Seminars: Los Angeles, 1992-2002: Community, Diversity, and Civil Unrest Honors Collegium 98 Spring Quarter 2002 Examination of Black and White Racial Identity Models Developed through Psychological Research Kathy O'Byrne; Psychology Students will have a chance to examine these theories, connect them to their own experiences, and generalize them to issues of diversity and multiculturalism in Los Angeles today. The Sights and Sounds of L.A.'s Civil Unrest: Politics, Media, and Music Barbara K. Ige; English Literature In 1991, Rodney King, the city of Los Angeles, the LAPD, and race came to embody more than a violent "traffic incident" caught on tape. They became some of the most volatile and controversial images and symbols in the history of the late 20th century, in the US and abroad. The circumstances and subsequent fallout surrounding the King videotape, trial, and aftermath will be examined and critiqued through readings, videos, and music. Questions such as media objectivity, the "justice" system, and civil protest/resistance will serve as touchstones for our discussions. City Tragedy: Los Angeles, New York, and Their Predecessors Sharon King; Comparative Literature Civil unrest from within marked and marred the city of Los Angeles ten years ago. Last year New York and Washington, D.C. were devastated by attacks from without that have forever altered our images of these cities. Yet these patterns of civic discord and city tragedy have been repeated and represented in Western culture for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. This course will examine several Renaissance texts (all in English or in translation) that deal with the tragic fall of a city, focusing on issues such as the root causes, the assignment of blame, and the ways such falls are manifested and perceived. We will then use the texts as points of departure to discuss the unfolding city tragedies of our era. This seminar meets every other week for two hours. The first meeting will be April 5, 2002. Reconstructing Los Angeles: Strategies Used by Women of Color and Low-Income Women to Create an Alternative Vision of Urban Development in the Post-April 1992 Environment Judith Magee; History Memory for women in diverse ethnic groups may involve issues of isolation and exploitation, as well as of connectedness. By engaging in the difficult memories of ethnic women's history, students will connect the past of Los Angeles to its urban future and to the civil unrest of April 1992. Students will examine two buildings and two neighborhoods in particular: Biddy Mason's homestead, the Embassy Auditorium, Little Tokyo, and South Central. Students will come to understand the intersecting themes of ethnic, labor, and women's history. The City and the Idea of Community - Reality and Illusion Robert Maniquis; English The city of Los Angeles is going to copy a successful project invented by the city of Chicago. The project calls for the entire city to read one and the same book during a period of time. I plan to run a reading group through this seminar. We shall read, with the rest of the city, "Fahrenheit 451". In addition, each student will have to make contact with one reading group in the city, from the Valley to Watts, from Santa Monica to East Los Angeles and report back on the various ideas of "community" they may have discovered, along with the problems and the contradictions in the idea of community in Los Angeles. Straight Talk on the Effects of Silence on Sexual and Gender Minorities in Los Angeles Ronni Sanlo; Education To inform students through active discussion and participation about the myriad of ways in which people and communities are affected by issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Topics include the history of sexual orientation issues, as well as health and legal issues of sexual and gender minority people; sexual/gender identity develop; and legal issues directly affecting UCLA and Los Angeles. Recent Unrest in L.A. as discerned through Plays, Videos, Novels, Essays, and Periodicals William T. Wheatley; Theater Videos of relevant material will be shown to students and discussed, as will written materials. Social & Personal Issues in Fahrenheit 451 Jules Zentner; Scandinavian Fahrenheit 451 will be read and analyzed in terms of the social & personal issues it raises about individual freedom and communal responsibility. Students will submit a question about the reading for each session - together with a half-page written attempt at an answer. These questions will be the basis for class discussion. A four-page term paper, that develops one of these questions further, will be written, critiqued by the instructor, and rewritten. This class will meet 1-½ hours per week for the first seven weeks of the quarter.