Welcome Advising Colleagues!
The American Cultures (AC) Center is extremely grateful for your support of the AC curriculum. The advice you provide to students about AC helps prepare them for the exciting opportunities within this unique UC Berkeley curriculum. And in recognizing that critical role, we would like to share some information about and opportunities to assist you in advising students on the AC curriculum.
The AC Requirement: A History of Student Struggle
Unlike other requirements on campus, students organized and protested for the campus graduation requirement that would eventually become the American Cultures Requirement. After a successful campaign to divest billions from South African businesses, students fought for ways to "desegregate the campus" and "the curriculum." The result was the American Cultures requirement, a curriculum that constitutes a new approach that responds directly to the problem encountered in numerous disciplines of how better to present the diversity of American experience to the diversity of American students whom we now educate. The AC Center encourage advisors to watch our short video that discusses the history and intent of the AC Requirement and its connection to the South African Apartheid Divestment movement. Learn more
Creative Assignment Support
The Creative Discovery Fellows (CDF) program supports instructors and students to exercise their creativity in ways that challenge existing assumptions, beliefs, and power structures; that propel discovery and meaningful self-reflection; and that contribute to and strengthen Berkeley's mission as a public institution. Learn more
Spotlighting Outstanding AC Courses
The AC Center works with AC instructors in developing introductory videos about their AC Courses. Please peruse the Spotlight Videos on AC Courses to learn more about the AC courses that are offered. Please contact the AC Center for any questions about these courses. Learn more
AC Latest Updates
The American Cultures Center is always eager to share our latest events, news, and upcoming developments with faculty, staff, students, and community partners. Learn more
Empowering Students through Community Engaged Scholarship
American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) courses also offer students and faculty the opportunity to work with community organizations to develop cutting edge research projects associated with some of the challenges pressing society. Please visit our ACES Student Projects page to learn about some of the powerful projects growing from the collaborative understanding and effort developed in UC Berkeley's ACES courses. Learn more
Fall 2025 Update on the AC Requirement
In October 2025, the American Cultures Center staff presented to the advising team(link is external) in the College of Letters and Sciences about the American Cultures Requirement. The presentation included background on the AC requirement, data findings on the AC curriculum, updates about new and existing projects, and group discussion about how advisors can best support students in navigating American Cultures. Learn more
American Cultures Advancing Practice
Over thirty years ago, Professor Bill Simmons(link is external), 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 question still holds significance and is increasingly the subject of intense debate, from city hall and 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? The AC Center staff and campus partners 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.” Learn more
Environmental Justice Initiative
A collaborative partnership with the American Cultures Center and the Student Environmental Resource Center’s Decolonial Environmental Network (DEN), the Environmental Justice Initiative intends to create space on campus for collective learning, research, and mobilization around anti-colonial environmental education. We welcome students, faculty, and staff to join the advisory board and task forces in order to help contribute to initiatives that will institutionalize this critical work. Learn more
Staff Support Workshops
The Teaching and Working in Troubled Times series (formerly 'Teaching in Troubled Times') began in 2017 as a series of timely dialogues elevating some of the most pressing social and political questions that enter our lives and our classrooms. The series has fermented vibrant discussion and delivered ‘on-the-ground’ tools to support our students’ complex lives. From what to do if ICE comes to the classroom to knowing our rights in uncertain times, this series offers practical, invaluable resources for faculty and staff alike to delve into the complications and opportunities their knowledge of student life at Berkeley brings. Learn more
Staff Professional Development
The Staff as Students of Social Justice (SSSJ) Program is an important expression of the campus’s commitment to staff’s intellectual and professional development, especially around issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice. Now continuing its sixth year, this program is 10-weeks long in the Fall and Spring semesters, offering a weekly seminar over Zoom, titled “Material Anti-Racisms,” led by the SSSJ Program Director of Pedagogy, David Maldonado. This seminar provides a deep study of abolitionism and higher education, incorporating content from the previous SSSJ lecture series “Aspirations of Material Anti-Racism: What’s Next.” Learn more