CS 39Q:
Priorities Under Pressure: A Critical Assessment of How the University's Core Mission is Affected by Intercollegiate Athletics
Professors Brian Barsky, Margaretta Lovell, and Laura Nader
University of California, Berkeley
For what may be the first time ever in a class at UC Berkeley, the impact of intercollegiate athletics on the core mission of the university is critically assessed. This is a freshman seminar offered for the first time in the Fall 2011 semester.
The core mission of the University of California is "undergraduate education, graduate and professional education, research, and other kinds of public service, which are shaped and bounded by the central pervasive mission of discovering and advancing knowledge." This seminar will focus on how this core mission is affected by Intercollegiate Athletics, at this institution and nationwide. Readings, assignments, and discussions will address a broad range of potential issues related to economics & business models, amateurism & labor, media and the entertainment industry, law, public policy, fandom & "spirit," health & safety, journalism, educational policy, and community. The goal of the seminar is to foster critical thinking concerning issues on this topic of both local and national interest. This class is intended for students who are interested in increasing their awareness of the forces shaping the institution of which they are a part, as well as its broader context. Students from all academic disciplines are welcome. This seminar is not about the subject of computer science even though it is offered through the Computer Science Division.
The instructors are Professors Brian Barsky (Computer Science), Margaretta Lovell (History of Art), and Laura Nader (Anthropology),
Brian A. Barsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Computer Science and joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 where he is Professor of Computer Science and Vision Science, and Affiliate Professor of Optometry. He is a member of the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, an interdisciplinary and inter-campus program, between UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. His research interests include computational photography, contact lens design, computer methods for optometry and ophthalmology, image synthesis, computer aided geometric design and modeling, CAD/CAM/CIM, interactive and realistic three-dimensional computer graphics, computer aided cornea modeling and visualization, and medical imaging. Faculty web site: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~barsky
Margaretta M. Lovell, the Jay D. McEvoy Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley, received her Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale and specializes in American and British art, architecture, and design. Her books include prizewinners Art in a Season of Revolution: Painters, Artisans, and Patrons in Early America, and A Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists. Her interests focus on visual studies, material culture, and the points of intersection between objects and culture from the seventeenth century to the present. Faculty web site: http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/Faculty_Lovell.html
Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley since 1960. Her current work focuses on how central dogmas are made and how they work in law, energy, and science. Her recent publications include "Harmony Ideology–Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village"(1990), "Naked Science–Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries", "Power and Knowledge" (1996), "The Life of the Law" (2002), and, with Ugo Mattei, "Plunder–When the Rule of Law is Illegal". Her films To Make the Balance and Little Injustices are widely disseminated, and her latest documentary, Losing Knowledge–50 Years of Change, previewed in Spring 2011. Nader is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Faculty web site: http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=24
An article about this class appeared in the Thursday, August 25, 2011 edition of The Daily Californian.
Videos of the guest speakers' presentations are available on the "Guest Speaker Schedule and Video" section of this website.
The core mission of the University of California is "undergraduate education, graduate and professional education, research, and other kinds of public service, which are shaped and bounded by the central pervasive mission of discovering and advancing knowledge." This seminar will focus on how this core mission is affected by Intercollegiate Athletics, at this institution and nationwide. Readings, assignments, and discussions will address a broad range of potential issues related to economics & business models, amateurism & labor, media and the entertainment industry, law, public policy, fandom & "spirit," health & safety, journalism, educational policy, and community. The goal of the seminar is to foster critical thinking concerning issues on this topic of both local and national interest. This class is intended for students who are interested in increasing their awareness of the forces shaping the institution of which they are a part, as well as its broader context. Students from all academic disciplines are welcome. This seminar is not about the subject of computer science even though it is offered through the Computer Science Division.
The instructors are Professors Brian Barsky (Computer Science), Margaretta Lovell (History of Art), and Laura Nader (Anthropology),
Brian A. Barsky received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Computer Science and joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 where he is Professor of Computer Science and Vision Science, and Affiliate Professor of Optometry. He is a member of the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, an interdisciplinary and inter-campus program, between UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. His research interests include computational photography, contact lens design, computer methods for optometry and ophthalmology, image synthesis, computer aided geometric design and modeling, CAD/CAM/CIM, interactive and realistic three-dimensional computer graphics, computer aided cornea modeling and visualization, and medical imaging. Faculty web site: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~barsky
Margaretta M. Lovell, the Jay D. McEvoy Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley, received her Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale and specializes in American and British art, architecture, and design. Her books include prizewinners Art in a Season of Revolution: Painters, Artisans, and Patrons in Early America, and A Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists. Her interests focus on visual studies, material culture, and the points of intersection between objects and culture from the seventeenth century to the present. Faculty web site: http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/Faculty_Lovell.html
Laura Nader is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley since 1960. Her current work focuses on how central dogmas are made and how they work in law, energy, and science. Her recent publications include "Harmony Ideology–Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village"(1990), "Naked Science–Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries", "Power and Knowledge" (1996), "The Life of the Law" (2002), and, with Ugo Mattei, "Plunder–When the Rule of Law is Illegal". Her films To Make the Balance and Little Injustices are widely disseminated, and her latest documentary, Losing Knowledge–50 Years of Change, previewed in Spring 2011. Nader is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Faculty web site: http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=24
An article about this class appeared in the Thursday, August 25, 2011 edition of The Daily Californian.
Videos of the guest speakers' presentations are available on the "Guest Speaker Schedule and Video" section of this website.