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This is the introductory course in American Government, with the main focus on the national level but some attention to state and local levels as well. This OpenLab site contains course materials as well as links to news sites and a discussion board to exchange ideas. Please keep disagreements friendly, and please keep in mind that our main purpose is more to analyze than to react and fume. When the course is over, as long as you still have an OpenLab account at City Tech, you are invited to continue posting on this discussion board. To access course materials, click “Visit Course Site” at the right of this page.

This is the introductory course in American Government, with the main focus on the national level but some attention to state and local levels as well. This OpenLab site contains course materials as well as links to news sites and a discussion board to exchange ideas. Please keep disagreements friendly, and please keep in mind that our main purpose is more to analyze than to react and fume. When the course is over, as long as you still have an OpenLab account at City Tech, you are invited to continue posting on this discussion board. To access course materials, click “Visit Course Site” at the right of this page.

According to the UN, 82.3% of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 2018; nearly 90% of the U.S. population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050. The New York-Newark metro area is the nation’s most populous urban area, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and the Chicago area. While increasingly ubiquitous metro areas provide a unique living experience. Cities are thus prime research sites and laboratories to analyze everyday 21st-century American life, as many of Americans’ identities and daily lives are strongly tied to urban spaces and shaped by their economic, social and cultural power. This course connects macro-level processes, including global forces, politics and economy to micro-level daily life, such as social interactions among city dwellers. This course is designed to help students develop empirical understanding and analysis of cities. By exploring U.S. urban history from the emergence of modern cities in Europe and in North America during the industrial revolution, students learn how cities were understood not only as a site of production, but also a driving force for modern consumption by looking at department stores and world fairs. Then, students move to explore the U.S. context through Chicago School scholars’ ecological perspectives, and discuss how and why these scholars used the city as a laboratory to analyze modern social life in America. This course focuses particularly on contemporary urban issues in American cities, starting with the post-war era. Why did whites leave cities for the suburbs? Who was left behind? What caused urban riots? What did urban America lose during that time? By taking new urban sociological approaches into account, students will conceptualize the relationships between the state, economy and city in order to understand urban America. This course emphasizes two perspectives. First, students will explore urban changes and transformations in Downtown Brooklyn as an urban laboratory. Together, as a class, we will use various media and scholarly materials in order to understand contemporary urban issues through our daily experiences in Brooklyn. Second, despite the focus on American cities, this course also underscores global and transnational perspectives for comparison. From immigrants who bring their own culture to the presence of global/transnational corporations, most U.S. cities are global entities, and urban lives are intricately tied to globalization. This course, thus, aims to open up discussion about how we connect the micro-level of our social interactions, consumption, and daily lives to macro-levels of the progress, global economic forces, politics and culture.

According to the UN, 82.3% of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 2018; nearly 90% of the U.S. population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050. The New York-Newark metro area is the nation’s most populous urban area, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and the Chicago area. While increasingly ubiquitous metro areas provide a unique living experience. Cities are thus prime research sites and laboratories to analyze everyday 21st-century American life, as many of Americans’ identities and daily lives are strongly tied to urban spaces and shaped by their economic, social and cultural power. This course connects macro-level processes, including global forces, politics and economy to micro-level daily life, such as social interactions among city dwellers. This course is designed to help students develop empirical understanding and analysis of cities. By exploring U.S. urban history from the emergence of modern cities in Europe and in North America during the industrial revolution, students learn how cities were understood not only as a site of production, but also a driving force for modern consumption by looking at department stores and world fairs. Then, students move to explore the U.S. context through Chicago School scholars’ ecological perspectives, and discuss how and why these scholars used the city as a laboratory to analyze modern social life in America. This course focuses particularly on contemporary urban issues in American cities, starting with the post-war era. Why did whites leave cities for the suburbs? Who was left behind? What caused urban riots? What did urban America lose during that time? By taking new urban sociological approaches into account, students will conceptualize the relationships between the state, economy and city in order to understand urban America. This course emphasizes two perspectives. First, students will explore urban changes and transformations in Downtown Brooklyn as an urban laboratory. Together, as a class, we will use various media and scholarly materials in order to understand contemporary urban issues through our daily experiences in Brooklyn. Second, despite the focus on American cities, this course also underscores global and transnational perspectives for comparison. From immigrants who bring their own culture to the presence of global/transnational corporations, most U.S. cities are global entities, and urban lives are intricately tied to globalization. This course, thus, aims to open up discussion about how we connect the micro-level of our social interactions, consumption, and daily lives to macro-levels of the progress, global economic forces, politics and culture.

Spanish for Heritage Speakers is an intermediate course intended for students who were immersed in or exposed to the language while growing up, but who have received little or no formal instruction in Spanish. Strengthens students’ competence in the oral and written standard varieties of Spanish by building on their previous knowledge to expand their vocabulary, strengthen their command of grammar, and achieve more confidence and fluency in speaking and writing while learning about the diversity of the Hispanic cultures. The skills acquired in this course will help reinforce students’ bilingual abilities and cultural competence.

Spanish for Heritage Speakers is an intermediate course intended for students who were immersed in or exposed to the language while growing up, but who have received little or no formal instruction in Spanish. Strengthens students’ competence in the oral and written standard varieties of Spanish by building on their previous knowledge to expand their vocabulary, strengthen their command of grammar, and achieve more confidence and fluency in speaking and writing while learning about the diversity of the Hispanic cultures. The skills acquired in this course will help reinforce students’ bilingual abilities and cultural competence.