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.
Prerequisites: at least 3 years of intensive Chinese language training at college level and the instructor's permission. This advanced course is designed to specifically train students' listening and speaking skills in both formal and colloquial language through various Chinese media sources. Students view and discuss excerpts of Chinese TV news broadcasts, soap operas, and movie segments on a regular basis. Close reading of newspaper and internet articles and blogs supplements the training of verbal skills.
Prerequisites: Third Year Chinese or the equivalent The course is designed to help students master formal Chinese for professional or academic purposes. It includes reading materials and discussions of selections from Chinese media on contemporary topics, Chinese literature, and modern Chinese intellectual history. The course aims to enhance students' strategies for comprehension, as well as their written and oral communication skills in formal modern Chinese.
The fourth millennium BC was a time of tremendous innovation in monumental architecture, the organization of urban space and developments in the visual arts in southern Mesopotamia. As settlements grew into city-states, monumental architectural works transformed the landscape. New technologies of metallurgy, casting, the mechanical reproduction of images, stone sculpture and seal carvings emerged alongside the invention of writing, a technology first documented in the city of Uruk, the place of the setting of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Sculpted images and monuments began to be inscribed with texts that reveal a great deal about the ontological and agentive, the aesthetic and the order of the divine. The lecture introduces students to these extraordinary developments in early art and architecture of ancient Sumer (southern Iraq). Lectures will discuss votive statues, portraiture, image rituals, and the visual manifestation of the gods. The lectures also introduce the extraordinary developments in architecture and monuments.
Prerequisites: CHNS W4006 or the equivalent. This is a non-consecutive reading course designed for those whose proficiency is above 4th level. See Admission to Language Courses. Selections from contemporary Chinese authors in both traditional and simplified characters with attention to expository, journalistic, and literary styles.
Prerequisites: JPNS W4006 or the equivalent. Sections 1 & 2: Readings of advanced modern literary, historical, political, and journalistic texts, and class discussions about current issues and videos. Exercises in scanning, comprehension, and English translation. Section 3: Designed for advanced students interested in developing skills for reading and comprehending modern Japanese scholarship.
In the 1970s and 1980s a group of young Italian historians transformed the methods of historical inquiry and narrative. This class explores the origins, the diffusion, as well as the debate around Italian Microhistory across Europe and the United States. In particular, we will focus on “cultural” and “social” Microhistory and its evolution in Italy, France, and the US. We will read masterpieces such as Carlo Ginzburg’s
The Cheese and the Worms
, as well as Nathalie Zemon Davis’s
The Return of Martin Guerrre.
Also, we will analyze the current application of microhistorical methods to contemporary global history and the genre of biography. Topics include pre-modern popular culture and literacy, minority and marginality, the Inquisition, individual and collective identities, and the relation between the pre-modern Mediterranean, Europe and the world.
In Italian.
Prerequisites: PHYS UN3003 and PHYS UN3007 and differential and integral calculus; linear algebra; or the instructor's permission. This course will present a wide variety of mathematical ideas and techniques used in the study of physical systems. Topics will include: ordinary and partial differential equations; generalized functions; integral transforms; Green’s functions; nonlinear equations, chaos, and solitons; Hilbert space and linear operators; Feynman path integrals; Riemannian manifolds; tensor analysis; probability and statistics. There will also be a discussion of applications to classical mechanics, fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, plasma physics, quantum mechanics, and general relativity.
The biophysics of computation: modeling biological neurons, the Hodgkin-Huxley neuron, modeling channel conductances and synapses as memristive systems, bursting neurons and central pattern generators, I/O equivalence and spiking neuron models. Information representation and neural encoding: stimulus representation with time encoding machines, the geometry of time encoding, encoding with neural circuits with feedback, population time encoding machines. Dendritic computation: elements of spike processing and neural computation, synaptic plasticity and learning algorithms, unsupervised learning and spike time-dependent plasticity, basic dendritic integration. Projects in MATLAB.
Exposes scientists and engineers to the development, protection, and exploitation of intellectual property rights. Legal processes for obtaining and defending intellectual property rights are detailed. Best practices for innovation and commercialization are explored. Methods for valuation and monetization of intellectual property are illustrated through application of basic accounting and financial principles to case studies.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Topics include behavior uncertainty, expected utility hypothesis, insurance, portfolio choice, principle agent problems, screening and signaling, and information theories of financial intermediation.
Prerequisites: One semester of college-level calculus, college-level chemistry. College-level physics or geoscience. Or instructor’s permission. The accelerating climate change of the current day is driven by humanity’s modifications to the global carbon cycle. This course introduces the basic science of the global carbon cycle, focusing on large-scale processes occurring on annual to centennial timescales. Students will leave this course with an understanding of the degree to which the global carbon cycle is understood and quantified and the key uncertainties that are the focus of current research. We will build an understanding of the potential pathways and the significant challenges to limiting global warming to 2oC as intended by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
The course will begin with a brief review of climate science basics and the role of CO2 in climate and climate change (weeks 1-2). Next, the fundamental processes of the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere carbon sinks will be covered (weeks 3-7). In weeks 8-10, our focus will be the drivers of current and future anthropogenic carbon emissions. In weeks 11-12, we will consider the potential for engineered sinks to contribute to global budgets. In weeks 13-14, students will present their final projects, and we will review the course content in the context of the December release of the current year’s Global Carbon Budget.
Prerequisites: PHYS UN3003 and PHYS UN3007 Formulation of quantum mechanics in terms of state vectors and linear operators. Three dimensional spherically symmetric potentials. The theory of angular momentum and spin. Identical particles and the exclusion principle. Methods of approximation. Multi-electron atoms.
This course explors the principal modes, media, and contexts of visual culture in Japanese Buddhist history. Through the analysis of selected case studies, the course examines of the modalities of perception, materiality, and reception that distinguish the form and function of visual media in Japanese Buddhist contexts. Students are expected to have completed preliminary coursework in relevant areas of East Asian history, religion, or art history.
Prerequisites: PHYS GU4021 or the equivalent. Thermodynamics, kinetic theory, and methods of statistical mechanics; energy and entropy; Boltzmann, Fermi, and Bose distributions; ideal and real gases; blackbody radiation; chemical equilibrium; phase transitions; ferromagnetism.
Prerequisites: (PHYS GU4021 and PHYS GU4022) In this course, we will learn how the concepts of quantum mechanics are applied to real physical systems, and how they enable novel applications in quantum optics and quantum information. We will start with microscopic, elementary quantum systems – electrons, atoms, and ions - and understand how light interacts with atoms. Equipped with these foundations, we will discuss fundamental quantum applications, such as atomic clocks, laser cooling and ultracold quantum gases - a synthetic form of matter, cooled down to just a sliver above absolute zero temperature. This leads us to manybody quantum systems. We will introduce the quantum physics of insulating and metallic behavior, superfluidity and quantum magnetism – and demonstrate how the corresponding concepts apply both to real condensed matter systems and ultracold quantum gases. The course will conclude with a discussion of the basics of quantum information science - bringing us to the forefront of today’s quantum applications.
Prerequisites: three terms of calculus and linear algebra or four terms of calculus. Prerequisite: three terms of calculus and linear algebra or four terms of calculus. Fourier series and integrals, discrete analogues, inversion and Poisson summation formulae, convolution. Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Stress on the application of Fourier analysis to a wide range of disciplines.
Prerequisites: genetics or molecular biology. The course covers techniques currently used to explore and manipulate gene function and their applications in medicine and the environment. Part I covers key laboratory manipulations, including DNA cloning, gene characterization, association of genes with disease, and methods for studying gene regulation and activities of gene products. Part II also covers commercial applications, and includes animal cell culture, production of recombinant proteins, novel diagnostics, high throughput screening, and environmental biosensors.
Systems biology approaches are rapidly transforming the technological and conceptual foundations of research across diverse areas of biomedicine. In this course we will discuss the fundamental developments in systems biology with a focus on two important dimensions: (1) the unique conceptual frameworks that have emerged to study systems-level phenomena and (2) how these approaches are revealing fundamentally new principles that govern the organization and behavior of cellular systems. Although there will be much discussion of technologies and computational approaches, the course will emphasize the conceptual contributions of the field and the big questions that lie ahead. Lectures and discussions of primary literature will enable students to scrutinize research in the field and to internalize systems biology thinking in their own research. To make this a concrete endeavor, the students will develop mini-NIH-style grant proposals that aims to study a fundamental problem/question using systems biology approaches. The students will then convene an in-class NIH-style review panel that will assess the strengths and weaknesses of these proposals. In addition, the students will have the opportunity to defend their proposals in a live presentation to the class. The course is open to graduate students in Biological Sciences. Advanced undergraduates in biological sciences, and other graduate students with background in biology from other disciplines, including physics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering may also attend after consulting with the instructor.
Poets, Rebels, Exiles examines the successive generations of the most provocative and influential Russian and Russian Jewish writers and artists who brought the cataclysm of the Soviet and post-Soviet century to North America. From Joseph Brodsky—the bad boy bard of Soviet Russia and a protégé of Anna Akhmatova, who served 18 months of hard labor near the North Pole for social parasitism before being exiled—to the most recent artistic descendants, this course will interrogate diaspora, memory, and nostalgia in the cultural production of immigrants and exiles.
Developing features - internal representations of the world, artificial neural networks, classifying handwritten digits with logistics regression, feedforward deep networks, back propagation in multilayer perceptrons, regularization of deep or distributed models, optimization for training deep models, convolutional neural networks, recurrent and recursive neural networks, deep learning in speech and object recognition.
Prerequisites: MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1202 and MATH UN2010 or the equivalent. The second term of this course may not be taken without the first. Groups, homomorphisms, normal subgroups, the isomorphism theorems, symmetric groups, group actions, the Sylow theorems, finitely generated abelian groups.
Prerequisites: MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1202 and MATH UN2010 or the equivalent. The second term of this course may not be taken without the first. Rings, homomorphisms, ideals, integral and Euclidean domains, the division algorithm, principal ideal and unique factorization domains, fields, algebraic and transcendental extensions, splitting fields, finite fields, Galois theory.
Participants may elect to enroll in the 1-credit CWI independent study offered through the Sociology Department. CWI takes place Thursdays from 2-4pm in Knox Hall, room 509. The course ID for Fall 2025 is SOCI4043GU.
The Center for Wealth and Inequality (CWI), in this course, is a forum for students interested in social science topics broadly related to inequality. In particular, it will provide an opportunity for students to read and discuss the works presented in the weekly CWI seminar series, while also sharing and refining their own works in progress. The CWI seminar series is sponsored by Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research Policy (ISERP) and is devoted to the investigation of social and economic inequality. The seminar invites speakers from both within and outside of Columbia to present recent papers covering a wide range of topics pertaining to inequality, such as poverty, labor market behavior, education, and the family. The research topics and methodologies are at the cutting edge of the interdisciplinary study of wealth and inequality, as the CWI seminar invites speakers from multiple social science disciplines and fields. Past speakers include Annette Lareau, Adam Gamoran, Timothy Smeeding, Lisa Kahn, Mario Small, Rob Warren and Florencia Torche, among numerous others.
The primary preparation for these gatherings is to read the papers slated for presentation, whether written by an outside speaker or a student within the course. Students will meet to constructively critique these papers collectively, raising key questions and concepts for discussion and debate. One student will serve as the discussion leader each week by kicking off the dialogue. This student also will have the opportunity to prepare a review of the paper, if desired. When discussing CWI seminar papers, the product of each meeting will be a shortlist of pertinent questions for the visiting speaker, which participants will be encouraged to ask during the Q&A following each seminar. When focusing on student papers, participants will provide detailed comments geared towards supporting further development of our peers’ work. We regularly will be joined by the CWI presenters.
The spirit behind the student independent study is one of collective student growth and learning through semi-structured discussion. While the course will pose a relatively
Prerequisites: MATH UN2010 and MATH GU4041 or the equivalent. Finite groups acting on finite sets and finite dimensional vector spaces. Group characters. Relations with subgroups and factor groups. Arithmetic properties of character values. Applications to the theory of finite groups: Frobenius groups, Hall subgroups and solvable groups. Characters of the symmetric groups. Spherical functions on finite groups.
Prerequisites: Course Cap 20 students. Priority given to graduate students in the natural sciences and engineering. Advanced level undergraduates may be admitted with the instructors permission. Calculus I and Physics I & II are required for undergraduates who wish to take this course. General introduction to fundamentals of remote sensing; electromagnetic radiation, sensors, interpretation, quantitative image analysis and modeling. Example applications in the Earth and environmental sciences are explored through the analysis of remote sensing imagery in a state-or-the-art visualization laboratory.
Intensive study of a philosophical issue or topic, or of a philosopher, group of philosophers, or philosophical school or movement. Open only to Barnard senior philosophy majors.
Prerequisites: (MATH UN1202 and MATH UN2010) and rudiments of group theory (e.g. MATH GU4041). MATH UN1208 or MATH GU4061 is recommended, but not required. Metric spaces, continuity, compactness, quotient spaces. The fundamental group of topological space. Examples from knot theory and surfaces. Covering spaces.
A substantial paper, developing from an Autumn workshop and continuing in the Spring under the direction of an individual advisor. Open only to Barnard senior philosophy majors.
This course presents and examines post-Soviet Ukrainian literature. Students will learn about the significant achievements, names, events, scandals and polemics in contemporary Ukrainian literature and will see how they have contributed to Ukraine’s post-Soviet identity. Students will examine how Ukrainian literature became an important site for experimentation with language, for providing feminist perspectives, for engaging previously-banned taboos and for deconstructing Soviet and Ukrainian national myths. Among the writers to be focused on in the course are Serhiy Zhadan, Yuri Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko and Taras Prokhasko. Centered on the most important successes in literature, the course will also explore key developments in music and visual art of this period. Special focus will be given to how the 2013/2014 Euromaidan revolution and war are treated in today’s literature. By also studying Ukrainian literature with regards to its relationship with Ukraine’s changing political life, students will obtain a good understanding of the dynamics of today’s Ukraine and the development of Ukrainians as a nation in the 21st century. The course will be complemented by audio and video presentations. Entirely in English with a parallel reading list for those who read Ukrainian.
Enrollment limited to 12 students. Mechatronics is the application of electronics and microcomputers to control mechanical systems. Systems explored include on/off systems, solenoids, stepper motors, DC motors, thermal systems, magnetic levitation. Use of analog and digital electronics and various sensors for control. Programming microcomputers in Assembly and C. Lab required.
Introduction to computational biology with emphasis on genomic data science tools and methodologies for analyzing data, such as genomic sequences, gene expression measurements and the presence of mutations. Applications of machine learning and exploratory data analysis for predicting drug response and disease progression. Latest technologies related to genomic information, such as single-cell sequencing and CRISPR, and the contributions of genomic data science to the drug development process.
Prerequisites: MATH UN1202 or the equivalent, and MATH UN2010. The second term of this course may not be taken without the first. Real numbers, metric spaces, elements of general topology, sequences and series, continuity, differentiation, integration, uniform convergence, Ascoli-Arzela theorem, Stone-Weierstrass theorem.
This course introduces you to the rich and diverse tradition of Chinese art by focusing on materials and techniques. We will discuss a wide array of artistic media situated in distinct cultural contexts, examining bronzes, jade, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, and textiles in the imperial, aristocratic, literary, religious, and commercial milieus in which they were produced. In addition to developing your skills in visual-material analysis, this course will also acquaint you with the diverse cultures that developed in China’s center and periphery during its five thousand (plus) years of history. Emphasis will be placed on understanding how native artistic traditions in China interacted with those in regions such as the Mongolian steppe, Tibetan plateau, and Central Asia.
The second term of this course may not be taken without the first. Power series, analytic functions, Implicit function theorem, Fubini theorem, change of variables formula, Lebesgue measure and integration, function spaces.
This seminar will examine the concept of cultural heritage as a body of goods, tangible and intangible, that come to us from the past - sometimes from antiquity, sometimes from more recent historical periods - and for which we are responsible for the present and future generations. The environment is an important part of cultural heritage too, with nature and its peculiar beauties. Similarly, practices, traditions, crafts and customs are a crucial component of cultural heritage. Over time, cultural heritage has become an increasingly broad and complex category: experts, scientists and professionals involved continue to multiply, and the disciplines continue to specialize. Even the very concept of cultural heritage is quite dynamic and frequently modified and reinterpreted. Based on an anthropological perspective and within the framework of a cultural heritage considered among the most valuable in the arts, both visual and literary, Italy’s artistic, archaeological, library and archival treasures will be a regular source of analysis and discussion. This course will examine ways in which we can understand cultural heritage through the intersections of several components: identity, nationalism, colonialism, ethnicity, gender, and religion, just to mention a few. Students will take into account several elements: how regional and international agencies and policies operate and interact with each other, the many threats to cultural heritage (wars and conflicts, natural disasters, climate change, illicit trafficking, and some forms of tourism), and the role of sustainability. The course will encourage students to acquire analytical reasoning and critical thinking, through a combination of textual and visual interpretation and class discussion. There are no pre-requisites for this course.
In English
Study ecology, evolution, and conservation biology in one of the world’s most biologically spectacular settings, the wildlife-rich savannas of Kenya. Although we will meet have a few meetings during the fall semester, the majority of the coursework will be completed during a 16 day field trip to Kenya during winter break. Students will spend their time immersed in an intensive field experience gaining sophisticated training in fieldwork and biological research. Note that there is a lab fee to cover all in-country expenses, and students are also responsible for the cost of airfare to and from Kenya.
Prerequisites: (MATH UN1207 and MATH UN1208) or MATH GU4061 A theoretical introduction to analytic functions. Holomorphic functions, harmonic functions, power series, Cauchy-Riemann equations, Cauchy's integral formula, poles, Laurent series, residue theorem. Other topics as time permits: elliptic functions, the gamma and zeta function, the Riemann mapping theorem, Riemann surfaces, Nevanlinna theory.
Prerequisites: (CHEM UN1403 and CHEM UN1404) or (CHEM UN1604) or (CHEM UN2045 and CHEM UN2046) , or the equivalent. Principles governing the structure and reactivity of inorganic compounds surveyed from experimental and theoretical viewpoints. Topics include inorganic solids, aqueous and nonaqueous solutions, the chemistry of selected main group elements, transition metal chemistry, metal clusters, metal carbonyls, and organometallic chemistry, bonding and resonance, symmetry and molecular orbitals, and spectroscopy.
Prerequisites: Two semesters of a rigorous, molecularly-oriented, introductory biology course, such as UN2005 (
Inc.,
Biochemistry of DNA & Proteins, basic Genetics, Metabolism & Cell Physiology
) and UN2006 (
Cell biology, inc. intra-cellular transport, phagocytosis, protein regulation, as well as Inter-cellular communication, inc., cell-cell contact, receptors/ligands & transporters
). This course will cover the integration of innate and adaptive immune systems, as well as how immune response contributes to health and disease (
e.g., Infectious disease, allergies, autoimmunity, immune deficiencies, the microbiome and cancer immunotherapy
). Students will also become familiar with important immunological methods, which will provide an opportunity to explore some of the current literature. Sophomores will require permission from their advisor to enroll, and graduate student will require the instructor’s permission to enroll. SPS, Barnard, and TC students may register for this course with the instructor’s approval on a Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form), which can be downloaded (
http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
) and then returned to the office of the registrar.
The course looks at works produced in the more than 20 countries that make up Latin America. Our investigations will take us from the Southern Cone nations of South America, up through Central American and the Caribbean, to Mexico to the north. We will cover styles from the colonial influences present in post-independence art of the early 19th century, to installation art found at the beginning of the 21st century. Along the way we will consider such topics as, the relationship of colonial style and academic training to forging an independent artistic identity; the emergence and establishment of a modern canon; experimentations in surrealism, neo-concretism, conceptual art, and performance. We will end the course with a consideration of Latinx artists working in the U.S.
While focusing on the Decameron, this course follows the arc of Boccaccios career from the Ninfale Fiesolano, through the Decameron, and concluding with the Corbaccio, using the treatment of women as the connective thread. The Decameron is read in the light of its cultural density and contextualized in terms of its antecedents, both classical and vernacular, and of its intertexts, especially Dantes Commedia, with particular attention to Boccaccios masterful exploitation of narrative as a means for undercutting all absolute certainty. Lectures in English; text in Italian, although comparative literature students who can follow with the help of translations are welcome.
While focusing on the Decameron, this course follows the arc of Boccaccios career from the Ninfale Fiesolano, through the Decameron, and concluding with the Corbaccio, using the treatment of women as the connective thread. The Decameron is read in the light of its cultural density and contextualized in terms of its antecedents, both classical and vernacular, and of its intertexts, especially Dantes Commedia, with particular attention to Boccaccios masterful exploitation of narrative as a means for undercutting all absolute certainty. Lectures in English; text in Italian, although comparative literature students who can follow with the help of translations are welcome.