Eric Foner’s “Civil War and Reconstruction” and Kenneth Jackson’s “History of the City of New York” are some of the most well-known classes at Columbia, and every year, it seems half of Columbia tries to register for them. But there may be a better way. While stumbling around Columbia’s web site, Bwog discovered a cache of “e-seminars” from Foner and Jackson, along with other Columbia luminaries like Richard Bulliet and Alan Brinkley.

Watching a couple e-seminars obviously provides a different experience from attending class, for better (no final!) or worse (no midnight bike ride). The topics of the e-seminars also appear to vary slightly from the topics the professors cover in class. But even though these lectures are free and offer no credit, Columbia refuses to give them away to the public. Before watching each e-seminar, you have to log in with your UNI and password, which means your mother, brother, and second cousin can’t take Foner’s e-seminar (unless you give them your UNI and password).

Which e-seminar series should you check out first? Here are our recommendations:

• Eric Foner, “Slavery and Emancipation“
• Kenneth Jackson, “History of the City of New York“
• Alan Brinkley, “America Since 1945“
• Richard Bulliet, “America and the Muslim World“
• Randall Balmer, “Religion in Modern America“
• Casey Blake, “Intellectual History of the United States, 1890–1945“

It’s no fun to be stuck in a sweaty classroom while those of us who skip class the rest of the world frolics outside in the sunshine. Over the past week, Bwog has reached out across academic disciplines, to professors young and old, to assess their stances on teaching out of doors. While some highly respected figures remain staunchly opposed, we’ve learned that not all professors who teach outside are chumps (Oh hai Professor Foner!)–even Law professors do it too!

Up For Debate - Slade vs. Brinkley

Carole Slade: “I occasionally teach class outside, but very occasionally, when I have spring fever myself. Usually, I petition the weather gods for a cool, damp spring that warms up just after the last day of classes. I find it difficult to accomplish much outside, given that it’s hard to hear one another and there are so many distractions. I don’t take the class outside more than once, sometimes twice, and only when the day is too delicious to miss. Sometimes I quote a professor of mine who used to say, ‘Serious people do not hold class outside.’ I probably don’t say it with quite his seriousness, because it doesn’t work as well for me as it did for him.”

Alan Brinkley: “I don’t know why, but I’ve never taught outdoors. I have no objection to it in principle, but for whatever reason I haven’t done it. (Nor have students ever proposed moving outdoors in any class I’ve taught as far as I can recall.) I certainly don’t assume that professors who teach outdoors are any less serious than those who don’t.”

Foner, Awn and Katznelson after the jump!

Read more…

In case you missed the Saturday Times, or don’t read those ancient things your parents call “newspapers,” receiving an extensive profile was none other than the new director of Miller Theater, Melissa Smey. 

Well, at least there’s an article partly about Ms. Smey, because much of the profile focuses on the legacy of the previous director and Smey’s mentor, George Steel, who left last fall for the Dallas Opera after a successful tenure. Alan Brinkley (yes, he’s still provost) told the Times, “Miller Theater over the last 8 to 10 years has become identified with the kind of new music that George Steel brought to it,” and later added “We have great confidence in Melissa that she’ll be able to carry this on.” So, you know, no pressure.

Perhaps of more interest to students are Smey’s listening habits, which apparently include indie rock poster children like the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs, the Arcade Fire, and that indie afro-pop group everyone used to talk about. Smey is apparently working on bringing “cool indie bands” to Miller to attract more students. Hey, it could work…for one type of student.

Photo: Columbia University

In April, we reported that rumors both on campus and in print were suggesting that Professor Joseph Massad would soon be granted tenure. Now, everyone’s favorite tabloid/monitor-of-all-Columbia-controversies, the New York Post, reports (via HuffPo) that Massad has been granted tenure.  In an article neutrally-entitled “Columbia Tenures An Israel Basher,” columnist Jacob Gershman writes that Columbia “officially — if quietly — awarded Massad tenure earlier this month.”

Gershman then runs through the many controversies that Massad has been involved in in his time in Morningside, before adding two new plot points. First, he calls Dean of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks a “key ally” for Massad in getting an uncommon–though not unheard of–second tenure review. Second, Gershman alleges that “President Lee Bollinger and Provost Alan Brinkley took extraordinary measures to protect the secrecy of Massad’s tenure case and guard against an outcry from Jewish alumni and donors,” including shielding the names of tenure committee members from the Board of Trustees.

University spokesman Robert Hornsby did not comment to Bwog, citing the “longstanding policy” of no comment on tenure cases. While no complaints at the faculty level have made their way back to Bwog’s ears (yet), several MEALAC students told Bwog in April that, contrary to Massad’s first tenure review, far fewer details were leaking about the tenure process, and there appear to be fewer leaks to the media as well. Whatever makes the faculty happy.

- JCD

Alan Brinkley is busy these days: ending his term as provost, checking on the numbers of his many adoring Facebook groups, and being accosted by roving cable news reporters. But he’s also had time to check out YouTube, and he’s got some recommendations.

Of course, being a famous name, Brinkley isn’t just going to put them in his “Favorites” section. He’s an eGuider on eGuiders.com, one of “your trusted voices who find and recommend the best original online videos and share them with you. Let us do the searching so you can do the watching!” Other eGuiders include Jerry Stiller (Frank Costanza) and Damon Lindelof (Lost‘s co-creator).

Brinkley’s only added two videos so far – JFK’s Inaugural and an exchange between Ann Coulter and Al Franken – but perhaps stepping down as provost will allow him to add all those mixtapes he’s been dying to forward you.

Super hero/History prof/Provost Alan Brinkley was walking to work one chilly day, and noticed someone following him. Because he didn’t think to look for one of those little red “Lion’s Watching” Lions to protect him against evil spirits, the stalker eventually caught up to him and introduced himself – Griff Jenkins of Fox News.

Jenkins was there to heckle Brinkley about his American history textbook, Unfinished Nation. In the clip aired on Fox Nation this morning, Jenkins follows Brinkley for several blocks while criticizing the book’s treatment of the War on Terror. Apparently Brinkley wrote that only one terror suspect detained at Gitmo was ever charged, while Fox claims that the number today is over one hundred.

Too bad Fox didn’t have data for 2006, when the book was published. It’s also too bad for Fox that Jenkins’ suit (no coat, of course) was so damn spiffy and the Fox logo was so damn bright. All that plus Jenkins’ youthful enthusiasm and thick-rimmed glasses made our wool-clad provost look positively evil.

Jenkins even followed Brinkley for two blocks, up 116th and into campus, until the silent, speed-walking prey finally reached the sanctity of Low and unceremoniously shut the door in the camera’s face. Perhaps Jenkins’ called the book “Unfinished Business” rather than “Unfinished Nation” on purpose this morning – Bwog sees an old-fashioned smackdown in the works.

How do you put the biggest economic meltdown in eighty years into historical perspective? Bwog Money Madame Anna Kelner went to Havemeyer tonight to find out.

Today’s economy is rapidly turning into the stuff of Shakespeare.  Headline after headline spells disaster, AIG is handing out multimillion-dollar bonuses, the federal government is bailing out household names like GM and Chrysler, and President Sarkozy is threatening to boycott the G20 summit. 

Such drama tends to blind, not illuminate, and on Tuesday night, the Columbia Undergraduate History Council sponsored a panel discussion aimed at demystifying the confusion.  At the dialogue between New School historian Robin Blackburn and Columbia professors Eric Foner, Alan Brinkley, and Carl Wennerlind, participants analyzed the crisis’ historical antecedents and offered suggestions for the future. Read more…

Members of the Columbia Community received an exciting email from the desk of your President, PrezBo, earlier this afternoon. The search has officially begun for a new Alan Brinkley, and Lee C. and the Selection Committee want to know who you think should be second in command. “We are seeking a candidate of academic stature, intellectual excellence, and demonstrated leadership skills who has made significant contributions to his or her field,” said Bollinger. 

Bwog has a few theories and few guesses regarding new provost possibilites. First, as one Blue and White alum pointed out: “They would be smart to pick a woman. Columbia is one of the very few schools of its caliber to not have had a female president or provost yet.”

Another alum reckoned: “I’d put my money on an economist, a hard-number oriented social scientist, or a straight up scientist. Bollinger wants to put more emphasis on science and his provost selection is the best way to trigger a broad tonal shift.”

Read more…

Last night in 417 IAB, Professor Alan Brinkley, The New Yorker‘s Hendrik Hertzberg, and The Nation‘s Katha Pollitt came together to discuss the election. Bwog Daily Editor James Downie was there.

If nothing else, last night’s panel discussion between Alan Brinkley, Hendrik Hertzberg, and Katha Pollitt proved that smiles are contagious. Brinkley (who served as unofficial moderator in the absence of a real one) opened the night by joking, “Four years ago, I hosted a similar event, and I never saw a more depressed group of people. Tonight, I suspect most people are not depressed.” The room burst into applause, and a buoyant mood was set for the next two hours.

Perhaps because the panelists had spent the previous 22 hours in a state of bliss, there was little in the way of prepared speeches. When Brinkley asked the guests to share their thoughts, both Pollitt (who recieved her M.F.A. from Columbia) and Hertzberg admitted that they were still absorbing the results of the election. Pollitt’s thoughts were mostly about how happy she was. “I learned that people are not so dumb, and that’s really good,” she said. She also commended in particular Obama’s temperament, comparing him favorably to her original favorite, John Edwards. Unlike Edwards, she said, Obama “communicated being a good person.” Read more…

Bwog has noticed that over the next week or so there will be a smorgasbord of learning opportunities for those who are not going home to spend their magnificent four days of fall break.  Whether you are interested in theater, bioethics or academic freedom, there’s something going on that’s right up your alley.

Human Genetic Complexity: What We Know–Legal, Historical, and Evolutionary Perspectives

October 29th at 8 pm

417 IAB

This talk features philosophy professor Phillip Kitcher, biology professor Robert Pollack and NYU law professor and Nation columnist Patricia Williams (who is no stranger to this campus).  While the discussion  supposedly will center around themes from the Core, expect philosophy more contemporary than CC and science more general than Frontiers.

Read more…

Bwog correspondent Liz Naiden attended last night’s panel on the possibility of a “post-partisan world.”

The truth comes out; Provost Alan Brinkley is so desperate to return to academic life that he has announced the �death of partisan politics,� in the middle of the great election cycle of 2008�or so we thought. Brinkley first published on his new theory in the Wall Street Journal in September, and most recently headlined the panel lecture entitled �A Post-Partisan World?� sponsored by the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy last night. 

Robert Shapiro, the moderator and the most enthusiastic note-taker in the room, introduced the two faculty members who had volunteered to try to tear Brinkley�s idea apart�or so Bwog assumed�Robert Erikson, of the Political Science Department, and Esther Fuchs, of SIPA. As a few more stragglers spread out among many empty seats jammed into a small room in IAB, Bwog wondered how these opponents would challenge Brinkley other than by telling him to get out of Low every once in a while or turn on a television set.  

Read more…

You have probably seen an ad for Oliver Stone’s new biopic “W.” (starring Josh Brolin, on the right, as the sitting president) and have been unsure what to make of it. Will this be chock full of half-baked conspiracy theories? A depressing psychological portrait? Most of all, is it worth your hard-earned dollars (or download time)? 

Well, Newsweek enlisted popular Columbia history professor (and the outgoing Provost who seems to have a little bit more time on his hand these days to comment about politics and the economy) Alan Brinkley to review the film, especially on historical grounds. His verdict? “There are no conspiracy theories, no wild speculations, no paranoia. Stone’s film is not hagiography. It is not propaganda. It is, surprisingly, more or less fair.” That gets Bwog at least a little more interested.

 Make you own judgment when the film hits theaters this Friday, October 17th.

In which Bwog tides you over until Monday’s QuickSpec by bringing you Columbia-related happenings from the real world.  Some connections to our lady Alma Mater are dubious and/or doubtful.

Nudist/Columbia Grad Donates Playing Card Collection

Dali expert and nude hiker Albert Field‘s collection of 6,536 decks of cards have been archived and restored in Columbia’s library, according to the AP (via Newsday).

Valued at more than $1 million, the collection contains cards from as early as 1550, ranging from German propaganda (“Zeppelin Uber England”!) to Kennedy family portraits.  Field started collecting the cards on his trip to post-WWII Europe, where the cards were the only “souvenirs” he could find.

Columbia librarians, usually found explaining how to work the CUL search engines instead of being actual resources, are thrilled.  They even used such racy terms as “wacky” and “fantastic” to describe the fortune of having multiple centuries’ worth of Go Fish paraphernalia.  They plan to visit classes to teach students the ancient game, but will likely find that students have moved on to new-fangled games like Hearts and 52-Pickup.

Read more…

Alan Brinkley, who has served as University Provost for the past five years, will be stepping down from the position at the end of this year.  The news was announced in an e-mail this evening to the Columbia University community. In the email, Brinkley writes that “I feel that it is now time for me to return to research and teaching.” He also says he will serve until a successor is named. 

Brinkley joined the faculty in 1991, and is probably best known to students for his extremely popular history lecture classes. The current iteration, “U.S. History 1919-45,” is meeting this semester in the famous 309 Havemeyer lecture hall. Brinkley also has contributed to or written numerous books, including two widely-used high school textbooks. His time as Provost has been perhaps most recently marked by the tenure controversies surrounding Nadia Abu El-Haj and Joseph Massad. More importantly, though, he is the most popular Columbia professor on Facebook.

The full e-mail is pasted below the jump.

UPDATE (9:25 PM): President Bollinger has released a short statement of thanks, also posted below the jump.

Read more…

Alan Brinkley is the most popular Columbia professor on Facebook.

Columbia is trying to “ameliorate” tensions with the community.

Columbia gets amazing athletic recruits, who eat McDonald’s every day, wear jeans so tight that their legs atrophy and smoke clove cigarettes. 

Statisticians: Here are all the sexy details about the rigorous lottery. 

Pity the first-year who did not witness the hunger strike and thus cannot fully understand the ramifications of the Global Core.