This seminar considers what it means to be of a place and to think with and be committed to that place—environmentally, politically, and spiritually. After locating ourselves in our own particular places and place-based commitments, our attention turns to the Indigenous traditions of North America, to accounts of tribal emergence and pre-colonial being, to colonial histories of land dispossession, to ongoing struggles to protect ecological health and land-based sovereignty, to the epistemological and moral systems that have developed over the course of many millennia of living with and for the land, and to the contributions such systems might make to our collective future. The seminar’s title is borrowed from an essay on “Indigenous place-thought” by Mohawk/Anishinaabe scholar Vanessa Watts.
Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested. Social movements and the theories social scientists use to explain them, with emphasis on contemporary American activism. Cases include the Southern civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, contemporary feminist mobilizations, LGBTQ activism, immigrant rights and more recent forms of grassroots politics.
Prerequisites: FREN UN2102 French socio-political issues and language through the prism of film. Especially designed for non-majors wishing to further develop their French language skills and learn about French culture. Each module includes assignments targeting the four language competencies: reading, writing, speaking and oral comprehension, as well as cultural understanding.
Composition in more extended forms. Study of advanced techniques of contemporary composition. Readings of student works.
Over the last hundred years there have been four periods of revolutionary upheaval on the territory of today’s Ukraine: the events of 1917-20, Stalin’s “second” revolution of 1933-34, the “nationalist revolution” of the 1940s, and the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-14. These historical flashpoints play an important role in current memory wars. The course provides a guide to the most controversial issues and the conflicting ways in which each revolutionary cycle has been interpreted. It also indicates neglected episodes and suggests how new approaches can bridge narrative divides.
The course will offer students an understanding of fundamental underlying concepts that structure French society and that are necessary to grasp if one wants to follow current events in France. This course could be of interest not only to CC students but also to students enrolled at SIPA or Teacher’s College. Moreover, this course would allow for a comparative approach to how same events are covered in US, or other foreign media, and in France. Given that this course will deal with current events, the readings will depend entirely on how the news unfolds. Students will be given an introduction to the various media outlets available to them: the press, television and online sources. As the course unfolds, I will adapt the choice of sources that best follow events as they happen. 2022 for example, will be the year France assumes the presidency of the European Union. It will also be the year of the presidential elections. For such events, I will propose specific institutional sources. On the other hand, events that could not be anticipated will require some form of guidance in terms of sources. In spite of the obvious unpredictability of the specific content of this course, certain key concepts necessary to understand current events in France will be presented. These may vary slightly from one semester to another, but would include, without being limited to: the structure of government and public institutions, political parties, unions and “associations”, social benefits and “the welfare state”, public vs. private sector, “Paris is France”, universalism, secularism and “
laïcité
”, cultural exceptionalism, the figure of the intellectual, national identity, immigration, geography of France and demographics, relation to Europe, geopolitics, globalization and sovereignty. Of course, the choice of themes and concepts in a given semester would be influenced by dominant topics in the French news.
Drawing borders—around spaces, peoples, populations, property, and states—has been a major part of the creation of the modern world. Borders continue to be flashpoints of international conflict and sites of state violence. This class examines how borders have been constructed and produced at different historical moments, through imperial and international regimes, and in different places around the world. We’ll look at maps, surveys, censuses, plebiscites, passports, and international commissions to consider what borders are and the ways in which they can be manifested and shaped. We’ll reflect on how state officials and soldiers, as well as anthropologists, social scientists, and historians, have created borders in space and around aspects of social life. Borders are produced politically, but they are also literally made by particular technologies and made real through everyday acts and experiences. What techniques are involved in drawing borders, and how have these techniques shaped borders themselves? To put it crudely, how have decisions made in drawing a border affected what is later done at that border? Borders are more than lines on a map or territorial expressions: they bound the contours of political communities, they mark points of surveillance, and they help to create subjects and identities. Ultimately, this class aims to give students the historical skills to think about how borders and spaces are produced materially and politically, how knowledge about space is created and constructed, and how populations and resources are entangled within border regimes, through a range of concrete case studies. The use of these studies will open up further topics related to borders in fields such as legal history, the history of science, settler colonialism, and nationalism.
The study of contemporary flamenco dance technique with special emphasis on improvisation and performance. Through video and reading assignments and attendance at live performances, students will also develop a context for understanding flamenco art, pedagogy, and culture.
In the same way that there can never be a single objective account of an historical event, using one medium to convey a story first told in another is never as straightforward as it might seem. Translating the essence of an existing story to the screen may require making significant changes to the events or characters as they were originally presented. As a screenwriter faced with such an adaptation, you must understand the idiosyncrasies of your craft well enough to recognize what to keep, what to change, and what to leave behind. This course will explore what makes a screen story work, balancing faithfulness and invention.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Enrollment limited to 18 students. Attend first class for instructor permission. Registering for the course only through myBarnard or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. Explores the transformation of sociality, consciousness and geo-politics by and as media technologies during the long 20th century. Students will read influential works of media analysis written during the past century, analyze audio-visual analog and digital media, and explore political theory and media theory written since the rise of the internet. Final projects on contemporary media forms.
Prerequisites: 2 semesters of calculus-based introductory physics, Calculus II, BC3242 Quantitative Analysis, or permission of instructor. Exact and approximate solutions to the Schrodinger equation. The structure of atoms and molecules. Chemical bonding and spectroscopy. Computer-based molecular modeling.
This course will introduce students to research on the institutions of the US carceral system, including the police, courts, prisons, and immigration control. We will focus on two questions: how race relates to experiences with the institutions of the carceral state, and how those institutions in turn influence racial politics. The main objective is not the accumulation of factual knowledge about this system, but familiarity with theoretical frameworks with which to make and critically assess arguments about the functioning of carceral institutions as they relate to racialized people and the functioning of democracy.
Prerequisites: (COMS W3203) Corequisites: COMS W3134,COMS W3136,COMS W3137 Regular languages: deterministic and non-deterministic finite automata, regular expressions. Context-free languages: context-free grammars, push-down automata. Turing machines, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the Church-Turing thesis. Introduction to Complexity Theory and NP-Completeness.
An accelerated MaxMSP creation lab designed for student musicians or programmers who are interested in the manipulation and transformation of sonic and musical data. MaxMSP is a visual programming environment optimized for creative coding. With a focus on the creative generation of musical materials for composition and performance, Max and related software will also be evaluated for analytical use cases in music theory, musicology, and other cross disciplines. Students will produce creative projects with the aid of weekly modules and tasks focusing on classic and contemporary approaches to audio synthesis (e.g. binaural audio spatialization and machine learning applications). Synchronous group coding in MaxMSP will deepen understanding of each module, supported by asynchronous video tutorials, supplementary reading, and listening.
Projects will be evaluated based on creative and personal implementations of synthesis techniques. A major effort has been made towards creating an equitable and inclusive computer music practice incorporating high level open source synthesis tools. Although no formal prerequisite exists for this course, some comfort in any of the following areas is advisable: study of a musical instrument, music-theoretical analysis or historic study, electronic music or synthesis, audio production, or an understanding of basic principles in a computer language. Skills in any of these areas may be taken as a sufficient prerequisite for this course. Onboarding materials and a flexible, customizable scaffolding will
be offered to those who are starting out with MaxMSP.
An accelerated MaxMSP creation lab designed for student musicians or programmers who are interested in the manipulation and transformation of sonic and musical data. MaxMSP is a visual programming environment optimized for creative coding. With a focus on the creative generation of musical materials for composition and performance, Max and related software will also be evaluated for analytical use cases in music theory, musicology, and other cross disciplines. Students will produce creative projects with the aid of weekly modules and tasks focusing on classic and contemporary approaches to audio synthesis (e.g. binaural audio spatialization and machine learning applications). Synchronous group coding in MaxMSP will deepen understanding of each module, supported by asynchronous video tutorials, supplementary reading, and listening.
Projects will be evaluated based on creative and personal implementations of synthesis techniques. A major effort has been made towards creating an equitable and inclusive computer music practice incorporating high level open source synthesis tools. Although no formal prerequisite exists for this course, some comfort in any of the following areas is advisable: study of a musical instrument, music-theoretical analysis or historic study, electronic music or synthesis, audio production, or an understanding of basic principles in a computer language. Skills in any of these areas may be taken as a sufficient prerequisite for this course. Onboarding materials and a flexible, customizable scaffolding will
be offered to those who are starting out with MaxMSP.
Prerequisites: Phil UN2201 or PHIL UN3251 Examines major themes of Hegels philosophy, with emphasis on social and political thought. Topics include Hegels critique of Kant, the possibility of metaphysics, the master-slave dialectic, and the role of freedom in a rational society. Readings from Kant’s Third Critique help explain how Hegels project develops out of Kants transcendental idealism. Some knowledge of Kants moral theory and his Critique of Pure Reason is presupposed. Prerequisite: at least one of PHIL UN2201, PHIL UN2301, or PHIL UN3251.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3271 Inorganic Chemistry This course combines builds on the foundation developed in Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM BC3271) and applies inorganic chemical concepts and techniques to specific applications. A particular focus will be on understanding the roles of the transition metals in biological systems.
This 4-credit class will explore how ethno-racial boundaries exist within and help to produce capitalist markets. We will focus on the intertwined histories of race, ethnicity, and capitalism in the United States, and how ethno-racial boundaries manifest in contemporary markets. We will begin with various theoretical texts that seek to understand what is “race”, “ethnicity”, and “capitalism.” Subsequently, we will trace the historical co-emergence of race, ethnicity, and capitalism through processes of exploitation and institutionalization. Next, we will examine how ethno-racial boundaries continue to shape the outcomes of individuals in contemporary markets, for better or for worse. Finally, we will end with an examination of how ethno-racial boundaries serve to shape markets themselves, through case studies of unions and diversity management. The goal is to understand and make sense of how race and ethnicity and capitalism have evolved in history and how it is experienced today. No prerequisites are required; however, previous sociology coursework is strongly recommended.
Prerequisites:
both
FILM BC3201 (or equivalent)
and
FILM BC3200 (or equivalent). Digital Production offers visual storytellers an incredible medium to connect and build an audience. It is an inexpensive, accessible platform to launch micro-budget concepts. Developing the storytellers voice inexpensively is critical to the evolution of any student, no matter their starting point. The Digital Series course is intended to take students from story ideation through creation of an independent digital series. Emanating from a writers room setting, all steps of the process will be explored and supported by in-class discussion, examples and workshops. This hands-on class revolves around the TV series production model: breaking story, writing pages, preproduction planning, filming and post-production review. We will emphasize the writers voice, construction of series storytelling, and establishing realistic scopes of production.
In 1952, the British Film Institute’s prestigious journal Sight - Sound polled the world’s leading film critics to compile a list of the best motion pictures of all time. It was one of the first attempts to establish an authoritative film canon at an international scale. Since then, dozens of magazines, cinematheques, and festivals around the globe publish their “best movies” lists every year. These polls tend to reproduce a canonical selection of “classics” that includes Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958), The Godfather (Coppola, 1972), and other familiar titles among contemporary film audiences. The canon itself would not be worth bothering with if it hadn’t been so influential in academic circles. University film programs often integrate this selection without questioning the ideological motivations behind it. In this class, we study “unseen masterworks” of world cinema that have been usually marginalized in conventional analysis of film. We challenge the standard, anglo-centric, sexist, heteronormative, and racist-by-omission film history in order to articulate a critique of cultural hegemony – and its tendency to depoliticize film as a medium. For that purpose, we look at a series of paradigmatic features in terms of their 1) explorative approach to film style, and 2) politically subversive narrative. In-class screenings include The World of Apu (Ray, 1959), The Exterminating Angel (Buñuel, 1962), Woman in the Dunes (Teshigahara, 1964), Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Paradjanov, 1965), The Red and the White (Jancsó, 1967), Mandabi (Sembene, 1968), Johnny Got His Gun (Trumbo, 1971), Oh Lucky Man! (Anderson, 1973), Seven Beauties (Wertmüller, 1975), and ...but the clouds... (Beckett, 1977). Required readings include Amos Vogel’s Film as a Subversive Art (1974), seminal texts by film directors, and excerpts from Gilles Deleuze’s The Movement Image (1983), The Time-Image (1985), and “The Exhausted” (1992).
The upper level undergraduate Sustainable Development Workshop will be modeled on client based graduate-level workshops, but with more time devoted to methods of applied policy analysis and issues in Sustainable Development. The heart of the course is the group project on an issue of sustainable development with a faculty advisor providing guidance and ultimately grading student performance. Students would receive instruction on methodology, group work, communication and the context of policy analysis. Much of the reading in the course would be project-specific and identified by the student research teams. Offered in Fall and Spring. For registration issues contact Cari Shimkus (cshimkus@ei.columbia.edu).
Prerequisites: (CHEM BC3230) and (CHEM BC3231) BIOL BC1502. Introduction to biochemical building blocks, macromolecules, and metabolism. Structures of amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids. Protein structure and folding. Enzyme mechanisms, kinetics, allostery. Membranes and biosignaling. Catabolism and anabolism with emphasis on chemical intermediates, metabolic energy, catalysis by specific enzymes, regulation.
Examines the constitutional right of freedom of speech and press in the United States. Examines, in depth, various areas of law, including extremist or seditious speech, obscenity, libel, fighting words, the public forum doctrine, and public access to the mass media. Follows the law school course model, with readings focused on actual judicial decisions.
The purpose of the course is to acquaint students with Israeli society through the lens of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The underlying assumption in this course is that much of the social, economic, political, and cultural processes in contemporary Israel have been shaped by the 100-year Israeli- Arab/Palestinian conflict.
This course provides an overview of the media’s role in American political life. In covering the literature on media and politics, we will not attempt to cover the entire field, because there is a huge amount of research on this topic. Instead, we will focus on a small number of more focused topics and explore them in greater depth. Unlike typical courses on media and politics, this course will not focus exclusively on the effects of political campaigns. Instead, we will construe this topic more broadly to include the effects of media on public opinion of all kinds, but with a focus on recent phenomena, ranging from the rise of partisan media and soft news to fake news and social media. In doing so, we will devote many of our class discussions and readings to quantitative research in political science and communication. This course familiarizes students with some of the latest research findings on a variety of interesting topics involving media and politics, and how such evidence defies the conventional wisdom or what pundits claim. In doing so, the course will emphasize the importance of methodology in getting answers to these questions. Some background in social science research methods is helpful, though not absolutely required, for the purposes of the course.
Elections and public opinion; history of U.S. electoral politics; the problem of voter participation; partisanship and voting; accounting for voting decisions; explaining and forecasting election outcomes; elections and divided government; money and elections; electoral politics and representative democracy.
Vector analysis, electrostatic fields, Laplaces equation, multipole expansions, electric fields in matter: dielectrics, magnetostatic fields, magnetic materials, and superconductors. Applications of electromagnetism to devices and research areas in applied physics.
Prerequisites: one year each of Introductory Biology and General Chemistry. Corequisites: Organic Chemistry. Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes within organisms that give rise to the immense complexity of life. This complexity emerges from a highly regulated and coordinated flow of chemical energy from one biomolecule to another. This course serves to familiarize students with the spectrum of biomolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, nucleic acids, etc.) as well as the fundamental chemical processes (glycolysis, citric acid cycle, fatty acid metabolism, etc.) that allow life to happen. In particular, this course will employ active learning techniques and critical thinking problem-solving to engage students in answering the question: how is the complexity of life possible? NOTE: While Organic Chemistry is listed as a corequisite, it is highly recommended that you take Organic Chemistry beforehand.
This course examines the long history of global interconnectivity, the forces that have forged it, the vulnerabilities and debates it has engendered, and the worlds it has created. It departs from civilizational approaches to world history that revolve around certain cultural centers and focuses instead on the webs of interconnection and interdependence generated by the movement of people, ideas, technologies, material cultures, pathogens, and flora and fauna across space and through time. In the face of surging ethno-nationalism and claims of cultural essentialism today, this approach underscores the hybridity of human societies and individual identities as well. The course consists of three units. A brief opening unit lays a foundation by examining civilizational and global approaches and considering methods for thinking globally through comparison, contextualization, and connection. Unit Two takes up instances in the long history of global interconnectivity from ancient to contemporary times, showing how distant societies became bound together, for better and for worse, as well as the ways increasing interdependence continually reshape(d) local realities. The goal is not to fashion a comprehensive global history, but to understand the connections that have made the interdependent world what it is today. Unit Three addresses contemporary issues of global connection, including the ways ideas circulate in the digital age, creating expectations and sparking movements that resonate locally in diverse ways. We conclude by considering the ways the dislocations of globalization have contributed to the political polarization that divides many societies and thinking together about how to build a better interconnected world.
Students address real-world issues in sustainable development by working in groups for an external client agency. Instruction in communication, collaboration, and management; meetings with and presentations to clients and academic community. Projects vary from year to year. Readings in the course are project-specific and are identified by the student research teams.
Corequisites: PORT UN1220 An intensive exposure to advanced points of Portuguese grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Portuguese. This course is required for the concentration in Portuguese Studies. This course is intended to improve Portuguese language skills in grammar, comprehension, and critical thinking through an archive of texts from literature, film, music, newspapers, critical reception and more. To do so, we will work through Portuguese-speaking communities and cultures from Brazil, to Portugal and Angola, during the twentieth and twenty-first century, to consider the mode in which genre, gender and sexuality materialize and are codified, disoriented, made, unmade and refigured through cultural productions, bodies, nation and resistant vernaculars of aesthetics and performance, always attentive to the intersections of gender with class and racism.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: SPAN UN2102 or AP score of 4 or 5; or SAT score. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. Formerly SPAN W3200 and SPAN BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you cannot take SPAN UN3300. All Columbia students must take Spanish language courses (UN 1101-3300) for a letter grade.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor given at first class meeting. Students will create and workshop plays, with a focus on learning new approaches to language and structure. Recommended for students undertaking a senior thesis in playwriting. Fulfills one of three courses in performance fields for Theatre/Drama and Theatre Arts majors: playwriting.
Prerequisites: The departments permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. This poetry workshop is reserved for accomplished poetry writers and maintains the highest level of creative and critical expectations. Students will be encouraged to develop their strengths and to cultivate a distinctive poetic vision and voice but must also demonstrate a willingness to broaden their range and experiment with new forms and notions of the poem. A portfolio of poetry will be written and revised with the critical input of the instructor and the workshop.
Classical thermodynamics. Basic properties and concepts, thermodynamic properties of pure substances, equation of state, work, heat, the first and second laws for flow and nonflow processes, energy equations, entropy, and irreversibility. Introduction to power and refrigeration cycles.
Classical thermodynamics. Basic properties and concepts, thermodynamic properties of pure substances, equation of state, work, heat, the first and second laws for flow and nonflow processes, energy equations, entropy, and irreversibility. Introduction to power and refrigeration cycles.
Prerequisites: SWHL UN2101-UN2102 or the instructor's permission. An introduction to the advanced syntactical, morphological, and grammatical structures of Swahili grammar; detailed analysis of Swahili texts; practice in conversation. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Prerequisites: Two years of Wolof or instructor permission. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
Introduction to the use of molecular techniques to answer questions about subcellular biological phenomena. Techniques include isolation of genomic and plasmid DNAs, restriction enzyme analysis, DNA and protein electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, and plasmid subcloning.
A project on civil engineering subjects approved by the chairman of the department.
Scholars of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race have long been preoccupied with the terms, categories, and processes through which the United States has excluded or qualified the citizenship of particular groups, including women, immigrants, indigenous nations, and descendants of enslaved Africans. Yet it has spent less time interrogating the unqualified content of Americanness, and the work that the imagination of a "default" American identity does in contemporary political life. This seminar introduces students to this problem through an unspoken racial dimension of American political belonging -- the presumed whiteness of ideal American citizens. Readings drawn from several disciplinary traditions, including anthropology, linguistics, sociology, history, and journalism, will ground students in the course's key concepts, including racial markedness, the history of racialization, and public sentiment. Students will mobilize these tools to analyze several cases that rendered white sentiment explicit in politically efficacious ways, including the "panic" incited by the destabilization of race-based residential segregation, the "paranoia" of conspiracy theorists, the "sympathy" associated with natural disasters, and the "resentment" or "rage" associated with the loss of racial privileges
A project on civil engineering subjects approved by the chairman of the department.
What is ethnography and what makes ethnography “urban”? This course explores how social scientists use ethnography to analyze questions and dilemmas often associated with urban settings. We will combine close readings of ethnographies with field-based inquiry, including our own studies of urban public space. Through both our readings and our field exercises, we will focus on the methods at the heart of ethnography: observation and participant-observation. As we read other scholars’ work, we will ask how the author uses ethnographic tools to explore issues that are suitable for intensive fieldwork. We will assess which kinds of research problems and theoretical perspectives are a good fit with ethnography and the roles that ethnography can play in transdisciplinary research projects. You will apply what you have learned about research to design your own pilot fieldwork. The ethnographies that we read together will examine intersections of housing, race, and class in urban communities. You are welcome to extend this focus to your own fieldwork, but it’s not required to do so. This is a writing-intensive course, and we will devote a considerable portion of class time to workshop your individual projects.
Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit. The topic that will be taught in Fall 2018 is Plato.
Prerequisites: LATN UN2102 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: LATN UN2102 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
This course explores the components, systems, and regulatory mechanisms involved in eukaryotic cellular function. Topics include: signal transduction, translational and protein quality control, organellar and cytoskeletal dynamics, and some coordinated responses such as proliferation and programmed cell death. Throughout the course we will see how general cell biology can be specialized to achieve specific cellular functions through regulation of the basic machinery. We will also explore the cellular and molecular bases for a variety of human pathologies, with an emphasis on cancer. In addition to lecture, we will spend some time discussing the material, including selected articles from the primary literature, and learning through group presentations.
Many people don’t think of themselves as having attended segregated schools. And yet, most of us went to schools attended primarily by people who looked very much like us. In fact, schools have become more segregated over the past 30 years, even as the country becomes increasingly multiracial. In this class, we will use public schools as an example to examine the role race plays in shaping urban spaces and institutions. We will begin by unpacking the concept of racialization, or the process by which a person, place, phenomenon, or characteristic becomes associated with a certain race. Then, we will explore the following questions: What are the connections between city schools and their local contexts? What does it mean to be a “neighborhood school”? How do changes in neighborhoods change schools? We will use ethnographies, narrative non-fiction, and educational research to explore these questions from a variety of perspectives. You will apply what you have learned to your own experiences and to current debates over urban policies and public schools. This course will extend your understanding of key anthropological and sociological perspectives on urban inequality in the United States, as well as introduce you to critical theory.
Introduction to cell biological techniques used to investigate structural, molecular, and physiological aspects of eukaryotic cells and their organization into tissues. Techniques include light and electron microscopy, cell culture, isolation of cellular organelles, protein electrophoresis, and Western Blot analysis.
This course explores the formation of desire, sexuality, and subjectivity through the frameworks of feminist epistemologies (the question of what we can know) and feminist ethics (the question of how to be responsible within our relationships and local and global communities). We will reflect on the tension between the limits of what we can know about ourselves and others and the imperative to care for each other and remain accountable for our individual and collective actions and inaction. We will investigate how our deepest emotions, intimate encounters, and secret fantasies are formed by larger social and political contexts. In turn, we will also question how these intimate relationships with ourselves and our companions may be seen as feminist acts of resistance, disruption, and creation. Objective I: to closely engage diverse feminist perspectives in late-twentieth- and twenty-firstcentury phenomenology, existentialism, Marxism, queer theory, critical race theory, and psychoanalysis. Objective II: to begin to locate your own feminist perspective within the intersection of your unique experiences and the larger historical and social contexts that form you and which you may seek to transform.
See the Barnard and Columbia Architecture Department website for a description of this semester's topic.
architecture.barnard.edu/workshops