Prerequisites: Meets senior requirement. Instructor permission required. The instructor will supervise the writing of long papers involving some form of sociological research and analysis.
This course is the first semester of a year-long senior capstone experience for the Educational Studies major. Over the course of the year, students will design and carry-out an inquiry project, and they will report on this project through an appropriate medium, for a specific purpose and audience. To this end, we will address the following: the relationship between theory, experience, and the development of a research question; the research methods that are appropriate for our research; the purposes of our research; the consequences our research might have and for whom; how we analyze data; and how we communicate with the audience of our research.
The Artemis Rising Short Course in Filmmaking is a two to four-week course offered each semester on a special topic of filmmaking presented by an Artemis Rising Foundation Filmmaker Fellow (ARFF). This series was endowed by the Artemis Rising Foundation to bring world-class filmmakers with hands-on experience and fresh perspectives to Barnard to connect with students interested in filmmaking as a vocation and media literacy.
It can only be taken for pass/fail for 1 point.
Students must attend all four class sessions and write a final paper in order to receive credit for this course.
To see the dates/times that the Artemis Rising Short Course will meet this semester, the current course description, and the biography of the visiting filmmaker, please visit the ARFF website:
https://athenacenter.barnard.edu/arff
.
This course centers
disability
in its many manifestations and meanings – as an embodied, social, and cultural experience, as an organizing discourse in local and global contexts, as an analytic framework, and as a position from which to approach, think about, and engage in the world. Together, we will seek to understand disability in diverse settings and contexts through ethnographic texts, autobiography, documentary film, and essays, drawing primarily from works in anthropology but also more broadly from the interdisciplinary traditions known as (Critical) Disability Studies.
Throughout the semester, we will move between considering disability in more and less specific and categorical terms. We will ask what the stakes are – intellectually, socially, politically - for different ways of doing, thinking, and representing disability. What becomes apparent when we consider, say, the experiences of deaf young adults in India working together to learn Indian Sign Language, or physically disabled adults in the United States whose disabilities must be situated within histories of racialized poverty and urban neglect? What happens – what are the resonances and the tensions – when we put these settings into conversation? Through our engagements with materials analyzing these and many other instances, we will think together about what it means to study and think with disability from different disciplinary perspectives, different methods, and different media.
The Artemis Rising Short Course in Film Production is a one-point credit short workshop presented by an Artemis Rising Foundation Filmmaker Fellow (ARFF). It consists of four workshops on a special aspect of film production and one final project. This series was endowed by the Artemis Rising Foundation to bring world-class filmmakers with hands-on experience and fresh perspectives to Barnard to connect with students interested in filmmaking as a vocation and media literacy.
It can only be taken for pass/fail for 1 point.
Students must attend all four class workshops and produce one final project in order to receive credit for this course.
To see the dates/times that the Artemis Rising Short Course will meet this semester, the current course description, and the biography of the visiting filmmaker, please visit the ARFF website:
https://athenacenter.barnard.edu/arff
.
Prerequisites: the instructors permission for entrance, and the departmental representatives permission for aggregate points in excess of 12 or less than 4. This course may be repeated for credit (see major and concentration requirements). Individual research under the supervision of a member of the staff. Research areas include organic, physical, inorganic, analytical, and biological chemistry. Please note that CHEM UN3098 is offered in the fall and spring semesters.
Prerequisites: Instructors permission Provides students with the experience of participating in the research process by matching them to a faculty mentor who will put them to work on one of his or her current research projects.
The English Conference: The Lucyle Hook Guest Lectureship is a two to four-week course each semester on a special topic presented by a visiting scholar. The series was endowed by a gift from Professor Emerita of English Lucyle Hook to bring our students and faculty the perspective of scholars of literature in English working outside the College community. It can only be taken for pass/fail for 1 point.
Students must attend all four class sessions and write a final paper in order to receive credit for this course
.To see the dates/times that The English Conference will meet this semester, the current course description, and the biography of the visiting scholar, please visit the English Department website:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/english-conference
.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035 or permission of the instructor. Topic(s), requirements, workload and point value to be determined in consultation with faculty advisor. Forms available at the Office of the Registrar.
This course can be worth 1 to 4 credits (each credit is equivalent to approximately three hours of work per week) and requires a Barnard faculty as a mentor who has to provide written approval. The course entails a scholarly component; for this, a research report is required by the end of the term. The research report can take the form that best suits the nature of the project. The course will be taken for a letter grade, regardless of whether the student chooses 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits.
Basic concepts and assumptions of quantum mechanics, Schrodinger's equation, solutions for one-dimensional problems including square wells, barriers and the harmonic oscillator, introduction to the hydrogen atom, atomic physics and X-rays, electron spin.
Basic continuum concepts. Liquids and gases in static equilibrium. Continuity equation. Two-dimensional kinematics. Equation of motion. Bernoulli’s equation and applications. Equations of energy and angular momentum. Dimensional analysis. Two-dimensional laminar flow. Pipe flow, laminar, and turbulent. Elements of compressible flow.
Basic continuum concepts. Liquids and gases in static equilibrium. Continuity equation. Two-dimensional kinematics. Equation of motion. Bernoulli’s equation and applications. Equations of energy and angular momentum. Dimensional analysis. Two-dimensional laminar flow. Pipe flow, laminar, and turbulent. Elements of compressible flow.
A first course in crystallography, crystal symmetry, Bravais lattices, point groups and space groups. Diffraction and diffracted intensities. Exposition of typical crystal structures in engineering materials, including metals, ceramics and semiconductors. Crystalline anisotropy.
When millions of images are made every day, how can a photographer create an original body of work? This class proposes that parsing humanity’s existing shared archive of images is more relevant than generating new images. Following models such as Nepal Picture Library, Magnum Foundation, Drik/Majority World, and Arab Image Foundation, contemporary photography has remapped its practice around the reimagining and explanation, of the archival object. This class explores many archives–family albums, historical photographs, government records, fragile maps, musical albums, and flea market collectibles. We will use a series of lens-based technologies, starting from the flatbed scanner and Photoshop retouching and radiating outward. We will explore archive concerns, including consent, ownership, privacy, circulation, respect, and political impact. Students will explore display forms, including slide shows, zines, books, and exhibitions. There will be a strong complement of reading and writing in this class around the theory and practice of archives from the Western North and Global South.
Building on the work of the Intermediate Workshop, Advanced Workshops are reserved for the most accomplished creative writing students. A significant body of writing must be produced and revised. Particular attention will be paid to the components of fiction: voice, perspective, characterization, and form. Students will be expected to finish several short stories, executing a total artistic vision on a piece of writing. The critical focus of the class will include an examination of endings and formal wholeness, sustaining narrative arcs, compelling a reader's interest for the duration of the text, and generating a sense of urgency and drama in the work. Please visit
https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate
for information about registration procedures.
Matrix algebra, elementary matrices, inverses, rank, determinants. Computational aspects of solving systems of linear equations: existence-uniqueness of solutions, Gaussian elimination, scaling, ill-conditioned systems, iterative techniques. Vector spaces, bases, dimension. Eigenvalue problems, diagonalization, inner products, unitary matrices.
Thanks to the pyramids of Giza, the treasure of Tutankhamun, and other remains of royal activity, pharaonic Egypt is justly famous for its monuments and material culture. Equally fascinating, if less well known, however, are the towns, fortresses, cultic centers, domestic spaces, and non-elite cemeteries that have been excavated over the past 200 years or so. The archaeology of Nubia is also little known but fascinating on many levels. This course will focus on what archaeology can reveal about life as it was experienced by individuals of all social classes. Through a combination of broad surveys and case studies of some of Egypt and Nubia’s most culturally indicative and intriguing sites, we will explore issues such as the origins of inequality, state formation and its effects, the uneasy mix of state-planned settlements and village life, urbanism, domestic and community worship, gendered spaces, ethnicity and colonialism, religious revolution and evolution, bureaucracy, private enterprise, and the effects of governmental collapse on life and death in ancient Egypt and Nubia.
This advanced course is a content-based language course, and is centered around the history of the Low Countries. Each week focuses on a specific era, such as the counts of Holland in the 13th century and the Reformation in the 16th century. Students will read texts about history and literature of the historical periods.
Students will read texts at home and discuss them in class, explore history-related websites and watch short video clips.
Attention will be paid to advanced grammar issues and vocabulary.
Prerequisites: Any 1000-level or 2000-level EESC course; MATH UN1101 Calculus I and CHEM UN1403 General Chemistry I or their equivalents. The origin, evolution, and future of our planet, based on the book How to Build a Habitable Planet by Wallace S. Broecker. This course will focus on the geochemical processes that built Earth from solar material, led to its differentiation into continents and ocean, and have maintained its surface at a comfortable temperature. Students will participate in a hands-on geochemistry project at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Enrollment limited to Barnard students. Application process and permission of instructor required:
https://writing.barnard.edu/become-writing-fellow
. Exploration of theory and practice in the teaching of writing, designed for students who plan to become Writing Fellows at Barnard. Students will read current theory and consider current research in the writing process and engage in practical applications in the classroom or in tutoring. The Writer’s Process is only open to those who applied to and were accepted into the Writing Fellows Program.
Note: This course now counts as an elective for the English major.
This course offers students the opportunity to practice advanced structures of Bahasa Indonesia, a major language of Indonesia and South East Asia. This course is offered by videoconferencing from Cornell as part of the Shared Course Initiative.
An introduction to the study of language from a scientific perspective. The course is divided into three units: language as a system (sounds, morphology, syntax, and semantics), language in context (in space, time, and community), and language of the individual (psycholinguistics, errors, aphasia, neurology of language, and acquisition). Workload: lecture, weekly homework, and final examination.
Prerequisites: RUSS UN2102 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Recommended for students who wish to improve their active command of Russian. Emphasis on conversation and composition. Reading and discussion of selected texts and videotapes. Lectures. Papers and oral reports required. Conducted entirely in Russian.
This one-semester course introduces the distinctive grammatical forms and vocabulary used in Literary Sinhala. While focused particularly on the development of reading skills, the course also introduces students to Literary Sinhala composition, builds students’ listening comprehension of semi-literary Sinhala forms (such as those used in radio and TV news), and guides students in incorporating elements of the literary register of Sinhala in their spoken production.
Prerequisites: (VIAR UN1000) and (VIAR UN2100) (Formerly R3202) Painting II: Extension of VIAR UN2100 This course explores the transition of representational form towards abstraction in the early 20th century (Cubism) with full consideration to recent movements such as geometric abstraction, organic abstraction, gestural abstraction, color field and pattern painting. Students will be encouraged to find dynamic approaches to these classic tropes of 20th and 21st century abstraction.
Seniors who are majors in creative writing are given priority for this course. Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor. The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major. Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work. In-class critiques and conferences with the professor will be tailored to needs of each student. Please visit
https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate
for information about registration procedures.
Prerequisites: ZULU W1201-W1202 or the instructor's permission. This course allows students to practice adanced structures of the Zulu language. Please note this course is offered by videoconference from Yale through the Shared Course Initiative.
Academic Writing Intensive is a small, intensive writing course for Barnard students in their second or third year who would benefit from extra writing support. Students attend a weekly seminar, work closely with the instructor on each writing assignment, and meet with an attached Writing Fellow every other week. Readings and assignments focus on transferable writing, revision, and critical thinking skills students can apply to any discipline. Students from across the disciplines are welcome. This course is only offered P/D/F. To be considered for the course, please send a recent writing sample to
clie@barnard.edu
, ideally from your First-Year Writing or First-Year Seminar course, or any other writing-intensive humanities or social sciences course at Barnard (no lab reports please).
Overview of energy resources, resource management from extraction and processing to recycling and final disposal of wastes. Resources availability and resource processing in the context of the global natural and anthropogenic material cycles; thermodynamic and chemical conditions including nonequilibrium effects that shape the resource base; extractive technologies and their impact on the environment and the biogeochemical cycles; chemical extraction from mineral ores, and metallurgical processes for extraction of metals. In analogy to metallurgical processing, power generation and the refining of fuels are treated as extraction and refining processes. Large scale of power generation and a discussion of its impact on the global biogeochemical cycles.
NOTE: Students who are on the electronic waiting list or who are interested in the class but are not yet registered MUST attend the first day of class.
Fall 2022 course description: Essay writing above the first-year level. Reading and writing various types of essays to develop one's natural writing voice and craft thoughtful, sophisticated and personal essays.
Summer 2022 course description: The Art of the Essay is a writing workshop designed to help you contribute meaningfully in public discourse about the issues that matter most to you. You will write three types of essays in this class, all of which will center personal experience as valuable evidence of larger phenomena or patterns. Your essays will build in complexity, as you introduce more types of sources into conversation about your topics as the semester goes on. You will hone your skills of observing, describing, questioning, analyzing, and persuading. You will be challenged to confront complications and to craft nuanced explorations of your topics. We will also regularly read and discuss the work of contemporary published essayists, identifying key writerly moves that you may adapt as you attempt your own essays. You will have many opportunities throughout the semester to brainstorm ideas, receive feedback from me and your peers, and develop and revise your drafts. At the end of the semester, you will choose a publication to which to submit or pitch one or more of your essays.
The ability to speak distinguishes humans from all other animals, including our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Why is this so? What makes this possible? This course seeks to answer these questions. We will look at the neurological and psychological foundations of the human faculty of language. How did our brains change to allow language to evolve? Where in our brains are the components of language found? Are our minds specialized for learning language or is it part of our general cognitive abilities to learn? How are words and sentences produced and their meanings recognized? The structure of languages around the world varies greatly; does this have psychological effects for their speakers?
Since the last decades of the twentieth century there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women writers from the Middle East and North Africa. This advanced course, which will be taught mainly in French, provides a window into this rich and largely neglected branch of world literature. Students will encounter the breadth and creativity of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African women’s literature by reading a range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels, short stories, memoirs and poetry available in French or in translation, and by viewing films that are from or about Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, and Egypt. How do Middle Eastern women authors address women’s oppression – both social and physical – and enunciate issues such as the tension between tradition and modernity, sexuality, identity and class from a female perspective? What literary traditions and models do they draw on? How different are those texts written in French for a global audience, as opposed to those written in Persian or Arabic? What are the effects of reading them in translation? Authors will include Marjane Satrapi, Shahrnush Parsipur, Assia Djebar, Maïssa Bey and Nawal El Saadawi.
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.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
. Short stories and other imaginative and personal writing.
Elements of statics; dynamics of a particle and systems of particles.
Prerequisites: Successful completion of Intermediate II French or the equivalent. In-depth survey of the writers who exemplified French existentialism: Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. The texts have been chosen for the richness with which they address fundamental philosophical questions about the meaning of life, especially questions of death and suffering, freedom and responsibility, legitimate and illegitimate violence. The first objective of this class is to show how existentialist thought combines literature and philosophy; the second objective is to gain a broad, but also deep familiarity with 20th-century French literature and thought. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
This course is designed for participants who are interested in learning more about the role of humor in 20th/21st-c. literature and film. The survey begins with an introduction to key elements of the comical in literature and film, including slapstick, clowning, mime, or stunts. Discussions revolve around the issue of how or whether humor is universally recognizable or whether it is regionally, historically, and culturally defined. To shed light on this difficult question we will consider both historical and geographical settings. In close studies of popular films and literary texts we will examine the characters’ proclivities and discuss their gender-based perspectives as well as the influence of racial, religious or age-related identities. Our weekly readings—which include excerpts from major novels, selected scenes from films as well as short stories--provide us with rich and instructive examples of how eating habits, choice of food, calendrical events (holiday vs. weekday) may be related to the formation and expression of cultural identity. Romantic comedies reveal not only personal preferences and the joy of eating—they also signal collective taste patterns and indicate what kind of fantasies or constraints have governed the daily or festive dietary practices from the early 20th c. on. While the comical is first and foremost represented in time-honored genres such as comedies or jokes, we will concentrate on the modern tradition in this course. This approach allows us to address the social, political, and cultural issue of multiculturalism and to build bridges between individual text/film and their historical contexts in the German-speaking countries. The emphasis of the course lies on a critical investigation of how cultural identity is related to self-expression and to physical interaction on the page, the stage or the screen. The course is taught in English, all readings are in English, and there are no prerequisites.
This seminar class will explore the interactions between the nervous and immune systems. Because immunology is not a common undergraduate course, we will start the semester with an overview of immunology foundations: the cells, chemicals, and organs of the immune system, immunological communication and memory, and the innate and adaptive response systems. We will then read scientific journal articles to understand how the immune system modulates development and function of the nervous system, how homeostasis between the brain and the immune system is maintained, and how immunological response to infection and injury can result in neuropathology. We will conclude with an examination of how disseminated tumor cells can breach the blood-brain barrier to seed metastatic brain cancer.
Prerequisites: At least one, and preferably both, of STAT UN2103 and UN2104 are strongly recommended. Students without programming experience in R might find STAT UN2102 very helpful. This course is intended to give students practical experience with statistical methods beyond linear regression and categorical data analysis. The focus will be on understanding the uses and limitations of models, not the mathematical foundations for the methods. Topics that may be covered include random and mixed-effects models, classical non-parametric techniques, the statistical theory causality, sample survey design, multi-level models, generalized linear regression, generalized estimating equations and over-dispersion, survival analysis including the Kaplan-Meier estimator, log-rank statistics, and the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Power calculations and proposal and report writing will be discussed.
Crystal structure and energy band theory of solids. Carrier concentration and transport in semiconductors. P-n junction and junction transistors. Semiconductor surface and MOS transistors. Optical effects and optoelectronic devices. Fabrication of devices and the effect of process variation and distribution statistics on device and circuit performance.
Some of the main stochastic models used in engineering and operations research applications: discrete-time Markov chains, Poisson processes, birth and death processes and other continuous Markov chains, renewal reward processes. Applications: queueing, reliability, inventory, and finance. IEOR E3106 must be completed by the fifth term. Only students with special academic circumstances may be allowed to take these courses in alternative semesters with the consultation of CSA and Departmental advisers.
A course in designing, documenting, coding, and testing robust computer software, according to object-oriented design patterns and clean coding practices. Taught in Java.Object-oriented design principles include: use cases; CRC; UML; javadoc; patterns (adapter, builder, command, composite, decorator, facade, factory, iterator, lazy evaluation, observer, singleton, strategy, template, visitor); design by contract; loop invariants; interfaces and inheritance hierarchies; anonymous classes and null objects; graphical widgets; events and listeners; Java's Object class; generic types; reflection; timers, threads, and locks.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
This class is an introduction to writing fiction, with a focus on the short story. The initial weeks will focus on writing exercises and also deep reading of published short stories, in order to attempt to understand the space we enter when we enter a piece of fiction, what does it mean to move through it, how is it moving. Later, student work will become the main text as the focus shifts into workshop. Stories likely on the syllabus include Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds,” Mieko Kanai’s “Rabbits,” Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Husband Stitch,” and the flash fiction of Lydia Davis.
Explores the cultivation of national and transnational performances as a significant force of National Socialism, at the same time as challenging the notion of "Nazi Theatre" as monolithic formation. The core of the course inquires into the dialectical analysis of artistic creations in diverse art genres, while working towards an understanding of the social dramaturgy of such events as staging the Führer and the racialized body of the priveleged people. Nazism did not harbor ideologies without benefits for the allied nations. Thus, the dynamic performance of transnationalism among the "brothers in arms" will be included as well, in order to elucidate how works of art crossing into the Third Reich were reimagined, sometimes in ways challenging to the presumed values of the state stage. Permission of instructor given at first class meeting.
This seminar course explores topics in the history of the body in Europe, from the medieval period to the 1880s. The course will begin with an introduction to Galen’s humoral theories of the body that informed the diagnosis and treatment of illness in Europe for centuries. We will look at the role of the body in religious practices in the medieval period, and its role as evidence in the witch trials of the early modern period. We will also look to the framing of sexual difference and consider how these parameters have shaped contemporary gender politics and medical practice. We will trace outbreaks of infectious disease – from the bubonic plague, to syphilis, to cholera– and the implications on the social, cultural, political, and economic structures of everyday life. Students will learn about the professionalization of the medical field, the rise of public health institutions, and the ways in which authorities policed social behavior on the grounds of public health. Together, we will examine the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class in the understanding and treatment of the body within society. Students will also be challenged to ground their understanding of social and cultural history in a broader history of the body and embodiment. In doing so, students will examine how ideas surrounding the body change over the course of time, and how we, as historians, can account for and assess such changes.
The Africana Studies Department offers special topics courses every year as colloquia. These colloquia provide opportunities for students to explore areas of particular interest within African Diasporic Studies in a seminar environment. Students earn 4 credits for these courses. There are multiple colloquia offered by the department every year. Some of the topics for these colloquia have included Critical Race Theory, Indian Ocean Diaspora, The New Black, Caribbean Women, and Black Shakespeare. As the topics change, students should check with the Chair of the Africana Studies Department if they have any questions about the topics for a particular academic year.
A mechanistic and mathematical description of the engineering fundamentals of heat and mass transport and fluid mechanics based on mass, momentum and energy balances from the molecular to the continuum to the industrial device scale. Problems and applications will focus on energy, biological and chemical systems and processes.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
Section 1 (taught by Brionne Janae):
Updated course description forthcoming
Section 2 (taught by Farnoosh Fathi):
“In the beginner’s mind, possibilities are many, in the expert’s mind, there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
In this introductory poetry writing workshop, we will cultivate an ardently playful approach to writing, one committed to honoring “beginner’s mind.” Embarrassment, error and amateurism will be embraced as values and fertile grounds (rather than obstructions) for writing.
Together we will explore poetry writing as the pursuit and expression of a liberatory language–the language of our highest attention and freedom– shared between reader and writer.
In addition to workshops, we will alternate between classes centered on formal and thematic studies with others focussed on contemplative practices and the writing process. Formal and revisionary explorations will be guided by the experiments of Bernadette Mayer, Inger Christensen, Dadaists and the Oulipo; by generative varieties of translation as practiced by Mónica de la Torre and Sawako Nagasaku–homophonic and self-translation; the role of inside jokes and an innocent attention to our environment, inspired by Gertrude Stein and Wadih Saadeh.
Drawing on teachings by Corita Kent, art exercises by Kim Beom and Zen Buddhist rituals we will learn contemplative practices that help us create, combine and consider our attention in order to see how receptive, open, beginner’s mind effort, rather than forced determination toward a particular outcome, underpins our deepest work in writing.
Introduction to basic probability; hazard function; reliability function; stochastic models of natural and technological hazards; extreme value distributions; Monte Carlo simulation techniques; fundamentals of integrated risk assessment and risk management; topics in risk-based insurance; case studies involving civil infrastructure systems, environmental systems, mechanical and aerospace systems, construction management. Not open to undergraduate students.
What are French people
actually
saying to each other? You’ve taken French for 3+ years, have been reading literature, watching films and writing about them in sophisticated analyses. Yet, conversations among native speakers may still elude you. This course is designed to help you bridge that gap, and gain a better understanding of the slang (
argot
) and the pop culture references that contribute to French’s vibrancy. Together we will review a variety of contemporary French popular art forms, from music, film and graphic novels to street art, film, and food culture. We will explore the history of these genres, and the ways in which French identity is continuously (re)-established in its popular culture with and against the influences of decolonization, Americanization and globalization. The course is conducted in French.
An introduction to the basic thermodynamics of systems, including concepts of equilibrium, entropy, thermodynamic functions, and phase changes. Basic kinetic theory and statistical mechanics, including diffusion processes, concept of phase space, classical and quantum statistics, and applications thereof.
Since Gandhi’s experiments in mass
satyagraha
over a century ago, nonviolence has become a staple of protest politics across the globe. From the Occupy movements to the Arab Spring to Movement for Black Lives, it might even be entering a new phase of revitalization. At the same time, what exactly nonviolence is and what it can accomplish in politics is very much under debate. This course aims to understand the politics of nonviolence by examining the political ideas and political careers of its most well-known twentieth-century advocates, M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Though still venerated as founding figures of nonviolent protest, Gandhi and King have come to be remembered in ways that can misconstrue how they understood and practiced nonviolent politics. To many, Gandhi is a saintly idealist, who wanted to imbue politics with the spirit of
ahimsa
, truth, and conscience. Likewise, King is taken to be a spokesman for interracial brotherhood and Christian love. While partly true, these images also downplay the political side of their nonviolence – the techniques of organizing and strategies of protest that made their movements successful.
We will examine the evolution of Gandhi’s and King’s political thinking in relation to the movements they led – the Indian independence movement and the civil rights movement in the US. We will consider how the theory and practice of nonviolence evolved and changed as it moved from one context to another. We will be especially focused on understanding the dynamics of nonviolent protest.
TBA
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
What is the difference between a play and a film? No two playwrights will have the same response, but all must address the question. This is a class that revels in that distinction, encouraging students to explore the idiosyncrasy, strangeness, and power of the form. For half the semester, students will be writing in response to prompts that are designed to teach fundamental principles of the form. In addition to writing their own work, every week students will choose two plays from a collection of 150 to read and comment briefly on. During the second half of the semester, students develop a longer work, to be submitted as either a completed one act or a partial draft with notes for a full-length work. Classes are spent reading and discussing students’ work. No previous experience in playwriting is necessary.
Stress and strain. Mechanical properties of materials. Axial load, bending, shear, and torsion. Stress transformation. Deflection of beams. Buckling of columns. Combined loadings. Thermal stresses.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
This is the required discussion section for
POLS UN3112.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
A workshop in writing, with emphasis on the short story.
Story Writing I is an advanced workshop in prose writing, with emphasis on the short story. Some experience in the writing of fiction is required. Students will share at least two pieces of their own work with the class over the course of the semester. In addition, each week we will read and analyze a variety of published short stories with an eye for craft and writerly decisions that might be applied to our own work. Exercises and in-depth workshop letters will push students to think more deeply about their own choices and the many layers that make up their work. Conference hours to be arranged.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
Section 1 (taught by Weike Wang):
Flash Fiction Workshop.
This course is an intensive writing workshop focused on the art of flash fiction—stories told in under 1,500 words. The workshop will emphasize experimentation, encouraging students to push the boundaries of traditional storytelling by playing with form, language, and perspective. Readings will include works originally written in English as well as those in translation, offering a broad view of global approaches to flash fiction. Discussions will cover the mechanics of storytelling on a compressed scale, including structure, character development, point of view, dialogue, and style. Authors will include Cheever, Couto, Hempel, Davis, and Wang, and through these readings, students will explore the structural possibilities of the short form, the role of voice, and the ways in which brevity can intensify narrative impact. The class will examine how compression, omission, and implication create resonance in fiction.Each student will write and workshop three original short pieces, receiving detailed feedback from peers and the instructor. The goal is to develop a keen sense of how the economy of language can create depth and complexity in fiction.
Section 2 (taught by Idra Novey):
Old Wolves and New Grandmothers.
Once upon a time there was a fiction workshop and each student in the workshop conjured a new role for the animal in their grandmother’s bed. In this workshop, we’ll experiment with how the tone and iconic figures of fairy tales may provide a way into a new work of fiction, though not necessarily a way out. We’ll talk about myriad ways to subvert the expected meaning of the wolf and the wicked in our own time, and what new subtexts may be lurking in the shared stories we reconsider at different points in our lives. “You shift time and location to see what holds true, and why or why not,” novelist Helen Oyeyemi says of the allure of fairy tales as a place of departure for a new work of fiction. We’ll discuss work from writers drawn to subvert and repurpose fairy tales, including Helen Oyeyemi, Barbara Comyns, and Cristina Rivera Garza.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
Section 1 (taught by Weike Wang):
Flash Fiction Workshop.
This course is an intensive writing workshop focused on the art of flash fiction—stories told in under 1,500 words. The workshop will emphasize experimentation, encouraging students to push the boundaries of traditional storytelling by playing with form, language, and perspective. Readings will include works originally written in English as well as those in translation, offering a broad view of global approaches to flash fiction. Discussions will cover the mechanics of storytelling on a compressed scale, including structure, character development, point of view, dialogue, and style. Authors will include Cheever, Couto, Hempel, Davis, and Wang, and through these readings, students will explore the structural possibilities of the short form, the role of voice, and the ways in which brevity can intensify narrative impact. The class will examine how compression, omission, and implication create resonance in fiction.Each student will write and workshop three original short pieces, receiving detailed feedback from peers and the instructor. The goal is to develop a keen sense of how the economy of language can create depth and complexity in fiction.
Section 2 (taught by Idra Novey):
Old Wolves and New Grandmothers.
Once upon a time there was a fiction workshop and each student in the workshop conjured a new role for the animal in their grandmother’s bed. In this workshop, we’ll experiment with how the tone and iconic figures of fairy tales may provide a way into a new work of fiction, though not necessarily a way out. We’ll talk about myriad ways to subvert the expected meaning of the wolf and the wicked in our own time, and what new subtexts may be lurking in the shared stories we reconsider at different points in our lives. “You shift time and location to see what holds true, and why or why not,” novelist Helen Oyeyemi says of the allure of fairy tales as a place of departure for a new work of fiction. We’ll discuss work from writers drawn to subvert and repurpose fairy tales, including Helen Oyeyemi, Barbara Comyns, and Cristina Rivera Garza.
Writing sample required to apply. Instructions and the application form can be found here:
https://english.barnard.edu/english/creative-writing-courses
.
Muriel Rukeyser remarked that “American poetry has been part of a culture in conflict.” Indeed, culture worldwide is in conflict. This course will explore “the necessity of poetry” from a phrase by Adrienne Rich. It is organized to ensure the development of new work and further study of poetic practice for committed student writers. We will examine mostly contemporary poetry using specific poetry collections from poets as varied as John Keene, Rosa Alcalá, Megan Fernandes, Harryette Mullen, Ilya Kaminsky and Emily Lee Luan as well as ancestors: Rich, June Jordan, Gertrude Stein. In the classroom, student poems and ideas about poetics are shared, questioned, and critiqued. These selected readings explore different strands of poetics that will inform the in-class and assigned prompts allowing student writers to expand their interrogation of the genre and its many forms. You will read, listen, write, and make your own voice seen and heard.
Childhood, in some sense, is a universally shared area of expertise: everyone alive was once a kid. At the same time, childhood remains a profound mystery. There’s so much we don’t remember! And the experiences we do retain—did we really understand them, then or now? Even the most ordinary moments of early life can acquire extraordinary significance: they are the touchstones and talismans that we use to make sense of the world, and our place within it. But why? And how?
As we read and write about childhood in this class, we will be asking questions fundamental to the art of fiction: where does a story begin? How is a character formed? Youth, like literature, is filled with symbols. Kids, like writers, are imaginative, metaphorical thinkers, prone to both flights of fancy and glimpses of the truth. The stories of our youth often follow a predictable, prescribed narrative—we are, after all, rarely the authors of our own upbringing—and yet there are a few phases of life with as many plot twists, climactic and often traumatic events that shape who we are. In this way, our line of inquiry in this course will be at once literary and personal. We will be reading and writing about a subject that is nothing short of profound: the origins of life.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Priority is given to Film Studies majors/concentrations in order of class seniority. Corequisites: (Since this is a Film course, it does not count as a writing course for English majors with a Writing Concentration.)
This course is ideal for writers of their FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD screenplays. The first several weeks will focus on STORY: What it is, what it isn’t, how to recognize the difference. How to find your own individual stories that nobody else in the universe can tell.
From there we will make the transition to the highly individualized techniques, the strengths and limitations, the dynamics of telling a SCREEN STORY; what to leave in, what to leave out. As Michelangelo puts it—starting with a block of marble and chipping away everything that isn’t David. Through studies of existing screenplays and films in coordination with and hands-on writing exercises which we will share in class, we will develop our skills in all aspects of screenwriting; building fascinating characters, dialogue, story construction (The BIG PICTURE) and scene construction (The Small Picture)
Perfection is not the goal; but rather it is to be able to say truly at the end of each day’s writing, “I did the best I could with what I had at the time. (Phillip Roth quoting heavyweight champion Joe Louis)
Nature and politics have often been counterposed in political thought: politics is understood to be a distinctly human activity, perhaps even the defining human activity, while nature describes the material world as it operates independently from human action; politics concerns the realm of decisions about how things will and ought to be, while nature names that which simply is and cannot be changed. What, then, does it mean to think about the politics of nature? We will begin by examining the ways that political thinkers have understood nature in general before moving into specifically ecological thought and ending with reflections on the central challenge of nature and politics today: climate change. Themes addressed include the role of science in politics, the challenges of politics on a global or planetary scale, the political and moral status of nonhuman nature, and the relationship between nature and economics.
Open only to undergraduates.
This course will introduce you to principles of effective public speaking and debate, and provide practical opportunities to use these principles in structured speaking situations. You will craft and deliver speeches, engage in debates and panel discussions, analyze historical and contemporary speakers, and reflect on your own speeches and those of your classmates. You will explore and practice different rhetorical strategies with an emphasis on information, persuasion and argumentation. For each speaking assignment, you will go through the speech-making process, from audience analysis, purpose and organization, to considerations of style and delivery. The key criteria in this course are content, organization, and adaptation to the audience and purpose. While this is primarily a performance course, you will be expected to participate extensively as a listener and critic, as well as a speaker.
Enrollment restricted to Barnard students. Application process and instructor permission required:
https://speaking.barnard.edu/become-speaking-fellow
. Speaking involves a series of rhetorical choices regarding vocal presentation, argument construction, and physical affect that, whether made consciously or by default, project information about the identity of the speaker. In this course students will relate theory to practice: to learn principles of public speaking and speech criticism for the purpose of applying these principles as peer tutors in the Speaking Fellow Program.
Note: This course now counts as an elective for the English major.