Many people associate the disciplines of history, literature and politics with analyzing old laws and lengthy manuscripts. However, after meeting the people behind NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, you’ll realize that this is not the only way to study history.
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.
“It’s an innovative department in the sense that it not only brings together a lot of different area interests, [but] also is interdisciplinary,” Singh said.
Singh, a trained historian, also dabbles in political theory and literature — his interdisciplinary focus reflects in his teaching, which encompasses topics such as gender, race, sexuality and citizenship.
“We don’t teach a single point of view,” he said. “We 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.”
The appeal of this flexible yet powerful approach to examining social and political issues is especially apparent in students’ 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.
“It was something I felt deeply, but at the time, I didn’t have the language or framework to fully understand what was happening,” she said.
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.
“The history here is layered and often painful, yet powerful — redlining, gentrification and the displacement of Black communities are very real parts of the city’s fabric, yet so is resistance and power,” Hinds said. “Being able to study these issues while in the middle of it all has been both eye-opening and transformative.”
These connections between societal issues and city identity are what drew CAS sophomore Sebastian Leon Martinez to the department.
“SCA does a very good job of engaging with New York City specifically,” Martinez, whose SCA concentration is urban studies, said. “Many people in the major either are from New York, or want to stay in New York and work on [the city’s] issues.”
One of the best illustrations of the department’s engagement can be seen in the Prison Education Program. 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.
“We 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,” Singh said.
One of Singh’s first students not only got a degree in social work, but also became a social worker in the city.
“They wanted to give back,” Singh said. “And 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.”
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.
“I know a couple of my friends do independent studies with their professors,” Martinez said. “Many, 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.”
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’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America to assisting in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.
Martinez’s accomplishments are representative of how the work of the department and its students and staff extends far beyond NYU’s academic buildings.
“There’s a strong sense that learning in the classroom should never stay just in the classroom,” Hinds said. “The classes don’t just present facts — they give us the tools and language to advocate for change.”
Contact Mia Shou at [email protected].
