Second year psychological and brain sciences major Eddie Lo delves into an engaging experimental course called “Memory: an Interdisciplinary Exploration.“
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Saige Heitman delves into the benefits of studying both the sciences and the humanities through the lens of an innovative course taught by neuroscience professor Kenneth Kosik, and English professor Sowon Park, called “Literature and the Human Mind.“ This interdisciplinary course stresses the importance of both subjects, and how they can complement each other.
Jesse Miller, a postdoctoral fellow of English and medical humanities at UCSB, is teaching an English course this spring called U.S. Cultures of Mental Illness. In a recent interview, Miller discussed his goals in designing the course and its relevance in the current social climate that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic.
This spring, UCSB English lecturer Brian Donnelly is teaching a course on dystopian fiction with themes that apply to the conditions students face during the COVID-19 crisis. In a recent Zoom interview, he said his initial apprehension proved unfounded as the course created a place for students to creatively engage with this time in their lives.
Originally a literary arts magazine club, The Catalyst magazine now offers a four-unit course at UCSB, providing creative collaboration as a means to fulfill the unit requirement. UC Santa Barbara undergraduate student Renee Whalen delves into how mixing poetry and art in this course changed her relationship with writing.
The Professional Writing Minor at UC Santa Barbara.held its annual information session last week, marking a pivotal moment for its applicants: It’s time to start preparing to apply for the coming year. The Minor has launched a new Journalism track, and now offers students a choice of six distinct areas of professional focus. The other tracks are: Business Communication, Civic Engagement, Multimedia Communication, Professional Editing, and Science Communication. Read more about this popular program here.
Greg Silver, a student in the Writing Program, shares a deeply personal journey about how he came to love writing.
UC Santa Barbara's Philosophy Department boasts the fastest growing Humanities major among undergraduates. Along with three recent faculty hires, new courses such as the Philosophy of Economics have been added to the curriculum and there are plans to keep expanding. In this video by HFA intern Calvin Bruhns, faculty and students describe how Philosophy has become a go-to major to prepare for post-graduate work and professional schools.
Small, individual acts of environmental consciousness ─ while worthwhile for the planet ─ are nothing compared to the massive policy change needed to solve the climate crisis, Northwestern University religion and culture professor Sarah McFarland Taylor told a UCSB audience earlier this month. The Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life hosted Taylor, who discussed her book Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue.
UC Santa Barbara film students Cameron Leingang and Lexi Lunchick are producing a documentary about the 2014 Isla Vista shooting called “Not One More,” to premiere next March, at the Pollock Theater on UCSB’s campus. The film is being made as a part of a Film and Media Studies course called Crew Production.
"Green Games" is a class offered in the Film and Media Studies department that mixes environmental studies, media studies, and game design into one hands on course. For this session, the class is joined by visiting professor of architecture Janette Kim of California College of the Arts, who demonstrates her board game "Bartertown," which illustrates how climate change affects society.
History of Art and Architecture professor Claudia Moser and Writing Program lecturer Christian Thomas have received a $94,000 grant from UC Santa Barbara’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTI) to develop an interactive, game-based course called Rome: The Game. The lower division course, which will be available to students in winter 2021, is an introduction to the art, archaeology, and history of ancient Rome, with an emphasis on writing and research.
While Olivia Saunders isn’t majoring in Linguistics, her major in Communication has provoked many questions from others about whether she wants to pursue speech therapy. That led her on a search to learn more about Linguistics, the major that is most closely linked to speech therapy. She found that its career options and students’ pursuits go much further, as she explains in this article.
“Jesus’s words and deeds made him one of the most impactful historical figures in the world,” writes student Yasmeen Faris, in a personal reflection on the intersection between her secular studies and her own faith.
In this piece, Faris talks about how a course in the Religious Studies department at UCSB changed her outlook on Jesus Christ, expanding her understanding of his impact on her personal life and religion and the effect that he had on the history of the world.
Student film director Hunter Johnsen discusses his passion for film and his involvement in the Film and Media Studies Crew Production class. His movie called “Obsolete,” a project for this course, is set to premiere March 22 at the Pollock Theater.
A little curiosity about a Music course in UCSB’s College of Creative Studies leads Phillip Mitchell to reunite with a classmate from his past. In this piece, Mitchell explores this long-lost connection, what has changed about it, and what significance of his old friend’s passions.
Word Magazine explores life in Isla Vista, the neighborhood next to campus. As current art director of the magazine, Alaska Yokota is one of a team of students who writes for the magazine and designs its layout. In a recent interview, Yokota discussed her experience with Word Magazine and her views on the future of digital humanities.
This series of videos, produced by UC Santa Barbara students, showcases the creative talent of students, faculty, and alumni from Humanities and Fine Arts.
“I grew up listening to independent music,” writes third-year UCSB English major Angie Garcia. “But until recently, I had never questioned how and when music should be categorized as indie. Then, an intriguing question popped out at me from a UC Santa Barbara music course description: ‘What does it mean for music to be independent?’ The class was called Independent Music in America and I immediately knew I had to sign up for it.”
The course takes a historical look at the underground music from the 1970s to the present in the United States. In seminar style, the class is led by David Novak from the Ethnomusicology Program and specifically explores the punk movement that began with bands such as Minor Threat, Black Flag, and Beat Happening and the genres that expanded out it.
In this edition of the Cool Courses series, we asked students of a variety of majors, such as Film and Media Studies, Art, and English, within the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts to describe their most memorable class experiences.