• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Communication
• Instructor: Daniel Linz
• Instructor Email: linz@comm.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Thursday 2:00-3:50 in ELLSN 2816
• Enroll Code: 54544

Course Description:  This course will require students to observe attorneys in the courtroom, at trial, in the Santa Barbara courthouse. The students may choose to focus on a number of topics relevant to effective communication. This may include making effective opening statements, visual presentation of evidence, interviewing witnesses on the stand and increasing jury persuasion. The course instructor will facilitate meetings and discussions with attorneys and the judge participating in the trial. This course may be especially useful for students considering a career in the legal system.

Bio:  Professor Linz’s research and teaching involves empirically testing the social psychological assumptions made by the law and legal actors in the area of communication. This research spans the topics of First Amendment and freedom of speech and censorship, forensic communication, sexual violence, media violence, pornography, sex-oriented entertainment in the community, communication and race, and transgender rights and law.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Spanish and Portuguese
• Instructor: Juan Pablo Lupi
• Instructor Email: juan.lupi@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 9:00-10:50 in HSSB 1227
• Enroll Code: 54775

Course Description:  An exploration of cinema and revolutionary movements in Latin America. We will study a selection of films belonging to different genres (drama, comedy, documentary, experimental film), countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Mexico) and historical periods (1910s - present) and analyze how cinema has been mobilized as a medium for militancy, propaganda and critique. We will also inquire into the legacy of revolutionary projects of the past century, what they mean in the present and what lessons can the US learn from Latin American history and politics today.

Bio:  Prof. Juan Pablo Lupi teaches courses on Latin American culture, literature and film. His areas of research include literature and science, political theory, history of ideas, theories of media and technology, poetry and poetics, and Venezuelan Studies.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: College of Creative Studies or Writing Program
• Instructor: Kara Mae Brown
• Instructor Email: kmbrown@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room:  Thursday 3:00-4:50 in HSSB 1210
• Enroll Code: 54791

Course Description:  Deep mapping is a literary technique used by travel and environmental writers to create a multilayered portrait of a place, including not only a description of the place, but also its natural and cultural history, as well as the writer's personal experience with and in that place. In this seminar, we will read excerpts from the foundational deep map in literature, William Least Heat-Moon's "Prairyerth," as well as examples by other contemporary authors. Mostly, we we work on writing our own deep maps, first by visiting sites in and around UCSB campus and then by creating multimodal representations of those places using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Students will leave this seminar with an understanding of the literature, theory, and practice of deep mapping, as well as a closer relationship with the UCSB campus and its environs.

Bio:  I am an Associate Teaching Professor in the College of Creative Studies and the Writing Program. I teach many different kinds of writing, including academic writing, creative writing, and writing for the web. Most recently, I've been obsessed with writing about nature and place. No matter what I’m teaching, I’m interested in creating equitable, inclusive, and just learning environments and curricula, whether online or in-person. Of course, I also practice what I teach: I write short fiction and nonfiction and am currently working on a memoir about grief and the nature of time.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Spanish and Portuguese
• Instructor: Silvia Bermúdez
• Instructor Email: bermudez@spanport.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 4:00-5:50 in HSSB 1207
• Enroll Code: 59949

Course Description:  
What is Love?: 20th and 21st Century Poetry and Popular Music in the Spanish-Speaking World
This seminar provides a detailed exploration of poetry and music in Spanish, emphasizing their significance in understanding Love and Desire in Spain and Latin America over the past two centuries. Interacting with several Nobel laureates in Literature and musical genres such as boleros, rancheras, and revenge songs will enhance your appreciation for these cultural expressions. 

Bio:  Silvia Bermúdez is Professor of literature and Iberian Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Her current scholarship focuses on Iberian feminisms, Latin American music, and the work of Galician women photographers.

She teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spanish literary and cultural history, popular music studies, feminist studies, and poetic discourses.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Black Studies
• Instructor: Roberto Strongman
• Instructor Email: rstrongman@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Monday 2:00-3:50 in Rob Gym 1410
• Enroll Code: 25528

Course Description:  Yoga is a Sanskrit term that can be best translated as "Integration." The course aims to develop an integral understanding of the history of yogic knowledges with roots in South Asia, creolization with XIX Century European body culture during the era of British imperialism, and a capitalist and often culturally-appropriative global spread in the late XX Century and beyond. This historical and philosophical material will be "yoked" (a cognate of "yoga") with a physical asana practice: the class will be organized in weekly two-hour sessions, with the first hour devoted to lecture, presentation, discussion and journal writing and the second hour to a physical postural and breathing practice thematically wedded to the readings. As such, the deeper, even metaphysical, goal of the course will be to bring "union" to the budding scholar, fomenting a balanced, equanimous and holistic body-mind.

Bio:  Ph.D. Literature (UCSD 2003). I am a scholar of embodiment, specializing in trance states. My latest book "Queering Black Atlantic Religions" (Duke UP, 2019) speaks to my interest in fomenting an awareness of the unity within the body-mind construct, the goal of "yoga." In addition to my academic credentials, I am also a health care provider certified by the state of California, a massage therapist through the California Massage Therapy Council and an experienced registered yoga instructor at the 500-hour level (E-RYT 500, the highest recognizable credential in the field) through the Yoga Alliance.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Earth Science
• Instructor: Alexander Simms
• Instructor Email: asimms@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Thursday 4:00-4:50 in ELLSN 2816 *This seminar has a weekend field trip
• Enroll Code: 54783

Course Description:  This seminar will discuss the geology of the California Coast.  We will discuss topics including tectonics, geomorphology, and sea-level changes.  The focus of the course will be an overnight camping trip along the central California Coast. 

Bio:  Alex Simms grew up in eastern Oklahoma and after earning a BS in Geology at Oklahoma State University, pursued a PhD at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His PhD work focused on the depositional systems and Quaternary history of the Texas Gulf Coast. After a stint as an assistant professor at his alma matter in Stillwater, Oklahoma, he moved to the University of California Santa Barbara where he is a Professor of Earth science today. Alex’s research focuses on the processes that shape and the Quaternary history of shallow marine settings with a particular emphasis on reconstructing past records of sea-level change. He has conducted field work on coastlines across the globe including Antarctica, Texas, California, and recently the UK. Although he is most comfortable describing shallow marine sediment cores, he occasionally enjoys looking at real rocks too.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Maryam Majedi
• Instructor Email: majedi@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Monday 4:00-5:50 in GIRV 2123
• Enroll Code: 25544

Course Description:  In an era where technological advancements are occurring at an unprecedented rate, the course Ethical Tech: Navigating the “Should” in Innovation offers a crucial perspective on the intersection of ethics and technology. This seminar invites students to embark on a thought-provoking journey, exploring not just the limitless possibilities of what they can create with technology, but more importantly, reflecting on whether they should create them.

Throughout this course, students will engage with fundamental ethical theories and principles, applying them to real-world scenarios and emerging technological trends. The seminars will foster critical thinking and ethical reasoning, encouraging students to contemplate the broader implications of technology on society, the environment, and future generations.

Possible topics include:
The Role of Ethics in Technology Development
Balancing Innovation with Moral Responsibility
Privacy, Security, and Ethical Dilemmas in the Digital Age
AI and Data Privacy: Where Should We Draw the Line?

Through a combination of interactive discussions, case studies, and presentations, students will gain insights into how ethical considerations can and should influence technological innovation. They will learn to identify potential ethical issues and develop strategies to address them, ensuring that the technology they create contributes positively to society.

Bio:  Dr. Maryam Majedi joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as an Assistant Teaching Professor in 2023. She completed a teaching stream postdoc at the University of Toronto, where she worked with the Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) team and introduced the first ethics modules for CS courses in Canada. Dr. Majedi earned her Ph.D. in data privacy at the University of Calgary. Her Ph.D. work presents a novel privacy policy modeling technique. Prior to her Ph.D., she earned a Master of Science degree in High-Performance Scientific Computing from the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Majedi also completed a fellowship in Medical Innovation at Western University. 

Dr. Majedi's research primarily revolves around Embedded Ethics and Data Privacy. She explores the intersection of computer science and ethical considerations, aiming to develop modules that facilitate the integration of ethics and data privacy principles into computer science education.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Political Science
• Instructor: Clayton Nall
• Instructor Email: nall@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Friday 12:00-1:50 in HSSB 1207
• Enroll Code: 25569

Course Description:  This course delves into the politics of housing in California, with a focus on the state's unique challenges related to housing shortages and high prices. Through a political economy lens, we'll explore how institutions shape housing markets and create special interests. Weekly readings will cover topics such as why cities restrict housing development to benefit homeowners, why single-family homes receive tax benefits, and why effective housing reforms are unpopular.

We’ll address the following questions in our weekly reading discussions:

•             How does the politics of housing differ from other issues?

•             Why do cities restrict housing development, usually to the benefit of homeowners who control local land-use regulation?

•             Why do single-family homeowners receive so many tax benefits, especially in California?

•             Why are necessary reforms for affordable housing so unpopular while ineffective policies get bipartisan support?

Class members will contribute to a collective project related to Professor Nall’s research.

Bio:  My research seeks to explain how policies that change geographic space change American politics, and my broader research interests encompass American political development, public policy, political geography, and political methodology. My book, The Road to Inequality: How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities (Cambridge University Press, 2018) uses a range of new data sources constructed from public archives and databases to examine how the largest public works project in U.S. history created Republican suburbs, increased the urban-suburban political divide, and worsened spatial inequality in the nation's metro areas.

I am currently pursuing research broadly addressing the politics of housing, examining how voters understand housing markets and how their economic self-interest in local politics interacts with ideologies forged in national politics.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: David Lawson
• Instructor Email: dlawson@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Wednesday 3:00-4:50 in HSSB 1016
• Enroll Code: 54809

Course Description:  What factors make some people more likely to support gender equality than others? In this course, you will work with members of the Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab in the Department of Anthropology to research this question. As a group, we will review the background literature and conduct a novel investigation, drawing on data from rural Tanzania and on campus. This course will be relevant for those interested in anthropology, sociology, gender studies and research design.

Bio:  I am an evolutionary and cultural anthropologist interested in family life, gender and global health. I direct the Applied Evolutionary Anthropology Lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Our research aims to better understand conflicts and trade-offs in family relationships and life history transitions, and in turn inform related public/global health practice. To do this we conduct mixed-methods field research, mostly in Tanzania, online surveys and secondary analyses of demographic datasets.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Spanish and Portuguese
• Instructor: Jorge Omar Ramírez Pimienta (Omar Pimeinta)
• Instructor Email: omarpimienta@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Wednesday 2:00-3:50 in HSSB 1206
• Enroll Code: 56325

Course Description:  This seminar offers students the opportunity to explore creative writing in Spanish as both an expressive and critical practice. Through reading and composing in multiple genres—including poetry, short fiction, personal essay, and hybrid forms—students will engage with language as a tool for constructing voice, place, and meaning. Emphasis will be placed on the development of an individual style while reflecting on the cultural, linguistic, and political dimensions of writing in Spanish within a multilingual and transnational context.

The course blends writing workshops with close readings of contemporary texts from across the Spanish-speaking world. Students will participate in generative exercises, peer critiques, and discussions on craft and literary technique. Themes may include memory, identity, displacement, the body, and experimental form.

All coursework, including readings and written assignments, will be conducted in Spanish. This seminar is open to heritage speakers, advanced learners, and students committed to developing their creative voice in Spanish. Prior experience in creative writing is not required, but active engagement with the writing process and a willingness to revise are essential.

Bio:  Omar Pimienta (Jorge Omar Ramírez Pimienta) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCSB, where he teaches Transborder Cultural Production and Creative Writing. His current scholarship centers on the Transcalifornian creative production as examples of how cultural citizenship could be exercised from a state of transborder existence and the marginality that this mobile spatial ontology entails. He has published four books of poetry: El Álbum de las Rejas (Ediciones Liliputienses. Cáceres, España, 2016, translated and reedited as Album of fences, Cardboard House Press. Phoenix, Arizona U.S. 2018); Escribo desde aquí (Pre-Textos. Málaga, Spain, 2010, reedited by Qeja, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2020); La Libertad: Ciudad de paso (CECUT, México. 2006, reedited by Aullido libros, Huelva, Spain. 2008) Primera Persona: Ella (Anortecer, México. 2004, reedited by Littera libros, Cáceres, España. 2009); and a compilation of short stories Té. (RIL Editores Barcelona-Santiago, España-Chile. 2019).  His work as a visual artist was awarded an Art Matters Grant in 2017,  it has been shown at the MDE11 Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Medellín 2011; the 3ème Biennale Internationale de l'Art Contemporain de Casablanca Maroc; the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, 2017-18; the 5th Transborder Biennial in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez; and the 2023 Mexicali Biennial. From 2019 to 2022 he was a Member of the Mexican Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte in the Area of Poetry, and in 2022 a Poetry tutor for that year’s cohort of young fellows of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA).

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Anthropology
• Instructor: Amber VanDerwarker
• Instructor Email: vanderwarker@anth.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Friday 12:00-1:50 in HSSB 1206
• Enroll Code: 56374

Course Description:  The public’s enduring interest in archaeology means that the discipline has interfaced with the media since the advent of mass media. The seminar explores the ways in which archaeology and its practitioners have been represented by various media outlets through time and in reference to major political and cultural events. For example, Nazi archaeology during WWII has been the topic of several Indiana Jones’ movies – in this seminar, we will explore how Nazi Germany used archaeology to underpin their political narrative while juxtaposing Spielberg’s fictionalized representation. We will also explore the tension between archaeologists as experts and media representations of their ideas and work, taking a critical lens to different television programs presented as non-fiction to general audiences. The course will involve weekly scholarly readings, in addition to watching & reading media from popular culture sources.  Class meetings will be oriented around structured discussions based on the daily topic.

Bio:  I received my PhD in 2003 from UNC-Chapel Hill, and I have been teaching at UCSB since 2007. My research encompasses a variety of methods, regions, and themes that revolve around the relationship between humans and food in the New World. Methods that I employ include archaeobotany and zooarchaeology. My lab is set up for the analysis of macro plant remains, starch grains, phytoliths, and faunal remains. I focus my research in Mesoamerica and the Eastern United States, but I also train students working in California and South America.  Some themes of my research encompass the development of socio-political complexity, agricultural intensification, social identity and feasting, gender, the effects of warfare on the food quest, and exploratory data analysis.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Spanish and Portuguese
• Instructor: Silvia Bermúdez
• Instructor Email: bermudez@spanport.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 2:00-3:50 in HSSB 1210
• Enroll Code: 56366

Course Description:  Our Honors Seminar offers a unique exploration of a lesser-known aspect of Spanish art and culture: the significant contributions of women artists. Within their historical, political, and artistic contexts, we will delve into the imaginative work of well-recognized personalities such as María Blanchard (1881-1932), Maruja Mallo (1902-1995), Remedios Varo (1908-1963), Roser Bru (1923-2021), Lucinda Urrusti (1929-2023), Marta Palau (1934-2022), Sofía Gandarias (1957-2016), and a Mar Caldas (1964).

Bio:   Silvia Bermúdez is Professor of literature and Iberian Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her current scholarship focuses on Iberian feminisms, popular music studies, and the work of Galician women photographers.
She teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spanish and Galician literary and cultural production, as well as feminist studies.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Geography
• Instructor: Leila Carvalho
• Instructor Email: leila@eri.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 1:00-2:50 in HSSB 1227
• Enroll Code: 60152

Course Description:  This seminar explores the key processes related to wildfires in California, divided into two comprehensive parts.

Part 1 delves into the physical aspects of wildfires and fire behavior, examining common fire weather conditions and the wind systems linked to California's most destructive wildfires. Students will learn about phenomena such as fire tornadoes and pyrocumulus clouds, their significance in fire behavior, methods for fire detection, and fire behavior forecasting models.

Part 2 focuses on strategies for mitigating wildfire-related issues, providing students with practical measures to address and reduce the impact of wildfires.

Bio:  Bio: Leila Carvalho is a Professor in the Department of Geography UCSB. She has  B.S., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Meteorology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her research interests are in climate variability and change in monsoon regions, tropical-extratropical interactions, extreme precipitation and temperature, mountain weather and climate, wildfires and regional modeling. One focus of her research interest is downslope windstorms in Southern California (as, for example, Sundowners and Santa Ana winds), circulation and precipitation in mountain regions, and atmospheric rivers

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Spanish and Portuguese
• Instructor: Silvia Bermúdez
• Instructor Email: bermudez@spanport.ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 2:00-3:50 in HSSB 1224
• Enroll Code: 60145

Course Description:  The course examines some of the most famous 20th- and 21st-century Latin American women pioneers—composers and singers—within the musical traditions of boleros, salsa, Mariachi, Tejano music, and contemporary pop. We’ll investigate how these individual women, with each week focusing on two artists, through their performances, established their status as musical stars, some of whom became globally recognized, by embodying an iconic identity. We aim to comprehend the profound cultural impact and extensive influence of these performers within the social, political, and cultural contexts that have shaped Latin American music.

Bio:  Silvia Bermúdez is Professor of literature and Iberian Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her current scholarship focuses on Iberian feminisms, Latin American music, and the work of Galician women photographers..

She teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spanish literary and cultural history, popular music studies, feminist studies, and poetic discourses.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: College of Creative Studies or Writing Program
• Instructor: Kara Mae Brown
• Instructor Email: kmbrown@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 1:00-2:50 in HSSB 1233
• Enroll Code: 62091

Course Description:  Deep mapping is a literary technique used by travel and environmental writers to create a multilayered portrait of a place, including not only a description of the place, but also its natural and cultural history, as well as the writer's personal experience with and in that place. In this seminar, we will read excerpts from the foundational deep map in literature, William Least Heat-Moon's "Prairyerth," as well as examples by other contemporary authors. Mostly, we will work on writing our own deep maps, first by visiting sites in and around UCSB campus and then by creating multimodal representations of those places using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Students will leave this seminar with an understanding of the literature, theory, and practice of deep mapping, as well as a closer relationship with the UCSB campus and its environs.

Bio:  I am an Associate Teaching Professor in the College of Creative Studies and the Writing Program. I teach many different kinds of writing, including academic writing, creative writing, and writing for the web. Most recently, I've been obsessed with writing about nature and place. No matter what I’m teaching, I’m interested in creating equitable, inclusive, and just learning environments and curricula, whether online or in-person. Of course, I also practice what I teach: I write short fiction and nonfiction and am currently working on a memoir about grief and the nature of time.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: History
• Instructor: Juan Cobo Betancourt
• Instructor Email: jcobo@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Friday 10:00-11:50 in GIRV 2320 *This seminar has a field trip
• Enroll Code: 62059

Course Description:  This course is a critical introduction to archives, with a focus on Latin America. More than the raw materials of historical research, archives are sites for imagining the past, the present, and the future — but they are also sites of inequality that shape whose stories can be told and whose are silenced. Through readings, discussions, guest lectures, and field trips, students will examine practices and theories of archiving and social memory, participate in field trips to traditional and non-traditional archives — from traditional collections of papers to non-traditional living and digital archives — and gain practical experience working with tools designed to digitize and preserve archival materials. Together we will think about what archives are and can be, how different communities use them here and in Latin America, and how we can work towards a more egalitarian engagement with them.

Bio:  Prof. Cobo is a historian of Latin America. One focus of his research is how Indigenous peoples in the region that is now Colombia interacted with Spanish colonialism and Christianity in the 16th and 17th centuries. The other is how to better preserve, activate, and engage with historical archives today, and especially how to make them useful and accessible to communities and groups beyond academia.

• Seminar Type: Honors

• Department: Black Studies
• Instructor: Roberto Strongman
• Instructor Email: rstrongman@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Monday 2:00-3:50 in Rob Gym 1410
• Enroll Code: 26195

Course Description:  Yoga is a Sanskrit term that can be best translated as "Integration." The course aims to develop an integral understanding of the history of yogic knowledges with roots in South Asia, creolization with XIX Century European body culture during the era of British imperialism, and a capitalist and often culturally-appropriative global spread in the late XX Century and beyond. This historical and philosophical material will be "yoked" (a cognate of "yoga") with a physical asana practice: the class will be organized in weekly two-hour sessions, with the first hour devoted to lecture, presentation, discussion and journal writing and the second hour to a physical postural and breathing practice thematically wedded to the readings. As such, the deeper, even metaphysical, goal of the course will be to bring "union" to the budding scholar, fomenting a balanced, equanimous and holistic body-mind.

Bio:  Ph.D. Literature (UCSD 2003). I am a scholar of embodiment, specializing in trance states. My latest book "Queering Black Atlantic Religions" (Duke UP, 2019) speaks to my interest in fomenting an awareness of the unity within the body-mind construct, the goal of "yoga." In addition to my academic credentials, I am also certified as a massage therapist by the state of California and as a yoga instructor at the 500-hour level (the highest recognizable credential in the field).

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Department of Earth Science
• Instructor: Alex Simms
• Instructor Email: asimms@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Thursdays at 4:00-4:50 pm in GIRV 2135  *this seminar has a weekend overnight field trip 
• Enroll Code: 26203

Course Description:  In this seminar we will discuss how the beautiful California Coast developed, what it tells about California's geologic history, and how to interpret the geology present along it.  This course will include an overnight camping fieldtrip along the coast of California.

Bio:  Growing up in Oklahoma, Professor Simms first studied coasts in Texas as part of his PhD work at Rice University.  After starting his academic career at his alma matter at Oklahoma State University, Prof. Simms moved to UCSB in 2010.  He has studied the geologic history of coastlines from Texas to Antarctica and Scotland to California.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Physics
• Instructor: Paul Hansma
• Instructor Email: phansma@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Monday 10:00-11:50 in ILP 4107
• Enroll Code: 26237

Course Description:  Chronic pain, which is defined by pain persisting for at least three months, affects one in five American adults. It is the most costly health problem – more costly than cancer and heart disease combined. The goal of this class is to not only learn more about the different facets of chronic pain, but also to become more familiar with literature reviews, scientific articles, and giving research presentations. Over the course of the quarter, guest lecturers who are experts in their field will present on the topics of pain neuroscience and evidence-based chronic pain recovery. For every guest lecturer, you will be assigned a reading associated with their work, and you are expected to come prepared with questions or discussion points. You will also get experience in making small group presentations to the class that are based on reading original research articles and literature reviews. This seminar aims to prepare you for the world of clinical and non-clinical research – you will be exposed to terminology and techniques that you may not have been familiar with in the past, so attend each class with an open mind and be ready to learn.

Bio:  Paul Hansma, PhD, is a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a researcher in the Neuroscience Research Institute. His current research focuses on a mathematical model for chronic pain and chronic pain recovery studies based on that model. He is also involved in fundamental research in neurobiology and activity of human brain organoids as revealed by multi-electrode arrays. He has over 390 publications, with over 50,000 citations and an H factor of 117. His most recent publications are primarily in neuroscience and chronic pain. His website is https://hansmalab.physics.ucsb.edu/

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• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Computer Science
• Instructor: Maryam Majedi
• Instructor Email: majedi@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Monday 4:00-5:50 in GIRV 2124
• Enroll Code: 26245

Course Description:  In an era where technological advancements are occurring at an unprecedented rate, the course Ethical Tech: Navigating the “Should” in Innovation offers a crucial perspective on the intersection of ethics and technology. This seminar invites students to embark on a thought-provoking journey, exploring not just the limitless possibilities of what they can create with technology, but more importantly, reflecting on whether they should create them.

Throughout this course, students will engage with fundamental ethical theories and principles, applying them to real-world scenarios and emerging technological trends. The seminars will foster critical thinking and ethical reasoning, encouraging students to contemplate the broader implications of technology on society, the environment, and future generations.

Possible topics include:

The Role of Ethics in Technology Development

Balancing Innovation with Moral Responsibility

Privacy, Security, and Ethical Dilemmas in the Digital Age

AI and Data Privacy: Where Should We Draw the Line?

Through a combination of interactive discussions, case studies, and presentations, students will gain insights into how ethical considerations can and should influence technological innovation. They will learn to identify potential ethical issues and develop strategies to address them, ensuring that the technology they create contributes positively to society.

Bio:  Dr. Maryam Majedi joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as an Assistant Teaching Professor in 2023. She completed a teaching stream postdoc at the University of Toronto, where she worked with the Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) team and introduced the first ethics modules for CS courses in Canada. Dr. Majedi earned her Ph.D. in data privacy at the University of Calgary. Her Ph.D. work presents a novel privacy policy modeling technique. Prior to her Ph.D., she earned a Master of Science degree in High-Performance Scientific Computing from the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Majedi also completed a fellowship in Medical Innovation at Western University.

Dr. Majedi's research primarily revolves around Embedded Ethics and Data Privacy. She explores the intersection of computer science and ethical considerations, aiming to develop modules that facilitate the integration of ethics and data privacy principles into computer science education.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: EALCS
• Instructor: Sabine Frühstück
• Instructor Email: fruhstuc@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Tuesday 2:00-3:50 in HSSB 1211
• Enroll Code: 60160

Course Description:  This seminar will consider instances of resistance to all forms of oppression in modern and contemporary East Asia in their historical, cultural, and global contexts, based on texts, images, art, and film.

Bio:  https://www.sabinefruhstuck.com/

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: College of Creative Studies 
• Instructor: Michelle Petty
• Instructor Email: mnpetty@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Wednesday 10:00-11:50 in CRST 136
• Enroll Code: 60178

Course Description:  In times where morality and ethics are hotly contested in arenas stretching from technology to climate, engaging in the study of monsters can help us discern our own moral code, which can help us stand straight in an increasingly crooked house. In this honors seminar, students will read and watch stories that help us explore together what makes someone or something monstrous, and ways in which people are taking on the monster as an identity to take up space and agency in a world that might render them monstrous.

Drawing on multidisciplinary monster studies, from horror to rhetoric, we will look at popular culture and literature as our source material. We'll explore the questions posed to children ("What makes a monster and what makes a man?" - Hunchback of Notre Dame) and to adults (What is scary, and to whom?), but we'll also look at how declarations like "I'm the monster, it's me" (Taylor Swift) have become rallying cries to activists in marginalized communities.

This will be a discussion-based course where student writing is designed to support that discussion and their own self-reflection. At the end of the course, students will write a short paper about how studying monstrosity has helped them refine their personal morals, ethics, and values.

Bio:  Michelle Petty is an Assistant Teaching Professor at UCSB, teaching in the Writing Program and the College of Creative Studies. Her interdisciplinary research in Education and Writing draws on Black feminist, digital and African American rhetorics, and critical race/anti-racist education theories to investigate diversity issues in academia. Her current research project is a digital and rhetorical analysis of Instagram-hosted, community-formed digital archives about people of color. She publishes academically, most recently in College Composition and Communication, and creatively, appearing in Bust Magazine, Elevation Review and Anacapa Review.

• Seminar Type: Honors
• Department: Earth Science
• Instructor: Syee Weldeab
• Instructor Email: sweldeab@ucsb.edu
• Day - Time - Room: Friday 2:00-3:50 in GIRV 1108
• Enroll Code: 26294

Course Description:  The focus of this seminar is to unravel and discuss the manifestation of ongoing climate changes in various parts of the eco-system. The seminar informs how our understanding of past climate changes improve and refine the impact and feedback mechanism of current and future climate changes.

Bio:  see https://weldeab.geol.ucsb.edu/