UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs-an Appropriate Mascot
Being a part-time teacher at the University of California at Irvine, I have taken recent note of the activities at other UC campuses in regards to left-wing activities. It seems to me that of all the UC campuses-even UC Berkeley-that UC Santa Cruz seems to be taking the lead in left-wing nuttiness these days.
David Horowitz, in his Frontpage Magazine blog, is featuring an article this week on some of the wacko classes that are being offered in the UCSC course catalog, in particular, the so-called Community Studies Department.
"Browse through the University of Santa Cruz course catalog, however, and you will find courses such as the following, offered through the “Community Studies Department,” which informs students: “The goal of this seminar is to learn how to organize a revolution. We will learn what communities past and present have done and are doing to resist, challenge, and overcome systems of power including (but not limited to) global capitalism, state oppression, and racism.” As we note in the book, this is the outline of a political agenda, not the description of a scholarly inquiry, and a clear instance of the kind of political indoctrination that the school’s own regulations prohibit – in theory, if not in practice." (Frontpage)
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Being so enticed, I searched through the Community Studies section of USSC's website and noted the following- from the UCSC catalogue:
"Community studies is an interdisciplinary major that integrates scholarship and community engagement in both research and teaching. Since its founding in 1969, and across radically changing political landscapes, the department has maintained a focus on identifying, analyzing, and helping to construct sites for social change and cultural transformation. To this end, we address principles of social justice and the dynamics of racial and class inequity as well as explore constructions of community and their implications.
The range of the faculty’s disciplines, research interests, and arenas of civic engagement permits the department to delve into cross-cutting contemporary approaches that color every aspect of social life. The major offers community studies students a lively choice of concentrations in which to specialize, including public health and health politics, political economy, agriculture and food justice, race and racism, historical and contemporary social movements, globalization, politics of culture, and systems of documentary representation. Pedagogically, community studies relies on developing a dynamic critical awareness of the relationship between the theoretical and practical issues involved in social change, and of the wider global contexts in which social justice is defined and achieved. The department’s model of specific communities through residence and participation in (mostly) non-profit organizations with a social change mission. The undergraduate core curriculum focuses on the development of academic tools for social analysis and field observations/participation while deepening students’ knowledge of specific histories and theoretical perspectives that are essential to the student of communities and transformation. Students complete the major by preparing a senior capstone project integrating academic course work, field study, and original research work. The major usually takes about two years to complete.
With the intellectual guidance of a faculty adviser and a field study coordinator, community studies students choose field placements related to one of the department’s areas of focus. Placements have been with health centers, immigrant rights organizations, newspapers, minority media outlets, city planning departments, neighborhood organizations, civil rights groups, farm-to-school programs, battered women’s shelters, legal clinics, programs for seniors, tenant unions, government agencies and the offices of elected officials, trade unions, and other organizations committed to and working for social justice in communities."
Some of their course offerings:
114. Whiteness, Racism, and Anti-Racism.
Examines the social, cultural, institutional, and personal ways that white privilege and racial domination are constructed, maintained, and reproduced in U.S. society. Goal is to reveal the "hidden" quality of whiteness and illuminate effective strategies for anti-racist activism. Enrollment limited to 25. (General Education Code(s): E.) D. Wellman
122. Experiments in Community: Utopia and Communalism in Post-War California.
Traces history and flowering of urban and rural communal experiments in postwar California. Critically examines the counterculture—both alternative and revolutionary wings—and its legacy of, for example, sexual politics, child rearing, art and culture, foodways, environmentalism, architecture, and anti capitalism. (Formerly Experiments in Community: History of Communes in California.) I. Boal
123. Wal-Mart Nation.
Examines origins and growth of Wal-Mart stores as powerful guides to understanding dynamics of contemporary global political economy and, relatedly, the changing fortunes of global social classes.
(Fousesquawk comment- Can you imagine-USSC actually has a course devoted to Walmart??!!)
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Aside from Community Studies, a couple of other "departments" caught my eye.
Queer and Sexuality Studies
Feminist Studies
315 Humanities 1
(831)459-4324
fmst@ucsc.edu
http://queer.ucsc.edu/
Program Description
"Scholarship pertaining to the critical study of gender and sexuality can be found across a broad range of departments at UCSC. This presence is manifested in a diverse faculty, in course offerings, and in research programs. Courses with queer content can be found in American studies, anthropology, community studies, feminist studies, film and digital media, history, history of consciousness, legal studies, literature, sociology and theater arts.
For more specialization, departments such as Community Studies, Feminist Studies and Literature have sufficient flexibility to allow students to design a course of study within those majors to explore these interests. For students who prefer to take a more self-directed approach, there is the option of designing an individual major.
Research activities are sponsored by the
Queer Theory research cluster (a part of the Center for Cultural Studies), the Center for Justice, Tolerance and Community, the Queer and Sexuality Studies Working Group, and many campus departments and student organizations."
The Lionel Cantú GLBTI Resource Center serves as a clearinghouse for queer activities on the UCSC campus. Each quarter, the center prepares a list of all course offerings with queer content. Information is available at http://queer.ucsc.eduor via e-mail at queer@ucsc.edu.
Fousesquawk comment: How is it that a university department actually names itself "Queer and Sexuality Studies"? The term "Queer" is a term I stopped using to refer to homosexuals when I was in high school.
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Then there is this department:
History of Consciousness 415 Humanities 1
(831) 459-2757
http://histcon.ucsc.edu/
Faculty
Gopal Balakrishnan, Associate Professor of History of Consciousness
Classics of political thought from Plato to Rousseau, early modern and modern European intellectual history, historical sociology, the history and future of capitalism, nationalism-----(This guy is associated with the New Left Review- a journal that is aptly named.)
James T. Clifford, Professor of History of Consciousness
History of anthropology, travel, and exoticism; transnational cultural studies, museum studies, indigenous studies
Angela Y. Davis, Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies
Feminism, African American studies, critical theory, popular music culture and social consciousness, philosophy of punishment (women's jails and prisons)
Teresa de Lauretis, Professor of History of Consciousness, Literature, and Film and Digital Media
Semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, film theory, literary theory, queer studies
Barbara L. Epstein, Professor of History of Consciousness
Social movements and theories of social movements, 20th-century U.S. politics and culture, Marxism and related theories of social change
Donna J. Haraway, Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies
Feminist theory, cultural and historical studies of science and technology, relation of life and human sciences, human-animal relations, and animal studies
David S. Marriott, Professor of History of Consciousness
Literary theory, psychoanalysis, black cultural theory and philosophies of race, literary and visual cultures of modernism
Victor Burgin, Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness
Hayden White, Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness
Extended Department Faculty
John Brown Childs, Professor of Sociology
Ethnic conflict and transcommunal cooperation; sociology of knowledge; African American, Native American, Latino interactions
Michael H. Cowan, Professor of American Studies
American cultural theory and history, history of American studies, symbolic expression in American life, urban cultural studies, American literary studies, studies in the institutional culture of higher education
Gina Dent, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies
Africana literary and cultural studies, legal theory, popular culture
Shelly Errington, Professor of Anthropology
Globalization of folk art, visual and social semiotics, photography, film, the Internet and digital media, Southeast Asia, and Latin America
Carla Freccero, Distinguished Professor of French Literature and Feminist Studies
Renaissance studies, French and Italian language and literature, early modern studies, postcolonial theories and literature, contemporary feminist theories and politics, queer theory, U.S. popular culture
Herman S. Gray, Professor of Sociology
Cultural studies, media and television studies, black cultural politics, social theory
Susan Harding, Professor of Anthropology
Culture, politics, narrative, gender, local/global studies, ethnographic writing, fundamentalism, Christianity, state-making, aging, America, and Spain
David C. Hoy, Professor of Philosophy
Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, phenomenology, poststructuralism, and contemporary European philosophy
Robert L. Meister, Professor of Politics
Political and moral philosophy, law and social theory, Marxian theory, institutional analysis, antidiscrimination law
Helene Moglen, Professor of Literature and Feminist Studies; UC Presidential Chair
The English novel; feminist, critical, cultural, and psychoanalytic theory; gender and genre in social and psychological contexts
Triloki Nath Pandey, Professor of Anthropology
Native peoples of North America, cultures of India, political anthropology, anthropological theories and comparisons
Andrew Szasz, Associate Professor of Sociology
Environmental sociology (environmental movements, policy, environmental justice); theory
Richard Terdiman, Professor of Literature
Nineteenth- and 20th-century French and European literature and culture, literary and cultural theory, contemporary critical theory, cultural globalization
Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology
Culture and politics, feminist theory and gender in the U.S., social landscapes and tropical forest ethnoecologies, ethnicity, local power and relations to the state in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the U.S.
Judy Yung, Professor Emerita of American Studies
Patricia Zavella, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Relationship between women's work and domestic labor, poverty, family, sexuality and social networks, feminist studies, ethnographic research methods, and transnational migration of Mexicana/o workers and U.S. capital
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After reading the descriptions of the above professors, you have any doubts as to their political bents, I invite you to google them and determine how many of them are not on the far left of the political spectrum.
Here are the courses offered in this exciting department.
Lower-Division Courses Program Description "History of consciousness is an interdisciplinary graduate program centered in the humanities, with links to the social sciences, physical and biological sciences, and arts. It is concerned with forms of human expression and social action as they are manifested in specific historical, cultural, and political contexts. The program stresses flexibility and originality. Interest is focused on problems rather than disciplines. Although students are prepared to teach in particular fields, the emphasis is on questions that span a number of different approaches.
Over more than 30 years of existence, the history of consciousness program has become widely recognized as a leader of interdisciplinary scholarship. Program graduates are influential scholars at prominent universities, and dissertations have been published by major publishing houses and academic presses. Graduates currently find academic employment in a wide range of disciplines, including literature, feminist studies, science studies, anthropology, sociology, American studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, communications, the study of religion, and philosophy. In addition, history of consciousness graduates work as filmmakers, museum researchers, free-lance writers, postdoctoral researchers, and academic administrators.
Since the curriculum concentrates on theoretical and methodological issues and is concerned with the integration of disciplines, candidates for admission are expected to have a relatively clear idea of the project they wish to pursue. Experience of advanced work in one or more fields is preferred, but not required.
History of consciousness emphasizes a variety of topics in its seminars and research pursuits. These areas of research include studies at the intersection of race, sexuality, and gender; global capitalism and cultural processes; psychoanalytic and semiotic theories of the image; science and technology studies; theories and histories of religion; social movements; and literary studies and poetics. Seminars are regularly offered in these and other areas of ongoing faculty research.
History of consciousness has strong cooperative relations with associated faculty from other campus programs, scholars who offer seminars and participate in advising, qualifying exams, and thesis committees. Within the limits of seminar size and faculty time, cross-disciplinary work in graduate courses offered by other departments is encouraged. The formal list of associated faculty is a non-exhaustive indication of advising possibilities beyond the program’s core faculty. Campus research organizations, such as the UCSC Center for Cultural Studies, the Institute for Humanities Research, the Institute of Advanced Feminist Research, and the Chicano/Latino Research Center, also provide venues for collaborative work."
Requirements
Students are required to enroll in a minimum of two courses per quarter until advancement to candidacy (normally achieved no later than the fourth year).
Incoming students are required to take a minimum of five history of consciousness graduate seminars during the first two years. In the first year, students are required to take the introductory seminar, course 203A, Approaches to History of Consciousness. In the course of the first year, students must also take a writing intensive “B” seminar, either 203B, Approaches, or a “B” seminar following another seminar the student has taken. By the end of the first year, students are expected to complete a full seminar paper. Unless an exception is approved by the director of Graduate Studies, “B” courses do not count toward the five seminars selected to fulfill the basic department requirement. The remainder of the courses taken to fulfill university enrollment requirements may include not only history of consciousness seminars but also independent study with specific faculty or graduate seminars offered in other departments.
Additional requirements for the Ph.D. vary with individual disciplinary and interdisciplinary needs and are determined in consultation with relevant faculty and the chair of the program.
Advancement to candidacy depends on the general quality of a student’s work; demonstration of proficiency in a foreign language relevant to the student’s area of work, either by passing a written exam administered by the department or successfully completing a language course approved by the department; success in the qualifying exam; and proposal of an acceptable thesis topic. The qualifying exam is centered on a qualifying essay that demonstrates the candidate’s ability to do extended, dissertation-level research and analysis relevant to the proposed thesis topic and dissertation plan. The exam focuses on the student’s research project and on the fields of scholarship it presupposes.
After advancement to candidacy, required by the end of the fourth year, students concentrate on the writing of the dissertation. The current normative time to degree limit of seven years means that a student usually has at least three years after advancement to candidacy for completion of the dissertation.
Students also have the option of doing advanced work in a traditional discipline and receiving a parenthetical degree notation of this specialization. In such cases, students must satisfy the appropriate department’s criteria. Currently such degree notations may be negotiated with American studies, anthropology, literature, philosophy, sociology, and feminist studies. Students are expected to complete at least one year of supervised teaching as part of the degree requirements.
Applications
The deadline for applications to the History of Consciousness program is December 1 of each year. Admissions information and application materials are available online at graddiv.ucsc.edu.
Applications are invited from students with backgrounds and interests in the humanities and social sciences and are especially encouraged from individuals with a clear idea of the project they wish to undertake. Strong preference is given to applicants working in areas for which the faculty resources in history of consciousness are appropriate and available. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are required as is a writing sample of no more than 10 pages.
Admission is for the fall quarter only.
It is important to note that in light of California’s elimination of affirmative action as an admissions criterion, the history of consciousness department reaffirms its commitment to the principles of affirmative action. These principles mean a commitment to diversity, equal opportunity, and outreach to underrepresented communities. Further, this commitment underlines our understanding that the very fabric and quality of our scholarship depends on the representation and interplay of diverse experience and perspectives. So defined, affirmative action is reflected in every aspect of the history of consciousness program, including scholarship, teaching, admissions, hiring, and the process of departmental governance."
Fousesquawk comment: First of all, does the above comment about affirmative action implicate that despite the law, this department is taking the position of -TO HELL WITH THE LAW?
Secondly, can anybody make sense of this "Consciousness thing"? Please excuse me, folks. I only have a Masters degree, but to me, consciousness means something like being awake. Is that opposed to the "History of Being Passed Out Drunk" (which I can relate to)? Seems to me, once you get around this thing about being conscious, this is a bunch of leftist rigamarol.
But then, all you have to do is get to the name, Angela Davis, and it all becomes crystal clear. For those of you to young to remember, Angela Davis, one of the department honchos, is much more than just a PHD on the list of professors. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Angela Davis was a leading radical in California, associated with the Communist Party and the Black Panthers and charged in the courthouse killing of a judge in an attempted prisoner breakout. Subsequent to the incident, she became a fugitive, was arrested in New York and tried in California (where she was acquitted.) Since then, Davis has become (again) a darling of the academic left at UCSC where she teaches to this day.
Here are the courses they offer: 80A. Culture and Ideology in the 20th Century.
A survey of the principle ideological issues of the 20th century—attitudes toward sex, race, class, work, violence, and knowledge—viewed from the perspective of structuralist and semiological theories of culture. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) A. Davis
80B. Constructions of the Exotic.
Analyzes ethnographic and auto-ethnographic representations of non-Western peoples. Films, video, ethnographies, novels, and journalism are considered, paying attention to specific histories of colonial and postcolonial contact which influence images of "culture" and "identity." (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) J. Clifford
80E. Myth and Religion.
A study of the nature of religion and myth as well as their interrelationship; the beginnings and functions of myth, its major themes in various cultures, its relationship to sacrifice and ritual, and its role in selected religions and cultures throughout the world. Offered in alternate academic years. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) G. Lease, The Staff
80I. Philosophy, Race, and Gender.
What is the concept of the human? How is the concept of the human related to race and gender? How has it changed from the 18th century to the 20th century? Focuses on the founding texts of the German Enlightenment. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) The Staff
80J. Social Movements in the U.S.
Traces the history of social movements in the late 19th- and 20th-century U.S., including populism, labor, socialism, Communism, the New Left, civil rights, feminism. Looks at the relationship between cultures of protest and mainstream popular and political cultures. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences.) B. Epstein
80L. Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?.
Christianity claims but one Jesus at its foundation; the sources, however, reveal many Jesuses. Is there a "real" Jesus among the memories of the earliest Jesusites, or among the Jesus-types of Late Antiquity? Or only contradictory choices? (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) G. Lease
80M. Imagining Popular Culture.
Focuses on representations of race, class, and gender in contemporary popular culture images, particularly film and television. Attendance is required at both lectures and screenings. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) The Staff
80N. Politics of Emotion/Emotion of Politics.
Engages histories of affect, the complex realms of the senses, feelings, emotions, and the body. Asks questions about the role of emotions in the making and unmaking of the contemporary political order and marginal cultures of feeling. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences.) T. Spira
80O. Hitler, National Socialism, and Religion.
A critical evaluation of Hitler as a religious leader and his National Socialism as both a religious movement and an example of 20th-century political theology: a study of the relationship between religion and politics. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences.) G. Lease
80Q. Science as Culture and Practice.
Using tools from the analysis of social history, visual and material culture, narrative, and laboratory and field practices, introduces students to modern science, technology, and medicine studies. Examples come especially from 20th- and 21st-century life and human and information sciences. May be repeated for credit. (General Education Code(s): T5-Humanities and Arts or Social Sciences.) D. Haraway
80T. Art and Life: Introduction to Interventionist Art and Visual Studies.
Emphasizes how interventionist practices and activist art might inform students' political development and actions. Explores modes of expression and political identities that are useful after college. Leads to the production of alternatives to mainstream media. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) L. Kelley
80U. Modernity and Its Discontents.
Offers an introduction to the idea of modernity from Kant to Freud, Niezsche to Fanon. (General Education Code(s): T4-Humanities and Arts.) D. Marriott
Upper-Division Courses
102. Philosophy and Poetics.
Introduction to the relationship between philosophy and poetics in some major 19th- and 20th-century poets and thinkers. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 30. D. Marriott
111. States, War, Capitalism.
Survey of seminal work on ancient origins of the state, diverse geo-political systems of war and diplomacy, and consequences of the formation of the world market on the evolution of geo-political systems up to and beyond the wars of today. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 35. G. Balakrishnan
113. Participatory Dissent.
Brings together debates in feminism, contemporary art, and radical pedagogy, investigating the impact of the feminist revolution in the arts and humanities on debates in radical pedagogy and art as social practice. N. Loveless
118. Jewish Social Movements.
Jewish social movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries, in Europe (Eastern and Western) and the U.S.: the confrontation between Hasidism and Haskahah, tensions between socialism and Zionism, between religiosity and secularism, the mutual influences among these tendencies. (Also offered as History 185D. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 20. (General Education Code(s): E.) B. Epstein
126. Film Fantasies.
A focused study of cinema as a social technology for the production of public and private fantasies: how films contribute to shaping the image a culture has of itself and how film viewing may influence individual fantasies, values, and identities. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors. Enrollment limited to 80. T. De Lauretis
145E. Topics in Medical Humanities.
Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary field of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history, and religion) concerned with its application to medical education and practice. The humanities provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, and our responsibility to each other; and offer an historical perspective on medical science. Course helps prepare students for the reading comprehension and writing parts of the MCAT. Satisfies the Modern Literature concentration. Students cannot receive credit for this course and Literature 80K. (Also offered as Modern Literary Studies 145E. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) W. Godzich
199. Tutorial.
A program of individual study arranged between an undergraduate student and a faculty member. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
Graduate Courses
203A. Approaches to History of Consciousness.
An introduction to history of consciousness required of all incoming students. The seminar concentrates on theory, methods, and research techniques. Major interpretive approaches drawn from cultural and political analysis are discussed in their application to specific problems in the history of consciousness. Prerequisite(s): first-year standing in the program. See the department office for more information. (Formerly course 203.) The Staff
203B. Approaches to History of Consciousness.
Writing-intensive course based on readings in course 203A. Prerequisite(s): course 203A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 9. G. Balakrishnan
204A. Introduction to Cultural Studies.
Classic texts from the British cultural studies tradition. Traces later developments in North America, Latin America, Australia, and elsewhere. Asks how class analysis has been complicated by work on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and postcoloniality. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 20May be repeated for credit. J. Clifford
204B. Introduction to Cultural Studies.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 204A. Prerequisite(s): course 204A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 20. J. Clifford
205A. Theories of Slavery.
Explores philosophical, legal, and socio-historical analyses of slavery. Focus on Atlantic slavery and the production of race and gender formations, complemented by discussion on contemporary forms of slavery. Impact of historical slavery on prevailing discourses and institutions. (Also offered as Feminist Studies 225A. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Davis
205B. Theories of Slavery.
Writing-intensive course based on readings in History of Consciousness 205A and Feminist Studies 225A . (Also offered as Feminist Studies 225B. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Prerequisite(s): course 205A or Feminist Studies 225A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Davis
207. Theory of the Text.
An introduction to contemporary theories of textual interpretation: anthropological, linguistic, historical, literary, semiotic, and philosophical. Consideration of different kinds of texts and ways of reading them: from dream reports, folktales, and myths, through musical scores, monuments, rituals, games, and codes, to poems, novels, and political tracts. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. T. De Lauretis
208A. Radical Critiques of Penality.
Examines recent theories of imprisonment, focusing on the philosophical and criminological literature associated with scholarly and activist movements arguing for prison abolition. In considering the disarticulation of crime and punishment, race, class, and gender serve as principal analytical categories. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Davis
208B. Radical Critiques of Penality.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 208A. Prerequisite(s): course 208A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Davis
209A. Women of Color: Feminist Theories and Practices.
Examination of feminist consciousness in the indigenous and diasporic cultural histories of women of color. Analysis of "feminist moments" in these histories and their epistemological implications for the construction of feminist theories that take into account intersections of gender, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. Discussion of possible paradigmatic shifts in feminist theory. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. A. Davis
209B. Women of Color: Feminist Theories and Practices.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 209A. Prerequisite(s): course 209A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
210A. Cultural and Historical Studies of Race and Ethnicity.
Explores the historical construction of racial and ethnic categories in the Americas, especially the U.S., in interaction with gender, sexuality, class, and nationality. Intended to introduce current work by UCSC faculty and Bay Area scholars and to stimulate graduate student research projects, the course is organized by intensive reading around key questions, followed by presentations by invited scholars. Emphasizes research resources and methodologies. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
210B. Cultural and Historical Studies of Race and Ethnicity.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 210A. Prerequisite(s): course 210A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
211A. French Hegel.
Introduces the "return to Hegel" in the work of some major 20th-century French thinkers. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
212. Feminist Theory and the Law.
Interrogation of the relationship between law and its instantiating gendered categories, supported by feminist, queer, Marxist, critical race, and postcolonial theories. Topics include hypostasization of legal categories, the contest between domestic and international human rights frameworks, overlapping civil and communal codes, cultural explanations in the law, the law as text and archive, testimony and legal subjectivity. (Also offered as Feminist Studies 212. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Dent
213A. Representation.
An introduction to contemporary theories including semiotics, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and the feminist critique of representation. Emphasis on questions of difference and the construction of the subject in culture. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. T. De Lauretis
213B. Representation.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 213A. Prerequisite(s): course 213A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. T. De Lauretis
214A. Studies in History, Religion, and Myth.
Selected events, figures, and ideas from histories of religions: their sources, production, and functions. Emphasis on 19th- and 20th-century theories of religion, the problems of origin and institution, and the relationship between particular histories and their mythologies. Enrollment restricted to graduate standing. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. G. Lease
214B. Studies in History, Religion, and Myth.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 214A. Prerequisite(s): course 214A. Enrollment restricted to graduate standing. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. G. Lease
215A. Critical Theory in the Marxist Tradition.
An introduction to classic texts of the Frankfurt School, focusing on works by Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, and Marcuse. Explores their uses and critiques of Marxism, emphasizing questions of the relation between philosophy and history, theory and praxis, aesthetics and politics, and identifying issues relevant to contemporary debates around race, class, and gender. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. A. Davis
215B. Critical Theory in the Marxist Tradition.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 215A. Prerequisite(s): course 215A . Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. A. Davis
217A. Seminar: Topics in Feminist Theory.
Studies in the theory and history of feminist consciousness; analysis of the main areas of a specifically feminist interest; determination of the theoretical bases for a distinctively feminist perspective on the principal problems of the life and human sciences; examination of relations of class, race, and gender in feminist theory and practice. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
217B. Seminar: Topics in Feminist Theory.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 217A. Prerequisite(s): course 217A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
218A. Postcolonial Theory.
Study of selected topics in postcolonial theory, including decolonizing critiques of Western knowledges and epistemologies, nationalism, gender and sexuality, cultural representations of neo-colonialism and imperialism, subalternity, history and historical transformation, and global relations of dominations. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
218B. Postcolonial Theory.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 218A. Prerequisite(s): course 218A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
219A. Psychoanalysis and Cultural Criticism.
Readings in Freudian psychoanalytic theory from Freud and his contemporaries to the present, with emphasis on concepts (such as the unconscious, sexuality, fantasy, narcissism) that have informed recent cultural criticism around questions of social identity, subjectivity, marginality, and power. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. T. De Lauretis
219B. Psychoanalysis and Cultural Criticism.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 219A. Prerequisite(s): course 219A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. T. De Lauretis
220A. Globalization and Cultural Process.
Discusses theories of globalization and its cultural effects. How are cultural forms destroyed, imposed, appropriated, hybridized, translated, invented, and reinvented at local, national, regional, and transnational levels? Historical and ethnographic focus on tourist encounters, museums, nativisms, film/media performances, etc. Enrollment restricted to graduate students Enrollment limited to 20. May be repeated for credit. J. Clifford
220B. Globalization and Cultural Process.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 220A. Prerequisite(s): course 220A. Enrollment limited to 20. May be repeated for credit. J. Clifford
222A. Theories of Late Capitalism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Identity.
Looks at the theoretical literature on what is variously called late capitalism/postindustrialism/postfordism, and in that context considers the rise of nationalism and identity politics in the latter part of the 20th century. The primary focus is on the U.S. and Western Europe, but questions of the globalization of capital and the transformation of relations between "the West" and "the Third World" are also considered. Written work for the course consists of weekly short papers. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. B. Epstein
222B. Theories of Late Capitalism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Identity.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 222A. Prerequisite(s): course 222A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. B. Epstein
223. Recent European Philosophy.
Seminar on recent developments in European philosophy, with particular attention to German theorists such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Horkheimer, Adorno, or Habermas. Theorists such as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Foucault, Bourdieu, Levinas, Laclau, or Vattimo may be read as well. (Also offered as Philosophy 223. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. D. Hoy
224. History of Consciousness.
Examination of contemporary theories of consciousness in both analytic and continental traditions. Among those who deflate modern philosophy's preoccupation with consciousness are not only Dennett, Davidson, and Rorty, but also Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida. Among those who argue for irreducibility of subjectivity are not only Searle, Nagel, and Chalmers, but also Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas. Discussion of parallel readings from both philosophical perspectives. (Also offered as Philosophy 256. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 25. D. Hoy
225. The Politics of Affect.
Point of departure is the question of the political, posed with respect to psychoanalysis. The underlying question is what the political does to psychoanalysis, but also what the unconscious does to the political. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
228. Fundamental Problems of Metapolitics.
Focuses on seminal works of political thought: the first half devoted to ancient and modern classics; the second considering several major contemporary reflections. Aims to reconstruct and assess the claims regarding epistemic conditions and criteria of metapolitical judgment. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
229A. Aesthetics and Politics.
Studies the connections between questions of aesthetics and politics, including questions of beauty, genre, pleasure, narrative form, structures of feeling and style, in literature, film and music, as these relate to the politics of class, race, gender, sexuality, and decolonization. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
230A. Poetry, Language, Thought.
Introduces the relation between philosophy and poetics in some major 20th-century poets and thinkers. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
230B. Poetry, Language, Thought.
Writing-intensive course based on readings in course 230A. Prerequisite(s): course 230A, or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
232A. Third World Feminisms and Globalization.
Studies third world feminist theories and struggles and their relations to globalization; topics include nationalism, development, transnational practices, identity politics, human rights, especially the ways in which Third World feminisms respond and contribute to political, economic, social, and cultural transformations. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
233A. Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity.
Study of social and cultural theories of modernity and postmodernity; analysis of various conceptualizations of the modern and the postmodern and their relation to production, history, aesthetics, cultural identity, social struggle; texts from a variety of disciplines (literature, sociology, philosophy). Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
233B. Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 233A. Prerequisite(s): course 233A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. The Staff
234A. Social Movements in the 20th-Century U.S.
The history of major social movements in the 20th-century U.S., including populism, labor, socialism and communism, civil rights, the women's movement, the anti-nuclear movement. Various theoretical perspectives on the rise and fall of social movements. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered in alternate academic years. May be repeated for credit. B. Epstein
234B. Social Movements in the 20th-Century U.S.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 234A. Prerequisite(s): course 234A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. B. Epstein
235A. Theory of Religion.
The difficulty of defining religion (universal essence vs. local/individual experience), of specifying its categorical boundaries, and of generating a theory based on more traditional disciplines (anthropomorphism, societal, psychic, transcendent, cognitive/ritual, historical/cultural/political). Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Lease
235B. Theory of Religion.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 235A. Prerequisite(s): course 235A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Lease
237A. Historical Materialism.
Students read landmark works of classical and contemporary Marxism. Writings from Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Lukacs, Gramsci, Adorno, Benjamin, Sartre, Althusser, Anderson, Jameson, and Zizek are addressed. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
239A. The Dialectical Legacy.
From Adorno to Zizek rediscoveries of Hegel have provided the impetus for some of the most innovative currents of 20th-century Marxism. Examines the philosophical and historical problems that Marx inherited from Hegel through close readings of their major works. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
239B. The Dialectical Legacy.
From Adorno to Zizek rediscoveries of Hegel have provided the impetus for some of the most innovative currents of 20th-century Marxism. Examines the philosophical and historical problems that Marx inherited from Hegel through close readings of their major works. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
240. Basic Principles of University-Level Pedagogy (1 credit).
Provides training for graduate students in university-level pedagogy in general. Under the supervision of the department chair, coordinated by a graduate student with substantial experience as a teaching assistant. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
242A. Violence and Phenomenology: Fanon/Hegel/Sartre.
Study of the work and influence of Frantz Fanon from a range of viewpoints: existential, phenomenological, psychoanalytic, and political; a variety of genres: film, literature, case history, and critique; and a set of institutional histories: clinical, cultural, and intellectual. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
242B. Violence and Phenomenology: Fanon/Hegel/Sartre.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 242A. Prerequisite: course 242A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
243A. Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and Jewish Resistance in World War II.
Jewish resistance to Nazism during World War II, in Eastern Europe, and its historical context. Includes the pre-war rise in nationalism and anti-Semitism in Poland and Lithuania, Jewish integration in the Soviet Union, and the consequences for wartime resistance. (Also offered as History 256. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to seniors and graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. B. Epstein
247. Performance/Performativities.
Performance acts and theories of performativity in visual culture from modernity to present. Major theoretical positions subtending the emergence of performances/performativities: subjectivity, identity, temporality, media, ritual, the event, the body and embodiment, collaboration, and politics. (Also offered as Digital Arts and New Media 247. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Qualified seniors accepted with permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to 15. C. Soussloff
250A. Foundations in Science Studies.
Critical inquiry into topics in the history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy of science and technology. Organized around the position that science is its practice, the seminar explores practices of representation, science studies and cultural studies, local/global tensions and networks, and the science question in feminism and antiracism. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. K. Barad
250B. Foundations in Science Studies.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 250A. Prerequisite(s): course 250A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Haraway
251A. Readings in Science Studies.
Focus is on recent literature in social, cultural, and historical studies of science, medicine, and technology. This seminar familiarizes students with current scholarly debates, research networks, national traditions, international exchanges, conference proceedings, interdisciplinary projects, and publication sites. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. D. Haraway
251B. Readings in Science Studies.
Second quarter of two-quarter course. Writing-intensive course based on the readings studied in course 251A. Prerequisite: course 251A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Haraway
252. Poststructuralism.
French poststructuralism, with particular attention to the main philosophical texts of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Other representative theorists as well as critics of poststructuralism are studied as time permits. (Also offered as Philosophy 252. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. May be repeated for credit. D. Hoy
253A. Topics in Cultural Analysis.
Advanced graduate seminar in which students do research on focused topics. Each quarter centered on single thematic area. Students read works of culture-theory and exemplary studies illustrating methodologies, problems, and current controversies. Prerequisite(s): minimum of second-year status in the history of consciousness program; instructor evaluates student's ability to participate. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. J. Clifford
255A. Carl Schmitt: Political and Legal Order in Modern Thought.
Students study the main translated texts of Carl Schmitt's work, as well as certain secondary commentary on his body of thought. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
256A. Theories of the Visual.
Study of psychoanalytic theories of the visual including the emergence of psychoanalysis and cinema as parallel discourses and the mobilization of key psychoanalytic concepts—scopophilia, voyeurism, fetishism—in Freudian and Lacanian understandings of the gaze so central to film and photographic theory. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. D. Marriott
256B. Theories of the Visual.
Writing intensive course based on readings in course 256A. Prerequisite: course 256A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
259A. Kant, Lacan, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis.
Offers an introduction to Jacques Lacan's "Return to Kant" and the response it provokes as a reading of sadism, politics, and ethics. Specific point of entry adopted for course is Lacan's seminar on "The Ethics of Psychoanalysis." Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
259B. Kant, Lacan, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis.
Writing-intensive course based on readings in course 259A. Prerequisite(s): course 259A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Marriott
260A. Film and the Visible.
Study of selected topics in film theory, including the construction of vision and spectatorship; the relations of look, image, and narrative; the formative effects of classic, experimental, and independent cinema in contemporary visual culture; the feminist critique of representation; the role of cinema in the production of public and private fantasies, cultural memory, and identity. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. T. De Lauretis
260B. Film and the Visible.
Study of selected topics in film theory, including the construction of vision and spectatorship; the relations of look, image, and narrative; the formative effects of classic, experimental, and independent cinema in contemporary visual culture; the feminist critique of representation; the role of cinema in the production of public and private fantasies, cultural memory, and identity. Prerequisite(s): course 260A. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. T. De Lauretis
260C. Film and the Visible.
Writing intensive course based on readings in courses 260A and 260B. Prerequisite(s): course 260A or 260B. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. T. De Lauretis
261. Modern Intellectural History.
Survey of 19th- and 20th-century intellectual history that focuses on a cross-section of major works from Hegel to Levi-Strauss. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Balakrishnan
264. The Idea of Africa.
Examines the position of Africa in cultural studies and the simultaneous processes of over- and under-representation of the continent that mark enunciations of the global and the local. Themes include defining diaspora, the West as philosophy, and Africa in the global economy. (Also offered as Feminist Studies 264. Students cannot receive credit for both courses.) Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. G. Dent
291. Advising (2 credits). F,W,S
Independent study formalizing the advisee-adviser relationship. Regular meetings to plan, assess and monitor academic progress, and to evaluate course work as necessary. May be used to develop general bibliography of background reading and trajectory of study in preparation for the qualifying examination. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
292. Practicum in Composition.
A practicum in the genres of scholarly writing, for graduate students working on the composition of their qualifying essay or doctoral dissertation. Enrollment restricted to graduate students. Enrollment limited to 15. D. Haraway, T. De Lauretis, J. Clifford
293. Field Study.
Research carried out in field settings, based on a project approved by the responsible faculty. The student must file a prospectus with the department office before undertaking the research and a final report of activities upon return. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
294. Teaching-Related Independent
Study. F,W,S
Directed graduate research and writing coordinated with the teaching of undergraduates. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. The Staff
295. Directed Reading.
Systematic working through a prearranged bibliography which is filed as a final report at the end of the quarter with the signature of the instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
296. Special Student Seminar.
A seminar study group for graduate students focusing each quarter on various problems in the history of consciousness. A statement and evaluation of the work done in the course will be provided each quarter by the students who have participated in the course for that quarter, and reviewed by the responsible faculty. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
297. Independent Study.
Independent study and research under faculty supervision. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. The Staff
298. Doctoral Colloquium.
Under the supervision of a History of Consciousness faculty member, students finishing their dissertation meet weekly or bi-weekly to read and discuss selected draft chapters, design difficulties and composition problems. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
299. Thesis Research.
Prerequisite(s): advancement to candidacy. May be repeated for credit. The Staff
Fousesquawk comment: While some of the above courses seem benign on the surface, who knows what is put out in the classroom? Others are pretty obvious as to their content.
What is going on at UCSC? From reading the above, it looks like everybody up there is smoking their socks-and teaching the students that everything about America and Western Civilization is EVIL. Whoever dreamed up these departments anyway- Queer Studies, Community Studies, and History of Consciousness?
Is there any question but that the agenda of UC Santa Cruz is to turn out a bunch of little leftist graduates?
