In 1942, the American sociologist Robert Merton described modern science as an intellectual enterprise that can produce truthful and factual knowledge only if inspired by democratic values. Yet such concept contrasted starkly with the reality of science in the interwar period and World War II, at the peak of the clash between liberal democracies and fascist dictatorships. What was the role of science in the global conflict between liberalism and the fascist ‘New Order’? What did science and technology look like under fascism?
This class examines the relationship between science and fascism in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Franco’s Spain, and Salazar’s Portugal. During the Great War (1914-1918), science and technology were enlisted as critical assets for the war effort and the international scientific community was shattered across national lines. The Great War proved the importance of the scientific organization of society and state-controlled scientific advancement. Fascism developed this lesson in the interwar period to pursue its nationalist and imperialist goal: the creation of a new world order.
Thus, the seminar explores the entanglement between science, technology and fascism by examining a wide range of disciplines, such as physics, medicine, eugenics, statistics, demography, agronomy, and engineering. Focusing in particular on fascism’s central themes of race and empire, the course examines the relationship between state power and scientific expertise, the persecution of Jewish scientists in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and scientists’ critical competition in World War II ahead of the creation of the atomic bomb, which ushered in the new era of the Cold War.
Students will develop original dramatic scripts. Students will also read drafts of writers currently produced on New York stages to understand why changes and rewrites were made. Recommended for students undertaking a senior thesis in playwriting.
Prerequisites: One introductory course in Sociology suggested. Examination of factors in gender identity that are both universal (across time, culture, setting) and specific to a social context. Social construction of gender roles in different settings, including family, work, and politics. Attention to the role of social policies in reinforcing norms or facilitating change.
Prerequisites: BIOL BC1500, BIOL BC1501, BIOL BC1502, BIOL BC1503, BIOL BC2100, BIOL BC3305. Enrollment limited to 12. Laboratory course in which students conduct original research projects in molecular genetics. Students interested in getting involved in research, or those looking to deepen research design and lab skills in this area, are encouraged to begin with this course. Students will participate in experimental design, conduct and data analysis, and work with key techniques for studying gene structure, expression and function such as nucleic acid extraction and synthesis, cloning, bioinformatics analysis including RNA-Seq, PCR and quantitative PCR, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. Students will present their results orally and in writing. Enrollment in both semesters (BIOL BC3305 and BIOL BC3306) of this full-year course is required for credit, and fulfills two upper-level lab courses for the Barnard Biology major. Must be taken in sequence, beginning in the fall. - J. Mansfield
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.
See the Barnard and Columbia Architecture Department website for the course description:
https://architecture.barnard.edu/architecture-department-course-descriptions
See the Barnard and Columbia Architecture Department website for the course description:
https://architecture.barnard.edu/architecture-department-course-descriptions
This course conceives of the Qur’ān as a living text in constant flux through interactions with other religious traditions. It focuses on developing an understanding of the Qur’ān’s form, style, and content through a close reading of comparable religious texts. Major topics covered include the Qur’ānic theory of prophecy, its treatment of the Biblical tradition (both that of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament), and its perspective on pre-Islamic pagan religion. The central goals of the course include the ability to (a) analyze primary religious sources in a critical and objective manner and (b) construct coherent arguments based on concrete evidence. In a class of this nature, class members will naturally hold or develop a wide variety of opinions about the topics covered. The goal is not to adopt a single opinion concerning the interpretation of a particular text, but rather to support personal conclusions in a clear logical manner.
This class explores how racism and racialized capitalism and politics shape the distribution of material resources among cities and suburbs in metropolitan areas and the racial and ethnic groups residing in them. Readings and discussion focus on the history of metropolitan area expansion and economic development, as well as contemporary social processes shaping racial and ethnic groups’ access to high-quality public goods and private amenities. We address racial and ethnic groups’ evolving political agendas in today’s increasingly market-driven socio-political context, noting the roles of residents; federal, state, and local governments; market institutions and actors; urban planners, activist organizations, foundations, and social scientists, among others. Here is a sample of specific topics: race/ethnicity and who “belongs” in what “place;” inequitable government and market investment across racial and ethnic communities over time and “sedimentation effects” (for example, the “redlining” of Black communities leading to their inability to access loan and credit markets and the resulting wealth gap between Blacks and Whites); gentrification processes; creating sufficient, sustainable tax bases; and suburban sprawl. Assignments will include two short response papers, mid-term and final exams, and another project to be determined.
An interdisciplinary course focused on environmental humanities and based in the English department, “Changing Climate, Changing World” will examine the representation of nature across time and its implications for global warming and biodiversity from multiple perspectives, emphasizing issues of climate change and environmental justice. The course will provide a conceptual framework for reading and critiquing the representation of nature in the context of historical, economic, social, cultural, scientific and political change.
The course design asks students to address climate change in the context of the industrial revolution before discussing environmental issues in a pre-industrial and finally a post-industrial context. We will begin in media res by addressing issues of industrialization and colonialism in the mid-18th and 19th century before considering indigenous, medieval, and renaissance representations of nature. In the second half of the course, we return to examine contemporary issues from the early 20th century to the present.
The course will meet twice weekly in Spring 2025. One of these meetings will include a lecture with a guest faculty member from Barnard and Columbia, or occasionally with other experts, artists, and activists from New York and beyond, followed by questions from the audience on the lecture. The second meeting will emphasize student discussion of the lecture and associated readings, with the purpose of integrating each lecture into the total course framework. Since all the participating faculty are teaching full time, we will aim to schedule lectures in the late afternoon or evening to minimize conflicts. We would also like to open some of the lectures to the public, either virtually or in person, so that their impact could be felt beyond the class itself.
In this course, students will come to see the imbrication of religion, power, and mental illness across South Asia by examining experiences of suffering and its management; the history of psychiatry in the British colonial era and its afterlives; and the relationship of religion to concepts of mental and emotional disorder. Students will identify models for medical structures of care, healing, and treatments in the context of religion, ritual, and quotidian life. Topics include diagnostic processes and the creation of categories, stigma and models of clinical care, hysteria, spirit possession, pharmaceuticals, and the relationship of trauma to political structures. This course has three sections: 1) the first portion undertakes a brief historical survey of medical disciplines and institutions in South Asia (such as the development of Ayurveda, Yunānī Ṭibb, and the rise of the bīmāristān); 2) the second portion of the course focuses on the rise of the asylum (sometimes called the pāgal khāna) in tandem with psychiatry and its twinned consequence: the pathologization of asceticism by British colonial technologies of discipline; 3) the final portion examines the relationship between British colonialism and psychoanalysis with the introduction of this western discipline to the subcontinent.
This course will take
critical
stock of historical structures throughout South Asia
claiming
to provide care (such as family, caste, healthcare, mental asylums, colonialism, educational systems, pensions, and much more). As a result, students come to consider concepts of social suffering, biopolitics, biosociality, political subjectivity, and postcolonial disorder.
Primary source material will include the following: śāstra, ethnography, clinical studies, poetry, scripture, ritual texts across Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.
In this class, we will focus on recurring themes and questions of contemporary queer cinema by engaging with a number of film genres and forms, and explore how filmmakers create queer visions of the world through their cinematic practices. We will also consider how these queer films are informed by various local, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into consideration the particularities of each filmmaker’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions: How do various cultural, national, linguistic, religious contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and depicted visually? How do these filmmakers create queer narratives that contest, complicate or reify dominant narratives of gender and sexuality? How do they play around with cinematic and genre conventions?
Films, directors and genres studied are subject to change but will likely include directors such as Celine Sciamma, Cheryl Dunye, Pedro Almodovar, Todd Haynes, among others; and various genres such as drama, romance, thriller, mockumentary, thriller and experimental film.
This contemporary technique class invites students into an embodied practice focusing on a daily physical experimentation and challenge. Emphasis will be placed on corporeal ways to explore questions around propelling, listening, connecting, healing, and action. This course offers a chance for students to use their sensatorial experience to reflect on individual pathways/ desires for expression while, challenging the body to take risks and practice as their movement knowledge expands. Emphasis on sensation, initiation, and weight will be introduced in a floor or standing warm-up that will expand to a standing exploration of the transition between form and space. A focus will be to continue our development of a strong-grounded technique with healthy placement that moves with ease in and out of the floor. We will continue to develop our true embodied relationship to environment, people, and time.
Improvisation is an open level, movement based class in which students will learn collaborative improvisation tools, skills, practices, and mindset through experience, reflection, practice, and generation. Deep play, support for others, and a willingness to experiment and reflect are key in this discovery based course.
This contemporary technique class invites students into an embodied practice focusing on a daily physical experimentation and challenge. Emphasis will be placed on corporeal ways to explore questions around propelling, listening, connecting, healing, and action. This course offers a chance for students to use their sensatorial experience to reflect on individual pathways/ desires for expression while, challenging the body to take risks and practice as their movement knowledge expands. Emphasis on sensation, initiation, and weight will be introduced in a floor or standing warm-up that will expand to a standing exploration of the transition between form and space. A focus will be to continue our development of a strong-grounded technique with healthy placement that moves with ease in and out of the floor. We will continue to develop our true embodied relationship to environment, people, and time.
Prerequisites: Limited to twenty people. Examination of the gender-neutral partnering technique that is now common in contemporary dance. Focus is placed on recent improvisatory forms, sensation building, center connection and risk. Emphasis is placed on listening and sensing rather than controlling or leading.
This course will introduce the exploration of a partnering technique that is enriching for the mind and body. Contact Improvisation is not only an important tool for the dancer as it informs the body how to move with weight and connection and is required by most contemporary styles – it is also a technique that informs the artist in us all as it emphasizes listening, trust, and spontaneous creativity. In this course, students will use contact to support the creation of most duets, trios, and larger group dance. Focus is placed on recent improvisatory forms, sensation building, center connection, and finding the safe edges of risk as well as applying these studies to creation and expression. Students in this course will explore their own weight and how it relates to other bodies by listening as well as employing emotional, psychological, and cultural structures to their improvisation. Emphasis is placed on listening and sensation rather than controlling or leading. Students will explore the dynamic ride and risk taking of improvisation and trusting another body by giving and taking weight. Contact Improvisation is open to all students.
Prerequisites: L course: enrollment limited to 15 students. Completion of language requirement, third-year language sequence (W3300). Provides students with an overview of the cultural history of the Hispanic world, from eighth-century Islamic and Christian Spain and the pre-Hispanic Americas through the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period until about 1700, covering texts and cultural artifacts from both Spain and the Americas.
This course surveys cultural production of Spain and Spanish America from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Students will acquire the knowledge needed for the study of the cultural manifestations of the Hispanic world in the context of modernity. Among the issues and events studied will be the Enlightenment as ideology and practice, the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the wars of Spanish American independence, the fin-de-siecle and the cultural avant-gardes, the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century (Spanish Civil War, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions), neoliberalism, globalization, and the Hispanic presence in the United States. The goal of the course is to study some key moments of this trajectory through the analysis of representative texts, documents, and works of art. Class discussions will seek to situate the works studied within the political and cultural currents and debates of the time. All primary materials, class discussion, and assignments are in Spanish. This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies.
We live in an increasingly urbanized world. But what does it mean to be “urban”? As urbanization reaches more corners of the globe, its forms and processes become increasingly diverse.
Urban Elsewheres
is dedicated to investigating this diversity and to exploring the implications that unfamiliar urban phenomena might have for how we understand urbanization—both elsewhere in the world and in our own backyards. Through a comparative engagement with case studies drawn from around the world, this course will challenge some of our most deeply held, common sense assumptions about urbanization. Students will be asked to stretch the conceptual limits of urbanization and explore the social and political possibilities of an expanded urbanism. In doing so, the course will engage with the many of the most heated theoretical debates about urbanization, equipping students with a set of comparative analytical tools with which to explore the wider field of urban studies.
Introduction to animal developmental biology and its applications. This course will examine the basic mechanisms through which animal bodies organize themselves, from an integrative perspective at the levels of genes and gene networks, cell properties and behaviors, coordinated interactions of cells in developing tissues, organs and organ systems, and the role of developmental processes in morphological evolution. Topics include: fertilization, cleavage and gastrulation, establishment of body axes, neural development, organ formation, tissue and organ regeneration, stem cells and medical applications, evolution of developmental programs, and teratogenesis.
Prerequisites: one prior philosophy course. Reading and discussion of selected texts by central figures in phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, critical theory, and recent Continental philosophy. Authors may include Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Horkheimer, Adorno, Foucault, Bourdieu.
Prerequisites: BIOL BC1500, BIOL BC1501, BIOL BC1502, BIOL BC1503 or the equivalent. This course examines how mammals carry out basic functions like manipulating objects, sensing the external world, oxygenating tissues, and processing food. Emphasis is placed on (a) how the body regulates itself through the integrated action of multiple organ systems and (b) what goes awry in disease.
Emines the writer’s view of foreign cultures and animals, his response to empires and states, reflections on bureaucracy or personal relationships, with an emphasis on Kafka’s international legacy and influence. Discussions of his followers in American or world literature. Major novels such as The Trial, The Castle and Amerika as well as short stories are covered and rediscovered in this course.
One of the most hotly debated issues of today is the extent to which the state can legitimately dictate or impinge on one’s bodily autonomy. This is a long-running debate in the area of sexual and reproductive rights, but also is relevant to such current debates as the right to die / right to death with dignity; the right to use drugs for recreational or ritual purposes; engaging in hunger strikes as a protected form of freedom of expression; and the debate about whether the state can mandate vaccines. It is a debate that is highly gendered but also raises questions about how political power and socio-economic status influences how governments act on individuals and communities.
Prerequisites: Pre- (or co-) requisite is a physiology lecture class (e.g. BIOL BC3360). Enrollment limited to 16. Provides a hands-on introduction to the different physiological systems in vertebrates and invertebrates. Emphasizes the operation of a variety of physiological monitoring devices and the collection and analysis of physiological data.
This upper-level lecture course provides an in-depth analysis of neuroscience at the molecular and cellular levels. Topics include: the structure and function of neuronal membranes, the ionic basis of the membrane potential and action potential, synaptic transmission, synaptic plasticity, and sensory transduction.
Prerequisites: (PSYCH BC2141) and (PSYCH BC1001) This course presents an in depth investigation of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and OCD-related disorders, from a primarily psychological perspective. The course will focus on the phenomenology, correlates, and contributing factors of these conditions. Students will also learn about the current psychological treatments for these disorders. Emphasis will be placed on recent empirical research findings.
Prerequisites: Students must have one of the following pre-requisites for this course: PSYC BC1125 Personality Psychology, PSYC BC1138 Social Psychology, or PSYC BC2151 Organizational Psychology, and permission by the instructor. An in-depth examination of the concept of leadership in psychology with an emphasis on womens leadership. Topics include the role of gender, culture, and emotional intelligence as well as an examination of transactional and transformational models. Topics will be discussed with an equal emphasis on theory, research, and application. Students must have prerequisites and permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15.
Prerequisites: BC1001 and two more psychology courses, and permission of the instructor required. Consideration of research on the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors related to physical health and illness. Topics include the relationship of stress to illness, primary prevention, mind-body methods of coping with stress and chronic illness (such as meditation), and the relationship between psychological factors and recovery from illness. Enrollment limited to 15.
Prerequisites: Third-year bridge course (W3300), and introductory surveys (W3349, W3350). Sociolinguistics studies the connections between language and social categories such as class, gender, and ethnicity. This course will address how social, geographic, cultural, and economic factors affect the different usages of Spanish among its millions of speakers. Through theory and practice of various research tools including Ethnography of Communication and Discourse Analysis, students with explore topics such as English-Spanish contact in the US, code-switching, and Spanglish, as well as issues of identity, bilingualism, and endangered languages.
This seminar delves into the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms responsible for natural animal behaviors (i.e. ethology). Animal models are crucial to biological research. Without fruit flies we would know little about genetic inheritance or how genes relate to fundamental behaviors, such as circadian rhythms. Without the barn owl we would not fully understand how the brain detects interaural time differences and localizes sounds. Without echolocating bats our knowledge of three-dimensional navigation and memory would be diminished. Through the study of animal systems that are specialized for particular sensory and motor acts, scientists have been able to dissect the circuit computations underlying key behaviors, such as decision making, prey detection, foraging, mate selection, and communication, that are fundamental across species. Through short introductory talks and in-depth discussions of primary scientific literature, this course will provide a foundation for understanding these behaviors, and relate discoveries in animal research to broader themes in neurobiology, ecology, and medicine.
Prerequisites: Open to Barnard College History Senior Majors. Individual guided research and writing in history and the presentation of results in seminar and in the form of the senior essay. See Requirements for the Major for details.
This seminar will explore sleep and circadian rhythms, emphasizing how these factors and their disruption influence human health, disease, function, and well-being. Topics will include the physiologic and neurobiological generation of sleep and circadian rhythms, and the interaction between these systems with cognitive, behavioral, endocrine, metabolic, and mood/psychiatric variables in humans, as well as sleep disorders and their treatment.
NOTE: The course description is the same for the fall/spring course and the summer course.
This course, which has no pre-requisites, teaches students about data science and public health. Students will create and answer public health research questions related to health equity in NYC. The course will use publicly available NYC health data to learn the seven steps of data science: 1) writing a research question; 2) obtaining data to address the question; 3) data cleaning; 4) data exploration; (5) analysis; 6) replication and validity evaluation; and (7) presentation and summary. The course will introduce students to
R
.
Studio course exploring designing costumes for the stage. Students become familiar with textual and character analysis, research, sketching and rendering, swatching and introductory costume history.
Application Instructions for full semester fall and spring courses: E-mail the instructor with the title of the course in the subject line. In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they will automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will admit them as spaces become available.
For summer courses: Application not required. Register directly for the course.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Focuses on both the technical and creative aspects of theatrical lighting design. Students will learn the role of lighting within the larger design and performance collaboration through individual and group projects, readings, hands-on workshops, and critique of actual designs.
Application Instructions: E-mail the instructor (
acasey@barnard.edu
) with the title of the course in the subject line. In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they will automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will admit them as spaces become available.
This course is a comprehensive review of the neural basis of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses to traumatic events. The
acute
experience of trauma and the
memory
of the trauma may influence neural processes influencing social relatedness, attachment, emotional regulation, physiological homeostasis and the stress response. Neuroscientific research provides insight into these processes and informs pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions for individual survivors.
Students will review neuroscientific theoretical models and research relevant to the neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and neurodevelopmental processes underlying the traumatic response. The neuroendocrine system and its relevance will also be reviewed. The course will begin with a critical review of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) diagnosis of Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders, to acquire an understanding of the symptoms and diagnosis. Next, students will review theory and research relevant to trauma and neurobiology, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Finally, students will critique the application of these research findings to the design of current “neuro-informed” therapeutic interventions. Throughout the course, individual case studies will provide insight into the brain’s influence on symptomatology and foster greater understanding and sensitivity to the personal post-traumatic experience.
Cannibals! Orphans! Strikes! Vampires! This course asks how do horror stories
employ suspense and disgust to unsettle political, social, and ethical complacency in the hearts and minds of readers and audiences? We will consider the pan-media global adaptations, translations, reiterations, and afterlives of several powerful horror stories—maritime, domestic, industrial, and supernatural-- as they serially repeat across national borders, languages, historical periods, and delivery platforms, from novels, plays, and film to an underwater sculpture, photographs, paintings, advertisements, a graphic novel, and other aesthetic forms. We will read each adaptation in synchronic dialogue with its companions, in diachronic perspective, and through relevant theoretical lenses, comparing the priorities of aesthetic form in the context of the national, cultural, and the historical contingencies of class and race difference. Texts may include the
Raft of the Medusa, Jane Eyre, Mary Barton, Germinal, Dracula
and the
Dybbuk.
Familiarity with French, Yiddish, Russian, Wolof (
Atlantique
), Korean (
Parasite
) and Persian (
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
) welcome but not required. All majors welcome!
(To count this course for the English major, all writing must focus on works originally published in English.)
Change is fundamental to our experience as human beings, and the experience of change lies at the heart of most great stories. Sometimes this is a transition that the heroine has desired; other times, alteration and transformation arise from sources mysterious and unknown, or as a result of the journey the story has brought them. This course examines the element of change in a wide range of literature, from Ovid to Maggie Nelson, from Shakespeare to Roxane Gay—but it also provides an opportunity for students to consider the ways in which they, too have been changed—by joy, by trauma, by time. In addition to writing critically about the works we will read together, students will also write a personal essay about their experience of metamorphosis; this essay will be examined in a modified workshop format. At semester’s end, students will re-write and change that same essay, in hopes of seeing how revision on the page might provide a model for understanding the metamorphoses we experience as human beings on this earth. Authors will likely include Ovid, Kafka, Robert Louis Stevenson, Borges, Shaun Tan, Roxane Gay, George Saunders, Arthur C. Clarke, Shakespeare, and Maggie Nelson. There will be a final exam and a critical paper, as well as the personal essay, in two drafts.
Prerequisites: Students must attend first class. Examines the diverse ways in which sociology has defined and studied cities, focusing on the people who live and work in the city, and the transformations U.S. cities are undergoing today. Sociological methods, including ethnography, survey research, quantitative studies, and participant observation will provide perspectives on key urban questions such as street life, race, immigration, globalization, conflict, and redevelopment.
In this course, we explore the variety of roles that computation can play in the analysis, creation, and performance of music. We start with the fundamentals of sound in the digital domain, covering issues of representation and audio synthesis. We then move through various synthesis techniques including the additive, subtractive, frequency modulation (FM), and amplitude modulation (AM) synthesis. After covering some core DSP techniques, we put these concepts into performative practice by exploring “live coding”. In the space of live coding, we examine various programming language designs to understand how various domain specific languages (DSLs) support live coding. For the third module, we turn our focus to automated composition and analysis, addressing challenges in music information retrieval, generative art, and autonomous improvisation systems. All the while, we continue to develop our fluency in live coding by putting new topics to practice.
Prerequisites: RUSS V3430 or the instructors permission. This course is designed to help students who speak Russian at home, but have no or limited reading and writing skills to develop literary skills in Russian. THIS COURSE, TAKEN WITH RUSS V3430, MEET A TWO YEAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT. Conducted in Russian.
In this course, we will examine how notions of sex and gender have shaped public policies, and how public policies have affected the social, economic, and political citizenship of men and women in the United States over time.
Prerequisites: DNCE BC2447, BC2448, or permission of instructor.
Tap III is an advanced level tap class for students who have 5 or more years of tap dance training. We will cover tap technique, proper use of the body to enhance sound quality and style, a variety of musical genres and structures, and improvisation.
In this course we will explore urban environmental inequalities through the lens of environmental justice. The concept of environmental justice has risen in prominence in the language of environmental activism, politics, and policymaking. Informed by critical studies of the environment, we will address the broad question of why, for some, the environment is representational of a healthy lifestyle and source of prosperity, while for others it is a source of risk and harm. Our course of study invites students to critically analyze environmental justice case studies and to develop an understanding of the complex relationships among urban populations and the social, political, and economic processes that lead to environmental inequality. We will also explore how racism is foundational to environmental exploitation and consider why global struggles for racial justice are crucial for protecting both people and the earth. We will pay particular attention to how environmental health inequalities are linked to race, class, gender, and nation. Drawing from academic texts, films, and photo essays we will explore how urban planning and economic development policies create environmental inequalities in the US and globally.
“The passport is the noblest part of a human being,” wrote the German exiled writer Bertolt Brecht in the late 1930s. When millions fled Nazi political and racial persecution, and before any country had a designated refugee policy, the immigration and identification system of control as we know it today was relatively new. For the refugees, having the right papers meant a difference between life and death. Visas, passports, and other documents also began to appear in Hollywood films, novels, and critical writing. Almost a century later, Germany, now a destination for refugees from other, war-ridden regions, is still ruled by papers. In this seminar, we will read and watch refugee narratives from these two biggest “refugee crises” in human history. We will study shifting refugee policies and bureaucratic practices along with their roles in cultural imaginations. We will trace the history of passports, visas, and identification as integral to the development of the modern state, and examine their symbolic values in a variety of aesthetic mediums, such as literature, film, dance, and video games.
PSYC BC1129/2129 (with or without lab) as well as permission of the instructor.
The Barnard Toddler Center provides the focus for this seminar and research in applied developmental psychology, an amalgam of developmental, educational, and clinical psychology. The seminar integrates theory and research and for AY 20-21 will use daily recordings of the toddler sessions as the centerpiece for understanding early development. The unique context of Covid19 will be used to understand risks in development, especially for vulnerable children and families. Second term students will also conduct research on parenting during the pandemic.
Prerequisites: Three psychology courses and permission of the instructor required during program planning the fall semester before the course is offered. Enrollment limited to 12 students; seniors are given priority. This course introduces students to clinical and counseling work, and to psychodynamic ways of understanding and supporting people in psychological distress. Students secure a clinical placement for the course, and apply readings on psychodynamic notions of parenting, psychopathology, and therapeutic process to their clinical experiences. The course helps students clarify their professional goals, and provides the clinical experience that strengthens applications to social work programs, and that is required for applications to clinical and counseling doctoral programs.
Prerequisites: Third-year bridge course (W3300), and introductory surveys (W3349, W3350). Readings of short stories and novellas by established and emerging writers from Spanish America and Brazil. Defines the parameters of Latin American short fiction by exploring its various manifestations, fantastic literature, protest writing, satire, and realism. Among the authors to be studied will be: Machado de Assis, Borges, Garcia Marquez, Ana Lydia Vega, Clarice Lispector, Silvina Ocampo, and Jose Donoso.
Prerequisites: Concurrent with registering for this course, a student must register with the department and provide a written invitation from a mentor; details of this procedure are available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/courses/w3500/index.htm. Students must register for recitations UN3510 or consult the instructor. Corequisites: BIOL UN3510 The course involves independent study, faculty-supervised laboratory projects in contemporary biology. Concurrent with registering for this course, a student must register with the department, provide a written invitation from a mentor and submit a research proposal; details of this procedure are available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/courses/w3500/index.htm. A paper summarizing results of the work is required by the last day of finals for a letter grade; no late papers will be accepted. See the course web site (above) for more details. Students can take anywhere from 2-4 points for this course.
Love and sex have long been studied as historical constructs influenced by social, political, and economic dimensions. This course aims to expand this discourse by incorporating the often-overlooked lens of technological mediation. Beginning with the premise that romantic love is deeply shaped by the affordances of the technology of the time, a critical awareness of technological mediation in romance –especially of digital technologies, i.e. online dating, social media, or cybersex— allows for a deeper understanding of how social categories such as gender, race, class, ability, or sexuality are technologically-mediated, thereby informing our societal and cultural perceptions of love, dating, and sex.
Sandra Moyano-Ariza is Term Assistant Professor of WGSS and Research Director at BCRW. Her research works at the intersection of pop culture, philosophy, and digital technologies, with interests in the fields of media studies and digital scholarship, contemporary feminist theory, critical race theory, posthumanism, and affect theory.
Maurice Blanchot once described translators as the “hidden masters of culture.” Indeed, though our labor and craft often go unrecognized in the age of Google Translate, translators play an essential role as tastemakers, bridge-builders, advocates, and diplomats, not to mention the most intimate readers and re-writers of literature. In this workshop, we will explore translation as a praxis of writing, reading, and revision. Together, we will also interrogate translation's complex and often fraught role in cultural production. What ethical questions does translation raise? Who gets to translate, and what gets translated? What is the place of the translator in the text? What can translation teach us about language, literature, and ourselves? Readings will include selections from translation theory, method texts, and literary translations across genres, from poetry and prose to essay and memoir. Students will workshop original translations into English and complete brief writing and translation exercises throughout.
A major challenge for governments across the Western Hemisphere is the complex relationship between illicit economies, violence, and politics. We can see this relationship operating at multiple levels, from everyday politics in gang-controlled neighborhoods where drugs are trafficked to the Amazon where illegal extraction of natural resources poses significant threats to the environment at the local and global levels. Today, the dynamics and consequences of the politics of illicit economies touch all our lives in different ways, including individual and family struggles with substance abuse, everyday encounters with militarized police, environmental degradation, state corruption, and the strains on democracy and citizenship, among many others. This course will examine some of these dynamics and consequences with a theoretical and empirical focus mainly on the Western Hemisphere. Throughout our time together we will connect these pressing issues to broader theories, concepts and empirical findings in political science.
This course will provide students with a comparative perspective on gender, race, and
sexuality by illuminating historically specific and culturally distinct conditions in which
these systems of power have operated. Beginning in the early modern period, the
course seeks to destabilize contemporary notions of gender and sexuality and instead
probe how race, sexuality, and gender have functioned as mechanisms of differentiation
embedded in historically contingent processes. Moving from “Caliban to Comstock,”
students will probe historical methods for investigating and critically evaluating claims
about the past. In making these inquiries, the course will pay attention to the
intersectional nature of race, gender, and sexuality and to strategic performances of
identity by marginalized groups. This semester, we will engage research by historians
of sexuality, gender, and capitalism to critically reflect on the relationship between
critical studies of the past and debates about reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and
gay and lesbian rights in our contemporary moment.
The title of this course suggests that there are literatures across the “globe” written in English, and that we will study them. But this statement rests on a series of assumptions: the
a priori
existence of a globe with latitudes, longitudes, and borders; a singular category of “literature” produced in different geographical locations across the globe; and finally, that these literatures are written in English. During the course of the semester, we will investigate and (occasionally overturn) all three of these assumptions.
In order to do so, we will read across different literary genres (short stories and novels, plays, poetry, and essays), while also reading texts that move between these genres or defy them altogether. We will read texts that were originally written in English, as well as texts that have been translated into English, and we will learn and discuss the term “global anglophone” along with the ways in which this term has been challenged. During our collective readings and discussions, we will map the locations that arise in each text
and
the locations out of which these texts arise. We will study the relationship between literature, translation, and mapping, and we will learn and discuss the concept of planetary thinking and writing as an alternative to border and global thinking.
Individual research in Womens Studies conducted in consultation with the instructor. The result of each research project is submitted in the form of the senior essay and presented to the seminar.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to senior majors. Individual research in Womens Studies conducted in consulation with the instructor. The result of each research project is submitted in the form of the senior essay and presented to the seminar.
Advanced Senior Studio II is a critique class that serves as a forum for senior Visual Arts majors to develop and complete one-semester studio theses. The priorities are producing a coherent body of studio work and understanding this work in terms of critical discourse. The class will comprise group critiques and small group meetings with the instructor. Field trips and visiting artist lectures will augment our critiques. Please visit:
https://arthistory.barnard.edu/senior-thesis-project-art-history-and-visual-arts-majors
Prerequisites: This course is limited to 20 students Romare Bearden: Home is Harlem, is an exploration into one of the greatest American artists finding home in Harlem. The noted painter, collagist, intellectual and advocate for the arts, spent his childhood and young adult life in Harlem. Known for chronicling the African-American experience, he found rich sources for artistic expression in the Manhattan neighborhoods above 110th Street.
Prerequisites: (POLS UN1501) The conventional wisdom is that crime and civil war are linked to disorder. But these are far from disorderly and ungoverned spaces. Unpacking these settings reveals complex forms of non-state governance constructed by a range of actors, including rebel and guerillas, gangs, vigilantes, and protection rackets – sometimes facilitated by the state.
Prerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Evaluation of current political, economic, social, cultural and physical forces that are shaping urban areas.
Prerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Evaluation of current political, economic, social, cultural and physical forces that are shaping urban areas.
The novel in Arabic literature has often been the place where every attempt to look within ends up involving the need to contend with or measure the self against the European, the dominant culture. This took various forms. From early moments of easy-going and confident cosmopolitan travellers, such as Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, to later author, such as Tayeb Salih, mapping the existential fault lines between west and east. For this reason, and as well as being a modern phenomenon, the Arabic novel has also been a tool for translation, for bridging gaps and exposing what al-Shidyaq—the man credited with being the father of the modern Arabic novel, and himself a great translator—called ‘disjunction’. We will begin with his satirical, deeply inventive and erudite novel, published in 1855, Leg Over Leg. It is a book with an insatiable appetite for definitions and comparisons, with Words that had been lost or fell out of use (the author had an abiding interest in dictionaries that anticipates Jorge Louis Borges) and with locating and often subverting moments of connection and disconnection. We will then follow along a trajectory to the present, where we will read, in English translation, novels written in Arabic, from Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Palestine. We will read them chronologically, starting with Leg Over Leg (1855) and finishing with Minor Detail, a novel that was only published last year. Obviously, this does not claim to be a comprehensive survey; for that we would need several years and even then, we would fall short. Instead, the hope is that it will be a thrilling journey through some of the most facinating fiction ever written. Obviously, this does not claim to be a comprehensive survey; for that we would need several years and even then, we would fall short. Instead, the hope is that it will be a thrilling journey through some of the most fascinating fiction ever written.
The Apollo: History & Culture, will survey the Apollo’s early history, pre-1934 when the theater opened to its present-day evolution as a performing arts center with an expanding footprint on 125th Street.
Apollo’s role is American entertainment and global influence. Early Apollo performers paved the way for some of today’s most popular entertainers. We look at the impact of performers over several decades and the ways in which performers and performances at the Apollo influenced American entertainment through music, dance, comedy and more.
Students are encouraged to attend events at the Apollo relative to our discussions for deeper exploration of the topic. Dates, times, and links for events will be provided in advance. Additionally, attendance at performances and events taking place at Harlem Semester member institutions and relevant to our topic, is encouraged.
This course is designed as a workshop in both immersive devising and performance skills, revolving around the creation and execution of an immersive experience. Through a collaborative devising process, students will explore possibilities of environmental, site-specific, experiential, and ambulatory design. Students will develop compositional structures and strategies for creating content, create and develop embodied characters, as well as design and physically navigate the particular architecture of a performance environment. Students will also hone skills specific to interactive performance such as maneuvering audience, gaze, breath work, and choice making and improvisation within the parameters of storytelling.
Required for all majors who do not select the year-long Senior Thesis Research & Seminar (BIOL BC3593 & BC3594) to fulfill their senior capstone requirement. These seminars allow students to explore the primary literature in the Biological Sciences in greater depth than can be achieved in a lecture course. Attention will be focused on both theoretical and empirical work. Seminar periods are devoted to oral reports and discussion of assigned readings and student reports. Students will write one extensive literature review of a topic related to the central theme of the seminar section.
Topics vary per semester and include, but are not limited to:
Plant Development
,
Animal Development & Evolution,
Molecular Evolution, Microbiology & Global Change, Genomics, Comparative & Reproductive Endocrinology, and Data Intensive Approaches in Biology.
This lab-based course introduces students to advanced methods in cognitive neuroscience, focusing on the application of electroencephalography (EEG) for real-time recording of brain activity. Unlike traditional approaches that study how the brain responds to different external stimuli or task demands, this course centers on spontaneous brain activity that occurs during rest or just before experimental events. Whether or not spontaneous brain activity is just meaningless noise remains an active area of research in cognitive neuroscience. Some researchers believe that spontaneous brain activity may be an important factor shaping our subjective experience of the world. However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive in part due to the challenges in objectively defining and measuring subjective experience.
In this course, students will address this challenge by developing methods to study the relationship between spontaneous brain activity and subjective experience, with a particular focus on mind-wandering and the sensory phenomena elicited by Ganzflicker and Ganzfeld stimulation. The course culminates in independent research projects where students test their hypotheses by collecting and analyzing behavioral and EEG data. Key questions to address include: can spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity account for why people sometimes zone out while performing a task? Can the same fluctuations explain why people sometimes have different sensory experiences despite constant external stimuli? Do individual variations in spontaneous brain activity help explain why some people are more likely to report such experiences?
Note: The course involves weekly in person meetings as well as asynchronous work on data acquisition, analysis, and primary article readings for approximately 6 additional hours per week (on average).
This year-long course is open to junior and senior Biology majors and minors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give a poster presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills two upper-level laboratory requirements for the Biology major or minor. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3591 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3592 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3593-BIOL BC3594.
This year-long course is open to junior and senior Biology majors and minors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give a poster presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills two upper-level laboratory requirements for the Biology major or minor. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3591 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3592 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3593-BIOL BC3594.
Independent study for preparing and performing repertory works in production to be presented in concert.
This year-long course is open to senior Biology majors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give an oral presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills the senior capstone requirement for the Biology major. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3593 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3594 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3591-BIOL BC3592.
Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Discussion and conferences on a research project culminate in a written and oral senior thesis. Each project must be supervised by a scientist working at Barnard or at another local institution. Successful completion of the seminar substitutes for the major examination.
Similar to BIOL BC3591-BIOL BC3592, this is a one-semester course that provides students with degree credit for unpaid research
without
a seminar component. You may enroll in BIOL BC3597 for between 1-4 credits per semester. As a rule of thumb, you should be spending approximately 3 hours per week per credit on your research project.
A
Project Approval Form
must be submitted to the department each semester that you enroll in this course. Your Barnard research mentor (if your lab is at Barnard) or internal adviser in the Biology Department (if your lab is elsewhere) must approve your planned research
before
you enroll in BIOL BC3597. You should sign up for your mentor's section.
This course does not fulfill any Biology major requirements. It is open to students beginning in their first year.