Summer Session Courses for Credit

CHEM BC1050 The Jazz of Chemistry

Meena Rao

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: 3 credit Lecture or Lab; 
Quantitatively and Empirically)

The contribution of chemistry to everyday life is immense. The applications of chemistry in medicine, petrochemicals, cosmetics, and food are readily apparent. However, chemistry is a key part of many other fascinating fields, some of which may be less obvious. Examples of areas in which chemistry plays a key role include forensic science; art restoration and forgery detection; and flavors and fragrances in food, beverages and other consumer products. The goal of this course is to provide insights and spur discussion of several areas and applications of chemistry, and provide hands-on experience in techniques used in these fields sparking the curiosity of Barnard students into this marvelous field.   

ENGL BC1902 Global Queer Cinemas

Duygu Ula

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Social Difference; Arts & Humanities;
Global Inquiry)

In this class, we will focus on contemporary queer cinema from around the world to explore how filmmakers create new visual modes of representing queerness, and how these queer cinematic narratives are informed by various local, national, cultural and political contexts. Through a comparative, transnational and intersectional approach that takes into consideration the particularities of each filmmaker’s context, we will aim to answer the following questions:  How do various cultural, national, linguistic, religious contexts affect the way queer identities are defined and depicted visually? How do these filmmakers and artists create a visual aesthetic based on their local contexts that is distinct from westernized visual narratives of queerness? How do images of queerness circulate globally and how might queer visual cultures of the Global South push back against existing paradigms of queerness in the Global North? All films for the course are subject to change, but may include titles such as Rafiki, A Fantastic Woman, Happy Together, The Wound, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Additionally, we will read critical and theoretical works that will urge us to consider these films from a range of perspectives, such as queer studies, feminist film studies, disability studies, and transgender studies. 

ENGL BC1904 Postcolonial Comics

Atefeh Shahmirzadi

Meets Mon/Wed 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Arts & Humanities; Global Inquiry)

Postcolonial studies, broadly speaking, constitutes a systematic examination of the history, socioeconomics, politics, and cultural products of countries that were once colonized. In studying literature from a postcolonial perspective, the work is carried out through careful readings of texts, the nuances of their language, and by paying attention to how the struggle for freedom, both individually and collectively, is represented in literary texts. In this course, you will learn about some of the central concepts of postcolonial studies during lecture, after which we’ll turn our focus to the graphic novels to see how these concepts are presented in textual and visual format. We’ll also investigate why graphic novels present an appropriate medium for studying postcolonialisms. Finally, we will expand the boundaries of the discipline of postcolonial studies and use its methodologies to read about locations and peoples that weren’t formerly (or formally) colonized (for example, New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, 20th-century Iran, and female Jewish immigrants in New York city circa 1910). 

ENGL BC3103 The Art of the Essay

Alexandra Watson

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Arts & Humanities)

The Art of the Essay is a writing workshop designed to help you contribute meaningfully in public discourse about the issues that matter most to you. You will write three types of essays in this class, all of which will center personal experience as valuable evidence of larger phenomena or patterns. Your essays will build in complexity, as you introduce more types of sources into conversation about your topics as the semester goes on. You will hone your skills of observing, describing, questioning, analyzing, and persuading. You will be challenged to confront complications and to craft nuanced explorations of your topics. We will also regularly read and discuss the work of contemporary published essayists, identifying key writerly moves that you may adapt as you attempt your own essays.  You will have many opportunities throughout the semester to brainstorm ideas, receive feedback from me and your peers, and develop and revise your drafts. At the end of the semester, you will choose a publication to which to submit or pitch one or more of your essays. 

ENGL BC3170 Literature & Science 1600-1800

Ross Hamilton

Meets Tues/Thurs 5:30-8:40pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Historical Perspective; Arts & Humanities)

The "Scientific Revolution" began in England in the early seventeenth century, with the experiments of John Dee and the reforming projects of Francis Bacon, to culminate in Isaac Newton’s discovery of the natural laws of motion. This was also a period of great literary innovation, from Shakespeare’s plays and the metaphysical poetry of Marvell and Donne, to the new genre of the novel. This course will explore both the scientific and literary "revolutions" – indeed we will attempt to put them in a kind of conversation with one another, as poets and scientists puzzled over the nature of spirit, body, and the world.

ENGL BC1022 Bad Love

Ross Hamilton 

Meets Tues/Thurs 9:00am-12:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Arts & Humanities)

Together, we will read stories of romance gone bad, of affairs that end catastrophically, that damage lovers or leave victims along the way.   We will illuminate the consuming fantasy of the romance genre in its quest for “true love,” as well as a range of emotions – rage and revenge, narcissism and self-protection, obsession and oblivion – that surface in its wake.  We will also look at shifting interpretations of “bad love,” from Plato, to the Galenic theory of the humors, to the sociology of court-culture, to Freudian and finally contemporary neurobiological explanations of feelings.  Students are welcome to propose texts of their own interests to open this course to the widest range of interests.  In addition to seminar discussion, there will be weekly individual tutorials with Professor Hamilton as well as interviews with a neurobiologist and a psychologist. 

ENGL BC3291 Fictions of Law and Custom: Whiteness in American Literature

Kristin Carter

Hours

Meets Mon/Wed 9:00am - 12:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Historical Perspective; Social Difference;
Arts & Humanities)

This course examines "white" American identity as a cultural location and set of discourses and traditions with a history—in Mark Twain’s terms, “a fiction of law and custom.” What are the origins of "Anglo-Saxon" American identity? What are the borders, visible and invisible, against which this identity has leveraged position and power?  How have these borders shifted over time, and in social and cultural space? How has whiteness located itself at the center of political, historical, social and literary discourse, and how has it been displaced?  How does whiteness mark itself, or mask itself, in literature and in larger cultural practices?  What does whiteness look like, sound like, and feel like from the perspective of the racial "other"? And in what ways do considerations of gender and class complicate these other questions? Authors studied may include bell hooks, Cherríe Moraga, James Baldwin, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, James Weldon Johnson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nathanael West, Alice Walker, and Don DeLillo.

POLS BC3730 Data Science for Politics

Michael Miller

Meets Mon/Wed 5:30-8:40pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Social Science, Quantitatively & Empirically; Technologically & Digitally)

This course explores techniques to harness the power of "big data'' to answer questions related to political science and/or American politics. Students will learn how to use R---a popular programming language---to obtain, clean, analyze, and visualize data. No previous knowledge of R is required.

We will focus on applied problems using real data wherever possible, using R's "Tidyverse.'" In total, in this course we will cover concepts such as reading data in various formats (including "cracking'" atypical government data sources and pdf documents); web scraping; data joins; data manipulation and cleaning (including string variables and regular expressions); data mining; making effective data visualizations; using data to make informed prediction, and basic text analysis. We will also cover programming basics including writing functions and loops in R. Finally, we will discuss how to use R Markdown to communicate our results effectively to outside audiences. Class sessions are applied in nature, and our exercises are designed around practical problems: Predicting election outcomes, determining the author of anonymous texts, and cleaning up messy government data so we can use it. 

PSYC BC2141 Abnormal Psychology

Michael Wheaton

Meets Tues/Thurs 9:00am-12:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Science - 3 credit Lecture or Lab;
Social Science)

Abnormal Psychology is an introductory course in psychopathology, the scientific study of mental disorders. This course surveys a variety of forms of abnormal behavior in psychology, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Description, theory, research, and treatment will be discussed in relation to abnormal behavior. A primary goal of this course is thus for you to learn information relevant to the study of abnormal behavior, but another goal is for you to also develop the ability to apply this information critically to case material and to incorporate cultural perspectives on abnormal behavior. The class will consist of two 3-hour class meetings per week as well as completing course readings. There is one required textbook for this class. Learning objectives will be assessed by two exams as well as one paper. For the written assignment students will be asked to write about a character from a film or novel who is depicted as suffering from a mental illness. 

ENGL BC1903 Dead Mothers and Wicked Stepmothers: The Maternal in Folk and Fairy Tales

Wendy Schor-Haim

Meets Tues/Thurs 9:00am-12:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Arts & Humanities)

You know them well: on one side, the scheming, jealous stepmother, obsessed with her fading youth. On the other, her husband’s virginal, naive, and beautiful daughter – whose own mother is usually dead. The conflict between them is so familiar that it feels inevitable. Where, though, did these nearly universal figures come from? Why are they so ingrained in the imaginations of people around the world and across the millennia? In this course, we’ll explore the roots of the maternal in folk and fairy tales. We’ll analyze a variety of stories and films to investigate the “absent mother,” “virginal daughter,” and “wicked stepmother” from different critical perspectives, paying special attention to analytical psychology and feminist psychoanalytic and literary theory, to try to figure out why these figures are so compelling, so ubiquitous, and so hard to shake.

FREN BC1207 Intermediate French I

Karen Santos da Silva

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Language)

Intermediate French I is for students who have already had one year of French or who have taken a Placement Exam to place them into this level. Students should already have a minimal foundation of the language. This course is designed to strengthen the students' mastery of the basic foundations, focusing specifically on all verb tenses and moods, negations, interrogative structures, hypothetical structures, relative pronouns, and object pronouns. In this course, you will: develop linguistic fluency in both written and oral French (French will be the only language spoken in class); develop linguistic flexibility, including use of direct and indirect pronouns, conjunctions and rhetorical locutions; read a piece of 20th century literature in French and discuss it in class; write short papers (2-3 pages) in French discussing topics of current interest and begin to write short responses on a literary text; strengthen your listening comprehension skills.
 

FREN BC1208 Intermediate French II

Karen Santos da Silva

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Language)

Advanced work in language skills. Readings in French literature. 

Le but de ce cours est de permettre aux étudiantes d'asseoir solidement leur maîtrise du français écrit et oral. A la fin du semestre, vous aurez atteint une très bonne maîtrise de la langue française. C'est-à-dire: 

• Vous aurez un vocabulaire plus riche. Vous aurez amélioré votre français écrit au point où vous serez capable d’écrire des compositions sans faire trop de fautes de grammaire, en employant une rhétorique plus sophistiquée
• Vous serez capable de parler en français, à un niveau intermédiaire, couramment et correctement.
• Vous serez capable d’écrire des compositions sur des sujets plus compliqués, y compris sur des sujets littéraires, artistiques ou culturels.
• Vous aurez lu des textes de littérature française, et vous en aurez discuté en cours.

Pour nos discussion à propos de textes littéraires, vous serez tenus de lire les textes à l’avance, d’en chercher le vocabulaire, ainsi que de préparer des questions de discussion sur Courseworks. Quant à la grammaire, nous mettrons l’accent sur le passé simple, la voix passive, le subjonctif, le conditionnel passé, le futur antérieur, et les pronoms relatifs. Un versant culturel vous proposera un aperçu de la littérature française du XIXe siècle. Nous lirons une sélection de quelques poèmes de Baudelaire et de nouvelles fantastiques. Comme nous n’avons cours que deux fois par semaines, vous devez pratiquer votre français oral et écrit les autres jours.  Les exercices de grammaires que je vous donnerai ne seront pas notés, mais sont obligatoires. 

BIOL BC1003 Concepts in Modern Biology

Rishita Shah

Meets Tues/Thurs 9:00am-12:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Science)

Concepts in Modern Biology is for students who seek a better understanding of how their everyday life and modern biology interact. As our health and policy decisions are increasingly motivated by recent events and new technologies, a fundamental understanding of biology is essential to making informed choices for ourselves and the community. This course is an introductory survey course that explores major discoveries and ideas that have revolutionized the way we view and understand biological life. The basic concepts of cell and molecular biology, genetics, and evolution, will be traced from seminal discoveries to the modern era. Students will learn critical scientific analysis to understand and communicate biological concepts, biotechnology, and bioethics.

Please note this lecture course does not fulfill Biology major nor premedical requirements, but does count toward the Science lecture GER requirement for students fulfilling a Foundations requirement.

RELI UN2322 Introduction to Islamic Law

Najam Haider

Meets Tues/Thurs 1:00-4:10pm

3 Credit Hours

(satisfies the following Barnard GER requirements: Arts &Humanities; Global Inquiry, and Historical Perspective)

It seems that every time Islam is mentioned in the press or in politics, it is associated with the word “shari‘a.” This term is invariably (and incorrectly) understood as an unchanging legal code dating back to 7th century Arabia. In reality, Islamic law is an organic and constantly evolving human project aimed at ascertaining God’s will in a given historical and cultural context. This course offers an introduction to the major concepts in Islamic law including its basic method and its interactions with modernity. The first part of the semester is dedicated to “classical” Islamic jurisprudence, concentrating on the manner in which jurists used the Qur’an, the Sunna (the model of the Prophet), and rationality to articulate a coherent legal system.  The second part of the course focuses on those areas of the law that engender passionate debate and controversy in the contemporary world.  Specifically, we examine the discourse surrounding gender (marriage, divorce, and personhood) and crime/punishment.  The course ends by directly engaging issues associated with modernity with a particular focus on science (evolution) and medicine (medical ethics).  The format of individual class sessions will vary from topic to topic but students should anticipate *extensive* participation... and movies!

CLCV UN2230 Classics and Film

Kristina Milnor

Meets Thurs 9:00am-12:10pm

Considers cinematic representations of the ancient Mediterranean world, from early silent films to movies from the present day. Explores films that purport to represent historical events (such as Gladiator) and cinematic versions of ancient texts (Pasolinis Medea). Readings include ancient literature and modern criticism. This course is an equivalent of CLCV UN3230 and the student cannot receive credit for both courses. 

Pre-baccalaureate students must apply through the Pre-College program office. For all current Barnard, Columbia and visiting students, registrations will be processed as received (no seats saved for majors or class years). 

Registration opens on March 14 and will close on April 8.

Yes, first-year students who will begin at Barnard in the fall must apply to take a class through the Pre-College Program. Incoming transfers can register as a non-Barnard visiting student.

Students currently on a leave of absence should reach out to Dean Grabiner if they are interested in taking a summer course for any specific procedures they will need to follow. Refer as well to the Leaves of Absence and Returns webpage. Contact for Dean Grabiner: schedule an appointment or email leavesandreturns@barnard.edu.

No. Recent graduates or those who plan to have their degree conferred in May are not eligible to register for a summer course.

Please refer to the Registrar’s webpage that details information about taking summer classes elsewhere. For policies related to credit for Columbia summer classes, please check here.

No. All students will be charged on a per-credit basis and will be billed separately from Fall and Spring tuition. During the academic year 2020-2021, as a one-time change given the state of the pandemic, Barnard offered the flexibility for students to plan their academic year courses over a significantly more expansive period of time that includes both the traditional Fall and Spring semesters and a Summer term with no tuition or fees.

Access to Courseworks, our designated course portals (where students will find course materials), will be granted at the start of the summer course on Tuesday, July 5th. *Students with no prior affiliation to Columbia University will receive login credentials in late June directly from the Office of Summer Session and Continuing Studies