First-Year Freshmen “Dream” Seminar: Fall 2016
Dr. John Menary, Earth Sciences
Imagine if students had access to an app which predicted their level of success at completing a degree by the end of the second semester of their first year of study? Could such an app help students customize their undergraduate education to better suite their dynamic career goals? Incoming students are a wealth of educational-environmental information - factors with potential consequences upon the educational system. These environmental factors influence course choices and program decisions as well as retention. Students enrolled in this course should have some knowledge of gaming, a smart device (phone, tablet or laptop) and a desire to communicate with other undergraduate students.
/ / (2) Creative Writing: What Does Your Voice Sound Like when You Speak Out…Loud?—
Claudia Rodriguez, MFA, Sociology
This course is a reading, writing, and new way of thinking course. Students will learn to think the “college way.” The “get-you-through-life way.” The “you’ll be thinking about real stuff and love it way.” The “I’m writing and using my voice, speaking in ‘I’ (self) way.” The “I’m writing and speaking in ‘I’ (as-in-imagination) way.” Students will be doing creative writing and be introduced to the techniques and strategies of creative writing, including fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Here bilingualism, for those that are bilingual, will be looked at as both politics and aesthetics – acting as the driving force behind writing.
/ / (3) Digital Photo for Social Media—
Ellie Zenhari, MFA,Art and Design
Through a combination of High- Touch, High Impact Learning strategies and practices, such as lectures, reflective writing assignments, class projects, hands-on demonstrations, field trips and community engagement, students learn about the story telling power of photography and social media that impacts the current social, political and global conditions of the 21st century.
Using digital cameras or mobile phones, students learn how to formulate their thoughts, reflect on and examine visual images and create photo narratives. Students learn to further align techniques with awareness of the critical issues in contemporary photography and social activism through reflective analysis of their work.
/ / (4) From Malintzin to Pocahontas: Indigenous Women and American Conquests—
Dr. Doris Namala,History Department
This course aims to replace the cardboard caricatures that indigenous people, indigenous women in particular, often are reduced to with more complicated and at the same time much more interesting real-life stories. Instead of looking for villains or victims, we seek to explore the lives of two indigenous women in particular, Malintzin and Pocahontas, during the time of the European conquests of their respective homelands, Mexico and the Chesapeake. Indigenous women often had to make tough choices in situations that did not give them many options. Although only very few of them are remembered by name today, this course argues that indigenous women were powerful, if exploited players in all European conquests across the continent. We seek to remember them and re-integrate them back into a history that has been told from European- and male-centered perspectives for too long.
/ / (5) Latino Folklore in the Los Angeles Area—
Dr. Miguel Domínguez, Modern Languages Department
Study oral traditions of Spanish speakers including sayings, proverbs, names of dishes, la llorona, el diablo, as well as practice such as la posada, día de muertos, quinceaneras.
/ / (6) Minors at the Border: Migration, Childhood and Visual Culture in the Américas—
Dr. Gretel Vera-Rosas, Sociology Department
Taking the recent Central American refugee crisis as a point of departure, this seminar explores childhood and migration in the Américas through the study of visual culture. By incorporating readings and discussions of graphic novels, street art, films, videos, and multimedia texts, students will hone close visual reading skills, while learning about the structural and political causes of migration, exile and forced displacement in the hemisphere. The course is designed to provide students with the instructional and theoretical scaffolding to think critically about the visual culture of migration and to historicize childhood as an experience that is not fixed or universal.
/ / (7) Multicultural Literature: Reading and Lifelong Learning—Dr. Lisa Hutton, Liberal Studies
Multicultural children's literature will be used as springboard for exploring self and society with an emphasis on learning to read for college success. Students will reflect on the themes found in multicultural literature and develop an openness to discussing and reflecting on diverse family, community, and cultural values as well as their own. Strategies for reading actively with comprehension will be learned and practiced using quality children's literature through read-aloud, book clubs, and reader's workshop. This course is designed to demystify the academic skills and "moves" needed for college success and to explore a relevant subject for future educators.
/ / (8) Philosophy as a Way of Life—Dr. Brian Gregor, Philosophy
For the ancient Greeks and Romans, the practice of philosophy was not a merely academic discipline. It was a way of life, and it considered some of the most important questions in life: What is the good life for human beings? What is happiness? How should we live? To be a philosopher meant to practice a particular way of life, or art of living. This course will examine the most prominent philosophical schools of ancient philosophy, including Platonism, Aristotelianism, Cynicism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. The course will also incorporate comparative discussion of selected non-Western philosophies of the good life.
/ / (9) Sex, Gender, Crime and Punishment—
Dr. Jennifer Sumner, Public Administration
The past few decades have seen newfound attention directed toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations in the criminal justice system. In this course we will examine how the culture, policies, and practices of this system are shaped by understandings of social identity and categorization. Within this context, we will critically examine the experiences of LGBT populations who interact with the criminal justice system, as victims, offenders and professionals. A wide range of perspectives will be utilized, including first-hand narratives, judicial opinions, public policies, activist efforts, and empirical research.
/ / (10) Social Issues: Power and Social Relationships—
Dr. Miguel Gutierrez, Chicana/Chicano Studies
This course is an introduction to contemporary social issues in the United States. Special emphasis will be placed throughout the course on students examining their own social realities, their educational experiences, social relationships and power dynamics. This course will extensively draw upon Ethnic Studies and the Chicano/Latino experience for historical examples of colonialism and resistance. The Theater of the Oppressed will be used within the course as a creative and highly interactive method for student engagement. Students can expect to infuse the curriculum with their own particular interests and questions.
/ / (11) The Devil You Don't Know—
Dr. Sheela Pawar, Philosophy Department
Satan, Lucifer, the Devil. Because the Devil is such a common character in popular literature, film, and television, we often think we know who or what the Devil is. But do we really know? Is the Devil a being? A person? A mere idea? What does the Bible have to say about Satan? What about the Qu’ran? How have novelists and poets contributed to our idea of the Devil? In this course, we will explore the development of the idea of the Devil from its roots in the Hebrew Bible, through various literary interpretation, and in current film and television. We will explore what the changing conceptions of the Devil tell us about our ideas of the nature of evil, the meaning of sin and justice, and what it is to be human.
/ / (12) Truth, Lies and Criminal Profiling: Forensic Psychology in the Media—Dr. Heather Butler, Psychology
This seminar will explore the world of forensic and legal psychology. Throughout the course we will place special emphasis on how the media has impacted our perceptions of the field and the challenges that this creates for those working within the justice system. For instance, some judges and prosecutors blame popular television shows like CSI for changing juror perceptions of forensic evidence (e.g., fingerprints, DNA, blood spatter patterns), which has come under scrutiny lately. Additionally, we will explore known causes of wrongful conviction in the United States and we will debunk myths about lie detection, criminal profiling, forensic science, and the death penalty.
/ / (13) Violence: Causes and Solutions—
Dr. Heather Kertyzia, Negotiation, Conflict Resolution & Peace Building Program
This course will start with an exploration of students’ lived experiences of violence in their communities. Using dialogue and group activities we will examine the underlying causes of violence and its consequences at the local level. Using that framework for analysis we will discuss social injustice and direct violence at the national level, before delving into international issues of violence. At each stage, we will evaluate existing strategies to overcome or prevent that violence; students will also work together to develop other strategies for change.