Worlding Otherwise is a studio course exploring how artists use game engines to craft speculative and ecological narratives. Using tools like Unreal Engine and Blender, students will visualize alternate futures, mythologies, and socio-political realities through creating immersive virtual environments. Key questions include: How might the game environment lend itself to storytelling? How can speculative fiction act as a method of critique? What can we learn from artists who blend technology with mythology and alternative futures? The semester culminates in a final project: a short cinematic piece, interactive environment, or hybrid installation created within a game engine.
Contemporary Issues in Education explores the critical and controversial issues confronting education today, including student well being, diversity, equity, access, technology, teaching methods, the teaching profession, and the future of education. In this course we will identify, explore, discuss, and debate these issues through ongoing, interactive dialogue and film-based activities drawing upon various educational theories, current research, and personal perspectives and experiences. This course is designed for students who intend to work as educators or in related fields; students interested in studying the dialectical relationship between education and major social, political, and/or historical trends; and students in film and media studies who want to explore the documentary film genre, including analysis, critique and production aspects.
The course will combine a seminar that centers documentary films about education as core texts for analysis and study with a workshop in film techniques to support the production of novel film projects. Students will learn how to read and critique documentary films selected to represent and foster multiple perspectives through their narratives, evidence, arguments, and technical elements. Additional readings will provide a contemporary context for the films and offer additional perspectives. With that said, the goal is not to be exhaustive of the range of perspectives on each issue, rather, they represent a starting point for class discussion and dialogue, and a launch pad for students to make their own short documentary films.
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.
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.
Prerequisites: FREN BC3021, BC3022, BC3023, BC3024, or the equivalent. Readings of novels and novellas by Prevost, Rousseau, Diderot, Charriere, Laclos, and Sade, with a particular focus on issues of selfhood, gender, sexuality, authority, and freedom. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
Despite low literacy rates in the ancient world, engagement with writing concerned all socioeconomic groups across the Roman Empire, from public documents and tax receipts to personal letters and magical spells. The Roman government placed considerable importance on the written word, a vital component to political, social, religious, economic, and cultural life, both at the center of the empire in Rome and in the provinces. Between Roman authorities and provincials, writing was used by ruler and ruled in various ways as a tool of power to exploit, secure social mobility, resist, maintain ideological power, protect, legitimize, empower, and communicate. This interdisciplinary course explores the theme of writing and power in the Roman Empire during the period of the High Empire (30 BCE to 235 CE), taking both macro and microhistorical approaches. Through close analysis of papyrus documents, inscriptions, archaeological sources, ancient histories, and coins, we will consider how power and control were exercised through and over writing, the various groups interested in the power of writing and to what ends, the elaborate system of archives imposed and maintained across the empire, Roman censorship practices, and the value of studying writing and power to the history of imperialism, provincial resistance, administration, literacy, social mobility, personal and civic identity, and culture in the Roman Empire. In addition to the capital city of Rome, we will study four eastern provinces (Egypt, Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria) and two western provinces (Britain and Gaul), allowing us to consider certain power structures in both the center and periphery. We will have opportunities to visit papyrus documents at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in Butler as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Process-oriented introduction to the law and its use in environmental policy and decision-making. Origins and structure of the U.S. legal system. Emphasis on litigation process and specific cases that elucidate the common law and toxic torts, environmental administrative law, and environmental regulation through application and testing of statutory law in the courts. Emphasis also on the development of legal literacy, research skills, and writing.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics or permission of the instructor. Intellectual origins of the main schools of thought in political economy. Study of the founding texts in classical political economy, Marxian economics, neoclassicism, and Keynesianism.
Broadly, this course explores the relationship between gender, sexuality, and schooling across national contexts. We begin by considering theoretical perspectives, exploring the ways in which gender and sexuality have been studied and understood in the interdisciplinary field of education. Next, we consider the ways in which the subjective experience of gender and sexuality in schools is often overlooked or inadequately theorized. Exploring the ways that race, class, citizenship, religion and other categories of identity intersect with gender and sexuality, we give primacy to the contention that subjectivity is historically complex, and does not adhere to the analytically distinct identity categories we might try to impose on it.
The seminar will look at the structure of the novel, its plan, with special attention paid to ‘The Odyssey’, but also to the variations in tone in the book, the parodies and elaborate games becoming more complex as the book proceeds. We will examine a number of Irish texts that are relevant to the making of ‘Ulysses’, including Robert Emmett’s speech from the dock, Yeats’s ‘The Countess Cathleen’ and Lady Gregory translations from Irish folk-tales.
The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism through the current peace process between the state of Israel and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement. Provides a historical overview of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict to familiarize undergraduates with the background of the current situation. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
Summer and
Semester version:
Making Change: Activism, Social Movements and Education will look at the ways people power has pushed for change in the United States educational landscape. We will study historical and current social political education movements to answer questions such as: What does education/teacher activism look like? Who engages in educational social activism, and why? What do different models for organizing look like, past to present? We will learn from the examples of the Freedom Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Tucson Unified School District fight for ethnics studies, BLM at Schools, Teacher Activist Groups and more. We will engage in readings, watch documentaries and hear from education activist guest lecturers.
Learning Outcomes:
You will explore the historical relationships between and across social movements in education and its social contexts.
You will reflect on major educational justice movements from across the country and analyze its impact and importance.
You will evaluate the changing role of education and schools in our society and propose actions that could be taken to improve education and schools in the future.
Required discussion section for MDES UN3042: Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Society
Close reading and occasional screening of major plays associated with the Theater of the Absurd. Philosophical and literary origins of the concept of the absurd; social and political context of its emergence; theatrical conventions of early performances; popular and critical reception. Authors include: Adamov, Artaud, Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, Jarry, Maeterlinck.
In this course, we start from the premise that a failure to understand what social class is and how social class matters in daily life stops us from having conversations about the possibilities and limitations of schooling and, as such, prevents us from doing what we can to improve the schooling experiences of poor and working-class students. Throughout the semester, we will work to “complicate class”, reconsidering what class is, why class matters, and how we can best think about the relationship between social class and schooling. You will develop a language for talking about class, considering the affordances and constraints of various conceptions of class. You will also leave with critical questions about the possibilities and limitations of relying on schools as a solution to social problems. Recognizing restraints, we will conclude by reflecting on how we might work toward creating more equitable learning environments for poor and working-class students.
This course reviews the assumption of rationality in microeconomic theory and presents evidence (primarily from experimental psychology and economics) of how judgement and decision-making systematically deviate from what rationality predicts.
It has become commonplace for governments to partner with the private sector to deliver public goods and services; this is seen as a way to increase efficiency and decrease costs. Often, this privatization goes hand in hand with an adoption of market values. Nowhere are these trends more evident – or important – than public education. Arguments for educational privatization are often thought of in terms of economics – does it save money? – or limited measures of student achievement - does it raise test scores? In this course, we acknowledge these questions, but we also go beyond them to explore the political and social dimensions of privatization. We ask: Who wins and who loses when public schools privatize? What happens when market values are normalized and prioritized in our schools?
The following questions frame our explorations:
·How does privatization in education differ from privatization in other sectors?
·What are the implications of educational privatization and marketization for democracy and the public good?
·Who profits from privatization and how does this support or interfere with educative goals?
·How are philanthropy, venture capital, and corporate partnerships reshaping the way schools serve students?
·Does privatization expand opportunities for marginalized students, deepen existing inequalities, or both?
·How does privatization affect the teacher workforce? How does it affect the nature of teachers’ work and student learning?
·How is privatization proceeding globally? How is privatization linked with global policy spread?
·What forms do resistance to privatization take? What ethical considerations should we take up around privatization?
This course includes an empirical research component which provides scaffolding and support for students who eventually plan to write a senior thesis.
Capitalism is usually thought of as an economic system, but what does it have to do with politics? This course examines how thinkers of contrasting perspectives have understood capitalism politically. Some have celebrated the market as an escape from coercion, while others criticize it as a source of disguised domination; some see capitalism as leveling social hierarchies, while others point to its creation of class and racial hierarchy; some see capitalism as an engine of wealth creation and heightened living standards, while others emphasize its destruction of existing ways of life and production of inequality; some see capitalism as an engine of peace, while others emphasize its reliance on violence. In particular, we will consider the relationship between state and market, moral critiques of markets and exchange, analyses of the role of force and violence in accumulation, and theories of freedom and domination.
Prerequisites: (MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1201) or (MATH UN1101 and MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1201) and MATH UN2010 Recommended: MATH UN3027 (or MATH UN2030 and SIEO W3600). Elementary discrete time methods for pricing financial instruments, such as options. Notions of arbitrage, risk-neutral valuation, hedging, term-structure of interest rates.
Multicellular animals contain a diverse array of cell types, yet start from a single cell. How do cells decide what kind of cell to be? In this lab course, we will use the tools of molecular biology and genetics to explore this fascinating question. We will use the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans
, a powerful model organism used in hundreds of research labs. The course will be divided into three modules:
C. elegans
genetics, molecular cloning, and genetic screening. Laboratory techniques will include PCR, gel electrophoresis, restriction digest, ligation, transformation, RNAi, and
C. elegans
maintenance. Students will pursue original projects; emphasis will be placed on scientific thinking and scientific communication. 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). Prerequisites: UN2005/UN2401 and UN2006/UN2402, or the equivalent at a different institution.
Prerequisites: the instructors permission. In partnership with NYC public school teachers, students will have opportunities to engage in mathematical learning, lesson study, curriculum development, and implementation, with a focus on using the City as a resource. Students will explore implications for working with diverse populations. Non-math majors, pre-service elementary students and first-year students welcome. Fieldwork and field trips required. Note: Students in the Childhood Urban Teaching Program may use this course as a pedagogical elective.
Using the theme of “Arts and Humanities in the City”, this seminar will build participants’ knowledge of critical literacy, digital storytelling methods, and ways to use New York City as a resource for teaching the Arts (Dance, Theatre, Music, and Visual Arts), Social Studies, and English Language Arts in grades K-12. Critical literacy is an approach to teaching and learning that focuses on developing students’ abilities to read, analyze, understand, question, and critique hidden perspectives and socially-constructed power relations embedded in what it means to be literate in a content area.
When is violence used against noncombatants in conflicts and what is the impact of such violence? This course focuses on violence against civilians by armed organizations, whether states or non-state actors. We will examine a variety of explanations for such violence, including rationalist, psychological/emotion-based, and organizational approaches. We will also discuss the impact of political violence. Does it get the job done, so to speak? Does violence move terrorist groups closer to their goals? Does indiscriminate violence by the state spur rebellion or suppress insurgencies? Does insurgent violence against civilians make insurgencies more or less effective? While we emphasize violence intentionally causing harm to civilians we will also consider collateral damage.
In addition to our discussions of this literature we will explore what light selected empirical evidence might shed on our questions. You will each select a theoretical problem of interest—e.g., two competing theories, a theory that might be revised or applied in a new context—and write a paper addressing this problem on the basis of empirical research (either through qualitative case studies or quantitative analysis). Your ongoing research will be shared when relevant during our class discussions, and the final weeks of the semester will be set aside for a research workshop.
Prerequisites: one year of Intro Bio. An introductory biology or chemistry lab is recommended. Bacteria are not just unicellular germs. This lab course will broaden your awareness of the amazing world of microbiology and the diverse capabilities of microbes. The focus will be on bacterial multicellularity, pigment production, and intercellular signaling. Pigment-producing bacteria will be isolated from the wild (i.e. Morningside Campus or your skin), and characterized using standard genetic tools (PCR, DNA gel electrophoresis, transformation, screen) and microbiology techniques (isolation of bacteria and growth of bacterial colonies, media preparation, enrichment techniques for pigments). These techniques will also be applied in the study of bacterial multicellularity and signaling in the standard lab strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa. SCE 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
This course will introduce students to the theories and practices of teaching science and engineering in ways that center: a) engaging students and families in active exploration, engineering design, and scientific explanation; b) building strategically on what students already know, including their cultural and linguistic resources; c) enhancing students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning science and engineering; and d) designing assessments that foster ongoing engagement and learning.
Students in the course will form teams to co-plan and co-teach enrichment science and engineering lessons in local afterschool programs, culminating in the development and implementation of a sustainability engineering design unit. Undergraduates will complete 35 hours of fieldwork during the semester. In addition, teams will plan and implement a Family Engineering Night in the afterschool programs to promote family engagement in science and engineering and allow students to showcase what they are learning.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Tutorials and conferences on the research for and writing of the senior thesis. This is the 2nd semester of a two-semester course sequence.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Prerequisites: completion of EDUC BC2052 or EDUC BC2062 and EDUC BC2055, with grades of B or better. NYCDOE Fingerprinting. Corequisites: EDUC BC3064. Enrollment limited. Supervised student teaching in elementary schools includes creating lesson plans, involving students in active learning, using cooperative methods, developmentally appropriate assessment, and meeting the needs of diverse learners in urban schools. Teaching skills developed through weekly individual and/or group supervision meetings (to be scheduled at the beginning of the semester), conferences, and portfolio design. Requires 100 hours of teaching at two different grade levels, full-time for one semester. Note: Students are only permitted to leave their student teaching placements early twice a week, once for EDUC BC3064 and one other day for one additional course having a start time of 2 pm or later. Students are only permitted to take one additional course while enrolled in EDUC BC3063 and EDUC BC3064.
Prerequisites: Completion of EDUC BC2052 or EDUC BC2062 and EDUC BC2055, with grades of B or better. NYCDOE Fingerprinting required. Corequisites: EDUC BC3064. Enrollment limited. Supervised student teaching in secondary schools includes creating lesson plans, involving students in active learning, using cooperative methods, developmentally appropriate assessment, and meeting the needs of diverse learners in urban schools. Teaching skills developed through weekly individual and/or group supervision meetings (to be scheduled at the beginning of the semester), conferences, and portfolio design. Requires 100 hours of teaching at two different grade levels, full-time for one semester. Note: Students are only permitted to leave their student teaching placements early twice a week, once for EDUC BC3064 and one other day for one additional course having a start time of 2 pm or later. Students are only permitted to take one additional course while enrolled in EDUC BC3064 and EDUC BC3065.
Must be supervised by a faculty member approved by te program adviser. This is the 2nd semester of a two-semester course sequence.
Education is a social project of making futures. It is a field where people imagine selves and worlds to come
while navigating current constraints and past legacies. Even in the face of various crises that disrupt
educational systems globally, education is often understood as a crisis response and charged with the task of
forging alternative futures and driving social and economic progress.
In this course, we will interrogate the politics of crisis and futurity in education. First, we will explore how
notions of crisis are mobilized to define problems and solutions in education research and policy. In this
exploration, we will ask how histories and politics of domination along lines of race, class, gender, and other
social categories are articulated or silenced in discourses of educational crisis. We will attend to how crises
create both danger and opportunity by considering how they serve to justify violent, dispossessive restructuring
and how they lay bare structures of inequality in ways that generate collective action and transformation.
Next, we will Interrogate education’s futural orientations. We will probe familiar progress narratives and explore
what roles education plays in shaping how marginalized communities imagine and enact futures beyond the
status quo, attending to both its affordances and limitations. Throughout the course, we will draw on
speculative fiction and on scholarship in anthropology, Black studies, and comparative education to investigate
the politics of crisis and futurity in diverse educational contexts. We will engage study as speculative practice
through collaborative and independent exercises that invite us to develop praxes for just futures of education.
This course explores broad questions about how sociopolitical contexts shape the development of children and youth, by focusing on the experiences of young Palestinians growing up across multiple geographies. We will read a variety of texts—primarily those narrated by Palestinians—including, memoir, film, and social science research to address the following questions: How do the various social, cultural, political, and legal contexts in which Palestinians grow up affect the experiences of growing up Palestinian? How (and why) do young people forge a sense of national identity across diverse territories, both within and outside of the borders of their historic homeland? How do socio-political contexts shape young people’s rights, including the right to education? How do children and youth shape their environments? How does a close examination of the Palestinian case challenge normative ideas about childhood and youth, while also supporting us to articulate universal conditions that would support the well-being of all young humans?
This seminar prepares students to engage with material sciences used in historical studies. Students will examine how ice cores, tree rings, isotopes, bone morphology, genetic materials, and chemical compositions have all been used as keys into the human past, appraising successes and failures. Assignments will offer temporal depth and geographic breadth, ranging from the micro to the global. This course contributes to curricula for the Columbia Center for Science and Society, emphasizing connectivity, migration, and the environment to support the Climate Humanities minor while examining to how material studies are used in broader support of the Science and Society minor. Students from the sciences will meanwhile have an opportunity to develop skills in navigating and communicating within humanistic understandings of rigor. This course will culminate in students selecting a site, collection, or method to evaluate how studies have measured against apparent possibilities for scientific research and historical interpretation in that field.
This seminar examines the history of the French language, both in France and in the many areas of the world in which French is a primary language. In the first part of the semester we engage in a chronological study of how the language emerged from a fusion of late medieval Latin with Germanic dialects to become a strong national institution. The development of the language is contextualized by consideration of the social and political history of France. We also devote two weeks of discussion to the situation of the French language today, with topics such as linguistic legislation, regional languages and dialects today, and gender inclusivity. This diachronic approach is carried over into the second part of the semester in which we concentrate on French in several regions outside of France including the Caribbean, North Africa, Central Africa, and North America. Here we examine how the language was first introduced, what it represented at different moments in history, the relation of French to other languages, and the situation of French in the region today. Work for the course includes a digital project (digital timeline and map, and website) to document visually the presence of French in the world, across history and in the 21st century.
Prerequisites: CHEM UN3079 Corequisites: CHEM UN3086 CHEM UN3080 covers the quantum mechanics of atoms and molecules, the quantum statistical mechanics of chemical systems, and the connection of statistical mechanics to thermodynamics. Although CHEM UN3079 and CHEM UN3080 are separate courses, students are expected to take both terms sequentially. A recitation section is required. Please check the Directory of Classes for details and also speak with the TA for the course.
In 1930 Keynes predicted a 15-hour work week by the 21st century because he expected we would be at the foothills of the "economic promised land." He was more than right about technological progress and staggering productivity growth –– but dead wrong about the role work would play in our lives. Here we are, working 40+ hour weeks in mostly drab jobs, often under precarious employment conditions.
This course is centered on the concept of "work." The broad objectives of the course are: first, to facilitate a critical understanding of the meaning and significance of work for human life; second, to develop a set of theoretical and analytical tools to dissect and analyze specific work arrangements that we in fact encounter in the real world; and third, and perhaps more importantly, to imagine alternative arrangements of work life that might be better suited for human flourishing.
We begin with some of the central ideas in modern labor economics, including definition of work, labor supply and demand, market mechanisms of wage determination, human capital theory and incentive-based management. We then assess the underlying assumptions implied in this body of knowledge –– for example, from labor as input in production to profit maximization and utility maximization based on stable consumer preferences over material goods and services and leisure time. The springboard for this critical analysis is a set of alternative viewpoints on what constitutes "work activity" from various other academic disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, linguistics and psychology. These readings, with their origins in different historical and intellectual settings and founded on different conceptions of human nature, stand in sharp contrast to this neoclassical economic view of "man" and "work.”
The course will have a two-part structure. The first half of the course will consist of a series of lectures on modern labor economic models emphasizing the assumptions, theories and labor market “facts” that these models are designed to explain. The second half of the course will shift to a more discussion-based format that is better suited to a close "exegesis" of the required texts as critique of this neoclassical paradigm of work.
Prerequisites: phys UN2601 or phys un2802 Primarily for junior and senior physics majors; other majors must obtain the instructors permission. Each experiment is chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. Each section meets one afternoon per week, with registration in each section limited by the laboratory capacity. Experiments (classical and modern) cover topics in electricity, magnetism, optics, atomic physics, and nuclear physics.
Companion lab course for CSEE W3827. Experiments cover such topics as logic gates; flip-flops; shift registers; counters; combinational logic circuits; sequential logic circuits; programmable logic devices. The lab generally meets on alternate weeks.
This course introduces students of German on the advanced level of language acquisition to depictions of wayfarers in Romantic and modern literature. It includes more recent, 21st-century developments such as literary representations of extreme or physically challenging adventure sports. The selection of texts is geared toward exploring the human experience of leisurely or athletic experiences in urban or natural surroundings. The literary sources make us aware of how the experience of hiking, walking, swimming or climbing is inextricably tied to an understanding of the value of outdoor activities while acknowledging the strong impact of modern technology (maps, GPS, special gear or means of transportation) and recognizing changing attitudes toward strenuous or even risky movements in mountains, rivers, seas or deserts. First, a number of memorable Romantic songs and short poems will give us the opportunity to quickly identify central themes; as we move from poetry to prose, we will continuously adhere to the principle of simplicity and conciseness; this is why we will limit the scope of analysis by using excerpts from novels or longer stories. This way we can spend time on expanding your vocabulary; other features—such as grammar, central motifs, and stylistic features will be of equal importance. Our aim is to reduce the complexity of a text written in German to manageable level and develop our own lexicon for discussing the main topic of “bodies in motion.”
During the journey of this course, we will individually and collectively utilize myriad
materials to examine the intricacies, nuances, and trajectories of freedom,
primarily in literary texts grounded in the United States. However, a couple
of required books are centered beyond the geographical and imaginary
boundaries of the United States. Even though one of the texts for this course
is a “traditional” slave narrative of a previously enslaved woman of African
descent in the Caribbean (The History of Mary Prince), we will examine
different narratives of Black women from the colonial period to the
contemporary era that engage and reckon with the processes of freedom-
imagining, freedom-creating, and freedom-making. We will approach the
subject matter utilizing a variety of genres (e.g., slave narratives, oral
histories, speeches, essays, poems, as well as novels (epistolary and science
fiction). For this course, students will submit 2 short essays and a final
paper/project. Small groups of 2-3 students will also co-lead some sections
of class discussions on selected reading assignments.
Companion lab course for ELEN E3331. Experiments cover such topics as macromodeling of nonidealities of opamps using SPICE; Schmitt triggers and astable multivibrations using op-amps and diodes; logic inverters and amplifiers using bipolar junction transistors; logic inverters and ring oscillators using MOSFETs; filter design using opamps. The lab generally meets on alternate weeks.
The “Quantum Simulation and Computing Lab” will give students hands-on experience in quantum optics, quantum simulation and quantum computing. The course combines lectures, tutorials, and two lab sections. In one lab section, students will do experiments with entangled photons. In the second lab section, students will program quantum computers and run algorithms on them using the IBM Qiskit platform.
The course starts with a recap of linear algebra and quantum mechanics, followed by an introduction to quantum optics and quantum information. Two-level systems, Bloch sphere, quantum gates, and elementary quantum algorithms will be discussed. Quantum teleportation and quantum key distribution will be introduced as applications of entanglement. The lecture content will be directly applied in experiments with entangled photons. In the following, state-of-the-art quantum algorithms will be discussed, related to cutting-edge research results in quantum computing. This includes quantum Fourier transform, quantum simulation of the Schroedinger equation, and the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm. During the course students will do one experimental project with entangled photons and one quantum programming project. Students will be guided to implement a quantum algorithm of their choice and run it on a quantum computer (IBM, IonQ, QuEra).
Prerequisites: CHEM UN3085 , CHEM UN3080 is acceptable corequisite for CHEM UN3086. A student-centered experimental course intended for students who are co-registered or have complete CHEM UN3079 and CHEM UN3080. The course emphasizes techniques of experimental physical chemistry and instrumental analysis, including vibrational, electronic, and laser spectroscopy; electroanalytical methods; calorimetry; reaction kinetics; hydrodynamic methods; scanning probe microscopy; applications of computers to reduce experimental data; and computational chemistry. Students must also attend the compulsory Mentoring Session. Please check the Directory of Classes for details.
Experiments illustrating phenomenological aspects of the early quantum theory: (i) Hydrogenic Spectra: Balmer Series - Bohr-Sommerfeld Model; (ii) Photoelectric Effect: Millikans Determination of h/e; (iii) Franck-Hertz Experiment; and (iv) Electron Diffraction Phenomena. Substantial preparation required, including written and oral presentations, as well as an interest in developing the knack and intuition of an experimental physicist. This course is best taken concurrently with PHYS BC3006 Quantum Physics.
Prerequisites: Science majors should have completed one introductory course that covers biology, ecology, evolution or conservation priort to taking this course. Non-science majors should have some exposure to these same topics but are not required to have taken courses in advance of this class.
Classical electromagnetic wave phenomena via Maxwells equations, including: (i) Michaelson and Fabry-Perot Interferometry, as well as a thin-film interference and elementary dispersion theory; (ii) Fraunhofer Diffraction (and a bit of Fresnel); (iii) Wireless Telegraphy I: AM Radio Receivers; and (iv) Wireless Telegraphy II: AM Transmitters. Last two labs pay homage to relevant scientific developments in the period 1875-1925, from the discovery of Hertzian waves to the Golden Age of Radio. Complements PHYS W3008 Electromagnetic Waves and Optics.
Prerequisites: Meets senior requirement. Instructor permission required. The instructor will supervise the writing of long papers involving some form of sociological research and analysis.
This is the second semester of a year-long senior capstone experience for Educational Studies majors. Over the course of the year, you will design and carry-out an inquiry project, and you will report on this project through an appropriate medium, for a specific purpose and audience.
The Artemis Rising Short Course in Filmmaking is a two to four-week course offered each semester on a special topic of filmmaking presented by an Artemis Rising Foundation Filmmaker Fellow (ARFF). This series was endowed by the Artemis Rising Foundation to bring world-class filmmakers with hands-on experience and fresh perspectives to Barnard to connect with students interested in filmmaking as a vocation and media literacy.
It can only be taken for pass/fail for 1 point.
Students must attend all four class sessions and write a final paper in order to receive credit for this course.
To see the dates/times that the Artemis Rising Short Course will meet this semester, the current course description, and the biography of the visiting filmmaker, please visit the ARFF website:
https://athenacenter.barnard.edu/arff
.
The Artemis Rising Short Course in Film Production is a one-point credit short workshop presented by an Artemis Rising Foundation Filmmaker Fellow (ARFF). It consists of four workshops on a special aspect of film production and one final project. This series was endowed by the Artemis Rising Foundation to bring world-class filmmakers with hands-on experience and fresh perspectives to Barnard to connect with students interested in filmmaking as a vocation and media literacy.
It can only be taken for pass/fail for 1 point.
Students must attend all four class workshops and produce one final project in order to receive credit for this course.
To see the dates/times that the Artemis Rising Short Course will meet this semester, the current course description, and the biography of the visiting filmmaker, please visit the ARFF website:
https://athenacenter.barnard.edu/arff
.
French majors will write their senior thesis under the supervision of the instructor.
This course is thematic, though a loose history of dreaming, imaginative praxis, and virtual reality environments across South Asia will emerge through the networked conversations across texts. The advantage of a thematic course allows us to cover various genres such as: ritual manuals; epic; poetry; philosophical argument; biographical accounts; prophecies; conversion stories; and medical textbooks to name a handful. At the end of the course, we will see how the texts encountered in the first part have been repurposed to speak to social justice movements around caste - both within South Asia and the diaspora population in the U.S. The thematic of dreaming and imagination also provides flexibility in method: because students will have the opportunity to study conversations between different historical actors across religious traditions about dreams, they will also have the opportunity to revise problematic accounts of religious pluralism and communalism in South Asia. Students will read primary texts from Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, and Sikh traditions to name a handful. Students can look forward to reading about worlds within rocks; falling asleep and waking up as another person only to die in the dream world, wake up and then realize your dream-life family is somehow real and looking for you; how to finally interpret those pesky dreams about teeth falling out; dismembered bodies generating the universe; daydreaming about a cloud that thinks mountain peaks look like nipples; how to build a mind-temple that Shiva prefers to the physical one with fancy rock; and much more!
Prerequisites: the instructors permission for entrance, and the departmental representatives permission for aggregate points in excess of 12 or less than 4. This course may be repeated for credit (see major and concentration requirements). Individual research under the supervision of a member of the staff. Research areas include organic, physical, inorganic, analytical, and biological chemistry. Please note that CHEM UN3098 is offered in the fall and spring semesters.
This course can be worth 1 to 4 credits (each credit is equivalent to approximately three hours of work per week) and requires a Barnard faculty as a mentor who has to provide written approval. The course entails a scholarly component; for this, a research report is required by the end of the term. The research report can take the form that best suits the nature of the project. The course will be taken for a letter grade, regardless of whether the student chooses 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits.
Basic concepts and assumptions of quantum mechanics, Schrodinger's equation, solutions for one-dimensional problems including square wells, barriers and the harmonic oscillator, introduction to the hydrogen atom, atomic physics and X-rays, electron spin.
In this course, we will spend a semester reading, thinking about, seeing, and writing about one play, Shakespeare’s
Hamlet.
We will begin by reading
Hamlet
slowly, using various critical perspectives to attend to some of the historical and contemporary problematics of the play. In addition to glancing at sources (Saxo Grammaticus’ narrative of Amleth’s revenge in
Historia Danica
) and contemporaries (Thomas Kyd,
The Spanish Tragedy
), we’ll consider the relationship between the two media of
Hamlet
’s production, the book and the stage, taking the opportunity to consider what the three texts of
Hamlet
s—the 1603 quarto, the 1604 quarto, and the folio version—have to say to us about our preconceptions of theatre and print. Then we will turn to two problems. The first is
Hamlet
as a conceptual challenge, focusing on Hamlet in modernism, notably as framed by Mallarmé, Eliot, Freud, and Joyce; as part of this consideration we’ll take up some modern dramatic encounters with
Hamlet,
notably Tom Stoppard’s
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dea
(1966),
Heiner Müller’s
Hamletmachine
(1977) and Magda Romanska’s
Opheliamachine
(2013)
,
Samuel Beckett’s
Endgame
(1957)
.
We will conclude the semester by thinking about mediated performance, beginning with Laurence Olivier’s controversial (and award-winning) 1948 film, and tracing through Michael Almereyda’s 2000 media allegory, concluding with two productions that move
Hamlet
into the sphere of digital performance, The Wooster Group
Hamlet
(2007) and Annie Dorsen’s
A Piece of Work
(2013)
.
Many of the greatest challenges in public health are global. This course uses a multidisciplinary approach to discuss the major underlying determinants of poor health and the relationship between health and political, social and economic development. Drawing upon the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, students will be introduced to the evolution of modern approaches to the setting of global health priorities, the functions and roles of health systems, an overview of current global health practices, and the major institutional players in global health. The first unit of the class will focus on establishing the foundations for a public health approach to understanding the challenges of global health. This will involve exploration of the factors shaping the global distribution of disease and their connection with issues of social, economic, and political development, as reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. The second unit will explore in further detail a number of major health priorities. A significant goal of the class will be to identify common sources of vulnerability and challenge across health risks, and the consequent need for a systemic approach to their being addressed. The third and final unit builds upon this analysis to demonstrate the multi-disciplinary, multi-level approach required to effectively address global health priorities, and the political and organizational cooperation required to achieve this. The class concludes with an analysis of the major challenges and threats to global coordination regarding such threats as pandemic influenza and emerging health threats related to climate change. Offered in the spring.
Prerequisite: Student must have taken beginning workshop in any undergraduate creative writing concentration. Open workshops are for students who are acquainted with and have experience in at least one beginning workshop in creative writing. In Open Fiction Workshops, particular attention will be paid to the components of fiction: voice, perspective, characterization, and form. Students will be expected to finish several short stories, executing a total artistic vision on a piece of writing. The critical focus of the class will include an examination of endings and formal wholeness, sustaining narrative arcs, compelling a reader's interest for the duration of the text, and generating a sense of urgency and drama in the work. A portfolio of fiction will be written and revised with critical input from the instructor and workshop. Outside readings may be used to supplement and inform the exercises and written projects. Please visit
https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate
for information about registration procedures.
An introduction to the study of language from a scientific perspective. The course is divided into three units: language as a system (sounds, morphology, syntax, and semantics), language in context (in space, time, and community), and language of the individual (psycholinguistics, errors, aphasia, neurology of language, and acquisition). Workload: lecture, weekly homework, and final examination.
The course addresses the works of women writers of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia from the 19th century to the present. All assigned readings will be in English. The purpose of the course is to become familiar with the struggles and concerns of these authors, as well as the general features of their lives and cultural contexts. Most readings assigned are primary texts. These will be supplemented during course meetings: the instructor will bring in various materials that would be obscure if assigned to students outside of class, but with live explanations in-class, will enrich their understanding of the primary readings.
Prerequisites: The department's permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. Seniors who are majors in creative writing are given priority for this course. Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor. The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major. Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work. In-class critiques and conferences with the professor will be tailored to needs of each student.
Introduction to partial differential equations; integral theorems of vector calculus. Partial differential equations of engineering in rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates. Separation of the variables. Characteristic-value problems. Bessel functions, Legendre polynomials, other orthogonal functions; their use in boundary value problems. Illustrative examples from the fields of electromagnetic theory, vibrations, heat flow, and fluid mechanics.
see department for details
Academic Writing Intensive is a small, intensive writing course for Barnard students in their second or third year who would benefit from extra writing support. Students attend a weekly seminar, work closely with the instructor on each writing assignment, and meet with an attached Writing Fellow every other week. Readings and assignments focus on transferable writing, revision, and critical thinking skills students can apply to any discipline. Students from across the disciplines are welcome. This course is only offered P/D/F. To be considered for the course, please send a recent writing sample to
vcondill@barnard.edu
, ideally from your First-Year Writing or First-Year Seminar course, or any other writing-intensive humanities or social sciences course at Barnard (no lab reports please).