TPCS-ELEC & COMPUT ENGINEERING

Selected topics in electrical and computer engineering. Content varies from year to year, and different topics rotate through the course numbers 6900 to 6909.

• Department: Electrical Engineering
• Instructor: Savannah Eisner
  Info
• 3 points

CLINICAL ORAL PATHOLOGY

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

What Is An Image?

How can we define the image in the digital age? Can we (still) believe our eyes? What is underneath the image? As we will see in this course, these fundamental questions are not new within the history of media. Through the ages, the image has been questioned and redefined as image, surface, visual representation, index, etc. Philosopher Vilém Flusser once remarked that the composite essence of digital technology was already embedded in photography because the photographic image is an image composed of points, which the human eye synthesizes into an image. This course revisits Flusser’s notion of the “technical image” and proposes to rethink the image beyond its visual dimensions, from the perspectival image of the Renaissance to the AI-generated image of today. Instead of following a strict chronological path, we will delve into various theoretical debates on “what is an image?” – ranging from the binary image of textile to the haptic image of video art, from the technological image of the optical toy to the operational image of surveillance and warfare. Both mainstream and experimental films will be analyzed and discussed as critical interventions in the history of image technologies.

• Department: Film
• Instructor: Wanda Strauven
  Info
• 3 points

QUANT METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS

Prerequisites: calculus. Recommended preparation: linear algebra, statistics, computer programming. Introduction to the fundamentals of quantitative data analysis in Earth and environmental sciences. Topics: review of relevant probability, statistics and linear algebra; linear models and generalized least squares; Fourier analysis and introduction to spectral analysis; filtering time series (convolution,deconvolution,smoothing); factor analysis and empirical orthogonal functions; covariance and correlation; methods of interpolation; statistical significance and hypothesis testing; introduction to Monte Carlo methods for data analysis. Problem sets and term project require use of MATLAB or Python.

• Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Instructor: William H Menke
  CULPA: 14 Info
• 4 points

INTRO TO WRITING STUDIES

Anyone who pursues a career as a college faculty member will teach writing—either formally, in a writing class, or informally, as we work with students who are new to our disciplines. However, many graduate students in the humanities have received no substantive training in the burgeoning field of writing studies. In English, career opportunities in writing studies have outpaced other field areas. The MLA’s 2016-2017 jobs list reported that 851 positions were advertised in English, 10% fewer than the previous year. Of those jobs, 217 were in writing studies, 187 were in British literature, and 172 were in American literature. Given that writing studies positions are also advertised elsewhere, the gap is likely larger. This seminar will explore key debates in writing studies research and teaching methodologies, program development, and disciplinary and institutional status. Writing studies is the newest name for “rhetoric and composition,” a field which declared its existence in the mid-1960s, and draws its praxes and theories from classical rhetoric, applied linguistics, cognitive and developmental psychology, literary criticism, civic education, creative writing, and progressive pedagogy. Scholarship in writing studies since the 1960s has sought to deepen our understanding of how transactions work among writers, readers, and texts. Writing studies prompts us to track how standards for “good” or “appropriate” academic writing change over time, and how the teaching of writing responds to social, political, institutional, and disciplinary forces. The readings in this course will help us to articulate our own philosophies of writing and shape approaches to pedagogy in our own fields. Topis will include the following: how writers develop; intellectual practices that foster community among learners; the ethics and politics of textual transactions, including assessment; students’ rights to their own language; literacy acquisition across media; working in transnational and translingual spaces; genre and rhetorical theory; fostering knowledge and skills transfer; the impact of intersectionality on pedagogy and program design; and labor justice. We will read works by foundational writing studies scholars including John Dewey, Wayne Booth, bell hooks, Victor Villaneuva, Jr. A. Suresh Canagarajah, and the current president of the Modern Language Association, Anne Ruggles Gere. Participants will have the opportunity to ask how writing studies can deepen the understanding of writing in our fields, regardless

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Nicole Wallack
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 4 points

Topics in Control

This proposed course allows for a variety of potential advanced courses to be taught as part of the proposed concentration on control.

• Department: Electrical Engineering
• Instructor: Ilija Hadzic
  Info
• 3 points

Academic Writing and Great Presentations

ACADEMIC WRITING AND PRES

Principles of writing clear and rigorous science texts and giving great presentations. The Writing component focuses on the construction of logical arguments, reporting and interpretation of data, composing process, and strategies for redrafting and editing. Genres include Introductions, Data Commentaries, Results/Discussion, Conclusions, Abstracts, Requests for funding, Research statements, Professional emails, Blogs. The Presentation component looks at development of the presentation story, use of visuals, fluent delivery, asking and responding to questions. Speaking contexts include research talks, lab talks, conference presentations, poster talks, job talks, interviews, industry pitches. Pass/No Pass only, based on completion of assignments and participation in class exercises. 

Credit may not be used to satisfy degree requirements.

• Department: Electrical Engineering
• Instructor: Janet Kayfetz
  Info
• 3 points

Conspiracy Theory in American Film and C

Conspiracy Theory in US F

This class will look at the history of conspiracy theories in American culture from the 50s and 60s (UFOs, the red scare, JFK’s assassination) to the 21st century (from 9/11 truthers to Covid conspiracies and QAnon) with particular attention to cinematic representation. What is the lure of conspiracy theories? Are there particular reasons that conspiracy theories thrive in American culture?  Do different media forms and platforms encourage the spread, and even transform the content, of conspiracies?  What is the difference between theory in the social sciences and humanities and conspiracy theory?  We will read a range of theoretical material including writings by Richard Hofstadter, Fredric Jameson, Jean Baudrillard, Eve Sedgwick, Sianne Ngai, and many others.  Films will include:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
The Parallax View
,
Videodrome
,
The Matrix
,
Get Out
, and others.

• Department: Film
• Instructor: Nico Baumbach
  Info
• 3 points

SEED BOMBS: TECHNOLOGIES IN ECOLOGICAL D

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Emily Bauer
  Info
• 3 points

THESIS I/CAPSTONE I WORKSHOP

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Tom Slater
  Info
• 3 points

THESIS II/CAPSTONE II

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Weiping Wu
  Wikipedia h-index: 27 Info
• 3 points

AI FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Kivanc Kose
  Info
• 1.5 points

PRACTICUM: URBAN ANALYTICS FOR SOCIAL GO

URB ANALYTICS FOR SOCIAL

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Boyeong Hong
  h-index: None Info
• 3 points

DATA INFRASTRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN CO

DATA MGMT IN AI

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• 1.5 points

ADVANCED RESEARCH I

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Weiping Wu
  Wikipedia h-index: 27 Info
• 2-3 points

ARCHITECTURE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRON

ARCH, TECH, ENVIRONMENT

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Albena Yaneva
  Info
• 3 points

GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES IN PUBLIC TRANSPOR

BEST PRAC IN PUBLIC TRANS

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• 3 points

RADIOLOGY II

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

TRAD BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Tim Michiels
  Info
• 3 points

VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR ARCH PRESER

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• 1.5 points

RENDERING SYSTEMS

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Seth C Thompson
  Info
• 3 points

GIS FOR DESIGN PRACTICES

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Mario A Jr. Giampieri
  Info
• 3 points

ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICAL ECOLOGY

ARCH ACOUSTICAL ECOLOGY

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Ethan Bourdeau
  Info
• 3 points

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FINANCE PRACTICUM

CMTY DEVLP FINANCE PRACTI

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Kevin McQueen
  Info
• 3 points

HOUSING THE UNHOUSED: A PRACTICUM

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Jessica Katz
  Info
• 1.5 points

SPATIAL AI

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: William Martin
  Info
• 3 points

ADV V STUDIO CLINIC

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Lucia Rebolino
  Info
• 3 points

LE CORBUSIER BEYOND EUROPE

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Mary C McLeod
  Info
• 3 points

Advanced Topics in Natural Language Proc

AI AGENTS CAPABL RELIABL

Selected topics in Natural Language Processing (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check the "topics courses" webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Zhou Yu
  h-index: 22 Info
• 3 points

Advanced Topics in Natural Language Proc

NATURAL LANG GEN SUMMARIZ

Selected topics in Natural Language Processing (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check the "topics courses" webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Kathleen McKeown
  CULPA: 8 h-index: 71 Info
• 3 points

GLOBAL HOUSING SEMINAR

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Galia Solomonoff
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

PLANETARY MEDIA

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Amelyn Ng
  Info
• 3 points

PUBLISHING ARCHITECTURE: PROPERTY, PROPO

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• 3 points

DIGITAL FABRICATION AT SCALE

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Joseph A Brennan
  Info
• 3 points

SIMULATIONS, MODELS, TWINS

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Adam K Vosburgh
  Info
• 3 points

EXPOSED: ADVANCED STRUCTURAL DESIGN

EXPOSED: ADV STRUCTURAL D

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Hermona Tamrat
  Info
• 3 points

M.A. THESIS RESEARCH

Provides students the opportunity to present work in progress or final drafts to other students and relevant faculty to receive guidance and feedback.

• Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
• 2 points

DIRECTED INDIVIDUAL READINGS

MRST Directed Readings, Independent study. Students should meet with the Program Director and Program Manager before registering for this course.

• Department: Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Instructor: Susan Boynton
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 4 points

BIOGENIC SECTIONS

• Department: Architecture, Planning and Preservation
• Instructor: Marc Tsurumaki
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

M.A. THESIS WRITING

• Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
• 2 points

The Face on Film

Illuminated, exposed, projected, magnified—the cinematic face is at once spectacular and mysterious, commanding and vulnerable, an inexhaustible object of wonder. The seminar will explore the workings of the human face as privileged object of representation, as figure of subjectivity, as mode and ethic of address through film theory and practice. How has the technological, mass-circulating art of the moving image mediated this singular entity—this visual incarnation of the
person
? How did it confront its mythic and iconic resonance, its charge of identity and identification, its revelatory and masking play of expression, its social, racial, and affective registers? Among filmmakers and writers who inform our discussion: Roland Barthes, Mary Ann Doane, Carl-Theodor Dreyer, Jean Epstein, Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, Emmanuel Levinas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Gilles Deleuze, and others.

• Department: Film
• Instructor: Noa Steimatsky
  Info
• 3 points

Graduate Lecture

Marxism & Cultural Theory

CLEN 6998 GR is a twin listings of an undergraduate Comparative Literature lecture provided to graduate students for graduate credit. If a graduate student enrolls, she/he/they attends the same class as the undergraduate students (unless otherwise directed by the instructor). Each instructor determines additional work for graduate students to complete in order to receive graduate credit for the course. Please refer to the notes section in SSOL for the corresponding (twin) undergraduate 1000 or 2000 level course and follow that course's meeting day & time and assigned classroom. Instructor permission is required to join.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Bruce Robbins
  CULPA: 35 Wikipedia h-index: 39 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

READINGS LANGUAGE DESIGN

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Bjarne Stroustrup
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 38 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ADV TPCS COMPETITIVE PROG

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Hyperscale+AI Infrastruct

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Jason Nieh
  CULPA: 23 Wikipedia h-index: 50 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

CONTINUAL LEARN MEM MDLS

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Richard Zemel
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

MOBILE HEALTH SENSING AI

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Xia Zhou
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

HIGH PERF MACH LEARNING

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Kaoutar El Maghraoui
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

LLM BASED GENERATIVE AI

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

SCALING LLMS SYSTEMS OPT

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ADVANCED COMP SECURITY

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Suman Jana
  h-index: 33 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ALGOS LARGE LANG MODELS

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Alexandr Andoni
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 34 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

DESIGN FOR GENERATIVE AI

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Lydia Chilton
  CULPA: 3 h-index: 18 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

COMPUTATION AND THE BRAIN

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Christos H Papadimitriou
  CULPA: 11 h-index: 129 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ADVANCES VIS GENER MODELS

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Aleksander Holynski
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

AI PRACT BUILDING GAMES

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Behrang M Garakani
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

QUANTUM OPTIMIZATION

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Vasileios Kalantzis
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

NETWORKS FOR AI

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ANTICIPATING AGI FUTURE

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Steven D Yin
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

DSGN PROD AGENTIC SYSTEMS

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

AI-NATIVE COMPUTING SYSTM

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

BUILD AN AGENT STARTUP

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Junfeng Yang
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 33 Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

HIGH PERF MACH LEARNING

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Video Network
• Instructor: Kaoutar El Maghraoui
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

SCALING LLMS SYSTEMS OPT

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Video Network
• 3 points

TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ALGOS LARGE LANG MODELS

Selected topics in computer science (advanced level). Content and prerequisites vary between sections and semesters. May be repeated for credit. Check “topics course” webpage on the department website for more information on each section.

• Department: Video Network
• Instructor: Alexandr Andoni
  CULPA: 2 h-index: 34 Info
• 3 points

Graduate Lecture

Drama Before Shakespeare

ENGL 6998 GR is a twin listings of an undergraduate English lecture provided to graduate students for graduate credit. If a graduate student enrolls, she/he/they attends the same class as the undergraduate students (unless otherwise directed by the instructor). Each instructor determines additional work for graduate students to complete in order to receive graduate credit for the course. Please refer to the notes section in SSOL for the corresponding (twin) undergraduate 1000 or 2000 level course and follow that course's meeting day & time and assigned classroom. Instructor permission is required to join.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Alan Stewart
  CULPA: 14 h-index: 13 Info
• 3 points

Graduate Lecture

Out of the Ordinary

ENGL 6998 GR is a twin listings of an undergraduate English lecture provided to graduate students for graduate credit. If a graduate student enrolls, she/he/they attends the same class as the undergraduate students (unless otherwise directed by the instructor). Each instructor determines additional work for graduate students to complete in order to receive graduate credit for the course. Please refer to the notes section in SSOL for the corresponding (twin) undergraduate 1000 or 2000 level course and follow that course's meeting day & time and assigned classroom. Instructor permission is required to join.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• 3 points

Graduate Lecture

Virginia Woolf

ENGL 6998 GR is a twin listings of an undergraduate English lecture provided to graduate students for graduate credit. If a graduate student enrolls, she/he/they attends the same class as the undergraduate students (unless otherwise directed by the instructor). Each instructor determines additional work for graduate students to complete in order to receive graduate credit for the course. Please refer to the notes section in SSOL for the corresponding (twin) undergraduate 1000 or 2000 level course and follow that course's meeting day & time and assigned classroom. Instructor permission is required to join.

• Department: English and Comparative Literature
• Instructor: Edward Mendelson
  CULPA: 64 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

MA Thesis I

First part of two-term MA Thesis sequence for MRST MA Students.

• Department: Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Instructor: Susan Boynton
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 4 points

M.A. Thesis I

M.A. Thesis Course for MARS-REERS program.

• Department: Russian Eurasian E. European
• Instructor: Elise Giuliano
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 0-3 points

THESIS RESEARCH-GRADUATE

• Department: African American and African Diaspora
• Instructor: Brandi Summers
  Info
• 4 points

MA THESIS II

Second part of two-term MA Thesis sequence for MRST MA Students.

• Department: Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Instructor: Susan Boynton
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 4 points

M.A. Thesis II

M.A. Thesis Course for MARS-REERS program.

• Department: Russian Eurasian E. European
• Instructor: Elise Giuliano
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 0-3 points

Politics of Sustainable Development

Political Development

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the process of political development. It introduces a set of analytic tools based on the strategic perspective of political science and political economy to evaluate the current debates in political development and to draw policy-relevant conclusions. Throughout the course, we will discuss the political dimensions and the challenges of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development along with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their transformations - (1) education, gender and inequality; (2) health, well-being and demography; (3) energy decarbonization and sustainable industry; (4) sustainable food, land, water and oceans; (5) sustainable cities and communities; and (6) the digital revolution for sustainable development - as modular building blocks.

First, we will explore the politics of economic development: the role of leadership, political systems, and institutions in promoting growth. We study the mechanisms that underlie the persistence of poverty. Utilizing numerous country case studies, we will answer: What is political development? What explains why some countries have prospered while others remain poor, violent, or unequal? Why do we observe growth, stability, and freedoms in some and not in others?

Second, we will explore the causes and consequences of the state, political institutions, and democracy. What is at the root of state capacity, political participation, and other aspects of political development? What is the role of property rights and the rule of law in development? How do we promote gender equality and empowerment? How do we detect and mitigate the effects of corruption? How do we foster political stability?

In the third part of the course, we will focus on policies that foster stability and development. We will critically examine the effects of Western intervention in the developing world, historical legacies of slavery and colonialism, and the various tools of foreign policy: aid, democracy promotion, and military interventions. We will further explore the extent to which outside interventions alleviated poverty and whether they improved public goods provision or promoted political stability. Finally, the course will consider the role of emerging powers in the context of global governance and their influence on the future course of development in the Global South.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Gizem Acikgoz
  Info
• 3 points

Sustainable Development Policy and Pract

Open to MPA-DP Students Only.
This required overview course for MPA-DP students examines the evolving concept of sustainable development and its implications for policy and practice. Drawing from social, economic, political, and environmental frameworks, the course explores the tensions and synergies inherent in achieving economic prosperity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.

Students will engage with current global milestones such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the forthcoming Pact for the Future, while also reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on inequality and development trajectories. The course provides both foundational theory and applied perspectives, with particular attention to transformational ideas and real-world challenges facing sustainable development today.

In the latter part of the semester, development practitioners introduce case studies from specific countries and regions to highlight practical applications. Through lectures, discussions, guest speakers, and debates, students will build analytical and communication skills essential for professional work in sustainable development.

• Department: MPA-DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE
• Instructor: Shiv Someshwar
  Info
• 3 points

ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH

ACADEMIC COMM IN ENGLISH

English communication proficiency is important for academic achievement and career success. Columbia Engineering provides English communication instruction for students who would like to improve their communication skills in English. In a small group setting (15-20 students), enrollees will obtain opportunities to interact with the instructor and fellow classmates to improve communication skills.

• Department: Engineering
• Instructor: Hyoseon Lee
  Info
• 0 points

Green Industrial Policy - Field Course i

Until recently, due to their laissez faire underpinnings, market economies eschewed significant and overt government planning of sector-specific incentives and investment guidance. Nevertheless, in recent years many countries with quite different economic systems have embraced programs of targeted investment in specific industries as an integral part of a long term strategy of economic development. While the rationale for fostering innovation in strategic industries has a long and venerable tradition, there are also many current and historical examples of the potential for misallocation, malinvestment and rent-seeking protectionism in the actual record of centrally planned economies.

Recent Chinese advances in fostering the world’s largest investments in renewable energy, battery technology, electrified mobility, ultra-high voltage transmission and a supply chain ecosystem for automation and artificial intelligence both in deployments and manufacturing capacity may represent an extensive and illuminating example of the sustainable development potential of industrial policy. The field course will combine 5 weeks of preparatory in-person on-campus instruction followed by a 9-day field tour of instruction and visits to government agencies and companies in the renewable energy, battery technology, and electric vehicle manufacturing companies in China.

This elective course will provide training for those wishing to investigate the rationale, methods, limitations and examples of targeted government intervention to encourage investment in sustainability-related industries. The syllabus will include the logic of green industrial policy, the strengths and limitations of the policy toolkit, China’s experience with 5-year plans and the details of its directed growth in key green industrial sectors, as well as lessons for other countries. The content is designed to be of interest to Sustainability Management students whose career goals will lead them to strategy & planning positions in either private corporations, government agencies or international organizations. The course will be open to a maximum of 20 students, with priority given to SUMA and MoSSS students. An intermediate course in economics at the undergraduate level is a highly recommended prerequisite.

• Department: Sustainability Management
• 3 points

Union Theological Cross-Reg

Bonhoeffer & Baldwin

• Department: Union Theological Seminary (UTSD)
• 1-4 points

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATION

• Department: Engineering
• Instructor: Hyoseon Lee
  Info
• 0 points

SELECTIVES

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

FNDN EXCELLENCE DENTAL PRACTICE III

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• Instructor: Dana L Wolf
  h-index: 7 Info
• 0 points

FNDN EXCELLENCE DENTAL PRACTICE III

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

Financial Planning & Analysis

• Department: Accounting (ACCT)
• Instructor: Tim Baldenius
  Info
• 1.5 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

• Department: Engineering
• Instructor: Hyoseon Lee
  Info
• 0 points

Politics in the Global South

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course approaches political development from the perspective of the Global South. Rather than treating development as a linear or universal process, it asks how colonial legacies, unequal insertion into the international economy, commodity dependence, late industrialization, and geopolitical competition have shaped different trajectories of political and economic change. We will examine how these forces affect state formation, institutional capacity, democratization, authoritarianism, populism, resource-dependent democracies, organized violence, corruption, clientelism, and political order.

A central theme of the course is the tension between commodity dependence and industrialization. We will compare regions and cases in which primary commodity exports, extractive economies, and external vulnerability have constrained development with cases in which states built industrial capacity, governed markets, and reshaped their position in the international economy. The course closes by returning to this question in the context of climate change and green neo-extractivism, asking whether the green transition creates new development opportunities or reproduces older patterns of dependence, extraction, and unequal environmental costs. 

Throughout the semester, students will engage with comparative cases and empirical evidence to evaluate competing explanations for political development and underdevelopment. The course is designed for students with interests in comparative politics, international development, political economy, public policy, and global governance. While theoretically grounded, it emphasizes analytical application to contemporary policy challenges facing emerging and developing countries.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Daniela Campello
  Info
• 3 points

PRIMARY CARE CLERKSHIP

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

PRIMARY CARE CLERKSHIP

• Department: Medicine
• 0 points

BASIC DIAGNOSIS/TREATMENT PLAN

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

CPR/MEDICAL EMERGENCIES

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

INFECTION CONTROL

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• Instructor: Sidney Eisig
  h-index: 24 Info
• 0 points

NSF Graduate Writing Fundamentals

This intensive nanocourse will walk students through the process of writing an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program proposal. As only first year graduate students are eligible for the NSF GRFP, this course is intended for first year graduate students.

This is a highly interactive course – students will work with the instructors and each other to develop a project for the proposal, engage in multiple rounds of peer review, and finally go through two rounds of individual one-one-one review with two VIBRE Faculty members. See syllabus for submission date.

• Department: Biomedical Life Sciences
• 1 points

Political Psychology and Behavioral Publ

Pol Psych & Behavioral Po

In a world of growing complexity, where politics often appears increasingly fragmented, affective, and detached from purely material interests, political psychology offers essential tools for understanding some of the most urgent political and policy challenges of our time.

Contemporary politics is increasingly shaped by polarized in-group and out-group identities, the politicization and criminalization of immigration, anxiety and denial surrounding climate change, the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, and growing support for strongman leaders amid distrust of institutions. At the same time, public policy often succeeds or fails not only because of institutional design or material incentives, but because of how people perceive problems, process information, respond to uncertainty, trust authorities, and make decisions in contexts of scarcity, fear, identity, and social pressure.

These developments make psychological mechanisms central to explaining how different political actors, including voters, politicians, policymakers, party elites, social movements, interest groups, media actors, and bureaucrats, perceive political reality, form judgments, design policies, and make decisions. Political psychology examines how human psychology shapes political life, and how political contexts, institutions, identities, and conflicts shape individual behavior.

This course introduces students to the main theoretical foundations of political psychology and connects them to behavioral public policy. We begin by examining major approaches to political behavior, including rational choice and its behavioral critiques, personality and evolutionary perspectives, emotion, nonverbal behavior, heuristics, and motivated reasoning.

The course then turns to policy applications, exploring how psychological mechanisms shape the design, communication, implementation, and uptake of public policy in areas such as poverty, prejudice and discrimination, climate change, and policymaking bias. Throughout the semester, students will engage classic and recent research, with particular attention to experimental evidence and its relevance for real-world political and policy problems.

The course is designed to help students critically assess empirical studies, compare different explanations of political behavior, and apply behavioral insights to concrete policy challenges.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Daniela Campello
  Info
• 3 points

TOBACCO CESSATION/SUB ABU

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• 0 points

Legacies of Political Violence

Violent political conflict leaves durable legacies. In this course, we will explore the effects of various forms of political violence, including intrastate conflict, mass atrocities, communal violence, and forced displacements. We will begin with the processes of peace and reconciliation that often mark transitions from active conflict to post-conflict environments. We will then turn attention to cycles of violence before shifting to the influence of conflict and violence on state institutions and regimes. Turning to comparative political behavior, we will explore victimization from violent political conflict as a force in shaping the social and political lives of those directly affected as well as their descendants and communities. We will investigate why some iterations of violent political conflict generate politicizing effects – with victims voting more, protesting more, taking on more leadership roles, etc. – while others facilitate withdrawal from the political sphere. We will consider the role violence plays in shaping and reshaping the boundaries between groups (ethnic, national, religious, etc.). Tangentially, we will analyze how violence alters relationships within one’s in-groups. The final segment of the course will focus on the memorialization of past conflict as an arena in which identities and political goals are forged, contested, and remade.  Through the course, students will generate informed critiques of policy regimes in post-conflict contexts, and will apply course concepts and methods to evaluate policy outcomes in these contexts.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Joseph M Lasky
  Info
• 3 points

Sparking Innovation in International Org

Innovation in Intl Orgs

This course is the first in a two-course sequence on innovation in international cooperation and in low and middle-income countries. This fall course will focus on institutional reforms and how to leverage innovation to help drive organisational change within international organisations. The second course in the spring semester will focus on innovation in low and middle-income countries, including the role of innovation in fostering inclusive growth, in efforts to advance locally led development principles and in fostering inclusive innovation ecosystems, among other themes. 

In this course, students will learn how to frame innovation in the context of international cooperation and practical ways to advance change management within international organizations and government entities.  

The course is designed to help students gain a critical conceptual understanding of the practice of innovation in international organizations, obtain skills in change management, and learn the practical application of advancing innovation portfolio management within international organisations as well as a framework to support organisations build critical capabilities related to innovation and emerging technologies. Students will be exposed to a variety of frameworks, along with case studies and practical exercises. Students will gain an understanding of advancing innovation in international organisations in practice.

Students will explore the relationship between innovation practices and management practices that emerged over the last decade to infuse more flexible and adaptive practices. These include ‘working and thinking politically’, ‘adaptive management’, ‘doing development differently’ and others. These approaches intersect at times with innovation efforts in international organizations.

Case studies drawn from a variety of organizations and countries will anchor frameworks and theoretical content and help provide a greater understanding of the complexities and challenges of advancing impact and changing business as usual within international organizations.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Benjamin Kumpf
  Info
• 1.5 points

Migration and Human Development

Migration & Human Develop

International migration’s substantial economic and social effects are at the forefront of today’s academic discussion, international debate, as well as national policy strategies. This course introduces students to the key notions, norms, and narratives of international migration from economic, sociological, legal, policy, international relations, and normative perspectives. Students learn about transnational livelihood strategies and channels through which migration and migrants can enhance human development, especially in their countries of origin, while creating better opportunities for themselves and contributing to their communities of destination. This includes in-depth discussions of the determinants, flows, and effects of emigration, immigration, return, financial and social remittances, and diaspora investments. While the course emphasizes economic migration, it also elaborates on the human development impact in specific forced migration and refugee scenarios. Highlighting migration phenomena in different scenarios in the global North, as well as in the global South, the course emphasizes the agency of migrants and gender differences in the experiences and effects, as well as the role their legal status plays. It addresses the root causes of migration and the protection of migrants’ human, social and labor rights. The course also furthers participants’ understanding of the role of technology for human mobility and the policy responses in both, the international and the domestic spheres. To this end, it introduces students to key policies and governance schemes and diaspora engagement institutions, including the role of United Nations agencies and processes. The learning experience culminates in a role-play simulation, in which students discuss and negotiate a revision of the UN Joint Program in Kigoma, Tanzania.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Daniel Naujoks
  Info
• 3 points

Evaluation in International Organization

Evaluation-Intl Organizat

International organizations play a critical role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the implementation of their strategic work plans, in centering human rights, gender equality, and environmental sustainability as non-negotiable cross-cutting dimensions, and by supporting collective accountability and learning.
How then do international organizations determine not only whether they have achieved the results set out in their work plans, but whether those results are meaningfully contributing to sustainable development as envisioned? Are their results sustainable? Were there better ways to achieve the same or better results? Did their achievement also support advancement and respect for the cross-cutting dimensions?

Were any unintended or unplanned results identified and assessed to determine whether they undermine or reinforce progress?

Evaluation – considered a function, a practice and a profession – provides one avenue for answering such questions about how to best influence the complex change required to achieve sustainable development, while balancing different interests and needs. Students will be exposed to the theoretical and practical aspects of evaluation through the lens of international organizations. They will learn to apply evaluative and systems thinking, and build practical skills that will prepare them to commission, manage and/or conduct evaluations that consider cross-cutting dimensions. They will understand recent trends in the field such as Artificial Intelligence, decolonization and how impact is determined.  Weekly case studies spanning humanitarian, development and peace contexts and a mix of individual and group assignments will provide students with a hands-on learning experience in how to plan, conduct and use an evaluation, as well as the important role of stakeholders. This includes developing an Evaluation Inception Report using a real-world evaluation case to ground learning of theoretical concepts, evaluation types, methods and tools.

• Department: Development and Governance
• Instructor: Shravanti M Reddy
  Info
• 3 points

Business Analytics II: Foundations of AI

Business Analytics 2

• Department: Decision, Risk and Operations
• Instructor: Ashwin V Kamath
  Info
• 1.5 points

ORAL HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

• Department: Dental and Oral Surgery
• Instructor: C Kunzel
  h-index: 23 Info
• 0 points

Adaptation to Climate Change

This course focuses on climate change adaptation, examining how communities, governments, and institutions manage climate risks and build resilience. Students will engage with key concepts such as vulnerability, resilience, adaptation effectiveness, and climate justice, using a risk reduction framework to analyze real-world challenges and responses.

Through case studies, collaborative labs, and applied assignments, students will assess adaptation strategies across sectors including food, water, health, cities, and biodiversity. The course emphasizes both global frameworks and local action, highlighting enabling conditions such as finance, governance, and information access. Students will also examine institutional dynamics and the political contexts that shape adaptation planning and implementation.

This course is designed for students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. No technical prerequisites are required. It provides a foundation for evaluating adaptation programs, identifying feasible solutions, and developing effective climate policy.

• Department: Climate, Energy, & Environment
• Instructor: Ben S Orlove
  Info
• 3 points