News
Kelley Remole has been interested in science since she was a child. In high school, she was drawn to astronomy and neuroscience, which she says involve “the biggest questions in science, what is our place in the universe and what makes us who we are.”
Columbia University’s inaugural Global Freedom of Expression Prizes were awarded on March 11 to the Constitutional Court of Turkey, the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe and the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI).
Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger reflects on the inaugural Global Freedom of Expression Prizes, which recognize the best judicial decisions and legal representation around the world in advancing international legal norms and principles of freedom of expression.
Siddhartha Mukherjee, Ken Burns and Barak Goodman were at Columbia on March 24 when the University hosted a media briefing on the future of cancer research. Speakers and panelists included Katie Couric, a co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer, and Columbia researchers Kenneth Forde, Stephen Emerson and Thomas Maniatis.
Stathis Gourgouris, a professor of classics, English and comparative literature who directs the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, believes that antiquity has relevance to contemporary life.
Liza Knapp (GSAS’85), an associate professor of Slavic languages, focuses her teaching and research on 19th century Russian literature, in particular the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. A native New Yorker, she began studying Russian as a teenager, inspired by her reading of the literature in translation.
Asked what makes a good teacher or good student, Molly Murray (CC’94) responds simply, “Curiosity … an openness to new ideas and a willingness to follow them where they lead, into the library or out of it.”
Patricia Dailey, an associate professor of English and comparative literature, specializes in medieval literature and critical theory, adapting her teaching style to individual classes.
As an undergraduate at Purdue University, Brad Garton majored in pharmacy because “growing up in the Midwest, being a musician wasn’t a legitimate job.”
Physics professor Brian Cole is renowned for Accelerated Physics, his two-semester course for first-year students that covers the usual introductory physics sequence, plus relativity, waves and introductory quantum mechanics. “An honors physics course on steroids,” he calls it.
Great teachers are passionate about the classroom, as evidenced by the 11 faculty members honored this year with Lenfest Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Li Feng brings his background as an archaeologist and historian of early China to bear on his teaching, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Columbia’s urban setting is central to Rebecca Kobrin’s teaching and research. The Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History encourages her students to venture beyond Morningside Heights and learn how the city has been shaped over time.
For Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor of French and philosophy, teaching is about finding the right balance in the classroom. He evaluates how much time to spend presenting information versus leading a lively discussion with students, and his syllabus includes specific questions about each reading.
A number of years ago, a student reviewing a class taught by Dorothea von Mücke summed up how the professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures taught the course Literature Humanities this way: “Professor von Mücke refuses to tell us The Truth. We have to figure out everything on our own.”