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.

Off the Shelf

Columbia University Irving Medical Center neurologist Matthew Schelke — As a general neurologist, Matthew Schelke evaluates and treats patients with a broad spectrum of neurological conditions.

How Does Culture Shape the Human Brain?

In Socially Wired, Matthew Schelke answers this and other questions.

A'Lelia Bundles. Photo by Anya Chibis.

How Writer A’Lelia Bundles, Descendant of Madam C. J. Walker, Found Her Subject

Through sweeping biographies of her foremothers, the journalist and author shares a dazzling American inheritance. Her own story belongs on the same high shelf.

Alumni Art and Photography Books for Your Coffee Table

There’s more to coffee table books than pretty covers. Here are just a few of the visually immersive publications released by Columbia alumni over the last two decades.

Caroline Walker Bynum in the ⁠Ancient & Medieval Studies Reading Room of Butler Library. (Len Small / Columbia Magazine)

My Medievalist Mentor

A conversation with Columbia historian Caroline Walker Bynum on writing, mentorship, and the long arc of intellectual formation.

Exhibitions

GSAPP end of year show, Columbia University

GSAPP end-of-year show, Avery Hall, Columbia University. Photo by Amy Suzuki.

End of Year Show 2026, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation

With over 1,000 student works, Columbia GSAPP's End of Year Show 2026 occupies all of Avery Hall during commencement week, as well as this online platform.

1776-1976 RBML exhibit, Columbia University

University President William McGill, who oversaw Columbia's American Bicentennial programming despite severe budget constraints, holds a large Bicentennial flag that has since made its way into the University Archives. Photo courtesy Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Spirit of 1976 Celebrates Columbia Against the Backdrop of the U.S. Semiquincentennial

An exhibition at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library traces how Columbia marked the United States’ 200th birthday--on a shoestring budget, in a city in crisis, with institutional sincerity that characterizes the best of what archives preserve.