WSN121112

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NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper

WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 40, No. 49

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012

nyunews.com

University to open new science facility next fall By ISAAC MARSHALL NYU’s most recent graduate program will host it’s first class at MetroTech in Brooklyn come next fall. The program, Center for Urban Science and Progress, which will focus on training students to apply their skills in science and technology to solve problems, is one of the winners of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Applied Sciences NYC competition. In December 2010, the city launched the competition and challenged institutions from around the world to propose an applied science and engineering campus in New York City. A year later, the city announced it would be partner with Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a $2 million, 2 million-square-foot campus on Roosevelt Island. In April, Bloomberg, NYU President John Sexton and Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, announced a second agreement to create

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JONATHAN TAN/WSN

Fast food frenzy Despite the continued popularity of fast food among college students, workers in the industry are unsatisfied with the payment they earn for their services relative to the industry’s success. United under the Fast Food Forward movement, employees have started a petition and gone on strike for higher wages.

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‘Les Misérables’ may mark movie musical return By STEFAN MELNYK

The decline of the movie musical was not a process of gradual atrophy; it was abrupt. Between 1929 and 1968, nine movie musicals took the Oscar for Best Picture. Since 1968, only one has captured that same prize. There was clearly a point at which audiences decided — silently, but in perfect unison — that they weren’t interested in movie musicals anymore. That’s not to say that good movie musicals were not made between 1968 and 2002. “Cabaret,” arguably the best movie musical ever made, was released in 1972, losing Best Picture to “The Godfather” but winning virtually every other trophy out from under it. Master

director and choreographer Bob Fosse was the talent behind this success, but as time wore on it became clear that he was more or less the only artist capable of crafting a serious musical for the silver screen. Efforts like “Pennies From Heaven” matched the darkness of a Fosse production but lacked even a fraction of the intelligence. While the stage musical was experiencing a renaissance spurred by the steady stream of megamusicals from Europe, the movie musical was relegated to the realm of children’s entertainment, and although movies like “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” featured some of the

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Professor analyzes Gaga’s gender politics By PAIGE BROTT Pop icon Lady Gaga’s experimental music and performative persona have moved off the stage and into academic discussion. On Tuesday, NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis will host a talk titled “What’s Gaga Got to do With It?: Gaga Feminism and Queer Anarchy,” featuring University of Southern California professor Judith Jack Halberstam as the guest speaker. Halberstam, a professor of English, ethnicity, gender studies and American studies at USC, is the author of five books about issues such as feminism, masculinity, crossdressing culture and gothic culture. “What’s Gaga Got to Do With It?” will focus on Halberstam’s latest book, “Gaga Feminism: Sex,

VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG

An NYU lecture will explore Lady Gaga’s influence on feminism. Gender and the End of Normal,” released earlier this year. The book recognizes the pop singer not as a musical icon but an example of a new variety of feminism that centers on gender and

sexual fluidity. “We are really at an interesting juncture right now when it comes to sex and gender politics because

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