Arts & Humanities

This page features Columbia faculty and research related to the arts and humanities, and highlights cultural events happening at Columbia's four campuses. 

A collage of arts and humanities images

Narrative Medicine Teaches Doctors How to Listen to Patients’ Stories

Rita Charon founded this influential program at Columbia, which is now practiced widely both in the U.S. and abroad.

Musician and composer Tyshawn Sorey
Tyshawn Sorey (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation).
The Meditative, Multihued Soundscapes of Tyshawn Sorey

How the MacArthur-winning composer and musician found his own beat at Columbia.

Sculptor Ann Gillen, Columbia University School of the Arts alum
Ann Gillen (Len Small)
Ann Gillen: Sculptor in the City

The artist, now in her late eighties, shares a few eye-catching works installed in the tristate area.

Columbia University alum Matthew DeSantis
Matthew DeSantis in Bhutan.
An Insider’s Guide to the Wonders of Bhutan

Entrepreneur Matthew DeSantis ’08SEAS champions the Himalayan nation’s landscape and culture through his travel agency, MyBhutan, and some very adventurous projects.

Exhibitions

Barnard College student work, Fractal by Drew Sirenko
Fractal by Drew Sirenko.
The Animacy of Nature

The nine photo essays by Barnard and Columbia students in this exhibition in Milbank Hall ask us to slow down, look closely, and take seriously our role in sustaining a healthy ecological environment.

More Arts News

Books

The Edinburgh Companion to the Essay co-edited by Nicole Wallack, Mario Aquilina, and Bob Cowser Jr.
The Edinburgh Companion to the Essay

Co-edited by Nicole Wallack, Mario Aquilina, and Bob Cowser Jr.

Nights of Plague by Columbia University Professor Orhan Pamuk
Nights of Plague

By Orhan Pamuk

Inventing the It Girl by Columbia University Professor Hilary Hallett
Inventing the It Girl

By Hilary Hallett

Law as Performance by Columbia University Professor Julie Stone Peters
Law as Performance

By Julie Stone Peters