The following are Special Topics Courses for Summer 2022…
- CHAD 610 41
- Special Topics in Child Advocacy Seminar: School Social Work
- This course introduces students to the role of the school social worker in a host setting that is bound by governmental statutes and regulations and on relationships with teachers and school administrators, with other members of the professional team, and with community agencies and groups.
- CMST 350 41
- Special Topics in Communication and Media: Feminist Media Studies
- What makes media feminist? In this course, we will examine what it means to have a grasp of feminist media literacy— that is, how to “read” and interpret media, broadly defined and across many forms (for example: books, the Internet, television, movies, news, magazines, etc.). We will examine the relationship between feminism and media in terms of how and why media deliver us hegemonic (that is, unconsciously normative) and ideological messages about race, class, gender, and sexuality. We will first familiarize ourselves with some key terminology to give us explanatory power, or in other words, help us begin to understand underlying workings of privilege, status, inequality, etc. We’ll then look at feminist media theory, production theory (how movies, television programs, news programs, get produced), and cultural studies theories. We’ll also screen videos and engage with online content.
- CMST 350 61
- Special Topics in Communication and Media: Italian Media Journal
- This course focuses on producing media on the road, in an unfamiliar location, with different cultural expectations, and language barriers. Students in the class will work in small groups to produce media feature stories (primarily video) that explore aspects of Italian culture and commerce. Students will conduct research and complete the pre-production (pitching and planning) phase before traveling to Modena, Italy for 3 weeks at the end of May. In Italy, students will conduct interviews, shoot b-roll, and script the rough edit of their piece. Upon returning home, students will complete an edit of their 3-5 minute feature, producing a polished piece that can be used for their portfolio. This course requires a travel fee, and permission of the instructor to enroll.
- CMST 350 62
- Special Topics in Communication and Media: International Media Project
- This experiential course is designed to introduce students from Montclair State and the Univ. of Dundee (Scotland) to the basic skills of photography, video, and audio storytelling, as well as to develop fundamental skills and critical thinking required to create media content. In collaboration with the Creative Thinking (CRTH151) course, students will learn how to integrate aspects of creative thinking and performance to tell their stories, culminating in a devised theater presentation. Students from Dundee Scotland will be auditing the class at Montclair State. Montclair State students are expected to travel to Dundee Scotland after the course is completed, July 1-23. Objective of these weeks will be to further develop the content created at MSU into a final presentation piece.
- COUN 653 21
- Special Topics in Counseling: Play Therapy
- For this didactic and experiential course, students will learn how to be therapeutic agents in children’s lives by using structured therapeutic play sessions within various counseling settings. Students are taught basic child-centered play therapy principles and skills, including reflective listening, recognizing and responding to children’s feelings, therapeutic limit setting, building children’s self-esteem, and structuring therapeutic play sessions using a special kit of selected toys and play-based materials to facilitate a broad range of verbal and non-verbal expression.
- COUN 653 22
- Special Topics in Counseling: End of Life/Grief Counseling
- The end of life is a period of human existence often shrouded in mystery and neglect. Often fraught with deep emotion, it is also a time of profound opportunity and challenge. Counseling, with its focus on wellness and restoration, is only now beginning to address this inevitable time, and public discourse is slowly growing via the death positive movement. This course will examine this period of life through a counseling lens, addressing ritual, spiritual, psychological, and cultural perspectives. Opportunities to explore death and dying processes, learn about holding space for the dying and the living, and learn from visits and experts will be provided.
- COUN 653 23
- Special Topics in Counseling: Technology in Counseling
- Technology in Counseling is an online, asynchronous, hands-on course designed for students of all technological abilities interested in learning how to integrate technology into counseling practice. The focus is using technology with clients and families to enhance counseling. The course covers legal and ethical considerations, online counseling, using image generators, making gifs, evaluating and using apps, video editing software, and many other types of technology to enhance your clinical, school or higher education practice.
- COUN 653 24
- Special Topics in Counseling: LGBTQ
- This course will address issues related to LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) identity development, and will examine issues related to counseling LGBTQ individuals. Issues to be addressed will include sexual identity development, sexual orientation, coming out, homophobia/heterosexism, intersections of multiple identities (i.e. age, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic status, spiritual), family/relationships, aging, health issues, substance use/abuse, counselor ethics/values, counselor biases, and affirmative counseling.
- DNCE 500 51
- Special Topics in Contemporary Dance Practices: Dance Technique
- This technique course presents students with approaches in the modern and postmodern dance vernacular, developing in-depth understanding of contemporary dance techniques and practices.
- EAES 499 41
- Special Topics in Earth and Environmental Studies: Urban Contamination
- This course uses examples from the published peer-reviewed literature to introduce the basic concepts of environmental contamination and the fundamental principles of environmental assessment and will focus on environmental topics that are of current public concern and interest. Course meets May 16 – June 9. Visiting students welcome; contact department for a permit.
- ELAD 670 42
- Special Topics in Administration and Supervision: Special Education Law
- This course will identify the administrator’s role in ensuring students’, parents’, and teachers’ rights and responsibility with respect to the provision of special education and related services. Emphasis will be placed on the legal roles and responsibilities required of school administrators in New Jersey public schools.
- ELAD 670 43
- Special Topics in Administration and Supervision: Special Education Law
- This course will identify the administrator’s role in ensuring students’, parents’, and teachers’ rights and responsibility with respect to the provision of special education and related services. Emphasis will be placed on the legal roles and responsibilities required of school administrators in New Jersey public schools.
- HLTH 347 41
- Special Topics in Health: Immigrant Health
- This course will cover current major health issues affecting immigrants to the U.S., with opportunities for students to focus on specific immigrant communities and the health concerns most relevant to each. The course will also examine social determinants of immigrant health, such as current U.S. policies toward immigrants and how these affect immigrants’ health status and access to health services. The course will also include an overview of the history of immigration patterns and policies in the U.S. Students will learn through assigned readings, individual research projects, film, video, other media, and in-class discussion.
- Co-sat with…
- HLTH 577 41
- Special Topics in Health: Immigrant Health
- This course will cover current major health issues affecting immigrants to the U.S., with opportunities for students to focus on specific immigrant communities and the health concerns most relevant to each. The course will also examine social determinants of immigrant health, such as current U.S. policies toward immigrants and how these affect immigrants’ health status and access to health services. The course will also include an overview of the history of immigration patterns and policies in the U.S. Students will learn through assigned readings, individual research projects, film, video, other media, and in-class discussion.
- HLTH 347 42
- Special Topics in Health: Water, Life, and Death
- This course will provide a global perspective on the role that water plays in drinking, bathing, swimming, cleaning, flooding and other aspects of public health and safety. Students will explore social conflicts over access to water, laws and policies that determine who pays for water and who does not, and water as a contributor to both life and death. Students will learn through assigned readings, individual research projects, film, video, other media, and class discussion.
- Co-sat with…
- HLTH 577 42
- Special Topics in Health: Water, Life, and Death
- This course will provide a global perspective on the role that water plays in drinking, bathing, swimming, cleaning, flooding and other aspects of public health and safety. Students will explore social conflicts over access to water, laws and policies that determine who pays for water and who does not, and water as a contributor to both life and death. Students will learn through assigned readings, individual research projects, film, video, other media, and class discussion.
- HSET 330 61
- Special Topics in Cruise and Resort Management
- The course will provide an in-depth understanding of the unique aspects of resort and cruise development, management and operation. Students will study the resort and cruise concept, its history, traditions and culture, and the principles and practices in the management and operation of the modern resort. Students will also learn the career opportunities in resort and cruise management. The landscapes of British Columbia (Victoria Island) and key ports in Alaska provide lessons not only in cruise ship operation, but also in Ecotourism and general tourism development. The ports on this 9-day cruise are simply the best assortment that we have seen for Alaska cruises and the fact that it leaves from Seattle means relatively easy travel to the cruise port.
- HSET 391 61
- Special Topics in Sports Business: Montclair in Scotland: Global Business Skills of Golf
- This program will provide a unique perspective on professional development curriculum through a golf centric business focus. Students will meet with managers and members of golf’s stakeholder industries throughout this course to work on network development, resume, and job prospecting skills. Uniquely to this international program, students will learn how to use golf as a business tool as part of this international experience. The Final day of the program will include a patron experience at the Open Championship (British Open), one of golf’s four major championships.
- ITAL 345 61
- Special Topics in Italian: The Business of Made in Italy
- The Made in Italy Program will introduce you to the four pillars of “Made in Italy”–abbigliamento (fashion), agroalimentare (food), arredamento (furniture), automazione (automation)–and provide the background context, research guidance, and site visits to different businesses. Explore a variety of local brands like Ferrari, Parmigiano, Bruno Magli, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, and others that have gained leadership positions both domestically and internationally – distinguishing themselves worldwide for the excellence of their products in terms of quality, elegance, taste, design and creativity.
- MUTH 525 41
- Special Topics in Music Therapy: Digital Technology and Advance Music Therapy Practice
- This course will cover the theoretical and clinical application of digital music in music therapy, focusing on imaginative listening, mobile and tablet music applications, digital audio workstations, online platforms, and approaches to tele-health. Students will create digital compositions related to the course material and clinical practice.
- SOCI 350 41
- Special Topics in Social Issues: Drugs and Society
- This course will explore the social processes through which certain drugs are made illegal, and the consequences for those who are criminalized. We analyze the prejudices that are built into the system as we examine the questions of who benefits, and who loses. You will leave the course with an understanding of the blurred boundaries between “legal” and “illegal” drugs, illegal drug markets, the connections between the pharmaceutical companies and the state, prison complexes, media constructions of the addict and the manner in which other countries have handled the same phenomenon. This course is of special interest to students who plan to go into careers dealing with policing, corrections, counseling, advocacy and media studies.
- SOCI 572 41
- Special Topics in Social Research: Environmental Policy
- This course will investigate environmental policy making in the United States in the past, present and future. The course introduces students to texts referencing the interaction of policy, environmental sciences, and ethics across numerous environmental justice topics. This course utilizes the environmental justice movement’s definition of environment as “where we live, work, play, learn, and worship as well as the physical and natural world.” We will focus on how environmental policy goals are affected by diverse populations across the United States and beyond. Using critical thinking and the application of a framework for studying socio-environmental systems, students will assess how citizens and politicians work together to develop environmental policies.
- TETD 816 41
- Selected Topics in TETD: Issues in Multilingual Multicultural Education
- This course examines the conceptual understandings of multilingual multicultural education, as well as their practical applications for the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The course introduces students to the key concepts of sociolinguistics and cultural theory that are relevant to understanding multiculturalism and multilingualism while reviewing the historical and contemporary uses of multiple languages and cultures in American society and abroad. Students will explore the ways in which linguistic and cultural socialization experiences shape perceptions and affect academic performance.
- TETD 817 41
- Research in Teacher Education: Masculinities, Social Class and Educational Opportunities
- For much of the 21st century, scholars and researchers have been debating the issue of boys’ education and the changing participation of young men in the workforce. Some might argue that there is a collective perception that boys in Western nations are underachieving academically and that schools are failing boys. Essentialist and simplistic versions of boyhood often seep into these conversations thereby reinforcing gender binaries, and positioning boys as homogenous. This course sets out to better understand the education of boys through a close examination of the differences among boys and how those differences are structured and experienced. Reforms focused on making schools and teaching practices more ‘boy friendly’ tend to homogenize boys and discount the ways in which schools and teachers can make a difference towards more equitable social and academic outcomes for all.
- THTR 432 61
- Special Topics in Theatre: Origins in Western Theatre
- Greek ancient dramatic literature has shaped art and culture throughout the world. This course will explore the cultural influence on Western contemporary dramatists and theatre practitioners.
- Co-sat with…
- THTR 509 61
- Special Topics in Theatre and Drama: Origins in Western Theatre
- Greek ancient dramatic literature has shaped art and culture throughout the world. This course will explore the cultural influence on Western contemporary dramatists and theatre practitioners.
- VIST 109 41
- Special Topics in Global Art Cultures: Painted Walls in Mexico
- This course examines painted walls in the Americas, beginning in the Pre-Columbian period and extending to the present. The public aspect of murals is studied against the cultural, political, historical, and religious/ritualistic contexts of several key periods. Particular attention is paid to the Mexican Mural Movement of the 1920s/1930s. Also considered are how artists over time sought to re-imagine and re-frame their cultural and political identities while consciously rooting themselves in their Pre-Colombian past.