Winter 2014 Expanded Course Descriptions

HUM 001. Humanities Forum: "Campus Book Project: Critical Perspectives and Stories/Counter-Stories" (2 units)
CRN 84453 | Naomi Janowitz | T 7:10-9:00pm | 123 Science Lectures Hall

Note: HUM 001 can be repeated one time for credit if topic differs.

This course is an independent learning opportunity – a great chance for students to (1) Read a book, (2) Go to campus events they select, and (3) Get 2 units and 2 GE credits. In conjunction with the Campus Book Project, Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide, students can attend either the regularly scheduled Critical Debates OR events of their choosing – from library exhibits, author visits, and an art show, to book fairs, film viewings, and workshops—all of which critically examine the topics raised in the book: poverty around the world, prostitution, the impacts of war on women, and the successes and failures of international intervention. Through attending events, or, completing a project of their choosing (from creating an art object to designing a new type of humanitarian aid project), students will think critically and respond creatively to Half the Sky. Students can attend an organizational meeting Tuesday, January 7th, 7:10-9:00pm in Science Lectures Hall 123 OR can link into the activities once they are registered via the course Smartsite.

GE credit (Old): None.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours.

Text:

  • Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide (Vintage, 2010)

Campus Community Book Project Brochure

Associated Events*:  

Art Exhibits

    October 20, 2013 – January 26, 2014
    Sky is Falling: Paintings by Julie Heffernan
    Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento
   
    December 3, 2013 – June 12, 2014
    Half the Sky: A Global Transformation for Women
    Works by UC Davis students in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program freshman seminar, The Art of Global Transformation for
       Women (FRS 002) and community member participants
    Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Library Exhibit/Book Fair

    February 3 – February 7, 2014
    Women’s Resources and Research Center (WRRC) Book Fair
    10 AM – 3 PM, North Hall Porch, UC Davis

Films/Film Series

    February, 6, 2014,
    Persepolis (2007, 96 mins.)
    7 PM, Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento

Lectures, Panel Discussions, Workshops, Conferences and Open House

    January 15, 2014
    WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Mentoring Program Faculty Panel: Building Relationships
    5:30 – 7 PM, Location TBD
    Registration/ticket required
    For more information, email WRRC at wrrc.davis@gmail.com or call (530) 752-3372

    January 16, 2014
    Women on the Rise: A mini-retreat
    Art workshop, tour of the galleries, meditation and family-style dinner hosted by the Crocker Café Supper Club
    6 PM, Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento

    January 21, 2014
    Women Feeding the World: Farmers, Mothers and CEO’s
    Gallery presented by students and researchers who have worked with women around the world, followed by an evening of stories shared
       by women who play a variety of roles in the food system.
    Gallery viewing begins at 5:30 PM.
    6:30 – 8:30 PM, UC Davis Buehler Alumni Center, AGR Room

    February 4, 2014
    Introduction to Global Development: Terms and Concepts
    Vivian Vuong, Graduate Student, UC Davis
    12 – 1 PM, Room 2205, Education Building, UC Davis Health System, 4610 X Street, Sacramento Campus

    February 14, 2014
    Trauma-Informed Approach to Primary Care
    Ellen Goldstein, Ph.D. Student, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, UC Davis
    12 – 1 PM, Room 2206, Education Building, UC Davis Health System, 4610 X Street, Sacramento Campus

    February 18 – February 22, 2014
    Semana de la Xicana
    o February 18, Networking Lunch, 12:00 – 1:30, North Hall, UC Davis
    o February 20, Faculty Panel, 6:30 – 8 PM, 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis
    o February 22, Summit, 9 AM – 8 PM, Student Community Center

    March 1–2, 2014
    Vagina OurStories
    Time and location TBD
    Registration/ticket required

    March 7, 2014
    International Womyn’s Day Celebration
    11 AM – 1 PM, Quad, UC Davis

    March 8, 2014
    Women of Color Research Summit
    All day event, Student Community Center, UC Davis
    Registration/ticket required

Author's Visit

    January 13, 2014
    The Forum at the Mondavi Center: All Hands on Deck: Supporting Women in STEM
    Panel discussion with Nicholas Kristof, featured author; Tererai Trent, Founder of Tinogona Foundation and whose story is featured in
       Half the Sky; Kimberlee Shauman, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, UC Davis and Faculty Director of UC Davis
       ADVANCE Program.
    4 – 5 PM, Jackson Hall, Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
    This event is FREE to the public
   
    January 13, 2014
    Author’s Talk – Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
    8 PM – 9:30 PM, Jackson Hall, Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
    Book signing to follow at 9:30 PM, Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

*Program events subject to change.

About the Instructor: Naomi Janowitz is a Professor of Religious Studies, she is also the Chair of the Religious Studies Department and the Director of the Humanities Program.


HUM 2A. Global Humanities Forum: "Crime Without Punishment: Dostoevsky and Woody Allen" (4 units)

CRN 67956 | Olga Stuchebrukhov | TR 3:10-4:30P | Wellman 226

Note: HUM 2A can be repeated one time for credit if topic differs.

This course will focus on Dostoevsky’s classic Crime and Punishment (1866) and its postmodernist interpretation in Woody Allen’s films, Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Match Point (2005), and Cassandra’s Dream (2007). In addition to these primary text and films, we will read Phaedra (1677) by Jean Racine that will help us contextualize the issues of crime and punishment and their aesthetic representation. Together with Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas about art, these works will help us understand ideological and aesthetic aspects of Allen’s postmodernist shift from crime and punishment to crime without any punishment at all.

In taking this course, you will (1) Develop critical skills in reading, analyzing, and writing about literature and film; (2) Engage in comparative analysis of novel and film, novel and tragedy, Classicism, Realism, and Postmodernism; and (3) Gain general knowledge about Bakhtinian theory of polyphonic art.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Extensive Writing.

Texts:

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Vintage, 1993)
  • Jean Racine, Iphigenia/Phaedra/Athaliah, trans. John Cairncross (Penguin Classics, 1964)

About the Instructor: Olga Stuchebrukhov is an Associate Professor of Russian.


HUM 002B. American Humanities Forum: "Immigration in the United States through Films" (4 units)
CRN 67957 | Robert Blake | TR 4:40-6:00P and R 6:00-7:00P | Wellman 226

Note: HUM 2B can be repeated one time for credit if topic differs.

This humanities course will prompt students to explore the issue of U.S. immigration as portrayed in literature, films, historical studies, newspaper articles, comics, and editorials with an eye to examining our nation’s fear of the other.  The selections touch on themes such as Ellis Island, border crossings, the metaphor of the American melting pot, 9/11, and deportation.  Students will read excerpts from novels, watch films, analyze visual images, and comment EVERY WEEK on these materials by writing short reflective essays as part of a class blog (http://hum2-w14.wikispaces.com/).

The course will be informed by the work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By), both cognitive linguists.  Students will examine how language can be used to create social identity and, in the case of immigrants, how their native language, culture, and foreign accents are used by many Americans to justify their exclusion from mainstream U.S. society by evoking the overarching metaphor of the xenophobia (fear of the other).  American xenophobic attitudes have their roots in the religious struggles in Europe and the Reformation.  This course will trace these roots and then trace how this long-smoldering conflict has evolved into a general proscription against foreigners coming from certain ethnic groups, especially those immigrants entering the U.S. from third-world countries such as Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the countries of the Arabic-speaking world.  The students will analyze the rhetoric of the American news media and the stereotypes presented in films and novels.  The emphasis of the course is to get students to reflect on the multicultural and multilingual nature of our society and what this means for U.S. future in an ever-increasing globalized world.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): American Culture, Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Extensive Writing.

Texts:

  • Peter Schrag, Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America (University of California Press, 2011)

About the Instructor: Robert Blake is a Professor of Spanish.


HUM 015. Language and Identity (4 units)
CRN 83389 | Carlee Arnett | TR 12:10-1:30P | Wellman 202

In this course, we will establish a working definition of ‘identity’ from the perspective of linguistics.  We will discuss the connection between the construction of social identity and language use within the context of the United States.  We will examine how discourse is structured to shape the identity of various ethnic groups, e.g. Black Americans, Native Americans or regional/social groups.  Language is a social tool for marking allegiances and it is one that we perform daily as members of a socially and culturally diverse society.  We will also examine common language myths and evaluate language stereotypes and attitudes reflected in books, film, newspapers, television, advertisements, etc.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Extensive Writing.

Texts:

  • Edward Finegan and John Rickford, Language in the USA (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

About the Instructor: Carlee Arnett is an Associate Professor of German.