Urban Studies and Architecture Track
The Urban Studies and Architecture Track is designed to introduce students to the histories of cities and architecture. Students will learn about key issues in the history of the built environment and the logistics of urban development.
Program Structure
This track is residential with the option of commuting. Classes take place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST. Enrichment and student life activities will be held in both the early day and evening time frames (10am EST- 8pm EST)
The Curriculum
Latine NYC: A Critical View of Hispanics in the City
Instructor: Dr. Maria Lozano
New York City is the largest Hispanic city in the United States with a population of 2.3 million Latinxs representing 29% of the population, with a total of 19% in the whole state. At the same time, this same population is one of the most under-served and under-represented with 38% Hispanics living under the line of poverty and 40% being uninsured. Within a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, during the four weeks students will be able to learn about some of the challenges the Hispanic communities experience while living in the city (i.e. racism, classism, gentrification, etc.) and the way these are translated into real life experiences.
Appropriate for Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11
Time: Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST
Thurs afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST
Sustainability, Diversity, & Inclusion
Instructor: Ali Syed
The course seeks to address the social movements of "sustainability" and "inclusion" with a focus on their respective claims regarding "(bio)diversity" as essential to a healthy planet and an equitable society. These principles will be explored in the context of our contemporary geopolitics and political economy to examine why difference is often - to the contrary - characterized by inequality. Furthermore, scholarship in sociobiology and sustainable development will raise our consciousness about how the destruction of the material world is intimately tied to increasing stratification in the social world. Finally, we will turn our attention to the culture wars: great disagreements, misunderstandings, and contests of expressive values that include inauthentic and well-intentioned ignorance and inconsistency regarding these social movements. In this context we will also consider the political economy of knowing and being to define our own praxes for living in and making a more enduring and just social world.
Time: Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST
Thurs afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST
Design Interactions
Professor: Virginia Black
What differentiates acts of design from other, everyday processes? Looking across our environments, we might sense the spaces we occupy are the result of hyper-controlled, coordinated procedures. From this vantage point, design seems to be everywhere, and so, how do we locate it? This course will revisit historic and contemporary design methods, artifacts, and visions to better see the ways we conceive of, represent, and mobilize design to act on the world. Design will be presented across multiple scales--from the molecular to the bodily to the planetary--as both a normalizing and potentially subversive tool. We will question its limitations and push its capacity to address existing inequities through activist and interdisciplinary approaches. Guest speakers and field trips will supplement lectures and readings. Students will apply concepts presented in class to exercises conducted in design workshops.
Time: Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST
Thurs afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST
The Instructors
Maria Lozano
Exploring the Latinx Community in NYC
Maria Eugenia Lozano joined Barnard's faculty in 2010. Previously, she taught at Columbia University, University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Holyoke Community College, and Washington State University.
Professor Lozano's research interests include second language acquisition, language maintenance among immigrants, and the use of Web 2.0 technologies for language teaching. At Barnard she teaches beginner, intermediate, and advanced Spanish languages courses.
Ali Syed
Sustainability, Diversity, & Inclusion
Ali Syed holds an M.A. in sociology from City College and a B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. He has taught at Barnard as an Instructor for the Pre-College Programs since 2019 and as a Teaching Assistant in the Departments of Sociology and Political Science since 2015. Since 2010 Ali has also taught courses as a lecturer in sociology, political science, urban and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, social theory, research methods, and law and society at: NYU, the Macaulay Honors College at City College, Hunter College, BMCC, FIT, and the Bard College Prison Initiative Microcollege at the Brooklyn Public Library. Finally, he is also an experienced educator of “early advanced learners” in the CUNY College Now program and also serves as an examiner for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme of which he is a graduate. He is also a doctoral candidate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Virginia Black
Design Interactions
Virginia Black (she/they) is an architect and visual ethnographer whose current work is sited at the intersection of the body, memory, and the environment. She has taught at Columbia GSAPP, Pratt, Parsons, Barnard, Columbia, and NYCCT and has worked for a number of architecture firms, including Maison Édouard François (Paris) and AKOAKI (Detroit). She is a co-founding principal of feminist architecture collaborative (f-architecture), a three woman enterprise exploring issues surrounding the spatial politics and technologized relations of bodies and subjects. Their projects traverse theoretical and activist registers to locate new forms of architectural work through critical relationships with collaborators across the globe. Projects are located in New York City, on the US-Mexico border, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in Jordan, and in Lebanon. Winners of the 2019 Architectural League of New York League Prize, their writing and work has appeared in Harvard Design Magazine, Ed, the Real Review, -NESS, and Girls Like Us, and at institutions including The FRAC Centre Val de Loire, VI PER Gallery, the Morgan Library and Museum, the New School, and UN-Habitat.
Bridging Curriculum and Community
We believe student life does not start and end in the classroom. Each night after class students can choose from 2-3 evening activities led by our Program Assistants.
Program Assistants
Program Assistants are current Barnard students who manage small cohorts of student teams. Your PA is a resource for you to ask questions about non academic issues (remember: your Course Assistant is your point of contact for academics). PAs plan and facilitate nightly community building activities such as self care nights, Netflix parties, Broadway shows, and much more.
Technology and Academic Support
IMATS/ Canvas/Zoom
Barnard PCP utilizes Canvas, an online platform, where students will find their syllabus, assignments, discussion boards, and access to message their instructor or peers outside of class.
All classes and workshops are hosted in person. However, our instructors have worked to create robust lessons that utilize various technology capabilities and platforms such as Zoom, Twine, Canva, and even apps developed by our professors!
Our team will go over technology usage extensively in the student manual and during Orientation.
Course Assistant
Each course has the added support of a Course Assistant (CAs), a current Barnard student (or a recent graduate). CAs assist faculty with administrative tasks, classroom management, and facilitate office hours to help students.
Community Office Hours
Each Monday at 2:00 PM EST students are invited to meet with any member of our Pre-College Programs team. Office hours emphasize PCP’s open door office policy and gives students a space to meet with instructors, course assistants, or a professional staff member.