Course Descriptions

Courses listed are expected to be available during academic year 2019-2020 but are subject to change. Refer to Core Program and GLS course numbers and requirements here.

WRITING

Writing as Exploration (formerly Writing I) and Writing as Critical Inquiry (formerly Writing II)

WREX-UF 101 and WRCI-UF 102 4 credits each
The Writing sequence advances the global emphasis of Liberal Studies by engaging students in reading, analyzing, and interpreting works throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, beyond it; in the classroom, instructors deal with the attendant issues of geography, political and social difference, and translation. Students also produce original work based on research and the incorporation of dialogue with other writers and thinkers. The Writing sequence forms the foundation of a student’s writing career and shares important writing-intensive values with all other areas of the program.

Global Writing Seminar

GWS-UF 101  4 credits
Introduces students to the kinds of observational, reading, research, analytical, and writing practices upon which they will depend throughout their undergraduate careers and beyond. Students work in modes from self-examination to cultural analysis that lead into the research process, helping them recognize the role of writing as a tool for exposition, exploration, synthesis, and argumentation. The course includes a variety of forms of writing to help students recognize the habits, practices, and intellectual assumptions that may limit their writing and scholarship. Emphasis on independent work of increasing sophistication in research methodologies yields a fuller understanding of the role of the essay in contemporary writing. Course materials and activities engage global issues and perspectives, with an emphasis on the potential junior year global site as one of the objects of investigation.

Advanced Writing Studio

AWS-UF 201  4 credits
Involves advanced study and practice of writing and is intended for those who wish to develop their writing and who seek to explore and utilize writing as an important aspect of inquiry. Typically, the course will involve the study and practice of one mode or genre of writing (e.g., the screenplay, the poem, the personal essay, literary journalism, the scholarly essay, short fiction, the book or movie review, etc.-- the number of genres or modes that students may practice in a single course will be at the instructor’s discretion), and the study and practice of interpretive or reflexive prose that analyzes, synthesizes and reflectively engages with the mode or genre under consideration. The class will incorporate the study of global traditions (that is, across several large geographic regions) in which the particular mode or genre is practiced and studied. All classes will involve the student in some form of collaboration (group presentations, team-teaching a text, interviewing same subject, co-authoring, etc.), and will also include some treatment of how writing in the mode under consideration and its analysis is transferable to other kinds of writing practices.

Creative Writing: Global Voices

CWGV-UF 101  4 credits
The conversations and work in Creative Writing: Global Voices are guided by a reading list that has been constructed with an emphasis on the global writing community. Readings are drawn from the diverse international tradition of modern and contemporary writing in order to facilitate a discussion of the role national or geographic identity plays in the construction of creative works. The course considers, when appropriate, the national or geographic origin of particular forms—in fiction, for example, magical realism and its ties to Latin America, and the nouveau roman and its ties to France—and the ways those forms have migrated and influenced creative works around the globe. Students complete creative writing exercises inspired by and related to the readings and discussions of form, some of which might turn into longer works.

Creative Writing: Places

CWP-UF 101  4 creditsThis course considers place, setting, or location as central concerns of the creative writing craft. Students examine contemporary theories and poetics around issues of place, as well as consider how writers use place, geography, landscape, and nationality to shape their creative work. Students consider how one makes places with language, how one conveys what it feels like to be in a place, and how place influences narrative.

ARTS AND CULTURES SEQUENCE (formerly Cultural Foundations)

Arts and Cultures across Antiquity (formerly Cultural Foundations I)

ACA-UF 101 4 credits
Introduces the arts from their origins to the end of antiquity, as defined for these purposes by the roughly coincident dissolutions of the Gupta, Han, and Western Roman empires, focusing on how individuals and social relations are shaped in literature and the visual, plastic, and performing arts, as well as through music. Conceptions of the divine, the heroic, power and disenfranchisement, beauty, and love are examined within the context of the art and literature of East and South Asia, the Mediterranean world, and contiguous regions (such as Germania, Nubia, and Mesopotamia). Course concepts are introduced through the discussion of models by which cultural transmission occurred across these regions prior to the rise of Islam.

Arts and Cultures towards the Crossroads (formerly Cultural Foundations II)

ACC-UF 102 4 credits
Examines the arts produced within diverse cultural traditions across the globe from the rise of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century to the global empire building of the late 17th/early 18th centuries. The course explores the distinctive conventions and traditions of different media and the development of cultural traditions from their ancient foundations to the early modern period through successive influences and assimilations, both local and external. Diverse cultural traditions are also considered in relation to one another: by direct comparisons of works even in the absence of historical cultural contact; by consideration of mutual interactions, exchanges, and contestations; by the assertion of cultural dominance; and by resistance to such assertions.

Arts and Cultures of Modernity (formerly Cultural Foundations III)

ACM-UF 201 4 credits
Explores the arts from the late 17th/early 18th centuries to the post-World War II era, examining how they define and reflect both local cultural views and rapidly shifting global understandings of the world. The course considers how the diverse conceptions and conditions of modernity shaped and were shaped by the arts around the world. Many of the issues pertinent to the course—industrialization/urbanization; the outcomes of cross-cultural contact; colonialism, decolonization, conflicts of political ideology, and liberation struggles; fundamental redefinitions of mind, language, gender, and sexual identity—have had very different effects in various parts of the world. Instructors encourage students to explore what it means to study the arts from global perspectives and to examine what “globalization” itself has meant and means in the context of the arts.

GLOBAL WORKS AND SOCIETY SEQUENCE (formerly Social Foundations)

Global Works and Society: Antiquity (formerly Social Foundations I)

GWA-UF 101 4 credits
Introduces students to the ancient world and ends with the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, the Gupta Empire in India, and the Han Dynasty in China. This course takes a global perspective and uses an interdisciplinary approach, and part of its aim is to explore enduring questions such as the relation between the individual and society, between justice and power, and between humanity and the divine. The ancient societies from which the texts emerged are as much objects of study as the ancient texts themselves. Students consider many ideas with which they might not agree, and they ask how these earlier conceptions speak to their own lives and connect to the world today. Students are encouraged to distinguish between understanding a text in its historical settings and engaging in broad historical criticism. Accordingly, writing assignments strive to strike a balance between close reading and comparative assessment. In addition to drawing on seminal texts from the Mediterranean world and the Middle East, instructors give extended attention to at least one non-Mediterranean/non-European culture.

Global Works and Society in a Changing World (formerly Social Foundations II)

GWC-UF 102 4 credits
Spans a thousand years, from the rise of Islam and the reunification of China under the Tang Dynasty (in the 7th century CE) through the Scientific Revolution and the decline of the Mogul Empire in India. Students consider great ideas that have often helped earlier peoples organize their lives—but which have also set them in conflict either with other communities or among themselves. Such ideas have sparked movements for ethical and social reform, conquest, recovery of lost classics, and religious renewal. Vast new empires appear during this period, but so do challenges to their rule. Religious conflicts lead to civil war, and modern science emerges as a challenge to traditional beliefs. Throughout, different conceptions of human nature emerge and collide. Oppression gives rise to new movements for greater equality and individual rights, and bitter struggles for power lead to the creation of large new colonial empires, whose effects linger to the present day. In addition, the world’s different civilizations come into increasing contact through exploration and trade. Students consider these ideas and developments critically, with an eye to their philosophical, political, and historical significance; and they explore the ways in which texts that have often been read in exclusively Western contexts yield new meaning when placed in non-Western settings.

Global Works and Society: Modernity (formerly Social Foundations III)

GWM-UF 201 4 credits
Examines major intellectual and historical events from the Enlightenment and the Qing Dynasty (around 1700) to the contemporary world, a period that features some of the most rapid and significant changes in human society and scientific understanding. At the same time, many of the enduring questions of humanity have become even more critical as disparate cultures interact in a new global arena. Authors and themes come from a range of texts both interdisciplinary and international. Among the themes the course explores are the philosophical and political debates that followed the creation of global colonial empires, as societies from around the world confronted imperial policies and institutions. The course also considers the rise of vast, new international markets; the spread of revolutionary and national liberation movements in the 19th and 20th centuries; new challenges to established property; and the social effects of industrialization. In addition, instructors discuss postmodern attempts to question and undermine the institutions and practices that structure contemporary societies. Students consider criticisms of Western practices that form both within the West and from other regions of the world, giving special attention to the reception of Western texts by other traditions and, conversely, the influence of these other traditions on the West.

GLOBAL CULTURES

African Cultures

AFGC-UF 0101  4 credits
Using a variety of literature, film and historical sources, this one-semester interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to the great diversity of places and cultures on the African continent. Students explore artistic and intellectual expressions of paradigms emerging from cultural traditions and the disruptions of those traditional structures by the incursions of Islam and European colonialism. This course also explores the decolonization of the continent, as well as the attendant struggles for independence in the post-liberation period. The dispersal of Africans into the West and transformation of African cultures in the Diaspora also receive attention. In addition, students make at least one visit to a relevant museum or art exhibition and are encouraged to explore the material arts of the continent in independent research projects.

Caribbean Cultures

CAGC-UF 0101  4 credits
The Caribbean is a zone of great historical and cultural dynamism as its territories have been peopled by diasporas originating in all parts of the world. Its island nations have been formed in modernity and their cultures have contributed in innumerable ways to the development of the modern world. This interdisciplinary one-semester course explores key aspects of the region’s nations, cultures and products. We will explore key aspects of the development of the region since 1492, including settlement by colonization by European powers, the transatlantic slave trade and indentured labour. We will examine the impact on the world of Caribbean products, culture and people, such as sugar, reggae, salsa and soca, Santeria and Rastafarianism. We will also explore the wider impact of political movements originating in the Caribbean with Marcus Garvey, the Haitian revolution and the revolutionary communist state of Cuba.

East Asian Cultures

EAGC-UF 0101  4 credits
This one-semester course on East Asia offers a broad, interdisciplinary introduction to China, Japan, and Korea, generally concentrating on one of these countries. Emphasis will be on understanding the way East Asian culture has developed via examination of foundational texts or major schools of thought, as well as political, philosophical, religious, literary or artistic works. There are many topics that an instructor may choose to have students explore in his or her section of EAC. Such topics can include (but are not limited to): the roots and growth of the chosen East Asian culture; issues of national or cultural identity in relation to imperialism and colonialism; East-West tensions past and present; modernity’s clash with tradition; the persistence of the traditional within the modern; the rise and character of East Asian Diasporas; and questions of East Asian development.

Latin American Cultures

LAGC-UF 0101  4 credits
Offers a broad, interdisciplinary introduction to the diversity in the Caribbean and the Americas beyond the United States and Canada. Given the European, American, African, Asian, and indigenous Indian influences on the region’s varied cultures and societies, the course focuses on one or more of such topics as the social, political, artistic, economic, and ethnological issues of the pre-Columbian, colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It traces both cultural communities and differences within Latin America. The course also explores Latin American ideas about the place that the region occupies in the Americas and the world.

Middle Eastern Cultures

MEGC-UF 0101  4 credits
This interdisciplinary one-semester course explores cultures, social institutions, political economies, and social change in contemporary Middle Eastern and North African societies. Each semester will cover different topics and countries, but could certainly include material on Islam and Islamic history, social and cultural practices (such as class status, clothing, daily lives), studies on the artistic tradition (whether miniature painting, religious architecture, poetry, film), cultural exchange and trade (the Silk Road, relations between Middle Eastern and African and Asian empires, emergence of capitalistic practices), the impact of the rise of European empires, minorities in the Middle East (whether religious minorities such as the Druze or ethnic minorities such as the Kurds), European colonies and their legacy, major conflicts (such as the Arab-Israeli conflict or Arab Cold War), and studies on ideologies of the region (whether Arab nationalism, Zionism, Turkish and Persian nationalisms, Islamism).

South Asian Cultures

SAGC-UF 0101  4 credits
Offers a broad interdisciplinary introduction to the society and culture of the Indian subcontinent, concentrating on one or more of the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Students study aspects of the traditional and/or modern cultures of one or more of these countries, such as the foundational texts of major schools of thought, as well as literary, political, philosophical, religious, and artistic works. The course explores the interactions of historical tradition and change and illuminates such issues as colonialism, sectarianism, and modernization.

SCIENCE

History of the Universe

HOU-UF 0101  4 credits
Students examine the nature of science as a way of looking at the world and study that world as revealed through the work of scientists over the years. They learn about the nature of matter and energy and how the universe has evolved. Topics include the origin and development of the stars, galaxies, planetary systems, and the universe itself, as well as study of the Earth and the development of life on Earth and its potential to exist elsewhere in the universe. The course begins with the development of scientific thought at multiple locations around the pre-modern world by reference to Babylonian and Chinese astronomy, Indian numerical systems, and the work of such scientists as Aristotle, Ptolemy, Al-Sufi, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. It continues with discoveries by the likes of Newton, Darwin, Curie, Einstein, and Hubble during the period of Western scientific hegemony and ends with the multinational world of present-day science. Students acquire an understanding not only of modern science but also of its development and of the methods, strengths, and limitations of the scientific method.

Environmental Studies

ENSTU-UF 0101  4 credits
Environmental decisions are frequent and important in our daily lives, ranging from personal behavior to international policy. Students in Environmental Studies learn about modern environmental science in the context of contemporary global issues, exploring the impact that the decisions of nations and individuals have on local and world ecologies. The course emphasizes the science involved in environmental decisions while also examining the roles of ethics, politics, and economics in all real life environmental situations. Students examine such topics as ecology and biodiversity, including the nature and effects of succession, evolution, and invasive species; the atmosphere, including air pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change; sources, use, and misuse of water resources; human population and feeding the world’s people, including developments in agriculture and genetic modifications of organisms; and the nature of earth’s energy resources and their use by humankind. Themes central to the various components of the course include the question of sustainability of ecosystems and the role of humans as an integral part of their environment. Students examine the nature of environmental decisions and the use and limitations of environmental science in making those decisions. Additionally, they explore the impact that environmental decisions have on cultures around the world, investigating global issues such as biological conservation, human population growth, chemical and biological technologies, and environmental justice.

Life Science

LISCI-UF 0101  4 credits
The Life Science course examines some of the fundamental discoveries and concepts of biological science. The theme of evolution is woven throughout the course. Topics covered include genetics, cancer, cell biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, and bioethics, with special emphasis on the human species. Many of the topics are discussed within a social and historical context. Global topics and the global nature of scientific problems and scientific process are frequently emphasized. Selected readings from science journals, newspaper articles, and recent books expose students to the relevance and application of scientific work to their everyday lives, focusing on contemporary topics such as genetically modified organisms and recent outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Science of Technology

SCTEC-UF 0101  4 credits
This course follows the intertwined histories of science, technology, and society, focusing mainly on the technology of communication. It elucidates how technological developments are inspired by scientific investigations and these investigations are inspired by inventive technology. The course elucidates how technological developments are inspired by scientific investigations and how these investigations are inspired by inventive technology. Students study the basic principles of electromagnetism, acoustics, the wave and quantum nature of light, and quantum electronics in order to understand the technology of communication from the earliest means to the telegraph to cell phones. As the course progresses, other technologies such as the telephone, radio, television, lasers, and cameras will be discussed. Interwoven with the science are readings, movies, and discussions that consider the philosophy of technology, the impact technology has had on societies, and the way the structure and values of different societies have conditioned the way technologies are actually used. Discussions emphasize the philosophy of technology and the impact of technology on society, including its effect on globalization. Particular discussions focus on how modern technology has changed lives in underdeveloped nations.

Living in the Anthropocene: A History of Biodiversity and Climate Change

LIVN-UF 101 4 credits

With recent population growth and substantive consumption, our species has impacted the Earth to such an unprecedented extent that a new geologic time period has been proposed: the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. This class investigates related physical (geological and geographical), chemical, and biological processes through global and local lenses, and over deep time. The diversification of life and the five past mass extinctions are explored in depth, after which modern topics of conservation concern such as climate change and biodiversity loss are focused on.

Ultimately the class addresses the following questions: “Are we in the 6th Mass Extinction?”, and “Are we in a new geologic time, the Anthropocene?” Students attend and write about events throughout New York City related to critical environmental issues, including field trips to local conservation projects, talks and screenings, and other local institutions or events that highlight the topics covered in the course. Connections of course topics to juniors’ global sites of study are emphasized to cover historical biogeography, biodiversity, and climate change in an increasingly human-dominated world.

Course topics are explored through a mix of short lectures and active learning techniques. “Active Learning engages students in the process of learning through activities and/or discussion in class, as opposed to passively listening to an expert. It emphasizes higher-order thinking and often involves group work” (Freeman et al., 2014, p. 8413-8414). These tools build critical thinking skills, ground students in the research process, improve learning performance, reduce failure rates, and stand in contrast to passive and uninspired learning experiences. Examples of active learning tools include case studies, field trips, activities, exercises, documentaries, discussion, and debate. Although they are not a panacea and may result in less content coverage, these techniques can create a sense of fun and excitement in the classroom.

GLOBAL LIBERAL STUDIES UPPER DIVISION COURSES

Approaches Seminar

APR-UF 0201  4 credits
Approaches seminars are concentration-specific courses that acquaint students with the most influential theories and methods that inform the study of global issues and questions in their concentration. Emphasis falls on current thinkers, practitioners, and methods, with some reference to their immediate antecedents. These theoretical models are examined both for the ways they illuminate the interpretation of specific texts and as important texts in their own rights. Theory is contextualized by application to a small number of particular cases in the field (such as a particular legal issue or literary text).

Global Topics Seminar

GT-UF 0201  4 credits
Global Topics seminars put topics of contemporary or historical interest into a global framework. They normally draw examples from the regions in which the global academic centers are located, but their primary purpose is to study the global networks of influence and exchange that allow one to understand a specific topic across disparate places. Emphasis is placed on students encountering the global in the University’s urban setting, as well as in the classroom. The concentration designation provided for Global Topics courses is informational; students may freely choose Global Topics courses outside the concentration they plan to pursue.

City as Text

CAT-UF 9301/301 4 credits
A rigorous, 4-credit seminar designed to introduce students to the study away environment through an intensive academic program of cultural preparation and local immersion. Through scholarly and journalistic readings from interdisciplinary perspectives, students develop a nuanced understanding of the local, regional, national, and global forces that bring shape to the character of the city. Multiple class sessions take place in locations around the city, such as ports, markets, industrial centers, parks, pedestrian zones, and other points of interest, where students apply direct observation to examine critically formed questions of place, space and identity. Students draw on the city as a primary resource for academic research and critical inquiry and they produce innovative research projects (digital or print) that reflect on the city at the crossroads of local and global identity.

Experiential Learning

EXL-UF 9302/302 2 credits
A 2-credit, Pass/Fail course that supports students in the Spring semester as they enter the workplace culture of the city through Community Placements which may include, but are not limited to, volunteer work, internships, or in some cases, independent research. Through class meetings, reflective writing, and individual conferences, faculty guide students to define an independent research project that grows out of the workplace experience, and which reflects a nuanced understanding of how the workplace culture relates to the social and cultural milieu of the city.

Junior Independent Research Seminar

JIRS-UF 0301  2 credits
A mandatory, concentration-specific class taken online during spring of junior year. Students begin to prepare for the rigorous independent research they will conduct and present as seniors. Students use library research (including online resources) and, when relevant, their own experiences at the sites to shape their topics and inform their work. In consultation with the instructor and in active communication with other students in the course, each student creates an annotated bibliography, an essay that might serve as a draft chapter of the thesis, and a prospectus outlining a potential thesis topic growing out of the essay. (Students do not actually begin the thesis in the seminar; ideally, their work will form the basis for the thesis, but it is not required that it do so.) The seminar focuses on the methodology of writing in the disciplinary areas of the student’s concentration; the precise readings that will inform the student’s research will be determined by each student in consultation with the instructor. Under the direction of the instructor, students provide online feedback to each other at least once a week.

Advanced Global Topics

AGT-UF 9301  4 credits
Concentrates on issues that place the particular international site where the course is taught into a global context. The course typically gives students the chance to study alongside their colleagues from other NYU schools. It includes components that take full advantage of the specific site—e.g., museum trips and architectural tours, explorations of neighborhoods, lectures by or conversations with members of the community, and the like. The course illuminates aspects of the culture and history of the host country in relation to regional and local issues.

Senior Seminars*

SCAI-UF 401  4 credits each
Address a focused global topic from a broad interdisciplinary standpoint. Students independently analyze issues of global significance. The courses are interdisciplinary both in the range of primary material they address and in synthesizing and applying secondary or theoretical sources from multiple disciplines. The work students produce for the course is similarly global in scope and interdisciplinary in approach and methods. Students develop advanced understanding of a narrowly-defined aspect of global contact, encounter, or connection. The courses are taught seminar-style, and as such, students have primary responsibility for setting the agenda of class discussion.

*An upper-level College of Arts and Science (CAS) course, including those cross-listed with the Graduate School of Arts and Science, may (with permission) be substituted for one semester of the senior capstone seminar, providing the course is required for the student to complete a second major or minor, or meets a B.A./M.A. requirement.

Senior Colloquium and Thesis

SCOI-UF 401  4 credits (Fall) & SRTH-UF 402  6 credits (Spring)
Constitute a full-year course that acts as the final realization of the degree’s emphasis on independent inquiry from a global perspective. Students take a concentration-specific course associated with the senior thesis in each semester: Senior Colloquium in the fall and Senior Thesis in the spring, when the final draft of the thesis is submitted and reviewed by its first reader (the instructor of the Colloquium/Thesis course) and a second reader who provides additional expertise in the thesis topic. Each section of the course unites students in the same concentration who have spent their junior year at various locations; thus, students gain a global perspective on their topics by drawing on the experience of their peers. The course offers grounding in the theoretical texts relevant to advanced work in the concentration, close guidance in the actual composition of the thesis, and practice in the oral presentation of complex ideas. The thesis normally runs approximately 40-50 pages (or the equivalent in a different medium) and concerns a topic related to the student’s junior year international study experience and a global issue of contemporary importance in the student’s concentration.

LIBERAL STUDIES AND GLOBAL LIBERAL STUDIES ELECTIVE COURSES

Approaches to Global Studies

APRGS-UF 101 4 credits
The course introduces students to the field of Global Studies by locating it in relation to critical projects like Post-Colonial Studies, Diasporic Studies, Human Rights Theory, Cultural Studies, Post-Modern Studies, Critical Legal Studies, and Religious Studies, and by acquainting students both with foundational thinkers in the field and its leading current exponents. While the course acquaints students with key theoretical texts in the field, it contextualizes theory by use of concrete examples (including full case studies when appropriate); since it is an introductory level course, students will respond best to analysis of specific incidents, organizations, artifacts, and phenomena. Content and methods are interdisciplinary and/or multi-disciplinary; e.g., a unit might concern the intersection of aesthetic, production/circulation/economic, and socio-cultural factors in the global cinema system. In any case, the class focuses on the intersections of state actors, non-state actors, and global governance institutions on a broad range of interrelated global/cross-boundary topics.

Topics in the Humanities

ELEC-UF 0101  4 credits
Elective courses that concern any one of a broad range of topics, with a special emphasis on connecting coursework with experiences in the city. Recent topics have included Studies in Peace and Conflict, and Self-Fashioning in Print and Visual Cultures. Some electives may provide training in uses of multimedia tools and take the form of a studio course. Electives, by definition, do not meet any degree requirement in LS, but do count as credits toward graduation.

ECONOMICS

Principles of Macroeconomics

ECI-UF 101  4 credits
Introduces basic concepts of macroeconomic theory. Topics include unemployment, inflation, aggregate demand, income determination and stabilization policies, fiscal and monetary policies, and the Keynesian monetarist debate over stabilization policy. Not a prerequisite of Principles of Microeconomics. Equivalent to Introduction to Macroeconomics (ECON-UA 1) in CAS.

Principles of Microeconomics

ECII-UF 102  4 credits
Introduces basic concepts of microeconomic theory by examining price theory and its applications. Topics include consumer demand and choice, indifference curve analysis, big business and public policy, and factor markets and the distribution of income. Not a prerequisite of Principles of Macroeconomics. Equivalent to Introduction to Microeconomics (ECON-UA 2) in CAS.

INTERNSHIPS

Students do not need permission from LS to take paid internships. What follows are guidelines for internships for credit. Only LS students who have completed the first year may receive academic credit for internships by taking the Fieldwork Seminar. Students should be in good academic standing (3.0 GPA or above) at the time of the internship for academic credit.

Special Note for Summer Internships
In addition to submitting the required forms, students applying for academic credit for a summer internship must arrange for a faculty director. Any full-time Liberal Studies faculty member who agrees to provide academic oversight of your summer internship can serve as the faculty director during the NYU summer sessions. Please contact the internship program academic adviser for further details and faculty recommendations.

Fieldwork Seminar

FWS-UF 201  1-4 credits
The goal of the Pass/Fail Fieldwork Seminar, which meets weekly for variable credit, is to guide students in developing an academic project that relates to the experience they are having in an approved internship outside the classroom. Students read texts devoted to the intellectual analysis of the working world, share their internship experiences with their peers, and write regular reports on their experience. They complete a substantial final project whose precise nature is to be determined in consultation with the faculty director and submitted by the end of the term. The faculty director provides written comment on the work; students must pass all elements of the course in order to receive a passing grade.

Students must submit internship application forms through LS Advising; the internship must be approved by the course instructor for a student to be given permission to register for the seminar. Acceptable internships:

  • Must be located in New York City
  • Involve approximately 8-15 hours per week, either on-site or at a location directly related to the assigned duties
  • May include governmental, corporate, or nonprofit organizations
  • Will be structured as an apprenticeship (that is, skills and responsibilities graduate over the course of the internship)
  • May incorporate a research component
  • Provide opportunities to use academic skills (e.g., writing, analysis, computer literacy, public speaking)
  • Require a variety of work assignments 
  • Include progressively challenging tasks/assignments
  • Engage the intern in a culture of teamwork and collaboration 
  • Encourage autonomous decision-making and production
  • Give opportunities for synthesizing knowledge and information

As part of the intensive LS liberal arts curriculum, it is important that internships situate the student in an interdisciplinary, challenging, and flexible environment. During the course of the internships, students should develop their communication abilities, knowledge of the field, and analytical and critical thinking. Ideally, internships will train students in a variety of methodologies and promote self-confidence as the student moves forward. Internships should also familiarize students with ethical procedures and restrictions within the organization.
Internships characterized by the following are not acceptable within LS criteria:

  • Take place at a location outside New York City
  • Involve an excessive amount of clerical or non-field-related work
  • Do not provide for frequent contact between intern and supervisors/colleagues
  • Limit intern’s work to a narrow and repetitive activity
  • Restrict the exercise of independent judgment
  • Do not articulate clear objectives and methods for internship training
  • Have unrealistic expectations for the student’s performance and outcomes