Practicum (PRACT-UG)

Application : http://gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/forms/fashion-practicum.html Description : What is the business of fashion? What kinds of practical knowledge, curiosity, and experience are required to succeed in–and perhaps transform–this ever-evolving industry? Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches to design, fashion history, and problem-solving, this course will provide students interested in the fashion industry a critical, applied lens on this world. Through case studies, class discussions, guest speakers, and local field trips to brand headquarters, museum collections, and fashion archives, this course will connect students with industry professionals and many possible modes of working with fashion. Students will be expected to work individually and in teams, developing ideas and presenting them in a range of formats.

The speed with which global changes continue to restructure the fashion business demands a deeper appreciation of the many factors that shape the marketplace. In this Advanced Practicum, students will study the concept of entrepreneurship in an interdisciplinary way, considering and analyzing the role on entrepreneurship in culture, business as an engine for societal change, and the complex obligations of business to stakeholders such as the community and the environment. Throughout the semester, we will workshop aspects of entrepreneurship in fashion and students will develop and work on their own individual business ideas, create business plans, and pitch them at the end of the semester to a panel of industry experts and investors.

How do you make a film—or any piece of art, with a succinct point of view and an original voice? How does the artist take his or her individual, private vision and transform it into a finished work of art that best expresses these ideas? This practicum will look at the method and practice of filmmaking as a case study for the artistic process more generally. It will offer students a sense of how to move from initial inspiration to finished product: a look at the way that the creative process develops in this most collective of artistic forms. It will also provide a space for students to share work in progress and to think together about the ways in which art is made. Students will workshop their material through a series of multidisciplinary exercises (i.e. painting the emotions that they wish to express with their words, photographing the central themes of their work, writing tangential stories in their characters' lives) with the aim of clarifying their ideas and expanding the prism through which they approach their work. Special sessions will introduce students to fine artists and others in the filmmaking industry, including filmmakers, actors, agents, and photographers.

This course will examine the communication of ideas online, and how that communication is shaped by commerce and surveillance. We will begin by considering the role of the public sphere in a democratic society, and then turn to the early anonymous days of the internet, the rise of social media platforms, and finally the Snowden revelations, debates over digital free speech, and new technologies like TikTok and virtual reality. We will experiment with simple counter-surveillance techniques like encrypted texts that are increasingly fundamental to the sensible practice of modern journalism and media work. The course will feature occasional guests. Students will finish the course with an understanding of the relationship between modern media forms and the expression of ideas in the public sphere.

Intended to introduce policy, this course includes an internship at a policy and/or advocacy organization. Community building, family well-being, early childhood education, health, juvenile justice reform, service integration and child welfare are featured in readings, discussion, and internships. Through examples such as ethnic-matching placements in foster care, zero-tolerance approaches to drug abuse, or public financing of political campaigns, students come to understand how government, schools, gangs, religious institutions and families can, with varying degrees of explicitness and formality, all make policy. Students at the course conclusion are able to: identify policies within their lives; argue all sides of a policy question; appreciate the importance of qualitative and quantitative evidence; and distinguish implementation from formulation. Readings include Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam, The Lost Children of Wilder, by Nina Bernstein; The Oath and the Office; by Corey Brettschneider (Donated Copies) and Not a Crime to Be Poor by Peter Edelman . Students will be helped to connect meetings they attend and the policy concepts taught and discussed in class. The goal is to leave no student unaware of the importance of policy in their own and their community's life. Policies that are empowering are emphasized, techniques doe for oral and written advocacy, persuasion and attitude change are embedded in a final project that r e quires using existing skills and talents and learning new ones. Assignments include an internship journal. "Films include Ethics in America and Waiting for Superman.

There are approximately 67 worker-owned cooperatives currently operating in New York City, as well as numerous collective housing projects, intentional communities, community gardens, urban farms, and participatory budgeting initiatives. These represent a fast growing trend in New York, and nationally. What ethical principles or ideological positions do such projects hold in common, if any? What desires, needs and aspirations do they attempt to address? Do they form a challenge to capitalism, do they see themselves as operating outside of it, or both? Upon what kinds of possibility do such projects and initiatives ultimately insist? In this class, students will examine the social, political and historical trajectories of which these projects and initiatives are a part, through weekly reading and writing assignments, group presentations, and vigorous conversation. As community- engaged learners and participant-researchers, students will be asked to engage directly and deeply with a specific ongoing new/alternative economy project in the city, selected from a long and growing list. Students will prepare reports to present to the class as their participation-research unfolds. The culminating project of the course will be a research-based paper, presentation or art project of the students’ design. Collaboration will be encouraged.

This course introduces students to community-based research, its fundamental tools, and the potentials and limitations of particular methodologies. This kind of research may draw on philosophy of science, feminist scholarship, and critical social sciences, but it is ultimately research based in communities and driven by the needs of those communities. As such, it may not always meet reigning scientific or scholarly standards, and is prone to criticisms of bias or particularism. At the same time, it has the potential be more salient and meaningful to community members and to advocates of social change. In this class, we will explore these tensions around community-based research, addressing questions like: Do its potentials outweigh its limits? And what are the best ways to determine community need and to conduct this kind of research as a response to that need? Much of the course time, however, will be dedicated to carrying out projects based with three community-based groups in the New York City area. By the middle of the semester, the course will have moved entirely out of the classroom and participants should be willing to travel to different locations in the city.

The past century of exponential population growth, infrastructure development, and inequitable resource uses has stressed nature"s systems to dangerous levels. We are losing cultural and biological diversity at unprecedented rates, and these threats are compounded by the associated challenges from severely disrupted climate systems. This Gallatin practicum will provide students with a forum to develop a cross-disciplinary 21st Century nature conservation toolkit - one that can create cutting-edge strategies to reduce the risks to species and ecosystem, adapt to a changing climate, and produce a healthier relationship to nature. Students will work in teams to select a site-based project from a menu of real-world options, and then design practical and achievable solutions to these risks and challenges.We will use tools from biology, earth sciences, anthropology, social psychology, economics, and business to determine the cause, magnitude, and urgency of risks. Each student team will then combine the results from these scientific and financial assessments with the skills, power, and insights from the arts and communication media to plan and implement practical conservation solutions, tell the story of conservation needs, and build commitment to get the work done.

Introduction to Ancient Greek Language. Philosophy, theatre, politics, erotics, ethics, economics // Philosophia, theatron, polis, eros, ethos, oikos. Ancient Greek thought is at the heart of much of our thought (and many of our predicaments). Studying the language opens up new horizons for both antiquity and our contemporary moment. Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Aristotle – and more: this course will introduce students to the language of classical Athens, laying the groundwork for reading these authors (and their contemporaries) in the original Greek. The course will be oriented to authors and texts regularly taught in Gallatin Interdisciplinary Seminars.

In this online course, you will learn how to create a dynamic, digital portfolio website using WordPress. You will learn how to customize your portfolio in order to document your Gallatin-related experiences, including internships, study abroad, and extracurricular activities, synthesizing experiential, performative, and classroom learning. You will be encouraged to use this digital space to articulate and share your research interests, and identify thematic correspondence between your various areas of study, building toward a stronger understanding of your concentration. We will explore the current landscape of digital tools, including basic website design platforms, and social media technologies, and we will consider the various use cases for portfolios, and debate their efficacy. This course will also ask you to consider the social context of digital identity as you engage with your portfolio. Content and Readings for this course may include: Laurel Ptak’s Wages for Facebook; Rob Horning’s “Sharing” Economy and Self-Exploitation; Andrew Smith’s How PowerPoint is killing critical thought; Scott Berkun’s How To Write A Good Bio; and Morten Rand-Hendriksen’s WordPress Essential Training.

No one can make change alone! This skills course provides students with the tools they need to get started building power in their own local context. We'll review community organizing as a theory of change and discuss how it fits into a larger vision of civic engagement and urban democracy. Students will practice the hard skills that community organizing requires -- community outreach, leadership identification and assessment, campaign strategy, and powerful tactics that move your targets. On day one we’ll talk about the history and theory behind organizing, as well as different approaches and theories for power-building. We'll begin to explore the basics of group formation, community-based outreach, and leadership identification. On day two, we'll focus on leadership development, building effective teams, and we’ll talk about applying the methods of organizing to campaigns to win policy change and practice advocacy techniques. Drawing on examples from Chicago and New York City, we will discuss recent experiments with urban governance, including inside-outside strategy and “co governance.” By the end of the course, students will have gotten a taste for community organizing in New York City and will be able to apply it to their local contexts.

Where do ideas come from — and how do you know if one is worth you pursuing? We often notice patterns, problems, and possibilities, but may not have the tools to translate those observations into actionable ideas. This intensive course bridges that gap by teaching practical, hands-on methods for idea generation and evaluation. Students will receive hands-on experience generating, developing, and evaluating entrepreneurial ideas at the earliest stage. Across three sessions, students will start from curiosity — identifying problems, needs, or opportunities they see in the world or in their studies — and learn simple, practical methods to turn those sparks into testable ideas. They will move from observation to idea sketching, assumption mapping, low-cost testing, and decision-making. Every session emphasizes doing: students work in teams, give and receive feedback, and apply tools immediately to their own emerging ideas. By the end of the course, students will have: Discovered opportunities for innovation connected to their Gallatin concentration or personal interests; translated those insights into a concrete idea; run a small real-world test; and gained a set of lightweight tools for evaluating any idea in the future.

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT NYU-FLORENCE. Global Fashion Industry: Italy will provide students with a deep understanding of the contemporary fashion industry in Italy, as well as of Italy's position in the global fashion arena. The course will drive students through the entire lifecycle of the fashion business, from forecasting trends to retailing, through design, sourcing, product development and production. Particular attention will be dedicated to different marketing aspects of the process, such as: identity building, brand positioning, merchandising, buying, costing, communication. All levels of retail, from luxury to mass market will be covered. The course will end with an analysis of the new challenges, such as sourcing globalization, emerging markets, sustainability and growing significance of technology. A strong effort will be put into organizing site visits to studios, showrooms and factories, as well as meeting with professional players. Each session will be structured to give students an overview of a particular stage of the Industry, through a mix of lectures from the course leader and visiting professionals, studio and showroom visits, walking tours, reading assignments and practical projects. Conducted in English.

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT NYU-LONDON: The Global Fashion Industry and British Fashion aims to introduce fashion history and theory in its contemporary social and cultural context. The course will examine various aspects of the fashion industry and offer an understanding of critical concepts such as social identity, consumer culture and globalization. Students will explore aspects of the British fashion industry, including fashion media, retail environments, fashion exhibitions and the impact of sub and counter culture.