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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: Sara Bell
Choosing a Thesis Topic
After a couple months of light and mounting panic, I settled on a thesis topic. I’m now thrilled I chose this topic—it’s been particularly fun and interesting to write about—but I really struggled to get to it. There’s a few … Continue reading
Posted in New York City, postgraduation plans, Senior Thesis
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Footnotes Are Friends, Not Fluff
“Read the footnotes,” many a humanities professor has intoned to me—I will admit, in vain. When you’re crunched for time and facing a steep amount of reading per day, as many Columbia students are, the footnotes or endnotes seem worth … Continue reading
Posted in courses, University Writing
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My Senior Year in Lit Hum or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Timeline
I am currently enrolled in a possibly-unprecedented combination of classes: the English Major Senior Essay, which is the department’s name for a senior thesis, and the second semester of Literature Humanities, a class typically taken by first-years. “How?” would be … Continue reading
Posted in Senior Thesis, The Core, Uncategorized
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An Interview About Undergraduate Math Research
For this blog post, I interviewed Cat R., one of my friends from high school, who is currently studying pure math and has been involved in a long-term research project for the past 6 months. Sara: Introduce yourself! What type … Continue reading
Posted in COVID-19, STEM research, Summer Research
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Changing Tracks: Why Transfer Internally?
The joke goes like this: by the time I graduate, I’ll have gone to all four undergraduate schools. Now that I’ve gone through the first three, having originally enrolled in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), transferred to … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Libraries, Senior Thesis, STEM research, The Core
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An Interview with Professor Emmanuelle Saada, Chair of CC
Professor Emmanuelle Saada is the Chair of Contemporary Civilization and Professor of French and of History at Columbia. She spoke with me in October about adapting to teaching the Core online, the direction in which Contemporary Civilization is headed, and … Continue reading
Posted in courses, COVID-19, Interviews, The Core, Uncategorized
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Notes, Notes, and More Notes
Isabel recently posted an excellent blog post about flowcharts: what they are, and why you should be using them. (I’m definitely trying that method out on my next long paper—thanks Isabel!) I’ve been thinking these days about something related, which … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Senior Thesis
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Reading for Research
One of the most daunting parts of research papers—and, admittedly, of college humanities courses at large—has been secondary reading. I had read journal articles for some classes in high school, but mostly for science classes: academic papers in the humanities … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Uncategorized
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Pacing Your Papers
If the start to your November has been anything like mine, every item on your to-do list has had something to do with the word “essay”: whether a five-page paper for my intro-level lecture class, a ten-page paper for my … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Uncategorized
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On The “STEM/Humanities Divide” And Getting Messy
I spent the longest summer of my adolescence in the company of more fish than people. There were mosquitofish, bass, alewife, three-spined stickleback, guppy, herring; fish that had been preserved since 2013 and fish that were euthanized early that morning; … Continue reading
Posted in STEM research, Summer Research, Uncategorized
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