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Art of Understanding (Prof. Juan Mah y Busch, English & Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies)
MW 9:55-11:35am (CRN 40406)
First to Go Program Only
To become familiar with the artistry of your understanding, in this course you learn to meditate. No prior experience is presumed or expected. Alongside regular meditation, you practice different forms of writing (such as simple description, contemplative writing, critical examination, research). Through the regular practice of meditation and writing, you settle into the interplay between words and wordlessness, drawing attention to the qualitative dimensions of lived experience, such as the wordless music of words or a spacious moment of time, the quiet release of an exhale or the cool breeze of an inhale. Grounded in meditation, writing, discussion and engaged participation, in the class you develop your own more artful understandings.
Meet the Professor:
Juan D. Mah y Busch is professor and chair of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CLST) and professor of English. In addition to his academic training, for over two decades he was formally trained in meditation. He uses meditation and literary analysis as research methods in order to examine a range of questions in critical race and ethnic studies, ethical and aesthetic epistemologies, and contemplative pedagogy. He coordinates the CLST Learning Community and has worked with the First-To-Go Program since its inception. He lives in Northeast Los Angeles with his partner Irene, their three children, and their boxer Brooklyn.
Juan.MahyBusch@lmu.edu
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Childhood in International Cinema (Prof. Aine O’Healy, Modern Languages and Literatures)
Honors Program Only
T 4:30-7:50pm (CRN 40390)
This seminar introduces students to critical writing through the exploration of international cinema. Our focus is on the representation of childhood in several films produced around the world since the 1940s. In order to engage with these films, drawn from different national contexts and historical periods, students apply the tools of audiovisual analysis to discern the symbolic functions fulfilled by the figure of the child. We will examine how the construction of children in cinema intersects with discourses of nation formation and with the representation of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and social class. The assigned readings, mainly drawn from cinema studies, will guide our explorations and will allow us to place the filmic analyses in a broader context, encompassing issues of globalization, discourses of the border, and discussions about multiculturalism and diversity.
Meet the Professor:
Professor Áine O'Healy is Professor of Italian and Director of the Humanities Program at Loyola Marymount University.
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Latin American Cinema (Prof. Jacob Martin, Film & Television Production)
School of Film and Television Living-Learning Community Only
W 11:30am-2:50pm (CRN 42509)
This course will introduce students to key principles of Catholic Social Teaching and social justice issues through the lens of modern Latin American Cinema. The Catholic Church and more specifically the Society of Jesus, has played a significant role in the struggle for liberation in the modern history of numerous Latin American states. High profile global events, such as the assassination of Oscar Romero in 1980, the Salvadoran Jesuit Martyrs in 1989 and the recent expulsion of the Jesuits at the University of Central America in Nicaragua, have foregrounded the significance of the Catholic Church’s position within the Latin American political, economic and social landscape. With that said, the Church’s historical complicity with oppressive systems of colonization and authoritarian regimes cannot be ignored, thus creating an ambiguous legacy within the modern Latin American context.
This course will offer an introduction to a range of Latin American films from different periods and styles, which will be analyzed through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, contemporary social justice scholarship, and cinema studies. Students will read various social documents from both the universal and local church in order to garner an appreciation for Catholic Social Theory and its importance for them as students at a Jesuit university. These readings will also serve as a means of evaluating the various cinematic texts screened in the classroom for issues related to social justice, particularly, migrancy, indigenous rights, political oppression, and trafficking.
The films screened will be from numerous Latin American cinemas, including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia, and the course will make reference to broader continental and international currents, such as Third Cinema. The material will be discussed in terms of both the aesthetic contributions the films have made and their foregrounding of discourses on memory, violence, state terror, and ethnicity. Students will be able to identify historical and political contexts for how social issues have been portrayed. They will also come to a deeper understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and its significance for them as students at a Catholic University. Students will also become aware of the network of Jesuit educational institutions throughout the world and their place within the Ignatian educational legacy. They will come to understand different filmmaking strategies for advocacy or effecting social change, as well as the application of critical theory to film history and analysis. This will in turn serve to assist in the student’s development of critical thinking and writing skills about media, culture and its relationship with social justice.
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Liberal Education in the Age of Enlightenment (Prof. Jeffrey Wilson, Philosophy)
TR 1:45-3:25pm (CRN 42729)
Honors Program Only
This course engages students with themes in the philosophy of education from the Age of Enlightenment by placing eighteenth-century European texts in dialogue with the contemporary perspectives of Paolo Freire’s anti-colonialist writings and the Black feminist thought of bell hooks. Each of these intellectual streams wrestles with questions of how human beings are to be educated for moral reform (ethical freedom), the relation of faith and reason in educational practice (religious freedom), and education as preparation for citizenship and empowerment in a free society (political freedom). As a First Year Seminar, the course introduces students to intellectual rigor, critical thinking, and effective writing skills while laying the foundation for a lifelong commitment to learning.
Meet the Professor:
Jeffrey Wilson, PhD is Director of the University Honors Program and Philosophy faculty since 1995. His research focuses on Immanuel Kant, with special emphases on his philosophy of the arts and creativity, mathematics, science, and religion. He also engages with Jewish philosophy of the 18th and 20th centuries in Germany. He has given talks on his research in German, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Norway, China, and Lebanon, along with many around the United States. His work has been published in Kant Yearbook, Rethinking Kant, the Journal of Philosophical Research, and the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, among others.
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On the Technological Sublime (Prof. Sue Scheibler, Film/TV Studies)
F 11:30am-2:50pm (CRN 42507)
Honors Program Only
The sublime invites us to, in the words of the poet Pierre Reverdy, “stroll elegantly along the edge of the abyss;” an abyss that, as we stare into it, fills us with wonder, curiosity, delight, terror, joy, and awe. In this course, we will explore the various ways that filmmakers, TV creators, video game developers, writers, poets, musicians, and others have produced works of art that, at least for a moment, in their sublimity, challenge our sense of self, experience, and perceptions by carrying us out of our “normal” ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving, into a sublimely transcendent encounter with the other as well as ourselves that can leave us forever changed.
Meet the Professor:
Sue Scheibler (they/them) teaches courses such as Queer TV, Video Games, Science Fiction TV, Japanese Anime TV and time studies, in the School of Film and TV. Her scholarly interests include disability justice (with a focus on neuroqueer), video games, television studies, ethics, among others.
"I've been teaching On the Technological Sublime in Honors for about fourteen years now. I love teaching it because it allows me to bring all of my interests into the class: philosophy (I have graduate degrees in the Philosophy of Religion), theology (I have a seminary degree), Buddhist and Daoist philosophy; media studies (especially video games and TV studies); physics; and poetry." –Prof. Scheibler
Susan.Scheibler@lmu.edu
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Poetry of Meditation (Prof. Juan Mah y Busch, English & Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies)
MW 8:00-9:40AM (CRN 40430)
Honors Program Only
In this course, students will become more deeply familiar with poetry through meditation, and land in unworded qualities of experience through the literary arts. For meditation, no prior experience is presumed or expected. Alongside regular meditation, students practice freewriting as a foundation to improve other forms of writing, including simple description and evaluation of significance, as well as how to integrate critical terms and library research. Through the regular practice of meditation and freewriting, students settle into the interplay between words and wordlessness, drawing attention to the qualitative dimensions of lived experience, such as the silence from which words emerge or a spacious moment of time, the quiet release of an exhale or the cool breeze of an inhale. Grounded in meditation and writing, critical terms and engaged participation, students not only learn how to welcome the qualitative dimensions of experience, but also develop their ability to write about it.
Meet the Professor:
Juan D. Mah y Busch is professor and chair of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CLST) and professor of English. In addition to his academic training, for over two decades he was formally trained in meditation. He uses meditation and literary analysis as research methods in order to examine a range of questions in critical race and ethnic studies, ethical and aesthetic epistemologies, and contemplative pedagogy. He coordinates the CLST Learning Community and has worked with the First-To-Go Program since its inception. He lives in Northeast Los Angeles with his partner Irene, their three children, and their boxer Brooklyn.
Juan.MahyBusch@lmu.edu
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Principles of Scientific Reasoning
MW 1:45-3:00pm (CRN 40427)
ACCESS Program Only
Communication and critical thinking skills are developed with an emphasis on science, nature, technology, and mathematics in multiple contexts. Mathematical and scientific reasoning are investigated through inductive and deductive arguments, the scientific method, and the notions of definition, classification and conjecture. The course will also examine the role and purpose that scientists and scientific educators play in society, and how math and science inform movements for social justice and equity, as well as issues related to ethics and responsibility in the STEM profession. There will also be an emphasis on exploring the contributions to science and technology from diverse cultures and communities.
Meet the Professor
Dr. Robin Wilson is currently a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University. The product of the public school system in Sacramento, CA, he attended UC Berkeley where he studied mathematics and developed a passion for teaching and supporting students of color in STEM. He earned his PhD in Mathematics at the University of California, Davis, and prior to LMU he was a Professor at Cal Poly Pomona and held Visiting positions at Georgetown University and Pomona College. His scholarship includes both mathematics and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Robin.Wilson@lmu.edu