Digital Commons Network^™

Span 110: Spanish For Health Professions, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Intended for students who have no background in the Spanish language, this course facilitates effective communication between patients and their healthcare providers (nurses, doctors, medical staff), through emphasis on basic, practical language needed to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients and their families in various settings. Building basic language fluency at the same time as medical terminology with cultural competency woven throughout, students will learn to gather and share basic information like greetings, goodbyes, patient intake, discussion of symptoms, location of pain and injuries, body parts, numbers, time, doses, and units of measure. Focus is on learning and becoming comfortable with basic …

Anth 101: Introduction To Cultural Anthropology, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human through a comparative study of different cultures. Anthropology seeks to understand how culture both shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian mega-churches. It provides a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.

Lang 201: Language In A Multicultural Setting, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Introduces the foundations of linguistics and language acquisition. Analyzes language in multicultural American urban settings. Critiques bilingual/bidialectal families and bilingual education; language and gender; literacy in a changing, technological society; and different dialects and registers of American English. Appraises recent and classic scholarship in linguistics, literature, and related fields. Requires reflection and analysis of personal linguistic experiences and backgrounds.

Hist 202: Contemporary World History, 1900-Present, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Examines social, cultural, political, and economic changes, events, and concepts that defined and shaped the contemporary world. Particular emphasis includes height of European imperialism, First World War, rise of totalitarian regimes, Second World War, Cold War, decolonization and the rise of nation-states, genocides and civil wars, revolutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Middle East conflict, fall of the Soviet bloc, social and intellectual movements, scientific and technological breakthroughs, and economic globalization. Assesses the impact of these and other subjects upon today’s world.

Hist 102: Origins Of The Modern World: 1500-Present, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Analyzes global relationships in the contemporary world stemming from interactions between civilizations that began half a millennium ago. Introduces students to selected topics which illuminate these patterns and allow us to perceive our own world more clearly.

Eco 201: Microeconomics, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

An investigation of the microeconomy as seen through the eyes of the individual consumer and firm. Economic concepts, including profits, employment and resources via supply and demand, elasticity, utility, costs, and market structures are applied to significant contemporary economics problems.

Health And Energy Modules, Suna Buse Agkoc

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Afrs 101: Ethnology Of Africa, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Applies the fundamental methods and concepts of cultural anthropology to the study of sub-Saharan African societies and nations, with emphasis on the impact of slavery and colonialism, current problems of economic and political development, and Africa's emerging place in 21st-century global interactions. Exploration of histories, politics, economics, family structures, gender, power, and health in different African cultures through analysis of ethnographies, text chapters, generalist summaries, historical research, news accounts, specialist articles, and literature.

The Last Horseman: Albrecht Dürer’S Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, Megan L. Crosby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Albrecht Dürer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse through comparisons with examples from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, as well as the artist’s own numerous representations of Death. These comparisons will show the way Dürer interpreted and changed the iconography of the Four Horsemen.

Amer 200: American History And Culture, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Explores race, class, and gender in American history and culture. Secondary source material by scholars of American Studies and primary source materials in a variety of genres, including music, poetry, art, and material culture, convey the ways in which American culture has been shaped by and has helped to shape ideas of race, class, and gender.

Phil 110: Critical Thinking, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Focuses on the techniques of rational inference and analytical judgment. These include the study of informal logic (arguing cogently and recognizing common informal fallacies), formal patterns of reasoning (syllogistic and propositional logic), and some distinctive analytical methods used in scientific and professional disciplines. Provides students with the competencies that are requisite to successful career growth and life-long learning.

Geog 301: International Migration, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

An inquiry into current and historical immigration trends with a geographic focus on the United States, including research and evaluation of legal frameworks and theories of why people migrate. Students who complete this course will have the ability to critically analyze and contribute to current conversations about immigration and will acquire marketable skills related to empirical data analysis and visualization.

Las 101: Latin American And Caribbean Cultures, Cuny School Of Professional Studies

Open Educational Resources

Introduces texts and media from Latin American and Caribbean cultures, including film, music, and performance. Analyzes the distinguishing features of Latin American and Caribbean Cultures through the study of cultural artifacts and issues related to history, politics, customs, and art. Requires research on selected topics.

The Dual Meanings Of Artifacts: Public Culture, Food, And Government In The “What’S Cooking, Uncle Sam?” Exhibition, Elizabeth A. Petre, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

In 2011, “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? The Government’s Effect on the American Diet” (WCUS) was exhibited at the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Afterward, it toured the country, visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) David J. Sencer Museum in Atlanta, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. The exhibition website states that WCUS was “made possible” by candy corporation Mars, Incorporated. WCUS featured over a 100 artifacts tracing “the Government’s effect on what Americans eat.” Divided into four thematic sections (Farm, Factory, Kitchen, …

Cultural Identity And Mental Health Awareness, Natalie Cruz

Student Theses and Dissertations

Social functioning is intertwined with one’s culture (Abdullah & Brown, 2011). Culture is broadly defined as the individual’s perception of the complexity of norms and rituals shared by a group of people. As Phinney (1992) has long noted, it is apparent that cultural factors can have a great influence on our identities and how we perceive the world around us. In Phinney’s opinion, this is especially true for sensitive topics such as mental health or mental illness. But could we fully understand what the cultural risk factors are that would predispose people toward biased views of mental health and mental …

Pirnas As Modulators Of Disease Pathogenesis, Kayla J. Rayford, Ayorinde Cooley, Jelonia T. Rumph, Ashutosh Arun, Girish Rachakonda, Fernando Villalta, Maria F. Lima, Siddharth Pratap, Smita Misra, Pius N. Nde

Publications and Research

Advances in understanding disease pathogenesis correlates to modifications in gene expression within different tissues and organ systems. In depth knowledge about the dysregulation of gene expression profiles is fundamental to fully uncover mechanisms in disease development and changes in host homeostasis. The body of knowledge surrounding mammalian regulatory elements, specifically regulators of chromatin structure, transcriptional and translational activation, has considerably surged within the past decade. A set of key regulators whose function still needs to be fully elucidated are small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs). Due to their broad range of unfolding functions in the regulation of gene expression during transcription and …

The American Symphony Orchestra Today: Problems In Community, Diversity, And Representation, Hilary Slade Jansen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the symphony orchestra and its socio-political context in the United States. Using three orchestral case studies—the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Venezuela’s El Sistema—I examine the ways in which American symphony orchestras have responded both today and in the past to the public and academic discourse around social inclusion. Interweaving musicology, sociology, urban anthropology, cultural studies, education, economics, ethnomusicology, economics, data from grant-giving institutions, and from symphony orchestras themselves, I seek to situate the wider discourse on social justice in the arts (which has, until recently, lived largely outside of academia) within a musicological …

Becoming Material: Devotional Encounters Between Humans And Objects In The European Middle Ages, Debra L. Hilborn-Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In our current moment of profound ecological crisis, scholarship across disciplines is calling for a closer look at the objects proliferating around us in order to find new, increasingly reciprocal ways of relating to the material world. In Becoming Material: Devotional Encounters Between Humans and Objects in the European Middle Ages, I answer this call by looking to the past and examining people’s encounters with material objects described in and around three devotional texts: the Holy Week ceremonies proscribed in the tenth-century monastic agreement, the Regularis Concordia; the embodied devotional practices of a thirteenth-century lay woman, Elizabeth of …

The Politics Of Hip Hop: A Political Analysis Of Hip Hop’S History And Its Complicated Relationship With Capitalism, Danielle Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the emergence of the Hip Hop movement in the 1970s in areas of New York City often referred to more generally as the South Bronx. Focusing mostly on the 1970s and 1980s, this thesis explores the underlying conditions that Hip Hop was born out of. Influenced by both global and national politics, Hip Hop provided a common space for underrepresented individuals and groups to unify, create common identities, and liberate themselves from the oppressive norms and political activity of a rich, mostly white, and dominant American society that tried to erase or silence them. This revolutionary aspect …

Handbook For The Deceased: Re-Evaluating Literature And Folklore In Icelandic Archaeology, Brenda Nicole Prehal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The rich medieval Icelandic literary record, comprised of mythology, sagas, poetry, law codes and post-medieval folklore, has provided invaluable source material for previous generations of scholars attempting to reconstruct a pagan Scandinavian Viking Age worldview. In modern Icelandic archaeology, however, the Icelandic literary record, apart from official documents such as censuses, has not been considered a viable source for interpretation since the early 20th century. Although the Icelandic corpus is problematic in several ways, it is a source that should be used in Icelandic archaeological interpretation, if used properly with source criticism.

This dissertation aims to advance Icelandic archaeological theory …

Art After Dark: Economies Of Performance, New York City 1978–1988, Meredith Mowder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Art After Dark: Economies of Performance, New York City 1978-1988 examines the interwoven social and economic histories of New York City and performance in the late 1970s and 1980s. The dissertation traces the growth and visibility of performance art, moving from the recession of the 1970s and early years of public funding for the arts, to the downtown nightclub scene of the 1980s, the history of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and artistic experiments with television in the 1980s.Looking closely at the economic conditions under which performance occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s, this dissertation …

“A Space Where You Can Imagine In”: Queer World Building With Wynne Greenwood’S Tracy + The Plastics, Colleen M. O'Shea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Tracy and the Plastics was a video and music project conceived and performed by artist Wynne Greenwood from 1999 - 2006. In it, Greenwood played lead singer Tracy alongside keyboard player, Nikki and drummer, Cola (both also played by Greenwood) where Tracy performed live alongside prerecorded images of Nikki and Cola. For Greenwood, the interaction between Tracy, the Plastics, and the audience provided an opportunity to create new, intentional worlds together. In this paper, I will demonstrate that Greenwood relies on collisions and alternative temporalities to instigate the creation of these worlds with her audience. I will incorporate the principles …

Framing The Border: Liminality In The Network Narratives Of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Muhammad Muzammal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores liminality conveyed as displacement before death in the network narrative films of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. Due to their depiction of existential crises and possibly fatal scenarios of several characters in different countries and regions, these network narrative films are colloquially referred to as the “Death Trilogy.” Therefore, rearranging the many strands of death-related abstractions and notions in these films around liminality becomes a jumping-off point to explore deeper layers of these works. Through interdisciplinary yet markedly film studies excavations, this thesis projects the liminal spaces of Iñárritu’s films onto border spaces. With borders considered as sites of …

Quality And Simplicity: Rebecca Salsbury James, Folk Art, And Modernism In The United States, Caroline Seabolt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the work of Rebecca Salsbury James and its contributions to the development of interwar modernism in the United States. Using mediums traditionally employed by folk artists, reverse painting on glass and the colcha stitch, James expressed her interest in quality and simplicity with a proto-feminist sensibility.

The ‘Peripheral’ Student In Academia: An Analysis, Maria Savva, Lynn P. Nygaard

Publications and Research

Pulling together the various themes that emerged within and across the narratives, this chapter explores four broad categories of challenges and opportunities:

1. Demands associated with being a ‘peripheral’ student and the function of social networks in developing a sense of belonging.
2. Issues related to supervisory and other faculty relationships.
3. Struggles related to identity, language and/or culture.
4. The role of expert, novice and ‘impostor’ labels in internalizing a scholarly identity.

Each category is unpacked, while also examining the personal characteristics and institutional features that helped the authors along the journey to becoming scholars. After each section, implications for institutional policy and …

The Self-Reflexive Praxis At The Heart Of Dh, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

The author revisits a cancelled prison education class about YouTube and media literacy.

The Uncanny Swipe Drive: The Return Of A Racist Mode Of Algorithmic Thought On Dating Apps, Gregory Narr

Publications and Research

As algorithmic media amplify longstanding social oppression, they also seek to colonize every last bit of sociality where that oppression could be resisted. Swipe apps constitute prototypical examples of this dynamic. By employing protocols that foster absent-minded engagement, they allow unconscious racial preferences to be expressed without troubling users’ perceptions of themselves as non-racist. These preferences are then measured by recommender systems that treat “attractiveness” as a zero-sum game, allocate affective flows according to the winners and losers of those games, and ultimately amplify the salience of race as a factor of success for finding intimacy. In thus priming users …

All We Need Is One Mic: A Call For Anti-Racist Solidarity To Deconstruct Anti-Black Racism In Educational Leadership, Soribel Genao, Yaribel Mercedes

Publications and Research

In this article, we outline some of the vital measurements of racism and anti-blackness as a macro system in education. We contend that principal preparation programs have not explicitly prioritized anti-racist school leadership, while often resisting the possibilities of solidarity or one mic of knowledge to increase anti-racist dispositions. Considering the lexicon of whiteness as an assemblage, a racial discourse should be “supported by material practices and institutions,” that prepare educational leaders to examine anti-blackness curriculum that have been embedded as a standard method. We also posit that theoretical understanding of racism as global whiteness from a post-oppositional lens and …

Creating A Culturally Relevant Statistics Assignment On Z-Scores, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

Culturally relevant teaching or pedagogy has become increasingly popular both in practice and in research, but there are still few curricular resources for instructors to use, particularly for a college-level mathematics course. Departing from the question “relevant to whom,” this article illustrates how to design a statistics assignment on z-scores that is culturally relevant to students based on their prior experiences. Ultimately, the author shares design principles—which includes the importance of considering student trauma—that can be transferable to any statistics or quantitative analysis/reasoning class.

Lives In Musicology: My Life In Writings, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Responding to an invitation from the editors of Acta Musicologica to tell the story of his life in musicology, Kofi Agawu describes his upbringing and early education in Ghana and his university studies in the UK and the US. In a career focused on teaching, research, and writing, he outlines a number of intellectual projects involving the analysis of African and European music. He ends by acknowledging renewed discussions of race and identity in the musical academy today, and hints at his own growing interest in African art music.