with contemporary inquiry and global scope.
| Class Title | Class Description | |
| Sublime Revolutions: The Modern and its Discontents(CFIII, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012) |
This Year 2 undergraduate seminar and final installment of “Cultural Foundations” series, covering developments in art, music, theatre, advertising, fashion, photography, and cinema occurring from 1776 to the present. Focusing on the appearance of an aesthetic known as “the sublime” during this period, we track how political and social revolutions have correlated with aesthetics that emphasize shock, overwhelm and awe. Drawing on their own interests in either the sublime or revolution (broadly construed), students write papers that make genealogical links between historical material and contemporary aesthetic concerns. Papers, including formal proposals, are drafted and re-drafted, enabling students to learn how to support their lines of argument, display dialectical movement in their thinking, and develop pith and craft as writers. 25 students.
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| Researching and Writing Digital Media Cultures(WRI II, Spring 2012) |
This Year 1, Semester 2 undergraduate writing workshop draws on publications in digital media culture to teach skills needed for university-level research paper writing. Drawing on their own interests, students brainstorm, develop manageable research questions, utilize journal databases, draft proposals that detail methodological and ethical considerations, engage in limited primary research (interviews, questionnaires, semiotic/textual/musicological analysis, or auto-ethnographic study), draft a literature review, write an abstract, and complete a 15 page research paper of their own. Papers are drafted and re-drafted, enabling students to learn how to support their lines of argument, display dialectical movement in their thinking, and develop pith and craft as writers. 14 students.
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| Researching and Writing Popular Music Cultures(WRI II, Spring 2012) | This Year 1, Semester 2 undergraduate writing workshop draws on publications in popular music cultures to teach skills needed for university-level research paper writing. Drawing on their own interests, students brainstorm, develop manageable research questions, utilize journal databases, draft proposals that detail methodological and ethical considerations, engage in limited primary research (interviews, questionnaires, semiotic/textual/musicological analysis, or auto-ethnographic study), draft a literature review, write an abstract, and complete a 15 page research paper of their own. Papers are drafted and re-drafted, enabling students to learn how to support their lines of argument, display dialectical movement in their thinking, and develop pith and craft as writers. 14 students.
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| Writing NYC and the World (WRI I, Fall 2011, Fall 2012) |
This Year 1, Semester 1 undergraduate writing workshop uses New York City’s streets, shops, restaurants, photos, buildings, movies and tourist venues to teach students how to conduct scholarly inquiry in the areas of humanities and social sciences. Students are exposed to best practices in semiotic critique, textual and discourse analysis, performance and film analysis, historiographical analysis, ideology critique, interview technique, and ethnographic investigation. Short essays and assignments are drafted and re-drafted, enabling students to learn how to support their lines of argument, display dialectical movement in their thinking, and develop pith and craft as writers. 14 students.
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