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| The A.A.and A.S. Introductory Cluster is a grouping of four different courses in the liberal arts and/or sciences connected by a common theme. It will introduce you to connections among disciplines and enable you to develop techniques in thinking, reading, researching and writing. Extended day students and non-liberal arts and sciences majors may enroll in a cluster if they wish. Check to be sure the courses meet core or elective requirements for you.
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Spring 2010 Cluster Descriptions Where does our food come from? For most of us, the obvious answer is the grocery store, the bodega, or the restaurant on the corner. But it’s also obvious that there is more to the story: someone grows the food, someone cleans and prepares it, someone brings it, and sometimes, someone cooks it. You may have bought that burger at a cart on Thompson Ave., or that apple at the cafeteria, but each of those foods came a long way to reach this neighborhood, moving across the U.S. or half way across the world from the place where it was first produced. On the one hand, that tells us that the way we eat is shaped by forces much larger than we might think. On the other hand, it tells us that the choices we make when we eat have an effect on the lives of people--and other animals--very far away from us. In this cluster, we will examine both of these ideas from a variety of perspectives, through writing and research, ethical inquiry, historical study, and literary reading. Our studies will focus on how food is produced and how its production has changed over time; how the way we eat affects our environment and how it affects the people who grow and prepare our food; how it affects the plants and animals we grow as food; and how it is influenced by economic interests, technological developments, and political relationships. Readings may include work by Eric Schlosser, E.F. Schumacher, Peter Singer, Raj Patel, Upton Sinclair, William Cronon, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marion Nestle, Vandana Shiva, and Michael Pollan.
Living history is an innovative way of learning of history though the voices of those who lived it. The history of Queens is one of hope and diversity. Students in this cluster will examine life in Queens County and the history of the borough through the use of primary documents, oral interviews, basic sociological research, field trips and films. Students will create histor9ical, sociological and written projects based on research that reflects the experiences of those who came to Queens and created the mosaic that we see today
Students in this cluster will have the opportunity to investigate human psychology, human interaction, and social trends through the lens of gender and sexuality. They will examine theoretical ideas about gender, itself, including writings about masculinity, femininity, androgyny, transgender identities, etc. They will study both dominant and non-dominant ideas about gender, exploring how these ideas have been formulated, psychologically, socially, and culturally, and how they have shaped and continue to shape the world, and the city, in which we live. Students will consider psychological, historical, and cultural texts about how men, women, transgender, and transsexual people embody their gendered identities. How do the various media present our world to us? Does the medium shape the subject matter which it presents? How do we know what we see in network or cable news is true? Are fictional films just “entertainment” or do they harbor hidden messages which influence how we think about such matters as gender, race and class? Case studies will include how Native Americans have been represented in the Hollywood Western, the little known tradition of movies by African American filmmakers for African American audiences, the Rodney King videotape, mass media coverage of the World Trade Organization demonstrations and the role of simulation technologies in society.
Torn Hearts, Crowded Thoughts and Tangled Streets: Finding Our Minds in Postmodern America Deploying a mixture of psychology, sociology and process writing, we will seek to unravel the puzzles of contemporary human life. Is one person’s guilt related to another person’s rage? What would I do for my family? Where do we encounter the fine line between criminal and citizen? What social forces and psychic processes underlie my logic, my instinct, my compulsions, and, ultimately, my destiny? The cluster will include readings and visual texts including Quiet Rage, Memento and A Clockwork Orange.
In the philosophy course we will examine the concept of justice as it was understood by both Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and contemporary philosophers such as John Rawls. We will pay close attention to how an individual or society’s concept of well-being or a good life affects how they define justice. Wewill also look at applied topics such as justice issues that arise in healthcare contexts. In the Composition 1 and Research Paper courses, we will learn to write clear and persuasive argumentative essays that draw from a variety of sources. In separate units, we will explore, research and write about several broad issues that relate to social justice, making connections to the media and popular culture whenever possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes". Themes we will likely explore may include the profit-driven U.S. healthcare system and recent drive for reform, the problematic nature of the modern corporation, and the American criminal justice system, with a specific focus on New York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws. Texts, which will be quite varied, will likely range from episodes of Law and Order and films like The Shawshank Redemption to documentaries like Michael Moore's Sicko and Mark Akbar's The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
In this cluster, we will examine gender, race, class and sexuality to discover new ways of thinking about them and how they shape every aspect of our lived. What is gender? How is your gender shaped by your culture, class, religious tradition, and family life? How does being female or male change the way you see the world and how the world sees you? What differences do women and men experience socially, politically, and emotionally as they interact in the world? What affect does culture, popular or otherwise, have on your expectations of women and men and the roles they play? Are you more affected by your family life? Or does your community play the greatest role in shaping who you are? What happens when your ideas about identity do no match cultural norms? In English, Philosophy and Argumentation and Debate, students will explore the themes of gender and identity construction. Readings include Revolutionary women writers, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Moises Kaufman’s play The Laramie Project.
By participating in this cluster, students will transform from passive NYC residents to active investigators in their local communities. A series of integrated assignments will design a journey from simple surveys (i.e. listing qualities/characteristics of neighborhoods) to more broadly based inquiries (recording oral histories and archiving photographs) to intense critical thinking and problem solving (designing plans for resolving neighborhood deficiencies). Participants will be prompted to draw connections between their immediate environments, literature, and various other visual and aural texts. Cluster learning will culminate in research papers and multimedia exhibitions (photo essays, video projects, e-portfolio pages) that reveal how each student’s community might be improved.
Students will be reading and writing expository essays in response to Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama’s memoir and Voices of Freedom, a collection of speeches, letters, and manifestoes from the American Revolution to the Cold War. After examining a collection of primary sources, they will go on field trips with their instructors to historical places in Harlem and will share their learning experiences by presenting short talks to their classmates about their research and writing. “Voices of Freedom” is a one-of-kind, hands-on learning opportunity that takes students from the text into the field.
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Contact: Phyllis van Slyck, 718.482.5660, vanph@lagcc.cuny.edu