Fall 2008 Courses
Brandeis classes with significant community-engaged components include:
MST 191b Greening the Campus and Community
In this hands-on course, students design and implement environmental sustainability initiatives to benefit the campus and the local community. Students analyze the environmental impact of human activities within the existing legal, political and social structure; learn basic research strategies for auditing and assessing the effect of these activities; and contribute to the overall understanding of the environmental impact of the Brandeis community on its surroundings.
Instructor: Goldin
W 2:10 -– 5:00 p.m., T 3:10 -– 4:00 p.m.
ANTH 1a Comparative Study of Human Society
Students will apply anthropological perspectives to real world challenges in the greater Boston area, working with new immigrants, families in public housing and other historically under-served communities.
Instructor: Auslander
T,F 12:10 -– 1:30 p.m.
ANTH 109 Children, Parenting and Education in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Students will conduct fieldwork and service learning projects in the Waltham/Boston area at a site or event of their choice (a classroom, toy store, children's reading hour at a library, the Children's Museum, etc.) and develop ideas about what these events and interactions can tell us about childhood in contemporary American culture.
Instructor: LaPorte
M W Th 1:10 - 2:00 p.m.
CP 201a Making Culture: Theory and Practice
Examines theories of mass, public, popular and elite culture. Surveys the social dynamics of remembrance, visuality and performance. Discusses how culture forms emerge in "high" and "low" contexts, from media conglomerates and major museums to "outsider" artists, indigenous communities and street performers.
Instructor: Auslander
T,F 9:10 – 10:30 a.m.
ENVS 89a Environmental Internship
Students work in environmental internship placements tailored to the students' academic program interests and skills. Internships are in public and private organizations focused on environmental policy, research, regulation, enforcement and education. A classroom component is designed to provide an opportunity for analysis and discussion of the internship experience.
Instructor: Goldin
Th 5:10 – 8:00 p.m.
ISP 105 secs. 1-3 Spanish Conversation and Grammar
In addition to course readings and writing assignments, students work with a Spanish speaking member of the Waltham community in a weekly language exchange.
Instructor: Gravina, Staff
M,W,Th 12:10 – 1:00 p.m. OR M,W,Th 11:10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
LING 100 Introduction to Linguistics
Students will record local residents' speech, transcribe it, and create a linguistic resource for the academic community and the local community. To create the linguistic resource, students will apply the knowledge of linguistics to annotating the transcript with information about the linguistic properties of the sound, structure, meaning and context of the speech. The local residents might include people who grew up in Waltham, represent typical local speech, or perhaps bilingual speakers (Dinka/English or Spanish/English) to represent the interaction of the two languages in actual speech.
Instructor: Malamud
M,W,Th 12:10 - 1:00 p.m.
GLS 132B Environmental Law and Policy
Examines public health and environmental law and policy, including regulation of harmful substances, wilderness preservation, energy policy and protection of wetlands and endangered species. Students also engage with the local community to address current environmental exposure or other environmental issues.
Instructor: Goldin
T, F 1:40 - 3:00p.m.
US 98a: Experiential Learning Opportunity
A new group independent study is offered to heritage speakers of Russian who already know how to read and write and to advanced learners of Russian as a foreign language. The course is based on a partnership with the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, which houses many Russian-speaking elders. Students will spend five hours per week at the Center serving as companions and/or running projects for the elderly residents. Projects may involve organizing arts activities, performing in concerts, making presentations, among others. Throughout activities, students will work with one or two residents at creating a written biography of this/these person/s. The biography will be presented to the Center's residents at the end of the semester and in a class meeting to fellow students and the professor. Students will be required to keep a journal in which they will make at least 2 new entries per week, and to meet with the instructor in a group or individual setting on a regular basis throughout the semester. Meeting times and frequency of meetings will be determined at the beginning of the semester. For more information please contact Professor Dubinina at idubinin@brandeis.edu.
OC 92a Sociology Internship: Waltham Action Research Project (WARP)
WARP is a partnership between two Brandeis faculty, a group of Waltham High School juniors and seniors and a community agency that conducts research on Waltham. Interns will serve as mentors to high school students as they develop action research projects to address the needs of Waltham youth.
Instructor: Bailis and Pineiros-Sheilds
JSP 89a Social Justice, Social Policy Internship Seminar
Signature of Ms. Nancy Feldman, LGLS admin, required. Class plus 8-10 hours per week at placement organization. Before enrolling, students must speak with instructor and read the internship guidelines online.
* This course may be well suited for Community Engaged Representatives and Waltham Group coordinators
Instructor: Stimell
W 6:40 – 8:00 p.m.
WMGS 5a Women and Gender in Culture and Society
This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's and gender studies. Explores the position of women in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender intersects with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Includes community-engaged learning project.
Instructor: Singh
M, W 3:40 – 5:00 p.m.
WMGS 89a Internship in Women's and Gender Studies: Prevention of Violence against Women and Children
Combines fieldwork in violence prevention programs with a weekly seminar concerning violence against women and children. The seminar examines the tensions and commonalities between "family violence" and "feminist" approaches, with an emphasis on feminist scholarship.
Instructor: Hunter
T 4:40 – 7:30 p.m.