Program Details

Required Courses:

Encountering New York:  History, Political Economy, Cultures (1 Unit)

The goal of this course is to penetrate the surface image many of us have of New York City, and to explore the historical, economic, and cultural contexts that shape its multiple meanings. If the course succeeds in this goal, by the end of the term we will have a deeper vision of the city’s reality, and be able to see into New York in new and revealing ways. New York, we will find, is a city of contrasts, its history informed from its very beginnings by the struggles of different economic, religious, ethnic, and racial groups to validate themselves, and come to terms with one another. These struggles have made the experience of living in New York complex and tumultuous, marked by clashes between propertied and propertyless, white and non-white, native and immigrant, Catholic, Protestant, and Jew, men and women. At the same time, each of these groups has contributed threads to a colorful cultural tapestry that binds its citizens together in the common life of the city. We will study the forces that lead New Yorkers both to contest one another’s presence, and to participate in a shared urban identity.

            To realize its goals, the course will trace three aspects of New York’s life and character. We will start with an overview of the city’s history, begin­ning with a fictional account of the time when New York first encounters the modern in all its com­plexity and diversity, Ragtime. Suddenly, Father discovers, there are Negroes and immigrants and women who seek an independent voice. And there are poor people struggling to make lives for themselves. From that point, be­cause our class is divided between those working --and taking a course-- in finance, and those working-- and taking a course-- in arts management, the course will follow a double path. The first path will probe Wall Street’s recent impacts on the city’s economy, and the second will ex­plore elements of the city’s artistic and cultural life since the beginning of the 20^th century. This is a lot to cover, but by the end of the term, we will all know something about one another’s fields of interest.

Cultural Encounters (1 Unit)

In this course you will attend, discuss, and reflect on various cultural experiences and events throughout New York City.

Internship (1 Unit)

See below for organizations that have sponsored SLU interns.

For Finance students: 

Economics 313: Financial Economics (1 Unit)

This course is a standard introductory course in investments. Among the subjects to be covered are the role of capital markets, financial intermediaries and financial instruments; the time value of money; security analysis and portfolio theory; and investment companies. Special attention is devoted to hedge funds, options and futures. Prerequisites: Economics 251 and 200.

For Arts students:
Arts Management (1 Unit)

This course offers an introduction to the issues and challenges artists face in creating an arts project or institution, connecting that artistic expression with an audience, and developing resources to make the project economically viable and/or the institution sustainable.  The course is designed to engage students whose majors and/or extra-curricular interests are in performing arts (theater, music, dance), visual arts (studio art, film studies, art history), or arts education.  It considers questions such as: how are creativity and artistic expression used in education?; and how can cultural activity play a role in corporate social responsibility? Drawing primarily from nonprofit arts cases and experience, the course examines budgeting and financial analysis; audience development, marketing, and communications; resource development; staffing and managing personnel also apply in the for-profit world of galleries, auction houses, commercial theater, film/video, and live and recorded music.