Anthropologist Richard Bauman observed that essential task for students of verbal art is to understand interplay of innovation and tradition. Focus on Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan. He began career as folksinger in an evolving singer-songwriter tradition in the 1960s. Early career was graphically but superficially represented in film A Complete Unknown, but this cinematic representation did not sort out where the influence of folksingers who preceded Dylan--Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger--ends and his own innovation and creativity begins. Other artists--such as Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary--appear as foils, or erased, to foreground Dylan's creativity. Film was also not careful in constructing historical context of civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, influence of French symbolist poetry, British Invasion, and emergence of folk-rock genre. Students read about and discuss these artists and sociopolitical context of Dylan's early career. Discussion considers Dylan's artistic evolution and his response to artistic influences and sociopolitical events.

Paul V. Kroskrity is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies. His main area of research concerns Native American languages. He studies verbal art like storytelling in these cultures and also the adaptation of these language communities to changing political economic change over time. Much of his current research in these communities concerns projects of language reclamation as they struggle to maintain and transmit their heritage languages. He is the author or editor of 10 books on language, politics, and identity. He is a Linguistic Anthropologist by training.

In book-club style, students read and discuss two of earliest Western novels: adventure-romances Callirrhoe by Chariton of Aphrodisias, and Anthea and Habrocomes by Xenophon of Ephesus. These are exciting reads: stories of erotic love, dramatic reversals, thrilling adventure, and startling coincidences. Focus on experiencing them as stories in both modern and ancient ways. Discussion topics include narrative construction, possible early audiences and their reactions, and similarities and differences between ancient novels and modern romantic fiction. Students also practice social reading, as this is primary way in which novels and other texts were experienced in pre-modern world: taking turns reading out loud and listening to others read, in friendly and welcoming environment.

Lydia Spielberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Classics. She received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She researches Roman historical writing, quotation and the representation of speech in narrative, and ancient rhetoric and rhetorical education. Her publications include; "Language, Stasis and the Role of the Historian in Thucydides, Sallust, and Tacitus (2017); "Fairy Tales and Hard Truths in Tacitus' Histories 4.6-10" (2019); "Caesar's Talkative Centurions" (2023).

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.

When thinking about innovation, people think about what makes humans unique species. Consideration of whether animals consumed as food or consider pests are also capable of innovation. Chickens, cows, and fish are hardly thought of as intelligent, let alone innovative. But as scientists have discovered, chickens are much more than bird brains: they can add and subtract numbers. Cows have spatial intelligence; whereas pigs have used mirrors to find hidden items. Likewise, not only can rats navigate mazes but they can also imagine places they have never visited. Such animals, as recent scientific research has been uncovering, demonstrate that their innovations are more about reflexive intelligence than about reactive instinct. Study asks what, if any, are humans' ethical obligations to innovative animals--that many of within humanities and sciences tend to treat as less worthy of respect than fellow humans. More generally, to what extent does animal innovation challenge and complicate people's long-cherished beliefs about human innovation?

Arvind Thomas is a medievalist who works on the intersection of law, literature, and the sciences in Latin, German, and English. He teaches courses in medieval law, saints' lives, and Latin. He has also been working on food studies, critical animal studies and its relevance to questions of human rights and environmentalism.

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 from these groups discuss their efforts to be innovative and entrepreneurial in ensuring 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.

Examination of poetry and fiction examples that typify the debate between aesthetics--how good writing looks and sounds, and politics--what current societal issues feature in that work. Class discussion of these issues. Includes discussion with guest creative writer and editor.

Fred D'Aguiar writes poetry, fiction and essays and teaches Creative Writing and literature class with a focus on UK literature.

Close reading of major contemporary work in speculative climate fiction, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future (2020). Heralded as one of best science-climate fiction novels of 21st century, it imagines future in which heat and climate change unevenly harm people across the globe, and so-called ministry charged with regulating climate through policy. It has been recognized for accuracy of its scientific explanations and political astuteness. Exploration of scientific, historical, literary, and symbolic meanings and messages of this influential novel. Students contemplate power of storytelling for humanity, and use this book as lens to consider local and global climate futures.

Alexandra Minna Stern is a Professor of English, History, and Society and Genetics, and the Humanities Dean in the College of Letters & Science. She earned her Ph.D., with focus on the history of science and medicine, at the University of Chicago. She has published several award winning books and over 50 articles in a wide range of journals. She often teaches in the areas of science studies and health humanities.

Many people spend sizable portion of their time simply existing. They are not thriving; they are just surviving. Or even when thriving, it is according to others' expectations. Time passes. Minutes become hours. Hours become days, then months, years, decades, and so on. We cannot stop the passage of time or dictate its duration. But we do control how that time is spent. Discussion of both challenges and ingredients to thriving. Goal is to help students maximize their time spent thriving--not according to others but according to their own internal compass. Sections of five books serve as discussion anchor points.

Reza Manesh, MD is a Professor at UCLA School of Medicine. He is a clinician at the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System. He authored the book Finding Joy in Medicine. He is co-founder of a podcast- The Clinical Problem Solvers. He is a recipient of numerous teaching awards. His passion includes teaching and coaching. Michael Ong is Professor in Residence of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. He received his M.D. from UCSD and his Ph.D. in Health Services and Policy Analysis from UCB. His research focuses on the intersection of health economics with general internal medicine

Why are animals never understood or valued as innovators?experts that turn necessity into the mother of invention? Why are plants, mushrooms or viruses not considered by us humans as expert entrepreneurs? Exploration of how multispecies collaborations have been some of most successful problem-solving units in human history. Incubated within Multispecies Futures Laboratory, study goes beyond restrictive and deeply damaging human-nonhuman and nature-culture divides to bring back value to multispecies life and its immense capacity for ethical innovation (both with and without human collaborators). Study adapts humbler approach to understanding multispecies ecocultural systems. Examination of immense yet deeply undervalued creative capacities of more-than-human multispecies life, including that of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Class meets 4-6 p.m. October 14. Two multispecies field trips take place 12-4 p.m. October 18 and 25 in greater Los Angeles area.

Professor Vetri Nathan is Associate Professor in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies. He is founder and director of the new Multispecies Futures Lab at UCLA (www.multispeciesfutureslab.org). He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and undertakes research and teaching in the Environmental Humanities, Mediterranean Studies, Digital Media Studies, Food Studies and Italian Cinema.

Late 1960s was time of great social upheaval and artistic revolution in Italy, which produced some of most radical innovations in budding idiom of U.S. and UK-launched classical rock. Progressive Rock as it came to be known--or Rock Progressivo Italiano (RPI)--pushed popular music to extreme political and aesthetic ambitions. To standard ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums it added time-warped amalgam of flute, saxophone, violin, symphony orchestra, Moog synthesizer, and Mellotron. RPI also turned music away from traditional service of love and romance to political engagement. Heated Italian 1970s decade of bullets saw country almost broken by civil war: divided between Marxist uprisings and neo-Fascist law and order. RPI changed very nature of youth music forever. Corporate recording, too, has never again been as independent, enterprising, daring, and embracing of novelty as it was in that landscape of guns and roses. Students listen to this music, and read essays about RPI and political times that surrounded it. Class meets October 16, 23, 30, November 6, 13.

Professor Thomas Harrison, half Italian and half American, is a dedicated fan of rock and jazz music in several incarnations, both international and American. An amateur musician (bass and flute), he spent his formative years in Rome, Italy. In addition to his regular UCLA course assignments in European literature and film, he has taught several Freshman Seminars on British and Italian progressive rock, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, and rock lyrics. He may, indeed, be one of the few people still around who saw both The Beatles and Hendrix perform live.

Consideration of how legal theory and practice can form backbone of great spiritual civilization--namely that of rabbinic Judaism. Students think deeply about how law develops, why law is important, and how law deals with fundamental questions of life.

Jonathan Zasloff is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law for over a quarter of a century. He received his PhD in American History from Harvard and a law degree from Yale. He is also an ordained rabbi for four years. He hopes that all this is not too much of an imbalance.

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.