Exploration of Greco-Roman myths about Amazons: fierce female warriors from classical antiquity; renowned for their strength, their skill in combat, and their sexual allure. Exploration of cultural afterlives of these horsewomen into present. Students look at representations of Amazons in literature and art to explore various themes, including but not limited to otherness, female power, gender relations, queer identities, social boundaries and transgressive behavior, nature versus civilization, and order versus chaos. Study pairs short readings (ancient or contemporary) with artistic representations, so students develop skills in literary and visual interpretation and critical analysis. Discussion focused on contextualizing Amazon myths in time and space; understanding how these stories shape and reflect cultural values and beliefs; and building skills in oral speaking, conversation, and collaboration.

Sarah Beckmann is an Assistant Professor in the Classics department and the interdepartmental program in Archaeology. Her research interests include Roman domestic space and decoration, and the social history of subaltern groups (women, children, and enslaved persons). She has published recently in the American Journal of Archaeology (2020; 2023) and the Art Bulletin (2022). In addition to other projects under development (her first monographs), she is preparing an essay on Amazons in ancient art for an exhibition on equestrian women and fashion at the Musée de la mode et du costume in Arles.

Introduction to history of UCLA through weekly walking tours that look closely at and teach about architecture of Westwood campus. Each meeting takes place at different site or building that tells its own story. Class begins at Founders Rock (northeast corner of Murphy Hall), where students learn about original campus on Vermont Avenue and move to Westwood. Students learn of university architects, brothers James and David Allison and George Kelham, and their bold ambitions for new campus. Campus building names remember early professors and department chairs, forward-thinking administrators, and prominent alumni such as Ralph J. Bunche (first African American recipient of Nobel Peace Prize). Survey and consideration of functional design and art decoration of these buildings. When understood in its historical context, architecture can inform students about ideologies and values of its contemporary time.

Robert Gurval is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics. He was Chair of the Department for six years (2000-05; 2013-14). He is most proud of his university service as Director of the Mellon Program in Post-Classical Latin (2014-17); Chair of the GE Governance Committee (2007-10); Chair of College Honors Faculty Advisory Committee (2009-10; 2011-13); and Chair of Undergraduate Student Support, Honors, & Prizes (1999-2002). His major publication is Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War (University of Michigan, 1996). His interests include Latin litera

Exploration of imaginary and real women warriors from ancient Greek Amazons to modern American figures--such as Wonder Woman, G.I. Jane, and soldiers in U.S. armed forces. Goal is to understand how culturally specific gender expectations and hierarchies within Euro-American tradition have shaped how storytellers (poets, artists, movie-makers, and politicians) imagine motives, actions, and appearance of women who perform (traditionally male) role of military warrior.

Katherine King is Emerita Professor of Comparative Literature and Classics. She received her PhD from Princeton University. Her interests are the classical tradition from Homer through medieval and modern European and American cultures, gender studies, and post-colonial studies. She has published ACHILLES: PARADIGMS OF THE WAR HERO (U.C. Press 1991), HOMER (Garland Reference Library 1994), ANCIENT EPIC (Wiley-Blackwell 2009) as well as articles on Greek tragedy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Marguerite Yourcenar, and Ahdaf Soueif. She has also translated poetry by Sappho and Gina Valdes.

Purpose is to appreciate value of eyewitness testimony of Holocaust. Students have unique opportunity to work with, interview, and learn from Holocaust survivors. Students conduct oral histories with survivors, considering ethics of listening to first-person testimony in service of memory. Students meet in small groups to discuss testimony. Study offers personal framework for approaching larger history of Holocaust. Offered in collaboration with Hillel at UCLA Bearing Witness project, Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and Jewish Family Service LA.

Todd Presner is Professor and Chair of UCLA's Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies. Previously, he was the chair of UCLA's Digital Humanities Program (2011-21), and from 2011-2018, he served as the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. His recent book is: Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Humanities and Holocaust Memory (Princeton University Press, 2024).

Study promotes learning and preservation of Cantonese language through Cantonese opera The Ballad of Mulan and popular songs. It reveals impact of Cantonese culture on Chinese poetry, American history, and literature. Students learn Cantonese by studying this opera; watching performances of Cantonese opera excerpts (Purple Hairpin Pickup from Purple Hairpin Saga and Fragrant Sacrifice from The Flower Princess); and reading Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976 National Book Critics Circle Award winner), which resounds to Cantonese cadence and idioms. Cantonese Opera is a UNESCO Immaterial Heritage of Humanity. Work to preserve Cantonese language has engaged nonprofit community partners such as Asian Pacific Community Fund, Save Cantonese Organization, Perfect Harmony Cultural Exchange Association, Chinese New Life Women's Club, Southern California Cantonese Association, and Lion's Club. Guests including U.S. Representative Judy Chu, Assemblyman Mike Fong, Polly Low, and Anthony Wong, discuss their efforts to ensure its survival.

King-Kok Cheung is UCLA Research Professor of English, Professor Emeritus of English and Asian American Studies, and Special Advisor of the US-China Education Trust. She is author of Articulate Silences and Chinese American Literature without Borders (both monographs have been published in Chinese), An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature, Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, and co-editor of The Heath Anthology of American Literature, and the 2023 recipient of the Association of Asian American Studies Lifetime Career Achievement Award.

Cyberpunk is subgenre of science fiction from 1980s and 90s that explores themes of technological advancement and societal destruction. As author Bruce Sterling writes, "For the cyberpunks, ... technology is visceral. It is ... pervasive, utterly intimate. Not outside us, but next to us. Under our skin; often, inside our minds." Students view iconic 1982 film Blade Runner with score performed live at Dolby Theatre. Students also tour Academy Museum of Motion Pictures exhibition Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures Through Cinema, and examine connections and disruptions between cyberpunk, futurisms, and contemporary technology. Students produce digital materials on class themes, building practical and analytical skills as part of their own contribution to cyberpunk legacies. Class meets January 7, February 18 from 3:30 to 5:45 p.m., March 4 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Off-campus meetings take place January 21 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., February 4 from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m. Admission to offsite events included at no charge.

Seminar is co-taught. Prof Julia Powles, UCLA School of Law and Samueli School of Engineering, Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, received her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Cambridge and researches digital privacy, intellectual property, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence. Prof Noopur Raval, UCLA Information Studies, received her Ph.D. in Informatics from UC Irvine and researches histories of technology, digital infrastructures, and hi- and low-tech workers and AI in education, creative fields, and platform work.

Students work collaboratively to design and build real-life escape room. Class partners with Olympic Hall makerspace, and other designers, to take narrative storyline driven by participants' emotional arc and realize it as engaging user-centered experience. Exploration of role of human senses in driving emotional responses, and development of physical activities and artifacts to authentically evoke those feelings. Students learn and apply methods for brainstorming, design iteration, prototyping, rapid manufacturing, and robust design-for-failure. Class results are integrated into immersive interactive experience open to visitors. Class meets January 29, February 5, 12, 19, 26.

Prof. Mehta has been solving puzzles for as long as he can rememeber, participating in interactive and immersive puzzly events since before escape rooms were thing, and creating such events for at least the past15 years. He designs and builds things in real life just for fun, even though (and especially when) not everything works out as planned.

Robert Penn Warren's best-known work, All the King's Men (1946), is one of greatest novels ever written by American; and greatest American novel with political setting. Thrilling story is narrated in a lively and down-to-earth style; and has many twists and turns, with fascinating primary and secondary characters. It touches on many deep themes including questions of ethics and effectiveness in politics, love and friendship, and personal responsibility. Reading and discussion of one chapter per week. Recommended that students read entire novel in advance.

Prof. Lowenstein attended Yale College and Harvard Law School. He served in state government as Deputy Secretary of State under Jerry Brown and then as first chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission. He became a UCLA law professor in 1979 and specialized in election law. He wrote the first and still one of the leading election law textbooks. He has published articles on many aspects of election law. He also taught a seminar on "Law and Literature." In 2009 he became Director of the UCLA Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (CLAFI).

UCLA has been stopping point for some of most significant musical creators of our time. Great composers of Broadway, classical, EDM, film, jazz, pop, rock, and video game music have either attended UCLA as students, taught master classes and courses, or performed on campus. Students sample and explore some of this great music.

Born in 1956, American composer Ian Krouse has been hailed in Gramophone as "one of the most communicative and intriguing young composers on the music scene today." Soundboard described his music as "absorbing, brutal, beautiful, and harsh, all at the same time." He is widely known for his pioneering efforts in the development of the guitar quartet, of which he has composed eleven to date, most of which are now featured regularly in the touring repertories of the leading groups of our time. His most notable achievement to date is the creation and premiere of the epic Armenian Requiem.

Examination of how explicit and structural racism has shaped U.S. housing policy, finance, and residential markets from early 20th century to present. Study traces historical development of racialized housing systems including redlining; restrictive covenants; urban renewal; predatory lending; and contemporary forms of exclusion embedded in zoning, credit scoring, and landlord technologies. Through interdisciplinary readings, data analysis, and case studies, exploration of how race, capital, and state power intersect to produce enduring patterns of segregation, displacement, and inequitable access to home ownership and wealth. Study focused on policy solutions, community resistance, and frameworks for housing justice. Class meets January 6, 20, February 3, 17, and March 3.

José Loya, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. His research examines housing inequality, mortgage lending, and the role of race, credit, and financial institutions in shaping access to homeownership in the United States. Using large-scale administrative datasets such as HMDA, ACS, and AHS, his work employs quantitative methods to analyze disparities in mortgage markets, refinancing outcomes, and residential wealth accumulation. Dr. Loya's scholarship has been published in leading journals across urban studies, and housing policy.