ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II-LECTURES

Prerequisites: CHEM S2443D Organic Chemistry I Lecture or the equivalent. The principles of organic chemistry. The structure and reactivity of organic molecules are examined from the standpoint of modern theories of chemistry. Topics include stereochemistry, reactions of organic molecules, mechanisms of organic reactions, syntheses and degradations of organic molecules, and spectroscopic techniques of structure determination. This course is a continuation of CHEM S2443D Organic Chemistry I Lecture. Please note that students must attend a recitation for this class. Students who wish to take the full organic chemistry lecture sequence and laboratory should also register for CHEM S2443D Organic Chemistry I Lecture and CHEM S2543Q Organic Chemistry Lab - see below. This course is equivalent to CHEM UN2444 Organic Chemistry II Lecture.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MTWR 9:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
• TR 5:35 p.m.-8:05 p.m.
• Instructor: Talha Siddiqui
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Christopher Eckdahl
  Info
• 4 points

BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE

Prerequisites: PSYC UN1001 An introduction to the analysis of psychological issues by anatomical, physiological, and pharmacological methods. Topics include neurons, neurotransmitters, neural circuits, human neuroanatomy, vision, learning, memory, emotion, and sleep and circadian rhythms.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Elif A Duman
  Info
• 3 points

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

Prerequisites: PSYC UN1001 or equivalent Traditional psychologists have focused primarily on answering “how?” questions regarding the mechanisms that underlie behavior (i.e. How does the system work?). In contrast, evolutionary psychologists focus primarily on answering “why?” questions (i.e. Why does this system exist, and why does it have the form it does?). This course is designed to apply our knowledge of evolutionary theory to psychology in order to answer such questions.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lawrence I Reed
  CULPA: 3 h-index: None Info
• 3 points

ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION

Prerequisites: MATH V1102-MATH V1201 or the equivalent and MATH V2010. Mathematical methods for economics. Quadratic forms, Hessian, implicit functions. Convex sets, convex functions. Optimization, constrained optimization, Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Elements of the calculus of variations and optimal control.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• 3 points

FOUNDATIONS OF DATA SCIENCE

Designed to provide an introduction to data science for sophomore SEAS majors. Combines three perspectives: inferential thinking, computational thinking, and real-world applications. Given data arising from some real-world phenomenon, how does one analyze that data so as to understand that phenomenon? Teaches critical concepts and skills in computer programming, statistical inference, and machine learning, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets such as economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. At least one project will address a problem relevant to New York City.

• Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• Instructor: Eric Stratman
  Info
• 3 points

Introduction to Comparative Politics

Intro Comp Politics

The course provides a broad overview of the comparative politics subfield by focusing on important substantive questions about the world today.  Particular attention will be paid to understanding differences between democracies and autocracies, on one hand, and between different forms of democracy, on the other.  What influences whether countries become and/or stay democratic?  On this basis, should we expect China to democratize?  Why do we care if a country is democratic or not?  Do democracies perform better (or worse) than non-democracies in policy areas of importance?  What is “good representation” and how do political institutions affect the prospects for achieving it?  How does the choice of democratic institutions influence the prospects for stable and successful democracy?  Are there particular institutional forms that are appropriate in particular contexts (such as ethnically divided Iraq), or do cultural factors overwhelm institutional considerations? 

In addressing these broad questions, the course has three ancillary goals.  The first is to teach students how to pose and evaluate falsifiable theoretical arguments about substantive questions of interest.  The second is to introduce the quantitative, formal and qualitative methodologies that political scientists use to develop and evaluate arguments.  Finally, the course will require students to develop knowledge of the political systems of a number of foreign countries.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Abhyudaya Tyagi
  Info
• 4 points

Introduction to Comparative Politics Dis

Intro CP Discussion

Discussion section

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Dani Hogan
  Info
• 0 points

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY

Prerequisites: CHEM UN1500 General Chemistry Lab, CHEM UN2443 Organic Chemistry I - Lecture. Techniques of experimental organic chemistry, with emphasis on understanding fundamental principles underlying the experiments in methodology of solving laboratory problems involving organic molecules. Attendance at the first laboratory session is mandatory. Please note that you must complete CHEM UN2443 Organic Chemistry I Lecture or the equivalent to register for this lab course. This course is equivalent to CHEM UN2543 Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1:10 p.m.-5:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Heriberto Moran
  Info
• 3 points

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LABORATORY

Prerequisites: CHEM UN1500 General Chemistry Lab, CHEM UN2443 Organic Chemistry I - Lecture. Techniques of experimental organic chemistry, with emphasis on understanding fundamental principles underlying the experiments in methodology of solving laboratory problems involving organic molecules. Attendance at the first laboratory session is mandatory. Please note that you must complete CHEM UN2443 Organic Chemistry I Lecture or the equivalent to register for this lab course. This course is equivalent to CHEM UN2543 Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1:10 p.m.-5:50 p.m.
• Instructor: Heriberto Moran
  Info
• 3 points

International Politics

Why do countries go to war? What conditions foster international cooperation? How do alliances between countries function? How are countries affected by global trade and investment, and in turn how does the political economy of individual countries shape international conflict and cooperation? How do ideas and culture (including both positive ideas like human rights and negative ideas like racism) affect international politics? What role do individuals and groups play in shaping international politics? What explains the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why isn’t there significant cooperation on climate change, and can a new global cooperation emerge? What issues have garnered international attention, and how has that shaped the countries’ cooperation? What causes terrorism? Is the proliferation of nuclear (or cyber) weapons a threat to peace, and if so, how should the world response? Does UN peacekeeping work?

In this course we will begin to grapple with these questions. We will use theories developed by philosophers, political scientists and policy analysts, and we will examine the historical roots of today’s problems, in order to explain and predict the patterns of international politics and the possibilities for change. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to choose and develop their own theories to explain events.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the semester, students will accomplish the following:


Demonstrate broad factual and causal knowledge of important current and historical issues in international relations.

Apply contending theories from the political science literature and the policy world to analyze, compare, and evaluate events and trends in international relations.

Assess the value of competing theories in explaining events.

Synthesize facts and arguments across cases in order to reason critically and argue creatively, through both oral discussions in section and written essays.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Anna L Garner
  Info
• Instructor: Beenish Riaz
  Info
• 4 points

ARTS OF CHINA JAPAN KOREA

Introduces distinctive aesthetic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea--their similarities and differences--through an examination of the visual significance of selected works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts in relation to the history, culture, and religions of East Asia.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Hae Yeun Kim
  Info
• 3 points

International Politics Discussion

Int'l Politics Discussion

Discussion section for POLS UN2601

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Pierre de Dreuzy
  Info
• Instructor: Indira Tirumala
  Info
• 0 points

ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

Prerequisites: PSYC W1001 or PSYC W1010 or the instructor's permission. An examination of definitions, theories, and treatments of abnormal behavior.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• WF 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey M Cohen
  h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Surveys important methods, findings, and theories in the study of social influences on behavior. Emphasizes different perspectives on the relation between individuals and society.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Joshua M Feinberg
  Info
• 3 points

World Dance History

A survey of the major dance traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and the Americas. Lectures and discussions address primary written and visual sources, ethnographic and documentary films, workshops, and performances.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 10 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul A Scolieri
  CULPA: 19 Info
• 3 points

World Dance History

A survey of the major dance traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and the Americas. Lectures and discussions address primary written and visual sources, ethnographic and documentary films, workshops, and performances.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 10 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul A Scolieri
  CULPA: 19 Info
• 3 points

Masterpieces of Islamic Art

A topical introduction to the architecture and arts of the Islamic cultures of North Africa, Spain, Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, from their origins in late antiquity to 1400 CE. A wide variety of media will be explored as we look at artistic accomplishments in both the religious and secular realms. We will study architectural monuments from palaces to mosques as well as small-scale luxury items like textiles, metalwork, ceramics, and illuminated manuscripts. 
There will be at least one mandatory class trip to the Metropolitan Museum.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Mikael B Muehlbauer
  Info
• 3 points

Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is a broad and expanding field. This course will provide students with a broad overview of approaches to treatment and assessment in clinical psychology. These include theoretical orientations and current debates within the field. The course will also provide students with cultural and ethical considerations within the field. Finally, the course will offer many illustrative examples of the application of the provided material.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lawrence I Reed
  CULPA: 3 h-index: None Info
• 3 points

MASTERPIECES-INDIAN ART & ARCH

Introduction to 2000 years of art on the Indian subcontinent. The course covers the early art of Buddhism, rock-cut architecture of the Buddhists and Hindus, the development of the Hindu temple, Mughal and Rajput painting and architecture, art of the colonial period, and the emergence of the Modern.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Mikael B Muehlbauer
  Info
• 3 points

ART IN CONTEXT: LATINE/LATIN AMERICAN AR

ART IN CONTEX: LATINE/LAT

According to the 2022 one-year American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau, New York City’s second largest population comprising about 29% of the total can be identified as
Latine
–that is, the people hailing from diverse areas of the region known as Latin America, from Tierra del Fuego to today’s Mexico and the Caribbean. Yet, despite the steady and increasing Latine presence in New York City at least since the nineteenth-century, Latine representation within NYC and, more broadly, the US American cultural scene has been an ongoing battle or even a series of different battles waged by individuals and groups with diverse understanding of what Latine or Latin American art means, and why and how it should be presented and shown, to whom, and to what ends. This summer class examines these battles through the study of history and present of self-identified Latin American and Latine arts organizations in New York from museums through varied non-for-profit and grassroots arts institutions to commercial art galleries, exposing students to a comprehensive cross-section of the art ecosystem in order to develop a nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationships between different constituencies that institutions crystalize: patrons, administrators, artists, and diverse publics. In other words, who do the institutions represent and to whom?

Some of the institutions studied and visited during the course will be The Hispanic Society Museum and Library, murals at the New School, The Americas Society, El Museo del Barrio, The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America at the Museum of Modern Art, ISLAA–Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, The Clemente–Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Education Center, CCCADI–The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, En Foco, Hutchinson Modern and Contemporary, and Ruiz-Healey Art. Through readings, site visits, and discussions with representatives of these institutions, students will gain a thorough understanding of the evolving definitions and facets of Latine culture and their continued vital role in NYC and US at large. They will also become familiar with a wide range of visual expressions in different media, spanning colonial times to the present.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Dorota Biczel
  Info
• 4 points

ART IN CONTEXT: LATINE/LATIN AMERICAN AR

ART IN CONTEX: LATINE/LAT

According to the 2022 one-year American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau, New York City’s second largest population comprising about 29% of the total can be identified as
Latine
–that is, the people hailing from diverse areas of the region known as Latin America, from Tierra del Fuego to today’s Mexico and the Caribbean. Yet, despite the steady and increasing Latine presence in New York City at least since the nineteenth-century, Latine representation within NYC and, more broadly, the US American cultural scene has been an ongoing battle or even a series of different battles waged by individuals and groups with diverse understanding of what Latine or Latin American art means, and why and how it should be presented and shown, to whom, and to what ends. This summer class examines these battles through the study of history and present of self-identified Latin American and Latine arts organizations in New York from museums through varied non-for-profit and grassroots arts institutions to commercial art galleries, exposing students to a comprehensive cross-section of the art ecosystem in order to develop a nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationships between different constituencies that institutions crystalize: patrons, administrators, artists, and diverse publics. In other words, who do the institutions represent and to whom?

Some of the institutions studied and visited during the course will be The Hispanic Society Museum and Library, murals at the New School, The Americas Society, El Museo del Barrio, The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America at the Museum of Modern Art, ISLAA–Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, The Clemente–Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Education Center, CCCADI–The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, En Foco, Hutchinson Modern and Contemporary, and Ruiz-Healey Art. Through readings, site visits, and discussions with representatives of these institutions, students will gain a thorough understanding of the evolving definitions and facets of Latine culture and their continued vital role in NYC and US at large. They will also become familiar with a wide range of visual expressions in different media, spanning colonial times to the present.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Dorota Biczel
  Info
• 4 points

ACTING IN PARIS

Summer Acting in Paris Working Title is an intensive Acting class that focuses on the practical study of key Contemporary French theatre practitioners that have contributed to the understanding of acting as a physical and ensemble-oriented practice. The course seeks to practice core principles developed by Peter Brook and the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord,  Théâtre du Soleil, and the Ecole Internacionale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. A series of Masterclasses with performers trained under these pedagogies will be scheduled to further the student's knowledge of the practitioners mentioned above during the course.   

Functioning in tandem with the Translating Theater class by Prof. Postlewate, the course will practice the acting ideas acquired through the performance of new translations of plays by Moliere, Joel Pommerat, Olivie Py, Jazmina Reza, and Wajdi Mouawad. By collaborating with the translating students, the class seeks to hone the rhythmical embodiment of the text and address essential aspects of working with contemporary French plays in translation. As a class, both courses will attend performances of those plays to understand further how the body, language, and ensemble work operates to create meaning on stage.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• Instructor: Gisela D Cardenas Ojeda
  Info
• 3 points

Political Violence and Terrorism

Course Description
When is violence used against noncombatants for political purposes and what is the impact of
such violence? This course focuses on political violence by individuals and groups, whether or
not is sanctioned by a state. 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 them more or
less effective?
Our focus on just two questions—why does this violence happen and what is its impact?—allows
us to explore how social scientists explore such questions. Students will learn how to approach
academic journal articles and book chapters—identifying the authors’ purposes and the different
sections, and figuring out what they may gain from their reading. They will distinguish between
critiques of a theoretical claim based on its logic and premises and critiques based on empirical
evidence. They will understand what it means to evaluate theoretical tools on the basis of their
usefulness for understanding how things work. They will practice explaining new cases (and
predicting their outcomes) using these theoretical tools.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Marjorie Castle
  Info
• 3 points

Political Violence and Terrorism

Course Description
When is violence used against noncombatants for political purposes and what is the impact of
such violence? This course focuses on political violence by individuals and groups, whether or
not is sanctioned by a state. 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 them more or
less effective?
Our focus on just two questions—why does this violence happen and what is its impact?—allows
us to explore how social scientists explore such questions. Students will learn how to approach
academic journal articles and book chapters—identifying the authors’ purposes and the different
sections, and figuring out what they may gain from their reading. They will distinguish between
critiques of a theoretical claim based on its logic and premises and critiques based on empirical
evidence. They will understand what it means to evaluate theoretical tools on the basis of their
usefulness for understanding how things work. They will practice explaining new cases (and
predicting their outcomes) using these theoretical tools.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Marjorie Castle
  Info
• 3 points

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR THRU FIELDWORK

Why do birds sing? Why do wolves hunt in packs, but spiders hunt alone? Why are worker bees willing to die to protect the queen? Using evolutionary principles as the unifying theme, we will survey the study of animal behavior, including the history, basic principles, and research methods. 

Fieldwork as an important component of this course.  Through a range of approaches, students will gain familiarity with the scientific method, behavioral observation and research design.   Although this is listed as a 3000-level course, no prior biology experience is required. Fulfills the science requirement for most Columbia and GS undergraduates

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Malcolm Rosenthal
  Info
• 3 points

Microbiology

This course introduces students to the physiology, morphology, pathogenicity, and genetics of microorganisms and their diverse applications. Topics include microbial evolution, cell structure and function, metabolic pathways, information flow and regulation, microbial systems, and the influence of microorganisms on health and disease. Core methods in microbiological research will be examined through the analysis of primary scientific literature and case studies.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ava E Brent
  Info
• 3 points

SUPERHERO MOVIES AND NEW YORK

In
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
, plumes of dust fill the New York City streets as the monster Bowser attacks the city. Mario, seemingly beaten, hides in a pizzeria. What inspires him to keep fighting? He sees himself in a TV ad for his plumbing business, wearing a superhero cape and flying next to the Freedom Tower. He finds solace in the representation of himself as a superhero and in a city that refused to concede that the game was over after 9/11. Such a scene is emblematic of a seminar that will explore the superhero’s relationship to the city’s history and its traumas. Our eye will move between Hollywood blockbusters and global art cinema to help us mull how the superhero exemplifies, for some, the excesses of the U.S. during the global War on Terror. We will see Batman’s alter-ego Bruce Wayne run towards what looks like an imploding World Trade Center on 9/11 (
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
) and witness the superhero framed as an ideological smokescreen for the callous administration of George W. Bush who used the attacks to justify an endless war (
The Broken Circle Breakdown
).

While strongly focused on the post-9/11 superhero and its links to New York City, the cross-media seminar will track the superhero’s initial rise in popularity during the trauma of World War II. It will mobilize the archival resources of Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library collections around the papers of noted
X-Men
writer Chris Claremont, so students can read how the artist conceived of bringing histories around the Holocaust into his spectacular stories. Such dips into the archives will help us assess how such empowered figures offer surprising routes of representation for the disenfranchised. We will also consider the authoritarian possibilities of the vigilante Batman, situating Frank Miller’s
The Dark Knight Returns
against a cultural study that draws links between the comic and Bernhard Goetz who killed four black teenagers in a Manhattan subway in 1984. To further frame how the superhero serves as a potent means of socio-political critique, acclaimed artists and writers will be invited into the classroom. These include Paul Pope whose
Batman: Year 100
(2006) presents a dystopian superhero that allegorizes the oppressive aspects of the War on Terror’s surveillance regime. A culminating field trip to the National September 11 Memorial Museum will be organized. There, students will visit “The World Trade Center

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Fareed Ben-Youssef
  Info
• 3 points

VIDEO GAMES AND FILM

Cinema and videogames are moving-image-based media, and, especially over the past two decades, they have been credited with influencing each other. But how deep do their similarities actually go? In what way do the possibilities available to game developers differ from those available to filmmakers? How does each medium segment and present space, time, and action? What aesthetic effects are open to games that are not open to cinema, and vice versa? This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamic relationship between cinema and video games. Through a combination of film screenings, gameplay, theoretical reading/discussions, and practical assignments, students will examine the historical, cultural, aesthetic, and narrative connections between these two influential media forms. The course aims to foster an understanding of how cinema and video games intersect, inform, and influence one another, providing a unique perspective on storytelling techniques within these mediums. The course will culminate in a final presentation where students will adapt an existing intellectual property, preferably a film or TV show, into a video game (or vice versa), justifying their creative choices.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 2 p.m.-5:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Nick Braccia III
  Info
• 3 points

FINANCIAL ECONOMICS

Prerequisites: STAT UN1201, ECON UN3211 Intermediate Microeconomics and ECON UN3213 Intermediate Macroeconomics. Equivalent to ECON UN3025. Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, Eurobond, Eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the capital asset pricing model and the efficient markets hypothesis.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lucas Rosso
  Info
• 3 points

Narrative Design for Games and Interacti

Narr Design for Games & I

Traditionally, stories have followed a linear path, with a clear distinction between teller and audience. Yet, since the late 20th century, this model is shifting. Today, postmodern fiction, video games, interactive films, VR, participatory theater and immersive experiences offer audiences agency, creating a challenge for creators: how do they uphold narrative integrity while allowing for choice, collaboration, and remixing?

In this class, we’ll examine how modern narrative designers craft stories across media that invite audience participation. Through history, analysis, and workshops, we’ll explore how creators design for interaction while preserving tone and themes, turning audiences into active participants.

For the final assignment, students will develop a 12-15 minute pitch presentation for an original story concept, adapting it into an interactive format that balances strong authorial vision with audience agency.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 10 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Barrie Adleberg
  Info
• 3 points

WHAT IS CREATIVE WRITING FOR? PROSE WRIT

PROSE WRITING IN PARIS

​​​​​​
WRIT3043OC: 
What is Creative Writing For? Prose Writing in Paris
, 3 credits. 
Instructor:  
Nellie Hermann
, Adjunct Associate Professor, Barnard College; Core Faculty, Narrative Medicine; Creative Director, Columbia Narrative Medicine; Course Director, Narrative Medicine Certificate.

This course will plot a journey through a series of themes designed to examine what creative writing might be
for
as an applied practice (not only as an art): how can the tools of creative work connect us more deeply to the world around us, and therefore potentially transform any other endeavor we take on? Throughout the month, we will write and read – each week will feature a few different texts (all of them by French writers or by writers who lived in Paris)  which will form the background of the week’s work, and a particular piece of prose writing will be due at the end of that week. We will rely heavily on the city of Paris to be our teacher and guide in these various themes, and will involve the city in our explorations. In addition to the reading and generative exercises through each week, students will share one longer-form piece of writing with the group, and we will spend at least four class sessions workshopping these pieces as a group, with formal workshop letters due from students to underscore the attention they are giving to each other’s work. 

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the
 
Columbia Summer Creative Writing in Paris
 
program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).
 
Global Learning Scholarships 
available. 
Tuition 
charges apply. Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Sessions Terms. Visit the
UGE
website for the start and end dates for this program. Please email
uge@columbia.edu
with any quest

• Department: Global Programs
• Instructor: Nellie G Hermann
  Info
• 3 points

WRITING THROUGH ART: POETRY IN PARIS

WRIT3045OC: 
Writing Through Art: Poetry in Paris
, 3 credits.

Instructor: 
Dorothea Lasky
, Director of MFA in Poetry Program; Associate Professor of Writing, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

At least since the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos called "painting silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks," creative writing has existed in conversation with a variety of other art forms, particularly visual art. In this class, we will explore creative writing as an interdisciplinary practice, with an emphasis on the work of artists who create in both the visual and textual fields. Among other key critical questions, we will consider:

1. How has an intersection with visual art been important to creative writing historically?

2. How does visual experience relate to particular aspects of creative writing?

3. How can we use visual art towards our own creative process in the future, either by using visual art in writing or by incorporating illustration in the presentation of our written work?

A mix of texts—classic and contemporary poetry and prose, illuminated manuscripts, children’s picturebooks, literature that we might consider 
visually-driven
, and related scholarship­­––form the basis for our investigations, discussions, and creative work.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the
 
Columbia Summer Creative Writing in Paris
 
program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).
 
Global Learning Scholarships 
available. 
Tuition 
charges apply.

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Sessions Terms. Visit the 
UGE
 website for the start and end dates for the Columbia Summer Creative Writing in Paris program. Please email 
uge@columbia.edu
 with a

• Department: Global Programs
• Instructor: Dorothea S Lasky
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Law and Literature

In contemporary American culture, legal practice and literary studies share a commitment to careful use of language, rigorous interpretation, and a deep and imaginative engagement with meaning. Scholars and practitioners have been debating for decades how the two practices can reinforce each other, improve each other, critique each other, and refute each other. (As this debate shows, both communities also love to argue.) In this course, we will read and discuss a classic set of literary texts that speak to certain preoccupations within the legal tradition. We will also look at certain debates and controversies within legal discourse to see how the tools and insights of literary and cultural analysis can change our perspective. We won’t be focusing on literary history nor legal doctrine – no previous knowledge of either is required. Instead, we will look at texts where shared concerns – about interpretation, about evidence, about empathy, and about justice and fairness – allow us to use both literary and legal thinking to advance our own understanding of these ongoing debates.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Jon J Connolly
  Info
• 3 points

Reading and Writing Memoir

This seminar has two central goals: first, to teach you how to write a clear, indeed eloquent essay, a skill that will prove useful throughout your life.  Second, to read some of the greatest (or most interesting) examples of the literary genre of memoir, with the goal of creating at the end of the course a memoir (of some aspect of your life) that responds to the history of the genre (second goal) and is well written (the first).   

The seminar will read excerpts from Augustine, Cellini, Montaigne, Rousseau, Casanova, Wollstonecraft, Proust, Jacobs, Arenas, Erneaux, Lous, Knausgaard, Sebald, and Ferrante.   We will analyze the memoirs in terms of the creation, and transformation, of the genre of autobiography, and its relation to the novel form.   And as we shift from one assignment to other, more complex ones, we will emphasize clarity of expression as the beginning of a personal style.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

Sex and Gender across Long Time

The idea of gender is a relatively recent formulation, often complicated by the ferocity division between the sexes found across history.  This course uses art objects, literary texts, philosophy, psychology and finally film and digital media to interrogate the ideas of sex and gender, to explore the violent ways in which female sexuality has been denied or constrained, that same-sex desire was erased or pathologized, and how transgenderism, even as it works to deny sexual difference, complicates the relations between both sex and gender.  

The goal of this course is to explore the transformations of notions of sex, and more recently gender, across history. We will engage in writing exercises designed to sharpen our interpretive and analytical abilities, and over the six weeks develop a research project of approximately 20 pages. Through our conversations, we hope that we will be able to understand the complex issues surrounding these explosive ideas – ideas that impact us in so many ways – and in so doing gain a powerful, intellectual voice.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Ross T Hamilton
  CULPA: 25 Info
• 3 points

Worlds of Alexander the Great

This course looks at the narrative and the historical context for an extraordinary event: the conquest of the Persian empire by Alexander III of Macedonia, conventionally known as “Alexander the Great”. We will explore the different worlds Alexander grew out of, confronted, and affected: the old Greek world, the Persian empire, the ancient near-east (Egypt, Levant, Babylonia, Iran), and the worlds beyond, namely pre-Islamic (and pre-Silk Road) Central Asia, the Afghan borderlands, and the Indus valley. The first part of the course will establish context, before laying out a narrative framework; the second part of the course will explore a series of themes, especially the tension between military conquest, political negotiation, and social interactions. Overall, the course will serve as an exercise in historical methodology (with particular attention to ancient sources and to interpretation), an introduction to the geography and the history of the ancient world (classical and near-eastern), and the exploration of a complex testcase located at the contact point between several worlds, and at a watershed of world history.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Jazmin Novoa Lara
  Info
• 3 points

URBAN LATIN/X AMERICA: ETHNOGRAPHIC PERS

URBAN LATINX AMERICA: ETH

This seminar examines the social, economic, and political landscapes of Latin American cities and the Latinx urban experience through ethnographic analysis. It explores key themes such as rural to urban and transnational migration, urban poverty, theories of “marginality” and informality, violence and urban segregation, grassroots movements, urban citizenship and neoliberal urban governance. Students will read ethnographies to gain an in-depth understanding of how cities are lived and experienced, while we delve into theoretical debates important in the field of Latin American urban studies and Latinx studies. The course unsettles the category of Latin America, to introduce a discussion of the “Latinization” of U.S. cities, and engages the history and lived experience of Latinxs in New York City as a prime example of this phenomenon. We will interrogate ethnographic, audiovisual materials (included to complement the readings) and lived experience, from a postcolonial perspective. This means, discussing the politics of knowledge production and representation, the impact of colonialism in transnational flows of knowledge and labor, the contributions to urban theory from the perspective of cities located in the Global South, and the active efforts of Latinxs in New York city to transform space and carve out spaces of self-representation and sovereignty.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Andreina Torres Angarita
  Info
• 3 points

URBAN LATIN/X AMERICA: ETHNOGRAPHIC PERS

URBAN LATINX AMERICA: ETH

This seminar examines the social, economic, and political landscapes of Latin American cities and the Latinx urban experience through ethnographic analysis. It explores key themes such as rural to urban and transnational migration, urban poverty, theories of “marginality” and informality, violence and urban segregation, grassroots movements, urban citizenship and neoliberal urban governance. Students will read ethnographies to gain an in-depth understanding of how cities are lived and experienced, while we delve into theoretical debates important in the field of Latin American urban studies and Latinx studies. The course unsettles the category of Latin America, to introduce a discussion of the “Latinization” of U.S. cities, and engages the history and lived experience of Latinxs in New York City as a prime example of this phenomenon. We will interrogate ethnographic, audiovisual materials (included to complement the readings) and lived experience, from a postcolonial perspective. This means, discussing the politics of knowledge production and representation, the impact of colonialism in transnational flows of knowledge and labor, the contributions to urban theory from the perspective of cities located in the Global South, and the active efforts of Latinxs in New York city to transform space and carve out spaces of self-representation and sovereignty.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Andreina Torres Angarita
  Info
• 3 points

Harlem on My Mind: Harlem Renaissance Li

This course explores the cultural contexts and aesthetic debates surrounding the Harlem or New Negro literary renaissance, 1920s to 1930s. Through fiction, poetry, essays, and artwork, we will consider the movement within the context of American modernism and African American cultural history, focusing on the relationship or tension between art/literature and socio-political change.  Topics considered include: patronage, passing, primitivism, and the problematics of creating a “racial” art in/for a community comprised of differences in gender, class, sexuality, and geographical origin. In the summer of 2026, we will work with the Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana at the Columbia Rare Book and Manuscript Library to think through the era’s cultural history and the impact of different archival media on its historiography.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Monica L Miller
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 3 points

Endangered Languages in the Global City:

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

LING3102W: Endangered Languages in the Global City: Lang, Culture, and Migration in Contempary NYC. 3 points.

Instructor 
Ross Perlin
, Lecturer, Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University

Taught in English. This course counts as a 
Global Core Requirement 
at Columbia University.

Of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages – representing migrations and historical developments thousands of years old – the majority are oral, little-documented, and increasingly endangered under the onslaught of global languages like English. This course will take the unprecedented, paradoxical linguistic capital of New York City as a lens for examining how immigrants form communities in a new land, how those communities are integrated into the wider society, and how they grapple with linguistic and cultural loss. Interdisciplinary with an experiential learning component, the course will focus on texts, materials, encounters, and fieldwork with three of the city’s newest and least-studied indigenous immigrant communities (indigenous Latin Americans, Himalayans, and Central Asians).Indigeneity, though often invisible or perceived as marginal in global cities like New York, is in fact pervasive and fundamental. Cities now constitute a crucial site for understanding migration and cultural change, with language a vehicle for culture. Studying cultures only in situ (i.e. in their homelands) risks missing a crucial dimension. Students will be immersed in stateless, oral, immigrant cultures while also gaining a hands-on critical understanding of language endangerment and urban sociolinguistic research, first through field experiences and guest speakers (Endangered Language Alliance partners) and then by going out together into communities to work on projects in small teams. The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), where the instructor is Co-Director, was formed as a non-profit research institute in 2010 as a forum for researchers, community members, activists, artists, and other New Yorkers to come together to support indigenous and minority languages. ELA’s video recordings provide first-hand testimony of endangered languages in the global city – in indigenous languages with English translation – available in few other places. Those texts will be central to this course, supplemented by the new,first-ever, detailed language map of New York City being pro

• Department: Global Programs
• 3 points

Applied Bayesian Analysis

This is a course in intermediate statistical inference techniques in the context of applied research
questions in data science. Assuming some prior exposure to probability and statistics, this course will
first introduce the student to the principles of Bayesian inference, then apply them in estimation and
prediction in the context of linear and generalized linear models, counting and classification, mixture and
multilevel models, including scientific computation (like MCMC methods). Students will also learn
about the main benefits of using Bayesian vs. frequentist methods, like naturally combining prior
information with the data; posterior probabilities as easier to interpret alternatives to p-values; parameter
estimation “pooling” in hierarchical model and so on.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MTWR 1:30 p.m.-3:05 p.m.
• Instructor: Dobrin Marchev
  Info
• 3 points

FICTION & PERSONAL NARRATIVE

Writing sample required to apply to the course. Please send a writing sample of up to 5 pages of prose (double spaced) to 
awatson@barnard.edu
. 

Spring 2026: Fiction and Personal Narrative: Crafting the Narrative "I"

In this workshop, we will practice taking creative risks, writing fiction and nonfiction. We will examine four key craft areas: voice, characterization, imagery, and arrangement, both in contemporary published writing and in the writing of the people in this class. In small and large group workshops, we will consider each writer’s work with care and attention to the writer’s vision. By discussing each work-in-progress on its own terms, we will help our fellow writers deepen the meaning and impact of their work. Through risk-taking, and building a creative community, we will also grow and deepen our personal relationships to craft. Model readings will be contemporary short stories or personal essays, mostly written in the first person, including work by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Tony Tulathimutte, K-Ming Chang, Cleyvis Natera, Melissa Febos, Ling Ma, and Deesha Philyaw.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexandra P Watson
  CULPA: 16 Info
• 3 points

Software Quality and Design

Clean Object-Oriented Des

A course in designing, implementing, testing, and documenting high quality software. Focuses on software quality aspects such as reliability, efficiency, security, flexibility, and changeability. Introduces students to best-practice software design principles and patterns, as well as standard software testing techniques. Taught in Java.

• Department: Computer Science
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Chris Murphy
  Info
• 3 points

Undergraduate Mentored Research

Prerequisites: the project mentors permission. This course provides a mechanism for students who undertake research with a faculty member from the Department of Statistics to receive academic credit. Students seeking research opportunities should be proactive and entrepreneurial: identify congenial faculty whose research is appealing, let them know of your interest and your background and skills.

• Department: Statistics
• Instructor: Daniel Rabinowitz
  CULPA: 19 h-index: 34 Info
• 3 points

Undergraduate Mentored Research

Prerequisites: the project mentors permission. This course provides a mechanism for students who undertake research with a faculty member from the Department of Statistics to receive academic credit. Students seeking research opportunities should be proactive and entrepreneurial: identify congenial faculty whose research is appealing, let them know of your interest and your background and skills.

• Department: Statistics
• Instructor: Daniel Rabinowitz
  CULPA: 19 h-index: 34 Info
• 3 points

Democracy: Theory & Practice

The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of constitutive debates over the theory and practice of democracy along three major lines: democracy as a word (with a time-honored ancestry and a tortuous trajectory across the centuries); democracy as a constellation of principles and values; and democracy as an array of institutions and procedures that instantiate the word and pursue the foundational principles of popular sovereignty and democratic self-rule. In doing so, we will read the work of major representatives of historical and contemporary political thought who assessed democracy’s shortcomings and potential, examined the relationship between its theory and its practice, and offered prominent resources for thinking about democracy’s future in our present.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: David Ragazzoni
  Info
• 3 points

HISTORY OF CAPITALISM

Capitalism shapes every aspect of our daily lives. Thinkers on both the left and the right of the political spectrum agree that capitalism structures our economic, social, and political relationships. Yet, there is little agreement as to the definition of capitalism and its normative implications. The definition and interpretation of capitalism differs across time and space, always evolving in response to challenges, crises, and contradictions. The aim of this course is to provide students with analytical tools to think critically and historically about the concept of capitalism. By studying how philosophers, economists, and political theorists have defined and described the concept of capitalism throughout its history (from the early seventeenth century to the present), students will be provided with a set of terminologies and analytical frameworks that enable them to interrogate the various dimensions of capitalism. The readings in the course are selected to illustrate the fact that capitalism has always been controversial. We will read texts authored by both proponents and critics of capitalism. We will explore how various canonical figures have thought about private property, markets, money, economic growth, injustice, inequality, alienation, and socialism.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Carl Wennerlind
  CULPA: 30 Info
• 4 points

DATA STRUCTURES IN JAVA

Data types and structures: arrays, stacks, singly and doubly linked lists, queues, trees, sets, and graphs. Programming techniques for processing such structures: sorting and searching, hashing, garbage collection. Storage management. Rudiments of the analysis of algorithms. Taught in Java. Note: Due to significant overlap, students may receive credit for only one of the following three courses: COMS W3134, COMS W3136, COMS W3137.

• Department: Computer Science
• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul S Blaer
  CULPA: 46 h-index: 8 Info
• 3 points

France and the African Diaspora

France/African Diaspora

HIST3136OC. France and the African Diaspora, 3 points.

Insructor:  Frank Guridy, Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies.  

Taught in English. This course also counts as a
Global Core Requirement a
t Columbia University.

This course explores France’s complex racialized colonial history by encouraging students to examine the ways the country helped constitute a racialized colonial empire and the ways it created the conditions the conditions to challenge it. The course encourages students to contemplate how France has figured into the creation of the African Diaspora and how diasporic movements for freedom have shaped France. The course will build upon the concept of vernacular landscapes to encourage students to examine how these histories are memorialized, or not, in France today. Topics to be explored will include: the impact of slavery on France, including its port cities including Nantes; the intertwined character of the French and Haitian Revolutions; the convergence of anti-colonial movements in Paris during the interwar period and beyond, and the experiences of Black expatriates in the country during the twentieth century. The course’s location at Reid Hall in Paris will give students ample opportunities to students to examine the reciprocal impact between France and decolonization and freedom movements.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the 
Columbia Summer in Paris: English Track
 program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).  
Global Learning Scholarships available.
  
Tuition 
charges apply. 

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Session Terms. Visit the 
UGE
 website for the start and end dates for the Columbia in Summer in Paris program.

Please email uge@columbia.edu with any questions you may have.

• Department: Global Programs
• 3 points

How the Ancients Argued: The Global Rhet

Long before Aristotle’s Rhetoric and far from Athens and Rome, rhetoricians were teaching people how to communicate powerfully in politics, the law, and the street. This course surveys the ancient rhetorics of Egypt, China, the Americas, and the Arab world. We will examine a body of primary texts from 2,300 B.C.E. to 1,500 C.E. that teach people to wield language effectively.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Susan Mendelsohn
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 4 points

ADVANCED PROGRAMMING

C programming language and Unix systems programming. Also covers Git, Make, TCP/IP networking basics, C++ fundamentals.

• Department: Computer Science
• TR 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Brian Borowski
  Info
• 4 points

DISCRETE MATHEMATICS

Logic and formal proofs, sequences and summation, mathematical induction, binomial coefficients, elements of finite probability, recurrence relations, equivalence relations and partial orderings, and topics in graph theory (including isomorphism, traversability, planarity, and colorings).

• Department: Computer Science
• TR 10:10 a.m.-1:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi
  CULPA: 21 h-index: 16 Info
• 4 points

JUDICIAL POLITICS

This political science course provides an introduction to the politics of judges, courts, and law in the United States.  We will evaluate law and courts as political institutions and judges as political actors and policy-makers.

The topics we will study include what courts do; how different legal systems function; the operation of legal norms; the U.S. judicial system; the power of courts; constraints on judicial power; judicial review; the origin of judicial institutions; how and why Supreme Court justices make the decisions they do; case selection; conflict between the Court and the other branches of government; decision making and conflict within the judicial hierarchy; the place of courts in American political history; and judicial appointments.

We will explore some common but not necessarily true claims about how judges make decisions and the role of courts.  One set of myths sees judges as unbiased appliers of neutral law, finding law and never making it, with ideology, biography, and politics left at the courthouse door. Another set of myths sees the judiciary as the “least dangerous branch,” making law, not policy, without real power or influence.

Our thematic questions will be:  How much power and discretion do judges have in the U.S?  What drives their decision-making?

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey R Lax
  CULPA: 32 h-index: 22 Info
• 3 points

PAINTING I

This is an intensive, six-week class moving from the basics of paint materials, techniques, issues of color, light, narrative and most of all representation. Students will begin working from still life set-ups in the studio and gradually move towards more ambitious approaches including figure painting from a model. Towards the end of the class students will be encouraged to work on a project or projects that more closely reflect their personal ideas.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TWR 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Sarah Huffard
  Info
• 3 points

INTERMEDIATE MACROECONOMICS

Prerequisites: MATH UN1101 and ECON UN1105 or the equivalent; one term of calculus. Corequisites: MATH UN1201. This course covers the determination of output, employment, inflation and interest rates. Topics include economic growth, business cycles, monetary and fiscal policy, consumption and savings and national income accounting.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 10:20 a.m.-11:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Rodrigo C Pacheco
  Info
• 4 points

WRITING ABOUT ART

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. 

This course will introduce students to writing about visual art. We will take our models from art history and contemporary art discourse, and students will be prompted to write with and about current art exhibitions and events throughout the city. The modes of art writing we will encounter include: the practice of ekphrasis (poems which describe or derive their inspiration from a work of art); writers such as John Ashbery, Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and others who for periods of their life held positions as art critics while composing poetry and works of fiction; writers such as Etel Adnan, Susan Howe, and Renee Gladman who have produced literature and works of art in equal measure. We will also look at artists who have written essays and poetry throughout their careers such as Robert Smithson, Glenn Ligon, Gregg Bordowitz, Moyra Davey, and Hannah Black, and consider both the visual qualities of writing and the ways that visual artists have used writing in their work. Lastly, we will consider what it means to write through a “milieu” of visual artists, such as those associated with the New York School and Moscow Conceptualism. Throughout the course students will produce original works and complete a final writing project that enriches, complicates, and departs from their own interests and preoccupations.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1:30 p.m.-4:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas A Donovan
  Info
• 3 points

SHAKESPEARE

This course provides an introduction to Shakespeare through a combination of reading his plays and viewing them in performance. On the one hand, we approach each play as a written, published text: our in-class conversation consist primarily in close analysis of key passages, and, in one class period, we visit Rare Books to examine the earliest printed versions of the plays in light of English Renaissance print technology. On the other hand, we view performances of each assigned play, including the attendance as a group of at least one Shakespeare production on an NYC stage. Our semester’s through line is to trace, from his earliest plays to Hamlet, Shakespeare’s remarkable development of the techniques of characterization that have made generations of both playgoers and readers feel that his dramatis personae are so modern, real, human. We will also devote attention to exploring the value of each play in our present moment and on our local stages. We read 8 plays in all, including Titus Andronicus, Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Douglas S Pfeiffer
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

GLOBAL HISTORIES OF THE BOOK

This class will consider the idea and history of “the book” through history and around the world.  Its primary objective is to introduce students to major topics and questions in “book history” while working to 1) resist the discipline’s traditional interest in modern European print culture and 2) situate that interest in global and transhistorical contexts.

Learning about the histories of books and writing in different eras and parts of the world will go hand-in-hand with critical examinations of how and why those histories have been periodized and narrativized the way they have.  Although “book” is a technological category, we will consider how helpful technological narratives and comparisons of book practice and culture are.  We will also engage not only in transhistorical and transnational comparisons of book culture and practice, but also examine the global book as a postcolonial phenomenon, marked by patterns of influence, appropriation and imposition across time and space.

This course will perforce be not comprehensive but instead oriented around case studies: we will be unable to examine every stage of every nation’s book history in detail.  Rather, we will focus on objects and scholarly case studies that illuminate both the history and methods involved, and on productive points of contact.  We will visit libraries and examine books both in person and through virtual simulacra.

What does it mean to tell “global” histories of the book?  For our purposes, it means not assuming that the terms, categories, or periods of modern western book history should be definitive for other times and places.  It also means examining the way that book cultures participated in and were shaped by patterns of exchange, conquest and colonization.  We will explore points of contact across time as well as space.

By the end of the semester, students will be able to speak to the history of the book across several cultures and linguistic traditions, speak comparatively to dimensions of book practice in two cultures, and be able to present the history and comparative dimensions of a chosen object from Columbia’s special collections. Students will also become acquainted with the use of special collections libraries.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Joseph A Howley
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

Food & Society in Global Cities

Food Society in Global Ci

Culinary practices are intricate to how urban spaces are experienced in everyday life. This course explores the nuanced ways food practices transform global cities worldwide. It investigates how personal preferences of food shape social, cultural, and spatial boundaries. Throughout the course, students will analyze urban spaces in global cities from an intersectionality theory of capitalism lens to consider how power structures shape culinary practices in terms of race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, class, ethnicity, language, religion, caste, ability, and diet. For instance, immigrant cooking and eating practices help define ethnic enclaves. And gourmet food trucks for the middle-class can become tropes for spurring gentrification. Analyzing global North and South cities, course themes focus on the politics of street food, food trucks, restaurants, markets, farmers’ markets, food deserts, food assistance programs, urban farming and agriculture, gastronomic gentrification, and food delivery services. This course comprises a mixture of active teaching strategies, short lectures, a film, and several field trips throughout New York City. By the end of the course, students will garner a deep understanding of how food and societies influence, and are shaped by, contemporary global cities.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Noah Allison
  Info
• 3 points

Food & Society in Global Cities

Food Society in Global Ci

Culinary practices are intricate to how urban spaces are experienced in everyday life. This course explores the nuanced ways food practices transform global cities worldwide. It investigates how personal preferences of food shape social, cultural, and spatial boundaries. Throughout the course, students will analyze urban spaces in global cities from an intersectionality theory of capitalism lens to consider how power structures shape culinary practices in terms of race, gender, sexuality, citizenship, class, ethnicity, language, religion, caste, ability, and diet. For instance, immigrant cooking and eating practices help define ethnic enclaves. And gourmet food trucks for the middle-class can become tropes for spurring gentrification. Analyzing global North and South cities, course themes focus on the politics of street food, food trucks, restaurants, markets, farmers’ markets, food deserts, food assistance programs, urban farming and agriculture, gastronomic gentrification, and food delivery services. This course comprises a mixture of active teaching strategies, short lectures, a film, and several field trips throughout New York City. By the end of the course, students will garner a deep understanding of how food and societies influence, and are shaped by, contemporary global cities.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Noah Allison
  Info
• 3 points

COMPUTER SCIENCE THEORY

Regular languages: deterministic and non-deterministic finite automata, regular expressions. Context-free languages: context-free grammars, push-down automata. Turing machines, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the Church-Turing thesis. Introduction to Complexity Theory and NP-Completeness.

• Department: Computer Science
• MW 10:10 a.m.-1:20 p.m.
• Instructor: Xi Chen
  CULPA: 7 Wikipedia h-index: 64 Info
• 3 points

MONEY AND BANKING

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Ritsu Kitagawa
  Info
• Instructor: A. Vivette Ancona
  Info
• 3 points

WALT WHITMAN AND NEW YORK

Walt Whitman was not the first to write about New York. But he was the first of many to let New York write him. By age 43, Whitman had composed most of his best poetry, published three editions of Leaves of Grass, and left New York only twice. How did the second son of an unsuccessful farmer, a grammar school dropout and hack writer become America’s greatest poet? This course offers a response to this perennial mystery of literary scholarship by proposing that “Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son” was indeed a product of his environment. Coming of age as a writer at the same time the city was emerging as a great metropolis, he received his education and inspiration from New York itself. Course time is equally divided between discussions of Whitman’s antebellum poetry, journalism, and prose (including the newly recovered Life and Adventures of Jack Engle) in their cultural and geographical contexts, and on-site explorations that retread Whitman’s footsteps through Brooklyn and his beloved Mannahatta. Experiential learning is further encouraged through assignments based in archives, museums, and at historic sites throughout the city.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Karen Karbiener
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

VOTING AND AMERICAN POLITICS

This course explores causes and effects of political behavior in the United States. “Political behavior” is a broad concept, and can include many areas of engagement with civic life. As we consider “behavior,” we must also take on its foundations: Public opinion, ideology, and partisanship. We will focus primarily on mass politics—beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of ordinary citizens rather than of activists or elites—in the United States. However, we will also explore some effects of elite behavior on mass behavior. We will also focus on the interconnections between social structure, culture, and politics. In short, this course will focus on developing an understanding of the mechanisms that drive voting and other political behaviors in the United States.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Yamil R Velez
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 8 Info
• 3 points

IND STUDIES-CIVIL ENGIN-SENIOR

A project on civil engineering subjects approved by the chairman of the department.

• Department: Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
• Instructor: Xuan Di
  h-index: 15 Info
• 1-3 points

Third-Year Chinese I

Welcome to the Third Year Chinese course, designed for students who have completed two years of college-level Chinese or have equivalent proficiency. This course deepens your mastery of the Chinese language while exploring its rich cultural traditions. Through a variety of classical and contemporary texts, engage with literature, history, philosophy, and social issues that have shaped Chinese society. Strengthen your ability to interpret complex texts, distinguish between spoken and written styles, and communicate ideas clearly and confidently in both academic and real-world contexts. By connecting long-standing traditions with contemporary society, this course enhances advanced language skills while fostering cultural understanding and meaningful engagement with the language.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MTWRF 10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Jia Xu
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 5 points

Sustainable Communities in Ecuador: What

SUSTAINABLE COMMUN. IN EC

Indigenous people in Ecuador, which represent about 7% of the Ecuadorian population (United Nations, 2015), are disproportionately poor compared with the rest of the population. In 2008 the country embarked on an effort to improve their situation by creating and approving a new constitution. Despite all of these efforts, indigenous people continue to struggle in Ecuador. For indigenous women specially the battle goes beyond the economic hardship, as they face domestic violence and abuse in a daily basis. 

The proposed course is designed to provide students with a unique one-to-one interaction with Spanish native speakers in three different sites: the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest Reservation of Papallacta, the Reservation of Mandaripanga, and the Runatupari Community in the Andean Region of Ecuador.  It aims to:

1. Explore, learn and document the work some indigenous groups have been doing since the new constitution was approved back in 2008.

2. Provide students with a service-learning opportunity working hand in hand when possible with women community leaders at the different sites.

3. Learn about how their communities work to preserve their resources and maintain a sustainable culture.

4. Immerse themselves in the Spanish language and culture by interacting, sharing, and living with native Spanish speakers.

5. Have student produce a focused final essay linking the key concepts from the readings and their lived experiences in the communities visited.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• Instructor: Maria E Lozano
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

Introduction to and analysis of major myths in classical literature. Topics include the changing attitudes and applications of myth from Greek epic to tragedy, as well as modern approaches to myth. Readings include Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. All readings in English.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Melody A Wauke
  Info
• 3 points

The Story, She Told: Women's Autofiction

In her 1975 essay
The Laughter of Medusa
, Hélène Cixous compared women’s writing—in French, “écriture féminine”—to the unexplored African continent. To date, literary criticism has been grappling with the distinct qualities of literary works, crafted by women. This course offers a survey of main autofictional works and memoirs, written originally in the Russian language within the last 100 years. We will start our journey with the tumults of the WW1 and the Bolshevik Revolution, the Civil War, through the WW2, the Soviet dissident movement, the emigration waves into Israel and the United States, the advent of a post-socialist Russia in 1991—in order to arrive at the two plus decades of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. We will consider  the ways in which each author transposes and conveys her own—and others’ memories—through the medium of autofiction, defined by Serge Doubrovsky, who coined the term in French, as “the adventure of the language, outside of wisdom and the syntax of the novel.” All selected works, with very few exceptions, are available in English;  no reading knowledge of Russian is required. No prerequisites.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Alex Pekov
  Info
• 3 points

MUSIC IN EAST ASIA

A topical approach to the concepts and practices of music in relation to other arts in the development of Asian civilizations.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Laina Dawes
  Info
• Instructor: Thomas T Wetmore
  Info
• 3 points

MUSICS OF INDIA & WEST ASIA

A topical approach to the concepts and practices of music in relation to other arts in the development of Asian civilizations.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4 p.m.
• MW 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Nina Fukuoka
  Info
• Instructor: Alessandra M Ciucci
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Baroque Masters at the Met: Bernini, Vel

This course examines three masters of European Baroque art—Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)—artists who are all well represented in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through classroom discussions and museum visits, we will examine Baroque art as part of a continuing and developing accumulation of forms and ideas throughout the 17th century, and consider the impact these artists had on their contemporaries and in ensuing centuries. Roughly half of the class sessions take place at The Metropolitan Museum, a luxury that allows for close, firsthand analysis of art, but it is not an art appreciation course. It is a history course concerned with the study of ideas, artists, and visual facts and their application to emerging art forms within their cultural-historical context. In addition to developing a critical eye, the class is intended to cultivate analytical thinking and communication skills as well as knowledge of the subject matter.

No background in art history is necessary to do well in this course, but students are expected to read and listen closely and to write thoughtfully. Attendance is crucial. Students who attend class, take notes, and read everything will have no difficulty earning a satisfactory grade. Above all, never hesitate to ask questions and see me during office hours.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Lindsey P Schneider
  Info
• 3 points

ANCIENT AND MODERN OLYMPICS

CLCV3330OC:  
ANCIENT AND MODERN OLYMPICS, 3 points 

Instructors: Paraskevi Martzavou, Lecturer in the Discipline of Classics, Department of Classics and Lien Van Geel, Lecturer in the Discipline of Classics, Department of Classics

This course introduces students to classical sports and its many aspects, from literary representations to geography and material culture. The choice of Athens as the location will allow the course to be enriched by extending the classroom experience to local museums, exhibits and multiple venues of the Olympic and Panhellenic Games. The interdisciplinary approach will allow students to explore the history and impact of ancient sports in conjunction with questions about sports and political and cultural identity and significance. An essential aspect of the course is the reception of athletic competitions in modern times, the Olympic movement, and the modern Olympics and Paralympic Games as a cultural, political, economic, and social phenomenon centered on the celebration of life, of diversity, and of inclusivity. ​



Course satisfies the Reception and Comparative Study requirement in the Classical & Ancient Civilizations and Classical Reception and the Classical Tradition tracks. May also satisfy the General Breadth requirement for other Classics tracks.



Pending approval to meet the requirements of the Global Core



Students may check with their departments to understand if this course can meet major/minor requirements.



To enroll in this course, you must apply to the 
Columbia Summer Global Core in Athens: Ancient and Modern Olympics
 program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).  
Global Learning Scholarships available.
  Tuition charges apply. 

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Session Terms. Visit the 
UGE
 website for the start and end dates for the Columbia Summer Global Core in Athens: Ancient and Modern Olympics program.

Please email uge@columbia.edu with any questions you may have.

• Department: Global Programs
• 3 points

LOCAL DEMOCRACY

Although the media focuses on national politics, local government, policy, and electoral politics are critically important around the world. Local governments in the U.S., for example, manage the police, determine housing policies, provide basic public services such as garbage collection and water and sanitation; and implement national policies from welfare programs to climate change. Local governments in developing countries like India also have substantial powers including the implementation of large programs for the poor, deciding where a road will be built, and helping citizens access a distant and often unresponsive state. In this class, we will examine local democracies, or elected local governments, in a diverse array of contexts in developed and developing democracies. Unlike a course that examines one city in-depth, this course will identify patterns in local representation and policy across contexts with different institutions, demographics, and levels of development (e.g., US vs India).

This six-week course is also unique in that it has a focus on New York City itself. We will have opportunities to have experiences in NYC related to local democracy. All students will attend a city council or neighborhood council meeting and take notes on what you see and hear. We will meet organizers of local campaigns and/or local activists participating in local issues specific to NYC. And we will have a field assignment where you explore an issue in NYC government. We will explore the following questions:


What do local governments do and how does this vary across contexts?

“Who governs” at the local level—that is, what types of people run for and hold office, and what types of individuals, social groups, institutions, or interest groups influence local government decisions? 

When is local democracy most responsive to poor and marginalized groups? Specifically, in what types of social and political contexts does local democracy work best for the poor? 

What explains variation in policy outcomes (housing, policing, public services, climate efforts) across towns in the US and across contexts?

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Mark A Schneider
  Info
• 3 points

LOCAL DEMOCRACY

Although the media focuses on national politics, local government, policy, and electoral politics are critically important around the world. Local governments in the U.S., for example, manage the police, determine housing policies, provide basic public services such as garbage collection and water and sanitation; and implement national policies from welfare programs to climate change. Local governments in developing countries like India also have substantial powers including the implementation of large programs for the poor, deciding where a road will be built, and helping citizens access a distant and often unresponsive state. In this class, we will examine local democracies, or elected local governments, in a diverse array of contexts in developed and developing democracies. Unlike a course that examines one city in-depth, this course will identify patterns in local representation and policy across contexts with different institutions, demographics, and levels of development (e.g., US vs India).

This six-week course is also unique in that it has a focus on New York City itself. We will have opportunities to have experiences in NYC related to local democracy. All students will attend a city council or neighborhood council meeting and take notes on what you see and hear. We will meet organizers of local campaigns and/or local activists participating in local issues specific to NYC. And we will have a field assignment where you explore an issue in NYC government. We will explore the following questions:


What do local governments do and how does this vary across contexts?

“Who governs” at the local level—that is, what types of people run for and hold office, and what types of individuals, social groups, institutions, or interest groups influence local government decisions? 

When is local democracy most responsive to poor and marginalized groups? Specifically, in what types of social and political contexts does local democracy work best for the poor? 

What explains variation in policy outcomes (housing, policing, public services, climate efforts) across towns in the US and across contexts?

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 5:30 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Mark A Schneider
  Info
• 3 points

Anatomy with Laboratory

This is an intermediate lecture plus laboratory course focusing on using virtual reality to study human anatomy. Selected topics will emphasize physiological function and cellular mechanisms. The course is organized around a systems-based framework to the study of human anatomy. Lectures will also emphasize the clinical correlates and case studies of disease. All anatomical systems will be explored using a virtual reality laboratory. Potential examples include the skeletal, muscular, arterial, venous, lymphatic, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, endocrine, reproductive, and integumentary systems. This course engages students with the contemporary and emerging field of virtual reality. Students will use and critically analyze advanced virtual and augmented reality technologies through scientific analysis and experimentation. This course will also expose students to empirical analysis and structural models of anatomy for problem solving. Students will develop basic competence in the use of deductive methods involving biological mechanisms of clinical disease.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Jj L Miranda
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

Anatomy with Laboratory

This is an intermediate lecture plus laboratory course focusing on using virtual reality to study human anatomy. Selected topics will emphasize physiological function and cellular mechanisms. The course is organized around a systems-based framework to the study of human anatomy. Lectures will also emphasize the clinical correlates and case studies of disease. All anatomical systems will be explored using a virtual reality laboratory. Potential examples include the skeletal, muscular, arterial, venous, lymphatic, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, endocrine, reproductive, and integumentary systems. This course engages students with the contemporary and emerging field of virtual reality. Students will use and critically analyze advanced virtual and augmented reality technologies through scientific analysis and experimentation. This course will also expose students to empirical analysis and structural models of anatomy for problem solving. Students will develop basic competence in the use of deductive methods involving biological mechanisms of clinical disease.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• TR 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Jj L Miranda
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

Bilingual Minds: Language, Brain & Cultu

This discussion-based seminar explores how bilingualism shapes the developing brain, cognitive processes, communication, and cultural identity. Students will engage with research from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology to understand how bilingual experiences differ across individuals, communities, and cultures. Through weekly reflections and student-led discussions, we will examine both foundational theories and contemporary debates, including the bilingual advantage, code-switching, gesture, neuroplasticity, language socialization, bilingualism in autism, and sociopolitical dimensions of bilingualism.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Armita Ghobadi
  Info
• 4 points

Bilingual Minds: Language, Brain & Cultu

This discussion-based seminar explores how bilingualism shapes the developing brain, cognitive processes, communication, and cultural identity. Students will engage with research from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and anthropology to understand how bilingual experiences differ across individuals, communities, and cultures. Through weekly reflections and student-led discussions, we will examine both foundational theories and contemporary debates, including the bilingual advantage, code-switching, gesture, neuroplasticity, language socialization, bilingualism in autism, and sociopolitical dimensions of bilingualism.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Instructor: Armita Ghobadi
  Info
• 4 points

TOPICS IN NEUROETHICS

Prerequisites: BC1001 and one of the following: Neurobiology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Recent advancements in neuroscience raise profound ethical questions. Neuroethics integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and ethics in an attempt to address these issues. Reviews current debated topics relevant to the brain, cognition, and behavior. Bioethical and philosophical principles will be applied allowing students to develop skill in ethical analysis.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: E'Mett McCaskill
  CULPA: 38 Info
• 4 points

TOPICS IN NEUROETHICS

Prerequisites: BC1001 and one of the following: Neurobiology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Recent advancements in neuroscience raise profound ethical questions. Neuroethics integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and ethics in an attempt to address these issues. Reviews current debated topics relevant to the brain, cognition, and behavior. Bioethical and philosophical principles will be applied allowing students to develop skill in ethical analysis.

• Department: BARNARD SUMMER PROGRAMS
• MW 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: E'Mett McCaskill
  CULPA: 38 Info
• 4 points

PRINTMAKING I

Introduction to the fundamentals of silkscreen techniques. Students gain familiarity with the technical processes of silkscreen and are encouraged to use the processes to develop their visual language. Students are involved in a great deal of drawing for assigned projects. Portfolio required at end.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 6:15 p.m.-9:25 p.m.
• MW 6:15 p.m.-9:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeannie Rhyu
  Info
• Instructor: Alejandro Valencia
  Info
• 3 points

INTRO TO ECONOMETRICS

Prerequisites: STAT UN1201 Intro to Stats w/Calculus, MATH UN1201 Calculus III, and either intermediate micro or macro (UN3211 or UN3213). Equivalent to ECON UN3412. Modern econometric methods, the general linear statistical model and its extensions, simultaneous equations and the identification problem, time series problems, forecasting methods, extensive practice with the analysis of different types of data.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 10:20 a.m.-11:55 a.m.
• Instructor: Seyhan Erden
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 4 points

INTRO TO ECONOMETRICS-DIS

Required discussion section for ECON UN3412: Intro to Econometrics

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• R 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
• 0 points

Paris l autre: a city in history, film

PARIS L'AUTRE

FREN3419OC: 
Paris l’autre
: A City in History, Film and Fiction, 3 credits
Instructor 
Thomas Dodman
, Associate Professor of French, Columbia University. 
Taught in French.

This intensive, five-week class explores lived experiences and ficFonal representaFons of Paris
in the Nineteenth and TwenFeth Centuries. Behind the hackneyed moFf of the city of love, Paris
is also the quintessenFal capital of modernity, the site of countless urban imaginaries to
discover in books, on the screen, or at a café table. The city has a rich revoluFonary heritage
and is home to innumerable upstarts and immigrants who came to the capital to “make it” (or
not). Every street is also a site of memory (and forgeRng), where the most mundane aspects of
everyday life coexist with dreams and nightmares of urban renewal. Each week we will explore
these different facets to the city, its people and built environment through historical lectures,
novels by Victor Hugo and Virgine Despentes, films by Jean-Luc Godard and Ladj Ly, as well as
visits to museums, landmarks, and an arFst studios or a subway seat from which to observe
Parisian life with Patrick Modiano and Annie Ernaux.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the
 
Columbia Summer in Paris
: French Immersion Track
 program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).  
Global Learning Scholarships available.
  Tuition charges apply. 

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Session Terms. Visit the 
UGE
 website for the start and end dates for the Columbia in Summer in Paris program. Please email uge@columbia.edu with any questions you may have.

• Department: Global Programs
• Instructor: Thomas Dodman
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

JACKSON POLLOCK & THE NY SCHOOL

Coming on the heels of the MoMA's blockbuster exhibit, this seminar will trace the rise and fall of Abstract Expressionism, from its pre-World War II precipitates in Europe (Surrealism) and in America (Regionalism), to the crucial moment when, as scholar Serge Guilbaut has argued, New York 'stole' the idea of modern art, and finally, through the decade when Pop Art rendered Abstract Expressionism obsolete. Although special emphasis will be given to Jackson Pollock, whose persona and work reside at the literal and figurative center of the movement, we will also look closely at works by Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Willem DeKooning, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Eva Hesse, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly. Class lectures and presentations will be supplemented with trips to New York's world-renowned museums.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Kent M Minturn
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

CONTEMPORARY ART AND ARCHITECTURE AT THE

ART/ARCH VENICE BIENNALE

AHIS3431 Contemporary Art and Architecture at the Venice Biennale. 3 points

Prerequisites: None

Instructor:  Julia Bryan-Wilson

This course introduces the relationship between contemporary artistic practices and the Venice Biennale. The Biennale has become one of the most important international contemporary art and architecture fairs. This course will expose students to the historical, political, and cultural developments linked to the biennale from its inception in 1895 to present day. In addition to regular class meetings with slide lectures and seminar-style discussion in the classroom, students will visit exhibition spaces located in the historical pavilions of the giardini (fair gardens), the arsenale (a 16th century warehouse space now used to host sections of this contemporary art installations), and other temporary venues located throughout the city as we investigate not only the art, but also the unique spaces in which we encounter it. Beyond a focus on the history of the Venice Biennale, the course will introduce some of the key concepts of contemporary art as they have developed in the past three or so decades.

Counts toward the Art History Major/Concentration at Columbia.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the
 
Columbia in Venice
 
program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE).
 
Global Learning Scholarship
 available. 
Tuition
 charges apply.

Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Sessions Terms. Visit the
UGE

website for the start and end dates for the Columbia in Venice program.

• Department: Global Programs
• Instructor: Julia Bryan-Wilson
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Prenatal Programming

This seminar course will focus on the
impact of the prenatal period in programming lifelong health and development through
altering physiology starting from the molecular level.

We will start by defining the characteristics of the prenatal period and discuss history
and perspectives related to developmental programming. As our first main theme, we
will continue with discussing the effects of this developmental programming on
lifelong health and developmental outcomes. As the second main theme, we will cover
the physiological mechanisms underlying prenatal programming by focusing on the
changes in the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. As our third main theme, we
will further go into the molecular mechanisms associated with these physiological
changes, including epigenetic mechanisms and their potential intergenerational
transmission. We will end with discussing more recent topics in the field together with
policy implications of the topics discussed during the semester.

By covering these topics, students are expected to gain a better understanding of a) how
our physiology, behavior and health is programmed starting from the prenatal period,
b) the mechanisms of prenatal programming, and c) the impact of prenatal
programming on our perspective on the prenatal environment. With this, the students
are expected to place behavior and health in a lifelong perspective with potential
intergenerational effects.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• MW 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Elif A Duman
  Info
• 3 points

NYC AND THE HISTORY OF MUSEUM

This course will introduce students to the history of museums and display practices through New York collections. The birth of the museum as a constitutive element of modernity coincides with the establishment of European nation states. Throughout the course of the nineteenth century, museums were founded in major European and American cities to classify objects, natural and manmade, from plants and fossils to sculpture and clothing. This course presents the alternate art history that can be charted through an examination of the foundation and development of museums from cabinets of curiosity to the collection-less new museums currently being built in the Middle East and beyond. We will consider broad thematic issues such as nationalism, colonialism, canon formation, the overlapping methods of anthropology and art history, and the notion of 'framing' from the architectural superstructure to exhibition design. We will visit a wide variety of museums from the American Museum of Natural History to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum as in-depth case studies of more general concepts. Students will have the opportunity to meet museum educators, conservators and curators through on site teaching in a variety of institutions.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Risham Majeed
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

American Art at the Met, 1750 1914

American Art, 1750-1914

Through an examination of painting, sculpture, decorative arts, photography. fashion and visual culture of the United States from 1750 to 1914, the course will explore how American artists responded to and operated within the wider world, while grappling with issues of identity at home. Addressing themes shared in common across national boundaries, the class will consider how American art participated in the revolutions and reforms of the "long" nineteenth century, and how events of the period continue to impact our country today. The period witnessed the emergence of new technologies for creating, using and circulating images and objects, the expansion and transformation of exhibition and viewing practices, and the rise of new artistic institutions, as well as the metamorphosis of the United States from its colonial origins to that of a world power, including the radical changes that occurred during the Civil War.  With many sessions taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the class will investigate how American art engaged with international movements while constructing national identity during a period of radical transformation both at home and abroad.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 9 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Page S Knox
  CULPA: 14 Info
• 4 points

Theories, Methods, and Experiments in Ar

Theories in Art and AI

The use of artificial intelligence—propelled by deep learning techniques—to analyze, curate, and generate digital images is having a profound influence on visual culture, one that well exceeds Jacques Derrida's anticipations of the effects of technology on society as he described them in Archive Fever. While regulation around emerging technologies such as AI is being formulated across the globe with much urgency, a problematic concept of “tech ethics” is being espoused by the leading technology companies that imposes a simplistic moralistic framework on potential policies. Through examination of the creative applications of AI, the aim of this seminar is to foster a nuanced critical discourse on AI art that places the ethics of emerging technologies at center stage. This course provides students with an introduction to the history of AI art and explores the challenges and opportunities that this burgeoning field faces, especially in regard to the regulation of technology. Class visits to Mercer Labs, Artechouse, MoMA, and the Whitney will allow students to directly engage with the core concepts of the seminar.

The course begins with reflection on Adorno’s prescient statement that technical rationality is “the rationality of domination,” and challenges both the cynicism and optimism around emerging technologies and their effect on visual culture. We will question the accountability that art history and other fields of study have, if any, to steer the ethics debates spurred by today’s “culture industry” of digital images, and ask what the custodianship of this space entails by examining its structures of power, conveyed visually or through automated processes enabled by computer vision science. By interrogating the socio-cultural effects of the use of machine learning on images—such as algorithmic biases that lend to discrimination, or surveillance and privacy concerns in regard to facial recognition technologies—new and diverse perspectives on visual culture are investigated. Although the mechanisms that enable technology to develop may be lending to the commodification and homogenization of visual culture, the seemingly democratic promises that big tech touts keep us captivated yet surprisingly uncritical. If the transformative role of AI on our visual culture is constituting a new type of archaeology of knowledge, how do we critically lend to its discourse through the theories, methods, and experiments surrounding art and AI?

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Emily Spratt
  Info
• 3 points

GLOBAL HIST OF THE US MILITARY

America's wars in context, from early conflicts to current hostilities with Iran. This course charts the expansion of U.S. military power from a band of colonists to a globe-girdling colossus with over 2.1 million personnel, some 750 bases around the world, and an annual budget of almost $1 trillion — more than half of federal discretionary spending, and more than the next nine nations combined. It introduces students to the history of American military power; the economic, political, and technological rise of the military-industrial complex and national security state; the role of the armed services in international humanitarian work; and the changing role of the military in domestic and international politics. A three-point semester-long course, compressed into six weeks; visit 
bobneer.com
 for a complete syllabus.

• Department: Summer Session (SUMM)
• TR 1 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
• Instructor: Robert M Jr Neer
  Info
• 3 points