{"id":341,"date":"2025-05-02T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/?p=341"},"modified":"2025-05-03T15:07:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T15:07:32","slug":"20-years-in-this-cas-department-combines-analysis-and-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/02\/20-years-in-this-cas-department-combines-analysis-and-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"20 years in, this CAS department combines analysis and activism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many people associate the disciplines of history, literature and politics with analyzing old laws and lengthy manuscripts. However, after meeting the people behind NYU\u2019s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, you\u2019ll realize that this is not the only way to study history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Housed in the College of Arts & Science, the department had a humble start in 2005, meant to consolidate five existing programs ranging from ethnic to metropolitan studies. On their own, the programs did not have the power to hire new faculty and would have had to partner with larger departments to do so, according to current Department Chair Nikhil Singh. Twenty years later, the impact of combining these programs into the SCA department has expanded far beyond just getting new hires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an innovative department in the sense that it not only brings together a lot of different area interests, [but] also is interdisciplinary,\u201d Singh said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Singh, a trained historian, also dabbles in political theory and literature \u2014\u00a0his interdisciplinary focus reflects in his teaching, which encompasses topics such as gender, race, sexuality and citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t teach a single point of view,\u201d he said. \u201cWe teach scholarly literature. When I teach the Introduction to Social and Cultural Analysis, I teach very classic works of political thought that went into shaping American society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The appeal of this flexible yet powerful approach to examining social and political issues is especially apparent in students\u2019 experiences. CAS sophomore Ella Hinds is majoring in Africana studies, a degree offered by the SCA department. When Hinds did theater in her high school years, she was often cast in certain roles and treated differently due to being Black, an experience that she now relates to what she learns in SCA courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I felt deeply, but at the time, I didn\u2019t have the language or framework to fully understand what was happening,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Hinds, taking SCA classes gave her that framework, which in turn allowed her to broaden her perspective on both her own life and longstanding issues in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe history here is layered and often painful, yet powerful \u2014 redlining, gentrification and the displacement of Black communities are very real parts of the city\u2019s fabric, yet so is resistance and power,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cBeing able to study these issues while in the middle of it all has been both eye-opening and transformative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These connections between societal issues and city identity are what drew CAS sophomore Sebastian Leon Martinez to the department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSCA does a very good job of engaging with New York City specifically,\u201d Martinez, whose SCA concentration is urban studies, said. \u201cMany people in the major either are from New York, or want to stay in New York and work on [the city\u2019s] issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the best illustrations of the department\u2019s engagement can be seen in the <\/span>Prison Education Program<\/span><\/a>. The program offers college courses and university credit to both currently and formerly incarcerated individuals from the Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York, and aims to increase public awareness of injustices in the American prison system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really interested in thinking about how we could make the work we were doing more applicable to people who maybe would not have access to NYU,\u201d Singh said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of Singh\u2019s first students not only got a degree in social work, but also became a social worker in the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to give back,\u201d Singh said. \u201cAnd part of that was that they wanted often to demonstrate to their loved ones and their immediate communities that they could actually make something of themselves, and that they could actually be a positive example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This ethos of inspiring social change is maintained by the SCA department and its students, many of whom are already working to support their surrounding communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know a couple of my friends do independent studies with their professors,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cMany, who are urban planners themselves, work with local grassroots community organizations, especially out in Queens, or with groups like the East New York Community Land Trust.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Martinez hopes to eventually work in public policy and local government. In the meantime, they are working on a plethora of related causes, ranging from heading NYU\u2019s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America to assisting in Zohran Mamdani\u2019s mayoral campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s accomplishments are representative of how the work of the department and its students and staff extends far beyond NYU\u2019s academic buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a strong sense that learning in the classroom should never stay just in the classroom,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cThe classes don\u2019t just present facts \u2014 they give us the tools and language to advocate for change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Mia Shou at culture@nyunews.com.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This story 20 years in, this CAS department combines analysis and activism<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people associate the disciplines of history, literature and politics with analyzing old laws and lengthy manuscripts. However, after meeting the people behind NYU\u2019s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, you\u2019ll realize that this is not the only way to study history. Housed in the College of Arts & Science, the department had a humble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}