On Wednesday evening, BBC Correspondent Daljit Dhaliwal sat down with Salman Ahmad, guitarist of Pakistan’s biggest rock band Junoon, to discuss his new, provocatively-titled autobiography, Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star’s Revolution for Peace. Liz Jacob, Bwog’s South Asian Entertainment Correspondent, reports. Going into Wednesday’s lecture, your correspondent expected to see the J-School’s […]

Bwog’s intrepid LectureHopper, globetrotter, and gadabout Mark Hay was on hand last night for a lecture from George Rupp, a man until recently near and dear to our hearts. Rupp was there to discuss his current goings-on at the International Rescue Committee. Ever wonder what happened to former Columbia University President George Rupp after he […]

Bwog’s Chief MoMA Correspondent Claire Sabel reports from a lecture on Michael Craig-Martin that reveals the artsy side of the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation: Michael Craig-Martin‘s work is immediately recognizable. His larger-than-life line drawings of everyday objects are usually complimented with garishly bright colors and have adorned an entire floor at MoMA, housing […]

Bwog’s Infrastructural Warfare Correspondent Megan McGregor braved the snowstorm on Wednesday to report on Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkia’s lecture in the IAB. On Wednesday evening, as we all know and enjoyed, classes and campus activities were cancelled due to the severe winter weather.  Still, 707 IAB was packed with many shivering and damp individuals.  Professor Nadera […]

What happens to a dream deferred? Mark Hay, Bwog’s Oneirologist-in-Residence, will attempt to use his meager talents to convey the jaw-dropping revelations and gut-busting humor of the evening’s lecture, “Brain Neuromechanisms of Dreams.” We begin, as all dreams must, with Sigmund Freud, the first man to create a “science” of dreams, although as Solms notes, “his […]

This past Tuesday, amid a captive audience of caffeinated law students and pedantic professors, Dr. Klaus Muehlhahn, discussed the history of Chinese national security policy.  Bwog’s Human Firewall Jenna Matecki brings us word from “Intelligence Wars: Security, Sovereignty, and Information in China, Ca. 1940.” Despite a thirty-minute kick-off of academic formalities and introductions, the audience […]

On Monday evening, Bwog’s Claire Sabel joined Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA) to hear journalist, author, photographer and most recent addition to J-School faculty Professor Howard French talk about his life and work. French has had a fascinating career in journalism, spent predominantly working for the perennial Columbia favorite, the New York Times. […]

On Thursday evening, ABC News director of polling Gary Langer appeared on behalf of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) to deliver a lecture on the Whys and Wherefores of Newspolling. Lacey Harris-Coble, the Premiere Poobah of lecturehopping, reports. Seen the real poll numbers on Obama’s ratings post-SOTU? Bullshit – unless, […]

Bwog corespondent Derek Huang reports on Friday morning’s Armstrong Memorial lecture from his wireless device: Humans have reaped the benefits of the wireless transmission of information for several decades now through the development of the wireless telegraph, radio, television, cellular phones, and now, wireless Internet. However, the challenges facing the proliferation of wireless networks are […]

Bwog’s chief Lecture-Hopper and free speech enthusiast Mark Hay reports from last night’s panel discussion moderated by David Remnick, (editor of the New Yorker), with Bernard–Henri Levy (philosopher and author), and Peter Awn (Professor of Islamic Religion and Comparative Religion, Director of the Middle East Institute, Columbia), Kent Greenawalt (Professor of Law, Columbia), Philippe Schmidt […]

The Heyman Center has released their Spring 2010 events schedule, and it’s highlighted by not one, but two appearances by Mr. Right Side of History himself, Joseph Stiglitz.  He’ll be part of “The Continuing Financial Crisis: Perspectives from the North and the South” on March 25th with Prabhat Patnaik, and Jomo Kwame Sundaram, and “Mismeasuring […]

On July 3rd, 1776, the inhabitants of the American colonies were British.  The next day, they were American.  Their writing, however—what we now call “American literature”—did not appear quite so suddenly. English Professor Ezra Tawil tackled the issue last night in a lecture entitled “American Exceptionalism and the Question of Style,” along with Department bigwigs […]

Bwog Oldie Justin Vlasits endured enormous lines winding throughout IAB in order to bring you this report on Linguist/Political Activist Noam Chomsky’s speech last night. In today’s intellectual climate, with its emphasis on tight specialization, it is uncommon to see someone excel in more than one field.  Noam Chomsky is a member of this rare […]

Generative grammar devotees, be warned! The 5th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture, featuring Noam Chomsky, is packed to the brim in IAB’s Altschul Auditorium. Bwog’s Webmaster and Official Chomskyan Political Correspondent Hans Hyttinen reports that, as of 6:30 PM, students are being asked to leave IAB and no one else is being allowed in. Hyttinen […]

Mark Hay, Bwog’s Master of the Millennium Village, makes a man want to speak Spanish. No Columbia celebrity packs a room quite like Jeffrey Sachs. Invited by the young student group Delta GDP to speak on his already notorious views on development programs in impoverished nations, this brief and cursory event filled a rather uncomfortable […]