Description and requirements Faculty Courses

Description:

Liberal Studies is an interdisciplinary program featuring courses that converge around 21st century problems and their implications for a sustainable future.

The curriculum is organized around critical contemporary topics such as: food, water, health, migration, transportation, and energy. Courses are team-taught by two or more faculty from across the social and natural sciences, humanities and the arts, with a focus on integrating local and global knowledge and skills. Using sustainability as one of the broad organizing principles around which curricular content is structured, students learn to identify intersections between local life and global forces, and to understand how contemporary problems are mediated by particular geographic, demographic and sociopolitical forces across local-global scales.

Students gain broad knowledge of key competencies required to succeed in life and work – with emphasis on how to manage complexity, diversity and change, and how to apply acquired knowledge in real-world settings. Core competencies that students develop include: interdisciplinary critical analysis, evidence-based reasoning (qualitative and quantitative), the ability to link local-global theory and practice, collaboration across differences, and ethical reasoning and action.

Requirements:

For students entering the program Fall 2021 and later: 

  1. LBS 2017/Structured Inquiry Across the Disciplines (3 credits)
  2. Five upper-level core LBS courses (20 credits) 
  3. LBS 3880/Junior Seminar (4 credits) 
    • *Prerequisite LBS3017/Structured Inquiry Across the Disciplines (Minimum grade of C-).
  4. CAP/4800 Senior Capstone (4 credits) will align with core course problem areas.

Total Credits: 31

* Structured Inquiry has changed from a 3000 level course to a 2000 level course and is changing from 4 to 3 credits. As of fall 2023, students entering the program will take Structured Inquiry at the 2000 level for 3 credits. 

 A minimum grade of C- is required for all classes applied towards major requirements. 

Note: For students who were in the program prior to Fall 2021, please refer to the old requirements in the 2020-21 catalog.


Faculty

  • Ragnhild Utheim

    Director, School of Liberal Studies
    Associate Professor of Liberal Studies and Anthropology, Liberal Studies Program Chair
    • BS, Hunter College, City University of New York
    • PhD, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York

  • Sabrina Charney Hull

    Lecturer in Liberal Studies
    • BA Sociology/Women’s Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
    • MS Urban and Regional Planning/Water Resources, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Mara T. Horowitz

    Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies
    • BA, Sarah Lawrence College
    • MA, PhD, Columbia University

  • Sade Meeks

    Lecturer, Liberal Studies

  • Emily Blumenfeld

    Lecturer in Liberal Studies
    • BA, Trinity College
    • MA, Washington University

  • Shinelle Espaillat

    Lecturer in Liberal Studies, Winter Session
    • BA, Hunter College, City University of New York
    • MA, Temple University

  • George Keteku

    Lecturer, Liberal Studies
    • BS, MA, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
    • PhD, Binghamton University, SUNY

  • Kyle Sitzman

    Lecturer in Liberal Studies
    • BS, SUNY Oneonta
    • MLA, Cornell University

Contributing Faculty

  • Leandro Benmergui

    Associate Professor of History
    • BA, University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
    • PhD, University of Maryland, College Park

  • Melissa Forstrom

    Assistant Professor of Arts Management
    • BS, Northeastern University
    • MA, PhD, University of Westminster (England)

  • Matthew Immergut

    Associate Professor of Sociology
    • BA, Prescott College
    • MA, PhD, Drew University

  • Alexis M. Silver

    Associate Professor of Sociology
    • BA, Colorado College
    • MA, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  • David DeJesus

    Assistant Professor of Music
    Latin Jazz Orchestra Conductor
    • MusB, Purchase College, SUNY
    • MM, Manhattan School of Music

  • Stephen Harris

    Assistant Professor of Biology
    • BS, Ohio State University
    • MA, City College of New York, City University of New York
    • PhD, Graduate Center, City University of New York

  • Lisa Jean Moore

    Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies
    • BA, Tufts University
    • MPH, University of California, Berkeley
    • PhD, University of California, San Francisco
    • SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities

Courses

Capstone

Liberal Studies