| HC 7 | Saint and Heretic: Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, History, and Myth |
| HC 20 | What is This Thing called Science? |
| HC 30 | The Vietnam War and American Culture |
| HC 37 | Autobiography and Memoir |
| HC 46 | Drugs in Society: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Drug Abuse, Abuse, Treatment and Intevention |
| HC 48 | Politics of Reproduction |
| HC 56 | Language as a Window to the Mind |
| HC 64 | Neuroscience and Psychology of Art and Biology of Aesthetics |
| HC 70AL | Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture, and Law (lab associated with HC 70A from W08) |
| HC 77 | Writing Numbers |
| HC 86 | Psychology of Fear |
| HC 103 | Scientific Knowledge, Industrial Growth, and Social Policy |
| HC M106 | Imaginary Women |
| HC 127 | Citizenship, Leadership, and Service |
| HC 137 | Political Satire: The Offensive Art |
| HC 139 | African Americans and Africa in Perspective |
| HC 140 | The Social Psychology of Privilege and Oppression in Public Education |
| HC 144 | Stigma: Anthropology of the Dangerous Other |
| HC M152 | Collapses of Past Societies and Their Lessons for Our Own Future |
| HC M157 | International Relations of the Middle East |
| HC 169 | Pretense: Imposture and National Identity |
| HC 172 | French Thinkers of Society |
| HC 175 | Terorrism, Counter-terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Practical Approach |
| HC 177 | Biotechnology and Art |
HC
7: The Saint and the Heretic: Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, History, and Myth
(5 units)
Director: Zrinka Stahuljak, French and Francophone Studies
Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais are among the best known historical “couples” of the French Middle Ages. For centuries, historians have considered them as companions in battle for the liberation of the English-occupied fifteenth-century France, with each leaving to posterity a radically different heritage: Joan, the savior of France, sanctified in 1920 by the very Catholic Church that condemned her in 1431 as a heretic, apostate, idolater, and relapse; Gilles, her counterpart and evil double, a would-be alchemist and worshipper of Devil, a sodomite and mass murderer of young children. In short, the ultimate good and the ultimate evil.
These cursory descriptions of Joan and Gilles tell us that their figures are larger than life and that their stories are not only the fabric of history but even more so of myth. Indeed, one of the threads of exploration to be pursued in this course is the relationship of history and myth, the passage from historical fact to legendary character. Along with the historical and literary development of the Joan and Gilles myths, the course will address how the same myth is used for different political agendas, reflecting different authors’ concerns and ideologies.
In this exploration of myth, the course will employ a full range of interdisciplinary tools: we will study literature (poetry, theater, novel) and history (trial documents, chronicles), music (opera) and film, painting and sculpture.
Application on General
Education Requirements: New L&S GE Foundation Categories: Arts & Humanities - Literary & Culural Analysis OR Society & Culture - Historical Analysis
Zrinka Stahuljak, is Assistant Professor in the Department of French and
Francophone Studies at UCLA. She is author of Bloodless Genealogies of the French Middle Ages. Translatio, Kinship and Metaphor. A study of metaphors of kinship and translation in literature and art of the French Middle Ages (University Press of Florida, 2005); as well as of many chapters and research articles on French Medieval art, literature, and culture. She is the recipient of Boston University’s Teaching Excellence Award in the Honors Program there.
HC
20: What is This Thing Called Science? A General Introduction to the Nature of Modern Science
Director: Eric R. Scerri, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Science is one of the most powerful forces in modern society. It provides reliable knowledge and is the basis of our modern technologies and standard of living. This course explores the difference between science and other systems of knowledge and will seek to answer the question of why science alone appears to provide reliable and objective knowledge and whether indeed it does.
We shall examine the demarcation between science and other forms of knowledge by considering first the views of philosopher Karl Popper. Older views of the objectivity of science and its supremacy have been increasingly challenged in modern times. Popper himself is also well known for having emphasized that theories cannot be proved but only refuted. We shall study this view by first considering some elementary ideas in logic to see why refutation may be a more viable option than the notion that theories can be proved.
Starting in the 1960s, philosophers of science realized that attempts to understand the nature of science would need to consider its historical development and could not rest entirely on logical and philosophical grounds. Pioneers of this "historical turn" include Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend, all of whom have had highly influential roles on later thinkers in many fields.
The historical turn and the greater emphasis on social aspects of science, which were initiated by Kuhn in particular, have led to what many believe to be an over-emphasis on these factors. The 'Science Studies' movement has grown increasingly closer to advocating relativism to describe the nature of scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge is sometimes described as being 'constructed' rather than discovered. The outcome of such views has been the "Science Wars" debate that has raged among from many diverse fields from the hard sciences, to science education, philosophy, literary criticism and anthropology among others. Our course will examine key readings from the Science wars literature, including the Sokal affair which dramatically brought these issues to the lay-reader.
The final third of the course will examine some specific modern issues in the study of the nature of science, including scientific explanation and scientific reduction as well as the question of whether scientific theories receive credit mainly for their dramatic predictions or their explanatory powers.
Science is one of the most powerful forces in modern society. It provides reliable knowledge and is the basis of our modern technologies and standard of living. This course explores the difference between science and other systems of knowledge and will seek to answer the question of why science alone appears to provide reliable and objective knowledge and whether indeed it does. Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Physical Sciences; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) Foundation Categories: Society and Culture-Historical Analysis OR Scientific Inquiry-Physical Sciences
Note: This course has an enrollment restriction
(5 units)
Eric R. Scerri, who teaches chemistry at UCLA, holds his Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from King’s College, University of London. He has taught at University College, London, the London School of Economics, Caltech, and Purdue University, as well as at UCLA. He is the author of numerous articles on the history and philosopy of science and is currently editor in chief of Foundations of Chemistry. He has been recognized for his distinguished teaching and is especially interested in promoting interdisciplinary discourse in the university.
HC
30: The Vietnam War and American Culture
(4 units)
Director: James Goodwin, English
Engagement by the United States government in a prolonged, undeclared war in Southeast Asia has had profound effects on American politics, global strategy, foreign policy, and culture. The cultural focus in the seminar will be manifold, with examples of the impact of the American war in Vietnam (1961-1975) taken from photography (LIFE magazine, Tim Page), journalism (Michael Herr), personal narrative, American politics, poetry (Yusef Komunyakaa, Bruce Weigl), fiction (Graham Greene, Tim O'Brien, contemporary fiction from Vietnam), and film (Coppola's Apocalypse Now).
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Humanities-Culture and Civilization OR Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) None
Note: This course has an enrollment restriction
James Goodwin Professor of English at UCLA, received his BA from Stanford University and his MA and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Through his department and the Department of Comparative Literature, he teaches courses in American literature, film, autobiography, and modern drama. His research and publications extend into the fields of autobiography and film theory and history. He has authored the books Autobiography: The Self Made Text (1993); Eisenstein, Cinema, and History (1993); and Akira Kurosawa and Intertextual Cinema (1994); and he is editor of Perspectives on Akira Kurosawa (1994).
HC
37: Autobiography and Memoir
(5 units)
Director: Larry Grobel, English
Understanding oneself and others by looking inward. A seminar in self-analysis. Uncovering the highlights and the traumas of one’s life; shaping and structuring it into a narrative.
“A memoir,” Gore Vidal wrote in the introduction to his memoir, “is how one remembers one’s own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked.”
How have writers, scientists, statesmen, soldiers, adventurers, politicians, businessmen, singers, artists looked at their own lives, reflected on the choices they made, the paths taken? And can learning about their decisions influence one’s own?
That is the idea behind this seminar: To study the memoirs and autobiographies of accomplished people, to discuss what they did and did not do in their lives, and then to try and understand one’s own life by writing about specific incidents and broader philosophical thoughts.
Larry Grobel is a freelance writer. He graduated from UCLA and teaches courses on the literature of journalism and on the art of the interview in the English Department here. He has written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, Reader’s Digest, and Details. He is also contributing editor on five magazines including Autograph, World (New Zealand), and Ego. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for fiction and created the MFA in Professional Writing program for Antioch University. Grobel’s other books include: The Hustons; Conversations with Brando; Talking with Michener; Above the Line: Conversations About the Movies; Endangered Species: Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives; and Al Pacino: In Conversation with Lawrence Grobel.
HC
46: Drugs in Society: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Drug Abuse, Abuse, Treatment and Intevention
Director: Christine Grella, Psychiatry & Biobehaviorial Sciences
Drug use is at the core of many current, and often controversial, social issues. The use of
psychoactive substances in the United States has changed historically, depending on trends in availability and social attitudes toward
drug use. Similarly, social policies and responses toward drug use have changed over time, and even the definition of what constitutes a drug is the subject of both scientific and social
debate. Depictions of drug use are pervasive within media and popular culture, with conflicting images that are often driven by social stereotypes. At
the same time, biomedical research into the effects of drug use on the brain and body is rapidly advancing with the development of new research
technologies, and addiction research is advancing our understanding of the neurobiology of addiction and the effectiveness of clinical interventions. The course is designed to expose students to
a broad scope of issues regarding substance use in the United States, drawing upon current research and theory across multiple disciplines. The course will provide a historical context
to the extent and type of drug use within the U.S., including changes in prevalence of use of different types of substances and in the
cultural context in which drug use is understood. Different social policies and societal responses to drug use will be examined, including medical and
psychosocial treatment approaches, criminal justice interventions, efforts to curtail the supply of illegal drugs (i.e., “War on Drugs”), prevention efforts
aimed at youth, and movements to “legalize” certain drugs. Current research on the neurobiological properties of different types of drugs and corresponding clinical interventions
will also be examined, as well as future directions in addictions-based research. Application on General
Education Requirements: None
Christine Grella, Ph.D., is a Research Psychologist at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, which affiliated with the Neuropsychiatric Institute, Department of
Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine at UCLA. She has been a lecturer in the Psychology Department at the University
of California, Santa Cruz, and the UCLA Department of Sociology. She has been Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on 7 federally funded
studies. Her research focuses on long-term patterns of drug use and treatment, gender differences in drug use
and treatment, organizational characteristics of drug treatment programs, and the organization of service delivery systems for individuals with co-occurring
disorders. HC 48: The Politics of Reproduction
Director: Gail Kligman, Sociology
Human reproduction and its regulation are contemporary policy issues around the world. Government efforts to influence fertility behavior call attention to an important feature of the modern state: political intervention into private life, intimacy, and sexuality. Technological developments have facilitated the bureaucratic regulation of the body as well as of medical practice--with positive and negative consequences. The expansion of the state into the bodies and lives of citizens has blurred the boundaries between public and private interests.
In this course, we shall explore diverse aspects of the politics of reproduction. "Politics of reproduction" refers to the intersection between politics and the life cycle, or between the public sphere and private lives. We shall discuss the complex relations between individual, local, and global interests as they shape and reflect reproductive practices, public policy, and the exercise of power. Diverse topics covered by our course include the social construction of gender and reproductive practices, the relationship between nationalism and embodied politics, abortion, the politicization of motherhood and mothering, and new technologies as they impact social and biological reproduction and experience. The readings for this seminar are drawn from interdisciplinary perspectives. Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - None
Gail Kligman, a professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests include socialist and post-socialist Eastern Europe, gender, and culture. Among her works are The Wedding of the Dead: Ritual, Poetics and Popular Culture in Transylvania (1988) and Politics of Duplicity: Women, Abortion and the State in Ceausescu's Romania. Professor Kligman is also the co-organizer of a comparative, international research project on "Women, Gender and the Transition in Eastern Europe."
HC 56: Language as a Window to the Mind Director: Susan
Curtiss, Linguistics
What is language? What are
some of the properties that human language has? Why is human language as it is?
What must be the mind be like if language has the characteristics that it does?
This course covers these and other questions considering the nature of human
language and the clues it gives us about the nature of the human mind. Topics
include: the formal nature and character of human language (phonetics, syntax,
etc.); differences and similarities between sign languages and spoken languages;
language acquisition in the child; language representation in the brain; the
relationship between language and other mental abilities; the autonomous nature
of language as a system of knowledge; and other cognitive domains, including
body representation and vision.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Humanities-Language and
Linguistics; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) None.
Note: There is an enrollment
restriction Susan Curtiss,
Professor of Linguistics at UCLA, received her B.A. from the University of
California at Berkeley and her Ph.D. from UCLA.. She has carried out a program
of research on the critical period for language development and the relationship
between language (principally grammar) and non-language cognition. In this work,
she has studied language development in linguistic isolates, normally developing
children, mentally retarded children, and children with pre-school language
impairments. She has also studied language breakdown in adults with acquired
aphasia and in adults with Alzheimer’s type dementia. She is currently carrying
out research to map grammar onto the brain by studying language development in
children with temporal lobe and intractable epilepsy who undergo different
cortical resections to alleviate their seizures. Her published works include a
book on a case of language acquisition outside of the critical period and
numerous articles on language development and language breakdown, and
dissociations between language and other aspects of the mind. She teaches
general Linguistics, language development, neurolinguistics, and
psycholinguistics, is co-director of the Psycholinguistics/Neurolinguistics
Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics, and directs several funded research
projects on language development the brain.
HC
64: Neuroscience and Psychology of Art and Biology of Aesthetics
Director: Dahlia W. Zaidel, Psychology
What is beauty? What is art? How do medical conditions (blindness/deafness) or mental illnesses (schizophrenia, hallucinations) affect art productions? What constitutes creativity and talent?
This course examines the interactions among neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy to understand the psychology of beauty and art. Our underlying premise is that beauty, whether of faces, art works, or other objects, is processed by the brain. We shall examine the brain of both the producer and the observer to discover that beauty, whether in the face or elsewhere, has neurobiological underpinnings, despite the fact that the judgment of beauty always seems to be subjective. We shall look at mate-selection strategies in animals and the effects of brain damage in artists. Finally, we shall assess the implications of our discoveries to business and the economy, politics, and science.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Life Sciences; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) Scientific Inquiry-Life Sciences. Also fulfills GE Seminar requirement - not Writing II.
Dahlia W. Zaidel, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology, specializes in behavioral neuroscience. She has written and published extensively on the biology of the brain and its effect upon behavior. She particularly interested in brain asymmetry, hemispheric specialization, and facial attractiveness. Her recent publications include “Regional Differentiation of Neuron Morphology in Human Left and Right Hippocampus: Comparing Normal to Schizophrenic.” International Journal of Psychophysiology, 34 (1999); and “Neuronal Connectivity, Regional Differentiation, and Brain Damage in Humans.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22 (1999).
(5 units)
(4 units)
(5 units)
(5 units)
HC
70AL: Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture, and Law (lab associated with HC 70A from W08)
(5 units)
Director: Bob Goldberg, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
(Description is for HC 70A:) For the first time in human history we have control over our biological destinies by using powerful genetic engineering technologies. What is genetic engineering and how has it affected our lives and society? The class will explore the basic concepts of genetic engineering and its applications in medicine, law, and agriculture. The goal of this class is to put genetic engineering into a scientific and historic perspective so that we can make objective decisions about how this technology should be used in the future.
Questions that will be addressed include: How are genes isolated, reprogrammed, and put back into living cells in order to change their genetic destiny? How has genetic engineering helped push back the frontiers of basic knowledge, created a multi-billion dollar biotechnology industry, and become part of our daily lives? Who owns our genes and can they be patented? How has our ability to manipulate DNA changed our concepts of privacy and made an impact on the criminal justice system? What federal and state laws govern our ability to manipulate living organisms, and what does the Constitution say about science?
What is the potential for using genetic engineering to create and combat bioweapons? How is genetic engineering being used to create the livestock and crops of tomorrow? What are the ethical issues related to producing genetically engineered food and powerful new drugs? How does genetic engineering affect the lives of people in the developing world and offer great benefits for their well being in the future? What are the implications of using genetic engineering to diagnose and cure diseases as well as enhance human life?
I will use lectures, films, and discussions to provide a basic understanding of how genetic engineering is carried out and what societal issues are raised by the use of this powerful technology. We will trace the history of genetic engineering technology, learn about the scientists who invented gene splicing techniques, and read Scientific American papers that describe first-hand how genetic engineering has changed our lives. We will also engage in debates about the ethical and societal issues that have arisen as a result of genetic engineering technology and act these debates out in "docudramas" to make them come alive.
At the end of the class, students will have the opportunity to have a "real-life" SRP experience in my laboratory using many of the genetic engineering technologies that they have read about and discussed.
Application on General Education Requirements: Given to main course (HC 70A)
NOTE: This course is NOT for students who have taken the following courses: Life Sciences 3, Life Sciences 4, or Microbiology 7.
Bob Goldberg is a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and has been on the UCLA faculty since 1976. He received his undergraduate degree in botany from Ohio University and his doctoral degree in plant genetics from the University of Arizona. Professor Goldberg's research focuses on the genes that control seed formation and how to use these genes to make the "super crops" of tomorrow. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field of plant molecular biology, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Order for Scientific Merit from the President of Brazil, and being listed as making one of the "Top 20" Professors in UCLA's 75-year history. He has received Distinguished Teaching Awards from the Department of Biology and the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, and he has received the Luckmann Distinguished Teaching Award and the Gold Shield Prize for Excellence in Research and Undergraduate Education from the Academic Senate. Recently, Professor Goldberg was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute University Professorship, which is sponsoring this Honors Collegium class.
Writing Numbers
(5 units)
Director: Juana Sanchez, Statistics
Statistical Literacy for all citizens involves having the capacity to resolve problems that require some notions of the statistical treatment of information and data. The understanding of tables and graphs, of changes in incidence of diseases, of opinion polls and survey results, of basic economic indicators, of arguments based on statistical information and data, among others, are basic demands on all of us. In this course, we examine stories and reports written or spoken without numbers, evaluate their effectiveness in conveying the main point of the story and transform them with numerical and graphical information obtained from reliable resources to determine whether they are thus more effective and appropriate for the purpose they are meant to serve.
We also evaluate stories written about numbers by the media and assess their appeal and interest to a wide audience, enhancing them with numerical data if necessary. The course requires: (a) reading stories/reportage and excerpts from books and other media (b) validating the numbers used in the stories or providing them if missing; (c) becoming acquainted with reliable quantitative information resources and understanding them and their use in the stories; (d) assessing the integrity of the statistical evidence; (e) writing different versions of the narratives; (f) mastering the statistical tools needed to interpret information wisely.
Juana Sanchez received her Ph.D.in Economics/Econometrics from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri and teaches in the Department of Statistics at UCLA. She also currently serves as Director of the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) of the International Association for Statistics Education. She is the author of many scholarly articles on statistics and has a special interest in the pedagogy of statistics. Recent works include “Pedagogical utilization and assessment of the statistic online computational resource in introductory probability and statistics courses,” Computers & Education. An International Journal, Vol. 50, Issue 1, January 2008, 284-300 (with I.D. Dinov and N. Christou); "What Came First: the chicken or the egg?" STATS, 47, (2007), pp 12-16 (with J. Wang); and “Internet Data Analysis for the Undergraduate Statistics Curriculum,” Journal of Statistics Education Volume 13, Number 3 (2005) (with Y. He).
HC
86: Psychology of Fear
Director: Kenneth A. Mazey
Phobias represent how people are distressed and disabled by intense fear.
This seminar examines the structure and process of irrational fears of animals, people and places. During the course of the seminar we will learn how to identify the types & boundaries of fear & associated features of anxiety and panic; develop understanding of the phobic experience (thoughts, emotions, and behaviors); apply interview strategies to research data regarding phobias; and differentiate among clinical methods for overcoming phobias. A discussion of courage and fear reduction strategies will complete the seminar.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Note: This course has an enrollment restriction Kenneth A. Mazey holds a Ph.D. in Social and Clinical Psychology from The Wright Institute, Berkeley, an MA in Philosophy from UC, San Diego, and a BA in Psychology from Rutgers University. He is a practicing Clinical Psychologist and has served as Director of Psychological Services & Staff Psychologist at the Center for Health Sciences, UCLA, in the Dental Fear and Anxiety Center, School of Dentistry.
(5 units)
Scientific Knowledge, Industrial Growth, and Social Policy
(5 units)
Director: Lynne Zucker, Sociology and Policy Studies
How is scientific knowledge generated and shared? What is the role of institutions such as universities, the law, and private corporations in the exploitation of scientific knowledge? How do national and regional policies affect the generation and sharing of knowledge? What are the benefits and risks of the development and application of new knowledge and how do we assess them?
This course uses the principles of economics, sociology, and policy studies to examine the effects of new scientific knowledge and technological innovations upon the economy and the society. Our topics will range from developments in biotechnology and semiconductors to computer software and communications, including the web. Using nanotechnology, we shall explore the problems of prediction of both benefits and risks to the economy and the society when such new technologies are in the process of development.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Lynne Zucker is Professor of Sociology and Policy Studies, and Director of the Center for International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy at the School of Public Policy & Social Research at UCLA. She is also Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research and Fellow, California Council on Science and Technology. Zucker's current research is on basic science and industry in nano-systems, biotechnology, and the web, joint with Michael Darby, Cordner Professor in the Anderson School, UCLA. One central research and policy question is the optimal amount of knowledge capture-how much knowledge does a scientist or a company need to be able to keep private in order to provide sufficient incentives to generate new knowledge. Her teaching reflects these interests: active learning through analysis and small-scale research.
HC
106: Imaginary Women
Director: Katherine King, Classics/Comparative Literature
This course analyzes three female cultural archetypes: the Absconding Wife/Mother, the Infanticide Mother, and the Warrior Woman. We shall compare the classical and modern manifestations of these archetypes in European and Euro-American cultures as Helen, Medea /Procne, and Penthesileia. We shall also study the roughly analogous archetypes in the classical/traditional literatures of selected African, Asian, Central American, and Native American cultures as compared with their re-visioned reincarnations in modern African American, Asian American, Native American, and Chicana/o literatures. Cross-cultural and cross-temporal analysis can provide insights into the relationship between a community's cultural imaginary and its political reality. In addition, we shall look for strategies of deconstruction and empowerment by and for "minority" (female and/or non-dominant ethnic) groups in writers who deploy experiences drawn from one or more marginalized cultures (e.g. feminist, Native American) as well as the dominant (European male) culture. Our course will take into account the fiction of writers of both sexes and several countries but will focus on treatment by women writers in the above mentioned five ethnic groups within the United States.
Application on General Education Requirements: None.
Note: This course has an enrollment restriction Katherine King holds a joint appointment in the Department of Classics and the Program in Comparative Literature. She received her BA in Greek and English from Vassar College, an MA in Classics from Columbia University, and an MA and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Her book, Achilles: Paradigms of the War Hero from Homer through the Middle Ages, has been published by the University of California Press. She has also edited Homer, a book on the influence of Homer from the Middle Ages through the 20th century. In 1992, she was recognized by Honors Programs for her outstanding contributions to the Honors Collegium. Mortarboard chose her as Faculty of the Quarter in the fall of 1992 and she received UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993.
HC
127: Citizenship, Leadership, and Service
Director: Robert Naples, Dean of Students
This course is directed towards students interested in public policy, education, urban planning, social welfare, political science, philosophy, communications, and history. The course includes theoretical and practical components.
This is an interactive, participatory seminar in which students will learn about the theoretical and practical connections between citizenship, leadership, and service. In the classroom, students will undertake a survey of readings on types and definitions of leadership that range from the classical models of Ancient Greece to the newest developments in the emerging post-industrial, relational leadership paradigm. Simultaneously, students will choose a service project in the community and be trained to lead an effective project. They will be enjoined to incorporate theory with their own values and with their experiences as leaders in their service projects.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) four units of Social Science credit (Social Analysis).
Robert Naples received his bachelor’s degree in Exceptional Children Education, his master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration, and his Ph.D. in Education. He has worked as Associate Dean of Students at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at the Cal Poly, Pomona. He is currently Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student and Campus Life and Dean of Students at UCLA. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he has taught courses in Fundamental Principles of Learning Skills, Career and Personal Exploration, and Sexual Student Affairs Practice and Theory.
HC
137: Political Satire: The Offensive Art
Director: Leonard Freeman, Political Science
Political Satire—the art of using wit to embarrass political leaders and comment caustically on political issues—has existed in many societies, authoritarian as well as democratic. Its purpose is deliberately offensive; typically, its tone is hostile, even cruel; and, inevitably, it exaggerates and distorts. Yet it represents a valuable challenge to abuses of power, to hypocrisy, and to overblown rhetoric. At its best, it can be aesthetically and intellectually pleasing through the deft display of wit, acute observation, and verbal dexterity.
This course studies political satire in several societies and in a variety of genres. Though the primary focus will be on the U.S. and Britain over the past century, material from a number of non-democratic countries in the modern era will also be considered, as well as examples from earlier periods. Genres reviewed include novels, plays, verse, songs, journalism, political cartoons, television and radio, movies, and satirical revues.
The first part of our course provides some historical perspective from the origins in Greece and Rome; explores the psychology of humor and satire; and reviews the socio-political conditions, which generate or constrain satire. The second part addresses some of the most common targets-- politicians, bureaucrats, the military, and the public at large—and explores some key questions. Why are politicians and politics especially vulnerable to satire? What circumstances encourage or discourage political satire? What motivates the satirists? To what extent is our response to satire affected by our personal biases.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Humanities-The Arts; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) None.
Leonard Freeman was born in England and received his bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and his Ph.D. in Political Science from UCLA where he has been a professor for many years. He has also served as Dean of UCLA Extension. His political science publications include Power and Politics in America and Politics and Policy in Britain, and he has written extensively in the field of continuing higher education. He is the recipient of the UCLA Alumni Association’s University Service Award, has acted as consultant on continuing education to universities in several countries, and has participated in a number of television and radio projects. Currently, he is working on a comparative study of political satire.
HC
139: African Americans and Africa in Perspectie
Director: Negussay Ayele, Political Science
African Americans and Africa in Perspective explores the saga of how African Americans struggled to relink their umbilical cord to Africa and Africans. To be sure, Africans were among the first peoples to reach the Americas prior to the enslavement of Africans across the Atlantic (formerly Ethiopian) Ocean. which dominated the scene since the seventeenth century. Whereas the identity, history and value systems of other Americans were asserted, respected, featured and extolled as norms, those of enslaved Africans in America were denied, deprecated, marginalized or altogether ignored. Africans in America endured the ignominy of chattel slavery and remained neither African nor American for over three centuries. Through it all, they sought to ascertain who they really were, where they came from, why they had different status among the other settlers around them, what they needed to do to restore their humanity and how best to cope with and surmount their tragic predicament. The pursuit of these burning concerns led them to retrace their roots, identity and history to Africa—initially called Ethiopia. They took the initiative to establish a working relationship with Africa towards the latter half of the 18th Century, even as they continued to struggle—against overwhelming odds—for fundamental human rights at home. Buoyed by the Biblical reference, “…Ethiopia shall soon stretch her hands unto God,” African Americans undertook a number of measures to develop and strengthen their bonding with Africa. By mid nineteen hundreds African American intellectuals were engaged in serious research to educate their own folks as well as other Americans about Africa and its true place in world history and civilization. Along with Afro-Caribbeans they played leading roles in Ethiopianist, Back to Africa, and Panafricanist movements. Meanwhile, the ruling elites in America began launching a ‘colonization’ scheme that culminated in the creation of Liberia in West Africa for the resettlement of Diaspora Africans.
At the threshold of the twentieth century, the momentum of African American involvement with Africa was accelerated with a series of Panafricanist congresses convened by W.E.B. Du Bois and others. The Italian Fascist Invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930’s galvanized peoples of African descent everywhere and spurred holy rage and steadfast solidarity with beleaguered Ethiopia despite U.S. government injunctions. World War II was a watershed in the relations of African Americans with Africa. Struggles for independence in Africa gained momentum after the War, just as African American struggle for human rights also intensified in the United States. The twin struggles benefited from each other’s successes. After 1945 relations between African Americans and Africans were entering a new phase as indigenous Africans began to assume more leadership roles in Panafrican activities. The emergence of more and more independent states in Africa in the early 1960s ushered a new era of State-to-State international relations in the context of the Cold War, which had severe complications for African American relations with Africa and Africans. The creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa in 1963 also yielded an unexpected stance of ‘land holding continentalism’ by Africans, resulting in the marginalization of (landless) diaspora panAfricanists. Subsequently, African Americans focused primarily on domestic Black Power movements, Black Studies programs and on developing Afrocentric paradigms and curricula in American centers of higher learning. By way of such academic exercises and paradigms, African American scholarship continued to redefine African American identity, history and culture in terms of its African and/or Kemetic groundings as well as on issues of justice and democracy in America.
African Americans and Africa in Perspective focuses on these and related phenomena in historical and contemporary perspective. It profiles determinant forces and factors, leading figures and defining moments in the relations between Diaspora and indigenous Africans. It also treats problems and prospects in these relations, including mutual perceptions and misperceptions. In particular, the complexities of carrying on people-to-people or ‘citizen diplomacy’ relations in the era of government-to-government (i.e., United States and African states) relations will be surveyed. Attention will be paid to the credible role played by African Americans and others in bringing down the Apartheid regime and the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. The overall state of relations between African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans and Africans in the 1970’s to the present will be scanned. The Rastafarian movement that began in Jamaica, Cuban involvement in African liberation armed struggles and related issues will be discussed. The roles of business, educational, humanitarian and cultural enterprises, activities and exchanges will be surveyed. Scenarios for symbiotic relations between African Americans and Africa in the new era of globalization as well as prognosis for the twenty-first century will be explored.
Note: Click here to access the course syllabus. HC
140: Social Psychology of Privilege and Oppression in Public Education
Director: Jerome Rabow, Sociology
While we understand a great deal about social arrangements that are permanently unequal (slavery, caste systems), less is understood about social arrangements that are temporarily unequal. Temporary inequality occurs in families and schools. These two institutions are ideally set up to achieve permanent equality in matters of race, gender, and class, but often fail to achieve these goals.
In this course, we shall examine one of these institutions: the contemporary American Public School. The course includes both theoretical and practical components. Our readings on education will focus on the way in which race, gender, class, and sexual orientation tend to become permanent inequalities, establishing deep social arrangements in American life. Concurrently, students will examine the practice of temporary inequality by spending three hours a week tutoring at a public school.
Out of theory and practice, we shall examine how the arrangements of inequalities are encouraged and reinforced in American public education at primary, high school and college levels; and we shall explore possible ways of modifying them.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) None.
Jerome Rabow areceived his Bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College, where he majored in Sociology and Psychology. He subsequently worked with delinquent boys at the Highfields Residential Treatment Center in Hopewell, New Jersey, and was the group therapist at the Provo Experiment in Delinquency Rehabilitation in Utah. Professor Rabow did graduate work at Columbia University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His research interests lie in psychoanalytical sociology, peace attitudes, gender and money, and college students' drinking and driving. His published works include Vital Problems for American Society; Sociology, Students, and Society; Cracks in the Classroom Wall; and Advances in Psychoanalytic Sociology.
HC
144: Stigma: Anthropology of the Dangerous Other
Director: Peter Hammond, Anthropology
This seminar is designed for honors students with an interest in analyzing the apparently common causes and consequences of the diverse forms of social inequality in which culturally ascribed stigma is the common factor. Our seminar discussions, readings, and research papers provide a comparative and cross-cultural perspective on forms of cultural stigmatization based on such criteria as caste and class, social race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, physical and/or mental "disability," and age.
Our analytic focus will be upon the dynamics of the socio-cultural attributes common to all stigmatized groups, and upon relations between stigma and the following: 1) constraints on access to economic resources; 2) obstacles to upward social mobility; 3) exclusion from information and access to power; 4) ideologies, aesthetic forms, and systems of communication that reinforce stigma; and 5) strategies for resisting stigmatized identity.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Notes: (1) This course has an enrollment restriction; (2) Click here to access the course syllabus. Educated in Latin America and Europe, Peter Hammond, received his Ph.D. in African Studies and Anthropology from Northwestern University. As a Ford Foundation Fellow, he conducted ethnographic field research on technological innovation and culture change in Francophone West Africa. He has served as Executive Director of the Division of Behavioral Sciences/ National Research Council/National Academy of Science and been a frequent consultant on Africa to national and global organizations. At UCLA Professor Hammond co-founded the Development Studies Program and established and directed both the UCLA Applied Anthropology Program and the Lusophone Africa Research Group. Most recently he has chaired the Chancellor’s Task Force on LGBT Studies. His current interest is in the cultural structuring of gender and sexuality, with initial ethnographic study in North Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Five books and some sixty journal articles and book chapters are the result to date of his research. He is a recipient of the Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Thais-Williams Professional Achievement Award from the Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association. He is also a UCLA Luckman Distinguished Teacher.
HC M152: Collapses of Past Societies and Their Lessons for Our Own Future
Director: Jared Diamond, Geography, Public Health, and Physiology
Most of us have at some point in our lives become fascinated by the romantic mysteries posed by vanished past societies: the Maya cities, the Anasazi, Angkor Wat, and many others. These ancient societies have taken on modern importance with the recent recognition that many of their collapses were at least partly due to environmental problems similar to those that we face today, such as problems of water management, deforestation, and soil erosion. What can we learn from those societies that might help us avoid their fates?
This is a challenging problem, because collapse is not inevitable. In some areas such as Japan and Java, complex societies have persisted for thousands of years without any signs of collapse. What made certain societies more vulnerable than others? Past collapses prove to have involved not just human environmental impacts, but also climate change, a society’s relations with its enemies and friends, and how a society’s leaders chose to deal with its problems. Again, all of these questions are acute today.
The course examines several sets of pre-industrial societies that met varying fates (Polynesians on Pacific islands, societies of the Southwestern U.S., and Vikings on North Atlantic islands), as background to examining how some modern societies are coping or failing to cope with their environmental impacts (Solomon Islanders, Caribbean Islanders, Australia, China, and the U.S.).
This course will interest anyone concerned with what may happen to our societies during the next 50 years. It will specifically interest those attracted to geography, history, anthropology, public health, public policy, and environmental law. No specific background is required, other than the will and ability to read widely in history and the sciences. There will be much assigned reading, a weekly lecture/discussion, and a weekly small discussion group.
Notes: (1) This course has an enrollment restriction; (2) Click here to access the course syllabus. Jared Diamond is professor of geography, public health, and physiology at UCLA. His three best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel, Why is Sex Fun?, and The Third Chimpanzee have won a Pulitzer Prize, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and (twice) Britain’s Science Book Prize. His many other awards include the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and UCLA teaching awards. For the last 40 years, he has worked especially on biological membranes and on New Guinea birds, and is now shifting his focus to environmental history.
Director: Robert Hill, History
This course will attempt to explore the question of impostureship as a window through which to view national identity in the context of cultural modernity and the anxiety that accompanies its demotic quality. If, as the great African American scholar W. E. B. Du Bois once observed, where black and colonized peoples are concerned modernity stands as a fraud, then the very concept of modernity comes already tinged with imposture.
Imposture is one of the most universal of human phenomena and re-emerges with a vengeance, one might say, in the context of modernity, where personal and social dislocation is the norm and the expanded resources of communication afford the individual new opportunity to try on the almost limitless possibilities of transformation. In this sense, imposture might be viewed as a cultural performance in pursuit not only of survival but also of the exploration of new meanings.
The course strongly emphasizes the cross-cultural approach to studying the phenomenon of imposture. Thus, the course will examine imposture is several sites: Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Near East, and South Asia. Course materials include historical narratives, fiction, essays, and films.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Robert A. Hill, Professor of History at UCLA, was educated at the University of Toronto in Canada and the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. He is also Editor-in-Chief and Project Director of the Marcus Garvey Papers at the James S. Coleman African Studies Center at UCLA. As well as his stewardship of the Garvey Papers, he is author of articles and books on West Indian history and is recipient of the Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica for Distinguished Contribution to History.
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172: French Thinkers of Society
Director: Malina Stefanovska, French and Francophone Studies
This course is intended as an in-depth study of the French theorists who wrote on society and on its impact on the individual.
We will start by studying early modern philosophers who examined justice and might from the point of view of its social effectiveness, as well as that of individual equity (Pascal), and who described the transformation of an individual into a citizen in the act of accepting the social contract (Rousseau). A reading of French anthropologist Marcel Mauss and sociologist Emile Durkheim would then touch upon a view of society as a whole rather than as a sum total of individuals, with particular emphasis on “the sacred”, or the “total social fact” as objects of their study. Having thus set a historical and theoretical framework for contemporary thinkers of the social realm, we would then read in depth Michel Foucault whose “genealogy” of the modern individual traces that notion in the organization of power systems as different as the judicial system, apparatuses for controlling sexuality, or disciplinary institutions as school, army or hospital. Michel de Certeau will allow us to deepen our understanding of the interaction between society and the individual in the realm of everyday life, as well as in non-discursive strategies related to the body and its expressive culture. Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, will further enrich our notion of the ways in which the social realm penetrates the individual, through his study of social class dynamics in France and the role of taste and cultural capital in social conflict. Literary autobiographies by French authors Simone de Beauvoir and Annie Ernaux will serve as illustrations of the sensibilities of bourgeois or working class childhood in their particular historical contexts.
Finally, two thinkers crucial for post-modern theories, Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard, will provide us with a social critique of the contemporary “society of spectacle” and its formative impact on the individual. All works will be read in translation.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Malina Stefanovska is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA and UCLA Clark Professor for 2007 -2008. She has also taught for two years as a Visiting Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She received her Ph.D. in French Literature from Johns Hopkins University and her special interests include memoirs, historiography, autobiography and other non fictional prose forms; seventeenth century theater; early modern culture and society; and contemporary French critical theory and social thought. She is the author of many articles as well as books in the field.
HC
175: Terrorism, Counter-terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Practical Approach
Directors: Michael Intriligator, Economics/Political Science/Public Policy; Peter Katona, Medicine; and Robert Spich, Anderson School
This course focuses on terrorism and its origins and examines how terrorism is or could be addressed at the local, national, and global levels. Our topics include a discussion of the variety of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons and their possible future use. We shall examine global approaches to quarantine, isolation and containment; terrorism, technology and the internet; protecting the infrastructure; soft targets, suicide bombers, and countermeasures; strategies for terrorist interventions; and the models that SARS and influenza might supply for how we should respond to bioterrorist threats. We shall also look at the likely motivation of terrorists (highlighting the importance of humiliation, hopelessness, lack of respect, and revenge as opposed to poverty and ignorance) as well as the role of the US military in the War on Terrorism and the legal challenges faced by the prevention of terror. The course will conclude with a discussion of the likely or ideal anti-terrorism environment of the future. The course includes guest lecturers from various departments at UCLA and from the Los Angeles and other areas.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Note: Click here for additional information about the course. Michael Intriligator is Emeritus Professor of Economics at UCLA. He is also Professor of Political Science and Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Policy and Social Research, and Co-Director of the Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences. He is a Senior Fellow of the Milken Institute in Santa Monica. He has taught courses in economic theory, econometrics, mathematical economics, international relations, and health economics, and he has received several distinguished teaching awards. Dr. Intriligator received his undergraduate S.B. degree in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his M.A. degree at Yale University, where he was the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship; and his Ph.D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of more than 200 journal articles and other publications in the areas of economic theory and mathematical economics, econometrics, health economics, reform of the Russian economy, and strategy and arms control, his principal research fields.
Peter Katona is Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (Infectious Diseases). He has trained at Cornell University, Yale University, Emory university and the University of Florida. His special areas of interest and research include clinical infectious diseases and internal medicine; epidemiology and public health; medical information technology; biological terrorism and biowarfare; and nanotechnology biodiagnostics. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Center for Disease Control’s Bioterrorism Advisory Committee for Public Health Preparedness and Response; a member of the Bioterrorism Work Group Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America; and a member of the Emergency Medical Services Taskforce on Hospital Bioterrorism Preparedness for the Hospital Association of Southern California. Dr. Katona is the author of several review articles on bioterrorism preparedness and is currently editing a book on a global networked response to counterterrorism.
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HC
169: Imposture and National Identity
(5 units)
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(5 units)