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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.
Category Archives: The Core
In Plain Sight: Finding the Core Where You Least Expect It
The Core Curriculum has a simple job: condensing thousands of years of human thought and culture into 8 semesters of coursework (or really 6, if you don’t count University Writing and Frontiers of Science). One of the many things that … Continue reading
Posted in The Core, The Humanities, Uncategorized
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Horatio and the Core
Near the beginning of Hamlet, the titular character famously says to his stolid and rational best friend, “There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” It is easy to imagine the two … Continue reading
Posted in The Core, The Humanities, Uncategorized
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Wonder and the Core
Recently I went to the Met with a friend. Having both taken Art Hum, we decided to play a game in the Medieval wing: we would prohibit ourselves from reading the explanatory signs, and instead try to deduce the very … Continue reading
Posted in Museums, New York City, Senior Thesis, The Core
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Toodling in Tubingen (on Hegel’s removal from the Core and its relation to his ideas)
It was a balmy August day in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, a sleepy (but immensely wealthy) Western European metropolis with the skyline of a much smaller city and one of the more incoherent transport networks I had encountered in Germany (which, given … Continue reading
Posted in Study Abroad, The Core
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The Science Core and the Humanities
When I arrived at Columbia, the Science Core was the course requirement that I most dreaded. As a prospective English major who had loathed physics in high school, the prospect of squandering three class slots on the sciences felt annoying … Continue reading
From Literature to Philosophy: A Guide for the Perplexed
Literature Humanities, the centerpiece of Columbia’s Core Curriculum, opens with Homer’s Iliad—an immediately absorbing epic of grand scope, jam-packed with irresistible characters (Patrokles anyone?) and dozens of pages of gripping interpersonal drama. Sure, some students might have their patience tested … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, The Canon, The Core
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Dante, the “Neutrals,” and Us
For many freshmen, the most difficult Literature Humanities text to connect with personally is Dante’s Inferno. This was certainly the case for me. Many of the other second-semester readings—To the Lighthouse, Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare—are easy to feel invested in: … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, The Canon, The Core
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“Insistent Problems of the Present”
For most students, the familiar phrase “the insistent problems of the present” is a common throughline within and beyond classrooms dedicated to the Core Curriculum. It is both a critical tool in positioning the origins of the curriculum itself, and … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, The Core
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To The Lighthouse and Back Again
Freshman year is the gift that keeps on giving. Untoward anxiety about your future, LinkedIn connections, friends you spend sixteen hours out of the day with, and most importantly, a hefty collection of Literature Humanities books. Many of us know … Continue reading
Posted in The Core, Uncategorized
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Canonization in the End Times
Since it was first taught in the years following World War I, Contemporary Civilization has navigated the tension between debates of the past and challenges of the present. Students read Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Machiavelli before tackling Martin Luther King, … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, The Core
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