Social Science
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Global Development Theories at Your Doorstep
Resource Type: ProjectInstructor: Jorge A. AlvesTitle: Associate ProfessorDepartment: Political Science + Latin American and Latino Studies ProgramCourse: PSCI 230 Politics of Development This resource is an assignment for a course on the politics of international development (PSCI 230). This assignment will likely be a summative assignment either at the end of the first unit (where I discuss the different theories / approaches to development over time) or perhaps a substitute for the midterm exam. The goals of the assignment are A) for students to localize and critically ground existing global theories of development in their own lived experience / communities, and B) critically reflect on core assumptions and implications about…
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Analyzing Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects: The Case of Willets Point in Queens
Resource type: AssignmentInstructor: Dwayne BakerTitle: Assistant ProfessorDepartment: Urban StudiesCourse: URBST 260 Planning & Politics This teaching resource focuses on a multi-week assignment for my URBST 260: Planning & Politics course for the Spring 2026 semester.The purpose of this assignment is for students to analyze a large-scale planning project within New York City and particularly Queens. This assignment will focus on the Willets Point redevelopment in Queens. By the end of this assignment, students will be able to: Students will produce a collective “Project Profile” that will consist of three parts. The first part will be a written document that we will draft at the end of week 2. This document…
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Representing and Rethinking Language and Community Life in Queens
Resource Type: Assignment Instructor: Juan L. Rodriguez Aponte Title: Associate Professor Department: Anthropology Course: N/A In 1991 American anthropologists Terence Turner published an influential paper addressing how a group of indigenous Kayapo leaders living in the Xingu national park in Brazil became conscious of the value of their culture and way of life for national and international audiences in the global North. This consciousness helped the Kayapo to articulate the importance of resisting an hydroelectric dam that threatened the rainforest where they live. In order to resist this project, the Kayapo enlisted celebrities, anthropologists and journalists and most importantly took control over the means to record and represent their own…
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Local and Community History – Ten Blocks
Resource Type: Assignment Instructor: Johnathan Thayer Title: Associate Professor Department: GSLIS Course: LBSCI 790.3. Local and Community History Methods Description Walk or otherwise move through physical space ten blocks (or its equivalent) in any direction from wherever you call home. Take note of the component parts that make up your locality, including the weekly topics on our syllabus (nature, parks, cemeteries, burial grounds, buildings, restaurants, bars, theaters, temples, schools, and governance). Make a list of the histories of these components that you know, and a list of the histories that you wish you knew more about. Where I plan to use this resource In my LBSCI class Local and Community…
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Environmental Justice and Warehouse Pollution in New York City
Resource Type: Class Module Instructor: Natalie Vena Title: Assistant Professor Department: Urban Studies Course: URBST 252: The Changing Urban Environment (Fall 2025) Description I am preparing a class module that will help students learn about environmental (in)justice, air pollution attendant to urban warehouses, and city policymaking. The primary learning outcomes will be: Apply the concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice to the problem of NYC’s warehouse facilities and the resulting movements to mitigate their pollution. Read and analyze legal documents. Analyze the extent to which an individual’s interests and experiences shape their policy positions. Evaluate the efficacy of proposed city legislation and zoning changes in advancing environmental justice in communities…
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The Social History of Queens and Brooklyn Research Project
Resource Type: Research assignment Instructor: Kara Schlichting Title: Associate Professor Department: History Course: Hist 348, History of the Outer Boroughs Description “The Social History of Queens and Brooklyn Research Project” is a research assignment that culminates in an original research paper. Students will research a topic of their interest related to 20th century social history. Social history explores the everyday experiences of regular people, including how ordinary people experienced major events (political, social), the institutions that shape peoples’ lives, cultural practices, and family and community dynamics. We will use material from 2 oral history collections as inspiration: Brooklyn Center for History Oral History Collection LaGuardia Wagner Archives’ Voices of Queensbridge…
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Place, History, and Memory: New York City’s World’s Fairs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Resource Type: Experiential activityInstructor: Peter Conolly-SmithTitle: Associate ProfessorDepartment: HistoryCourse: HIST 392W Description This proposal for an intermediate-level History seminar taps into students’ memory, sense of place, and history skills by focusing on a space many of them already know: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. From its origins as wetlands converted in the early twentieth century to a dumping ground for ashes memorialized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and on to its later incarnation as the site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, the park’s history and those of the two fairs—richly documented, all—provide ample material for a place-based seminar that utilizes multiple aspects of experiential learning. While all the…
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Local Activism, National Movements: Civil Rights Movements in Queens
Resource Type: Unit Module Instructor: Kayla Cato-Piersaint Title: Adjunct Professor Department: Africana Studies Course: N/A Description This teaching resource is a unit module on the Civil Rights Movement, developed for use in my Africana Studies course and available to faculty in both the Africana Studies and History departments. While the Civil Rights Movement is often framed through its events in the American South, this module centers the borough of Queens, New York, as a critical site of civil rights activism, leadership, and political strategy. By localizing this movement to the borough of Queens, students are encouraged to see the Civil Rights Movement not only as a national struggle, but also…
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Global Cities, Public Memories
Resource type: Course moduleInstructor: Padmini BiswasTitle: Doctoral LecturerDepartment: Urban StudiesCourse: URBST 206 Global Cities I am attaching a lesson plan for a module in my URBST 206 Global Cities class, called “Global Cities, Public Memories.” Students will visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, then design a monument that honors their history here in Queens (or a place significant to them). Learning Outcomes Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of how global flows of capital, ideas, people, technology, and media impact and are represented in global cities like New York. Articulate the complex interplay between global events, local experiences, and the construction of public memory. Develop critical thinking skills regarding the design, purpose,…
