Interdisciplinary Studies in Arts, Media, and Design (INAM)

INAM 1000. Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern. (1 Hour)

Intended for freshmen in the College of Arts, Media and Design. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with the liberal arts in general and with their major; to develop the academic skills necessary to succeed (analytical ability and critical thinking); to become grounded in the culture and values of the university community; and to develop interpersonal skills—in short, to familiarize themselves with all skills needed to become a successful university student. Requires advisor approval for students outside of the College of Arts, Media and Design.

INAM 1300. The Politics of Narrative in Theatre. (3 Hours)

Examines drama in everyday life—on stages, streets, and screens—and investigates the tribulations and promises of role-playing in ordinary narratives. Topics may include tragedy and trauma, identity and identification, catharsis and psychoanalysis, and the relationship between sacrifice and personal development. Interrogates how role-playing and drama—in all its forms—permeates our social relations. Experiments with rewriting the dramatic narrative of our everyday life experiences.

Corequisite(s): INAM 1301

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning

INAM 1301. The Politics of Narrative in Theatre Seminar. (1 Hour)

Accompanies INAM 1300. Engages in detailed discussions about the assigned readings and weekly topics.

Corequisite(s): INAM 1300

INAM 1500. Narrative as Social Technology: From Ancient Rituals to Digital Avatars. (4 Hours)

Traces the historical development of human identity formation through role-playing and narrative practices from Neolithic times to the present. Examines key technological innovations that have shaped narrative and role-playing practices, from oral traditions to digital media. Explores how different societies have used stories and playfulness to establish and maintain social relations and values. Investigates how role-playing and storytelling serve as modeling systems for understanding ourselves and our world through interdisciplinary perspectives including anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, and media studies.

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Interpreting Culture

INAM 1925. Alexander Technique. (1 Hour)

Introduces the Alexander Technique, a method for expanding and improving our kinesthetic sense. Explores how the principles of the technique apply to the performer (in rehearsal, performance, and practice settings) as well as the human being (daily life). Topics include mind-body unity, performance anxiety, habits, presence, and basic anatomy. May be repeated up to eight times.

INAM 1983. Topics in NYC Seminar. (1-4 Hours)

Addresses specialized topics in arts, media, and design in and around New York City. Offers an immersive experience to students, requiring them to participate in the local culture, attend events, or visit organizations with experiential learning at the heart. Content and instructors vary by offering. May be repeated twice for a maximum of 12 semester hours.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience

INAM 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

INAM 2000. Ethics in Creativity. (4 Hours)

Studies the role of ethics in creative practice. Offers students an opportunity to reflect on many of the concerns creative professionals face, such as how creative practitioners manifest care as a social intervention for building intimacy, healing, and hope across communities and how to develop and articulate creative goals. From the rhetoric of trust and authenticity, to honesty and generosity, ethical concepts consistently make their way into creative practice. Examines (and affords students an opportunity to hone) strategies to systematically navigate uncertainty and iteration within creative practice, culminating in a student final creative project. Readings focus on ethical paradigms that illustrate how systems of power shape the role of creative practices in society.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Writing Intensive

INAM 2183. Interdisciplinary Special Topics: Pop-up Course. (1,2 Hours)

Addresses timely trends, issues, and events as they unfold. Offers students an opportunity to learn about and respond to issues of the day in an immersive, interdisciplinary, short-course format. Content and instructors vary by offering. May be repeated seven times for a maximum of 16 semester hours.

INAM 2963. Topics. (1,2 Hours)

Offers undergraduate students an opportunity to learn about timely issues, develop new skills, or explore areas of broad interest in an immersive, short-course format. Content and instructors vary by offering. May be repeated three times.

INAM 2964. Experiential Project. (0 Hours)

Offers students an applied project setting in which to apply their curricular learning. Working with a sponsor, students refine an applied research topic, perform research, develop recommendations that are shared with a partner sponsor, and create a plan for implementing their recommendations. Seeks to benefit students with a curriculum that supports the development of key business communication skills, project and client management skills, and frameworks for business analysis. Offers students an opportunity to learn from sponsor feedback, review 'lessons learned,' and incorporate suggestions from this review to improve and further develop their career development and professional plan.

INAM 2973. Topics in Making. (1-4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity for early undergraduate-level examination of a subject in making. May be repeated for up to 16 SH.

INAM 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

INAM 2992. Research. (0 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to document student contributions to research projects or creative endeavors.

INAM 3200. Creative Cognition. (4 Hours)

Offers a multidisciplinary exploration into the science of creativity. Many would agree that creativity is a cornerstone of human culture and innovation. But what is creativity, and how can humans cultivate it in life? Topics include idea generation and evaluation, problem solving and insight, psychometric measurements of creativity, the role of creativity in the arts and in human resource management, and the complex relationships between creativity and mental health. Synthesizing a variety of perspectives in creativity research, offers students an opportunity to train themselves to become more creative thinkers and practitioners.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Creative Express/Innov

INAM 3280. The Arts and Social Change. (4 Hours)

Explores how artists, practitioners, and educators use theatre and the arts to address social and political conflict across diversity of contexts, issues, and locations and within both traditional and nontraditional settings. Examines how the arts have challenged social and political structures and how performance can be used in the community as a tool for social change. Discusses and challenges the role of the arts in society. Explores the work of community-based artists and educators who, within their specific contexts, transform and create new theatre techniques as a way of addressing social change. Offers students an opportunity to work with a local community organization to design a short performance project that addresses a topical issue.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or WRIT 201M with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1113 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1114 with a minimum grade of C

INAM 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

INAM 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

INAM 4998. Research. (0 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to document student contributions to research projects or creative endeavors.

INAM 5000. Introduction to Creative Computing. (4 Hours)

Introduces foundational concepts of computational media art, focusing on the use of computational processes for the creation of interactive and generative experiences. Students use data and mathematical procedures to generate images, express ideas, and create meaning. Offers students an opportunity to obtain practice-based experience with the benefits and limitations of using computational processes, reflecting on what computers can and cannot do well. Uses computational procedures and concepts such as automation, recursion, and data processing for creative purposes. Students create computational media projects using code and/or other media such as photography, video, performance, installation, etc.

INAM 5183. Interdisciplinary Special Topics: Pop-up Course. (1,2 Hours)

Addresses timely trends, issues, and events in the fields of arts, media and design as they unfold. Offers students an opportunity to learn about and respond to issues of the day in an immersive, interdisciplinary, short-course format. Includes emphasis on experiential forms of teaching and learning. Content and instructors vary by offering.

INAM 5240. Make Your Mark: Trademark and Advertising Law in Creative Industries. (4 Hours)

Introduces trademark, branding, and advertising and endorsement law through the lens of the music industry and other creative industries. Approaches these areas of law through a combination of materials that may include statutory and case law, administrative agency guidance, pending legal disputes and current events, problems and hypotheticals, sample transactional documents, and student presentations. Covers trademark use, distinctiveness, and protectability; trademark infringement and dilution; false advertising law; FTC regulations on advertising and endorsement; and right of publicity law. Explores how law and industry norms shape practices and outcomes with the goal of preparing students entering creative industries to form strategies and make decisions related to these areas of law as they arise.

Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions

INAM 5347. Understanding Users. (4 Hours)

Introduces basic and advanced frameworks and methodological tools for understanding and accounting for the characteristics, needs, and attitudes of individual users and user groups, ranging from traditional mental models to cutting-edge folk theorization approaches. Covers both how to understand users and how to account for how users themselves understand and adapt to systems from both a system design and sociotechnical system critique perspective. Explores and problematizes the idea of the “user” as compared to alternate approaches such as embedded community/cultural context and post-userism.

INAM 5963. Topics. (1,2 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to learn about timely issues, develop new skills, or explore areas of broad interest in an immersive, short-course format. Content and instructors vary by offering.

INAM 5964. Projects for Professionals. (0 Hours)

Offers students an applied project setting in which to apply their curricular learning. Working with a sponsor, students refine an applied research topic, perform research, develop recommendations that are shared with a partner sponsor, and create a plan for implementing their recommendations. Seeks to benefit students with a curriculum that supports the development of key business communication skills, project and client management skills, and frameworks for business analysis. Offers students an opportunity to learn from sponsor feedback, review 'lessons learned,' and incorporate suggestions from this review to improve and further develop their career development and professional plan. May be repeated two times.

INAM 5965. Engaging with Industry Partners for Rising Professionals. (0 Hours)

Offers students an enhanced applied project setting in which to apply their curricular learning. Working with a partner sponsor, students refine an applied research topic, perform research, develop recommendations that are shared with the partner sponsor, and create a plan for implementing their recommendations. Curriculum supports students as they develop key business communication skills, project and client management skills, and frameworks for business analysis. Offers students an opportunity to learn from sponsor feedback, review lessons learned, and incorporate suggestions to improve and further hone their career development and professional plan. Career development opportunities through skill-building workshops, panels, and interview preparation are available. Partner-student interactions, including a culminating project presentation, allow partners to assess student potential for co-op, internship, or other employment opportunities with the partner. May be repeated two times.

INAM 5973. Topics in Making. (1-4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity for advanced undergraduate- or graduate-level examination of a subject in making. May be repeated for up to 8 SH.

INAM 5976. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Offers directed study of a specific topic not normally contained in the regular course offerings but within the area of expertise of a faculty member. May be repeated seven times for a maximum of 32 semester hours.

INAM 5983. Interdisciplinary Special Topics. (3,4 Hours)

Addresses timely trends, issues, and events. Offers students an opportunity to learn about and respond to issues of the day in an immersive, interdisciplinary format. Content and instructors vary by offering. May be repeated nineteen times.

INAM 6000. Interdisciplinary Critique Studio. (4 Hours)

Builds critical analysis skills and introduces students to rigorous artistic dialog. Offers direct, focused feedback on specific student projects. Feedback is conceptual and technical, serving to push the work forward and give students a critical perspective on how their work functions in the world. Offers students the time and the resources to work on long-term projects and to research and develop a more individual body of work. Also provides an opportunity to network, providing an introduction to professional practices in the visual arts, such as exhibiting art works, applying for grants, and teaching.

INAM 6360. Ethnographic Methods and the Arts. (4 Hours)

Considers what ethnography might teach us about creative industries, what it contributes to marketplace research and decision making, and how it informs creative practice. Ethnography uses participant/observation and other methods of collecting qualitative data to research specific social groups and their cultures. Asks for what purposes ethnographic methods are best suited and how ethnography might contribute to cross-cultural understanding, arts leadership, and creative practice. Covers what unique methodological issues ethnographic research in the arts might pose. Offers graduate students an opportunity to develop, with faculty guidance, an original research proposal and independently practice ethnographic methods.

INAM 6390. Human-Centered Computing Capstone. (4 Hours)

Offers students a culminating experience to demonstrate proficiency in key concepts learned throughout their program in the core and concentration courses. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, reinforce concepts in ethics and basic concepts in user research, and focus on delivering outcomes that have the potential to be demonstrated or presented at HCI venues.

INAM 6430. AI and Creative Exploration. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to learn how to use off-the-shelf technologies (i.e., prompt engineering for generative AI platforms) and to design AI systems on their own using web interfaces, Python frameworks, cloud-based GPUs, etc. Combines technological training with a critical analysis of AI-based artworks. Designed to help students integrate AI tools and methods into their existing practice. The projects are student driven and should serve to further the students’ own research and creative practice. No limitations are placed on the field of application (e.g., visual arts, moving images, games, sound, writing, dance, and movement); however, strongly emphasizes the ethical and socioeconomic impact of AI tools on society—both within and beyond the boundaries of art.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 5000 with a minimum grade of C

INAM 6530. Emerging Practices in Technology and the Arts in Context. (4 Hours)

Exposes students to a range of new tools and techniques for making art in a contemporary interdisciplinary framework. Explores how digital technology is reshaping artistic methodologies, affinities, and ways of making. Enriches existing student creative practices and encourages expansion into new, interdisciplinary territories. Includes guest lectures, performances, and off-site visits as well as studio workshops, discussions, and critiques.

INAM 6976. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Offers directed study of a specific topic not normally contained in the regular course offerings but within the area of expertise of a faculty member. May be repeated without limit.

INAM 7000. Introduction to Research in Interdisciplinary Design and Media. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of different forms of art and design research. Designed to guide students in crafting a plan for navigating their own individual path through the program. Creates a shared vocabulary for interdisciplinary research and sets expectations for the remainder of each student’s highly individualized path. Throughout the semester, the class reads and discusses key texts on interdisciplinary arts and design and media research; researches and reports on case studies of other research that relates to the direction of their research, including dissertations by prior students from CAMD and other institutions; and participates in guest presentations/discussions by program faculty regarding the integration of research and practice.

INAM 7001. Research Methods in Interdisciplinary Design and Media. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of research designs and methods across disciplines. Discusses how to select and use these methods and strategies and discusses IRB procedures. Includes guest presentations from faculty across the campus. This course is not meant as a comprehensive methodological training but rather an overview that should be complemented with at least one specialized methods course from a university-wide list of courses in the first semester of study and two others in the second semester of study.

INAM 7900. Research Seminar. (4 Hours)

Requires students to present their work in progress for feedback by their peers, faculty, and visitors. The work conducted in this seminar serves as the foundation for establishing the topic and method of study employed for the dissertation.

INAM 7901. Dissertation Writing Seminar. (4 Hours)

Introduces and discusses conventions in dissertation writing such as structure, contextualization, argumentation, tone, formality, and citation styles. Development of a thesis proposal and honing the project’s methodology is the main function of this course. Offer students an opportunity to continue developing publishable scholarly work that is associated with the dissertation project.

INAM 7990. Thesis. (4 Hours)

Offers the candidate, working with a thesis advisor, an opportunity to continue to complete the research project defined and proposed in INAM 7100. The research is carried out in an independent manner, with periodic presentations to the thesis committee. These presentations define the benchmarks for determination of successful progress in the project. The ultimate result is an exhibition, screening, performance, or other form of public display or presentation, together with a thesis paper or written corollary.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 7100 with a minimum grade of B-

INAM 7996. Thesis Continuation - Half-Time. (0 Hours)

Offers continued work on the thesis project.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 7990 with a minimum grade of B-

INAM 8984. Research. (1-4 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to conduct research under faculty supervision. May be repeated up to three times for a maximum of 16 semester hours.

INAM 8986. Research. (0 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to conduct full-time research under faculty supervision. May be repeated up to nine times.

INAM 9000. PhD Candidacy Achieved. (0 Hours)

Indicates successful completion of program requirements for PhD candidacy.

INAM 9700. Dissertation Fieldwork. (0 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to pursue experiential research outside the classroom and outside the university.

INAM 9980. Experiential PhD Research Residency. (0 Hours)

Comprises a research residency experience in an organization whose mission and activities are aligned with the College of Arts, Media and Design PhD program. The research residency is designed to help develop dissertation ideas or research papers or to obtain access to resources helpful to dissertation development or research. A faculty member serves as an advisor for the residency experience, but individuals within the organization in which the student is working are asked to serve as formal mentors for the student residency experience. May be repeated two times.

INAM 9990. Dissertation Term 1. (0 Hours)

Offers dissertation supervision by individual members of the department.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 9000 with a minimum grade of S

INAM 9991. Dissertation Term 2. (0 Hours)

Offers dissertation supervision by individual members of the department.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 9990 with a minimum grade of S

INAM 9996. Dissertation Continuation. (0 Hours)

Offers dissertation supervision by individual members of the department.

Prerequisite(s): INAM 9991 with a minimum grade of S