| HC 2 | Comparative Genocide |
| HC 4 | Immigrants and the American Dream |
| HC 7 | The Saint and the Heretic: Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, History and Myth |
| HC 11w | Postmodern Culture |
| HC 14 | The Interaction of Science and Society |
| HC 16 | Science of the Singing Voice |
| HC 20 | What is this Thing called Science: A General Introduction to the Nature of Modern Science |
| HC 29 | Critical Vision: History of Art as Social and Political Commentary |
| HC 34W | Construction and Migration of Knowledge: Rhetoric and Media for the Information Age |
| HC 35 | The Scientific Method: A Critical Inquiry into the Question of Extraterrestrial Life |
| HC 40W | Transformations of Cultural Stories Across Disciplines and Texts |
| HC 49 | Evidence in Law, Science, History, and Journalism |
| HC 55 | Culture and History of Utopias |
| HC 62 | Community and Self-Interest in the History of American Culture |
| HC 70A | Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture and Law |
| HC 81 | Eastern Christianity in Comparative Perspective: History, Doctrine, Culture |
| HC 82 | Community and Labor Development from the Ground Up |
| HC 83W | Politics and Rhetoric of Literature |
| HC 86 | Psychology of Fear |
| HC M106 | Imaginary Women |
| HC 107 | The Painful Birth: The Rise of Modern Capitalism in Late Medieval Italy |
| HC 109 | Language, Meaning, and the Making of Poetry |
| HC 114 | Architecture from Los Angeles: The Works of Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, and Greg Lynn |
| HC M116 | Art Alive: Art and Improvisation in the Museum |
| HC 121 | Psychoanalysis before Freud, and a Little after |
| HC 139 | African Americans and Africa in Perspective |
| HC M150 | Formal Modeling and Simulations in the Social Sciences |
| HC 153 | International Flash Points |
| HC 165 | Women and Literature in Southeastern Europe |
| HC 166 | Stories of Cultural Distance and Imposed Assimilation |
| HC 173 | Lincoln and the American Political Tradition |
Director: Richard G. Hovannisian, History
Genocide is an extreme
manifestation of conflict in racial, ethnic, and religious interrelations. Its
study in a comparative interdisciplinary perspective is illuminating for an
understanding of more peaceful group relations, the processes by which these
might eventuate in group conflict, and the possibilities for preventative
action. The latter concern is particularly significant given the failure of the
United Nations to act under the provision of the Convention for the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the increasing pressure of population
on scarce resources, the ready availability of highly destructive weapons, and
the habituation of mass killings.
The course is based on a number of case studies presented in theoretical
perspective. The case studies are viewed comparatively to measure similar and
dissimilar circumstances and aspects, and to test certain suggested
characteristics of the victims and the perpetrators, such as differences in
religion, race, or nationality, and the effects of both colonializing and
decolonializing processes. The issues of intent as well as consequences are to
be considered.
Major topics will include theory of genocide, structural analyses of the
societies involved, processes of polarization of group relations, and the role
of ethnic, racial, and religious differences and of ideological commitment in
genocidal conflict.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Social Sciences-Historical Analysis or Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - None
Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, received his BA and MA degrees from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. from UCLA. A Guggenheim Fellow, he has received distinguished honors for his scholarship, civic activities, and advancement of Armenian studies. He is the author of many articles and books, including Armenia on the Road to Independence; The Republic of Armenia (four volumes); and The Armenian Holocaust. He has also edited and contributed to several other works, including the Armenian Image in History and Literature, The Armenian Genocide in Perspective, and The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics. In 1987, he was appointed the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA.
HC
4: Immigrants and the American Dream
Director: William A.V. Clark, Geography
This course is about the process of attaining the "American Dream". Even though the notion of the American Dream may be intangible to many Americans, it is almost palpable to those who struggle to make the passage across the Rio Grande or on a cargo ship from China. These immigrants are drawn by the allure of upward mobility and the belief in its possibility. It is a translation of a "seeking their fortunes" psychology into migration and a new beginning.
Two competing perspectives characterize the many studies of immigration to the United States. One celebrates the contributions of immigrants to their new societies; the other anguishes over the trying circumstances with which immigrants grapple every day. The positive accounts regard Latinos as the next Italians, certain to succeed through hard work and determination. The more negative would close the door to poor and unskilled immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Clearly, strongly competing agendas inform these differing perspectives on immigration, among them the desire for cheap labor, or the need for skilled technicians, or even the humanitarian concern to afford opportunities for as many as possible. Who is right? What is the evidence for achieving the American Dream?
Application on General
Education Requirements: None
HC
7: The Saint and the Heretic: Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais, History and Myth
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 (Fall 2002) - Arts and Humanities-Literary & Cultural 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 11w: Postmodern Culture
Director: Gregory
Rubinson, Writing Programs
This course will explore the theories and art (literature, music, film, fine arts) that emerged after World War II in what has come to be known as the “Postmodern Era.” The “Postmodern Condition,” as French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard calls it, marks a new skepticism about “master narratives” such as Enlightenment Progress, Marxism, Freudian theory, and religion. These master narratives once sought to explain and order society according to a single, umbrella ideology. In contrast, the postmodern era is widely regarded as one of fragmentation, skepticism towards universal truth claims, commodification of knowledge, simulacra taking the place of reality, media creating reality, and globalization in industry and society.
The course will begin with a modest study of the varying definitions of postmodernism and the postmodern era through selections from the writings of postmodern philosophers such as Lyotard, Frederic Jameson, Richard Rorty, and Jean Baudrillard. We will move quickly on to an interdisciplinary survey of postmodern cultural production. We will, for example, study fiction by Don DeLillo, Salman Rushdie, and Angela Carter; music by John Cage and Philip Glass; film by Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut; and fine art by the likes of Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, and Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Throughout the course, we will explore how postmodern art critiques attempts to critique the social and cultural decay at the heart of the postmodern era. We will discuss how postmodern art breaks with narrative conventions of the past and why it does so. We will explore how and why it values subjectivity in knowledge acquisition. We will discuss the reasons for and effects of postmodern art’s experiments with form and content. And we will consider whether postmodernism is actually its own, separate era and artistic movement, or if it is merely an extension of modernism.
Application on General
Education Requirements: New
L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Arts and Humanities-Literary & Cultural Analysis
Gregory Rubinson
holds a B.A. with Honors in English and Drama from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England and a PhD in English from the University of Rochester, New York. He is author of The Fiction of Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson, and Angela Carter: Breaking Cultural and Literary Boundaries in the Work of Four Postmodernists, (Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005); as well as of many academic articles on postmodernism. He has taught at the University of Provence in France as well as at UCLA.
HC 14: The Interaction of Science and Society
Director: Jeffrey H.
Miller, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
This course addresses the
interaction of Science and Society and examines how this interaction affects
history. The course is aimed at bringing together both science and nonscience
majors for discussions on topics that affect all of society. We shall deal with
case histories, such as Mad Cow Disease and related diseases in humans, and the
spread of the Ebola virus, and AIDS. The course will include topics of current
relevance, such as the issues posed by genetic engineering and by the
possibility of cloning animals and human beings; the debate over how society is
reacting to and needs to react to the prospect that we are losing the war
against infectious disease; and issues posed by the possibility of biological
weapons. One of our texts, The Coming Plague by Laurie Garret, deals with
newly emerging diseases. Another, Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared
Diamond of UCLA, looks critically at the fates of human societies.
This course should be of interest to science, history, philosophy, and
political science majors, among others. No special scientific background is
assumed.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 002) - Life Sciences; New
L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Scientific Inquiry-Life Sciences; GE Seminar - Yes; GE Writing
II - No
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Jeffrey H. Miller
received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology. After two years as a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows,
he joined the faculty of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where he headed
a research group involved in understanding the molecular basis of mutagenesis.
He is a recipient of the Friedrich Miescher Award of the Swiss Biochemical
Society. After eleven years of teaching and research in Switzerland, he
subsequently joined the faculty at UCLA where he is currently Professor in the
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. He is author of over 150
research articles and of six books, including textbooks in Introductory Genetics
and Advanced Molecular Genetics. His most recent book, Discovering Molecular
Genetics, was published in 1996. He has been honored for his distinguished
contributions to the Honors Collegium.
HC 16: Science of the Singing Voice
Director: Patricia Keating, Linguistics
Singing is an instance of human voice production, and as such can be studied in the way that speech is studied by speech scientists. The scientific study of singing is a small but growing field that uses methods from speech physiology and acoustics to characterize differences among singing voices and performances. The classic work is by Johann Sundberg of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology, e.g. Sundberg (1989), and in this country by Ingo Titze of the National Center for Voice and Speech in Denver. Some of this knowledge has begun to be known to singing teachers: from the research side, by the work of the Center, and from the singing side, through books such as those by Miller (1996) and Nair (1999). Leaving aside the needs of the serious professional-level singer, amateur singers - especially those with an interest in science and experimentation - often find this sort of study of the voice fascinating. The course will introduce students to methods for quantifying aspects of voice production, so that voice samples can be compared across singers, styles, etc. Every aspect of voice presented in class will be explored through hands-on lab work in the computer classroom. We will look at the students’ own vocal productions as well as recorded samples of famous singers.
The resources of the Linguistics Department Phonetics Lab, developed for the study of speech production and acoustics, are well-suited to quantitative learning about the singing voice. Programs for acoustic analysis, used in phonetics courses, are already available in the CLICC, and specialized equipment used to study speech physiology can easily be brought into the CLICC classroom. Application on General Education Requirements: None Patricia A. Keating is Professor of Linguistics at UCLA and Director of UCLA’s Phonetics Laboratory. She received her BA in Russian and French from Wellesley College and her MA and PhD in Linguistics from Brown University. She is the author of many papers and publications on phonetics and phonology and is a member of the Council of the International Phonetic Association and an elected Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. She is a UCLA Distinguished Teacher.
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
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 29: The Critical Vision: A History of Art as Social and
Political Commentary Director: Paul VonBlum,
Center for African American Studies
For several centuries, the
visual art forms of painting, graphic art, photography, and sculpture have been
used as vehicles for social and political commentary. Our course explores this
tradition, with an emphasis on modern art in the twentieth century. We shall
focus particularly on the value of art as social, political, and historical
inquiry and on its effectiveness in communicating political ideas and
criticisms. Art works from Europe, the United States, Africa, and Latin America
treat such themes as war, poverty, persecution, alienation, racism, bureaucracy,
and political corruption. The seminar incorporates current research on
contemporary social and political art, including art works such as Latino and
African American mural art, poster and cartoon art, women's issues in visual
art, and new forms of public art such as assemblage, guerrilla, and conceptual
art.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Humanities-The Arts,
Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) -
None
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Paul Von Blum taught at
the University of California at Berkeley from 1968-1979, where he headed the
interdisciplinary social science major for six years and where he has been
honored for his distinguished teaching. He has taught at UCLA since 1980,
serving in several social science and humanities departments and programs and
receiving a UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 1986. He has also taught as a
student-recommended faculty member at UC Irvine. Author of four books and more
than fifty articles and reviews on the relationship of art, culture, and
society, he has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin
America.
HC 34W: Construction and Migration of Knowledge: Rhetoric and Media for the Information Age
Director: Jennifer Westbay, Writing Programs
Although knowledge migrates across discourse communities in a number of ways, this courses focuses on two basic patterns: the rhetoric of popularization -- or what happens when esoteric knowledge travels to nonspecialist readers -- and the rhetoric of canonization -- how ephemeral information becomes institutionalized in various repositories of culture. At first, the focus will be print and electronic genres, both mainstream and alternative,
scholarly/professional and popular, and niche markets. But students will also examine additional media (and mediums) of knowledge exchange, such as the expert witness, the library, the museum, the department store, the performing arts, consultants, advertising, and social service organizations. Part rhetorical theory, part communications analysis, part information sciences -- and all writing -- this course works to help students to research critically,
using the latest techniques and technology, and to understand choices that published writers make about selecting and organizing content for targeted audiences. Moreover, along with a thorough workout in stylistic analysis and manipulation, responding to the writing of classmates in large-group workshops will develop in students an editor’s resourcefulness and respect for writers and the ways they select and organize results of research.
Satisfactory completion of this course with a grade of "C" or better will satisfy the Writing II requirement.
Jennifer Westbay holds an M.A. and Ph.D in English from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has researched, published and presented at conferences, attended seminars and taught courses on media and the migration of knowledge. She founded and for three years taught the three-quarter Community Journalism Project for UCLA Writing Programs and ASUCLA student media. She has a contract with a publisher for a composition textbook based on theme of this proposed course. HC 35: The Scientific Method: A Critical Inquiry into the Question of Extraterrestrial Life
Director: William I. Newman, Earth and Space Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Mathematics
Are we alone in the universe? Since the dawn of history, human beings have speculated on whether life might exist on other worlds. Presently, we have the technological capability to answer this question, an answer, be it positive or negative, that will have a profound effect on humanity. Our course will examine the question, “Are we alone in the universe?”, which will not only challenge our thinking from many standpoints, but also offer a pedagogical tool to introduce the central ideas, techniques, and limitations of critical thinking and the scientific method. The course includes lectures, discussions, films, and field trips and evokes substantial scholarly inquiry via independent research projects and papers. Guest lectures provide different points of view and specialized expertise on some topics discussed. This is a course about the scientific method and its applications to the question of whether, how, and where life may have emerged elsewhere. (It is not a course legitimizing the so-called paranormal). Course content blends elements of planetary science, astronomy, geology, atmospheric science, and other physical--as well as life--science disciplines.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Physical Sciences; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - None.
William I. Newman, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, Astronomy and Physics, and Mathematics, is a graduate of the University of Alberta and of Cornell University. He is a former Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a former Stanislaw Ulam Visiting Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. A theoretician by training, he works on a variety of problems in geophysics, space physics, and astrophysics, as well as in certain areas of applied mathematics. His current research interests include the atmospheres of the major planets, the earthquake mechanism, the dynamics of solar system bodies and disk galaxies, and topics in cosmology.
HC 40W: Transformations of Cultural Stories across Disciplines and
Texts Director: Cheryl
Giuliano, Writing Programs
This course is presented in
two parts, each of which examines the writing and rewriting of a traditional
story type: the adventure story and the “Cinderella” fairy tale. In each part,
the texts will be read as individual works and as examples of transformations of
these classic story forms.
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, one of the most famous, representative
adventure stories of all time, has been transformed and redefined in many
editions, abridgements, imitations, and remodelings. This course will trace
recreations of the story from its original reporting of Alexander Selkirk’s
shipwreck to Defoe’s radical rewrite of Selkirk’s devastating experience as a
castaway into a survival story and spiritual biography. Defoe’s story was
canonized as the archetypal modern adventure story and as a foundation myth of
modern, enlightened, imperial Europe which began a series of stories motivated
by conservative politics of masculinity and imperialism. Booker prize-winning
writer J.M Coetzee, a white, South African enemy of apartheid, rewrites
Robinson Crusoe in his short novel Foe from the perspective of a
marginalized, female character absent in Defoe’s story.
“Cinderella,” one of the best-known fairy tales in the world, exists in over
700 variants. This part of the course defines and analyzes the popular motifs of
the Cinderella story and studies their transformations across different genres
and time periods in such texts as Shakespeare’s King Lear, Esquival’s
Like Water for Chocolate, and Smiley’s A Thousand Acres. The
changing motifs will be analyzed in terms of cultural values and gender
transformations.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Humanities-Literature;
New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - None
Satisfactory completion of this course with a grade of "C" or better will
satisfy the Writing II requirement.
Cheryl F. Giuliano has
a BA in Mathematics from NYU, and an MAT in English Education and a Ph.D. in
Literature from the University of Chicago. She is the author of several articles
in the fields of romantic poetry and composition studies and is a UCLA Luckman
Distinguished Teacher. Her most recent publication is a book of textual
scholarship on Lord Byron’s attitudes toward Wellington, Napoleon, and the
French Revolution (Garland Publishing, 1997), which includes transcriptions of
poems from original manuscripts, descriptions of Byron’s composing process, and
composition histories of the poems.
HC 49: Evidence in Law, Science, History, and
Journalism Director: Kenneth
Graham, Law
Democracy requires
well-informed citizens. Politics poses many questions. Is ozone disappearing
from the atmosphere? Do corporations or terrorists kill more people? Is this
candidate lying? But, except in specialized courses such as historiography and
epistemology, even well-educated people seldom ponder how they know what they
think they know about such questions.
Courts have an elaborate set of procedures and principles for determining
such disputed questions of fact. Is the law of evidence a useful model for
citizens? Critics would be horrified by the suggestion; many have argued that
courts themselves should abandon rules of evidence in favor of evidentiary
techniques of science, history, or even journalism. Are the critics right? To
answer this requires us to compare the fact-finding principles and practices of
these disciplines. That is what this course is about.
Although the readings and class discussion will be cross-disciplinary,
students will specialize in one of the non-legal disciplines. Working
individually and in teams, they will write short, weekly essays on some
evidentiary issue that arises in one of their other classes or in the media. In
addition, they will write a substantial research topic in their field of
specialization. Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Social Sciences-Social
Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) None
Kenneth Graham ran
the mile, played the high post, and tried every position on the offensive and
defensive line before his high school coaches convinced him he was more suited
to academics than athletics. After receiving his BA and JD from the University
of Michigan and his P.F.C. from the U.S. Army, he practiced as a corporate
lawyer, in a legal service office, and as a public prosecutor. He has taught at
the Army Guided Missile School, the National Judicial College, and, since 1964,
at the UCLA Law School, where he received a University Distinguished Teaching
Award in 1987. He has written seven volumes of a treatise on the law of
evidence, but has yet to complete that or a marathon.
HC 55: The Culture and History of Utopias Director: Russell
Jacoby, Political Science
Utopian ideas have longed
served to record the hopes and dreams of society. They have raised perennial
philosophical and ethical arguments about the quest for a perfect society; and
in the more recent past—the 19th century, they both inspired efforts to create
communities of freedom and brother hood and served as engines of social and
political reform. In the 20th century, however, utopian energies have dwindled.
Utopian visions, even, have been denounced as totalitarian and violent.
In this course, we shall consider the culture and history of utopia by
studying major utopian writings, from Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) through
Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888) and beyond. We shall be
concerned both with texts and contexts, history and philosophy. We want to
understand these utopian writings; we want to situate them in their historical
context and consider their strengths, weaknesses, impact, and politics. We shall
also examine the reasons for the collapse of utopianism; and to this end, we
shall consider dystopian or anti-utopian literature. Ultimately, however,
utopianism is not obsolete, and the course will conclude with some recent
ecological and feminist utopian writings. Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre-Fall 2002) Humanities-Literature or
Social Sciences-Historical Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002)
None
Russell Jacoby, Adjunct
Professor of History at UCLA, attended the Universities of Chicago, Wisconsin,
and Rochester, where he received his Ph.D. He has taught at numerous schools in
the United States and Canada and has held a Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships. His
books have been translated into eight languages and include Dialectic of
Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism; The Repression of Psychoanalysis: Otto
Fenichel and the Political Freudians; The Last Intellectuals: American Culture
in the Age of Academe; Dogmatic Wisdom: How the Cutter Wars Divert Education and
Distract America; and an edited collection, The Bell Curve Debate:
History, Documents, Opinions. His new book, The End of Utopia, was
published in 1999.
HC
62: Community and Self-Interest in History of American Culture
Director: Ruth Bloch
The history of American thought has been marked by an effort to reconcile contradictory sets of values-- hierarchy and equality, institutional constraints and the spirit of voluntarism, a collective sense of mission with a belief in the autonomous, self-improving individual. At critical points, events have borne down hard on these ambivalent affirmations and forced American intellectuals to address the internal tensions in their culture. In this course, we shall explore the historical origins and development of the values and beliefs that form the poles in the magnetic field of American faith. We shall also trace these basic themes culturally as the United States changed from a novel republic in the age of the revolution to an industrial nation and finally to a proselytizing world power.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Social Sciences-Historical Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Arts & Humanities-Lietary & Cultural Analysis OR Social Sciences-Historical Analysis
Ruth Bloch, Professor of History at UCLA, has also served as Chair of Women’s Studies. She attended Radcliffe College and received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980, prior to joining the faculty here at UCLA. She is especially interested in the relationship between religious ideas and social change in early American history, and has published works about women’s history and the history of the American Revolution. Her current work is on history of early American marriage.
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HC 70A: Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture, and Law
(5 units)
Director: Bob Goldberg, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
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: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Life Sciences; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) – Scientific Inquiry-Life Sciences
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.
HC 81: Eastern Christianity in Comparative Perspective: History,
Doctrine, Culture Director: Ronald Vroon,
Slavic Languages and Literatures
This course introduces
students to Eastern Christianity, the third major branch of Christendom,
particularly in comparison with Roman Catholicism and the major Protestant
denominations that dominate the American religious landscape. Though it is the
second most populous branch of Christianity in the world, with 250-300 million
followers, Eastern Christianity remains unfamiliar to most American students of
religion. Its institutional centers and the majority of its adherents are found
in areas of the globe that, until a decade ago, were at a substantial political
and cultural remove from the West. By the same token, although the Eastern
churches are numerically well-represented in the United States, they are still
camouflaged by the mask of their ethnic origins. Our course will seek to explore
the common philosophical and metaphysical beliefs and mentality that lie behind
these masks, comparing and contrasting the Eastern churches to those that
dominate in the West. We shall examine how a specifically Eastern Orthodox
outlook has developed alternative and unique perspectives, within the broader
Judeo-Christian tradition, in addressing metaphysical, ethical, cultural, and
social issues. Two goals emerge: an awakening of the significance of alternative
views on the nature of the divine, the cosmos, and the human condition; and an
understanding of the socio-political context of nations and cultures that have
had no experience of a Renaissance or Reformation and whose approaches to the
role of religion in political life, the function of art in society, and the role
of the individual and the collective are fundamentally different from that of
the Western mainstream.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall
2002) - Social Sciences-Historical Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) -
None Ronald Vroon, Professor
of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UCLA, received his M.A. and Ph.D. from
the University of Michigan. He specializes in Russian Literature and has
published on both eighteenth century Russian literature and Russian modernism.
His research interests include the history of the Poetic Sequence in Russian
literature, especially the poets Derzhavin, Sumarokov, and Tediakovskii; the
influence of the Old Belief on Russian culture; and the writings of Velimir
Khlebnikov whose Collected Works he has edited.
HC 82: Community and Labor Development from the Ground
up Director: Jacqueline
Leavitt, Urban Planning
Grassroots groups are making a
difference in their residential neighborhoods and work environments, especially
through economic development projects that impact housing, employment, and
health and the environment. This course will introduce students to case studies
about practical applications of community development and outreach office in the
Los Angeles area. These projects will be drawn from the Community Outreach
Partnership Center (COPC) of the Advanced Policy Studies Institute within the
School of Public Policy and Social Research and involve faculty, students, and
staff at UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning and the Center for Labor Research
Education. Experienced community leaders and trainers in the areas of housing,
economic development, environmental education, labor organization, and health
education will join UCLA faculty in course presentations of their work and
efforts in the Los Angeles area as well as drawing case study material from
around the globe. Special attention will be directed toward analyzing and
recommending actions regarding the housing needs of low-income workers in Los
Angeles. Class projects will include student interviews of community leaders and
representations of government agencies.
Application on General Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall
2002) - Social Sciences-Social Analysis; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) -
None Jacqueline Leavitt is
Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA and co-author of From Abandonment to
Hope: Community Households in Harlem and The Hidden History of Low Income
Housing Cooperatives. She is Principal Investigator for a U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant called the Community Outreach
Partnership Center program. Her research focuses on housing and community
development with a particular emphasis on public housing and women. She is a
recipient of a Fulbright award to work in New Zealand, where she has been
studying the privatization of state-subsidized housing. Kent Wong of
UCLA’s Labor Center will act as a primary advisor to students and organize a
group of faculty and staff from the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC)
who will participate in different class discussions and presentations.
HC 83W: Politics and the Rhetoric of Literature
Director: G. Jennifer Wilson, Honors Programs
This course examines the relationships among literature, rhetoric, and politics. Drawing on texts from the classical to the present, it examines the way in which art and language become didactic vehicles for the didactic expressions of a culture. The examination of literature and politics will broaden into a general discussion of the development of political discourse in Western thought, in particular, the relationship between the society and the individual, between the politics of the self and the politics of the state, between personal freedom and social obligation, between ideology and the practical business of living, between one nation's or person's values and another's. The course focuses on literary texts which are ostensibly didactic: they examine social ills with the primary aim of exposing them and sometimes with the covert aim of suggesting ways in which we can ameliorate the apparently tragic relationship between human beings and their societies. The class will spend some time practicing close rhetorical analysis as a way of discovering that language, including what Sartre calls "inauthentic" language, is the shaper of both the self and the state; that writing, whether it be propaganda, exposition, of fiction, is always a political, and therefore ethical enterprise.
Satisfactory completion of this course with a grade of "C" or better will satisfy the Writing II requirement.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - Humanities-Literature or Humanities-Language and Linguistics; New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Arts and Humanities-Literary and Cultural Analysis; GE Seminar/GE Writing II - Yes
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction for this course.
G. Jennifer Wilson received her BA at the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in England, and her MA and Ph.D. at the University of California, where she has received many awards for her distinguished teaching. Her special field is literature of the American South, and she is the author of articles on the uses of history and politics in literature as well as on honors pedagogy. As Assistant Vice Provost for Honors in the College of Letters and Science, she has a special familiarity with and concern for honor students. She has been recognized by Honors Programs for her outstanding contributions to the Honors Collegium and is a UCLA Luckman Distinguished Teacher.
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.
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.
HC M106: Imaginary Women
Director: Katherine Callen King, Classics and 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.
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Application on General Education Requirements: None
Katherine Callen 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
107:
The Painful Birth: The Rise of Modern Capitalism in Late Medieval Italy
Director: Marco Codebò, Italian
Modern capitalism was born in Italian cities around 1100 AD when merchants and bankers started an urban and commercial revolution in which they had to fight the old dominant classes on economic as well as ideological grounds. The cultural implications of this conflict led the merchants into a collusion with the values embodied by the feudal nobility and the Church.
Our course begins by looking at the economic basics of the urban class ascent: the demographic and agricultural boom of 1000 AD; the vitalization of commerce and monetary economy; and the invention of such financial tools as the compagnia (limited partnership) and commenda (joint stock company). Subsequently, the bulk of the course focuses on ideological issues: the contempt for commerce in classic and medieval societies; the prohibition of usury; the evolution of the ideal of nobility; the choice between earth and sky.
We shall examine medieval texts to understand how a new ideal of life and a new image of the human enterprise came eventually to be molded at the end of this revolution (circa 1400 AD), establishing the ground not only for Humanism but also for modernity as we know it.
Application on General Education Requirements: None
Marco Codebò received his Lauree, the first in Philosophy and the second in Italian Literature, at the University of Genoa, Italy. He taught Italian Literature and History in the Italian High Schools for fifteen years. In 1992, he joined the Italian Department at UCLA where he is teaching now. He is doing research on the Italian narrative of the twentieth century and on the relationship among religion, culture, and literature in the Middle Ages.
HC 109: Language, Meaning, and the Making of Poetry
Director: Luigi
Ballerini, Italian
Languages are not spoken by
people but merely repeated by them. More often than not, communication is
carried out through a depressingly small number of ready-made expressions,
coined and "notarized" by the simplifiers of meaning (the politicians, the
entertainers, etc.) and those who have gained control of the media (the
"perverters of language," in the words of Ezra Pound). In this deplorable state
of affairs, that which enables human beings to widen the circle of information
also deprives them of the awareness they must necessarily have to make that
information relevant.
How many people know the implications of the word "awesome"? How many can
identify the origins of the simplest terms: war, villain, bellicose, etc.?
This course aims to stage a semiological warfare against abusers of language.
Its strategy is twofold: a) to analyze samples of modern and contemporary speech
(sound bites, sit-com dialogues, political and, in some cases, even academic
addresses); b) to trace a brief history of the philosophic and poetic discourse
on language and, more specifically, to highlight the difference language can
make when deployed in the fullness of its possibilities. Finally, the course
will stress the social and political significance of treating poetry as "first
language."
Luigi Ballerini,
Professor of Italian, is a widely published poet and theorist of literature. His
primary interest is the way language structures morality, knowledge, and
cultural philosophy. Since the late sixties, his writings have attempted to
revitalize our sense of emotional and intellectual expression. He received his
doctorate from the University of Bologna. His books in English include: The
Waters of Casablanca (1977); Che figurato muore (1988); and
Shakespeherian Rags (1996). He has translated into Italian works by
William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, and Henry James amongst
others.
HC 114: Architecture from Los Angeles: The Works of Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, and Greg Lynn
Director: Ann Bergren, Classics
The goal of this course is to stimulate interest, understanding, and appreciation of architecture. It is designed to serve students with some interest, but no previous experience with the topic.
The course focuses upon the fact that within the last thirty years or so there has emerged a body of architectural work that—joining other cultural products like film and television—originates from Los Angeles and reaches the world in both material construction and aesthetic influence. This rich and influential aspect of the Los Angeles cultural milieu is represented by three architects: 1) Frank Gehry, arguably the most well-known architect in the world, won the Pritzker Prize – something like a Nobel prize for architecture – in 1989. Critical examples of both early projects and later work – each phase transformed architectural practice and thought - are here in Los Angeles. 2) Thom Mayne has practiced in Los Angeles since the late ‘70’s, is currently on the faculty of the UCLA School of Architecture, and is the 2005 Pritzker laureate. Of his many projects in Los Angeles, the Cal Trans District 7 Headquarters, 2004 joins with the Disney Concert Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to form a trio of architectural monuments in the new downtown. 3) Greg Lynn, who is also on the faculty of UCLA Architecture, is the world’s leading pioneer in the use of computer technology for the design and construction of architecture. His work has been featured at the international level for several years. He is the acknowledged exemplar in the use of animation software (the software by which film creates elaborate animations and “special effects”) in the formation of architectural design and manufacture. Ann Bergren, Professor of Classics at UCLA, holds a Ph.D. in Classical Philology and a Master’s in Architecture both from Harvard University. She has taught Classics at Princeton, Stanford, University of Iowa, and Wellesley as well as UCLA; and Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In addition to her published scholarly work in the Classics, she is the author of many articles on architecture and design and is particularly interested in urban architecture and the architecture of the feminine.
HC M116: Art Alive: Art and Improvisation in the
Museum Director: Sandra
Caruso, Theater
“Art Alive” is a course
offered through the UCLA Honors Collegium in collaboration with the Getty
Center’s Education Department. The course is designed for students to bring
paintings/sculptures from the Getty Center museum collection to life through
acting, dialogues, and movement. Students research the period and artist of a
particular painting, investigate the lives of its subjects, and decide the mood,
theme, emotion, and meaning of the piece. Students then improvise what happened
before, during, and after the frozen dramatic moment a painter has captured on
the canvas. The class will culminate with a performance of the students’
creations.
“Art Alive” intentionally crosses traditional boundaries imposed on the
disciplines and allows history, art, and acting to coexist in one educational
endeavor. The aim is to promote and enrich art in our culture and to bring an
understanding of painting and acting, as well as art history, to UCLA students.
No prior acting experience is required.
Sandra Caruso, Adjunct
Professor of Theater, teaches acting in the School of Theater, Film, and
Television at UCLA as well as a course for screenwriters and actors. She has
worked as a professional actor and has trained with distinguished acting
teachers, including Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Uta Hagen. She is
presently a member of Milton Katselas’s master acting class. She has a Bachelor
of Arts degree from New York University, a Master's degree from the UCLA Theater
Department, and a Teaching Credential from California State University,
Northridge. She has directed many plays in the Los Angeles area. She is author
of The Actor's Book of Improvisation: Dramatic Situations for the Teacher and
the Actor (Penguin, 1992) and The Young Actor’s Book of Improvisation:
Dramatic Situations from Shakespeare to Spielberg, Vol. I and II (Heinemann,
1998).
HC 121: Psychoanalysis before Freud -
and a Little after Director: Irwin Savodnik, Clinical Psychiatry
What is self-knowledge? How do we conceive of what it means to be human? This course examines the different ways human beings have developed conceptions of themselves throughout history. The course is organized historically, beginning with biblical sources through the Greeks and Romans, the early Christian world, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, scientific revolution, Enlightenment, the origins of the modern world, Freud’s fin de siècle Vienna and post-Freudian visions. In addition to garnering a deep appreciation of the understanding of self in history, students will also investigate the various iterations of these different conceptions in the present day and be encouraged to develop a critical sense of what is “right” and “wrong” about each perspective studied. While the focus of the reading is on Western thought, students who wish to pursue the history of the conception of the self in non-Western areas are encouraged to do so.
Irwin Savodnik, received his M.A.
and Ph.D with Honors from NYU and his M.D from the Upstate Medical Center at the State University of New Your. He has a second Ph.D. from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Instute.
He completed residencies in Psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine Medical School and at Harvard University College of Medicine. The author of many articles and several books, he has taught on the faculty of medical research institutions around the nation and
currently serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA.
HC 139: African Americans and Africa in Perspective
Director: Negussay
Ayele, Political Science
This course focuses on
the saga of how African Americans have struggled to reattach their umbilical
cord to Africa and Africans.
After enduring the ignominy of slavery—and remaining “neither African nor
American” for three centuries—blacks in the Americas started to ask themselves
some critical questions. Who were they? Where had they come from? Why were they
accorded a different status than other settlers around them? How should they
cope with and surmount their predicaments? Their pursuit of answers to these
questions led them to retrace their genesis, identity, and history to the
African continent, initially referred to as “Ethiopia.” Buoyed by the Biblical
reference that “Ethiopia shall soon stretch her hands unto God,” African
Americans undertook a number of measures to develop their bonding with Africa:
along with Afro-Caribbeans, they played leading roles in the Back to Africa, the
Panafricanist, and the Colonization movements.
In the twentieth century, the momentum of African American involvement with
Africa was accelerated with a series of panafrican congresses, the fascist
invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the emergence of independent African states
in Africa, and the development of Black Power and Afrocentric paradigms and
curricula in American centers of higher education.
Our course explores these phenomena in historical and contemporary
perspective, focusing on defining moments in the relations between Diaspora and
indigenous Africans, culminating in scenarios for symbiotic relations between
African Americans.
Negussay Ayele holds a BA in Near Eastern Languages and an MA and a
Ph.D. in Political Science, all from UCLA. He taught for many years at Addis
Ababa University in his native Ethiopia. He has traveled widely participating in
many academic conferences in his field. He has also taught African Studies and
International Relations as visiting professor in a number of universities
including the University of Florida, the School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., the State University of New York at
Binghamton, California State University - Northridge, and UCLA. He has numerous
bilingual – Ethiopian and English – publications on the Horn of Africa,
Ethiopian politics, United States and Ethiopia, and African Affairs. His recent
book is Wit and Wisdom of Ethiopia (1998). He has been a Fulbright Fellow, Ford
Foundation Fellow, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Fellow and Chancellor’s Postdoctoral
Fellow at UCLA. He was also Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Sweden and other Nordic
countries. He is currently engaged in research on the problematics of the Horn
of Africa. HC M150: Formal Modeling and Simulations in the Social
Sciences Director: Dario Nardi,
Human Complex Systems
Exploration
of different approaches to modeling empirical phenomena of concern to social
sciences. Topics include utility models, learning models, decision models, group
competition models, and evolutionary models. Use of multiagent computer
simulations and group exercises to explore emergent behaviors among individuals
interacting according to models for behavior. Discussion of advantages and
drawbacks of more traditional mathematical modeling. Review of alternative forms
of formal representations of hypothesized processes and issues related to
verification of simulations.
Dario Nardi, Adjunct
Assistant Professor in Human Complex Systems, received his Ph.D. in Systems
Science and Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York at
Binghamton. He has also studied as Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, and is
certified in psychological testing. His focus is artificial intelligence,
undergraduate education and curriculum design, and human factors in general. As
an author and speaker on human behavior, he is particularly interested in how
“normal” people experience the everyday world in different ways, and how
machines can be made to interact socially in ways that mirror and complement
these differences. Fiction writing, music, and a number of other part time
hobbies complement these otherwise theoretical approaches, and he is a strong
advocate that learning should be interactive and fun. He is also a fellow at the
Temperament Research Institute.
HC 153: International Flash Points
Director: Warren Christopher, former U.S. Secretary of State
This course concentrates on the explosive confrontation points in current international affairs: the flash points that threaten world peace or U.S. vital interests. It will not be a series of lectures, but rather a highly participatory offering to about 18 upper class men and women. The goals of the course will be to create a forum for intelligent and informed debate and to hone students’ research and presentation skills.
The first session will be devoted to discussion and selection of the international flash points that the class will focus on. Many of the flash points are fairly obvious -- North and South Korea; India and Pakistan; Israel and the Palestinians; Iraq, Russia and Chechnya; Columbia; Afghanistan and Congo. The purpose of this session will be to get a buy-in from the class as to the issues to be considered. We might also learn something from our choices.
After the flash points are selected, a three-hour seminar, meeting once a week, will be devoted to each one. Each session will begin with a brief scene-setter, then one student will make an oral presentation of the geography, history, and argumentation for one point of view (e.g. India) and another will present the contrasting point of view (e.g. Pakistan). After the initial presentation, there will be a moderated and guided discussion by the whole group. The presenters will be expected to defend their points of view, and the entire class will be expected to participate. Students will turn their presentations into written advocacy papers. In addition, as a separate matter,
Mr. Christopher will lead a discussion of media treatment of foreign policy issues on the day of the class.
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Application on General Education Requirements: None
Warren Christopher has a long history of public service. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he served as law clerk to Justice William O. Douglas of the U.S. Supreme Court and subsequently as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He later served as Deputy Secretary of State of the United States (1977-1981), and was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, for his role in negotiating the release of 52 American hostages in Iran. After rejoining his law firm of O’Melveny and Myers, Mr. Christopher went on to Chair the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the Rodney King incident. In 1993, he was sworn in as the 63rd U.S. Secretary of State, and served until 1997. His activities since his return to his law firm have involved consultations on a wide variety of international matters, as well as service on many boards and civic entities. He has authored two books: In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a New Era (published in 1998 by Stanford University Press), and Chances of a Lifetime (published in 2001 by Scribner).
HC 165: Women and Literature in Southeastern Europe
Director: Georgiana Galateanu,
Romanian Studies
This seminar examines the changing
roles of women in South-East European countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia,
Slovenia, Turkey) in the last sixty years. Emphasis is laid on the economic,
political, social, and cultural factors affecting women’s roles during the
countries' transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy and from
communism to post-communism (in the former communist countries). The aim of the
seminar is to sensitize participants to the complexity of issues in the region
and help them understand better the multiplicity of causes of the present
situation. The course is interdisciplinary, drawing on sociological/women’s
studies/articles and short fiction by women writers for analysis. In class
students discuss and debate the topics covered in the articles, the different
positions taken by the authors, and the way in which aspects of these realities
are rendered in fictional form by women writers from the region. The seminar
format of the class fosters active in-class participation and exchange of ideas
and opinions.
Georgiana Galateanu
received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of
Bucharest in Romania. Her special field includes Romanian language and culture,
Romanian for heritage speakers, women and literature in Eastern Europe, and
foreign language pedagogy. A former Fulbright Scholar, she is a Member of the
Society for Romanian Studies (SRS) and Editorial Consultant, Paralela 45 Press,
Bucharest, Romania. She is the author of many articles and translations about
Romanian culture and literature.
HC 166: Stories of Cultural Distance and Imposed Assimilation Director: Emily Klenin,
Slavic Languages and Literature
This course explores how fiction, memoir, and film have represented involuntary cross-cultural assimilation seen from the perspective of intimate others, usually family members, coming to terms with their own, and relatives’ cultural identity.
The stories analyzed in the course are drawn from a variety of situations at a cultural edge: these include narratives of 18th-century North America, including white Protestant assimilation into American Indian culture, and African assimilation into a white-dominated Protestant religious community; stories from 18th- and 19th-century Russia, including assimilation of an African into Russian aristocracy, a peasant serf married to her aristocratic master, and the assimilation of a Russian aristocrat into the Siberian peasantry among whom he has been exiled; and tales of 20th-century Turkey and Iran, including assimilations across the boundaries of traditional and westernized culture, and assimilations of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture.
In spite of this broad range, our stories share a core characteristic: the assimilations are not freely chosen but are imposed on the boundary-crosser by external circumstance. In addition, imposed assimilation often entails a combination of other characteristic but not necessary features: captivity, enslavement or another form of bondage, geographic displacement or officially enforced exile, and participation in assimilative social institutions. Among these social institutions, marriage into the new culture, whether or not it is involuntarily imposed, regularly serves as an instrument of assimilation. The course thus raises and explores a central question: How may consciousness of boundary-crossing affect our notions of freedom and personal choice?
Emily Klenin, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UCLA, received her BA from Swarthmore College and her MA and PhD from Princeton University. Her special fields of study include 19th-century Russian literature (Fet and his circle), metrics, verse theory, Russo-German cultural ties, Russian language history, Old Russian, Church Slavonic, and IT for poets. She has served on the editorial boards of Russkii iazyk v naucnom osvescenii (The Russian Language in a Scientific Light – organ of the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), Russian Linguistics (the Western European journal devoted to Russian linguistics), and the International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics. She has published extensively in the field of Russian literature, linguistics, and poetry.
HC 173: Lincoln and the American Political Tradition
Director: Daniel Lowenstein,
Law
Lincoln’s masterful prose and his lucid thinking make him a model second to none for young people. Although the primary focus of the seminar will be on the ideas expressed in Lincoln’s writings and the earlier works, considerable emphasis will also be placed on Lincoln’s prose and on the method of reasoning in all the works. Thus, the seminar will be in part an exploration of methods of political writing and reasoning. But it will also provide an introduction for students to the controversies underlying one of the most crucial periods of American history.
One example will illustrate the richness of the issues and the benefit to students from considering these issues in depth. From soon after Douglas’ introduction of the Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, through the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln held to a consistent position of opposition to extension of slavery into the territories. This position entailed opposition to Douglas’ policy of “popular sovereignty.” It also entailed his (successful) efforts to prevent the new Republican Party from adopting Abolitionism. His strong adherence to constitutionalism entailed support for the Fugitive Slave Law, despite his distaste for it.
Students, most of whom are likely to support the idea of popular sovereignty, to sympathize strongly with Abolitionism, to support (perhaps not so strongly) constitutionalism, to think of the Fugitive Slave Law as a monstrosity, and to think of Lincoln as a hero, will need to think through how to cope with the conflicts that existed between all these positions, each of which is unimpeachable considered in isolation. They will see that Lincoln had thought through the questions deeply. The principles he had developed enabled him to cope with shocks such as the Dred Scott decision and to expose the inconsistencies in Douglas’ position. There are no easy answers to the questions that Lincoln faced throughout his career, but by being immersed into the problems of that period, students will confront the complexities that face political leaders in times of crisis.
Daniel Lowenstein,
UCLA professor of law, teaches Election Law, Statutory Interpretation & Legislative Process, Political Theory, and Law & Literature. A leading expert on election law, he has represented members of the House of Representatives in litigation regarding reapportionment and the constitutionality of term limits. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the award-winning theatre troupe Interact and regularly brings the company to the School of Law to perform plays with legal themes, such as Sophocles' Antigone, Ibsen's Rosmerholm, and Wouk's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. Professor Lowenstein's textbook, Election Law (1995), appears to be the first text on American election law since 1877. He has written on such topics as campaign finance, redistricting, bribery, initiative elections, political parties, commercial speech, and The Merchant of Venice.
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