Recorded Events

Events recorded and uploaded to our Youtube channel for your streaming convenience.

Teaching in Summer Workshop Series

Every year we host workshops that focus on some of the best approaches to teaching an intensive six- or ten-week summer course at UC Berkeley. Among the topics discussed include strategies for managing extended summer class time, what to expect from summer student enrollment, the specifics of the American Cultures curriculum requirement, and teaching to issues of racial and economic justice in diverse classrooms.

Long Arc of Freedom Struggles

Event Description

On March 8, 2023 the American Cultures Center and the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley hosted the first event in the Staff as Students of Social Justice (SSSJ) public discussion series, “Aspirations of Material Anti-Racism: What’s Next?”

The Long Arc of Freedom Struggles is a discussion of Dan Berger’s latest publication,...

The University, Abolition, and Decolonial Theory and Praxis

Event Description

On March 13, 2023, the American Cultures Center and the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley hosted this discussion focusing on the University as a site of contestation and contradiction. Starting from its settler colonial origins and logics, the speakers engage what it means to participate in decolonial and abolitionist work at the site of the university. What are its repressive logics and histories? How might we find cracks in its structure to organize?

The event was part of the Staff as Students of Social...

The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading

Event Description

Building on the groundwork of the Antiracism Winter Institute, the CDF Program co-sponsored and co-facilitated a follow-up seminar in late April centered on contract grading. The two-day workshop, The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading, invited participants to explore two models of contract grading, Specifications Grading and Labor-based Contract Grading. On the first day, participants engaged in current research that explores how traditional grading methods structure...

Ethnic Studies from K-12: A Teaching Conversation

Event Description

In March 2021, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 101, adding an Ethnic Studies graduation requirement for all California high school students graduating during the 2029-2030 school year; it also states that high schools must start offering approved Ethnic Studies courses beginning in 2025-2026. The American Cultures Center, along with several other units and academic departments, is developing a campus-wide initiative to support high school teachers and districts in meeting the requirement rollout.

On November 14, 2022, the...

AC Anniversaries

About

The American Cultures Center celebrates its milestones by recognizing its accomplishments. Please click on the images below to learn more about the origins of the American Cultures curriculum, our leaders, achievements, and lessons learned that can be applied to higher education. Please review the videos of our different filmed anniversary events.

Curriculum Snapshot

American Cultures 30th Anniversary

Antiracism Pedagogy & Equity-Based Learning Winter Institute

Event Description

Since 2018, the CDF program has supported instructors in developing creative design assignments, assignments that are intentionally built to support faculty and students in ways that are adaptive, equity-oriented, and foster antiracism. In the CDF Winter Institute participants developed actionable strategies that build antiracist and equity-based education.

In conversation with CDF faculty, staff, and students, the Winter Institute discussed how within the current condition of remote instruction and the devastating effects of the...

2022 Student Prize Recipients

About

Since 2008, the American Cultures Student Prize has recognized and celebrated undergraduate achievements within American Cultures courses. The prize is awarded annually to undergraduates for projects they develop in an American Cultures course that promotes understanding of U.S. race, ethnicity, and culture and exemplifies a standard of excellence in scholarship. Prior award-winning submissions have included essays, poetry, films, reflection statements on live performances, among other work produced for American Cultures courses.