FAQ
1. What is New Millennium Studies? What's it about?
2. Huh? How so?
3. What is this course about, then? What do we do?
4. What's a "seminar"? What does that mean?
5. What kinds of questions do we talk about?
6. Okay, so we ask tough questions and have interesting discussions, but what kind of work am I expected to produce?
7. Why do I have to take NMS? How does NMS relate to my major?
8. The words "new millennium" make me think high-tech. Is this class all about new media and blogging and digital stuff?
9. Is this an English course?
10. What books do we read?
11. I've read [one of our core texts] in school before. Twice, actually. I can't believe I have to read it again.
12. Who takes NMS?
13. I have a friend who's a sophomore, and he didn't have to take NMS. What's the deal?
14. Is there a course I can take at another school that will fulfill the NMS requirement?
15. Is NMS offered during the summer?
16. Who teaches NMS?
17. What is MilleFest?
1. What is New Millennium Studies? What's it about?
New Millennium Studies (NMS) is the foundation of the Core Curriculum in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is required of all first-year students.
NMS does not belong to any single field of study or rely on a sole means of communication. It is intentionally trans-disciplinary—that is, it allows students and faculty to integrate a number of different viewpoints and means of expression in considering questions in creative and critical ways.
Without meaning to be too dramatic, it's probably safe to say that NMS is unlike any course you've ever taken before.
2. Huh? How so?
The focus of this course is not on learning content in the traditional sense. This class is not meant to teach you specific dance techniques; methods for editing video; signs in ASL; nor dates, terms, and places. Instructors will not lecture. There is no textbook (though there are books). There are no exams. It is truly a seminar. (See below for more on what a seminar is.) The process of the class is what's key: in short, students will individually and collaboratively generate their own knowledge, rather than mastering knowledge already laid out for them.
Instructors will primarily be interested in seeing how energetic and dedicated you are in the process of thinking and exploring and collaborating. Perhaps more than in any other class, you must be active in order to get anything out of it. Enthusiastic participation is encouraged and a healthy skepticism is fine, but dogged resistance or complete disengagement just won't work.
The theme of NMS is Creativity and Conscience: What does it mean to create—an identity, a community, an artwork—and what are the implications of doing so? How can we harness our creativity in ways that matter?
We approach this larger theme through four units, each with its own set of guiding questions and one or two core texts that help to spark discussions of those questions. (See below for more on those questions.)
In-class discussions and activities set the stage for students-individually and in small groups-to respond to these questions in creative works and in writing. Your instructor and classmates will give you feedback on your works, and you'll have the opportunity to revise any and all of it. At the end of the semester, you'll turn in a New Millennium Studies Portfolio of all of your pieces. (This portfolio is the basis for the majority of the course grade.) See below for more on the NMS Portfolio.
4. What's a "seminar"? What does that mean?
A seminar is a class based on discussion. In a seminar, you don't come to class to hear an instructor tell you some material; instead, your instructor facilitates a conversation among you and your fellow students, focused around a question, an idea, or a text.
In a seminar, the students are responsible for generating knowledge through their engagement with the material. In a sense, each class period is an opportunity for students to share their findings or their research into whatever the topic for that day might be: the nature of identity, perhaps, or an approach to an ethical dilemma. In fact, the word 'seminar' comes from a Latin term that refers to a place where seeds are sown. In the First-Year Seminar, your instructor will sow the seeds of discussion, but it is up to students to nurture their growth.
In most class periods you can expect to contribute to a frank and honest discussion; exchange ideas; challenge and question assumptions; analyze art and writing in various forms; and all sorts of other fun stuff.
5. What kinds of questions do we talk about?
The NMS curriculum is driven as much by questions as by answers, as much by inquiry as by certainty. You can read our guiding questions here—as you'll see, we talk about questions about identity and self, about individualism and community membership, about ethics, about what it all means and why it all matters.
This kind of questioning and reflection will occasionally be frustrating. You may sometimes feel like you talked in circles during class discussion. Rest assured: that's okay, and even expected. Ideally, every class meeting will leave you with an idea or a question that you keep returning to in the hours outside of class.
6. Okay, so we ask tough questions and have interesting discussions, but what kind of work am I expected to produce?
The principal work of the course is the NMS Portfolio. For each of the four units of the course, you'll develop a creative project that engages with and responds to the questions and discussions of that unit. You'll also compose a written document that accompanies the project, a statement in which you reflect on the creative process that led to your project and articulate the ways in which your project grapples with the issues and inquiry each unit raises. These four projects and written documents compose the NMS Portfolio.
Because we want students to take some creative and intellectual risks, to stretch beyond the familiar, only one portfolio project can be done in any given medium. You'll have to try out media you're not familiar with, whether that's film, poetry, music, or something else entirely. While projects that are executed well from a technical standpoint are always welcome and valued, in NMS we're not as interested in the technical virtues of the projects as much as we are in the reflection and in the critical, creative, and intellectual engagement that went into their creation. In the words of Edward Ruscha, we're interested in projects that are "Huh? Wow!" rather than "Wow! Huh?"
7. Why do I have to take NMS? How does NMS relate to my major?
NMS models the kind of inquiry and learning that are typical of life in college and beyond. We ask questions that are complex, fundamental, and timeless, questions that great artists, scholars, and citizens have grappled with for millennia. We're not looking for The Answers, though, as these questions don't really have universal Answers. (If they did, humankind wouldn't keep asking them.) Instead, the best any of us can do is to offer tentative and provisional responses, responses that are subject to revision (or even being overturned) as we proceed with our lives.
You may very well have come to Columbia to study a specific subject in order to get a job in a particular field and are wondering how NMS fits in with that plan. Since students from every major take this course, and since our curriculum is trans-disciplinary—it doesn't belong to any one field of study or inquiry—you can probably guess that this isn't the place to learn skills or techniques unique to a specific field.
This is a place, however, to start to look at the bigger picture—the biggest picture, actually. Through the variety of media and topics we discuss and through the wealth of knowledge you and your classmates bring to the table, you'll start to see more clearly the relationships among disciplines and career paths. You'll explore how the things you do in your major connect with a larger context: life, work, and art in the grandest sense of those terms. The main focus will not be what you want to do with your life, but why you want to do it. A Columbia College Chicago degree, after all, isn't just about training in a major; it's an assemblage of skills, experiences, outlooks, and vision. That's a process that takes more than one semester, of course, even longer than a four-year college experience. It's a journey you've already started. We think of NMS as a way to bring that journey to another level and set the stage for the rest of your time at Columbia and beyond.
To make that journey, though, you have to be willing to travel with us. That's why NMS is a seminar (see above).
8. The words "new millennium" make me think high-tech. Is this class all about new media and blogging and digital stuff?
Not really. The "new millennium" in the course name suggests a whole suite of abilities that characterize learning in the twenty-first century. The nature of learning, the availability of information, the ease of communication, and the responsibilities of citizens are much different now than they were 100, 50, or even 10 years ago.
We believe that an educated citizen living in the present millennium requires a thorough grounding in the past as well as a vision for the future. While we value (and often harness) the power of the internet, digital media, and other high-tech stuff in class, our principal interest in NMS is in generating sustained and genuine inquiry into some of humankind's most enduring questions and connecting that inquiry to a larger sense of purpose.
9. Is this an English course?
No. While NMS uses literature as some of the texts, the aims of the course and the way we respond to texts differ from most English courses.
10. What books do we read?
They're listed here, along with the guiding questions for each unit.
11. I've read [one of our core texts] in school before. Twice, actually. I can't believe I have to read it again.
Several of the texts in the NMS curriculum are classics. That's great that you've read them before, actually, since reading a text the second (or third, or fourth time) is a completely different experience from reading it the first time. (That's what we found, anyway, when we picked up Green Eggs and Ham recently.) Having read a text before will only deepen your appreciation of it the second time around, and you'll be poised to contribute even more productively to class discussion.
Keep in mind too that the questions we ask in NMS are typically a bit different (maybe a lot different) from those asked in classes in which you previously encountered the text, so you'll likely have to re-read the text with an eye to those different questions.
12. Who takes NMS?
All new first-year students are required to take NMS, as are transfer students entering with 24 or fewer credits.
13. I have a friend who's a sophomore, and he didn't have to take NMS. What's the deal?
NMS is a new program, and we've been implementing it gradually over the past three years, so while most students who are sophomores in 2008-09 did take NMS, there are many who did not. Starting in fall 2008, NMS will be required of all first-year students.
14. Is there a course I can take at another school that will fulfill the NMS requirement?
Nope.
15. Is NMS offered during the summer?
At this point, no.
16. Who teaches NMS?
NMS is taught by faculty from across Columbia's schools and departments, from Film & Video to Journalism to English and nearly everything in between. Faculty who choose to teach NMS do so because they are committed to exploring timeless questions in collaboration with students. They are not there to provide students with The Answers; they're there because they want you to help them figure out what those answers might be!
17. What is MilleFest?
MilleFest is a celebration of NMS student work that occurs once each semester, usually around the end of the fourteenth week of class. Each class section of NMS nominates a small number of works for inclusion in the exhibit, and a reception gives us the opportunity to enjoy some live performances as well.
You can see pictures from previous MilleFests, as well as lists of the students who contributed work for the exhibitions, here.
2. Huh? How so?
3. What is this course about, then? What do we do?
4. What's a "seminar"? What does that mean?
5. What kinds of questions do we talk about?
6. Okay, so we ask tough questions and have interesting discussions, but what kind of work am I expected to produce?
7. Why do I have to take NMS? How does NMS relate to my major?
8. The words "new millennium" make me think high-tech. Is this class all about new media and blogging and digital stuff?
9. Is this an English course?
10. What books do we read?
11. I've read [one of our core texts] in school before. Twice, actually. I can't believe I have to read it again.
12. Who takes NMS?
13. I have a friend who's a sophomore, and he didn't have to take NMS. What's the deal?
14. Is there a course I can take at another school that will fulfill the NMS requirement?
15. Is NMS offered during the summer?
16. Who teaches NMS?
17. What is MilleFest?
1. What is New Millennium Studies? What's it about?
New Millennium Studies (NMS) is the foundation of the Core Curriculum in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is required of all first-year students.
NMS does not belong to any single field of study or rely on a sole means of communication. It is intentionally trans-disciplinary—that is, it allows students and faculty to integrate a number of different viewpoints and means of expression in considering questions in creative and critical ways.
Without meaning to be too dramatic, it's probably safe to say that NMS is unlike any course you've ever taken before.
2. Huh? How so?
The focus of this course is not on learning content in the traditional sense. This class is not meant to teach you specific dance techniques; methods for editing video; signs in ASL; nor dates, terms, and places. Instructors will not lecture. There is no textbook (though there are books). There are no exams. It is truly a seminar. (See below for more on what a seminar is.) The process of the class is what's key: in short, students will individually and collaboratively generate their own knowledge, rather than mastering knowledge already laid out for them.
Instructors will primarily be interested in seeing how energetic and dedicated you are in the process of thinking and exploring and collaborating. Perhaps more than in any other class, you must be active in order to get anything out of it. Enthusiastic participation is encouraged and a healthy skepticism is fine, but dogged resistance or complete disengagement just won't work.
"If a student has received no more than a packet of information at the end of an education transaction, that student has been duped. Good education teaches students to become both producers of knowledge and discerning consumers or what other people claim to know."3. What is this course about, then? What do we do?
—Parker Palmer
The theme of NMS is Creativity and Conscience: What does it mean to create—an identity, a community, an artwork—and what are the implications of doing so? How can we harness our creativity in ways that matter?
We approach this larger theme through four units, each with its own set of guiding questions and one or two core texts that help to spark discussions of those questions. (See below for more on those questions.)
In-class discussions and activities set the stage for students-individually and in small groups-to respond to these questions in creative works and in writing. Your instructor and classmates will give you feedback on your works, and you'll have the opportunity to revise any and all of it. At the end of the semester, you'll turn in a New Millennium Studies Portfolio of all of your pieces. (This portfolio is the basis for the majority of the course grade.) See below for more on the NMS Portfolio.
4. What's a "seminar"? What does that mean?
A seminar is a class based on discussion. In a seminar, you don't come to class to hear an instructor tell you some material; instead, your instructor facilitates a conversation among you and your fellow students, focused around a question, an idea, or a text.
In a seminar, the students are responsible for generating knowledge through their engagement with the material. In a sense, each class period is an opportunity for students to share their findings or their research into whatever the topic for that day might be: the nature of identity, perhaps, or an approach to an ethical dilemma. In fact, the word 'seminar' comes from a Latin term that refers to a place where seeds are sown. In the First-Year Seminar, your instructor will sow the seeds of discussion, but it is up to students to nurture their growth.
In most class periods you can expect to contribute to a frank and honest discussion; exchange ideas; challenge and question assumptions; analyze art and writing in various forms; and all sorts of other fun stuff.
5. What kinds of questions do we talk about?
The NMS curriculum is driven as much by questions as by answers, as much by inquiry as by certainty. You can read our guiding questions here—as you'll see, we talk about questions about identity and self, about individualism and community membership, about ethics, about what it all means and why it all matters.
This kind of questioning and reflection will occasionally be frustrating. You may sometimes feel like you talked in circles during class discussion. Rest assured: that's okay, and even expected. Ideally, every class meeting will leave you with an idea or a question that you keep returning to in the hours outside of class.
6. Okay, so we ask tough questions and have interesting discussions, but what kind of work am I expected to produce?
The principal work of the course is the NMS Portfolio. For each of the four units of the course, you'll develop a creative project that engages with and responds to the questions and discussions of that unit. You'll also compose a written document that accompanies the project, a statement in which you reflect on the creative process that led to your project and articulate the ways in which your project grapples with the issues and inquiry each unit raises. These four projects and written documents compose the NMS Portfolio.
Because we want students to take some creative and intellectual risks, to stretch beyond the familiar, only one portfolio project can be done in any given medium. You'll have to try out media you're not familiar with, whether that's film, poetry, music, or something else entirely. While projects that are executed well from a technical standpoint are always welcome and valued, in NMS we're not as interested in the technical virtues of the projects as much as we are in the reflection and in the critical, creative, and intellectual engagement that went into their creation. In the words of Edward Ruscha, we're interested in projects that are "Huh? Wow!" rather than "Wow! Huh?"
7. Why do I have to take NMS? How does NMS relate to my major?
NMS models the kind of inquiry and learning that are typical of life in college and beyond. We ask questions that are complex, fundamental, and timeless, questions that great artists, scholars, and citizens have grappled with for millennia. We're not looking for The Answers, though, as these questions don't really have universal Answers. (If they did, humankind wouldn't keep asking them.) Instead, the best any of us can do is to offer tentative and provisional responses, responses that are subject to revision (or even being overturned) as we proceed with our lives.
You may very well have come to Columbia to study a specific subject in order to get a job in a particular field and are wondering how NMS fits in with that plan. Since students from every major take this course, and since our curriculum is trans-disciplinary—it doesn't belong to any one field of study or inquiry—you can probably guess that this isn't the place to learn skills or techniques unique to a specific field.
This is a place, however, to start to look at the bigger picture—the biggest picture, actually. Through the variety of media and topics we discuss and through the wealth of knowledge you and your classmates bring to the table, you'll start to see more clearly the relationships among disciplines and career paths. You'll explore how the things you do in your major connect with a larger context: life, work, and art in the grandest sense of those terms. The main focus will not be what you want to do with your life, but why you want to do it. A Columbia College Chicago degree, after all, isn't just about training in a major; it's an assemblage of skills, experiences, outlooks, and vision. That's a process that takes more than one semester, of course, even longer than a four-year college experience. It's a journey you've already started. We think of NMS as a way to bring that journey to another level and set the stage for the rest of your time at Columbia and beyond.
To make that journey, though, you have to be willing to travel with us. That's why NMS is a seminar (see above).
8. The words "new millennium" make me think high-tech. Is this class all about new media and blogging and digital stuff?
Not really. The "new millennium" in the course name suggests a whole suite of abilities that characterize learning in the twenty-first century. The nature of learning, the availability of information, the ease of communication, and the responsibilities of citizens are much different now than they were 100, 50, or even 10 years ago.
We believe that an educated citizen living in the present millennium requires a thorough grounding in the past as well as a vision for the future. While we value (and often harness) the power of the internet, digital media, and other high-tech stuff in class, our principal interest in NMS is in generating sustained and genuine inquiry into some of humankind's most enduring questions and connecting that inquiry to a larger sense of purpose.
9. Is this an English course?
No. While NMS uses literature as some of the texts, the aims of the course and the way we respond to texts differ from most English courses.
10. What books do we read?
They're listed here, along with the guiding questions for each unit.
11. I've read [one of our core texts] in school before. Twice, actually. I can't believe I have to read it again.
Several of the texts in the NMS curriculum are classics. That's great that you've read them before, actually, since reading a text the second (or third, or fourth time) is a completely different experience from reading it the first time. (That's what we found, anyway, when we picked up Green Eggs and Ham recently.) Having read a text before will only deepen your appreciation of it the second time around, and you'll be poised to contribute even more productively to class discussion.
Keep in mind too that the questions we ask in NMS are typically a bit different (maybe a lot different) from those asked in classes in which you previously encountered the text, so you'll likely have to re-read the text with an eye to those different questions.
12. Who takes NMS?
All new first-year students are required to take NMS, as are transfer students entering with 24 or fewer credits.
13. I have a friend who's a sophomore, and he didn't have to take NMS. What's the deal?
NMS is a new program, and we've been implementing it gradually over the past three years, so while most students who are sophomores in 2008-09 did take NMS, there are many who did not. Starting in fall 2008, NMS will be required of all first-year students.
14. Is there a course I can take at another school that will fulfill the NMS requirement?
Nope.
15. Is NMS offered during the summer?
At this point, no.
16. Who teaches NMS?
NMS is taught by faculty from across Columbia's schools and departments, from Film & Video to Journalism to English and nearly everything in between. Faculty who choose to teach NMS do so because they are committed to exploring timeless questions in collaboration with students. They are not there to provide students with The Answers; they're there because they want you to help them figure out what those answers might be!
17. What is MilleFest?
MilleFest is a celebration of NMS student work that occurs once each semester, usually around the end of the fourteenth week of class. Each class section of NMS nominates a small number of works for inclusion in the exhibit, and a reception gives us the opportunity to enjoy some live performances as well.
You can see pictures from previous MilleFests, as well as lists of the students who contributed work for the exhibitions, here.