FALL 2013 ELECTIVES in HUMANITIES AND MEDIA STUDIES
AIC 101
FILM STUDIES
A film studies course for a general audience focusing on the analysis of a Pratt Film
Society semester program including classic cinema, and noteworthy contemporary films.
This class will look at work from the international, Hollywood, and independent film
worlds, and particularly those critically acclaimed works that are innovative in their
approach to exploring the medium.
SEC.1. Deborah Meehan
SEC.2. Ethan Spigland
SEC.3. Deborah Meehan
SEC.4. Ethan Spigland
1 credit
CHI 101
T (05:30PM 08:20PM)
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CHINESE
This is a course in conversational Chinese (Mandarin), including basic grammar and
vocabulary, along with aspects of Chinese culture. In addition to learning to speak
Chinese, students will learn Hanyu Pinyin, a Romanized pronunciation system to aid
Chinese learning, and will learn to recognize and write 200-300 Chinese characters.
SEC.1. Echo Sun
3 credits
COM 301
TTH (6:30PM-07:50PM) ENGR 113
REPORTS AND CORRESPONDENCE
This course teaches effective business communication. The use of professional
language and the principles of organization are stressed in the resume, cover letter,
proposal, letter of refusal, memo, presentation and research report. The electronic
workplace and its etiquette are also discussed.
SEC.3. Sydney Scott
2-3 credits
FREN 101
MW (5:00PM-6:20PM) W14
FRENCH I
This course focuses equally on oral comprehension and speaking, reading, and written
expression. Vocabulary is presented thematically in the context of everyday life in France.
Students will develop writing skills and will enjoy French songs, poems, and readings on
cultural topics. A feature-length French film will complete this introduction. This is a twosemester course for which credit is achieved only on the successful completion of both
semesters.
SEC.1. Sharon Snow
3 credits
MW (9:30AM-10:50AM) NH 209
FREN 201
INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I
This course focuses equally on oral comprehension and speaking, reading, and written
expression. Vocabulary is presented thematically in the context of everyday life in France.
Students will develop writing skills and will enjoy French songs, poems, and readings on
cultural topics. A feature-length French film will complete this introduction. This is a twosemester course for which credit is achieved only on the successful completion of both
semesters.
SEC.1. Sharon Snow
3 credits
FREN 533
MW (11:00AM-12:20PM) NH 209
FRENCH CONVERSATION
This course is about communicating in spoken French. It is for undergraduate and
graduate students who have completed Intermediate French I and II (or have
equivalent skills) and who wish to acquire oral proficiency beyond classroom French.
Conducted entirely in French, classes are devoted to directed conversation and roleplaying as well as learning strategies for communication on the fly. A text and audio CD
support lesson preparation and listening comprehension with vocabulary banks and
recorded conversations, stories and news bulletins. Verb and grammar review will be
done at home by each student, with the support of a second, self-correcting, work-text.
A placement test will be given to students who have not completed Intermediate French
at Pratt. (Contact [email protected] )
SEC.1. Sharon Snow
3 credits
HMS 203A
MW (12:30PM-1:50PM) NH 209
WORLD LITERATURE I
Students investigate a selection of major early Mesopotamian, European, Middle Eastern,
Indian, Asian and African literary works of mythology, epic poetry, drama and religious
poetry, extending up to the early 17th century. These works are examined within a
context of both lecture and class discussion.
SEC.1. Steven Doloff
3 credits
MW (11:00AM-12:20PM) ENGR 107
HMS 231A
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND ITS CULTURAL SETTING
Whether you are interested in art themes, values, or just good stories, you'll appreciate
exploring the life and times of the Law, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible. Just
some of the possible topics:
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Adam, Eve, and the battle of the sexes
Noah, the flood, and climate change
Moses, the law, and ethics today
King David and qualities of leadership
Jonah, Esther, Ruth, and the art of the short story
Find out why these ancient stories still matter.
SEC.1. Rosemary Palms
3 credits
HMS 240A
T (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 202
INTRODUCTION TO FILM HISTORY AND ANALYSIS
This course is an introduction to the history, analytic concepts, and critical vocabulary
necessary for understanding cinema as a major cultural form of the 20th century. You will
be invited to see cinema as a dynamic and international art form that has evolved in
response to its own history, that of the other arts, and wider historical, political,
technological, and economic contexts. The goal of this class is to serve as an introduction
both to film history and to how to think, write, and talk about films as media of cultural
praxis.
SEC.1. Jon Beller
3 credits
HMS 261A
W (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 305
SPEECH AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of public speaking and
communication in both large and small-group situations. A special project is required of
those who opt for three credits.
SEC.1. Rosemary Palms
SEC.2. Bill Obrecht
3 credits
HMS 262A
W (5:00PM-7:50PM) NH 202
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 209
INTRODUCTION TO ACTING
The essential element desired in acting is to be truthful, to be believable. This course will
develop in the actor the ability to be genuine, to listen and respond in the moment. The
goal of the class is to develop fundamental acting skills including: voice, movement,
expression, imagination, character development, trust and relaxation. Students will
perform memorized scenes and monologues. Additionally, we will work towards
knowledge and growth in the Stanislavski and Meisner systems as well as the balance
between truth & technique and the performance process itself.
SEC.1. Don Andreasen
3 credits
W (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 113
HMS 290A
SOUND ACROSS THE ARTS
Much of how we envision narratives depends on sight, but sounds also speak to us. Our
understandings of the world are illuminated by visual metaphors, but sonic metaphors
also resonate. What do we miss when our critical tools for interpreting the work of sound
or recognizing the cultural values inherent in sonic concepts are impoverished? Sound
Studies answers that question with a necessarily interdisciplinary approach. Our course
will consider the representations, technologies, and metaphors of sound in the arts.
SEC.1. Mendi Obadike
3 credits
HMS 300B
M (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 304
LITERATURE OF POPULAR CULTURE
Students analyze and discuss the language, structure and meaning in the literary forms
of popular culture as well as investigate the impact of technological innovation on those
forms. This course will be clustered with the SS-355, Psychology of the Mass Media.
SEC.1. Tracie Morris
3 credits
HMS 300S
T (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 303
ECOPOETICS
In this course, we will read recent experiments in poetry alongside traditional indigenous
songs, urban ecopoetries alongside romantic nature poems, classic texts on ecology and
the environment alongside postmodern philosophies of language, and histories of crosscultural exchange alongside writings about “global” culture. These energetic exchanges
will lead to a new consideration of how language might affect, support or counter-act the
sustainability of our creative practices. Along the way, we might ask and try to answer
some of these questions: What has the human use of the word “nature” made
(im)possible? How is ecopoetry different from nature poetry? How have binary concepts
like self/other, nature/culture, and indigenous/alien contributed to political and ecological
erasures? What does language have to do with our experience of, knowledge about and
anxiety toward current ecological (as economic and political) events? Is human language
capable of exploring non-human (animal, botanic, mineral and even machinic) forms of
becoming? What could “I” mean when the idea of a center is relinquished in favor of an
infinitely extensive network of relations? And finally, how might representational practices
inadvertently affect the outcomes of sustainable innovations?
Assignments will consist of readings and discussion, creative writing assignments, one
paper, and an experimental project statement (in which students apply their newly
developed critical capacities to their own professional or literary projects). Although an
interest in reading poetry and experimenting with writing is essential, Pratt students,
regardless of their major field of study, are warmly welcomed and encouraged to register
and can expect to become more conscious and adept writers. Writing majors will gain
new insight into language theory and formal practice that will translate easily to other
contexts.
SEC.1. Laura Elrick
3 credits
T (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 209
HMS 303S
GODS AND MONSTERS OF SOUTH PACIFIC LITERATURE
South Pacific stories of gods, monsters, remarkable voyages, tragedies, and battles were
originally spoken, sung, or told through visual arts. The arrival of Europeans brought new
gods and monsters and the written word. It also led to the view of the Pacific nations as
exotic paradises, which has obscured our vision of Pacific peoples and cultures and the
transformations they have undergone in the past two hundred years. In this course we
will explore the South Pacific through the visual, oral, and written literature of Pacific
nations, from the prehistory of Australia revealed through rock art stories through to the
literature and film of the 21st century of island nations including Samoa, Tahiti, Vanuatu,
Aotearoa/New Zealand, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Soloman Islands.
SEC.1. Lol Fow
3 credits
HMS 304B
W (2:00PM-04:50PM) NH 209
PERSPECTIVES ON U.S. LITERATURE
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This course examines a selection of works, mainly fiction and nonfiction from the 17
century to recent published work, which raise interesting questions about America, about
narrative itself, and about the act of reading. The course explores the boundaries
between genres, including history and literature, and asks students to think about what
makes a work worthy to be read and studied.
SEC.1. Suzanne Verderber
SEC.2. Dexter Jeffries
SEC.3. Toni Oliviero
3 credits
HMS 308A
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 305
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 107
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 113
SHAKESPEARE
Students analyze and interpret representative Shakespearean plays as works of dramatic
art and as reflections of the Renaissance climate are covered. A research project is
required of those who opt for three credits.
SEC.1. Steven Doloff
3 credits
HMS 310S
M (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 307
NY SCHOOL OF POETS
This course explores the poetry, art criticism, and broader cultural context of New York
School Poetry, which includes the work of figures such as John Ashbery, Barbara Guest,
Frank OʼHara, and James Schuyler. Our particular focus will be these poetsʼ engagement
with painting and the visual arts. We will also examine their literary inheritors, poets such
as Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Ann Lauterbach, Rob Padgett, Joe Brainard, and Eileen
Myles.
SEC.1. Ellen Levy
3 credits
M (5:00PM-7:50PM) NH 209
HMS 320B
CREATIVE WRITING: FICTION
This course is an exploration of imaginative composition through analysis of passages
from selected authors and regular creative writing.
SEC.1. Robert Lopez
SEC.8. Robert Lopez
Section 8 is restricted to Film/Video students.
3 credits
HMS 320S
T (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 109
T (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 109
SCREENWRITING I
Screenwriting is an exciting field; one that is demanding and exciting – and can be
learned. For first time students, in the beginning of the term, we will write scenes and
study basic techniques. In the second half, we will plan and write a short film. Also, we
will watch and discuss films, considering their characters and structures. For returning
students, we will review basic techniques and then plan and write either a full-length film
or several short films.
SEC.1. Don Andreasen
3 credits
HMS 320S
M (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 113
TURNING LIFE INTO MEMOIR/FICTION
This workshop will help students adapt their unique inner and outer lives into short
stories, poetry and monologues. As successful artists have said, “when inspiration
comes it will find me working.” Through fun exercises, students will develop the
technique and art of successful writing. These techniques work for the beginner as well
as those who have had some background in writing.
SEC.5. Ellen Conley
SEC.9. Ellen Conley
Section 9 is restricted to Film/Video students.
3 credits
HMS 320S
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 307
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 307
WRITING AS VISUAL ART
Hybrid Forms Laboratory When a writing student chooses to work in poetry, plays, or
prose, does that mean that he or she automatically becomes “a poet,” “a prose writer,” or
“a playwright”? Why and how does genre become identity? There are plenty of examples
in literary history of writers who cross genres successfully. And nowadays, hybridity,
multi-media, and other cross-genre work has become exciting territory for anyone making
art of any sort. This class will challenge students to broaden their definition of what it
means to be writers by working on individual projects which will meld any combination of
genres—not just modes of writing, but other types of storytelling and art-making, including
theater/performance, film, video, visual art, and/or new media. As they work, they will
analyze and take inspiration from a variety of artists, writers, playwrights, filmmakers,
etc., possibly including John Cage, George Maciunas, Meredith Monk, Adrian Piper,
Yvonne Rainer, Lorna Simpson, Charles Baudelaire, The Wooster Group, Bruce
Nauman, Ralph Lemon, Jackson Mac Low, and others.
SEC.6. James Hannaham
SEC.7. James Hannaham
TH (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 304
TH (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 304
Section 7 is restricted to Film and Video students.
3 credits
HMS 325A
JOURNALISM WORKSHOP: PRATTLER I
This course is for students working on the Prattler magazine in any capacity (as writers,
editors, designers, etc.) during the Fall semester. Students taking the course for credit
will be responsible attending and participating fully in weekly editorial meetings (class
sessions) and for the editing, managing and production of all issues of the Prattler
magazine produced during the semester (normally three), in addition to regular creative
contributions.
SEC.1. Sean Kelly
3 credits
HMS 330A
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 205
FREUD AND LACAN
This class will involve reading, viewing, and discussion of key works of Sigmund Freud
and French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, secondary works explicating psychoanalytic
concepts, as well as literary texts and films that exemplify psychoanalytic concepts.
Freudian concepts will be studied and discussed in concert with Lacanʼs rereading of
these concepts through the lens of developments in twentieth-century philosophy,
structural linguistics in particular. The second half of the semester will be devoted to
Lacanʼs theorization of visuality, as well as to his notion that psychic positions
(masculinity, femininity, neurosis, perversion, and psychosis) are articulated in
relationship to social laws and language.
SEC.1. Suzanne Verderber
SEC.2. Peter Canning
3 credits
HMS 331S
M (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 113
M (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 113
THEORIES OF SUSTAINABILITY
Can we conceive of “sustainability” as more than just solutions to problems of the
environment and diminishing resources, but as an integrated, ethical, practical, and
deliberate way of creating habits, relationships, communities, and environments that
promote the well-being and survival of ourselves, others, and nature? In this course will
focus on two theories: Permaculture and Gandhian philosophy. We will read and discuss
them as theories of life, nature, culture, and ethics as well as explore how they are put
into real life practice. Guest speakers, gardening excursions, meditative sits, and
contemplative walks will deepen our understanding of holistic ways to approach being
ecologically responsible and human in the world. As these theories draw from spiritual
traditions of both the West and East, participating students must be willing to read,
discuss and experience philosophies culturally different from their own.
SEC.1. Priya Chandrasekaran
3 credits
TH (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 109
HMS 332S
BAD GIRLS OF ART/LITERATURE/MUSIC
This course is a general introduction to the issues of women, conformity and reception in
literature and the arts. Inspired by Patti Smith's recent memoir, this seminar examines
nonconforming women who broke down barriers and redefined their eras, focusing on the
controversy and commentary surrounding their contributions and media reception. By
focusing on the most radical moment for each artist, this course explores the cultural
practices, aesthetics, and ways of engendering and conceptualizing sound, music, writing
and compositional agency in relation to their reception. One objective will be to examine
ways in which the insights and methods of structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics,
critical theory, and feminist criticism have been applied to the problem of understanding
how meanings are gendered, negotiated, and celebrated in popular music and literature.
We will examine the labeling of women artists as possessed, errant geniuses or
incapable “tourists” of the art form and how they were branded as "bad girls." Texts will
be drawn from a range of mediums including poetry, prose, visual art, music and sound,
and performance.
SEC.1.Laura Minor
3 credits
HUM 341B
T (6:30PM-9:20PM) ENGR 307
POSTWAR JAPANESE FILM
A new Japanese New Wave is currently taking the world by storm. With the international
success of such directors as Takeshi Kitano (Zatoichi), Takashi Miike (Audition, Gozu),
and Hideo Nakata (Ring), interest in Japanese cinema is at an all-time high. However,
these directors did not emerge from out of the blue, but from a long and rich national film
tradition. This screening class will present a historical survey of the major trends in
Japanese cinema from the post-war period to the early 1980s. We will study and view
classic works by such acknowledged masters of world cinema as Kurosawa, Ozu, and
Mizoguchi, but also groundbreaking films by lesser known directors. Special attention will
be given to the Japanese New Wave and Underground films of the sixties and seventies,
made by such directors as Masumura, Oshima, and Imamura. We will also introduce and
discuss such popular and cult genres as “pink”, “yakuza”, “violent” and “monster” films.
These films represent a fascinating alternate history of Japanese cinema, one that is
missing from most official accounts. A discussion of the social, political, historical, and
cultural climate in which all these films were made will provide a context for our
exploration.
SEC.1. Ethan Spigland
3 credits
TH (5:00PM-07:50PM) ENGR 305
HMS 360A
THE NEW CIRCUS
In this class we will combine practical skills with a study of the historical and
theoretical issues involved in the evolving new circus movement. Practical skills
include, juggling, slack rope walking, object puppetry, basic partner acrobatics,
and clowning. We will explore performance styles ranging from Judson
influenced improvisation to clown schtick and the grand circus Ta-Da. We will
look at traditional circus history, history of the sideshow, pageantry, political
theater, writings on freaks and otherness, contemporary performance art, and
clowning. We will also collaborate on an end-of-semester show.
SEC.3. Jennifer Miller
3 credits
HMS 360C
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 306
INTRO TO PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
This class is designed to introduce students to theater and dance companies in New York
City performing in a wide range of international styles and traditions. The course is
meant to offer students wide knowledge-- across a range of cultures and communities-of what performance is. We will look at traditional forms as well as contemporary work.
We will watch samples from various artistsʼ work, hear about their process and be led in
work of our own. Students will participate in workshops and complete weekly readings
and independent projects.
SEC.2. Jennifer Miller
3 credits
HMS 360S
TTH (6:30PM-7:50PM) NH 229
INTRO TO PERFORMANCE STUDIES
In this course, students will learn the fundamental concepts, terms, and theories in the
field of performance studies. Students will learn how to use these frameworks to
understand traditional performance arts as well as gain unique perspectives on their own
major fields, on other art/design practices, and on everyday life, by learning to see the
world performatively.
SEC.1. Tracie Morris
3 credits
HMS 390A
T (2:00PM-04:50PM) DEK 316
POETRY ACROSS MEDIA
What are the limits of the poem? In this course we will look and listen for poems and the
poetic across a variety of contexts. Among our poetic texts will be print and audio works
published as poems and works typically presented as representative of other artforms
(such as sculpture, painting, music, and dance). We will discuss these works in the
context of poetry criticism and media theory.
SEC.1. Mendi Obadike
3 credits
TH (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 106
HMS 400S
THE LITERARY AVANT-GARDE
The Literary Avant-garde. Examining several post-war literary movements, this class will
work to define the meaning and relevance of the concept of the Avant-garde in
contemporary literature. Is the Avant-garde strictly a historical occurrence or does the
concept retain possibility in our times?
The topic of The Literary Avant-garde is a vast one; our successful navigation will hinge
on three constraints: Writing from North America (with brief exceptions), Post World War
II movements, and an emphasis on poetry with occasional foray into theater.
The class will be presented in four sections: Historical Antecedents (HA), Post War
Movements (PWM), Aesthetics/Politics/Identity (API), Decades of the New (DON). In
each section we will read one book and a selection of critical and literary writings through
the Course Packs. For each section there will be one critical paper and one creative work
due. The final critical paper will be the result of a semester long research project on an
Avant-garde literary institution in New York City. The full description of this project is
attached to this syllabus.
SEC.1. Christian Hawkey
3 credits
HMS 404A
TH (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 303
DEMOCRATIC VISTAS
This course looks at the first great age of American literature as it coincided with the
country's greatest social upheaval, the Civil War. Representative authors will be
examined as they express the intellectual contradictions of their times, from the most
expansive social and metaphysical optimism to the darkest skepticism.
SEC.1. Steven Doloff
3 credits
HMS 410A
T (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 107
MODERN POETRY
Before Ezra Pound broadcast the battle cry of the moderns, “MAKE IT NEW!” poets had
been making it new in significant ways, opening up the line and content, challenging
traditional rhyme, meter and meaning and destroying the notion of a pure and individual
subject/author. Pound and TS Eliot wrote extensively, offering more official parameters of
how to write the new poetry—their ideas are compelling and influential. Yet,
simultaneously and since, there are many other legitimate, and often more democratic
approaches to this project. We will examine a range of significant contributors to the
project and come up with our own ideas of what it means to be modern. Although this
class focuses on American poets, some significant poets from the rest of the world will be
studied, including Stéphan Mallarmé , André Breton and Aimé Césaire.
SEC.2. Rachel Levitsky
3 credits
T (5:00PM-07:50PM) NH 303
HMS 420S
THE ARTISTʼS TEXT
After several years of teaching writing workshops and helping students in Printmaking
and Architecture write about their work, I have developed this Creative Writing class with
Pratt students in mind. How can the artist, having created a sophisticated and original
work, write about it in a manner which doesnʼt flatten the artwork, by being overly
chronological or descriptive or both? Where can she find writing that compliments and
enhances the experience of taking in the work, rather than cramping it?
In this course weʼll read texts by dancers, artists, poets, philosophers, directors,
architects and others, prose texts, which are often poetic in feel. These texts use
language, specifically sentences, to think through an artistic problem or environment.
Although they often use elements of fiction and story, they do not do so traditionally, and
do not serve the master of character development or plot, but may borrow from this
master in part. We will also look at images, paintings, films and more, and respond to
them using the techniques we have learned from the texts we have examined and been
inspired by.
SEC.1. Rachel Levitsky
3 credits
HMS 420S
T (2:00PM-4:50PM) TBA
ONLY THE DEAD KNOW BROOKLYN
Only the Dead Know Brooklyn takes advantage of Pratt's location. The reading list draws
from the borough's rich literary history as well as looking at other texts that consider
geographyʼs effect on the writer. Class times will be used in alternating ways: classroom
discussion of our readings, viewing Brooklyn films, and field trips to different Brooklyn
locations where students will begin a piece of their own writing. Much like the drawing
students sketching from life, students in this course will be writing from life. There are four
major writing assignments – creative works drawn from our field trips, as well as three
short critical annotations and a brief introductory piece.
SEC.2. Samantha Hunt
3 credits
HMS 420S
M (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 302
MAPS
All truths are suspect in the post modern world. Standardization is a souvenir from a lost
time. So what becomes of maps in the digital world? What becomes of paper books as
computer archives free them from fact? In this course we will work as cartographerwriters, generating new works, maps of the imagination (there be dragons) and invisible
cities. Memory, false documents, chance, manipulation, Google Earth and getting lost will
all play a part. Weʼll explore ideas of location/dislocation, inclusion/exclusion, scale and
miniaturization in our writing. Class time will be spent discussing written, visual and heard
texts. Workshops will take the form of presentations, performances or audio walks of the
maps we write through the places these narratives lead.
SEC.3. Samantha Hunt
3 credits
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 302
HMS 430S
MINOR ARCHITECTURES, MINOR LITERATURES
Jill Stoner writes in Toward A Minor Architecture: “a minor architecture is political
because it is mobilized from below, from substrata that may not even register in the
sanctioned operations of the profession.” She proposes that a minor architecture is like a
minor literature, which is to say, an architecture that begins in literary space and that
engages the dimensions of time by its categorical divisions or by its liberating flow. In this
seminar we will read literature that has contributed to the non-Euclidian space of the
minor architecture, the space that Deleuze and Guattari identify as “smooth,” by studying
the ways literary space can reveal emergent typologies and programs. With weekly
reading assignments from the aforementioned manifesto as well as Kafka, Benjamin,
Woolf, Poe, Smithson and De Certeau, we will discover together as a class the minor
architectures in literary space, which “dissolves material, privileges air, inscribes meaning
onto surfaces, folds exteriors outward, and blurs definitive objects into contingent
relationships.” This course will result in a final paper that presents a minor architecture
that follows the form of a minor literature.
SEC.3. Jeffrey Hogrefe
3 credits
HMS 431A
T (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 306
MODERNISM/POSTMODERNISM
This course examines literature, art, music, and architecture associated with modernism
and postmodernism, along with their philosophical backgrounds. Topics covered include
the aesthetic response to the rise of capitalism, differences between modernism and
postmodernism, and concepts typically associated with postmodernism, including
commodification, globalization, simulacra, pastiche, schizophrenia, paranoia, the decline
of historical consciousness, challenges to the universal subject, and time-space
compression. Authors covered may include Nietzsche, Proust, Kafka, Mann, Joyce,
Woolf, Pynchon, Borges, and Morrison.
SEC.1. TBA
SEC.2. Toni Oliviero
3 credits
HMS 431S
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 116
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 113
MUTATING CITIES
This course is a spatial investigation of contemporary cities as sites of exchange. The
edges of cites and peripheral places will be considered, theorized and articulated through
research, drawing, video and project-driven discussion & writing. Through the lens of
architecture, film, art, performance and literature we will analyze the periphery as a way
to understand malleable and transient boundaries. We will also address the socioeconomic and geo-political effects of cultural manufacturing.
SEC.1. Youmna Chlala & Christoph Kumpusch
SEC.3. Youmna Chlala & Christoph Kumpusch
3 credits
T (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 304
T (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 304
HMS 431S
MADE IN NY: 21st CENTURY CRAFT
st
This course examines ideas of what it means to make in the 21 century. While
pre-Modern philosophies of making deal exclusively in handcraft, recent theories
of making address industrialized production of commodities, relegating the “hand
of the maker” to the annals of history. Contemporary design practices, however,
introduce a hybrid condition. In the midst of a globalized economy with instant,
single-click transactions, many design practices (and clients) are privileging local,
artisanal craft. The course will introduce historical precedents for craft (e.g.,
Medieval guilds, Arts & Crafts, the 1960s), and will examine seminal texts that
address the subject (e.g., Marx, Benjamin, Arendt, Sennett). Once equipped with
historical and theoretical background, the course will catalogue and analyze
contemporary case studies of local designers and fabricators. Students will carry
out original analyses of these practices, resulting in a philosophy of what it means
to make today.
SEC.4. John Gendall
3 credits
HMS 440C
T (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 113
CONTEMPORARY MEDIA THEORY
This course explores the transformation of society and consciousness by and as media
technologies during the long 20th century; students will read some of the most influential
works of media analysis written during the past century as well as explore cutting edge
analysis generated during the last 20 years.
SEC.2. TBA
3 credits
HMS 440E
W (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 113
POETICS OF CINEMA
In this course we will view films that invent a poetic cinematic vocabulary to represent the
strange, unpredictable and counter-intuitive behavior we call reality. We will also use
exercises and creative projects to question and utilize the tools and perspectives of the
same event, montage, blurring of memory, reality, past and present, etc. to become
familiar with these possibilities in our own work as artists and designers. Selected works
include, Akira Kurosawaʼs “Rashomon”, Cronenbergʼs “The Fly”. Sally Potterʼs 'Orlando',
Hiroshi Kurosawaʼs 'Bright Future', Bergmanʼs “Persona”, Michael Haneke, "The Time of
the Wolf" Claire Denis, "Intruder and Beau Travail", and Wong Kar Waiʼs Chung King
Express. Class discussions will also be informed by readings from the Poetics of
Cinema, and The Emergence of Cinematic Time.
SEC.1. Amy Guggenheim
SEC.3. Amy Guggenheim
3 credits
TH (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 307
TH (9:30AM-12:20PM) ENGR 307
HMS 440G
DELEUZE AND CINEMA
This class will explore the semiotics of cinema as elaborated by Deleuze in his books
Cinema 1 and Cinema 2. Deleuze develops a taxonomy of cinematic signs that displaces
both linguistic-based semiotics and psychoanalytic approaches. How can we extend
Deleuzeʼs categories to incorporate innovations in digital and new media?
SEC.2. Chris Vitale
3 credits
HMS 440S
T (5:00PM-7:50PM) ENGR 305
THE DANCE OF NEW AND OLD MEDIA
This course explores various aspects of the curious relationships between new media
(such as the internet, social media, gaming, and so on) and old media (such as books
and even film and games), with the goal of transforming our understanding of both new
and old, and generating new creative and critical perspectives in the process.
SEC.1. TBA
3 credits
HMS 441A
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 302
GLOBAL CINEMA
In this course we will explore visions of iconic contemporary filmmakers from global
cinema notable for their innovative cinematic representation of modern life. Through their
works, selected for their capability to go beyond national and cultural boundaries, we will
examine how the invention of new cinematic language is used evoke poignant insight into
human experience, and potentially bear influence on our perceptions of reality. In
modules organized by genres, we will develop methods of analysis through in-depth
formal and thematic study of several films, extend our investigation in small research
projects by students, and based on these studies and integrate theory with practice in
applied creative workshops. A guest filmmaker may be invited to hold a post-screening
master class with students. Advanced viewing of films is expected. Requirements include
a midterm essay project and a final creative or theoretical project based on the films from
the course.
SEC.1. Amy Guggenheim
3 credits
HMS 490A
W (6:30PM-8:50PM) ENGR 307
ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC
Electro-acoustic Music aims to acquaint students with the history of electronics in
music/audio art, to give them some measure of technical competence with current tools in
analog and digital audio, and to present them with exercises that will promote original,
creative work. Familiarity with Macintosh computers and their operating systems is
required for this course. Formal music training is not a prerequisite, but experience
playing (an) instrument(s) and/or a strong desire to original audio works, will be very
helpful.
SEC.1. Robert Obrecht
3 credits
W (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 102
HMS 490S
SINGING
Students will explore the art and history of singing and will learn the basic of vocal
production, the anatomy of the vocal apparatus, the physics of pitch and tone production,
body acoustics, and the philosophy of breath control. Additionally, they will address the
basic musical concepts, including rhythm, tonality, meter, dynamics, and the union of
words and melody. Audition is required.
SEC.1. Philip Carroll
3 credits
HUM 490S
TH (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 116
LANGUAGES OF MUSIC
This course is a concentrated introduction to the materials and forms of music. Music is a
language. Students will learn to write it, and write about it. To discuss it, and make it.
Notation, analysis, theory, composition and appreciation are studied, with 1500 years of
music history as an armature.
SEC.2. Robert Obrecht
3 credits
HMS 490S
M (9:30AM-12:20PM) NH 102
MUSIC AND SOUND STUDIES
This course is a concentrated introduction to the materials and forms of music.
Music is a language. Students will learn to write it, and write about it. To discuss it,
and make it. Notation, analysis, theory, composition and appreciation are studied,
with 1500 years of music history as an armature.
SEC.3. Mendi Obadike
3 credits
HMS 491A
M (2:00PM-04:50PM) NH 304
THE ARTIST'S BOOK
This course develops critical frameworks for interpreting and creating artistsʼ books; that
is, artworks in which the book is a medium. We will study such books alongside histories
of the field, theoretical writings, and critical commentaries. These studies will inform our
endeavors to create, catalogue, and/or critique artistsʼ books in which visual, verbal, and
material elements are interwoven. Advanced students from various fields are
encouraged to use and expand their own disciplinary perspectives. Visits to collections
around New York City will supplement Prattʼs resources.
SEC.1. Youmna Chlala
3 credits
W (2:00PM-4:50PM) NH 106
HMS 492A
ANIMATING NARRATIVE
Animating Narrative focuses on the fundamentals of storytelling and the relationship
between image and story. As a starting point, the course examines folktales and their
underlying structures and analyzes how these structures are represented in a variety of
formats. The course advances to less traditional narrative structures and the more
complex and often abstract representations these structures evoke.
SEC.2. Ellery Washington
3 credits
HMS 496A
M (2:00PM-4:50PM) TBA
CREATIVE WRITING FOR ART AND DESIGN PRACTICE
This course is a one-credit writing workshop designed to support artistic and design
practice and provide students with creative approaches to meet writing required of them
in school and more generally. Students will read and write about visual art, design,
dance, money, news and politics, science, poetry. They will also write first person essays
and collaborative texts about their own practice of making. Students will complete weekly
assignments and cooperatively review work in class. Students will be given the
opportunity to publish their work on a class blog or in a print anthology. For a final
assignment, students will prepare a writing portfolio and present a revised artistʼs
statement.
SEC.1. Rachel Levitsky
M (2:00PM-3:50PM) NH 202
Section one meets everything other week beginning week 1.
SEC.2. Jean-Paul Pecqueur
M (2:00PM-3:50PM) NH 202
Section two meets everything other week beginning week 2.
SEC.3. Ariel Goldberg
T (5:00PM-6:50PM) NH 202
Section three meets every week for the first 8 weeks of the semester.
SEC.4. Ariel Goldberg
T (5:00PM-6:50PM) NH 202
Section four meets every week for the last 8 weeks of the semester.
SEC.5. Krystal Languell
W (2:00PM-3:50PM) NH 207
SEC.7. Rachel Levitsky
TH (2:00PM-3:50PM) TBA
1 credit
HMS 497A
THESIS WRITING
With sensitivity to the differing requirements of Prattʼs various major departments, this
course explores the conceptual, critical, and writing skills necessary for the successful
completion of the senior capstone or undergraduate thesis. In a workshop setting,
students will engage in free writing followed by critical and structural evaluation, revision,
and final editing, with a focus on introductory paragraphs and thesis statements. Students
will also examine techniques for structuring a complex discussion; develop an
understanding of what assertions and claims need evidentiary support; and consider the
elements of successful and insightful conclusions.
Restricted to Facilities Management students.
SEC.1. Cecilia Muhlstein
Restricted to Construction Management students.
1 credit
SAT (10:00AM-11:50AM) W 14
HMS 500B
FAITH IN FICTION: RELIGION IN THE 20TH CENTURY NOVEL
This course covers a range of authors whose fictional works involve questions of modern
religious faith. Novels exploring aspects of Eastern theology, mysticism and Catholicism
are investigated for their spiritual responses to contemporary social and political events
and conditions, as well as for their stylistic elements.
SEC.1. Steve Doloff
3 credits
ITAL 501
T (2:00PM-4:50PM) ENGR 113
ITALIAN I
This course introduces students to Italian, emphasizing comprehension, speaking,
reading, and writing through the study of grammar and elementary composition and oral
drills. This is a two-semester for which credit is achieved only on the successful
completion of both semesters.
SEC.1. Barbara Turoff
SEC.2. Barbara Turoff
SEC.3. Caterina Bertolotto
SEC.4. Caterina Bertolotto
3 credits
ITAL 502
M (9:30AM-10:50AM) T(2:00PM-3:20PM) NH 303
MW (11:00AM-12:20PM) NH 303
MW (9:30AM-10:50AM) M (NH 116) W (NH 106)
MW (11:00AM-12:20PM) M (NH 116) W (NH 106)
INTERMEDIATE ITALIAN I
This course will build on skills learned in first-year Italian, continuing to emphasize
comprehension, speaking, reading and writing through the study of readings, grammar,
oral communication and writing.
SEC.1. Barbara Turoff
3 credits
SPAN 501
MW (2:00PM-3:20PM) NH 303
CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH I
This is a conversational Spanish course designed to prepare Art and Design Education
majors (undergraduate and graduate) for the practicum in New York City schools.
Conversational exercises will be oriented to classroom interactions. This is a twosemester course for which credit is achieved only on the successful completion of both
semesters.
SEC.1. Alba Potes
SEC.3. Alba Potes
3 credits
TTH (11:00AM-12:20PM) T (NH 202) TH (NH 116)
TTH (9:30AM-11:50PM) T (NH 202) TH (NH 116)