The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various jazz ensembles, both large and small, instrumental and vocal, that cover a wide range of musical ensembles. All ensembles perform at an intermediate level or higher and require some past jazz experience.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various jazz ensembles, both large and small, instrumental and vocal, that cover a wide range of musical ensembles. All ensembles perform at an intermediate level or higher and require some past jazz experience.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various jazz ensembles, both large and small, instrumental and vocal, that cover a wide range of musical ensembles. All ensembles perform at an intermediate level or higher and require some past jazz experience.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various jazz ensembles, both large and small, instrumental and vocal, that cover a wide range of musical ensembles. All ensembles perform at an intermediate level or higher and require some past jazz experience.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various jazz ensembles, both large and small, instrumental and vocal, that cover a wide range of musical ensembles. All ensembles perform at an intermediate level or higher and require some past jazz experience.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.
Prerequisites: auditions by appointment made at first meeting. Contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature. Students who register for chorus will receive a maximum of 4 points for four or more semesters.
Prerequisites: contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature.
Prerequisites: ) Limited to 16 students who are participating in the Science Pathways Scholars Program. Students in this seminar course will be introduced to the scientific literature by reading a mix of classic papers and papers that describe significant new developments in the field. Seminar periods will be devoted to oral reports, discussion of assigned reading, and student responses. Section 1: Limited to students in the Science Pathways Scholars Program. Section 2: Limited to first-year students who received a 4 or 5 on the AP and are currently enrolled in BIOL BC1500.
Performance Seminar Masterclass is open to classical musicians of any instrument(s) with the highest commitment to performance. Students are admitted via live audition during the first week of classes in the Fall. Each week, two students perform repertoire of their choice for the class and receive feedback from everyone present. The discussions, moderated by the director of the Music Performance Program, Dr. Magdalena Stern-Baczewska, are designed to provide constructive criticism to the performers and to pose questions related to performance from the perspectives of musical interpretation, career management, professional collaboration, and pedagogy.
This is an introductory course and no previous knowledge is required. It focuses on developing basic abilities to speak as well as to read and write in modern Tibetan, Lhasa dialect. Students are also introduced to modern Tibetan studies through selected readings and guest lectures.
An introduction to the most widely spoken language of South Asia. Along with an understanding of the grammar, the course offers practice in listening and speaking. The Hindi (Devanagari) script is used for reading and writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Prerequisites: PHYS UN1601 Corequisite: MATH UN1201 or equivalent. Temperature and heat, gas laws, the first and second laws of thermodynamics, kinetic theory of gases, electric fields, direct currents, magnetic fields, alternating currents, electromagnetic waves. The course is preparatory for advanced work in physics and related fields.
This is a fast-paced course that compresses two years of Hindi into one year. It is for students of South Asian background who already possess limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi or Urdu. Non-heritage students who have some exposure to Hindi or Urdu and South Asian cultures may also take this course.
It begins with an introduction to the Devanagari Script, which enables students to acquire basic reading and writing skills. They then build on their listening and speaking skills. To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audiovisual materials. These texts are related to language functions in daily personal and social life situations.
It focuses on vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural topics and developing knowledge of basic Hindi grammar. By the end of the semester, students will develop productive skills in reading, writing, and speaking and will be able to:
• speak about themselves and their environment, and initiate conversations on topics of general interest.
• Understand most of the basic sentence structures of Hindi in formal and informal registers.
• Write correspondence related to daily life, letters, short essays, and compositions on various topics.
• Learn some basic vocabulary related to aspects of Indian life, such as family life, social traditions, and education.
• Initiate and sustain conversations on a range of topics related to different aspects of Indian culture, social, and family life.
On the first day of classes, there will be an interview/placemat test to establish the proficiency level. Please come directly to class. If accepted, the department will register you internally.
This introductory course surveys key topics in the study of international politics, including the causes of war and peace; the efficacy of international law and human rights; the origins of international development and underdevelopment; the politics of global environmental protection; and the future of US-China relations. Throughout the course, we will focus on the
interests
of the many actors of world politics, including states, politicians, firms, bureaucracies, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations; the
interactions
between them; and the
institutions
in which they operate. By the end of the semester, students will be better equipped to systematically study international relations and make informed contributions to critical policy debates.
BEGINNING IN FALL 2025, BARNARD STUDENTS WISHING TO TAKE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS FOR INTRO CREDIT TOWARD THE MAJOR MUST TAKE POLS-BC1610. If Barnard students enroll in POLS-UN2601, the course will only count toward their major as elective credit.
Columbia College students who take POLS-BC1610 can only apply the course toward their major for elective credit.
Students may not get credit for more than one of the following courses: POLS BC1610, POLS UN1601, or POLS-UN2601.
Prerequisites: PSYC UN1001 or PSYC UN1010 Recommended preparation: one course in behavioral science and knowledge of high school algebra. Corequisites: PSYC UN1611 Introduction to statistics that concentrates on problems from the behavioral sciences.
When we hear “pop culture,” we often think of it in comparison to a “high culture.” In reality, popular culture is something that everyone has easy access to, and represents a common language of the people. Religion permeates American popular culture in surprising ways, and is part of national vocabulary. In addition, religious communities turn to popular culture as a way to preserve their own identities and uniqueness in the face of homogenization and assimilation. The course will attempt to cover a diversity of voices and perspectives. It is important to understand how context plays a role in the interpretation and practice of faith, as well as to witness the tension between the theology and the manifestation of belief.
We are not interested in determining if a particular understanding is right or wrong. Rather, we want to understand the role religion plays in society and for the individual. You will be expected to be critical and engaged. My hope is that you will also be creative and daring, and push us all into a better understanding of the material.
Corequisites: PSYC UN1610 Required lab section for PSYC UN1610.
Corequisites: PSYC UN1610 Required lab section for PSYC UN1610.
This is an undergraduate lecture course introducing students to the study of religion through an engagement with the history of hip hop music. More specifically, this course is organized chronologically to narrate a history of religion in the United States (circa 1970 to the present day) by mapping the ways that a variety of religious ideas and practices have animated rap music’s evolution and expansion during this time period. While there are no required prerequisites for the course, prior coursework in religious studies, African American studies, and/or popular music is helpful.
This is an undergraduate lecture course introducing students to the study of religion through an engagement with the history of hip hop music. More specifically, this course is organized chronologically to narrate a history of religion in the United States (circa 1970 to the present day) by mapping the ways that a variety of religious ideas and practices have animated rap music’s evolution and expansion during this time period. While there are no required prerequisites for the course, prior coursework in religious studies, African American studies, and/or popular music is helpful.
This is an undergraduate lecture course introducing students to the study of religion through an engagement with the history of hip hop music. More specifically, this course is organized chronologically to narrate a history of religion in the United States (circa 1970 to the present day) by mapping the ways that a variety of religious ideas and practices have animated rap music’s evolution and expansion during this time period. While there are no required prerequisites for the course, prior coursework in religious studies, African American studies, and/or popular music is helpful.
This intensive, fast-paced course condenses two years of Urdu instruction into one year. It is tailored for students of South Asian heritage who possess basic speaking and listening skills in Urdu or Hindi. Non-heritage students with prior exposure to Urdu or Hindi, as well as South Asian cultures, are also encouraged to enroll.
An interview will be conducted on the first day of class to assess speaking and listening comprehension proficiency levels.
The course begins with an introduction to the Urdu script, enabling students to develop essential reading and writing skills. It then enhances listening and speaking abilities using a diverse range of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other audio-visual resources. These materials are thoughtfully selected to support language development in everyday personal and social contexts.
The curriculum places a strong emphasis on vocabulary expansion, cultural understanding, and a foundational grasp of Urdu grammar. By the end of the first semester, students will have developed practical skills in reading, writing, and speaking. Specifically, they will be able to:
Speak about themselves, their surroundings, and engage in conversations on general topics.
Understand and use basic sentence structures in both formal and informal Urdu.
Write letters, short essays, and compositions on a variety of everyday topics.
Acquire vocabulary related to key aspects of South Asian life, including family dynamics, social traditions, and education.
Initiate and sustain conversations about South Asian culture, social life, and family traditions.
This course introduces students to the analysis and recent history of military and other coercive actions in today’s fast-changing global system. It asks what causes states and non-state actors to take various violent and coercive actions internationally, and what the consequences (often unintended) of those actions are. It examines international wars and invasions, alliances, economic sanctions and chokepoints, international terrorism, nuclear weapons, the use of airstrikes and drones, and cyber conflict and other forms of gray-zone warfare. While we cannot cover the full gamut of relevant topics or geographical areas in the time available, this lecture course approaches these issues by analyzing and discussing selected current and recent events, using theories drawn from political science, other social sciences, and the policy world. The course’s primary goals are to use examples of current international security issues to develop students’ ability to analyze and critique competing cause-and-effect arguments, and to pose their own causal arguments about crucial global events.
Not open to students who have already received credit for POLS BC3118, Colloquium on Problems in International Security.
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.
Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.
This course will widen the issues of scientific thinking and scientific habits of mind developed in
Frontiers
to include societal level applications of communicating science and utilizing it appropriately for policy decisions. The course will endeavor to help students understand the current debates around science informing policy.
Science for Future Leaders
is a course for those who want to understand how we can use scientific information and scientific-style critical thinking to deliberate better together in any situation - and, ideally, help each other build a better world.
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.
An introduction to the spoken and written language of contemporary Iran. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
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.
As far back as Walter Benjamin’s “work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” (1935), photography has always been challenged by
mechanical means
of image processing. Photographers and Institutions have first resisted and then (mostly) embraced each of these changes. This class explores Artificial Intelligence Photography as the latest in a series of earthquakes in the history of the photographic image, accompanying the desires of business, globalization, and science. This class seeks an ethically guided, globally representative model for photography and artificial intelligence. Debates around authorship and creativity (e.g., Supreme Court case with Andy Warhol) now face a radically new context of an “authorless” photograph. As crowdsourced imagemaking begins, the bias of massive datasets have taken techno-utopians by surprise, underlining that the task of building an equitable image-bank of the world cannot be left to algorithms and entrepreneurs. This class will explore the ethics and aesthetics of Artificial Intelligence and Imagery. There will be equal emphasis on reading and writing papers, as there will be on learning new software and tools.
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: A working knowledge of high school algebra. Corequisites: Suggested parallel laboratory course: ASTR C 1904y. Examines the properties of stars, star formation, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, the Milky Way and other galaxies, and the cosmological origin and evolution of the universe. Students may not receive credit for both ASTR BC 1754 and ASTR C1404.
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.
This is a course in the history of an artifact, one that we now call “the Bible,” which has a unique status in many religious communities. This course will explore two aspects of this artifact’s life: 1. How that artifact physically comes into being; and 2. What it meant for different communities to attribute special status to that artifact. The main questions that we will be addressing in this course are: What does it mean to call a text or a book “sacred”? How does the idea of a sacred text or object shape the way that people interact with the Bible, and with religion more broadly?
The study of yoga in practice and philosophy to deepen and complement dance training and performance.
Yoga is a broad term for different components. The study of Yoga has 8 limbs or branches, one of which is an Asana (posture) practice. This yoga for dancers course focuses on Asana, Pranayama (breathing) and Meditation and reading to inform understanding of an ancient pratice and philosophy.
Based on the principles and practices of Hatha yoga, one of the Asana yoga practices, students will learn to integrate approaches to breathing and alignment to inform their movement practice and will learn the anatomy and histories behind the ancient practice.
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.
This class is an introduction to electricity, magnetism, circuits, light & optics, with a brief introduction to atomic and nuclear physics. Our goal is to develop an understanding of the principles underlying Nature's richness therein and highlighting, when possible, its relevance in medical & biological contexts.
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.
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.
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).
Today’s Christianities have evolved through a series of radical departures from the life and teachings of a person remembered as Jesus Christ but perhaps first known as Yeshua. Our course grounds what can be known about this “historical Jesus” in the contexts of Roman, Greek, and Jewish antiquity, then progresses through developments of Christian and para-Christian communities to key engagements of Christianity and the world today. The focus is on landmark readings that illuminate moments of change, situating those readings in proper historical contexts, and linking them into the wider narratives the human story. Students will interrogate readings to understand what Christianity was to their authors and first audiences, supported by lectures that outline key historical contexts and significant scholarly debates, a series of exams that guide students to articulate stories of change, and a complementary thread of assignments that focus on pilgrimage to reflect on how Christianity has historically been a religion inflected by both time and place.
This course builds on fundamentals of psychological and behavioral science by exploring reproducibility and replication on a global level. Students will learn from a wide range of studies and their real-world implications.
This lecture course introduces students to key concepts and questions in the anthropological study of power and politics. What is power? How and when is it concentrated? What is authority? What are its sources? By what forms and means has rule and rulership been conceived in diverse societies? How do anthropologists think about the nation and the state distinctly from the ways in which these categories have been conceptualized in political science and political theory, or by historians of exclusively Western (post-Westphalian) polities? The course materials include anthropological texts and classic works from those adjacent disciplinary traditions, as well as texts from literary and other fields.
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.
Why does literature affect us as it does, why might you want to understand its history, strategies, and meaning, and how exactly do you go about that? This course won’t give you
the
answer, because there is no single answer. It will instead point the way toward the multitude of possible answers, giving you a variety of critical tools for exploring these questions, and deepening your powers as a thinker, reader, and writer.
The course consists of weekly lectures by department faculty members (ENGL 2000) and small weekly seminars with advanced doctoral candidates (ENGL 2001). The lectures will introduce you to texts from across literary history and in various genres (poetry, drama, prose narrative, etc.), giving you an opportunity to learn from and get to know our renowned faculty members. The intimate seminar setting will give you an opportunity to delve further into these texts and techniques, debate their meaning with one another and an expert guide, and engage in exercises that advance your critical writing and interpretive skills, putting into practice what you’ve learned. You will encounter the wide variety of critical approaches taken by our faculty, your seminar leader, and the discipline at large, while learning to expand upon these approaches and make them your own.
The course is required for English majors and minors (who should take it as early as possible in their Columbia careers), but it is for everyone: advanced students of literature or those new to literary study; committed majors or those still exploring; anyone seeking the excitement and immersion this course offers.
(
Note
: Students who register for ENGL UN2000 must also register for one of the sections of ENGL UN2001.)
HUMA UN2000
– The
Core as Praxis
or
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, and to think about how they can apply theory to practice in the context of an experiential learning environment (e.g., service learning, fieldwork, internship, etc.). Students will reread and revisit a text that they have studied previously in
Literature Humanities
or in
Contemporary Civilization
as the basis for their critical lens on their major and experiential learning and as the basis for their reading and writing assignments during the course.
Student Eligibility Criteria:
Have already completed the sophomore year
Have already declared a major
Are engaging concurrently in an experiential learning opportunity (e.g., service learning, fieldwork, internship, etc.)
HUMA UN2000 may not be taken with the Pass/D/Fail option. All students will receive a letter grade for the course. Students can take HUMA UN2000 twice.
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.
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.
The 21st century demands a deep understanding of how political institutions, leaders, and citizens navigate an ever-changing political, economic, and technological landscape. This course aims to foster informed civic participation and critical thinking. To achieve this goal, the course will equip students with essential knowledge about what political science is and what are the most important current debates. Students will learn from recent political science research from the Columbia Department of Political Science. While such insights are typically confined to specialized courses, this course is designed to make them accessible to a broader audience, bridging the gap and preparing all students to thrive in an ever-more complex political world.
The course will also guide those who are interested in pursuing a political science major to understand the different subfields and the work being done within them, as well as the methods being used
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.
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.
Required recitation session for students enrolled in APMA E2000.
The theater of the absurd is perhaps the single most influential movement in modern
drama and theatre, important not only for launching the careers of playwrights like
Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, but also for its embrace of philosophers such as
Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus and the manifestos of Antonin Artaud. In the
so-called “little theaters” of Paris in the late 1940s and ‘50s, plays such as Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot and Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano challenged the conventions of both
classical and bourgeois theater, staging a darkly humorous, “absurd” vision of human
existence. Through close readings and occasional screenings of the major plays
associated with this theater–often considered a type of anti-theater–we will identify the
primary themes of absurdist drama (purposelessness and hopelessness of human
existence; godlessness of the modern world; futility of action; collapse of logic;
impossibility of communication etc) as well as the hallmarks of the absurdist theatrical
style (its debt to mime, vaudeville, the circus, and marionette theater; the use of parody,
humor, ritual, and violence; theater within theater; absence of action/plot etc). We will
consider the philosophical and literary origins of this form of theater, especially its links
to the Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus; the social and political
factors contributing to its emergence in post-WWII Paris; theatrical conventions of early
performances; popular and critical reception of its early productions; precursors to the
theater of the absurd (Alfred Jarry’s pataphysics; Antonin Artaud’s theater of cruelty; the
indirect influence of Kafka, Italian Futurism, and Russian theater); and finally its
influence on theater outside of France, particularly in England (Harold Pinter) and the
U.S. (Edward Albee, Maria Irene Fornes).
Some issues to which I would like us to be especially attentive are: the role of women
on stage; gender construction; performance techniques; the role of language (the main
writers of absurdist drama acquired French as a second language--Adamov was
Russian, Ionesco was Franco-Romanian, Beckett was Irish).
We will try to go together to see at least one absurdist or absurdist-influenced play in
New York.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Second Year Chinese II (CHNX2002) is the continuation of Second Year Chinese I (CHNSX2001). It is designed for students who have completed a rigorous three-semester college-level Mandarin course or its equivalent. This course aims to develop proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing at the Intermediate High to Advanced Low levels according to the ACTFL guidelines. Students will engage with real-world scenarios relevant to studying abroad and gain a deeper understanding of modern Chinese society and culture. Emphasis is placed on narration, description, comparison, and the development of intercultural competence through comparative cultural analysis. Course materials include dialogues and narratives to support vocabulary, grammar, communication, and cultural learning.
Islands feature very often in literature and it is the goal of this course to understand why this is so. We could take our point of departure from the poet John Donne’s famous claim that “no man is an island” and understand that to mean that human beings crave relations with other human beings, and this is why isolating ourselves on a real or metaphorical island, all alone, is something we resist. Already, however, we discern the figurative utility of the island: it helps us approach the existential topic of solitude itself. What is it to be alone? Might solitude sometimes be something a person actually desires? Some of the literary texts we will read in this class will help us respond to these questions, but philosophy will also help us too, since it also wishes to understand the emotional and physical experience of solitude. For that reason, philosophers often deploy islands – philosophical islands in this case – in order to ponder the nature of that very experience. We will accordingly read extracts from the philosophers Martin Heidegger, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Emmanuel Levinas to assist us. The very topography of an island is important – it is self-contained and unconnected to any mainland. And this is useful if one wishes to imagine an isolated community, unthreatened by any invaders crossing the sea. It is why, as we shall see, remote islands are locations where writers can imagine different ways of being in a community, untouched and unaffected by the rest of the world. How about living in a utopian community, for instance? We will read extracts of Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis for that very reason. Might that community be only constituted by men? We will read extracts of Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines to find out what that might look like, and compare that patriarchal isle to islands populated solely by women – these are feminist islands in an appreciable sense. Hence two texts set on islands: Eliza Heywood’s Memoirs of an Island Adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia from which we will read selected extracts, and Pierre de Marivaux’s short play The Colony which we will read in its entirety. Of course, one of the most famous islands is described by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe. We will read extracts from that text, but also make the comparative gesture by juxtaposing a version or rewriting of Robinson Crusoe, Patrick Chamoiseau’s Crusoe’s Footprint, a novel which provides him a way to reflect on colonialism and the slav
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.
In this course, you will review your study of Italian grammar from Elementary Italian 1 and 2, dive deeper into that grammar, and engage in more rigorous strategies for reading, writing, and oral communication in Italian. New grammar elements not covered in Elementary Italian 1 and 2 will also be introduced. Through intensive reading, videos, regular writing, and in-class participation and presentations, you will strengthen your understanding of spoken and written Italian, as well as improve your communication in Italian, both orally and in writing. Over the course of this semester, you will build your vocabulary, grow more confident in your communication, and expand your exposure to a variety of aspects of Italian history, society and culture. By the end of this course, you should:
(1) be able to introduce and describe yourself and others with comfort, using simple and complex phrases and sentences, both orally and in writing
(2) comprehend simple, somewhat substantial, and substantial texts, both written and auditory, such as descriptions and narration, songs and poetry, that range from linguistically non-complex to complex and have a clear underlying structure
(3) demonstrate full control of the present, past, future and conditional (both present and past) tenses in carrying out the above, full control of the present and past subjunctive, and satisfactory control of the imperfect subjunctive
(4) demonstrate comfortable conceptual control of complex grammatical elements and sentence structures
(5) show a further increased and nuanced understanding of cultural processes, as well as deeper
knowledge of cultural icons and products.