Inside the Studio Series
The Inside the Honors Studio series is a set of learning experiences that facilitate Honors students’ exploration of topics that are outside the traditional curriculum. Created by faculty to include a high-level of student participation and engagement, the Studio is a no-tuition-no-credit learning experience. However, all students who successfully complete a Studio earn one Honors course credit. Studios are an excellent format for students to pilot a potential future Honors inquiry or interdisciplinary Seminar. Studio themes include innovation in rural health and direct legal action in immigrant justice.
Summer 2024 Series
Ms. Anne “Dunni” Sodipo, Associate Director, Center for Intercultural Engagement (CIE) (Ms. Sodipo is a long-time international humanitarian professional, trained in law and human rights, who has worked on the ground internationally, including assisting refugees, and advises leading international NGO’s.)
Meetings: Wednesdays; 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5 & 6/12; (Studio will meet in the evening, exact times forthcoming). This is an in-person studio.
Description:
Given the number of news stories that are on covered by news agencies as well as social media, the use of words such as “genocide” and “war crimes” are often used but rarely defined. From contemporary armed conflicts raging in countries such as Ukraine, Syria, and Ethiopia to the wars that impacted and dictated the course of the ancient world, laws and norms have shaped how the world has defined what is acceptable behavior during armed conflicts.
We will explore the questions including: What is international humanitarian law (also known as the laws of armed conflict or the laws of war)? What explains the ways that this body of laws have evolved? Why do some combatants adhere to the laws of war, whereas others victimize civilians and captured combatants, including by direct targeting; torturing detainees; recruiting child soldiers; and perpetrating gender and sexual-based violence? What challenges do international lawyers and policy actors face in this field? In this course, students will probe these questions from different angles including as political scientists, historians, international legal scholars, and policy practitioners. Students of all majors encouraged to apply.
In an engaged participatory manner, students will develop an understanding in the content of the contemporary laws of war, explore the politics of how the laws of war operate (or fail to operate) during wartime, analyze how and why these laws came to be, and engage with the current landscape of legal and political issues inherent in armed conflicts today. We will engage directly with current and former humanitarian workers from the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Cross as well as several other organizations and institutions.
Bonus Benefit of the Studio – As part of the Studio, students will earn a certificate for completing “Introduction to International Humanitarian Law”, a free on-line course designed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) usually taken by humanitarian workers and policy makers.
2. Creating Personal Narrative in Video and Sound for Public Consumption [Summer 2]
Professor Julia Hechtman, Art & Design, CAMD; Visual Artist.
Meetings: Mondays; 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29, 8/5, 8/12; 6pm-8pm. This is an in-person Studio. (No previous experience with video or sound editing is expected)
Description
Do you have a story you want to tell? How does one express themselves through media? Are there ways to communicate complex ideas simply? How can you reach your audience and provoke meaningful conversations? In this course students will gain insights into video editing, sound editing, the use of abstraction for communication, and the formal properties of narrative structure. Bring a topic, narrative, or experience that you’d like to share and then watch as it unfolds into a completely different format.
We will work with Adobe software and phones to create these projects. If students have cameras that they wish to use (gopro, dslr, mirrorless) these are also fair game. There will be no expectation of experience with sound or video editing. This will be a hands-on, participatory course. In this Studio we will watch films and videos, discuss their formal and narrative properties, have hands-on workshops, and create videos.
Spring 2024 Series
Professor Kimberly D. Lucas, Professor of the Practice in Public Policy and Economic Justice, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Meetings: Thursdays, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 2/29, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28, 4/4 (no meeting 3/7); 5:30pm-7:30pm. This is an in-person studio.
Description:
Technology has always shaped the way our societies work. From our ability to do work differently, to changing our range of mobility, to changing how we communicate with one another, technology has always shaped the way human groups interact, develop, and change–for better and for worse.
Similarly, societies have always found ways to ensure that their own cultural values and norms are preserved, and many societies have developed ways not just to govern themselves, but to evolve their governance to reflect changing values, norms, and ethics.
So what happens when the parallel tracks of technology development and governance development intersect? In the past, societies have sometimes placed restrictions on new technologies to ensure safety in the name of the public good. Other times, societies have placed no restrictions on new technologies to encourage innovation through competition. But how do societies grapple with emergent technologies? And, more importantly, how will we grapple with emergent technologies in our world today?
This Inside the Honors Studio course will expose students to emergent technologies and their implications for public administration and communities. In the first half of the course, we’ll explore concepts of society, technology, governance, and the intersections across each of these. During the latter weeks, we’ll deep dive into one particular emergent technology–AI–to understand the ways in which different types of societal actors consider this technology, ultimately contributing toward a set of recommendations for cities as they consider the uses and misuses of AI.
This course is designed for students from all backgrounds; no technical skills are required. Students should be okay with exploring Boston beyond campus, including outdoor explorations and field trips/site visits during class time.
Dr. Jalene Tamerat – Associate Director of Community-Engaged Teaching & Research (CETR)
Meetings: Tuesdays, 1/16, 1/30, 2/13, 2/27, 3/12, 3/26, 4/9 & 4/16; 1:35pm-3:15pm. This is an in-person Studio.
Note: This Studio targets Honors students who have completed an official Northeastern-sponsored global experience (i.e. N.U.in, N.U. Bound (London), Dialogue of Civilization, Global Co-Op, Alternative Spring Break, study abroad, etc.), and are looking for opportunities to reflect, engage, and integrate what they have learned abroad within a localized context.
Description
A globally competent individual possesses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to act creatively and collaboratively on important issues that impact the globe (Boix-Mansilla & Jackson, 2011). A major benefit of the university-sponsored global experience is the opportunity to witness–both first-hand and from a scholarly perspective–how these important issues impact the lives and futures of people abroad, and ideally, provide a starting point and impetus for local activism.
Global challenges such as food scarcity, human trafficking, and climate change are not limited to foreign contexts—they also impact the lives of people here, within our local (Boston) community. This studio series will bridge the global and the local through an integration of skills and insights acquired abroad and leverage those toward local action.
Through the application of a social justice lens, students in this series will collaborate in small groups to conduct research, reflect on global experiences, and present information to their peers on a chosen issue of global significance. The culminating assignment will be a presentation addressing a global/local issue that displays nuanced understanding of the challenge and presents a detailed plan for addressing it locally. An important component of the presentation will be a demonstration of one’s personal capacity to self-reflect and provide an assessment of skills acquired abroad to aid in carrying out the project plan. These final student presentations will be showcased at an end-of-series event with community partners and others from the Northeastern community in attendance.
3. Three Meanings of Argument: Disputation Training for Curious Minds
Professor Michael Hoppmann – Communication Studies & Associate Dean, CAMD
Meetings: Mondays, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 3/11 (no class 2/19 & 3/4); 6pm-8pm. This is an in-person Studio.
Description
Do you enjoy arguing or debate? Are you looking to improve your ability to explore and evaluate others’ reasoning and your own? Do you want to learn by doing? Then this studio is for you.
This highly participatory studio will engage in a mix of the first two meanings of argument – exploring what counts as a good reason (and why) and testing one’s reasons against another’s. We will do this through disputation, the oldest communication exercise in European History. Disputations, also known as dialectical training, feature in Plato’s writings (4th century BCE). Aristotle wrote a textbook on how to succeed in them. And centuries of university instruction have depended upon it.
What is a disputation? It is a game of argumentative chess, played by two participants: A defendant who picks a thesis (e.g., “Eating meat is murder!” or “To love is better than to be loved!”) and tries to uphold it, and an opponent, who tries to overthrow that thesis by showing inconsistencies or absurdities. The main twist: The opponent may only ask closed questions, and the defendant is limited to replying only “yes” or “no” (with a few exceptions).
In this studio, we will briefly explore argumentative principles, before diving deep into the modern disputation. Students will learn how to engage in disputations, develop their own theses, train with partners, and explore strategies of arguing. The studio will culminate in a final argument day where each student either defends or opposes a personal thesis.
4. Vision and Re-Vision: ‘Rite of Spring’, the Ballet and Music, 100 Years and Beyond
Shaelyn Casey, MFA – Program Manager for Honors Student Life, Coordinator for Creative Collective Honors Living Learning Community
Meetings: Tuesdays, January 23, 30, February 6, 13, 20, 27 & March 12 (No class March 5); 6pm-8pm . This is an in-person Studio.
Description:
When Vaslav Nijinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” premiered in 1913, it rocked the world of classical ballet. Set to the invigorating and unique score of the same name by Igor Stravinsky, this work by the Ballet Russes challenged the notion of what ballet could be and sparked over a century of future artistic creations.
“Le Sacre du Printemps”, or “The Rite of Spring”, is one of the most iconic pieces of music of the 20th century and has inspired countless choreographic iterations. This Inside the Honors Studio course will focus not only on the history and context of Nijinsky’s original choreographic work, but on the elements of the piece that have inspired countless reimaginations and re-stagings over the last century. We will learn about Pina Bausch’s seminal 1984 version, the efforts of the Joffrey Ballet to reconstruct the original piece in 1987, and many other artistic interpretations in dance and music.
This is not a movement technique course but will involve in-class movement-based activities. No prior knowledge of dance or dance history is required for this course, only a desire to learn, move (as you are able), and express your creativity. All bodies are welcome. For the final project, students will create and design their own work of art, be it a piece of choreography, painting, musical remix, etc. that incorporates elements of the original “Le Sacre du Printemps” from the score to the costumes to the thematic narrative elements. Final projects will be presented during the last class session.
Fall 2023 Series
Professor Ilya Vidrin – Creative Practice Research (CAMD), Institute of Experiential Robotics (COE) and the Experiential Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Meetings: Wednesday, 6pm-8pm. Sept. 6-Oct. 25 (no class 10/18); . This is an In-Person Studio.
Description
In many ways, bodies have been misplaced in philosophical research, intentionally set aside given the unpredictable and emotional features of human experience. Such inattention has affected the way we think, discuss, and move in relation to others. Shining a light on relational movement in particular, this studio will explore the significance of partnering in everyday life and the various ways that embodiment affects social interaction. Each studio session will include a participatory movement workshop with partnered exercises, followed by reflective discussion. We will approach the body through the lens of Somatic Theory – prioritizing the lived experience of movement.
Drawing from moral psychology, phenomenology, aesthetics, social epistemology, we will briefly explore a number of core themes including sensation and perception, thought and action, language and power, and embodied cognition. We will consider the history of the embodiment, practical methods and approaches to movement, recent empirical advances in the field, and implications for future research directions. We will consider how this embodied research relates to applied fields including education, healthcare, and emerging technology. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own movement practice, building from exercises within the studio course.
~~~
The purpose of this studio is to emphasize that the lived realities of people need to be given special attention through physical practice and reflective dialogue. A key objective is to review and challenge commonly held assumptions and critically evaluate how bodies are produced, managed, and enacted in contemporary social life. To achieve this, students will engage in readings, discussions, and movement activities.
Students will have the opportunity to practice and reflect on physical exercises such as shared weight-shifts, counterbalances, and assisted jumps. We will consider the relationship between creative practice and theory that sheds light on everyday experience. No previous movement, dance, or philosophy experience required – all bodies are welcome.
2. Immigrant Justice: Fighting for Immigrant Rights By Drafting A Report for An Asylum Seeker
Professor Hemanth C. Gundavaram — School of Law, Director of Immigrant Justice Clinic and Associate Dean for Experiential Education
Meetings: Sept. 6-Oct. 25; Wednesdays: 6pm-8pm. This is a Hybrid (In-Person/Zoom) Studio.
Description
Under both international and domestic law, the U.S. has a legal obligation to protect those who arrive on our soil and claim asylum. Yet harsh statutes, policies, and regulations have put the asylum system in jeopardy. In many cases, the last line of defense against these attacks are the immigration attorneys representing asylum seekers throughout the country and at the border. Amid this unrelenting attack on immigrants, the Northeastern University School of Law Immigrant Justice Clinic (IJC) was founded in 2017 as an on-campus pro bono (free) legal clinic.
This Inside the Honors Studio series will allow students to help the IJC in the fight for immigrants’ rights. Every asylum seeker who claims asylum must submit various documents to the U.S. government to prove that they have been persecuted in their home country and should be granted asylum here. Students will assist in creating one of the many documents that must be submitted to demonstrate that the asylum seeker is unsafe in their home country. This series is designed for students from all majors and does not require any previous knowledge of – or experience in – immigration law.
Professor Felix Muzny — Clinical Instructor, Khoury College of Computer Science, & Affiliated Faculty, NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks.
Meetings: Tuesdays 4pm-6pm, last meeting 5pm-7pm;
Dates: Sept. 26th, Oct. 10th, Oct. 17th, Oct. 24th, Nov. 7th, Nov. 14th & Nov. 30th. This is an In-Person Studio
Description
In the last year, large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) have exploded onto the main stage, but how do they actually work? Unlike an advanced course within a computer science department, we won’t be learning the intricacies of how to build language models, rather, we’ll learn how they work (without learning linear algebra), what role data in particular plays in their functionality, and we’ll examine a few contexts in which they are currently being deployed. We’ll focus on analyzing the utility, appropriateness, and capability of large language models in different scenarios and consider the ethics, technical limitations, and implications of deploying large language models both in academic scenarios and professional ones.
By the end of this course, students will emerge with a technical understanding of how language models work, what their current technical limitations are, the ethical issues at play in their deployment in various scenarios, and a critical understanding of the role that data and scale play with these models.
4. Restorative Justice: Community-Based Techniques for Truth, Accountability, and Repair
Professor Michael Patrick MacDonald, Scholar-in-Residence, University Honors Program.
Meetings: Tuesdays 6-8:30pm; Dates: 9/19, 10/3, 10/24, 11/7, 12/5. This is a Hybrid (In Person/Zoom) Studio.
Description
In Greater Boston, a powerful restorative justice movement has been growing at the intersection of justice and healing. Restorative justice practices are holistic, community-focused, and usually involve dialogue (story) among victim, offender, and their families and communities. It is a reparative rather than punitive approach to justice. On the global stage transitional or transformational justice efforts in post-conflict, post-colonial societies have included truth commissions and reparative processes.
This Inside the Honors Studio series will engage students in four sessions about Restorative Justice, and what it might mean to our current historical moment as we re-examine the role of police and carceral systems in US society. Restorative Justice practices are meant to take lesser infractions—often sociological and mental health-related—out of the realm of criminal justice systems, reducing police caseloads, court dockets and incarceration rates. Looking at violence and other harms through a public health lens, Restorative Justice techniques can be applied as Prevention, Intervention, and/or Treatment, seeing those stages of harm as a circular continuum.
As municipalities consider the reallocation of police budgets (what is sometimes referred to as “Defunding the Police”) Restorative Justice is increasingly being explored. Restorative Justice should be understood by all who seek to reimagine justice in ways that are anti-racist, culturally responsive, and class equitable.
Students will work with long-time activist, community organizer, and Restorative Justice practitioner, Michael Patrick MacDonald who is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, to develop student-led presentations on the topic. Professor MacDonald will introduce students to powerful Restorative Justice leaders and projects happening in Boston’s most impacted communities. Students will create educational tools (PowerPoint, short documentary, animation etc.) for engaging their campus community on the topic developing student allyship for Boston’s survivor-led restorative efforts. Through this Inside the Honors Studio, students will learn to educate their peers about restorative justice, in affiliation with the Boston survivor-led restorative justice storytelling project, The Rest of the Story
5. Russian Culture & National Identity
Professor Harlow Robinson, Matthews Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, History (CSSH)
Meetings: Tuesday/Thursday, 6-8pm; Oct. 5th-October 24th (This is an In-person Studio)
Description
In this seminar we will explore aspects of Russian national identity as demonstrated in cultural and historical context in order to understand better the roots of Russians’ view of themselves and the world. We will investigate the diverse multi-national composition of Russia in the past and present, and the special significance of Ukraine and its culture to the Russian national psyche and identity. Our discussions will be informed by attendance at relevant cultural events, including a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of the work of Dmitri Shostakovich and visits to sites such as a Russian Orthodox Church where we will interact with Russian Orthodox clergy. We will also learn from guest speakers including the music critic of the Boston Globe, and a historian who will illuminate the past and present relationship between Russia and Ukraine. Today more than ever, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famous description of Russia as “a riddle wrapped inside a mystery inside an enigma” seems apt. Especially in light of the brutal invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022, Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues to fascinate, perplex and infuriate outsiders, including Americans. Students will come away with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the complexity that is Russia.
6. Social Innovation in Rural Health
Professor Kathy Simmonds, Clinical Professor, School of Nursing (Bouvé) and Professor Linda Trvdy, Associate Director of Health Science Entrepreneurship (Bouvé)
Meetings: Tuesday, 6pm-8pm. Dates: 9/12, 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/7, 11/28, 12/5. This is an In-Person Studio.
Description
Access to healthcare and wellness services in rural areas presents unique challenges. Clinics, hospitals, and long-term care facilities where patients receive care can be hours away from family and community, and in many rural areas health care workers are in short supply. Digital technologies, which have expanded healthcare access for many, have limited usefulness in places where connecting to the internet is difficult, costly, or impossible, or for those with limited digital literacy. Ensuring that people in rural areas have equitable access to care requires creative solutions.
In this course students will work collaboratively to gain a deep understanding of the rural health context by focusing on a case drawn from real world experience. They will learn problem-solving design methods that place people and communities at the center and develop solutions that are culturally sensitive, effective, and just.
7. We are the Masks: Cultural Context of Mental Health as Depicted in Transcendent Kingdom
Professor Vanessa Johnson, Applied Psychology (CSSH)
Meetings: Tuesday, 6-8pm.
Dates: September 12, 26; October 3, 17, 31; November 14, 28. This is an In-Person Studio.
Description
In Ghana, the country from which the author of Transcendent Kingdom, and the characters of her book derive, masks have traditionally been used for ceremonies and rituals. They are said to encourage human fertility, to bring about a good harvest, for ancestral worship, for protection from evil spirits, initiations as part of rites of passages, and other forms of celebration.
In America, Paul Laurence Dunbar, in his poem, We Wear the Masks, presents a different utility for masks for those of African descent. He decries that for American Blacks, masks are less ceremonial but more metaphoric, serving to cover pain and misery. Written in 1895, just thirty years after the Civil War, Dunbar’s masks present to the world contented Black faces whilst concealing the agony of their experiences with racism and oppression in this country.
Transcendent Kingdom is the story of a Ghanaian family who leaves their world of ceremonious masks in Ghana to that of the metaphorical mask as depicted by Dunbar. The metaphorical mask in the story hides a Black family’s pain and mental health issues. A family which immigrated to the United States for what they believed would offer their then only child greater opportunities in life, only to face the issues of being Black in America. As Black American citizens, the family struggled to adjust, and this eventually manifested in mental health conditions which brought them great devastation.
Whether in Ghana or Black America, there are common cultural beliefs about mental health that make addressing mental health issues difficult. Both groups often believe that mental health issues are characteristic of Western civilization, that they are problems of the weak, that they can best be solved through prayer and religious faith, and they are personal family matters best kept away from others. This stigmatization of mental health issues causes Ghanaian and Black American families to wear metaphoric masks to hide the shame of the mental health issues.
In this Inside the Honors Studio series, students will use Yaa Gyasi’s book, Transcendent Kingdom, and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, We Wear the Mask, as centerpieces for investigating how mental health issues experienced by Black individuals may present differently in diverse cultures, particularly when the legacies of colonialism, slavery, and systemic racism are considered. This exploration will enable students to bring together findings from the psychological sciences with artistic works to better understand mental health issues from diverse cultural perspectives—even creating their own African-inspired masks in the process. The overarching goal of the Studio is to enable students to use this culturally-based knowledge to become more effective advocates for those affected by mental illness and social injustice.
This Studio series will use a variety of modalities to advance learning and practice. Students will read and discuss scholarly articles about mental health in diverse contexts and with respect to legacies of colonialism and racism. Students will learn how to access and interpret mental health data bases that present mental health data from Ghana and the US. They will also listen to interviews of individuals from modern day Ghana who will describe the current state of mental health issues from their vantage points.
Summer 2023 Series
Session: Summer 1
Three Meanings of Argument: Disputation Training for Curious Minds
Professor Michael Hoppmann
Communication Studies & Associate Dean, CAMD
Do you enjoy arguing or debate? Are you looking to improve your ability to explore and evaluate others’ reasoning and your own? Do you want to learn by doing? Then this studio is for you.
This highly participatory studio will engage in a mix of the first two meanings of argument – exploring what counts as a good reason (and why) and testing one’s reasons against another’s. We will do this through disputation, the oldest communication exercise in European History. Disputations, also known as dialectical training, feature in Plato’s writings (4th century BCE). Aristotle wrote a textbook on how to succeed in them. And centuries of university instruction have depended upon it.
What is a disputation? It is a game of argumentative chess, played by two participants: A defendant who picks a thesis (e.g., “Eating meat is murder!” or “To love is better than to be loved!”) and tries to uphold it, and an opponent, who tries to overthrow that thesis why showing inconsistencies or absurdities. The main twist: The opponent may only ask closed questions, and the defendant is limited to replying only “yes” or “no” (with a few exceptions)
In this studio, we will briefly explore argumentative principles, before diving deep into the modern disputation. Students will learn how to engage in disputations, develop their own theses, train with partners, and explore strategies of arguing. The studio will culminate in a final argument day where each student either defends or opposes a personal thesis.
Class Meetings (all on-campus):
May 1-June 12. Mondays 6-8pm, last class 6-9pm
Applications: CLOSED.
Note: Space is very limited. Submission of an application does not guarantee enrollment in the class. Applications will be reviewed and a selected cohort will be invited to enroll.
Spring 2023 Series
Information Forthcoming