A. For a Microeconomics course in discussing the need for policies to counter monopoly or other forms of imperfect competition:

B. For a course in Introduction to Business in building arguments for ethical behavior by corporations:

Professor of Sociology at QCC-CUNY

“Green Grows in Queens:” A 5-Week Project for Introduction to Sociology (SOCY-101)

Queens is the country’s most diverse county, and New York City’s largest borough. Notably, it experienced concentrated development in the period 1915-1928, as both the subway expanded and the idea of “garden cities” grew in popularity. As a result, many Queens residents now live in neighborhoods that facilitate ethno-racial co-residence and provide a limited amount of outside space. This year, I’m planning to engage students in neighborhood-level studies of garden/green spaces in Queens. I envision these studies as photo-based essays that integrate historical and contemporary census data, immigration and ethno-racial studies, plant humanities search-discovery content, urban studies and public policy research, and readings on the sociology of space– all in an effort to frame the borough as an emplaced green, global microcosm. Concurrently, it is my hope that the project will help to: encourage students’ embrace of outside space (a long-established public health/education effort and a reflection of our impoverished indoor spaces); reframe our beleaguered borough as a site of growth, life, and community (a counterpoint to narratives of post-pandemic urban flight and decline); wear away at the juxtaposition of urban and rural spaces (a major divide in American politics); and deepen our collective interest in and work at the intersection of the environmental humanities and sociology.

FILM 91: World Cinema

In this class we attempt to tour the world through films. Many of these films do touch on the theme of poverty. One of the most straightforward looks at poverty takes place when we examine Mexican cinema. We watch several short films that directly portray the experience of Mexicans who are struggling to survive on a daily basis. Students seem particularly moved by this short film, La Carnada:  https://vimeo.com/106839392. However, I hesitate to link the theme of poverty to any one country or cinema about that country. Therefore, I am considering changing the oral presentation assignment to directly address poverty instead.

I ask my classmates if you have any advice on how to make the assignment for specific so that students really dig in to the topic.

The nature of my English course: “Writing about Literature” lends itself naturally to incorporating a poverty-humanities focus.  In previous semesters, I have highlighted poverty if it was a stark feature of a text, or otherwise was central to a text’s meaning. Of course this treatment was without the benefit of my involvement in this faculty seminar thus far, and lacked a holistic focus vis-a-vis poverty and the wider society.  With the new insights that this seminar has given me, I recognize that the course’s original learning outcomes emphasize the mechanics of writing, and pay less attention to the critical analyses of literary texts. These critical analyses provide the opening for more comprehensive discussions about poverty.

I want to revise the three paragraph course description to incorporate a poverty-humanities focus, but I have not yet decided on the language I need to achieve this.

I have attached my current syllabus and course map.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

The following student learning outcomes will be added to my Substance Use and Abuse Course Starting Fall 2021:

Student Learning Outcomes​

 1.  Apply Intersectionality as a tool for understanding “case studies”  of poverty and addiction (including memoirs and videoclips) at individual and family level

2.  Analyze cultural representations for depictions of  poverty  and addiction with attention to race, class, gender, sexuality as used to portray poverty and addiction at individual, family, and community levels

3.  Analyze patterns of poverty and addiction with attention to social and environmental determinants in low income families and communities.

 4. Differentiate coping strategies for poverty and other types of stress and describe the ramifications of maladaptive coping, especially substance use and abuse.

5.  Analyze  the war on drugs, drugs and substance abuse in the criminal justice system, including mass incarceration (school to prison pipeline), with emphasis on poverty and addiction as preventable social adversity.

I found the following resource that we were provided very helpful but will use other resources as well.

Hart, C. L. (2021). Drug use for grown-ups: chasing liberty in the land of fear. Penguin.

In my Managerial Decision-Making course I have some readings from Scarcity, by Sendhil Mullainathan, and a mini-lecture. In brief, intense/chronic scarcity can impair decision-making by making us more myopic and obsessed over that which is scarce. This can reduce planning, strategic, and empathetic thinking. Scarcity can apply to money, calories, social connection, and more.

I have found that students may watch my short video lecture (or not) but focus not on the cognitive effects of scarcity, but on the issue of scarcity itself. Instead of questioning how scarcity can challenge their decision-making and what they can do about that, they focus on the easier question of how to make a decision when there is not a lot of money on hand.

I am hoping that a creative work (“X”), such as a poem, short-story, comic/manga, anime, movie clip, artwork, excerpt from literature, song, music video, etc. might engage students better with the topic so they can understand it. Perhaps when a fictional character faces scarcity, the topic will not feel so personal and we can avoid the contradiction of the student as subject and object.

Here’s a rough draft of an assignment that I hope students will find relevant and engaging:

Status: I am working with a BMCC library to identify an appropriate X.

Request: Please share any ideas for X

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