There are as many reasons to improvise as there are cultures. People from all over the world have turned to improvised dance for personal, social, and political reasons. Improvisation is equally as useful in developing self-expression as it is in forming community and mutual understanding. It can be a vehicle for discovering more about our world by heightening our senses and awareness. It can be a mind-puzzle, as practitioners devise creative constraints for the purposes of producing structure and clarity. Whatever the reason for improvising, all practitioners share a sense of questioning and curiosity. This course will cover five units of study, each one aimed at exploring a different function of improvisation: self- expression; music and space; our bodies and environment; structure and cognition; and community-building. Learning in the classroom will rely on reading texts and viewing images and videos, written work, peer-to-peer learning and self-directed inquiry. In the studio, students will be given different exercises and prompts to explore and refine. By the end of the semester students will understand how improvisation occurs and how it differs from codified or prescriptive work, and why different people choose to improvise. They will also be able to develop and perform their own improvisatory work, drawing from the skills learned over the semester.
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.
Focus on formulation and application of the finite element to engineering problems such as stress analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, and electromagnetics. Topics include finite ele?ment formulation for one-dimensional problems, such as trusses, electrical and hydraulic systems; scalar field problems in two dimensions, such as heat transfer; and vector field problems, such as elasticity and finally usage of the commercial finite element program. Students taking ENME E3332 cannot take ENME E4332.
Prerequisites: (CHEM BC3328) or (CHEM BC3230) CHEM BC3328 with a grade of C- or better and CHEM BC3230. Corequisites: CHEM BC3231,CHEM BC3334 Advanced experimental organic techniques and introduction to qualitative and quantitative organic analysis. Emphasis on instrumental and chromatographic methods. Selected reactions. Students enrolling in this course must register for CHEM BC3334x.
Prerequisites: GERM UN2102 or the equivalent. Examines short literary texts and various methodological approaches to interpreting such texts in order to establish a basic familiarity with the study of German literature and culture.
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Prerequisites: Intermediate Italian II ITAL UN2102 or the equivalent. UN3334x-UN3333y is the basic course in Italian literature. UN3333: This course, entirely taught in Italian, introduces you to Medieval and early modern Italian literature. It will give you the opportunity to test your ability as a close-reader and discover unusual and fascinating texts that tell us about the polycentric richness of the Italian peninsula. We will read poems, tales, letters, fiction and non-fiction, travel writings and political pamphlets. The great “Three Crowns” - Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio - as well as renowned Renaissance authors such as Ludovico Ariosto and Niccolò Machiavelli, will show us the main path to discover Italian masterpieces and understand the European Renaissance. But we will also explore China with Marco Polo and the secrets of the Medieval soul diving into the mystical poems by Jacopone da Todi. We will study parody and laughter through the “poesia giocosa” (parodic poetry) by Cecco Angiolieri and the legacy of Humanism through the letters of Poggio Bracciolini. This first overview will allow you to explore Italian literature from its complex and multicultural beginnings to its diffusion across Europe during the Renaissance.
Course Description and Goals:
This course focuses predominantly on developing reading comprehension skills, as well as on listening, writing, speaking, and some more advanced grammar. It explores literary and scholarly texts examining the modern Jewish experience in the context of the twentieth-century history and culture of the Ashkenazi Jews. Supplementary texts will be selected based on students’ interests and may include historical pedagogical materials, past and present newspaper articles, polemic, poetry, historical and scholarly articles. We will also venture outside the classroom to explore the Yiddish world today: through field trips to Yiddish theater, Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods, Yiddish organizations, such as YIVO, and so on. We will apply our reading and translating skills to contribute to the Mapping Yiddish New York online project, and will also have Yiddish-speaking guests. At the end of the semester, you will be able to converse in Yiddish on a variety of everyday topics and read authentic Yiddish literary and non-literary texts. Welcome back to Yiddishland!
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: ITALUN2102 or the equivalent. If you did not take Intermediate Italian at Columbia in the semester preceding the current one, you must take the placement test, offered by the Italian Department at the beginning of each semester. Written and oral self-expression in compositions and oral reports on a variety of topics; grammar review. Required for majors and concentrators.
Historians frequently situate Armenia between two powers: between Rome and Persia, then Byzantium and Islam. This class will shake up the usual “between-two-worlds” paradigm, which places Armenia and Armenians in the crosshairs of world powers. Instead, we will study Armenians as active participants in world dramas, at the center of global developments. Our main goal will be to draw upon a variety of sources to tell the story of Armenia and Armenians: histories, poems, art, coins, buildings, etc.
Goals
Critically assess what it means to study history. Why are we learning this?
Analyze primary sources, whether written or material. How can we study this?
Engage with modern scholarship on Armenian experiences. How have other people studied this?
An exploration of the growing knowledge and technological advances in genetics, with a focus on human genetics, using scientific, popular and artistic sources. The course will cover areas such as genetic testing, personalized medicine, ancestry analysis, genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9, stem cells and cloning. It will involve an examination of scientific sources, portrayals in popular culture and discussions of some of the ethical implications and social/political impacts.
How do ordinary people come together to enact social change in society? Focusing on the United States, this course explores how everyday people engage in collective action from the ground up, through social movements, community organizing, and other forms of advocacy and activisms. In particular, we will consider the role of grassroots movements and organizations as agents of democratic representation and catalysts for political transformation for marginalized communities. We will engage key questions about why groups choose to make political demands outside of formal institutional spaces, what kinds of visions for social change they put forward, how they seek to achieve their ideals, and how successful they are. The course will focus on contemporary activisms around racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and labor.
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.
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.
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.
Prerequisites: one philosophy course. A survey of Eurpoean social philosophy from the 18th to the 20th century, with special attention to theories of capitalism and the normative concepts (freedom, alienation, human flourishing) that inform them. Also: the relationship between civil society and the state.
Prerequisites: Organic II lab (CHEM BC3333, BC3335, or equivalent); Quantitative analysis lab (BC3338, BC3340, or equivalent); Biochemistry (CHEM BC3282y, CHEM C3501, or equivalent).
Theory and application of fundamental techniques for the isolation, synthesis and characterization of biological macromolecules including proteins, lipids, nucleotides and carbohydrates. Techniques include spectroscopic analysis, gel electrophoresis, chromatography, enzyme kinetics, immunoblotting, PCR, molecular cloning and cell culture, as well as modern laboratory instrumentation, such as UV-Vis, GC-MS and HPLC.
This undergraduate seminar is offered to students interested in the anthropological analysis of extractive economies and the social and political forms associated with them, as well as the arts through which they have been made the object of both investment and resistance. The course this semester will be focused on mining, and is organized along three axes: 1) mineral object; 2) socioeconomic form; and 3) aesthetics, with the latter including the arts of artisanal extraction, and literary, visual and media artistic practice.
This course will explore developing topics in mammalian reproductive biology. Using textbooks and primary literature sources we will explore the molecular and physiological nature of reproduction, including fertilization, assisted reproductive technologies, and physiological changes to the reproductive system during and after birth. These topics will be further discussed in the context of medicine and society, with a particular focus on healthcare disparities in local communities.
This course examines how societies grapple with the legacy of mass violence through an exploration of historical texts, memoirs, novels, films, textbooks, litigation, and media reports and debates. Focusing on case studies of the Herero Genocide, the Armenian genocide during WWI, and the Holocaust and “Comfort Women” during WWII, students will investigate the crime and its sequelae. We will explore how societies deal with skeletons in their closets (from engaging in a conspiracy of silence, trivialization, rationalization, and denial to acknowledgment and reparations); analyze texts of official apologies and non-apologies; survey responses of survivors and their descendants (with particular attention to post-memory, multidirectional memory, forgiveness, anger and resentment, and the pursuit of redress); and dissect public debates on modern day issues that recall past atrocities.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3333, CHEM BC3271, and CHEM BC3338 Corequisites: CHEM BC3253 Multistep and multi-day experiments in organic and inorganic synthesis via advanced synthetic methods. Experiments include solution phase, solid state, and photochemical syntheses. Products will be analyzed and characterized by a variety of methods, including: IR, NMR, and UV-Vis spectroscopy, and also by polarimetry, chiral GC, and GC/MS.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15. Preregistration required. Social and cultural history of London from the Great Fire of 1666 to the 1960s. An examination of the changing experience of urban identity through the commercial life, public spaces, and diverse inhabitants of London. Topics include 17th-century rebuilding, immigrants and emigrants, suburbs, literary culture, war, and redevelopment.
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.
This course gives students an opportunity to learn about the history of Argentine culture by studying the fifty-year long career of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), the most important Latin American writer of the twentieth century. Students must read complex texts, discuss them in Spanish, and write about them in Spanish. After taking this course, a student should be able to study or work in Argentina with confidence. Heritage Spanish-speakers will be able to hone their language skills as well since the course requires a good deal of writing. Thus these students as well will be able to study, travel, and work in Argentina and not find themselves in an alien culture.
Prerequisites: BIOL BC1502 + BIOL BC1503, and either BIOL BC1500 + BIOL BC1501 or NSBV BC1001 or permission from the instructor. Structure and function of neural membranes; ionic basis of membrane potential and action potential; synaptic transmission and neurochemistry; sensory transduction and processing; reflexes and spinal cord physiology; muscle structure and function; neuronal circuitry; and nervous system development.
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.
This course concerns the regulation of energy, energy resources, and energy facilities. Among the topics will be the regulation of rates and services; the roles of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state public utility commissions; and the interaction with environmental law. Attention will be devoted to energy resources (such as oil, natural gas and coal) and to generating, transmission and distribution facilities. The current and future roles of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and nuclear energy will receive special attention, as will the regulation and deregulation of electricity.
Prerequisites: BC1001 and BC1128/1129 Developmental (lab and lecture taken together) or BC1129 (only lecture). Or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15 students. Analysis of human development during the fetal period and early infancy. Review of effects of environmental factors on perinatal perceptual, cognitive, sensory-motor, and neurobehavioral capacities, with emphasis on critical conditions involved in both normal and abnormal brain development. Other topics include acute and long term effects of toxic exposures (stress, smoking, and alcohol) during pregnancy, and interaction of genes and the environment in shaping the developing brain of high-risk infants, including premature infants and those at risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Vertebrates have been around for millions of years. In that time, they have evolved morphological attributes to live in the sea, on land, and in the air; hunt or scavenge food; escape from predation; and more. Yet despite the vast differences that have evolved, vertebrates (including humans) share many common traits. In this course, we will explore the evolution of the vertebrate body plan, focusing specifically on the evolution of form and function in many body systems. We will examine the evolution of homologous structures and identify how vertebrates have evolved a wide array of adaptations within the constraints of evolution. Though anatomy courses necessitate memorization of some key structures, we will focus more on the function of those structure, the broad principles of evolution, and the research techniques used in the related field of functional morphology rather than memorizing large lists of terms.
This seminar will explore neurobehavioral development throughout pubertal and adolescent stages of development. Specifically, topics will include how neuroendocrine changes induce pubertal onset, structural and functional changes in the adolescent brain, and how these developmental changes influence normal and abnormal psychophysiological processes.
This class explores the relationship between water and society in history. How did water shape human and environmental histories around the globe? On one hand, oceans and rivers affected the characteristics and resources of different civilizations. Throughout history, every community depended on access to water resources, developed local practices of water management, and produced cultural and scientific understandings of “water.” On the other hand, human attempts at regulating water flows aimed at controlling life itself, as water is essential for life. Hydro-power, before being a renewable source energy, required exerting political power over humans and nature alike.
Grounded in the interdisciplinary approach of the environmental humanities, this class will explore the politics of water management thanks to a wide range of case studies. Starting with the first environmental history of the Mediterranean in the early modern period, we will focus on the last two centuries to examine the roots of the current environmental crisis. By following the politics of water flows, the class will introduce students to key themes in global environmental history, such as the role of geography, climate, race, energy, labor, technology, cities, animals, diseases, and empires in the transformation of human societies. Finally, the class provides foundational historical knowledge to understand the importance of water in contemporary debates about environmental justice and climate change.
Prerequisites: (PSYC BC1001) Permission of the instructor. Review of current literature from experimental social psychology pertaining to stereotyping and prejudice. Topics include: functions and costs of stereotyping, the formation and maintenance of stereotypes, and stereotype change. Recent research concerning the role of cognitive processes in intergroup perception will be emphasized.
Prerequisites: BC1001 and BC1129 Developmental Psychology or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 senior majors. Barnard students receive priority. Examines adolescent development in theory and reality. Focuses on individual physiological, sexual, cognitive, and affective development and adolescent experiences in their social context of family, peers, school, and community. Critical perspectives of gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, and teen culture explored.
The First World War has often been thought of as a European War, but it was fought on four continents and reverberated around the world. This course examines the global nature and impact of the war, paying particular attention to the way it destabilized or affected imperial, national, and ethnic/racial solidarities and hierarchies, and ushered in new transnational norms, hazards, movements and practices. Students will read selected recent historical work on the war, and will delve into and contextualize a wide array of primary materials: diplomatic treaties or declarations; collective petitions or claims; combatants’ diaries; observer accounts; official and humanitarian investigations; and novels, poetry, photography, and paintings. This seminar will function as a collaboration among its members, with the aim of producing not only individual work but a handbook of primary materials for a lecture-course version of the course which will be offered as a Global Core in 2023-4.
Prerequisites: BC1001 and one of the following: Neurobiology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Recent advancements in neuroscience raise profound ethical questions. Neuroethics integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and ethics in an attempt to address these issues. Reviews current debated topics relevant to the brain, cognition, and behavior. Bioethical and philosophical principles will be applied allowing students to develop skill in ethical analysis.
This course is a seminar designed to enhance students understanding of the methods used in primary research to inform how we study and understand the neural basis of both normative and pathological behavior in humans through the use of model systems. Through this course students will read and discuss primary research papers, debate the merits, limitations, and applicability of various approaches for advancing our understanding of the human condition, gain skills in presentation of scientific data, and a richer understanding of the scientific process. Topics covered will include the study of depression, anxiety, aging, memory, evolution, developmental disorders, and genetics (among others).
Perception is often taken as the most striking proof of something factual: when we perceive something, we interpret it as real. In this seminar we will challenge this assumption by taking into consideration states of altered perception, wherein the brain creates perceptual experiences that do not correspond to sensory input. Specifically, we will review a number of experiments showing changes in brain activity accompanying illusions, hallucinations, and dreaming across sensory modalities (i.e., vision, hearing, touch), and in both clinical and non-clinical populations. We will examine the similarities and differences between these states of altered perception both at the level of phenomenology and underlying biological mechanisms, specifically focusing on neural oscillations. Using the latest research findings in clinical, cognitive, and computational neuroscience, this seminar offers a great opportunity to learn more about how the brain creates perceptual experiences and why sometimes we perceive something that isn’t real.
Prerequisites: PSYC BC1001 and one other Psychology course. Enrollment limited to 15 students. Permission of the instructor is required. An examination of the scientific study of the domestic dog. Emphasis will be on the evolutionary history of the species; the dogs social cognitive skills; canid perceptual and sensory capacities; dog-primate comparative studies; and dog-human interaction.
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of theoretical concepts underlying GIS systems and to give students a strong set of practical skills to use GIS for sustainable development research. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a system of computer software, data and analysis methods used to create, store, manage, digital information that allow us to create maps and dynamic models to analyze the physical and social processes of the world. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, focused discussions, and hands-on exercises, students will acquire an understanding of the variety and structure of spatial data and databases, gain knowledge of the principles behind raster and vector based spatial analysis, and learn basic cartographic principles for producing maps that effectively communicate a message. Student will also learn to use newly emerging web based mapping tools such as Google Earth, Google Maps and similar tools to develop on-line interactive maps and graphics. The use of other geospatial technologies such as the Global Positioning System will also be explored in this class. Case studies examined in class will draw examples from a wide ranges of GIS applications developed to assist in the development, implementation and evaluation of sustainable development projects and programs. On completion of the course, students will: 1. use a variety of GIS software programs to create maps and reports; 2. develop a sound knowledge of methods to search, obtain, and evaluate a wide variety of spatial data resources; 3. develop skills needed to determine best practices for managing spatial data resources; 4. use GIS to analyze the economic, social and environmental processes underlying the concept of building a sustainable world; 5. Gain an understanding of the limits of these technologies and make assessments of uncertainty associated with spatial data and spatial analysis models. Offered in the fall and spring.
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.
Prerequisites: BC1001, BC1127/1129, BC2156, or permission of the instructor. Seniors are given priority. This course provides an overview of psychological intervention processes in the field of developmental disabilities. Course content includes discussions of clinical and ethical issues related to diagnosis and treatment, and in-depth review of procedures used to teach appropriate behavior repertoires to individuals with developmental disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Design project planning, written and oral technical communication, the origin and role of standards, engineering ethics, and practical aspects of engineering as a profession, such as career development and societal and environmental impact. Generally taken fall of senior year just before ELEN E3390.
Design project planning, written and oral technical communication, the origin and role of standards, engineering ethics, and practical aspects of engineering as a profession, such as career development and societal and environmental impact. Generally taken fall of senior year just before ELEN E3390.
Prerequisites: Required: at least a semester of calculus and physics; any 1000-level or 2000-level EESC course. Computer models are essential for understanding the behavior of complex natural systems in geosciences. This course is an introduction to writing computer models to simulate Earth processes. Students will learn methods for numerical modeling of a variety of geoscience topics, such as nonlinear systems of air chemistry, ocean currents, atmospheric dispersion, and more. Simulations will be created by learning to program with a user-friendly language (Python). Student learning will be facilitated through a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, homework assignments and a final project on a student-selected topic.
This course seeks to approach the study of music and society by comparatively studying repertories from different parts of the world, how the history of ideas and methods of studying such repertoires shaped them, the practices that constitute them and the ways they are understood and used by different peoples. Central to this course is the interrelationship between the constitution of a repertoire and the history of the construction of knowledge about it.
Introduction to the theoretical approaches of American Studies, as well as the methods and materials used in the interdisciplinary study of American society. Through close reading of a variety of texts (e.g. novels, films, essays), we will analyze the creation, maintenance, and transmission of cultural meaning within American society.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor given at first class meeting. Studies the art and practice of designing sound and scoring music for dramatic performance. Students study the relationship between concert and incidental music, and read plays toward the production of a score for live theatre. Students also read broadly in the fields of sound, music, acoustics, and the cultural analysis of sound as a component of performance. Background in music or composition not essential. .
What does it mean to be 20 years old in our rapidly changing, interconnected world? There are more youth (aged 15-25) in the world today than at any other time in history, with the majority living in the developing world. They approach adulthood as the world confronts seismic shifts in the geopolitical order, in the nature and future of work, and in the ways we connect with each other, express identity, engage politically, and create communities of meaning. What unique challenges and opportunities confront young people after decades of neoliberal globalization? What issues are most pressing in developing nations experiencing a “youth bulge” and how do they compare to developed nations with rapidly aging populations? How do young people envision their futures and the future of the world they are inheriting? This course will examine recent scholarship while engaging the young people in the class to define the agenda and questions of the course, and to conduct their own research. This course is part of the Global Core curriculum. “Global 20” complements a new research project of the Committee on Global Thought, “Youth in a Changing World,” which investigates from the perspective of diverse participants and of young people themselves, the most pressing issues confronting young people in the changing world today. The course will serve as an undergraduate “lab” for the project, and among other involvements, students in the course will help conceive, plan, and take part in a NYC-wide “Youth Think-In” sponsored by the CGT during the Spring 2018 semester. Within the course, students will become “regional experts” and examine the primary themes of the class through the prism of specific areas or nations of their choosing. A final class project includes a “design session” that will consider how universities might better train and empower youth to confront the challenges and embrace the opportunities of our interconnected world of the 21stcentury.
Antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections were estimated to account for 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019. The goal of the seminar is to provide an in-depth analysis of this ongoing threat. Discussions will include the molecular mechanisms, epidemiology of transmission and the consequences of antimicrobial resistant infections. It will also cover current efforts to reduce the spread and emergence of these difficult to treat pathogens, both in the community and the healthcare setting.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Permission of instructor given at first class meeting. Introduction to designing for the theatre. The course will focus on set design, developing skills in script analysis, sketching, model making, storyboarding and design presentation. Some investigation into theatre architecture, scenic techniques and materials, and costume and lighting design.
UN3405 enables students to hone and perfect their reading and writing skills while improving their ability to express and organize thoughts in French. In this engaging advanced language class, students are exposed to major texts in fields as diverse as journalism, sociology, anthropology, politics, literature, philosophy and history. Stimulating class discussions, targeted reviews of key grammatical points in context, and an array of diverse writing exercises all contribute to strengthen students’ mastery of the French language. This course also works as a bridge class between Intermediate French II and courses that focus on French and Francophone cultures, history and literature (such as 3409 and 3410). Students who take this class will be fully prepared to take advanced content classes or spend a semester in a Francophone country. This class is required for the French major and minor.
Prerequisites: Some design experience is helpful, though not required. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Studio-based course explores the main elements of theatrical design: sets, costumes, lighting, and sound through objects, materials, theatrical and non-theatrical environments. Students examine these design elements as both individual and interrelated components within a performance. Fulfills one course in Design requirement for Theatre/Drama and Theatre Arts majors. Fulfills one of three courses in performance fields for Theatre/Drama and Theatre Arts majors: design.
Introduction to drafting, engineering graphics, computer graphics, solid modeling, and mechanical engineering design. Interactive computer graphics and numerical methods applied to the solution of mechanical engineering design problems.
This course offers an in-depth examination of depressive disorders, including major depressive disorder, persistant depressive disorder, post-partum depression, premenstrual dysmorphic disorder, and pediatric depression. Topics include historical perspectives, current understanding of diagnoses and symptoms, neural changes associated with the disorders, and research on effective treatments. Emphasis will be placed on the impact of depressive disorders on families and communities, as well as gender and cultural differences in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes.
This class provides an introduction to the history of France and of the francophone world since the Middle Ages. It initiates students to the major events and themes that have shaped politics, society, and culture in France and its former colonies, paying special attention to questions of identity and diversity in a national and imperial context. Modules include a combination of lecture and seminar-style discussion of documents (in French).
This course is part of a two-course sequence and is a core requirement the French and Francophone Studies major.
This class provides an introduction to the history of France and of the francophone world since the Middle Ages. It initiates students to the major events and themes that have shaped politics, society, and culture in France and its former colonies, paying special attention to questions of identity and diversity in a national and imperial context. Modules include a combination of lecture and seminar-style discussion of documents (in French).
This course is part of a two-course sequence and is a core requirement the French and Francophone Studies major.
Computer-aided analysis of general loading states and deformation of machine components using singularity functions and energy methods. Theoretical introduction to static failure theories, fracture mechanics, and fatigue failure theories. Introduction to conceptual design and design optimization problems. Design of machine components such as springs, shafts, fasteners, lead screws, rivets, welds. Modeling, analysis, and testing of machine assemblies for prescribed design problems. Problems will be drawn from statics, kinematics, dynamics, solid modeling, stress analysis, and design optimization.
Broader impact of computers. Social networks and privacy. Employment, intellectual property, and the media. Science and engineering ethics. Suitable for nonmajors.
This class offers a survey of major works of French and francophone literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Emphasis will be placed on formal and stylistic elements of the works read and on developing the critical skills necessary for literary analysis. Works will be placed in their historical context.
Examination of human rights within the context of international migration. The course covers topics such as citizenship, state sovereignty, border control, asylum-seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. (Cross-listed by the Human Rights Program.)
Corequisites: PHILV3413 Required Discussion Section (0 points). Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable.
Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211 or ECON UN3213) and (MATH UN1201 or MATH UN1207) and STAT UN1201 Modern econometric methods; the general linear statistical model and its extensions; simultaneous equations and the identification problem; time series problems; forecasting methods; extensive practice with the analysis of different types of data.
Prerequisites: VIAR UN2420 or VIAR UN2430 note that VIAR UN2430 was formerly R3420. The objective of the course is to provide students with an interdisciplinary link between drawing, photography and printmaking through an integrated studio project. Students will use drawing, printmaking and collage to create a body of work to be presented in a folio format. In the course, students develop and refine their drawing sensibility, and are encouraged to experiment with various forms of non-traditional printmaking. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
This course examines a diverse selection of social and aesthetic responses to the impacts of modernization and industrialization in nineteenth-century Europe. Using works of art criticism, fiction, poetry, and social critique, the seminar will trace the emergence of new understandings of collective and individual experience and their relation to cultural and historical transformations. Readings are drawn from Friedrich Schiller's Letters On Aesthetic Education, Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Thomas Carlyle's "Signs of the Time," poetry and prose by Charles Baudelaire, John Ruskin's writings on art and political economy, Flora Tristan's travel journals, J.-K. Huysmans's Against Nature, essays of Walter Pater, Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy and other texts.
Required discussion section for ECON UN3412: Intro to Econometrics
Required discussion section for UN3411 Symbolic Logic
Introduction to the mechanics of solids with an emphasis on mechanical engineering applications. Stress tensor, principal stresses, maximum shear stress, stress equilibrium, infinitesimal strain tensor, Hooke’s law, boundary conditions. Introduction to the finite element method for stress analysis. Static failure theories, safety factors, fatigue failure. Assignments include finite element stress analyses using university-provided commercial software.
Examination of the development of U.S. carceral systems and logics from the late 18th century through the present. Through course readings and class discussion, students will explore the changes and continuities in technologies of punishment and captivity over time, interrogating how the purpose and political economy of captivity and policing shifted over time, and analyzing the relationship between carceral institutions and constructions of race, gender, and sexuality.
First semester of a senior capstone sequence for students interested in aerospace engineering. Focused on the technical design, prototyping, simulation, and validation of aerospace systems. Students work in teams to develop projects incorporating mechanical, electrical, and aerospace subsystems, progressing from concept to functional prototype. Emphasis is placed on 3D design, subsystem integration, critical testing, and mission-driven specifications and design reviews. Involves brainstorming concept generation, literature review, incorporation of multiple constraints, adherence to appropriate engineering codes and standards, and the production of a layout drawing of the proposed capstone design project in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software tools. Business and product framing activities will support the technical work with market and mission relevance.
The ubiquity of computers and networks in business, government, recreation, and almost all aspects of daily life has led to a proliferation of online sensitive data: data that, if used improperly, can harm the data subjects. As a result, concern about the use, ownership, control, privacy, and accuracy of these data has become a top priority. This seminar course focuses on both the technical challenges of handling sensitive data, the privacy implications of various technologies, and the policy and legal issues facing data subjects, data owners, and data users.
A preliminary design for an original project is a prerequisite for the capstone design course. Will focus on the steps required for generating a preliminary design concept. Included will be a brainstorming concept generation phase, a literature search, incorporation of multiple constraints, adherence to appropriate engineering codes and standards, and the production of a layout drawing of the proposed capstone design project in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software package. Note: MECE students only.
Prerequisites: VIAR UN2420 (Formerly R3402) Continues instruction and demonstration of further techniques in intaglio. Encourages students to think visually more in the character of the medium, and personal development is stressed. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
This course explores human factors in computer security and privacy, primarily through in-class activities and discussions, research readings, and a course research project. In this course, we discuss fundamental concepts in the field of Usable Security and Privacy, including why we, as computer scientists, must understand users' security and privacy perceptions, experiences, and contexts in order to design and deploy security and privacy mechanisms. We explore both classical and current-day research, covering topics like usable authentication, developers as a user group, security and privacy advice for the "general population," user perceptions of and reactions to (in)security on the web, and security and privacy for vulnerable users. Throughout our study of research topics, we also cover human-centered research methodology (and the ethical application of these methods), focusing on interviews as a methodology for the final project. Homework assignments include reading, short writing assignments, and data analysis. Students propose and complete a course project, which will be a mini research project on a usable security and privacy topic of their choice.
This lecture class introduces the notion of global contemporary art through the history of exhibitions, chiefly biennials and other large-scale endeavors, and principal agents behind them. On the one hand, the course considers exhibitions as a crucial tool of cultural diplomacy, which seek to position and/or reposition cities, regions, and even entire nations or “peoples” on the international scene. Thus, we will explore how the artistic interests vested in exhibition-making intersect with other—political, economic, ideological, and cultural—interests. We will consider those intersections paying special attention to the shifts in political relations and tensions during and after the Cold War, including the moment of decolonization in Africa; the moment commonly understood as “globalization” and associated with the expansion of the neoliberal capitalism after 1989; and, finally, the current moment of the planetary crisis. This expansive view of the “global contemporary art” will allow us to distinguish different impetuses behind internationalism and globalism that not only seek to establish hegemony, artistic or otherwise, but also look for the means to forge transnational dialogues and solidarities. On the other hand, this class seeks to illuminate how certain artistic idioms and approaches developed after World War II achieved primacy that influences artistic production to this day. To this end, we will examine the rise of a “visionary curator” as a theorist and tastemaker. We will also explore how more recent exhibitions have sought to expand the geography of the “canonized” post-WWII art movements and valorize artistic production conceived outside of the so-called “West.”
In addition to weekly brief writing assignments (150–300 words each), both in and outside of class, the students in the course will reconceive the installation of one of MoMA’s permanent collection galleries (1940s-70s or 1970s-present) and produce a podcast that provides the rationale for the reinstallation in form of dialogue.
Prerequisites: RUSS V3430 or the instructor's 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 V3431, MEET A TWO YEAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT. Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisites: VIAR UN2430 (Formerly R3412) Printmaking II: Relief continues instruction and demonstration of further techniques in woodcut. Encourages students to think visually more in the character of the medium, and personal development is stressed. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
Prerequisites: Admission by application through the Barnard Political Science Department only. Enrollment limited to 16 students. Requires POLS 1011 (Political Theory) or equivalent. This colloquium examines how the law can participate in the justification of various forms of violence, exclusion, and inequality. It focuses on the power of law to determine which subjects get recognized as persons entitled to rights. Possible topics include slavery, migration, gender, sexual orientation, disability, homelessness, and nonhuman animals.
From Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God to the horror of the trenches, the turn of the twentieth century appears as a moment when the status of the human needed total reconsideration. Such philosophical and cultural anxieties make their way on stage provocatively in this period. This course dives deeply into the vast, diverse, and complex theatre cultures of London and New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, framing it in light of the period’s deep tensions about the human condition propelled by the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859. We will read theatre textually, materially, and in conversation with scientific discourses of the time, covering a range of social, political, biopolitical, and existentialist questions.
Prerequisites: VIAR R2440. (Formerly R3414) Printmaking II: Silkscreen continues instruction and demonstration of further techniques in silkscreen. Encourages students to think visually more in the character of the medium, and personal development is stressed. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
This course will examine key German literary texts in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Texts will be examined in a historical and social perspective, with occasional excursions into
related musical and artistic movements. Texts by Wedekind, Kafka, Thomas Mann, Irmgard
Keun, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan, Thomas Bernhard, Ingeborg Bachmann, W. G. Sebald and
Emine Özdamar.
This course will be taught in German.
Course Description Why do some emotional memories feel so powerful and enduring? How do our earliest social experiences shape the way we interpret and respond to the world around us—often in ways we don’t even realize? This seminar explores the neuroscience of social-emotional memory, diving into how the brain constructs, refines, and applies interpersonal-affective "attachment" schemas across development. We’ll examine why certain social-emotional patterns become ingrained, how the developing brain balances past experiences with new learning, and what happens when these processes go awry. Along the way, we’ll unpack cutting-edge research on memory, prediction, and social connection, asking: How do our brains extract emotional meaning from our earliest relationships, and how might these mechanisms impact emotional behavior across development? There is no cohesive body of knowledge on this topic, so students will be taking the methods and results from one area (e.g., neural underpinnings of schema acquisition) and applying those ideas to content and theory from another area (e.g., amygdala-dependent memory development)- the goal is to generate new hypotheses and ideas through this integration across of cognitive and developmental neuroscience subfields.
Prerequisites: Third-year bridge course (W3300), and introductory surveys (W3349, W3350). This course will read Venezuela backwards in films, poems, novels and essays, from the present-tense struggle over the legacy of chavismo to the early days of independence. The constant thread will be the conflict between development and nature with special attention to natural resources and eco-critical approaches.
Prerequisites: PSYC UN1001, and the instructors permission.
A systematic review of the evolution language covering the theory of evolution, conditioning theory, animal communication, ape language experiments, infant cognition, preverbal antecedents of language and contemporary theories of language.