Take a Breadth: College Courses for Fall 2000

By Alix Schwartz

August 15, 2000

Following a successful pilot in spring 2000, the College of Letters and Science will be offering four exciting new College Courses in the fall. If you are an undergraduate and want to become more well rounded intellectually, but find that the L&S breadth list doesn't provide much direction, read on!

The Deans have carefully selected courses that will appeal to non-experts: College Courses are often interdisciplinary, and they never have prerequisites. Some topics relate to current events, such as millennium fever or upcoming minimalist exhibits and performances. Others treat topics of perennial interest, such as Drugs and the Brain, or Californians and Water.

The Poetics of Time and Place: Viewpoints on the Millennium will appeal to anyone who likes to infer—and imagine—how people in other cultures construct their worlds. The semester will culminate in group presentations of multi-media projects created in a state-of-the-art computer lab. This course will be co-taught by Anthropology Professors Meg Conkey, Rosemary Joyce, and Ruth Tringham, all of whom are dedicated to creating an active and engaging learning environment.

Students who enroll in Framing the Arts at Berkeley: Minimalism will enjoy Cal Performances events—including the Mark Morris Dance Group, Martha Graham's Dance Company, Composer Steve Reich, and the Gate Theater of Dublin, performing two plays by Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot and Krapp's Last Tape—for one quarter of the usual ticket price. Your guide for this adventure in the arts will be Charles Altieri, Professor of English and Director of the Consortium for the Arts. For more information, visit the Framing the Arts at Berkeley: Minimalism course web site.

How do drugs such as stimulants, depressants, psychedelics, and steroids affect the human brain? In Drugs and the Brain, Professor David Presti will provide all the necessary biological, chemical and psychological background necessary for students to comprehend the answers to this question.

No Californian will question the idea that water plays a vital role in California's economic prosperity and social well being. Join Professor T.N. Narasimhan in Californians and Water, an interdisciplinary exploration of the fascinating relationship between Californians and the water that sustains us.

Each of these classes satisfies both the Letters and Science breadth requirements and the Haas School of Business breadth requirements. See the College Courses website at http://CollegeCourses.berkeley.edu for details on all of these great new classes for fall.

Dean Paul Licht and Professor Jere Lipps (who will teach Astrobiology again in spring 2001) chat with students at an ice cream social celebrating the pilot semester of the College Courses. Other spring courses will include Genetics and Society and Medieval Memories.