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:
Fall 2013
EGR 250/251/350/351/450/451 - Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
Elie R. Bou-Zeid - Michael G. Littman - Catherine A. Peters - Ismaiel Yakub
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 nonprofit organizations. The teams are: multidisciplinary--drawing students from across engineering and around the university; vertically-integrated--maintaining a mix of freshmen through seniors each semester; and long-term--each student may participate in a project for up to six semesters.
HIS 402/AAS 402/AMS 412 - Princeton and Slavery - Martha A. Sandweiss
This research seminar is focused on Princeton University's historical connections to the institution of slavery. The class will work toward creating a report that details the slave-holding practices of Princeton faculty and students; examines campus debates about slavery; and investigates whether money derived from slave labor contributed to the early growth of the school.
SOC 210 – Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in the Americas – Patricia Fernandez-Kelly
This course examines the role of social, economic, and political factors in the emergence and transformation of modern cities in the United States and selected areas of Latin America. We consider the city in its dual image: both as a center of progress and as a redoubt of social problems, especially poverty. Attention is given to spatial processes that have resulted in the aggregation and desegregation of populations differentiated by social class and race.
SOC 227 – Race and Ethnicity – Patricia Fernandez-Kelly
This course aims to (a) 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? What are the main theories and methodologies now available for the study of race and ethnicity from a comparative point of view?
TPP 301 - Seminar on Student Learning and Methods for Teaching - Todd W. Kent
A study of essential methods of learning and teaching, including learner characteristics and needs, organization and structure of educational institutions, development of curriculum and instructional goals, preparation of evaluation and assessment, and design of subject/level specific methodologies and classroom management techniques. Course work includes site-based field experience. Open to Princeton students outside Teacher Prep program.
WWS 385 – Civil Society and Public Policy – Stanley N. Katz
Civil society is the arena of voluntary organizations (churches, social welfare organizations, sporting clubs) and communal activity. 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.
Spring 2013
“The problem of the color line is the problem of the 20th century,” W.E.B. DuBois famously wrote. A century later, the election of President Barack Obama was greeted as evidence that Americans finally had overcome the divisive scars of slavery, segregation, and racism. Yet how accurate is this popular belief? What costs might be associated with the transition to a post-racial politics? And how might Americans better reckon with the legacy of racial injustice? Students will choose a recent political issue that has its roots in America’s racial history and use research to explore its legal, economic, or cultural implications. Possible subjects include environmental injustice, the prison industrial complex, residential segregation, affirmative action, and claims for slave reparations. We conclude by writing personal reflections about the status of race on Princeton’s campus.
Fall 2012
Spring 2012
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.
Fall 2011
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.
Spring 2011
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.
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.
Theories of Psychotherapy
God of Many Faces: Comparative Perspectives on Migration and Religion
Professor Patricia Fernández-Kelly
Fall 2010
Spring 2010
Fall 2009
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?