Examines the shaping of European cultural identity through encounters with non-European cultures from 1500 to the post-colonial era. Novels, paintings, and films will be among the sources used to examine such topics as exoticism in the Enlightenment, slavery and European capitalism, Orientalism in art, ethnographic writings on the primitive, and tourism.
The course provides students with an understanding of Earth's natural systems that is essential to addressing the multi-faceted issues of sustainable development. After completing the course, students should be able to incorporate scientific approaches and perspectives into their research in other fields or policy decisions and be able to use scientific methods of data analysis. The semester will highlight the climate system and solutions from both physical and ecological perspectives; water resources; food production and the cycling of nutrients; and the role of biodiversity in sustainable development. The course emphasizes key scientific concepts such as uncertainty, experimental versus observational approaches, prediction and predictability, the use of models, and other essential methodological aspects.
Modern III continues training in contemporary/modern technique for the beginning-intermediate level dancer, emphasizing alignment and musicality while expanding on the dancer’s physical and intellectual understanding of articulation, phrasing, dynamics, performance and focus. Our class will incorporate relevant principals from classical modern techniques along with contemporary aesthetics, improvisation and reflection. Our class aims to create a space that is in support of your artistic development, aesthetic fluency, and creative explorations as a dancer
Modern IV is a contemporary technique class for the intermediate to advanced-intermediate level dancer, emphasizing alignment and musicality while expanding on the dancer’s physical and intellectual understanding of articulation, phrasing, dynamics, performance, and focus. Our class will incorporate relevant principles from classical modern techniques with contemporary aesthetics, improvisation, and reflection. Our class aims to create a space that is in support of your technical and aesthetic development as a dancing practitioner, performer, and creator.
Course Description:
This intermediate Contemporary Caribbean Dance class draws from different Caribbean dance styles. This Caribbean fusion class explains different cultural dances, focusing on African Diaspora principles and practices such as syncopation in body and in music.
Based on many of the dance of the Caribbean Islands, students learn to identify dances and rhythms that draw from traditions, such as Arara, Palo, Salsa, Rumba, Tambu, Tumba, Merengue, Reaggaton, Cha Cha Cha, Zouk and Afro Dance, as well as more contemporary styles such as “Technica Cubana” and learn to apply them in contemporary combinations. The course is designed for students who have some dance training and are looking to widen their understanding of different dances and learn to use different body parts that are not traditionally used in modern dance but are recognizable in Jazz, hip hop and current offerings in popular
World economy, Empire and War: 1900-1950 covers the dramatic upheavals in the world economy that brought nineteenth-century era of globalization to an end an initiated a new era of national economics and global geopolitics. The course will cover the age of imperialism, the crises of the interwar period, the arms race of the 1930s, World War II and the Cold War.
Required zero-point/ungraded discussion section for “World economy, Empire & War: 1900-50” lecture (HIST 2344)
We are often led to believe that Ireland is a place defined by timeless tradition: ancient songs and stories, a rural way of life, persistent and mysterious religious antagonisms. The real history of modern Ireland, however, is defined by dramatic and restless change: political, social, economic, even environmental. This lecture course will introduce you to the broad sweep of modern Irish history, acquainting you with a rich historical literature and striking primary sources covering everything from the contentious and deadly politics of potato-farming to the secret lives of combatants in the Northern Ireland Troubles. It will view Ireland not as a place out of time but as somewhere from which we can gain a unique perspective on some of the historical forces that have shaped our world: empire, capitalism, religion, migration, and nationalism.
Required zero-point/ungraded discussion section for “Conquests and Transformations: Ireland since 1500” lecture (HIST 2347)
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on musical beat, meter, and rhythm patterns, developing a sense of steady and changing tempo, and an understanding how rhythm contributes to style in music. Rhythmic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the impact of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. This course combines the standards of conservatory musicianship with standards of critical thinking, here represented as critical listening. The repertoire for Musicianship: Rhythm covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on scales, intervals, melodic contour and phrasing, and how they contribute to style in music. The repertoire for Musicianship: Melody covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.
This course will offer a survey of French history from the Wars of Religion to the Revolution, when the kingdom was the predominant power in Europe. Topics to be addressed include the rise of the Bourbon monarchy, the crystallization of absolutism as a political theology, the spectacular rise and collapse of John Law’s financial system, the emergence of the philosophe movement during the Enlightenment, and the gradual de-legitimation of royal power through its association with despotism. Thematically, the course will focus on shifting logics of representation—that is, the means by which political, economic, and religious power was not only reflected, but also generated and projected, through a range of interrelated practices that include Catholic liturgy, courtly protocols, aristocratic codes of honor, financial experimentation, and the critical styles of thinking and reading inculcated by the nascent public sphere.
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will examine the phenomenon of simultaneous sound with chords and chord progressions, and experience harmony’s impact on musical structure and style. Harmonic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the exploration of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. The repertoire for Musicianship: Harmony covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.
Required discussion section for HIST UN2353
Introduction to Indian civilization with attention to both its unity and its diversity across the Indian subcontinent. Consideration of its origins, formative development, fundamental social institutions, religious thought and practice (Vedic, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), literary and artistic achievements, and modern challenges.
Students must register for a section of ASCM UN2358.
This class introduces students to the field of environmental history from a global perspective. Environmental history is the study of the relationship between nature and society over time. It deals with the material environment, cultural and scientific understandings of nature, and the politics of socio-economic use of natural resources. The class combines the study of classic texts that were foundational to the field with modern case studies from all over the world. It addresses questions of global relevance, such as: how did the environment shape human history? How did humans shape the natural environment? How are power relations of class, race and gender embedded in the environment we live in? The class welcomes students from the natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities. The goal of the course is to understand how the relationship between environment and society in history led to the current climate crisis.
How do you represent a revolution? What does it mean to picture the world as it “really” is? Who may be figured as a subject or citizen, and who not? Should art improve society, or critique it? Can it do both? These are some of the many questions that the artists of nineteenth-century Europe grappled with, and that we will explore together in this course. This was an era of rapid and dramatic political, economic, and cultural change, marked by wars at home and colonial expansion abroad; the rise of industrialization and urbanization; and the invention of myriad new technologies, from photography to the railway. The arts played an integral and complex role in all of these developments: they both shaped and were shaped by them. Lectures will address a variety media, from painting and sculpture to the graphic and decorative arts, across a range of geographic contexts, from Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid to St. Petersburg, Cairo, Haiti, and New Zealand. Artists discussed will include Jacques-Louis David, Francisco Goya, Théodore Géricault, J.M.W. Turner, Adolph Menzel, Ilya Repin, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, C. F. Goldie, Victor Horta, and Paul Cézanne.
Prerequisites: one year of college chemistry or the written permission of either the instructor or the premedical adviser is required. Recommended as the introductory biology course for science majors who have completed a year of college chemistry and premedical students. The fundamental principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics. SPS and TC students may register for this course, but they must first obtain the written permission of the instructor, by filling out a paper Registration Adjustment Form (Add/Drop form). The form can be downloaded at the URL below, but must be signed by the instructor and returned to the office of the registrar. http://registrar.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/reg-adjustment.pdf
This course will examine the historical development of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States since the Civil War. The course will give particular focus to the interactions between conceptions of crime, normalcy and deviance, and the broader social and political context of policy making.
Prerequisites: Elementary Sanskrit II or instructor permission. This course constitutes the first half of a year-long reading course designed to give students the tools necessary for advanced study in Classical Sanskrit. Readings in epic (itihasa), poetry (kavya), systematic thought (sastra), and commentary (vyakhyana) will introduce students to a variety of important genres and their distinctive conventions. A focus upon the Sanskrit tradition’s own categories of analysis—grammatical, commentarial, and prosodic—will enable students to begin to make sense of original Sanskrit texts as generations of the tradition’s own readers have. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
This course provides a chronological and thematic introduction to Chinese religions from their beginnings until modern times. It examines distinctive concepts, practices and institutions in the religions of China. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature and modern historical and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both “elite” and “folk” culture: cosmology, family and communal rituals, afterlife, morality and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.
This course provides a chronological and thematic introduction to Chinese religions from their beginnings until modern times. It examines distinctive concepts, practices and institutions in the religions of China. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature and modern historical and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both “elite” and “folk” culture: cosmology, family and communal rituals, afterlife, morality and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.
This course provides a chronological and thematic introduction to Chinese religions from their beginnings until modern times. It examines distinctive concepts, practices and institutions in the religions of China. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature and modern historical and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both “elite” and “folk” culture: cosmology, family and communal rituals, afterlife, morality and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.
This course provides a chronological and thematic introduction to Chinese religions from their beginnings until modern times. It examines distinctive concepts, practices and institutions in the religions of China. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature and modern historical and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both “elite” and “folk” culture: cosmology, family and communal rituals, afterlife, morality and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.
This course provides a chronological and thematic introduction to Chinese religions from their beginnings until modern times. It examines distinctive concepts, practices and institutions in the religions of China. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature and modern historical and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both “elite” and “folk” culture: cosmology, family and communal rituals, afterlife, morality and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.
Elementary computational methods in statistics. Basic techniques in regression analysis of econometric models. One-hour weekly recitation sessions to complement lectures.
n/a
Emphasis on foreign policies as they pertain to the Second World War, the atomic bomb, containment, the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam. Also considers major social and intellectual trends, including the Civil Rights movement, the counterculture, feminism, Watergate, and the recession of the 1970s.
This course will study the problematic persistence of history painting as a cultural practice in nineteenth century Europe, well after its intellectual and aesthetic justifications had become obsolete. Nonetheless, academic prescriptions and expectations endured in diluted or fragmentary form. We will examine the transformations of this once privileged category and look at how the representation of exemplary deeds and action becomes increasingly problematic in the context of social modernization and the many global challenges to Eurocentrism. Selected topics explore how image making was shaped by new models of historical and geological time, by the invention of national traditions, and by the emergence of new publics and visual technologies. The relocation of historical imagery from earlier elite milieus into mass culture forms of early cinema and popular illustration will also be addressed.
Required discussion section for Indigenous History of North America (HIST UN1488)
This lab is limited to declared Film and Media Studies majors. Exercises in the writing of film scripts.
(Formerly R3401) Enables the student to realize concepts and visual ideas in a printed form. Basic techniques are introduced and utilized: the history and development of the intaglio process; demonstrations and instruction in line etching, relief, and dry point. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: permission of Theatre Department Production Manager, Michael Banta (
mbanta@barnard.edu
). Training and practical props and/or scenic painting work on Departmental mainstage productions.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: permission of Theatre Department Production Manager, Michael Banta (
mbanta@barnard.edu
). Training and practical lighting and/or sound work on Departmental mainstage productions.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: permission of Theatre Department Costume Shop Manager Kara Feely (kfeely@barnard.edu). Training and practical costume construction and fitting work on Departmental mainstage productions.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: permission of Theatre Department Production Manager, Michael Banta (
mbanta@barnard.edu
). Training and practical stage management work on Departmental mainstage productions.
May be retaken for full credit.
Prerequisites: permission of the Senior Thesis Festival coordinator. Training and practical design work assisting student designers for the Senior Thesis Festival.
(Formerly R3411) Printmaking I: Relief introduces woodcut and other relief techniques. Given the direct quality of the process, the class focuses on the students personal vision through experimentation with this print medium. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
(Formerly R3413) Printmaking I: Silkscreen introduces silkscreen and other silkscreen techniques. Given the direct quality of the process, the class focuses on the students personal vision through experimentation with this print medium. Individual and group critiques. Portfolio required at end. If the class is full, please visit http://arts.columbia.edu/undergraduate-visual-arts-program.
Prerequisites: (CHEM UN1403 and CHEM UN1404) or CHEM UN1604 The principles of organic chemistry. The structure and reactivity of organic molecules are examined from the standpoint of modern theories of chemistry. Topics include stereochemistry, reactions of organic molecules, mechanisms of organic reactions, syntheses and degradations of organic molecules, and spectroscopic techniques of structure determination. Although CHEM UN2443 and CHEM UN2444 are separate courses, students are expected to take both terms sequentially. Students must ensure they register for the recitation which corresponds to the lecture section. Please check the Directory of Classes for details.
Tap II is an intermediate level tap class for students who have at least 2 years of tap dance training. We will cover tap technique, proper use of the body to enhance sound quality and style, a variety of musical genres and structures,classic tap dance routines, and improvisation.
The prerequisite for Intermediate Level Tap is previous experience in intermediate level tap classes. Students on this level are assumed to have mastered tap basics, be comfortable with intermediate level technique, and must be ready to learn at a slightly accelerated pace.
Prerequisites: PSYC UN1001 or PSYC UN1010 or the instructors permission. Examines the principles governing neuronal activity, the role of neurotransmitter systems in memory and motivational processes, the presumed brain dysfunctions that give rise to schizophrenia and depression, and philosophical issues regarding the relationship between brain activity and subjective experience.
Pilates for Dancers is a full-body, low impact exercise class based on the work of Joseph Pilates, including movement concepts from Rudolf von Laban and Irmgard Bartenieff. We’ll work on a yoga or Pilates mat doing exercises and movement sequences that build strength, flexibility, coordination and clarity in the body. The class is suitable for dancers, athletes and movement enthusiasts. A Pilates ring is highly recommended. A limited number of Pilates rings will be available in class.
This course may not be appropriate for those with spine, neck, and shoulder injuries. If you have any of these types of injuries, kindly present a doctor’s note clearing you for participation in the class.
Moving with the Voice is an interdisciplinary creative exploration using the voice, improvised and created music, dance, and theater. Students will explore extended vocal techniques, gesture, character and musical structures (e.g. hockets, rounds, rhythms, deconstructions) within both a solo and ensemble framework, composing their own soundscapes and creating their own voice/movement/theater work through improvisation and in-class assignments. Certain assignments will be inspired by the work of Meredith Monk or the percussion show Stomp.
Open to all levels of experience. A willingness to sing is required.
The city of Paris, in the years between 1870 and 1914, was the scene of one of the most dynamic, progressive, and chaotic periods in French history. The era came to be fondly–and retrospectively–known as the Belle Époque. It is true that between the revolution of the Paris Commune in 1870 and the outbreak of World War I, Paris was the locus of successive waves of social and cultural discoveries and innovation at all levels of society, in all aspects of economic and political life, and in all fields of artistic creation and technological advance. But this time of dazzling advances was accompanied by social upheaval, political turmoil, inequality, poverty and discrimination. In our course, we will explore the period of 1870-1914 in Paris in its myriad aspects. We will give special attention to how artistic production, especially in the areas of literature, the visual arts and music, reflect rapid social change in a volatile political environment. Another focus point will be the evolving role of women in society and the visible questioning of gender and sexual identity. We will also examine French colonialism and specifically how it was represented and displayed in three successive Expositions Universelles (Worlds Fairs) held in Paris in 1878, 1889, and 1900. Throughout our exploration, we will consider not only the beauty and charm of the City of Light, but also the more complex and dark aspects of this moment of intense social and transformation. Finally, we will consider the fact that the term “Belle Époque” is itself a label, a retrospective reimagining in the mid-twentieth century of a privileged moment in the past, already distant and forever lost. This will lead us to consider collective memory as a cultural process that creates “periods” and “versions” of the past in an effort to better grapple with the present.
Discussion section for FREN BC2456: Paris in La Belle Epoque
Prerequisites: PSYC W1001 or PSYC W1010, or the equivalent. The effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain and behavior.
Prerequisites: (CHEM UN1403 and CHEM UN1404) or (CHEM UN1604) and (CHEM UN1500 or CHEM UN1507) Corequisites: CHEM UN2443 Techniques of experimental organic chemistry, with emphasis on understanding fundamental principles underlying the experiments in methodology of solving laboratory problems involving organic molecules. Attendance at the first lab lecture and laboratory session is mandatory. Please note that CHEM UN2493 is the first part of a full year organic chemistry laboratory course. Students must register for the lab lecture section (CHEM UN2495) which corresponds to their lab section. Students must attend ONE lab lecture and ONE lab section every other week. Please contact your advisers for further information.
Corequisites: CHEM UN2493 The course is the lab lecture which accompanies the Organic Chemistry Laboratory I (Techniques) course.
Learning objectives:
This course will provide a comprehensive foundation in programming methodology for quantitative biology applications that can be readily applied to any programming language. It is recommended for students interested in establishing or expanding their computational biology skillset. After completing this course, students should be able to:
1. Understand and explain the role of numerical and statistical methods in biology
2. Execute numerical computations using a widely-used programming language
3. Recognize common programming motifs that can be readily applied to other widely used languages
4. Design and troubleshoot algorithms to analyze diverse biological data and implement them using functions and scripts
5. Apply statistical programming techniques to model biological systems
6. Generate and interpret diverse plots based on biological datasets
Course overview:
Once a small subfield of biology, computational biology has evolved into a massive field of its own, with computational methods fast becoming a vital toolkit leveraged by biologists across the discipline. As the size and complexity of biological datasets grows, computational methods allow scientists to make sense of these data, scaling quantitative methods to extract meaningful insights that help us better understand ourselves and the living world around us. In this course, we will learn the basics of computer programming in R, a powerful programming language with wide use in the biological sciences. Topics will include a basic introduction to R and the RStudio environment, data types and control structures, reading and writing files in R, data processing and visualization, manipulating common biological datasets; and statistical testing and modeling in R.
Prerequisites: MATH UN1102 and MATH UN1201 or the equivalent and MATH UN2010. Mathematical methods for economics. Quadratic forms, Hessian, implicit functions. Convex sets, convex functions. Optimization, constrained optimization, Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Elements of the calculus of variations and optimal control. (SC)