This is an intermediate course in spatial modeling developed specifically for students in the Undergraduate Sustainable Development program. This course will provide a foundation for understanding a variety of issues related to spatial analysis and modeling. Students will explore the concepts, tools, and techniques of GIS modeling and review and critique modeling applications used for environmental planning and policy development. The course will also offer students the opportunity to design, build and evaluate their own spatial analysis models. The course will cover both vector and raster based methods of analysis with a strong focus on raster-based modeling. We will draw examples from a wide range of applications in such areas as modeling Land Use and Land Cover for biodiversity and conservation, hydrological modeling, and site suitability modeling. The course will consist of lectures, reading assignments, lab assignments, and a final project.
In this course we will explore urban environmental inequalities through the lens of environmental justice. The concept of environmental justice has risen in prominence in the language of environmental activism, politics, and policymaking. Informed by critical studies of the environment, we will address the broad question of why, for some, the environment is representational of a healthy lifestyle and source of prosperity, while for others it is a source of risk and harm. Our course of study invites students to critically analyze environmental justice case studies and to develop an understanding of the complex relationships among urban populations and the social, political, and economic processes that lead to environmental inequality. We will also explore how racism is foundational to environmental exploitation and consider why global struggles for racial justice are crucial for protecting both people and the earth. We will pay particular attention to how environmental health inequalities are linked to race, class, gender, and nation. Drawing from academic texts, films, and photo essays we will explore how urban planning and economic development policies create environmental inequalities in the US and globally.
When Colombian novelist and literary critic Soledad Acosta de Samper declared in 1895 that the cause of “moralizing” Spanish American society was a task that female writers shared with the rest of the continent’s women, she was, in effect, placing a gender claim on a very old notion of the purpose of literature. A hundred years before the Peruvian-born Pablo de Olavide had begun his long epistolary novel (
El evangelio en triunfo
) by lamenting that the publishing industry of his era had not yet managed to harness its resources into a single volume that would make Christian doctrine and morality palatable to enlightened readers. What both writers shared was a sense of the imperceptible ability of narrative to transmit moral sensibility. This power—U.S. educational reformer Charles Brooks would call it “moral electricity”—served at once as a justification and a social charge for writers and publishers. Believers in the book as the media force capable of shifting social consciousness, the writers and critics of nineteenth-century Latin America peppered their works with equal parts optimism and dread, as the same art that renders virtue desirable could be turned over to the service of vice. Their new or at least newly distributed art conjured a notion of the American hemisphere on the one hand as a new moral Paradise and on the other as a place where the battle against moral chaos could still go disastrously wrong.
Medicine is not just a science, but an art. In particular, the art of narrative has played a prominent role in both the production of medical knowledge, such as in the doctor’s case report, and in the ways patients convey their own sense and experience of illness. Even language itself has sometimes been the symptom of illness, and sometimes the means of cure. This course will explore narratives of illness, medical care, and deviance in German literature, with a few forays into writing from the Americas. Through encounters with a selection of novellas and short stories from the 19th through the 20th centuries, we will explore the ways in which authors have drawn from their medical experiences to produce novel forms of writing. We will pay particular attention to the role of the surreal, the uncanny, and the disorienting as thematic and textual strategies in the navigation of the complexities of medical care. We will question how narratives can both construct and subvert pathologized subjects, as well as develop our skills as critical readers of texts which challenge scientific and literary genres.
No prerequisites. All readings and course discussions are in English.
This seminar will provide a broad survey of how principles of cognition are represented
in music and the ways music has been used to study those principles in the psychology
and neuroscience literature.
Practices like veiling, gendered forms of segregation, and the honor code that are central to Western images of Muslim women are also contested issues throughout the Muslim world. This course examines debates about gender, sexuality, and morality and explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors in shaping the lives of men and women across the Muslim world, from the Middle East to Europe. The perspective will be primarily anthropological, although special attention will be paid to historical processes associated with colonialism and nation-building that are crucial to understanding present gender politics. We will focus on the sexual politics of everyday life in specific locales and explore the extent to which these are shaped by these histories and the power of representations mobilized in a global world in the present and international political interventions. In addition to reading ethnographic works about particular communities, we read memoirs and critical analyses of the local and transnational activist movements that have emerged to address various aspects of gender politics and rights.
PSYC BC1129/2129 (with or without lab) as well as permission of the instructor.
The Barnard Toddler Center provides the focus for this seminar and research in applied developmental psychology, an amalgam of developmental, educational, and clinical psychology. The seminar integrates theory and research and for AY 20-21 will use daily recordings of the toddler sessions as the centerpiece for understanding early development. The unique context of Covid19 will be used to understand risks in development, especially for vulnerable children and families. Second term students will also conduct research on parenting during the pandemic.
Prerequisites: Third-year bridge course (W3300), and introductory surveys (W3349, W3350. Examination of the literature of the Southern Cone: Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile; the tension between fantastic literature and literary realism. Readings include Borges, Casares, Ocampo, Onetti, Donoso, and Roa Bastos.
In this course, we'll consider American texts about the supernatural. We'll begin in the colonial period, when many New Englanders interpreted surprising events as divine or demonic interventions. We'll look at texts about Salem witchcraft and colonial revivals, comparing the way authors argue that these events are supernatural or natural, divine or diabolical. We'll then consider American writers who use the supernatural to explore the human mind, issues of class and gender, and questions of history and identity. Throughout the course, we’ll also consider the way that supernatural stories function as entertainment, and consider the implications of choosing to entertain ourselves and each other with fear and wonder.
Prerequisites: Three psychology courses and permission of the instructor required during program planning the fall semester before the course is offered. Enrollment limited to 12 students; seniors are given priority. This course introduces students to clinical and counseling work, and to psychodynamic ways of understanding and supporting people in psychological distress. Students secure a clinical placement for the course, and apply readings on psychodynamic notions of parenting, psychopathology, and therapeutic process to their clinical experiences. The course helps students clarify their professional goals, and provides the clinical experience that strengthens applications to social work programs, and that is required for applications to clinical and counseling doctoral programs.
This course explores how American women writers who suffered from depression, disability, bodily pain, or social marginalization, used the environment and its literary representations to redefine the categories of gender, ability, and personhood. Prior to their inclusion into the public sphere through the US Constitution’s 19th Amendment which in 1920 granted women the right to vote, American artists had to be particularly resourceful in devising apt strategies to counter the political and aesthetic demands that had historically dispossessed them of the voice, power, and body. This course focuses on the women writers who conceptualized their own surroundings (home, house, marriage, country, land, island and the natural world) as an agent that actively and decisively participates in the construction and dissolution of personal identity. In doing so, they attempted to annul the separation of the public (politics) and the private (home) as respective male and female spheres, and in this way they contributed, ahead of their own time, to the suffragist debates. Our task in this course will be to go beyond the traditional critical dismissal of these emancipatory strategies as eccentric or “merely aesthetic” and therefore inconsequential. Instead, we will take seriously Rowlandson’s frontier diet, Fuller’s peculiar cure for her migraines, Wheatley’s oblique references to the Middle Passage, Jewett’s islands, Ša’s time-travel, Thaxter’s oceans, Hurston’s hurricanes, and Sansay’s scathing portrayal of political revolutions. We will read these portrayals as aesthetic decisions that had—and continue to have—profound political consequences: by externalizing and depersonalizing what is commonly understood to be internal and intimate, the authors we read collapse the distinction between inside and outside, between the private and public—the distinction that traditionally excluded women from participation in the public life, in policy- and decision-making.
Welcome to our exploration of Latin American Cyberpunk, a genre that reimagines and revolutionizes the traditional cyberpunk narrative. Unlike the cyberpunk classics like William Gibson's
Neuromancer
,
Blade Runner
, and
The Matrix
, which established the genre's foundations with their visions of high tech and low life in dystopian futures, Latin American authors and creators have rewritten and subverted these tropes. They have turned their region's complex realities into a unique and vibrant cyberpunk laboratory, offering a fresh and engaging perspective. In this course, we will dive into the works of several prominent Latin American cyberpunk authors including Bernardo Fernández BEF, Jorge Baradit, Erick Mota, Ramiro Sanchiz, Juan Mattio, Karen Andrea Reyes, Maielis González Fernández, and Flor Canosa. In this course, our focus will be on how Latin America's complex realities have not only shaped but embodied cyberpunk concepts. As Chilean author Jorge Baradit states, Latin America doesn't just imagine cyberpunk - it lives it. The region's stark contrasts between ultra-modern technology and grinding poverty, its history of political upheaval and corporate exploitation, and its rich tapestry of cultures create a perfect backdrop for cyberpunk narratives that feel viscerally real. We'll delve into how Latin American cyberpunk doesn't limit itself to envisioning a high-tech dystopia but reflects and critiques an existing one, blending futuristic elements with the region's present-day challenges and cultural heritage.
Prerequisites: Concurrent with registering for this course, a student must register with the department and provide a written invitation from a mentor; details of this procedure are available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/courses/w3500/index.htm. Students must register for recitations UN3510 or consult the instructor. Corequisites: BIOL UN3510 The course involves independent study, faculty-supervised laboratory projects in contemporary biology. Concurrent with registering for this course, a student must register with the department, provide a written invitation from a mentor and submit a research proposal; details of this procedure are available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/courses/w3500/index.htm. A paper summarizing results of the work is required by the last day of finals for a letter grade; no late papers will be accepted. See the course web site (above) for more details. Students can take anywhere from 2-4 points for this course.
As an onset of an ongoing investigation into the history and development of Jewish literature, we will focus on its very beginnings, as culturally understood – the Book of Genesis – and read it in light of millennia of Jewish literary commentary as lenses through which to examine currents, traditions, and trajectories of Jewish literary interpretation and history. By focusing on several distinct episodes and then tracking those episodes’ reception in the light of differing moments of interpretation, we will try to gain a sense of this seminal work’s changing role in Jewish history and culture. Familiarity with Biblical and rabbinic Hebrew not absolutely required, but strongly recommended.
Prerequisites: the written permission of the faculty member who agrees to act as supervisor, and the director of undergraduate studies permission. Readings in a selected field of physics under the supervision of a faculty member. Written reports and periodic conferences with the instructor.
Intro to Moving Image: Video, Film & Art is an introductory class on the production and editing of digital video. Designed as an intensive hands-on production/post-production workshop, the apprehension of technical and aesthetic skills in shooting, sound and editing will be emphasized. Assignments are developed to allow students to deepen their familiarity with the language of the moving image medium. Over the course of the term, the class will explore the language and syntax of the moving image, including fiction, documentary and experimental approaches. Importance will be placed on the decision making behind the production of a work; why it was conceived of, shot, and edited in a certain way. Class time will be divided between technical workshops, viewing and discussing films and videos by independent producers/artists and discussing and critiquing students projects. Readings will be assigned on technical, aesthetic and theoretical issues. Only one section offered per semester. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
Maurice Blanchot once described translators as the “hidden masters of culture.” Indeed, though our labor and craft often go unrecognized in the age of Google Translate, translators play an essential role as tastemakers, bridge-builders, advocates, and diplomats, not to mention the most intimate readers and re-writers of literature. In this workshop, we will explore translation as a praxis of writing, reading, and revision. Together, we will also interrogate translation's complex and often fraught role in cultural production. What ethical questions does translation raise? Who gets to translate, and what gets translated? What is the place of the translator in the text? What can translation teach us about language, literature, and ourselves? Readings will include selections from translation theory, method texts, and literary translations across genres, from poetry and prose to essay and memoir. Students will workshop original translations into English and complete brief writing and translation exercises throughout.
This course will provide students with a comparative perspective on gender, race, and
sexuality by illuminating historically specific and culturally distinct conditions in which
these systems of power have operated. Beginning in the early modern period, the
course seeks to destabilize contemporary notions of gender and sexuality and instead
probe how race, sexuality, and gender have functioned as mechanisms of differentiation
embedded in historically contingent processes. Moving from “Caliban to Comstock,”
students will probe historical methods for investigating and critically evaluating claims
about the past. In making these inquiries, the course will pay attention to the
intersectional nature of race, gender, and sexuality and to strategic performances of
identity by marginalized groups. This semester, we will engage research by historians
of sexuality, gender, and capitalism to critically reflect on the relationship between
critical studies of the past and debates about reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and
gay and lesbian rights in our contemporary moment.
Individual research in Womens Studies conducted in consultation with the instructor. The result of each research project is submitted in the form of the senior essay and presented to the seminar.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to senior majors. Individual research in Womens Studies conducted in consulation with the instructor. The result of each research project is submitted in the form of the senior essay and presented to the seminar.
This course will introduce the students to the important topic of political protest. Each week we will address different aspects of the phenomenon: from the determinant to the actors and strategies of protest. We will discuss how the forms of protest have changed and the current role of the internet in general and social media in particular. Finally, we will discuss the role of the state and state repression, in particular censorship in the dynamics of protest. Since this is a comparative politics course, we will cover a range of different countries, including the United States, as well as both democratic and authoritarian regimes.
Advanced Senior Studio II is a critique class that serves as a forum for senior Visual Arts majors to develop and complete one-semester studio theses. The priorities are producing a coherent body of studio work and understanding this work in terms of critical discourse. The class will comprise group critiques and small group meetings with the instructor. Field trips and visiting artist lectures will augment our critiques. Please visit:
https://arthistory.barnard.edu/senior-thesis-project-art-history-and-visual-arts-majors
Prerequisites: This course is limited to 20 students Romare Bearden: Home is Harlem, is an exploration into one of the greatest American artists finding home in Harlem. The noted painter, collagist, intellectual and advocate for the arts, spent his childhood and young adult life in Harlem. Known for chronicling the African-American experience, he found rich sources for artistic expression in the Manhattan neighborhoods above 110th Street.
Prerequisites: CHEM UN2493 and CHEM UN2494 , or the equivalent. A project laboratory with emphasis on complex synthesis and advanced techniques including qualitative organic analysis and instrumentation.
Prerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Evaluation of current political, economic, social, cultural and physical forces that are shaping urban areas.
This course will explore the interaction of riverine processes, water and hydrology, sedimentary processes, tectonics, land subsidence and sea level rise, environmental issues, cultural setting, and sustainable development in the world’s largest delta. The course will explore both the hazards and resources for life in this dynamic environment through lectures, a field trip to Bangladesh during Spring Break and guest lecturers in earth and social sciences. During the field trip, we will be joined by Dhaka University professors and students, providing experience in cross-cultural collaboration, as well as translators to interviews and discussions with Bangladeshis.
By the end of the course, students will develop a quantitative understanding of the multiple earth sciences issues. It will also provide a perspective on the mixture of competing earth science, social, historical and political issues that must be addressed in order to effectively address environmental issues. Students should acquire an ability to assess competing claims and projections for future environmental change.
Philosophical problems within science and about the nature of scientific knowledge in the 17th-20th centuries. Sample problems: causation and scientific explanation; induction and real kinds; verification and falsification; models, analogies and simulations; the historical origins of the modern sciences; scientific revolutions; reductionism and supervenience; differences between physics, biology and the social sciences; the nature of life; cultural evolution; human nature; philosophical issues in cosmology.
The novel in Arabic literature has often been the place where every attempt to look within ends up involving the need to contend with or measure the self against the European, the dominant culture. This took various forms. From early moments of easy-going and confident cosmopolitan travellers, such as Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, to later author, such as Tayeb Salih, mapping the existential fault lines between west and east. For this reason, and as well as being a modern phenomenon, the Arabic novel has also been a tool for translation, for bridging gaps and exposing what al-Shidyaq—the man credited with being the father of the modern Arabic novel, and himself a great translator—called ‘disjunction’. We will begin with his satirical, deeply inventive and erudite novel, published in 1855, Leg Over Leg. It is a book with an insatiable appetite for definitions and comparisons, with Words that had been lost or fell out of use (the author had an abiding interest in dictionaries that anticipates Jorge Louis Borges) and with locating and often subverting moments of connection and disconnection. We will then follow along a trajectory to the present, where we will read, in English translation, novels written in Arabic, from Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Palestine. We will read them chronologically, starting with Leg Over Leg (1855) and finishing with Minor Detail, a novel that was only published last year. Obviously, this does not claim to be a comprehensive survey; for that we would need several years and even then, we would fall short. Instead, the hope is that it will be a thrilling journey through some of the most facinating fiction ever written. Obviously, this does not claim to be a comprehensive survey; for that we would need several years and even then, we would fall short. Instead, the hope is that it will be a thrilling journey through some of the most fascinating fiction ever written.
This class examines key questions in the study of political order and disorder in South Asia, with a focus on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Afghanistan, The course has three main parts. We examine the factors that explain variation in state formation, political order, and regime type across these cases. Second, we examine various forms of internal conflict in South Asia, including state repression, ethnic riots, civil wars, and insurgencies, to shed light on their sources and drivers. The third section examines key issues in regional security, including inter-state rivalry, and nuclear deterrence.
Prerequisites: History Majors Preferred This research seminar explores the causes, course, and consequences of the Seven Years’ War, arguably the first world war in modern history. Topics include the origins of the conflict in North America and in Europe, the relationship between imperial rivalry in the American colonies and the contest for supremacy in central Europe, the impact of the war on trade and settlement in South Asia, the West Indies, the Philippines, and West Africa, and the legacies of the conflict for British imperial expansion in India, North America, Senegal, and the southern Caribbean. During the second half of the semester, members of the seminar will devote the majority of their time to the research and writing of a substantial paper.
The Apollo: History & Culture, will survey the Apollo’s early history, pre-1934 when the theater opened to its present-day evolution as a performing arts center with an expanding footprint on 125th Street.
Apollo’s role is American entertainment and global influence. Early Apollo performers paved the way for some of today’s most popular entertainers. We look at the impact of performers over several decades and the ways in which performers and performances at the Apollo influenced American entertainment through music, dance, comedy and more.
Students are encouraged to attend events at the Apollo relative to our discussions for deeper exploration of the topic. Dates, times, and links for events will be provided in advance. Additionally, attendance at performances and events taking place at Harlem Semester member institutions and relevant to our topic, is encouraged.
This course explores postwar poets’ extensive experimentation with new media and hybrid genres. The visual arts and the sonic arts—as well as computer-generated writing—offered inspiration to poets who understood themselves to be working in a context broader than conventional lyric poetry. Poets to be discussed include John Cage, Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka, Larry Eigner, Jayne Cortez, Norman Pritchard, Bernadette Mayer, Susan Howe, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Tan Lin, Claudia Rankine, and Lilian-Yvonne Bertram. We will also discuss theoretical accounts of the “expanded field” of intermedia arts and cross-genre writing. No prior knowledge of postwar poetry or art is presumed.
This course is designed as a workshop in both immersive devising and performance skills, revolving around the creation and execution of an immersive experience. Through a collaborative devising process, students will explore possibilities of environmental, site-specific, experiential, and ambulatory design. Students will develop compositional structures and strategies for creating content, create and develop embodied characters, as well as design and physically navigate the particular architecture of a performance environment. Students will also hone skills specific to interactive performance such as maneuvering audience, gaze, breath work, and choice making and improvisation within the parameters of storytelling.
Required for all majors who do not select the year-long Senior Thesis Research & Seminar (BIOL BC3593 & BC3594) to fulfill their senior capstone requirement. These seminars allow students to explore the primary literature in the Biological Sciences in greater depth than can be achieved in a lecture course. Attention will be focused on both theoretical and empirical work. Seminar periods are devoted to oral reports and discussion of assigned readings and student reports. Students will write one extensive literature review of a topic related to the central theme of the seminar section.
Topics vary per semester and include, but are not limited to:
Plant Development
,
Animal Development & Evolution,
Molecular Evolution, Microbiology & Global Change, Genomics, Comparative & Reproductive Endocrinology, and Data Intensive Approaches in Biology.
In recent years, the American public has ranked worries over the future of American democracy among its top concerns. American citizens consider free and fair elections to be the bedrock of U.S. representative democracy. However, for most of U.S. history, there has been a profound gap between the ideals of democratic representation and its reality, with many Americans being disenfranchised. This course will examine the history of efforts to secure voting rights for U.S. citizens, including women and people of color, as well as continuing attempts to curtail or suppress these rights. Further, we will survey how debates over voting rights intersected with conflicts over the nature of political representation, and how the ideal of “fair representation” has been construed and fought over during the 20th century. Topics will include: the nineteenth amendment, Jim Crow disenfranchisement in the U.S. South, the Voting Rights Act, histories of apportionment and redistricting, as well as fights over the electoral college.
This year-long course is open to junior and senior Biology majors and minors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give a poster presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills two upper-level laboratory requirements for the Biology major or minor. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3591 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3592 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3593-BIOL BC3594.
This year-long course is open to junior and senior Biology majors and minors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give a poster presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills two upper-level laboratory requirements for the Biology major or minor. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3591 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3592 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3593-BIOL BC3594.
Neuroscience research commonly generates datasets that are increasingly complex and large. Open science and data sharing platforms have emerged across a wide range of neuroscience disciplines, laying the foundation for a transformation in the way scientists share, analyze, and reuse immense amounts of data collected in laboratories around the world. This class is designed to introduce students to several open source databases that span multiple investigative levels of neuroscience research. Students will utilize the datasets to conduct individual research projects.
Independent study for preparing and performing repertory works in production to be presented in concert.
This year-long course is open to senior Biology majors. Students will complete an independent research project in Biology under the guidance of a faculty mentor at Barnard or another local institution. Attendance at the weekly seminar is required. By the end of the year, students will write a scientific paper about their project and give an oral presentation about their research at the Barnard Biology Research Symposium.
Completion of this year-long course fulfills the senior capstone requirement for the Biology major. This course must be taken in sequence, beginning with BIOL BC3593 in the Fall and continuing with BIOL BC3594 in the Spring. Acceptance into this course requires confirmation of the research project by the course instructors. A Barnard internal mentor is required if the research project is not supervised by a Barnard faculty member. This course cannot be taken at the same time as BIOL BC3591-BIOL BC3592.
Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Discussion and conferences on a research project culminate in a written and oral senior thesis. Each project must be supervised by a scientist working at Barnard or at another local institution. Successful completion of the seminar substitutes for the major examination.
Similar to BIOL BC3591-BIOL BC3592, this is a one-semester course that provides students with degree credit for unpaid research
without
a seminar component. You may enroll in BIOL BC3597 for between 1-4 credits per semester. As a rule of thumb, you should be spending approximately 3 hours per week per credit on your research project.
A
Project Approval Form
must be submitted to the department each semester that you enroll in this course. Your Barnard research mentor (if your lab is at Barnard) or internal adviser in the Biology Department (if your lab is elsewhere) must approve your planned research
before
you enroll in BIOL BC3597. You should sign up for your mentor's section.
This course does not fulfill any Biology major requirements. It is open to students beginning in their first year.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3328 and permission of instructor. Individual research projects at Barnard or Columbia, culminating in a comprehensive written report.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3328 and permission of instructor. Individual research projects at Barnard or Columbia, culminating in a comprehensive written report.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3328 and permission of instructor. Individual research projects at Barnard or Columbia, culminating in a comprehensive written report.
Prerequisites: CHEM BC3328 and permission of instructor. Individual research projects at Barnard or Columbia, culminating in a comprehensive written report.
Challenges confronting the world today require multiple perspectives, approaches, and methods to grasp their complexity and devise responses and solutions. Whether addressing the climate crisis, public health threats, global and local inequities, social problems, geopolitical tensions, or any number of other problems, all demand the expertise developed in disciplinary training as well as flexible thinking and the ability to collaborate and solve problems across disciplinary boundaries. This course places students with different majors into conversation with each other to consider the approaches of their own disciplines, learn about the methodological “tool kits” of other fields, investigate examples of transdisciplinary research, and work with their classmates to design their own problem-centered collaborative projects.