Courses - Community-Based Learning Initiative

Each semester, courses in different academic departments offer community-based research opportunities--that is, research that occurs in and with the community affected by the issue being studied. These courses allow students to learn about and apply theoretical knowledge to real problems, and projects intentionally produce research that is valuable to a local community organization.

Examples:

Students in MOL 460, Diseases in Children: Costs, Causes, and Choices, studied the circumstances around mother-to-child transfer of HIV to determine how this entirely preventable event could be eliminated. Working with the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, students completed a term paper and presented their findings to hospital staff.

In The American City (WWS 310), students analyzed the quality of life and the structure of the city in Trenton, NJ, drawing from the experience of Baltimore, MD to determine whether effective measures in Baltimore could be similarly implemented in Trenton.

Fall 2012

EGR 250/251 - EGR 350/351 - EGR 450/451

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)

Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

SOC 227

Race and Ethnicity

Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly

Our goal in this course is (a) to understand various definitions of race and ethnicity from a theoretical perspective and in a plurality of contexts and (b) to account for the rise of ethnicity and race as political and cultural forces in the age of globalization. Why are ethnic and racial delimitations expanding in areas of the world where such distinctions were formerly muted? Is race and racial discrimination all the same regardless of geographical region? What are the main theories and methodologies now available for the study of race and ethnicity from a comparative point of view? These are among the questions our course aims to answer.

THR 307

Devising Theatre with Youth

Erica S. Nagel

Devising Theater with Youth is a course that will promote experiential learning for both Princeton University students and children from Community House, an on-campus afterschool program. This hands-on course will provide an opportunity for Princeton students to elicit the voices of children, interweave them into a theatrical play, and Students will learn and apply essential contemporary theories and foundational practices of community-based devising technique, then work with the children of Community House to develop an original performance based on the children’s personal or imagined stories. At the end of the course, the children and students will create a collaborative community event around the culminating performance.

WWS 325 / AMS 350 (SA)

Civil Society and Public Policy

Professor Stanley N. Katz

Civil society is the arena of voluntary organizations (churches, social welfare organizations, sporting clubs) and communal activity. Scholars now tell us that such voluntary and cooperative activities create "social capital" -- a stock of mutual trust that forms the glue that holds society together. The course will be devoted to the study of the history of these concepts, and to the analysis of their application to the United States and other societies. This will be an interdisciplinary effort, embracing history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines.

Spring 2012

ANT 335

Medical Anthropology

Professor João Biehl

Medical anthropology looks at the interaction of biology, social environment, and medical rationality. The course examines affliction, care, and health in a cross-cultural perspective. It compares non-medical models of disease causality and healing with biomedical ones, and explores how social and technological inequalities shape disease and health outcomes (with a focus on Latin America). Students learn to collect and interpret individual illness narratives as well as to assess the cultural and political dynamics of public health problems. The course draws from ethnography, medical journals, media reports and films.

EGR 250/251 - EGR 350/351 - EGR 450/451

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)

Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

ENV 340

Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Solutions

Eileen Zerba

Course focuses on environmental challenges and sustainable solutions related to interrelationships between constructed and natural processes. Topic areas include climate, air pollution, toxics, and water. The format of the course is experiential learning with problem-solving research projects, lectures, and discussions. A central theme of the projects is to track the impact of land use and sustainable practices on the ecological balance of environments in and around Princeton's campus.

FRS 140

Life in a Nuclear- Armed World

Zia Mian

This course will try to unpack some of the meanings of the nuclear age, using scholarly and popular writings as well as movies and documentary films about “the bomb.” It will look at the design, development, production, and maintenance of a nuclear arsenal, and the associated economic, political, and environmental costs, as well as the lives of people in communities who lived and worked as part of the nuclear complex. We shall look also at the struggles of the anti-nuclear movement in its efforts to restrain decision makers, end arms races, and to ban the bomb.

FRS 170

The Dreamkeepers: Education Reform and the Urban Teaching Experience

Kathleen M. Nolan

With a critically analytical and empathetic eye on the dreamkeeper, or the urban teacher, this seminar explores the daunting challenges and possibilities of urban teaching in the context of current debates, and it places the experience of the urban classroom teacher at the center of our inquiry into the problem of urban education. Some of the central questions students will explore are: What is it really like to work in an urban public school? How do the political economy and current educational policies shape those experiences? What key policy initiatives appear to be most promising, and what makes for a successful teacher in an urban school? The course will also include teachers from local urban schools, teacher activists, and scholars in the field as guest speakers, and a class trip into urban schools of interest.

THR 337

Community-Based Performance

Erica S. Nagel

This hands-on seminar will explore contemporary theories and practices of community-based performance, investigating contemporary theatre, dance, and music groups that use these methods. The course will also interrogate the sometimes fraught politics of community-based performance, including questions of authorship, authority, authenticity, and artistry. Offered in partnership with the Community-Based Learning Initiative, this course will offer hands-on experience in the process of creating community-based performance projects, and facilitate opportunities to build artistic relationships with local community organizations.

Fall 2011

EGR 250/251, 350/351, 450/451

Engineering Projects in Community Service
Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

SOC 227

Race and Ethnicity

Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly

Our goal in this course is (a) to understand various definitions of race and ethnicity from a theoretical perspective and in a plurality of contexts and (b) to account for the rise of ethnicity and race as political and cultural forces in the age of globalization. Why are ethnic and racial delimitations expanding in areas of the world where such distinctions were formerly muted? Is race and racial discrimination all the same regardless of geographical region? What are the main theories and methodologies now available for the study of race and ethnicity from a comparative point of view? These are among the questions our course aims to answer.

WWS 325

Civil Society and Public Policy

Professor Stanley N. Katz

Civil society is the arena of voluntary organizations (churches, social welfare organizations, sporting clubs) and communal activity. Scholars now tell us that such voluntary and cooperative activities create "social capital" -- a stock of mutual trust that forms the glue that holds society together. The course will be devoted to the study of the history of these concepts, and to the analysis of their application to the United States and other societies. This will be an interdisciplinary effort, embracing history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines.

Spring 2011

EGR 250/251, 350/351, 450/451
Engineering Projects in Community Service
Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

ENV 340
Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Solutions
Professor Eileen Zerba

Focuses on environmental challenges and sustainable solutions related to interrelationships between constructed and natural processes. Topic areas include resource conservation, sustainable practices, stormwater management, and habitat restoration. The format of the course is experiential learning with problem-solving research projects, lectures, and discussions. A central theme of the projects is to track the impact of land use and sustainable practices on the ecological balance of environments in and around Princeton's campus. Sample projects include: stream restoration; the health of Lake Carnegie; and the benefits of green roofs.

FRS 142

Life in a Nuclear Armed World

Professor Zia Mian

This course will try to unpack some of the meanings of the nuclear age, using scholarly and popular writings as well as movies and documentary films about “the bomb.” It will start by introducing some of the basic science and technology of nuclear weapons, and the consequences of the atomic bombing of Japan. We will then examine the decision to build and field the even more destructive hydrogen bomb, and the use of nuclear weapons for deterrence and as an instrument of power in international affairs.

GER 316/LIN 316

Second Language Acquisition: Theory and Praxis

Professor James Rankin

The course will introduce students to recent theories of second language acquisition (SLA) by way of critical reading and discussion; it will show how SLA theories manifest themselves in various teaching approaches by influencing instructional syllabi and classroom methodology; and it will provide an opportunity for course participants to apply the insights gained to a real pedagogical context. Each student in the class will be paired with a community member for weekly tutoring in ESL, so that the experience of teaching will inform (and be informed by) our discussions of SLA theory.

PSY 320
Theories of Psychotherapy

Professor Ronald Comer

This course will examine the different theories, models, techniques, and settings that comprise the practice of clinical psychology in general, and psychotherapy in particular. A number of class meetings will take place in clinical field settings in and around Princeton.

SOC 340 / REL 390
God of Many Faces: Comparative Perspectives on Migration and Religion
Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly

Immigrants often experience discrimination in areas of destination. Religion can strengthen their sense of worth, particularly when the circumstances surrounding departure from the country of origin are traumatic, as with exiles and refugees. We take a comparative approach and use examples from the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The course broaches questions such as: how does religion transform and is transformed by the immigrant experience? When is religion used to combat stereotypes? Are there differences between the way men and women or dominant groups and racial minorities understand religion?

Fall 2010

AMS 201

American Places: An Introduction to American Studies

Professors Henry M. Cowles, William A. Gleason

An interdisciplinary introduction to the materials and methods of American Studies, focusing on the significance of place in U.S. history, society, and culture. Using a variety of interpretive lenses--including social history, urban history, and cultural studies--this year's course will examine specific types of places: cities, suburbs, shopping malls, amusement parks, cemeteries (to name a few possibilities). Critical issues will include such topics as race and the built environment, suburban sprawl, and the production of leisure. Texts and contexts will range equally widely, drawing on film, photography, architecture, history, and fiction.

EGR 250/251, 350/351, 450/451

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)

Professors Michael G. Littman, Catherine A. Peters, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

ENV 307

Agriculture and Food: A Foundation for Living

Professor Xenia K. Morin

Agriculture and food provide all people with a foundation for living. Our land and water resources provide food, fiber, medicines, industrial commodities, fuel and more. We investigate and analyze specific topics in agriculture and food and evaluate the environmental impact of our current practices. We look critically at the challenges farmers face to produce enough food for a growing world population and at the controversies over technologies used to address these challenges, and we will consider whether, and how, farming can be done in an environmentally-friendly and sustainable way.

SOC 205

Sociology From E Street: Bruce Springsteen's America

Professor Mitchell Duneier

New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen and his E-Street Band chronicle life in the U.S. focusing on a range of topics from loneliness, community, and freedom, to teenage pregnancy, street car racing, girl watching, and the plight of veterans. Each Monday lecture will begin with one or more songs in order to focus on what sociology says about the issues they raise. During the Wednesday sessions, guests who have led lives like a character in that week's song will be interviewed in class.

SOC 227

Race and Ethnicity

Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly

Our goal in this course is (a) to understand various definitions of race and ethnicity from a theoretical perspective and in a plurality of contexts and (b) to account for the rise of ethnicity and race as political and cultural forces in the age of globalization. Why are ethnic and racial delimitations expanding in areas of the world where such distinctions were formerly muted? Is race and racial discrimination all the same regardless of geographical region? What are the main theories and methodologies now available for the study of race and ethnicity from a comparative point of view? These are among the questions our course aims to answer.

WWS 325 / AMS 350 (SA)

Civil Society and Public Policy

Professor Stanley N. Katz

Civil society is the arena of voluntary organizations (churches, social welfare organizations, sporting clubs) and communal activity. Scholars now tell us that such voluntary and cooperative activities create "social capital" -- a stock of mutual trust that forms the glue that holds society together. The course will be devoted to the study of the history of these concepts, and to the analysis of their application to the United States and other societies. This will be an interdisciplinary effort, embracing history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines.

Spring 2010

ANT 433

Initiation, Education, and Apprenticeship: Cross Cultural Perspectives

Professor Graham M. Jones

From Brazilian capoeira, Japanese dance, and American jazz piano, to glassblowing, lawyering, and navigating a warship: how do people acquire the skills necessary to perform expert activities in different cultural settings? What kinds of knowledge can anthropologists gain as apprentices, and how does it translate into writing? This course focuses on apprenticeship as a subject and method for anthropological research. We examine theories of learning and their application to case studies of wide-ranging domains of expertise. Students conduct ethnographic and experiential activities, generating original data for discussion and analysis.

AMS 401

At Home in New Jersey

Professor William A. Gleason, Hendrik A. Hartog

This team-taught seminar is designed as a capstone course for AMS concentrators and offers an opportunity to work at a more sophisticated and advanced level. Taking New Jersey as our object of study, we will reflect on the ways various residents (and visitors) have constructed worlds--spatial worlds as well as worlds of meaning--in and on this particular ground. We will examine both how we live today and the multiple ways that "how we live today" must be situated within longer histories, including such topics as property rights, suburbanization, zoning, transportation, home and homelessness, immigration, environment and community.

EGR 250, 251; EGR 350, 351; EGR 450, 451

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)

Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo

In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

ENV 340

Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Solutions

Professor Eileen Zerba

Focuses on environmental challenges and sustainable solutions related to interrelationships between constructed and natural processes. Topic areas include resource conservation, sustainable practices, stormwater management, and habitat restoration. The format of the course is experiential learning with problem-solving research projects, lectures, and discussions. A central theme of the projects is to track the impact of land use and sustainable practices on the ecological balance of environments in and around Princeton's campus. Sample projects include: stream restoration; the health of Lake Carnegie; and the benefits of green roofs.

SOC 340 / REL 390

God of Many Faces: Comparative Perspectives on Migration and Religion

Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly

Immigrants often experience discrimination in areas of destination. Religion can strengthen their sense of worth, particularly when the circumstances surrounding departure from the country of origin are traumatic, as with exiles and refugees. We take a comparative approach and use examples from the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The course broaches questions such as: how does religion transform and is transformed by the immigrant experience? When is religion used to combat stereotypes? Are there differences between the way men and women or dominant groups and racial minorities understand religion?

SOC 203 / URB 201

Introduction to Urban Studies

Professor M. C. Boyer

This course will examine different crises confronting cities in the 21st century. Topics will range from immigration, to terrorism, shrinking population, traffic congestion, pollution, energy crisis, housing needs, water wars, race riots, extreme weather conditions, war and urban operations. The range of cities will include Los Angles, New Orleans, Paris, Logos, Caracas, Havana, New York, Hong Kong, and Baghdad among others.

AMS 201
American Places: An Introduction to American Studies
Professor William H. Gleason, Ricardo Montez
With a focus in the fall on four cities (L.A., Detroit, New York, and San Antonio), this course will delve into the significance of place in U.S. history, society and culture. Through the lenses of urban studies, social history, environmental studies and using a wide range of cultural media (film, photography, music, fiction etc…), the course will approach topics such as colonial contact, race, migration, labor, music and citizenship.

ANT 218/REL 218
Religion and Medicine
Professor João Biehl
This seminar examines illness experiences and therapeutic practices as they are related to religious traditions worldwide, specifically in regards to the mind-body interface amid suffering and investigate how new medical technologies intermingle with belief systems and local forms of care. In addition, the course covers the topics of salvation and sacrifice in the context of humanitarian and global health interventions and emerging theories of well being and human agency. Students will have a chance to do ethnographic interviews and will learn to analyze representations of religious experience.

ANT 335
Medical Anthropology
Professor João Biehl
Medical anthropology looks at the interaction of biology, social environment, and medical rationality. The course examines affliction, care, and health in a cross-cultural perspective. It compares non-medical models of disease causality and healing with biomedical ones, and explores how social and technological inequalities shape disease and health outcomes (with a focus on Latin America). Students learn to collect and interpret individual illness narratives as well as to assess the cultural and political dynamics of public health problems. The course draws from ethnography, medical journals, media reports and films.

EGR 250/251, 350/351, 450/451
Engineering Projects in Community Service
Professor Michael G. Littman, Winston O. Soboyejo
In the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of sophomores through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams enable delivery of projects of significant benefit to the community.

ENV 307
Agriculture and Food: A Foundation for Living
Professor Xenia K. Morin
Agriculture and food provide all people with a foundation for living. Land and water resources provide food, fiber, medicines, industrial commodities, fuel and more. We investigate and analyze specific topics in agriculture and food and evaluate the environmental impact of our current practices. We weigh the challenges farmers face to produce enough food for the growing world population, we critique the controversy over technology used to rise to these challenges, and we consider how farming can be done in an environmentally-friendly and sustainable way.

MOL 460, STC 460
Diseases in Children: Causes, Costs, and Choices
Professor Daniel A. Notterman
Within a broader context of historical, social, and ethical concerns, a survey of normal childhood development and selected disorders from the perspectives of the physician and the scientist. Emphasis on the complex relationship between genetic and acquired causes of disease, medical practice, social conditions, and cultural values. Patient visits are an integral component of the course.

SOC 205
Sociology from E-Street: Bruce Springsteen’s America
Professor Mitchell Duneier
Bruce Springsteen’s songs have ranged in topics from loneliness, happiness and broken dreams to immigration, racism, teenage pregnancy and nostalgia. Through listening to Bruce and his E-Street band’s songs and in-class interviews with actual people that have led lives similar to the characters found in these songs, students will explore sociological theories. Additionally, students will have the option of doing community-based research.

SOC 227
Race and Ethnicity
Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly
Our first goal in this course is to understand definitions of race and ethnicity in various contexts from a theoretical perspective. Our second goal is to account for the rise of ethnicity and race as political and cultural forces in the age of globalization. Why are ethnic and racial delimitations expanding in areas of the world where such distinctions were formerly muted? Is race and racial discrimination the same regardless of geographical region? What are the main theories and methodologies now available to study race and ethnicity comparatively?

Community-Based Learning Initiative

Examples:

Fall 2012

Spring 2012

Fall 2011

Spring 2011

Fall 2010

Spring 2010

Fall 2009