Welcome to Crafts on the Corner, an exciting new event series at the Lee C. Bollinger Forum. This initiative aims to provide accessible and free opportunities for individuals within the community to explore their artistic potential, enhance their crafting skills, and cultivate a sense of community through shared creative experiences. It’s a celebration of creativity and an opportunity to connect with neighbors in a fun and enriching environment. Open to all ages!

Wallach Art Gallery: Sketch Sessions

Take a break in your day to tap into your creativity and explore different observational drawing techniques.

7/16: Observational Drawing

Take a break in your day for some observational drawing.

All materials provided and no previous experience required. All are welcome!

Help us plan and let us know you are coming by registering here.

Presented as part of Crafts on the Corner at the Bollinger Forum in collaboration with the Wallach Art Gallery.

Established in 1986, the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery is Columbia University’s premier visual arts space. The Wallach’s mission is to advance Columbia University’s historical, critical, and creative engagement with the visual arts.

This is a hybrid event, featuring both in-person and virtual components.

• Register for the in-person session below.
• Register for the virtual session here.

Disasters and shocks—both climate-related and otherwise—are increasing in frequency, intensity, and complexity, posing escalating threats to sustainable development worldwide. According to the 2025 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, direct disaster losses now average between $180 and $200 billion annually. When cascading effects and ecosystem impacts are included, the true global cost exceeds $2.3 trillion per year. These systemic risks are reversing development gains, stretching national capacities, and challenging the international system’s ability to respond.

While the costs are significant, the benefits of investing in resilience are well-established. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) measures deliver some of the highest benefit-cost ratios in development investment, ranging from 2:1 to 10:1 or more. Nevertheless, investment remains far below what is needed. The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2024 estimates an annual financing shortfall of US$187 billion to US$359 billion, highlighting the urgent need to close this gap to avoid increasingly unmanageable financial and economic consequences. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), held in 2025, further underscored the urgent need to scale up investment in DRR and climate adaptation financing. Addressing this challenge requires the active engagement of scientists, policymakers, academic institutions, and other stakeholders to co-develop new, evidence-based financing solutions that can be scaled and sustained.

This event, co-hosted by the Columbia Climate School, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will explore how science, policy, and academia can help bridge the resilience financing divide. It will feature a keynote by Mr. Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; highlight new tools developed by NCDP to better target finance to the countries that need it most; and showcase Columbia’s academic leadership in training the next generation of climate and resilience professionals.

Speakers

• Keynote speaker: Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of UNDRR
• Jeff Schlegelmilch, Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Faculty of Climate, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), Director of Executive Education and Non-Degree Programs, Columbia Climate School
• Lisa Dale, Senior Lecturer in Climate; Director, MA Climate + Society
• Moderator: Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Senior Researcher, Columbia Climate School, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
  • Interactive Question and Answers
• Closing Remarks

This informal seminar is open to all Columbia affiliates and neighbors and will meet:

Wednesdays, July 16, 23, 30, and August 6, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Note: Separate registration required for each session.

The war that seemed half a world away suddenly felt very close. Daily, news of the devastation beamed directly to viewers around the world, a horror impossible to ignore as it unfolded in real-time. Columbia’s campus, unable to ignore the suffering abroad and its nation’s involvement, rose in anger—at the war and, at times, seemingly at itself. US involvement in the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago this year. The consequences of that war—for the Vietnamese people, US and Vietnamese combat veterans, and society—linger. At home, the war brought new forms of protest to campuses across the country. In many ways, we live, work, and study on a campus shaped by war. This seminar considers the literature of and related to the US war in Vietnam. How might literary engagements with this earlier moment of conflict help us navigate the current day with passion and empathy?

16 July: Introductions & Literature of the War

• Graham Greene, from The Quiet American (1955)
• Tim O’Brien, “On the Rainy River” from The Things They Carried (1990)
• Dang Thuy Tram, from Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: the Diary of Dang Thuy Tram (2005)
• Apocalypse Now, dir. Coppola (1979)

23 July: Protest! Literature Against the War

• Norman Mailer, from The Armies of the Night (1968)
• Wallace Terry, from Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984)
• Simon Wall, from Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s (2006)

30 July: After War and Reflections

• Viet Thanh Nguyen, from Nothing Ever Dies (2016) and The Sympathizer (2015)
• Tobias Wolff, from In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)
• “Watt Raises Obstacle on Vietnam Memorial,” New York Times (13 Jan. 1982)
• “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” the finale to M*A*S*H (1983)

6 Aug: How does the Vietnam experience continue to shape campus culture?

• Bill Chappell, “In Columbia University’s protests of 1968 and 2024, what’s similar—and different,” NPR (29 Apr. 2024).
• Columbia College Student Council, “We Columbia University Students Urge You to Listen to Our Voices” (4 May 2024).
• Mansee Khurana, “What a 1968 Columbia Protestor Makes of Today’s Encampment,” NPR (29 Apr. 2024).

We will distribute the reading selections over email and bring hardcopies to class. There is no requirement to buy anything. We’ll start each seminar with a brief introduction, followed by some time to review/read the texts in focus. The bulk of our time will then be spent in guided conversation.

About the Instructor: Nick Utzig is assistant professor of English in the Dept. of English and World Languages at West Point. He received his PhD from Harvard University, where his research focused on representations of war in English Renaissance literature. His scholarly work appears in Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, and The Journal of War and Culture Studies. Before his PhD, Nick was a US Army aviation officer and served in Afghanistan and Iraq.