One week left before spring break! If you can take a break from studying for midterms, celebrate the beginning of March with one of this week’s events.

Here at Bwog, we do our best to bring your attention to important guest lecturers and special events on campus. If you have a correction or addition, let us know in the comments or email events@bwog.com.

Student Event Spotlight

• On Tuesday, March 7, from 9 to 10 pm EST, the Columbia Policy Institute’s Human Rights Policy Center will host a panel with Columbia student unions (including SWC, CURA, and the Barnard RA Union) and discuss why Columbia students are unionizing and how students can support workers right here on campus. The meeting will take place in Lerner Room 569.
• On Wednesday, March 8, at 8:30 pm, in honor of International Women’s Day, the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review will be hosting a gender justice teach-in, “The Equal Rights Amendment & Navigating Title IX,”  in partnership with the nation-wide organization Generation Ratify. The teach-in has been organized by CULR writer Sunny Fang (BC ’25) in partnership with Belan Yeshigeta (CC ’26), one of the co-founders of Generation Ratify, and will focus on the Equal Rights Amendment and navigating Title IX at Columbia. It is open to all and will take place in Uris Room 326, with a Zoom option as well.

If your club or organization is interested in having your event featured in our weekly roundup, please submit them to events@bwog.com or DM us on Instagram @bwog.

Recommended 

• On Monday, March 6, from 12 to 1 pm EST, please join the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement and head instructors from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures as they discuss this virtual Summer 2023 program. This intensive virtual Chinese language program offers all levels of Chinese, from elementary to advanced. Classes will be taught by the faculty from the Columbia Chinese Language Program, who will offer live, highly interactive instruction. Learn more about how you can improve your Chinese language skills on this intensive, virtual summer program! The information session will take place over Zoom.
• Also on Monday, March 6, from 1 to 2 pm, the Human Rights Working Group will present a panel discussion on “Transgender Rights Around the World,” in partnership with Spectrum and the Institute of Latin American Studies. In light of the increasing backlash against transgender people and violations of their human rights around the world, HRWG invites the SIPA and broader Columbia community to learn more about the status of transgender rights globally. Three prominent human rights activists from the Human Rights Advocates Program at the Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights will join us to provide an overview of the on-the-ground situation and their work on behalf of transgender people in Brazil, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Q&A will follow the panel discussion. Lunch will be provided. This panel will take place in the International Affairs Building Room 407; please register online.
• Also on Monday, March 6, from 5 to 6:30 pm, please join the Harriman Institute for the discussion, “Russian Anti-War Rock Music Today” with Artemy Troitsky. After the Russian-Ukrainian full-scale war broke out in February 2022 the whole cultural landscape in Russia changed drastically. The artistic community split up; many musicians fled the country, while others became war supporters. Both in Russia and abroad, there’s an impressive new wave of protest and anti-war songs and statements by rockers, rappers, and even pop stars. The event will take place in the International Affairs Building Room 707. Please register online to attend.
• Also on Monday, March 6, from 5:30 to 7 pm, Columbia Religious Life will be hosting the discussion, “Live Controversies: Azadari Networks and the Shi’i Muslim Present.” Twelver Shiʿa Muslims form the largest religious minority in Pakistan, where they occupy a precarious position in relation to a Sunni-Islamic majority state. Despite the threat of marginalization and violence, finding new avenues through which to practice publicly has become central to Shiʿi groups’ demands for recognition. Monday’s discussion will feature speaker Timothy Cooper from Cambridge University and will take place in Knox Hall, Room 207. Please register online to attend.
• On Tuesday, March 7, at 5 pm, the University Seminar in Modern Greek and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) are organizing the seminar “Archaeologies of Care: The Refugee Colony of Washingtonia.” Architectural historian and archaeologist Kostis Kourelis (Franklin & Marshall College) will consider an early case of humanitarian intervention in a global setting: the refugee colony of Washingtonia in Corinth, established by Americans in 1829 to house displaced people from Chios, Smyrna, and Athens. To request the pre-circulated materials, please write to Modern Greek Seminar’s rapporteur, Dimitra Loumiotis (dl3543@columbia.edu). The seminar will take place at the Faculty House and on Zoom.
• On Wednesday, March 8, International Women’s Day, Columbia College Women will host a forum discussing and celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women. Centered around heritage and recognition months, the panel will aim to foster community and celebrate Women’s History Month. The forum will take place online; please register to attend.
• On Thursday, March 9, from 12:10 to 1:10 pm, the Law, Rights, and Religion Project organizers from Columbia Law School will host the panel, “Interfaith Lawyering for Religious Liberty: Opportunities and Challenges.” Today, the right to “religious liberty” has been primarily defined and advanced by large, well-funded Christian Right law firms. Organizations advocating for church-state separation and religious minority rights face an uphill battle in reclaiming a more inclusive vision of freedom of—and from—religion. This interfaith panel will explore how organizations representing minority faith and/or secular communities work together, despite significant differences in their missions and communities. This panel will take place at Columbia Law School and on Zoom, with online registration required to attend. Registration will close at 12 pm on Wednesday, March 8. If you have any questions about the event, please email Lilia Hadjivanova at lh3024@columbia.edu.
• Also on Thursday, March 9, from 12:15 to 2 pm, a joint Columbia-Berkeley online seminar on Dante and Arabic philosophy will feature Columbia professor Teodolinda Barolini. Dante’s characterization of the Muslim thinker Avicenna in the Divina Commedia is surprising in many respects. Avicenna is presented primarily as a physician, rather than as a philosopher, among the “spiriti magni” of Limbo, despite the enormous influence of the Latin translations of his philosophical work, the Book of the Cure/Healing, surely well-known to Dante. Meanwhile, the status of Avicenna, Averroes, and Saladin in the “city of lights” that is Limbo is sharply opposed to that of Muḥammad and ʿAlī in the eighth circle of Hell (Inf. XXVIII), as an attestation of the ambivalent attitude that Dante held towards Islamic civilization, praising the latter’s culture but rejecting their religion. Please register online to attend the Zoom discussion.
• On Friday, March 10, from 1 to 4 pm, please join the Barnard Office of Campus Sustainability and Climate Action, the Columbia Climate School, and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President at the Diana Center Event Oval to celebrate Circularity Day NYC 2023. This year’s presentation will be called, “Circularity Means: We Share, We Reuse, We Repair, and We Build a More Sustainable, Equitable, Resilient City,” and will highlight local circularity champions and announce new initiatives to identify and support New York’s small businesses, community organizations, and schools, leading the way to a more circular and equitable New York. Students can come out and meet everyday New Yorkers building circular strategies in their communities, schools, arts, and here on our campus to find out how they can be part of this important movement!

Spring in Riverside Park via Bwog Archives