Inspired by power of words to unite and divide, as well as to conquer and liberate, exploration of interrelationship of language, identity, and power in post-communist European countries. Team-taught by Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures department language instructors. Study based primarily on discussion of assigned readings and multimedia materials. Class meets April 1, 15, 29, May 13, 27.

Vadim Shneyder is an associate Professor of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His research interests include nineteenth-century Russian literature, the history of concepts, the theory of the novel, and continental philosophy.

Exploration of Cantonese culture's impact on Chinese poetry, American history and literature, and world heritage. Students learn (or brush up on) Cantonese by studying two Tang poems (by Li Bai and Meng Haoran) and The Ballad of Mulan; listening to some rap lyrics; and watching two Cantonese opera excerpts (Purple Hairpin Pickup from Purple Hairpin Saga, and Fragrant Sacrifice from The Flower Princess). Students also read excerpts from two awarding-winning memoirs: Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976 National Book Critics Circle award winner and 1978 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner), and Fae Myenne Ng's Orphan Bachelors (2024 California Book Award gold medal winner for nonfiction and 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing administered by Stanford University). Powerful prose of these two memoirs resound to Cantonese cadence and idioms. Class meets April 3, 17, May 1, 15, 29.

King-Kok Cheung is a UCLA research professor of English. She is honored in 2023 with a lifetime achievement award from the Association for Asian American Studies. She writes: "My sinuous life as an omnivorous humanist traversing disciplinary, periodic, geographical and national borders has allowed me to live and connect many lives. Though I was born accidentally as a left-handed black sheep, I was made bilingual, bicultural and cosmopolitan in colonial Hong Kong,

Exploration of diverse approaches to dialogue and bridge building. Each class session focuses on different tools, strategies, approaches, and challenges necessary to meeting declared goals. Each session also features guest, with real-life experience, who gives students a taste of that framework, approach, or skill. Students also have opportunity to practice skill discussed. Students make presentation that encapsulates their approach to dialogue and bridge building. Class meets April 2, 16, May 7, 21, June 4.

David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA, where he serves as the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He also directs the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, and the UCLA Dialogue across Difference Initiative. He is the author or editor of many books in the field of Jewish history.

Happiness: what ideas does this word conjure up? These very ideas often limit one's ability to experience them. Study designed to expand understanding of what counts as happiness. It is a skill that can be cultivated through mindfulness and compassion. Mindfulness focuses on surprisingly transformative power of undervalued resource: attention. By developing attention, one can change experience and perceptions of world and self. But attention needs to come from spirit of kindness and compassion for self and others. Study emphasizes experiential learning of mindfulness coupled with compassion practices, directed towards self and others. Students develop daily practice, both on cushion and in everyday life. Students meditate, write about this experience on class bulletin board, and write two short essays.

Professor Melzer has practiced mindful awareness for 20 years and is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher with Unified Mindfulness. She is particularly interested in how mindfulness and compassion practices can be applied to everyday life and enhance learning in all disciplines.

Study of do-it-yourself (DIY) punk music as creative and inclusive process. Students have immersive experience of DIY punk production--significant component of Los Angeles historical and ongoing underground artistic foundation. Study based on Adobe Punk: a Punk Rehearsal in Real Time, stage work that centers 1980s Los Angeles DIY punk through Latinx, feminist, and decolonial lineages. Students attend live performance followed by question-and-answer session with theater crew. Students analyze idea of punk rehearsal in terms of how DIY community formation is means of creativity and punk communication, which requires interpersonal and cross-cultural listening and reading practices. Students work in small groups to design their own DIY punk production. Class meets April 3, 17, 24; performance field trip April 10, 6-11 p.m.

Jessica Schwartz is an associate professor in musicology at UCLA. Schwartz is the author of Radiation Sounds: Marshallese Music and Nuclear Silences (Duke University Press, 2021), is the co-founder/Academic Advisor of the Marshallese Educational Initiative, hosts the Punkast Series and Punk Scholars Podcast (podcast shows),and plays in noise/punk bands. As a disability scholar, Schwartz interrogates institutional, intersectional ableism and workshops radical accessibility in and beyond the classroom in courses such as "DIY: Punk Organizing as Social Justice."

Austrian-born Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was one of foremost 20th-century creators of modern music. Schoenberg converted to Christianity to study music, but later returned to Judaism. He came to U.S. in 1933; two years later he moved to Los Angeles, and was appointed to UCLA faculty. UCLA music building and auditorium are named after him. Exploration of Schoenberg's life in Los Angeles as emigré Jewish composer through new opera titled Schoenberg in Hollywood. This opera explorers Schoenberg's life, and features his experiences in Los Angeles that focus on his Jewish identity. Students attend performance at Nimoy Theater on date selected from May 18, 20, or 22. Performers and creative artists from this production visit class to share their experiences. Study offers unique opportunity to learn about world of this famous composer.

Mark Kligman, Professor Ethnomusicology, Musicology and Humanities in UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He specilizes in Jewish Music and directs the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience. Joy H. Calico is a Musicologist and Chair of the Department of Musicology, her research focuses on Cold War politics and opera since 1900.

As young adult novel category continues to grow in popularity, it is also gradually diversifying with more books by authors of color; and that feature characters who represent wide range of cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. This diversification now includes Southeast Asian American characters and their families. Reading and discussion of such books about these characters who travel to this region and uncover family secrets, engage with their culture, and learn about themselves. Discussion focused on family relationships and pasts, and coming of age, for characters coming to understand their Southeast Asian and American identities. Instructor--UCLA Library Southeast Asia librarian--is joined by young adult literature specialist Jade Alburo. Also features online visits with authors of books being discussed. Students write reaction essay for each book read.

George Dutton is a professor of Vietnamese history and Southeast Asian studies at UCLA. He is the editor of a Southeast Asian literary anthology and regularly teaches an intro course on modern Southeast Asian literature. He also teaches a seminar on Singaporean and Malaysian literature. He is an avid YA book reader with a particular interest in titles by BIPOC and queer authors. Jade Alburo is UCLA's librarian for Southeast Asian Studies. She loves YA books and has been on the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature YA committee several times.