Faculty Profile:
Professor Bethany Rogers

Bethany Rogers received her PhD in the History of Education at New York University.  Currently an assistant professor at the College of Staten Island, Professor Rogers also teaches in the Urban Education concentration of the MALS program at The Graduate Center.  Originally majoring in English literature at Dartmouth College as an undergraduate, Prof. Rogers became interested in education while working with Ted Sizer at The Coalition of Essential Schools.  “The coalition was a very exciting place when I was there, and the mix of ideas and real world practice was wonderfully satisfying.” Combining both historical and practical study, Prof. Rogers feels that to properly understand urban education and the issues that surround it, it is necessary to understand the history of urban space and the school's role in the that history.  She has found that urban education and urban history present a dynamic interaction with the world of ideas and practice.  "The interpretations and assumptions that ground our understanding in those fields significantly shape not only scholarly perceptions, but policy assumptions and policy solutions for today." 

Prof. Rogers sees the MALS Urban Education classes as a great way to  understand these  ideas and practices.  One of the core courses she teaches, “Issues in Urban Education” combines a general approach to the questions, concerns, and literature of Urban Education with a more specific focus on the schools of New York City.  In their final projects in the class, students are asked to “spend considerable time getting to know a school of their choice (and its community), and to produce an ‘institutional portrait' or snapshot of the school in the context of our class readings and discussions.” 

"Politics of Urban Education,” the second MALS core course for the concentration,  focuses on how political ideas and choices impact education.  Prof. Rogers sees history as a critical component in the course.  By studying historical situations “students can see the shifts and changes over time in the location of the authority over school decisions as well as the prevailing conceptions of what qualify as ‘problems’ and how solutions to those problems have succeeded, failed, or resulted in unintended consequences over time.”  As a pair, the two courses are meant to give students a broad understanding of the issues surrounding urban education and give them a framework within which to focus on a specific area for continued research.

Prof. Rogers is currently working on several projects including writing about oral histories she conducted with participants of the National Teacher Corps, a Great Society program that placed teachers in ailing schools.  She sees the NTC as an “important precursor” to programs like Teach for America.  Along with the oral histories, Prof. Rogers is in the preliminary stages of writing a book on the history of experiments and innovations in teacher education after World War II.  She is “hoping to tell the story not as an isolated set of developments” in education but “as an important evolution that has been indelibly shaped by the larger political social, economic and cultural shifts of the post-war period.”  As displayed in both her teaching and her academic work, Prof. Rogers approach is always interdisciplinary, and as such, is a perfect fit for the MALS program.

Congratulations to Lisa Sciandra, who just passed the California bar examination.  She writes that she is planning to do some kind of work at the intersection of law, policy, and health. Since leaving the Graduate Center, Lisa’s work as a law clerk and intern has included disability advocacy (related to a statute that was the subject of her MALS thesis), pharmaceutical litigation (plaintiff's side), and working with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office in an advisory capacity to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

 

Alumni Profile:  Madeleine Cohen

As the Assistant Director for Electronic Resources at the New York Public Library Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL), Madeleine Cohen is responsible for databases and computer technology and insuring their accessibility for the public and staff.  A librarian for 20 years, Ms. Cohen received her Master's degree in Library Science from Queens College, after which she decided to continue her studies in a variety of fields.  She was drawn to the Graduate Center's MALS program because of its concentration in  Bioethics, Science and Society, since this would allow her to combine her interests in the history of science and every librarian's concern with bib-liography in general and great books in particular.

Cohen began her coursework in 1996 when the Graduate Center was still located on 42^ndStreet across from the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street).  The school's proximity and the flexibility of the MALS program with its relatively open structure and emphasis on interdisciplinary education were also key factors in her decision to attend.

Cohen completed her master's thesis, "Early Scientific Works in The New York Public Library's Science, Industry, and Business Library:  A Descriptive Bibliography," in 2004.  Her bibliography catalogues many rare texts found within the library's extensive collections, including incunabula (works printed before 1500).  As a student, Cohen appreciated the freedom MALS students have in taking courses from various disciplines and in customizing their curriculum according to their own interests.  She suggests that students take courses in whatever interests them.  Cohen sees the MALS Program as a good starting point for those unsure of what to specialize in at the graduate level and who primarily want to further their education.  "I love taking classes," she says, adding "the Liberal Studies program is fabulous for people who want an interdisciplinary program, and anyone whose interests span a variety of fields of study."  For anyone with questions about SIBL in particular, Madeleine Cohen can contacted at the SIBL location of the New York Public Library, which is on the other side of the Graduate Center building, on Madison Avenue, at <mcohen@nypl.org>.