Courses
Visiting Professor Courses
Each academic year Columbia hosts a specialist of the Dutch-speaking world who teaches a course open to both advanced undergraduates and graduate students during the term they are in residence.
Music, Musicians, and Mobility in the Early Modern Period (Music GU4109, 3 credits)
Prof. David Burn
In the early modern period—here roughly limited to the fifteenth through early seventeenth century—the Western idea of the world underwent two contrasting, but equally fundamental shifts. On the one hand, the known world expanded in unprecedented and entirely unexpected ways. At the same time, on the other hand, Europe itself splintered dramatically along conflicting religious lines that would shape politics and warfare for centuries after, erecting barriers and boundaries where they previously did not exist. This course studies the effect of these changes on music, through the lens of mobility, understood in various ways, both social and physical.
Between the Second World War and the Cold War: Europe 1943-1950 (History GU4041, 4 credits)
Prof. Ido De Haan
This course introduces students to some of the major themes of postwar reconstruction in Europe, between the end of World War II to the advent of the Cold War. This is a crucial turning-point in contemporary European history, yet its nature varies dramatically in different parts of Europe, while it also leads to a fundamental restructuring of the political, social and economic, and cultural relations in Europe as a whole. This period is therefore studied from a comparative as well as a transnational perspective. Students will acquire insight in the main historical events and processes, the historiographical debates on this period, relevant primary sources, and methods for studying contemporary history.
Dutch Studies Courses
Courses related to the study of the Dutch-speaking world.
Fifteenth Century Art in the Netherlands (Art History GR8310, 4 Credits)
Professor David A Freedberg
This course, often taught under the rubrics of “Early Netherlandish Painting” or even “Northern Renaissance Painting” might also be described as “Art in the Age of Van Eyck” or “Painting from Van Eyck to Bosch”. It will begin with manuscripts, and deal with the contribution of great sculptors like Sluter as well. The claim implicit in the title is that the techniques pioneered and perfected by the Van Eycks affected all the other arts too – even though the most original and compelling achievements of the century are probably those of painting, which will form the chief focus of this class. Attention will also be paid to the social and historical contexts of the main works discussed. Several museum visits will be included.
Transforming Texts: Textual Analysis, Literary Modeling, and Visualization (History GU4031, 4 credits)
Prof. Pamela Smith; Prof. Dennis Tenen
Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the social sciences, humanities, and computer science, this hybrid course is situated at the crossroads of historical exploration and computer sciences. Students will be exposed to digital literacy tools and computational skills through the lens of the Making and Knowing Project. The edition will draw on collaboration with and research done by the Making and Knowing Project http://www.makingandknowing.org/ on an anonymous 16th-century French compilation of artistic and technical recipes (BnF Ms. Fr. 640). Students will work from the encoded English translation of the manuscript, prepared by the Spring 2017 course “HIST GR8975 What is a Book in the 21st Century? Working with Historical Texts in a Digital Environment.” This course will also utilize the concepts and prototypes developed by computer science students in the Spring 2018 “COMS W4172: 3D User Interfaces and Augmented Reality (AR). The skills students will learn over the course of the semester are widely applicable to other types of Digital Humanities projects, and indeed, in many fields outside of traditional academic study.
For the final project, students will collaborate to investigate linguistic features of Ms. Fr. 640 using natural language processing and text mining techniques. These projects will shed light on topics of interest within the manuscript and uncover connections within the textual data. By using the tools prototypes in a Spring 2018 COMS W4172 course, and working alongside computer science students, the groups will learn to adapt and recode data sets, and to view them into a variety of visualizations.
BOSCH AND BRUEGEL (Art History GR6302, 3 credits)
Prof. David Freedberg
In this course we will examine the radical paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder in their political, religious and ethnographic contexts. At stake will be not only the meaning of their work, but also their innovative style and technique. We will assess the influence of radical religious movements on both Bosch and Bruegel and consider the material and political functions of painting in an age of Reformation, Revolt and Iconoclasm.
CRAFT AND SCIENCE IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD (History GR8906, 4 credits)
Prof. Pamela Smith
This course studies the materials, techniques, settings, and meanings of skilled craft and artistic practices in the early modern period (1350-1750), in order to reflect upon a series of issues, including craft knowledge and artisanal epistemology; the intersections between craft and science; and questions of historical methodology and evidence in the reconstruction of historical experience. The course will be run as a “Laboratory Seminar,” with discussions of primary and secondary materials, as well as text- and object-based research and hands-on work in a laboratory. One component of the Making and Knowing Project of the Center for Science and Society, this course contributes to the collaborative production of a transcription, English translation, and critical edition of a late sixteenth-century manuscript in French, BnF Ms. Fr. 640. In fall 2018, the course will focus on the cultural context, materials, and techniques of “making impressions” upon a variety of surfaces, including making reliefs for ornament and for printing, and inscribing metal, including engraving and etching. Several entries in the manuscript use what we think of as “print techniques” for metal decoration or making seals and molds, and other entries discuss printers’ type, and make use of prints for image transfer. Students will begin with skill-building exercises in culinary reconstruction, pigment making, and molding, and then, with advice from a visiting “expert maker,” will choose a research focus from the entries in the manuscript that cover such topics as draftsmanship, engraving techniques, print transfer, and other topics that intersect with printing and printmaking. The course will be taught this year only in fall 2018. It is not necessary to have either prior lab experience or French language skills. Please don't hesitate to contact Pamela Smith, ps2270@columbia.edu, if you have questions.
Language Courses
Each semester during the regular academic year, Columbia offers instruction in Dutch language and literature, including courses for beginning, intermediate and advanced students as well as those interested in acquiring the skills necessary to read early modern texts. The courses are offered for academic credit through the Department of Germanic languages.
Elementary Dutch II (Dutch DTCHW1102, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.
Intermediate Dutch II (Dutch DTCHW2102, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.
Advanced Dutch II (Dutch DTCHW3102, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Elementary Dutch I (Dutch DTCHW1101, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.
Intermediate Dutch I (Dutch DTCHW2101, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.
Advanced Dutch I (Dutch DTCHW3101, 4 Credits)
Professor Wijnie De Groot
Elementary Dutch II (Dutch UN1102, 4 credits)
Prof. Wijnie De Groot
Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.
Intermediate Dutch II (Dutch UN2102, 4 credits)
Prof Wijnie De Groot
Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.
Advanced Dutch II (Dutch UN3102, 3 credits)
Prof. Wijnie De Groot
Special Reading Course (Dutch UN3994, 1 credits)
Prof. Wijnie De Groot
ELEMENTARY DUTCH I (Dutch UN1101, 4 credits)
Prof. Wijnie de Groot
Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.
INTERMEDIATE DUTCH I (Dutch UN2101, 4 credits)
Prof. Wijnie de Groot
Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.
ADVANCED DUTCH I (Dutch UN3101, 3 credits)
Prof. Wijnie de Groot