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Seminar 4 MHC: Shaping the Future of New York City
Spring 2016
Professor Robin Rogers
252bb Powdermaker Hall
M/W 1:40-2:55
Robin.Rogers@qc.cuny.edu
ITF: Lindsey Albracht
lindsey.albracht@gmail.com
Office hours: W, 11:30-3:30 and by appointment
Course Description:
In all Seminar 4 courses, students analyze the ongoing interplay of social, economic, and political forces that shape the physical forms and social dynamics of New York City, address the major events and study the institutional agents of change in the city, and come to understand the roles people take or are given in the process of government and the ways in which these roles are affected by patterns of inequality and power. Students also consider New York City in the larger context of the region, the nation, and the world. We will do all of these things in this course as well.
What makes this course a bit different from some of the others is that it takes the tools of narrative journalism and applies them to policy research. Specifically, each student will start out by creating a few “Issues of New York” modeled on the popular “Humans of New York” blog. These photographs and short essays will capture a story of an issue in New York in much the same way that Humans of New York does. The photos can be of people or street scenes. We will work on these and discuss narrative journalism in weekly workshops.
About one third of the way through the term, students will have picked an “Issue” posts that fits under one of the following topic categories: Education, Environment and Development, Law Enforcement, Race, Class, and Ethnicity, Housing and Homelessness, Wealth and Inequality, Housing Discrimination, and Urban Poverty. If two or three students are interested in another topic, we will discuss adding it. Individually, students will then devise a New York City policy-related research question sparked by their “issue” post. (It is fine to create you posts with a question in mind.) We will also be discussing the upcoming New York Constitutional Convention Referendum, which has many good research topics.
During the second third of the class students will do PRIMARY research on their topic. This means collecting interviews, surveys, or other forms of original data. The workshops will support you in this effort. Make sure to set aside time to do the data collection. It is time consuming.
In the final third of the class, students will put together presentations based on what they have found in their research. These will be presented at the MHC final event on May 6th and 7th. The workshops will support presentation development but it is also expected that significant time outside of class will be spent on this as well.
Concurrently with the project development, one day a week we will be reading about urban issues from the Congressional Quarterly reader.
This reader is put together for members of congress and students to give a nonpartisan overview of policy relevant topics. This reader is not New York focused. One of the tenets of narrative journalism is that small, individual stories (like the “issues” post) can be linked to larger issues (like national urban problems). Similarly, I have written that policy occurs at three levels, policy, as it is practiced at the street level, policy as it is widely understood, and policy as it is written. The “issues” post is micro and the CQ reader is macro. Your task is to show how the two are connected at the mezzo level in New York City.
The discussions of the CQ reader will be primarily in seminar and group format, with a few professor led classes at the beginning. You will bring and turn in a one page (hard copy) of a response paper for each class in which we discuss a CQ reader chapter. You will also submit a copy to your class portfolio. (This portfolio is available for other students and the instructors to see but not the general public.) We will also conduct weekly workshops to share the progress you’ve made on major assignments and to refine your skills in research, writing, editing, and presentation. Of course, it goes without saying that the workshops are interactive and require you to come to class prepared. This class does not have a heavy reading load but it does require consistent preparation. Attendance is absolutely mandatory.
Students will also create “presentation documents.” These are documents that are created to provide factual and narrative support for the student presentations. They may be anywhere from 5 to 20 pages and they may be in formats ranging from narrative journalism to policy fact sheets. It is expected that the length of the document(s) will correspond to the content. For example, fact sheets on air pollution may appropriately be as short as five pages. In contrast, a narrative journalistic approach to education issues in New York may need 20 pages to be fully explored. Students will receive feedback from peers and the instructors as to the appropriateness of the length of their documents. Similarly, the number of interviews and sources required will vary depending on the subject. Students should anticipate interviewing at least 5 people and possibly many more for more controversial subjects. The number and kind of documents that they will need to review will depend on the topics chosen. In short, students are required to do enough research to answer the questions that they have posed for themselves. No formal paper or exam is required in this class.
Students interested in enriched work and/or extra credit may read Floating City by Sudhir Venkatesh and write a concise five page paper responding to the question, “What are some of the specific potentials and problems specific of doing research in New York. What do you learn about the nature of the city itself from these?”
Grades
Participation: 20 percent
Response papers: 20 percent
Issues of New York: 20 percent
Presentation documents: 20 percent
Final presentation: 20 percent
Extra Credit: up to ½ grade increase on final grade
Required Texts
Kramer, Mark and Wendy Call, Eds. 2016.Telling True Stories, Penguin
(abbreviated below as TTS)
CQ Researcher, Urban Issues, 8th Ed. 2017, Sage
Classes
Monday, Jan 30th Introduction to the class
Wednesday, Feb 1st Analyzing Narrative Journalism
TTS:
“Every Profile is an Epic Story” by Tomas Alex Tizon (p. 71-73)
“The Limits of Profiles” by Malcom Gladwell ( p. 73-74)
“Toward an Ethical Code for Narrative Journalists” by Walt Harrington (p. 170-172)
Monday, Feb 6th
Workshop
Wednesday, Feb 8th The Fundamentals of Reporting
TTS:
Part Two (pages 19 to 64) with special attention to “Reporting for Narrative: Ten Tips” by Mark Kramer
Monday, Feb 13th No Class
Wednesday, Feb 15th (CUNY Monday) No Class – Please view video posted on Blackboard and write one page response paper in place of class.
Monday, Feb 20th No Class
Wednesday, Feb 22nd Interviewing Ethically
TTS:
“Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy” by Isabel Wilkerson (p. 30-33)
“Securing Consent” by Tracy Kidder (p. 176-177)
“Truth and Consequences” by Katherine Boo (p. 177-178)
“Dealing with Danger: Protecting your Subject and Your Story” by Sonia Nazario ( p. 178-182)
Due: 2 Issues of New York posts to the shared Google Drive. See Google Drive instructions.
Monday, Feb 27th Air Pollution and Climate Change
Chapter 4 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, Mar 1st Rubric Making and Group Peer Review
First HONY profile draft due for the whole class
TTS:
“Playing Fair with Subjects” by Isabel Wilkerson (p. 172-176)
Poynter Institute’s #49: Learn From Criticism
Due: All four Issues of New York posts to the shared Google Drive.
Monday, Mar 6th Law Enforcement (Guest Lecture: Judge Devin Cohen)
Chapter 5 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, Mar 8th
Due: Final Issues of New York posts to the course site. See posting instructions here.
Monday, Mar 13th Racial Profiling
Chapter 6 in Urban Issues
Wednesday March 15th Formulating a Research Question
Make sure that your research questions are in this doc. You might also do a little bit of research to refine the research questions that you began generating in class.
Monday, Mar 20th Fighting Gangs
Chapter 7 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, Mar 22nd Ladder of Abstraction
TTS:
Pages 66 to 94
Monday, Mar 27th Racial Conflict
Chapter 8 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, Mar 29th
The annotated bibliography + research progress statement that we discussed in class last week is due today, so you should have made a little bit of progress on your research. Here’s the slide with the description, here’s a guide on writing an annotated bibliography entry, and here’s a sample annotated bibliography in APA style.
Monday, April 3rd Discussion of Presentations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o
Wednesday, April 5th
Proposal Draft due (here’s the prompt); Peer Review and Rubric Revising
SPRING RECESS: April 10th, 12th, and 17th
Wednesday, April 19th
Presentation “artifact” due (choose one: information sheet, presentation outline with research incorporated, presentation abstract and title, or something else that you clear with us)
Thursday, April 20th (classes follow a Monday schedule) Housing
Chapters 9&11 in Urban Issues
Monday, April 24th Wealth and Inequality
Chapter 10 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, April 26th Presentation Workshop
Bring your presentation slides to class on a USB.
Monday, May 1st Housing and Poverty
Chapter 11 & 12 in Urban Issues
Wednesday, May 3rd Presentation Workshop
Bring your presentation slides to class on a USB.
Saturday and Sunday, May 6th – 7th: Presentations at Macaulay
Monday, May 8th
Final Project
Wednesday, May 10th
Final Project
Tuesday May 16th
Final Project
Thursday May 18th
Final Project
