On Campus - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:00 - 7 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: Bewildering the Stranger, An Exploration of Costume and Social Fashion
Paasha Motamedi is a multi-tasker—he steamed his military jacket as I conducted our interview in his NoHo apartment. He also handles multiple personalities of sorts—the two people pictured above? They’re both him. Paasha studies a lot of subjects, too. History, anthropology, sociology, economics, and he interns at places like Details and Tom Ford. He knows his stuff, too. I asked him to analyze my outfit, and I’ve never heard something more on point, “You like vintage shopping, but you don’t hate J. Crew. You’re put together, but not over-thought.” But it goes much deeper than that for Paasha—he seeks to understand why I like grandma shoes and summer scarves, where that came from, and what it signifies. Did I mention he’s strait? For someone who likes to dress himself up, he’s quite a character himself, and if you check out his interview below, you might get to see a little more of what’s on the inside.
On Campus - Tuesday, March 9, 2010 14:57 - 1 Comment
WTF Gallatin Majors: The Semiotic Parade of the Creative Class
That’s the tentative title at least. Mallory Blair says it changes practically everyday. She’s one of those Gallatinos who studies a little bit of everything–sociology, urban studies, art history, cultural theory, economics, etc. She’s probably even studying you—if you’re creative, that is. Mallory aims to understand the intermediary between creativity and commodity, where all of that happens, and what makes people tick. She’s met some pretty sweet celebrities, and you might just figure out if you’re in with this so-called creative class if you read her interview below. Also, Chatroulette may not be so bad.
Annie Werner: What got you interested in this?
Mallory Blair: I came to Gallatin interested in human behavior and marketing, but the classes I took, because of the nature of Gallatin, were very centered around the arts. So the arts really became a lens through which I looked at marketing and psychology.
AW: So what do you do with that?
MB: I’d like to teach eventually, but right now I work for Paper Magazine and do market research at a brand consultancy firm called WHY-Q? We look into how to make a brand thrive by connecting them with their consumers.
AW: Can you give an example?
MB: This past year WHY-Q? partnered up Adidas with “New York Minute”—an art exhibit in Rome that featured 60 New York artists, curated by the Dietch galleries. By sponsoring these artists, Adidas enhanced their brands alignment with the creative community, bolstering their brand ethos and therefore, down the road, their profits.
Featured, On Campus - Wednesday, March 3, 2010 11:30 - 0 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: The Relationship Between Honesty and Desire
I’m really trying to write this opener as honestly as possible—I told Mona I would. Mona Asinovski, a Gallatin Senior, is pretty much concentrating in the virtue—The Relationship Between Honesty and Desire, she calls it. Mona believes that the desire to be honest is what helps you maintain personal integrity, be true to yourself, and not harm others. She’s also a yogi/yogan with some interesting ideas about law. Based on what I’ve seen on Law & Order, I don’t know how well the legal profession would accept her views, but you can’t deny her tenacity.
My conversation with Mona was really eye-opening, a fresh perspective at the very least. Read her thoughts and you might just make some new ones of your own.
Annie Werner: So The Relationship Between Honesty and Desire… what does that mean?
Mona Asinovski: It’s very direct—the relationship that is. People usually talk about desire as a negative thing in terms of temptation, lying, deception and such, but in my opinion desire means that you just want something for a reason. When people talk about honesty, they think of it as this high, lofty goal that one should pursue for no self interested reason. However, I always like to believe that there is a direct connection between the two. These are both concepts I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, so I’ve come up with ways to connect them.
Featured, On Campus - Monday, February 22, 2010 11:13 - 9 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: Manipulation
When I was in high school, my friends and I used to go around town and compete to see who could talk themselves into the most amount of free stuff from fast food restaurants and random stores. I wasn’t very good at it—a few times I got the Taco Cabana guy to give me my meal for free because, “oh no!” I had mistakenly left my wallet at home and didn’t realize it until I got to the drive-up window.
I was young, and I wish I had been friends with this week’s featured WTF Gallatin Major, freshman Lauren Lachs, who’s concentrating in Manipulation.
Lauren’s concentration is essentially a no-bullshit, de-euphemized version of marketing with the freedom to study other things she’s interested in such as the psychoanalysis of business thought and people of power. In her interview, Lauren gives us a lesson in the everyday uses of manipulation, ad campaigns, and how to talk your way into almost anything. If you’re in the market for a new BlackBerry, particularly, listen up.
Annie Werner: Why Gallatin and not Stern?
Lauren Lachs: I think I just didn’t want to be confined to a traditional business education. I don’t want a very typical job—my biggest fear would be working a nine to five. Most of what I’ve learned about business, I’ve learned from my everyday interactions and just going out and working. I think it’s a big misconception that business education has to be so traditional and streamlined.
AW: Well what do you want to do with your life?
LL: I’d like to be a CEO of a company one day.
AW: What kind of company would you want to work for?
LL: That’s something I struggle with in terms of applying the major because there’s definitely a part of me that thinks I should be doing something that’s not-for-profit and helping the world. I hope to be able to do that through venture capitalism by sort of merging my interest in making money and helping people. And if I don’t start out doing something good, I hope to eventually be philanthropic in the end. I’m definitely more concerned about my career for the time being.
Featured, On Campus - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 10:50 - 8 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: Effective Habilitation for Autism Must Be a Mind, Body Endeavor
Editor’s Note: This is our weekly feature on bizarre Gallatin majors. If you want to nominate someone, email nicole.he@nyulocal.com. See them all here.
We’re doing something a little different in the series this week—Elana Cohen’s Gallatin concentration isn’t ‘WTF’ by any means. I mean, it’s kind of a mouthful, but it doesn’t have a scoff-generating, out-there name, and we’ve all heard of autism and the controversy surrounding its treatment. What’s unusual about Elana is that she’s actually in Gallatin in the first place. The last three people I’ve interviewed, though all unique and interesting in their own ways, could easily wind up in an interdisciplinary class together (something like Love & Sex in the American Sitcom—I made that up but just go with it). Elana? Not so much. She represents another side of Gallatin not often exposed or even heard of. As someone who studies a vocational practice, she’s come to realize that the school of ‘individualized’ study is stock full with one, certain group of people—academics. Needless to say, the laid-back, sports-loving Elana doesn’t really feel like she’s found her niche there. What’s that, you say? A Gallatino who’s not all boner over Gallatin? WTF?
Read her interview below—not only does she have a refreshing take on individualized study at NYU, but after working with kids with autism, she’s got some interesting things to say about normal social interactions, therapists, and political correctness. Oh, and if you’re looking for an Ultimate Frisbee player, Elana’s your girl.
Annie Werner: What is your concentration exactly?
Elana Cohen: Therapeutic Benefits of Sports, Dance, and Theatre for Special Needs Kids.
Continue…
Featured, On Campus - Monday, February 8, 2010 12:02 - 9 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: Keepin’ It Real
You know how shows like Arrested Development get cancelled, but shows like Two and a Half Men get renewed season after season? Well one day, Gallatin student David Bergmann hopes to keep the Tobias Fünkes of the world on the air, and the Charlie Sheens in rehab where they belong. He has carefully constructed a concentration in Keepin’ It Real: The Sociology of the Entertainment Industry (yes, the pronunciation spelling is official) with an Entertainment Media Technology minor in Stern in order to prepare himself for a career in whipping the entertainment industry into shape. He takes classes in entertainment and media studies, politics, television writing, acting, and public opinion.
In the interview below, Bergmann explains what it means to keep it real, and it doesn’t include emoticons or the Grammys.
Annie Werner: Where did you get the idea to call your concentration “Keepin’ It Real?”
David Bergmann: Actually, it rose out of an idea in high school—I founded a “Keepin’ It Real Honor Society” in response to all the other ridiculous honor societies at my school. We had like 12 different ones like the “History Honor Society” with a whole bunch of members that did absolutely nothing. KIRHS actually got things accomplished around the school.
AW: Like what?
DB: For instance, there was a school store that hadn’t been open in years, so I got my people to do it. Or we’d assign people to walk new students around the campus. That kinda stuff. Not bloated, obnoxious stuff just to put on your resume.
AW: What qualified someone to be a member of the honor society?
DB: Oh. We had an 8 or 9 page criteria form explaining what we did or did not want in a member. There was some crazy stuff on there, too—one section was dedicated to analyzing how a person used acronyms and emoticons on instant messenger. That shit was important back then. Very telling.
Featured, On Campus - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 12:00 - 6 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: The American Dream
Editor’s Note: This is our weekly feature on bizarre Gallatin majors. If you want to nominate someone, email nicole.he@nyulocal.com. See them all here.
Looks like we have another crazy Gallatino on our hands—Samantha Neugebauer, concentrating in “The American Dream through Literature, Creative Writing, and History.” I could roll my eyes into hypnosis at the thought of living out “The American Dream.” Personally, I’ve got my own dreams, and they have very little to do with “America.” So what does Samantha have to say about that?
Actually, she’s not that surprised. For Samantha, the so-called “American Dream” is more complicated than the typical white-picket-fence fantasy—it’s comprised of individualism, accelerated social ranking, and a false sense of community. According to Samantha, what we all need is a good, old-fashioned riot.
Annie Werner: So just start by telling me what your concentration is all about.
Samantha Neugebauer: I’m interested in the educational policy choices we make that help promote social mobility. Are we just helping the individual? Or are we making good choices that promote what society needs? I don’t really study what the American Dream is, per se. I’m more interested in what people do with the American Dream. How has it changed over time? Etc. I look at that through literature and history and explore it in my own writing.
AW: Have you ever been made fun of for your concentration?
SN: No, mostly because I tell people I’m majoring in English. It’s just easier that way, especially if I’m explaining it to someone outside of NYU. Also, I’m minoring in English and American Literature in CAS, so it’s not a total fib.
AW: Why Gallatin, then?
SN: Because it’s more specified, and I don’t think majors are as important as they used to be. I plan on going to grad school anyway, so this is not my last time in the classroom. I’m paying for my education so I should be able to study what I want.
Continue…
On Campus - Monday, January 25, 2010 9:30 - 27 Comments
WTF Gallatin Majors: Grand Romantic Gestures
Editor’s Note: We’re starting a new feature on weird-ass Gallatin majors. If you want to nominate someone, email nicole.he@nyulocal.com. See them all here.
My friends and I used to make fun of Gallatin by coming up with absurd fake concentrations. “Hi I’m in Gallatin, majoring in Origami” was one. Or, “Gee, I’m having trouble finding classes to fit my Vampire Studies concentration.”
But meet Coco Lillian: a real Gallatin Junior majoring in “Grand Romantic Gestures in Literature with a focus on the Renaissance.” Not long ago, my friends would have scoffed at her choice of study, and she knows it. At first glance it looks like the Comp. Lit. curriculum took ecstasy. However, Coco is passionate about love and scholarly in her study of it. She buries herself in the work of Shakespeare, Plato, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Castiglione, and many others drawing connections between each and finding her own conclusions about love and literature. And she doesn’t care if you think that sounds “cliché.”
So I sat down with her to find out more about this concentration and picked up some anecdotes and lessons about racy romance novels, cynics, and one-night-stands.
Annie Werner: Tell me about something you’re working on right now.
Coco Lillian: Right now, among other things, I’m working on getting my Independent Study approved, “Courtly Love & The Symposium.” Courtly love, from the 12th century, is a set of rules defining the “right way to love” characterized by the man’s idealization of his lady, love’s ability to be transformative, and love at first sight. I want to compare that to Plato’s definition of love in Symposium to see how these two different ideas relate and differ.
AW: Antagonizing question: What do you want to do with your concentration?
CL: I made this my concentration because I love the concept of love, and I think it holds great meaning. I’ll probably go to grad school, read more literature. Love love. And then I don’t know, maybe writing.
