Obsessed with film, mathematician makes movie about obsession
Ever since she was a little girl growing up in Russia, UC Berkeley mathematician Olga Holtz has been obsessed with filmmaking. …
What’s in a name? Reading Berkeley’s bilingual signs
By David Malinowski and the students of UC Berkeley’s freshman/sophomore seminar East Asian Languages 39A. Perhaps nothing visible in the streets of Berkeley seems more straightforward than the signs that name its businesses. …
Freshman and Sophomore Seminars Celebrate Twenty Years
Twenty years ago, the campus launched the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars. Then Vice Chancellor John Heilbron remembers the occasion in this way: “The Freshman Seminars owe their existence to the combination of a good idea and a bad budgetary situation. In 1992 the University suffered deep cuts in its state budget and threats of further […]
Freshman and Sophomore Seminars Turn Twenty
All members of the faculty are invited to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars: the reception and awards ceremony (featuring the premiere of a new short video about the program) will take place on Monday, October 22, 2012, from 4:00-6:00 in the Alumni House Toll Room. This campus-wide program has a […]
Occupy: Observers, participants at UC Berkeley
I never intended to have the Occupy Movement become the dominant subject of my freshman seminar this term, although I see now that even absent the pepper-spraying and bloodied student foreheads, it was probably inevitable. I teach freshmen every fall, and only in the fall, because I love to encounter Cal’s youngest students as they […]
New class focuses on funding for athletics
This fall, a few faculty members will teach a freshman seminar that focuses on the priorities of UC Berkeley, specifically with regard to how much the campus should emphasize subsidizing its Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. These three faculty members created this seminar,”Priorities Under Pressure: Critical Assessment of How the University’s Core Mission is Affected by […]
Berkeley Arts Seminars
Berkeley Arts Seminars are small, faculty-led seminars that give UC Berkeley freshmen and sophomores an opportunity to explore the rich array of arts experiences available on our campus. INFORMATION FOR FACULTY When you were an undergraduate, did you have an encounter with the arts that opened your eyes, broadened your horizons, challenged your assumptions? Our […]
Connections@Cal
The Connections@Cal option has been discontinued effective fall 2016. Freshman and Sophomore Seminars often result in long-lasting bonds among the participants. Connections at Cal Seminars were created to intentionally foster such relationships, both with a potential faculty mentor and your fellow students. Choose a C@C Seminar if you value sustained intellectual relationships, if you would […]
UC class melds photography, protest
Think of it as a crash course in the culture of protest at UC Berkeley, or as an antidote to teenage apathy. A new freshman seminar that combines photojournalism with political awareness was inspired by recent conflicts on campus over rising tuition and funding cuts. It is designed to teach students about the role of […]
‘Capturing the campus’
Call it a visual form of academic introspection. This semester, a new Freshman Seminar, “Photographing History in the Making,” used the campus itself as a source for, and subject of, scholarly inquiry. …