With the support from the FCRH Dean’s Office and Honors alumni, the FCRH Honors Program offers diverse course enrichment activities for Honors students to immerse themselves in the history and culture of the city. By engaging in a wide range of activities carefully curated by our outstanding faculty, students in the Honors Program benefit from experiences that broaden their appreciation of arts, culture, and history. From walking tours to museums to Broadway musicals and everywhere in between, students have the chance to leave the classroom and experience first-hand the city’s rich tapestry of social and cultural lived-in history.
History and Culture of the Bronx
HPRH 1104 Bronx Exploration
Taught by Dr. Mary Beth Combs, Professor of Economics, the Honors course offered first-year students an opportunity to learn about the borough’s history and culture through excursions. Students went on a walking tour of Morrisania with Elena Martinez, learning more about the significance of music in the Bronx. Students also attended a Bronx Music Hall showing of Bochinchando, a Bronx Vaudeville-style show. In addition, students visited the Bronx Museum of the Arts, a contemporary art museum connecting its audience to talented local artists. There, students viewed the exhibit Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald, which centered the artist’s own spirituality–embodying themes that have shaped her life.
The Broadway Musical Ragtime
HPRH 1206 Music History
In the spring of 2026, first-year Honors students had the opportunity to attend the Broadway musical Ragtime at the Lincoln Center Theatre. Dr. Eric Bianchi, Associate Professor of Music, regularly teaches the Honors course on the history of music, and he selected Ragtime as a theater experience for the class of 2029. As a musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel, Ragtime revolves around three distinct families–the upper-class white, a Black, and the Jewish immigrant–and explores how their lives intersected in New York in the early 20th century. This performance raised a broad spectrum of issues that are related to the program’s focus on justice. All the students enjoyed attending the Broadway show, and could be heard excitedly discussing the performance afterwards alongside fellow Honors students.
Visit to the Museum of the City of New York
HPRH 2201 Justice II: Global Contexts
As a course enrichment activity in the Honors course taught by Dr. Olena Nikolayenko, sophomores visited the Museum of the City of New York to view the exhibition Activist New York, showcasing the city’s history of activism and the people who have propelled social change from the 1600s to today. Students subsequently discussed in class how New Yorkers mobilized to tackle such issues as civil rights, religious freedom, immigration, gender equality, environmental advocacy, and rising rents.
What I like about this exhibit is the opportunity it grants to visitors to walk through different stages and activist movements that took place across New York City in different boroughs at different periods in time.
Visit to the Museum of Modern Art
HPRH 2202-R01 Focused Study: Philosophy
In April 2026, Dr. Samir Haddad, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and a group of Honors students enrolled in HPRH 2202-R01 Focused Study: Philosophy visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to see “When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream”, an exhibition of the work of the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam (1902-1982). With the expert help of a MoMA guide, Honors students learned about this artist’s fascinating life and remarkable art. Lam’s evolving engagement with African sources and themes was of particular interest to students, as it intersected with the course’s focus on Languages and Identities and their own study of authors from Africa, and Europe, and the Americas. “We were also intrigued by his longstanding collaborations with poets, including Edouard Glissant, whose work we had read,” Dr. Haddad said. “Lam’s unique style gave us new insight into what Glissant’s concept of creolization as an ongoing process of Relation can mean.”
