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Queens: an Urban Palimpsest
Resource Type: Module Instructor: Lee Norton Title: Lecturer Department: English Course: ENGL 110 course, “Collective Memory: Sites and Stories” Overview: “Queens: an Urban Palimpsest” is a 2-3 week module about community archives, primary source research, and the importance of place in collective memory. It is centered around the digitally-accessible archival documents hosted by the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, NY. This resource is offered in three parts: most substantially, five class sessions, written up as instructor scripts; second, a list of additional resources to scaffold the module, which, in its initial design and implementation, kicks off the second of three units in my College Writing I course; and, lastly, an…
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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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Living Photograph Project in Queens
Resource Type: Module/Assignment Instructor: Hillary Miller Title: Associate Professor Department: English Course: ENGL 371 Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century Drama and Performance Description I am developing a module for ENGL 371: Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century Drama and Performance. In this course for majors, I have the latitude to choose different topics in my syllabus design. One of the versions I previously developed was organized around “Visions of Home.” In that first attempt I did not successfully connect the material to Queens at any point; in part because none of the plays I selected were based in Queens, I had not figured out how to implement a place-based mode of inquiry of…
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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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Queens College Paranormal Investigation
Resource Type: Module Instructor: Ash Marinaccio Title: Adjunct Lecturer Department: Media Studies Course: MEDST 343W (Nonfiction Forms) Description This two-week module for MEDST 343W (Nonfiction Forms) invites students to explore the “paranormal” as a nonfiction form through experiential, critical, and creative engagement. Framing paranormal investigation as a documentary and narrative practice, the module examines how the genre functions across media (particularly television, podcasts, and documentary film) and how it intersects with questions of belief, storytelling, evidence, and place. Through a site-based paranormal investigation on the Queens College campus, students will engage directly with the conventions and techniques used in nonfiction media to construct truth-claims, stage suspense, and shape narrative authority.…
