Taught by Columbia faculty, e-seminars are three- to five-hour learning experiences that combine multimedia, interactivity, and collaborative discussion in a wide range of subject areas. This page will highlight on a rotating basis a selection from our archive of more than 100 e-seminars.

To view our entire library of e-seminars for free, please visit Columbia Educational Resources Online.

Alumni must supply their University Network ID (UNI) to access these sites.   Culture and Society Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States, 1890–1945: The Rise of Consumer Culture In this seminar, the sixth of the series Intellectual and Cultural History of the United States, 1890–1945, Professor Casey Nelson Blake describes the consumer culture of the 1920s and Middle America's ambivalent embrace of it, particularly as portrayed in Robert and Helen Lynd's sociological study Middletown. He also examines critiques of this new American ethos by such intellectuals as H. L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Margaret Mead, and Malcolm Cowley, and concludes by examining the fate of the Harlem Renaissance in the hands of mainstream consumerist culture. Literature An Adventure with Words: James Joyce's Ulysses Joyce is famous for his use of interior monologue (for which the term stream of consciousness was coined), but in Ulysses he uses a variety of narrative modes—third-person, sounded, interior, and fourth-estate narration. Recognizing and identifying the function of each is crucial to understanding this classic novel. Professor Seidel is a well-known Joyce expert, and this e-seminar provides a unique and invaluable point of access to Joyce's most famous (and, unfortunately, famously difficult) work. Politics A Political History of Pakistan Professor Oldenburg, a leading scholar of South Asian culture and history, unravels the story of Pakistan, delving into the tumultuous past of this Muslim nation. Carefully examining its struggle to establish a national identity throughout the half-century of its existence, he narrates Pakistan's history from the viewpoint of its Muslim majority population while also explaining the perspectives of those nations with whom Pakistan has been at war. Multimedia Icons The icons following the site descriptions indicate that free browser plug-ins are required to access all site features. Click on the links below to download the latest free plug-ins. Real Player | Flash | Quick Time | Acrobat