Photo: (CC: by-nc-nd)
Photo: Ken Yee (CC: by-nc-nd)
“On the days when the states in the west were having their primaries or caucuses, we’d have to stay later to get the results. During that time, I’d sit in an editing room and keep tabs of the results or help them look for interesting sound bites.
It was a totally chaotic environment during these broadcasts but it was absolutely amazing work and I loved it.
2008-09
Professor Liza Johnson
Program Director
“Making movies always involves practical concerns alongside artistic and intellectual ones. Who, specifically, is going to be in your video? Whom do you know who will hold the microphone?”
The Williams education emphasizes serious learning in intimate teaching environments, and offers excellent opportunities for developing the life of the mind in the isolation and natural beauty of the mountains.
Photo: Eugene Wei (CC: by-nc-nd)
Williams in New York shares this emphasis on serious learning and small class size, but relocates the classroom into the city. This new location makes it possible to offer a specialized curriculum in urban studies, giving students the chance to engage in serious and immersive ways with ideas particular to New York City. Coursework will include consideration of: migration in a global city; the impact communities can have on policy decisions that affect them; the city’s role in literary production from Walt Whitman to the present; contemporary visual artists who are working in New York right now; the role of documentary in representing communities within the city; New York’s wildlife ecosystems and the environmental impact of urban life; and a range of courses that offer a framework for thinking about urban studies.
Photo: (CC: by-nc-nd)
Williams in New York is a laboratory for learning about of these and other concerns. The program offers an amazing opportunity for fieldwork in community-based organizations, governmental departments, public health agencies, and cultural institutions. Fieldwork allows students to observe firsthand various forms of labor in the city, and the impact of urban planning and policy on the experience of work and everyday life. Students volunteer for 15 hours per week in an organization, and work directly with the director of the program to develop an interpretive framework for their fieldwork experience.
"