Since the first Earth Day in 1970, artists have increasingly addressed ecological issues in their work. This trend has magnified greatly in the past two decades. Around the globe, artists are creating artwork that addresses the impact of loss of biodiversity, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, plastic pollution, and the fragility of our shared ecosystems. Their art raises awareness of the need to act collectively, suggesting frameworks for replacing anthropocentric and colonial approaches to nature, and amplifying the urgent need for environmental justice. In this pivotal moment of climate change, artists inspire by cultivating new narratives and giving form to the invisible or unimaginable, demonstrating how art can help awaken resolve and shape our next steps. They invite viewer participation and action, and suggest ways to make a difference. In the process, they expand our potential for empathy and agency.
The cultural sector has an important role to play in shifting attitudes that would lead to developing more sustainable and equitable global futures. Artists focus on both local and global environmental issues, expanding the field of climate change communication and at times offering out-of-the-box solutions. The artists covered in the course are cognizant of the need for systemic social change in order to achieve policy change. Blurring the boundaries between art and activism, many are working collaboratively across disciplines and with various communities to address both the physical and ethical dimensions of sustainability. Others work independently to provide new visions for the future. The course is designed for people who are interested in the contribution that art can play in creating fresh paradigms.
One of the avatars of the Frankfurt School and a key architect of modern critical theory, Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) cast a long intellectual shadow over the twentieth century and left a prolific body of work whose influence has only grown in recent decades. In this seminar, our aim will to be read some of the central works of this German thinker carefully and collaboratively in order to become conversant in some of his chief concerns, methodological interventions, and theoretical contributions. We will pay special attention to his concepts of history, politics, negativity, dialectics, literature, and aesthetic form, while also developing the habits required to engage with complex theoretical work. Given Adorno’s wide span interests and immense influence, any sustained inquiry into his work will necessarily open vistas onto contemporary critical debates. To that end, we will also be examining interventions and dialogues with Adorno by later thinkers such as Edward Said, Gillian Rose, Fred Moten, and Fumi Okiji.
This one-credit seminar is designed for PhD students from any department in any school at Columbia University. We will read contemporary literature and examine case studies on designing, conducting, and communicating research projects that contribute to solutions to climate change and related problems of the Anthropocene. PhD students will have the opportunity to share their research and reflect on how it might contribute to solutions.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course will provide students with a policy-oriented introduction to the American political economy. It will give students frameworks for understanding how governments shape markets (and vice versa); unpack the key institutional venues where “marketcrafting” occurs, including in government, firms, and producer groups (business and labor associations); review key trends and developments in the American political economy, including conflicts around education, worker organizing, and taxes; and examine how to situate the contemporary American political economy in comparative and historical perspective, especially relative to other rich democracies.
Prerequisites: the instructor's written permission. This is a course for Ph.D. students, and for majors in Mathematics. Measure theory; elements of probability; elements of Fourier analysis; Brownian motion.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This seven-week course introduces students to some of the central concepts, theories, and analytical tools used in contemporary social science to understand and explain world politics. The theoretical literature is drawn from different fields in the social sciences, including comparative politics, international relations, political sociology and economics. The course introduces students to debates around race and international relations, state-making and state-failing, authoritarianism and democratization, inequality and models of globalization, America primacy and the “rise of the Asia.”
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course examines the causes of democratic erosion and the emerging challenges posed by artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Students will explore foundational theories of democracy, analyze factors such as polarization and corruption, and assess how AI, misinformation, and digital surveillance shape democratic decline. Through case studies and group projects, the course also considers strategies to strengthen democratic institutions in an age of technological disruption.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
Global Politics & International Organizations
introduces the actors, coalitions, institutions, and processes of global politics. It creates the conceptual foundations for understanding the role of international organizations in today’s multipolar and complex (or, ‘multiplex’) world. It sheds light on how states, non-state actors, and international bureaucracies act within international organizations and how they negotiate international agreements. The discussions will focus on formal and informal decision-making processes, working methods, and power in international relations. It will highlight processes within Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the IMF), as well as at the United Nations, including bargaining processes at the UN Security Council. As a spillover from global politics, the course will also explore the role of international organizations in domestic policymaking processes.
In addition to critical scholarship on international organizations and global governance, the course relies on students’ analysis of relevant proceedings and debates at the UN, original policy documents, as well as expert testimony from a range of guest speakers, who share their extensive first-hand observations as actors of global governance processes. By these means,
Global Politics & International Organizations
offers insights into the processes, challenges, and impacts of activities by international organizations to make global governance regimes stronger, more effective, and hold actors more accountable.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course examines the evolution of American foreign policy within the context of U.S. political institutions, domestic dynamics, and historical experiences. It emphasizes the interplay between foreign and domestic policy, considering how American identity, political culture, and internal debates have shaped international engagement. While grounded in key moments in U.S. history, the course also addresses recent shifts in America's global role and examines the strategic, ideological, and institutional forces that continue to influence foreign policy decisions.
This course offers a comprehensive introduction to mass spectrometry (MS), a state-of-the-art technique widely used in modern chemical and biological research. Students will learn the theoretical principles, practical applications, and data interpretation across various MS techniques. Key topics include ionization methods, mass analyzers, and applications in organic and bio-organic compound analysis.
By the end of the course, students will develop both the theoretical understanding and practical skills needed to design and interpret MS experiments effectively.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course examines the development and dynamics of political parties in the United States, with a focus on the evolution of the two-party system and its influence on American politics and policymaking. Students will explore the historical foundations of party formation, ideological shifts over time, and the distinct roles parties play at national and subnational levels. The course also analyzes the structure and impact of party primaries, as well as recent technological and communication changes that have transformed modern electoral strategy and campaign practices.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course examines the unique challenges and opportunities of the Global South, integrating theoretical frameworks, historical analysis, and contemporary case studies to develop a thorough understanding of how the region confronts and navigates some of the most significant issues shaping its politics and policies. By analyzing diverse political and policy dynamics in the Global South, it encourages students to think globally and recognize interconnectedness across political systems. Over seven weeks, we examine various challenges posed by institutional legacies of colonialism, the rise of populism, democratic backsliding, corruption, and political violence, while also highlighting innovative responses emerging from the Global South through contemporary case studies.
This course will seek to raise and think through the following questions: What does it mean to talk today about a black radical tradition? What has it meant in the past to speak in these (or cognate) terms? And if we take the debate in part at least to inhabit a normative discursive space, an argumentative space in which to make claims on the moral-political present, what ought it to mean to talk about a black radical tradition?
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course offers an introduction to foundational policy topics related to cyberspace, with a focus on how and why cyberspace matters for policymaking more broadly, especially in an international relations context. Over the past several decades, cyberspace has emerged as a critical, crosscutting policy arena, offering challenges and opportunities for practitioners beyond those solely focused on policymaking for cyberspace itself. Therefore, it is important for students preparing for a diverse set of policy careers to develop a basic understanding of core cyber policy issues and how they relate to longstanding policy concerns. In this course, we will examine the implications of cyberspace across a wide range of policy topics, largely through the lens of international politics, covering areas such as the role of cyberspace in diplomacy and global governance, cyber conflict and strategy, the implications of cyberspace for human security, state and local policymaking for cyberspace, and the role of the private sector in cyber policy. In exploring these topics, the course will also illuminate how cyber policy issues relate to a number of SIPA’s global policy challenges—not only technology and innovation. This course also aims to bridge academic and practical understandings of cyberspace. For each topic, we will study the relevant academic literature and debates, while also leveraging real-world case studies to unpack and understand how these issues materialized in policymaking contexts.
MIA and MPA Politics II Core.
This course explores the foundational principles of constitutional democracy in the United States, with a focus on the separation of powers and the evolving balance among the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Through close readings of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, students will examine the revolutionary premise that sovereign power is delegated by the people and limited by design. The course analyzes the structure of checks and balances, the expansion of executive authority, particularly during emergencies, and the role of legislative and judicial oversight. Comparative perspectives on democratic governance in other countries will also be considered.
Classroom simulations will test the limits of authority among the branches, encouraging students to engage in legal and policy reasoning under constitutional constraints. A final policy memo will require students to analyze a contemporary issue, assess institutional powers, and develop grounded recommendations despite imperfect conditions for resolution.
Archaeology is a sprawling, messy discipline and the role that theory does, should, and might play in the process of archaeological data collection, analysis, and interpretation has been highly contested. Archaeologists argue over whether there is such a thing as a stand-alone ‘archaeological theory’ and what kinds of theory from other disciplines should (or should not!) be imported. This course explores a range of recent theoretical conversations, orientations, and interventions within archaeology, with an eye to understanding what is currently at stake – and what is contested – in how archaeologists think about making archaeological knowledge in the contemporary moment. In doing so, this course encourages students to think about theory in archaeology as an important form of “practical knowledge” or “know how” for archaeologists (cf. Lucas 2018).
Prerequisites: CHEM UN2443 , or the equivalent. This is an introductory course to the emerging field macromolecular materials chemistry. The general topics will be based on the chemistry, self-assembly, and performance of block copolymers and conjugated polymers. Particular emphasis will be devoted to the demands required to drive materials from scientific curiosity to commercialization. At the fundamental level, the course will cover topics on polymerization techniques, electronic structure of organic semiconductors, characterization strategies, nanostructures and self-assembly.
This course will cover selected topics in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). There are two main components, with everyone participating in both: papers and projects.
Introduction to queuing analysis and simulation techniques. Evaluation of time-sharing and multiprocessor systems. Topics include priority queuing, buffer storage, and disk access, interference and bus contention problems, and modeling of program behaviors.
This course introduces the legal frameworks, institutions, and advocacy strategies that underpin the international human rights system. With a practitioner’s lens, students will explore civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights through treaties, customary law, and jurisprudence. Emphasis is placed on understanding where and how the law offers avenues for redress, and the evolving role of human rights advocacy in confronting modern challenges, including corporate accountability, gender discrimination, and climate justice.
Students will examine the structure and operation of key international and regional human rights mechanisms, the limits and opportunities of legal enforcement, and the relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The course integrates doctrinal learning with applied analysis through case studies, reflections, and simulations.
Attendance in the first class session is mandatory.
Practical and theoretical issues relating to the teaching of psychology and the psychology of teaching.
MPA Financial Management Core I and II.
This course introduces the principles and practices of financial reporting, with the goal of enabling students to become informed users of financial information in both public and private sector contexts. Emphasis is placed on understanding the three primary financial statements: the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows; and the accounting concepts and rules that shape them. Students will examine how financial information is prepared, disclosed, and interpreted, and will develop analytical tools to assess an organization’s financial health and operational effectiveness. Real-world financial statements will be used throughout the course to build fluency in the language and application of accounting.
MPA Financial Management Core I and II.
This course introduces the principles and practices of financial reporting, with the goal of enabling students to become informed users of financial information in both public and private sector contexts. Emphasis is placed on understanding the three primary financial statements: the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows; and the accounting concepts and rules that shape them. Students will examine how financial information is prepared, disclosed, and interpreted, and will develop analytical tools to assess an organization’s financial health and operational effectiveness. Real-world financial statements will be used throughout the course to build fluency in the language and application of accounting.
This course provides an introduction to major schools of thought about play structure and the practice of dramaturgy in the western theatre. Through directed readings and an ongoing practical project centered around one play, students will develop a deeper understanding of how dramatic writing functions as a blueprint for a life on the stage, and a refined vocabulary to describe story structures and dramatic writing techniques. By learning to view and question a play from a kaleidoscopic range of angles, students will enhance their abilities to take a printed text onto the live stage.
Prerequisites: students in a masters program must seek the director of the M.A. program in statistics' permission; students in an undergraduate program must seek the director of undergraduate studies in statistics' permission. A general introduction to mathematical statistics and statistical decision theory. Elementary decision theory, Bayes inference, Neyman-Pearson theory, hypothesis testing, most powerful unbiased tests, confidence sets. Estimation: methods, theory, and asymptotic properties. Likelihood ratio tests, multivariate distribution. Elements of general linear hypothesis, invariance, nonparametric methods, sequential analysis.
Prerequisites: STAT G6201 and STAT G6201 This course will mainly focus on nonparametric methods in statistics. A tentavie list of topics to be covered include nonparametric density and regression function estimation -- upper bounds on the risk of kernel estimators and matching lower bounds on the minimax risk, reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, bootstrap and resampling methods, multiple hypothesis testing, and high dimensional stastistical analysis.
This course is designed to prepare social workers for clinical work with bereaved families. We emphasize the idea that grief therapy focuses importantly on active listening linked to interventions that provide validation, support or guidance. We provide a way of understanding grief using an attachment theory model that explains a big-picture framework for understanding grief and adaptation to loss. The centerpiece of the course is a presentation of an approach to grief therapy derived from our efficacy-tested treatment for complicated grief and incorporating attention to self-care, racism, ethical obligations and dilemmas and using peer or experienced supervision in doing grief therapy.
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
This course provides an introduction to the political economy of finance, trade, and international monetary policy, presenting both theoretical perspectives and more policy-oriented concerns. The course requires no knowledge of formal economic models, but it does presume familiarity with basic concepts in open economy macroeconomics and finance. Students without this background may find several sections of the course very difficult. The course has three main sections. The first examines the political economy of the global monetary system. We begin by surveying the evolution of international monetary arrangements from the gold standard period to the present day. Then we analyze the difficulties posed by floating rates and capital mobility as well as the global imbalances that have been frequent features of contemporary times. In addition, we examine the Euro crisis and trace its origins to the establishment of the monetary union. The second section examines the political economy of trade policy, focusing on its links to international monetary affairs. In addition, it explores commercial policy and the recent turn to protectionism led by the United States. The final section considers financial crises, with a special focus on the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 and 2007/08 global crisis that had its origins in the United States.
Students explore more deeply the range of skills and techniques necessary to direct both short and feature films including script breakdown of sequences, scenes, turning points and beats as well as advanced study of actor and camera staging. Students will hone their directing skills by preparing, shooting, and editing, in video, a minimum of three significant scenes from published or original work, depending on priority of the instructor. When taken concurrently, at least one of these scenes will be presented in Directing the Actor workshops. Students should also be working on a first draft of a short screenplay for their second-year project if they intend to take Directing 4.
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Prerequisites: the director of graduate studies' permission. Corequisites: ECON G6410. Consumer and producer behavior; general competitive equilibrium, welfare and efficiency, behavior under uncertainty, intertemporal allocation and capital theory, imperfect competition, elements of game theory, problems of information, economies with price rigidities.
This is the second of two semester-long courses that provide graduate students with an overview of the scholarly study of American politics. G6210 and G6211 constitute the American politics field survey. The field survey is designed for political science doctoral students who intend to specialize in American politics, as well as for those students whose primary interests are comparative politics, international relations, or political theory, but who desire an intensive introduction to the American style of political science. In this course we will cover a range of topics related to American politics that, for the most part, are not covered in G6210. Our focus will be on public opinion and political behavior. The reading assignments are a mix of foundational contributions (i.e. the canons of American politics literature) and recent research. The first part of each seminar session will aim to clarify and probe enduring puzzles, theories, and debates highlighted in the foundational texts. The latter portion of the seminar session will focus on how recent studies contribute to ongoing debates and define the research agenda going forward.
New technologies for capturing carbon dioxide and disposing of it away from the atmosphere. Detailed discussion of the extent of the human modifications to the natural carbon cycle, the motivation and scope of future carbon management strategies and the role of carbon sequestration. Introduction of several carbon sequestration technologies that allow for the capture and permanent disposal of carbon dioxide. Engineering issues in their implementation, economic impacts, and the environmental issues raised by the various methods.
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
Prerequisites: the director of graduate studies' permission. Concept of full employment. Models of underemployment and theory applicability, determinants of consumption and of investment, multiplier and accelerator analysis, an introduction to monetary macroeconomics, the supply side and inflation. Integration of macroeconomics with microeconomic and monetary analysis.
Concepts, principles, and applications of various sensors for sensing structural parameters and nondestructive evaluation techniques for subsurface inspection, data acquisition, and signal processing techniques. Lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on laboratory experiments.
This course will explore plausible analytical responses to a selection of diverse sonic works from the past five decades, with emphasis on works that expand or challenge existing analytical methodologies and assumptions. The goal of this course is not to offer strict analytical models or standard procedures, but to foster analytical conversations that are pertinent to their subjects while broadening the understanding of what music analysis as it relates to new music can offer.