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Dr. Barry Bergdoll leads tour at MoMA

Café Columbia in the City of New York

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Café Columbia in the City of New York

Café Columbia is a series of book salons, museum tours and other cultural programs led by Columbia faculty, and focused broadly on the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences.


Upcoming Discussions

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Past Discussions

Students on Low Plaza - Columbia College

Civility in the Public Square

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Join to discover the role of "civility" in society today with fellow alumni and faculty guides.

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Code on computer screen, used to depict data.

A Core Approach to the Ethics of Data

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Does humanities have a place in this data-driven world? Explore that question and more in this interactive talk.

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Music Humanities Salon: Early Modernism Music, Poetry, Dance, and PaintingJul 30

Music Humanities Salon: Early Modernism Music, Poetry, Dance, and Painting

Jul 30 to Jul 31 (1 days)

Focusing on a period that is a favorite with College students, join this virtual class to explore music in the years around 1900 when Modernism was emerging from the deep interconnections among the arts.

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Do Machines Think Like Us?

Man, Machine & Intelligence

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Don’t miss this fascinating talk on man-made versus machine intelligence, just for San Francisco alumni and only from Columbia College.

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Should music serve as a point of refuge from the trials of the outside world, or is it the obligation of the artist to address the pressing controversies of his or her own time?

Music in Times of Chaos

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Join us for an evening of music and conversation to consider the role of music in our increasingly polarized society through a discussion of key intersections of music and politics from across the Core Curriculum, with a primary focus on the symphonies and string quartets of Beethoven.

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Don Quixote Cafe Columbia

Don Quixote Literary Salon

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Join us for an afternoon book salon to see how the great humanist storyteller Cervantes weaves this humorous and poignant – timeless and timely – tale featuring a character in a society driven by intolerance and injustice. Enjoy rich conversation, followed by a wine and cheese reception with Professor Patricia E. Grieve, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor in the Humanities and former Lit Hum Chair.

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Voting Booths

How Trump, Le Pen and Brexit Happened

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Join John Huber, professor of political science, for a discussion on how the rise of identity-based populism can be linked to the parallel rise of economic inequality around the world.

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Falling Water

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Join MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll CC'77, the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology, as MoMA marks Wright's 150th birthday with "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive," a major exhibition that critically engages with Wright's multifaceted practice.

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Eclipse of Reason Cafe Columbia

The Eclipse of ​Reason

Saturday, May 6, 2017

A new age of reason appears to be dawning — one that values ignorance over information, views logic and evidence with contempt, and elevates the tweeted insult into a public form of discourse.

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Anna Karenina

An Afternoon with Anna Karenina

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Anna Karenina is universally recognized as one of the greatest novels of all time. And Tolstoy gives the illusion of writing, as Isaac Babel put it, “the way the world would write if it could write by itself.”

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Untitled by Kerry James Marshall

Kerry James Marshall: Mastry

Saturday, December 3, 2016

​Born in Birmingham, Ala., before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and witness to the Watts rebellion in 1965, American artist Kerry James Marshall has long been an inspired and imaginative chronicler of the African American experience.

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Entry into Jerusalem

Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Join fellow College alumni for this fascinating exploration of the Holy City, Jerusalem, and its role in shaping the art of the period from 1000-1400 in a faculty-led tour of this new exhibit.

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