Bwog newbie Lindsay Griffith sobers up at a talk on how to remember September 11. Here is New York: Remembering 9/11 opened on September 11 of this year at the New York Historical Society as a collection of photographs, artifacts and recordings to begin to place the events of 9/11 within the fabric of New […]

Yes, presidents who weren’t “petty and cruel dictators” also participated in the World Leaders Forum. Correspondent Pierce Stanley checks up on two former U.S.S.R states now headed by Columbia alumni. The World Leaders Forum (aka PrezBo’s giving of the finger to authoritarian regimes) carried on this morning with the goal of taking on a new […]

In the middle of so many heads of state on campus, it is easy to look over an apparently modest conversation that included a composer, arts professor, Pulitzer prize winning poet and law professor discussing the role that jazz and improvisation play in everyday life. Justin Vlasits reports. During the Columbia Harlem Festival of Global […]

Sara Maria Hasbun reports on a lecture that’s very…stimulating. About 75 years ago, Alfred Kinsey got tired of gall wasps and moved on to the mating habits of humans. To the horror and disgust of the American public (who simultaneously snatched his books from shelves, although they’d never admit it), he essentially created the academic discipline […]

Yesterday, PrezBo dusted off the ol’ blue and white robes and headed north for the inauguration of JTS’s new chancellor. Bwogger Armin Rosen dressed less ridiculously for the occasion. During his inaugural address as the newly-minted seventh chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, former Stanford professor Arnold Eisen recalled how, as a staffer for the […]

If ever there were a “hot seat” upon which a major university president could sit, it would undoubtedly be between Harvard law professor Lani Guinier and NAACP legal defense fund head Ted Shaw. As two of the country’s top civil right’s scholars, and as two people profoundly troubled by, and conversant in, the state of […]

Thirty-nine years ago this month, Columbia erupted into the now-legendary ’68 student riots. Last night, Fortune magazine’s international editor, Robert Friedman, spoke to Spec staffers about being the paper’s Editor-in-Chief during the crisis. Frequent Bwog contributor Armin Rosen was there to soak up his memories. I guess it’s a sign of progress that we can […]

In the spirit of educating us all into better human beings, American Studies Department Head Andrew Delbanco–who’s been writing up a storm recently– convened a conference yesterday entitled “The future of Undergraduate Education: A conference on college: who goes? Who pays? And what should students learn?” Bwog correpondent Armin Rosen reports. Columbia College dean Austin […]

Bwog correspondent Josh Mathew hopped a lecture on Friday about where you can go to get some learning in the Middle East.  In her introductory remarks, Lisa Anderson, Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, introduced the panelists by noting the common misperception of American education in the Middle East: It doesn’t exist. […]

Bwog lecture hopper Emma Jacobs took some time out of midterms this week to focus on the macroscopic. Her report follows. Saskia Sassen, U. Chicago professor, sociologist and general wonder-academic, spoke in Fayerweather on Wednesday on one of Columbia’s favorite topics: globalization. Sassen began by talking about her newest work, which posits that the major […]

Emma Jacobs reports on a panel hosted by the Columbia Political Union last night in Hamilton, in which three experts concurred on the importance of not concurring. Yesterday’s panel on Academic Free Speech brought in three guests who found they didn’t have too much to disagree about. Greg Lukanoff, the president of FIRE, the Foundation […]

On Friday, lecture hopper extraordinaire Josh Mathew took the walk down to St. Mary‘s Episcopal church in Harlem to hear two scholars duke it out on the question of Israel and Palestine. After making my way past the numerous activists handing out fliers condemning the war in Iraq and the U.S.’s conceivable Iranian escapades, I […]

Last night, panelists held a discussion at the Law School regarding what may be an emerging political and cultural alliance between India and Israel. Bwog dispatched not one but two correspondants to the event in order to give readers as well-rounded a perspective as possible. Below, in the second and last part of our series, […]

Last night, panelists held a discussion at the Law School regarding what may be an emerging political and cultural alliance between India and Israel. Bwog dispatched not one but two correspondants to the event in order to give readers as well-rounded a perspective as possible. Below, in the first part of our series, Armin Rosen […]

Noam Chomsky stormed campus yesterday with a lecture double-header. Bwog commences its in-depth coverage with the linguist’s more academic engagement. Below, Linguistics major Sara Maria Hasbun reports on deep thoughts. Noam Chomsky isn’t exactly known for his engaging lectures, but even so, he packed the theatre of the Casa Italiana by 2:45 for a 4:00 […]