Summer 2008 Courses - M.A. in Humanities

Syllabi and descriptions will be posted as they become available.

 

HUM261H “Burn, Baby, Burn”: The History and Impact of Black Revolutionary Movements in America (Simonelli) [Sunday]

This course will examine the development of Black Nationalism in America from the end of slavery through the 20th century and will include the study of W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, the Black Pan ther Movement, and Malcolm X.  (Syllabus)

HUM266H Religion and History: Lost Christianities (Crawford) [Saturday]

During the first several centuries after Jesus, early Christianity emerges as diverse and varied in belief and practice. This course will examine through original sources and contemporary studies the sects which were either “lost” or forgotten in  Western history, including Gnosticism and other christological interpretations such as Nestorianism.  How and why did some groups succeed and other fail to survive in history?  (Syllabus)

HUM249E Arthurian Literature (Brosamer) [Sunday]

To a significant degree, modern gender roles have been fundamentally determined from the Middle Ages, which makes these stories interesting and valuable not only from a literary standpoint, but from historical and sociological ones as well.  In this class we will read a representative selection od medieval Arthurian stories, and attempt to arrive at a working concept of these basic constructs of story and character that make (and made) them such engagingly influential texts.  (Syllabus)

HUM231E Creative Writing: Poetry (Villatoro) [Saturday]

You read a lot of poetry.  Maybe you write a lot of poetry.  But you don't tell anyone.  Too shy, and you think, who cares?  Then this is the class for you.  We not only care; we're passionate, we lust for a good line of Yeats.  We yearn for Neruda and Plath.  This is a poetry workshop, where you read it, write it, and share with others.  It's where women swoon and men's souls ache.  You'll learn all the old forms, up to free verse and beyond, finding your own voice along the way.  Welcome. (Syllabus)

HUM 248E Creative Writing:  Writing for Feature Films (Boutry) [Sunday]

Students will make significant progress towards the completion of a feature-length screenplay.  Learn by studying accomplished writers and their genres.  Each weekend we will read and analyze a published screenplay and explore the particularities of a specific genre.  It is reading and writing intensive.  (Syllabus)
  

HUM270CS Where are you from? Contemporary Ideas of Home and Homeland in the Asian Diaspora (Amato) [Sunday]

This course turns to examples in history and culture to explore how individuals and communities of East and South Asia descent who are living and working in the Americas, Europe, and Africa render an imagined or remembered home and/or homeland, and considers the implications in a variety of media—literature, art, film, etc. (Syllabus)

HUM269H TS: California History: Missions, Gold, Water, Warships, and Disneyland (Simonelli) (Travel/Study: June 6 - 17, 2008)

This Travel Study class will examine the history of the Golden State from its origins as a Spanish colony through the tumultuous 20th Century.  Traveling throughout the state from San Diego to San Francisco, the class will study the political, cultural, industrial and social development of California from its origins as a sparsely populated remote outpost to the nation's most populous and richest state.

Capstone

HUM296A  Capstone Proposal Workshop (Kidd) June 14 and August 2. (Syllabus)
Prerequisite: 15 units or more of completed course work. 
Prepares students to write the Capstone proposal, 1 unit

HUM296B Capstone Project
Independent Study, 2 units

HUM297A, B, C
Capstone Project continuation 1 unit each.