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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
What’s the Research Symposium Anyway? A Guide From a 2x Winner
Every October, Columbia invites students’ families to campus for a weekend full of “intellectual, informational, and social events designed to let you experience, if only for a few days, what it means to be a Columbia student.” The highlight … Continue reading
Posted in conference presentations, Coursework, Faculty Mentors, major research, Media, New York City, Senior Thesis, Summer Research, The Humanities
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Dressing for the Core
You are a typical Columbia College undergraduate student. CDC guidelines permitting, in your first year you live and breathe Columbia’s neoclassical (or Beaux-Arts, depending on who you ask) -style campus; and as far as academics go, the Core is all … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Coursework, Historic Sites, Libraries, New York City, The Canon, The Core, The Humanities
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Where is the FUN in Funding? – Finding Funding as an Undergraduate Researcher in the Humanities
As Researchers in the humanities, we are all well aware that our noble pursuits, unfortunately, require one thing: money. We are also well aware that filtering through multiple databases to find that one niche fellowship that aligns with your … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, Faculty Mentors, Funding, Libraries, Life, New York City, postgraduation plans, Senior Thesis, Study Abroad, The Humanities
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Some Thoughts on Canons, and A Modest Proposal for Freshman Year
LitHum is not enough. This observation should resonate with two groups of students in the class of 2027. The first group consists of those (there are some out there) who are excited to begin LitHum, who feel keenly the limitations … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, The Humanities
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Modern Approaches to the Canon
On the first day of Literature Humanities or Contemporary Civilizations, you were probably asked to ruminate on what a canon is. Responses to this question vary, yet they typically conform to two distinct categories. Some students hew to the orthodox … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Libraries, The Canon, The Core, The Humanities
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Core
While most students really connect to at least one or two texts in the syllabus, many students experience Contemporary Civilization as a painful slog through the dregs of Western philosophy, a subject widely felt to be as stale as it … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Coursework, Life, The Core, The Humanities, Uncategorized
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Reflections on Language, Translation, and the Core
In September 2020, the first-ever assignment in my Lit Hum section was to develop an intralingual translation of the first seven lines of the Iliad. We had the standard version of the Iliad prescribed by the Core Office—Richmond Lattimore’s 1951 … Continue reading
Posted in Archives, major research, The Core, The Humanities
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Endings and New Beginnings with the Core Curriculum: Seeking Wisdom from Dante:
“O you who are within your little bark, eager to listen, following behind my ship that, singing, crosses to deep seas, turn back to see your shores again: do not attempt to sail the seas I sail; you may, by … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, Life, postgraduation plans, The Core, The Humanities
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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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The Power of Right Living and Intellectual Humility
“Listen to me, my son, and acquire knowledge,/and pay close attention to my words./I will impart instruction by weight,/and declare knowledge accurately” (Wisdom of Sirach 16:24-25). There’s an interesting moment in one of Shakespeare’s sonnets where the narrator states: As … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, Life, The Core, The Humanities
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