Past Courses
Art and Entertainment Law
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
An introductory course exploring the general practice of entertainment law in one of the creative capitals of the world. Examining current practical issues and substantive law, this innovative, experiential class will merge seminar class sessions and meetings with established professionals and industry leaders in their respective fields. Students are required to prepare for discussions with experts and lecturers, participate in exercises, and research and prepare questions in advance.
CSI: Analytical Methods in Forensics Science
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course focuses on most important advances made in developing new technologies in forensic analysis, and how these discoveries affect our lives. These include the development of advanced spectroscopy, microscopy, and molecular biology-based tools and techniques that have advanced the field of forensic analysis. Connections are made between the interplay of science, history, arts, and socioeconomic factors driving technological development in this area. Discussion also places emphasis on the projected future of these emerging technologies. Study creates collaborative learning community engaging UCLA students and incarcerated students as part of the UCLA Prison Education Program.
Feminism 101
Professor(s):
Various UC Faculty
Course Synopsis:
A workshop series introducing Feminism to young men and boys at BJN Juvenile Hall, and women incarcerated at the Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program (CCTRP). Each week, a range of experts in the field will serve as guest speakers to present the perspective of at least one woman of color for students to engage and develop an analysis of their “theory of change.”
Hip Hop Theater Collaborative
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This process and project-oriented course asks students to explore and examine social justice while staging and preparing to perform a contemporary work fusing hip hop theater, spoken poetry, movement, music, art and activism. Throughout the semester, students will study and prepare for collaborative performances of WHAT IT IZ: The Spoken Wordical — a hip hop theater production written by formerly incarcerated artists, and adapted in a creative writing workshop at the California Institute for Women (CIW) — the state’s oldest women’s prison.
In this course, we will collaborate with the Dance department of Duke University – whose students will perform with us in LA, and host us for a performance in a North Carolina prison. We will also work in collaboration with the Geffen Playhouse, a not-for-profit organization enriching the cultural life of Los Angeles through plays and educational programs that inform, entertain, and inspire. The Geffen welcomes over 130,000 people each year, and maintains education and community engagement programs involving underserved youth and the LA community at large. Working with its Artistic Director, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Geffen will support this course by hosting the culminating performance of our production, and provide a workshop series introducing students to professional roles in theater.
Isn’t She Lovely? Reproductive Justice, Indigenous Birthing Practices and Healing the Family
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course creates a collaborative learning community engaging students from UCLA and participants in A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL). A mandatory orientation is required at the beginning of spring quarter for all participating students. This course is an interrogation of the history of pregnancy, birthing, and family using a decolonized lens. Students will probe the concept of “”nuclear family””, explore indigenous birthing and child rearing practices, and study an examination of reproductive justice through law and policy post-Dobbs. Students will also study the impact of intergenerational gendered harms through the discipline of epigenetics and discuss breaking cycles of harm in family dynamics.
Justice Studies 1: By Any Media Necessary
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course will apply a range of research-based, interactive arts-based strategies, and work with university participants and the broader community, to answer the question: what is Justice? Using critical texts, creative work and collaborative methods, we will engage diverse perspectives to examine the intersection of race, gender, class and the criminal justice system. Through research, writing, workshops and performance, students will create original writings developed in response to scholars, artists, culture workers and community partners representing a diverse and growing body of work on systems of justice.
Legislative Theater for Race and Gender Justice
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
Create and perform “Legislative Theater” addressing issues of race, gender and the criminal justice system. This “Theater of the Oppressed” technique uses theater and public debate to develop and propose legislative strategies to address problems identified by community participants. From the incarceration and reentry of women, the school-to-prison pipeline, the legal rights of women and youth in the justice system, to the impact of incarceration on families, and using the arts to advocate for justice, we will work towards a participatory performance that culminates in the drafting of legislative proposals aimed at transforming the justice system and lives of those it impacts.
Legislative Theater and Justice
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course will challenge students to define the word ‘justice’ and apply that principle to real-world challenges. Using the classic TV show The Wire as a foundation, each week students will study a problem that will require creativity and collaboration to solve. On a micro level, students will sharpen their problem-solving skills by engaging in dynamic role-playing workshops. On a macro level, students will enhance their analytical skills by exploring the complexity of doing justice. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper appreciation for the nuance of the word ‘justice’.
Liberating Fictions: Writing the Latin American Microcuento and Vignette
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
The microcuento (or sudden fiction) is a short-short story that, though written around the world, is especially popular in Latin America, which has also produced some of its most famous examples. In this class, we will read microcuentos in English and in Spanish, discuss how meaning is constructed in each piece, and, taking into account the stylistic limit imposed by each text, write and read our own microcuento to the class. Texts to be read, all of which touch on the theme of justice, will include classics by Latin American authors including Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, Amparo Dávila, and Gabriel García Márquez, as well as microcuentos from north of the border by writers such as Estella Portillo Trambley, Cristina Henríquez, Sandra Cisneros, and Rudolfo Anaya. We will also read texts by the formerly incarcerated, including Judy Lucero, Yesli Dayanili Pech Pech, and Zindy Abreu Bar n. Issues of justice appearing in the texts include responses to domestic violence, sexual violence, mass incarceration, racism, and classbased or economic violence. This course takes inspiration from Dr. Harris’s doctoral dissertation on connections between the short stories of Sandra Cisneros and Jorge Luis Borges–namely their shared view of suffering as providing the materials for artistic inspiration and production. The course will be conducted in Spanish and English with texts in English and in bilingual editions. Language of instruction may vary based on class makeup and language preferences/ ability.
Narrative of Change
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
Utilize critical texts, creative writing and performance techniques to create a collaborative learning community, and engage diverse perspectives on narrative. Our primary questions will include: what is narrative? Whose narratives matter? When is narrative a tool used for domination? Where does narrative effectively resist, inspire or imagine counter-domination? Why is narrative used as a tool for oppression, resistance and liberation? How can narratives make a difference in our lives? While critically examining a diverse body of writings and techniques, we will research, workshop and perform original work. Our collective interrogation of meanings and movements will be guided by a wide range of prose, poetry, political, philosophical, legal and historical texts including Harriet Jacobs, Ida B. Wells Barnett and Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, among others. We will delve into narratives of personal, political and social change, while analyzing how narratives are effectively developed, disseminated, enacted, embodied, asserted, protested, recovered and revised.
Narrative of Freedom
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This project will use participatory theater, multimedia performances and a series of prison workshops and community town hall gatherings to bring together the oral histories and educational stories of incarcerated youth at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall and the California Institution for Women. Our objective is to inform the public and legislature about the impact incarceration of youth and women at these facilities has on families, and to document the impact of “decarceration” policies and higher education opportunities.
Race, Racism, and the Law
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
Throughout American history, race relations have been inextricably linked to the law. Both the perpetuation of racism and the struggle against it have involved various legal institutions, especially the United States Supreme Court. Lawyers on all sides have often played pivotal roles in establishing legal standards defining the political, economic, social, and psychological status of African Americans (and other racial and ethnic minorities). This course will provide an historical overview and an in-depth examination of selected major highlights of these legal developments. These will include the Constitutional sources of racism, the legal foundations establishing and eliminating slavery, the major Supreme Court decisions before and during the civil rights era, and the contemporary legal retreat from civil rights protections.
Rhythm & Revolution: Critical Perspectives on Social Movements
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
In this course, students use biographies and autobiographies of social movement leaders to explore the rise and fall of some of the most influential social movements of the last 50 years. From Malcolm X and Huey Newton to Dr. Dre and Tupac, students will trace hip hop’s roots back to the seeds that were planted during the Civil Rights Movement.
Spoken Word: Culture and Performance Practicum
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course creates a collaborative learning community engaging students at the Victorville Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). A mandatory orientation will be required at the beginning of the quarter for participating students. Organized in collaboration with the Prison Education Program and the Center for Justice at UCLA, this course follows a series of pilot courses approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. Through the development of its curriculum and pedagogical framework, our vision, learning objectives, capacity building and primary objectives will be collaboratively structured to create an experience that strengthens critical literacy for all participants.
The Revolutionary Poetry and Politics of Malcolm X
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
In this course, our research, writings and weekly reflections on the enduring impact of Malcolm X will enable us to develop a greater understanding of his poetics and politics on a national and global scale. Our focus on X will expose the contradictory impulses of a nation that both demonizes and deifies him as it has countless leaders and movements committed to turning the rhetoric of resistance into revolutionary praxis. Utilizing a range of creative and arts-based methods in a collaborative learning environment, we will analyze, engage, discuss, debate and document critical perspectives on race, class, gender, religion, human rights and the state. We will evaluate the nation’s efforts to live up to its revolutionary vision through the words of one of its harshest critics and most uncompromising revolutionaries.
The Social, Political, and Educational Value of Stand-Up Comedy
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
While some folks might dismiss stand-up comedy as frivolous amusement or benign entertainment, comics today are granted license for truth-telling and social/political commentary even more than many journalists or politicians, and in fact, news and entertainment are often fused. Comics can enjoy worldwide access to eager audiences online, and they use their platforms to stimulate new ways of thinking, question ideas (including notions of decency or absurdity), disrupt standard narratives, tell new stories or champion counternarratives, reframe pain, reinterpret political events, invite solidarity, deliver sociocultural criticism, represent a subculture, defy power and privilege, wrestle with taboo topics, expose prejudice, express outrage, mock, scorn, satirize, ridicule, purposefully offend and/or heal, and confront viewers. Whether some comics reinforce or challenge stereotypes is under debate, but the conscious viewer will readily reflect on their own interpretive role. Stand-up may seem like a monologue, but is in fact a conversation between performer and audience, and our receptivity—and resistance—and interpretation—are essential for co-constructing meaning in the comedic experience.
In this class, students will analyze comic performances and assess their power and limitations, examine a variety of rhetorical circumstances and strategies, view performances through the lens of scholarly work to see content from a variety of perspectives, develop their own writing and editing skills, and work collaboratively to create a community of writers/thinkers.
Vaccines, Viruses, and Pandemics
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This fiat lux course creates a collaborative learning community engaging students at Victorville Federal Prison (women’s camp) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Students will learn about viruses and vaccines, asking and answering the following questions: What are viruses (e.g., how are they different from bacteria and other disease agents?) and why weren’t they discovered until just over a hundred years ago?; What do all viruses have in common even as they display a huge variety of sizes and shapes and “life styles”?; What are vaccines — and what are they not? — and how do they work in protein or RNA form?; How does our immune system deal with vaccines and viruses?; What are pandemics, and what is their history and…their future?
Women of Color and Social Movements
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
This course creates a collaborative learning community engaging students from UCLA and incarcerated students at CCTRP – LA CADA. This course undertakes a survey of the participation of women of color and social movements for social justice. Students will examine the roles of women of color as grassroots activists, leaders and thinkers in those movements and explore the construction of the political identity “”women of color”” as a basis for contemporary organizing for social change. Students will also discuss the emergence and effectiveness of social movements for racial and gender justice, and examine the experiences of women of color in class and labor movements, immigrant rights, disability justice, LGBTQ equality and environmental justice.
Won’t Break My Soul: Trauma and Healing Informed Advocacy
Professor(s):
Course Synopsis:
Bodies are sites of trauma, both personally and collectively. As a result of historic and modern-day systems of power and oppression, trauma causes physiological impacts on the body. Sexism, racism, homo/transphobia, ableism, classism, xenophobia, nativism, and religious bias can cause trauma and negatively impact people’s mental, physical, and spiritual health. If left unaddressed, this toll drastically reduces the capacity of individuals and entire communities. In this course, students will interrogate how systems of power interplay to wreak havoc on the health and well-being of people of color, women and trans/gender, non-binary/gender non-conforming people, and the intersections thereof. Students will discuss various forms of trauma including “vicarious or secondary” trauma caused by exposure to people who have been traumatized by “institutional trauma,” and the harmful impacts of working with under-resourced organizations.
