Last night, Pro-Israel Progressives, a relatively new Jewish student group on campus, decided to sit down with Uri Zaki, Director of the USA Office of the Human Rights organization B’Tselem, to discuss Israel’s human rights violations. Bwog sent over our Wonder Watchwoman Briana Last to report on the discussion, “Human Rights in the Occupied Territories,” […]

On Wednesday night, the Veritas Forum hosted a forum with Ruby Bridges, along with two Columbia interviewers: Professor Michele Moody-Adams and Gabrielle Apollon, CC ’09, SIPA ’10. Ilya Wilson, CC ’12, introduced Bridges after performing an original spoken-word piece dealing with Bridges’ impact on her identity as a young black woman. Bwog’s procrastinating lecturehopper, Peter […]

Public, private, magnet, or charter, you’ve gotta learn the three Rs somewhere.  While some schools are banning shoes, on Tuesday at 6:30 pm in the Diana Center, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch had to wonder: “Is Public School a Public Good or a Shoestore?”  Educated in education citizen Clava Brodsky sat straight […]

Last night, Vice-President of the Arts & Sciences Nicholas Dirks delivered the annual University Lecture, entitled “Scholars and Spies: Worldly Knowledge and the Predicament of the University.” The following classified report was submitted by Bwog’s own scholarly spy, Peter Sterne (who—full disclosure—is in Dirks’ CC class). Classical music came from the speakers as people scrambled […]

Focus on summoning your absolute best memory. Relive your happiest moment. Do you have it in mind? Good. Now, what if it never actually took place?! Bwog gray matter enthusiast Bijan Samareh joined Dr. S. Matthew Liao for a lecture in the rafters of Schermerhorn to engage in just such speculation.  Is the lingering memory […]

This past Tuesday afternoon at 12:30 pm, our resident North Korea Korrespondant Clava Brodsky hopped over to William and June Warren Hall to listen to the Weatherhead Institute’s Panel, “Leadership Succession in North Korea: Regional and Global Implications.”  “I know nothing.” So assert Socrates and Sue Mi Terry, a senior research scholar at the Weatherhead […]

Yesterday, the International Affairs building played host to a lecture entitled The Arab Spring and Beyond: Social Networking and Political Change in the Middle East, Russia, and China. Bwog’s own Social Media Maven Clava Brodsky reports. The Storming of the Winter Palace, the Fall of Saddam Hussein and now the Arab spring: the seasons and […]

Last night, Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan sat down with The New Yorker fiction editor Willing Davidson in the swanky penthouse of Columbia’s very own International Affairs Building. Luscious lecturehopper Diana Clarke reports.  The fifteenth floor of IAB is all corporate conference rooms, which, when the sun goes down, reveal the kind of glittering skyline New Yorkers pay penthouse […]

Bwog Tech Extraordinaire, Bijan Samareh, headed over to DevFest to report on all the student innovations that came out of last week’s event. To see who the winners were, check out the Application Development Initiative website. Behind every iPhone game or restaurant search engine is a team of entrepreneurial programmers who work tirelessly to make functional and appealing software. […]

For the past two days, SIPA’s penthouse has played host to a conference entitled “Mormonism and American Politics,” and Bwog was there in the form of honorary Salt Lake Citizen Clava Brodsky. Lucky she attended, since this topic seems rather, well, topical! What follows are her notes from the field. Birds probably have the best […]

On Monday, the scintillatingly entitled talk Opium Trade in Afghanistan: Implications for Human Rights, Security and Public Health was held in IAB 501. Bwog’s resident lotus-eater Clava Brodsky couldn’t help but delay her return to her suite and stop by. “Let’s face it, we’re not going to turn Kabul, Afghanistan into Des Moines, Iowa.” –Colonel Louis H. […]

On Tuesday night in the Barnard Hall James Room, Barnard Career Development hosted a panel with figures from the entertainment industry hosted by UTA Co-head of the Television Talent Department Nancy Mendelson Gates. Dodge Cafe King and Queen Bijan Samareh and Alexandra Svokos were there. When it comes to centering your career plan around making it […]

Last night at 6 PM, Concerned Global Citizen Alison Herman made her way over to Room 501 in the IAB to listen to the SIPA sponsored UN Studies Panel, “The Security Council and its Human Rights Agenda: Children and Armed Conflict; New Tools to Fight Impunity.”  Tuesday night’s panel began on a somber note with […]

Last Friday at noon, our Diva of  Diseases Briana Last bopped over to the John Jay Lounge to listen to Dr. Ian Lipkin, a scientifically and cinematographic-ally relevant person, talk about epidemics. The aphorism, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” rang all too true last Friday, when the cost of eating room temperature pasta was […]

Last night there were lots of plastic chairs in Lerner 505, and microphones, a table, a camera, and, of course, “light refreshments.” That can only mean one thing—a lecture!  Moderated by Samuel Schube, CC ’12, Senior Editor of The Current, the talk featured Adam Kirsch, TNR bro and author of Why Trilling Matters, and Mark […]