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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: Jonathan Tanaka
Sapere aude! Have the courage to reason for yourself!
When Immanuel Kant penned those words at the end of the 18th century, Europe was ostensibly emerging from a dogmatic, intellectual slumber in which well-intentioned heterodox reasoning demanded great courage. That being said, perhaps my most sobering observation regarding academic … Continue reading
Posted in Archives, Coursework, Life, The Core, The Humanities, Uncategorized
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As a STEM Major, Frontiers of Science Could be the Most Important Class You Take at Columbia
It’s no secret that it is sometimes necessary to convince STEM majors that the Columbia Core’s Frontiers of Science class is worth their time. A good number of my friends who study the natural sciences skip the lectures of the … Continue reading
Posted in Life, STEM research, The Core
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Why Take the Core’s Religious Texts Seriously?
Of what purpose are the Core’s religious texts to the resolutely irreligious? The notion that the works of the Core enable us to understand ourselves and our world is thrown around without substantive analysis or reflection; it’s no wonder, then, … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Coursework, Life, The Core, The Humanities
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Why Pursue Seemingly Inapplicable Research?
There exists a constant pressure in our contemporary age for the academy to divert resources to vocationalist programs. This, in turn, induces a movement towards hyper-specialization and fragmentation between the disciplines, as only “necessary” procedural skills are to be learned … Continue reading
Posted in major research, Senior Thesis, STEM research, Summer Research, The Core
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Why Care about Latin and Greek outside of Classics?
Why did Columbia historically require Latin and Attic Greek, and what can we learned from the annulment of this requirement? And why care at all? As is no secret, Columbia College once enforced a Greek admission requirement and required all … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, Uncategorized
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Aesthetics and Pedagogy in the Historical Core
What in the world does beauty have to do with the Core, and especially with the teaching of the Core? I did a deep dive into its history to find out. It wasn’t all that long ago that Columbia University … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, Uncategorized
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