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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
A Speaking, Bleeding Book: The Relevance of the Core Outside the West
My faith in the value of the Core has wavered on some occasions: during exam periods, while slogging through an exceptionally-dense reading, and in the last half-hour of any seminar discussion on a warm spring afternoon (to name a few … Continue reading
Posted in Summer Research, The Core, Uncategorized, Writing
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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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Senior Spring Reflections: The Early Days
As the Class of 2025 prepares to take on its last semester of college this spring, Rose Research Fellows Alan Chen and Janus Yuen (CC‘25) discuss how they first found their way to their programs of study and areas of … Continue reading
Posted in Faculty Mentors, major research, postgraduation plans, Senior Thesis, Study Abroad, Summer Research, The Canon, The Core, The Humanities
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Hunting for the Right Archives
In my last blog post, I wrote about the preparation that goes into preparing to write a senior thesis, especially in Columbia’s history department. Since then, I’ve received a few questions on archives: how to locate them; how to plan … Continue reading
Posted in Archives, Coursework, Historic Sites, Interviews, Libraries, major research, Senior Thesis
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In Book and Song: Finding Meaning in a New Medium
As part of my Music Humanities course in the Fall, I was asked to write about an object of musical significance. The idea of the assignment is to allow students to summon what they have learned in the class to … Continue reading
Posted in courses, Coursework, New York City, The Canon, The Core, The Humanities
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Between Classroom and Core Studio: Professor Jennifer Rhodes on Education and the Arts
On a warm Friday afternoon in September, I wandered into my first ever session of the Core Studio, an initiative spearheaded by Professor Jennifer Rhodes. Upon entry, Rhodes introduced the focus of the workshop: Clay vessels inspired by Enheduanna, the … Continue reading
Posted in Art, courses, New York City, The Canon, The Core, The Humanities
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In Defense of Dante
Students of Literature Humanities will encounter a speech in the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno. The speaker is a woman named Francesca. She is telling Dante about how she fell in love with the man next to her, resulting in … Continue reading
Posted in courses, major research, The Core, The Humanities
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The Core Is For You
I often play one song on loop, over and over again—there’s something about a little instrumental detail that can hook me. Same goes for other media. Certain paragraphs in books, photographs in my camera roll or pasted on my wall, … Continue reading
Posted in Coursework, The Core
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To Color the Void: Remembering Why We Read
For a recent philosophy class, I read a Socratic dialogue called the Phaedo, which relates the hours leading up to Socrates’s death. It’s a powerful text: after being sentenced by his fellow Athenians, Socrates tries to distract his students from … Continue reading
Posted in major research, The Core
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