Ten Columbia Faculty Members on C-SPAN's Book TV
June 25, 2012
C-SPAN’s Book TV brought its cameras, microphones and lights to Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus on June 4. The program’s host, Peter Slen, spent the day interviewing ten professors about their books, with discussion topics ranging from Iraq to climate change to Occupy Wall Street.
Begun in 2011, this university-focused series has visited institutions including University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, University of Chicago, and many others. The 15-30 minute interviews will air on C-SPAN 2 over four weekends, beginning Sunday, June 24.
Sun., June 24 (1:00pm ET); re-air June 25 (12:45am ET)
Richard JohnNetwork Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications
John examines the development of telecommunications in America. He attributes the universal accessibility of the telephone to various technological and economic factors. However, he also shows how the political economy played a critical role in the development of telecommunications as a social medium and hallmark of modernity. John, a professor at Columbia Journalism School, explores how access to these new networks was as much a result of decision-making at the federal, state and municipal levels as it was technological advances.
Jonathan ColeJohn Mitchell Mason Professor of the University and Provost Emeritus of the University and Dean Emeritus of Faculties
The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected
Cole (CC'64, GSAS'69), sociologist and the provost of Columbia from 1989-2003, discusses how universities became the nation’s leading source of economic growth and social welfare, and why they face a host of challenges that include budget cuts, political interference and even changing cultural mores that could lead to their loss of true distinction.
Sun., July 8 (1:00pm ET); re-air July 9 (1:00am ET)
James HansenAdjunct professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department and head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
Hansen argues that our planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return. He paints a picture of what will happen in the coming years if we follow the course we're on. But he is also an optimist, writing that there is still time to do what we need to do.
Richard BettsLeo A. Shifrin Professor of War and Peace Studies, Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies and Director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies
American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security
Betts investigates the use of American force since the end of the Cold War and offers guidelines for making it more selective and successful. One of the nation’s leading national security experts, Betts argues for greater caution and restraint, while encouraging more decisive action when force is required.
Stuart FiresteinIgnorance: How it Drives Science
Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and getting things done. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and there may not be a cat in the room. The process is more hit-or-miss than you might imagine, with much stumbling and groping after phantoms. But it is exactly this "not knowing," this puzzling over thorny questions or inexplicable data, that gets researchers into the lab early and keeps them there late, the thing that propels them, the very driving force of science.
Sun., July 15 (1:00pm ET); re-air July 16 (1:00am ET)
Todd GitlinOccupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street
Gitlin offers an overview of one of the most rapidly growing social revolutions in modern history. He looks at the Occupy movement at its pivotal moment, as it weighs its unexpected power and grapples with its future mission.
Evan HaefeliNew Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty
Haefeli makes the case that religious liberty took root in colonial America largely because the Dutch lost the colony at a moment when the English were unusually open to religious tolerance. Using sources in several languages, he shows that while tolerance as a general principle was respected in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, in practice there was a struggle against it. The loss of the colony to England thus turns out to be critical to American religious diversity.
Sun., July 22 (1:00pm ET); re-air July 23 (1:00am ET)
Alondra NelsonBody and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination
Nelson examines the health care activism of the Black Panther Party, including its network of free health clinics and campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease. An associate professor in the Sociology Department, Nelson argues that the radical political party best known for its militancy was also an important voice in the efforts to achieve equal provision of health care.
Helen BenedictThe Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
Benedict tackles the complex issues of war, misogyny, class, race, homophobia and post-traumatic stress disorder through the stories of five women who served in the Iraq War between 2003 and 2006. Benedict describes the isolation experienced by women in the military, which denies them the camaraderie soldiers depend on for survival and subjects them to sexual persecution by their comrades. Between their stories, Benedict weaves in accounts from numerous Iraq War veterans, illuminating this private war within a war for female soldiers.
Jonathan WeinerMaxwell M. Geffen Professor of Medical and Scientific Journalism at Columbia Journalism School
Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality
Life expectancy has increased by more than 30 years in the last century. Now, a group of ambitious scientists is taking the next step toward the mythological goal of eternal life. In Long for This World, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer follows the quest of cutting-edge researchers who hope to defy aging once and for all. Part history, part globe-trotting adventure, the book jumps from Cambridge University to Dante’s tomb in Italy, with additional insight from such immortality experts as Shakespeare, Goethe and Yeats.
—by Eric Sharfstein
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Multimedia
| Artworks by contemporary Cambodian artists, including survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, are on display at Columbia’s Maison Française and Italian Academy. |
Milestones
Four Columbia faculty were awarded Sloan Research Fellowships by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. They are Mark Churchland, assistant professor of neuroscience; Wei Min, assistant professor of chemistry; Simha Sethumadhavan, associate professor of computer science; and Wei Zhang, assistant professor of mathematics.
Alondra Nelson, associate professor of sociology, won the 2012 book award from the Association for Humanist Sociology for Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination.
