Tisch College Courses

Civic Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on critical reflection, ethical thinking, and action for social change. People who think and act together to improve society must address problems of collective action (how to get members to work together) and deliberation (how to reason together about contested values). They must understand how power is organized and how it operates within and between societies. They must grapple with social conflict, violence, and other obstacles to peaceful cooperation. When tensions arise within a group, people face questions of justice and fairness, and they must confront questions about appropriate relationships to outsiders of all types. This introductory course explores ethical, political, and theological frameworks for understanding how people can and should organize themselves to improve societies. Readings are drawn from philosophy and political theory, economics, the history of social movements, and other disciplines. This course provides theoretical grounding for Civic Studies majors and for other students interested in social change.

The course will study and analyze several currently active self-determination movements through the dual lenses of international law on self-determination and global politics. It will assess whether these movements can rely on international law to support their independence claim—or whether it is all politics. Students will also become acquainted with conflict resolution, mediation, and negotiation methods and skills, as well as international court proceedings through in-class negotiations, simulations and mock court litigations.

Like it or not, we live in an era where the media’s role is often questioned by those who may claim it’s all fake anyway. But that’s not the central issue that we should question. Is it ethical for a journalist who has a vested interest in a subject to report on that subject? Should a music director of a radio station not play a particular artist because they disagree with a political stance taken by that artist? Should movie channels ban the work of any actor accused of sexual misconduct? Should social media be responsible for unsocial behavior? Is reality TV really reality? And, are there really any rules when it comes to media and ethical behavior? The central theme of the Media Ethics seminar is an exploration of the many kinds of decisions, or more accurately, choices media professionals face every day, and perhaps of greatest significance, the slippery slope that diminishing standards and the absence of gatekeepers has created. With an appreciation of the historical foundation of mass media to be a national town hall of civic discourse, we will explore the ways that modern media has been challenged by a slippage in ethics. But media is much more than just news, so this course will also explore editorial decisions made by music stations, and other forms of media, to compare how their choices have consequences.

This is an advanced research seminar with two aims: to present and discuss scholarship on several aspects of U.S. national elections and to accommodate research papers on U.S. national elections. The course’s readings offer analyses of U.S. elections by social scientists. There will be ample discussion of the 2018 election underway during the term. The primary goal of the course is to help students compose exemplary, quantitative original research papers, and we will spend time every class meeting developing these papers.

What is girlhood, and how do social and cultural ideas about it influence the life chances of people who are classified as “girls”? Are we living in an age of “girl power” where stereotypes about girls’ capabilities are fading away, or are girls more vulnerable than ever because of contemporary social problems like the hook-up culture, sexting, sexual assault, suicide, and media sexualization? In this course, you will explore answers to these questions through the lens of gender and age in ways that illuminate girls’ intersectional identities in terms of race, ethnicity, place, ability, nationality, religion, sexuality, and socioeconomic status and illustrate whose stories are foregrounded and whose are forgotten. Topics include educational justice, sex trafficking and unpaid labor, rape culture and gender-based violence, health and embodiment, gender and sexual politics, and media consumption and production. You will gain a strong understanding of current “girls’ empowerment” activism by applying the concepts we learn throughout the course to specific programs to assess their political, social, and civic impact and ethical standards.

This course offers students in-depth training in dialogue facilitation to develop skills needed to take civic action for positive social change. Students will facilitate the creation of spaces to communicate openly about contentious or divisive issues and will work towards breaking down destructive communication habits like avoidance, silence, or reactive responses, by enabling participants to feel truly listened to. Students will design conversations and facilitate dialogues that build deep listening and mutual understanding and will be trained to conduct dialogues when there is a need to intervene to support difficult conversations on campus and in their communities.

This seminar focuses on the concept, history, and politics of the people’s the power to enact a revolution and institutionalize it in a constitution. The seminar begins with interrogating the abstract idea of the people.  We will look at variety of classical and modern thinkers to ask: Who are the people?  How are they created? Are they bound by law, or is law counterrevolutionary?  Does representation divide the people or constitute it?  From there, we will analyze particular cases of popular constitution-making around the world beginning in the 18th century with the U.S. and French Revolutions and then on to more contemporary examples in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Lastly, we will evaluate the new emerging social science on constitution-making.

Collaborative seminar exploring community development concepts and strategies in U.S. and other national contexts. Examines the history, structure and function of urban and virtual communities, with attention to the politics of space, civic participation and socio-economic inequality. Introduction to methods of inquiry including personal interviews, case study analysis and digital storytelling. Guest speakers provide insights from practice and professional networking opportunities. Seminar participants encouraged to build solidarity, become a community.

This course will explore the dynamics and interplay between social entrepreneurship, social change, and policy. Using the framework of Generation Citizen, an organization designed to encourage young people to be active and engaged citizens through implementing action civics in schools across the country, students will explore frameworks for social transformation, and whether stable governance and effective policies are necessary for sustainable change. The course will examine the intersection between social change and policy change, and examine how the two concepts intersect while focusing on the end goal of systems change. Students will learn about Generation Citizen’s evolution and theory of change, as well as examine different case studies from across the United States and world. Guest speakers will include diverse practitioners of social entrepreneurship who think about long-term pathways to transformative social change, and dynamic policymakers.

Students will be placed in one of a dozen State House offices—for a legislator, committee, in the governor’s office, or for an executive branch agency—to serve in a policy-focused internship. These experiences will be supplemented with a class built around discussion of shared experiences, as well as on the interplay between policy and politics. The primary goal is for 3 students to develop real world skills and a deeper understanding of how politics and policy intersect to create law, regulatory programs, and social change.

What goes into writing a script for a children's television show? How do you pitch a great children's book as a movie? How do you write an ad for kids? How can you propose an educational app that someone will want to develop? This course will combine learning how children’s educational media products are developed with formative and summative research with a practice-based workshop approach to applying educational learning theory and principles in creative ways. We’ll discuss how and why creating quality children’s media is fits into ideas of media literacy, a 21st century civic skill. We’ll examine award-winning children’s media, hear from people who created it and craft our own. And we’ll take a workshop approach in developing scripts for children’s tv shows, learning what goes into pitching a book for film and building proposals for interactive media products. The course will include a field trip to WGBH to participate in a hackathon to design new media products for children.

Innovative Social Enterprises is structured to provide students a highly interactive exploration of core skills vital to social entrepreneurs.  We start with awareness (self, context, relationships) and move quickly to practicing requisite disciplines (asking questions; testing and reframing assumptions; forming teams and other alliances; identifying opportunities, risks, and resources; giving and critiquing pitches; making go/no-go decisions).  We will practice an iterative rhythm of weekly information gathering, sensing, assessment, and reframing, with emphasis on creating compelling value for multiple stakeholders.  Students will engage in individual reflection and pitching as well as three team pitch-offs.

The Literature of Confinement will be run as an Inside-Out™ class composed of Tufts (“outside”) students and incarcerated (“inside”) students in equal numbers. All students who pass the class will earn credit. Together we will ask: How have writers from different historical periods, regions, cultures, and genders (for example, Frederick Douglass, Henrik Ibsen, James Joyce, Lorraine Hansberry, Suzan-Lori Parks) understood experiences of confinement and freedom? What are some of the effects on human beings of different kinds of confinement – economic, educational, legal, physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and social? Together, we will read, discuss, and write on literary texts directly and indirectly pertaining to the experience of confinement – understood in many different senses. What constitutes a confining circumstance? How is confinement imposed and by whom? How do these texts help us understand various forms of resistance? Through analyses of a variety of different literary works, students will study various discourses of identity and difference, including race, culture, economic class, and gender-sexuality, often in relation to the US criminal justice system. A weekly focus on engaged interactive learning across cultural, social, and literal barriers in addition to the regular practice of self-reflection through journal writing and creative writing assignments will enable students to develop a qualitative knowledge about power and possibilities in the face of social injustice and structural inequalities. This course aims to facilitate expanded literacy, widely defined, as well as learning about deep differences while also enabling the creation of bonds between people through shared acts of interpretation and imagination. At the end of the term, inside and outside students will work together in small groups to complete a project of the groups’ invention and design.

Through this course, Tisch Scholars will explore the connections between identity and systems of privilege, power, and oppression, and will apply their learning directly to their fieldwork. Students will learn to apply an asset-based approach to community work, and will gain skills in dialogue and deliberation. The coursework will allow students to critically reflect on the service learning work they are engaging with at their partner sites, and share ideas on how to address social issues in the community. Each semester that they participate in the program, Tisch Scholars will work eight hours per week at a community-based placement. Scholars will continue learning about Tufts partner communities and forge meaningful, reciprocal partnerships with community members through service and collaboration.

Students will study and practice approaches to change, both personal and social, through a variety of communication methods. This course is designed to develop writing, close-reading, and critical thinking skills for students on a bridge-year experience. In a blended learning format and through related readings, investigative data collection, guided exploration of social issues, and experiences with service placements and host communities, students will practice reflection, analysis, and effective communication. Students will create a learning community and consider how their bridge-year experience connects to their future academic interests and possible impact on campus life once they return to campus.