This course investigates in-depth the significance of resistance among African-descended communities in the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanophone and Lusophone Atlantic Worlds from approximately 1700-2000. We will examine the genesis, forms, and limits of resistance within the context of key historical transformations such as slavery and abolition, labor and migration, and transatlantic political organizing. The class will explore the racial epistemologies, racialized labor regimes, and gendered discourses that sparked a continuum of cultural and political opposition to oppression among Black Atlantic communities. The course will also reflect on how resistance plays a central role in the formation of individual and collective identities among black historical actors.Resistance will be explored as a critical category of historical analysis, and a central factor in the making of the “Black Atlantic.”
This course will provide a structured environment in which graduate students will write a research paper. It will be offered in the spring and will not be field-specific. It will be recommended for first-year students in particular, who will be expected to enter from GR8910 (the required first-year course) and with a topic and/or prospectus for the paper they plan to complete in the course. The aim of the course is to ensure that all PhD students complete one of their two research papers within the first year. This seminar is recommended for, and restricted to, PhD students in the History Department. The aim of the seminar is to guide and assist students in the completion of a 10,000-12,000 word research paper appropriate for publication in a scholarly journal. The seminar is not field-specific, and students may work on any subject of their choosing. The paper must however be based on primary source research and represents a substantial departure from earlier work. The assignments for the course are designed to help students complete a polished piece of work by the end of term.
It is a common-place that the twentieth century ended with the establishment of capitalism and democracy as the “one best way”. In triumphalist accounts of the end of the Cold War the two are commonly presented as sharing a natural affinity. As never before the democratic formula was recommended for truly global application. To suggest the possibility of a contradiction between capitalism and democracy has come to seem like a gesture of outrageous conservative cynicism, or leftist subversion. And yet the convergence of capitalism and democracy is both recent and anything other than self-evident. It has been placed in question once again since 2008 in the epic crisis of Atlantic financial capitalism. This course examines the historical tensions between these two terms in the Atlantic world across the long 20th century from the 1890s to the present day.
Supervised Reserach for Classical Studies Graduate Students.
All graduate students are required to attend the department colloquium as long as they are in residence. No degree credit is granted.
The Classical Studies Research Seminar offers students of the Classical Studies Graduate Program the opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on it. It is mandatory for CLST students who are in their dissertation phase to present their work once every academic year in the CLST Research Seminar or CLST Research Group.
The Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice is one of the most exciting opportunities within the Development and Governance concentration, and is also open to a limited number of students in other concentrations. Officially, it is a spring-semester course for second-year master's degree students, but workshop activities begin in the fall semester through the course on Methods for Sustainable Development Practice. Through the workshop, students gain practical experience by engaging in on-going cutting-edge sustainable development efforts aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, and often involving in-country work. Working in teams with a faculty supervisor, students assist a variety of clients on a wide range of assignments related to sustainable development. Students take a multidisciplinary approach to their work, learning extensively from each other as well as from the hands-on tasks of the workshop itself. Another key strength of the workshop is that it allows students to explore the intersection of development concerns with human rights, corporate social responsibility, humanitarian affairs, gender, public health, and environmental policy. Reflecting the utility of workshop assignments, several workshop reports are available on client websites and have been published. Past clients have included UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, and WFP; the World Bank and IDB; national and local governments; NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services, Endeavor, FilmAid International, International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, International Rescue Committee, Seva Mandir, Trickle Up, WaterAid, and Women's Refugee Commission; and development advisors such as DAI and Technoserve. The precise scope of the workshop project and outputs that the students will deliver are negotiated with each client.
The EMPA Capstone Workshop
is a culminating experience in which students apply the practical skills and analytical knowledge acquired during the program to a real-world policy or management challenge. Working in small consulting teams under faculty supervision, students engage with an external client to address a defined problem, conduct research, and deliver actionable recommendations.
Each team produces a final written report and presents its findings in a formal oral briefing designed to support implementation and impact. The workshop develops applied consulting, project management, and client engagement skills while reinforcing core competencies in policy analysis and public leadership.
Completion of the Capstone or Portfolio Presentation Workshop is a graduation requirement for Executive MPA students and is typically taken in the final semester. Enrollment is by application and managed by the EMPA Student Affairs.
After completion of the required 60 credits during the first two years in the program, MFA Film students must register for Research Arts to maintain the required continuous full-time enrollment while working on their thesis. Students will be added to a waitlist, to be approved for registration by the program and Student Affairs.
Prerequisite: Course Application.
A Capstone Workshop is a live consulting project with an external client outside of SIPA. Each workshop partners a team of about 6 graduate students with a faculty advisor. The goal is to provide clients with innovative analysis and practical recommendations while SIPA students gain experience by working on a real-world problem. A core requirement for the Master of International Affairs (MIA), Master of Public Administration (MPA), the workshops give students an opportunity to put learning into practice. Serving as their culminating educational experience at SIPA, students work in teams of 6-8 students under the guidance of an expert faculty advisor to work on a real-world consultancy project with an external client. For more information, visit:
https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/sipa-education/capstone-workshops.