Office Hours is a Columbia News series dedicated to the compelling research that faculty are engaged in both in and beyond the classroom.

Dean Sarah Cole is enthusiastic about the state of things in the humanities division she oversees within the faculty of arts and sciences.

Professor Naeem Mohaiemen combines video, film, photography, drawing, writing, and research to answer questions.

Mario Luis Small talks about growing up in Panama and how his perspective has contributed to his path-breaking research.

Ali Hirsa, a financial engineering professor, mines data to design an algorithmic model for works of art.

Sandra Black works on research to help society understand how to make the United States the land of opportunity for everyone, not just some.

Historian Anupama Rao thinks about identity and difference, equality and exclusion, through the caste system.

A sociologist describes how being an outsider on various levels has positively influenced her research. An insatiable curiosity has helped too.

The film and media studies professor opens up new lines of inquiry for Black cultural studies through her research.

Wayne Lee discusses his experience as a Taiwanese-American and explains why he left Silicon Valley to teach statistics.

Professor Avinoam Shalem will co-direct Black Mediterranean, which reconsiders the history of the relationship between Africa and Europe.

Poet Wendy Walters helped shape “Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast,” which explores slavery and its legacies.

The Computer Music Center’s Seth Cluett teams up with Hewlett-Packard to achieve that goal.