1. AFRICAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CULTURE (9 UNITS). The Africa cluster surveys a broad array of subjects including African history (both ancient and modern), art and archaeology, politics, philosophy, literature, film, and music. The cluster provides a comprehensive examination of African achievements from an interdisciplinary perspective, including archaeological, historical, literary, artistic, and African nationalist viewpoints. Students will acquire an understanding of the role of Africa in the past as well as the present. The cluster will explore such historical and archaeological topics as the building of the pyramids in Egypt, the spread of Islam into West Africa, the African kings and queens who developed and defended great empires. The cluster will also help students experience the delights of viewing the new African cinema, reading moving novels, and analyzing the sculpture which inspired a modern artistic revolution. Finally the cluster will provide students with a knowledge of African current events and the problems facing African nationalists in their struggle to counter political, economic, and cultural imperialism in the l990's.
 

2. AIDS: THE MODERN EPIDEMIC (9 UNITS). The AIDS cluster provides an in-depth examination of the AIDS/HIV disease from an interdisciplinary perspective, including the biological, medical, psycho-social, cultural, political, historical, philosophical and economic viewpoints. The cluster surveys a broad variety of HIV-related medical and social services available at national, state and local levels. The cluster will require critical analysis of current AIDS information in the media and in medical and psycho-social literature. Students will gain an understanding of this epidemic in light of other epidemics; the history and progression of the disease; the virus and its effect on the immune system; the disease as a long term chronic disabling disease; the scientific, cultural and political response to the epidemic; and high risk behaviors associated with transmission. Students will examine the implications of cultural, social and ethnic diversities on susceptibility to HIV infection. Issues of racism, sexism and homophobia with their attendant legal and moral implications will also be addressed. The electives in this cluster provide an opportunity for students to investigate areas of particular personal interest.
 

3. AMERICA AND WORLD AFFAIRS (9 - 12 UNITS). This cluster will introduce students to the arena of world affairs and the role of the United States in it. Students will acquire an understanding of what American foreign policy has been toward both the traditional powers and developing nations. Students will also acquire an understanding of the attitudes and policies of those nations toward the United States. They will study modernization in the Third World or the foreign policies of specific developing regions. They will achieve an appreciation and understanding of the major issues affecting relations between the great powers, including Soviet foreign policy, warfare in the 20th century, and the advent of nuclear weapons. Students will learn to integrate concepts drawn from the disciplines of several social sciences with knowledge gained about various nations and areas of the world.
 

4. AMERICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (9 UNITS). Between Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo (1815) and the outbreak of World War I (1914), the United States expanded over much of the North American continent, grappled with the evil of slavery, fought a bloody Civil War, and seized territory from Mexico and Spain; the nation also confronted the realities of a multiethnic society, made the transition from a rural agricultural society to an urban industrial one, and witnessed the emergence of a movement for women's rights. During the century, such authors as Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain developed patterns of cultural expression that both reflected the nation's anxieties and established its cultural independence from England and Europe. In this cluster, students will gain an understanding of significant aspects of American life in the nineteenth century and, thereby, a perspective on significant aspects of their own time.
 

5. AMERICAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY (9 UNITS). This cluster will provide students with an intellectual context within which they can investigate the variegated nature of American culture and society. It will introduce them to a variety of methodological approaches in the humanities and social sciences. Students will learn to develop a technique for reading the artifacts and the texts of the United States. The cluster will explicitly provide students with opportunities for group discussion, written assignments and critical analysis.
 

6. THE ARTS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY (9 UNITS). This cluster will explore some of the more important artistic issues and problems associated with the human experience. It will provide students with a broad educational experience in the contemporary arts and expose them to research methods that utilize an awareness of personal, cultural, or procedural biases. In this cluster, emphasis will be placed on proposing solutions to complex arts problems and helping students address possible new problems or issues created by the proposed solutions. Students will gain an enhanced understanding and appreciation of how problems faced by specific cultural, ethnic or social groups have been or will be experienced, confronted and expressed in different ways by other cultural, ethnic, or social groups.
 

7. APPROACHES TO CULTURAL CRITICISM (9 UNITS). Students will gain an appreciation of human achievements by familiarizing themselves with works of art and cultural forms, and with theory about such works. This cluster will address the cultural specificity of artistic expression and critical inquiry in various ways, as well as the notion of universal artistic values. Some philosophic issues addressed in this cluster include: What are the sources of disagreements about what constitutes beauty or meaning in art? What is the relationship between form and meaning? What am/have been/should be the roles of the arts in society? Students will learn how to ask these basic questions, and they will understand as well something about the origins of contemporary critical thought. Students also will examine the biases that have led to the privileging of certain aesthetic criteria over others and to the establishment of a canon of great works. They will be asked to define their own biases and preferences as part of that process. Each Student will be expected to become a practicing cultural critic.
 

8. ASIAN AMERICANS: RESPONSES TO THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (9 UNITS). This cluster will provide a better understanding of the origins and character of Asian American cultural identities and experiences. For those students who are Asian Americans, the cluster will engage them in a process of self-exploration from which they should achieve a better understanding of the factors that shape their worlds and identities as Asian Americans. For students who are not Asian American, the cluster provides a unique opportunity to explore Asian American experience from the perspectives of Asian Americans themselves. Students will also acquire an enhanced appreciation for the dynamics of cultural diversity in America. Students will learn the history of an Asian American group in the United States, the social and cultural experience of Asian Americans as reflected in their arts, and the contemporary trends and issues of Asian American life in the context of Asian American communities.
 

9. ASIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CULTURE (9 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

10. ASIAN SOCIETY, POLITICS, AND CULTURE (9-12 UNITS)  The theme for this cluster will be posted here soon.
 

11. AUDIENCE AND THE ARTS (9 UNITS). This cluster celebrates the human experience as continually chronicled by visual, performing, and literary artists across many cultural, social, economic, and political settings. It is designed to empower and encourage students to be active, broadly appreciative yet critical consumers of the arts. To meet this goal, course work will enable students to understand the problems processes, and components manipulated by different art forms. The cluster will provide both inter-disciplinary and culturally-contextual perspectives of the many arts media through both inter-arts and specific art courses. Students will gain an integrated and fuller comprehension of the roles and significance of art in personal life and culture.
 

12. BLACK EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES (9 UNITS). This cluster will provide students with an in-depth, interdisciplinary analysis of the experiences of Black people in the United States. Students will examine the ways that Black experience has been impacted by race, sex, culture, geographical location, and social class. Students will also be exposed to alternate perspectives on the nature of the Black experience, including major works by Black scholars as well as analyses done by non-Black researchers.
 

13. CALIFORNIA CULTURES AND ENVIRONMENTS (9-10 UNITS)
If California were a separate nation, its economy would stand sixth in the world, above that of Great Britain, and its population 31st, above that of Canada. Trends are born in California---its people, their accomplishments, and their environment. Students who complete this cluster will acquire a better understanding of the region within which most of them will make their permanent home. They will learn some of the ways in which this state relates to the rest of the nation and the world, and they will achieve a better understanding of the cultural, ethnic, and social diversity of the state.
 

14. CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES: TWO SOCIETIES IN CHANGE (9 UNITS) This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

15. CAPITALISM AND THE MODERN WORLD (9 - 10 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

16. CHILDREN IN FAMILIES AND SOCIETY (9 UNITS). This cluster focuses on the knowledge, research, theories, and issues concerning the development of children in families and society. Students will gain an understanding of the cognitive, emotional, social and physical development of children, including the major influences of the family in each area. The cluster will address the positive strategies for adult/parent/teacher guidance and support of children, and the historical and contemporary cultural and social forces which influence the development of children and the status of families. Students will achieve an understanding of the social programs and services designed to support the special needs of children and their families as well as the issues and research associated with the availability and quality of programs and services for the education and care of children.
 

17. CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND ART (9 - 10 UNITS). The focus of this cluster is the cross-cultural study of two of the most important human symbolic systems, language and art. The cluster examines the faculty of symbol construction itself and the workings of that faculty in literary and non-literary spoken and written language, visual art and music. Students will study this process in a variety of cultures, come to see how the forms of language and art help to characterize and define a particular culture in which they are practiced, and learn to understand the extent to which their own values and modes of thought are a consequence of the culture to which they belong.
 

18. CULTURAL STUDIES OF MUSIC AND DANCE (9 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

19. DYNAMICS OF THE CITY (9 - 10 UNITS). Students will be exposed to a serious interdisciplinary treatment of the urban phenomenon in human history, and to the citrus ascendency over the countryside in the social, economic, political and cultural life of humankind. This cluster investigates what purposes cities serve, how people come to live in them, and what causes cities to succeed or fail. The cluster includes the study of at least one particular city, San Francisco, with a critical analysis of social, cultural and intellectual issues which pertain to all cities in widely varying times, places and historical circumstances. Related subject matters will be integrated into this study, providing students with opportunities to analyze, discuss, evaluate and write about the relationship between particular urban environments and the universal dynamics of city life. Interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies from history, geography, literature, and the social sciences, as well the visual arts will provide students with significant experiences in scholarly enquiry and problem solving. The cluster will also expose students to the great social and cultural diversity of San Francisco's historical evolution.
 

20 ETHICS AT WORK (9 - 10 UNITS) This cluster seeks to enable students to solve moral problems which they are actually apt to face. It assumes that thinking about these sorts of moral problems before they are actually encountered will improve students' abilities to solve such problems when they are met; that the quality of thinking about these problems can be improved by learning to use and understand some of the vocabulary and concepts of theoretical ethics, and that solving moral problems requires knowledge about their settings. The courses in this cluster provide students with the opportunity to acquire theoretical concepts of ethics and to think about applying those concepts to work situations that obviously could arise. While many similarities exist across different work settings, some moral problems arise because of the specific nature of the work that is done. Consequently, some of the courses in this cluster restrict their attention to a specific kind of work.
 

21. EVOLUTION AND CHANGE: PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS (9 -11 UNITS). This cluster will provide students with information and resources to develop an understanding of evolution and the application of this concept to biological evolution, socio-cultural evolution, and the evolution of systems, galaxies, and the cosmos. In each of these areas, students will learn the basic data and theoretical explanations of changing phenomena, and understand how evolution is used as a conceptual tool to explore problems concerning these phenomena. Although biological, socio-cultural, and cosmological theories of evolution are not the same, students will understand that all these fields must attempt explanations of similar problems. The cluster will address such issues as: How does diversity develop from simple origins? Why do certain forms die out and others survive? What is the rate and dynamic of observed changes? Students will also learn that the concept of evolution can be an exciting way of synthesizing and integrating material from several disciplines.
 

22. FAMILIES IN CHANGE (11 - 12 UNITS). In this cluster students examine diverse and changing patterns of contemporary family life. There is examination of individual, interpersonal and social factors which affect family experience. Students will gain an understanding of variations in family patterns, with special attention to gender roles and social policies that affect families in change. Students will also learn how families cope with sudden changes that are associated with family crises, along with intervention services that provide assistance for families in distress.
 

23. FOLKLORE (9 UNITS). In this cluster, students will be exposed to the structure and content of selective western and non-western folklore. Students will develop an understanding of how each culture uses myth, legends, tales, and other genres of lore to evaluate behavior in terms of cultural norms and traditions. Students will examine how folklore is formed and shaped to reflect and teach the values of the culture in which it is found. They will develop an understanding of how folklore can influence a culture's views of what is good or bad, what is heroic, what is desirable, who is leader and who is follower, what are traditional gender roles, and what and who has historical significance.
 

24. GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL PERSPECTIVES (10 - 11 UNITS). This cluster will explore gay, lesbian, and bisexual experiences and identities and the historical, political, cultural, and moral contexts within which they occur. Students will examine theoretical, psychological, and historical readings will engage in discussions on sexual identity, homophobia and coming out. The cluster will emphasize how sexual experience, identity, homophobia, and coming out can vary according to ethnic, racial, and social backgrounds. Students will learn about vocabulary, arguments, and organizations that have established and defined sexual identities in the gay and lesbian movements. This cluster will emphasis interpersonal and group communication as well as the initiation of dialogue between sexual and gender minorities and mainstream society. The cluster will also explore the esthetic expression of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual experience, focusing on gay male as well as lesbian and bisexual literature, and on the depiction of homosexuality and gender variations in the cinema.
 

25. GLOBAL PEACE STUDIES (9 - 10 UNITS). This cluster will engage students, faculty, and the campus community as well as outside groups in the reasoned search for ways of preventing and possibly eliminating war, establishing a healthy global ecology, and working toward secure human rights and a decent world. Students and faculty will be taught to develop and apply research methods and problem-solving techniques as part of a lifelong process and commitment to pursuing global peace. The cluster will foster an understanding of the real sources of violence and conflicts in the world as it now exists. It will also encourage appreciation of alternate approaches to global conflict management as well as analytic, systemic, and creative thought for non-violent conflict resolution.
 

26. HEALTH AND WELLNESS (9 UNITS). This cluster will analyze current research on the relationship of nutrition and health to wellness, and its role in the prevention of disease during the life cycle. A cross-cultural and socio-economic perspective will enable students to understand the pervasive influence of nutrition on general health and longevity. Students will complete a personal nutritional self-evaluation and will formulate specific guidelines for their personal health and wellness. Students will develop resourcefulness in terms of determining whether current beliefs, products or practices are reliable or not. The cluster will also consider the wide range of age, ethnic, and economic diversity at San Francisco State University.
 

27. HEALTH CARE POLICY (9 - 10 UNITS). In this cluster, students will gain an opportunity to understand the problems confronting the health care system and to participate in the effort to develop effective policy solutions. Problems addressed include the long-standing problems of costs, financing, access, and quality, now compounded by the crises of AIDS, drugs, and homelessness. Students will be exposed to a broad interdisciplinary analysis of the nature of these problems and of the health care system which has given rise to them, to a critical assessment of past efforts to solve them, and to creative and rigorous efforts to develop new solutions and strategies for change. Throughout, students will examine the impact of race, class, gender, and sexual preference upon both health problems and the development of policy solutions.
 

28. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE ARTS (9 UNITS). In this cluster, students will acquire a greater appreciation and understanding of the origins and development of human problems and issues as reflected in a historical and/or cultural perspective on the arts. The cluster will help students gain an understanding of research procedures in the arts utilizing an awareness of personal, cultural, or procedural bias. The cluster will help students address possible new problems or issues created by proposed solutions, making them aware that any given problem in the arts faced by an individual or group has been or will be experienced by various cultural, ethnic, or social groups in different ways.
 

29. HOLISTIC HEALTH (9 UNITS). The cluster will examine the fundamental concepts of holistic health and accepted practices from eastern and western perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach assumes a systems perspective in which mind-body-consciousness interacts with the physical, biological and psycho-social environments. Many disciplines such as biology, physiology, biochemistry, anthropology, sociology, medicine, ecology, gerontology, psychology, as well as a variety of cross-cultural healing strategies will be included in the study of holistic healing. The focus of this integral approach is to restore and maintain balance within the mind-body-consciousness system, and to promote optimal health through informed self-care and responsibility. Students will explore how holistic health complements and expands treatment modalities beyond the currently accepted medical model. Students will examine principles and practices which promote awareness, self-reliance, and self-direction within the individual and move the individual away from disease and towards integration and well-being.
 

30. HOUSING, CULTURE AND SOCIETY (9 UNITS). This cluster focuses on the relationship between housing and its design, and the society and culture which is sheltered. The diversity of human experiences and values in different cultures, as well as ethnic and social groups, will be examined, with housing and shelter as the principal foci. Students will gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the housing problems and issues that confront individuals and societies. They will also acquire the ability to synthesize and present solutions to these problems and issues.
 

31. HUMAN COMMUNICATION (9 - 10 UNITS). In this cluster, students will integrate and synthesize materials that, while all relating to communication, arise from differing academic and professional interests and assumptions. They will be introduced to an overview of communication, as well as a cross-cultural perspective on the relationship between languages and cultures. Students will investigate a specific aspect of human communication from a specific theoretical point of view. They will learn about the relationship between linguistic change and cultural history; and the physiology and pathology of human mechanisms of speech and hearing. Students may also study rhetoric from its origin in ancient Greece to modern investigations of communicative modes of persuasion.
 

32. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (9 UNITS). In this cluster, students will study the processes of human development across the lifespan. This cluster will investigate how people grow and develop, how their personalities emerge, how thinking and learning styles develop, and how humans respond to cultural demands. The study of human development will provide students with a valuable foundation for success in any career.
 

33. HUMAN DISABILITY IN SOCIETY (9 UNITS). In this cluster, students will expand their awareness of the range of disabilities in society. The cluster will provide students with an overview of disability within the family, school and community. Students will examine the causes and interrelated factors of disabilities. Students will also become acquainted with how ethnic and multicultural differences relate to the definition of disability. Specific intervention strategies and educational services for disabled persons will also be studied.
 

34. HUMAN EXPRESSION: DIVERSITY, CONTRADICTION, UNITY (9 UNITS). The arts are fundamental to personal and social life. The courses stress critical examination of creative expressions from a variety of global cultures. Differences and commonalities of cultural experience, meaning and philosophy will be addressed with respect to expressions from these cultures, and study will include both historical and current perspectives.

35. HUMAN RIGHTS (9 - 11 UNITS). This cluster will introduce students to the study of human rights - what they are and why we have them. It will explore the current international human rights law, its history, its relation to U.S. law, and some main problems facing its implementation worldwide. A multi-disciplinary approach will be used in the study of human rights problems and challenges. The cluster also addresses specific human rights issues as they have been treated in literature and film as well as the historical background of struggles and events that lie behind our present law regarding civil rights, racial or ethnic discrimination, and genocide. The cluster will be valuable to anyone concerned about human rights, the environment, and the future of our species. Students engaged in paralegal and pre-law studies will find this cluster particularly useful.
 

36. HUMAN SEXUALITY: BIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIO-CULTURAL, AND HUMANISTIC ASPECTS. (9 -10 UNITS). The place of sexuality in students' lives has become increasingly complex and important. It combines elements of health, reproduction, and child-rearing, romantic bonding and companionship, experimentation and recreation, isolation and celibacy, and the remapping of gender boundaries. The study of human sexuality within a modern context, therefore, must draw from several major divisions of knowledge, including the biological and health sciences, the psychological and social sciences, and the arts and humanities. The cluster courses have been designed and arranged so that students can pursue three goals: (I) the examination of human sexuality within broad disciplinary perspectives; (2) the interdisciplinary analysis of particular issues and problems, such as the family, women's sexuality, the media, politics and the law, homosexuality, and artistic and literary freedom; and (3) the application of knowledge to the self, for which opportunities will be provided by the courses in counseling, sexual values, sexual ethics, and sexual relationships.
 

37. IDEAS AND THE MAKING OF CULTURE (9 UNITS). This cluster focuses on the history of the origin and development of a wide variety of central and influential ideas in human history. Students will analyze important movements and ideas which have had great influence on world history for thousands of years. For example, students will engage in a comparative analysis of mysticism and humanism, two dominant and influential forces surfacing intermittently throughout the history of human thought. The cluster also introduces students to the origin and development of literary and scientific ideas, challenging students to discover connections between important themes and ideas, to achieve their own insights, and to formulate interrelationships among humanistic and scientific domains of knowledge.
 

38. INTEGRATING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (9 -10 UNITS). This cluster relates the different social sciences to each other and to the humanities and natural sciences in ways that foster holistic understandings of human affairs. Four main questions are addressed: (I) What is the common subject matter of the different social sciences - of psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, history and geography? (2) In what sense can this subject matter be scientifically studied and understood? (3) How do the disciplines differ from each other? (4) How can these seven different ways of looking at people be brought together, integrated, and applied to specific topics like criminal justice, human sexuality, health and illness, aging, women's status, the city? Ultimately, the cluster shows that specialization of the social sciences does not have to produce a broken image of humankind---that a coherent overview of this area of knowledge provides an inclusive rather than piecemeal sense of ourselves, our species, its problems and achievements, and its prospects.
 

39. LA RAZA IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (9 UNITS). This cluster introduces students to the history, culture, economics, socio-economics, migration patterns, ethnic diversity, development of family and ethnic networks, the creation of ethnic enclaves, and social organization of La Raza communities in the United States. Discussion of theories and concepts applicable to La Raza community organizing and migrations studies. Special emphasis will be placed on the Raza Community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 

40. LATIN AMERICAN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION (9 - 10 UNITS).This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

41. LATIN AMERICA: SOCIETY AND CULTURE (9-11 UNITS) The theme for this cluster will be posted here soon.
 
 

42. LAW, CRIME AND JUSTICE (11 UNITS). The theme of this cluster is connections-- connections between law and crime as working definitions of justice. This theme will be addressed from a variety of distinct perspectives to discern the strengths and shortcomings of specialize knowledge by exploring connections between law and crime from the vantage points of several academic disciplines. This cluster will familiarize students with the salient intellectual contributions of authorities concerned with connections between law and crime and to analyze distinctions as well as similarities among social institutions in the criminal justice system. Students will consider distinctive features as well as relationships between social institutions and individual human behavior, using the generic connection between law and crime as a context. In this cluster, students will be asked to reflect upon the dynamic social process of the common law as it develops in a context of criminal and constitutional law and to study a range of distinctive perspectives on connections between law and crime. Students will use that study as a means of appraising the impact of perspectives upon what people see and how they understand it.
 

43. MAKING CITIES HUMANE (9 -11 UNITS). This cluster introduces students to fundamental issues confronting the diverse members of modern urban society such as work, family, health, and shelter. It also examines the way in which social science disciplines can help in understanding these issues, in devising solutions to these problems, and in making cities more humane. This cluster will teach students to integrate knowledge from different social science disciplines with their own experience and apply this experience and understanding to significant contemporary problems. Students will learn to think rigorously about the urban condition, integrating different disciplinary paradigms. Students will apply insights gained from the use of interdisciplinary investigative techniques to new problems and potential solutions.
 

44. MARXIAN REVOLUTION (9 - 11 UNITS).This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

45. MAXIMIZING PERSONAL POTENTIAL: BODY-MIND INTEGRATION (9-11 UNITS). This cluster is designed to teach the integration of inner and outer psycho-physiological processes promoting health, well-being, effective interaction in the psycho-social world and to help students become fully aware of their o an human potentials. The student will learn the contextual and theoretical basis of holistic approaches including the complex nature of humans with regard to health and well being from cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary perspectives. Each student will learn specific methods to enhance awareness, control their autonomic nervous system, and explore cognitive strategies which may be applied and tested to optimize peak performance for particular activities and purposes. The intention of the cluster is to provide an opportunity for students to integrate their body-mind and creatively fulfill their potentials.
 

46. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE EUROPE (9 UNITS). This cluster will enhance students' ability to appreciate a culture remote in time and space from our own ~ that of Europe prior to the seventeenth century. It will introduce students to the concepts and methods of several disciplines as they are applied to the study of medieval and renaissance Europe. These include history, literature, and philosophy, as well as an interdisciplinary study of the humanities. In this cluster, students will improve their ability to analyze and interpret literature and artifacts and to understand the societies that produced them. Students will interpret and compare at a sophisticated level various European institutions and beliefs, as well as literature and artifacts. Students will gain an appreciation for the special nature and the dynamics of early European culture, as well as the importance of its accomplishments.
 

47. MEDITERRANEAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CULTURE (9 - 10 UNITS). Students will gain an expanded appreciation for cultures different from our own, specifically the Mediterranean cultures that introduced and disseminated to the Western and non-Western worlds such fundamental institutions and concepts as urbanism, literacy, monotheism, rationalism, individualism and representational art. Students will study these phenomena in the context of the time and place in which they were developed. They will be introduced to the concepts and methods of several disciplines as they are applied to the study of the Mediterranean, such as anthropology, archaeology, geography, history, literature, philosophy and political science. And they will improve their ability to interpret literature and artifacts and to understand the societies that produced them. The cluster will employ a comparative/integrative approach that examines institutions, literature and/or artifacts from at least two distinct Mediterranean cultures.
 

48. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA: SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN TRANSITION (9 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

49. MODERN URBAN AMERICA (9 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

50. MULTI-CULTURAL ARTS - MUSIC, IDEAS, MOVEMENT, IMAGERY (9 UNITS). This cluster exposes students to a cohesive, interdisciplinary presentation of artistic origins, traditions, transmissions and change from a multi-cultural perspective. Students will achieve a greater appreciation of individual and societal diversity and the complexity of the issues and problems in multi-cultural arts together with an appreciation of human achievements. Students will examine origins and problems of multi-cultural arts according to the vocabulary and paradigms of each discipline. They will demonstrate abilities in the design of these paradigms for the investigation of problems and issues. Personal, cultural and procedural biases will also be explored and analyzed. Students will be able to present some solutions with the understanding that these solutions may affect existing issues or problems as well as any problems or issues resulting from the proposed solutions.
 

51. NEXT 20 YEARS: BEYOND 2000 ( 9 UNITS). The cluster will address topics highly significant to all persons, societies, nations and cultures. These topics will focus on the future and the probable quality of life and the prospects for persona/human control over events yet to occur. This theme addresses the very survival and prosperity of the planet. The cluster will place particular emphasis on the foreseeable and immediate future--the next twenty years. Students will examine the present and changing nature of leisure, work, time, human productivity, and lifestyles among dominant and non-dominant groups in American and European societies. Students will explore the potential impacts of future environmental, political, economic, technological, population and urbanization issues. In addition, students will examine an array of futurist models of thinking including utopian and dis-utopian fiction, scenarios, intuition, empirical forecasting, and ethics.
 

52. NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPEAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CULTURE (9 -10 UNITS). This cluster will include sharing and discussing ideas on the definitions of European socio-political structures, the nature and contribution of European arts, literature and philosophy, and new theoretical perspectives in the various disciplinary aspects of European cultures and teaching strategies. Students will acquire an enhanced awareness of European issues and will understand the ways in which socio-political issues shape societies and limit the individual's perspective on what is "real and what is "valuable." Students will explore how such limited perspectives affect and interfere with communication with other non-European cultures. They will demonstrate an awareness of ethnocentrism and other cultural biases; compare sociopolitical patterns in one's own background with those of European cultures. Student will develop an attitude of emotional openness, a tolerance for variations in socio-political systems, and a better understanding of the European roots of Anglo-American culture in particular and western civilization in general. Students will be able to identify the cultural biases of Europe and themselves as individuals influenced by those cultural biases. The cluster will provide students with a forum for sharing and discussing ideas on the definitions of European socio-political structures, the nature and contribution of European arts, literature and philosophy, and the theories and perspectives in the various disciplinary aspects of European cultures and teaching strategies.
 

53. OUR VIOLENT PLANET (9 UNITS). This cluster will expose students to the causes for the natural hazards associated with the earth, the atmosphere and the oceans. Students will explore the sensitive balance which characterizes the natural systems on our planet and the serious consequences that human activity may have on disturbing this balance. This cluster will cover such important topics as earthquake prediction and safety, flash flood and drought, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, landslides and mudflows. The cluster will also examine the relationship of human activity, preconceived notions, and cultural values to the occurrence and consequences of environmental disasters that often put individuals at risk. Students will acquire an appreciation and understanding of the diversity of cultural responses to catastrophic environmental stimuli and the direct role human activities may have in modifying the environment. They will also explore alteration of local and global climatic regimes and the effects they have on weather patterns.
 

54. PERSPECTIVES ON AGING (9 - 11 UNITS). This cluster is by definition interdisciplinary. The quality of life for the older adult in all of its dimensions - mind, body and spirit - are intimately connected, and have direct technological and social policy impacts for each of us. This cluster will provide students with an interdisciplinary foundation including biological, medical, health and SOCIO-CULTURAL dimensions. Students will explore the linkage between individual experience and the larger sociological, political and cultural forces. Students will learn to combine disciplinary bodies of knowledge and the application of skills ranging from providing technical services to the creation of social policy.
 

55. PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS (9 - 11 UNITS).This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator.
 

56. PLANNING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT (10 - 11) UNITS). This cluster will introduce students to urban problems and the ways in which social and policy science disciplines help in understanding and solving them. It requires students to integrate knowledge from different social science disciplines and from their own experience and apply it to significant contemporary problems. Students will learn to think rigorously about the human condition, integrating different disciplinary paradigms. They will also be introduced to land-use and environmental issues that confront modern urban societies. Students will explore ways in which social science disciplinary understanding can help to devise solutions to urban problems. This cluster also addresses the cultural, ethnic, and social diversity of the modern American city and the diverse populations it contains. Students will learn to place current issues in historical perspective and to practice historical analysis. Students will also acquire knowledge about the impact of land-use, housing, and transportation planning on urban cultures. Students will address such issues confronting modern society as: how to manage land use in the face of rapid population growth; how to ensure adequate environmental protection and management; how to identify and solve transportation problems and develop and implement new policy; how to balance the availability and affordability of adequate housing with pressing environmental concerns. The cluster will stress empirical field study and the connection between theory and practice.
 

57. POPULATION DYNAMICS AND ECOLOGY (10 - 11 UNITS). This cluster is discontinued. If you have partially completed this cluster, call the Advising Center 338-2940 to make an appointment with a General Education Advising Coordinator
 
 

58. POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES (10-11 UNITS). The existence of extraordinary poverty amidst inconceivable wealth is a critical problem today. In this cluster students will examine poverty and social inequality from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, taking into account the complexity of social, cultural, economic, political and philosophical factors which inform the identification of inequality and an understanding of its causes. Students will explore ideological and ethical assumptions underlying alternative public policy strategies; evaluate their differential impact on persons according to race, culture, gender, gender, generation and class; and apply their analyses to the development of political and pragmatic solutions.
 

59. PRESERVATION OF A LIVABLE ENVIRONMENT (9 - 10 UNITS). This cluster examines past, present and future human impacts on the world environment from an interdisciplinary perspective. It will present information essential to a basic understanding of ecological patterns and of human-environment interaction. Students will develop an appreciation of the origins and severity of past and present environmental problems and their impacts on diverse cultures. Students will learn to apply this knowledge in the evaluation of proposed solutions. They will also learn concepts, information and methods from the various disciplines charged with the study of environmental processes, acquire an appreciation of the interrelatedness of these disciplines and apply their knowledge in making informed decisions. Students will be encouraged to take an active role in finding solutions to pressing environmental issues. Students will develop an understanding of the diversity of cultural adaptations to the environment and the influences different cultures may exert on the environment.
 

60. RELIGIOUS STUDIES (9 UNITS). This cluster encourages students to bring a variety of disciplinary perspectives found in the humanities and the social sciences to bear on a central and persistent problem in human life: How does religion reflect and shape human experience? Students will use these perspectives in the study of several different religious traditions reflecting the cultural, ethnic and social diversity of humankind. Students will apply the methods and insights gained from their study of religious experience as expressed by different cultures at different times to their personal experience. The central pedagogical focus of this cluster will center the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for the study of human religious experience while emphasizing the diversities within that experience.
 

61. REVOLUTION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE (10 UNITS). Revolutions--successful and unsuccessful--have been a constant element in 20th century world affairs and are likely to continue as a central factor in the 21st century. Successful revolutions typically define the beginning and end of major social, economic, and cultural patterns, as well as patterns of politics and government. What factors produce a revolutionary situation? Is there a predictable pattern to successful revolutions? In this cluster, students will study revolution, including revolutionary movements and ideologies in current world politics and two major successful revolutions from different cultural traditions.
 

62. SCIENCE AND HUMAN VALUES (9 UNITS). This cluster will introduce students to the nature of values, their cultural diversity, and the scientific ideas that bear on individual and contemporary societal value choices. Students will be exposed to a particular set of scientific ideas and methods. They will analyze their influence on values from an historical, philosophical, or cultural perspective. The cluster will examine topics such as the influence of elementary nuclear physics on political and military policy and the implications of the biology of language for what it means to be human. Students will acquire an appreciation for the diversity of values among different cultures as well as among different groups within a single culture. They will also assimilate a substantial body of scientific information and apply it in relation to making informed value choices. Students will explore how the scientific method bears upon individual self-image, ethical behavior, and the value laden choices modern technology presents to contemporary society.
 
 

63. SEARCH FOR HOME IN JEWISH EXPERIENCE (9 UNITS) The theme for this cluster will be posted here soon.
 

64. SOCIAL ISSUES AND THE MEDIA (9 - 10 UNITS). This cluster will provide students with principles and tools for analyzing the Mass media" as institutions with responsibility for what they sky, print and broadcast. The cluster will address such issues as: What is the responsibility of the media to those they chose to represent? What legal and ethical issues can arise? How do issues of representation such as the stereotyping and idealizing of heroes and quests, shift and adjust according to different historical periods? What role do form and structure play in the interpretation and evaluation of social content? What are the legal rights and responsibilities of both individuals and organizations, especially those that attempt to convey facts and information, such as news agencies, documentaries and network television? To whom are they accountable? What basic principles of free speech and a free press protect the media from undue pressure, control or manipulation? How do we balance someone else's right to speak with our own right not to be defamed or misrepresented? While this cluster will examine these questions within the context of a distinct disciplinary tradition, it will also present these important social issues from an integrative interdisciplinary perspective. Students will analyze the social role of the media and understand how they themselves may contribute to ensuring a high degree of social responsibility in the media.
 

65. STRESS, WORK AND LEISURE (9 UNITS). This cluster will examine the concepts of stress, work, leisure, and wellness and their relationship to each other across the entire life span. Students will learn about the implications of these concepts for fostering healthier and happier children, families and adults. The cluster will consider these issues from a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. It will also provide students with a wide range of practical, accessible, and applied techniques for stress reduction. Students will learn strategies for integrating these concepts and methods into their personal, family, school, and work lives as well as into their personal and professional interactions with children.
 

66. THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT (9 - 12 UNITS). This cluster will analyze the history, political, economic and international relation situation of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It will explore such vital questions as: How did we create a world with one-fourth of the population highly industrialized and wealthy while the other three-fourths are relatively poor and powerless? Will the rich countries and the international political economy they have created allow the poor countries to close the gap? Will the earth's ecosystem tolerate worldwide development that uses the same industrialization approach pioneered by Europe and the United States? Are there alternatives which are fair and practical? How are the third world countries in their domestic and foreign policies trying to manage their relatively less developed position? How do they differ among themselves in history, colonial experience, culture, foreign policies, political institutions, economic programs, relative performance, etc.?
 

67. WOMEN AND COMMUNICATION (9 - 11 UNITS). This cluster will explore issues of diversity within the context of gender and communication highlighting the accomplishments of women in communication from the different perspectives of literature, performance and the media. It will address the issue of gender socialization in terms of language usage and style, not only in childhood, but as an ongoing social process. It will also examine the inherent biases in previous research on communication which has ignored or stereotyped women in terms of their communication behavior or their contributions to the field. The underlying premise of this cluster is that the study of gender and communication will lead students to develop their understanding of their own communication behaviors and those of others. Students will enhance their intercultural communication skills through the analysis of the different communication experiences and behaviors that result from differences in culture, ethnicity, socio-economic class, age, sexuality, and disability, as well as gender.
 

68. WOMEN AND THEIR CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS (9 UNITS) The theme for this cluster will be posted here soon.
 
 

69. WOMEN: HALF THE WORLD (9 UNITS). This cluster examines the experiences of women through time and across cultures. Students will explore the ways ideas about sex and gender have shaped the roles and status of half the world's people. Students will also analyze the ways gender provided women with a shared identity which unified them to promote social change. In addition, students will look at the ways that other social factors---race, class, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.---shattered the unity created by gender and helped to form varying patterns of feminine - and feminist---experiences.
 
70. WOMEN AND MEN IN A CHANGING WORLD (9 - 12 UNITS). This cluster will integrate knowledge, experience and analytic skills from a variety of perspectives in order to analyze and evaluate one of the most contentious issues of our time-the impact of the sex-gender system in social life. The cluster will engage students in the application of academic perspectives and methodologies. Students will learn to define, collect, and interpret evidence, to appraise contemporary critiques of prevailing forms of sex and gender relationships, and to formulate goals and strategies for personal and social change. In this cluster, students will also understand and be able to evaluate the primary debates concerning the social construction of gender, apply interdisciplinary approaches to an examination of the impact of sex and gender assumptions on their own lives and relationships, and understand how differing assumptions about gender influence the organization of social and political life. This cluster will address such important topics as the differential impact on women of contemporary social and cultural patterns of organization, the ways patterns of interaction differ for women and men in varying racial, cultural, socio-economic and generational groups, and how to apply knowledge of historical and cultural patterns to the analysis of restrictive social and interpersonal normative practices.
 

71. WOMEN OF COLOR IN THE UNITED STATES ( 9 UNITS). This cluster will focus on the experiences of women of color in the United States. This cluster will analyze the experiences of Asian American, American Indian, Black and Raza women from an interdisciplinary perspective as well as from the student's own perspective. Students will learn to interact in the work force as well as in other situations with an enhanced awareness of the increasingly multi-ethnic richness of our country's populace. They will be exposed to the diverse perspectives that women have on their experiences as women as well as their experiences as people of color. The cluster includes material from several academic disciplines including sociology, psychology, history, economics, literature, political science, among others. The significance of these disciplines in understanding the experiences of women of color will be analyzed.

Website maintained by David Apelt; updated 2/8/02