Critical Intellectual Inquiry
As you interact dialectically in the classroom and in social life, OMA will engage you in critical intellectual inquiry on issues of commonality and difference to help you meet the career and societal challenges you will face in a changing world. Our programs and services will help you adapt acquired modes of expertise and experience to new circumstances, help you think creatively across differing frames of reference, apply your academic discipline to your personal extracurricular/campus/ social experience, and develop your critical pedagogical skills for promoting new modes and areas of intellectual inquiry. OMA programs and services that promote critical intellectual inquiry will encourage you to delve deeper into relevant social theories and modes of critical thinking in order to advance your ability to promote institutional/ social change.
Programs and resources include:
- Intercultural House (ICH)
- Freedom School
- Arts and Activism
- Dessert and Discussion Series
- Voices Raised
The Dessert and Discussion series engages multiple constituencies of the Columbia University community in dialogue about issues pertaining to social inequality and social justice. The IRC’s intimate living room setting provides a wonderful space for faculty, students, administrators, staff and community members to explore topic areas rarely addressed in the classroom. This monthly series will feature and highlight the scholarly work of Columbia and Barnard professors as well as scholars and activists from surrounding communities. D & D’s promote learning outside of the classroom and allow students the opportunity to intellectually and personally benefit from interactions with university community members on multiple levels.
Voices Raised is a teach-in series that promotes sustained, engaged dialogue and education around current events, socio-political issues, and/or popular culture affecting socially, politically, and culturally marginalized/disenfranchised communities. Through a series of daylong events, the program's goal is to bring faculty, community leaders, and students together to collectively raise their voices – to engage in public and academic discourse, and develop a greater understanding of these communities.
Past teach-in have focused on transgender identity, water crises in Central America, youth and activism, and the intersections of class, race, and immigrant rights.