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Dear Colleagues,
It does indeed feel like a phrase from the film Groundhog Day, as once more I say, 'that was a busy academic year'! And so firstly, thank you for all of the hard work you have put into delivering the largest annual offering of AC courses since the requirement began in 1991. The curriculum has grown at the same time as the pressures on, and opportunities in the AC classroom, have also grown significantly. As those of you who have been participating in the Teaching in Troubled Times series have been sharing, those pressures have been met with a rich array of creative projects and renewed commitments to ensuring that this signature UC Berkeley curriculum continues to nurture the strengths of our diverse student body and commitments to inclusivity and equity both on campus and in our broader communities. As you will see from the reflections within this newsletter and the many planned program opportunities, the 2019-2020 academic year promises to be even busier. The AC Center staff and our academic partners look forward to supporting you and joining you in your teaching and learning, but until then, best of wishes for a joyful and peaceful summer.
Warm Regards, Victoria Robinson
Director, The American Cultures Center
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Application Deadline: June 10, 2019
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Adobe Fellows Program @ Berkeley
After a successful pilot year, the AC Center is happy to announce the call for applications to the 2019-20 Adobe Fellows Program. In many AC courses, creative projects are central to “lifting” the analytical work of the classroom into broader circulation. The Adobe Fellows Program is a program to support faculty and students in utilizing digital design tools to deepen and enhance the academic experience and to explore new avenues for public dissemination of research and teaching centered on social impact issues. Participation in the Adobe Fellows program will nurture interdisciplinary connections, creative collaborations, and directly support faculty to develop rich, multi-modal course assignments which foster critical digital literacy skills in our student body. Learn More. The application deadline is June 10.
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2019-20 American Cultures
Engaged Scholarship Program
The deadline to submit an application to the 2019-20 ACES Program is Friday, June 21. We are here to answer any questions you may have in helping you meet this deadline.
Launched in January 2010, the ACES program is a partnership between the American Cultures Center and the Public Service Center. The program aims to transform how faculty’s community-engaged scholarship is valued, to enhance learning for students through a combination of teaching and practice, and to create new knowledge that has an impact both in the community and the academy. Read More
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Application Deadline: Friday, June 21
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An invitation from the Library to AC Faculty
Power and People:
The U.S. Census and Who Counts
The Library is planning a major exhibition entitled Power and People: The U.S. Census and Who Counts in the Doe Library, September 2019-February 2020. The exhibit will also be online.
In this planning stage, the Library is very interested in collaborating with AC faculty and students on a series of workshops or panel discussions that relate to the exhibit and to the Census. As you know, the Census is vast -- there is so much that could be said, but the following themes have been chosen as a focus. Read More
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Summer Review Dates: Friday, June 19th
Please note: This is the only summer review session.
Submission Deadline: 5 PM, Friday, June 18th
For any questions about the submission process or to discuss course development ideas, please email us.
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AC Senate Subcommittee Review
(new AC courses and/or new instructors)
When a course holds American Cultures (AC) status, it means that the first instructors to offer that class developed course content and assignments towards a critical engagement with race, ethnicity, and culture, past, present, and future. To ensure that this approach is maintained, we ask that a new instructor appointed to teach an AC course (or developing a new one) provides their course materials to the AC Senate committee. The AC Center works directly with faculty to support their submission to the Senate committee.
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Annotated AC Curriculum Guidelines
The AC classroom represents the faculty's interpretation of and conversation with Senate regulation 300. Passed in 1989, regulation 300 created guidelines for how a faculty's intellectual engagement with issues critical to America's dynamic racial, ethnic and sociocultural landscape, would enter the classroom. AC curriculum guidelines present an exciting point of departure for faculty from 49 departments and programs across campus. With such a broad constituency of faculty engagement, the UC Berkeley Academic Senate Committee on American Cultures has provided additional guidance on how the guidelines are read and interpreted.
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Data Science Pedagogy and Practice: A Short Summer Workshop
Monday-Thursday, June 3-5, 2019
Academic Innovation Studio, 117 Dwinelle Hall
Over the past year, many AC courses have been designed to incorporate Data Science modules. If you'd like to learn how you might also develop a module, learn data science concepts, pedagogical methods, and technical tools, and get help integrating them into your own practice, please join us at this short summer workshop. This workshop (June 3-5, with 1-on-1 curriculum building meetings on June 6) will cover some of the computational and statistical concepts that students learn in the Foundations of Data Science class (Data 8) through hands-on analysis of real-world data. It will support instructors from all disciplines in exploring how to teach courses that can connect with and enrich this approach. Open to UC Berkeley instructors, faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and other members of the campus community as space permits. No computational or statistical background required. Registration.
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Documentaries at Doe
Once a month, on Tuesdays from 3-4:30 pm
180 Doe Library
Please join us for the 'Documentaries at Doe' events. These events are free and open to the campus community. Screenings are in Doe 180 from 3-4:30 PM.
6/4: Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart
7/7: Exiled: America’s Deported Veterans
If you would like to suggest a future film to be screened at Documentaries at Doe, please fill out this short form. The Library attempts to offer programs in an accessible, barrier-free setting. If you think you may require disability-related accommodations, please email doedocs@lists.berkeley.edu
Sponsored by the Media Resources Center, LAUC-B Diversity Committee, Social Sciences Division, Ethnic Studies Library, and the American Cultures Center
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Teaching in Summer Workshop
On May 7th, we co-hosted a workshop for summer instructors, Summer held Every year we host workshops that focus on some of the best approaches to teaching an intensive six- or ten-week summer course at UC Berkeley. Among the topics discussed will be: strategies for managing extended summer class time, what to expect from summer student enrollment, the specifics of the American Cultures curriculum requirement, and teaching to issues of racial and economic justice in diverse classrooms. If you are teaching this summer, please review our resources from this year's workshop.
Co-sponsored by Summer Sessions, Center for Teaching and Learning, the AC Center, and the Educational Technology Services
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Language Guide: Communicating About Those Involved In The Carceral System
Increasing attention is being given to the language people use when discussing individual or group identities and experiences. In large part, marginalized people must demand respect to create and amplify language that they consider more humanizing than the negative narratives imposed on us by the dominant society. The late Eddie Ellis, a wrongfully convicted member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, established the first academic think tank run by formerly incarcerated people... Read More
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LGBTQ+ & Women's Resources at Cal
The UC Berkeley Gender Equity Resource Center welcomes you by introducing you to some of the resources and organizations on-campus for LGBTQ+ and women's communities. The Gender Equity Resource Center fondly referred to as GenEq, is a UC Berkeley campus community center committed to fostering an inclusive Cal experience for all. GenEq is the campus location where students, faculty, staff, and alumni connect for resources, services, education, and leadership programs related to gender and sexuality.
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American Cultures Student Prize
The American Cultures Student Prize celebrates outstanding scholarship produced by
students within American Cultures courses, wrestling critically with the complexities
of our diverse social conditions in illuminating ways.
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2019 AC Student Prize Recipient
CHLOE CHAN
Graphic Novel Panel for Postapocalypse Now
Comparative Literature N60AC, “Postapocalypse Now”
Instructor: Caitlin Scholl
Chloe’s graphic novel panel is based on her analysis of literary texts and films that are intertwined with and working through, specific American histories of genocide, racism, and misogyny. The panel represents how, in some respects, we are already living in a postapocalyptic world. Drawing inspiration from Chang-Rae Lee’s dystopic novel...Read More
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2019 AC Student Prize Recipient
ERIK PHILLIP
“The Bay’s Team”
Ethnic Studies 122AC and Ethnic Studies 180
Instructor: Raymond Telles
During his senior year, Erik left the Cal football team so that he could develop “The Bay’s Team,” a documentary centered on the experiences of black football players at UC Berkeley from 2001-2012. This complex documentary explores the disconnect between the athletic and academic community, the latter benefitting financially from the former but primarily disconnected from it. Read More
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The American Cultures Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award
Professor Ronald Takaki didn’t just teach about race and ethnicity. He helped redefine it.
Instrumental to the field of Ethnic Studies, and central in the creation of the AC curriculum,
the family of Professor Takaki and The AC Center is extremely pleased to announce
the second recipient of the Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award, Dr. Hatem Bazian.
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Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award Recipient
DR. HATEM BAZIAN
Dr. Bazian’s contributions to the AC curriculum spans over two decades. Dr. Bazian’s AC courses have expanded the field of Ethnic Studies and brought previously unstudied and under-studied communities into attention. In particular, Dr. Bazian’s Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies 128AC, Islam in America: communities and Institutions; and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies 132AC De-Constructing Islamophobia and Otherness courses. courses explore the American-Muslim experience, an experience previously un-touched, and Islam, a topic that existed in religious studies, anthropology, and political science but not Ethnic Studies. Prior to these courses, American-Muslim communities were not included as at UC Berkeley, as was the case for Islamophobia...Read More
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The American Cultures Teaching Award
The American Cultures Teaching Award recognizes faculty who have created original, cutting-edge teaching plans that enhance both the goals of the AC Requirement and students’
learning in the classroom.
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2019 AC Teaching Award Recipient
DR. KHALID KADIR
Before Dr. Kadir began teaching in the AC curriculum, he taught nine cohorts of
students both before and after their completion of six-week poverty alleviation-related
internships. Working with these students allowed him to discover the transformative
the potential of coursework combined with deep engagement in marginalized communities.
This insight led him to create an innovative new engineering course at the intersection of
environmental engineering and social justice.
Created as part of UC Berkeley’s American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program,
Engineering 157AC promotes student learning in the classroom and local communities
through university-community engaged partnerships with...Read More.
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