Course Offerings - Fall 2011

Professor Shi Mingzheng and others
This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to key institutions and trends in Chinese society and culture, taught by a team of specialists from NYU and overseen by the Resident Director, Dr. Shi Mingzheng. Since any attempt to understand the present requires that we understand the past, the first part of the course explores the social and cultural roots of modern China. The second section of the course looks at contemporary China in the larger global context that is shaping and being shaped by the rapid pace of change in China. Finally, the last lectures in the course look at various scenarios for a future China, based on patterns and contradictions inherent in the present.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. TBA
Introductory course in modern Chinese using Lin’s College Chinese. Covers both spoken and written aspects of the language. Open to students who have had no training in Chinese, the course includes translation from and into Chinese and a basic study of elementary Chinese grammar.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. TBA
Continuation of Elementary Chinese I using Lin’s College Chinese. Covers both spoken and written aspects of the language. The course includes translation from and into Chinese and a basic study of elementary Chinese grammar.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. TBA
A continuing study of Chinese at the intermediate level. In addition to the reading of pai-hua (colloquial) texts, the course provides enough wen-yen (classical) syntax and vocabulary to aid in reading contemporary belles lettres and journalistic and documentary materials in the original.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. TBA
A continuation of Intermediate Chinese I. In addition to the reading of pai-hua (colloquial) texts, the course provides enough wen-yen (classical) syntax and vocabulary to aid in reading contemporary belles lettres and journalistic and documentary materials in the original.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu

Prof. TBA
Reading and translation of wen-yen or pai-hua texts in the humanities and literature. The course is intended to develop reading speed and comprehension of more advanced syntax and styles. Text: Introduction to Literary Chinese.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu

Prof. TBA
Continuation of V33.9205, with greater emphasis on wen-yen and a gradual introduction of ku-wen (classical Chinese). Designed to help students learn to use original sources in research.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu

Professor J. Zhang
Students will work with traditional and digital photographic practices to engage with the people, art, and traditions of China. The class will include field trips to museums, galleries and studios, allowing students to interact with outstanding local photographers, media based artists, and the city's creative community. Assigned readings will help students understand the historical and theoretical context of photographic work, and deepen the meaning of critiques and discussions. Experimentation will be encouraged, and students will respond to the experiences, ideas, and influences they encounter abroad through the work they create. Projects may range from classical photographs to digital prints, performance, and installation.

Sample Syllabus

Professor F. Mulligan
In this course, students learn how to increase their communication effectiveness for business and professional goals. During the semester, students focus on the strategic implications of communication for modern organizations. A variety of assignments are given to stress the following communication competencies: written, spoken and nonverbal communication basics for business; effective team communication strategies; informative, persuasive and collaborative presentations; communication techniques for required junior and senior year projects. Students regularly receive personal feedback about their writing and their oral presentations from instructors and staff.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. J. Leary
Every professional business person must be aware of how legal systems work and effect business decisions. Furthermore, the interaction between Law and Business is multidimensional involving international, ethical, and technological considerations. In this course, students examine how key areas of business law, including contracts, torts, and business organizations, influence the structure of domestic and international business relationships. Students actively participate in legal studies designed to enhance business skills such as analytical thinking, written communication, oral presentation, conflict resolution, and team work problem-solving. 

Professor Jack Marr
This course explores the field of marketing by introducing and developing central concepts and philosophies of marketing, and exploring the relationship of marketing with other business disciplines. Keeping in mind the perspectives of both producer and consumer, the course examines the planning required for the efficient use of marketing tools in the development and expansion of markets. The course concentrates on the principles, functions, and tools of marketing, including quantitative methods. Ethical issues in marketing are also addressed. In addition to lecture, the course uses case studies and student projects as methods for student learning.

Sample Syllabus

This course cannot be taken for CAS Economics Major Credit

Professor Jack Marr
This course presents a practical and timely overview of the dynamic set of issues related to the major, ongoing changes in the Chinese economy and their effects both in China and abroad. Topics of discussion cover major issues on the macroeconomic, microeconomic, and political-economical front in China today: looking at what China has done and where it is going, China’s coming onto the world economic stage, market entry and access issues, dealing with important cultural issues, moving goods and capital around China, the ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ coming out of the reform, the ongoing process of China’s transition from a primarily agricultural to a primarily industrial/service economy, protecting trade secrets, and other key issues. The readings are meant to be a background to build knowledge, and as this will be structured as a seminar, students are encouraged and graded on their active class participation and address issues of personal interest regarding the Chinese economy. We will also apply the theories and facts to work through a number of classroom exercises to develop and sharpen your thinking about how you would deal with real-life challenges. Classroom discussion will be supplemented by site visits and guest lectures.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Hupert
This course will start by defining modern negotiation, examining negotiation strategies, and viewing negotiation as applied organizational behavior. We will then examine how negotiating behavior is tied to culture, and more specifically, how Chinese culture affects negotiations.

Sample Syllabus

This course is only open to Stern World Studies Track Students

Professor Jack Marr
Course description coming soon.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu 

Prof. J. Eisenman 

This course focuses on China’s political and economic development over the last century and a half with particular attention to the last 33 years, the so-called Reform Period. Our three primary objectives are to (1) understand the historical trajectory of China’s development path; (2) consider in what ways and to what degree the growth experiences of East Asia’s high-performing economies helped inform China’s economic policymakers decisions and shed light on the prospects for the long-term success of reforms in China; (3) assess the state of China’s contemporary political economy and the current role of the government in generating or inhibiting economic activity.  

Prerequisites: statistics with regression analysis (NYU C22.0103) and microeconomics (NYU C30.0001, V31.0002 or V31.0005)

Professor G. Wan
Designed to give students a better understanding of how firms can gain competitive advantage from their operations function. Typically this requires the firm to achieve, at a minimum, cost, quality, and ecological parity; responsiveness and adaptability to customer needs and desires; rapid time to market; process technology leadership; and sufficient and responsive capacity. A problem-solving framework is developed that enables students to undertake managerial and technical analysis that should result in the desired comparative advantage. Both service and manufacturing case examples are utilized.

Sample Syllabus 

Professor Dunworth
This course investigates the nature, functions, and responsibilities of the management of organizations. The course develops an analytical approach to the identification, structuring, analysis, and solution of organizational problems, and introduces students to organizational policies and structures, functional areas, and production processes (including resource allocation, measurement and evaluation, and control), leadership style, and organizational adaptation and evolution. Teaching methodologies include lectures, case analysis and class discussion.

Sample Syllabus

Professor Amy Goldman
This course, in its treatment of mythic images in narratives of China and the West, will grapple with the philosophical, psychological, religious and cultural issues underpinning perceived differences in the mythic traditions of China and the West, and the ramifications of those mythic traditions in literary genres of various types. Through a close analysis of the syllabus’ diverse, rich texts, ancient and modern, seminar participants will build sufficient critical tools to invigorate their own path to coming to terms with, and maybe even bridging, these differences.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu

Cross-listed with K30.9501 (Gallatin)

Professor David Perry
Shanghai is a city in radical flux, an historical East-West hybrid that is reinventing itself daily on an epic scale in the 21st century. Home now to some 18 million, counting the “floating population” of migrants, it is an easy place to “lose” oneself. Our exploration of Shanghai’s contemporary self-reinvention sets the scene for a visceral encounter with our rapidly changing world, selves, and places in it. If, like Shanghai, we reinvent ourselves in our season here—as writer, traveler, critic, perhaps even as cultural voyeur—what might we find? In this course, we will explore what it means to “lose” and then “find” oneself anew in this city—primarily as a writer, but also as a traveler from the West, an outsider inhabiting, and shifting among, different cultural identities. This investigation will bring us to look closely at Chinese and West¬ern writers’ works—fiction, creative nonfiction, travel writing, poetry, film and other genres—that use the city, and the experience of being “alien” or “other,” as a vital site of exploration of self, culture, identity and society.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with ENVST-UA 9450 (Environmental Studies) and SCA-UA 9680 Metropolitan Studies

Professor Shi Mingzheng
This course examines the contemporary urban change and environmental issues of China by tracing the long history of Chinese urban legacies, traditions, and experiences. You will study China’s fast-paced urbanization processes as well their impact on the environment and the urban society. You will also explore the dynamic relations between economic development and environmental conservation. You will take away from this course a firm understanding of China’s own past, values, and institutions as well as the globalization forces shaping profound changes in China’s cities and sustainable conservation of the Chinese environment.

Sample Syllabus

Professor Sun
This course examines Chinese films in their social, cultural and political context. Spanning the history of Chinese film, from “Street Angel” to “Cell Phone,” this course traces the stylistic development of Chinese cinema, and the political and social movements that shaped film content and aesthetics as well as the structure of film production.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with HIST-UA 9053 (History)

Professor Andrew Field
In this course we will select a number of critical issues in modern Chinese history to examine the political, social and cultural transformations of modern China. Topics of lectures include Confucianism and its modern fate, popular movements, the Great Leap Forward Movement, the role of Shanghai in modern China, Tiananmen Movement and the prospect of Chinese political reforms. The course will be approached through lectures, guest lectures, site visits, class discussions, and a number of small group projects.

Sample Syllabus

Professor D. Guttman
This course explores the environmental situation in China by examining both the very serious environmental challenges that China faces and the governance system(s) that exist in China for dealing with those challenges. In order to assess these challenges and systems, the course introduces a comparative dimension – looking at not only the Chinese system, but the American system as well, examining the environmental challenges and governance system of the United States, as well as the broader context within which China and the U.S. together constitute the two primary sources of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Is it possible to compare the American and Chinese systems? Can concepts of governance and assessment be translated between the two systems? What can China learn from the U.S.? What can America learn from China? Will the profound differences in our political and economic systems make environmental cooperation impossible, leading inevitably to conflict? Will globalization and technological innovation lead to healthy competition and cooperation to address common problems?

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with EAST-UA 9095 (East Asian Studies) and SCA-UA 9680 (Metropolitan Studies)

Professor Shi Mingzheng
This course examines the contemporary urban change and environmental issues of China by tracing the long history of Chinese urban legacies, traditions, and experiences. You will study China’s fast-paced urbanization processes as well their impact on the environment and the urban society. You will also explore the dynamic relations between economic development and environmental conservation. You will take away from this course a firm understanding of China’s own past, values, and institutions as well as the globalization forces shaping profound changes in China’s cities and sustainable conservation of the Chinese environment.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with CRWRI-UA 9815 (Creative Writing)

Professor D. Perry
Shanghai is a city in radical flux, an historical East-West hybrid that is reinventing itself daily on an epic scale in the 21st century. Home now to some 18 million, counting the “floating population” of migrants, it is an easy place to “lose” oneself. Our exploration of Shanghai’s contemporary self-reinvention sets the scene for a visceral encounter with our rapidly changing world, selves, and places in it. If, like Shanghai, we reinvent ourselves in our season here—as writer, traveler, critic, perhaps even as cultural voyeur—what might we find? In this course, we will explore what it means to “lose” and then “find” oneself anew in this city—primarily as a writer, but also as a traveler from the West, an outsider inhabiting, and shifting among, different cultural identities. This investigation will bring us to look closely at Chinese and West¬ern writers’ works—fiction, creative nonfiction, travel writing, poetry, film and other genres—that use the city, and the experience of being “alien” or “other,” as a vital site of exploration of self, culture, identity and society.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with SCA-UA 9042 (Metropolitan Studies)

Professor A. Greenspan
Enrollment by permission only. Application required. Visit the What's Next blog for admitted students for application information. Course includes weekly seminar and minimum of 10 hours fieldwork/ week at approved internship fieldsite. 

Sample Syllabus

Professor A. Field
This course offers an in-depth examination of the social, political, and economic transformations that China underwent under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1949 to 1976. Major topics and issues covered in the course will include the formation of the Chinese Socialist state, the nationalization of industry, land reforms and agricultural collectivization, and the great economic and political campaigns of Mao, especially the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. In addition to our textbook, the course will also make use of primary source materials, particularly the writings and speeches of Chairman Mao, as a way of understanding more deeply the ideological underpinnings of the great campaigns and movements of the era. Films will be shown that depict the era and these will be discussed critically in class. The course will also include two field trips to sites in Shanghai that evoke the Mao era.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with EAST-UA 9053 (East Asian Studies)

Professor Andrew Field
In this course we will select a number of critical issues in modern Chinese history to examine the political, social and cultural transformations of modern China. Topics of lectures include Confucianism and its modern fate, popular movements, the Great Leap Forward Movement, the role of Shanghai in modern China, Tiananmen Movement and the prospect of Chinese political reforms. The course will be approached through lectures, guest lectures, site visits, class discussions, and a number of small group projects.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Hewitt
This course will examine stories in their many different manifestations. Its objective is to give students a critical appreciation of how stories are told through different mediums and to serve different agendas – be it art or advertising, journalism or national history. Guest lecturers using real-world examples from different disciplines will play a significant role in helping students understand how stories are told. Students will be expected to produce stories of their own through mediums of their choosing.

To request a sample syllabus, please email global.academics@nyu.edu 

NYU Stern Students: This course no longer serves as a substitute Law, Business, and Society requirement. Please see a Stern academic adviser if you have questions about your schedule.

Professor D. Guttman
This course will study China’s governance in the context of America’s own governance system. We will consider how to compare American and Chinese governance systems, and whether and how concepts can be translated between them—so that the countries, and their citizens can learn from, and cooperate with, one another. In the process, we hope to learn about China, but also to reflect—in the light of 911 and Iraq-- more deeply on our own understanding of how American governance works—and how it is seen by the world.

Sample Syllabus

Professor Ge Yan
This course is designed to introduce contemporary media industries in China, involving print, broadcasting, film, PR, advertising, and new media. This course reviews the structures, functions, and influences of various forms of media industries. Practical media work is emphasized. Additionally, it analyzes existing issues on these media industries from historical, regulatory, social, and technological perspectives.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Bourne
Requires departmental approval prior to registration. Open only to students of the Department of Culture and Communication. 

Cross-listed with EAST-UA 9095 (East Asian Studies) and ENVST-UA 9450 (Environmental Studies)

Professor Shi Mingzheng
This course examines the contemporary urban change and environmental issues of China by tracing the long history of Chinese urban legacies, traditions, and experiences. You will study China’s fast-paced urbanization processes as well their impact on the environment and the urban society. You will also explore the dynamic relations between economic development and environmental conservation. You will take away from this course a firm understanding of China’s own past, values, and institutions as well as the globalization forces shaping profound changes in China’s cities and sustainable conservation of the Chinese environment.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with SOC-UA 9970 (Sociology)

Professor A. Greenspan
The main aim of this course is to facilitate a rich engagement with Shanghai. The underlying premise is that the city is a critical site of globalization. Rather than view globalization as an external force acting on Shanghai, this course aims instead to show how globalization is inherent in the city and that an investigation of the distinctive features of Shanghai -- from the abandoned factories now revived as creative clusters, to the lilong architecture, luxury malls and street peddlers -- sheds light on both the past and future of globalization.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with INDIV-UG 9701 (Gallatin)

Professor A. Greenspan
Enrollment by permission only. Application required. Visit the What's Next Blog for admitted students for application information. Course includes weekly seminar and minimum of 10 hours fieldwork/ week at approved internship fieldsite. 

Sample Syllabus

Professor A. Field
This course examines the rise and development of modern forms of nightlife—theatres, music halls, cinemas, cabarets, cafes, dance halls, nightclubs, bars, and so forth--viewing these institutions and their activities as a crucial part of the modern urban experience. Focusing on four major metropolises--Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, and New York—the course moves from the late nineteenth century through the late twentieth century, looking at how different forms of nightlife popular in different eras were constructed, operated, and experienced and how they helped to shape modern urban society and culture.

Sample Syllabus

Professor W. Xinbo
This course combines two parts: (1) introduction to theories of international politics and, (2) their applications to the understanding of US-China relations. The first part examines competing approaches to international politics, explains their basic concepts and rationales, and evaluates their explanatory insights. The principal objective of this part is for students to develop an appreciation of the ways in which various theoretical perspectives lead to different understandings of the structures and practices of world politics. The second part offers students an advanced understanding of US-China relations, focusing on the post-Cold War period, with a special emphasis on issues of security, human rights and economy. This part is intended to provide the means for students to develop their own theoretically informed analyses of major issues in US-China relations, such us how China’s membership in the WTO affects American economy, including the quality of employment opportunities in the United States.

Sample Syllabus

Professor F. Tarocco
This course is a survey of the major historical and contemporary currents of China's religious thought and practice, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and “popular religion”. It will focus on the interactions between such teachings and practices, as well as on the contributions of all four to Chinese culture. You will study various topics including divination, visual culture, ritual, ancestor worship, morality, longevity techniques, healing practices and meditation. A selected number of primary and secondary sources will be discussed in each lecture; documentary films and visits to sacred spaces will be also key constituents of the course.

Sample Syllabus

Cross-listed with SCA-UA 9634 (Metropolitan Studies)

Professor Greenspan
The main aim of this course is to facilitate a rich engagement with Shanghai. The underlying premise is that the city is a critical site of globalization. Rather than view globalization as an external force acting on Shanghai, this course aims instead to show how globalization is inherent in the city and that an investigation of the distinctive features of Shanghai -- from the abandoned factories now revived as creative clusters, to the lilong architecture, luxury malls and street peddlers -- sheds light on both the past and future of globalization.

Sample Syllabus