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WINTER 2004 FRESHMAN SEMINARS
The School of Biological Sciences also offers freshman seminars during spring quarter. For more information, please visit http://freshmanseminars.bio.uci.edu/. Please note that students may take a maximum of three freshman seminars for credit, so long as subjects vary, over their entire university career.
CLAIRE TREVOR SCHOOL OF THE ARTS I Am a Camera Stephen Barker, Drama W 11:00-11:50am, DRA 145 Course Code 87552 How do making (and receiving/interpreting) images contribute to making us who and what we are? What do images have to do with creating or amplifying our sense of gender, race, ethnicity, family and personal history, and memory? Having a closer look at our own relationship to images can tell us a good deal about ourselves and how we construct that self. Stephen Barker is a professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, where he teaches literature, theory, and criticism. He has published widely on philosophy and on literary and aesthetic theory, focusing on Nietzsche, Derrida, Beckett, and Blanchot. The Arts: Communication and Engagement Nohema Fernandez, Music W 3:00-3:50pm, MM 316 Course Code 87559 Learn to experience the arts as a dynamic, rather than passive, activity. The goal of the arts is to communicate with and engage the "observer". This seminar explores the means by which both creator and interpreter make participants out of observers. Nohema Fernández earned her Doctor of Musical Arts at Stanford University. Currently, she is the Interim dean for the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Prior to her appointment, she was Associate Dean in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, focusing on the arts and technology. She came to UCI from the University of Arizona, where she headed the Department of Media Arts and was a Professor of Music (Piano). As a concert pianist, Nohema Fernández performs regularly throughout Europe and the United States. Among other honors, she received the NEA Solo Recitalist Fellowship for performances of pan-American works and the Distinction of Honor "La Rosa Blanca" (Los Angeles) for her continued efforts to promote Cuban music and culture. She has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Protone, MusicMasters, Centaur, and Arcoiris labels and for the Saarländisches Rundfunk. Fictive Art Antoinette LaFarge, Studio Art W 6:00-6:50pm, HH 236 Course Code 87566 Recent years have seen a growing number of artists deliberately combining textual and visual strategies to produce a kind of work that straddles the boundary between art, fiction, and history. These projects share several notable characteristics: They tend to involve heavily elaborated imagined worlds that bear varying resemblances to our own. They include an intricate narrative embedded partially in text and partly in visual imagery. They rely on a wide variety of fictive strategies and authenticating devices to present their made-up worlds as real, ranging from the nature of photography as objective witness to an appeal to the authority of specific cultural institutions such as the museum and the science lab. At the same time, they tend to signal, more or less clearly, that they are not precisely what they are initially taken to be. Such "fictive art" is emerging as a major new category of Western art practice, and this seminar will focus on identifying and analyzing examples of fictive art, focusing on such questions as: What accounts for the current explosion of this kind of work? Is it best categorized as art, fiction, hoax, parody, or something else? How does this kind of work manage to keep reality in view even while overstepping its bounds? Antoinette LaFarge is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the Studio Art department at UCI. An artist and writer with a particular interest in fictive realities, she is the founder and director of the Museum of Forgery, a virtual institution dedicated to promoting an appreciation of the aesthetics of forgery. She is also the founder and director of the Plaintext Players, an online improvisational performance troupe. In March 2003, her multimedia performance work "The Roman Forum Project" was produced at UCI's Beall Center for Art and Technology. Her writing has appeared in several books as well as in such publications as Wired, Leonardo, and Gnosis. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Technology and Social Development Mark Warschauer, Education and Information & Computer Science W 1:00-1:50pm, BP 1111 Course Code 87581 This seminar will explore the relationship between new technologies and social development around the world. Examples from the professor's research in India, Brazil, China, Egypt, and the US will be discussed. Mark Warschauer is Vice Chair of the Department of Educationa and is also affiliated to the School of Information & Computer Science. He has previously taught and conducted research in Russia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Brazil, China, and Singapore. He is the author or editor of 7 books on technology, education, and social development. HENRY SAMUELI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING High-Performance Computing and Real Life Problems Stephen Jenks, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science W 11:00-11:50am, ET 201 Course Code 87562 High-performance supercomputers are used to solve real-world problems, such as weather forecasting, aerodynamics and fluid flow modeling, crystal growth prediction, and drug interaction simulation. This seminar will look at how large computers have changed the way people live and work and solve huge problems. We will also look at the history and design of supercomputers, as well as future trends. Stephen Jenks investigates topics in high-performance parallel and distributed computing, including computer architecture, compilers, operating systems, and communications middleware. Before joining UCI in 2001, he developed avionics and medical systems at Northrop Grumman Corp. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT The Drama of Business: Creativity and Challenge in the Workplace David Blake, Graduate School of Management Every other Monday, 6:30pm-8:20pm, GSM 116 Course Code 87554 Business can be exciting, challenging, and intellectually stimulating. Success is never guaranteed, and failure is always possible. The problems are rarely simple, and change is endemic. In this seminar we will examine the complexities and passions of business, and its attraction for so many very bright and highly motivated women and men. Professor of Management and former Dean of the Graduate School of Management. Professor Blake has served on 13 corporate boards and has consulted with very large companies as well as small start ups. Profile: http://www.gsm.uci.edu/faculty/index.asp Strategic Role of Information Technology in Business Sanjeev Dewan, Graduate School of Management Every other Thursday, 2:00-3:50pm, GSM 111 Course Code 87557 This course will investigate the relationships between information, process, and strategy, and how these are modified by information technologies. The discussion will examine how the choice of strategy and process (what we do and how we do it) and their resulting effectiveness are closely related to a firm's information processing and communications capabilities. Students will develop a subtle but sophisticated understanding of the links between information technology, business strategy and process, and organization and management dynamics. Professor Dewan's primary research interests are in the area of the economics of information technology and electronic commerce. A common theme that cuts across his research is the Value of Information Technology -- understanding the mechanisms by which information technology creates value in organizations and markets. He has published his research in journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Communications of the ACM and the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, among others. He is currently an associate editor at Management Science and Information Systems Research. SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Adaptation: Novel into Film Nanette Fornabai, French & Italian M 3:00-3:50pm (when Films are screened in class M 3:00-4:50pm), HH 214 Course Code 87560 This seminar offers an introduction to the debates of filmic adaptation. First we will read a few novels, such as Toni Morrison's Beloved, Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief then investigate their filmic adaptations by Jonathan Demme, David Fincher, Stephen Daldry, and Spike Jonze respectively, in order to determine not only the processes of narrative and visual transformation when a novel is "translated" into film, but also to discuss the particular socio-historical moments of their adaptation. Nanette Fornabai an Assistant Professor in the French and Italian Department with a courtesy appointment in the Film Studies Department. She completed her Ph.D. at Brown University in May 2002 on the subject of French Popular Culture. So far at UCI, she has taught upper division French classes such as The Detective: Literature, Science, Photography as well as Film Studies classes such as LA Detectives: Film Noir and Forgetting. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact her. The Art of the Tale Alexander Gelley, English & Comparative Literature Tu 12:00-12:50pm, MKH 537 Course Code 87584 Many recent short stories enact a form of storytelling that derives from oral practices, suggesting that the storyteller is in touch with the traditions of a community. Another type of story reflects the "homelessness" of modern life, where communal values are precarious and often survive only at the level of memory and nostalgia. This contrast between types of narrative was suggested by Walter Benjamin, a highly original literary critic of the earlier 20th century. We shall read his essay "The Storyteller" and then discuss selections from an international anthology of contemporary short stories, The Art of the Tale. Alexander Gelley has taught Comparative Literature at UC Irvine for many years and published on theories of narrative and on the writings of Walter Benjamin. His courses deal with European and Anglo-American literature from the Romantic period to the present, and with such topics as the city in literature and film, and German-Jewish culture. The Soviet Union in the Cold War Lynn Mally, History M 11:00-11:50am, HH 251 Course Code 87568 Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, new materials have emerged documenting state policy decisions and private lives during the Cold War. This seminar will exam some of these new historical sources. Lynn Mally is a Professor of History specializing in the cultural and social history of the Soviet Union. She earned her Ph.D from UC Berkeley. Her fields of interest include Twentieth Century Russian History & Cultural History. Trust and Betrayal Philip Nickel, Philosophy M 12:00-12:50pm, HOB2 Rm 233 Course Code 87570 What is trust and whom should we trust? In this seminar we will discuss the connection between the concept of trust and the concept of betrayal, and also investigate what kinds of reasons we ought to have when we trust other people. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on their own personal experiences in light of philosophical answers to these questions. Philip Nickel did his undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy. He recently received my Ph.D from UCLA for a dissertation entitled "Moral Dependence: Reliance on Moral Testimony." His current work concerns how ethical beliefs emerge from our social relations, such as relations of authority, trust, and participation in a community. He am also interested in applied ethics, especially the application of ethics to current issues in biomedical science. Consciousness and Reality (Beyond the Matrix) David W. Smith, Philosophy Tu 11:00-11:50am, HOB2 Rm 233 Course Code 87575 In the popular movie "The Matrix" (1999) the main character Neo learns that his life as he has experienced it is all an illusion generated by a powerful system of artificial intelligence that controls his mind while he in fact lies like a brain in a vat wired into The Matrix. (The sequel movie is due in Summer 2003.) This premise is a cyberspace variant on Descartes' "evil genius" argument at the dawn of modern philosophy: how do I know that everything I see, hear, touch and believe is not an illusion produced by my mind by an evil demon (like mad scientist with god-like power)? In this seminar we'll discuss the philosphical significance of "The Matrix" (and the sequel). We'll read the famous opening of Rene Descartes meditations (1641). Then we'll read a brief account of phenomemology, the science of conscious experience developed by Edmund Husserl in the 20th century. Neuroscience has today begun to catch up with the problem of consciousness, which was carefully explored by Descartes and in great detail by Husserl. Science fiction builds on our present understanding of the relation between consciousness and the brain. An issue in our discussion will be the classical problem of reality and illusion: reborn, in our era of digital and media culture, as the problem of "virtual reality" and "hyperreality", where "image" seems everything. My own research involves a philosphical analysis of our first-person experience of consciousness. That will be the underlying them of this seminar. David Woodruff Smith has taught in the Department of Philosophy at UCI for many years. His research centers on structures of consciousness and the world, especially how we represent or interpret the world in our first-person experience (as well as language). He has lectured widely on these issues in Europe and America and published four books and numerous articles on these themes. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE AntZ for Anteaters - WhatZ 3D Computer GraphicZ? Gopi Meenakshisundaram, Information and Computer Science W 10:00-10:50am, SSL 117 Course Code 87569 Computer games or 3D animation movies -- everything boils down to colors of the pixels on the screen! Computer graphics techniques determine these colors. Come and get acquainted with the world of computer graphics! Dr. Gopi Meenakshisundaram research focusses on Computer Graphics. He got his Ph.D. in this area from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. Since then he has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UCI. The Art of Quick and Accurate Calculation Amelia Regan, Information and Computer Science M 3:00-3:50pm, Engineering Gateway 4171 Course Code 87585 Using the classic book, "How to calculate quickly" by Henry Sticker, you will learn to double or triple the speed at which you calculate in just 10 weeks. Using methods which are interesting and enjoyable you will improve your performance in math classes and science classes, improve your everyday math sense and learn to wow your friends with your ability to perform seemingly difficult calculations quickly and accurately in your head. The book will be provided. Amelia Regan is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and of Civil Engineering. Her research is focused on applications of information technologies and optimization techniques to transportation and logistics systems and to large scale networks of any kind. Technology and Social Development Mark Warschauer, Information & Computer Science and Education W 1:00-1:50pm, BP 1111 Course Code 87581 This seminar will explore the relationship between new technologies and social development around the world. Examples from the professor's research in India, Brazil, China, Egypt, and the US will be discussed. Mark Warschauer is Vice Chair of the Department of Educationa and is also affiliated to the School of Information & Computer Science. He has previously taught and conducted research in Russia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Brazil, China, and Singapore. He is the author or editor of 7 books on technology, education, and social development. SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES Deep Time Gregory Benford, Physics & Astronomy Th 2:00-2:50pm, FRH 4175 Course Code 87553 We seldom think of time as a tool. Yet thinking in deep time scales can serve to solve, or at least frame, some grave current dilemmas. We shall explore how humanity has tried to leave messages and monuments for very long time scales. Gregory Benford is a working scientist, a professor of physics at the UC Irvine since 1971. He specializes in astrophysics and plasma physics theory and was presented with the Lord Prize in 1995 for achievements in the sciences. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Phi Beta Kappa. Over the years, he has been an advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United Sates Department of Energy, and the White House Council on Space Policy. Currently he holds research grants from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His first book-length work of non-fiction, Deep Time (1999), examines his work in long duration messages from a broad humanistic and scientific perspective. From snowflakes to tiger's stripes: What make patterns in nature? Michael Dennin, Physics & Astronomy W 2:00-2:50pm, FRH 2111 Course Code 87556 Patterns abound in the natural world. We see them in everything from sand on the beach, to snowflakes, to crystals, to animal coats, to the structure of the human body. Are these patterns the result of general physical principles, or simply the result of chance events, on which we impose a sense of order? This seminar will discuss the current understanding of patterns in nature, and how complex order can form out of apparent chaos. In addition to the usual discussion format, the class will include simple demonstrations of patterns forming spontaneously due to simple physical laws. Many of these experiments the students will be able to perform at home. Michael Dennin received his Ph.D. in physics from UCSB. After that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA in physical chemistry. He started at UCI 6 years ago, and have been recognized for both his teaching and research while at UCI. His current research focuses on everyday things (shaving cream, piles of sand, dishes of water) that under relatively common forces exhibit surprising and interesting behavior. For some systems, this means a perfectly uniform system spontaneously exhibits a pattern (such as stripes, squares, or hexagons). For example, a smooth, sandy beach will develop stripes when a uniform wind blows across it. For others, there is an interesting change in fundamental properties. For example, a pile of sand will sit there like a rigid solid until enough force is applied, and then it begins to flow. El Nino and Climate Change Ellen Druffel, Earth System Science TBA, TBA Course Code 87558 We will learn the definition of El Nino, how it is predicted, and the effects it has on Earth's climate. Whether they are now more frequent and severe since the 1800s will also be addressed. We will use websites that display recent records of rainfall, sea surface temperature and winds to assess the probability that an El Nino event is headed our way. Ellen Druffel is a Chemical Oceanographer and Biogeochemist interested in the cycling of carbon in the oceans. She uses accelerator mass spectrometry, located in the basement of Croul Bldg., to trace bomb-produced radiocarbon (14C) from the atmosphere to the deep-sea. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from Loyola-Marymount U in L.A. and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCSD. She worked for 12 years as a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, and has been a professor in ESS for 10 years (chair from 1997-2000). The Universe in a Nutshell Andrew Lankford, Physics & Astronomy M 3:00-3:50pm, FRH 4135 Course Code 87567 This seminar will introduce some of the most exciting questions confronting contemporary physical science in a fashion suitable for both humanists and scientists. How are space and time related, and how does present understanding of spacetime contribute to our understanding of the evolution of the universe? How are mass and gravity related to space and time? What are particles, antiparticles, superstrings, and black holes? Do we live in a three-dimensional world, or are there extra dimensions? The seminar will address such questions with conceptual explanations based upon current research, and it will highlight some of the research topics being investigated on our campus. It will be based upon the recent book The Universe in a Nutshell that renowned British physicist and author Stephen Hawking composed for a general audience. (No previous physics courses are required.) Andrew Lankford joined UCI as a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1990. He performs research in elementary particle physics, one of the strengths of our department and campus. His current experiments use high energy particle accelerators at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the European Center for Particle Physics Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. His research strives to understand such fundamental questions as: What is the difference between matter and anti-matter?, Why do we live in a universe composed of matter and not of anti-matter?, What is the origin of mass?, Do we truly live in a three-dimensional world, or are there other "extra dimensions"? These questions are important not only in the realm of particle physics, but also to cosmology, bearing upon the study of the origin and evolution of the early universe. Abrupt Global Climate Change F. Sherwood Rowland, Chemistry W 11:00-11:50am, CS 209 Course Code 87572 The activities of mankind are releasing several greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs) to the atmosphere. The planet is warming, and significant climate change is expected during the 21st Century F. Sherwood Rowland, Nobel Laureate for Chemistry in 1995, is a Bren Research Professor at UCI. His research is currently studying the composition of the earth's atmosphere in (a) remote locations throughout the Pacific region from Alaska to New Zealand: (b) highly polluted cities throughout the world; and (c) areas with special conditions, such as burning forests and/or agricultural wastes, or the marine boundary layer in oceanic locations with high biological emissions. Cosmic Rays, A Window to the Universe Gaurang Yodh, Physics & Astronomy Tu 11:00-11:50am, FRH 2111 Course Code 87583 Cosmic rays provide a window to the nature of the universe beyond our solar system. It is a ' radiation ' that continously bombards us and constitutes the only sample of elemental matter outside the heliosphere that we can ' catch' and study to investigate supernova explosions, interstellar medium and magnetic fields and even processes going on in other galaxies. The seminar will consist of interactive discussions about how are cosmic rays detected, what is their composition, where do they arise, how do they acquire speeds close to the speed of light, how do they provide carbon dating of historical objects and how they might have influenced evolution. Students will also be introduced to current projects being carried out at UCI in this field such as AMANDA on the south pole and Milagro in the mountains of New Mexico by their researchers. Students will have opportunity to 'see' some of the instruments that are currently being used to study cosmic rays. Gaurang Yodh received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago under Enrico Fermi. He is a Fellow of American Physical Society, American Association for Advancement of Science and Institute of Physics in UK. He has been studying cosmic rays and high energy gamma rays for the last three decades. His current research is observation of cosmic rays and high energy gamma rays using the Milagro detector at high altitude in New Mexico and search for astrophysical neutrinos with the AMANDA detector at the South pole. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL ECOLOGY Crime and Justice in the United States Michael Gottfredson, Criminology, Law & Society W 4:00-4:50pm, ADM 107 Course Code 87561 This course will introduce students to the scientific study of crime and delinquency and to the field of criminology. The readings are designed to introduce students to several principles in the field, with the goal of discovering the relations between academic work in these fields and contemporary issues. Michael R. Gottfredson is a Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Irvine. Prior to assuming these positions in July 2000, Michael Gottfredson was Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Univeristy of Arizona and Professor of Management and Policy, Law, Sociology, and Psychology. In 1999, he served as Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. For five years, he served as head of the Department of Management and Policy at Arizona. He joined the University of Arizona in 1985, after teaching at the Claremont Graduate School, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the State University of New York at Albany. He received his A.B. from the University of California, Davis and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. Professor Gottfredson's research and teaching specialties are the causes of crime and delinquency and the criminal justice process. The Politics of Crime Valerie Jenness, Criminology, Law & Society M 1:00-1:50pm, SEII 2372 Course Code 87563 Every society for which there are written records have crime. However, how different societies and the same society at different points in time think about, experience, and respond to crime varies considerably. With this in mind, this course examines "the politics of crime" in the U.S. in the modern era. In particular, we will investigate the relationship between the crime crime, people's understanding and fear of crime, and the development and implementation of public policies designed to curb crime. Valerie Jenness is Associate Professor and Chair of the Departmentof Criminology, Law and Society. Her current research focuses on the politics of crime, including hate crime in the U.S. SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Infinity and Paradox Aldo Antonelli, Logic and Philosophy of Science Tu 10:00-10:50am, SST 777 Course Code 87551 A survey of the bewildering facts connected to the notion of infinity, from the mystifying to the paradoxical. Topics to be covered include Zeno's paradoxes, the uncountability of the reals, Cantor's higher infinite, Russell's paradox, truth and the Liar paradox, the limits of logic. Light readings will be taken from such texts as R. Rucker's "Infinity and the Mind", M. Sainsbury's "Paradoxes", and B. Russell's "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy". Aldo Antonelli teaches in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and his field of expertise is symbolic logic. He has worked in applications of logic to artificial intelligence and game theory, non-standard set theories, modal logic, and the philosophy of language and mathematics. Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? Stergios Skaperdas, Economics W 2:00-2:50pm, SSPA 3132 Course Code 87574 Although the knowledge and technology exist for all of the world's population to have its material standard of living catch up with that of high-income countries, the reality is discouraging. If anything, recently most low-income countries are falling further behind and we are nowhere near understanding why this is happening. We will explore a few hypotheses that are based on the role of goverance of economic relations, and we will ask why some countries have developed effective governance of these relations and others have not. Skaperdas was born in Greece and received his Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins University. In his research he examines old political economy questions using the tools of modern economic theory. Globalization: Problem or Panacea? David A. Smith, Sociology W 12 noon-12:50 pm, SSPB 2214 Course Code 87587 The word "globalization" is familiar to anyone tuned into global media, and is rapidly emerging as the favorite buzzword of political leaders, business executives, and news reporters all around the world. It is clearly one of those faddish neologisms that is frequently invoked but rarely defined (and, in this case, freighted with ideological implications). In this seminar we will explore what globalization means and try to carefully delineate just exactly what large-scale worldwide political and economic changes have occurred in the past two or three decades that led to the presumption that "the world has changed." Finally, we will analyze and discuss whether a world beset with myriad problems (grinding poverty and inequality, international tension and terrorism, severe ecological threats, etc.) is better or worse off given the current level of "globalization." Has it solved our problems? Or just made them worse? Finally, how can we as citizens and "ordinary people" constructively participate in our new globalized society? Black Power, Black Politics Katherine Tate, Political Science F 11:00-11:50am, SSPB 5250 Course Code 87576 "But coalitions with whom? On what terms? And for what objectives? All too frequently, coalitions involving black people have been only at the leadership level; dictated by terms set by others; and for objectives not calculated to bring major improvement in the lives of the black masses" (Black Power, 1967, p. 59-60). In this seminar, students will read and discuss persistant themes in African American politics, such as should Blacks form coalitions with liberal Democrats to advance politically, or go it alone? Katherine Tate is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. She teaches on topics ranging from American government, public opinion, political behavior, minority politics, and urban politics. She is the author of From Protest to Politics (1994), African Americans and the American Political System (1998), and Black Faces in the Mirror (2003). Fast Food Nation: Life Under Golden Arches Judith Treas, Sociology W 11:00-11:50am, SSPB 4206 Course Code 87577 Americans spend more than a billion dollars on fast food each year. Launched in Southern California half a century ago, the fast food industry now stands for the best and worst of American civilization. Our seminar ponders how McDonald's pioneering principles of efficiency, predictability, and control have spread to religion, health care, and even higher education. Discover why Golden Arches cast such a long shadow over the lives of 3.5 million fast food workers, the future of Western ranching, the health of consumers, and the cultures of the globe. Judith Treas studies aging and the life course, population, family, and social inequality. Her recent research has addressed cross-national differences in family attitudes and behavior as well as the lives of elderly immigrants to the U.S. She is a -itor (with Martin P. M. Richards and Jacqueline L. Scott) of The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Families. Socialism and the Twentieth Century Feng Wang, Sociology Tu 5:00-5:50pm, SSPB 4206 Course Code 87580 The twentieth century witnessed a full circle of the rise and the fall of socialism. What made countries that once covered 40 percent of the world population choose such a social system and why did the system collapse? In this seminar we do not attempt to understand everything that contributed to this most important social change in the twentieth century, but will begin a thinking process about this process and its underlying causes. My research and teaching focus on social inequalities in post-socialist societies and in comparative demographic processes. I have taught regularly undergraduate classes on Chinese society -- a major former socialist country -- and undergraduate honor's research seminars. I enjoy working with self-motivated undergraduate students and encourage them to think critically and globally. Did Evolution of the Hand Lead to Human Intelligence? Charles Wright, Psychology F 9:00-9:50am, SSPB 3218 Course Code 87582 The human hand is a miracle of biomechanics, one of the most remarkable adaptations in the history of evolution. In this course, we will explore the suggestion that it is the unique structure of the hand and its evolution in cooperation with the brain that led to the development of Homo sapiens as the most intelligent, preeminent animal on earth. Professor Wright is a Cognitive Pscyhologist and Chair of the Department of Cognitive Sciences. His primary research interest is in skill learning and the control of hand movements. |
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| Freshman Seminar Program 256 Aldrich Hall Irvine, CA 92697-5675 Phone (949) 824-6987 Fax (949) 824-3469 A Division of Undergraduate Education Program © 2006-2008 The Regents of the University of California All Rights Reserved |
