Six major concepts of political philosophy including authority, rights, equality, justice, liberty and democracy are examined in three different ways. First the conceptual issues are analyzed through contemporary essays on these topics by authors like Peters, Hart, Williams, Berlin, Rawls and Schumpeter. Second the classical sources on these topics are discussed through readings from Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Marx, Plato, Mill and Rousseau. Third some attention is paid to relevant contexts of application of these concepts in political society, including such political movements as anarchism, international human rights, conservative, liberal, and Marxist economic policies as well as competing models of democracy.
Author of
Middlemarch
, widely regarded as “the best English novel,” George Eliot was hailed by her successor Henry James as “one of the noblest, most beautiful minds of our time.” This course will engage Eliot not only as a consummate author of nineteenth-century realist fiction but also as an ethical philosopher. Her novels explore the questions, “How should one live?” “What is the right thing to do?” “What is one’s obligation to the other?” while rejecting moral didacticism. We will read four of Eliot’s masterpieces along with brief excerpts from her essays and from philosophers Spinoza, Feuerbach, J.S. Mill, Spencer, and G.H. Lewes, all of whom critically influenced Eliot’s thinking. For Eliot, the novel serves as a vehicle for ethical inquiry; without “lapsing from the picture to the diagram,” her rich narrative portrayal of character and social intercourse gives “flesh and blood” to philosophical dilemmas, bringing home to readers the real consequences of moral choice and action. The major issues of Victorian debate, including utilitarianism, sympathy, early sociology, faith, and feminism, will inform our study.
This course provides a political and social history of India from the 16th-19th century, focusing on the Mughal empire. Two central concerns: first, the Mughal regnal politics towards their rival imperial concerns within India and West Asia (the Maratha, the Rajput, the Safavid, the Ottoman); and second, the foreign gaze onto the Mughals (via the presence of Portuguese, English, and French travelers, merchants, and diplomats in India). These interlocked practices (how Mughals saw the world and how the world saw the Mughals) will allow us develop a nuanced knowledge of universally acknowledged power of the early modern world.
This undergraduate course aims to unveil a lesser known face of Paris linked to its colonial past in order to reread the present social, political and cultural landscape of France's capital city. By visiting hotspots of a forgotten Parisian black history, students will learn about the legacy of a colonial past often unknown and neglected. Sites will include the Latin Quarter which saw the birth of Negritude movement in the 1930s with the encounter of African and Caribbean intellectuals (Cesaire, Senghor, Damas) and the foundation of the editions Presence Africaine with Alioune Diop; Saint Germain des Pres and Pigalle which celebrated jazz music in cabarets; the Museum of the history of immigration in Porte Doree and the Musee des Arts Premiers at the Quai Branly. This itinerant historical approach of Paris will be complemented by an exploration of the contemporary cultural and artistic politics of the Black stage. by Attending theater plays, dance shows, and concerts, and meeting African and Caribbean artists living in Paris (playwrights, directors, actors, choreographers, dancers, musicians), students will enjoy the opportunity to explore Black Parisian culture from an insider's point of view and find out what it means to be a Black artist today in France.
Fundamentals of computer organization and digital logic. Boolean algebra, Karnaugh maps, basic gates and components, flipflops and latches, counters and state machines, basics of combinational and sequential digital design. Assembly language, instruction sets, ALU's, single-cycle and multi-cycle processor design, introduction to pipelined processors, caches, and virtual memory.
Prerequisites: 2 years of College French
This course is an introduction to the history, the sociology, and the anthropology of various communities in Paris. Focusing on different communities will lead us to reconsider the history of Paris, of France, of Europe, and of the colonial and post-colonial world, and will help explain the presence of the many immigrants (and of their children who have become French citizens) who have come from other parts of Europe, but also from the Caribbean, the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa, as well as from Asia. Through this lens, we will link the past to the present and gain perspective on contemporary debates—including multiculturalism, immigration (regulated and clandestine), the question of secularism, the place of Islam, etc.—facing French society that arise precisely because of Paris’ status as a “global city.”
The course will first consider the settlement of immigrant European, Caribbean, African and Asian (Belgian, Italian, Spaniard, Polish, Portuguese, Caribbean, Algerian, Senegalese, Vietnamese…) or migrant (French of North African descent before 1962, for example) communities in the singular space constituted by Paris. Secondly, we will problematize (by linking the question to this long history of (im)migration to Paris) the idea that a certain type of ethnic and/or confessional sectarianism (which the course will attempt to define) is in the process of taking hold in France—and in its capital—at the expense of a rich diversity that has, for a long time, made Paris a large cosmopolitan and multicultural city.
In this course students will learn to work on the entire gamut of primary sources from the most traditional (e.g. essays, political statements, press reviews, administrative reports, demographic statistics, judicial archives, etc.) to less commonly used sources such as iconographic materials (e.g. paintings, photography, postcards, films) as well as private diaries, correspondence, etc. These primary sources will be studied in each session and will be contextualized in relation to secondary sources.
This practical lab focuses on the fundamental aspects of development, planning and preparation for low budget films. While using a short film script as their own case study – students will learn pitching, development, script breakdown, scheduling, budgeting and fundraising. Discussion of legal issues, location scouting, deliverables, marketing, distribution and film festival strategy will allow students to move forward with their own projects after completing the class. Using weekly assignments, in-class presentations and textbook readings to reinforce each class discussion topic, students will complete the class having created a final prep/production binder for their project, which includes the script breakdown, production schedule, line item budget, financing/fundraising plan and film festival strategy for their chosen script.
Our critical examination of the aesthetics of literary modernism will seek out history even in those works of high modernism that have traditionally been viewed as ahistorical. We will take up questions of nationalism, empire, and imperialism apparent in a number of the works. Syllabus: Selected Poems of W.B. Yeats, Conrad's
Nostromo
, Woolf's
The Voyage Out
, Rebecca West's
Return of the Soldier
, T.S. Eliot's
The Wasteland
, Proust's
Remembrance of Things Past
, Forster's
A Passage to India
, Kafka's
The Castle
, Stein's
Tender Buttons
, Selected Cantos of Ezra Pound.
Museum Visit- MoMA
This course explores human rights issues in contemporary novels, films, and short stories from Africa and the Caribbean as well as humanitarian-inspired art, films, television, and music videos circulated around the world. When postcolonial writers and cultural producers decide to represent violence in their countries, they risk reproducing racist stereotypes that permeate international media. And yet, violations of basic human rights tied to civil war, sexual violence, religious fanaticism, and ethnic strife are intimate features of their national histories. How can postcolonial writers undermine the harmful stereotypes and dominant narratives that predetermine their stories in the international public sphere without reproducing stereotypes? To better understand strife abroad, we will take an interdisciplinary feminist approach to the politics of representing human rights. Our readings, paired with options for poetry slams, film screenings, and walking tours in New York City, will prompt us to reflect critically on the ambivalences surrounding human rights in our own U.S. culture. We will engage literary representations of historical events ranging from the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the Rwandan genocide, all the way up to Black Lives Matter and Islamophobia in the wake of Trump's election. Final projects invite students to reflect on methods for representing human rights through creative writing and literary zine-making. This course, which fulfills the University Global Core requirement, as well as English major requirements for prose fiction/narrative and comparative/global literature, will appeal to students not only literature but also in human rights, history, political science, African studies, law, and gender and sexuality studies.
If a student wishes to pursue a research project or a course of study not offered by the department, he or she may apply for an Independent Study.
Application:
1. cover sheet with signatures of the professor who will serve as the project sponsor and departmental administrator or director of undergraduate studies; 2. project description in 750 words, including any preliminary work in the field, such as a lecture course(s) or seminar(s); 3. bibliography of primary and secondary works to be read or consulted. Please visit the English and Comparative Literature Department website at http://english.columbia.edu/undergraduate/forms for the cover sheet form or see the administrator in 602 Philosophy Hall for the cover sheet form and to answer any other questions you may have.
Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. No more than 6 points in this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements.
Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. No more than 6 points in this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements.
Candidates for the B.S. degree may conduct an investigation of some problem in chemical engineering or applied chemistry or carry out a special project under the supervision of the staff. Credit for the course is contingent upon the submission of an acceptable thesis or final report. No more than 6 points in this course may be counted toward the satisfaction of the B.S. degree requirements.
Prerequisites: Approval by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work.
Independent work involving experiments, computer programming, analytical investigation, or engineering design.
Prerequisites: Agreement by a faculty member to serve as thesis adviser.
An independent theoretical or experimental investigation by an undergraduate major of an appropriate problem in computer science carried out under the supervision of a faculty member. A formal written report is mandatory and an oral presentation may also be required. May be taken over more than one term, in which case the grade is deferred until all 6 points have been completed. Consult the department for section assignment.
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Pre-registration is not permitted.
Seminar in Political Theory. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.
This course examines the way particular spaces - cultural, urban, literary - serve as sites for the production and reproduction of cultural and political imaginaries. It places particular emphasis on the themes of the polis, the city, and the nation-state as well as on spatial representations of and responses to notions of the Hellenic across time. Students will consider a wide range of texts as spaces - complex sites constituted and complicated by a multiplicity of languages - and ask: How central is the classical past in Western imagination? How have great metropolises such as Paris, Istanbul, and New York fashioned themselves in response to the allure of the classical and the advent of modern Greece?
Prerequisites: one semester of Contemporary Civilization or Literature Humanities, or an equivalent course, and the instructor's permission.
A team-taught multicultural, interdisciplinary course examining traditions of leadership and citizenship as they appear in the key texts of early Indian, Islamic, Far Eastern, and Western civilizations. One goal is to identify and examine common human values and issues evident in these texts while also recognizing key cultural differences.
Prerequisites: Open to CSER majors/concentrators only. Others may be allowed to register with the instructor's permission.
This course explores the centrality of colonialism in the making of the modern world, emphasizing cross-cultural and social contact, exchange, and relations of power; dynamics of conquest and resistance; and discourses of civilization, empire, freedom, nationalism, and human rights, from 1500 to 2000. Topics include pre-modern empires; European exploration, contact, and conquest in the new world; Atlantic-world slavery and emancipation; and European and Japanese colonialism in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The course ends with a section on decolonization and post-colonialism in the period after World War II. Intensive reading and discussion of primary documents.
Gospel Music in Modern America This course will track the evolution of religion and music in African American history across the twentieth century to the present day. Beginning with the emergence of the Gospel-Blues during the 1920s, we will explore the ways in cultural aesthetics, religious imaginings and institutional formations have come together to shape the development of black musical forms, sacred and secular alike, across the evolving genres of blues, jazz, r&b, hip hop, neo-soul and more.
For students who want to do independent study of topics not covered by normal departmental offerings. The student must find a faculty sponsor and work out a plan of study; a copy should be submitted to the director of undergraduate studies.
This seminar focuses on diplomacy in the modern era and examines major diplomatic events since the end of the Cold War. The course approaches the study of contemporary diplomacy by combining international relations theory and empirical cases to analyze the influence of diplomacy, as an instrument of statecraft, including its methods, practices and strategies, on how states interact and pursue their goals. The purposes of this course are to examine how states manage and shape external relations through diplomacy, either alone or in combination with other instruments as well as to analyze the conditions under which diplomatic statecraft has had positive, negative or no impact on various foreign policies and international outcomes.
While this is not a course about American diplomacy, the United States will often be discussed given its continued and unique significance to post-Cold War diplomatic statecraft. We critically assess and analyze the practice of diplomacy amid a range of post-Cold War cases and developments including the reunification of Germany, Israeli-Palestinian relations since the Oslo Accords, coercive diplomacy against Iraq, Haiti, and Iran, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, the Dayton Accords, the fight against terrorism, an evolving international environmental agenda, and technological changes in the digital domain.
Prerequisite: the written permission of the staff member under whose supervision the research will be conducted.
Prerequisite: the written permission of the staff member under whose supervision the research will be conducted.
Prerequisites: Approval by a faculty member who agrees to supervise the work.
Independent project involving laboratory work, computer programming, analytical investigation, or engineering design. May be repeated for credit, but not for a total of more than 3 points of degree credit. Consult the department for section assignment.
Prerequisites: Obtained internship and approval from faculty advisor.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used toward the 128credit degree requirement. Only for APAM undergraduate students who include relevant off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. Fieldwork credits may not count toward any major core, technical, elective, and nontechnical requirements. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Prerequisites: Obtained internship and approval from faculty advisor. BMEN undergraduate students only.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used toward the 128-credit degree requirement. Only for BMEN undergraduate students who include relevant off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. Fieldwork credits may not count toward any major core, technical, elective, and non-technical requirements. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Prerequisites: Restricted to Chemical Engineering undergraduate students.
Provides work experience on chemical engineering in relevant intern or fieldwork experience as part of their program of study as determined by the instructor. Written application must be made prior to registration outlining proposed internship/study program. A written report describing the experience and how it relates to the chemical engineering core curriculum is required. Employer feedback on student performance and the quality of the report are the basis of the grade. This course may not be taken for pass/fail or audited. May not be used as a technical or non­technical elective. May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 points total of CHEN E3999 may be used for degree credit.
Prerequisites: Obtained internship and approval from faculty advisor.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used toward the 128-credit degree requirement. Only for SEAS computer science undergraduate students who include relevant off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. May not be used as a technical or non-technical elective. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Prerequisites: Obtained internship and approval from faculty advisor.
May be repeated for credit, but no more than 3 total points may be used toward the 128-credit degree requirement. Only for MECE undergraduate students who include relevant on-campus and off-campus work experience as part of their approved program of study. Final report and letter of evaluation required. Fieldwork credits may not count toward any major core, technical, elective, and non-technical requirements. May not be taken for pass/fail credit or audited.
Prerequisites:
CHNS C1222
or
F1222
, or the equivalent.
Admission after Chinese placement exam and an oral proficiency interview with the instructor. Especially designed for students who possess good speaking ability and who wish to acquire practical writing skills as well as business-related vocabulary and speech patterns. Introduction to semiformal and formal Chinese used in everyday writing and social or business-related occasions. Simplified characters are introduced.
Prerequisites:
CHNS W4005
or the equivalent.
Admission after Chinese placement exam and an oral proficiency interview with the instructor. Especially designed for students who possess good speaking ability and who wish to acquire practical writing skills as well as business-related vocabulary and speech patterns. Introduction to semiformal and formal Chinese used in everyday writing and social or business-related occasions. Simplified characters are introduced.
Prerequisites:
CHNS W4004
or the equivalent.
Implements a wide range of reading materials to enhance the student’s speaking and writing as well as reading skills. Supplemented by television broadcast news, also provides students with strategies to increase their comprehension of formal style of modern Chinese. CC GS EN CE
Prerequisites:
CHNS G4015
or the equivalent.
Implements a wide range of reading materials to enhance the student’s speaking and writing as well as reading skills. Supplemented by television broadcast news, also provides students with strategies to increase their comprehension of formal style of modern Chinese. CC GS EN CE
This course will provide a wide-ranging survey of conceptual foundations and issues in contemporary human rights. The class will examine the philosophical origins of human rights, contemporary debates, the evolution of human rights, key human rights documents, and the questions of human rights enforcement. This course will examine specific civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and various thematic topics in human rights.
Modern feature-length screenplays demand a specific architecture. In this class students will enter with an idea for a film, and during the first eight sessions build a coherent treatment; that is, a summary of the events and major emotional arcs of the film's three acts. In the final four sessions students will begin and complete the first act of their feature-length screenplay.
Professional Development for Economic Policy Managers is divided into two modules. The first module is focused entirely on oral and written communication skills, and includes a required presentation by students and a written memo from each student taking the course. The second module encompasses the traditional Office of Career Services Professional Development course, focused on PEPM student career objectives.
Prerequisites:
MATH S1202
,
MATH S2010
, or the equivalent. Students must have a current and solid background in the prerequisites for the course: multivariable calculus and linear algebra.
Elements of set theory and general topology. Metric spaces. Euclidian space. Continuous and differentiable functions. Riemann integral. Uniform convergence.
Prerequisites:
MATH S4061
, or the equivalent with the instructor's permission.
Equicontinuity. Contraction maps with applications to existence theorems in analysis. Lebesgue measure and integral. Fourier series and Fourier transform
This course sets out to explore the nature of crime, particularly those involving violence, and the practices advanced to control and restrict it in the wide geographical area of Europe, with an emphasis on France, England and Italy. The course material will be studied thematically. Themes will include the violent crimes, political violence, the development of courts, the development of criminal law, investigations of specific types of crime such as murder, theft, crimes against women, the mentality and methods of punishment, prisons, torture, and the methods of inquisition.
Prerequisites: must have a BA, BFA or equivalent. Apply directly to the School of the Arts. For more information please see:
http://arts.columbia.edu/summer/visual-arts/course/advanced-painting-intensive-nyc
.
The Advanced Painting Intensive mentors a group of up to twelve students through individual and group critique, technical tutorials, exposure to the New York gallery and museum worlds, and lectures and critiques by nationally known visiting artists. The six-week, six-credit workshop is based on the elements and structure of Columbia's MFA degree program and is tailored to those who are interested in challenging and advancing their work in an immersive and nurturing environment. Additionally, the workshop is geared to those who desire to develop both a strong visual portfolio and a written package appropriate for applications to MFA programs. The Advanced Painting Intensive is led by Professor Gregory Amenoff, the Chair of Visual Arts at Columbia University. Professor Amenoff has exhibited his paintings nationally and internationally for four decades and was one of the founders of Columbia University's prestigious MFA visual arts program.
The Photography Intensive engages students in all elements of photographic practice and the development of a portfolio. The experienced faculty are responsive to the specific needs of each photographer and the course is appropriate for students at any level. The curriculum is designed for students to quickly accelerate their understanding of the language of photography and to realize the creative possibilities in their own work. A combination of technical tutorials, individual meetings with internationally renowned artists and art professionals, as well as a series of seminars and group critiques, provide students with the tools they need to advance professionally and further develop the core elements of their practice. The Photography Intensive provides an exceptional workshop environment where students have 24-hour access to traditional and digital facilities, coupled with daily hands-on assistance from experienced faculty and staff, culminating in a group exhibition at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery. Students are expected to produce work independently throughout the six-week term and fully dedicate their time and efforts to the course. The course is designed for several distinct types of students: exceptional undergraduates passionate about photography, college graduates preparing to apply for MFA programs, experienced photographers looking to gain knowledge of the photographic tradition and its advanced techniques, and seasoned artists and teachers wishing to rigorously develop their practice through a critical dialogue with faculty and other students.
Prerequisites: (COMS W3134) or (COMS W3136) or (COMS W3137) and fluency in Java; or the instructor's permission.
The fundamentals of database design and application development using databases: entity-relationship modeling, logical design of relational databases, relational data definition and manipulation languages, SQL, XML, query processing, physical database tuning, transaction processing, security. Programming projects are required.
Prerequisites: (COMS W3134) or (COMS W3136) or (COMS W3137) and fluency in Java; or the instructor's permission.
The fundamentals of database design and application development using databases: entity-relationship modeling, logical design of relational databases, relational data definition and manipulation languages, SQL, XML, query processing, physical database tuning, transaction processing, security. Programming projects are required.