Syllabus

Welcome to Seminar I: The Arts in New York
IDC1001H EMWH

Course Description: This seminar explores the diversity of arts available in New York City. In the course of the semester, students will attend performances and exhibits on offer during the fall 2014 season. We will be working with a variety of textual, visual, musical, and performance genres. Questions that we will pursue include ones about genre, intellectual and creative meaning, the role that art plays in the social and cultural makeup of the city, the role of criticism, and the relevance of the arts in the contemporary world.

Required Texts: The following and any additional readings will be made available to you.

  1. E. B. White, Here Is New York
  2. Cynthia Ozick, The Synthetic Sublime
  3. Libretto, Die Zauberflöte
  4. Bill T. Jones, selections

Attendance Policy: Students are required to attend all classes and all scheduled outings. Any student accruing more than three unexcused absences will be withdrawn from this class. Lateness to class will adversely affect your final grade, as will unacceptable or uncooperative behavior. Examples include texting, web-surfing, sleeping, leaving the room, and talking out of turn.

You are responsible for reading the arts section of The New York Times every weekday for the duration of the semester. You now have access to read The New York Times Digital Edition for free through an academic license provided by The William and Anita Newman Library and the CUNY Office of Library Services.  Full access to the NYTimes.com and the NYTimes.com smartphone apps is available for a period of 364 days from the date an individual academic pass is activated. Details for setting up an academic pass, using one’s Baruch email address, are found at http://bit.ly/nytbaruch. Once registered on the site, Baruch users may access the NYTimes Digital Edition from any network and any ISP worldwide. CUNY’s academic license does not include e-reader editions, NYTimes.com tablet apps, premium Crosswords or the New York Times crosswords apps. NYTimes apps are not supported on all devices.

I fully support Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty, which states, in part:

“Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.”

Academic sanctions in this class will range from an F on the assignment in question to an F in this course. Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office of the Dean of Students, the Baruch Honors Program, and MHC Deans. Additional information and definitions can be found at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html