Writing and Rhetoric I: Honors

52-1151HN (3 credit hours)

Writing and Rhetoric I helps students understand and refine their own writing processes. Designed to assist students in making connections between their knowledge, cultures, worlds, and the multiple-literacies and discourses of academic, communicative and performing life, the course encourages students to develop their distinctive voices as they learn to make conscious rhetorical decisions. Writing and Rhetoric I connects personal reflection with critical analysis, providing plentiful and varied opportunities for writing, strengthening reading skills, and becoming a member of a writer-reader community. This is an Honors course and students need special permissions to enroll.

Writing and Rhetoric II: Honors

52-1152HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors Section and students need special permission to register. Writing and Rhetoric II helps students use writing to develop and sustain an in-depth personal and intellectual inquiry into a subject of their choosing. The course unfolds in a series of assignments designed to lead students through a continually deepening creative research process that ripens into a written project of considerable length and complexity. Focusing on methodology, rather than specific course theme, students learn to generate worthwhile questions, collect primary data, locate secondary resources, and form original research insights.

Oral Expression: Honors

52-1401HN (3 credit hours)

Students overcome difficulties they may have in public speaking, such as stage fright and poor diction. Students are made aware of important elements such as delivery and posture, use of gestures, and good grammar. Course introduces students to informative, persuasive, and occasional modes of public speaking and helps students develop well-organized and purposeful speeches. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Introduction to Literature: Honors

52-1600HN (3 credit hours)

Course introduces students to genres of fiction, drama, and poetry. By studying important works by writers of culturally diverse backgrounds, students gain experience in reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about literature. Course establishes connections between literature and other areas of arts and communications. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Topics in Asian Literature

52-2634HN (3 credit hours)

Course explores the literature of one or more East Asian or South Asian country, such as Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, India, or Tibet. Relevant socio-cultural traditions will be discussed along with specific texts. Work will be read in English translation where necessary. Students will write papers and create projects incorporating insights from their reading and discussion. Course is repeatable as topic changes.

The Vietnam War in History, Literature and the Arts:Honors

52-2636HN (3 credit hours)

The Vietnam War is one of the most studied, documented, and argued about wars in American history. The debate has taken the form of historical inquiries, poetry, novels, film, music, and other arts. The war shaped the experiences of a generation and continues to affect American life and arts. This interdisciplinary course examines the conflict in Southeast Asia through the eyes of journalists, fiction writers, poets, historians, filmmakers, musicians, and other artists. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Dramatic Literature: Honors

52-2665HN (3 credit hours)

This writing intensive course focuses on dramatic texts by contemporary minority playwrights. We will examine the emergence and development of ethnic American drama, looking at works by African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latino/a playwrights. We will investigate issues relating to the politics of self-representation, the ways hegemonic dominant beliefs discursively construct the Other, and the intersections between race, gender, and sexuality. We will attempt to answer some of the following questions: What is at stake in the representation of people of color and queer people on the American stage? How do issues of racial conflict and sexual politics inform the seemingly neutral domestic space of families and personal relations? What are the linkages between race and class in contemporary society, as depicted by these playwrights? By the end of this course, students will be able to think critically about issues of race, gender and sexuality in American drama, be conversant with theoretical issues of craft and practice in theater studies, and be able to speak and write in a sophisticated, articulate manner about literature in general, and contemporary ethnic American drama in particular. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

The Bible as Literature: Honors

52-2672HN (3 credit hours)

Course studies literary qualities of the Bible with attention to its poetic and narrative modes. Instruction examines ways in which Biblical literary forms, themes, and images influence American and European literature. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Victorian Illustrated Poetry: Honors

52-2692HN (3 credit hours)

In this seminar, we will focus on Victorian illustrated poetry and its dynamic interplay between image and word. We will consider the function and effect of illustration in general, and the special problematic associated with the visual interpretation of poetry. We will also pay attention to the illustrated book as a material object, a collaboration of many makers working within the context of particular human, institutional, and cultural relationships. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Literature and Visual Culture: Honors

52-2751HN (3 credit hours)

This course introduces students to a broad range of approaches to visual texts and written literature. Students will learn how visual, cultural, and literary theories enable them to create different interpretive strategies in their approaches to specific texts. Critical concepts studied may include subjectivity, the gaze, (re)presentation, gendered bodies, the practice of everyday life, the posthuman. The class will emphasize students’ critical writing as a creative process.

Literature and the Culture of Cyberspace: Honors

52-2753HN (3 credit hours)

Students consider representations of cyberspace in literature and explore themes such as cyberspace and postmodernism; virtual reality; the posthuman; and definitions of space, time, and identity. Authors studied may include William Gibson, Jeanette Winterson, Shelley Jackson, Michael Joyce, and Stuart Moulthrop.

Introduction to Post Colonial Literature: Honors

52-2760HN (3 credit hours)

Course provides an introduction to post-colonial literature.

Reviewing the Arts: Honors

52-2816HN (4 credit hours)

Students are introduced to fundamental critical skills necessary for a sensitive reading of works in different art forms such as drama, fiction, painting, photography, and cinema. Students write reviews of concerts, plays, films, and gallery exhibitions and try to produce writing of publishable quality. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Topics in the Novel: Honors

52-3610HN (3 credit hours)

Rotating topics course examines origins and development of the novel in British, American, World, Postcolonial, or other contexts. Consideration of narrative form and style in light of related historical, aesthetic, and cultural factors. Course is repeatable as topic changes.

Shakespeare: Honors

52-3660HN (3 credit hours)

Series of courses examines Shakespeare's works in their literary, historical, and artistic contexts. Shakespeare: Tragedies may include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Shakespeare: Comedies may include The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest. Shakespeare: Histories focuses on Shakespeare's dramatization of English history from Richard II to Richard III. Shakespeare: Political Plays considers some histories and plays such as Julius Caesar and Coriolanus. Course is repeatable as topic changes.

First Year Seminar: Honors

48-1100HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors course and not available to all students. The First Year Seminar is grounded in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities and social sciences, acclimating students to the four fundamental activities that members of the College community engage in: questioning, exploring, communicating, and evaluating. Topics and texts are selected and studied in ways that will help Columbia students become more competent and confident readers, writers, thinkers, creators, and collaborators. This First-Year Seminar helps prepare students not just for their subsequent years at Columbia, but for their future lives and careers as responsible citizens and authors of the culture of their time.

The 1960s: Honors

49-2660HN (3 credit hours)

Course traces and documents changes of the 1960s, an era that has quickly become covered in myth despite its nearness to our own times. The period from the election of John F. Kennedy (1960) to the fall of Saigon (1975) remains crucial for an understanding of current issues and attitudes. Those years reshaped American culture and society in many ways. Vivid events and slogans shattered the images of an earlier time and created a new America. Course goal is to trace and document these changes. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Oral History - The Art of the Interview: Honors

49-2672HN (3 credit hours)

The foundation of this multi-layered, applied history course is immersion into a specific period in United States history to acquire the contextual knowledge necessary to conduct a well-informed oral history interview. After an extensive introduction into the field of oral history and the discipline's methodology, a series of colloquiums on question formulation, script development, interviewing techniques, and transcription standards are held. Finally, after the interview and full transcription is completed, each student will present a content analysis and edit of their interview. All interviews will be archived with an established oral history project. Please note: during the fall and spring of the 2012-13 academic year, students will be interviewing women leaders in the Chicagoland area for the Chicago Area Women's History Council (CAWHC).

History of the American City: Honors

49-2683HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors course and students need special permission to register. Course examines the history of the development of the U.S. as an urban nation. It analyzes the rise and decline of various urban systems that developed over the course of American history. Students investigate the social, economic, political, technological, and demographic trends that have shaped the modern American city.

The Vietnam War in History, Literature and the Arts: Honors*

49-2773HN (3.0 credit hours)

The Vietnam War is one of the most studied, documented, and argued about wars in American history. The debate has taken the form of historical inquiries, poetry, novels, film, music, and other arts. The war shaped the experiences of a generation and continues to affect American life and arts. The interdisciplinary course examines the conflict in Southeast Asia through the eyes of journalists, fiction writers, poets, historians, filmmakers, musicians, and other artists. Content emphasizes American involvement. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Taste and Consumption in French History: Honors

49-3353HN (3 credit hours)

We tend to associate all things French, whether fashions, luxury goods, fine restaurants, champagne, or French women themselves, with good taste and chic. This course explores how notions of taste and practices of consumption have changed in France from ca. 1650 to ca. 1914, from the absolutist court to the modern department store. Against a historical background of dramatic economic, political, social and cultural change, we will explore how aesthetic, consumerist and critical practices associated with taste became shifting, highly charged and contested markers of individual and group (e.g., national, class and gender) identity and even political position, and will examine different historically-applied theories about the motives that have driven or inspired people to consume, use and display certain goods or appreciate particular aesthetic forms. We will read primary and secondary sources (none in French). This course provides comparative historical insight to help students understand the historicity of the contemporary classed and gendered consumption regimes in which we live today. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Letters from the American Past: Honors

49-3650HN (3 credit hours)

A study of U.S. history through letters written and read by Americans from the Colonial period to the present, reflecting the society and culture they lived in. We will examine the form, content and transmission of the correspondence. Students will be asked to select and research a small letter collection. It is highly recommended that students have completed at least one prior course in U.S. history. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

The Great Depression & the New Deal: the U.S. in the 1930's: Honors

49-3678HN (3 credit hours)

This course will explore the Great Depression and the decade of the 1930s, from the election of Hebert Hoover in 1928 to bombing Pearl Harbor, from three main perspectives: the politics of FDR and the New Deal, the social response to the Depression and the president, and the cultural innovation of the era. Through reading and the examination of primary sources (including songs, speeches, films, poems and plays) students will explore the relationship between the individual and time to which s/he lives. Special emphasis will be given to the artistic and documentary production of the decade. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Anthropology of Performance: Honors

50-2170HN (3 credit hours)

Performance in the arts, performance of ritual, and performance in everyday life are considered in several cultures of the world, with an emphasis on liminality, values, customs and taboos. Anthropological study of human behavior leads to understanding actions from the point of view and cultural contexts of the actors, using ethnographic method to interpret significance and meaning in the conduct of people's lives. Organized as a seminar, the course includes study of texts, film, theatre and music from cultures in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Money, Jobs, and Economic Crises: Honors

50-2201HN (3 credit hours)

This course offers an in-depth study of political/economic issues that are currently debated such as economic crisis, public debt, foreclosures and unemployment. Not only causes of these issues but also the policies and institutional reforms to address them will be at the center of discussion. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to make more informed judgments about the issues relevant to their lives and society-at-large.

Emotions:Honors

50-2411HN (3 credit hours)

The emotions play a significant role in our inner lives. Sometimes the emotions act in concert with our cognitive decision-making, and sometimes they crash over our rational thinking like uncontrollable storms. Emotions influence and fuel our behavior, values, art, and other aspects of culture. Yet, systematic study of emotions is quite recent. In this course we will examine Western psychology and philosophy of emotions.

Economic Policies, Morality, and Ideology: Honors

50-3202HN (3 credit hours)

Conventional economic justification for policies embodies a particular moral logic despite its claim to value-neutrality. This course surveys alternate moral/political perspectives from which legitimacy (or moral acceptability) of contemporary economic policies could be debated. Students will be invited to apply these theoretical arguments to a set of contemporary policy issues in the U.S.

Latin American Women in the Arts: Honors

51-1113HN (3 credit hours)

This course is designed to study the artistic contributions that Latin American women have made (and continue to make) through literary, visual and performing arts. From Mexican nuns in the 17th century to Colombian punk rockers in the 1990s and Argentine digital filmmakers in the 2000s, the course will examine theoretical issues of subjectivity and cultural identity; feminist positionings and political agency; and the complex representations of femininity/masculinity, motherhood and patriarchy.

Emotions:Honors

51-2411HN (3 credit hours)

The emotions play a significant role in our inner lives. Sometimes the emotions act in concert with our cognitive decision-making, and sometimes they crash over our rational thinking like uncontrollable storms. Emotions influence and fuel our behavior, values, art, and other aspects of culture. Yet, systematic study of emotions is quite recent. In this course we will examine Western psychology and philosophy of emotions.

Vertebrate Paleontology: Honors

56-1350HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors course and students need special permission to register. Vertebrates have been around for more than 500 million years and are one of the most successful groups of organisms inhabiting the Earth today. This course explores the fossil evidence for the evolution and diversification of vertebrates, including fishes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals. How vertebrate evolution is conveyed in scientific and popular literature, the arts, and museum exhibits will be examined in the context of the science and methods behind how fossils are discovered, collected, analyzed, reported, and displayed. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Geometry in the Arts: Honors

56-1724HN (3 credit hours)

Course presents basic geometric concepts such as the Pythagorean theorem, properties and measurements of points, lines, angles, plane figures, and classic solids. In-class activities include the integration of small group work and individual research projects. Effort will be made to apply geometrical concepts to students' major areas of study. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Quantum Physics: Fundamental Ideas: Honors

56-1850HN (3 credit hours)

This course is designed for non-scientists (with little or no background in physics and mathematics) with emphasis on the apparent paradoxes, beauty, and fundamental ideas of quantum physics. Students will learn basic ideas about quantum duality, wave functions, uncertainty principle, teleportation, theory of relativity, elementary particles, and cosmology.

Physics of Musical Instruments: Honors

56-1881HN (3 credit hours)

Students study the physics of common musical instruments and discover the mathematical foundation of musical scales. This course explores mechanical oscillation, wave motion, the concept of pitch, and the harmonic series. Students investigate the complex timbre of musical instruments through hands-on laboratory experiments using waves and spectrum analysis, and develop scales with sound generation software. For a final project, students construct functional musical instruments and perform an original music composition. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Cancer and Cell Biology Research: Honors

56-2140HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors course and students need special permission to register. The purpose of this course is to expose students to a variety of laboratory techniques used in cancer and other disease-related research. This is a research, lecture, laboratory, and discussion course addressing selected current topics in cancer and cell biology. Students will be expected to spend three hours per week in lecture/group laboratory sessions and one hour per week working in small groups in the research laboratory. Email the Instructor for Permission to Enroll: vlehmkuhldakhwe@colum.edu

Evolution of Sex: Honors

56-2169HN (3 credit hours)

Understanding the nature of sex and its relationship to evolution is important in biology. This class will cover sex and sexual selection across the animal and plant kingdoms. We will discuss the nature of science and the influences of culture on science, specifically the role of feminism on our understanding of female choice. Monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, homosexuality and other types of sexual and asexual relationships will be explored in an evolutionary context through primary literature. This is an Honors class. In addition to other possible pre-requisites, students need a minimum G.P.A. of 3.50 or higher to enroll.

Calculus I: Honors

56-2720HN (4 credit hours)

Course introduces higher mathematics by examining the fundamental principles of calculus--functions, graphs, limits, applications of the derivative, anti-derivatives, area, and the integral. Course presents additional mathematical applications in business, the arts, and the social sciences.  This is an Honors course and has special requirements for registration.

The Science of Acoustics I: Honors

56-2820HN (3 credit hours)

This is an Honors course and students need special permission to register. Course introduces the physics of sound and considers how it is perceived by the ear. The concepts and applications of acoustics include sound wave theory, sound in music and musical instruments, recognition of musical sound qualities, auditorium acoustics, and electronic reproduction of sound.