A continuation of the study of the written and spoken language of Turkey, with readings of literary, historical, and other texts. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
This course examines the landscapes of urban public health from the medieval era to the 19th century using spatial analysis. It has two objectives. Thematically, it introduces students to the concept and study of “urban healthscapes” in Europe and the Americas before the age of modern bacteriology. Weekly lectures advance through a sequence of four related themes: (1) medieval and early modern communal, infrastructural, and regulatory spatial practices of public health; (2) urban mortality regimes, epidemics, and societal responses; (3) the relationships between urban form, spatial governance, planning, and public health; and (4) problems of environmental justice, including unequal exposure to health risks and access to health amenities. Methodologically, the course approaches these topics via the lens of historical Geographic Information Systems. In weekly labs, students acquire technical skills of GIS mapping. They learn how to work with spatial data, create GIS maps, conduct spatial analysis, and develop spatial historical arguments and narratives. Labs integrate recently released public hGIS datasets on a variety of cities—such as medieval Bologna and 19th-century New York—directly relevant to the themes covered in lectures. For course assignments, students use these datasets to conduct spatial analyses of urban healthscapes. The course is open to all undergraduates. Previous GIS knowledge is not needed.
Globalization emerged as a concept in the 1990s to describe the various supranational forces that shape the contemporary world. Its history, however, is much older, and it encompasses major historical developments such as the formation and global spread of empires, of trade and capitalism, slavery, and migratory movements, as well as environmental and ecological issues. Processes of globalization and deglobalization affect central categories with which to interpret social, political and economic dynamics such as sovereignty, hegemony, and inequality.
This course will offer students the critical instruments to discuss globalizing dynamics and how they have affected human societies historically. We will proceed both thematically and chronologically, to develop the analytical instruments to understand how various dimensions of globalization emerged and transformed over time, as well as the different interpretations that scholars have offered to interpret them.
This course is an introduction to the interplay between science, technology, and society. Unsettling Science invites students to: ask big questions about science and technology, interrupt preconceived ideas about what sicience is and who does it, and engage deeply with troubling social implications. By offering historical and contemporary perspectives, this course equips students with critical and methodological skills essential to exploring not only longstanding questions about the world but also urgent issues of our time. To do so, the course focuses on a series of fundamental and foundational questions (e.g., what is knowledge? what is prog that underpin the study of science, technology, and society from a variety of interdisicplinary perspectives.
During the 2020 US presidential election and the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, science and “scientific truths” were fiercely contested. This course provides a historical perspective on the issues at stake. The course begins with an historical account of how areas of natural knowledge, such as astrology, alchemy, and “natural magic,” which were central components of an educated person’s view of the world in early modern Europe, became marginalized, while a new philosophy of nature (what we would now call empirical science) came to dominate the discourse of rationality. Historical developments examined in this course out of which this new understanding of nature emerged include the rise of the centralized state, religious reform, and European expansion. The course uses this historical account to show how science and pseudoscience developed in tandem in the period from 1400 to 1800. This historical account equips students to examine contemporary issues of expertise, the social construction of science, pluralism in science, certainty and uncertainty in science, as well as critical engagement with contemporary technologies.
Required discussion section for HIST UN2978 lecture.
Overview of human migration from pre-history to the present. Sessions on classical Rome; Jewish diaspora; Viking, Mongol, and Arab conquests; peopling of New World, European colonization, and African slavery; 19th-century European mass migration; Chinese and Indian diasporas; resurgence of global migration in last three decades, and current debates.
This is an introductory course in time-based arts: video, sound, and performance, understood through the language of both short and long cinematic forms. We'll start with an in-depth study of the life and work of Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), whose art has a unique sense of time, driven by the unknown, the immaterial, and the spiritual.
This class is for artists who want to construct their own sense of time, punctuation, and duration, as well as those looking to discover the visual and audio aesthetics of their generation. How does a feeling become an image, and what sound does it make? What are our media aesthetics and skins? Is there a way to address the optical beyond the eye and engage what we currently consider secondary senses, take our bodies back? Our collective task is to construct a camera (both a room and an apparatus) that captures both aural and visual images, creating a sonorous space where we can encounter ourselves in our own time. No prior knowledge of any medium is required. Not for the faint of heart.
Required course for department majors. Not open to Barnard or Continuing Education students. Students must receive instructors permission. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year.
Although the first volume of the
Grimms’ Children Stories and Household Tales
was published more than 200 years ago, their fairy tales continue to enchant readers. In this course we will not only study the Grimms’ fairy tales themselves, but also examine their origins and their social, ideological, and political contexts in 19th-century Europe. We will work with fairy tale theory (narrative, psychoanalytic, historical) and discuss the function of the tales as folklore as well as their status as children’s literature. Alongside the “original” Grimms’ tales—a concept that we will discuss—a major portion of the course will engage the legacy of the fairy tales and the way they have been appropriated by others, particularly from a critical, feminist perspective.
Points of emphasis will include: how writers in the first half of the 20th century politicized the tales in the battle for social change during the time of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany; how the tales were reinterpreted in different national traditions and historical periods; how the fairy tale become a mass culture icon in Disney’s film versions; and how contemporary writers like Margaret Atwood continue to employ tales in questioning and challenging traditional constructions of gender.
Required of all majors. Introduces theories of culture particularly related to the Middle East, South Asia. and Africa. Theoretical debates on the nature and function of culture as a symbolic reading of human collectivities. Examines critical cultural studies of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Enables students to articulate their emerging knowledge of Middle East, South Asian, and African cultures in a theoretically informed language.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Required for all sociology majors. Prerequisite: at least one sociology course of the instructor's permission. Theoretical accounts of the rise and transformations of modern society in the19th and 20th centuries. Theories studied include those of Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, Max Weber, Roberto Michels. Selected topics: individual, society, and polity; economy, class, and status: organization and ideology; religion and society; moral and instrumental action.
Focuses on the history of theatre dance forms originating in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Includes reading, writing, viewing, and discussion of sources such as film, text, original documentation, demonstration, and performance.
Prerequisites: GERM UN2102. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. Note: UN3001 and UN3002 are not sequential.
German UN3001 is an ambitious socio-cultural exploration of Berlin. Designed to follow up the language skills acquired in first- and second-year language courses (or the equivalent thereof), this course gives students greater proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing German while focusing on topics from German society today through various German media, such as internet, film, and literature through the lens of Germany’s capital, Berlin. Topics discussed include: cultural diversity in Berlin's multi-cultural neighborhoods; questioning and reflecting upon Berlin's recent past; developing your own Berlin experience and presenting your interests in various forms, such as presentations, an essay, your CV, an application letter and interview for an internship in Berlin. The course represents a gateway class to literature courses and counts towards the major and concentration in German. Taught in German.
Evolution of the theory and content of human rights; the ideology and impact of human rights movements; national and international human rights law and institutions; their application with attention to universality within states, including the U.S. and internationally.
Prerequisites: Physics BC2002 or the equivalent. Corequisites: Calculus III. Nonlinear pendula, transverse vibrations-elastic strings, longitudinal sound waves, seismic waves, electromagnetic oscillations - light, rainbows, haloes, the Green Flash; polarization phenomena - Haidingers Brush, Brewsters angle, double refraction, optical activity; gravity - capillary waves; interference, diffraction, lenses - mirrors. PLEASE NOTE: Students who take PHYS BC3001 may not receive credit for PHYS BC3010.
Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000).
Discussion section for Social Theory (SOCI UN3000).
"How should we understand the relationship between the family, the photograph, and the African diaspora?" asks the scholar Tina M. Campt in her 2012 book Image Matters. In this course, we will examine how some African American and African diaspora writers have used photographs or collaborated with photographers in writing poetry, fiction, essays, and criticism, expanding our understanding of their families, communities, and broader cultural and historical issues.
Prerequisites: the departments permission. Required for all thesis writers.
In this course, you will conduct independent projects in photography in a structured setting under faculty supervision. You are responsible for arranging for your photographic equipment in consultation with the instructor.
This course will afford you a framework in which to intensively develop a coherent body of photographs, critique this work with your classmates, and correlate your goals with recent issues in contemporary photography.
Students are required to enroll in an additional fifteen contact hours of instruction at the International Center for Photography. Courses range from one-day workshops to full-semester courses.
Permission of instructor only. The class will be limited to 20 students.
This course offers an expansive journey into the Chinese language and culture. It focuses on essential semi-formal and formal writing skills while refining discourse-level competency. Students will enhance their linguistic abilities and communication skills in Chinese through reading and writing assignments, oral presentations, and discussions. This approach fosters adept communication and a deeper connection with the complexities of Chinese culture, preparing students to engage thoughtfully with contemporary issues and traditions.
Prerequisites: one year of biology; a course in physics is highly recommended. This is an advanced course intended for majors providing an in depth survey of the cellular and molecular aspects of nerve cell function. Topics include: the cell biology and biochemistry of neurons, ionic and molecular basis of electrical signals, synaptic transmission and its modulation, function of sensory receptors. Although not required, it is intended to be followed by Neurobiology II (see below).
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Course develops physical, vocal, and imaginative range and skills needed to approach the text of a play: text analysis, speech exercises, non-verbal behavior, improvisation designed to enhance embodiment, movement, and projection.
Gateway course to advanced courses; transfer students who have previous college-level course may be exempted with approval of Chair
.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: CHNS C1222 or F1222, or the equivalent. Admission after Chinese placement exam and an oral proficiency interview with the instructor. Especially designed for students who possess good speaking ability and who wish to acquire practical writing skills as well as business-related vocabulary and speech patterns. Introduction to semiformal and formal Chinese used in everyday writing and social or business-related occasions. Simplified characters are introduced.
What does the investigation of a dictatorship entail and what are the challenges in such an endeavor? Why (and when) do particular societies turn to an examination of their non-democratic pasts? What does it mean for those who never experienced an authoritarian regime first-hand to remember it through television footage, popular culture, and family stories? This seminar examines dictatorships and the ways in which they are remembered, discussed, examined, and give rise to conflicting narratives in post-dictatorial environments. It takes as its point of departure the Greek military regime of 1967-1974, which is considered in relation to other dictatorships in South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. We will be drawing on primary materials including Amnesty International reports, film, performance art, and architectural drawings as well as the works of Hannah Arendt and Günter Grass to engage in an interdisciplinary examination of the ways in which military dictatorships live on as ghosts, traumatic memories, urban warfare, litigation, and debates on the politics of comparison and the ethics of contemporary art.
Intended for those WITHOUT prior knowledge of statistics. Some background in ecology, evolutionary biology required. This is an introduction to the theoretical principles and practical application of statistical methods in ecology and evolutionary biology. The course will cover the conceptual basis for a range of statistical techniques through a series of lectures using examples from the primary literature. The application of these techniques will be taught through the use of statistical software in computer-based laboratory sessions.
Prerequisites: JPNS C1202 or the equivalent. Readings in authentic/semi-authentic texts, videos, and class discussions.
Prerequisites: KORN W1202 or the equivalent and consultation with instructor. (See Entrance to Language Courses Beyond the Elementary Level in the main bulletin under Department of Instruction -- East Asian Languages and Cultures.) Readings in modern Korean. Selections from modern Korean writings in literature, history, social sciences, culture, and videos and class discussions.
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
Prerequisite: Open to all Barnard and Columbia undergraduates. Permission of Instructor required; students admitted from Waiting List. Students must have taken Acting I or equivalent to be eligible for Acting II sections. Acting II will offer several different sections, focusing on a specific range of conceptual, embodiment, and physical acting skills. Please check with the Theatre Department website forspecific offerings and audition information. May be retaken for full credit. All sections of Acting II fullfull the “Arts and Humanities” Foundations requirement at Barnard College.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Discussions on contemporary issues and oral presentations. Creative writing assignments designed to improve writing skills and vocabulary development. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
Prerequisites: BIOL BC1500,1501, 1502, 1503 and BIOL BC2100, or equivalent.
Transcriptome analysis, or the analysis of all expressed RNA sequences in a cell, has long been a major part of molecular biology and genetics. The modern technique of RNA-Seq has now been established as the approach for transcriptome studies and RNA-Seq analyses are ubiquitous in all areas of Biology. In this course we will cover the major technical and analytical aspects of RNA-Seq with an emphasis on the application by students to real datasets. We will cover both the original ‘Bulk RNA-Seq’ approach, where the total transcriptome of many cells are combined, and the more recent ‘single-cell RNA-Seq’ (scRNA-Seq) technology where transcriptomes of individual cells are analyzed separately. Students will learn to read and interpret journal articles that utilize RNA-Seq datasets, both bulk and single-cell, and to perform and present RNA-Seq data using publicly available datasets.
Prerequisites: general physics, and differential and integral calculus. Electrostatics and magnetostatics, Laplace's equation and boundary-value problems, multipole expansions, dielectric and magnetic materials, Faraday's law, AC circuits, Maxwell's equations, Lorentz covariance, and special relativity.
This course is designed for students with at least two years of college-level Chinese who wish to improve their conversational skills. It focuses on practical speaking and listening in real- world contexts, emphasizing fluency, vocabulary expansion, and cultural competence. Students will develop confidence in expressing opinions, narrating experiences, and engaging in spontaneous conversations on everyday and contemporary topics.
Note: This Course CANNOT be used to fulfill the language requirement.
This class is a cultural history of Black fashion and dress through the lens of the current Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s exhibition
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
.
Superfine
presents a cultural and historical examination of Black dandyism, from Enlightenment England to contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art and fashion worlds of Paris, London, and New York.
Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in self-presentation. The
Superfine
exhibition uses dandyism to chronicle the ways in which Black people have used dress and fashion to transform the identities they were given and to propose new ways of embodying political and social possibilities. Interpreting Black dandyism as both an aesthetics and a politics, this class emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to Black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora.
Various concepts within the field of biomedical engineering, foundational knowledge of engineering methodology applied to biological and/or medical problems through modules in biomechanics, biomaterials, and cell & tissue engineering.
Fundamentals are emphasized: the laws of thermodynamics are derived and their meaning explained and elucidated by applications to engineering problems. Pure systems are treated, with an emphasis on phase equilibrium.
Fables have long been considered sources of popular wisdom and education throughout the entire ancient
Mediterranean, marked by a diversity of literary, ethnic, geographic, political, and class associations. Further,
fable traditions have rather complicated oral and written receptions, often connected to historical/authorial
figures or fable collectors such as Ahiqar, Archilochos, Aesop, Callimachus, Jesus, Babrius, and Phaedrus.
Offering various approaches to world building and sometimes contradictory ethical and social reflections, fables
and their traditions serve as the ideal ground for exploring a variety of literary, methodological, and sociological
questions from the iron age to late antiquity.This course offers an exploration in translation of the fable as a
cross-cultural and multi-lingual discursive form that challenges assumptions around canon formation,
authorship, the socio-historical conditions of the "literary", and western literary narratives of cultural reception.
Introduction to quantum mechanics: atoms, electron shells, bands, bonding; introduction to group theory: crystal structures, symmetry, crystallography; introduction to materials classes: metals, ceramics, polymers, liquid crystals, nanomaterials; introduction to polycrystals and disordered materials; noncrystalline and amorphous structures; grain boundary structures, diffusion; phase transformations; phase diagrams, time-temperature transformation diagrams; properties of single crystals: optical properties, electrical properties, magnetic properties, thermal properties, mechanical properties, and failure of polycrystalline and amorphous materials.
Prerequisites: (PHYS BC2002) Calculus III Nonlinear pendula, transverse vibrations-elastic strings, longitudinal sound waves, seismic waves, electromagnetic oscillations & light, rainbows, haloes, the Green Flash; polarization phenomena - Haidinger's Brush, Brewster's angle, double refraction, optical activity; gravity & capillary waves; interference, diffraction, lenses & mirrors.
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000 The Social World or Instructor Permission Required for all Sociology majors. Introductory course in social scientific research methods. Provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena, focusing on how to collect data that are reliable and applicable to our research questions.
Prerequisites: (VIAR UN1000) (Formerly R3515) This course approaches drawing as an experimental and expressive tool. Students will explore the boundaries between drawing and sculpture and will be encouraged to push the parameters of drawing. Collage, assemblage and photomontage will be used in combination with more traditional approaches to drawing. The class will explore the role of the imagination, improvisation, 3-dimensional forms, observation, memory, language, mapping, and text. Field trips to artists’ studios as well as critiques will play an important role in the course. The course will culminate in a final project in which each student will choose one or more of the themes explored during the semester and create a series of artworks. This course is often taught under the nomenclature Drawing II - Mixed Media.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 or ECON BC3033, or permission of the instructor. Conceptualization and measurement of inequality and poverty, poverty traps and distributional dynamics, economics and politics of public policies, in both poor and rich countries.
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000
Discussion section for SOCI UN3010: METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Prerequisites: SOCI UN1000
Discussion section for SOCI UN3010: METHODS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 and ECON BC2411 or permission of the instructor. Analyzes education policies and education markets from an economic perspective. Examines challenges that arise when researchers attempt to identify the causal effects of inputs. Other topics: (1) education as an investment, (2) public school finance, (3) teacher labor markets, (4) testing/accountability programs, (5) school choice programs, and (6) urban public school reforms.
Prerequisites: LATN UN2102 or the equivalent. Selections from Vergil and Horace. Combines literary analysis with work in grammar and metrics.
Lectures and hands-on experiments on the characterization of microstructure in crystalline and amorphous solids. Optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Metallography, sample preparation and analysis. Stereology. Crystal structure determination with x-ray diffraction. Elemental analysis using energy-dispersive x-ray analysis. Atomic force microscopy.
Enables students to become informed users of financial information by understanding the language of accounting and financial reporting. Focuses on the three major financial statements that companies prepare for use of management and external parties--the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. Examines the underlying concepts that go into the preparation of these financial statements as well as specific accounting rules that apply when preparing financial statements. Also looks at approaches to analyze the financial strength and operations of an entity. Uses actual financial statements to understand how financial information is presented and to apply analysis techniques.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 or ECON BC3033, or permission of the instructor. Economic transformation of the United States from a small, open agrarian society in the late colonial era to the leading industrial economy of the 20th century. Emphasis is given to the quantitative, institutional, and spatial dimensions of economic growth, and the relationship between the changing structures of the economy and state.
Translation of French texts--both critical and literary, focusing on particular questions or themes. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
Required Lab for EEEB UN3005. An introduction to the theoretical principles and practical application of statistical methods in ecology and evolutionary biology. The course will cover the conceptual basis for a range of statistical techniques through a series of lectures using examples from the primary literature. The application of these techniques will be taught through the use of statistical software in computer-based laboratory sessions.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited. Required field trip on first Friday of the semester. Hands-on approach to learning environmental methods. Students take a one-day cruise on the Hudson River to collect environmental samples. These samples are then analyzed throughout the semester to characterize the Hudson River estuary. Standard and advanced techniques to analyze water and sediment samples for nutrients and contaminants are taught.
Prerequisites: At least one French course after completion of FREN BC1204: Intermediate II or permission of the instructor. Oral presentations and discussions of French films aimed at increasing fluency, acquiring vocabulary, and perfecting pronunciation skills.
Fittingly in the age of fake news, this seminar addresses how lying, deception, concealment, and forgery have shaped the history of architecture and its historiography. It deals not only with architects’ lies, but also with how their architecture can be deceptive in many different ways. It also analyses how architectural narratives—including biographies—and historical accounts have been shaped by falsehoods and distortions.
While addressing philosophical issues that remain relevant to our present, the course will examine some of the most influential architects and key works of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century—a pivotal time within intellectual history for the definition of the concept of ‘truth’ and also, therefore, of its opposite.
Students will learn how to make use of the many lenses through which architecture can be investigated. The goal is not only to acquire a foundation in European architectural history, but also, more broadly, to develop the skills necessary to analyze architecture and to deal with original architectural objects and texts, as well as to cultivate a critical attitude towards architectural literature.
Prerequisites: One year of college science or EESC V2100 or permission of the instructor. Acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of environmental data, assessment of spatial and temporal variability. Focus on water quality issues and storm surges. Uses existing and student-generated data sets. Basic principles of statistics and GIS, uses standard software packages including EXCEL and ArcGIS. Includes a half-day field trip on a Saturday or Sunday. General Education Requirement: Quantitative and Deductive Reasoning (QUA).
This course is a study of the development of American political ideas, through critical analysis of the
writings of intellectuals and political leaders from the American Founding to the present. As our central
theme, we will focus on the traditions of American Political Thought (APT) as simultaneously theorizing
freedom and liberty on the one hand, and intense, often violent forms of domination on the other,
especially domination on the basis of race. Consequently, we will devote time to both classic readings in
APT (the Founders, Tocqueville, Lincoln, etc.) and to multiple strands of US political thinking that
challenge the dominant narratives of APT. In analyzing the competing traditions of equality and
inequality in theory, we will also explore the connections between this theory and practices of equality
and inequality.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035, and ECON BC2411 or STAT W1111 or STAT W1211, or permission of the instructor. Specification, estimation and evaluation of economic relationships using economic theory, data, and statistical inference; testable implications of economic theories; econometric analysis of topics such as consumption, investment, wages and unemployment, and financial markets.
Experiments in instrumentation and measurement: optical, pressure, fluid flow, temperature, stress, and electricity; viscometry, cantilever beam, digital data acquisition. Probability theory: distribution, functions of random variables, tests of significance, correlation, ANOVA, linear regression.
Prerequisites: (POLS UN1201) In this survey of American political development, we will discuss how and why major institutions and policies emerged, why they took certain forms, when and why they have changed over time, and what kinds of factors limit change. We will also discuss how policies, in turn, shape citizens and institutions.
This seminar analyzes the different critical approaches to studying same-sex desire in the Caribbean region. The region’s long history of indigenous genocide, colonialism, imperialism, and neo-liberalism, have made questions about “indigenous” and properly “local” forms of sexuality more complicated than in many other regions. In response, critics have worked to recover and account for local forms of same-sex sexuality and articulated their differences in critical and theoretical terms outside the language of “coming out” and LGBT identity politics. On the other hand, critics have emphasized how outside forces of colonialism, imperialism, and the globalization of LGBT politics have impacted and reshaped Caribbean same-sex desires and subjectivities. This course studies these various critical tendencies in the different contexts of the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanophone, and Dutch Caribbean.
Designed to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental marketing concepts and their application by business and non-business organizations. The goal is to expose students to these concepts as they are used in a wide variety of settings, including consumer goods firms, manufacturing and service industries, and small and large businesses. The course gives an overview of marketing strategy issues, elements of a market (company, customers, and competition), as well as the fundamental elements of the marketing mix (product, price, placement/distribution, and promotion).
An exploration of the early periods of French literary creation (Medieval-17th century) through works of fiction, poetry, and theatre. Special attention is given to texts that use tradition to bring about change, to provoke, to contest social norms, and to test the expected parameters of literary expression.
Prerequisites: BIOL UN2005 and BIOL UN2006 or equivalent. Come discover how the union of egg and sperm triggers the complex cellular interactions that specify the diverse variety of cells present in multicellular organisms. Cellular and molecular aspects of sex determination, gametogenesis, genomic imprinting, X-chromosome inactivation, telomerase as the biological clock, stem cells, cloning, the pill and cell interactions will be explored, with an emphasis on humans. Original research articles will be discussed to further examine current research in developmental biology. SPS and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar. http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
“I believe
—
I know that ghosts
have
wandered the earth. Be with me always
—
take any form
—
drive me mad!”
—Emily Brontë
, Wuthering Heights
In this course we’ll expand our understanding of how writing is often the site of lingering, numinous, immaterial presences. We’ll begin with the tradition of
the ghost story
— a literary device beloved by writers for centuries across many genres. Beyond the consideration of the supernatural, we’ll also investigate more abstract capacities in which texts—and writers (and sometimes editors!)—are inevitably possessed by an
other
, a presence that lingers persistently, making itself known whether we welcome it or not. Memory and trauma are their own kinds of ghosts. Similarly, we’ll discover how traces of works by writers we admire, our teachers, even a specific text or image, can manifest as spectral forms inhabiting our work. We’ll address the complexities of those vestiges in terms of appropriation and originality—what Harold Bloom calls “the anxiety of influence.” Students will process and explore these ideas in both creative and analytical writings throughout the semester.
Course Books (available at Book Culture):
Eileen Myles
, Afterglow
Diana Khoi Nguyen,
Ghost Of
Lucie Brock Broido,
Trouble in Mind
Mary Reufle
, A Little White Shadow
Max Porter
, Grief is the Thing With Feathers
All other readings will be posted on Courseworks as PDFs.
Prerequisites: (BIOL UN2005 and BIOL UN2006) This course provides an introduction to Neurogenetics, which studies the role of genetics in the development and function of the nervous system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenetics). The course will be focused on teaching classic and contemporary concepts in genetics and neuroscience, rather than cataloguing mere facts. The course will emphasize the discovery processes, historical figures involved in these processes and methodologies of discovery. Primary research papers will be discussed in detail. A central organizational theme of the course is the presence of a common thread and narrative throughout the course. The common thread is an invertebrate model system, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which serves as a paradigm to show how simple genetic model systems have informed our view on the genetics of nervous system development and function. The ultimate goal of this course is to gain an understanding of the underlying principles of how the nervous system of one specific animal species forms, from beginning to end. The course is intended for neuroscience-inclined students (e.g. neuroscience majors) who want to learn about how genetic approaches have informed our understanding of brain development and function and, vice versa, for students with an interest in molecular biology and genetics, who want to learn about key problems in neuroscience and how genetic approaches can address them.
In this course, we will consider three mid-20th-Century thinkers who responded to grave injustices of their day through writing: Rodolfo Walsh, Hannah Arendt, and James Baldwin. Taking three texts by these authors as a point of comparison and departure—
Operation Massacre
(1957),
Eichmann in Jerusalem
(1963), and
The Fire Next Time
(1963)—we will explore the urgency of each text and think together about how these works catch the consciences of their readers. In tandem, we will look at related documentary films—
Operación Masacre
(1973),
The Specialist
(1999), and
I Am Not Your Negro
(2016), among others—to enrich our understanding of these writers’ interventions, with a specific eye to their capacity for holding hope and despair together in their work. We will study the narrative techniques each writer uses to depict the suffering they are confronting while also leaving room for the possibility of improved conditions. In each case, we will also read the work of each writer in different genres—poetry and philosophy for Arendt, fiction for Walsh and Baldwin—and think together about the forms and rhetorical functions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, in these contexts, as well as the specific affordances of literature as a medium (compared, say, to film). As a final, capstone assignment, students will have the choice of either writing a research paper on one or at most two of the authors/central works, or crafting their own work of long-form cultural criticism in response to a social issue of their choice.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, eurobond, eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.
Prerequisites: EESC V2100, physics, or permission of instructor. Includes a weekend field trip. Alternate years. Hands-on study and discussion of the basic physical principles of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and subsurface flow), as well as environmentally relevant applications based on case studies. Special focus on the New York City area, the arid Southwest, and the developing world. Coverage of contemporary global water resources issues, including pollution control, sustainable development, and climate change. General Education Requirement: Quantitative and Deductive Reasoning (QUA).
Prerequisites: (MATH UN1101 and MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1201) and and MATH UN2010. A concrete introduction to abstract algebra. Topics in abstract algebra used in cryptography and coding theory.
Political parties have evoked widespread scorn in the U.S. since the founding era; and yet, they arose almost immediately and have endured for over two centuries. In this course, we will examine why parties formed despite the Founders’ disdain for them. (In 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go at all.” In 1800, he won the presidency as a candidate of a major party.) We will dig into scholarly debates about what exactly parties are, what purpose they serve, and how and why they have changed over time as organizations, in the electorate, and in government. Topics will include the presidential nomination process from the founding through the much-discussed 2016 primary election season, the life cycle of third parties, and the relationship between political parties and interest groups. Students will learn what is and is not unique about the current historical moment, and how history might shape our expectations of parties moving forward. Throughout the course, we will pay particularly close attention to the roots of contemporary party polarization, and the implications of this phenomenon for representation and governance. In 1950, the American Political Science Association released a report criticizing the two major parties for excessive similarity; today, party polarization evokes widespread concern. Is there an ideal level of party difference? How much is too much? We will address these difficult questions, among others, in this broad survey of American political parties.
Prerequisites: (ECON BC3035 or ECON UN3211) The purpose of the course is to think about public policy issues through an economic lens. We will explore the basic economic foundations of individual decision-making and discuss the ways in which economists hypothesize that individuals respond to the incentives embedded within public policies. We will pay particular attention to the nature and detail of existing public policies, and use economic analysis to predict how these policies might influence behavior. We will also explore some of the relevant empirical literature on a set of policy topics, to see how these predictions hold up.
Looking at both historical and lived realities of Muslims in NYC, moving from the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan to Harlem as Mecca. The course would engage both with cultural production, such as music, plays, and street art, and living communities around the Barnard campus.
This course seeks to impart students with knowledge of volcanic eruptions on Earth and the effects on the environment as a whole. The course will focus on the physical mechanisms responsible for eruptions, the effects eruptions have on humans and other living organisms, as well as the environment. The course will investigate how eruptions have contributed to global climate change. The course will also look at the positive effects volcanoes have had on Earth, such as providing nutrient rich soils for growing crops and providing renewable geothermal energy--a cleaner energy resource. Format: lecture, field trip, data collection and analysis, student presentations.
This course explores education as a process through which critical consciousness and epistemic justice combat oppression in communities. Students will connect seminal work by critical pedagogues, such as Paolo Freire and bell hooks, to systemic educational challenges and lived experience. As a class, we will investigate power dynamics and structural inequalities at the systemic, institutional, interpersonal and individual levels. Students will problem-pose, dialogue and create pedagogical tools through praxis, by integrating the theory learned in the class to educational practice.
This course explores the meaning of American citizenship in connection with the country’s immigration history. Topics include historic pathways to citizenship for migrants; barriers to citizenship including wealth, race, gender, beliefs and documentation; and critical issues such as colonialism, statelessness, dual nationality, and birthright citizenship. We will ask how have people become citizens and under what authority has that citizenship been granted? What are the historic barriers to citizenship and how have they shifted over time? What major questions remain unanswered by Congress and the Supreme Court regarding the rights of migrants to attain and retain American citizenship?
Pre-requisites Chem 1 and Calculus I ; Co-requisites Chemistry II (CHEM1404 or equivalent) and Calculus II (MATH UN2030 or equivalent)
By the end of this course, students will understand: The biogeochemical cycles driving the composition of trace gas and aerosol species that are both long- and short-lived in the atmosphere that influence climate by directly interacting with radiation (i.e. greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFCs, aerosols) and those that do so mainly by altering the concentrations of other gases (OH, NOx, etc.); The effects of these gas and aerosol species on climate and atmospheric composition; Climate mitigation strategies that are being considered in response to climate warming.
This course is designed for undergraduate students seeking a quantitative introduction to climate and climate change science. EESC V2100 (Climate Systems) is not a prerequisite, but can also be taken for credit if it is taken before this course.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics and a functioning knowledge of high school algebra and analytical geometry or permission of the instructor. Systematic exposition of current macroeconomic theories of unemployment, inflation, and international financial adjustments.
Being young can often mean being (or feeling) powerless, particularly within the large
institutions that structure youth’s lives. Couple this with experiences of marginalization due to
race, class, gender, or other social identities, and young people may experience profound
constraints in their choices or pathways. At the same time, youth – both individually and in
groups – often develop strategies to resist these sources of literal and figurative confinement to
seek out dignity, joy, and justice. Using sociological and ethnographic texts as our foundation,
this course will explore the way experiences of confinement and constraint show up in the lives
of young people, particularly as they move through educational institutions – and how youth
work to resist those forms of subordination.
In the first half of the semester, we will focus on policing and prisons and examine the ways
schools play a role in funneling youth into different forms of confinement. In the second half of
the semester, we will investigate college and college preparatory contexts in an effort to
understand the ways they may constrain opportunities by creating or foreclosing particular
pathways for students’ futures. Throughout the semester, we will emphasize the role of socially
constructed identity categories – race, gender, class, in particular, as well as the category of
youth itself – in these processes of confinement and constraint. We will also highlight youth and
community practices of resistance against these social and institutional forces. Along the way,
we will consider (and practice) the affordances and limitations of ethnography as a mode of
social research for studying confinement, constraint, and practices of resistance in educational
contexts.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Through this course, students will:
● Use a range of sociological, ethnographic, and multimodal texts to analyze youth’s
experiences of confinement, constraint, and resistance (expansively defined) and the
ways they play out in different institutional, educational, and social contexts.
● Explore the methodological approach of ethnography – its affordances, challenges, and
some of the major dilemmas in the field – and practice it by conducting a series of
scaffolded ethnographic projects.
● Write for multiple purposes, including exploratory and dialogic writing shared with peers
The origin and development of the contemporary roles of the President as a decision maker and the
importance of the presidency in the American Political System. Studies examining the selection process
and the relationship between presidents and other decision- making actors, such as the Congress,
interest groups, the courts and the bureaucracy, will be used to inform the students to help critically
analyze both continuity and changes in the influence of the office.
This course examines the American presidency from both an academic and applied perspective. The
executive branch of government has changed more than the others, especially over the past century.
As America has moved from a legislative centered government to an executive centered one, it
becomes important to understand the intricacies of presidents and of the presidency. This course
examines the individuals who have held this office and stand as the head of state and government,
along with the institutional structure of the executive branch that consists of departments, agencies,
offices that employ over two million people. The course covers the complexities and struggles
administrations have in navigating internal politics, along with public expectations and approval,
influencing relations with Congress and the courts, and navigating global politics around security and
economic interests.
This course seeks to examine the role families and communities play in P-12 public schools in the United States, with a focus on urban school systems. We will be using New York City as a case study, and comparing what we see happening in the nation’s largest public school district to other districts around the country. While much of our focus will be on the NYC Department of Education, which serves approximately 1.3 million students each year, students will be asked to look close to home to examine the relationships between families, communities, educators and educational institutions in their own communities.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in microeconomics or a combined macro/micro principles course (ECON BC1003 or ECON W1105, or the equivalent) and one semester of calculus or ECON BC1007, or permission of the instructor. Preferences and demand; production, cost, and supply; behavior of markets in partial equilibrium; resource allocation in general equilibrium; pricing of goods and services under alternative market structures; implications of individual decision-making for labor supply; income distribution, welfare, and public policy. Emphasis on problem solving.