New programs available for Justice Brandeis Semester

American Democracy; Food, Lifestyle and Health; and Mobile Apps and Game Development offered this spring

Students have new options for their Justice Brandeis Semester.

For summer of 2013, there are three 12-credit options – American Democracy: 2.0; Food, Lifestyle and Health; and Mobile Applications and Game Development. For fall 2013, Environmental Health and Justice, a 16-credit program, will be available. Applications will be open soon and are considered on a rolling basis with a March 13 deadline.

Associate Professor of Politics Dan Kryder will teach American Democracy: 2.0, which will look at whether contemporary U.S. politics is, in fact, sufficiently democratic and fair. Through coursework and hands-on experience, students will master both the theoretical foundations of as well as the practical, lived experience of formal and informal American democratic institutions – including the Massachusetts state legislature, advocacy organizations such as Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, party insurgencies or protest movements such as the Tea Party and Occupy movement. Throughout the course, students will investigate whether current practices approach, meet or disappoint our theoretical expectations.

Food, Lifestyle and Health will be taught by Elaine Lai, a lecturer in the Health: Science, Society and Policy Program and Sociology Lecturer Rebekah Zincavage. Through the lens of the diabetes epidemic, students will conduct hands-on research into the science of nutrition and the current health care system. Their explorations will entail weekly hands-on food labs where students will participate in menu planning, food selection, cooking, as well as food sampling.  

Computer Science Professor Tim Hickey will again teach Mobile Applications and Game Development. The course engages in the theory and practice of developing mobile applications in this start-up style computer science program. Students will team up in small groups to produce high-quality software products with a focus on mobile game design. They will develop applications using Phone Gap and other technologies, and will ultimately present their application to the Brandeis community.

Laura Goldin, an associate professor of the practice in and internship director of the Environmental Studies Program, will again teach Environmental Health and Justice along with Dr. James Stewart, Ted Myatt, Joseph Allen and Matt Fragala. Students engage directly with the community as they delve deeply into the law, policy, social impacts and science of pressing environmental justice and environmental health challenges facing the world today. Together with the community, they’ll strive to improve workplace health conditions, prevent homelessness, create urban gardens and ultimately produce a publishable environmental health study addressing a current need.