This seminar is titled “Brazil: Race, Class, and Gender,” and while the objective of the course is to attend to and explore each of these facets of Brazilian life, the structure of the course in fact reveals the difficulty and indeed impracticality of isolating for study any of the above components – race, class, or gender. Although drawing primarily on the work of anthropologists, we will also read from an interdisciplinary sampling of sociology, social history, literature, and poetry produced by both Brazilian and foreign authors.

The course begins with a brief, historical overview of contemporary Brazil, starting with the region’s indigenous populations, European contact, colonization, and early nation building. We will examine the significance of slavery in Brazil, explore the multiple meanings of “racial democracy” as the term relates to notions of Brazilian national identity, and unpack shifting racial ideologies of the 20th Century. The course will be similarly concerned with shifting notions of masculinity and femininity, sexuality, and of course what all of this might mean in a country that is understood by much of the “outside world” as an epicenter of sensuality. Finally, this course looks to the history of social thought concerning race, class, and gender in Brazil to make sense of current social and political unrest.

¡Hola! Welcome to SPN 117 Advanced Spanish Composition, also listed as “Writing intensive”. In this page you will find everything related to our class: syllabus, readings, assignments, bios (about us, as writers!), other resources, and calendar.

We will explore, learn and practice several modes of writing with the aim of producing texts of autobiography in Spanish. Why autobiography? Because we all have a story to tell and especially you: Why are you taking this advanced writing class in Spanish? Why do you speak Spanish? That is a story that deserves to be told! This class is designed to help students sharpen their tools in Spanish with personal expression. How is your family history? How was the journey that brought you here?
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¡Hola! Bienvenidas a SPN 117, Advanced Spanish Composition, también conocida como “Writing intensive”. En esta página encontrarás todo lo relacionado a nuestra clase: el syllabus, las lecturas, las tareas, las biografías (¡nuestras, como escritoras!), así como otros recursos y el calendario.

Exploraremos, aprenderemos y practicaremos varios tipos de escritura con el objetivo de escribir autobiografía en español. ¿Por qué la autobiografía? Porque todas tenemos una historia qué contar y especialmente, tú: ¿por qué estás tomando esta clase de escritura avanzada en español? ¿Por qué hablas español? Esa es una historia que amerita ser contada. Esta clase está diseñada para ayudar a las estudiantes a agudizar sus herramientas de la lengua desde la expresión personal. ¿Cómo es la historia de tu familia? ¿Cómo fue el viaje que te trajo hasta aquí?

In this course, we will focus on a survey of topics that will help us hone the discussion on cultural production, manifestations, and contestations. The course will provide an interdisciplinary perspective grounded in Anthropology, but also including materials from other fields in the social sciences, such as History, and Cultural Studies. The course will also introduce students to the four-field approach in Anthropology (Cultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, and Linguistics). The geographical regions that will be covered in this class will be Latin America and the Caribbean (including its diasporas) and the United States of America. This will provide students with a context to discuss topics that include culture, race and ethnicity, connecting it to the main arguments around cultural difference, identity, political economy, health, food, environment, language, politics, gender, sports, and religion.

Welcome to Astronomy 141. Through this course you’ll have an understanding of the sky, Earth, Moon and the Sun, the solar system and the universe. This laboratory course introduces the fundamentals of astronomy such as: the apparent motion of the sky, Sun, Moon and planets; the nature of light; gravity; the properties of planets; the life cycles of stars; and the structure of the universe. Laboratory and computer exercises will be used, and we will conduct one nighttime lab.

As the learning outcomes, students who succeed in this course may eventually respond to:

How does the process of science work, and how does that process manifest itself in astronomy?
How is astronomy of practical use? How has astronomy impacted our understanding of our world?
What is a planet, and how are planets similar to—and different from—one another?
What is the interior of the Earth like, and how do we know?
What is a star? How are the stars similar to and different from one another?
How did the universe get started? What is likely to happen to the universe in the distant future?
[This project was created as part of the Open Pedagogy Fellowship at the Mina Rees Library, The Graduate Center].

Read more about the course design here: https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2020/10/19/inclusive-education-and-research-for-astronomy/

This is an introductory statistics class focused on the concepts of biological data analyses and on how statistics can help extract scientific insight from data. With the use of real examples from biology and medicine we will learn what statistic methods to use in each case and why. During the course, we will demonstrate how to carry out the calculations for the methods learned and how to implement these methods in the computer program R.

Introduction to digital logic. Basic digital circuits. Boolean algebra and combinational logic, data
representation and transfer, digital arithmetic. Instruction sets. Introduction to assembly
languages: ALU and memory reference instructions, flow control. Memory. I/O systems.
Performance. After successful completion of this course, students will have a thorough
understanding of the structure and behavior of computer systems and the logical and abstract
aspects of system implementation as seen by the programmer.

This course introduces the fundamental concepts and computational techniques of data science to all students, including those majoring in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Students engage with data arising from real-world phenomena—including literary corpora, spatial datasets, and social networks data—to learn analytical skills such as inferential thinking and computational thinking. The competencies learned in this course will provide students with skills that will be of use in their professional careers, as well as tools to better understand, quantitatively and qualitatively, the social world around them. Finally, by teaching critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, the class prepares students for further coursework in technology-dependent subjects, such as Digital Humanities. The course is designed for students who are new to statistics and programming. Students will make use of the Python programming language, but no computer science pre-requisites are required.

Instructor Description: This course is designed to introduce humanities students to the basics of data science using Python programming. The course will focus on the critical feminist approach to studying data, which emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing the ways in which power and privilege in social systems shape the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. The critical feminist approach centers marginalized identities and experiences and the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, and class as factors that shape data creation, our methods for analyzing data, and the conclusions we can draw from it. Students will explore the ways in which a feminist approach to data science can be used to reinforce or challenge existing power structures and promote social justice.

The focus of this course will be on individual development in context from infancy into late childhood. At a general level, we will examine the genetic and biological contributions to individual development, the social contextual contributions, and the interaction between these two general sets of variables. Our discussions will focus on several domains of human development including physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. In our examination of these topics, we will view child development as a phenomenon that occurs within a cultural context influenced by race, sex, sexual orientation, and social class. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to familiarize students with history, theory, policy, and research on child development beyond mainstream psychology. Together, students and the instructor will explore how different factors impact child developmental outcomes through selected readings, classroom discussions, activities, and various media (e.g. Images, Ted Talks, YouTube). There is no textbook for this course. Instead, students will read journal articles, chapters from selected books, or online news articles which copies of will be provided. Students are encouraged to bring in, suggest, or post additional images, media, readings, comments, questions, concerns, or other materials to enhance the course.

This course focuses on children and families in situations of political, social, cultural, familial environmental crises, as well as crises of legitimacy, or the ways institutions fail the people they could serve. The course material will focus mainly on children in New York City, although students are welcome to bring in materials on domestic and international crises faced by children across the globe. Through debate and discussion, students will problematize and explore how we define “crisis,” “risk,” and “resiliency” in a variety of contexts. Students will have the opportunity to explore topics of their choosing and influence course material throughout the semester. From acute familial traumas to systemic violence, this course will encourage students to think critically about the various institutions that impact children.

Contemporary Issues in Curating will offer an introduction to curatorial practice, examining the processes of exhibition-making from intersectional, cultural, theoretical, and pragmatic perspectives. Since the Coronavirus has greatly altered the way we produce and consume culture, this class will consider ways in which making, showing and experiencing art beyond the “white cube” might be reimagined. The course will look at historical and contemporary examples of curatorial practices that rethink modes of accessibility and equitable spaces. As more and more cultural programs have moved online, we will question and participate in this realm using the Baruch College Art Collection to organize a digital exhibition that is then collectively designed to operate within this networked, screen-based culture.

This course will prepare you to think through and respond critically to historic and emerging cultures of curating and museum cultures. You will have the opportunity to analyze the field of curating and respond to what makes a “good” curator in the 21st century. You will not only learn to criticize but to understand why museum apparatuses of display and certain art historical cannons exist. Using the Baruch College Art Collection, you will curate an exhibition, articulating and communicating artwork for various public audiences, while understand the basics of digital software to organize an online project for which you can use in your professional portfolio.

Contemporary Spanish Literature in Translation (SPAN264) will examine, in English, major Spanish authors, literary periods and artistic trends through narrative, poetic, dramatic and visual filmic cultural artifacts produced from 1936-1940 to the present day while learning about the historical, political and cultural contexts that surround them.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Analyze and formally interpret the assigned texts, visual and filmic artifacts.
Examine and reflect critically upon the cultural values and ideas conveyed by them.
Become familiar with basic cultural, social and political aspects of contemporary Spanish history.
Demonstrate knowledge of the themes, problems and ideas that appear in the texts.
Learn some key concepts, including literary and rhetorical terminology, for the analysis of contemporary literature and cultural production.

This course aims to develop a sociological frame to describe and analyze the nature, function, and causes of “crime” and legal institutions in our society. The class begins with a broad overview of criminology as a field and some of the major classic and contemporary theories. The second part of the course reviews empirical works which illustrate, explore, and/or critique these theories. The final part of the course builds on Part 2 and reviews three recent topics of interest in modern criminology.

At the end of the course, you will be able to:
Describe, discuss, and critique arguments about how our society defines crime, why crime occurs, and how our society reacts to and controls behavior deemed “criminal”
Apply criminological theories to social problems of interest
Understand, critique, and/or apply reform and abolitionist frameworks to current key topics related to the nature and role of our criminal legal system

This course was created as part of the Open Pedagogy Fellowship, through the Mina Rees Library at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Read more about the process of course design here: Criminology - A Critical and Open Approach
https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2021/03/19/criminology-a-critical-and-open-approach/

World Theatre I is meant to provide a historical survey of performance practices across the globe covering early theatrical forms until broadly the 15th century and traveling through performance traditions in Africa, Western Europe, Asia, and the Americas. This course provides a historical survey of theatre across the globe, covering early theatrical forms until the 15th Century. Through traditions in Africa, Western Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we will examine a variety of theatre forms and styles, as well as individual plays, playwrights, and designers. We will study theoretical texts on theatre and performance from the periods and locales covered. We will also consider the influences on theatre from different cultural, social, political, and economic contexts, and the manners in which theatre has engaged critically and politically in different societies.

We’ll read scripts, theatre/performance theory, and look at some primary sources. All the materials for the class will be housed on this website, including our syllabus, videos from the series Theater CrashCourse, podcasts on Theatre History @Howlround Commons, Library Research Guides (Tools), and other Open Educational Resources. This site is also a work-in-progress platform for rethinking our class’s contents. It will host thoughts and open-access resources to question, research, and practice performance history. [This site was created as part of the Open Pedagogy Fellowship, hosted by the Mina Rees Library, The Graduate Center, CUNY].

Database Management Systems - Baruch College - CIS3400
This course provides students with the background to design, implement and use database management systems in managing the data needs of an organization. It introduces, in a comparative framework, the structure, requirements, functions and evolution of database management systems. After covering conceptual data modeling and entity relationship data model the course focuses on relational data model. Students learn abstract languages such as relational algebra including their commercial implementations like SQL. Database design is introduced and discussed in detail. Concepts of data integrity, security, privacy, and concurrency control are introduced. Ethical issues in the maintenance and use of a database and globalization of information technology are also discussed. Students implement a major database application project using MS Access.

This course is concerned with how practices of reading and writing can be wielded
as technologies of imagination and utopia. More precisely, we will approach, though
perhaps never arrive at, utopia through various theories and practices of anarchism.
What do we mean by ‘anarchism’? This is a question we will pursue again and again
through engaging with a plethora of different forms, practices, and expressions of
anarchism: essays, manifestos, conversations, speeches, poetry, fiction, among
others.

As we read, we will write and converse and hopefully practice our own
nascent form of anarchism centered around that most generous and natural of
human activities: sharing. Sharing writing, ideas, questions, uncertainties, doubts,
needs – rather than march linearly forward in the drive to reach some predetermined
end point, we will attempt to learn with and from one another in an echo of the
Zapatistas, not in order to provide answers, but to practice and celebrate our ability
to pose questions.

The students will familiarize with Dante’s Divine Comedy 1) as a poetic and encyclopedic text that borrows and adapts from ancient texts and from contemporary culture 2) and as a text that, its turn, has influenced our imagination over the centuries.
While learning about the major characters, scenes and literary strategies of the Divine Comedy, the students will engage in discussions, research, writing and peer reviewing. Students will learn to describe a visual artifact in relation to Dante’s text.

The course introduces econometric techniques useful to conduct empirical analysis in economics and finance. The purpose of the course is to enable the student to master the concepts and be able to complete an independent empirical project. Firms, governmental or non-governmental agencies, regulators, experts, etc., all rely increasingly on data analysis to assess situations and take decisions. Statistical analysis and econometrics offer powerful tools that are easy to use but that need to be used properly. Interpreting results correctly from a statistical analysis is also paramount to the discipline.

Course Description: A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including the use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing.

Instructor: Anthony Wheeler
Course: ENG1121 English Composition II (O470)

This project was originally created as part of the Mina Rees Library's Open Pedagogy Fellowship at The Graduate Center (Winter 2021).

Our world is created through stories. In this class (Great Works 2850, in case you forgot), we will read a cross section/sample of riveting works of literature from the 17th century to the present. It will be beautiful. We are going to read across genres—novels, poetry, bits of memoirs, short stories. Hopefully, we can watch some movies, look at some art, and hold class discussions digging into art, literature, and politics, and everything in between. You’ll learn how to speak and write about literature using proper literary terminology without sacrificing your own voice and personal style in the process. We will reconstruct the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the texts we read. We are going to do a lot of scaffolded bits of writing to help us build to the bigger final essays.

This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing a variety of narrative, lyric, and dramatic forms representative of different cultures and historical periods, from the eighteenth century to the present. We will approach texts of a variety of forms and genres, from satire, Romantic poetry, and modern plays, to a broad range of fictional and non-fictional narratives. Discussions involve both close reading of selected texts and comparison of the values the texts promote. You will engage in a variety of communication-intensive activities designed to enhance your appreciation of literature and your awareness of the way it shapes and reflects a multicultural world.