| HC 2 | Comparative Genocide | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 11w | Postmodern Culture | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 14 | The Interaction of Science and Society | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 23 | Political Dissidence Today and in Ancient Greece: The Trial and Death of Socrates in Its Classical and Legal Context | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 29 | Critical Vision: History of Art as Social and Political Commentary | ||||||||||||||||
| 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 51 | Music and Society | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 55 | Culture and History of Utopias | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 59w | Literature and Culture of the American South | ||||||||||||||||
| 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 86 | Psychology of Fear | ||||||||||||||||
| HC 110 | Marxist and Post-Marxist Approaches to Cultural Studies
| 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 153 |
International
Flash Points | HC
165 |
Women and Literature in
Southeastern Europe | HC
166 |
Stories of Cultural Distance
and Imposed Assimilation | HC
171 |
Rationality
and the Emotions | HC
174 |
Future Impact
of Nano in New Technologies | HC
178 |
U.S. Covert Actions, Expeditionary Wars, and
Democracy since World War II | |
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 11w: Postmodern Culture
(5 units)
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 23: Political Dissidence Today and in Ancient Greece: The Trial and Death of Socrates in Its Classical and Legal Context Director: Frances Olsen,
Law
This course makes the trial and death of Socrates relevant to today by (1) showing its significance to the public response to and legal treatment of dissent and civil disobedience in contemporary America and (2) relating the trial and death to a variety of contemporary theories and strategies of dissent. The course also offers a compelling introduction to the Greek legal system and the values that animated that system. It introduces new ways to think about the roles of law, and places law into a social context.
Finally, the course teaches critical analysis through a careful examination of multiple conflicting approaches scholars have taken to resolving what most commentators consider to be a sharp contrast between the Socrates presented in The Apology and the Socrates presented in The Crito.
Application on General
Education Requirements: New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Arts & Humanities - Philosophical Analysis OR Society & Culture - Historical Analysis
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Frances Olsen, Professor of Law at UCLA, received her J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School and her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. A renowned scholar, she has held visiting professorships in universities around the globe, including universities in Israel, Ethiopia, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, and England. She has also held visiting professorships at Harvard, Cornell, and Ann Arbor-Michigan. She is the author of many articles and books and a specialist in feminist legal theory. When she practiced law, she represented Native Americans at Wounded Knee.
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 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 51: Music and
Society Director: Rogers
Brubaker, Sociology
This course will involve both social analysis -- addressing the ways in which the creation, performance, and consumption of music are social activities -- and musical analysis. The musical analysis will focus primarily on Western art music (i.e. “classical” music) of the late eighteenth through the early twentieth century; the social analysis will deal more broadly with different forms of music, not simply with classical music.
Social issues we will consider include the social functions of music; the changing economic and technological foundations for the production, performance, distribution, and consumption of music; the social processes through which genre differences are established or eroded; the multiple uses of music in everyday life; and the ways in which music expresses social identities.
The class will also emphasize close listening and the development of basic skills in reading musical scores and in musical analysis. About half of class time will be devoted to musical analysis; there will also be listening assignments (requiring intensive listening along with the score) each week.
NOTE: There is an enrollment restriction
for this course. Rogers Brubaker is a Professor of Sociology at
UCLA. He received his B.A. from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has written widely on social theory, immigration, citizenship, nationalism, and ethnicity. His books include Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany, Nationalism Reframed, Ethnicity without Groups, and Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. He has a strong amateur interest in music.
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 59W: Literature and Culture of the American South
Director: G. Jennifer Wilson, Honors Collegium
This course examines the historical imagination as it shapes, out of one of America's most bloody experiences, a sometimes romantic, sometimes ironic myth. The particular study of the South provokes a general study of the creative process: the way in which artists, through their rhetoric, submit to the pressures of the past and fashion out of history designs for the future. We shall look at such writers as William Faulkner, James Agee, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Allen Tate, and Toni Morrison, obsessed with or possessed by the proverbial nightmare of history from which we never awake. We shall examine the Civil War photography of Mathew Brady and photographs from the WPA and FSA collections of the 1930's. And we shall analyze Southern rhetoric and political documentary. The course will conclude with a discussion of the moral problems raised by the artists' attempts to distinguish myth from political and social realism.
We shall learn not only about the South but also about the general relationships among history, mythology, and art. There are quite a lot of reading assignments, but none is burdensome; and because Southern Literature tends to deal in exaggerated ways with the great trinities of birth, copulation, and death, and race, gender, and class, I think that you will find some things here that satisfy our human impulses. Our syllabus regresses chronologically (a typical trait of Southern fiction) because the literature that chronicles the Civil War is much more difficult stylistically than that discussing later periods. Assignments include creative and expository options and all essays/projects can be rewritten as often as you like. Art projects and photgraphic documentaries are also encouraged.
Application on General
Education Requirements: Old L&S GE (Pre Fall 2002) - six units of Humanities credit (Literature); New L&S GE (Fall 2002) - Arts and Humanities - Literary and Cultural Analysis.
Satisfactory completion of this course with a grade of "C" or better will satisfy the Writing II requirement. 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.
(4 units)
(5 units)
(4 units)
(4 units)
(5
units)
(4 units)
(5 units)
(4 units)
(6 units)
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 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 110: Marxist and Post-Marxist Approaches to Cultural Studies
Director: Rebecca Emigh,
Sociology
This course examines the major influences that Marxist writings have exerted on the development of Cultural Studies. We shall look at Marxist and Post-Marxist thought by reading the major theoretical texts that define the social and philosophical bases of idealism and materialism. Our theorists include Hegel, Marx, Lukacs, Althusser, and Gramsci. Later in the course, we shall go on to examine the influences of the Marxist tradition upon post-Modernism and the Marxist roots of such post-Modern writers as Barthes, Foucault, and Baudrillard. We shall discuss the central concepts in this body of work, particularly ideology and hegemony, and read empirical studies of cultural phenomena, including food, clothes, and communications.
Rebecca Emigh
is Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCLA. She received her BA in Sociology from Barnard College, her MA in Sociology from Columbia University, and her MA in Statistics and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on peasant family life and agricultural production in fifteenth century Tuscany and she is the author of multiple articles on this topic. She is also studying poverty and ethnicity during the market transition in Central and Eastern Europe.
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 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 171: Rationality and the Emotions
Director: Warren D TenHouten,
Sociology
In the last two decades, there have been remarkable advances in theory and research on the emotions. Emotions have become an important topic in economics, decision theory, management science, political science, education, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and in philosophy and other cognitive sciences. There have also been breakthroughs in understanding emotions and feelings in affective neuroscience, stimulated by neuroimaging technologies showing the distribution of activity across various brain structures as emotions are experienced amidst cognitively demanding tasks. These parallel developments have spawned many interdisciplinary fields, including neuroeconomics, neurophilosophy, neuroethology, neuropolitics, neuroanthropology, and neurosociology. Emerging interdisciplinary research efforts are intense, accelerating, and global.
An important topic for such multi-disciplinary investigation is the relationships between emotions and rationality. This relationship has been a contentious issue in the social scientific literature. Rationality has long been a fundamental problem in both classical and contemporary social theory. Many social scientists have considered rationality to be undermined by, or to exclude involvement of, the emotions and emotionality. That is, they have viewed the relationship between emotions and rationality as a negative one. Others, in contrast, have viewed emotions and rationality as interacting synergistically, or as exercising complementary effects. Indeed, recently, in fields ranging from the sociology of emotions to affective neuroscience, there is growing recognition that emotions can positively influence rational decision making and contribute to, or enhance, rationality. It is this emerging consensus -- that there is a positive relationship between emotions and rationality -- that this course proposes to examine. We shall look first historically at philosophers writing on the subject, from the ancients (Aristotle and the Stoics for example) to the Age of Reason (Descartes and Spinoza) and to late 19th and 20th century thinkers such as William James, John Dewey, and Max Weber. We shall then look at more recent work on the relationship between reason and emotions by various cognitive thinkers, neuroscientists, and primatologists. Contemporary experimental studies increasingly show that emotions are not merely correlates of rational thought, but that they are integrated with cognitions in the attainment of effective decision making.
Warren D. TenHouten
is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at UCLA. He received his Ph.D from Michigan State University. A prolific scholar, his forthcoming work is entitled: Emotional power: On the affective foundations of success in love and work. He also recently published A General Theory of Emotions and Social Relations, London and New York: Routledge, 2007 and is author of a many articles on emotions, social relations, time and society, and neurosociology.
HC 174: Rationality and the Emotions
Director: James K. Gimzewski,
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Nanotechnology is typically discussed using a metric called the nanometer, which is a billionth of a meter. Certainly, one can classify many technologically and biologically important objects on the scale of the nanometer (nm). For instance, a virus has a diameter of around several tenths of a nanometer. DNA is around a nanometer in diameter but is over a half a meter long. Proteins have dimensions of a few nanometers. A cell is typically several thousand nanometers. In the technological world, the insulating gap in a transistor is nanometric. Molecules that we use every day, such as pharmaceuticals and gasoline, are a bit more or less than a nanometer, and polymers or plastics are made of long spaghetti-like molecules less than a nanometer in diameter but several thousand nanometers long. Terms such as nanoparticles and nanomedicine are used here to describe situations in which critical aspects of the whole or parts of the system are determined by nanometric dimensions in the range of 1--100 nm. The anticipated markets for nanotechnology, on the other hand, are measured in billions. Nanotechnology's economic impact in the coming 15--20 years is fragmented into many areas in units of $US billion per year and indicate a $1-trillion-per-year market. The science behind nanotechnology (nanoscience) is usually lumped under the rubric nanotechnology, and the evolutions of nanoscience and resultant technologies run hand in hand. The conception of the technology is frequently ahead of the science. In many cases, "nanotechnology" is merely used to describe the future in a fictional sense. It is a subject about which everyone, be they artists, scientists, politicians or housewives, doctors, scientists and engineers have their own “dreams and nightmares”. Nanotechnology, is materialism's “endgame,” meaning that it is at once about materiality, in the sense of “controlling matter at a molecular level,” and also presents the potential to undermine that way of thinking altogether. Roy Ascott summarizes this way of thinking: “Materialists may see working in the nano field as the end game, but it is not necessary to embrace a radical transcendentalism to see that nano is located between the material density of our everyday world and the numinous spaces of subatomic immateriality”. In this sense there is an important role for humanists and artists also to reflect upon and participate in the creation of what is also a philosophical transformation for humankind.
This course is more than the science behind nanotechnology, its about the impacts and shifts in technology and how they will potentially influence medical care, the environment and energy issues as well as military, government and economics. Like technology today it is impossible to separate nano from cultural and societal issues that are likely to change in a negative way if we continue corporate-industrial manufacture and welfare. No specialty knowledge of science or mathematics is needed to succeed in this course.
James K. Gimzewski
is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the CNSI Core SPM Laboratory and Co-Director of the Art|Sci Center at UCLA. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he was a group leader at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he was involved in nanoscale science and technology issues for more than 18 years. Dr. Gimzewski pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM. His accomplishments include the first STM-based fabrication of molecular suprastructures at room temperature using mechanical forces to push molecules across surfaces, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of new micromechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. His current interests are in the exploration of nanoscience in medicine and microbiology. He has established extensive collaborations with the UCLA Medical and Dental Schools. He is actively involved in using Media Art and technologies to people of all ages to bring back excitement in science with a focus on nanotechnology, distant learning and remote control of experiments by the public.
HC 178: U.S. Covert Actions, Expeditionary Wars, and Democracy since World War II
Director: Maurice Zeitlin, Sociology
Since the end of World War II, the government of the United States has waged expeditionary wars in Korea and Vietnam, where U.S. forces intervened in these countries’ civil wars allegedly to defeat “Communist aggression,” and, currently, in Iraq, allegedly to halt the Hussein government’s supposed development of “weapons of mass destruction,” including nuclear weaponry. The US has invaded or overtly sponsored invasion forces against, most notably, the sovereign governments of Cuba, under JFK, the Dominican Republic, under LBJ, and Nicaragua, under Reagan. And covertly, through the CIA or Pentagon, or both, it has intervened to subvert and overthrow the governments of (among others) Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Angola, and Chile. A number of these wars and covert actions will be studied in detail, from both primary sources (e.g., Congressional Hearings) and published works. A theme running through the course will be the implications of these covert actions and expeditionary wars for the vitality of American democracy.
Maurice Zeitlin is a Distinguished Professor of
Sociology at UCLA. His latest book (with Judith Stepan-Norris) is “Left Out: Reds and America’s Industrial Unions” (2003) (which won the 2004 “Max Weber Award,” conferred by a section of the American Sociological Association, for an outstanding book published over the past three years). His other books include “Cuba: An American Tragedy” (with Robert Scheer) (1963); “American Society, Inc.”(edited, 1970); and “The Civil Wars in Chile (1984),” and (with Judith Stepan-Norris) “Talking Union” (1996). He is the author of very many scholarly articles. Professor Zeitlin is the winner of two “Project Censored” journalism prizes for reportage on inequality in America, two Ford Foundation fellowships, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, and other awards for distinguished scholarship, as well as the 1995 UCLA Mortar Board (National Senior Honors Society) Faculty Award.
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