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New York Experienced: An Urban Case Study

Level: Open to students entering grades 11 or 12 or freshman year of college in fall 2013.

Session: I, June 24-July 12, 2013

Days & Time: Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 2:00-4:00 PM

Instructor(s): Andrew Meyers and staff

Related Courses: Students interested in this course might also be interested in Introduction to Architectural Design and Theory or Language and Identity: A Linguistic Exploration of Accents, Dialects, Slang, and Grammar.

"It didnt occur to me that I would be able to grasp so much in just three weeks. This program had given me the opportunity to meet inspiring people, visit places in Manhattan as if I were an urban planner, and also create a special bond with my class."

- Nadia Khan, 2012

Course Description

An experiential, immersion course designed for students interested in the urban environment, culture, literature, history and public policy. The course includes five interconnected classes (see below) that meet daily over three weekdays with two days a week reserved for fieldwork in New York City with city policymakers, philanthropists, and artists.

New York City: A History of People, Politics, and Place
Andrew Meyers and Nancy Banks
What is New York City’s relationship to the American Dream? How does the City grow from its origins as a peripheral colonial outpost into a world capital? This overview explores New York's dynamic economy, tumultuous politics, multiethnic and multiracial populace and innovative architecture as a basis for the other aspects in the course. We consider three boroughs in depth, exposing students to methods of field study, visual analysis, and critical interpretation. Field work: historic walking tours, neighborhood mapping, architectural study.

Writing the City
Andrew Meyers and Vincent Drybala
How is our experience of New York, the city’s image and self-image, shaped by literature about the city? Using novels, short stories, poems, popular song, journalism and essays, students investigate the connection between city writing and the city. Field work: literary walking tours, writing in the city, readings with authors.

Culture of the City
Rachel Ehrlich
Is New York City really a melting pot of ethnicities and classes?  Students explore ethnic communities, “high” and “popular” culture, and the diffusion of culture in the “mosaic” that is New York. The focus will be on Latino New York, investigating the language, music, food, religion and lifestyles in the city’s Latino neighborhoods, and in downtown and Off-Off Broadway theater. Field work: studying Spanish Harlem, “Loisaida”- the Latino Lower East Side, and visits to theater companies and a performance in a city venue.
 
Nature and the City
Howard Waldman
Is New York City natural? Students explore the City’s relationship to “nature” through ecological study, including water analysis, ecological research, bird study and geological sampling. Field work: studying the urban environment, canoeing down the Bronx River, brownfield sites.

Emerging Urban Issues

All Staff
The instructors and invited experts introduce students to key policy, financial, and legal issues confronting American urban areas today. Topics include urban sustainability, green energy and transportation, affordable housing, urban planning, and zoning. Current events illustrate the problems facing America's cities, including the new HighLine park, pedestrianization of Broadway, bike lanes, the Hudson and Atlantic Yards proposals, new sports stadiums and the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. In addition to engaging in dynamic class discussions about contemporary affairs, students work with invited experts from the public and private sector, devise their own policy memos, and visit relevant locations in New York City, acquiring a first-hand understanding of particular approaches to urban issues. Through the consideration of race, class, technology, environment, social welfare, and public policy, students acquire a solid grounding in the historical origins of contemporary urban issues.

Instructor(s)

Nancy Banks

Banks is a specialist in 20th-century American political and labor history. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the struggle over affirmative action in the New York City building and construction trades during the 1960's and 1970's. She has taught courses at the New School, Columbia University, and Barnard College and is currently the chair of the history department at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

She received her B.A. in history and religious studies from New York University, her M.A. in political science from the New School for Social Research and her Ph. D. in American history from Columbia University.

Vincent Drybala

Vincent Drybala received his B.A. in English from Allegheny College and his M.F.A. in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College.  He has worked as an English teacher at the Fieldston School since 2008, and is a founding teacher of the City Semester program at the Fieldston School. He has been involved in establishing leadership groups and coaching sports, and has a particular fondness for ultimate frisbee.

Rachel Ehrlich

Rachel Ehrlich is a perpetual student and anti-bias educator. She attended Hampshire College and received a B.A. in urban studies from New College of California. She has an M.S.W. in clinical social work from Smith College and a M.A. in social justice education from UMass Amherst. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in urban education at the CUNY Grad Center. Her dissertation focuses on educational policy, teacher’s unions, and racial and class inequity. She regularly consults with public and private school teachers/administrators on multicultural education, diversity, and inclusion. At Fieldston she is the chair of the ethics department and teaches courses focused on power and social justice.

Andrew Meyers

Andrew Meyers received his A.B. in architecture from Princeton University, his M.A. in architectural and planning history from Yale University, and a M.Phil. in American urban history from Columbia University. He has taught courses at Connecticut College, Yale University, and Columbia University. Currently chair of the history department at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Meyers is a specialist in American urban and architectural history and is presently researching New Deal planning in New York City. His publications in urban history focus on the development and planning of the modern American city. He was among the first tour leaders for Big Onion Walking Tours, New York City’s largest provider of historical and architectural walking tours.

Howard Waldman

Howard Waldman has taught biology at Fieldston for 12 years, during which time he has served as class dean for eight years and most recently, as Fieldston's "Green Dean", working on school-wide issues of sustainability. He has developed curriculum for the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the New York City Parks Department, where he was an urban park ranger and ultimately, borough director of the Queens Rangers.

Howard Waldman received his B.S. in environmental biology from Yale University and his M.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona.

Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.