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.
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.
An introductory course intended primarily for nonscience majors. This interdisciplinary course focuses on the subject of LIfe in the Universe. We will study historical astronomy, gravitation and planetary orbits, the origin of the chemical elements, the discoveries of extrasolar planets, the origin of life on Earth, the evolution and exploration of the Solar Systen, global climate change on Venus, Mars and Earth, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI).
You cannot receive credit for this course and for ASTR UN1403 or ASTR UN1453.
Can be paired with the optional Lab class ASTR UN1903.
This course covers the historical development of cities in Latin America. Readings, lectures, and discussion sections will examine the concentration of people in commercial and political centers from the beginnings of European colonization in the fifteenth century to the present day and will introduce contrasting approaches to the study of urban culture, politics, society, and the built environment. Central themes include the reciprocal relationships between growing urban areas and the countryside; changing power dynamics in modern Latin America, especially as they impacted the lives of cities’ nonelite majority populations; the legalities and politics of urban space; planned versus unplanned cities and the rise of informal economies; the way changing legal and political rights regimes have affected urban life; and the constant tension between tradition and progress through which urban society was formed. There are no prerequisites for this course. Attendance at weekly Discussion Sections required.
REQUIRED DISCUSSION SECTION for HIST UN 1786 History of the City in Latin America. Students must first register for HIST UN 1786.
How exhausting is it, really, always rooting for the antihero? Not very, our cultural and social landscape would suggest. From films to novels, popstars to political figures, contemporary culture marvels more and more at the misfits, the flawed, the scheming, the petty, the brats. Traditional heroic qualities are no longer necessary to appeal to audiences fascinated with the likes of Tony Soprano or Olivia Pope, the Punisher or Hannah Horvath. But is the antihero a product of the golden age of television? A result of our modern, revisionist impulse to reconsider the villains of our childhood?
This course will explore the complex and evolving figure of the antihero from its origins in the literary canon—in, for instance, Greek tragedy and the picaresque novel—to its prominence in modern fiction, film, and television. In parallel, we will explore how the antihero functions within broader socio-political contexts—whether as a critique of institutional power, a commentary on individualism and alienation, or a reflection of our anxieties about a world in which morality is no longer absolute.
Key questions will include: What does it mean to be anti-heroic in the modern world? How does the antihero challenge the distinction between protagonist and antagonist? How do marginalized voices shape and redefine antiheroic figures? What is it about figures who live on the boundary between law and lawlessness—the cowboy, the vigilante, the rebel—that so appeals to us?
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 classical mechanics. Our goal is to develop an understanding of the principles underlying motion and how they apply to a wide variety of systems. The course will emphasize topics that help both to understand and to predict behavior in the world around us, highlighting when possible its relevance in medical & biological contexts.
Prerequisites: any 1000-level course in the Physics or Astronomy Department. May be taken before or concurrently with this course. Lectures on current areas of research with discussions of motivation, techniques, and results, as well as difficulties and unsolved problems. Requirements include weekly problem sets and attendance of lectures.
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.
Research Methods in Neuroscience: Circuits and Cells offers students a unique opportunity to combine theoretical knowledge with practical skills development. This course pairs a weekly lecture with hands-on laboratory experiences, giving students a chance to see what day to day neuroscience research entails. The first three weeks of the semester will cover introductory topics in neuroscience, the scientific method, and experimental design. Then students will participate in three 3-week long modules covering human cognition, animal behavior, and neurological disease. The last two weeks of the course will be spent preparing students for a successful undergraduate research experience. Throughout the semester students will read scientific review articles to deepen their understanding of the lecture material and to contextualize that week’s lab experience.
This is the lab component for PSYC UN1950 Neuroscience Methods: Cells and Circuits.
This course introduces students to the study of comparative literature. For any student interested in what it means to live in a multi-lingual world with rich and diverse forms and traditions of literary, artistic, and philosophical expression, this course serves to cultivate lifelong skills and habits of attentivenes that will prepare you to navigate the world as engaged, critical-thinking cosmopolitan citizens. For students who would like to major in Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at Barnard, this course serves as the gateway course for the program. For students who wish to minor in Translation Studies, this course serves as an elective. The course is designed to introduce you to methods and topics in the study of literature across national, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, across historical periods, and in relation to other arts and disciplines. Readings are selected and juxtaposed in units designed to give you cumulative practice in doing comparative criticism and to foster thereby deepening reflection on underlying historical, philosophical, historiographical, and methodological issues. We will study works of narrative and lyric poetry, novels, short stories, and film and also works of philosophy, political theory, linguistics, and psychoanalysis. We will read texts of literary criticism, literary theory, and translation theory. Topics include: the role of language and literature in different cultures and historical periods, the relationship between genres, the circulation of literary forms, literature and translation, postcoloniality, gender and sexual difference, and the relationship of literature to other arts. By engaging with the particular combinations of texts in the course, students will learn how to read closely and deeply and make well-substantiated critical connections between textual and cultural phenomena that may yield new, original, and surprising insights. Students in this course typically bring with them a range of languages, but not everyone has proficiency in the same languages. Common readings will be in English translation, but students capable of reading the texts in the original languages should feel free to do so. You will be given the opportunity to work with the texts in the original languages in assignments of interpretive and translation criticism.
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.)
"The Core as Praxis/Fieldwork” provides students with the opportunity to explore the connections among texts from the Core Curriculum, their work in their major field of study, and their work in a professional environment outside of Columbia’s campus. Students will be guided through a process of reflection on the ideas and approaches that they develop in Core classes and in the courses in their major, to think about how they can apply theory to practice in the context of an internship or other experiential learning environment. Students will reread and revisit a text that they have studied previously in Literature Humanities or in Contemporary Civilization as the basis for their reading and writing assignments over the semester.
To be eligible, students must (1) be engaged during the semester in an internship or other experiential learning opportunity, (2) have completed the sophomore year, and (3) have declared their major (or concentration)
. HUMAUN2000 may not be taken with the Pass/D/Fail option. All students will receive a letter grade for the course. Students can take HUMAUN2000 twice.
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.
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.
Between 1967 and 1969, groups of American Indian, Black, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and Puerto Rican college students began to articulate demands for a transformed university, touching everything from admissions, relations to community, and curriculum. Their proposals contributed to the Third World Liberation Front strike at San Francisco State University, the longest student strike in US history. Drawing inspiration from Gary Okihiro, founding director of Columbia’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, this course takes student activists’ proposals for Third World Studies seriously. Our readings will draw on the traditions of anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle in North America, alongside perspectives from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Prerequisites: a working knowledge of calculus. Corequisites: a course in calculus-based general physics. First term of a two-term calculus-based introduction to astronomy and astrophysics. Topics include the physics of stellar interiors, stellar atmospheres and spectral classifications, stellar energy generation and nucleosynthesis, supernovae, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and interacting binary stars.
Atoms; elements and compounds; gases; solutions; equilibrium; acid-base, precipitation, and oxidation-reduction reactions; thermochemistry. Laboratory one day a week. Laboratory experience with both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Counts towards Lab Science Requirement.
This first-semester of the Second Year Chinese course is designed for students who have
completed a rigorous first-year college-level Mandarin course or its equivalent. It aims to
advance proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing to the Intermediate Mid to
Advanced Low levels (ACTFL). Students will engage with real-world scenarios relevant to
studying abroad, such as selecting phone plans, handling bank transactions, and mailing
packages. Emphasis is placed on detailed narration (e.g., emails, journals) and intercultural
competence through comparative cultural analysis. Course materials include dialogues and
narratives to support vocabulary, grammar, communication, and cultural learning.
Introductory biology course for majors in biology or environmental biology, emphasizing the ecological and evolutionary context of modern biology.
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.
The first half of a one-year sequence in intermediate Italian for students who have completed Elementary Italian I and II or the equivalent.
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.
Corequisites: Calculus I or the equivalent
Fundamental laws of mechanics. Kinematics, Newtons laws, work and energy, conservation laws, collisions, rotational motion, oscillations, gravitation. PLEASE NOTE: Students who take PHYS BC2001 may not get credit for PHYS BC2009 or PHYS BC2010.
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.
This course is for students interested in learning how to conduct scientific research. They will learn how to (i) design well-controlled experiments and identify “quack” science; (ii) organize, summarize and illustrate data, (iii) analyze different types of data; and (iv) interpret the results of statistical tests.
Interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the study of Africa, moving from pre-colonial through colonial and post-colonial periods to contemporary Africa. Focus will be on its history, societal relations, politics and the arts. The objective is to provide a critical survey of the history as well as the continuing debates in African Studies.
This course presents students with crucial theories of society, paying particular attention at the outset to classic social theory of the early 20th century. It traces a trajectory of writings essential for an understanding of the social: from Saussure, Durkheim, Mauss, Weber, and Marx, on to the structuralist ethnographic elaboration of Claude Levi-Strauss and the historiographic reflections on modernity of Michel Foucault. We revisit periodically, reflections by Franz Boas, founder of anthropology in the United States (and of Anthropology at Columbia), for a sense of origins, an early anthropological critique of racism and cultural chauvinism, and a prescient denunciation of fascism. We turn as well, also with ever-renewed interest in these times, to the expansive critical thought of W. E. B. Du Bois. We conclude with Kathleen Stewart’s
A Space on the Side of the Road
--an ethnography of late-twentieth-century Appalachia and the haunted remains of coal-mining country--with its depictions of an uncanny otherness within dominant American narratives.
Computational neuroscience is an exciting, constantly evolving subfield in neuroscience that brings together theories and ideas from many different areas in STEM such as physics, chemistry, math, computer science, and psychology. Through the exploration of computational models of neuronal and neural network activity, students will be introduced to a handful of quantitative STEM concepts that intersect with neuroscience. Before beginning this course students are expected to know about the action potential and synaptic transmission (see prerequisites). In this course, we will connect those biological phenomena to quantitative STEM concepts and then to computational models in Matlab. This course is designed for Neuroscience and Biology majors who want to take their first steps towards mathematical and computational models of the brain. Students interested in the computational track for the Neuroscience major should consider taking this course. By the end of this course students will be able to:
● Identify the scope of a neuroscience model and determine what it can and cannot tell us.
● Compare models and select an appropriate model for a given scientific question from among the models covered in this course.
● Make connections from the action potential and synaptic transmission to quantitative concepts from other STEM disciplines.
● Design, construct, and implement computational neuroscience models of neurons and neural networks using Matlab.
Prerequisites: one year of college chemistry is required. Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar. http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
This is a seminar course that covers the basics of mathematical proofs and in particular the epsilon-delta argument in single variable calculus.
Students who have little experience with mathematical proofs are strongly encouraged to take this course concurrently with Honors Math, Into to Modern Algebra, or Intro to Modern Analysis.
This course will focus on individual and collaborative projects designed to explore the fundamental principles of image making. Students acquire a working knowledge of concepts in contemporary art through class critiques, discussion, and individual meetings with the professor. Reading materials will provide historical and philosophical background to the class assignments. Class projects will range from traditional to experimental and multi-media. Image collections will be discussed in class with an awareness of contemporary image production.
PHYS BC2010 Mechanics - Lecture Only is required as a pre- or co-requisite for this lab.
Matrices, vector spaces, linear transformations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, canonical forms, applications. (SC)
Fundamental laws of mechanics. Kinematics, Newton's laws, work and energy, conservation laws, collisions, rotational motion, oscillations, gravitation. This is a calculus-based class. Familiarity with derivatives and integrals is needed.
Only the most recent chapters of the past are able to be studied using traditional historiographical methods focused on archives of textual documents. How, then, are we to analyze the deep history of human experiences prior to the written word? And even when textual archives do survive from a given historical period, these archives are typically biased toward the perspectives of those in power. How, then, are we to undertake analyses of the past that take into account the lives and experiences of all of society’s members, including the poor, the working class, the colonized, and others whose voices appear far less frequently in historical documents? From its disciplinary origins in nineteenth century antiquarianism, archaeology has grown to become a rigorous science of the past, dedicated to the exploration of long-term and inclusive social histories.
“Laboratory Methods in Archaeology” is an intensive introduction to the analysis of archaeological artifacts and samples in which we explore how the organic and inorganic remains from archaeological sites can be used to build rigorous claims about the human past. The 2022 iteration of the course centers on assemblages from two sites, both excavated by Barnard’s archaeological field program in the Taos region of northern New Mexico: (1) the Spanish colonial site of San Antonio del Embudo founded in 1725 and (2) the hippie commune known as New Buffalo, founded in 1967. Participants in ANTH BC2012 will be introduced to the history, geology, and ecology of the Taos region, as well as to the excavation histories of the two sites. Specialized laboratory modules focus on the analysis of chipped stone artifacts ceramics, animal bone, glass, and industrial artifacts.
The course only demands participation in the seminars and laboratory modules and successful completion of the written assignments, but all students are encouraged to develop specialized research projects to be subsequently expanded into either (1) a senior thesis project or (2) a conference presentation at the Society for American Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, or Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting.
Corequisite: CHEM BC2001. Required laboratory section for BC2001x General Chemistry. All students enrolled in BC2001x must also be enrolled in one section of BC2012.
Corequisite: CHEM BC2001. Required laboratory section for BC2001x General Chemistry. All students enrolled in BC2001x must also be enrolled in one section of BC2012.
Corequisite: CHEM BC2001. Required laboratory section for BC2001x General Chemistry. All students enrolled in BC2001x must also be enrolled in one section of BC2012.
Corequisite: CHEM BC2001. Required laboratory section for BC2001x General Chemistry. All students enrolled in BC2001x must also be enrolled in one section of BC2012.
Corequisite: CHEM BC2001. Required laboratory section for BC2001x General Chemistry. All students enrolled in BC2001x must also be enrolled in one section of BC2012.
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Lecture and recitation. Recommended as the introductory biology course for biology and related majors, and for premedical students. Fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar.
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
Linear algebra with a focus on probability and statistics. The course covers the standard linear algebra topics: systems of linear equations, matrices, determinants, vector spaces, bases, dimension, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, the Spectral Theorem and singular value decompositions. It also teaches applications of linear algebra to probability, statistics and dynamical systems giving a background sufficient for higher level courses in probability and statistics. The topics covered in the probability theory part include conditional probability, discrete and continuous random variables, probability distributions and the limit theorems, as well as Markov chains, curve fitting, regression, and pattern analysis. The course contains applications to life sciences, chemistry, and environmental life sciences. No a priori background in the life sciences is assumed.
This course is best suited for students who wish to focus on applications and practical approaches to problem solving. It is recommended to students majoring in engineering, technology, life sciences, social sciences, and economics.
Math majors, joint majors, and math concentrators must take MATH UN2010 Linear Algebra or MATH UN1207 Honors Math A, which focus on linear algebra concepts and foundations that are needed for upper-level math courses. MATH UN2015 (Linear Algebra and Probability) does NOT replace MATH UN2010 (Linear Algebra) as prerequisite requirements of math courses. Students may not receive full credit for both courses MATH UN2010 and MATH UN2015. Students who have taken MATH UN2015 and consider taking higher level Math courses should contact a major advisor to discuss alternative pathways.
Today’s cell phones are equipped with cameras that far surpass those used by the pioneers of digital photography, offering superior resolution and multi-sensor capabilities that revolutionize how we capture and process images. This course explores the creative and technical potential of smartphone photography, focusing on accessible tools and workflows that empower students to produce compelling digital works. The curriculum emphasizes post-production and digital media techniques over traditional camera mastery. Students will develop foundational skills in Adobe Suite applications, including Lightroom and Photoshop for photo editing and After Effects and Premiere for video production. We will also discuss the integration of artificial intelligence in modern photography, examining how AI enhances editing processes and opens new creative possibilities. A significant part of the course will address fundamental questions of light in photography, the use of RAW formats—offered by many smartphones but seldom understood—and the structure of digital image files. Students will also learn about post-production techniques for preparing images for print, as well as for projection or display on digital screens, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the end-to-end digital photography workflow. Thinking Locally: Street photography serves as a central theme in this course, encouraging students to document the vibrant life of New York City through weekly assignments. A guided photo walk in Harlem will provide hands-on experience in capturing unique, candid moments. Ethical considerations will be a key focus, addressing topics like consent, privacy, and best practices for interacting with subjects. Discussions will be complemented by readings, critiques, and a guest lecture from a professional street photographer. By the end of the course, students will have transformed their understanding of smartphone photography, creating works that push the boundaries of accessible technology while building a strong foundation in contemporary digital media.
Regimes of various shapes and sizes tend to criminalize associations, organizations, and social relations that these ruling powers see as anathema to the social order on which their power depends: witches, officers of toppled political orders, alleged conspirators (rebels, traitors, terrorists, and dissidents), gangsters and mafiosi, or corrupt officers and magnates. Our main goal will be to understand how and under what conditions do those with the power to do so define, investigate, criminalize and prosecute those kinds of social relations that are cast as enemies of public order. We will also pay close attention to questions of knowledge – legal, investigative, political, journalistic, and public – how doubt, certainty, suspicion and surprise shape the struggle over the relationship between the state and society.
The main part of the course is organized around six criminal investigations on mafia-related affairs that took place from the 1950s to the present (two are undergoing appeal these days) in western Sicily. After the introductory section, we will spend two weeks (four meetings) on every one of these cases. We will follow attempts to understand the Mafia and similarly criminalized organizations, and procure evidence about it. We will then expand our inquiry from Sicily to cases from all over the world, to examine questions about social relations, law, the uses of culture, and political imagination.
*Although this is a social anthropology course,
no previous knowledge of anthropology is required or presumed
. Classroom lectures will provide necessary disciplinary background.
Popular and Historical Gestures explores the fundamental properties of figure drawing and portraiture through the lens of pop culture and historical gestures and poses. Students examine the figure in painting, documentary photography, art history, and literature, and then use these examples as sources for live model sessions, studio practice, and discussions. Students will work on self-directed projects and from live models. There are one-on-one and group discussions, as well as individual critiques with the instructor. Class time will include image presentations, discussions, museum trips, individual and group critiques, and in-class independent work time. Each class will begin with a homework critique and a discussion, lecture, or demonstration structured around a specific goal. Students will then work individually. Each class will end with brief individual and group critiques to allow students to see and discuss each other's work.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Department through audition required. Students cast as actors in a departmental stage production register for this course; course emphasizes the collaborative nature of production, and appropriate research and reading required in addition to artistic assignments. Auditions for each semester's stage productions held 6pm on the first Tuesday and Wednesday class days of each semester. For required details, consult "Auditions" on the Barnard Theatre Department website in advance:
theatre.barnard.edu/auditions
.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Department through audition required. Students cast as actors in a departmental stage production register for this course; course emphasizes the collaborative nature of production, and appropriate research and reading required in addition to artistic assignments. Auditions for each semester's stage productions held 6pm on the first Tuesday and Wednesday class days of each semester. For required details, consult "Auditions" on the Barnard Theatre Department website in advance:
theatre.barnard.edu/auditions
.
Prerequisites: MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1201 or the equivalent. Special differential equations of order one. Linear differential equations with constant and variable coefficients. Systems of such equations. Transform and series solution techniques. Emphasis on applications.
Prerequisites: Music Humanities (Columbia University) or An Introduction to Music (Barnard). With the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants in New York in the mid-1600s until today, Jewish music in the City has oscillated between preserving traditions and introducing innovative ideas. This course explores the variety of ways people have used music to describe, inscribe, symbolize, and editorialize their Jewish experience. Along these lines, it draws upon genres of art music, popular music, and non-Western traditions, as well as practices that synthesize various styles and genres, from hazzanut to hiphop. Diverse musical experiences will serve as a window to address wider questions of identity, memory, and dislocation. We will also experience the Jewish soundscape of New York’s dynamic and eclectic music culture by visiting various venues and meeting key players in today’s music scene, and thus engage in the ongoing dialogues that define Jewishness in New York. A basic familiarity with Judaism and Jewish culture is helpful for this course, but it is by no means required. You do not need to know Jewish history to take this class, nor do you need to be able to read music. Translations from Hebrew and Yiddish will be provided, and musical analysis will be well explained.
The awareness of mortality seems to be a peculiarly human affliction, and its study has been a key theme of 20th century philosophy. This class will address the question of human finitude from outside of the western philosophical tradition. Anthropologists have shown that humans deal with the challenge of death in diverse ways, which nevertheless share some common themes. During the semester we’ll look at case studies from across the world and over time and also explore the ethics and politics of disturbing the dead. The evidence of past human mortuary assemblages will provide some of our key primary texts. We’ll analyze famous burials such as those of Tutankhamun, the Lord of Sipan, and Emperor Qin’s mausoleum, containing the celebrated terracotta warriors, but we’ll also consider less well-known mortuary contexts. We will also critically examine the dead body as a privileged site for anthropological research, situating its study within the broader purview of anthropological theories of the body's production and constitution. $25 Anthropology Lab Fee. Satisfies Global Core Requirement (Columbia College and General Studies).
In this course we will study the late colonial and early post-colonial periods of South Asian history together. Some of the events we will cover include: the climax of anti-colonial movements in South Asia, WWII as it developed in South and Southeast Asia, the partition of British India, the two Indo-Pakistan wars, and the 1971 Bangladesh War. While we will read selected secondary literature, we will focus on a range of primary sources, including original radio broadcasts and oral history interviews. We will also study artistic interpretations of historical developments, including short stories and films. In this course, we will strive to remain attentive to the important changes engendered by colonialism, while simultaneously recognizing the agency of South Asians in formulating their own modernities during this critical period. We will also seek to develop a narrative of modern South Asian history, which is attentive to parallel and/or connected events in other regions.
Prerequisites: CHEM UN2045 Premedical students may take CHEM UN2045, CHEM UN2046, and CHEM UN2545 to meet the minimum requirements for admission to medical school. This course covers the same material as CHEM UN2443 - CHEM UN2444, but is intended for students who have learned the principles of general chemistry in high school OR have completed CHEM UN1604 in their first year at Columbia. First year students enrolled in CHEM UN2045 - CHEM UN2046 are expected to enroll concurrently in CHEM UN1507. Although CHEM UN2045 and CHEM UN2046 are separate courses, students are expected to take both terms sequentially. A recitation section is required. Please check the Directory of Classes for details and also speak with the TA for the course.
Corequisites: TO BE ENROLLED IN UN2046, YOU MUST REGISTER FOR UN2048 RECITATION
Sustainability is a powerful framework for thinking about business, economics, politics and environmental impacts. An overview course, Environmental Policy & Governance will focus specifically on the policy elements of sustainability. With an emphasis on the American political system, the course will begin by exploring the way the American bureaucracy addresses environmental challenges. We will then use the foundations established through our understanding of the US system to study sustainable governance at the international level. With both US and international perspectives in place, we will then address a range of specific sustainability issues including land use, climate change, food and agriculture, air quality, water quality, and energy. Over the course of the semester, we will study current events through the lens of sustainability policy to help illustrate course concepts and theories.
This course is designed as travellers guide to medieval Europe. Its purpose is to provide a window to a long-lost world that provided the foundation of modern institutions and that continues to inspire the modern collective artistic and literary imagination with its own particularities. This course will not be a conventional history course concentrating on the grand narratives in the economic, social and political domains but rather intend to explore the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants, and attempts to have a glimpse of their mindset, their emotional spectrum, their convictions, prejudices, fears and hopes. It will be at once a historical, sociological and anthropological study of one of the most inspiring ages of European civilization. Subjects to be covered will include the birth and childhood, domestic life, sex and marriage, craftsmen and artisans, agricultural work, food and diet, the religious devotion, sickness and its cures, death, after death (purgatory and the apparitions), travelling, merchants and trades, inside the nobles castle, the Christian cosmos, and medieval technology. The lectures will be accompanied by maps, images of illuminated manuscripts and of medieval objects. Students will be required to attend a weekly discussion section to discuss the medieval texts bearing on that weeks subject. The written course assignment will be a midterm, final and two short papers, one an analysis of a medieval text and a second an analysis of a modern text on the Middle Ages.
MANDATORY Discussion Section for HIST UN 2072 Daily Life in Medieval Europe. Students must also be registered for HIST UN 2072.