Course Offerings

The Science of Color

(Session 1 only)

Instructor:  Arturo Hale, Ph.D, Physics Department, BHSEC Manhattan

What is color?  Why do CDs look rainbow-colored?  How can one create darkness out of light?  Why do painters need only three primary colors?  Can Tide laundry detergent really make my old yellowed clothes look white again?  Why isn’t my color-blind friend able to distinguish between a light aqua color and white?

These and many other questions will be addressed in this presentation.  Through a series of demonstrations, participants will learn the basic principles of what color is and how humans perceive it.  This presentation is intended for a general audience; no science background is required.

Arturo Hale.  B.Sc., Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City; Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota; M.A., Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.  Arturo worked for over a decade as a research scientist at Bell Laboratories and OFS Labs in the areas of polymer science, fiber optics, holographic data storage and microelectronics.  During this time he published over thirty articles, three invited book chapters, and was granted twenty four patents.  His work led to an R&D 100 Award for the development of Tapestry Holographic Recording Media (2002).  He was always interested in science education and was involved in several mentoring programs for high school and college students.  In 2006 he decided to devote his career fully to education and joined the science faculty at Bard High School Early College.  Courses taught include Conceptual Physics (college), 9th Grade Physics, Physics with Calculus, 10th Grade Chemistry, College Chemistry, Science of Light and Color, and Physics of Sound and Music.

The Phases of Adolescence:

Balancing Closeness & Separation in the Teen Years

Instructor: Rachel Karliner, Ph.D.; clinical psychologist and BHSEC parent

Adolescence consists of several phases, each with its own specific cognitive and emotional changes.  How do the changes that come with adolescence impact the parent-child relationship? How do we maintain closeness with our teens as they do the important work of forming their own identities?

This workshop will address the transformations that accompany adolescent development. We will touch on various topics, such as the process of identity formation, the adolescent’s simultaneous need for closeness and independence, and how parents and teens can manage the inevitable conflicts that arise around these issues.

Rachel Karliner is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Manhattan.  She works with adults, adolescents and children in individual therapy, and she consults to Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn.  Her practice also includes work with parents on the parent-child relationship, maintaining a comfortable balance between closeness and separation, and the impact of divorce on child and adolescent development.  Dr. Karliner received her AB in History from Brown University and her MA and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Adelphi University.  She is currently in training as a psychoanalyst at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.   Dr. Karliner has presented papers on the process of psychotherapy, and she has published articles on the relationship between early memories and psychopathology.

The Pleasures of Closely Reading Texts

(With apologies to Roland Barthes)

(Session 2 only)
Instructor: Beatrice Birch, Ph.D.

In recent decades, scholars have drawn on many fields of inquiry beyond the traditional boundaries of literature to provide invaluable insights into literary texts.  Yet, the art of close reading continues to yield sometimes surprising, always pleasurable discoveries of meaning.  We will examine some poems from different periods, paying close attention to the poems themselves, to uncover meaning that both is and is not on the page.  This session is especially suited to those who have wondered how a poem can say so much more than it says or those who simply enjoy exploring the poet’s extraordinary art.

Beatrice Birch is a member of the founding BHSEC faculty.  Before finding her home at BHSEC, she taught English at both college and high school levels.  She earned her A.B. at the University of Chicago and her M.A. and Ph.D. at S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo.

Active Galactic Nuclei

(Session 1 only)

Instructor: Nathaniel Cooper, Ph.D. BHSEC Physics teacher.

This course covers Active Galactic Nuclei. These Galaxies have cores that often out-shine the rest of the galaxy. We will explore how an active galaxy differs from a quiescent one, the various types of AGN (e.g., Seyferts, Quasars, Radio Galaxies, BL Lac Objects) and how they are classified, their structure, the evidence for the Super Massive Black Holes that drive their dynamics.

Nathaniel Cooper received a B.S. in Physics Education, M.S. in Physics, and PH.D. in Astrophysics from Purdue University. He was awarded the Charles C. Chappelle Fellowship for continuing graduate studies at Purdue. His research interest is the morphology of Blazar jets, and he has published peer-reviewed papers in The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.  He was also an Engineering Laboratory Technician working on nuclear reactors in the U.S. Navy.

Physics of Alternative Energy

(Session 2 only)

Instructor: Nathaniel Cooper, Ph.D. BHSEC Physics teacher.

This class explores what kind of commitment Americans would have to make to move entirely to a renewable energy infrastructure (e.g., Solar, Wind, Hydroelectric) by looking at how Americans use energy and the physics of various types of renewable energy. We will also look at various ways energy consumption can be made more efficient. Finally, we will look at whether sources like clean coal or nuclear are needed in a transition to renewable energy.

Nathaniel Cooper received a B.S. in Physics Education, M.S. in Physics, and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Purdue University. He was awarded the Charles C. Chappelle Fellowship for continuing graduate studies at Purdue. His research interest is the morphology of Blazar jets, and he has published peer-reviewed papers in The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.  He was also an Engineering Laboratory Technician working on nuclear reactors in the U.S. Navy.

Nature in an Industrial World

Instructor: Daniel Freund, Ph.D. BHSEC teacher.

This Knowledge College class will explore themes from my book American Sunshine: Diseases of Darkness and the Quest for Natural Light (forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press).  We will look at what happened to sunlight when pollution darkened skies and buildings cast great shadows.  The understanding of natural light and its properties changed, but this one example is representative of a much broader transformation.  Ideas about the environment would not be the same in a world that could parse the properties of nature and reproduce it for a public anxiously seeking health and happiness.

Daniel Freund teaches environmental and urban history electives at BHSEC as well as 9th grade Americas.  He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia in 2007.  American Sunshine is due out in May of this year and is his first book.

Freud and the Creation of Psychoanalysis

Instructor: Jerold Nashban, MA, LP. BHSEC math teacher.

This class will deal with Freud’s creation of the field of psychoanalysis. We will discuss the origins of the “talking cure” and the development of the theory of the Unconscious, primarily through Freud’s understanding of the role and meaning of dreams. I will spend some time discussing how his theory evolved, and speak briefly about post-Freudian developments within the field of psychoanalysis.

Jerold Nashban has taught courses on the History of Psychoanalysis and another introductory course on the Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), from whose training program he graduated. He has a BA with a major in philosophy from Yale and a MA in philosophy from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research.  He is also a member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis.

A Farewell to Arms as a Low-Tech Hypertext

(Session 1 only)

Instructor: Elizabeth Poreba, Ph.D. BHSEC English teacher.

The session will offer a compressed experience of the 9th grade’s study of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.  I will ask participants to read, react to, write about, perform, and discuss texts that Hemingway alludes to in the novel or that compare and contrast interestingly with it. A nodding acquaintance with the novel might be helpful but is not required.

Elizabeth Poreba has been teaching English at BHSEC Manhattan for 10 years. Before BHSEC, she taught at The Convent of the Sacred Heart for 25 years.

A Short Introduction to Mandarin Chinese

Instructor:  Susan Chen. BHSEC Language  teacher.

This will be a showcase of the course of “Intro to Chinese”, which I taught in the semester of fall 2011.  It will be kind of intensive class, based on a regular class with a six-week lesson.  The presentation will be designed as a Chinese lesson which is informative, interesting, as well as inspiring. In addition to the intensive lesson, I’ll provide handouts of the materials which my 10th graders students were given as the culture lessons during the semester of fall 2011.

Susan Chen has been teaching at Bard High School Early College since the Fall of 2010. She is a teacher of 9th and 10th graders’ Chinese courses.  She took her graduate studies at the City College of New York, majoring in Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 2008 - 2010.  Meanwhile, she had been teaching Chinese as a part-time job at different institutions, Berlitz language Center, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and New York University, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, among the others.

The Mathematics of Cones:

Deciphering the Conic Sections

Instructor:  Clarissa Coffey, BHSEC math teacher.

After a brief introduction to the conic sections, we will dive into their derivation and how to sketch them. Manipulating them, we will find points of intersection between a conic and a line. So, imagine 2 right circular cones, pointy end to pointy end, balanced very precariously.  There are 4 slices that can be made thru this cone tower–parallel to the base thru one cone, parallel to the lateral side thru both cones, perpendicular to the table thru both cones, and askew thru one cone.  Each of these slices produces a geometric shape called a conic section.   I would be looking at each of these slices, and representing them mathematically. Real world applications of these manipulations include optics, parabolic reflecting mirrors and telescopes.  No advanced math required only high school algebra.

Clarissa Coffey has been teaching mathematics for more than twenty years. She began her teaching career teaching 6th grade and has been graduating upwards ever since.  She left Hunter College in 2006, where she was an adjunct lecturer, to teach at BHSEC.  She also taught at Brooklyn Technical High School for ten years.

The State of the City:

What Lies Ahead for New York City?

Instructors:  Michael Lerner. Ph.D. and BHSEC Principal, and Audrey Gelman, BHSEC alum and Press Secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

Join BHSEC Principal Michael Lerner for a conversation with Audrey Gelman, BHSEC alum and Press Secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for a discussion of the state of New York City politics, as well as her perspectives on the New York City press corps, Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy, and the hotly contested upcoming race to succeed him.

Michael Lerner is the Principal of Bard High School Early College, where he has taught history since 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from NYU, and specializes in urban and political history. He is the author of Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City (2007) and was a contributor to the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary Prohibition  shown on PBS this past fall (2011).

Audrey Gelman, 24, is Deputy Director of Communications and Press Secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. She previously served as a press aide in the Communications Department of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. She is a graduate of Bard High School Early College, and attended Oberlin College and New York University. She makes her television debut as an actress in the New York-based series “GIRLS”, premiering in April on HBO.

The Meaning of Downtown Culture

Through 25 Years of New York Urban History

Instructors:  Michael Lerner. Ph.D. and BHSEC Principal and David Hershkovits

Join Principal and urban historian Michael Lerner and BHSEC parent and PAPER Magazine editor David Hershkovits for a conversation about the meaning of “downtown” in New York over the last 25 years. They will discuss the meaning of downtown culture, the evolution and passing of cultural trends in the city, and how New York’s culture and neighborhoods have fared through 25 years of economic

and political change.

Michael Lerner is the Principal of Bard High School Early College, where he has taught history since 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from NYU, and specializes in urban and political history. He is the author of Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City (2007) and was a contributor to the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary Prohibition  shown on PBS this past fall (2011).

David Hershkovits is the co-founder of Paper Communications, encompassing Paper magazine, papermag.com and ExtraExtra Creative. He started Paper in 1984 to serve the downtown community interested in arts and style. Prior to that, he was an editor at the Soho News and a contributor to numerous magazines writing about politics and the arts. He has lived for 30 years in the East Village and is happy to have his daughter Esther at BHSEC.

Financial Reform and Bank Accountability:

The root causes of the financial crisis from the ground up, and

Where we go from here

Instructor:  Josh Zinner

Course description coming soon but the title is plenty interesting!

Josh Zinner is the Co-Director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP), a resource and advocacy center that works to promote economic justice in New York City’s low income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color.  As part of his responsibilities at NEDAP, Zinner oversees NEDAP’s Financial Justice Law Project and NYC Foreclosure Prevention Gap Loan Program, and helps to run the statewide New Yorkers for Responsible Lending coalition.  Previously, Zinner served as the long-time Director of the Foreclosure Prevention Project at South Brooklyn Legal Services, where he litigated many cases in federal and state court, and was at the forefront of policy and advocacy work around abusive lending practices.

For his efforts, Zinner was awarded the 2001 Denison Ray Award by the New York State Bar Association, given to a New York State attorney who demonstrates “extraordinary commitment to providing zealous and skilled representation to low income and disadvantaged clients.”  Before SBLS, Zinner worked as an attorney at Legal Services for the Elderly, where he represented low income seniors in housing court.  Prior to law school, Zinner worked for five years as a social worker, primarily with the homeless.

The Utopian Imperative

Instructor:  Bruce Matthews, Ph. D.

Self-interest is no longer a viable principle to guide us. It has led to our current state of affairs:  a consumerist society based on a “universe of me” that engages in wars to plunder resources and whose over-consumption results in the waste that is sickening us and our planet.  I will focus on the specific challenges we face in this new era of the Anthropocene, and end with a call for a new point of orientation provided by the utopian imperative. The strength of this approach derives from Utopia’s point of reference in a future that doesn’t yet exist; its power is that of the imagination to critically reject an inhibiting reality in favor of a vision of what could become a reality. And indeed it is precisely this dimension of irreality in the utopian vision that has a subversive and emancipatory power, and it is precisely this anticipatory illumination of a reality not yet made real that is a fundamental category of what I will explore as utopian philosophizing.

Bruce Matthews has studied at the University of Virginia (B.A. Philosophy and Religious Studies), Yale Divinity School (M.A.R. Philosophical Theology), the New School University (Ph.D. Philosophy). His research uses the work of F.W.J. Schelling as a foil for exploring the broader theme of the History of Ideas. Areas of interest include Ancient Philosophy, Continental Philosophy (German Idealism and Romanticism, Nietzsche, Neo-Structuralism), American Pragmatism, and the relationship between Philosophy and Religion. He is a founding faculty member of Bard High School Early College, Manhattan, and has been a Visiting Professor at Tübingen University (2004) and Freiburg University (2011).

Matthews is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including The Hans Jonas award, two Fulbright Senior Scholar awards, two University of Chicago Teaching awards, and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. His books include F.W.J. Schelling’s Berlin Lectures: the Grounding of Positive Philosophy (SUNY 2007); Schelling’s Organic Form of Philosophy: Life as the Schema of Freedom (SUNY 2011), and the forthcoming Schelling: Heretic of Modernity (SUNY 2012); other of his publications have appeared in edited anthologies as well as the Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus and the Proceedings of the Society of Intercultural Philosophy. He has delivered invited philosophical papers and talks at conferences and colloquia around the United States, Europe, India and Turkey; and he is reviewer for SUNY Press and Journal of the History of Philosophy. Research interests include German Idealism and Romanticism, Philosophical Theology, and the History of Philosophy. Founding member of the Schelling Society of North America, he is also a member of the International Schelling Society, the American Philosophical Association, and the Society of Intercultural Philosophy.

The Architecture of Art Museums

Instructor:  Stephen Rustow

The art museum is a relatively recent invention: its emergence as an autonomous building type in the late 18th century and the construction of the first purpose-built galleries in the early 19th attest to a profound shift in the socio-cultural meaning of works of art and the spatial settings deemed appropriate for their display. What characterized the new building type architecturally was the design of plans to support self-directed movement and the modulation of natural light as a spatial mechanism for understanding. This general premise led to a rich series of experiments and practical arguments about the relationship between form, content and meaning that continue to this day.

This class will present an overview of the historical precedents that lead to the art museum and then explore the formal and functional qualities that, over time, come to characterize a recognizable modern building type.  We will look at several 18th and 19th century examples, including the Louvre and Schinkel’s  Altes museum in Berlin, as well buildings closer in time and locale, including MoMA and the Guggenheim(s), among others.

Stephen Rustow is an architect and the principal of Museoplan, a consulting practice he shares with Caroline Voss, focused on museum buildings and the presentation of cultural collections. He is also a Professor of Architecture at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union where he teaches design studios and a seminar on museums.  He was a lead designer on the expansion of the Louvre Museum for the office of I.M. Pei from 1983 - 1995, and led the American team on the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), completed in 2006.  Current projects include gallery and exhibition design for the Museum for African Art in N.Y.; the expansion of the National Museum Complex in Sofia, Bulgaria; and a master program for four new museums in Hangzhou, China.

Crossing Musical Worlds

Instructor: Louis Rosen, Composer, Performer, Music History/Appreciation and Theory Instructor at the 92nd Street Y, and BHSEC parent.

One of the most exciting aspects of the American musical scene today is the tremendously fertile and imaginative crossing of musical borders between classical, jazz, folk and popular music, a core idea that reflects the broadly diverse nature of the American people. We’ll explore the evolution of this idea in the work of such terrific composers from Scott Joplin, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington to Wynton Marsalis and Edgar Meyer, and discover how this merging of styles creates American concert music at its most distinctive.  Music Appreciation

Louis Rosen is a composer/performer whose recent work includes three albums, “The Ache of Possibility” (Di-Tone, 2009), “One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs” (PS Classics, 2008) and “South Side Stories” (Rosecap/Di-Tone, 2006.) He has designed and taught the Music Appreciation/History and Theory courses at the 92nd Street Y for over twenty-five years. Louis has been the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition and a New York University Award for Teaching Excellence. Louis Rosen is the parent of a freshman at BHSEC.