The Magical Symbol: W.B. Yeats’ Vision of Ireland

Biography:

Kristen Chastain is a fourth-year undergraduate at UCI studying English and Education Sciences. She is passionate about writing in all forms, including poetry, essays, and journalism, and would love to use her creative skills in the future to inspire others and give back to her community. In her free time, she is a staff member of Campuswide Honors Creative Works Journal (NAR), volunteers in a local high school outreach program, and hosts a radio show on KUCI FM that highlights local musicians. She is currently working on an Honors thesis on the poetry of Yeats and is excited to bring her resesarch experience to a broader audience.

Course Description:

W.B. Yeats: Irish poet, author, activist, and occultist. This name may be familiar to you if you have studied classic literature or poetry, but what exactly makes his writing so significant in terms of cultural and mythological exploration? The answer to this question lies in his intricate and careful use of symbols.

This course will introduce you to the magical world Yeats loved to explore in his work, filled with Celtic heroes and the beautiful landscapes of his native Ireland.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Tuesday, 5:00pm-5:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87645
Faculty Mentor: Laura O’Connor

The Chemistry of Aging

Biography:

Hello everyone! My name is Quynh Theresa Do (she/her/hers) and I am a 5th year here at UCI. I am currently majoring in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Psychological Sciences as well as minoring in Asian American Studies and Hearing and Speech Sciences. I hope to one day become a gerontologist and a geriatrician in the future. Aside from school, I enjoy attending musical performances, eating different kinds of curry, and having new experiences. Some things that I would love to do in the future include becoming fluent in more than two languages, traveling to countries outside of the Americas, and learning how to dance.

The aging field has always been interesting to me because aging is a process that everyone goes through. Yet there is still so much to learn about aging, including its mechanism and the chemicals. I hope that through this course, you all will gain a deeper sense of appreciation for the aging process and how interdisciplinary the field can be.

Course Description:

The seminar “Chemistry of Aging” will address the science behind aging in humans. Students may commonly know aging as getting older, getting more wrinkles, and getting physically weaker. Yet, many may not know the more specific processes that underlie these age-related changes. The seminar will highlight several aging processes and discuss the molecules that drive these processes and the environmental or lifestyle factors that contribute to them. The course will specifically highlight compounds ranging from those that are found in our environments such as our foods and the air to compounds in our bodies that degrade with age. The course will focus not only on biological aging but also psychological aging as we examine how molecules may affect our brains throughout time.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Tuesday, 1:00pm-1:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87633
Faculty Mentor: Stephen Mang

Japanese War Memory Through Anime

Biography:

Hi everyone! My name is Heather (any pronouns) and I’m a 3rd year International Studies Honors and Campuswide Honors student. I’ve been teaching, mentoring, and tutoring students of all ages since high school, and I’m so excited to be able to do it at a university seminar level! I love anime and comic books, which is why I decided to create a course dedicated to anime and manga.

I’m currently working on a research paper that is related to my course, but I’m specifically focusing on Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama. I’ve always loved making connections between what I read or watch and what I’ve learned about history, which is exactly what I’ll be doing in this course. Outside of school, I enjoy doing martial arts (especially Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu), photography, and gaming. I’m always excited to talk to people about any of these things plus anime and comics, so please feel free to bring any of those up when we talk

Course Description:

If you’ve ever wanted a space to discuss all your different opinions on anime or even an excuse to start watching it, you’ve finally found it in my Japanese War Memory through Anime course!

In this seminar, we will be watching and reading various scenes from Japanese anime and manga – including Attack on Titan, Graveyard of the Fireflies, and In This Corner of the World – as a way of analyzing the collective Japanese war memory of World War II and Nazi Germany. This will be an interdisciplinary approach in which we will learn about the ever-changing Japanese perspectives of the war through the lens of global studies, history, and multimedia analysis. We will also compare the various perspectives shown in pop culture with perspectives taught through Japanese school curriculums. No prior knowledge is required!

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 4:00pm-4:50pm
Place: ALP 1100
Course Code: 87637
Faculty Mentor: David Fedman

Attention Economy

Biography:

Hello everyone! My name is Ziyu Li and I am a third-year double major in Business Economics and Gender & Sexuality Studies. People around me think my majors are a rare combination, but both fields are intriguing to me and I enjoy my time exploring them 😀 I plan on pursuing a master’s in economics with an emphasis in labor economics after graduation. Outside academics, I usually spend my free time playing indie games and visiting museums around me. LA county has so many world-famous museums that I haven’t had the time to explore them one by one. Feel free to let me know any museum you find exciting, and I am happy to make recommendations! It is such a thrilling idea to design and teach a topic that interests me. I choose to talk about the attention economy because it is a topic of tremendous interest and everyone has a word to say about this topic. There is no need for prior exposure to the subject, and I hope everyone will have a good time taking this course!

Course Description:

An attention economy is an approach that treats human attention as a scarce commodity to solve information management problems. This course is an introductory seminar that will cover a variety of topics related to the attention economy. It is an interdisciplinary discussion that draws knowledge from sociology, economics, psychology, and technology. Attention economy will be explored in terms of theory, application, and personal experience. The beginning of the course concentrates on the conceptual ideas and historical development of the attention economy. After understanding the theoretical aspects of the economy of attention, we will examine real-life examples in industries such as journalism and social media. There will also be discussions about the pros and cons of the attention economy, such as whether it improves the efficiency of attention allocation or fuels the polarization and leads people to receive only the information they want to receive. At the end of the course, students will be able to apply the knowledge they learn, rethink their interpersonal relationships, and analyze how the economy of attention influences them.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 3:00pm-3:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87641
Faculty Mentor: Brian Jenkins

Worldbuilding in Indie Video Games

Biography:

Hello folks, and welcome to Worldbuilding in Indie Video Games!! I’m Chloe and I’m an English major with minors in Creative Writing and Literary Journalism at UCI. When I’m not scavenging for new games to play, you can find me working at Langson Library, the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication, or doing some origami. While my studies do not center around video games, I’ve loved them my whole life and I think they are an awesomely unique medium that has the potential to teach everyone something new about the way they view the world. In this course, my goal is to introduce you to a variety of independently made games that are thought provoking, comforting, and fun, and then critically analyze why that is. You do not have to have experience playing video games before taking this class, I hope we can learn and grow while exploring indie video games together!

Course Description:

This seminar serves as an introduction to worldbuilding through its application in indie video games. In this course, worldbuilding will be defined as the construction of an imaginary world. We will engage in the world building techniques of video games, including game mechanics, storytelling, sounds, and visuals. We will be able to identify elements of worldbuilding in an academic lens and articulate critical perspectives on their effectiveness in indie video games. The goal of the course is to develop the language to describe the mechanics of indie video games effectively, illuminate understanding of worldbuilding as a methodology, and have the opportunity to engage in a variety of indie video games. No previous experience with video games or video game theory is necessary.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Friday, 1:00pm-1:50pm
Place: DBH 1425
Course Code: 87639
Faculty Mentor: Braxton Soderman

Manga: Form and Function

Biography:

Hello! My name is Chris Nagelvoort and I am a third-year English major with a Creative Writing minor. My likes include reading postmodern literature and manga, eating strawberries, touching base with friends once every full moon, and writing. My dislikes include making choices, DUO, and describing myself. On the side, I like to write short stories, (attempt to) engage in literary research, and act as the “treasuary” (treasurer + secretary) for the English Majors’ Association at UCI. Occasionally, I aspire to become a professor in English and write experimental coming-of-age novellas on the side. Other times, I think about dropping it all and going professional in Super Smash Bros. This course was born out of my (unashamed) teenage infatuation with manga and my collegiate fascination with formalism in art.

Course Description:

The kitsch of word art, the breach of ink and space, the severance of text and image, the paratextual hoopla, the endless between of the gutter—the seemingly banal elements coordinate into the grand design of a single, participatory art form: Manga. Originating from Japan, manga has become highly popularized in the recent decades of Western popular culture. However, behind the black and white curtains of Manga’s physical appearance and cultural reputation is a relationship of seamless form and function. It is this foundational, perspectival dimension of manga—the anatomy of panel and text box, the iconography of cartoon protagonists, the schematics of time and space, the intermittence of scenes, and the aperture of the reader’s projection—that this course will delve into. We will be learning about a new formal or cultural element of manga every week, close-read one stylistically dense manga (Oyasumi Punpun by Asano Inio), and discuss anything and everything manga with each other. By doing so, this course hopes to better understand the delicate balancing act that manga and its formal elements play in holding our attention, participation, and immersion in that crowded space between line and paper.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Thursday, 3:00pm-3:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87644
Faculty Mentor: Christopher Fan

Machine Learning

Biography:

Hey, everyone!👋 My name is Sarah, and I’m a third year Computer Science and Engineering major. After attending graduate school, I plan to teach while pursuing a career as an industry researcher. Some of my research interests include artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision. Our classroom will most definitely be a safe space to discuss and learn all things AI/Machine Learning (ML), regardless of tech experience! 😀

Course Description:

According to a source from MIT, machine learning is a “…subfield of artificial intelligence, which is broadly defined as the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior.”🤖

Computers learning to think!? Whether it be predicting weather trends or changes in the stock market, machine learning is the future. The course will begin by discussing what machine learning is and applications of machine learning to differing career paths and college majors (e.g. economics, health, technology), before then delving into learning the basics of commonly utilized models. Open to all majors, the class will give students a basic understanding of machine learning concepts in a code-free environment. Everyone is welcome! No math prerequisite required, but basic algebra and graphing skills preferred.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 2:00pm-2:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87635
Faculty Mentor: Marco Levorato

Adapt or Die

Biography:

Hello hello! My name is Jordyn O’Rourke. I’m a fourth year majoring in English with a specialization for future teachers and Film and Media Studies. I’m so excited to use both while teaching my “Adapt or Die” seminar! I have worked at the UCI Writing Center for four years, currently alternating between offering feedback for papers and creating memes for our social media. I plan to begin graduate school immediately after I finish undergrad, so I’m excited to be able to have some fun studying one of my favorite books and shows with you!

Course Description:

This class will be studying the process of adapting a book to television by using Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens as a case study. Students will consider the myriad choices and changes that come with adapting text for the screen, including how some changes can impact the themes of the story overall. Eventually, students will have the opportunity to consider how they would adapt a piece of text for the screen in their own way. No previous knowledge of film analysis is required.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 10:00am-10:50am
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87642
Faculty Mentor: Jayne Lewis

What is the Quran?

Biography:

Hey everyone! My name is Eisa and I am a fourth-year political science major on the pre-med track. My desire to major in political science grew out of a natural belief that it is important to be politically aware no matter what background one comes from. When I am not busy reading up on the news, I spend my free time watching some movies, playing tennis, and hanging out with friends and family. In fact, over the course of the pandemic, I became an avid (almost professional) movie-watcher. You can sign me up for anything related to sci-fi and time travel! My favorite TV shows are Doctor Who, Stranger Things, and of course, The Office. My favorite movies are Tenet and Intersetaller (both time travel rated). I also enjoy playing video games, especially story driven ones like the Uncharted series or The Last of Us. As a Muslim, I grew up reading the Quran, the Muslim Holy Book for much of my life, learning the ins and out of my religion. Over time, I began enjoying religious books from other faiths as well because they all share certain lessons and stories that can apply to us today. My hope is to give you all an introduction to the Quran not from a religious perspective, but a linguistic and contextual one.

Course Description:

Are religious books only for the religious? For many, the answer to this question is “Yes.” However, this course seeks to open the opportunity to study religious scripture from a non-religious perspective. The Quran has existed for over 1400 years and, just like the Bible and Torah, it has been a book that people have read, studied, and analyzed for centuries. However people assume that one needs to adhere to the religion that the books belong to in order to study them. The purpose of this course is to show you that is not the case! We will understand the role that the Quran plays in the Muslim community. This class provides students with an introductory foundation of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. Students will understand the literary significance of the Quran in today’s day and age. We will cover the history of its origin, the language it is recited in, and the context of certain passages. The purpose of this course is to give students a deep dive into the Quran such that even those with no prior exposure can learn about We will consider the Quran in terms of its structural organization and content, providing students with adequate information on what the Quran means to Muslims.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 6:00pm-6:50pm
Place: DBH 1422
Course Code: 87638
Faculty Mentor: Davin Phoenix

The Evolution of Table Top Game Design

Biography:

Hi all, my name is Freddy Reiber, and I am a fourth year computer science student, with a specialty in theory and algorithms. While currently waiting to hear back from PhD applications, I like to spend my time thinking about games, game theory and how they interact with computation. This includes looking at what behaviors are incentivized in games as well as designing mechanisms/games that incentivize specific design traits. In my free time I also like playing games, specifically analog games, with some of my favorites being Cosmic Encounter and Twilight Imperium. I also enjoy reading, both fantasy and literature, and am a sub-par jazz piano player!

Course Description:

The course has three main goals. The first is to understand the history and evolution of tabletop games, starting from the rise of commercial wargames to today. While studying the history, we will also look at the cultural context in which the games were published. Second, we will be analyzing specific games using the MDA design model, and looking at how these aspects interact with each other. Finally, we will look at how games are designed to encourage certain behavior through goals. We will also look at how this is used to create narrative through play. As the course is a 1 unit P/NP course, the workload will be quite light, with the only real assignments being the playing of the games we will discuss and analyze in class.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Thursday, 2:00pm-2:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87631
Faculty Mentor: Aaron Trammel

Indie Video Games: The Power of Narrative

Biography:

Greetings! My name is Jonathan Ripetoe. I am a fourth-year English/Psychology double major. I am ecstatic to be taking this dive into indie video game narrative with you all. I received my first Nintendo Gameboy as a Christmas gift in 2001 and I haven’t stopped playing video games since. After playing The Legend of Zelda I became enamored with the worlds that videogames are able to create through their narrative and atmosphere. The bulk of my studies and coursework has been focused on applying a critical lens to the construction of video game narratives, so this class is the perfect opportunity for me to share my love of writing and video games with my peers. When I’m not inundated with assignments I enjoy gaming, restoring old consoles, developing small games, cooking, and making music in my spare time. I currently run a small business that focuses on the buying and selling of retro video games. Also don’t feel intimidated if you have limited experience with video games everyone is welcome. I am looking forward to a lively and productive quarter with you all!

Course Description:

In recent years video games have become one of the most prevalent forms of entertainment. Though video games seek to entertain the player they also serve to instill principles and lessons just as the myths of old. Unlike oral and written mediums, video games are afforded the opportunity to express their themes through visual and immersive models. Myths are dictated to players through color, setting, animation, and most importantly gameplay mechanics. While mechanics and gameplay are the driving force behind the urge to consume video games, not every video game delivers its narrative in the same fashion. In the case of indie video games, the budgets are much smaller, so the narrative is often more refined than the gameplay mechanics. This course will examine how the indie video games Necrobarista, and Hades explore the themes of the afterlife and heroism. Necrobarista, a visual novel presents myths of the afterlife in a strictly narrative format players are tasked to analyze the world around them. Alternatively, Hades fractures the narrative and locks its insights away behind long stretches of gameplay and skill development. These video games complement one another by highlighting the divergent methods applied by developers to convey similar topics. This course will examine the prevalence of myths in human history and apply a critical lens on the fashion in which these myths shape the narratives of indie video games. Students will analyze the mechanics indie developers use to retell and improve mythology. The expansive genres of video games and the ever-changing nature of storytelling provide indie developers with a canvas to explore familiar tales in branching methods.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Wednesday, 1:00pm-1:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87643
Faculty Mentor: Sri Basu

Gothic Children’s Literature

Biography:

Hello! I am Hope Vang (she/her), and I am a 3rd year double-majoring in English and Comparative Literature with a minor in Creative Writing. With the support of my lovely professors and inspirational graduate students at UCI, I am planning to pursue a PhD in English, so I can research both Gothic and Children’s Literature. I am grateful to UTeach for combining two of my many passions, making it possible to create and teach a course about Gothic Children’s Literature. During my time at UCI, I have been an intern for the Student Support & Advocacy commission in ASUCI and the Secretary of the Hmong Student Association (HSA) at UC Irvine. I am currently the President of HSA, as well as an RA for Mesa Court’s Interest in Video Games hall. Despite my busy schedule, I make time to play Minecraft, watch Twitch streams, or add books to my extremely long and ridiculous To-Be-Read list because of BookTok recommendations.

Course Description:

Children’s literature is any scholar’s first glimpse into another world. It is the place where some of the most important core values for young readers are made, and it teaches them how to overcome the many challenges that their favorite characters will face. By introducing Gothic themes in Children’s Literature, the reader can explore deeper and darker themes, all while seeing the protagonist learn and mature from their terrifying environments and frightening experiences. Through Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Hanna Alkaf’s The Ghost and the Girl, we will see how the girls mature as a result of their environment, which includes the paranormal creatures they befriend, their relationships with their mothers, and their desires of being “grown-up.”

Enrollment Information:
Time: Friday, 12:00pm-12:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87634
Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Alexander

Walkable Cities

Biography:

Hello! My name is Briana Villaverde (she/ella) and I am a first-gen fourth year student studying Environmental Science and Policy alongside Chicano / Latino Studies. Outside of school I enjoy hiking, feeding my compost worms, and fighting for racial, social, environmental, and economic justice! I joined UTeach specifically because I wanted to motivate students to get involved in their communities to make their spaces accessible, safe, green, and resilient. The idea of promoting walkability within cities intersects with the need for robust public transportation, person to person interactions, and deliberate placements of social amenities such as parks and schools.

I encourage anyone interested in UTeach or any other of these organizations / experiences I’ve been a part of to reach out to me about them: UCDC, UC Big Ideas, Earth System Science Club, Sunrise UC Irvine, CLAP Learning Assistant, internships with local and state level urban planning departments, and working as a department student assistant.

Course Description:

The Walkable Cities seminar will dive into the components of walkable cities, why they are important, and how they can improve urban life today. This seminar will go in depth on how walkable cities bring environmental, social, and economic benefits to communities such as decreased air pollution and community engagement. The seminar will also cover the barriers to designing and implementing walkable cities such as political will and financial burden.

Students will think critically about alternatives to the US’s car heavy industry such as public transportation and how they aid pedestrian safe cities. The seminar will culminate in a student designed diorama of their ideal walkable city.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Tuesday, 12:00pm-12:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87632
Faculty Mentor: Karna Wong

North Korean History

Biography:

Hi! My name is Sean, I am a 5th year History major and Asian studies minor. I am also a transfer student who’s a member of the Humanities Honors Program. During my spare time, I love reading books, listening to podcasts, watching movies, attending classical concerts and hiking. 

I am currently writing my honors thesis on the politics of art in North Korea, and much of my research for that project will serve as the basis for my course. By teaching this class, I hope to share my fascination for this unique country. I also hope to arrive at an understanding about North Korea that approaches objectivity; going beyond the common misconceptions and stereotypes about it (without apologizing for the regime). North Korea might be a national security problem for the United States, but it is also a culture with a 73-year long history, made up of 25 million lives.

Course Description:

North Korea is one of the few remaining communist states in the world. It has been described as an irrational, rogue, pariah state. It is a nuclear nation with a struggling economy, and a human rights record “unparalleled to the contemporary world.” According to a 2019 survey by YouGov and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as many as one-third of Americans support a possible preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea, even if it resulted in the deaths of one million civilians. Both states have been technically at war since 1950. 

This class will primarily be a course on the history and culture of North Korea, from the Japanese colonial period to present times. Through a critical survey of propaganda, we will understand how North Koreans see themselves, the world, and their place in it. We will also learn some of the key ways the regime has withstood the test of time. If the US hopes to overcome the North Korean crisis, then the prevailing discourses on the country must be challenged.

Enrollment Information:
Time: Monday, 1:00pm-1:50pm
Place: DBH 1420
Course Code: 87636
Faculty Mentor: David Fedman