Experimental Research

Randomized experimentation is an important methodology in political science. In this course, we will discuss the logic of experimentation, its strengths and weaknesses compared to other methodologies, and the ways in which experimentation has been -- and could be -- used to investigate political phenomena. Students will learn how to interpret, design, and execute experiments.

• Department: Political Science
• Instructor: Donald P Green
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 87 Info
• 4 points

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH-DISC

This is the required discussion section for POLS UN3768.

• Department: Political Science
• 0 points

The Social Life of Solidarity

Calls for solidarity are a ubiquitous feature of contemporary political life. When someone acts “in solidarity with” they both recognize their own difference – be it one of geography, community, positionality – and propose to act in a way that meaningfully bonds them to others across this difference. While undeniably central to social movements, “solidarity” looks radically different across contexts. As a result, the organizing question of this course holds incredible political importance: What is solidarity? How does one act in solidarity? What are the possibilities and pitfalls of the term as an analytical frame and political demand?

Anthropologists have a head start in answering this question. The concept of solidarity has been central since the foundations of the discipline. This course places anthropological theories of solidarity in dialogue with literature on both social and political movements and ethnographically insightful accounts of the little things we do (talk, listen, joke, celebrate) that are essential to forms of social solidarity. Through our readings and discussions, we will consider both what these theories offer our understanding of contemporary political and social life and how political and social life might allow us to develop, critique, or complicate these theories.

• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: Jacob A Bessen
  Info
• 4 points

Prints in 17th-Century Holland: A Curato

Holland in the seventeenth century was home to some of the most innovative and influential printmakers in the history of art, most important among them, Rembrandt van Rijn. In addition, known for producing the most professional engravers, it became the main center for the issuing and distribution of prints in Europe. Held primarily in The Met’s Drawings and Prints Study Room, this class examines printmaking from this period in its many forms – from masterworks of Dutch landscape to political broadsheets. Reproductive printmakers and peintres-graveur, professional printmakers and amateurs will be considered. How prints were made, published, and sold will be explored. Students will learn how to identify techniques as well as quality of impression by examining original works in the collection of The Met’s Department of Drawings and Prints. We will also look at the subject from the point of view of the museum curator – how works are collected and exhibitions created.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• Instructor: Nadine M Orenstein
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR ESSAY RESEARCH METHODS

SENIOR ESSAY SEMINAR

The senior essay research methods seminar, offered in several sections in the fall semester, lays out the basic building blocks of literary and cultural studies. What kinds of questions do literary and cultural critics ask, and what kinds of evidence do they invoke to support their arguments? What formal properties characterize pieces of criticism that we find especially interesting and/or successful? How do critics balance the desire to say something fresh vis-a-vis the desire to say something sensible and true? What mix of traditional and innovative tools will best serve you as a critical writer? Voice, narrative, form, language, history, theory and the practice known as “close reading” will be considered in a selection of exemplary critical readings. Readings will also include “how-to” selections from recent guides including Amitava Kumar’s Every Day I Write the Book, Eric Hayot’s The Elements of Academic Style and Aaron Ritzenberg and Sue Mendelsohn’s How Scholars Write.

The methods seminar is designed to prepare those students who choose to write a senior essay to complete a substantial independent project in the subsequent semester. Individual assignments will help you discover, define and refine a topic; design and pursue a realistic yet thrilling research program or set of protocols; practice “close reading” an object (not necessarily verbal or textual) of interest; work with critical sources to develop your skills of description and argument; outline your project; build out several sections of the project in more detail; and come up with a timeline for your spring semester work. In keeping with the iterative nature of scholarly research and writing, the emphasis is more on process than on product, but you will end the semester with a clear plan for your essay itself as well as for the tasks you will execute to achieve that vision the following semester.

The methods seminar is required of all students who wish to write a senior essay in their final semester.  Students who enroll in the methods seminar and decide not to pursue a senior essay in the spring will still receive credit for the fall course.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Sharon Marcus
  CULPA: 8 Wikipedia h-index: 19 Info
• Instructor: Aaron Ritzenberg
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 4 Info
• 3 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Students who wish to do an independent study project (I.S.P.), should speak with a Political Science faculty member willing to serve as sponsor, then fill out a Request for Approval of Credit for Independent Study (see Registrars link below) and obtain signatures from the sponsor and from our Department Chair. File this form with the Committee on Programs and Academic Standing, which must approve all requests. (It must be filed with the C.P.A.S. well before the Registrars program-filing deadline for the semester of the I.S.P.) Note that no credit is given for an internship or job experience in or by itself, but credit is given for an academic research paper written in conjunction with an internship, subject to the procedures outlined above. The internship and the I.S.P. can be in the same semester, or you may do the I.S.P. in the semester following the internship. A project approved for three or four points counts as an elective course for the purpose of the ten-course major or five-course minor requirement. No more than two such three- or four-point projects may be used for the major, and no more than one for the minor. An independent study project may not be used to satisfy either the colloquium or senior seminar requirement. Each instructor is limited to sponsoring one independent study project per semester. The Registrar will assign a POLS BC 3799 section and call number unique to the faculty sponsor. The Registrars ISP form: http://www.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline/indstudy.pdf. The Political Science faculty: http://polisci.barnard.edu/faculty-directory.

• Department: Political Science @Barnard
• Instructor: Faculty
  h-index: 37 Info
• 1-4 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Students who wish to do an independent study project (I.S.P.), should speak with a Political Science faculty member willing to serve as sponsor, then fill out a Request for Approval of Credit for Independent Study (see Registrars link below) and obtain signatures from the sponsor and from our Department Chair. File this form with the Committee on Programs and Academic Standing, which must approve all requests. (It must be filed with the C.P.A.S. well before the Registrars program-filing deadline for the semester of the I.S.P.) Note that no credit is given for an internship or job experience in or by itself, but credit is given for an academic research paper written in conjunction with an internship, subject to the procedures outlined above. The internship and the I.S.P. can be in the same semester, or you may do the I.S.P. in the semester following the internship. A project approved for three or four points counts as an elective course for the purpose of the ten-course major or five-course minor requirement. No more than two such three- or four-point projects may be used for the major, and no more than one for the minor. An independent study project may not be used to satisfy either the colloquium or senior seminar requirement. Each instructor is limited to sponsoring one independent study project per semester. The Registrar will assign a POLS BC 3799 section and call number unique to the faculty sponsor. The Registrars ISP form: http://www.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline/indstudy.pdf. The Political Science faculty: http://polisci.barnard.edu/faculty-directory.

• Department: Political Science @Barnard
• Instructor: Faculty
  h-index: 37 Info
• 1-4 points

Justice Now

This lecture course, accompanied by its weekly recitation, examines the meaning of justice by exploring theoretical questions, ideas, and debates associated with contemporary movements that have shaped political discourse in the United States over the past decade.

The course begins with John Rawls’s seminal work
A Theory of Justice
and a set of critiques from feminist and communitarian philosophers that direct our attention to specific contexts and identities that are relevant to any attempt to envision a just society. From there, the course turns to a study of social justice in three areas: economics, the environment, and race, with a corresponding focus on such contemporary movements as democratic socialism, environmentalism, and Black Lives Matter. Each of these units offers competing perspectives from liberal, communitarian, and post-Marxist philosophers, as well as critical theorists, which will enable students to consider the philosophical dimensions of these issues, their connections with one another, and the approaches of movements that are now working to address them. A final unit on praxis explores strategies that movements use to build solidarity and achieve change, ranging from voting to literature and the arts. Throughout each unit, students will have the opportunity to explore not only philosophical ideas, but also stories, images, sounds, and other cultural works that are being created by activists. The course will include guest speakers from the movements being studied, and will also feature class outings.

Justice Now serves as a bridge from the Columbia Core Curriculum to contemporary social justice issues and the work of the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. As such, the course builds on the texts and ideas that students encounter in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization, and will also include some analysis of music and visual art. Prior completion of Core courses is not necessary, as students will be provided with relevant background material in lectures and recitation meetings.

• Department: Comparative Literature and Society, Institute for
• Instructor: Larry Jackson
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

ENVIR SCIENCE SENIOR SEMINAR

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis in the spring. Includes discussion about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral reports. Weekly seminar to review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

• Department: Environmental Sciences @Barnard
• 3 points

SEM IN CONTEMP ART PRACTICE

(Formerly R4601) New York City is the most abundant visual arts resource in the world. Visits to museums, galleries, and studios on a weekly basis. Students encounter a broad cross-section of art and are encouraged to develop ideas about what is seen. The seminar is led by a practicing artist and utilizes this perspective. Columbia College and General Studies Visual Arts Majors must take this class during their junior year. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.

• Department: Visual Arts
• Instructor: Keli Safia Maksud
  Info
• 3 points

SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS

Modeling, description, and classification of signals and systems. Continuous-time systems. Time domain analysis, convolution. Frequency domain analysis, transfer functions. Fourier series. Fourier and Laplace transforms. Discrete-time systems and the Z transform.

• Department: Electrical Engineering
• Instructor: Xiaodong Wang
  CULPA: 15 Info
• 3.5 points

The Political Novel

Is the political novel a genre? It depends on your understanding both of politics and of the novel. If politics means parties, elections, and governing, then few novels of high quality would qualify. If on the other hand “the personal is the political,” as the slogan of the women’s movement has it, then almost everything the novel deals with is politics, and few novels would not qualify. This seminar will try to navigate between these extremes, focusing on novels that center on the question of how society is and ought to be constituted. Since this question is often posed ambitiously in so-called “genre fiction” like thrillers and sci-fi, which is not always honored as “literature,” it will include some examples of those genres as well as uncontroversial works of the highest literary value like Melville’s “Benito Cereno,” Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” and Camus’s “The Plague.”

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• 4 points

Punishment Culture

What is punishment, and what might attention to punitive practices teach us about the cultures in which they are used? Modern American culture is so saturated with punishment that it is difficult to know where to begin such an investigation. From childhood education to mass incarceration and from the crafting of financial futures to the training of horses and dogs, punishment is ubiquitous and often unquestioned. In many cases, punishment is the thread that connects allegedly disparate institutions and produces allegedly unforeseen forms of violence. In this course we will question both the practice and its prevalence, combining a genealogy of the concept with case studies in its modern use.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• Instructor: Kaya N Williams
  Info
• 4 points

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING LAB I

Fundamental considerations of wave mechanics; design philosophies; reliability and risk concepts; basics of fluid mechanics; design of structures subjected to blast; elements of seismic design; elements of fire design; flood considerations; advanced analysis in support of structural design.

• Department: Biomedical Engineering
• 3 points

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING LAB I

Fundamental considerations of wave mechanics; design philosophies; reliability and risk concepts; basics of fluid mechanics; design of structures subjected to blast; elements of seismic design; elements of fire design; flood considerations; advanced analysis in support of structural design.

• Department: Biomedical Engineering
• 3 points

SHANGE & DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Permission of the instructor required. Interested students should complete the application at: 
https://bit.ly/AFEN3815
.  A poet, performance artist, playwright and novelist, Shange’s stylistic innovations in drama, poetry and fiction and attention to the untold lives of black women have made her an influential figure throughout American arts and in feminist history. We will examine Shange’s works through the dual lenses of “embodied knowledge” and historical context. In conjunction with our multidisciplinary analysis of primary texts, students will be introduced to archival research in Ntozake Shange’s personal archive at Barnard College.  Thus the  seminar provides an in-depth exploration of Shange's work and milieu as well as an introduction to digital tools, public research and archival practice. Students should have taken a course beyond the intro level from ONE of the following areas: American Literature (through the English Department), Africana Studies, American Studies, Theatre or Women's Studies. You can find more information and apply for the course at 
https://bit.ly/AFEN3815
.

• Department: Africana Studies (AFSB)
• Instructor: Kim F Hall
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

ARCH ENGAGE: PAST IN PUB EYE

This course provides a panoramic, but intensive, inquiry into the ways that archaeology and its methods for understanding the world have been marshaled for debate in issues of public interest. It is designed to examine claims to knowledge of the past through the lenses of alternative epistemologies and a series of case-based problems that range from the academic to the political, legal, cultural, romantic, and fraudulent.

• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: Terence N D'Altroy
  CULPA: 37 Info
• 4 points

FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER SYSTS

Fundamentals of computer organization and digital logic. Boolean algebra, Karnaugh maps, basic gates and components, flipflops and latches, counters and state machines, basics of combinational and sequential digital design. Assembly language, instruction sets, ALU’s, single-cycle and multi-cycle processor design, introduction to pipelined processors, caches, and virtual memory.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Martha A Kim
  CULPA: 40 Info
• 3 points

ABSENCE/PRESENCE

Prerequisites: Open to undergrad majors; others with the instructors permission. Across a range of cultural and historic contexts, one encounters traces of bodies - and persons - rendered absent, invisible, or erased. Knowledge of the ghostly presence nevertheless prevails, revealing an inextricable relationship between presence and absence. This course addresses the theme of absent bodies in such contexts as war and other memorials, clinical practices, and industrialization, with interdisciplinary readings drawn from anthropology, war and labor histories, and dystopic science fiction.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• Instructor: Nicholas A Bartlett
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

COLL ON MODERN EAST ASIA TEXTS

Prerequisites: AHUM UN3400 is recommended as background. Introduction to and exploration of modern East Asian literature through close reading and discussion of selected masterpieces from the 1890s through the 1990s by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writers such as Mori Ogai, Wu Jianren, Natsume Soseki, Lu Xun, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Shen Congwen, Ding Ling, Eileen Chang, Yi Sang, Oe Kenzaburo, O Chong-hui, and others. Emphasis will be on cultural and intellectual issues and on how literary forms manifested, constructed, or responded to rapidly shifting experiences of modernity in East Asia.

• Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
• 4 points

Law and Society in Colonial India

Law & Society / Colonial

This course explores the relationship between law and society in colonial India. It features cases relating to marriage and divorce, property and inheritance, sedition and criminal conspiracy woven through the lives of ordinary people in nineteenth and twentieth century India. Through a range of materials, we will explore how British colonial officials reformulated what “law” was and how it was to be interpreted. We will also explore how these interpretations were understood and challenged. We will encounter judges, lawyers, and notaries that mediated the relationship between law and society, courts, and litigants, while catching a fascinating glimpse of what arguments, evidence, and sentencing looked like in these courts. As we go through our readings and attend classes, we might ask: how does this perspective from India shape our understanding of the relationship between law and colonialism, and what are its contemporary implications?

• Department: History
• Instructor: Kalyani Ramnath
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR

A year-long course for outstanding senior majors who want to conduct research in primary sources on a topic of their choice in any aspect of history, and to write a senior thesis possibly leading toward departmental honors.

Approved application through the History Department is required to join this seminar.

• Department: History
• Instructor: Tunc Sen
  Info
• Instructor: James Stafford
  Info
• Instructor: Michael F Stanislawski
  CULPA: 66 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Seminar on Law and Psychology

Psychology and Law Semina

This seminar explores how psychological theory and research—particularly from social, cognitive, and developmental psychology—can illuminate, inform, and challenge legal institutions, practices, norms, and debates. The course examines how people think about, interact with, and are affected by the legal system in roles such as defendants, jurors, judges, lawyers, and citizens. Topics include legal decision-making, responsibility and intent, bias and discrimination, forensic assessment, mental illness and legal capacity, eyewitness testimony, interrogations and false confessions, punishment, and stigma.

We will consider how psychological insights help explain how the law operates in practice and critically assess how legal policies align with—or diverge from—psychological evidence. While grounded in psychological science, the course also draws on interdisciplinary work from law and legal scholarship, sociology, public health, and neuroscience. We will read empirical studies and legal analyses that address psychological issues relevant to the law. The principal goal is to understand the legal system not only as a body of rules, but as a human institution shaped by cognitive, emotional, and social dynamics.

 

Over the course of the semester we will (1) analyze how core concepts in psychology apply to legal contexts; (2) assess psychological studies by examining the strength of their research design and considering their implications for legal concepts and practices; (3) examine how developmental, cognitive, and affective processes affect legal decision-making; (4) identify and critique the use of psychological evidence in courts and policy debates; and (5) explore how neuroscience is reshaping legal understandings of responsibility, culpability, and sentencing, while critically examining its ethical and evidentiary limitations.

• Department: Psychology
• Instructor: Michael J Naft
  Info
• 4 points

ANTHROP OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

This course focuses on the political ecology of the Anthropocene. As multiple publics become increasingly aware of the extensive and accelerated rate of current global environmental change, and the presence of anthropogenesis in ever expanding circumstances, we need to critically analyze the categories of thought and action being developed in order to carefully approach this change. Our concern is thus not so much the Anthropocene as an immutable fact, inevitable event, or definitive period of time (significant though these are), but rather for the political, social, and intellectual consequences of this important idea. Thus we seek to understand the creativity of The Anthropocene as a political, rhetorical, and social category. We also aim to examine the networks of capital and power that have given rise to the current state of planetary change, the strategies for ameliorating those changes, and how these are simultaneously implicated in the rhetorical creation of The Anthropocene.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• Instructor: Paige West
  CULPA: 41 h-index: 23 Info
• 4 points

ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH IN NYC

This course provides the aspiring anthropologist with an array of primarily qualitative methodological tools essential to successful urban fieldwork. As such, it is a practicum of sorts, where regular field assignments help build one’s ability to record and analyze social behavior by drawing on several key data collection techniques. Because we have the luxury of inhabiting a large, densely populated, international city, this class requires that you take a head-first plunge into urban anthropology. The NYC area will define the laboratory for individually- designed research projects. Be forewarned, however! Ethnographic engagement involves efforts to detect social patterns, but it is often a self-reflexive exercise, too. Readings provide methodological, analytical, and personal insights into the skills, joys, and trials that define successful field research.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• Instructor: Kaya N Williams
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR I

Prerequisites: Limited to Barnard Anthropology Seniors. Offered every Fall. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a Senior Essay in Anthropology will accompany research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual Senior Essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and her adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department each semester. Limited to Barnard Senior Anthropology Majors.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• 4 points

FEMINIST AND DECOLONIAL STUDIES IN LATIN

This course introduces feminist and decolonial studies as an exciting and interdisciplinary field that helps us better understand power, inequality, and social change. It offers a foundation in key feminist and decolonial ideas while inviting students to connect theory with real-world struggles and movements.
     In the first part of the course, we will learn core concepts and explore major debates in feminist and decolonial thought. In the second half, we will look at feminism not only as a set of ideas, but also as a diverse and dynamic social movement that has shaped political struggles, cultural representation, and historical change.
      Together, we will ask important questions such as: Is gender shaped by colonial histories? What does intersectionality help us see about inequality? How can research and political action be guided by feminist and decolonial perspectives? What can we learn from Indigenous feminisms, community feminisms, and other transformative ways of thinking?
      Throughout the course, we will engage with the work of activists, scholars, and artists—especially Indigenous, Afro-descendant, LGBTQ+, and land and water defenders—whose ideas are reshaping feminist studies today. We will also explore how feminist and decolonial perspectives help us understand the current planetary crisis and imagine more just and sustainable ways of relating to each other and to the environment.

• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: Marisa G Ruiz Trejo
  Info
• 4 points

ECOCRITICISM FOR THE END TIMES

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. This seminar aims to show what an anthropologically informed, ecocritical cultural studies can offer in this moment of intensifying ecological calamity. The course will not only engage significant works in anthropology, ecocriticism, philosophy, literature, politics, and aesthetics to think about the environment, it will also bring these works into engaged reflection on living in the end times (borrowing cultural critic Slavoj Zizeks phrase). The seminar will thus locate critical perspectives on the environment within the contemporary worldwide ecological crisis, emphasizing the ethnographic realities of global warming, debates on nuclear power and energy, and the place of nature. Drawing on the professors long experience in Japan and current research on the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the seminar will also take care to unpack the notion of end times, with its apocalyptic implications, through close considerations of works that take on the question of ecocatastrophe in our times. North American and European perspectives, as well as international ones (particularly ones drawn from East Asia), will give the course a global reach.

• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: Marilyn Ivy
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR

Computer Science majors at Barnard can choose to pursue a year-long senior research thesis for their senior experience. A senior thesis is intended to be a substantial piece of work in which the student engages in independent and original research. They should register for two semesters of research projects in CS through their faculty advisor’s home department (Barnard or Columbia), each for at least 3 credits (one in Fall and one in the Spring). They should additionally register for this course. The main goal is to provide students with a venue to discuss their senior thesis projects with each other. In the seminar, students learn how to communicate and present their work. They also become more familiar with other students’ areas of research and other types of research projects that fall under the umbrella of computer science. The seminar sometimes also features guest speakers in various areas of CS; students participate and engage in discussion with the speaker, further developing their research communication skills. The instructor of this course functions as a secondary advisor for the students’ projects. At the end of the academic year, the students present their projects to the CS community at Barnard.

• Department: Computer Science @Barnard
• Instructor: Tiffany Tseng
  Info
• 1 points

INTRO TO CLASSICAL RHETORIC

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. (Seminar). This course examines rhetorical theory from its roots in ancient Greece and Rome and reanimates the great debates about language that emerged in times of national expansion and cultural upheaval. We will situate the texts of Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and others in their historical contexts to illuminate ongoing conversations about the role of words and images in the negotiation of persuasion, meaning making, and the formation of the public. In the process, we will discover that the arguments of classical rhetoric play out all around us today. Readings from thinkers like Judith Butler, Richard McKeon, Robert Pirsig, and Bruno Latour echo the ancients in their debates about hate speech regulation, the purpose of higher education, and the ability of the sciences to arrive at truth. We will discover that rhetoricians who are writing during eras of unprecedented expansion of democracies, colonization, and empire have a great deal to say about the workings of language in our globalizing, digitizing age. Application instructions: E-mail Professor Sue Mendelsohn (sem2181@columbia.edu) by April 11 with the subject heading Rhetoric seminar. In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they will automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will in due course admit them as spaces become available.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Susan Mendelsohn
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 4 points

RESEARCH PROJECTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

RESEARCH PROJECTS IN CS

COMS BC3895 Research Projects in Computer Science (CS) is an opportunity for undergraduates to conduct research under the supervision of a Barnard CS faculty member. The research project is usually in an area that the faculty member is an expert in and often arises out of discussions with the faculty member, but at times it is student-driven. A student may enroll in COMS BC3895 more than once. Application to enroll in BC3895 must be approved by the Faculty Advisor who will supervise the research. The instructor of the student’s section of COMS BC3895 will be the Barnard CS Faculty Advisor. Note: Columbia CS has a similar course COMS W3998 Projects in Computer Science for students both at Barnard and Columbia to conduct research with Columbia CS faculty.

• Department: Computer Science @Barnard
• Instructor: Smaranda Muresan
  h-index: 22 Info
• Instructor: Rebecca N Wright
  Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info
• Instructor: Corey Toler-Franklin
  Info
• Instructor: Mark Santolucito
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 8 Info
• Instructor: Tiffany Tseng
  Info
• Instructor: Murad Megjhani
  Info
• Instructor: Ahmer Arif
  Info
• Instructor: Eysa Lee
  Info
• Instructor: Lucy Simko
  Info
• 1-4 points

READING ITALIANS - PRECEPT

The purpose of this precept is to read short selections of the readings for this course in the original Italian, closely comparing these texts with their English counterparts. Attention will be paid to stylistic, syntactical, and grammatical characteristics of both languages, carefully considering questions of tone, register, cadence, idiomatic expressions, archaisms, and other elements of the translator’s task. In addition to discussing the readings, we will work in class on translating specific passages from Italian into English. Depending on the makeup of the class, the discussions will take place either fully in Italian or in a mix of Italian and English.

• Department: English @Barnard
• Instructor: Jhumpa Lahiri
  Wikipedia Info
• 1 points

Research Training

Research training course. Recommended in preparation for laboratory related research.

• Department: Biomedical Engineering
• Instructor: Gerard A Ateshian
  Info
• Instructor: Tal Danino
  Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• Instructor: X. Edward Guo
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 70 Info
• Instructor: Henry Hess
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 45 Info
• Instructor: Clark T Hung
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 65 Info
• Instructor: Lance Kam
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 38 Info
• Instructor: Andrew Laine
  Wikipedia h-index: 43 Info
• Instructor: Elisa Konofagou
  Wikipedia h-index: 71 Info
• Instructor: Kam W Leong
  h-index: 126 Info
• Instructor: Helen Lu
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 54 Info
• Instructor: Barclay Morrison
  CULPA: 9 h-index: 42 Info
• Instructor: Elizabeth Olson
  h-index: 28 Info
• Instructor: Paul Sajda
  CULPA: 3 h-index: 47 Info
• Instructor: Samuel Sia
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 39 Info
• Instructor: Stavros Thomopoulos
  h-index: 63 Info
• Instructor: John T Vaughan
  Info
• Instructor: Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
  Wikipedia h-index: 132 Info
• Instructor: Qi Wang
  h-index: 24 Info
• Instructor: Nandan L Nerurkar
  Info
• Instructor: Stephen H Tsang
  Wikipedia h-index: 58 Info
• Instructor: Elham Azizi
  h-index: 10 Info
• Instructor: Jose McFaline-Figueroa
  Info
• Instructor: Treena L Arinzeh
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Sanja Vickovic
  Info
• Instructor: Santiago Correa
  Info
• Instructor: Parisa Yousefpour
  Info
• Instructor: Lauren N Heckelman
  Info
• Instructor: Grace McIlvain
  Info
• 0 points

DADA AND SURREALISM

• Department: Comparative Literature and Society @Barnard
• Instructor: Caroline Weber
  CULPA: 8 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

READING ITALIANS: HER SIDE OF THE STORY

READING ITALIANS: HER STO

“In Italy, literary fiction has long been considered a man’s game.” So began a
2019 New York Times article discussing the growing international attention being
paid to Italian women writers, particuarly on the heels of Elena Ferrante’s
phenomenal global success. This course will center the female voice and
subjectivity in the Italian literary tradition, with a focus on celebrated prose writers
active from the early twentieth century to the present. Some, recently republished
and reconsidered for the Italian market, have also been re-translated and re-
introduced to a wider English readership. We will trace the reception of female
authors within the Italian critical establishment and abroad, and the role
translation might play in broadening and amplifying their reputation and reach.
We will focus on one author per week, paying special attention to themes of
resistance, rebellion, and self-fashioning. All readings will be in English.

• Department: English @Barnard
• Instructor: Jhumpa Lahiri
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

The Art of the Question in Latin America

The Question in Latin Ame

This course investigates the role of the question as a central artistic, political, and epistemological device in Latin American art from the early twentieth century to the present. We will explore how artists have deployed questions not merely as rhetorical devices or titles, but as strategies that shape form, content, and spectatorship—provoking reflection, resistance, and transformation.

Through case studies ranging from Oswald de Andrade’s provocative “Tupy or not Tupy?” (1928) and Marta Minujín’s playful “What types of materials turn you on?” (1968) to Alfredo Jaar’s public survey ¿Es usted feliz? (1981) and Clemencia Lucena’s feminist intervention ¿Qué hacen ellas mientras ellos trabajan? (1970), students will examine the diverse functions of questioning in visual art, performance, literature, and other media. Class discussions will focus on the aesthetic, political, and epistemic implications of questions in art: How do these works shape audience engagement? In what ways do they resist resolution? How do they generate critique, knowledge, or political action? We will also consider transnational and diasporic contexts, exploring how Latin American artists navigate questions across cultural and geographic boundaries.

The course is structured around five modules—Questioning Identity, Questioning the Patriarchy, Questioning Dictatorship, Questioning Spectatorship, and Questioning the Real—that highlight key moments in modern and contemporary Latin American art to uncover how uncertainty and questioning have shaped aesthetic and political imagination.

• Department: Latin American and Iberian Cultures
• Instructor: Jeronimo Duarte Riascos
  Info
• 3 points

UNDERGRAD RESRCH-APPLD PHYSICS

This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 6 points of this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in applied physics or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report.

• Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
• Instructor: Carlos Paz Soldan
  h-index: 28 Info
• 0-4 points

AMEC Senior Thesis Seminar

The Senior Thesis Seminar is a one-semester requirement for all Barnard College students majoring in Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures (AMEC). This is a working research seminar devoted to helping students produce a substantive piece of writing that will eventually be part of their senior thesis project, the culmination of their work in the major. Students will participate in the seminar as thesis writers and as peer editors. In addition to working with the instructor in the seminar, students will also consult with a faculty member who specializes in the student's area of interest within the AMEC department.

• Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
• Instructor: Matthew L Keegan
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 4 points

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT

Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Up to 6 points may be counted toward the technical elective content requirement. (Note that if more than 3 points of research are pursued, an undergraduate thesis is required.)

• Department: Chemical Engineering
• Instructor: Scott Banta
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 36 Info
• Instructor: Kyle Bishop
  h-index: 42 Info
• Instructor: Christopher M Boyce
  h-index: 17 Info
• Instructor: Juliana Silva Alves Carneiro
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• Instructor: Jingguang Chen
  Wikipedia h-index: 89 Info
• Instructor: Neil D Dolinski
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• Instructor: Christopher J Durning
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Daniel Esposito
  h-index: 22 Info
• Instructor: Oleg Gang
  h-index: 45 Info
• Instructor: Jingyue Ju
  h-index: 77 Info
• Instructor: Sanat Kumar
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 79 Info
• Instructor: Lauren E Marbella
  Info
• 0-6 points

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT

Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Up to 6 points may be counted toward the technical elective content requirement. (Note that if more than 3 points of research are pursued, an undergraduate thesis is required.)

• Department: Chemical Engineering
• Instructor: Lauren E Marbella
  Info
• Instructor: Allie Obermeyer
  h-index: 16 Info
• Instructor: Ben O'Shaughnessy
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Mijo Simunovic
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 17 Info
• Instructor: Dan Steingart
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 36 Info
• Instructor: Alexander Urban
  h-index: 24 Info
• Instructor: Venkat Venkatasubramanian
  h-index: 58 Info
• Instructor: Alan West
  CULPA: 3 h-index: 48 Info
• Instructor: Asher Williams
  Info
• 0-6 points

UNDERGRAD RES-ENVIRONMTL ENGIN

This course may be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 points of this course may be counted towards the satisfaction of the B. S. degree requirements. Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation in Earth and Environmental Engineering, or carry out a special project under the supervision of EAEE faculty. Credit for the course is contingent on the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. This course cannot substitute for the Undergraduate design project (EAEE E3999x or EAEE E3999y)

• Department: Earth and Environmental Engineering
• Instructor: Kartik Chandran
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia h-index: 51 Info
• Instructor: Robert Farrauto
  h-index: 52 Info
• Instructor: Raymond Farinato
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 0-3 points