2022-2023 Courses
Fall 2022
Global Feminisms
Prof. Saadia Toor (Women’s and Gender Studies, The Graduate Center | Sociology, College of Staten Island)
Prof. Chaumtoli Huq (CUNY School of Law)
Spring 2023
Consent: Medieval Legacies from Europe and the Islamic Worlds in Comparative Perspective
Prof. Anna Ayse Akasoy (History, Liberal Studies / The Graduate Center)
Prof. Sara McDougall (History / John Jay College)
Decolonial Ecologies
Prof. Ashley Dawson (English / The Graduate Center)
Prof. Ángeles Donoso Macaya (Spanish / Borough of Manhattan Community College)
2021-2022 Courses
Fall 2021
Black Visuality, Black Performance
Prof. Michael Gillespie (Media and Communications and African American Studies, City College | Art History, Film, and English, The Graduate Center)
Prof. Amber Musser (English, The Graduate Center)
American Social Institutions
Prof. Karen Miller (History, LaGuardia Community College | M.A. Program in Liberal Studies, The Graduate Center)
Prof. Saadia Toor (Sociology and Anthropology, The College of Staten Island | Women’s Studies, The Graduate Center)
Spring 2022
Black Diasporic Visions: (De)Constructing Modes of Power
Prof. Javiela Evangelista (African American Studies, New York City College of Technology)
Prof. Carla Shedd (Urban Education, The Graduate Center)
Cities and Disaster: Past, Present, and Future
Prof. Cary Karacas (Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center | Political Science and Global Affairs, College of Staten Island)
Prof. Robin Kietlinski (History, LaGuardia Community College)
2020-2021 Courses
Spring 2021
Constructing History: Architecture and Alternative Histories of New York
Prof. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis (M.A. Program in Liberal Studies, The Graduate Center)
Prof. Jason Montgomery (Architectural Technology, New York City College of Technology)
Science & Diplomacy: What Scientists Can do on a Global Stage
Prof. Mandë Holford (Biology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry; Hunter College and The Graduate Center)
Prof. Shirley Raps (Biology, Hunter College and The Graduate Center)
Equity, Elitism, and Public Higher Education
Prof. Matt Brim (Queer Studies and English, College of Staten Island)
Prof. Katina Rogers (Futures Initiative, Digital Humanities, and M.A. Program in Liberal Studies, The Graduate Center)
2019-2020 Courses
Fall 2019
Voices of the City: Accessibility, Reciprocity, and Self-Representation in Place-Based Community Research
Tarry Hum (Queens College and The Graduate Center, Environmental Psychology)
Prithi Kanakamedala (Bronx Community College, History)
Climate Change and Discursive Frames: From Scientific Discourse to the Public Sphere
José del Valle (The Graduate Center, LAILAC)
David Lindo Atichati (College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center; Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences)
Interdisciplinary Topics in Law: Mothers in Law
Julie Suk (The Graduate Center, Dean of Master’s Programs and Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and MALS)
Sara McDougall (John Jay College, Global History; The Graduate Center, French and History)
Transformations of Modernity, 1914-present
Karen Miller (The Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College, MALS and History)
Andrea Morrell (Guttman Community College)
Mind the Gap: Technologies, trends, and policies that will shape the future of work
Ann Kirschner (University Professor, CUNY)
Spring 2020
Introduction to Engaged Teaching for Transformative Learning in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Cathy N. Davidson (The Graduate Center, English and the Futures Initiative)
Eduardo Vianna (LaGuardia Community College, Social Sciences, and The Graduate Center, Psychology)
Psychological Dis-ease Swelling in Contentious Times: Contributors, sustainers, and resisters
Michelle Fine (The Graduate Center, Psychology and Urban Education, MALS, and Women’s and Gender Studies)
Desiree Byrd (Queens College, Psychology)
2018-2019 Courses
Fall 2018
The Environmental Psychology of Care
David Chapin (The Graduate Center, Environmental Psychology)
Tomoaki Imamichi (LaGuardia Community College, Social Science)
Disability, Culture, and Society
Joseph Straus (The Graduate Center, Music)
Julia Miele Rodas (Bronx Community College, English)
Mind the Gap
Ann Kirschner (The Graduate Center)
Spring 2019
Mediating Race: Technology, Performance, Politics, and Aesthetics in Popular Culture
Cathy N. Davidson (The Graduate Center, English and the Futures Initiative)
Racquel Gates (College of Staten Island, Media Culture)
Afrofuturism—Race and Science Fiction
Jonathan Gray (The Graduate Center and John Jay College, English)
Joy Sanchez-Taylor (LaGuardia Community College, English)
Critical Race Scholarship: Theories and Pedagogies
Michelle Billies (The Graduate Center and Kingsborough Community College, Psychology)
Soniya Munshi (Borough of Manhattan Community College,Social Sciences, Human Services, and Criminal Justice)
2018-2018 Courses
Fall 2017
Public School: Art in the City
Claire Bishop (The Graduate Center, Art History)
Paul Ramirez-Jonas (Hunter College, Art)
Participatory Action Research in the Borderlands: Research and Pedagogy for the Americas
Ofelia García (The Graduate Center, Urban Education and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages)
Rosario Torres-Guevara (Borough of Manhattan Community College, Academic Literacy and Linguistics)
Virtual collaboration with Members of NLERAP (National Latino Education Education Research and Policy Project)
Rethinking Higher Education for the Knowledge Economy
Ann Kirschner (University Professor, The Graduate Center; Dean Emeritus, Macaulay Honors College)
Gilda Barabino (City College, Dean, Grove School of Engineering)
Undocumented, Illegal, Citizen: The Politics and Psychology of Belonging in the United States
Colette Daiute (The Graduate Center, Psychology)
David Caicedo (Borough of Manhattan Community College, Psychology – Social Sciences, Human Services & Criminal Justice)
Spring 2018
Change and Crisis in Universities: Research, Education, and Equity in Uncertain Times
Ruth Milkman (The Graduate Center, Sociology)
Katherine Chen (City College and The Graduate Center, Sociology)
Black Listed: African American Writers and the Cold War Politics of Integration, Surveillance, Censorship, and Publication
Cathy N. Davidson (The Graduate Center, English)
Shelly Eversley (Baruch College, English)
Critical Perspectives on Childhood and Pedagogy
Wendy Luttrell (The Graduate Center, Urban Education; Critical Psychology; Sociology)
Amita Gupta (City College, Teaching, Learning & Culture and Early Childhood Education)
2016-2017 Courses
Race and Gender Theory in the Undergraduate Humanities Classroom
Cathy N. Davidson (The Graduate Center, English)
Michael Gillespie (City College, Black Studies and Film Studies)
Shelly Eversley (Baruch College, English)
The Public and Publics
Setha Low (The Graduate Center, Environmental Psychology, Anthropology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Women’s Studies)
Amy Chazkel (The Graduate Center and Queens College, History)
Social Inequality & Health Disparities: Sex, Gender and Reproduction
Diana Romero (Hunter College and the CUNY School of Public Health, Community, Society and Health, Public Health Program)
Ananya Mukherjea (College of Staten Island, Sociology/Anthropology)
Seminar and Practicum on the Teaching of Psychology
Patricia Brooks (The Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, Psychology)
Jill Grose-Fifer (The Graduate Center and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Psychology)
The Social Construction of Childhood: Perspectives on Self, Others, Society and Human Rights
Martin Ruck (The Graduate Center, Psychology)
Erika Niwa (The Graduate Center and Brooklyn College, Psychology)
2015-2016 Courses
Fall 2015
Encountering Cuba – Global Race, Postcoloniality, Cultural Expression
Kandice Chuh (Graduate Center, English)
Sujatha Fernandes (Queens College, Sociology)
Global Perspectives on Language and Education
Ofelia Garcia (Graduate Center, Urban Education and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages)
Carmina Makar (City College, Teaching Learning and Culture)
Spring 2016
Agency and Social Transformation: Increasing Equity in Education and Beyond
Anna Stetsenko (Graduate Center, Psychology/Urban Education)
Eduardo Vianna (Social Sciences, LaGuardia Community College)
Mindfulness and STEM Education
David Forbes (Brooklyn College, School Psychology, Counseling, and Leadership)
Gillian Bayne (Lehman College, STEM Education)
American Literature, American Learning
Cathy N. Davidson (Graduate Center, Futures Initiative and English)
Danica Savonick (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate Center, English and Graduate Fellow with the Futures Initiative)
2014-2015: Inaugural Course
Mapping the Futures of Higher Education (Spring 2015)
Taught by Futures Initiative Director Cathy Davidson and Graduate Center President Emeritus William Kelly, Mapping the Futures of Higher Education 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. This Spring 2015 course was the first course offered by the Futures Initiative. In the 2015-2016 academic year, we will offer five team-taught courses in a number of different disciplines.
One final project from the course was a series of student-created maps and a video “flyover” tour of NYC and CUNY. Explore the CUNY Maps of NYC. Each student also designed a syllabus applying the principles they learned in the course. We hosted a year-end celebration with graduate students and their undergraduate students from across the CUNY colleges.
To assess the program’s effectiveness, the Futures Initiative engaged two Urban Education doctoral students, Deborah Greenblatt and Janey Flanagan, to conduct an evaluation. Their analysis shows that both undergraduate and graduate students considered the course and teaching methods to be highly effective. Read the full report (PDF).