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Mondays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays, 4:40 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
CRN 40331
Ivy N. Payne
Adjunct Faculty
This course will examine the historical and cultural oppression of the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation, “the Keepers of the Pass.” Students will utilize videos, current events, guest speakers and texts to gain firsthand knowledge of the stereotypes, as well as the culture and identity of the tribe. Students will be asked to explore their own identity and how it has shaped / is shaping their development.
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Mondays & Thursdays, 6:05 – 7:45 p.m.
CRN 40196
Christina Schaudel
Adjunct Faculty
Exploring Issues through Performance is a hands-on performance course. Students in this course will learn the principles and practice of creating material and performance through acting exercises based on structured improvisation. Through the study and practice of theater exercises and the application of the underlying concepts of improvisation the class will form five theatrical troupes to perform a live performance event at the end of the semester. As we learn concepts through practice it’s natural and necessary to ‘make mistakes’ and we will examine and critique work on stage in a workshop context. As such students should be open to learning, release themselves from perfectionism and learn to not take things personally as these discussions take place.
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Mondays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays, 4:40 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
CRN 40090
Zachary Bressler
Adjunct Faculty
This course is designed to introduce an appreciation of film as an art form. We will be discussing the artistic and technical choices filmmakers make in producing a film. We will be viewing some of the most highly acclaimed and respected films in history, giving the student a chance to analyze, critique, and discuss the films among their peers. We will view films from different genres to contrast and compare different styles of filmmaking. Students will be responsible for writing journal-like papers on each film. After viewing every film, we will have an open forum style discussion for opinions to be shared. There will be a project during the semester the students will choose a partner and create an oral presentation discussing a film of their choice.
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Tuesdays & Fridays, 1:45 – 3:25 p.m.
CRN 40506
Stephen P. Rice
Professor of American Studies
Producers of American culture have long been conjuring up dreams of what machines might be able to do in the not-too-distant future. Today, with the proliferation of generative AI technology (ChatGPT, Midjourney, Soundraw, and many others), that future is now.
Our machine dreams in the past have sometimes traveled toward utopia: the story of new technology is always a story of progress; technology will soon free us from having to work for a living; machines will be made to think and to feel and will join our lives as reliable companions. More often, though, these machine dreams have been machine nightmares. What happens when technology reaches beyond our ability to control it? How can ordinary people match the power of those who possess the machines we have made? Might technology in fact destroy our world?
In this course we will consider how technology has been imagined in a range of cultural expressions, from fiction, film, and television, to music, painting, and photography. We will take our study back to the early machine dreams of the nineteenth century and carry it to the present, considering how we, now, have inherited ways of thinking about technology that need to catch up to the changing world around us.
As a part of the Ramapo Exploration Program (REP), undeclared students in this FYS can explore major selection with the instructor, who will help them make informed decisions in their Ramapo undergraduate career.
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Tuesdays & Fridays, 11:50 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
CRN 40201
John Gronbeck-Tedesco
Associate Professor of American Studies
This FYS course will examine the different cultural contours of America’s geographic regions. We will make sense of how Americans have long conceived of their country in regional terms: North, South, or Midwest, for example, or urban, suburban, and rural. We will explore how the nation is imagined in different cultural configurations: in folk music and hip-hop; in photography and landscape art; in movies and poetry; and in public memory. We will delve into these works while bearing in mind social configurations of race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, gender, and sexuality. More broadly, we will consider how cultural creations both reflect and produce priorities for the nation, and how distinct regionalisms gave rise to a United States of both common aspirations and deep differences among its residents.
As a part of the Ramapo Exploration Program (REP), undeclared students in this FYS can explore major selection with the instructor, who will help them make informed decisions in their Ramapo undergraduate career.
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Mondays & Thursdays, 11:20 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
CRN 40437
Frank Meegan
Adjunct Faculty
In this FYS section, students explore the diverse ways people engage with music and incorporate it into their lives. We consider different forms of musical practice, social contexts for music making, genres and traditions of music, and technological and media issues. Learning experiences focus on creative participation, interaction and discussion, collaboration, research, oral presentations, critical thinking, and individual and group projects. Throughout the class we will listen to and perform music, describe and interpret music in diverse contexts, create and discuss musical recordings, and research musical topics. The section is open to all students regardless of musical background or academic major. Students should be willing to learn about a wide range of musical genres and social contexts, and be prepared to work creatively with others.
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Mondays & Thursdays, 8:00 – 9:40 a.m.
CRN 48627
Renatta Fordyce
Adjunct Faculty
More than “mere entertainment,” Beyonce and her artistry delimit pop culture’s guilty pleasure to engage in discourses that relate to interconnecting issues such as sensuality’s place in feminism, Black liberation movements, gender, race, sexuality, marriage, and motherhood. Over the course of her career, Beyonce’s evolutionary arc concerning feminism can be evidenced in skittish intimations such as “That word can be very extreme,” and “I think I am a feminist in a way,” to the concretized assertion in sampling Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk, “We should all be feminists.” Using her body of work on video and film, critical and theoretical literature, and mediatic representations of Beyonce, this course will analyze the intersections of Bey Femme-inism and politics, the critique of her positions on civil rights issues, allegations her femme-ness acquiesces to heteropatriarchy, and the ways she made feminism more accessible for girls who were previously leery of the term.
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