RELIGION & THE MOVIES

This class is an introduction to both film and religious studies and aims to explore their interaction. Ranging from auteurs to blockbusters, the course will analyze movies that make use of the sacred and of religious themes, figures or metaphors. The course will probe the definitions and boundaries of religion -as theology, myth, ideology- and will show students how religion remains a critical presence in the arts, even in a secular guise. We will look at the ways in which popular culture can serve religious functions in contemporary society and examine how faith is represented in popular culture.

• Department: Religion
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Clemence C Boulouque
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Introduction to South Asia

This course introduces students to South Asia through
an analysis of the heterogeneity, richness, and
complexity of the region’s conflicted pasts. Our
historical scope is vast and ambitious, starting with the
earliest urban settlements in about 2000BCE and
ending in the present. Though focused on “South
Asia,” the course problematizes the bounded areal
model by emphasizing the region’s enduring
connections to Eurasia, Africa, Southeast Asia, and
the broader Indian Ocean world. With connected
history as our method, the course asks students to
grapple with South Asia’s literary, religious, and
political histories as kinetic processes. This allows us to
ask probing questions about issues that have had, and
continue to have, major implications for the region––
and the world––today: sovereignty, power, gender,
community, devotion, piety, secularism, democracy,
violence, and the nation itself.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan Peterson
  Info
• 4 points

Introduction to South Asia-Discussion Se

Intro to S Asia-Disc Sect

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• W 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• R 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• R 11:10 a.m.-noon
• F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• F 11:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Saumya Dadoo
  Info
• 0 points

Nature as Text

How do we conceive of nature?  What cultural narratives do we bring with us in our understanding of the boundaries between the natural and the human worlds? How do these shape what we view as possible outcomes and solutions to problems like climate change and biodiversity loss? What possibilities open up for how we engage with the environment when we critically examine and engage with nature as a form of cultural narrative?

• Department: First-Year Writing @Barnard
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew L Rossi
  Info
• 3 points

TAI CHI

This series of classes will provice the practice of Tai Chi Chuan as a moving meditation and health maintenance exercise. This process involves both physical and nonphysical work and introduces Tai Chi as an exercise of consciousness. There will also be recommended reading selections in the history and philosophical underpinnings of Tai Chi. No pre-requisite for this course. Each class will consist of physical practice of the Tai Chi sequence of movements/postures, also discussion including history of and principles of Tai Chi.

• Department: Physical Education @Barnard
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• MW 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Stephen Shulman
  Info
• 1 points

BEGINNING YOGA

An introduction to Hatha Yoga focusing on the development of the physical body to increase flexibility and strength. Breathing practices and meditation techniques that relax and revitalize the mind and body are included.

• Department: Physical Education @Barnard
• MW 10 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• TR 10 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• TR 11 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Selma Trevino
  Info
• 1 points

YOGA/MEDITATION

This course includes an introduction to Hatha Yoga, which focuses on the development of the physical body through asanas, or poses, and classic meditation and relaxation techniques.  Regular meditation practice at home is required.

• Department: Physical Education @Barnard
• MW 11 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Lisa K Northrop
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 1 points

INTRO DARKROOM PHOTOGRAPHY

Intro Darkroom Photograph

Introductory course to analog photographic tools, techniques, and photo criticism. This class explores black & white, analog camera photography and darkroom processing and printing.  Areascovered include camera operations, black and white darkroom work, 8x10 print production, and critique. With an emphasis on the student’s own creative practice, this course will explore the basics of photography and its history through regular shooting assignments, demonstrations, critique, lectures, and readings. No prior photography experience is required.

• Department: Visual Arts
• MW 9:30 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Elisheva Gavra
  Info
• 3 points

ELEMENTARY PERSIAN II

An introduction to the spoken and written language of contemporary Iran. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• MTWR 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Saeed Honarmand
  Info
• 4 points

INTRO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Since Walter Benjamin’s concept of “work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” (1935), photography has been continuously changed by mechanical, and then digital, means of image capture and processing. This class explores the history of the image, as a global phenomenon that accompanied industrialization, conflict, racial reckonings, and decolonization. Students will study case studies, read critical essays, and get hands-on training in capture, workflow, editing, output, and display formats using digital equipment (e.g., DSLR camera) and software (e.g., Lightroom, Photoshop, Scanning Software). Students will complete weekly assignments, a midterm project, and a final project based on research and shooting assignments. No Prerequisites and no equipment needed. All enrolled students will be able to check out Canon EOS 5D DSLR Camera; receive an Adobe Creative Cloud license; and get access to Large Format Print service.

• Department: Visual Arts
• TR 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Paula L Lycan
  Info
• 3 points

Writing the Queer/Trans Self

How do queer and trans authors negotiate the written self amidst a culture which seeks to erase trans and non-binary realities, selves, and identities? In this class we will explore a handful of contemporary American literary texts written by queer and trans authors to explore how language is used, challenged, rejected, and reclaimed to constitute new literary selves and possibilities. For example, we will explore the reclamation of they/them pronouns, and the ways in which non-binary selves write themselves into binary colonial languages. The class will engage fundamental scholarship on race, gender, disability, and culture within the field of Trans studies.

• Department: First-Year Writing @Barnard
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Samuel Davis
  Info
• 3 points

INTRO AFRICAN HISTORY-DISCUSSION

INTRO TO AFRICAN HISTORY-DISC

• Department: History @Barnard
• T 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 11:10 a.m.-noon
• 0 points

Artful Adaptations

ARTFUL ADAPTATIONS

Can the violent fantasies of a fairytale shape romantic comedy? Can dance tell the same story as classical tragedy? What does Bollywood have to do with Renaissance England? Can ancient mythology animate American slave narrative? As biologists ask why does life appear in such a dazzling array of forms, this class asks why do certain stories get told and retold in such a dazzling array of varieties? Using as possible textual anchors Snow White, Medea, and Romeo and Juliet, this course will explore poems, short stories, plays, novels, paintings, films, musicals, dance, illustration, advertisement, song, memes, and other cultural objects to consider the accretion of meaning that results when stories cross, historical, cultural, and generic borders.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Monica F Cohen
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 3 points

Dead and Undead (Wkshop)

DEAD AND UNDEAD (WKSHOP)

What does it mean to be dead? Why the fascination—across time and culture—with conceiving of ways in which the dead can become un-dead? And how is being undead different from being alive? To investigate and trouble the boundaries between life and death (and un-death), we will analyze works from various genres and media, discussing near-death experiences, beating-heart cadavers, and a range of figures including zombies, ghosts, and other revenants. Objects of study include texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Ovid, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Nalo Hopkinson, and Mary Shelley; music by Camille Saint-Saëns; artwork by Hans Holbein and Breughel; television and film (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie); and more.

 

NOTE: This 4-credit version of First-Year Seminar (FYS)—FYS “Workshop”—is specially designed for students who believe they would benefit from extra support with their critical reading and academic writing skills. In addition to regular seminar meetings twice per week, students are assigned a Writing Fellow who they meet with for one hour every other week. APPLICATION REQUIRED BY THURSDAY, 11/7 @ 5PM: 
https://forms.gle/FNjftqoHRSQTQUSW9

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Penelope Usher
  Info
• 4 points

Here/There: Migrant Narratives

HERE/THERE: MIGRANT NARRA

This first-year seminar brings together texts, films and contemporary art that focus on migrant, immigrant, refugee, expat and exile experiences. We will explore how migrant subjects negotiate dominant discourses of nationality and citizenship, and how their identities as migrants intersect with their other positionalities, with a particular emphasis on race, gender and queerness. Some questions we will consider: How are immigrant, migrant and refugees marginalized, racialized and queered by dominant discourses? How do immigrants, migrants and refugees negotiate belonging when they cross cultural, national, linguistic and religious borders? How do these authors, filmmakers and artists resist erasure and complicate our understanding of home, belonging and identity? Texts are subject to change but will likely include authors such as Gloria Anzaldúa, James Baldwin, Kazim Ali, Fatimah Asghar, Ocean Vuong, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Masha Gessen, Viet Thanh Nguyen, as well as selected films, documentaries, visual art and other media.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Duygu Ula
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 3 points

LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

An introductory course intended primarily for nonscience majors. This interdisciplinary course focuses on the subject of LIfe in the Universe. We will study historical astronomy, gravitation and planetary orbits, the origin of the chemical elements, the discoveries of extrasolar planets, the origin of life on Earth, the evolution and exploration of the Solar Systen, global climate change on Venus, Mars and Earth, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI).

You cannot receive credit for this course and for ASTR UN1403 or ASTR UN1453.

Can be paired with the optional Lab class ASTR UN1903.

• Department: Physics and Astronomy @Barnard
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Nicholas M Luber
  Info
• 3 points

Border Stories (Wkshop)

BORDER STORIES (WKSHOP)

The topic of this Seminar course takes an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about, and traversing, the constructs of the border. The U.S.- Mexico border delimits more than nations; it is both a political and a social geography, marked by bodies of water, mountains, walls, ideologies, repression, and resistance. The crisis currently taking place at the border is an unfolding story with many narrators. We will study literary texts: fiction, poetry, and memoir written by those who know the border, and borderlands, intimately. We will also engage histories, social movement doctrine, and media coverage to mine the stories they tell. 

 

NOTE: This 4-credit version of First-Year Seminar (FYS)—FYS “Workshop”—is specially designed for students who believe they would benefit from extra support with their critical reading and academic writing skills. In addition to regular seminar meetings twice per week, students are assigned a Writing Fellow who they meet with for one hour every other week. APPLICATION REQUIRED BY THURSDAY, 11/7 @ 5PM: 
https://forms.gle/FNjftqoHRSQTQUSW9

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Francesca E Austin Ochoa
  Info
• 4 points

Race, Science, & Reproductive Justice

RACE, SCIENCE, REPRO JUST

This course is about reproduction—a biological and social process that is often the target of deep-seated ideas about identity, nation, culture, and definitions of life. With an emphasis on intersectional approaches to reproductive justice, we’ll read a variety of literary works, journalism, films and television shows, public health studies, and policy/legal texts, all of which differently narrate, debate, script, and theorize about reproduction. Questions we will explore include: what stories do we tell about reproduction? What role have innovations in reproductive technologies played in this process, from contraceptive uses of medicinal plants, to in-vitro fertilization and so-called “DIY” abortions, to population and development projects all over the world? How do long histories of obstetric violence inform modern definitions of reproductive health, rights, and justice? What kind of world does an intersectional and inclusive reproductive justice movement urge us to create? Please note that some of the material for this course includes references to or descriptions of obstetric violence.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Cecelia B Lie-Spahn
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

The Secret Life of Stuff

THE SECRET LIFE OF STUFF

“It has a mind of its own,” we shriek as the TV channels change without our input or the garage door opens when no one is home. Things can spark joy, grant authority, lead to our demise, and reveal our deepest secrets. They mediate social relationships, define political alliances, and provide economic opportunities. Sometimes it is not the presence of things but their absence – a misplaced phone, an expired passport, a childhood home – that more keenly shapes our reality. While people make objects, objects also make people.

This class will investigate the secret life of stuff, from maps to cups and buildings to body parts, to explore how inanimate objects can be seen to have an agency and power of their own. Our discussions will draw on a wide array of authors from a variety of fields, including Bill Brown, Martin Heidigger, Anni Albers, Neel Ahuja, Katherine Ott, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, and Anna Tsing. To accompany these texts, we will also turn to other, less traditional sources of information, from podcasts to museum exhibits and our own personal histories with things.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Camilla Sturm
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Storytelling

STORYTELLING

Why do we tell stories? Why do we feel a need to relate the things that happen to us? Why do writers and artists make things up? In this section of First-Year Seminar, we will explore these questions as well as others connected to the fundamental practice of storytelling. We will read and discuss short stories, novels, and memoirs that reflect on or call into question the narrator’s reasons for telling the story. We will also consider essays by literary critics, psychologists, and scientists on the human impulse to narrate. Literary texts may include works by Henry James, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Shirley Jackson, Haruki Murakami, and Carmen Maria Machado. Critical and theoretical texts may include works by Sigmund Freud, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Shelichach
  Info
• 3 points

INTRO AFRICAN HIST:1700-PRESNT

INTR AFRICAN HIST:1700-PRESNT

Survey of African history from the 18th century to the contemporary period. We will explore six major themes in African History: Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World, Colonialism in Africa, the 1940s, Nationalism and Independence Movements, Post-Colonialism in Africa, and Issues in the Making of Contemporary Africa.

• Department: History @Barnard
• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Abosede A George
  CULPA: 14 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

On Friendships Between Women

ON FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN WO

How do we reflect on the intimacies of friendship, and what might be particular to such intimacies between women? What makes a friendship good or bad? What tensions or correspondences might we trace between friendship and adjacent categories of relationality—’frenemies,’ sisterhood, lovers? In this course, we will apply close analytical examinations of literary and cultural texts in order to theorize the various shapes friendship may take. Throughout the semester, we will question how the friendships we encounter are situated within and/or against a variety of cultural and socioeconomic contexts. In doing so, we will explore friendship’s conceptual role in narratives of emotional development, education and intellectual life, work, community, and domesticity. Literary and theoretical texts may include works by Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Kamila Shamsie, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Jean Chen Ho, bell hooks, Virginia Woolf, Anahit Behrooz, Roxane Gay, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich. Selections from film and television may include the tv dramatization of Elena Ferrante’s
My Brilliant Friend
and Keira Knightley’s portrayal of Georgiana Cavendish in
The Duchess
, among others. In discussions and writing assignments both formal and creative, we will consider how the (un)friendly relationships represented in these texts shift, break, and thrive given the conditions under which they are conducted.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Weybright
  Info
• 3 points

American Exceptionalism

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

In this course we probe the ideology of American "exceptionalism." We treat the literary history of this idea as a transtemporal conversation involving its founding architects, ardent critics, and experimental reformers, concerned with the question of what should be valued on the American continents and within American experience. We become cartographers of this conversation and interlocutors within it, as we explore how habits of conceiving truth, power, and the relationship of human beings to the natural world have controlled what counts as exceptional and what ordinary. Where should we direct our awe? Readings will include James Baldwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, bell hooks, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Audre Lorde, Henry David Thoreau and William Carlos Williams.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Kristi-Lynn Cassaro
  Info
• 3 points

The End of the World

THE END OF THE WORLD

According to the great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” What, then, is the world? Is it an object? An interpretation? An inheritance? A point of view? Is the world a social and linguistic construct? If so, how many worlds are there? If Wittgenstein is right and every world ends at the limits of its language, then what lies beyond? What happens after the end? This course will consider these questions by investigating the end of the world in a variety of texts and contexts from the fourteenth century to the present: as a recurrent literary theme, religious fixation, philosophical conundrum, source of endless entertainment, and spring of existential anxiety. Contrary to what the phrase portends, we will find that there is no singular “end” of the world. Worlds end all the time. We therefore will approach the idea of the end as a question of ruins and remnants, an encounter with the void at the end of history, but also as a site of new beginnings, of futures we have yet to imagine—or can only imagine, if this means to glimpse what might be beyond the patterns of thought, belief, and action, the terms and conditions, the very language of the decaying world we inhabit. Authors, texts, and other materials will include fiction by Giovanni Boccaccio, Daniel Defoe, and Jeff VanderMeer; plays by Samuel Beckett; films including
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Aniara
,
Melancholia
, and
Manufactured Landscapes
; and studies in cultural anthropology, environmental humanities and radical ecologies.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Nathan Gorelick
  Info
• 3 points

Transnational Feminism

TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISM

What does it mean to be a feminist in a global context? In this course, we will examine the link between feminist activism and social policies from the eighteenth-century to the postMeToo era in several countries such as the UK, Iceland, Argentina, and France. How does activism influence law making and how do social policies influence feminism? How does activism differ from one country to another? What do these differences reveal about our own culture? We will focus on issues such as the history of women’s suffrage, the fight for political representation, access to child care and education, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, parental leave policies, and gender-based violence. We will examine these matters through novels, scholarly works, newspaper articles, political pamphlets as well as comics and street art.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Elsa Stephan
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 3 points

Impostors and Impersonators

IMPOSTORS AND IMPERSONATO

In this class, we will look at the fascination and the fear we have about impostors who construct false identities and impersonators who take on the identity of someone else—from folk and fairy tales to popular shows like
Inventing Anna
and the
Tinder Swindler
to conversations about identity deception in deep fakes and ChatGPT. We will examine the stories of con artists, doppelgängers, catfishers, identity theft fraudsters and those with impostor syndrome to understand: How do we construct what is real and what is fake? How do we determine what is deceptive and what is authentic? We will also look at current advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning and interrogate legal rulings on identity deception to understand how we authenticate and determine the originality of the self. Texts may include
Fantomina
by Eliza Haywood,
Doppelganger
by Naomi Klein,
Passing
by Nella Larsen, and
The Fraud
by Zadie Smith. Visual media may include
Parasite
,
The Talented Mr. Ripley
, and
Kagemusha
.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Vrinda Condillac
  CULPA: 28 Info
• 3 points

Cults

CULTS

As a former member of one so-called cult said (and many others have repeated): "Nobody joins a cult." What, then, does this designation mean and how has it been used in the past? How has "cult" become a way to demarcate "good" and "bad" religion, to condemn communities and practices that defy established norms, and what are the consequences of the “cult” label for marginalized groups? In this First-Year Seminar, we will evaluate the history of the term "cult" and its varied uses in the US and elsewhere. We will consider a variety of groups that have been labeled "cults," as we ask how the members of such New Religious Movements (NRMs) responded to and revealed the fractures of modern economic, political, gender, racial, and social relations.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Gale L Kenny
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 3 points

EMIGRE VOICES

The central goal of this course is to provide first-year students with an opportunity to learn from the émigré experience in literature, with attendant questions of nationality and identity coming to the foreground. For example: What happens to language and identity in immigration? To what degree can a "lost" home culture continue to affect its carriers in their new cultural matrix? To this end, readings have been chosen to form an overview of the last century of émigré literature written by authors from the former Russian Empire and the former Soviet Union, primarily from places located in present-day Russia and Ukraine. Students will choose an assigned work of their liking and write original explorations of their selected topics (to be chosen from a list or created in consultation with the instructor).  Naturally, these authors are a varied group. They come from various places and generations and have varied overarching concerns, such as fractured identity, survival techniques that look unusual within their new cultures, and the necessity of conscious self-fashioning. While the central readings assigned for the course are works of literary fiction (some artworks and publications based on diaries will also be included), the instructor will provide the necessary historical and cultural context for each work during class meetings.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
• Instructor: John C Wright
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

The Family

THE FAMILY

No matter our particular family histories or relationships, the family plays a central role in shaping each of our individual lives, and as an ideal the family form promises each of us a sphere of care and love. But how well does the family live up to this ideal in practice? And how might the family contribute to propping up social hierarchies along the lines of gender, race, and class? Might we imagine—and even desire—futures beyond the family? This course will consider critical engagements with the family form, spanning from Plato’s early skepticism, to 19th-century socialist utopian visions of the commune, to the rich variety of analyses offered by feminists of the 20th and 21st century. At the end of the class, we’ll consider what science/speculative fiction has to offer in its imagining of alternative possibilities for organizing care. Readings will include political writings, novels, and academic texts drawn from philosophy, sociology, critical race theory, and critical indigenous studies.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TR 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Caroline D Bowman
  Info
• 3 points

Hidden in Plain Sight: Ideology and Self

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

How does culture create and codify beliefs and norms so that they appear natural and difficult to identify without close analysis? In this course, we will explore aspects of our society that are hidden in plain sight through the forces of ideology. We will study works that challenge us to look closely at the things we
think we already know
. We will probe the aspects of society which seem to be true, natural, and common sense, and learn to unpack them. In doing so, we will dive into pop cultural moments (such as brat summer and the like) and probe their power relations and identity formations which otherwise remain hidden. We will analyze music videos, songs, poems, short stories, as well as popular phrases.

We will learn about structures of power through theories on race, gender, sexuality, identity, and culture itself. We will ask how we were given our genders, races, and other aspects of ourselves, and think critically about how that process works at both the granular and societal level. This course includes a field trip to Van Cortlandt Park wherein we will learn about how racial ideology is expressed through architecture and landscaping.

• Department: First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Samuel Davis
  Info
• 3 points

YOGA PRACTICE

This is a beginning level Hatha Yoga course consisting of one group class and one individual home practice required each week.  Home practice builds confidence and kinesthetic awareness in the practitioner and encourages commitment to practice.

• Department: Physical Education @Barnard
• M 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• W 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Lisa K Northrop
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 1 points

ENERGY & ENERGY CONSERVATION

Prerequisites: No prior scientific knowledge is required, but facility with high school?level algebra and comfort with quantitative computations is important. What is energy, really, and how do we conserve it? What does energy conservation have in common with Humpty Dumpty, Buddha’s Second Noble Truth, and the Arrow of Time? How is an “alternative energy” alternative? How do you know how much energy you actually use every day? This course presents the development of the concept of energy, links the development to the social and historical contexts in which it took place, and describes the contributions of the people who propelled the development. Students gain an understanding of the scientific concept of energy, and the ability to apply that understanding in quantitative analysis of contemporary issues in energy sources, utilization, efficiency, and conservation, through individual or group projects.

• Department: Chemistry
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: James J Valentini
  CULPA: 32 Info
• 3 points

STARS AND ATOMS

Prerequisites: recommended preparation: a working knowledge of high school algebra. What is the origin of the chemical elements? This course addresses this question, starting from understanding atoms, and then going on to look at how how atoms make stars and how stars make atoms. The grand finale is a history of the evolution of the chemical elements throughout time, starting from the Big Bang and ending with YOU. You cannot enroll in ASTR W1836 in addition to ASTR BC1754 or ASTR W1404 and receive credit for both.

• Department: Astronomy
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: James H Applegate
  CULPA: 44 Info
• 3 points

ELEMENTARY MODERN TURKISH II

Prerequisites: MDES UN1901 An introduction to the written and spoken language of Turkey. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Zuleyha Colak
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 0 Info
• 4 points

ASTRONOMY LAB I

Laboratory for ASTR UN1403. Projects include observations with the departments telescopes, computer simulation, laboratory experiments in spectroscopy, and the analysis of astronomical data. Lab 1 ASTR UN1903 - goes with ASTR BC1753, ASTR UN1403 or ASTR UN1453.

• Department: Astronomy
• M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
• T 7 p.m.-10 p.m.
• 1 points

ASTRONOMY LAB II

Laboratory for ASTR UN1404. Projects include use of telescopes, laboratory experiments in the nature of light, spectroscopy, and the analysis of astronomical data. Lab 2 ASTR UN1904 - goes with ASTR BC1754 or ASTR UN1404 (or ASTR UN1836 or ASTR UN1420).

• Department: Astronomy
• W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
• 1 points

The Year 1000: A World History

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of premodern history, with a substantive focus on the variety of cultures flourishing across the globe 1000 years ago.  Methodologically, the course will emphasize the variety of primary sources historians use to reconstruct those cultures, the various approaches taken by the discipline of history (and neighboring disciplines) in analyzing those sources, and the particular challenges and pleasures of studying a generally “source poor” period. The course queries the concepts of “global history” and “world history” as applied to the “middle millennium” (corresponding to Europe’s “medieval history”), by exploring approaches that privilege connection, comparison, combination, correlation, or coverage.

• Department: History
• TR 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Adam Kosto
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 4 points

The Year 1000: A World History

This course is designed to introduce students to the study of premodern history, with a substantive focus on the variety of cultures flourishing across the globe 1000 years ago.  Methodologically, the course will emphasize the variety of primary sources historians use to reconstruct those cultures, the various approaches taken by the discipline of history (and neighboring disciplines) in analyzing those sources, and the particular challenges and pleasures of studying a generally “source poor” period. The course queries the concepts of “global history” and “world history” as applied to the “middle millennium” (corresponding to Europe’s “medieval history”), by exploring approaches that privilege connection, comparison, combination, correlation, or coverage.

• Department: Auditing
• TR 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Adam Kosto
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 0 points

The Year 1000: A World History - DISC

The Year 1000 - DISC

Required zero-credit/ungraded discussion for The Year 1000: A World History lecture (HIST UN1942). Discussion section day & times to be determined.

• Department: History
• T 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• W 7:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• T 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Adam Kosto
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 0 points

Neuroscience Methods: Cells and Circuits

Neuro Methods: Cell & Cir

Research Methods in Neuroscience: Circuits and Cells offers students a unique opportunity to combine theoretical knowledge with practical skills development. This course pairs a weekly lecture with hands-on laboratory experiences, giving students a chance to see what day to day neuroscience research entails. The first three weeks of the semester will cover introductory topics in neuroscience, the scientific method, and experimental design. Then students will participate in three 3-week long modules covering human cognition, animal behavior, and neurological disease. The last two weeks of the course will be spent preparing students for a successful undergraduate research experience. Throughout the semester students will read scientific review articles to deepen their understanding of the lecture material and to contextualize that week’s lab experience.

• Department: Psychology
• R 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Sarah Demoya
  Info
• 4 points

Cells and Circuits Lab

This is the lab component for PSYC UN1950 Neuroscience Methods: Cells and Circuits.

• Department: Psychology
• F 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Sarah Demoya
  Info
• 0 points

MULTV. CALC. FOR ENGI & APP SCI

Differential and integral calculus of multiple variables. Topics include partial differentiation; optimization of functions of several variables; line, area, volume, and surface integrals; vector functions and vector calculus; theorems of Green, Gauss, and Stokes; applications to selected problems in engineering and applied science.

• Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
• TR 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Drew C Youngren
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 4 points

Approaches to Literary Study

Prerequisites: Students who register for ENGL UN2000 must also register for one of the sections of ENGL UN2001. This course is intended to introduce students to the advanced study of literature, through a weekly pairing of a faculty lecture (ENGL 2000) and small seminar led by an advanced doctoral candidate (ENGL 2001).  Students in the course will read works from across literary history, learning the different interpretive techniques appropriate to each of the major genres (poetry, drama, and prose fiction).  Students will also encounter the wide variety of critical approaches taken by our faculty and by the discipline at large, and will be encouraged to adapt and combine these approaches as they develop as thinkers, readers, and writers.  ENGL 2000/2001 is a requirement for both the English Major and English Minor.  While it is not a general prerequisite for other lectures and seminars, it should be taken as early as possible in a student's academic program.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• F 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• 4 points

Approaches to Literary Study

Prerequisites: Students who register for ENGL UN2000 must also register for one of the sections of ENGL UN2001. This course is intended to introduce students to the advanced study of literature, through a weekly pairing of a faculty lecture (ENGL 2000) and small seminar led by an advanced doctoral candidate (ENGL 2001).  Students in the course will read works from across literary history, learning the different interpretive techniques appropriate to each of the major genres (poetry, drama, and prose fiction).  Students will also encounter the wide variety of critical approaches taken by our faculty and by the discipline at large, and will be encouraged to adapt and combine these approaches as they develop as thinkers, readers, and writers.  ENGL 2000/2001 is a requirement for both the English Major and English Minor.  While it is not a general prerequisite for other lectures and seminars, it should be taken as early as possible in a student's academic program.

• Department: Auditing
• F 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• 0 points

Core as Praxis/Fieldwork

"The Core as Praxis/Fieldwork” provides students with the opportunity to explore the connections among texts from the Core Curriculum, their work in their major field of study, and their work in a professional environment outside of Columbia’s campus. Students will be guided through a process of reflection on the ideas and approaches that they develop in Core classes and in the courses in their major, to think about how they can apply theory to practice in the context of an internship or other experiential learning environment. Students will reread and revisit a text that they have studied previously in Literature Humanities or in Contemporary Civilization as the basis for their reading and writing assignments over the semester. 
To be eligible, students must (1) be engaged during the semester in an internship or other experiential learning opportunity, (2) have completed the sophomore year, and (3) have declared their major (or concentration)
. HUMAUN2000 may not be taken with the Pass/D/Fail option. All students will receive a letter grade for the course. Students can take HUMAUN2000 twice.

• Department: Core (A&S)
• Instructor: Jenny Rhodes
  Info
• 1 points

Core as Praxis/Fieldwork

"The Core as Praxis/Fieldwork” provides students with the opportunity to explore the connections among texts from the Core Curriculum, their work in their major field of study, and their work in a professional environment outside of Columbia’s campus. Students will be guided through a process of reflection on the ideas and approaches that they develop in Core classes and in the courses in their major, to think about how they can apply theory to practice in the context of an internship or other experiential learning environment. Students will reread and revisit a text that they have studied previously in Literature Humanities or in Contemporary Civilization as the basis for their reading and writing assignments over the semester. 
To be eligible, students must (1) be engaged during the semester in an internship or other experiential learning opportunity, (2) have completed the sophomore year, and (3) have declared their major (or concentration)
. HUMAUN2000 may not be taken with the Pass/D/Fail option. All students will receive a letter grade for the course. Students can take HUMAUN2000 twice.

• Department: Core (A&S)
• Instructor: Jenny Rhodes
  Info
• 1 points

Data Engineering with Python

Introduction to essential data engineering methods. Potential topics include Arrays, Linked Lists, Stacks and Queues, Trees and Graphs, Hash Tables, Search Algorithms and Efficiency, Relational databases, SQL, NoSQL, and Data Wrangling. Practice both theory and applications using Python programming.

• Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Yi Zhang
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

INTRO TO HIGHER MATHEMATICS

Introduction to understanding and writing mathematical proofs. Emphasis on precise thinking and the presentation of mathematical results, both in oral and in written form. Intended for students who are considering majoring in mathematics but wish additional training. CC/GS: Partial Fulfillment of Science Requirement. BC: Fulfillment of General Education Requirement: Quantitative and Deductive Reasoning (QUA).

• Department: Mathematics
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Giulia Sacca
  Info
• 3 points

ETHNICITY, RACE, IDENTITY IN THE PRE-MOD

This seminar investigates the concepts of ethnicity, race, and identity, in both theory and practice,
through a comparative survey of several case studies from the Pre-Modern history of the Middle East.
The course focuses on symbols of identity and difference, interpreting them through a variety of
analytical tools, and evaluating the utility of each as part of an ongoing exploration of the subject. The
survey considers theories of ethnicity and race, as well as their critics, and includes cases from the
Ancient World (c. 1000 BCE) through the Old Regime (c. 1800 CE).

Students in this course will gain a familiarity with major theories of social difference and alterity, and
utilize them to interpret and analyze controversial debates about social politics and identity from the
history of the Middle East, including ancient ethnicity, historical racism, Arab identity, pluralism in the
Islamic Empire, and slavery, among others. In addition, students will spend much of the semester
developing a specialized case study of their own on a historical community of interest. All of the case
studies will be presented in a showcase at the end of the semester.

All assigned readings for the course will be in English. Primary sources will be provided in translation.
The course meets once a week and sessions are two hours long.

• Department: Asian and Middle East @Barnard
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Nathanael P Shelley
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 4 points

INTRO TO ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

The course provides an overview of environmental law for students without a legal background. It examines U.S. statutes and regulations regarding air, water, hazardous and toxic materials, land use, climate change, endangered species, and the like, as well as international environmental issues. After completing the course students should be equipped to understand how the environmental laws operate, the role of the courts, international treaties and government agencies in implementing environmental protection, and techniques used in addressing these issues.

• Department: Earth Institute
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Lisa Garcia
  Info
• 3 points

Feminist/Intersectional Science and Tech

This capstone course intended for juniors and seniors who are pursuing
the minor or concentration in Feminist/Intersectional Science and Technology Studies (F/ISTS)
will provide opportunities for students to engage with practical applications of F/ISTS theories
and methodologies through interactive discussions. We will focus on current events of national
and international importance for which F/ISTS-based tools and case studies offer relevant
empirical evidence and analytic frameworks (scientific, political, social, and ethical). Focusing on
one current issue of public importance (a policy, a circulating claim, an event, etc.), students
will practice crafting synthetic and accessible analyses by producing a “message” that is
empirically and conceptually grounded in F/ISTS scholarship and accessible to the general
public.
This term (Spring 2025), the course will focus on recent U.S. Executive Orders that address
gender, sexuality, and racial equity.

• Department: Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies @Barnard
• F 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Rebecca Jordan-Young
  Wikipedia Info
• 1 points

DRAWING STUDIO

This course delves into drawing as an expansive, exploratory practice that underpins all forms of visual art. Designed primarily as a hands-on workshop, the class is enriched with slide lectures, video presentations, and field trips. Throughout the semester, students will engage in individual and group critiques, fostering dialogue about their work. Beginning with still life and progressing to drawings of artworks, artifacts, and figure studies, the course investigates drawing as a dynamic practice connected to a wide array of visual cultures.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• R 2:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Jozefina Chetko
  Info
• 3 points

MULTV. CALC. FOR ENGI & APP SCI

Required recitation session for students enrolled in APMA E2000.

• Department: Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
• F 2:40 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• R 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• R 11:40 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Yinxi Pan
  Info
• Instructor: Jackson C Turner
  Info
• Instructor: Yinxi Pan
  Info
• Instructor: Yin Zhou
  Info
• 0 points

Approaches to Literary Study Seminar

Approaches to Lit Study S

Prerequisites: Students who register for ENGL UN2001 must also register for ENGL UN2000 Approaches to Literary Study lecture. This course is intended to introduce students to the advanced study of literature, through a weekly pairing of a faculty lecture (ENGL 2000) and small seminar led by an advanced doctoral candidate (ENGL 2001).  Students in the course will read works from across literary history, learning the different interpretive techniques appropriate to each of the major genres (poetry, drama, and prose fiction).  Students will also encounter the wide variety of critical approaches taken by our faculty and by the discipline at large, and will be encouraged to adapt and combine these approaches as they develop as thinkers, readers, and writers.  ENGL 2000/2001 is a requirement for both the English Major and English Minor.  While it is not a general prerequisite for other lectures and seminars, it should be taken as early as possible in a student's academic program.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Anna Krauthamer
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Alice Clapie
  Info
• Instructor: Kaagni Harekal
  Info
• Instructor: Evelyn A Macpherson
  Info
• Instructor: Ali Yalgin
  Info
• 0 points

PERSPECTIVES IN MATHEMATICS

Prerequisites: some calculus or the instructor's permission. Intended as an enrichment to the mathematics curriculum of the first years, this course introduces a variety of mathematical topics (such as three dimensional geometry, probability, number theory) that are often not discussed until later, and explains some current applications of mathematics in the sciences, technology and economics.

• Department: Mathematics @Barnard
• W 2:40 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Dusa McDuff
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 1 points

LABORATORY IN NEUROSCIENCE

NEUROSCIENCE LAB

This course provides a hands-on introduction to techniques commonly used in current neurobiological research. Topics covered will include neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and invertebrate animal behavioral genetics. Participation in this course involves dissection of sheep brains and experimentation with invertebrate animals.

• Department: Neuroscience & Behavior @Barnard
• T 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
• W 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
• R 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• R 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
• F 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• W 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Anamaria Alexandrescu
  Info
• Instructor: Luca Iemi
  Info
• Instructor: Anamaria Alexandrescu
  Info
• Instructor: Luca Iemi
  Info
• Instructor: Anamaria Alexandrescu
  Info
• Instructor: Shuk C Tsoi
  Info
• 3 points

DRAWING II

Prerequisites: (VIAR UN1000) Examines the potential of drawing as an expressive tool elaborating on the concepts and techniques presented in VIAR UN1001. Studio practice emphasizes individual attitudes toward drawing while acquiring knowledge and skills from historical and cultural precedents. Portfolio required at the end.

• Department: Visual Arts
• T 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Daphne Arthur
  Info
• 3 points

INTRO TO ASTROPHYSICS II

Prerequisites: a working knowledge of calculus. Corequisites: the second term of a course in calculus-based general physics. Continuation of ASTR UN2001; these two courses constitute a full year of calculus-based introduction to astrophysics. Topics include the structure of our galaxy, the interstellar medium, star clusters, properties of external galaxies, clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and cosmology.

• Department: Astronomy
• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Frederik Paerels
  CULPA: 21 Info
• 3 points

ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY II

Prerequisites: EEEB UN2001 Second semester of introductory biology sequence for majors in enviromnental biology and environmental science, emphasizing the ecological and evolutionary aspects of biology. Also intended for those interested in an introduction to the principles of ecology and evolutionary biology.

• Department: Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew I Palmer
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 14 Info
• 4 points

ELECTRICITY&MAGNETISM-LEC+LAB

Charge, electric field, and potential. Gausss law. Circuits: capacitors and resistors. Magnetism and electromagnetism. Induction and inductance. Alternating currents. Maxwells equations. This is a calculus-based class. Familiarity with derivatives and integrals is needed.

PLEASE NOTE:  Students who take PHYS BC2002 may not get credit for PHYS BC2019 or PHYS BC2020.

• Department: Physics and Astronomy @Barnard
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• 4.5 points

Religion and Political Thought

Are “belief” and “reason” two different things? What is the proper role of religion in modern society? How do we determine what is just and unjust in the absence of a Higher Law? Does religion continue to influence political decision-making in liberal democracies, and if so, how? These questions continue to animate debates about the relationship between religion and politics today. This class examines articulations of and responses to this question in the political thought of the Enlightenment, a period that has traditionally been described as the moment when “the West” parted ways with religion and religious belief as the foundation for its understanding of truth, justice, and social order. In this class, we will examine classic and overlooked works of Enlightenment philosophy. We will interrogate whether the Enlightenment really signaled a departure from religion. We will also examine whether the Enlightenment was the preserve — much less the invention — of white Europeans and American settlers. We will do so with an eye toward the politics of the present, examining how Enlightenment thought’s engagement with religion produced discourses of race, gender, economy, and nationhood that continue to shape the terms of political discourse today.

• Department: Religion @Barnard
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Timothy Vasko
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 3 points

CARIBBEAN CULTURE & SOCIETIES

This course offers a chronological study of the Anglophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone insular Caribbean through the eyes of some of the region’s most important writers and thinkers. We will focus on issues that key Caribbean intellectuals--including two Nobel prize-winning authors--consider particularly enduring and relevant in Caribbean cultures and societies. Among these are, for example, colonization, slavery, national and postcolonial identity, race, class, popular culture, gender, sexuality, tourism and migration. This course will also serve as an introduction to some of the exciting work on the Caribbean by professors at Barnard College and Columbia University (faculty spotlights).

• Department: Africana Studies (AFSB)
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Maja Horn
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

THE ETHNOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION

Introduction to the theory and practice of “ethnography”—the intensive study of peoples’ lives as shaped by social relations, cultural images, and historical forces. Considers through critical reading of various kinds of texts (classic ethnographies, histories, journalism, novels, films) the ways in which understanding, interpreting, and representing the lived words of people—at home or abroad, in one place or transnationally, in the past or the present—can be accomplished. Discussion section required.

• Department: Anthropology
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Maria Jose de Abreu
  Info
• 3 points

INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS PROOFS

INTRO TO MATHEMATICAL PRO

This is a seminar course that covers the basics of mathematical proofs and in particular the epsilon-delta argument in single variable calculus.

Students who have little experience with mathematical proofs are strongly encouraged to take this course concurrently with Honors Math, Into to Modern Algebra, or Intro to Modern Analysis.

• Department: Mathematics
• F 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Julien Dubedat
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 0 points

INTRODUCTION AFRICAN DIASPORA

Interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the African diaspora in the Americas: its motivations, dimensions, consequences, and the importance and stakes of its study. Beginning with the contacts between Africans and the Portuguese in the 15th century, this class will open up diverse paths of inquiry as students attempt to answer questions, clear up misconceptions, and challenge assumptions about the presence of Africans in the New World.

• Department: Africana Studies (AFSB)
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Tamara Walker
  Info
• 3 points

PAINTING II

A continuation of painting I - III, open to all skill levels. Students will further develop techniques to communicate individual and collective ideas in painting. This course will focus on individual and collaborative projects designed to explore the fundamental principles of image making. Students acquire a working knowledge of traditional studio skills and related concepts in contemporary art through class critiques, discussion, and individual meetings with the professor. Reading materials will provide historical and philosophical background to the class assignments. Class projects will range from traditional to experimental and multi-media. Image collections will be discussed in class with an awareness of contemporary image production.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• W 2:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Joan Snitzer
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points