INTERMEDIATE PERSIAN I
Prerequisites: Elementary Persian II or the equivalent. This course involves reading, writing, translating, conversation and grammatical foundations for Persian Language (PL). The materials are selected from two books: Āmuzesh-e Fārsi: Intermediate Level (required) and English-Persian Dictionary, plus verb system and charts (recommended). These books are assigned and have to be available to every student. There are also handouts, which will be provided throughout the course. This course serves as intermediate and makes students able to read and compose proper Persian language as well as the colloquial one. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
-
Instructor:
Saeed Honarmand
Info - 4 points
AI in Context
AI IN CONTEXT
An interdisciplinary introduction to the history, development and modern application of artificial intelligence in a variety of contexts. Context subjects and teaching staff will vary by semester.
- Department: Computer Science
-
Instructor:
Adam H Cannon
CULPA: 81
Info
- 3 points
Early Modern Theater
This course investigates the boldly experimental world of the early modern English theater. The opening of London’s commercial playhouses in the last quarter of the sixteenth century fundamentally changed the nature of popular entertainment, offering eager spectators an array of secular drama for the first time in English history. The playwrights who wrote for these theaters collaborated and competed with each other to produce the bombastic heroes of tragedy, the upstart social climbers of city comedy, and the adventurers of romance, reimagining the possibilities of stage performance in the process. We will read a range of playwrights and dramatic genres in this course, asking how these plays not only spoke to each other, but intervened in the issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, and politics that defined early modernity. We will also spend time discussing the plays in performance, attending to the ways that the conditions of early modern stagecraft influence literary meaning. Finally, we will give attention to the performance styles and techniques of those actors who, in inspiring playgoers’ admiration and adoration, became London’s very first celebrities.
- Department: English and Comparative Literature
-
Instructor:
Lauren E Robertson
CULPA: 5
Info
- 3 points
Introduction to Conflict Resolution
Conflict is an inherent part of our social experience and present at all levels of our interactions, from intra- and interpersonal to intergroup and international. It can be simple and easily addressed or long lasting and complex. It can be destructive, but it can also spur our creativity. We experience conflict daily in our personal and professional lives: in our families, communities, organizations, and across international boundaries.
This course introduces concepts, theories and research to create a foundational understanding of the types and sources of conflict, and a variety of strategies that shift conflict from destructive to constructive. Through this material you will build a foundation of conflict theories and frameworks with an emphasis on social psychology, and including interdisciplinary perspectives from law, political science, social work, and business. You will explore and build awareness of your personal perspectives about conflict and conflict resolution; and learn to appropriately select and apply theories and concepts to better understand and address conflict. The course will challenge you to develop self-awareness around your biases and perspectives through readings, lectures, and assignments. While we will focus primarily on concepts and theories, the links between theory, research, and practice will be emphasized throughout the course.
- Department: School of Professional Studies (DVSP)
-
Instructor:
Peter Dixon
Info - 3 points
ADVANCED LITERARY TIBETAN
This course focuses on helping students gain greater proficiency in reading Tibetan Buddhist philosophical and religious historical texts. Readings are selected primarily from Tibetan Buddhist philosophical texts (sutras) such as shes rab snying po, thu’u bkan grub mtha’ and other Tibetan canonical texts.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
Info - 4 points
HISTORY OF THE MOD MIDDLE EAST
This course will cover the history of the Middle East from the 18th century until the present, examining the region ranging from Morocco to Iran and including the Ottoman Empire. It will focus on transformations in the states of the region, external intervention, and the emergence of modern nation-states, as well as aspects of social, economic, cultural and intellectual history of the region. Field(s): ME
- Department: School of Professional Studies (DVSP)
-
Instructor:
David Elcott
Info - 4 points
EAST AFRICAN HISTORY
A survey of East African history over the past two millennia with a focus on political and social change. Themes include early religious and political ideas, the rise of states on the Swahili coast and between the Great Lakes, slavery, colonialism, and social and cultural developments in the 20th century. This course fulfills the Global Core requirement. Field(s): AFR
- Department: History
-
Instructor:
Rhiannon Stephens
CULPA: 2 Info - 4 points
EAST AFRICAN HISTORY
A survey of East African history over the past two millennia with a focus on political and social change. Themes include early religious and political ideas, the rise of states on the Swahili coast and between the Great Lakes, slavery, colonialism, and social and cultural developments in the 20th century. This course fulfills the Global Core requirement. Field(s): AFR
- Department: Auditing
-
Instructor:
Rhiannon Stephens
CULPA: 2 Info - 0 points
EAST AFRICAN HISTORY-DISC
- Department: History
-
Instructor:
Rhiannon Stephens
CULPA: 2 Info - 0 points
ACCELERATED PHYSICS I
Prerequisites: Advanced Placement in physics and mathematics, or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. (A special placement meeting is held during Orientation.) This accelerated two-semester sequence covers the subject matter of PHYS UN1601, PHYS UN1602 and PHYS UN2601, and is intended for those students who have an exceptionally strong background in both physics and mathematics. The course is preparatory for advanced work in physics and related fields. There is no accompanying laboratory; however, students are encouraged to take the intermediate laboratory, PHYS UN3081, in the following year.
- Department: Physics
-
Instructor:
Yury Levin
h-index: 91 Info - 4.5 points
Making Modern Korea
This course explores Korea’s history from the late nineteenth century to the present with a particular focus on caste/class, gender, war and industrialization. Using primary and secondary texts as well as documentary film and literary ephemera, the seminar analyses such topics as the relationship between imperialism and rebellions in the nineteenth century; the uneven experience of Japanese colonial rule; Korea’s early feminist movement; how North Korea became a communist society; the deep scars of the Korean War; cultures of industrialism in South and North Korea; counter-cultural movements in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s South Korea; and contemporary challenges facing the peninsula. This course will give students a thorough grounding in modern Korean history and introduce them to major interpretative currents in the study of Korean history.
- Department: History
-
Instructor:
Ruth Barraclough
Info - 4 points
Making Modern Korea - DISC
Required discussion section for “Making Modern Korea” lecture (HIST 2851)
- Department: History
-
Instructor:
Ruth Barraclough
Info - 0 points
South Asian Diasporas
This survey focuses on the South Asian diaspora, that is, the migration of people originating from the Indian subcontinent into a global horizon, and the multi-dimensional array of economic, political and cultural relationships produced between diasporic communities, their places of origin, and their places of arrival. The course will be structured around key themes and questions in the history of the diaspora, using these as entry points into deeper contexts while making connections between historical and contemporary phenomena. We will explore flows of labor (indentured and otherwise), transnational mercantile and financial connections, overseas political movements, and South Asian communities in North America ain the wake of the War on Terror. Topics will include: questions of bondage and contract, circulation of revolutionary praxis and radical cross-fertilization, racial and cultural identity formation, legal and extralegal economies, gender, class and caste. Our readings will draw upon literary texts, oral and public histories, as well as archival sources; not to mention observations from your own forays into the city.
- Department: History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Anupama Rao
CULPA: 28
Info
- 3 points
FRONTIERS OF ASTROPHYSICS
Several members of the faculty each offer a brief series of talks providing context for a current research topic in the field and then present results of their ongoing research. Opportunities for future student research collaboration are offered. Grading is Pass/Fail.
- Department: Astronomy
-
Instructor:
Lorenzo Sironi
h-index: 39 Info - 1 points
INTERMEDIATE MODERN TURKISH I
A continuation of the study of the written and spoken language of Turkey, with readings of literary, historical, and other texts. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
-
Instructor:
Zuleyha M Fikret
Info - 4 points
Urban Healthscapes: A Spatial History of
This course examines the landscapes of urban public health from the medieval era to the 19th century using spatial analysis. It has two objectives. Thematically, it introduces students to the concept and study of “urban healthscapes” in Europe and the Americas before the age of modern bacteriology. Weekly lectures advance through a sequence of four related themes: (1) medieval and early modern communal, infrastructural, and regulatory spatial practices of public health; (2) urban mortality regimes, epidemics, and societal responses; (3) the relationships between urban form, spatial governance, planning, and public health; and (4) problems of environmental justice, including unequal exposure to health risks and access to health amenities. Methodologically, the course approaches these topics via the lens of historical Geographic Information Systems. In weekly labs, students acquire technical skills of GIS mapping. They learn how to work with spatial data, create GIS maps, conduct spatial analysis, and develop spatial historical arguments and narratives. Labs integrate recently released public hGIS datasets on a variety of cities—such as medieval Bologna and 19th-century New York—directly relevant to the themes covered in lectures. For course assignments, students use these datasets to conduct spatial analyses of urban healthscapes. The course is open to all undergraduates. Previous GIS knowledge is not needed.
- Department: History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Gergely Baics
CULPA: 10
Info
- 3 points
History of Globalization
Globalization emerged as a concept in the 1990s to describe the various supranational forces that shape the contemporary world. Its history, however, is much older, and it encompasses major historical developments such as the formation and global spread of empires, of trade and capitalism, slavery, and migratory movements, as well as environmental and ecological issues. Processes of globalization and deglobalization affect central categories with which to interpret social, political and economic dynamics such as sovereignty, hegemony, and inequality.
This course will offer students the critical instruments to discuss globalizing dynamics and how they have affected human societies historically. We will proceed both thematically and chronologically, to develop the analytical instruments to understand how various dimensions of globalization emerged and transformed over time, as well as the different interpretations that scholars have offered to interpret them.
- Department: History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Michele Alacevich
Info - 3 points
Unsettling Science: An Introduction to S
This course is an introduction to the interplay between science, technology, and society. Unsettling Science invites students to: ask big questions about science and technology, interrupt preconceived ideas about what sicience is and who does it, and engage deeply with troubling social implications. By offering historical and contemporary perspectives, this course equips students with critical and methodological skills essential to exploring not only longstanding questions about the world but also urgent issues of our time. To do so, the course focuses on a series of fundamental and foundational questions (e.g., what is knowledge? what is prog that underpin the study of science, technology, and society from a variety of interdisicplinary perspectives.
- Department: Anthropology
-
Instructor:
Madisson Whitman
Info - 3 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
During the 2020 US presidential election and the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, science and “scientific truths” were fiercely contested. This course provides a historical perspective on the issues at stake. The course begins with an historical account of how areas of natural knowledge, such as astrology, alchemy, and “natural magic,” which were central components of an educated person’s view of the world in early modern Europe, became marginalized, while a new philosophy of nature (what we would now call empirical science) came to dominate the discourse of rationality. Historical developments examined in this course out of which this new understanding of nature emerged include the rise of the centralized state, religious reform, and European expansion. The course uses this historical account to show how science and pseudoscience developed in tandem in the period from 1400 to 1800. This historical account equips students to examine contemporary issues of expertise, the social construction of science, pluralism in science, certainty and uncertainty in science, as well as critical engagement with contemporary technologies.
- Department: History
- 4 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
During the 2020 US presidential election and the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, science and “scientific truths” were fiercely contested. This course provides a historical perspective on the issues at stake. The course begins with an historical account of how areas of natural knowledge, such as astrology, alchemy, and “natural magic,” which were central components of an educated person’s view of the world in early modern Europe, became marginalized, while a new philosophy of nature (what we would now call empirical science) came to dominate the discourse of rationality. Historical developments examined in this course out of which this new understanding of nature emerged include the rise of the centralized state, religious reform, and European expansion. The course uses this historical account to show how science and pseudoscience developed in tandem in the period from 1400 to 1800. This historical account equips students to examine contemporary issues of expertise, the social construction of science, pluralism in science, certainty and uncertainty in science, as well as critical engagement with contemporary technologies.
- Department: Auditing
-
Instructor:
Pamela Smith
CULPA: 4 Info - 0 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
Required discussion section for HIST UN2978 lecture.
- Department: History
- 0 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
Required discussion section for HIST UN2978 lecture.
- Department: History
- 0 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
Required discussion section for HIST UN2978 lecture.
- Department: History
- 0 points
Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI
Required discussion section for HIST UN2978 lecture.
- Department: History
-
Instructor:
Pamela Smith
CULPA: 4 Info - 0 points
WORLD MIGRATION
Overview of human migration from pre-history to the present. Sessions on classical Rome; Jewish diaspora; Viking, Mongol, and Arab conquests; peopling of New World, European colonization, and African slavery; 19th-century European mass migration; Chinese and Indian diasporas; resurgence of global migration in last three decades, and current debates.
- Department: History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Jose Moya
CULPA: 19
h-index: 18
Info
- 3 points
Sculpting in Time
This is an introductory course in time-based arts: video, sound, and performance, understood through the language of both short and long cinematic forms. We'll start with an in-depth study of the life and work of Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), whose art has a unique sense of time, driven by the unknown, the immaterial, and the spiritual.
This class is for artists who want to construct their own sense of time, punctuation, and duration, as well as those looking to discover the visual and audio aesthetics of their generation. How does a feeling become an image, and what sound does it make? What are our media aesthetics and skins? Is there a way to address the optical beyond the eye and engage what we currently consider secondary senses, take our bodies back? Our collective task is to construct a camera (both a room and an apparatus) that captures both aural and visual images, creating a sonorous space where we can encounter ourselves in our own time. No prior knowledge of any medium is required. Not for the faint of heart.
- Department: Art History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Irena Haiduk
Info - 4 points
INTRO LIT/METHODS OF ART HIST
Required course for department majors. Not open to Barnard or Continuing Education students. Students must receive instructors permission. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year.
- Department: Art History and Archaeology
-
Instructor:
Zoe S Strother
CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info - 4 points
Biological Chemistry
BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
The goal of this course is to gain an understanding of the chemical principles that govern biological systems. We will look at the structure and function of biomolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and lipids), with an emphasis on interactions between them, enzyme kinetics, and metabolic pathways. Key topics will include protein folding and function, enzyme mechanisms, bioenergetics, and the regulation of key metabolic cycles. In addition to lecture we will spend time examining case studies and selected articles from primary literature, and engaging in group discussions.
- Department: Biological Sciences @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Kristin Presnell
Info - 3 points
Grimms' Fairy Tales: Power, Gender & Nar
Although the first volume of the
Grimms’ Children Stories and Household Tales
was published more than 200 years ago, their fairy tales continue to enchant readers. In this course we will not only study the Grimms’ fairy tales themselves, but also examine their origins and their social, ideological, and political contexts in 19th-century Europe. We will work with fairy tale theory (narrative, psychoanalytic, historical) and discuss the function of the tales as folklore as well as their status as children’s literature. Alongside the “original” Grimms’ tales—a concept that we will discuss—a major portion of the course will engage the legacy of the fairy tales and the way they have been appropriated by others, particularly from a critical, feminist perspective.
Points of emphasis will include: how writers in the first half of the 20th century politicized the tales in the battle for social change during the time of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany; how the tales were reinterpreted in different national traditions and historical periods; how the fairy tale become a mass culture icon in Disney’s film versions; and how contemporary writers like Margaret Atwood continue to employ tales in questioning and challenging traditional constructions of gender.
- Department: Germanic Languages
-
Instructor:
Annie Pfeifer
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
TUTORIAL IN EARTH SCIENCE
Prerequisites: declared major in Earth and environmental sciences and the departments permission. Students with particular interest in one of the many components of the Earth and environmental sciences should approach a director of undergraduate studies during the registration period so that tutorial-level exposure to the subject can be arranged. Each point requires two hours each week of readings, discussion, and research work under the close supervision of a member of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, American Museum of Natural History, or Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In consultation with the supervisor, the student selects a topic for intensive study and the time and place of the tutorial discussion sessions. May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 12 points, with a maximum of 6 points with each staff member.
- Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
-
Instructor:
Meredith Nettles
CULPA: 3 h-index: 31 Info -
Instructor:
Jerry F McManus
CULPA: 8
h-index: 56
Info
- 1-3 points
Practices in Community Building
“Political friendship is not an emotion, but a practice, a set of hard-won, complicated habits that are used to bridge trouble, difficulty, and differences of personality, experience, and aspiration.” – Danielle Allen,
Talking to Strangers
What does it take to build community on a campus made up of diverse sets of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives? What sorts of communities are possible under the conditions of pluralism where we cannot take for granted that people in our community share similar interests or are making the same assumptions about political, social, or cultural goods? Is it possible to build something we would call friendship among people who experience social and political complexities differently, especially given the welter of feelings--rage and compassion, joy, fear, and sorrow--that course through us all?
To claim, taking cues from the above quote from Danielle Allen, that building community requires learning practices or habits of engagement frames these questions in a particular way. It insists that communities are forged through embodied efforts and actions. What are the sorts of social practices and social habits--the doings--that help build communities marked by pluralistic cross-pressures? How does one learn these practices and habits? What traditions and examples can we call on?
In this class, we will through the explicit and implicit norms that qualitatively shape community, norms such as:
To what degree and how should the pain of others be recognized?
How important is a “hermeneutics of generosity” in community building, which begins with trying to understand the other’s intentions before judging or criticizing them?
How does self-criticism and criticism of others function in community?
How important is dialogue, and of what sorts, to building forms of political friendship? Exchange of ideas--dialogue--may be necessary, but our focus on practice and habits also casts a skeptical eye on the notion that community rests solely or primarily on evaluating the soundness of propositions. History is replete with other social practices--story-telling, song, listening, dance--that carry and convey real discursive value.
Informed by selected readings rooted in the themes of the Core Curriculum, students will envision and develop projects that appeal to their interests, which they will bring to fruiti
- Department: Core (A&S)
-
Instructor:
Asya Tsaturyan
Info - 1 points
SOCIAL THEORY
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Required for all sociology majors. Prerequisite: at least one sociology course of the instructor's permission. Theoretical accounts of the rise and transformations of modern society in the19th and 20th centuries. Theories studied include those of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Max Weber, Roberto Michels. Selected topics: individual, society, and polity; economy, class, and status: organization and ideology; religion and society; moral and instrumental action.
- Department: Sociology @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Andrew S Anastasi
Info - 4 points
Foundation of Aerospace Engineering
FOUNDATION OF AEROSPACE E
History and development of aviation and spaceflight; application of fundamental physics to analyze atmospheric and space flight; core principles of aerodynamics, propulsion, and flight mechanics; basic aircraft performance and stability characteristics; influence of space and atmospheric environment on vehicles; key lightweight materials and structural design considerations in aerospace applications. Course intended for undergraduate students. Students who take AERO E3001 may not take AERO E4001.
- Department: Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
-
Instructor:
Marianna Maiaru
Info - 3 points
HISTORY OF THEATRICAL DANCING
Focuses on the history of theatre dance forms originating in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Includes reading, writing, viewing, and discussion of sources such as film, text, original documentation, demonstration, and performance.
- Department: Dance @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Seth S Williams
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
ADVANCED GERMAN I
Prerequisites: GERM UN2102. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. Note: UN3001 and UN3002 are not sequential.
German UN3001 is an ambitious socio-cultural exploration of Berlin. Designed to follow up the language skills acquired in first- and second-year language courses (or the equivalent thereof), this course gives students greater proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing German while focusing on topics from German society today through various German media, such as internet, film, and literature through the lens of Germany’s capital, Berlin. Topics discussed include: cultural diversity in Berlin's multi-cultural neighborhoods; questioning and reflecting upon Berlin's recent past; developing your own Berlin experience and presenting your interests in various forms, such as presentations, an essay, your CV, an application letter and interview for an internship in Berlin. The course represents a gateway class to literature courses and counts towards the major and concentration in German. Taught in German.
- Department: Germanic Languages
-
Instructor:
Jutta Schmiers-Heller
CULPA: 19
Info
- 3 points
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS
Evolution of the theory and content of human rights; the ideology and impact of human rights movements; national and international human rights law and institutions; their application with attention to universality within states, including the U.S. and internationally.
- Department: Institute for Study of Human Rights
-
Instructor:
Andrew J Nathan
CULPA: 44 Wikipedia h-index: 40 Info - 3 points
CLASSICAL WAVES - LECTURE + LAB
CLASSICAL WAVES -LECTURE
Prerequisites: Physics BC2002 or the equivalent. Corequisites: Calculus III. Nonlinear pendula, transverse vibrations-elastic strings, longitudinal sound waves, seismic waves, electromagnetic oscillations - light, rainbows, haloes, the Green Flash; polarization phenomena - Haidingers Brush, Brewsters angle, double refraction, optical activity; gravity - capillary waves; interference, diffraction, lenses - mirrors. PLEASE NOTE: Students who take PHYS BC3001 may not receive credit for PHYS BC3010.
- Department: Physics and Astronomy @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Timothy J Halpin-Healy
CULPA: 6 Info - 5 points
SUPERVISED READINGS I
DIRECTED STUDIES IN PUNJABI
- Department: Language Resource Center
- 1-4 points
Social Theory- DISC
SOCIAL THEORY- DISC
Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000).
- Department: Sociology @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Narges Zahedipoor
Info -
Instructor:
Robin I Hart
Info - 0 points
Image Matters: Writing With Photographs
Image, Writing w/ Photogr
"How should we understand the relationship between the family, the photograph, and the African diaspora?" asks the scholar Tina M. Campt in her 2012 book Image Matters. In this course, we will examine how some African American and African diaspora writers have used photographs or collaborated with photographers in writing poetry, fiction, essays, and criticism, expanding our understanding of their families, communities, and broader cultural and historical issues.
- Department: African American and African Diaspora
-
Instructor:
Edwidge Danticat
Wikipedia Info - 4 points
SENIOR THESIS
Prerequisites: the departments permission. Required for all thesis writers.
- Department: Art History and Archaeology
-
Instructor:
Branden W Joseph
CULPA: 9
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
SUPERVISED PROJ PHOTOGRAPHY
In this course, you will conduct independent projects in photography in a structured setting under faculty supervision. You are responsible for arranging for your photographic equipment in consultation with the instructor.
This course will afford you a framework in which to intensively develop a coherent body of photographs, critique this work with your classmates, and correlate your goals with recent issues in contemporary photography.
Students are required to enroll in an additional fifteen contact hours of instruction at the International Center for Photography. Courses range from one-day workshops to full-semester courses.
Permission of instructor only. The class will be limited to 20 students.
- Department: Art History @Barnard
-
Instructor:
John Miller
CULPA: 2 Info - 4 points
THIRD YEAR CHINESE I
This course offers an expansive journey into the Chinese language and culture. It focuses on essential semi-formal and formal writing skills while refining discourse-level competency. Students will enhance their linguistic abilities and communication skills in Chinese through reading and writing assignments, oral presentations, and discussions. This approach fosters adept communication and a deeper connection with the complexities of Chinese culture, preparing students to engage thoughtfully with contemporary issues and traditions.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Zhirong Wang
CULPA: 11
Info
-
Instructor:
Jia Xu
CULPA: 2 Info -
Instructor:
Lingjun Hu
CULPA: 5
Info
- 5 points
NEUROBIO I:CELLULAR & MOLECULR
Prerequisites: one year of biology; a course in physics is highly recommended. This is an advanced course intended for majors providing an in depth survey of the cellular and molecular aspects of nerve cell function. Topics include: the cell biology and biochemistry of neurons, ionic and molecular basis of electrical signals, synaptic transmission and its modulation, function of sensory receptors. Although not required, it is intended to be followed by Neurobiology II (see below).
- Department: Biological Sciences
- 3 points
ACTING I
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Course develops physical, vocal, and imaginative range and skills needed to approach the text of a play: text analysis, speech exercises, non-verbal behavior, improvisation designed to enhance embodiment, movement, and projection.
Gateway course to advanced courses; transfer students who have previous college-level course may be exempted with approval of Chair
.
May be retaken for full credit.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Elena Zucker
Info -
Instructor:
Kareem Lucas
Info -
Instructor:
Crystal Finn
Info -
Instructor:
Elena Zucker
Info -
Instructor:
David L Skeist
Info - 3 points
THIRD YEAR CHINESE W
Prerequisites: CHNS C1222 or F1222, or the equivalent. Admission after Chinese placement exam and an oral proficiency interview with the instructor. Especially designed for students who possess good speaking ability and who wish to acquire practical writing skills as well as business-related vocabulary and speech patterns. Introduction to semiformal and formal Chinese used in everyday writing and social or business-related occasions. Simplified characters are introduced.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Hailong Wang
CULPA: 22 Info - 5 points
DICTATORSHIPS&THEIR AFTERLIVES
What does the investigation of a dictatorship entail and what are the challenges in such an endeavor? Why (and when) do particular societies turn to an examination of their non-democratic pasts? What does it mean for those who never experienced an authoritarian regime first-hand to remember it through television footage, popular culture, and family stories? This seminar examines dictatorships and the ways in which they are remembered, discussed, examined, and give rise to conflicting narratives in post-dictatorial environments. It takes as its point of departure the Greek military regime of 1967-1974, which is considered in relation to other dictatorships in South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. We will be drawing on primary materials including Amnesty International reports, film, performance art, and architectural drawings as well as the works of Hannah Arendt and Günter Grass to engage in an interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which military dictatorships live on as ghosts, traumatic memories, urban warfare, litigation, and debates on the politics of comparison and the ethics of contemporary art.
- Department: Classics
-
Instructor:
Dimitris Antoniou
h-index: 5 Info - 3 points
INTRO-STAT-ECOLOGY & EVOL BIOL
Intended for those WITHOUT prior knowledge of statistics. Some background in ecology, evolutionary biology required. This is an introduction to the theoretical principles and practical application of statistical methods in ecology and evolutionary biology. The course will cover the conceptual basis for a range of statistical techniques through a series of lectures using examples from the primary literature. The application of these techniques will be taught through the use of statistical software in computer-based laboratory sessions.
- Department: Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
-
Instructor:
Steffen Foerster
Info - 3 points
THIRD YEAR JAPANESE I
Prerequisites: JPNS C1202 or the equivalent. Readings in authentic/semi-authentic texts, videos, and class discussions.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Kyoko M Loetscher
CULPA: 3
Info
-
Instructor:
Naoko Sourial
Info - 5 points
THIRD YEAR KOREAN I
Prerequisites: KORN W1202 or the equivalent and consultation with instructor. (See Entrance to Language Courses Beyond the Elementary Level in the main bulletin under Department of Instruction -- East Asian Languages and Cultures.) Readings in modern Korean. Selections from modern Korean writings in literature, history, social sciences, culture, and videos and class discussions.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Sue Yoon
Info -
Instructor:
Eunice Chung
CULPA: 1 Info - 5 points
ACTING II
ACTING II: SCENE/CHARACTR STDY
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Gisela D Cardenas Ojeda
Info - 3 points
ACTING II
ACTING II: TEXT IN ACTION
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Gisela D Cardenas Ojeda
Info - 3 points
ACTING II
ACTING II: DEVISED & SOLO
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Kyle Decamp
Info - 3 points
ACTING II
ACTING II: SONDHEIM
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Mana Allen
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
ACTING II
ACTING II: LABAN
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
- Department: Theatre @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Tina C Mitchell
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
COMPOSITION AND CONVERSATION
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Discussions on contemporary issues and oral presentations. Creative writing assignments designed to improve writing skills and vocabulary development. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
- Department: French @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Karen Santos da Silva
CULPA: 4
Info
- 3 points
Listening to Hip Hop
Scholarly publications on hip hop have emerged over the past few decades from fields within the arts, humanities and social sciences. This course will focus on sound and listening, which we will consider in conjunction with other issues in hip hop studies. Music terminology and knowledge of notation are not assumed, but will be covered during the early weeks of the course in order to equip you with a vocabulary and common language for class discussions and written work.
Throughout the course, we will track key words in hip hop studies such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, politics, society, class, representation, and diaspora, focusing on recordings and performances as well as videos and films. While our roots will remain firmly in music, the seminar will consider hip hop through multiple lenses, drawing from readings situated in music studies, African American studies, Asian American Studies, Latinx studies, English, women’s/gender/sexuality studies, sociology, communications, anthropology, history, and cultural studies. Readings will help to locate music, artists, and genres within cultural, political, and social contexts, which in turn will assist us in our analysis of particular works. Critical reflection upon hip hop performances is an integral part of the course. Options for creative work will be provided in the final assignment.
The course aims to assist you in absorbing many of the diverse strands that comprise the world of hip hop; to develop skills in hearing and writing compellingly about it; and to reflect critically upon hip hop music and the discourse about it.
A note to those already well familiar with music terminology, notation, and concepts
Students come to this class with different musical background/experience. Bi-level assignments (i.e., ones that ask you to talk in more music detail) will provide you the opportunity to use your musical chops.
- Department: African American and African Diaspora
-
Instructor:
Ellie Hisama
CULPA: 2
Wikipedia
Info
- 4 points
Introduction to RNA-Seq Analysis
Intro to RNA-Seq Analysis
Prerequisites: BIOL BC1500,1501, 1502, 1503 and BIOL BC2100, or equivalent.
Transcriptome analysis, or the analysis of all expressed RNA sequences in a cell, has long been a major part of molecular biology and genetics. The modern technique of RNA-Seq has now been established as the approach for transcriptome studies and RNA-Seq analyses are ubiquitous in all areas of Biology. In this course we will cover the major technical and analytical aspects of RNA-Seq with an emphasis on the application by students to real datasets. We will cover both the original ‘Bulk RNA-Seq’ approach, where the total transcriptome of many cells are combined, and the more recent ‘single-cell RNA-Seq’ (scRNA-Seq) technology where transcriptomes of individual cells are analyzed separately. Students will learn to read and interpret journal articles that utilize RNA-Seq datasets, both bulk and single-cell, and to perform and present RNA-Seq data using publicly available datasets.
- Department: Biological Sciences @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Brian Morton
CULPA: 21 Info - 3 points
ELECTRICITY-MAGNETISM
Prerequisites: general physics, and differential and integral calculus. Electrostatics and magnetostatics, Laplace's equation and boundary-value problems, multipole expansions, dielectric and magnetic materials, Faraday's law, AC circuits, Maxwell's equations, Lorentz covariance, and special relativity.
- Department: Physics
-
Instructor:
Alberto Nicolis
Info - 3 points
Conversational Chinese
This course is designed for students with at least two years of college-level Chinese who wish to improve their conversational skills. It focuses on practical speaking and listening in real- world contexts, emphasizing fluency, vocabulary expansion, and cultural competence. Students will develop confidence in expressing opinions, narrating experiences, and engaging in spontaneous conversations on everyday and contemporary topics.
Note: This Course CANNOT be used to fulfill the language requirement.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Lingjun Hu
CULPA: 5
Info
- 2 points
Conversational Chinese
This course is designed for students with at least two years of college-level Chinese who wish to improve their conversational skills. It focuses on practical speaking and listening in real- world contexts, emphasizing fluency, vocabulary expansion, and cultural competence. Students will develop confidence in expressing opinions, narrating experiences, and engaging in spontaneous conversations on everyday and contemporary topics.
Note: This Course CANNOT be used to fulfill the language requirement.
- Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
-
Instructor:
Lingjun Hu
CULPA: 5
Info
- 2 points
Black Fashion and Dress Cultures
A cultural history of Black fashion and dress, this course examines the power of clothing as a strategic tool for self-representation, resistance, and liberation. We will examine how fashion and dress express social, political, and aesthetic realities and ambitions of Black people in diaspora, especially as they transition from enslavement to freedom, rural to urban, from colonized to liberated, and visualize a sense of cosmopolitanism on and with their adorned bodies.
In fall of 2026, the class will focus on 10 fashion objects that represent singular, transformative moments in Afrodiasporic history. Combining material history with cultural, social, and political context, this course analyzes the impact of fashion/dress makers and wearers, offering a window onto Black history through a familiar, yet contested and consequential mode of identity formation– clothing and style.
- Department: Africana Studies (AFSB)
-
Instructor:
Monica L Miller
CULPA: 10
Info
- 4 points
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING I
Various concepts within the field of biomedical engineering, foundational knowledge of engineering methodology applied to biological and/or medical problems through modules in biomechanics, biomaterials, and cell & tissue engineering.
- Department: Biomedical Engineering
- 3 points
PRIN-CHEM ENGIN-THERMODYNAMICS
Fundamentals are emphasized: the laws of thermodynamics are derived and their meaning explained and elucidated by applications to engineering problems. Pure systems are treated, with an emphasis on phase equilibrium.
- Department: Chemical Engineering
-
Instructor:
Mijo Simunovic
CULPA: 1 h-index: 17 Info - 3 points
Talking Animals and Other Worlds: The Fa
Talking Animals & Other W
Fables have long been considered sources of popular wisdom and education throughout the entire ancient
Mediterranean, marked by a diversity of literary, ethnic, geographic, political, and class associations. Further,
fable traditions have rather complicated oral and written receptions, often connected to historical/authorial
figures or fable collectors such as Ahiqar, Archilochos, Aesop, Callimachus, Jesus, Babrius, and Phaedrus.
Offering various approaches to world building and sometimes contradictory ethical and social reflections, fables
and their traditions serve as the ideal ground for exploring a variety of literary, methodological, and sociological
questions from the iron age to late antiquity.This course offers an exploration in translation of the fable as a
cross-cultural and multi-lingual discursive form that challenges assumptions around canon formation,
authorship, the socio-historical conditions of the "literary", and western literary narratives of cultural reception.
- Department: Classics
-
Instructor:
Brett L Stine
Info - 3 points
FOUNDATIONS OF MATERIALS SCIENCE
FOUNDATIONS OF MSE
Introduction to quantum mechanics: atoms, electron shells, bands, bonding; introduction to group theory: crystal structures, symmetry, crystallography; introduction to materials classes: metals, ceramics, polymers, liquid crystals, nanomaterials; introduction to polycrystals and disordered materials; noncrystalline and amorphous structures; grain boundary structures, diffusion; phase transformations; phase diagrams, time-temperature transformation diagrams; properties of single crystals: optical properties, electrical properties, magnetic properties, thermal properties, mechanical properties, and failure of polycrystalline and amorphous materials.
- Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
-
Instructor:
Simon Billinge
CULPA: 3 h-index: 75 Info - 3 points
CLASSICAL WAVES - LECTURE ONLY
CLASSICAL WAVES - LECTURE
Prerequisites: (PHYS BC2002) Calculus III Nonlinear pendula, transverse vibrations-elastic strings, longitudinal sound waves, seismic waves, electromagnetic oscillations & light, rainbows, haloes, the Green Flash; polarization phenomena - Haidinger's Brush, Brewster's angle, double refraction, optical activity; gravity & capillary waves; interference, diffraction, lenses & mirrors.
- Department: Physics and Astronomy @Barnard
-
Instructor:
Timothy J Halpin-Healy
CULPA: 6 Info - 3 points
METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions.