Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission. A program of research in Greek literature. Research paper required.
Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission. A program of research in Latin literature. Research paper required.
Prerequisites: approval prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision.
Independent Study
Independent Study
.
Prerequisites: admission to the departmental honors program. A two-term seminar for students writing the senior honors thesis.
Sustainable development majors and special concentrators must register for this independent study to use internship hours for the practicum credit. Students must consult with their program adviser and department before registering. Offered fall, spring and summer.
The goals are to increase competency in advanced Sinhala, enhance communicative skills,
improve reading skills of classical texts, deepen knowledge of Sinhala written grammar, and
introduce advanced vocabulary, expressions, and terminology of Sinhala culture. Besides the
regular practice of reading, writing, dialogues, discussions, occasional quizzes, and homework,
students will engage in various classroom activities and assignments, such as in-class
presentations.
Prerequisites: open only to qualified majors in the department; the director of undergraduate studies permission is required. An opportunity for research under the direction of an individual faculty member. Students intending to write a year-long senior thesis should plan to register for C3996 in the spring semester of their senior year and are strongly advised to consult the undergraduate studies as they plan their programs.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to senior Theatre majors. Combined and special majors may be considered under exceptional circumstances. Permission of the instructor required. In-depth research project culminating in a substantial written thesis on any aspect of drama, performance, or theatre research.
Prerequisites: The instructors permission. Students must have declared a major in Anthropology prior to registration. Students must have a 3.6 GPA in the major and a preliminary project concept in order to be considered. Interested students must communicate/meet with thesis instructor in the previous spring about the possibility of taking the course during the upcoming academic year. Additionally, expect to discuss with the instructor at the end of the fall term whether your project has progressed far enough to be completed in the spring term. If it has not, you will exit the seminar after one semester, with a grade based on the work completed during the fall term. This two-term course is a combination of a seminar and a workshop that will help you conduct research, write, and present an original senior thesis in anthropology. Students who write theses are eligible to be considered for departmental honors. The first term of this course introduces a variety of approaches used to produce anthropological knowledge and writing; encourages students to think critically about the approaches they take to researching and writing by studying model texts with an eye to the ethics, constraints, and potentials of anthropological research and writing; and gives students practice in the seminar and workshop formats that are key to collegial exchange and refinement of ideas. During the first term, students complete a few short exercises that will culminate in a substantial draft of one discrete section of their senior project (18-20 pages) plus a detailed outline of the expected work that remains to be done (5 pages). The spring sequence of the anthropology thesis seminar is a writing intensive continuation of the fall semester, in which students will have designed the research questions, prepared a full thesis proposal that will serve as a guide for the completion of the thesis and written a draft of one chapter. Only those students who expect to have completed the fall semester portion of the course are allowed to register for the spring; final enrollment is contingent upon successful completion of first semester requirements. In spring semester, weekly meetings will be devoted to the collaborative refinement of drafts, as well as working through issues of writing (evidence, voice, authority etc.). All enrolled students are required to present their project at a symposium in the late spring, and the final grade is based primarily on successful completion of the thesis/ capstone project. Note: The senior thesis seminar is open t
Prerequisites: Open to majors who have fulfilled basic major requirements or written permission of the staff member who will supervise the project. Specialized reading and research projects planned in consultation with members of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures teaching staff.
Prerequisites: Open to majors who have fulfilled basic major requirements or written permission of the staff member who will supervise the project. Specialized reading and research projects planned in consultation with members of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures teaching staff.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used toward the 128-credit degree requirement. Only for BMEN undergraduate students who include relevant off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. Fieldwork credits may not count toward any major core, technical, elective, and non-technical requirements. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Introduces students to research and writing techniques and requires the preparation of a senior thesis proposal. Required for majors and concentrators in the East Asian studies major in the spring term of the junior year.
Prerequisites: approval prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision.
Current topics in biomedical engineering. Subject matter will vary by year.
Current topics in biomedical engineering. Subject matter will vary by year.
Current topics in biomedical engineering. Subject matter will vary by year.
This class offers an introduction to Hebrew culture from a historical and literary perspective, focusing on the intersection of linguistic ideology, and literary and cultural creativity. What, we will ask, is the relationship between what people think about Hebrew and what they write in Hebrew?
We will investigate the manners in which Hebrew was imagined – as the language of God, the language of the Jews, the language of the patriarchy, the language of secularism, the language of Messianism, the language of nationalism, a dead language, a diasporic Eastern European language, a local Middle Eastern Language, ext., and how these conflicting imaginaries informed Hebrew creativity.
This class does not require prior knowledge of Hebrew. Students proficient in Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino, and/or European languages are encouraged to contact the instructor in advance for supplementary material in these languages.
What kind of teacher would you like to become? What experience, knowledge and opinions regarding learning and teaching a language and language and communication do you bring to class? How can theoretical and practical literature help us augment our personal experiences? How do we plan and execute lesson plans? What role do institutional expectations play? What can we learn from how others teach? How can we ensure to welcome a wide spectrum of students into our classes? What impact has the pandemic on the way we approach teaching? How can we grow as educators through self-reflection, our interactions with colleagues, and through our understanding theoretical and practical knowledge that goes beyond planning the next class?
Collaboratively, we will discuss these and other questions using our concrete experience, practical and theoretical literature, and opportunities for professional development. We will apply our knowledge and create materials together, visit colleagues in other language and reflect on our learning and teaching experience.
Learning Goals: At the end of this class, you will:
be able to understand and use the concept of ‘Backward Design’
have acquired a basis in a spectrum of different research-based perspectives that you can use to decide on the usefulness of pedagogical strategies in a given situation.
be familiar with the basic terminology as well as the most relevant sources for the field of foreign language pedagogy
have familiarity with applying theory to practice by designing classroom activities you will be able to use in your class
have started to develop strategies for continuous reflection and deepening of pedagogical practices (through discussion, observations, journals)
take first steps to developing your own teaching philosophy statement
This course is a detailed and hands-on (ears-on) exploration of the fundamental physical, physiological, and psychological aspects of sound. Topics covered include sound waves and their physical nature, the propagation and speed of sound in different mediums, geological and other non-living sound sources, animal and insect sound generating strategies, sound perception mechanisms and abilities in different species, the physiology of human hearing and the structure of the human ear, psycho-acoustics and human sound perception, sonic illusions and tricks of the ear.
In-class experiments and research make up the majority of the class. Each student will design and lead at least one experiment/demo session. Students also respond to creative weekly prompts about sound topics on courseworks.
We also have visits with a number of special guests during the term.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of URBS UN2200 Introduction to GIS Methods, or equivalent with instructor permission.
With the veritable explosion of urban data alongside the continued proliferation of new tools for its consideration, this course allows students to develop specialized approaches to spatial analysis while introducing a series of common advanced techniques and nuanced methodological questions. Aimed at covering a variety of topics with immediate relevance to urbanism in practice and in research, the course operates with a two-fold mission: (1) to critically discuss the theories, concepts, and research methods involved in spatial analysis and (2) to learn the techniques necessary for engaging those theories and deploying those methods. The class will work to meet this mission with a dedicated focus on the urban environment and the spatial particularities and relationships that arise from the urban context.
Among others, this course takes as a foundational premise that spatial analysis within geographic information systems is an incredibly powerful and double-edged weapon: it provides both the methods for answering complex spatial questions and the means for effectively communicating the results. Like any other weapon it can serve many ends, and as such an advanced course in spatial analysis must frame its use within the developing discourse on professional practice and responsibility.
The course is designed with a combination format. Early weeks are predominantly lecture-style presentations supplemented with discussion and technical demonstration and exercises. Students are expected to complete these exercises outside of class (as homework), bringing their questions to our discussion. The latter half of the course is a project-based seminar. Seminar-style presentation and discussion will rely heavily on student participation and preparation to consider the variety of spatial methods available and their implications on urban research and intervention. Woven throughout the semester is the development of a self-driven research project, through which students will engage and compare the methodological advantages and disadvantages of several assumptions, approaches, analyses, and datasets.
Genealogies of Feminism:
Course focuses on the development of a particular topic or issue in feminist, queer, and/or WGSS scholarship. Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates, though priority will be given to students completing the ISSG graduate certificate. Topics differ by semester offered, and are reflected in the course subtitle. For a description of the current offering, please visit the link in the Class Notes.
Physiological systems at the cellular and molecular level are examined in a highly quantitative context. Topics include chemical kinetics, molecular binding and enzymatic processes, molecular motors, biological membranes, and muscles.
Part of an accelerated consideration of the essential chemical engineering principles from the undergraduate program, including selected topics from Introduction to Chemical Engineering, Transport Phenomena I and II, and Chemical Engineering Control. While required for all M.S. students with Scientist to Engineer status, the credits from this course may not be applied toward any chemical engineering degree.
Part of an accelerated consideration of the essential chemical engineering principles from the undergraduate program, including topics from Reaction Kinetics and Reactor Design, Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, I and II, and Chemical and Biochemical Separations. While required for all M.S. students with Scientist to Engineer status, the credits from this course may not be applied toward any chemical engineering degree.
Prerequisites: Students should have completed at least one course in ecology, evolution or conservation biology. The purpose of this course is to arm emerging scientists with an understanding of conservation policy at the city, state, federal and international levels. Our focus will be on understanding the science that informs conservation policy, evaluating the efficacy of conservation policies for achieving conservation goals, and learning about the role that scientists play in forming policy.
Prerequisites: JPNS C1202 or the equivalent. Introduction to the fundamentals of classical Japanese grammar. Trains students to read Japanese historical and literary texts from the early period up to the 20th century.
Prerequisites: advanced calculus and general physics, or the instructors permission. Basic physical processes controlling atmospheric structure: thermodynamics; radiation physics and radiative transfer; principles of atmospheric dynamics; cloud processes; applications to Earths atmospheric general circulation, climatic variations, and the atmospheres of the other planets.
Prerequisites: GREK V1201 and V1202, or their equivalent. Since the content of the course changes from year to year, it may be taken in consecutive years.
Prerequisites: LATN V3012 or the equivalent. Since the content of this course changes from year to year, it may be repeated for credit.
This seminar offers a sustained exploration of the fiction and nonfiction of Jamaica Kincaid, a Caribbean-American writer described by the novelist Tiphanie Yanique as “a fiction writer with a poet’s air and a journalist’s eye.” In Fall 2026, Kincaid will be a Writer-in-Residence at Columbia University, providing students with a rare opportunity to engage directly with her presence and intellectual contributions on campus. The course is organized in two parts: the first half examines Kincaid’s nonfiction—some of her essays, memoirs, and nature writing—while the second half traces her fiction from
At the Bottom of the River to See Now Then
. Central themes include colonialism and its aftermath, migration and exile, maternal relationships, ecological memory, and cultural displacement. This course emphasizes close reading, critical scholarship, and creative response. Students will be expected to contribute actively to seminar discussions and produce original work that bridges analytical and creative modes.
Introductory course is for individuals with an interest in medical physics and other branches of radiation science. Topics include basic concepts, nuclear models, semi-empirical mass formula, interaction of radiation with matter, nuclear detectors, nuclear structure and instability, radioactive decay process and radiation, particle accelerators, and fission and fusion processes and technologies.
Mathematical description of chemical engineering problems and the application of selected methods for their solution. General modeling principles, including model hierarchies. Linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations and their systems, including those with variable coefficients. Partial differential equations in Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates for the solution of chemical engineering problems.
Mathematical description of chemical engineering problems and the application of selected methods for their solution. General modeling principles, including model hierarchies. Linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations and their systems, including those with variable coefficients. Partial differential equations in Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates for the solution of chemical engineering problems.
A close reading of works by Dostoevsky (Netochka Nezvanova; The Idiot; A Gentle Creature) and Tolstoy (Childhood, Boyhood, Youth; Family Happiness; Anna Karenina; The Kreutzer Sonata) in conjunction with related English novels (Bronte's Jane Eyre, Eliot's Middlemarch, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway). No knowledge of Russian is required.
This seminar course will provide a punctual survey of trends and figures in the experimental cultures of East Central Europe. Formations include the avant-gardes (first, postwar, and postcommunist); experimental Modernisms and Postmodernisms; alternative film, media, and visual culture; and formally inventive responses to exceptional historical circumstances. Proceeding roughly chronologically from early twentieth to early twenty-first centuries, we will examine expressionist/surrealistic painting and drama; zenithist hybrid genres such as cinépoetry and proto-conceptualist writing; mixed-media relief sculpture; post-conceptual art; experimental and animated film; and avant-garde classical music. In terms of theory, we will draw on regional and global approaches to artistic experimentation ranging from Marxist and other theories of value through discourses of the body and sexuality in culture to contemporary affect theory. The course will be taught in English with material drawn primarily from Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Each session will include a lecture followed by discussion.
Course Description
This interdisciplinary course explores both the rights of Indigenous people in settler colonies as well as the complex historical and theoretical relationship between human rights and settler colonialism. We will pursue three lines of inquiry. The first critically explores how central political concepts of the international state system—sovereignty, property, territory, self-determination—entwine the histories of settler colonialism and human rights. The second charts the rise and mechanisms of the international Indigenous rights movement, in particular its activity at the United Nations leading to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, and its contributions to ongoing debates on environmental and climate justice, group rights, natural resources and territorial autonomy, and cultural rights. The third unit interrogates settler state responses to the movement for Indigenous human rights, such as cooptation, recognition, and apology.
Through readings drawn from history, ethnography, political and critical theory, international relations, Native studies, law, and documents produced by intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, we will explore and deepen the tensions between human rights as a theory and practice and the political lives and aspirations of Indigenous peoples and activists. What technologies of rule—such as residential school systems and property law—do settler colonial states deploy to dispossess Indigenous peoples? How have Indigenous peoples used the international human rights regime to mobilize against such dispossession? How have these states resisted the global Indigenous rights movement? And can the human rights regime, rooted in the international state system, meaningfully contribute to anticolonial movements in liberal settler colonies? While we will touch on settler colonialism as it manifests around the globe, the course’s geographical focus will be on North America.
Course objectives
Throughout this course, you will:
Develop a historically-informed understanding of both international indigenous rights and settler colonialism as idea, practice, institution, and discourse;
Place the literature on human rights and settler colonialism into critical conversation in order to deepen existing conceptual problems and generate new ones;
Identify the main arguments in theoretical texts, legal and policy documents, and public debates
This is a course in Spanish conversation. Students will study and practice features of social interaction in Spanish that are crucial to participate in the new culture. This means the course has two learning objectives: One is learning to engage in regular conversations in Spanish; the other is to understand how conversation works. We will cover conversational issues such as gesture, narratives, intonation, opening and closing interactions, turn taking, etc. both in linguistics and social terms. Practice and analysis will be connected: Every week we will consider an aspect of oral interaction in Spanish. We will study those features in naturally occurring conversations among native speakers and we will practice in actual conversations inside and outside the classroom, by means of role play, simulation, film making, debates and interviews. We will use topics of conversation to provide a meaningful environment for the conversation practice.
The Business Chinese I course is designed to prepare students to use Chinese in a present or future work situation. Students will develop skills in the practical principles of grammar, vocabulary, and cross-cultural understanding needed in today’s business world.
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to accounting. It is designed to provide managerially oriented users of accounting products with the foundations of accounting concepts, the underlying mechanics, and the overall perspective required to become intelligent users of accounting information. The course will focus on the typical financial statements (e.g., balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements) along with the environment in which they are produced and used. The overarching perspective is that accounting reports provide information that is useful for various purposes.
The course design emphasizes that the information content of accounting reports is jointly determined by the accounting methods used to generate the reports and the environment in which the reports are produced and used. Thus, the course integrates the study of accounting methods and the study of the accounting environment. Accounting concerns, in turn, vary with market opportunities, instruments, and organizational arrangements at hand.
The course is organized into two interrelated modules. First, we review accounting-related institutional details, the nature of financial reports, audits, and disclosure. This includes the examination of the three main financial statements the nature of accrual measurement, and the information perspective that is central to the course. Second, we explore accounting methods in detail, focusing on revenue recognition, assets, liabilities, and equity. We explicitly consider accounting issues related to global organizations.
Throughout the course, we apply these concepts to real-world contexts, with attention to ethics, data integrity, financial statement analysis, valuation, and regulatory frameworks. In addition, we integrate contemporary topics such as the impact of climate change and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) considerations on financial reporting. Selected current events and emerging trends in ESG reporting are discussed in relation to the accounting frameworks and principles covered in class.
Finally, we explore the role of artificial intelligence—particularly large language models (LLMs)—in financial analysis. The course introduces how AI tools can assist in interpreting financial statements, while emphasizing the importance of human judgment and expertise in ensuring responsible and effective use of AI technologies.
For Mendelson Students Only.