About
Thirty years ago, Professor Bill Simmons (architect of the AC requirement at UC Berkeley) asked “what could be so important? He was rhetorically positioning the teaching, learning and reflections on race in American life, at the heart of what would become the AC requirement (the only campus graduation requirement). Today, that same question still holds significance, and increasingly is the subject of intense debate from city hall, to governor’s mansions, to school boards. What is "up" with this debate, how might we consider UC Berkeley's efforts to support such conversations, with the AC Curriculum and other programs on campus?
antmen pimentel mendoza and Victoria Robinson will provide some framework for reflection on these questions and also provide exciting updates on the AC curriculum, new courses and directions for what Chancellor Carol Christ recently stated was “the soul of UC Berkeley - the AC curriculum.”
AC 30th Exhibit at Doe Library
Thirty years after the first AC courses were offered on campus, this response reverberates powerfully, continuing to invite the UC Berkeley community of staff, students, and faculty into conversations and analyses critical to our complex, diverse worlds. Evermore necessary in the wake of renewed attention to systemic racism and the long-fought battles for racial justice, the curriculum bubbles with the energy of student, faculty, and community ideas and expectations for their AC classrooms. We invite you to celebrate the longevity and vigor of the curriculum at The Doe library exhibit in its honor, ‘Tumbling the Ivory Tower: creating the race requirement at UC Berkeley.’