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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
Discovering Humanity Through The Core
When reflecting on what is most valuable about the Core Curriculum at Columbia, I always think about the community it fosters. But a closely related benefit of the core, which is both a product of and a contributing factor to … Continue reading
Posted in courses, New York City, The Core
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Recovering Reason, Embracing the Words of Truth, and Delighting in the Great Books:
“Man, the rational animal, can put up with anything except what seems to him irrational; whatever is rational is tolerable” – Epictetus, Discourses In my last post, I included an epigraph from Euripides’ play The Phoenecian Woman, which stated … Continue reading
Posted in The Core
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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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The Core and the City
Arguably, the two most defining features of the undergraduate experience at Columbia are the core curriculum and the school’s location in New York City. One of my favorite parts about Columbia has been the freedom to explore the city and … Continue reading
Posted in New York City, The Core
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Evolution and the Importance of Tradition in Literature Humanities
“The words of truth are naturally simple” – Euripides, The Phoenecian Woman The history of the formation of the course now known as Literature Humanities is not a well-known story among students at Columbia College nowadays, and this is a … Continue reading
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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The Stress Counterweight: Interpreting the World, and the Work of CC
The numerous manifestations of stress are all becoming more salient to us. Whether we are feeling agitated, having trouble focusing, losing sleep, or clenching our jaws, the anxiety of our current historical period is reflected in our mental and physical … Continue reading
Posted in courses, COVID-19, major research, The Core, Uncategorized
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Musing Ecclesiastes at the Cathedral of St. John
It was surprising to think back that, after completing CC, the most moving text to me was the chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament—I thought, walking toward the Cathedral of St. John on Amsterdam avenue. I’ve always known about … Continue reading
Posted in New York City, The Core
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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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Eyes to See and Ears to Hear
“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning” (Proverbs 9:9). It’s a fortunate staple of most undergraduate students’ experiences of the CORE curriculum at Columbia that … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, Uncategorized
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