Calabi-Yau threefolds across quadratic singularities

These are lecture notes on non-Kähler complex threefolds presented at the MATRIX program ``The geometry of moduli spaces in string theory’'. We review some basics of Calabi-Yau geometry in Section 1, describe topological features of the conifold transition in Section 2, and survey recent developments on the geometrization of conifold transitions in Section 3.