Prerequisites: minimum GPA of 3.5 in MESAAS courses. The MESAAS honors seminar offers students the opportunity to undertake a sustained research project under close faculty supervision. The DUS advises on general issues of project design, format, approach, general research methodologies, and timetable. In addition, students work with an individual advisor who has expertise in the area of the thesis and can advise on the specifics of method and content. The thesis will be jointly evaluated by the adviser, the DUS, and the honors thesis TA. The DUS will lead students through a variety of exercises that are directly geared to facilitating the thesis. Students build their research, interpretive, and writing skills; discuss methodological approaches; write an annotated bibliography; learn to give constructive feedback to peers and respond to feedback effectively. The final product is a polished research paper in the range of 40-60 pages. Please note: This is a one-year course that begins in the fall semester (1 point) and continues through the spring semester (3 points). Only students who have completed both semesters will receive the full 4 points of credit.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
This seminar explores contemporary art criticism written by artists, with a special focus on how their ideas help us understand today’s visual culture—across galleries, social media, digital platforms, and public space. You do
not
need to be an Art History or Visual Arts major to take part in this course. Students from all backgrounds are welcome, and the class aims to provide accessible entry points into thinking about art, images, and culture. Artist-writers approach criticism differently from academic scholars or journalists: rather than treating artworks as distant objects of study or market commodities, they write from inside the processes, politics, and lived experiences that shape artistic production. Their essays often address urgent questions about identity, power, technology, and representation. Many use new media—video, performance, social platforms, and digital images—to expose how culture is made and circulated today. Others directly examine issues of class, racism, gender, labor, and equity, helping us understand how art both reflects and challenges broader social conventions. Throughout the semester, we will read and discuss writings by artists such as Adrian Piper, Martha Rosler, Andrea Fraser, Renée Green, Walead Beshty, Hito Steyerl, Hannah Black, and others who have transformed the field by confronting structures of inequality, interrogating institutions, and using critical writing as a form of artistic practice. Their work opens questions that resonate far beyond the art world. How do images shape public opinion and social movements? Who gets to speak and be seen in contemporary culture? What counts as “authorship” or “truth” in the age of digital reproduction? How can creative practices address histories of exclusion or imagine more equitable futures? Each week, we will focus on a single artist, pairing discussion of their writing with a presentation of their artwork. Assignments will give you practice reading closely, writing clearly, and developing your own critical voice. Whether or not you plan to pursue art-related fields, the analytical skills you’ll gain—interpreting images, unpacking arguments, understanding cultural systems—will be valuable for thinking about the media-saturated world we live in. The course fosters a collaborative, discussion-based environment where all students can participate fully and bring diverse perspectives to our conversations.
Prerequisites: Barnard Art History Major Requirement. Enrollment limited only to Barnard Art History majors. Introduction to critical writings that have shaped histories of art, including texts on iconography and iconology, the psychology of perception, psychoanalysis, social history, feminism and gender studies, structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism.
This course provides students with an introduction to the study of genocide.
In this class, we will take a
critical approach
to understanding genocide, meaning:
we will try to avoid easy moralizing and distancing of genocide;
we won’t take existing legal and political definitions of genocide for granted; and
we will think about
power
in relation to genocide perpetration and prevention.
Our strategy will be
interdisciplinary
, meaning:
we will explore the ways historians, psychologist, lawyers, political scientists, and others have tried to understand genocide; and
we will reflect on the limits on what and how we can know about genocide as a human experience.
This course aspires to be
practical
and
applied
, meaning
this course fundamentally
anti-genocidal
in its purpose, and
students will have the opportunity to contribute to and/or develop practical efforts commemorate, advocate against, or prevent the perpetration of genocide.
After World War II, the question of the development of so-called underdeveloped countries became an international priority. The timing was not casual: the demise of the colonial empires and the birth of new countries propagated the ideals of modernization worldwide. Moreover, in a world divided between two superpowers, the fate of less developed countries became a matter of foreign policy concern in the developed ones. Since then, development has become a major challenge for the contemporary world. The new relevance of the issue has also prompted, in the years after World War II, the birth of a new disciplinary field, namely, development economics, which is increasingly at the core of the economics profession, as demonstrated by the Nobel prizes in Economics to W. Arthur Lewis in 1979, to Amartya Sen in 1998, and to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in 2019, as well as the work on development of other prominent economists such as Dani Rodrik, William Easterly, Jeffrey Sachs, and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
This seminar will explore the trajectory of the idea of development from World War II to the present, with a particular focus on how it has been discussed within the disciplinary field of development economics. We will discuss how different analyses of development processes—how they can be put in motion, how they evolve, and what are their potential outcomes—have intersected debates about dynamics of social and economic change, how the whole development field has been interpreted alternatively as a progressive endeavour or an ideological construct fostering a neocolonial agenda, and how development policies have been judged to strengthen democratic institutions or, on the contrary, as a mechanism reinforcing domestic and international inequality, to be opposed with revolution.
Although the focus of this seminar will be on understanding the history of development rather than shaping its future, graduate students from outside of history (including business, anthropology, political science, economics, human rights, law, sociology, and area studies) are welcomed to register, as this is a topic that would benefit greatly from an interdisciplinary perspective.
This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.
This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.
This course will introduce students to the literature on crime and policing. Readings for the course will be from a broad range of disciplines, including sociology, criminology, law, and public policy. Most weeks, the readings will include relevant “popular press” articles that will help situate the literature in the context of current debates. The course is organized in two parts. The first half will focus on the problems of crime and violence in urban environments. We will review classic and modern ideas and theories explaining crime and violence, and we will look at the evidence describing patterns and trends in crime in recent history. The second half of the course will focus on the approaches to confront crime and violence, with a strong emphasis on policing. We will review the literature on the relationship between crime and policing, and we will learn about the impact that policing practices have on individuals and their communities.
Contemporary exhibitions studied through a selection of great shows from roughly 1969 to the present that defined a generation. This course will not offer practical training in curating; rather it will concentrate on the historical context of exhibitions, the theoretical basis for their argument, the criteria for the choice in artists and their work, and exhibitions internal/external reception.
This course focuses on race, discrimination, and racial inequalities. The course will address three key questions: (1) What is race as perceived in the U.S. and Europe, and what are the sources of racial inequalities? (2) What does social science research tell us about patterns and trends of racial inequalities? (3) What policies can alleviate racial inequalities? The course will systematically adopt comparative perspectives focusing on the North American and European contexts. We will also address research on race and racial inequality within an interdisciplinary lens particularly building on sociology, economics, and social psychology.
This course is designed for advanced undergraduate students from Columbia University and Science Po (Paris). We aim for a class of 30 students (15 from each partner university). Class will take place once a week (for 2 hours). In addition, the Columbia TA will conduct a discussion section once a week in which Columbia and Sciences Po students will work together in small groups on class projects that will be presented over the course of the semester. The classes will be organized in a hybrid format. In each campus, the professor will teach his/her class in person and the two classes will be connected via Zoom. The Columbia and Science Po professors will thus co-teach a virtually connected class. The professors will closely coordinate and alternate in leading the lecture and discussion parts of each class.
This seminar is an opportunity to do original sociological research with the support of a faculty member, a teaching assistant, and your fellow classmates. Over the next two semesters you will formulate a research question; design a research strategy; collect and analyze data; and write up your findings. At the end of the academic year, you will submit a completed thesis.
The class is intended as scaffolding to support you in what can sometimes feel like a lonely and disorienting process. The goal is to balance structure to facilitate your work with freedom to develop your projects independently.
This seminar is open only to Sociology majors. Please email the professor for permission to join the course.
This course is intended to provide a focal point for undergraduate majors in East Asian Studies. It introduces students to the analysis of particular objects of East Asian historical, literary, and cultural studies from various disciplinary perspectives. The syllabus is composed of a series of modules, each centered around an object, accompanied by readings that introduce different ways of understanding its meaning.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used for degree credit. Only for Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering undergraduate students who include relevant off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. May not be used as technical or nontechnical electives or to satisfy any other Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering major requirements. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Working with her advisor, a student will expand the research project initiated in the Fall Senior Seminar for Music Majors (BC3992x). In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will complete a fifty page research paper.
This course is a requirement for all majors and is taken in the
Fall
semester of the Senior year; students may register for the Barnard or Columbia (3991) section. In this academic writing workshop students develop individual research projects under the guidance of the course’s instructor and in dialogue with the other participants’ projects. The final assignment of the senior seminar (6000 words) is the
senior essay
. It is written in Spanish.
N/A
N/A
Prerequisites: CPLS UN3900 The senior seminar is a capstone course required of all CLS/MedHum majors and CLS concentrations. Only ICLS students may register. The seminar provides students the opportunity to discuss selected topics in comparative literature and society and medical humanities in a cross-disciplinary, multilingual, and global perspective. Students undertake individual research projects while participating in directed readings and critical dialogues about theory and research methodologies, which may culminate in the senior thesis. Students review work in progress and share results through weekly oral reports and written reports.
Guided, independent, indepth research experience culminating in the senior essay. Weekly meetings are held to review work in progress, to share results through oral and written reports, and to consider career options for further work in this field.
British literature of the Romantic period, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth
century, displays a fascination with what is on the margins. This manifests itself most
memorably in the unprecedented focus on socially marginalized figures – the beggars,
madmen, abandoned women, and solitary wanderers who populate the pages of Romantic
poetry and fiction. The author too is often figured as an outsider in this period, someone
whose authority derives specifically from his or her position of marginality, looking in
from the fringes. Geographically, the peripheries of the island of Great Britain (Wales
and especially Scotland) were major sites of literary experimentation in the Romantic era,
while the south coast of England attracted particular interest because of the constant
threat of invasion from France during these years. And of course Romantic writers
famously exploited textual margins: many of the major literary works of the period make
innovative use of footnotes, glosses, and other paratextual apparatus. This course
considers these various aspects of Romantic marginality and the intersections between
them. In addition to the work of more canonical authors (William Wordsworth, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, Walter Scott, Mary Shelley), we will be reading poems, novels, essays,
and letters by writers, especially women, whose work has historically been marginalized.
British literature of the Romantic period, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth
century, displays a fascination with what is on the margins. This manifests itself most
memorably in the unprecedented focus on socially marginalized figures – the beggars,
madmen, abandoned women, and solitary wanderers who populate the pages of Romantic
poetry and fiction. The author too is often figured as an outsider in this period, someone
whose authority derives specifically from his or her position of marginality, looking in
from the fringes. Geographically, the peripheries of the island of Great Britain (Wales
and especially Scotland) were major sites of literary experimentation in the Romantic era,
while the south coast of England attracted particular interest because of the constant
threat of invasion from France during these years. And of course Romantic writers
famously exploited textual margins: many of the major literary works of the period make
innovative use of footnotes, glosses, and other paratextual apparatus. This course
considers these various aspects of Romantic marginality and the intersections between
them. In addition to the work of more canonical authors (William Wordsworth, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, Walter Scott, Mary Shelley), we will be reading poems, novels, essays,
and letters by writers, especially women, whose work has historically been marginalized.
Working with her advisor, a student will develop a vocal or instrumental recital program with representative musical works from a variety of historical periods. In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will present an hour long public performance of the recital program. Students may also satisfy this requirement by composing original vocal or instrumental works.
The course is a requirement for all the LAIC majors. In this seminar, students develop an individual research project and write an essay under the guidance of the course’s instructor and in dialogue with the other participants’ projects After an introductory theoretical and methodological section, and a research session at the library, the syllabus is entirely constructed on the students’ projects. Every participant is in charge of a weekly session. Essay outlines and drafts are discussed with the group throughout the semester. The final session is a public symposium with external respondents.
Enrollment limited to Barnard senior English majors with a concentration in creative writing.
This creative writing workshop represents an opportunity for creative writing concentrators to focus on one large project that will serve as a capstone senior project. As in a typical writing workshop, much of the focus will be on sharing and critiquing student work. Unlike other workshops, in this class students will focus on building out a longer project—such as a more ambitious full-length story for fiction and creative nonfiction writers and a chapbook for poets. This means students will discuss work by writers who may not share their own genre. We will focus on generating new work, developing your writing process, and creating new possibilities and momentum for your piece, as well as trying to create a sense of community among the concentrators. We will also conduct in-class writing exercises in response to short reading assignments and class lectures. Students should be aware of two important notes: (1) This class is limited to senior English majors who have already been approved to be creative writing concentrators; and (2) this course fulfills the requirement for concentrators to finish a senior project, but not the academic senior seminar requirement. This class is about your own writing and that of your classmates. This class will be what you make of it!
The goals of this seminar are a) to introduce senior music majors to ethnographic, bibliographic, and archival research methods in music and b) to help the same students develop, focus, implement, draft, revise, and polish a substantive, original piece of research (25-30 pages) which will serve as the senior project. The course will begin with a survey of academic literature on key problems in musicological research and writing, and will progress to a workshop/discussion format in which each week a different student is responsible for assigning readings and leading the discussion on a topic which s/he has formulated and deemed to be of relevance to her own research.
Prerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission and senior standing as a major or concentrator in The Evolutionary Biology of the Human Species (EBHS). Year-long seminar in which senior EBHS majors develop a research project and write a senior thesis. Regular meetings are held to discuss research and writing strategies,review work in progress, and share results through oral and written reports.
FRST3994OC History of Contemporary French Cinema (1990-2018).
3 points.
Taught in French.
Prerequisite: 4-5 semesters of French language study or the equivalent.
French cinema is characterized by its artistic richness, its vigor and, above all, its diversity. This film history course will function as a journey in which we explore contemporary French cinema. Our itinerary will take us from the 1990s, those of “young French cinema” and neoclassicism, to the end of the 2010s, those of directors like Julie Delpy and Christophe Honoré. Together, we will develop a panorama in which the works of Cédric Klapisch and Nicole Garcia will intersect, as well as those of Céline Sciamma and Arnaud Desplechin.
The objective of this course will be to introduce students to French cinema, its history and its diversity. We will also have the chance to correlate academic knowledge and practical experience, so as to give the students a significant idea of French film activity. The application process is competitive and will take place onsite in February.
To enroll in this course through the
Columbia Summer in Paris
program, you must apply to the through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).
Global Learning Scholarships
available.
Tuition
charges apply.
Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Term A & B dates.
This course aims to introduce students to human rights research methods, while providing them with practical research tools. The course will be tailored to students’ interests, disciplinary backgrounds and research areas. The specific topics students will research and the methods they will employ will determine the substantive focus of readings. During the course we will ask the following questions: ‘what is human rights research?, how do you carry out research in an interdisciplinary field?, what distinguishes academic research from applied research and advocacy? While answering these questions, you will become familiar with the literature on human rights methodologies, and you will engage in analysis and critical assessment of important human rights research literature. In addition, the course gives a practical approach to research methodology. You will learn about a diverse set of methodologies, such as interviewing and focus groups, archival research, ethnographic and participant observation, interviewing focus groups, conducting online research; interpretive and non-empirical methods and basic quantitative methodologies to be employed in the study of human rights. As you learn about different methodological approaches, you will develop your own research project. Scholars and practitioners in the field of human rights research will present their work and engage in discussions with students about their own research, challenges, successes and publication venues. NB: This course is geared towards students who commit to writing a senior thesis. It is part of a two-course sequence: HRTS UN3994 Section 001 Human Rights Senior Seminar: Research Methods in the fall and HRTS UN3996 Human Rights Thesis Seminar in the spring. Students who do not intend to write a thesis should enroll in HRTS UN3995 section 001 Human Rights Senior Seminar, which is a one-semester course taught each semester focused on writing a seminar paper.
Majors in Mathematics are offered the opportunity to write an honors senior thesis under the guidance of a faculty member. Interested students should contact a faculty member to determine an appropriate topic, and receive written approval from the faculty advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies (faculty sponsorship is limited to full-time instructors on the staff list). Research is conducted primarily during the fall term; the final paper is submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies during the subsequent spring term.
MATH UN3994 SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS I must be taken in the fall term, during which period the student conducts primary research on the agreed topic. An optional continuation course MATH UN3995 SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS II is available during the spring. The second term of this sequence may not be taken without the first. Registration for the spring continuation course has no impact on the timeline or outcome of the final paper.
Sections of SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS I and II do NOT count towards the major requirements, with the exception of an advanced written approval by the DUS.
Majors in Mathematics are offered the opportunity to write an honors senior thesis under the guidance of a faculty member. Interested students should contact a faculty member to determine an appropriate topic, and receive written approval from the faculty advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies (faculty sponsorship is limited to full-time instructors on the staff list). Research is conducted primarily during the fall term; the final paper is submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies during the subsequent spring term.
MATH UN3994 SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS I must be taken in the fall term, during which period the student conducts primary research on the agreed topic. An optional continuation course MATH UN3995 SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS II is available during the spring. The second term of this sequence may not be taken without the first. Registration for the spring continuation course has no impact on the timeline or outcome of the final paper.
Sections of SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS I and II do NOT count towards the major requirements, with the exception of an advanced written approval by the DUS.
A year-long seminar for outstanding majors who want to conduct research -- or to design a creative project -- on any aspect of American history and culture. During the fall, students will clarify their research agenda or creative topic, sharpen their questions, locate their primary and secondary sources, and begin their project to be completed in the spring perhaps leading to departmental honors. See American Studies website for more details.
This year-long, three-credit course is mandatory for students who will be writing their Senior Thesis in Comparative Literature and Society or in Medical Humanities. Students who wish to be considered for Departmental honors are required to submit a Senior Thesis. The thesis is a rigorous research work of approximately 40 pages, and it will include citations and a bibliographical apparatus. It may be written in English or, with the permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, in another language relevant to the students scholarly interests. Although modeled after an independent study, in which core elements of the structure, direction, and pace of the work are decided together by the student and their faculty thesis supervisor, students are nonetheless expected to complete certain major steps in the research and writing process according to the timeline outlined by the ICLS DUS.
Obtained internship and approval from faculty adviser. Written application must be made prior to registration outlining proposed internship and study program. Final reports required. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited. Fieldwork credits may not count toward any major core, technical elective, and nontechnical requirements. International students must also consult with the International Students and Scholars Office. Note: only for EAEE undergraduate students who need relevant off-campus work experience as a part of their program of study as determined by instructor.
The senior seminar is a capstone course required for the human rights major. The seminar provides students the opportunity to discuss human rights from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and to explore various theoretical approaches and research methodologies. Students undertake individual research projects while collectively examining human rights through directed readings and discussion.
Prerequisites: a formal proposal to be submitted and approved prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision, leading to completion of an honors essay, composition, or the equivalent.