Mapping the Futures of Higher Education Year-End Celebration
The Futures Initiative team would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make our first year such a success. You can learn more about what we’ve been up to this past year in our latest newsletter and in our annual report (pdf).
Thank you also to everyone who attended our May 22 reception celebrating the achievements of the graduate and undergraduate students in our inaugural course, “Mapping the Futures of Higher Education.” Photos from the evening, including those from the photo booth, are available at bit.ly/futures-photos.
The evening included remarks from the President of the Graduate Center, Chase Robinson (read Chase’s remarks here), Futures Initiative Director, Cathy Davidson (read Cathy’s remarks here), and the Graduate Center President Emeritus, William P. Kelly.
Among the many highlights of the evening were the CUNY Flyover Tour of New York City, designed and produced by Futures Initiative Fellow and doctoral student Michael Dorsch, and the CUNY Maps of New York produced by the graduate students in “Mapping the Futures of Higher Education” in collaboration with the CUNY undergraduate students they had taught over the course of the semester.
“Mapping the Futures of Higher Education” was the first course offered by the Futures Initiative, taught by Futures Initiative Director Cathy Davidson and Graduate Center President Emeritus William Kelly. It was a radically interdisciplinary graduate class and network of undergraduate classes involving more than 365 students across ten CUNY colleges. Though the subject matter varied from one class to another, all used peer pedagogy to achieve the best student outcomes while also building a strong community. The course, like the larger Futures Initiative, aimed to advance equity and innovation in higher education and to explore how pedagogy can catalyze institutional and social change.
To learn more about the Spring 2015 course, read the class recaps from each week:
Class Schedule
| Week | Date | Blog |
| — | Jan. 22 | Syllabus-Building Workshop |
| 1 | Feb. 3 | First Class |
| 2 | Feb. 10 | Discussion and Intro to Mapping |
| 3 | Feb. 17 | Assessment, Part 1 |
| 4 | Feb. 24 | Assessment, Part 2 |
| — | Mar. 6 | NYPL Field Trip |
| 5 | Mar. 3 | Visit to the Chancellery |
| 6 | Mar. 10 | Student-Centered Pedagogy, Part 1 |
| 7 | Mar. 17 | Student-Centered Pedagogy, Part 2 |
| 8 | Mar. 24 | Professors and Persistence, Part 1 |
| 9 | Mar. 31 | Professors and Persistence, Part 2 |
| 10 | Apr. 14 | Discussion with Dean John Mogulescu |
| 11 | Apr. 21 | Embodiment and (Meta)Movement, Part 1 |
| 12 | Apr. 28 | Embodiment and (Meta)Movement, Part 2 |
| 13 | May 5 | Works in Progress |
| 14 | May 12 | Works in Progress |
| — | May 22 | Celebration and Reception |
In addition, each graduate student in the course wrote a reflection of their experiences, which you can read here:
- Hilarie Ashton, English, Queens College | “Seeing Differently and Opening Silences”
- Ryan Donovan, Theater, Hunter College | “Mapping the Semester”
- Janey Flanagan, Urban Education/E-learning, Borough of Manhattan Community College
- Esther Michelle Gabay, English, Kingsborough Community College | “From ‘What’s a Hyperlink and Where Can I Find It?’ to ‘Let’s Add a Poll to Your Post’”
- Maria Greene, Urban Education/Chemistry, Borough of Manhattan Community College | “Summary of Pedagogical Methods”
- Richard Lissemore, Speech, Language, Hearing Science, Lehman College | “What a Ride…”
- Evan Misshula, Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Irene Morrison-Moncure, Classics, Hunter College | “Words With Friends: Creating the Student-Centered Roots Classroom #FuturesEd”
- Rachel Oppenheimer, Urban Education/High-School Equivalency, La Guardia Community College | “My Mapping Journey”
- Natalie Oshukany, Music, City College | “Introduction to Music: An Experiment in Student-Centered Learning”
- Danica Savonick, English, Queens College | “Introduction to Narrative: A Collaborative, Experimental Intellectual Adventure”
- Hallie Scott, Art History, Brooklyn College
In the 2015-2016 academic year, we will offer five team-taught courses in a number of different disciplines. To stay informed about the Futures Initiative, please visit our website and sign up to receive news and updates.