Spotlight on AC Courses

The AC Course spotlight series is an opportunity for faculty members to discuss how their classes bring their research interests with community partners together to teach undergraduates. If you are interested in featuring your class for an AC course spotlight, please email americancultures@berkeley.edu.

'Fire' - Anthropology C12AC/ESPM C22AC

Most Californians today fear catastrophic wildland fires that each year scorch millions of acres of land, cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fight, and destroy human lives and property. Yet people have not always lived in dread of conflagrations. This class emphasizes how our interactions with wildfires in California have changed dramatically over the centuries, and that there is much that can be learned from earlier fire management strategies—some of which may be applicable to our contemporaneous world.

khalid kadir

'Engineering, The Environment, and Society' - Engineering 157AC / International and Area Studies 157AC

This Spring, Dr. Khalid Kadir, will offer the ACES course, Engineering 157AC / International and Area Studies 157AC: Engineering, The Environment, and Society at UC Berkeley. The course will challenge students to look beyond the technical elements of their work and recognize the deeply social and political nature of engineering questions. Dr. Kadir has established partnerships with local and regional African-American, Asian-American, and Latino community groups, through which students will have the opportunity to engage in multiple real-world projects affecting these diverse communities.

Life, Practice, and Reflections from the Central American Diaspora

'The Southern Border' - Education 186AC / Ethnic Studies 159AC / Geography 159AC

The 'Southern Border,’ examines how histories and geographies of the US southern border and how geographies have influenced migration, urbanization, activism, and racial and ethnic identity formation within the U.S. and countries along the southern border including Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The class also analyzes how the border affects the clas

close up of a fingerprint in sepia tone

American Cybercultures: Principles of Internet Citizenship

Practice of Art W23AC American Cybercultures: Principles of Internet Citizenship examines how the growth of online participation influences the development of and intersects online and residential communities. Students participate in online discussions surrounding internet culture or cyberculture within a modern context as well as categories of personhood that make up the UC Berkeley American Cultures rubric (race and ethnicity), as well as to gender, nation, and disability.

Picture of Integrative Biology 190 students and Professor Leslea Hlusko

'Human Biological Variation' - Integrative Biology 35AC

'Human Biological Variation,' Integrative Biology 35AC, examines the cultural and historical relevance of biology through larger contexts. Students will learn how biological variation plays a role in day-to-day life - including interactions on the street, governmental policies on healthcare and food stamps, and doctor-patient relationships.

several players on the floor of a gym playing goal ball

'American Sport Culture and Education' - Education 75AC

Education 75AC focuses on sports culture in the U.S. through an intersectional lens. This course highlights the ways in which sports have contributed to our society as well as how they marginalize certain communities through the bases of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability.

'Social Movements, Urban Histories, and the Politics of Memory' International & Area Studies 158AC / Peace and Conflicts Studies 148 AC).

"Social Movements, Urban History, and the Politics of Memory" examines the extensive multi-racial social movement history of the San Francisco Bay Area. The primary assignment of the course is a student-defined research project where students, in collaboration with local activists and community partner Shaping San Francisco, carry out original research and writing to contribute to the dynamic Bay Area social history website FoundSF.