UCLA in the 1960s - Course Description

UCLA in the Sixties
G.E. Cluster 60CW.7, Spring 2005

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will look at UCLA from 1960-1974, a period of both immense growth and enormous conflict for the University of California. We will consider such questions as: What is the place of the university in society? In history? How can we link personal stories and historical events at UCLA to their larger institutional, political, and sociocultural contexts? How can we consider UCLA as a starting point for broader questions related to higher education and the university? We will approach these questions in two different ways:

First, through class readings, guest speakers, and in-class activities, we will focus on a few “case studies” by which to think about these questions together. While these case studies do not claim to give a comprehensive picture of this period, they will give us a starting point for our thinking about UCLA in the 60s and early 70s.
Second, in teams of 2-4 students, each of you will create a website that highlights events from a 2-3-year period of UCLA history. These periods will be assigned early in the quarter. As a group and individually, you will then identify specific topics for which to do extensive research throughout the quarter; this research will then be incorporated into your website projects.

This seminar will feature a strong emphasis on hands-on and collaborative learning. Class periods will consist of data-gathering assignments, visits to different locations on campus, group activities, and guest speakers. While most of these activities will be geared toward helping us think about the course topic—and helping you complete your websites—we will also discuss how to clearly and creatively communicate our research findings to others, particularly through the web. In other words, we will consider how to use different verbal and visual communication strategies in order to create interesting and effective websites that highlight the research that you complete during the quarter.

Click here to view the criteria required for the student projects.

COURSE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This course was made possible due to the assistance of the Freshman Cluster Program, Center for Digital Humanities, University Archives, UCLA Alumni Association, College Library Instructional Computing Commons, UCLA English Department, and UCLA History Project.

Special thanks to our guest speakers: Darryl Johnson ’70, Ann Rieber Plauzoles ‘67, Roz Scherer ’76, Rick Tuttle M.A. ‘64, Ph.D. ’75, and Ed Kezirian ’75. John Sandbrook ‘72 visited our course twice and generously met and corresponded with many students on an individual basis. University Archivist Charlotte Brown provided crucial research assistance and thoughtfully met with each student about his/her website project. Keith Brant '83 M.A. '88 Ph.D. '95, Dario Bravo, Mike Cohn ‘87 MA ‘97, Marina Dundjerski '94, Michael Falcone ‘03, Marilyn Gray, Greg Kendrick, Kathleen McHugh, Christopher Mott Ph.D. '91, Robert Watson, and Marci Weisblatt '90 also provided much help with the planning of this course and/or website.

For more information about UC history, visit the University of California Digital Archives.

Instructor: Melanie Ho, melanieh at ucla.edu