Core Curriculum
NYUAD’s Core Curriculum forms the heart of our mission to provide an international student body with an outstanding, expansive education. The Core draws on the diversity and cultural wealth of the world’s traditions and spans the content and methodologies of 21st-century disciplines across the Arts and Humanities, Engineering, Science, and Social Science. It offers Core Competencies that will help graduates address major global challenges, including the pursuit of equality, justice, peace, health, sustainability, and a rich understanding of humanity. It fosters modes of thinking and habits of mind central to well-rounded intellectual development and to global citizenship and leadership.
The NYUAD Core consists of:
- 2 Core Colloquia, each of which addresses a significant global challenge from multidisciplinary perspectives
- 4 Core Competency Courses, one each in:
- Arts, Design, and Technology
- Cultural Exploration and Analysis
- Data and Discovery
- Structures of Thought and Society
All students are also required to take at least one course designated as filling a Quantitative Reasoning (Q) requirement, one that fills an Experimental Inquiry (E) requirement, and one that fills an Islamic Studies (X) requirement. These will be drawn from courses across the curriculum and may also count toward other requirements, such as the Core, a major, or a minor. For the most up-to-date list of courses that fulfill the Q, E, and X requirements, please consult the NYUAD website.
The guiding principles of the Core Curriculum include:
- Small, discussion-based seminars: 10–18 students
- Sustained interaction with faculty
- Global diverse perspectives
- Big ideas and transformative works of human thought and invention
- Foundational modes of thinking
- Significant emphasis on writing and effective communication
All Core courses develop students’ abilities to formulate precise questions and arrive at well-reasoned and effectively communicated conclusions. These skills are essential not only to complement students’ advanced coursework in their majors but also to help them think deeply about themselves and the world we share.
The values central to the Core Curriculum underscore the fact that an NYUAD education consists of much more than preparation for a profession; the Core aims to cultivate habits of mind that allow students to navigate the ethical complexity of a rapidly changing, increasingly global society. We cannot assume we are “global citizens” simply by virtue of living in an international environment. Learning to ask and approach profound questions from a variety of viewpoints and cultivating the ability to exchange views about the major challenges of our time requires practice and deliberate attention. The Core Curriculum offers repeated occasions to develop these skills and habits, which should help prepare students for meaningful lives of intellectual curiosity and civic engagement.
Core Curriculum Courses
Core Curriculum courses vary from year to year. A significant variety in each category is on offer every semester.
Colloquia
Core Colloquia are small, discussion-oriented seminars designed to help students deepen their understanding of significant global challenges, including the pursuit of equality, justice, peace, health, sustainability, and a rich understanding of humanity. Taught by faculty from all divisions, these seminars offer multidisciplinary, global perspectives and substantively engage two or more of the Core Competencies. Core Colloquia explicitly aim to nurture civic awareness fundamental to global citizenship and leadership by developing students’ abilities to grapple with the complex conceptual and ethical dimensions of global issues, to communicate respectfully across cultural difference, and to devise problem-solving strategies. Colloquia are fourteen-week courses taught in Abu Dhabi. Students are required to take two Core Colloquia, one of which should be taken during the first year. Numerous Colloquia are offered every semester. The courses specified below are offered periodically, typically each year in the semester indicated.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CCOL-UH 1000 | Mortal and Immortal Questions | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1002 | Indigeneity | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1003X | Faith in Science, Reason in Revelation | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1006E | Conserving Our Global Heritage through Science | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1008 | Reading the Earth | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1010 | Future of Medicine | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1013 | Colonialism and Postcolonialism | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1016Q | Cooperation | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1019 | Extinction | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1020 | Water | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1021 | The Desert | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1024Q | Life in the Universe | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1025 | Human Body | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1026 | Migration | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1030 | War | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1031 | Nature and Human Nature | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1032 | Communication: from bacteria to humans | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1034 | Gender | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1035 | Inequality | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1038 | Prejudice | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1040 | Disability | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1042 | Multi-ethnic Democracy | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1045 | Axes of Evil | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1046 | Women and Leadership | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1048 | Statehood | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1049 | State of the Nation | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1052X | Art of Revolution | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1053 | Calamity and Creation | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1055 | Oil | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1056EQ | Fairness | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1058 | Journeys | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1059Q | Quantified Self | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1060 | What Is Secularism? | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1061 | Water for Life | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1065Q | Resentment and Politics | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1069 | Global Language | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1070 | Hindsight | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1071 | Price of Luxury | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1072 | Tolerance | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1074 | Industrial Revolutions and the Future of Work | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1075 | Body Politics | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1077 | Food and Human Population | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1079 | Justice in Times of Transition | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1080 | Learning Languages in a Global Society | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1081 | Migration and Belonging | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1082 | Multispecies Living and the Environmental Crisis | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1086 | Corruption | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1088 | Panacea | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1089 | Drama of Science | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1093 | Caste and Race | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1094 | Fire | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1095 | Emotions | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1096 | Ghosts, Magic, and the Mystical: Understanding the Supernatural | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1097 | The Sacred | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1099 | The Science of Human Connection | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1100 | Negotiation and Consensus Building | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1101 | Incarceration | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1102 | Language and Identity | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1103 | Exclusionary Foundations of Knowledge Production | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1104 | Globalization and its Discontents | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1105 | Nudges and Well-Being | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1106 | Mind, Matter, and Machine | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1107 | Shelter | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1108 | Infinity | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1109 | Identity | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1110 | Poverty and Inequality | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1111 | 24 Hours in Our Brain | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1112 | Climate and Humanity | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1113 | Encompassing Nature | 4 |
| CCOL-UH 1115 | Beyond Nature-Culture | 4 |
Arts, Design, and Technology
Art, Design, and Technology courses include a creative component and teach students to think critically and work creatively toward innovations in arts practice, design and engineering, creative writing, data visualization, programming, and performance. Numerous Arts, Design, and Technology courses are offered every term. The courses specified below are offered periodically, typically each year in the semester indicated.”
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ACS-UH 1412X | Race and Ethnicity in the Histories of the Middle East and Africa | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 2113 | Memoir and Ethnography: Understanding Culture Through First-Person Narrative | 4 |
| ARTH-UH 2721 | Art and Architecture: Reinventing the City | 4 |
| ARTH-UH 2726 | City to Studio: Transforming Urban Research | 4 |
| ARTH-UH 2825 | Advanced Lighting and Production Techniques | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1001 | Manus et Machina | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1005 | Creativity and Innovation | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1008EQ | Touch | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1013EQ | Language of Computers | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1014EJQ | Heuristics | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1016 | Utilitas, Venustas, Firmitas | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1020 | Wayfinding: Graphic Design in the Built Environment | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1021 | Art of Narrative Science | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1024 | What Is Music? | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1026 | Human Value | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1027 | Memoir and Anti-Memoir: Experiments in Text and Image | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1029 | Inspiration, Art, and the Examined Life | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1033 | Bioinspiration | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1034J | Citizen, Writer | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1037X | Machines in Islamic Civilization | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1038 | Autonomous and Social Robots | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1039 | Photo Album | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1040 | Ethics of the Image | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1044JX | Sensory Ethnographic Methods in Kerala: Documenting Tradition, Documenting Change | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1045 | Plastic Fantastic | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1046J | Make Art Here | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1048 | Reinventing the Wheel | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1049E | Material World | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1051 | Performing Online | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1052 | Silence | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1053 | Designing Health | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1054J | How to Build a City: From Manhattan to Dubai | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1055J | What is Autofiction? | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1057J | Can Art Save Lives? The Health Benefits of the Arts and Arts Therapies | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1058J | How to Write from Life | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1059J | Learning from the Living Room: Architecture, Art, and Social Justice | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1060J | Theory of the Digital | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1061J | The Body Archive | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1062 | Contextual Innovation in Society | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1063 | Foodways for the Anthropocene | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1064J | Scent and the City | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1066J | Sound, Technology, and Emotions | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1067J | Photography and Witnessing | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1068J | How to Build a City: From Dubai to Manhattan | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1070J | Arts for Transformation: The Case of the Mekong Region | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1072J | Reporting (on) Migration | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1073J | User Experience Design: Identifying and Solving for Human Needs | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1074J | Creative Robotics and Tech | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1075J | Documenting the Climate Crisis from the Inside Out | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1076J | Creating | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1077 | Site Specificity | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1078 | Voice | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1079 | Have a Seat | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1080J | Art and Climate Change: Can, Should, How? | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1081J | The Camera as a Tool for Drama | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1084J | Walking and Writing the African City: Accra | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1085J | Hip-Hop, the Cosmos and Artificial Intelligence | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1086J | Ecopoetics: In the Land of the Tiger | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1087J | Curation for Participation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1088J | Place Writing | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1089J | Paper Art: History & Practice | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1090J | Ethical Storytelling: Producing Narratives of Latino Migration and Mental Health | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1091 | The Photographic Essay: The Power of Visual Storytelling | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1093 | Gamified Learning for Social Impact and Education | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1092 | Reaching for the Stars | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1126J | World Dance and Global Perspectives | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1037 | Cyberwarfare | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1061J | Digital Intimacies in and Beyond the Gulf | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1063 | Digital Archive | 4 |
| IM-UH 1012 | Communication and Technology | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1506 | Today We Wrote Nothing | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1508 | Shame and Shamelessness: The Craft of Confessional Writing | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1509 | The City and the Writer: New York City and Abu Dhabi | 4 |
| MUSIC-UH 1618X | Music and Identity in Trade | 4 |
| THEAT-UH 1116 | Starting With Self | 4 |
Cultural Exploration and Analysis
Cultural Exploration and Analysis courses pursue understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural forms and perspectives, and foster the ability to navigate differences to establish cross-cultural understanding. J-Term courses in Cultural Exploration and Analysis often focus on a deep engagement with multiple cultures in a single global site. Numerous Cultural Exploration and Analysis courses are offered each term. The courses specified below are offered periodically, typically each year win the semester indicated.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ACS-UH 2410X | Paradise Lost: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Al-Andalus | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 1102X | Anthropology of and as Media | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 1103 | Sense and Senses | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 2113 | Memoir and Ethnography: Understanding Culture Through First-Person Narrative | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 2114X | Listening to Islam | 4 |
| AW-UH 1118 | Archaeology, Arabia and the Bible | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1026 | Human Value | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1061J | The Body Archive | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1000J | Idea of the Portrait | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1003 | Collecting | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1007 | Abstraction | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1009X | A Thousand and One Nights | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1014 | Money and the Good Life | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1015 | Gender and Representation | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1017 | On Violence | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1021J | Jazz in New York | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1022J | Fascism, Antifascism, and the Aesthetics of Propaganda: The Spanish Civil War | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1023 | Dis/Abilities in Musical Contexts | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1034 | Death: Myths, Histories, Metamorphoses | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1035 | Staging the Self | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1037 | Listening | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1046 | Rogue Fictions: Tales of Tricksters, Outlaws, and Outsiders | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1053 | The Hero | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1055 | Global Shakespeare | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1056 | Tragedy | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1061 | Memory | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1068J | City of Encounters: Literatures of Indigeneity, Migration and Settlement | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1069 | Cultural Appropriation | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1074 | Race, Racialization and Narration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1078X | Representing the Middle East: Issues in the Politics of Culture | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1079J | Art, Education and Barbarism in Berlin | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1080JX | Food, Culture, and Politics | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1082 | Literature of Migration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1083J | Cultural History of Falconry | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1085 | Cinematic Imagination: Music, Media, and Modernity | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1086JX | Pandemics in Iberian History | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1088J | I, Thou, Us, & ꝏ in Arts Literatures and Films | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1089J | Gardens of Eden | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1090 | Un/Making History | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1091J | Narrating Migration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1092 | Reaching for the Stars | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1093J | Attention | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1094X | Orientalisms | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1095JX | Arabia Felix, the Imagined Land of 'Happiness' | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1095X | Arabia Felix, the Imagined Land of 'Happiness' | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1096 | Global Scents: All the Perfumes of Arabia | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1097 | Music: Conflict, Protest, and Peace | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1098J | Immersive Experiences | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1099J | Theatre and Immigration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1102 | Culture and Citizenship | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1103J | The Global Bible | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1104J | Music and Society: Fostering Belonging and Becoming | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1107 | Once Upon a Time: Folk and Fairy Tales Reconsidered | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1108J | Memorial | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1109J | Mediterranean Foodways: Cuisine, Culture, Sustainability | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1110 | Faith and Finance: From Renaissance Fortuna to the Futures Market | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1111J | Anthropology of Tourism | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1112 | Fashion, Culture & the Body | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1113 | Expressive Culture: Film | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1114X | Sexualities of the Middle East: A Cultural History | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1115 | Languages of Israel | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1116J | Slow Looking | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1118JX | Religion and Cultural Encounter at African Crossroads | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1119J | Law, Film, and Society | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1120J | Forgotten Monasteries and Lost Cities: The History & Archaeology of Siniya Island | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1121J | Ethnography and Experience | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1122J | Paris Noir: The African American Presence in Paris | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1123 | Noise in Literature | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1124 | The Age of Images | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1125 | Nation and Narration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1126J | World Dance and Global Perspectives | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1127J | Islands and the World | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1128JX | Loss and Nostalgia: Mourning Al Andalus | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1129J | The Present in the Past: Interrogating Traditional Performing Arts in Kerala | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1130J | A City's Essence: London, Past, Present and Future | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1131JX | When the Moors Ruled in Europe: Medieval Convivencia and its Cultural Legacies | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1132J | Africans in Europe: History, Memory, and Cultural Belonging | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1133J | All Power to the Imagination: Surrealism and the Magical Prague | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1134J | Global Leaps in Photography: Vernacular Photographs from the Arab World and African American Life | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1135JX | Post-Ottoman Worlds and Beyond: Memory of the Past and Imagining the Future | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1136 | Encountering the Other | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1137 | Stories of Our Bodies | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1029J | Idea of the University | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1091J | Disability, Technology, and Media | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1101 | Cultures & Contexts: The Black Atlantic | 4 |
| HERST-UH 1100 | World Heritage Sites & Universal Collections | 4 |
| LAW-UH 2118 | Law in Literature | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1160X | Global Women Writing | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1506 | Today We Wrote Nothing | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1508 | Shame and Shamelessness: The Craft of Confessional Writing | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 1509 | The City and the Writer: New York City and Abu Dhabi | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 2315X | Postcolonial Turn | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 2341 | Asian and Arab Diaspora in the Arts | 4 |
| MUSIC-UH 1617X | Popular Music in the Arab World | 4 |
| MUSIC-UH 1618X | Music and Identity in Trade | 4 |
| MUSIC-UH 2665 | Global Jazz | 4 |
| THEAT-UH 1521 | Women Who Kill | 4 |
Data and Discovery
Data and Discovery courses develop the ability to use experimental and quantitative methods to understand the world. Numerous Data and Discovery courses are offered every term. The courses specified below are offered periodically, typically each year in the semester indicated.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CADT-UH 1013EQ | Language of Computers | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1001Q | Data | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1002Q | Space | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1004E | Microbes | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1005EJQ | Forensic Science: Guilty or Not Guilty? | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1005EQ | Forensic Science: Guilty or Not Guilty? | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1007EQ | The Mind | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1008EQ | Seven Wonders of the Invisible World | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1009EJQ | Behavior | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1010EQ | Diversity | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1013EJ | Stem Cells: Immortality and Regeneration | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1016EQ | Where the City Meets the Sea: Studies in Coastal Urban Environments | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1017EQ | Symmetry | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1019Q | Heat and the Universe | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1020EJQ | Challenges in Global Health | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1022JQ | Sustainable Development | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1024Q | Reading Like a Computer | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1026EJQ | Water, Energy, Food Nexus | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1027E | 5000 Years of Notable Lives: Measuring Influence across Cultures | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1032Q | Stability | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1033EQ | Data and Human Space | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1034Q | Numbers, Models, and Chaos | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1037 | Cyberwarfare | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1039EQ | Search | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1041EQ | Decisions and the Brain | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1043EQ | Data and Society | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1044Q | Human-Centered Data Science | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1045EQ | Science of Food & Cooking | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1046EQ | Infectious Diseases: Preventing and Stopping Epidemics | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1048Q | Microbial Self: Microbes and Identity | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1049EQ | Random Walks in Science | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1052JQ | Perspectives on Neurodiversity | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1053EJQ | The Multilingual City: Linguistic Diversity in the UAE and Beyond | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1056J | Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Case Study of Uganda | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1057J | Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Death: A Case Study in Medieval Italy | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1058JQ | Data, Discovery, and Decision-Making in Public Health | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1060EJ | Researching Peace | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1061J | Digital Intimacies in and Beyond the Gulf | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1062EJ | The Evolution of Animal Form and Behavior | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1063 | Digital Archive | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1064 | Sustainable Supply Chains | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1065E | What is Life? | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1065EJ | What Is Life? | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1066EJ | Fermentation | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1067Q | Epidemiology for Global Health | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1069EQ | Climate Change | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1070J | Sustainable Urban Transportation Planning for the 21st Century | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1071EQ | Stereotyping | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1072Q | Nothing | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1073Q | Science of Complexity | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1074EQ | Science of Martial Arts | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1075EQ | Quantum Computing for Everyone: Embracing the Quantum Revolution | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1077 | Chemophobia | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1021EQ | Boundaries | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1102Q | Health & Society in a Global Context | 4 |
| POLSC-UH 3312JQ | Social Media and Political Participation | 4 |
Structures of Thought and Society
Structures of Thought and Society courses allow students to examine past, current, and potential future global frameworks for thinking, social organization, and behavior. Numerous Structures of Thought and Society courses are offered each term, typically each year in the semester indicated.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ACS-UH 1611JX | Politics of Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula | 4 |
| ACS-UH 2615X | Arab Genders and Sexualities | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 1102X | Anthropology of and as Media | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 1103 | Sense and Senses | 4 |
| ANTH-UH 2116 | Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1044JX | Sensory Ethnographic Methods in Kerala: Documenting Tradition, Documenting Change | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1060J | Theory of the Digital | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1061J | The Body Archive | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1063 | Foodways for the Anthropocene | 4 |
| CADT-UH 1072J | Reporting (on) Migration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1069 | Cultural Appropriation | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1086JX | Pandemics in Iberian History | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1090 | Un/Making History | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1091J | Narrating Migration | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1104J | Music and Society: Fostering Belonging and Becoming | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1118JX | Religion and Cultural Encounter at African Crossroads | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1119J | Law, Film, and Society | 4 |
| CCEA-UH 1135JX | Post-Ottoman Worlds and Beyond: Memory of the Past and Imagining the Future | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1020EJQ | Challenges in Global Health | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1039EQ | Search | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1046EQ | Infectious Diseases: Preventing and Stopping Epidemics | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1060EJ | Researching Peace | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1067Q | Epidemiology for Global Health | 4 |
| CDAD-UH 1070J | Sustainable Urban Transportation Planning for the 21st Century | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1004J | Science in Flux: The Galilean Revolution | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1006 | Thinking | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1007Q | Chance | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1008 | Birth of Science | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1009 | Theory of Everything | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1010 | Astronomy & Cosmology: From Big Bang to Multiverse | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1012 | Wealth of Nations | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1014 | Gender and Globalization | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1015 | Legitimacy | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1016 | Ideas of the Sacred | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1017 | Revolutions and Social Change | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1021EQ | Boundaries | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1024J | Sovereignty | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1029J | Idea of the University | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1030J | Global Perspectives on Inequality | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1031 | Why Is It So Hard to Do Good? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1033J | Culture and Context in Psychology | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1036 | Progress in Science | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1039 | Property | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1040 | Slavery and Freedom in Comparative Perspective | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1041J | Ideology | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1043 | Great Divergence | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1049 | Concepts and Categories: How We Structure the World | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1052X | History and the Environment: The Middle East | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1053 | Understanding Urbanization | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1053J | Understanding Urbanization | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1055J | Is Liberalism Dead? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1059X | Urban Violence: The Middle East | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1060 | Religion and Philosophy | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1064J | Well-Being and the Design of the Built Environment | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1067 | Moving Target | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1074 | Refugees, Law and Crises | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1076 | What's Property (For?) | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1077 | Law and Politics | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1084J | Art and Science of Parenting: Impact on Education, Health, and Mental Health | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1086J | Nation and Empire | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1087 | Future of Education | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1088 | Thinking Big About the Ancient World | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1089J | Migration: Crisis or Norm? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1090J | Where Did We Come From? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1091J | Disability, Technology, and Media | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1094 | Space Diplomacy | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1095J | Space and the Future of Humankind | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1096J | Climate/Change | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1097 | Justice | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1098 | High Performance: Mindset and Habits | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1099 | Global Media Seminar: Latin America | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1101 | Cultures & Contexts: The Black Atlantic | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1102Q | Health & Society in a Global Context | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1103 | What Is Technology? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1104 | Organizations | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1105J | Environmental Governance | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1106J | Pandemic World History | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1107J | Transnational Cities: Abu Dhabi, Paris, Dubai | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1108JX | Global Solidarities: Feminism, Islam, and Transnational Capital | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1109J | International Peacebuilding and the Role of Education | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1110J | The Media, Climate Change and other Calamities | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1111J | Disability Justice and Radical Inclusion | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1112J | From the Renaissance to Artificial Intelligence: Cities, Innovation, and Building the Future | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1113J | Leadership and Innovation | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1115J | What is Inclusion? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1116J | Identities | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1117J | Food Security in Communities of Color | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1118J | Scarcity, Inequality, and Ethics | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1119J | "Race", Genomics, and Society | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1120J | Purposes of Public Education | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1121J | Hot World: Climate and Design | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1122J | Space Economy and Sustainability | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1123J | News. Evidence. Truth? | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1125X | Law and Empire | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1126 | Gender, Violence, and Political Participation | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1127 | Responsible Capitalism | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1128 | AI, Automation, and the Future of Work | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1129 | Environment & Politics | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1130 | Nuclear Energy | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1131 | Gender & Governance | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1132JX | Movement, Border Crossings, and Race | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1133J | Care Across Borders: Migration and Domestic Work | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1134J | Health and Society | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1135J | Media and Mass Atrocities in Africa | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1136J | Women and Gender - Global Leadership Models ReImagined | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1137J | "Black like me?" A Global Exploration of Race, Colorism, and Racial Identity | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1138JX | Greening of Arabian Gulf Cities: Megaurbanization for Sustainable Development | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1139J | Nanometer for Everyday Life | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1141J | Ethnographies of the Hyphen: Contested Cityscapes between Jaffa and Tel-Aviv | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1142JX | Gendering Islam in the Global City | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1143J | Global Education Inequalities and Policies | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1144J | Race & Media | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1145J | Building Peace and Restoring Societies after Violent Conflict | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1146J | Negotiating Peace: Women's Leadership in Conflict Resolution | 4 |
| CSTS-UH 1148J | Beyond Bigness: The Everyday City | 4 |
| HIST-UH 2010 | History and Globalization | 4 |
| HIST-UH 2110 | Global Cold War | 4 |
| HIST-UH 3112 | Asian Borderlands | 4 |
| HIST-UH 3320 | Port Cities of the Atlantic World | 4 |
| LAW-UH 1112 | Relationship Between Government and Religion | 4 |
| LAW-UH 1112J | Relationship Between Government and Religion | 4 |
| LAW-UH 2125X | Islamic Law and Secular Politics | 4 |
| LAW-UH 2134 | Animal Law & Policy | 4 |
| LITCW-UH 2333 | Translation and Colonization | 4 |
| PHIL-UH 1110 | The Meaning of Life | 4 |
| PHIL-UH 1115 | Fear of Knowledge | 4 |
| POLSC-UH 2317 | Identity and Culture in Politics | 4 |
| POLSC-UH 2323J | Suffering and Politics | 4 |
| SOCSC-UH 1313 | Perspectives on Democracy | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 1811 | Discipline | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 1815J | Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance?: Contemplations on 21st Century Identity Formation | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 2410 | Gender and Society | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 2618 | Welfare States in Comparative Perspective | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 2620 | Education and Society | 4 |
| SRPP-UH 2623J | Cultures of Addiction: A Bio-Social View | 4 |
Writing Program
The development of strong writing skills throughout a student’s academic career is an important objective of an NYUAD education. The Writing Program has designed a curriculum to meet the needs of individual students through a blend of writing courses and one-on-one consultations in the Writing Center.
All students must complete a semester-long writing seminar in their first year. The First-Year Writing Seminar (FYWS) introduces students to the reading, writing, oral expression, and critical thinking skills essential to a liberal arts education.
The First-Year Writing Seminar lays a foundation for continued practice in university-level thinking and writing. In addition to taking the First-Year Writing Seminar, all NYUAD students will receive extensive writing and communication practice in Core courses and will come to learn that each discipline has its own conventions for advanced writing in specific fields.
Students are invited to complete a self-directed Writing Diagnostic and Survey prior to course registration. The diagnostic experience of reading, writing, and reflecting on the writing process will help students, in collaboration with their advisors, strategize when to take the FYWS to maximize the impact of the course on their learning. For instance, students who feel they need more time to practice college-level writing may choose to take the Writing Seminar in the fall of their first year, while students who feel more prepared may wait to take their FYWS in the spring semester of their first year.
The First-Year Writing Seminar
Each FYWS is designed around a topic that serves as a vehicle for academic inquiry. The seminar uses thematically organized content to foster student inquiry and intellectual engagement, and to model excellence in thinking and writing. Students engage with a variety of texts, learn how to analyze ideas and express complex arguments, and complete assignments that range from shorter reviews and editorials to longer persuasive analytical essays. Each written essay is the result of a progression of structured exercises with an emphasis on drafting and revision strategies. Students work collaboratively, learning to offer appropriate and constructive feedback through class discussion, peer workshops, tutorials, and one-on-one writing conferences with faculty.
To ensure a unified and consistent experience for students, all sections of the First-Year Writing Seminar share a set of common goals. Students will be introduced to rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading, and composing skills; a range of composing and communication processes; and an awareness of disciplinary conventions. In the First-Year Writing Seminar students learn to:
- Read and analyze a range of complex written, visual, empirical or performative texts.
- Conceptualize and express complex claims based in evidence.
- Document sources according to scholarly conventions.
- Write for a scholarly audience.
- Attend to style, grammar, and proper usage in academic English.
All First-Year Writing Seminars ask students to write three essays of increasing complexity (in draft and final form) over the course of the term, culminating in an inquiry-driven research paper and oral presentation. Courses typically begin by working on the art of close analysis of texts and ideas related to the course themes. In the second paper students use a variety of sources to make evidence-driven arguments. In the last portion of the class, students conduct library research on a topic that interests them and then write a research paper that makes an argument supported by evidence drawn from the sources they have gathered and analyzed. Finally, all students will make oral presentations about their work at various stages of their research and writing process.
First-Year Writing Seminars
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| WRIT-UH 1100 | FYWS: Taste, Culture & the Self | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1108 | FYWS: Writers on Writing | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1110 | FYWS: Power and Ethics in Photography | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1113 | FYWS: Saving Strangers: Debates about Humanitarian Intervention | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1116 | FYWS: The Politics of Spectacle | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1119 | FYWS: Living Cities | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1123 | FYWS: Scientific Knowledge | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1124 | FYWS: Slavery After Slavery | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1125 | FYWS: Graphic Violence | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1126X | FYWS: Understanding Postcolonial Feminisms | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1127 | FYWS: Real and Imagined: Women’s Writing Across Worlds | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1128 | FYWS: Memory, History, and Forgetting | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1129 | FYWS: The World of Babel: Translation Before the Modern Age | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1131 | FYWS: Writing About the Languages We Speak | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1132 | FYWS: Protest Art | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1134 | FYWS: The Last Straw: The Effects of Environmental Change Throughout Time | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1135 | FYWS: Non-Violence | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1136 | FYWS: Movement & Meaning | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1137 | FYWS: Resilience at the Margins | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1138 | FYWS: Elsewhere | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1139 | FYWS: Exploring Our Linguistic Identities | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1140 | FYWS: Racisms and Race | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1141 | FYWS: Understanding Photography | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1142 | FYWS: Genders and Falconry | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1143 | FYWS: Reacting to the Past: Evidence-Based Public Health | 4 |
| WRIT-UH 1144 | FYWS: Nonsense | 4 |