Columbia University is closely monitoring the ongoing 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

Please visit this page for guidance, updates, and health information related to COVID-19 for the Columbia University Community.

DISSERTATIONS DEFENDED

Biological Sciences
Lawry, Stephanie. A whole-genome sequencing-assisted screen to investigate genetic determinants of gentle touch sensation in Caenorhabditis elegans. Sponsor: Martin Chalfie.

Business
Boughanmi, Khaled. The dynamics of musical success. Sponsors: Asim Ansari and Rajeev Kohli.

Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Mills, James. Indentation of multi-layered materials using spherical indentation. Sponsors: Xi Chen and Gautam Dasgupta.

Computer Science
Lim, Jin Tack. The design, implementation, and evaluation of software and architectural support for nested virtualization on modern architecture. Sponsor: Jason Nieh.

Electrical Engineering
Nagam, Shravan. High performance sub-sampling phase detector based ring-oscillator PLLs. Sponsor: Peter Kinget.

History
Okan, Orcun. Coping with transitions: The connected construction of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq (1918-1928). Sponsor: Rashid Khalidi.

Music
Saccomano, Mark. Musical sound and spatial perception. Sponsor: Mariusz Kozak.

Neurobiology and Behavior
Mishra, Neeli. Large-scale dynamics of internal and behavioral states in Drosophila melanogaster. Sponsor: Richard Axel.

Pharmacology and Molecular Signaling
Quejada, Jose. In vivo characterization of Zfp106. Sponsor: Masayuki Yazawa.

Physics
Corley, Kenneth. Detection, data analysis, and astrophysics of gravitational waves. Sponsor: Szabolcs Marka.

Slavic Languages
Kapilevich, Inna. Spaces of servitude: Servant and master in the nineteenth century Russian novel. Sponsor: Irina Reyfman.

Social Work
Meinhart, Melissa. The role of social support among urban migrants in Jordan and Kazakhstan. Sponsor: Nabila El-Bassel.

Sociomedical Sciences
Erickson, David. An ethnography of bureaucratic practice in a New York State federally qualified community health center. Sponsor: Kim Hopper.

TC / Anthropology and Education
Mayorga-Camus, Luis. Between hope and hopelessness: Citizenship education and student mobilization in a Chilean public high school. Sponsor: Nicholas Limerick.

TC / Mathematics Education
Li, Shuhui. A comparative study of directional connections in popular U.S. and Chinese high school mathematics textbook problems. Sponsor: Alexander Karp.

Urban Planning
Joseph, Sophonie. Urbanisme in Ayiti: Diffusion, decentralization & disaster. Sponsor: Clara Irazábal.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS FILED

Architecture
Elliott, Sturtevant. Empire's stores: The architecture of conveyance and entrepôt urbanism in America, 1876-1939.

Art History and Archaeology
Unger, Gwen. Other selves: Critical self-portraiture in Cuba during the 'Special Period in the time of Peace,' 1990-1999.

Classical Studies
Cassini, Francesco. Evergetism and artistic patronage in Italy, 4th - 1st Century BCE.

Computer Science
Williams-King, David. Improving security through egalitarian binary transformation.

Earth and Environmental Sciences
Chesley, Christine. Marine electromagnetic studies of the Pacific Plate and Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand.

Economics
Al-Chanati, Motaz. Essays on education economics: Evidence from New Zealand.

de Souza Netto, Felipe Anderson. Essays on finance.

DISSERTATIONS DEFENDED

Economics
Lagos, Lorenzo. Three essays on firms and institutions in developing countries. Sponsor: Suresh Naidu.

Neurobiology and Behavior
Batty, Eleanor. Nonlinear approaches for neural encoding and decoding. Sponsor: Liam Paninski.

Vaadia, Rebecca. Development and function of proprioceptive and touch-sensing dendrite territories in Drosophila larvae. Sponsor: Wesley Grueber.

Operations Research
Powers, Vladlena. Discrete optimization problems in popular matchings and scheduling. Sponsor: Yuri Faenza.

Statistics
Lee, Jin Hyung. Spike sorting for large scale multi-electrode array recordings in primate retina. Sponsor: Liam Paninski.

TC / English Education
Esdaille, Elroy. The notion of song, identities, discourses, and power: Bridging songs with literary texts to enhance students' interpretative skills. Sponsor: Ruth Vinz.

TC / Philosophy and Education
Buck, Brandon. White schools, white ignorance: Towards a racially responsive pedagogy. Sponsor: Megan Laverty.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS FILED

Applied Mathematics
Lee, Hwi. Applications of nonlocal models in studies of smoothed particle hydrodynamics-like meshless methods.

Art History and Archaeology
Le Pouésard, Emma. Early Christian, Byzantine, and western medieval art.

Biomedical Informatics
Kitaygorodsky, Alexander. Prediction of genetic effect of noncoding variants.

East Asian Languages and Cultures
Choi, Hyoseak. Literature's children: Literary culture and the question of modern childhood in Japan 1870s to 1950s.

Germanic Languages
Preston, Thomas. Post-teleological aesthetics and affect in German literature and film.

History
Kleiser, Randal Grant. An empire of free ports: Trade, reform, and revolution in the Atlantic world, 1750-1781

When making your financial plans, it is necessary to consider tuition and fees as well as living expenses in estimating the overall cost of attendance (COA). The following is the estimated cost of attendance for the 2020-2021 academic year. 

Dear GSAS MA and PhD Students,

In this message we address various questions that graduate students in different stages of their programs and in different roles may have as a result of the university's response to the coronavirus emergency. All central updates will continue to appear on the University’s COVID-19 Guidance for the Columbia Community page. You should consult that site often for the latest developments and policy announcements.

Housing
Graduate students who are able to go home for the remainder of the semester should consider whether to do so. Since all spring classes will continue remotely, there is no requirement to return to or be on campus after the upcoming spring break. Students may remain in their apartments, and are not required to leave campus at this time. Those who have decided to leave on their own and not return after spring break can cancel their housing between March 12 and April 30 without a cancellation fee, and their rent will be prorated on their move-out date. If you have any questions about University Apartment Housing, please contact Columbia Residential at 212-854-9300 or residential [at] columbia.edu.

International Students
As you have heard from ISSO, “While graduate students are not being encouraged to leave campus, the move to online classes means that they do not need to remain on campus to complete their coursework. It is important that you consider whether you will be able to fulfill your academic responsibilities wherever you intend to go, and whether your living conditions in your destination will allow social distancing and present less risk of community transmission than if you stay on campus.” 

The Department of Homeland Security has allowed a temporary accommodation for full-time students making academic progress to continue this semester’s courses online without jeopardizing their immigration status. If you have further questions about your visa status, please contact ISSO at 212-854-3587 or isso [at] columbia.edu

Travel
All Columbia-sponsored or funded travel, both international and domestic, is suspended for all affiliates. This policy does not affect personal travel, including any travel required for you to return home.

If you are already engaged in research or are in an academic program in a foreign destination, you should consider returning to your permanent home, but are not required to do so at this time. In some cases, recently announced bans on travel may make it impossible for you to return home. Should you decide to remain in place, or be prevented from returning by existing travel bans, please make sure to register with International SOS (ISOS) if you have not done so already. Also: Follow closely the guidelines issues by all local health authorities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Global Outbreak Notice, meaning that all countries are at least at CDC Level 2: Practice Enhanced Precautions. Europe is now also among the areas at CDC Level 3: Avoid Nonessential Travel due to COVID-19 outbreak. 

The situation is changing on a daily basis. Accordingly, and based on guidance from International SOS (ISOS), students in countries designated as CDC Travel Health Notice Levels 2 or 3 due to COVID-19 who have not yet returned to their permanent residence or to a safer location should assess if traveling now presents greater risks than staying in your current location. If you can safely return to your permanent address or a safer location now, you should. Please use information from ISOS, the CDC, and the U.S. Department of State as you evaluate your options.

Academics: classes, research, exams, defenses
The University will remain open and functioning, but all classes for the remainder of the semester will be conducted online.

If you are taking or teaching classes this semester, you are already doing so online. You may take or teach your classes from another location, including your local apartment or permanent home.

If you are teaching, The Center for Teaching and Learning has excellent resources for Teaching Online.

If you are taking classes and have technical difficulties with Zoom or other technologies your instructor is using, call the CUIT Service Desk at 212-854-1919; if you are on the medical campus, please call 212-305-4357, option 5.

It is important that, to the extent possible, you endeavor during this time to meet research requirements and milestones associated with your advance toward the degree:

• If you have an upcoming comprehensive exam, you should communicate with your DGS about arranging to take that exam remotely.
• If you have an oral exam, prospectus defense, or dissertation defense, you and the members of the relevant committee may participate remotely. Any policies governing the requirements for in-person attendance for some members of those committees have been suspended for the spring term.
• If you are doing research in a lab, please consult your PI to determine whether any of the research work may be conducted remotely. If lab work must be conducted in person, please observe established protocols related to proper social distance from other individuals.
• If you are working on your MA thesis or your dissertation, you should continue to advance in the drafting of work. Please consult with your advisor regularly via e-mail or Zoom.  Remember also that you have at your disposal online all of the resources of Columbia Libraries.

Events
All GSAS public events have been canceled through the end of April 2020.

To Conclude
If you have specific circumstances that are not covered by the guidance above, please do not hesitate to write to gsas-dean [at] columbia.edu.  We all —faculty, students, and staff— are going to have to make the most of this challenging situation.  Please organize your time and activities so that you may continue to advance your research agenda in spite of the current difficulties.

And above all, take every precaution to stay healthy and well.

Sincerely, 

Carlos J. Alonso, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Dear Students,

This is our second bulletin to you regarding the fast-changing circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic. The information that follows attempts to answer, to the extent that we can, questions that you or your faculty have conveyed to us. Please respond to this message if you need further clarification about any of the issues addressed below.

ACADEMICS

CLASSES AND GRADES
All classes will resume online on Thursday, March 26. The three-day extension next week announced by President Bollinger applies to all GSAS classes, students, and faculty.

All undergraduate classes you teach will be graded Pass/D/Fail; all graduate classes you take will be graded Pass/Fail.

This term, an exception will be made so that core and approved elective courses graded P/F that normally do not count toward an MA or PhD requirement will count toward the requirement. Academic programs will be given wide latitude in the implementation of these guidelines.

We hope this change provides relief to both students and instructors, and reduces the anxiety that has arisen from any new pedagogical challenges of remote teaching and learning —challenges due to unequal access to course materials or academic support, the rapidity of the transition, and the new need for asynchronous teaching and learning. We as a community would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the range of experiences of our students now located around the globe in the realms of medical care, housing, family and social support, and more.

LIBRARY ACCESS AND MA/PHD RESEARCH
The Columbia Libraries are, in their words, “committed to maintaining a vibrant online site of learning at the center of the University’s intellectual activities. Millions of items from our collections can still be accessed online. Our expert staff continue to remain available by chat, phone, email, or Zoom. We will continue to offer workshops and instruction sessions remotely. Most importantly, we are here to help you navigate new challenges in teaching, learning, and research.” Please continue to check this Columbia Libraries page about online research support, which includes sections on reference and consultation; access to e-resources; and temporary free access to additional resources: it is updated regularly. 

That said, we realize that remote library access is not sufficient for all students. Please consult your advisor about how you can advance projects remotely, and to determine appropriate adjustments of internal deadlines for distribution of materials.

MA students writing theses normally due in May should consult their program directors about options for thesis completion this spring, summer, or fall.  

PhD dissertation deposit for a May degree normally has a deadline of May 1. GSAS has worked with the Registrar this year so that PhD students may deposit by May 22, 2020, and still have a May 2020 degree conferred. Students who deposit after May 22 will be eligible for the next degree conferral in October.

Other PhD program deadlines are internal, governed by departmental expectations and GSAS policy. We ask all programs to exercise maximum flexibility at this time while we try to maintain as best as we can a sense of academic progress while taking into account the real restrictions and anxieties during this time of upheaval. Faculty should feel free to consult GSAS for any modifications or extensions.

SPRING AND SUMMER PHD FUNDING

PhD students on spring fellowship, whether teaching fellowship (salary and stipend) or dissertation or dean’s fellowship (all stipend), will continue to receive their funds on the normal schedule for the entire term. GSAS will disburse summer stipends to PhD students in their funding years (1-5) through the same process and schedule as previous years. If you wish to request an early disbursement of the summer stipend, please write to gsas-dean [at] columbia.edu.

HOUSING

There is no directive for graduate students to leave New York City or Columbia housing. Most of our students have chosen to stay in Columbia housing; some have decided to return home temporarily or for the long term. Some students are being relocated from International House to Columbia Residential spaces.
Students who left housing before their eligibility expired and wish to return to university housing in the future will be given priority status at the time of reentry. We have conveyed to Columbia Residential the concerns we have received about moving out from your current assignment. See this FAQ page if you have additional questions about your housing options. You may also contact Columbia Residential at 212-854-9300 or  residential [at] columbia.edu.

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

If you have the Aetna Columbia Student Health Insurance Plan, you have national and international coverage. Please see here for more information, and contact Columbia Health and CUIMC Student Health Service for questions about referrals. Please find additional resources below:

• Columbia Health: what is open now
• Coping tools
• Counseling and Psychological Services
• Columbia food pantry

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

ISSO is working remotely but is operational and will continue to respond to email, process online applications, mail documents and update website information. Go to the ISSO COVID-19 Hub for ISSO operations, FAQs, updates and resources.

We will issue more of these bulletins as required. We know that uncertainty is one of your biggest concerns, so we will keep communicating any new information that is crucial for you to know. Be well; stay well. Please.

Sincerely,

Carlos J. Alonso, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Dear MA and PhD students,

I hope you are doing as well as can be expected in this difficult time. In writing weekly bulletins we aim to update you regularly on the changing landscape, and to let you know what we are doing to address the concerns we hear from many of you, to the extent that we can.

We copy on this message —our third— Directors of Graduate Studies and the Master’s Program Directors to underscore that we have all been working together to address the myriad and always unfolding challenges of the second half of the term. As Columbians, New Yorkers, and individuals, we are all under uncommon duress, but our mission to educate and support you remains paramount in our minds.
 

ACADEMICS: COURSEWORK AND DEGREE CONFERRAL

LANGUAGE PLACEMENT / TRANSLATION EXAMS WILL BE HELD:
Language exams will be held as announced. Please contact the department of the language in question to learn more about the particular modifications made for Spring 2020 placement and translation exams.

LATER DEADLINES FOR A MAY 20, 2020 DEGREE CONFERRAL:
To have the degree conferred in May 2020, PhD students must deposit their dissertations by May 22, 2020. MA students must complete coursework in time for their MA programs to submit graduation lists to the Registrar by Thursday, June 4.
 
PASS/FAIL CORRECTION: The Pass/Fail mandate is for all classes; it supersedes all other grading options. This is not the normal Pass/Fail option in which actual grades are submitted and converted to Pass or Fail. NB: There will be no P/D/F in any class, as GSAS initially communicated. Our apologies.
 

ACADEMICS: NEW RESOURCES FOR GRADUATE TEACHING  

The CTL has put together a new resource for graduate student TAs who are teaching or supporting classes that have shifted online. This resource provides an overview of considerations, approaches, and tools. This resource is available as part of CTL’s Contingency Planning: Teaching Online portal. 
 

ACADEMICS: DISSERTATION DISTRIBUTION AND DEFENSE

DISSERTATION DEFENSES HELD REMOTELY:
This week, fully remote dissertation defenses were held for the first time in Art History and Archaeology, Classics, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, and Slavic Languages, as well as in doctoral programs in SEAS, Journalism, and Teachers College. Congratulations to our newest PhDs, and particularly for defending successfully their dissertations under these trying circumstances.
 
REMOTE DEFENSE SURVIVAL GUIDE:
Have an upcoming dissertation defense? See Defending a Dissertation by Videoconference, created for public use by newly minted Duke PhD, Ashton Merck.
 
GSAS SUSPENDS REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTFOR SUMMER DISSERTATION DISTRIBUTION:
In light of the extraordinary circumstances we currently face, GSAS will suspend the registration requirement for students who distribute their dissertation during summer 2020. Distribution should occur no later than 8/14. However, students in the Natural Sciences who will be paid from faculty grants during the summer must register as usual during that term in order to receive their salaries.
 

SUMMER PHD FUNDING

GSAS will disburse summer stipends through the same process and schedule as previous years to Humanities, Social Science, Math, and Statistics PhD students in their guaranteed funding years. We continue to process requests for early disbursement of the summer stipend.  Please write to gsas-dean [at] columbia.edu () if you would like to have your summer stipend disbursed earlier that the customary date. You must be enrolled in direct deposit in order to receive a summer stipend.  If you have not yet done so, please see instructions here.
 

COLUMBIA HOUSING

Issues related to housing have been our foremost student-life concern. We are in continuous discussion with Columbia Residential about the various scenarios our students are now in, even as we work to address the emergencies of today.

As you know, the university has not required graduate students to leave campus housing or the Columbia community during this time of disruption. Columbia Residential has allowed students the choice to remain in housing, to leave temporarily and sublet, or to move out and break their lease without penalty.

We are aware that these options have not been equally feasible given the circumstances in which students find themselves currently, especially the move-out option. Some students left for a number of reasons, perhaps intending to return soon, and left behind their belongings or furnished rooms; others planned to sublet their apartment for the summer, which may seem now an increasingly unrealistic prospect.

GSAS has confirmed that students who left Columbia housing before their eligibility expired and who wish to return to university housing in the future will be given priority status at the time of reentry. 

Columbia Residential has asked that we compile a list of students who left their apartments either temporarily or permanently and who have a variety of related difficulties, such as belongings or furniture left behind, or inability to continue paying rent for empty apartments while living somewhere else. Your DGSs and MA Program Directors have been instrumental in helping us compile such a list, so that Columbia Residential may begin to contact students to address these issues.

We are aware that many of you have questions about summer sublets, which we hope to be able to bring to the attention of Columbia Residential after the issues of immediate urgency of March and April have been addressed satisfactorily.
 

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: REMINDER

If you have the Aetna Columbia Student Health Insurance Plan, you have national and international coverage. Please see here for more information, and contact Columbia Health and CUIMC Student Health Service for questions about referrals.  You will find additional resources below:

• Columbia Health: “What’s open now”
• Coping tools
• Counseling and Psychological Services
• Columbia food pantry

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: ISSO IS OPERATIONAL

ISSO is still your best resource for questions about your student status, travel, employment, and taxes. The staff is working remotely, but ISSO is operational and will continue to respond to email, process online applications, mail documents, and update website information. Go to the ISSO COVID-19 Hub for ISSO operations, FAQs, and updates.

Be well; stay well.

Sincerely,

Carlos J. Alonso, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Columbia University is closely monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak; please visit this page for general information and resources. Below is a list of additional resources collected by GSAS specifically for graduate students.

News

• 3/29/20: Coronavirus updates for GSAS students
• 3/20/20: Coronavirus updates for GSAS students
• 3/13/20: Coronavirus updates for GSAS students

What is your current role?
Director, White House Transition Project, and Professor Emerita, Towson University.

What are you working on now?
I direct a non-profit, non-partisan project of presidency scholars who prepare information for staff coming into the White House. We write essays based on interviews with people who headed individual White House offices about the functions of the offices over time and the responsibilities of the directors. I have an article on presidential-press relations coming out in the March issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly titled “Presidents Meet the Press: Is Donald Trump an Outlier Among Recent Presidents?” Recently, I spoke on presidential transitions to a seminar at Harvard Law School, and then on presidential-press relations to the presidency class at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

What drew you to your field?
In December 1975, Michael Grossman, the chair of my department at Towson University, asked me to write a book with him on the role of the White House Press Secretary, titled Portraying the President. During our first White House visit, we learned that if you want to study White House operations, the way to do it is to talk to people there and closely follow their actions and relationships. Since that first day, I have continued to follow White House operations at close range and now do so from a perch in the basement of the White House Press Room.

What lessons from graduate school have you found useful in your professional life?
Government officials are interested in learning about the past, and as trained scholars, we are in a position to provide information relevant to their operations.

What skill has unexpectedly helped you in your career?
I have found, over the eight presidencies I have followed, that getting along with a variety of people and carefully listening to others have proved to be keys to my working with White House officials and reporters covering the President. No matter the party or whether they are reporters or officials, people are interested in learning about past patterns in the presidential-press relationship.

What is your favorite memory from your graduate years?
I took a presidency course taught by Richard Neustadt, from whom I learned that you can use scholarship to inform government officials. He both wrote about the presidency and worked in the Truman White House. As an academic, he used what he learned from his White House days to write a pathbreaking book on the presidency, Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership. I was especially touched in 2008 when my book, Managing the President’s Message: The White House Communications Operation, won the Richard E. Neustadt Award for Best Book on the Presidency published in 2007.

What are your passions outside of your work?
I serve on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the White House Historical Association and on the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College. I also row a single scull on the Potomac River and play squash.

What is your advice for current GSAS students?
Find what you enjoy doing and make that the center of your work. I have followed White House operations and presidential-press relations for forty-five years, and it continues to be an interesting and exciting subject for me.

What is next for you, professionally or otherwise?
I am working with our group of scholars on updating our essays on White House offices as well as preparing information on the twenty-five top-level White House staff with the title Assistant to the President. I also am speaking and writing about the lessons of presidential transitions that I described in my most recent book, Before the Oath: How George W. Bush and Barack Obama Managed a Transfer of Power.

DISSERTATIONS DEFENDED

Anthropology
Singleton, Courtney. A vague dwelling: The contemporary archaeology of the Pelham Bay Park homeless encampment. Sponsor: Zoe Crossland.

Architecture
Rowen, Jonah. Materials, labor, and apprehension: Building for the threat of fire across the nineteenth-century British Atlantic. Sponsor: Reinhold Martin.

Art History and Archaeology
Boyd, Rachel. Invention, collaboration, and authorship in the Renaissance workshop: The Della Robbia family and Italian glazed terracotta sculpture, ca. 1430-1566. Sponsor: Michael Cole.

Schriber, Abbe. For a politics of obscurity: David Hammons and Black experimentalism, 1974-1989. Sponsor: Kellie Jones.

Stavis, Jacob. The formation of Achaemenid art: Beyond iconography and attribution. Sponsor: Zainab Bahrani.

Biological Sciences
Venkatesh, Divya. The role of the P53 network in regulating ferroptosis. Sponsors: Carol Prives and Brent Stockwell.

Business
Cen, Xiao. A thesis on entrepreneurship, employment, and investment decisions. Sponsor: Wei Jiang.

Guo, Yifeng. Essays in information in financial markets. Sponsor: Laura Veldkamp.

Mei, Danqing. Three essays on M&A and technology. Sponsor: Wei Jiang.

Tomunen, Tuomas. Failure of risk sharing in the market for catastrophe risk. Sponsor: Paul Tetlock.

Wang, Yahui. Essays on financial market and trade globalization. Sponsor: Kent Daniel.

Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Studies
Chen, Andrew. Spatial and genomic analysis of the glioma tumor microenvironment. Sponsor: Raul Rabadan.

Dhindsa, Ryan. Deciphering gene dysregulation in disease through population and functional genomics. Sponsor: David Goldstein.

Classics
Crosson, Isaia. Lucan's mutilated voice: The poetics of incompleteness in Roman epic. Sponsor: Gareth Williams.

Communications
Donald, Rosalind. Greenlining: Eco-gentrification in Miami from the New Deal to the climate crisis. Sponsor: Richard John.

Noell, David. Broadcasting faith: Regulating radio from the new era to the American century. Sponsor: Richard John.

Earth and Environmental Engineering
Parhi, Pradipta. Diagnosing mechanisms for a spatio-temporally varying tropical land rainfall response to transient El Niño warming and development of a prognostic climate risk management framework. Sponsor: Upmanu Lall.

Rim, Guanhe. Coupled kinetic and mechanistic study of carbonation of silicate materials with tailored transport behaviors for C02 utilization. Sponsor: Ngai Yin Yip.

Economics
Ainsworth, Robert. Essays in empirical public economics. Sponsor: Miguel Urquiola.

Herreno, Juan. Essays in empirical macroeconomics. Sponsor: Jennifer La'O.

Hyun, Jungsik. Essays in applied macroeconomics. Sponsor: Martin Uribe.

LaPoint, Cameron. Essays on the Japanese economy. Sponsors: Wojciech Kopczuk and David Weinstein.

Lim, Xi Zhi. Essays in decision theory. Sponsor: Mark Dean.

Singh, Divya. Essays in public economics. Sponsor: Wojciech Kopczuk.

Wang, Mengxue. Essays on international capital flows. Sponsor: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé.

Electrical Engineering
Huang, Yishen. Silicon photonic switching: From building block design to intelligent control. Sponsor: Keren Bergman.

Zadka, Moshe. High performance phased array platform for LiDAR applications. Sponsor: Michal Lipson.

Germanic Languages
Kurianowicz, Tomasz. The unknown future: Premonitions between futurology and pathology between 1750 and 1850. Sponsors: Stefan Andriopoulos and Oliver Simons.

History
Igra, Alma. the substance of human life: The emergence of human nutrition in Britain 1918-1941. Sponsor: Susan Pedersen.

Rutherford, Emily. The politics and culture of gender in British universities, 1860-1935. Sponsor: Susan Pedersen.

Vuljevic, Suzana. The crisis of spirit: Pan-Balkan idealism, transnational cultural-diplomatic networks and intellectual cooperation in Interwar Southeast Europe, 1930-1941. Sponsor: Mark Mazower.

Industrial Engineering
Chen, Lin. Continuous-time and distributionally robust mean-variance models. Sponsor: Xunyu Zhou.

Mathematics
Lian, Carl. On the enumerative geometry of branched covers of curves. Sponsor: Aise Johan de Jong.

Marinescu, Monica. Moduli of surfaces and applications to curves. Sponsor: Aise Johan de Jong.

Pirozhkov, Dmitrii. Admissible subcategories of del Pezzo surfaces. Sponsor: Aise Johan de Jong.

Wu, Xuan. Weak noise limits of directed polymers and Gibbsian line ensembles. Sponsor: Ivan Corwin.

Zhang, Zhongyi. Loop space of Lagrangians in a Liouville manifold and wrapped Fukaya category. Sponsor: Mohammed Abouzaid.

Operations Research
Alsabah, Humoud. Essays in networked markets and financial technology. Sponsor: Agostino Capponi.

Jia, Randy. New algorithms and analysis techniques for reinforcement learning. Sponsor: Shipra Agrawal.

Philosophy
Heeney, Matthew. Agency and the attitudes: Responsibility through reasoning. Sponsor: Carol Rovane.

Physics
Chen, Jue. Search for dark matter coupled to the Higgs boson at the large hadron collider. Sponsor: Gustaaf Brooijmans.

Psychology
Forster, Hale. Saving money or saving energy? Decision architecture strategies and processes to encourage energy saving behaviors. Sponsor: Valerie Purdie-Vaughns

Tedeschi, Ellen. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge: Understanding the relationship between curiosity, exploration and reward. Sponsor: Daphna Shohamy.

Slavic Languages
Pheiffer, Brittany. Medieval culture and modern exile: The Middle Ages in the Russian émigré imagination. Sponsor: Valentina Izmirlieva.

Traverse, Emily. Ethics to art: Vasily Grossman's poetics as the realization of his philosophy. Sponsor: Boris Gasparov.

Statistics
Ghosal, Promit. Time evolution of the KPZ equation. Sponsor: Ivan Corwin.

Sustainable Development
Missirian, Anouch. Space matters: Quantifying ecosystem-mediated externalities. Sponsor: Wolfram Schlenker.

TC / Applied Behavior Analysis
Friedman, Leah. Establishment of increased stimulus control for bidirectional naming increased stimulus control for other derived relations in 20- to 40-month-old toddlers. Sponsor: R. Douglas Greer.

TC / Behavioral Nutrition
Alawadhi, Noor. Kuwaiti mothers' food parenting styles, and practices, and food-environments. Sponsor: Isobel Contento.

TC / Clinical Psychology
Jordan, Alexandra. Religious community involvement in adolescence: The profundity of lived religion for teens. Sponsor: Lisa J. Miller.

TC / Developmental Psychology
Kapengut, Dina. Child-directed speech and the developing brain: An investigation of adult verbal warmth and negative affect. Sponsor: Kimberly Noble.

TC / Economics and Education
Mamba, Maurice. Do tuition elimination policies in Sub-Saharan Africa matter? Evidence from the universal secondary education in Uganda. Sponsor: Alexander Eble.

TC / English Education
Smith, Anderson. Empowerment and revelation through literature: A digital book club for post-incarceration. Sponsor: Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz.

TC / Mathematics Education
Abdelsattar, Soha. Mathematics education in Qatar from 1995 to 2018. Sponsor: Alexander Karp.

Shvartsberg, Yana. Towards the history of mathematics education for young women during 1890-1920. Sponsor: Alexander Karp.

TC / Measurement and Evaluation
Zhao, Yihan. Studies of rater and item effects in rater models. Sponsor: Lawrence DeCarlo.

TC / Physical Disabilities
Fancisco, Marian. The intersection of teacher education, education policy, and education research: Perceptions from teacher education stakeholders. Sponsor: Ye Wang.

Rosenzweig, Elizabeth. Adverse childhood experiences, parental self-efficacy, and language outcomes for children with hearing loss. Sponsor: Ye Wang.

TC / Physical Disabilities
Smolen, Elaine. Factors influencing language and reading development in young children with hearing loss who use listening and spoken language. Sponsor: Ye Wang.

TC / School Psychology
Grant, Geremy. Stereotype threat and undergraduate writing performance. Sponsor: Dolores Perin.

TC / Science Education
Heydari, Roya. The impact of informal science education on students' science identity and understanding of science inquiry. Sponsor: Felicia Moore Mensah.

Stefanile, Adam. A study of secondary school students' participation in a novel course on genomic principles and practices. Sponsor: Christopher Emdin.

TC / Teaching of Social Studies
Coddington, Nicholas. Bridging the gap between theory and practice: The influence of a pre-service teaching residency at a historic site, archive, library, or museum on in-service pedagogical practices. Sponsor: Christine Baron.

Errazuriz Besa, Valentina. "Hijas de la Lucha": Social studies education and gender/political subjectification in the Chilean high school feminist movement. Sponsor: Sandra Schmidt.

Shatara, Hannadi. The influence of world history teacher positionalities for global education. Sponsor: Sandra Schmidt.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS FILED

Applied Physics
Abler, Melissa. Experimental characterization of three-wave coupling in a turbulent dipole-confined plasma.

Art History and Archaeology
Gorant, Charlotte. Reliefs from the Bhārut stūpa: Re-evaluating early Buddhist narrative art (ca. 200 B.C.E. - 100 C.E.).

Jiang, Angel. Plateresque fantasies: Architecture and ornament in Renaissance Spain.

McCann, Natalie. Baroque costume portraits: Fashion in seventeenth-century British portraiture.

Merkin, Sophia. Collecting the Pacific: Oceanic art in 19th-century American museums.

Art History and Archaeology
Woolley, Heather. Miraculous technologies: The supernatural in modern image making, 1800-1900.

Computer Science
Waingarten, Erik. New methods in sublinear computation for high dimensional problems.

Economics
Kong, Sang Hoon. Misallocation in a spatial equilibrium.

Ravaioli, Silvio. Information collection and integration in economic decisions.

Sakabe, Shogo. Spatial spillover effects of technological innovation.

History
Lees, Lynton. Democracy's children: Education, citizenship, and the totalitarian challenge to Britain and its empire, 1933-1950.

Italian
Naponiello, Luca. Tentacles and spiderwebs: Italo Calvino and the ecology of the folktale.

Materials Science and Engineering
Carter, Michael. Woven fabrics with designer electromagnetic response.

Nursing
Soled, Kodiak. Perinatal social support among sexual and gender minority childbearing individuals.

Religion
Xiao, Xiao. Space, texts, and communities-religious imaginations of the early developments of Kiyomizudera.

Dear MA and PhD students,

I hope that you are taking care of yourselves and staying safe. This bulletin contains information about academic and housing updates that we hope will address some of your concerns of the moment.

We acknowledge, and hope you understand, that the many challenges we are facing together are greater than the concerns of a single School, or even limited to the confines of one University. We are also part of a fabric of higher education that is also facing the far-reaching ramifications of this crisis. We are part of a state, a nation, and a global environment in which governments, institutions, and individuals are working around the clock to meet the needs of many constituencies.

We are working collaboratively with several offices on campus—the Office of the Provost, the University Registrar, Columbia Health, and Columbia Residential—to address local student issues. We thank our colleagues for their help in our efforts to support our students.

R CREDIT WILL BE PERMITTED

The university will allow use of the R grade for those who already registered for it, since its use is consistent with the intent of mandatory Pass/Fail grading this term.

COLUMBIA RESIDENTIAL HOUSING UPDATE: 
Apply by April 15 | Emergency Move-out Assistance
  
"Columbia Residential will consider requests for up to $500 in funding for students who wish to move out of housing during the month of April. Residents who request emergency move-out assistance must complete the Emergency Move-out Assistance form and send supporting documentation for their request to residential [at] columbia.edu ().
 
Students who choose this option may contract and schedule movers directly, and Residential will provide them access to the building and apartment, so students do not have to return to campus to complete a move-out. If a student uses an approved Columbia vendor to schedule their move, Columbia Residential can also pay the movers directly; if the cost of the move is above $500, the difference will be billed to the student’s account shortly after the move. Additionally, for students who move out by April 15, their move-out date will be adjusted to March 31, so they will get a credit back for the full months of April and May. 
 
If students are interested in this option, they may review the Housing & COVID-19 FAQ for more information about applying for funding, contracting movers and scheduling a proxy move. Any questions can be directed to residential [at] columbia.edu ().  
 
Applications for emergency move-out assistance must be submitted by April 15 to be considered.
 
Unfortunately, Columbia Residential is not able to provide rent relief for students who wish to keep their Columbia units throughout the summer and beyond, but we hope that this funding opportunity can provide some relief during this difficult time. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.”

LATER DEADLINES FOR MAY 20, 2020 DEGREE CONFERRALS  

For the PhD: students must deposit their dissertations by May 22, 2020  
For the MPhil: GSAS must receive the MPhil application by May 29, 2020
For the MA: students must complete coursework in time for their MA programs to submit graduation lists to the Registrar by June 4, 2020 

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE FROM GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL ADMISSIONS OFFICES

Columbia and peer institutions have agreed to post on their university admissions sites language that acknowledges the singular nature of the academic experience of Spring 2020, including the wide use of Pass/Fail. Columbia’s text is as follows:

"The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 presented institutions of higher education with challenges in teaching and learning, as well as in the assessment of academic performance.  As a consequence of these challenges, Columbia University affirms the following principle: 

The University’s graduate and professional schools, as well as their respective admissions committees, will take into account the important disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak when reviewing student transcripts and other admissions materials as part of their customary practice of performing holistic reviews of individual applications or dossiers. Specifically, we will respect decisions made by institutions or individuals regarding the adoption of Pass/Fail or similar grading options during the period in question.

The Provost and University Deans adopted this principle to ensure that no applicants are disadvantaged by policy decisions made by their colleges/universities as a result of this unprecedented public health event."

Be well; stay well.

Sincerely,

Carlos J. Alonso, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

GSAS and the Arts and Science Graduate Council (ASGC) have partnered to create a GSAS Community COVID-19 Emergency Fund for registered master’s and doctoral students in Arts and Sciences programs who have urgent and time-sensitive COVID-19-related financial emergencies that cannot be addressed by any other source. Grants may vary in amount but will not exceed $500.

Additional Resources

GSAS has compiled a list of Columbia University, government, and other resources that may be sufficient for addressing some of the emergency needs that are most common among graduate students. Before applying to the limited GSAS Community COVID-19 Emergency Fund, please visit this page to review resources for:

• Housing insecurity
• Food insecurity
• Loss of income
• Childcare resources

If these resources are not sufficient for meeting your current emergency need, we invite you to apply to the Emergency Fund.

Eligibility: Who Can Apply

• Students must be currently registered in an Arts and Sciences MA, PhD, or DMA program.
• Expenses must be immediate and directly related to the student. Expenses that are anticipated beyond May 31, 2020, do not qualify for the Emergency Fund.
• Expenses must be for new circumstances that are clearly related to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Selection: How Grantees Are Selected

The fund is intended to meet a variety of needs. Applications will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis provided that they meet the “Eligibility” criteria above. Priority is reserved for those cases in which the applicant does not have access to additional means. Applications will be evaluated based on the criteria below.

• Is the expressed need immediate?
• Is the need directly related to COVID-19?
• Does the need pertain directly to the student’s own or a dependent’s circumstances versus someone else’s (such as a roommate or partner)? 
• Does the applicant have existing debt that has been significantly exacerbated by COVID-19?
• Does the need arise from medical, health-related, or other personal conditions that have caused additional financial strain as a result of COVID-19?
• Has the applicant exhausted all other possible resources, including personal assets, family and personal networks, and the various Columbia and public/government/community resources listed in the Emergency Fund application instructions?

Following is a list of examples of the kinds of circumstances that would warrant relief from the Emergency Fund:

• A student who has expended resources to provide care for a dependent or other family member that otherwise would not have been necessary outside of COVID-19 and is not covered by any other source.  
• A student who experiences a loss of income from not being able to report to work in-person during stay-at-home order, resulting in inability to pay for food and/or rent.
• A student who needed to evacuate from field research site to return home immediately, incurring unanticipated expenses from substantially increased airfare and change fees.

Application Instructions

Applicants must complete this online formby Thursday, April 23, 2020 for full consideration. Applications must be accompanied by any supporting documentation such as receipts and affidavits to substantiate the request. Review of applications will begin immediately following this deadline. 

If additional funds remain, a second round of applications may ensue.  Each student is permitted to apply only once.

Documentation Required

• Upon Application
  • Detailed description of how COVID-19 has affected student’s circumstances and created this emergent need.
  • Estimated expenses through May 31, 2020, demonstrating impact from COVID-19.
  • Other documentation as applicable to the specific nature of the request.
• Upon Request
  • Applicants may be asked to verify monthly expenses, debts, or personal exigencies resulting from COVID-19 (this information will be kept confidential, viewed only by GSAS administration).

Funding

This limited fund was seeded through contributions from the Arts and Science Graduate Council (ASGC) and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). GSAS alumni and Arts and Science departments have made additional donations that will be added to this fund to further expand its reach to students who are in need of emergency support. We are grateful for these donations, and proud of the expression of community solidarity that these collective efforts convey.   

Contributors

• Anthropology
• Art History
• Biological Sciences
• Classics
• Climate and Society
• CSER/American Studies
• Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
• East Asian Languages and Cultures
• Economics
• English and Comparative Literature
• French and Roman Philology
• Germanic Languages
• Global Thought
• Harriman Institute
• History
• Human Rights
• Italian
• Latin American and Iberian Cultures
• Mathematics
• Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
• Middle East Institute
• Music
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Slavic Languages
• Sociology 
• Statistics
• Weatherhead East Asian Institute