J-Term 2010: Shanghai, China: History, Culture, and Art

Our student bloggers are enrolled in the J-Session course Shanghai: History, Culture, and Art. This course introduces modern Chinese history through Shanghai's important role as a sea port in the 19th century, as a city occupied by Western and Japanese forces in the 20th century, as the seat of the first Chinese Communist party, and as a contemporary art and business center.

J-Term 2010: Travel Writing in Peru

In January 2010, some of our students stretched the classroom well beyond the Chicago city limits. Journalism professors Elio Leturia and Teresa Puente traveled with 13 students to Lima, Peru. The group spent 11 days exploring its neighborhoods, history, and culture. They also traveled to Cusco, and spent a day in Machu Picchu. Here are some of their stories...

J-Term 2009: Jazz, Blues, Slavery, Voodoo: Reading & Writing in New Orleans

In January 2009, some students stretched that classroom well beyond the Chicago city limits. Professor Tina Jens and her fiction writing class boarded The Spirit of New Orleans and headed south for two weeks of "reading and writing in New Orleans." Read on as they describe their experiences...

Summer Abroad Program 2009: Prague, Czech Republic

The lives, works, and inspiration of some of Europe’s most important writers are inseparable from Prague. Students of diverse backgrounds absorb themselves into the literary and cultural traditions of the Czech Republic, experiencing them firsthand, all the while garnering experience to color and shape their emerging voices.

Art & Design at the Venice Biennale 2009

This intensive course centers on the Venice Biennale, which opens the day before the class begins. Through exposure to the national pavilions, as well as the Aperto and ancillary project spaces, students experience global contemporary artists. Studio production is informed by the day-to-day experience of visiting the Biennale sites and an understanding of the history of the Biennale and the unique nature and history of the city of Venice itself.

StoryWeek Festival of Writers 2008: Stories Without Borders

For a week in March 2008, Columbia students and Chicago at large get to rub elbows, shake hands, and take each other through more border checkpoints than you can imagine, and all through the story. Come along with us...

J-Term 2008: Travel Writing in Honduras

For J-term 2008, professor Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin took her journalism students about 2,000 miles to Honduras, "to wander through the Mayan ruins, smell the unfamiliar tropical air, meet all kinds of people, and try to commit our impressions and excitement to paper."

J-Term 2008: Shanghai, China: History, Culture, and Art

A dozen students from a variety of majors headed 7,000 miles east in January 2008 on an international educational adventure. They visited tea houses, museums, and galleries; attended music and dance performances; and learned a whole lot about their Chinese counterparts—and themselves...

Columbia at Cannes 2008

For two weeks in May 2008, a group of Columbia film students spent their days working at the American Pavilion at Cannes, and their evening networking and mingling with the movers and shakers of the international film industry. Some even had the opportunity to screen their own work at the Cannes Film Festival...

Covering the Iowa Caucuses, 2008

For the first week of 2008, Iowa was the place to be. Veteran political reporters and Columbia professors Suzanne McBride and John O'Neill, along with a dozen journalism and photography students, headed across the border into Iowa for a truly unique opportunity to build their reporting skills on the scene in a historic election...

J-Term 2007: Travel Writing in Mexico

Professor and journalist Teresa Puente took her summer-term travel writing class to Guadalarjara, Mexico, where they practiced this particular form of journalism as they were immersed in a transformative educational experience...

Summer Abroad Program 2007: Florence, Italy

In summer 2007, Columbia faculty taught five courses in Florence, in architecture, art history, watercolor, photography, and videography. Their students spent an unforgettable month ensconced within the campus of the Lorenzo de Medici school, parts of which date to the 13th century...