Searching for a research opportunity? Start here!

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Chinmayi Balusu

Rodin’s The Thinker. Photo Credit: Columbia University Libraries.

Navigating the research landscape for student opportunities can seem intimidating – here are some tips on where to start with brainstorming and searching.

Picture your ideal opportunity
Jot down a few notes relevant to the kind of experience you are seeking. These notes will be helpful when you are searching through opportunity databases or finalizing a list of programs to apply to.

Interested in diving deeper into a particular area, such as the intersection of neuroscience and economics? Is there a discussion topic from a Core class or major elective that you would like to explore further? Previous project themes you would like to continue? A personal example: my Contemporary Civilizations professor’s research focus is on medieval Islamic medicine, and hearing about her experiences inspired me to dive deeper. This led me to propose a project exploring complementary medical systems and their rich cultural intersections through the Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity.

Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, conference presentations, Faculty Mentors, Libraries, major research, New York City, Senior Thesis, STEM research, Summer Research, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Searching for a research opportunity? Start here!

‘A Journey to the ‘Metropole’: Tracing Transnational Networks at the University of Oxford

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Mrinalini Wadhwa

Standing outside Lincoln College, Oxford; I got lost trying to find Brasenose College, so my professor had to come here to find me. Photo credit: Renu Sisodia and Hitendra Wadhwa.

It has always struck me as somewhat paradoxical that some of the Indian subcontinent’s most famous political activists in the twentieth-century journeyed to Britain to complete their education: from the anticolonial leader M.K. Gandhi, to the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to ‘extremist’ independence activists Aurobindo Ghose [later, Saint Aurobindo] and Subhas Chandra Bose, to the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to the constitutional scholar and anti-caste activist (and Columbia alum!) B.R. Ambedkar. Whether their English sojourns have been heavily documented (as in the case of Nehru), or omitted from their biographies (as in the case of Bose, among others), I have been fascinated by how a journey to the colonial metropole shaped these figures’ political outlooks—their responses to British imperial power, their engagement with class divides and leftist political activism, their ‘radicalism’ and views on colonial and anticolonial violence, their position on social reform with regard to gender and caste—and gave them access to powerful political networks that they leveraged, to great effect, upon their return to British India [present day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh].

Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, Faculty Mentors, Libraries, Study Abroad, Summer Research, The Core, Uncategorized | Comments Off on ‘A Journey to the ‘Metropole’: Tracing Transnational Networks at the University of Oxford

Uncovering Public Hellenism

Posted on August 17, 2022 by William Diep

Nikolaos Ferekidis (1862–1929) and monogram G.W., The Entry of King Otho of Greece in Athens, copy of the work by Peter von Hess (1839), 1901, οil on canvas, 200×340 cm. National Bank of Greece. Photo credit: https://www.greece-is.com/why-the-1821-greek-revolution-changed-the-world/

At the beginning of my summer, I participated in the Columbia Summer Research Practicum for Public Humanities and Hellenic Studies. Under the supervision of Professor Dimitris Antoniou and Nicolas Nicolaides, our teaching assistant, a group consisting of me and four other students 

engaged in scholarly discussions on the public memory of Greece from the 1800s with most of our focus being on the Greek Revolution of 1821. From reading articles on the religious divides in Eastern Europe to watching videos highlighting specificities of Greek culture to analyzing Greek art from a variety of time periods, I discovered a new passion for historic preservation and public humanities. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, Interviews, New York City, Study Abroad, Summer Research | Comments Off on Uncovering Public Hellenism

Laboratory Do’s and Don’t’s!

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Giovanna Napoleone

Reading material packet and laboratory notebook for note-taking. Photo credit: Giovanna Napoleone.

As a current student researcher at the Barnhart Laboratory, I have had the amazing opportunity to investigate mitochondrial morphology during my first year at Columbia College, which I am now continuing over the summer thanks to CCE’s Summer Funding Program and its Work Exemption Program (WEP). However, upon initially joining a new laboratory environment, I wasn’t quite sure of how to approach my project topic learning curve at first. How can I be prepared to go to weekly lab meetings, or navigate concepts I haven’t covered in my science classes yet? Below is a list of Do’s and Don’ts for how to approach a summer research position at a new laboratory! 

Continue reading →

Posted in major research, STEM research, Summer Research | Comments Off on Laboratory Do’s and Don’t’s!

Interning in the Archives: My Experience at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Posted on August 7, 2022 by Muna Ali

Author Muna Ali in the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) reading room, pictured with rehoused film slides from the Stanford and Jodry papers. Photo credit: Brittany Hance, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

This summer, I had the exciting opportunity to intern with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) as part of a program called Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE). Throughout my 10-week NHRE internship, I was able to prepare a poster presentation on my research, conduct an outreach event with the general public, and interact with museum professionals across varying natural history disciplines.

The work I conducted this summer was twofold: for the first five weeks of the NHRE program, I rehoused film slides from the Dennis J. Stanford and Pegi Jodry papers. Through my rehousing work, I gained hands-on experience with museum archival processing techniques. For the final five weeks of the program, I conducted extensive research on Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce Bradley’s controversial Solutrean hypothesis. Stanford and Bradley postulated that archaeological stone tool similarities between the Clovis people (early peoples of North America) and the Solutrean people (early peoples from modern-day France) “proved” that the first peoples of America arrived from Europe. My project centered around the ontological violence towards Indigenous communities that resulted from Stanford and Bradley’s hypothesis, as well as the co-option of the hypothesis by white supremacists. My project also addressed the need for decolonial methodologies in archival research and archaeological fieldwork, and advocated for a decentering of Western epistemology.

Continue reading →

Posted in Archives, major research, Summer Research, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Interning in the Archives: My Experience at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Fruit Flies and the Life and Times of Mitochondria

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Avi Adler

Mitochondria (green) in the distal dendrites of a neuron (pink) of the fly visual system. Photo credit: Avi Adler

Around campus, when chatting research, I often say that my hours in the lab are spent “messing with flies.” While this is perhaps a stretch, it is not far from the truth. Most days begin with fly work: the necessary housekeeping of working in a Drosophila biology lab. Although I started using this line with a good sense of humility, to my own surprise my peers in the classroom, dining hall and various social events are sincerely intrigued by it. When pressed further, I explain my expertise in sorting flies by their eye color, wing shape, hair length, etc. This usually leads to a tangent about genetics, and naturally a comment about ordering flies from Bloomington, Indiana. After I’ve thoroughly explained how to mate flies such that the next generation of flies has red eyes and not curly wings, I am usually then asked what I am actually researching.

Continue reading →

Posted in STEM research, Summer Research | Comments Off on Fruit Flies and the Life and Times of Mitochondria

Independent Research is … “Independent”?

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Fatima Ahmad

Photo credit: Fatima Ahmad

At 1AM on a random Wednesday in March, I opened my email to find that decisions for the Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Program had been released. Since I was in the midst of grinding my International Politics essay on the 15th floor of IAB (and also had bigger, mid-semester, life dilemmas racing through my mind), I calmly opened my email in anticipation of a rejection. After all, only 25 undergraduates are chosen for each cohort, each year. Since I’m currently writing this blog post, you can probably guess that I indeed was not rejected. This is to say, and as cliche as it may sound, sometimes things seem too good to be true, so we think that we are unable to attain them, but even if you have a slight passion for the research you want to conduct, apply!

Continue reading →

Posted in Summer Research, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Independent Research is … “Independent”?

Sincerely, Columbia Seniors

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Cecilia Guan

A picture taken of me and Alma Mater. Photo credit: Nader Babar.

We made it! My last Rose blog post before graduation. These past four years have been an unconventional journey due to the COVID-19 pandemic (to say the least), and as a result, the transition onwards from here may feel more uncertain, uncomfortable, and unforeseen than typically. That’s not to discount the fact that any person experiencing change might feel nervous about what’s to come. In tandem with the confusion we might feel though, there is also hope, aspiration, and potential improvement on the horizon. We have learned to adapt to incredible circumstances, and our flexibility will hopefully enable us to be more humble learners, generous teachers, and kinder to ourselves through these processes as we continue to discover more about who we are and what we value. 

Continue reading →

Posted in postgraduation plans, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sincerely, Columbia Seniors

Tips for Minimizing Thesis Stress

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Virginia Ignelzi

A stressful writing process. Photo credit: Pixabay.

If you’ve been talking to your senior friends this semester, you might be aware of one of the greatest stressors of our academic lives: the senior thesis. Known for causing late nights and an increased caffeine intake, writing a thesis can be a real struggle. Of course, I’m being (somewhat) over-dramatic here. While you may have heard horror stories, a senior thesis does not have to ruin your sleep and social schedule. It’s definitely a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. In this post, I plan to outline the top two senior thesis strategies that I used to manage my research and writing. While my process wasn’t perfect, these strategies helped me turn in an organized, minimally stressful, on-time thesis.

Continue reading →

Posted in major research, Senior Thesis | Comments Off on Tips for Minimizing Thesis Stress

The Thesis that (Almost) Shred me to Pieces

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Christian Flores

Christian presenting his senior thesis in front of faculty advisors and thesis seminar students.
Photo Credit: Joseph Campell.

I am still recovering from the high (relief, really) of submitting my senior thesis a short while ago. After spending months under incredible amounts of stress, finally sending that email felt like finishing your last final of the semester, except a hundred times better. When I originally applied to participate in the seminar, it was largely because of encouragement from some professors. They pressed me to write the thesis because it would be “a great way to wrap up my undergraduate career”. Admittedly, I was initially not too keen because my track record with longer research papers is not stellar. I usually have other important classes going on at the same time and find myself pushing research away as its deadline is further along in the semester. After all, bombing a midterm could be irrecoverable for a good final grade in an important class. But the research paper? That’s due in eight weeks, I would rather study for the midterm. The cycle continues until I have a few weeks left to do a semester’s worth of work. Not fun!

Continue reading →

Posted in major research, Senior Thesis | Comments Off on The Thesis that (Almost) Shred me to Pieces