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The CCRA blog is authored by Columbia undergraduate researchers, who are invited to reflect on all aspects of the research process and their own undergraduate research experiences, beginning (but not ending) with the Core.
Author Archives: cw2770
Starting the Core Paper
When I was assigned my first paper in Literature Humanities three years ago, I felt somewhat overwhelmed. The paper could be about any aspect of the Iliad, a topic that seemed incredibly rich yet also strangely sterile—what new perspective or … Continue reading
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Reflections on Taking Research Abroad
I didn’t come to Columbia with aspirations of traveling abroad– New York City already felt like a foreign country to me, and its museums, languages, and libraries have enough to occupy ten lifetimes’ worth of curiosity. In my sophomore year, … Continue reading
Posted in Laidlaw Scholars, Study Abroad
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Researching Publics and Public Research
Imagine for a minute all the spaces that define your life at Columbia: the classrooms where seminars unfold, the lecture halls alive with presentations, the labs buzzing with quiet concentration, and libraries where the daytime hours bleed into the night. … Continue reading
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The Art of the Missing: An Interdisciplinary Retreat
Last spring, I was scrambling a bit for a summer internship, as many fellow second-semester juniors find themselves. While I was already planning to work at a law firm in New York City, it was only a part-time commitment. Not … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Museums, New York City
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The Kantian Challenge and How to Overcome It
Like most other Columbia undergraduates, I was first introduced to the work of Immanuel Kant halfway through my sophomore year. Kant’s slim-but-dense ethical treatise, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, is the second text that students read in Contemporary … Continue reading
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An Undergraduate Research Project, from Idea to Publication
When I first learned about the Humanities Research Scholars Program during winter break of my sophomore year, I felt both daunted and excited. I had never done any kind of research before, and I had no idea of what topic … Continue reading
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Learning to Read the Core
As the fall semester approaches, first-years across campus are engaged– excitedly, nervously, or maybe even frantically– in the hallowed Columbia tradition of reading the first six books of The Iliad. SparkNotes has been consulted, copious amounts of highlighter have been … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, The Humanities
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Just Inquiry: Columbia’s Core, Columbia’s Gates
When I first arrived at Columbia, I did not pay much attention to the gates. They were just there. They stood as symbols of arrival, departure, tradition, and maybe even security. But over time, I started to see them completely … Continue reading
Posted in New York City, The Core
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