How might a television show (a cartoon at that) help us reveal the relationship between human interaction and the maze of value systems, economic structures, political institutions, social groups, human locales, and natural environments we encounter daily? Viewing an episode of The Simpsons, one confronts a palimpsest where answers to this question may be found. Look beneath the two-dimensional depiction of yellow-tinted family life in Springfield, USA, and you discover a riotous critique of social order along with an invitation to encounter the relationship between human structures and deeper questions of the human condition. In one week, we consider the various faces of God. However, when Homer Simpson imagines God as an anthropomorphic cliché ("Perfect Teeth. Nice Smell. A class act, all the way") we also must consider the social construction of deity as a means to justify human choices.
In another week, we encounter philosophical notions of ideal government. Yet when Lisa helps form a utopian community in Springfield, we must also consider the economic and political foundations upon which such a perfect state might stand. In a final week, we examine the ethical implications of war. Yet, when Bart organizes his neighborhood pals -- "a coalition of the willing" to employ a Bush-ism -- to fight a local bully, we must examine the spatial battleground as a metaphor for the forces of fragmentation wrecking havoc across the world. In short, we view episodes of The Simpsons while considering questions like "What is God?," "What is Truth?," and "What is Right?" as social scientists: alert for the ways in which a beloved television show reveals the social construction of questions and answers that emerge from our deepest struggles to make sense of the world and our roles within it.
Andrew Wood
GE Area D1
COMM 10D, Sec. 1
Andrew Wood (Ph.D., Ohio University, 1998) teaches in the communication studies department, focusing on rhetoric, popular culture, technology, and visual communication. Dr. Wood is co-author of Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television and co-author on an essay about The Simpsons published in Critical Studies in Media Communication. Dr. Wood has also published books on road trips, mom-and-pop motels, and internet communication. His essays have appeared in Communication Theory, Text and Performance Quarterly, Southern Communication Journal, and Space and Culture. His website, Motel Americana, has been featured in USA Today, American Heritage Magazine, National Public Radio, and BBC Radio. A longtime fan of America’s favorite cartoon family, Dr. Wood’s office contains a Krusty the Clown talking doll (currently set for “good”), a Ralph Wiggum toy, and a drawer full of his favorite Simpsons episodes on tape. His favorite Simpsons character is Gil.
This course is designed to develop your ability to use economics in everyday situations. While microeconomic theory is applied to the
commonly held notions of economics - markets and interest rates – this course also teaches students to understand that economics is the study of all choices. We make choices under different incentives, (such as, happiness maximizing, profit maximizing) under different roles (such as consumers, producers, parents, and even siblings), and under different institutions (such as monopoly, competitive, not for profit). This course focuses on the concept of behavior and incentive-based decision making. It examines current events from an economic point of a view and provides practical examples of the business strategy to demonstrate how we apply economic thinking to every day life. Note: A great prerequisite for Business Majors.
Don Kassner
GE Area D1
ECON 10D, Sec. 1 & 2
Don Kassner earned a BA in Economics (SJSU 1994) and an MA in Economics (SJSU 1996). In 1984, Don launched Kassner Industries, a commercial services business that he sold in 1987. In 1987, Don joined Spectra Physics Laser where he spent the next 10 years in various financial analysis and management positions. Since 1997, Don has focused his efforts on various small to mid sized businesses. Today Don serves as the CFO for five companies: Andrew Jackson University (a for profit, degree granting, nationally accredited distance college); T3 Tracking (an agricultural services start-up); Olson and Company Steel (a 30 year old architectural and structural steel company): OnlineFocus (A 10 year web development company); and UCI Web Group (a holding company and parent of Online Focus, Inc). In addition, Don is a lifelong Bay Area
resident and a big 49ers and Giants fan.
Girls and women have participated in organized sport and physical activity in America for more than 100 years, but not without a very restrictive set of constraints and boundaries. The climate in the United States for much of the 20 th century created barriers for girls and women that prohibited their full participation in lifestyles that include regular physical activity. The passage of Title IX as part of the educational amendments of 1972 changed patterns in the rate of participation in sport and physical activity in dramatic ways; more girls and women have participated in organized sport in the last 30 years than ever before. This course will focus our lens on socio-cultural, socio-psychological, and socio-political analyses to ignite a critical discussion on the participation of women and men in sport and physical activity over the last century.
Emily Wughalter
GE Area D1
KIN 10D, Sec. 4
Dr. Emily H. Wughalter is the Associate Dean for First Year Experience in the Office of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the MUSE Program. She served on the faculty as a professor in the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Applied Sciences & Arts where she taught undergraduate, graduate, general education, and activity courses. Emily earned a Bachelor of Arts from Herbert H. Lehman College (City University of New York) in physical education, a Master of Science from the University of Colorado and a Doctor of Education from the University of Georgia emphasizing motor learning. Dr. Wughalter is passionate about topics in motor learning and women’s sport. She is committed to critical feminist inquiry and interdisciplinary analyses focusing on social justice. Dr. Wughalter has held numerous national and regional leadership positions in organizations such as the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport and the Western Society for Physical Education of College Women. She served on the San José Mayor’s Commission on the American Basketball League, the New York City Chancellor’s Task Force on Sex Equity; and consulted with the Young Women’s Christian Association. She is currently the President of the Western Society for Physical Education of College Women.
Sonja Lilienthal
GE Area D1
KIN 10D, Sec. 5
This course examines the importance of race and ethnicity in our everyday lives. We explore scholarship debates on race and ethnicity and we go on fieldtrips in areas surrounding our campus to document how we “view” race and ethnicity. A photographic essay enhanced with scholarly research help us to situate how we individually see our surrounding cultural symbols, neighbors, fellow students, faculty, etc. To sharpen our eye to “see” race and ethnicity markers in our everyday lives we rely upon documentary and Hollywood films, print media and scholarly research articles.
Julia Curry-Rodriguez
GE Area D1
MAS 11D, Sec. 1
Professor Julia E. Curry-Rodríguez teaches immigration, race, gender and sexuality in Mexican American Studies. Currently she is directing a research project on immigrant students with funding from the Ford Foundation. She grew up in southern California after emigrating from Mexico in the early sixties with her mother and sister. She pursued studies in Sociology at UC Santa Barbara (B.A.) and UT Austin (M.A. and Ph.D.) Some of her publications are found in Americanos, The Power of Language, and the Journal of Bilingual Research. Professor Curry-Rodríguez is adviser for the SJSU Balet Folklórico and Student Advocates for Higher Education (SAHE). Dr. Curry-Rodríguez is the undergraduate adviser for Mexican American Studies.
Students will survey print media and identify contentious issues in American society or culture that catch their interest. Students will perform research necessary to clearly identify both sides of an issue, conduct an interview to obtain a personal insight, employ systems analysis techniques to write a comprehensive paper that explores the issue, and recommend programs/actions that might improve the situation.
Ken Christie
GE Area D1
MATH 11D, Sec. 2
Mr. Christie has been a lecturer in the SJSU Mathematics department for eight years. Prior to joining the SJSU faculty, Mr. Christie spent 35 years as an aerospace engineer working on some of the major U.S. military and space programs. His aerospace career was marked by a growing set of responsibilities until at the time of his retirement he was managing the efforts of over 250 engineering professionals. He holds mechanical engineering Masters and Bachelors degrees from the Georgia and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology respectively. He will receive his master’s degree in American history from SJSU in 2007.
As our world becomes increasingly more polarized and diverse, social justice education is the solution to helping us understand the complex world in which we live in. Social justice is about promoting a just society by valuing diversity and confronting injustices everywhere. It is based on a belief that all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources. Social justice also implies that people must not be discriminated against, nor their welfare and well-being constrained or discriminated on the basis of their social characteristic of background or group membership.
This course will provide an in-depth look at issues of social justice and the influence cultural variables have on values, attitudes, and behavior. Using both theory and a set of interactive, experiential pedagogical principles, students will gain a better understanding of several forms of social oppression including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism, as well as the parallels and interconnections among them. We will deconstruct the dominant views of society and critically analyze the inequalities inherent in social institutions and structures including the educational system.
Through intense discussion, dialogue, and experiential activities, students will gain a better understanding of self-awareness and sensitivity to cross cultural issues. Students will have the opportunity to evaluate and challenge their own systems of beliefs and values and learn how it affects how they relate to others and how they ultimately interact with the world in which they live in.
Hyon Chu Yi-Baker
GE Area D1
MUSE 11D, Sec. 3
Ms. Hyon Chu Yi-Baker received her BA in American Cultural Studies at Western Washington University and earned a MS degree from Colorado State University in Student Affairs in Higher Education. She has been the Director of MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center at San José State University since 2002. She is dedicated to enhancing and advocating for the academic and cultural empowerment of historically under-represented students. She supports pedagogy that focuses on the learning and teaching practices on the subject of social justice as it relates to enhancing the relationship between people across ethnic, gender, sexual, class, religious, and cultural lines. Mrs. Yi-Baker serves on the Executive Committee of the California Council of Cultural Centers in Higher Education. She is currently interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership or Higher Education Administration. In her free time, she loves spending time with her family and friends, cooking, traveling, and reading.
Humans engage in a variety of activities that harm our environment. This course will look at the interaction of human behavior, governments, and the environment with an emphasis on the use of education and economic incentives to change human behavior to protect the environment. We will focus on one environmental problem together and develop and test ways to resolve it. Students will also select an environmental problem of their choice, study it, and develop at least two ways to help resolve the problem. The solutions will include a public education campaign and a tax solution (which is what most states and countries use as an economic incentive). We will also learn how to use economic principles to evaluate the proposed solutions. You will gain a deep understanding of two environmental problems, the role of governments and humans in solving them, and how to create an appropriate and workable solution.
Annette Nellen
GE Area D1
BUS1 12D, Sec. 1
Professor Nellen is a professor in SJSU’s graduate tax program teaching courses in tax research, accounting methods, and high technology tax issues. She was the first director of the MUSE program and is the past chair of the SJSU Academic Senate. She was the 2000/2001 SJSU Outstanding Professor. Professor Nellen is the director of the Campus Reading Program. She is very active in professional tax organizations and is a frequent speaker at professional tax conferences on tax policy matters and high technology tax issues. Prior to joining SJSU in 1990 she was with Ernst & Young and the IRS. Professor Nellen is a graduate of CSU Northridge, Pepperdine, and Loyola Law School.
In a world where conflict is pervasive, we as a society need to learn how to better manage the conflicts that we have everyday. In this course, we will explore what it means to be in conflict personally, socially and organizationally. We will investigate the many reasons behind the pervasiveness of conflict in our communities by working through case studies of conflict, media depictions of conflict, and explorations of our own conflicts. Finally, we will work toward building skills of peaceful communication, managing our conflicts more effectively, and feeling more at peace about dealing with conflicts ourselves by role playing through playback theater exercises and analyzing our typical communication efforts.
Christina Sabee
GE Area D1
COMM 12D, Sec. 2
Dr. Christina Sabee is a faculty member in the Communication Studies Department at SJSU. Her research focuses on applied interpersonal communication in the areas of conflict, mediation and negotiation. She is currently working with a group of SJSU faculty and administrators to enhance conflict resolution and mediation activities on campus called Conflict and Common Ground, and also with a Bay Area level group of colleges, universities and community programs that work toward conflict management on our campuses called Campus Consortium. Dr. Sabee holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University and a M.A. in Communication Studies from Kansas State University. She received her B.A. in Communication Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.
This course will survey board games, including their history and cultural importance, as well as how to construct and play them, from Senet (found in ancient Egyptian tombs) and Nine Men’s Morris (mentioned in the Talmud), through other games of Asian and African origin such as Parcheesi and Mancala, to modern “classics” such as Stratego and Monopoly, with special emphasis on Backgammon, Go, Rithmomachy, and Chess.
David Mesher
GE Area D1
ENGL 12D, Sec. 3
David Mesher is a professor in the English department, where he teaches courses in postcolonial literature and critical thinking. He has degrees in English and Near Eastern languages and literatures, has studied and taught at universities in the U.S., Canada, and Israel, and has played games everywhere.
This class will explore the interaction of gender with technology. Is technology a “male” science? Is modern technology compatible to both male and female users? What does history tell us about the role of women at work relating to technology?
The ideas presented here will challenge some commonly held myths and misconceptions about technology in our society. Also, we will discuss stereotypically "female-based" technologies and how they differ from "male-based" technologies in our society. This course will focus on the technological changes since 1900 and how these have affected both men and women. The effect of cultural biases and perspectives on the working and educational environments also will be addressed.
Patricia Backer
GE Area D1
TECH 12D, Sec. 4
Dr. Patricia Backer is a professor and chair of the Department of Aviation and Technology in the College of Engineering at SJSU. She is the lead instructor for one San José State University’s advanced General Education courses, Technology and Civilization. She is an expert in the development of multimedia and web-based learning materials and has given presentations at dozens of national and international conferences. Dr. Backer is co-author of the textbook Contemporary Technology published by Goodheart-Willcox. In Fall 1997, Dr. Backer received a Fulbright Scholar lecturing award for Peru where she spent her fellowship as a “lecturer” with part time teaching and part time consulting in the area of multimedia and WWW instruction.
The past decade has witnessed a tremendous amount of change in Vietnamese culture and society. Since 1986, when the Vietnamese government instituted the renovation policy (doi moi), religious practices have flourished, Vietnam has become a popular tourist destination, and many Vietnamese-Americans have returned to visit their country of origin. This course will explore Vietnamese culture and society, focusing on recent social and cultural changes in contemporary Vietnam, and on the relationships between Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans.
Karen Fjelstad
GE Area D1
ANTH 13D, Sec. 1
Karen Fjelstad is a cultural anthropologist. Her primary areas of interest are Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American cultures. She has studied a Vietnamese spirit possession religion in San José, California as well as in Vietnam. Karen teaches courses in “Emerging Global Cultures” and “Reconstructing Lost Civilizations.”
This course will explore the science, cultural context, and contemporary fascination of mummies from ancient Egypt, China, the Andes, and several other civilizations. We will examine the archaeological and biological evidence of how and why mummification was practiced in these cultures, and look at the image and symbolism of mummies in modern mythology and popular culture. This course will draw on both scientific literature from anthropology, biology, and cultural studies, as well as from comic books, and Hollywood and documentary films. The aim of this course is to introduce students to some of the fundamental concepts and theories of the social sciences, and to develop skill in critical thinking and analysis.
Elizabeth Weiss
GE Area D1
ANTH 13D, Sec. 2
Dr. Elizabeth Weiss is a physical anthropologist in the anthropology department. She teaches bioarchaeology, forensics, human origins, osteology, and other related courses. Weiss completed her B.A. in anthropology from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996 and finished her M.A. in anthropology from California State University, Sacramento in 1998. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in Environmental Dynamics (an interdisciplinary program involving anthropology and the geosciences), which she completed in 2001. From 2002 to 2004, she was a post-doctoral research associate at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. During her academic years, she has participated in field schools in California (1994) and Africa (1996). Weiss also spent a year living in Cairo, Egypt (1995-1996). Weiss has presented at many annual meetings (American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Paleopathology Association, Southwestern Anthropological Association) and has authored and co-authored many articles in professional journals (Quaternary Research; American Journal of Physical Anthropology; Journal of Archaeological Science; International Journal of Osteoarchaeology; and Politics and the Life Sciences). Her primary research expertise is in post-cranial studies using CT scans, X-rays, and nonmetric and metric scores on past populations to reconstruct lifestyle and better understand bone biology. For additional information, please see her website: http://www.anthrosciences.com.
India means many different things to different people. Depending on who you ask, India might represent tradition, spirituality, poverty, or nonviolence. But these are just stereotypes that only explain a part of what India is. For instance, whereas village India accounts for two thirds of the population, India’s cities constitute important nodes in the global circulation of goods and cultural products. Similarly, whereas in India there is great poverty, the Indian middle-class is larger than the population of the entire United States. Indeed, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, everything one can say about India is both true and false. The vastness, diversity and complexity of India defy any singular characterization of the country. The goal of this course will be to understand the complexity of the contemporary Indian women’s experiences from a number of different perspectives. We would explore the women’s situation in relation to family, marriage, caste, class, religion, politics and work.
Annapurna Pandey
GE Area D1
ANTH 13D, Sec. 3
Annapurna Pandey completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and a post- doctorate in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, UK. She has been teaching freshman core classes in the collegiate system and in Anthropology at UCSC since 1995. In spring 2005, Dr. Pandey joined San José State University to teach courses in Anthropology and Asian Studies. Her research is focused on Women’s movement, Women’s organizing and Women’s participation in non government organizations in India. She has been working with the issues of identity and adaptation to the US culture among the Indian Americans in the bay area. She has produced a documentary on the identity of Indian Amricans in the Bay area in summer,2005.
Geographers study the interactions between people and their natural and built environments. Geographical concerns range in scale from urban spaces and movement patterns of migration to global environmental systems.
We will examine not just descriptions of specific landscapes, the “where it is” and “how does it look,” but more importantly, we will look at the “why” of landscape change. How do people change their physical environment over time and how in turn does the physical environment impact the people? Examples of critical geographic themes that will be discussed are: population growth, finite global resources and an endangered environment, increasing religious and ethnic diversity, unequal allocation of resources, and the impacts of globalization.
The catalyst for discussion in this course will be fiction and films. After each reading or viewing of a film on a particular geographic theme, the students will be asked to write a brief paper answering specific questions that were addressed in the reading or film. There will be ample time to resubmit a paper after it has been reviewed. Group discussion will be a major component of this course. Students will be encouraged to approach each issue from different points of view.
Margaret Kaluzny
GE Area D1
GEOG 13D, Sec. 4
Margaret Kaluzny is a cultural geographer in the Department of Geography. Examples of courses she teaches are: Cultural Geography, Global Geography California Cultures and Environments, and Geography of Islam.
Margaret Kaluzny grew up in a small town southwest of Chicago. She received degrees in education (B.S. in Education, Northern Illinois University), and urban studies (M.A. Loyola University of Chicago). After fifteen years professional urban planning experience in Austin, Texas, her interest in cities and Spanish culture merged in an academic goal, and she returned to graduate school. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. degree in geography at the University of Texas. Her academic training and experience is interdisciplinary, grounded in geography, history, architecture, anthropology, archaeology, and urban history. Dr. Kaluzny’s research is trans-regional, with an emphasis specifically on Spain, Morocco and Mexico. This research, based on fieldwork, historical and archaeological data, reveals the complexity of the relationship between people and their environment.
The experience of suffering is a universal human experience: to be human is to suffer. The concept of evil, while connected to the experience of suffering, is not so universal, and varies from time to time and from place to place. In this course, we will examine various understandings of evil, focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Western Tradition: personal evil (often called sin), systematic evil (cultural systems and structures), natural evil or the tragic (suffering as a result of the natural processes of the world). We will consider both theoretical and practical interpretations of evil, from Judaism, the early Greeks, the early Christian Church, and the Middle Ages and conclude with an examination of several contemporary approaches to the problem of evil such as feminist constructions, Post-Holocaust Literature, and consider options for responding to evil within our own lives.
Lisa Stenmark
GE Area D1
HUM 13D, Sec. 5
Lisa Stenmark earned her MA in Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, and her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Vanderbilt University. Her scholarly interests focus on the relationship of religion in contemporary society, especially religion and politics and religion and science. She has been actively involved in the science and religion discourse for 10 years, winning the Templeton prize for teaching in 1998, serving as regional director for the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley. She is also the founder and Director of Women in Religion, Ethics and the Sciences (WiRES). Her current project is developing a theory of religious activism, with particular interest in the way that religion both threatens and sustains the public sphere. In her spare time she trains for tri-athalons practices Aikido and is STILL an avid Trekker.
Loyal samurai, wicked warlords, beautiful poets, and saintly tea masters—you’ll meet them all when you immerse yourself in traditional Japanese culture. No best-seller has ever done justice to the cast of characters whose lives intermingled throughout Japanese history. This course will trace the development of Japan’s cultural institutions from the Paleolithic Age to the arrival of Perry’s black ships in 1853. Through the extensive use of visual images, students will visit archaeological sites, ancient tombs, the Kabuki stage, temples, and tea houses. Emphasis will be placed on the integrating function of values which continue to influence Japanese behavior even today. Discussions will center on exploring developing concepts of ethnicity, nationhood, and diversity through “first-person” readings of Japanese literature in translation.
Jennifer Anderson
GE Area D1
ANTH 14D, Sec. 1
Jennifer Anderson received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University in 1986. She specializes in Japanese culture and nutritional anthropology. For more than twenty years, Dr. Anderson has immersed herself in traditional Japanese culture, including the Way of Tea, the Way of Incense, Japanese literature, tea house and garden architecture, and art history. She is a licensed instructor for Urasenke, a four hundred year old tea school, headquartered in Kyoto. An expert on kaiseki cooking, the most refined form of Japanese cuisine, Dr. Anderson also enjoys conducting research among the traditional food artisans of Japan’s ancient capital. Her frequent trips to Japan and network of personal connections have afforded Dr. Anderson with unparalleled access to temples, museums, and private tea houses. A “hands-on” creator of Japanese tea utensils, she enjoys learning from fellow potters and collectors. She is the author of Introduction to Japanese Tea Ritual published by SUNY Press.
In the 1960’s, the cover of Time Magazine proclaimed “God is Dead.” Scientific rationalism seemed to be triumphing over religion. Today, however, differences in religion and ritual are front page news—they rock our world. In this class, we will investigate the way religion works from a cross-cultural perspective and how ritual serves to bridge the gap between everyday life and the world of the spirit. We will also explore the way rituals mark transitions in life such as weddings and funerals, the correlation between belief and healing, the tension between science and religion, and the function of magic. In addition, we will probe the relationship between spirituality and the nation, study the idea of sacred space, and learn how concepts of ritual purity and pollution affect our everyday lives. Please join us for this exciting and relevant seminar.
Jennifer Anderson
GE Area D1
ANTH 14D, Sec. 2
Jennifer Anderson received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University in 1986. She is interested in the way religion and ritual function in society both from an intellectual point of view and from the perspective of a ritual practitioner. She has been a student and teacher of Japanese tea ritual for more than twenty years and she is the author of Introduction to Japanese Tea Ritual published by SUNY Press. Dr. Anderson is particularly familiar with Taoism and Zen Buddhism. And, as an instructor of the very popular Emerging Global Cultures course, she is also constantly challenged to interpret the role religion plays in concepts of ethnic identity and in global conflict.
What role does the legal system play in America; what is the legal systems origin, base of power and how does it promote commerce and industry? These issues and others dealing with the interaction of the legal system with citizens, people and corporations will be examined. The philosophical and economic underpinnings of the Law will be reviewed.
Jeff Kallis
GE Area D1
BUS3 14D, Sec. 3
Jeff Kallis is a tenured professor of Marketing in the College of Business. He has a Ph.D. in Economics (industrial org and applied microeconomics) and a minor in Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh, a BS /AMS from Carnegie Mellon University and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He has been the president or vice president of 3 corporations, a board member of 5 corporations and is a practicing litigation and criminal defense attorney in the States of California and Washington, where he is admitted to practice in front of all the State courts and Federal courts.
Radical! is an in-depth, writing-intensive, community-related study and action-research program concerned with the progressive movement in America, focusing on California. The course will use excerpts from texts such as Howard Zinn's People’s History of the United States and draw on community resources such as the ACLU, NAACP, UFWOC, etc. An integral focus of the course will be academic research applied to communityservice-learning. Since 2006 is a mid-term election year, electoral politics would be a natural focus of community service-learning, but students will be completely free to choose their focus area.
Edward Tripp
GE Area D1
LLD 14D, Sec. 5
Edward Tripp was a student-activist during the sixties at Stanford University; in 1967 he left to march across the country in the Peace Torch Marathon. In 1968, he participated in the student movement while studying at Berkeley and was an active member of the national, anti-war, Draft Resistance Movement. Between 1967 and 1970, he spent more than a little time in jail, which made him aware of the deep socio-economic problems our nation faces in respect to class and race; this experience radicalized him politically. Consequently, Edward studied non-violent political action and theory with Ira Sandperl and Joan Baez at their Institute for the Study of Non-Violence in Palo Alto, CA.
Since the sixties, Edward helped raise three children, got some degrees—a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from Stanford, an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), SJSU—and spent time teaching English in Korea and China. He is also fluent in Spanish, having studied in Madrid and been a volunteer for a year in La Clínica de Ajoya, a medical clinic in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Modern books and movies reveal our fascination with the people and societies of the Middle Ages. Stories like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Samuai, King Arthur, and historical narratives like The Kingdom of Heaven transport us to a world of the past but still capture our imagination. Even historical fiction appealing to the Middle Ages like The da Vinci Code has us trying to separate out the fact from the fiction.
This class will explore the stories behind the stories and the real lives of the characters that inspire our fascination with the Medieval world. We’ll investigate the Germanic warriors that stormed the Roman empire beginning the Middle Ages, the Castles and Crusades of the 11 th century, famous characters like Joan of Arc and Richard the Lion Hearted. We’ll also explore the spread of Buddhism across China and the Japanese interpretations that provided a foundation for the Samurai warrior class. We’ll figure out what Knights were doing by jousting with one another and why there are demon gargoyles all over Medieval churches. We’ll see why flower arranging is considered a martial art among the Samurai. We’ll try to figure out why everyone was trying to burn witches and why no one wanted a pet rat during the Middle Ages.
Our study of the Middle Ages will take us from Europe, to the Middle East, through China, to Japan. We’ll compare and contrast the various cultural values characteristic of these times and places, analyze the forces of change, and trace the influences that the values of these times still has on society today.
James Lindahl
GE Area D1
PHIL 14D, Sec. 5
Dr. James Lindahl has been teaching in the departments of Philosophy and Humanities since 1998. He has taught in the MUSE program for four years – courses on cross-cultural representation and the Medieval literature behind the Lord of the Rings.
Students in this course will read a fascinating novel, written in the late 1800's, about a very wealthy gentleman living in Boston who essentially falls asleep for over a century and wakes up in a society that has evolved into utopia. The book explores many facets of life and in so doing, will offer students a wealth of opportunities to inquire, research and write essays on the books themes, as well as prepare for and participate in focused discussions on such topics as political philosophy and political theory, capitalism, democracy, including equality, liberty and justice, socialism, economics, the arts and culture, criminal justice, recreation, and the duty and obligation to one's self, family, community and society. By the semester's end, students will not only have gained a great deal of substantive knowledge about how human beings organize themselves into societies but more importantly, students will have developed and practiced a variety of study skills enabling them to become much more proactive and proficient participants in the learning process.
Ken Nuger
GE Area D1
POLS 14D, Sec. 6
Ken Nuger was raised in the Los Angeles area; went to high school in the late 60's, was influenced by the "hippie movement" enough to major in political science in the 70's and finally earn a Ph.D. in 1983. Ken has abundant energy, is extraordinarily passionate about the subjects he teaches but has a laid back teaching style. Ken teaches courses in the political science department that relate to constitutional law and civil liberties, as well as general education courses that guide students to use critical thinking and legal reasoning skills to better understand the complex and often controversial relationships between law, politics and economics in a mature, democratic society. When Ken isn't being a professor, you can find him hanging around mountaineering stores, wine shops, listening to jazz, blues, or rock, going into the City or Berkeley with his wife to play, hiking in the Sierras, cooking and baking (from scratch!) and generally making mischief.
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