2018-2020 Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletin (without addenda) [ARCHIVED CATALOG]   
						Department of Technology, Culture and Society
						
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Chair: Professor Jonathan Soffer 
Mission Statement
The interdisciplinary Department of Technology, Culture and Society (TCS) promotes critical engagement with technology and science through research and teaching while drawing on humanities and social science perspectives. This mission is fulfilled in part by undergraduate degree programs, including Integrated Digital Media, B.S. , Science and Technology Studies, B.S.  and Sustainable Urban Environments, B.S. , and by a graduate program in Integrated Digital Media, M.S.  The department is also responsible for NYU Tandon’s core curriculum in humanities and social sciences, which gives undergraduate students a breadth of knowledge and perspective necessary for careers in technology and the sciences. 
Department: Undergrad Cluster Curriculum: Core Requirements
The Cluster Concept
TCS offers humanities and social sciences elective courses that examine the relations among science, technology and society from three general approaches and modes of inquiry: Culture, Arts and Media; Science, Technology and Society; and Society, Environment and Globalization (see below). This integrated approach to science, technology and the humanities and social sciences provides engineering and science majors with a concrete and focused foundation for their fields. The humanities and social sciences clusters are as follows: 
Culture, Arts and Media (CAM)
The CAM cluster explores how cultural practices and artifacts in a wide range of media reflect, influence and interact with developments in science and technology. Courses are based on philosophy, media studies, music, literary studies, art history, rhetoric and anthropology. 
Science, Technology and Society (STS)
STS cluster courses explore the interrelationships among science, technology, culture and society. The questions posed include: How do science and technology shape society? How do social processes frame scientific and technological enterprises? What is the relationship between the content of scientific and technological knowledge and the social and intellectual context in which it is created? 
Society, Environment and Globalization (SEG)
Courses in this cluster address how critical areas of society, environment and globalization affect the experience of contemporary life. Coming from the complementary perspectives of the humanities and social sciences, SEG courses provide students with a broad and multicultural perspective on how environmental issues and global exchange in this “flat world” are changing society, here and across the world. 
Humanities and Social Sciences Elective Requirement (4 courses, 16 credits) 
Students may choose 4 courses from any humanities and social sciences cluster. These 4 electives can be within a single cluster or across multiple clusters. The department encourages students to take humanities and social sciences electives  across clusters and/or across disciplines within a cluster. These 4 humanities and social sciences electives must satisfy the following constraints: 
	- At least one course must be a 3xxx/4xxx level humanities and social science elective.
 
	- At least one course must be a writing-intensive humanities and social science elective, labeled by “W.”
 
 
Course Types
TCS offers three types of undergraduate courses, as well as graduate courses: 
Humanities and Social Sciences Electives are open to all Bachelor of Science students, subject to prerequisites. They count toward the school’s general-education requirement and the state’s Liberal Arts and Science requirement and help meet ABET requirements. 
Writing-Intensive Humanities and Social Sciences Electives are writing-intensive humanities and social sciences courses designated with a “W” and open to all Bachelor of Science students, subject to prerequisites. Requirements for writing-intensive courses include: 
	- A minimum of 15 pages of formal writing, not including informal writing and in-class exams;
 
	- Explicit writing instruction;
 
	- At least one formal written assignment that incorporates instructor response and student revision;
 
	- As part of the writing-intensive course, students will learn to write a formal research paper related to the class topic.
 
 
Studio Electives are creative practice courses in art and design disciplines, open to all Bachelor of Science students, subject to prerequisites. These courses may NOT be taken as humanities and social sciences electives to satisfy general-education humanities and social sciences requirements, but may be taken as technical or free electives. 
N.B.: Courses that carry the following prefix may NOT be used to fulfill the general humanities and social sciences requirements: DM (digital media). 
Institutes Affiliated with the Department of Technology, Culture and Society
Brooklyn Experimental Media Garage (BxmC)
BXmC at NYU SOE is truly experimental; it is the creative/research arm of the School of Engineering’s art and technology programs. BXmC works with the hard core of New York’s experimental multimedia scene: installation and performing artists, programmers and interaction designers and architects. BXmC develops new kinds of partnerships to create new applications of digital media technologies, including web, sound, film, 3-D, games and others. 
Contact Information
NYU Tandon School of Engineering 
Six MetroTech Center 
Brooklyn, NY 11201 
Tel: (646) 997-3231 
http://engineering.nyu.edu/academics/departments/tcs 
Degrees Offered
Bachelor of Science 
Master of Science 
Minors
Integrated Digital Media   
Requirements: 15 credits of DM courses, of which 6 are at the 3xxx level or above. 
Science and Technology Studies   
The minor in STS requires 16 credits consisting of: 
	- Core requirement: STS-UY 3004/W  (4 credits).
 
	- Elective requirement: Remaining credit requirements (12 credits) must be satisfied by courses chosen from the STS electives list.
 
 
Requirement 1 and one of the STS electives (requirement 2) must be taken at SOE; the remaining elective requirements may be met with transfer credits. 
Sustainable Urban Environments   
The minor in SUE requires 16 credits consisting of at least two courses from the SUE core and three courses from any of those offered in the concentration. The minor in SUE is open to all majors. 
Faculty
Professors
Kristen Day, Professor of Urban Planning and Department Head 
PhD, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 
Urban design and behavior; design of urban environments for equity, health and well-being 
Jean Gallagher, Professor of English 
PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center 
Feminist theory, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, modern poetry 
Sylvia Kasey Marks, Professor of English 
PhD, Princeton University 
Shakespeare, Samuel Richardson, the 18th- and 19th-century British novel, public speaking, expository writing 
Beth Simone Noveck 
PhD, Political Science, University of Innsbruck 
JD, Yale University 
Digital government, technology and democracy 
Jonathan Soffer, Professor of History and Department Chair 
PhD, Columbia University 
JD, University of Denver 
Twentieth-century American political and foreign-relations history, urban history with a specialization in the history of New York City since 1945 
Richard E. Wener, Professor of Environmental Psychology 
PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago 
Environmental Psychology 
Associate Professors
Jonathan Bain, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science 
PhD, University of Pittsburgh 
Quantum theory, Philosophy of space and time 
Teresa Feroli, Associate Professor of English 
PhD, Cornell University 
Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, women’s studies 
Assistant Professor
Luke Dubois, Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media 
PhD, Columbia University 
Computer music, real-time multimedia 
Elizabeth Marie Hénaff Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media 
PhD, University of Barcelona 
Biodesign, genomics, media & art, urban biome citizen science 
Industry Faculty
Amber Benezra, Industry Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Director of Science and Technology Studies 
PhD, New School 
Science and Technology Studies, ethnography of science and technology, urban biome       
Tega Brain, Industry Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media 
Master of Art (research) Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology 
Interaction design, environmenal art and deisgn, citizen science, art and engineering 
De Angela Duff, Industry Professor of Integrated Digital Media 
MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art 
Web design, interaction design           
Scott Fitzgerald, Industry Professor of Integrated Digital Media 
MPS, New York University 
Web design, interaction design 
Dana Karwas, Instructor in Integrated Digital Media 
MPS, New York University 
Interaction design 
Benedetta Piantella, Industry Assistant in Integrated Digital Media 
MPS, New York University 
Interaction design, technology in the developing world 
Lecturers
Donald S. Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Natural History 
BS, Polytechnic University 
Physical anthropology, paleontology, natural disasters 
Allan Goldstein,  Senior Lecturer in English 
BA, University of Denver 
Writing nonfiction/personal experience writing, disability studies 
James P. Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Psychology 
MA, Stony Brook University 
Humanistic psychology 
Alan M. Nadler, Senior Lecturer in English 
MFA, Columbia University 
Contemporary poetry, the European novel 
Mark Skwarek, Lecturer in Integrated Digital Media 
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design 
Augmented reality 
Faculty Emeriti
	- Lester Bumas
 
	- Duane DeVries
 
	- Anne Eisenberg
 
	- Helmut Gruber
 
	- Louis Menashe
 
	- David Mermelstein
 
	- F. David Mulcahy
 
	- Bernard Rechtschaffen
 
	- Thomas B. Settle         
 
	- Harold P. Sjursen
 
	- Romualdas Sviedrys                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
 
 
Humanities and Social Sciences Electives List
  
				  
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