There are several openings for the position of rapporteur/administrator for The University Seminars at Columbia University. These are in-person positions available to full-time Columbia University graduate students.
Rapporteurs serve as liaisons between their seminar and The University Seminars office, performing all duties necessary to ensure that meetings are successfully held.
Seminars generally meet once a month during the evening. This position takes approximately 8-10 hours a month and rapporteurs are compensated $25.00/hour in their first and second years, and $30 in their third and subsequent years.
Rapporteurs are expected to take minutes of meetings which feature distinguished speakers on contemporary issues and lively discussion by individuals with a special interest in the respective subject matter. Additionally, rapporteurs help the seminar chair with the organizational details of running a seminar and they submit all meeting minutes to the University Seminars office for inclusion in The University Seminars Digital Archive, RBML, Butler Library.
Note: Full-time Columbia University students may not work more than 20 hours per week for any on-campus employment, so applicants must make sure to take into account hourly commitments to teaching fellowships, DRA and/or RA, TA positions before accepting a rapporteur position. University and academic holidays must be observed.
To apply for any of the positions listed below, contact the respective seminar chair(s).
For more information about the position of rapporteur in general, contact The University Seminars at: univ.seminars@columbia.edu
2023-2024 AVAILABLE RAPPORTEUR POSITIONS
Studies in Religion (#405)
The approaches to religion in this seminar range from the philosophical through the anthropological to the historical and comparative. We concern ourselves with religion in all of its manifestations—ancient and modern, primitive and civilized, heretical and orthodox, individual and cosmic. The guiding thread is whatever subjects are uppermost in the minds of those composing the membership at a given time. Since members come from different disciplines as well as different traditions and have a variety of personal orientations, we are assured maximum openness and flexibility.
Co-Chairs
Tony Carnes
editor@nycreligion.info
Sidney Greenfield
sidneygreenfield@gmail.com
Content and Methods of the Social Sciences (#411)
This seminar is concerned with methodology and theory in the social sciences as well as with its substantive results. As a rule, members and sometimes guest speakers present their current research in a manner which enlightens the seminar on various theoretical and methodological advances and helps the researcher to solve his difficulties and formulate a codified view of ongoing research in social sciences.
Co-Chairs
Tony Carnes
editor@nycreligion.info
Sidney Greenfield
sidneygreenfield@gmail.com
The City (#459A)
This seminar undertakes a wide-ranging consideration of the city—its history, functions, problems, and glories. Sessions are devoted to urban cultural and social history, and to the meaning of physical form and landscape of both American and world-wide cities. The heterogeneous nature of the seminar’s membership is reflected in the variety of subjects that the meetings address.
Chair
Mary Rocco
mrocco@barnard.edu
Culture, Power, Boundaries (#531)
The Culture, Power, Boundaries Seminar is a forum for work and work-in-progress that strives for a critical analysis of contemporary power relations at local and global scales and how such power relations affect the analysis, reproduction, and transformation of inequality and its cultural expressions. The seminar began forty years ago with a focus on immigration and developed into a broad forum for critical social science. While the majority of seminar members are anthropologists, and presentations tend to focus on case studies, the seminar continues to welcome, as both guests and speakers, other social scientists interested in investigating the power dimension of cultural formations and the cultural aspects of inequality.
Co-Chairs
Professor Maria-Luisa Achino-Loeb
mluisa164@aol.com
Professor Patricia Antoniello
pata@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Ottoman and Turkish Studies (#551)
From its inception, this seminar adopted an interdisciplinary approach to Turkic studies, and its members represent many fields. At the same time, their interests span more than twelve centuries. In most years, the program covers a selection of topics reflecting current research of members. Special anniversaries such as the Atatürk centennial (1981–1982), the sixtieth anniversary of the Turkish Republic (1983–1984), and the traveling exhibition, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (1987–1988), however, have provided themes around which all papers or a series of papers have been centered. Discussion on papers presented—no matter what their topic—has shown that dialogue between, for example, political scientist and art historian, medievalist and modernist, can be both stimulating and productive.
Co-Chairs
Leyla Amzi-Erdoğdular
la2142@columbia.edu
Tunç Şen
ats2171@columbia.edu
Louis Fishman
lfishman@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Human Rights (#561)
This seminar addresses various human rights issues at monthly meetings, sometimes by designating a theme to be followed during the entire academic year. The topics cover international and domestic areas of concern and reflect problems of both conceptualization and application. Emphasis is also placed on dialogue between advocates of western and non-western ideas and practices. This year, the Columbia University Human Rights Seminar is focusing on Implementation of Human Rights Norms: Challenges and Prospects.
Chair
George J. Andreopoulos
chrights@jjay.cuny.edu
Southeast Asia in World Affairs (#583)
This seminar is concerned with the contemporary political economy of Southeast Asia, and in particular with its international dimensions. The agenda includes current problems of economic and political change in the countries of the region, as well as issues in relations with the United States, Japan, China, and Russia. The seminar membership includes policymakers from the public and private sectors, as well as scholars, and the group as a whole has a strong policy orientation.
Chair
Ann Marie Murphy
amm31@columbia.edu
Full Employment, Social Welfare, and Equity (#613)
The seminar focuses on the analytical and policy issues related to full employment, social welfare, and equity. These include crossnational perspectives, primarily in other industrialized economies. The purpose is to identify and clarify the more difficult and central intellectual questions which relate to and affect the national commitment and capability to assure full employment, social welfare, and equity over long periods.
Co-Chairs
Gertrude S. Goldberg
trudygoldberg@njfac.org
Mark Paul
mark.paul@rutgers.edu
Raúl Carrillo
raul.carrillo@yale.edu
Iranian Studies (#615)
The purpose of these monthly gatherings is to present and promote new research in Iranian studies from pre- Islamic times to the present. The seminar provides an opportunity for scholars and researchers in the greater metropolitan area to meet regularly and exchange views and discuss the topics of their research interests.
Co-Chairs
Mahnaz Moazami
mm1754@columbia.edu
Marisa McCrone
m.mccrone@yahoo.com
Memory and Slavery: Social and Human Consequences (#689)
This Seminar addresses the legacy of slavery in the western hemisphere, focusing on African-American slavery in the United States. Presenters and discussants participate in dialogue on the history of slavery, its neurobehavioral and cultural underpinnings, the social, economic, and political factors facilitating ongoing racism and inequities, and the consequences for ancestors of enslaved peoples and enslaving peoples in the modern world. Members of this seminar include anthropologists, clergy, historians, neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, and other scholars and guests who share an interest in learning from the collective memories of slavery, determining what must be done to heal the wounds left behind by slavery, and determining how to move toward equitable and healthy societies in which all peoples can thrive.
Co-Chairs
Emily Anderson
emily.anderson@ret.bmcc.cuny.edu
John Delfs
john@goodwolf.org
Columbia School Linguistics (#739)
The seminar series continues the line of research established by Professor of Linguistics William Diver. The aim in this approach, as contrasted with formal linguistics, is to account for observed language use, with authentic text as the main source of data. For grammar, this typically entails hypotheses about linguistic signals and their meanings; for phonology, hypotheses about the relevant phonetic characteristics of phonological units. The roles of communication and a human factor are explicitly acknowledged as supporting the explanations offered. The series was begun in 1968 by Diver for the benefit of graduate students working on doctoral theses under his guidance. Since his death in 1995, the series has continued under the auspices of the Columbia School Linguistic Society, with participants presenting analyses or work in progress. Occasionally, it hosts by invitation presenters doing compatible work outside the Columbia School tradition. Work coming out of the seminar has led to numerous conference presentations and publications.
Chair
Eduardo Ho-Fernández
ehofernandez@csling.org
Columbia University Collaborative of Community Programs for Youth & Families (#793)
This seminar explores and examines the intersection of scholarship and practice around higher education institutions’ (HEIs) civic engagement with a specific focus on youth and families within their communities. The membership consists of researchers and practitioners from Columbia University as well as the community who share this common interest. As such, the seminar is uniquely positioned to cultivate an intersection of scholarship and practice through discussions focused on HEIs’ approaches to defining, fulfilling, and assessing their roles as engaged anchor institutions within their communities; and the implications of their efforts to the community and the institutions.
Co-Chairs
Shaba Keys
sk3785@columbia.edu
Alissa Mayers
am4459@columbia.edu
Korean Studies (#797)
The Korean Studies Seminar is an interdisciplinary forum that brings together scholars, artists, and professionals working on Korea-related subjects from a wide variety of disciplines: history, literature, art history, visual and media studies, architecture, religion, sociology, anthropology, music, and performance studies. The seminar discusses current research and issues in the study of Korea drawn from the dynamic intellectual community in and around New York City.
Co-Chairs
Jae Won Chung
jchung@alc.rutgers.edu
Dong-Sei Kim
dongsei.kim@nyit.edu
Jenny Wang Medina
jjw2005@columbia.edu