New York City Courses

All courses for the program will be held at Manhattan Marymount College.  In addition to the coursework and experience, all students will serve in some capacity as an intern with the New-York Historical Society (NYHS). Located at 77th Street and Central Park West Avenue, near the C, B, 1, 2, and 3 subway lines, along with the M10 and M79 bus routes, the NYHS is easily accessible. Located next to the iconic Museum of Natural History, the NYHS is an easily recognizable and venerable part of New York City public life. Additionally, the NYHS will serve a vital role as a nexus for student research and academic exploration. Housing over a million artifacts that represent the history, culture, and communities of New York City, the NYHS is the home of one of the largest independent research libraries and print archives in the world. Uniquely situated as New York City’s oldest cultural institution, the NYHS is also a vital member of the Upper West Side neighborhood, a location that continues to draw students and young working professionals, providing for an energetic, extremely safe, and historically steeped venue for instruction and learning.

STOC 4289: New York City Experience/Internship (1-3 s.h.)

Students are required to complete an internship or experience for credit at an institution, organization or company related to their field of study.  The course allows students to gain and reflect on experience with New York City-based organizations.

Students undertake a summer-long internship or experience that directly furthers their practical knowledge of public communication, public relations or organizational leadership. Students will be supervised and graded by the internship coordinator or other suitable faculty member. The final grade is based on work journals, a final paper, attendance at meetings, the supervisor’s report, and a portfolio of all work created during the experience.

STOC 4212: Special Topics: New York City Communities (3 s.h.)

Nowhere do such diverse ideas, perspectives, cultures, rhythms and movements converge than in New York City.  Whether it’s retracing one’s heritage, or sporting the latest fashions, few in the United States and beyond remain untouched by its influence.  This course is designed to demonstrate how the city functions to this end and help students understand the actions, events and context which led to this event.  Students will examine constructs from mediated communication to urban infrastructure in both a localized and global framework to understand New York’s role.

The goal of this course is to create a tri-tiered community: The macro community of New York City will be explored by detailing the discourse of its micro-municipal, neighborhood communities. The students, forming peer groups and a scholarly community of their own, will complete this pedagogical trifecta. Students will also be discussing the changing role of and even identity of a “community” in a mediated, information age. By considering such elements through a communications lens, students will investigate the means through which a community establishes and portrays itself. Students will be collaborating not only in the classroom as part of their ongoing discussions and projects, most specifically project two, but will also be working as a team while in New York City. While there, they will be assisting each other as they experience this urban environment, creating peer relations that will
help them understand and appreciate a world city.

STOC 4213: Special Topics: New York City Institutions (3 s.h.)

Whether it’s an advocacy group, municipal office or global corporation, New York is home to just about any type of organization one could imagine.  This course is designed to expose students to different types of organizations, the role they play and how they function in context of other organizations.  Students will examine partnerships between different groups and offices to accomplish shared goals.

This class will be an extension of the information that you have learned in New York City I, Communities. While the former class focused on the creation of identity within public spaces such as neighborhoods and municipal districts, this course will be an investigation into a series of public institutions. Each of these organizations has had and will continue to have an impact on the culture and ethos of New York City. Beyond that fact, however, this course will allow you to bolster your knowledge of field research as you began in New York City I. It is the hope that you will increase your acumen not only of New York City and its environs but also the important impact that organizations have on the surrounding community.

Faculty Director

Scott Gratson the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School and the Director for the Interdisciplinary Communications program he advises nearly 600 students and coordinates several of the School’s undergraduate currciular and student affairs initiatives. Gratson teaches in the Department of Strategic and Organizational Communications. Courses include Argumentation, Persuasion, Public Speaking, and Campaigns and Movements and originated a course entitled “New York as Text,” a course which employs New York City as the backdrop of the classroom. Along with his work in the School of Communications and Theater, he also works with Temple’s Trial Advocacy LLM Program. Gratson earned his Doctorate at the University of Denver while also working as a full time debate coach and intructor at The Metropolitan State College of Denver.  Combining his love for New York City and history, Dr. Gratson has volunteered for years as a docent and had helped to coordinate the College Outreach Program for The New-York Historical Society (NYHS), where he also serves on the Friends of The NYHS Board.  He has also serves as the archivist for New York City’s Hetrick-Martin Institute, the home of the Harvey Milk High School and the nation’s oldest and largest GLBT educational services organization. Dr. Gratson has been studying the history, culture and impact of New York City since 1988. He is an avid patron of the City’s museums, is proud of his family’s history in Brooklyn and enjoys being a Yankees fan.