The Columbia College curriculum and its academic policies are determined by the following faculty committees:
Committee on Instruction
The Committee on Instruction (COI) is responsible for approving proposals for new majors and other academic programs, new courses and policy changes. The COI also provides leadership on a range of academic matters, consulting with a broad range of faculty, students and administrators where relevant. The COI is a joint Columbia College and School of General Studies committee. Questions? Contact cc-gs-courses@columbia.edu.
Committee on Instruction Members: 2022-2023
- Co-Chair: Dean Josef Sorett, Dean of Columbia College
- Co-Chair: Dean Lisa Rosen-Metsch, Dean of the School of General Studies
- Professor Stuart Firestein, Department of Biological Studies
- Professor Robert Hymes, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
- Professor Seth Kimmel, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures
- Associate Professor Dorothea Lasky, School of the Arts
- Professor Qingmin Liu, Department of Economics
- Professor Szabolcs Marka, Department of Physics
- Professor Barclay Morrison, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Vice Dean of Undergraduate Programs, School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Professor Molly Murray, Department of English and Comparative Literature
- Professor Caterina Pizzigoni, Department of History
- Professor Laurie Postlewate, Barnard College
- Professor Valerie Purdie-Greenaway, Department of Psychology
- Professor Jill Shapiro, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
- Professor Robert Shapiro, Department of Political Science
- Professor Teresa Sharpe, Department of Sociology
- Professor Katja Vogt, Department of Philosophy
Student Representatives:
- Olivia Choi, Columbia College '23
- Kevin Ye, Columbia College '24
- James Harvey Elliott, General Studies '24
- Elena Flack, General Studies '23
Ex-Officio:
- Lisa Hollibaugh, Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia College
- Caroline Marvin, Dean of Academic Affairs, School of General Studies
- Andrew Plaa, Dean of Advising, Columbia College and Columbia Engineering
- Marlyn Delva, Dean of Students, School of General Studies
- Amy Kohn, Senior Associate Director, Academic Affairs, Columbia College
- Mandeep Singh, Assistant Director, Academic Affairs, School of General Studies
Newly Approved Courses
The following new courses have been approved for Spring 2023. As new courses are added to the list frequently, please visit this site for updates. Additional courses and major/concentration requirements may be found in the Columbia College Bulletin.
Spring 2023 Last updated January 17, 2023.
DEPARTMENT/PROGRAM | COURSE NO. & DESIGNATOR | TITLE |
African American Studies | AFAS UN1003 | Blackness and Frenchness: A Radical Geneaology |
Art History | AHIS UN2409 | Architecture, 1750-1890 |
Art HIstory | AHIS UN3237 | Art and Architecture of Medieval Germany |
Art History | AHIS UN2425 | Visual Activism |
Art History | AHIS UN3456 | Picturing People: Photography & the Body |
Art History | AHIS UN3622 | Modern East Asia in a Global Context |
Art History | AHIS UN3791 | Epic History: The Rama Story in Visual Art |
Art History | AHIS GU4093 | Sacred Space in South Asia |
Art History | AHIS GU4514 | Greek Myths Italy: Images, Contexts, Functions |
Art History | AHIS GU4538 | The Fragment |
Art HIstory | AHIS GU4940 | Postwar American Architecture 1945-1970 |
Anthropology | ANTH UN3356 | Earth Works: Anthropology, Art History, Extraction |
Anthropology | ANTH UN3604 | As If: Anthropologies of the Future |
Anthropology | ANTH UN3703 | Climate Change and Colonialism |
Anthropology | ANTH GU4108 | Film at Low Temperatures: Cinemas of the Arctic |
Anthropology | ANTH GU4355 | Weaving Seminar |
Biochemistry | BIOC GUI4511 | Biochemistry I - Structure and Metabolism |
Biology | BIOL UN1440 | Diversity and You |
Biology | BIOL GU4088 | Seminar in Neurochemistry and Neurological Diseases |
Biology | BIOL GU4777 | From Curiosity to Cure - Case Studies in Cool Biochemistry |
Classics | CLCV UN1002 | Rise and Fall of Ancient Greek Civilization |
Classics | GRKM UN3070 | Picturing Antigone |
Classics | CLCV UN3080 | Gendered Mythology and its Reception |
Committee on Global Thought | CGTH UN3600 | Approaches to Global Thought |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS GU4162 | Transnational Feminisms - China and Beyond |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS GU4241 | Climate and Pandemic |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS GU4250 | Exhaustion and Idleness in Literature and Medicine |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS GU4750 | Possession: On Losing Ourselves |
Earth and Environmental Sciences | EESC GU4560 | The Ecology of Treeline in Changing Climate |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | KORN UN2222 | Accelerated Korean for Heritage Speakers II |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS UN3114 | Chinese Theater and Drama Traditions |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS UN3626 | Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema and Beyond |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA UN3773 | Music in Premodern China |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS GU4260 | Literature, Printing, and Visual Culture in 16th - 20th Century China |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS GU4270 | Vietnam and Korea: From the American Wars to K-Pop/V-Pop |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS GU4417 | Disability and Corporeality in Modern Japanese Literature and Media Culture |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA GU4329 | Warfare and the Making of Modern Asia |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA GU4542 | The History of the Samurai |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS GU4615 | Tibetan Rivers and Roads: Infrastructure, Environment, and Urban Lives |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA GU4631 | History of Medicine, Healing, and the Body in China |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA GU4735 | Climate History of the Tibetan Plateau |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | HSEA GU4818 | Asian Mobilities |
Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology | EEEB GU4105 | Intermediate Statistics for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology | EEEB GU4370 | Parenting Like a Primate: The Evolution of Parental Care |
Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology | EEEB GU4605 | Human - Wildlife Conflict |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3038 | Writing Medieval Illness |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3289 | Jazz Fictions |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3384 | Sanctity in Medieval Literature |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3434 | Refugees, Migrants, and the Making of Contemporary Europe |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3468 | Love and Death in 19th American Literature |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3486 | Out of Her Mind: American Women Writing, 1630-1930 |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3568 | True Crime: Fact and Feeling, 1927-Present |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3678 | Trade and Traffic with Early Modern England |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3694 | American Literature: Between Natural History and "Leave No Trace" |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3748 | Modern Western Drama and History of Aging |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3814 | Law's Stories: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3827 | Happily Ever After (?): Fantasies of Nineteenth-Century Romance |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL UN3849 | Psychedelic Humanities |
English and Comparative Literature | ENGL GU4412 | The Brontes |
English and Comparative Literature | ENTA GU4626 | The Modernist Body |
English and Comparative Literature | ENFR GU4812 | James/Proust |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER UN3306 | Indigeneity of the South |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER GU4004 | Data, Race, Ethics, and Justice |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER GU4005 | Abolition: Theory and Practice |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER GU4006 | History of Childhood in the Americas |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER GU4007 | Latinx Environmental Justice: Research in History |
Ethnicity and Race Studies | CSER GU4008 | Caribbean Hauntings: From Conquests to New Grammars |
French | FREN OC3723 | The Rise of Tech Politics |
French | FREN OC3724 | Elites, Privilege, Inequalities |
French | FREN GU4423 | Cosmology Medieval Literature |
Germanic Languages | GERM UN3146 | German-Jewish Writing: At the Heel |
Germanic Languages | GERM UN3991 | Advanced Topics in German Literature: Writing Travel |
Haitian Kreyol | KREY OC2102 | Intermediate Haitian Kreyol II |
History | HIST UN2498 | The Carceral United States |
History | HIST UN2972 | Unsettling Science |
History | HIST UN3386 | The Global First World War |
History | HIST UN3387 | Beyond Capitalism |
History | HIST GU4389 | Stalinism |
History | HIST GU4395 | Decolonizing Europe |
History | HIST GU4501 | History of the Climate Crisis |
History | HIST GU4655 | Indigenous Peoples and Wars of National Expansion. Comparative Borderlands of Patagonia, 19th Century |
History | HIST GU4933 | American Radicalism in the Archives |
History | HIST GU4940 | History of the Arctic and Its Climate |
History | HIST GU4954 | Visualizing History: Photography in Conflicts and Crisis |
History | HIST GU4967 | Environmental History of Central Eurasia |
Human Rights | HRTS GU4460 | Climate Justice |
Human Rights | HRTS GU4760 | Transitional Justice in the Global South: Theory and Practice |
Jewish Studies | JWST GU4147 | Between Tradition and Innovation: Readings in Hasidic History and Literature |
Jewish Studies | JWST GU4600 | History of Modern Israel |
Latin American and Iberian Cultures | SPAN UN1108 | Elementary Spanish for Heritage Speakers |
Latin American and Iberian Cultures | SPAN UN3892 | Dissent and Culture in 20th-Century Spain |
Linguistics | LING GU4022 | Word and Grammar |
Mathematics | MATH UN3995 | Senior Thesis in Mathematics II |
Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies | MDES UN3264 | (Re)Framing the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula |
Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies | MDES UN3932 | Islam and the Politics of Modernity |
Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies | MDES GU4242 | From Syria to Spain: History of the Ummayads |
Philosophy | PHIL UN3769 | Living, Dying, and the Meaning of Life |
Political Science | POLS GU4703 | Qualitative Methodologies |
Political Science | POLS UN3911 | Seminar in Political Theory: Parties, Elites, and Democracy: Transnational Debates in Political Theory (late 19th-early 21st century) |
Political Science | POLS UN3911 | Seminar in Political Theory: Theories of Political Action |
Political Science | POLS UN3921 | American Politics Seminar: The Politics of American Policymaking |
Political Science | POLS UN3921 | American Politics Seminar: Public Opinion Research |
Political Science | POLS UN3951 | Comparative Politics Seminar: European Union Politics |
Political Science | POLS UN3951 | Comparative Politics Seminar: Power, Organizations, and Institutions |
Political Science | POLS UN3961 | International Politics Seminar: American Foreign Policy |
Psychology | PSYC UN2636 | Industrial-Organizational Psychology |
Psychology | PSYC UN3260 | Bilingualism |
Psychology | PSYC UN3266 | Psychology of Music |
Psychology | PSYC UN3495 | Gene-Environment Interactions and Epigenetics |
Religion | RELI UN3625 | Hippie Physics, Counterculture, Cyberculture |
Religion | RELI GU4255 | Hegel, Information, "Artificial" Intelligence |
Religion | RELI GU4565 | Women and Islam |
Slavic Languages | CLRS UN3315 | Laughing Through Tears: A History of the Comic in Russia and the USSR |
Slavic Languages | CLSL GU4012 | Holocaust Literature: Critical Thinking in Dark Times |
Slavic Languages | RUSS GU4057 | Andrey Plantonov's Novel: "Chevengur" and the History of Utopia |
Slavic Languages | RUSS GU4126 | Remediating Protest: Transgressive Aesthetics in Soviet and Post- Soviet Culture |
Slavic Languages | RUSS GU4457 | Russian Propaganda in Domestic and Global Politics |
Sociology | SOCI GU4004 | Ukrainian Activism and Protest Since 1990 |
Sustainable Development | SDEV GU4600 | Special Topics in Sustainable Development and Climate: History of Soviet Climate Science |
Visual Arts | VIAR UN2705 | Digital War Photography |
Women's and Gender Studies | WMST GU4000 | Genealogies of Feminism: Artists, Workers, and Witches |
Writing | WRIT UN3032 | It's Complicated: Writing as a Relationship |
Writing | WRIT UN3131 | New Worlds in Writing and VR |
Writing | WRIT UN3225 | Life Stories |
Writing | WRIT UN3226 | Nonfiction-Ish |
Writing | WRIT UN3227 | True Crime |
Fall 2022 Last updated June 30, 2022.
DEPARTMENT/PROGRAM | COURSE NO. & DESIGNATOR | TITLE |
Art History and Archaeology | AHIS UN3703 | Sin Autorizacion: Themes in Contemporary Cuban Art |
Art History and Archaeology | AHIS GU4517 | Hadrian's Villa: An Imperial Court and Its Spaces |
Art History and Archaeology | AHIS GU4728 | Digital Art History: New Methods for Studying European Medieval Architecture and Associated Arts |
Art History and Archaeology | AHIS GU4742 | African American Visual and Decorative Arts, 1650-1900 |
Art History and Archaeology | AHIS GU4743 | Colonial Visual Systems: Constructing a "New World" |
American Studies | AMST UN3937 | JOURNALISM AND DEMOCRACY: THE 2022 ELECTION |
Anthropology | ANTH UN1003 | The Environment |
Anthropology | ANTH UN3702 | Black/Life/Science |
Anthropology | ANTH UN3729 | Burning Down the House: Anthropology of Revolution |
Classics | CLCV UN1001 | Introduction to Greek Mythology |
Classics | CLCV UN3009 | Ancient Greek & Roman Medicine |
Classics | CLGM UN3450 | How to do Things with Queer Bodies |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS UN3951 | Narratives for Living: Planetarity |
Comparative Literature and Society | CPLS UN3965 | Precision Medicine: Biological, Social, and Ethical Implications |
Comparative Literature and Society | CLPS GU4515 | RADICAL PSYCHOANALYSIS: INTRODUCING LAPLANCHE |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | KORN UN2221 | Accelerated Korean for Heritage Speakers I |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS UN3575 | Approaching Cities and Life in Chinese Cultural History |
East Asian Languages and Cultures | EAAS GU4425 | Women, Body, and Borders in Japanese Literature and Culture |
Economics | ECON GU4630 | Climate Finance |
English | ENGL GU4239 | TROILUS & CRISEYDE AND ITS NEIGHBORS |
English | ENGL UN3351 | FAMILY FICTIONS: MEMOIR, FILM AND THE NOVEL |
English | ENGL UN3795 | SENIOR ESSAY RESEARCH METHODS |
English | ENGL UN3798 | ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL |
English | ENGL UN3898 | THE BILDUNGSROMAN: COMING OF AGE IN THE NOVEL |
English | ENGL GU4732 | PLACES FOR POETRY |
English | ENGL GU4879 | QUEER LITERATURE, CULTURE AND THEORY |
English | ENGL GU4933 | SPENSER |
French | FREN UN3409 | INTRO TO FRENCH & FRANCOPHONE HISTORY |
French | FREN UN3410 | INTRO TO FRENCH & FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE |
French | CLFR UN3535 | Who Is Afraid of Contemporary Art? French and American Writers on Contemporary Art, from 1850 to Today |
French | FREN GU4722 | Renaissance Culture Religion and Society |
History | HIST UN2257 | Self-Determination and the Making of the Twentieth-Century World |
History | HIST UN2671 | The Cold War in Latin America |
History | HIST UN3502 | The Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty in the Early American Republic |
History | HIST UN3515 | Surveillance from KGB and NSA to Border Control |
History | HIST UN3571 | Left and Right in American History |
History | HIST UN3621 | Mass-Mediated Politics in Modern Latin America |
History | HIST GU4213 | Crucibles of Modernity: Urban Space and Subjectivity in Europe’s Borderlands |
History | HIST GU4277 | History of Urban Crime and Policing in Latin America in Global Perspective |
History | HIST GU4397 | Nationalism and Revolution in Modern Ireland |
History | HIST GU4403 | American Empire |
History | HIST GU4571 | HIV and AIDS in Black America |
History | HIST GU4622 | A Global History of Jewish Migration and the State |
History | HIST GU4779 | AFRICAN FRANCE, FRENCH AFRICA |
German | GERM GU4141 | Race and Germany |
Italian | ITAL UN3342 | Business Italian and the Made in Italy Excellence: Learning Italian for trade and industry |
Italian | CLIA GU4499 | Mediterranean Humanities I |
Jewish Studies | JWST GU4511 | Political and Anti-Political Jews: Politics in Jewish Thought |
Latin American and Iberian Cultures | SPAN UN3365 | Feminist Activisms: Genealogies, Spaces, Discourses |
Latin American and Iberian Cultures | PORT UN3444 | 19th-century Brazil |
Latin American and Iberian Cultures | SPAN UN3891 | What is an Exhibition? The Politics of Displaying Art in/from the Hispanic World |
Mathematics | MATH UN2005 | INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS PROOFS |
Mathematics | MATH UN3994 | SENIOR THESIS IN MATHEMATICS I |
Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies | MDES UN2012 | Finding Happiness: Readings in Arab-Islamic Texts |
Music | MUSI UN3261 | Sound Synthesis Techniques and Creative Coding |
Philosophy | PHIL UN3000 | BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY |
Philosophy | PHIL UN3769 | LIVING, DYING, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE |
Philosophy | PHIL UN3863 | HAPPINESS AND WELL-BEING |
Philosophy | PHIL UN3912 | SEMINAR |
Political Science | POLS GU4801 | GRAND STRATEGY:THEORY, HISTORY & DEBATES |
Political Science | POLS GU4814 | GLOBAL ENERGY: SECURITY/GEOPOL |
Political Science | POLS UN3911 | Seminar in Political Theory- Ethics of International Relations |
Psychology | PSYC GU4491 | The Parental Brain |
Religion | RELI UN3318 | Humor, Joy, and Happiness in Judaism |
Religion | RELI GU4223 | Dreams |
Slavic Languages | RUSS UN3230 | Tricksters in World Culture: Mockery, Subversion, Rebellion |
Slavic Languages | CLRS GU4112 | Decadent Desires and the Russian Silver Age |
Slavic Languages | CLSL GU4011 | Experimental Cultures |
Sociology | SOCI UN3276 | Race and Capitalism |
Sociology | SOCI GU4124 | Status, Evaluation, and Inequality |
Statistics | STAT UN3293 | Topics in Modern Statistics |
Sustainable Development | SDEV GU4550 | The New York City Watershed: From Community Displacement to Collaboration and Climate Adaptation |
Visual Arts | VIAR UN1702 | INTRO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY |
Visual Arts | VIAR UN3100 | Archive Photography |
Visual Arts | VIAR UN3422 | Printmaking on, through, & below the matrix |
Visual Arts | VIAR GU4300 | Ways of Making: Special Topics |
Writing | WRIT UN3027 | Science Fiction Poetics |
Writing | WRIT UN3129 | Writing Nature in the Age of Climate Change |
Writing | WRIT UN3130 | The Punchline |
Writing | WRIT UN3321 | Ecopoetics |
Writing | WRIT UN3224 | Writing the Sixties |
Yiddish | YIDD GU4995 | Exploring Yiddishland: Culture in Time and Space |
Committee on the Core
The Committee on the Core (COC) is responsible for all matters regarding the Core Curriculum. Questions? Contact core-curriculum@columbia.edu.
Committee on the Core Members: 2022-2023
- Josef Sorett, Dean of Columbia College
- Professor Patricia Grieve, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Chair of the Committee on the Global Core
- Professor David Helfand, Department Astronomy, Chair of Frontiers of Science
- Professor Joseph Howley, Department of Classics, Chair of Literature Humanities
- Professor Ivana Nikolic Hughes, Director of Frontiers of Science
- Professor Carol Rovane, Department of Philosophy, Chair of Contemporary Civilization
- Professor Benjamin Steege, Department of Music, Chair of Music Humanities
- Professor Zoë Strother, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Chair of Art Humanities
- Professor Nicole Wallack, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Director of the Undergraduate Writing Program
Student Representatives:
- Avi Adler, Columbia College '24
- Sonia Svedahl, Columbia College '25
- Josh Powell, General Studies '23
Ex-Officio:
- Lisa Hollibaugh, Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia College
- Larry Jackson, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum
- Caroline Marvin, Dean of Academic Affairs, School of General Studies
Committee on Science Instruction
The Committee on Science Instruction (COSI) is responsible for all matters relating to the science requirement and providing leadership on matters related to undergraduate science education. Questions? Contact Amy Kohn: ask130@columbia.edu
Committee on Science Instruction Members: 2022-2023
- Chair: Professor Shahid Naeem, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
- Professor Paul Blaer, Department of Computer Science
- Professor Brian Cole, Department of Physics
- Professor Julien Dubedat, Department of Mathematics
- Professor Kevin Griffin, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Professor David Helfand, Frontiers of Science
- Professor Kathryn Johnston, Department of Astronomy
- Professor Jon Owen, Department of Chemistry
- Professor Guy Sella, Department of Biological Sciences
- Professor Nim Tottenham, Department of Psychology
- Professor Gabriel Young, Department of Statistics
Student Representatives:
- Miriam Aziz, Columbia College '24
- Darian Parker, General Studies '24
Ex-Officio:
- Josef Sorett, Dean of Columbia College
- Lisa Hollibaugh, Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia College
- Ivana Nikolic Hughes, Director of Frontiers of Science
- Caroline Marvin, Dean of Academic Affairs, General Studies
- Larry Jackson, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum
- Amy Kohn, Senior Associate Director, Academic Affairs, Columbia College
Committee on the Global Core
The Committee on the Global Core (CGC) is responsible for all matters relating to the Global Core requirement, including determining the list of courses approved for the requirement. Questions? Contact globalcore@columbia.edu.
Faculty interested in proposing new courses for the Global Core requirement can view information regarding the process.
Committee on the Global Core Members: 2022-2023
- Chair: Professor Patricia Grieve, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures
- Professor Courtney Bender, Department of Religion
- Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Department of French and Romance Philology
- Professor Madeleine Dobie, Department of French and Romance Philology
- Professor Kevin Fellezs, Department of Music and Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies
- Professor Frank Guridy, History and African American and African Diaspora Studies
- Professor Mana Kia, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (on leave for AY 2022-2023)
- Associate Professor David Lurie, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
- Professor Matthew McKelway, Art History and Archaeology (on leave for AY 2022-2023)
Student Representative:
- Natalie Yang, Columbia College '23
- Ysabella Titi, General Studies '23
Ex-Officio:
- Josef Sorett, Dean of Columbia College
- Lisa Hollibaugh, Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia College
- Larry Jackson, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum
- Shannon Marquez, Dean of Undergradauate Global Engagement
- Caroline Marvin, Dean of Academic Affairs, School of General Studies