COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

FALL 2015-COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
4/6/15

HSS1 (3 Credits)
HSS1 Freshman Seminar. A literature course concentrating on poetry and drama.
Selected texts from antiquity and the Renaissance are common to all sections, with works
from other genres, periods and cultures chosen by individual instructors. The course
develops aesthetic appreciation of literary texts and encourages a range of critical
responses. Through close reading and extended discussion students learn to articulate
their responses in written and spoken form. 3 credits.

HSS3 (3 Credits)
HSS3 The Making of Modern Society. A study of the key political, social and
intellectual developments of modern Europe in global context. This course is organized
chronologically, beginning with the Industrial and French Revolutions. Students develop
an understanding of the political grammar and material bases of the present day by
exploring the social origins of conservatism, liberalism, feminism, imperialism and
totalitarianism. In discussions and in lectures students learn to study and to respond
critically in written and spoken form to a variety of historical documents and secondary
texts. 3 credits

HUMANITIES (3 Credits)
HUM207 Music Cultures of the World. Examines music from a variety of musical
cultures around the world, from Native American to Indonesian Gamelan music,
including ethnic musical events in New York City.
3 credits.
Jason Oakes
HUM306 Native America. An examination of Native American world views against a
background of history. The stress will be on written literary texts drawn from oral
cultures, including collections of traditional songs and stories, as well as contemporary
writers. In addition, we will watch videos and listen to music.
3 credits.
Brian Swann
HUM323 The Presence of Poetry. This will be a class in which the center of attention
is the poem itself. We will concentrate on modern English and American poetry. The
common text will be The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry Vol. 2,
third edition (Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert OClair) but students are
encouraged to look into other anthologies and into such studies as those of William
Empson in Seven Types of Ambiguity and Martin Heidegger in Poetry, Language,
Thought. 3 credits.
Brian Swann

HUM325 Puppet, Automation, Robot. They are us, and not us: puppets, automata, and
robots are toys or machines that look like us (or parts of us). From antiquity to the
present, we have imagined, and then invented, inorganic versions of ourselves,
sometimes for entertainment, sometimes to perform essential tasks. This course will draw
upon an interdisciplinary range of materials from philosophy, the history of science, and
psychoanalysis to drama, popular culture, and art. Instead of separating the scientific
from the poetic, this course will introduce and explore ways in which we can think
about what we want from our artificial life, and how the boundaries between
living/non-living require constant rethinking. 3 credits.
William Germano
HUM328 The History of Cinema I : 1895-1945. A history of the motion picture from
its origins until now, emphasizing the evolution of the language of cinematic
representation-in feature, documentary, animated and experimental filmmaking.
Canonical works and the major figures of the silent and sound cinema are treated,
including Griffith, Chaplin, Eisenstein, Vertov, Renoir, Welles, Deren, Hitchcock and
Godard. 3 credits.
tba
HUM356 Issues in Contemporary Fiction. Issues in Contemporary Fiction from writers
from around the Globe in the Post-WWII Era. 3 credits.
Sohnya Sayres
HUM373D Platos Republic. A seminar devoted entirely to a close reading and critical
analysis of Platos greatest dialogue, the Republic, and its reverberations down through
the ages as a model of political theorizing, if not a template for an ideal society. As we
work through the text book by book, we will create our own "Socratic dialogue," that is, a
series of problems, questions, deliberations, and considerations that would run parallel to
the text, with the ultimate aim of assessing what Plato means, and intends, with this
enigmatic work. Comparative material in the form of historical and contemporary (to
Socrates and Plato) influences, precedents, and references will be introduced where
appropriate. We will then venture briefly into the analogous genre of utopian literature
which the Republic inadvertently engendered, finishing with the most influential modern
critique, that of Popper.
3 credits.
Mary Stieber
HUM392 Ethics. The course considers real-world ethical dilemmas in a philosophical
context. Throughout the course, students will examine and critically evaluate a
variety of ethical theories with the aim of gaining a fuller appreciation of the complexities
of difficult or controversial ethical situations. Particular emphasis will be placed on
questions concerning the nature and importance of value, virtue, relationships,
commitment, duty, moral disagreement, moral skepticism, and relativism. Student
interest will determine the ethical situations that we explicitly discuss in key weeks of the
course. 3 credits
Chloe Layman

SOCIAL SCIENCES (3 Credits)

SS318A Environmental Sustainability. This seminar will be a dialogue on
sustainability, the concept of a society that flourishes by living within the limits of, and in
harmony with, the natural environment. Taking an integrative approach to all aspects of
sustainable development, the course will stress the ecological characterof human life and
human history, how both have been shaped by the natural environment and have shaped
it in return, and how issues of environmental sustainability shape our lives and careers.
3 creditis.
Al Appleton
SS318H Disaster, Popular Culture, and the Modern Imagination. The
interdisciplinary seminar will focus on cultural expressions, in the popular imagination
and public discourse, of disaster in the global twentieth and early twenty-first century.
We will analyze films and television series, graphic novels, artworks, memorials, press
debates, and social media in order to better understand varied responses to catastrophes
or apocalyptic scenarios, past, present, and imaginatively anticipated. Students will
investigate a diverse set of examples, including the cultural echoes of key events such as
genocide in Armenia during World War I, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide in
1994, as well as natural disasters" (for example, Katrina, tsunami), technological
disasters (from bridge collapses to nuclear plant accidents), or terrorism (such as 9/11),
and ask how the current boom in disaster imagery shapes our imagination and sense
of future. 3 credits.
Atina Grossman
SS318I The Psychology of Consciousness. This course is an investigation into the
scientific exploration of subjective experience, what some have called the last great
mystery of science. We will examine the relationship between objective brain processes
and first-person awareness, findings from psychology and neuroscience, as well as
discussing altered states (drugs, out-of-body-experiences), lucid dreams, mysticism, and
Western and Eastern approaches to the subject. Some representative questions we will be
discussing are: What is the function of consciousness? How intelligent is the
unconscious? What is the relationship between consciousness and attention? Can a
machine ever be conscious? Is consciousness fundamental in the universe (as Eastern
philosophies argue) or did it emerge as matter became ever more complex (as Western
science insists)? Is there a stream of consciousness or is it just an illusion? Do we really
ever make conscious decisions or are these decisions already made before we become
conscious of them? Can science (as it currently stands) explain subjectivity or is a
scientific revolution (comparable to the change in worldview that occurred due to
relativity and quantum theory) necessary?
3 credits.
Jason Clarke
SS334 Microeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of individual economic behavior
and how it leads to specific social outcomes in a capitalist economy such as relative
prices and the distribution of income. This course presents an overview of the essential
theoretical, historical and policy debates in the study of market processes in capitalist
economies. We begin by developing fundamental economic concepts and examining

some of the pertinent historical facts relating to life in capitalist economies such as
wages, prices, profits, productivity and technological change. We then compare and
contrast theories that purport to explain these historical trends. Course topics include:
consumer behavior; supply and demand; production and the business firm; allocation of
resources and business competition; the distribution of income; financial markets; global
trading systems; and the relationship between markets, hierarchies and democracy.
Questions that we will address include: How, exactly, do individuals and firms relate to
the institutional structures in which they find themselves (the fundamental question of
microeconomics vs macroeconomics)? Are there empirical regularities and patterns
produced by market processes that can be explained using economic theory? Are the
forces that produce these phenomena historically determined? Are social phenomena
simply the sum of individuals choices? How are individual choices constrained by
social institutions? How do legal/political institutions shape market outcomes such as
prices and profit? How do competing economic theories explain these phenomena? Do
market processes lead to fair and optimal outcomes? What is meant by the term
efficiency? Are market processes stable? What are the benefits and costs of business
competition? How should governments regulate and shape market behavior? What is the
role of financial markets? Is free trade desirable? The course is intended for students
John Sarich
who have little or no background in economics. 3 credits.
SS342 Anthropology of Ritual. The study of ritual takes us to the heart of
anthropological approaches to experience, performance, symbolism and association.
Once thought to be "vestigial" organs of archaic societies, rituals are now seen as arenas
through which social change may emerge and are recognized to be present in all
societies. Throughout the course we will explore varying definitions of ritual and its
universal and particular aspects, while surveying ethnographic case studies from around
the world. 3 credits.
Nicholas DAvella
SS358 Social History of Food. A study of the transformations in food production and
consumption, 1492 to the present. The course examines the passage of "new world" foods
into Europe and Asia, the rise of commercial agriculture in the colonies, especially sugar,
the rise of national cuisines, the advent of restaurant culture and the perils of fast and
industrial food. 3 credits.
Peter Buckley
SS372 Global Issues. This course will examine current issues of global significance and
their implications for policy and decision-making. Among the trends we will consider are
the tensions between resource competition and authority; the emergence of a global
economy; the environment and sustainable development; demographic change; and the
emergence of new security issues, including societal and environmental stress.
3 credits.
Anne Griffin
SS382 Game Theory. Since its introduction in 1943 by John von Neumann and Oskar
Morgenstern, the general theory of games has been instrumental to our understanding of
various social behaviors. With key contributions of such renowned scholars as John
Nash, Robert Arrow, Thomas Schelling and John Harsanyi, among other Nobel
Laureates, game theory has quickly gained a large following among students of

economics, evolutionary biology and even political science. Though at times seemingly
abstract, game theory has shown us that it has practical value with applications in firmlevel management and strategic decisions making in military campaigns. The course has
two dimensions: the first is to explore the theoretical basis of games; the second is to
consider the application of these concepts in economics and political science.
3 credits.
Jennifer Wilson

ART HISTORY (2 Credits)

HTA101(Fall), 102 A-D (Spring) Modern to Contemporary: An Introduction to
Art History. This two-semester art history core course, developed as part of the
Foundation year for students in the School of Art but open to all students, is organized
around a set of themes running through the history of modernity from the 18th century to
the present. Within specific themes, significant works, figures and movements in
art/design will be presented chronologically. Students will be able to identify and
critically evaluate significant works, figures and movements in art/design in the modern
period; be able to describe the main social and political contexts for the changes in
art/design over the last two hundred years; and engage, in writing and class discussion,
with theoretical perspectives on art/design production. The course will involve museum
visits. Grading will be based on class participation, papers and exams.
2 credits.
Bedarida, Leigh, Llorens
HTA220 Japanese Art.. An introduction to the art of Edo period Japan (1603-1867),
covering painting, printmaking, and the allied arts. 2 credits.
tba
HTA231 History of Industrial Design. In tracing the history of industrial design from
its emergence at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present, this course will
examine not only aesthetics (of furniture and the decorative arts, typography, advertising,
machinery, toys, etc.) but also the social and political forces that have shaped the many
styles. Throughout, we will also demonstrate how movements in industrial design relate
to parallel developments in the history of painting, sculpture, and architecture.
2 credits.
Andrew Weinstein
HTA232 Is Painting Like Poetry? Inspired by the famous dictum, ut pictura poesis
(literally, as painting, poetry, or more loosely, poetry is like painting), from Horaces
Art of Poetry, the course examines the interconnections between literature and the visual
arts, whether as rivals or as allies, from antiquity through the present. A diverse group of
topics will be considered, within a specific historical time frame and context, with the
goal of seeking a common ground for a discourse with which to evaluate the nature,
significance, and aesthetic parameters of each of the two modes of expression in the
shared enterprise of the representation of reality and/or the world of ideas.
2 credits.
James Wylie

HTA 270 The Art of Greece and Rome. An introduction to the sculpture, painting, and
architecture of ancient Greece and Rome with attention to the impact of the classical
imagination on the art of succeeding ages.
2 credits.
Ceilia Bergoffen
HTA273 Topics in the History of Photography: Altered Images. Photography was
invented by a creator of stage sets and dioramas; from the beginning photographs have
combined realism with theatrical illusion. This course studies altered photography. We
consider early double exposure and double printing, hand-drawn manipulation, distorting
lenses, collage and pastiche, airbrushing, and the many possibilities offered by
digitalization. But in addition to technical methods and their esthetic effects, we consider
social context, asking why we have wanted to alter photographs, and what roles altered
images have played historically. 2 credits.
Maren Stange
HTA275 20th Century Art History. Considers the flourishing isms of the 20th
century, as well as historical events, intellectual currents and conflicting aesthetic views,
explored in relation to such enduring artists as Picasso, Matisse, Malevich, Kandinsky,
Miro, Klee, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Pollack, Smith Calder and others.
2 credits.
Joshua Decter
HTA282 Public Sculpture in New York City. This course will examine trends that have
informed the history of public sculpture in New York City, including commemoration of
historical events, artistic and civic education for the masses, natural history in the service
of the nation, and the cult of great men and women. We will also examine individual
monuments such as Augustus Saint-Gaudenss Farragut Monument (1880), Frdric
Auguste Bartholdis Statue of Liberty (1886), the sculptural programs of Central Park,
Prospect Park, and Green-Wood Cemetery, the decorations of Rockefeller Center
(including Paul Manships 1934 Prometheus and Lee Lawries 1937 Atlas), Isamu
Noguchis News (1940) and the sculpture garden he created at his Long Island City
studio, and Richard Serras Tilted Arc (1978). Emphasis will be placed on reading works
or art as primary texts; viewing sculpture, in local museums or in situ, will be a key
Natasha Marie Llorens
component of the course. 2 credits.
HTA283 The Genius of the Baroque. This course examines the genius of European
Baroque art as distilled in the work of its greatest exemplars. We will also address the
ideology of the counter-reformation church, the emergence of Protestant capitalism and a
pluralist, bourgeois society in the north, patronage and social identity, propaganda,
religious faith, skepticism, sexual identity and the family, all focused through the position
of the artist in society. In no other period were body and spirit, sensual and sublime, so
closely intermeshed. Art history resides precisely in the relation between our present
interest in these artists and the past conditions in which they worked.
2 credits.
Benjamin Binstock
HTA 285 Single-Work Seminar: Chartres Cathedral. The focus of this seminar will
be the great 13th-century cathedral of Chartres.
2 credits.
Elizabeth Monti

HTA296 Synartesis. This seminar centers on the idea of *synartesis* the act of
fastening or knitting together to produce union even among disparate kinds of knowledge
and materials. Drawing on what has often been pejoratively referred to as anachronistic
or philosophical art history, this course will explore new potentials for understanding
works of art outside the bounds of traditional linear narrative by experimenting with how
inter-chronological and thematic comparisons of artworks might allow us to develop a
more personal relationship to the past as it intersects with the constantly unfolding
future. 2 credits.
Allison Leigh
HTA313E Fluxus. This course examines the international artists collective Fluxus as it
emerged on three continents from 1962-1978. Cooper Union is a part of this history. The
founder of Fluxus, Lithuanian-born artist George Maciunas, studied art, architecture and
design here from 1949 to 1952, developing many of his formative ideas. We will explore
the roots of Fluxus in New York and internationally. Students will be introduced to the
diversity of Fluxus artists and their practices. Broad topics include, but are not limited to:
Fluxuss relationship to Modernism, the avant-garde, and so-called neo-avant-garde;
artist collectives; the transgression of traditional media boundaries in new performance,
objects, and video; concurrent art trends such as Environments, Happenings, Pop Art and
Conceptual Art; cross-cultural exchange; productive intersections with ideas about
organization, communication, systems, commodification and globalization; DIY
practices; and the legacy of Fluxus in contemporary art. We will study the new media
of Fluxus in all its forms, reading texts to help us understand Fluxuss contributions to a
history of critical art practice and continued relevance today.
2 credits.
Mari Dumett
HTA333 Islamic Art and Architecture. This course looks at the Islamic art and
architecture with a concentration on the Gunpowder Dynasties: the Ottomans, Safavids,
and Mughals. In addition to examining samples of architectural monuments, painting,
ceramics, metalworks and calligraphy, lectures will include reading literary texts,
listening to Koranic recitations, and watching films. Upon finishing the course, students
will be familiar with the socio-political and circumstances that led to the birth of this last
of the monotheistic religions and the evolution and final decline of what art history calls
Islamic civilization. Students will also research and help to answer the following
question: why such a pragmatic philosophy gave rise to an almost exclusively abstract art
while there is no explicit text in its dogma that prohibits naturalistic depiction.
2 credits.
Haitham Abdullah