GSIs have undertaken a wide variety of projects in the sections they teach using funding from the GSI Center. For information about applying for a grant, please see the Course Improvement Grants page.
Spring 2016
Fall 2015
Spring 2015
Fall 2014
Spring 2014
Fall 2013
Spring 2013
Fall 2012
Spring 2012
Fall 2011
Spring 2011
Fall 2010
Spring 2010
Fall 2009
Spring/Summer 2009
Fall 2008
Spring 2008
Spring 2007
Fall 2006
Spring 2006
Fall 2005
Spring 2005
Fall 2004
Spring/Summer 2004
Spring 2016
GSI: Jingyi Zhu
Course: Art Practice: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Appropriative Photography and Field Trip to Oakland Museum
Number of Students: 22
Project Description
Jingyi used the funds from the Course Improvement grant to bring three guest speakers to introduce their artwork to the class. The course was structured around three projects that corresponded with three themes, and the guest speakers each helped students to develop their understanding of one of the course themes. In addition to the guest speakers, Jingyi brought students to the Oakland Museum to see the “Unearthed” exhibition. During the visit students had the opportunity to spend time looking at two pieces, one from the exhibition and one from the natural history or California history galleries. Students were prompted to choose two objects that could swap places and were asked to think about the difference between an art object and a cultural artifact, and to consider how the boundaries might blur depending on the context in which the object is shown.
Fall 2015
GSI: Vianney Gavilanes
Course: Ed 188: Latin@s and Education: Critical Issues and Perspectives
Project Title: Decolonial and Legal Perspectives on Latino Education
Number of Students: 27
Project Description
Vianney used the funds from her Course Improvement Grant to bring two guest speakers to the course to talk about perspectives on Latino education. The first speaker, an artist and Cal alum, shared her personal journey in/through decolonial education and how her art as been both a tool and medium for/of activism, self-love, and community education. After her talk the students also participated in a hands-on activity where they engaged with ideas of fragmentation and wholeness in the context of the residual effects of a colonial education experienced particularly by Latin@s in the U.S. The second guest speaker was a lawyer, and alum from Boalt School of Law, who talked about the potential ramifications if education were to become a constitutional right in the United States; this guest speaker helped students to further contextualize the complexity of the course unit on The Crisis in Latino Education.
GSI: Emily Laskin and Matthew Kendall
Course: Slavic Languages & Literatures, Russian 3 and 4
Project Title: Class Trip and Discussion of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Emily and Matt brought their Russian 3 and 4 classes to a production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at Zellerbach Hall; following the performance the two classes met together to discuss the play. Russian 3 students found the group discussion to be challenging and confidence-inspiring, and Russian 4 students found that acting out the text and thinking about it with other students greatly enriched the grammatical and stylistic themes the class had teased out of the assigned reading. Many students found that the project provided welcome relief from the usual textbook routine and helped to reinvigorate their excitement about the course.
Spring 2015
GSI: Tanja Geis
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Guest Speakers and Exhibition Entry
Number of Students: 20
Project Description
Tanja used the funds from her Course Improvement Grant to bring three artists to talk to students in her section about themes covered in Introduction to Visual Thinking. Students had the opportunity to engage conversationally with successful practicing artists; this offered them a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s motivation, work practice, and career trajectory — much of which is all too often invisible in final artwork.
GSI: Juliana Chow
Course: R1B Reading & Composition: Regions
Project Title: Riveting Regions – Historical Guide to San Quentin
Number of Students: 15
Project Description
Juliana brought her students on a field trip designed to complement the literary texts from her course; she used the funds from her Course Improvement Grant to provide an honorarium for a historical guided tour of San Quentin. Students researched a keyword beforehand and presented their research during the field trip at the different sites they visited. In this way the field trip became a performative experience of “region,” which bolstered student learning about the topic of the course.
Fall 2014
GSI: Alani Hicks-Bartlett
Course: Gender & Women’s Studies 195: Senior Thesis Seminar
Project Title: Feminist Production: Trip to See “Rapture, Blister, Burn”
Number of Students: 21
Project Description
Alani brought her students to the Aurora Theater Company’s production of the feminist playwright Gina Gionfriddo’s “Rapture, Blister, Burn”; after the play the students attended a “talk-back” with members of the cast and production. The play allowed students to further ponder questions related to their work as Gender & Women’s Studies majors, and related specifically to the thesis topics of many of the students in the course.
GSI: Michelle Ott
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Visiting Artist Lectures and Workshops
Number of Students: 20
Project Description
Michelle brought two visiting artists to her class to help students learn about interpreting and understanding the ideas presented in works of art. Students in the class had the opportunity to hear the artists talk about their creative process, and then they participated in hands-on activities that related to the works of art the artists had just shown. The project helped students to open up to the possibility of using broader themes from the world in their art, instead of just focusing on their personal lives as subject matter.
Spring 2014
GSI: Aaron Lee
Course: Astro C10: Introduction to Astronomy for Non-Majors
Project Title: Engaging Students with Hands-On Astronomy
Number of Students: up to 700 students
Project Description
Aaron used funds from his Course Improvement Grant to purchase supplies so that students could perform demonstrations that supplemented course content and recreate demonstrations that they had seen in the large lecture portion of Astro C10. As head GSI, Aaron made the materials available to other GSIs teaching discussion sections so that their students could also benefit from using the models in section. The demonstrations allowed students to interact with one another, to engage in in-depth discussions about the models, and to help them to develop scientific curiosity.
GSI: Erin Greer
Course: English R1B: Are There Stories?
Project Title: Storytelling in Action
Number of Students: 13
Project Description
Erin’s students began the class by reading Walter Benjamin’s “The Storyteller,” which suggests that storytelling was nearly dead by the mid-20th century. Through her course improvement grant Erin was able to bring two guest speakers to her class to show that storytelling is “alive and well in contemporary American society.” These visits gave students firsthand experience with storytellers and provided a chance for them to analyze new material using the theoretical works they had learned about in the course.
Fall 2013
GSI: Jessica Ling
Course: English R1A: The Way We Read Now
Project Title: UC Press Roundtable
Number of Students: 19
Project Description
Jessica’s course asked her students to think about how the book came to dominate the way we read, the status of reading today, and the potential future of the book in the digital age. For this project Jessica brought two editors from UC Press to talk to her students about book production. The roundtable discussion helped reframe the class’ perspective on the future of the book and raised a number of points that challenged the academic perspectives students had considered in the course.
GSI: Helena Keefe
Course: Art 8: Intro to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Visiting Speakers for Art 8 & Recycled Sketchbooks
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Helena used the funds from her Course Improvement Grant for two purposes: to purchase supplies to make recycled sketchbooks with her students, and to bring three Bay Area artists to her course to talk about their work. The visiting artists gave students the opportunity to directly interact with working artists and to learn about their careers. Making sketchbooks from recycled materials gave students a sense of investment in the product of their work and students consistently used these books to take notes and sketch ideas during lectures and section.
GSI: Jessica Hankey
Course: Art 8: Intro to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Visiting Speakers & Film Screening
Number of Students: 15
Project Description
Jessica screened a film in her class and brought two artists and a lecturer to speak to her students. The two artists spoke to the class about their work in sculpture and drawing, answered questions, and met individually with students to discuss their projects. The third visitor, who coincided with a unit on time-based practice, led the students in a first-hand experience of meditation that served as inspiration for their final projects on landscapes of the mind. Finally, Jessica arranged a screening of The Act of Killing, which complemented course discussions about how art can complicate our understanding of the world by serving as an example of how narrative film can raise questions through storytelling.
Spring 2013
GSI: Tony Lin
Course: Slavic Languages and Literatures R5A: Music and Literature: Transpositions
Project Title: Listening to Music More Attentively
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
As part of Tony’s course his students read Russian literature, listened to music based on the texts, and then discussed the relationships between the two. Tony used his Course Improvement Grant to take students to a performance of Stravinsky and Shostakovich given by UC Berkeley’s University Symphony. During a discussion immediately after the concert, students learned about each other’s experiences of the performance and practiced the music vocabulary they had learned in the course.
GSI: Zachary Johnson
Course:Slavic Languages and Literatures R5B: Narrative and Desire
Project Title:Film Screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo at Berkeley BAM/PFA
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Since interpretations of Hitchcock’s Vertigo related strongly to the themes of Zachary’s R&C course, he brought his students to view the film at BAM/PFA. Seeing the film in a theater instead of in a classroom both introduced students to BAM/PFA as a cultural resource on campus, and intensified their emotional experience of seeing the film in a communal atmosphere. After seeing the film, students read a scholarly article about the film and then had a discussion about literary devices such as “point of view” and “focalization” using their experience from the viewing of the film.
GSI: Jessica Kaiser
Course:Near Eastern Studies 102B: Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
Project Title:Poster Presentation Mini Conference
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Jessica used the funds from her grant to purchase poster display boards for use in a mini-conference she conducted in her course. During the mini-conference students each presented a poster that displayed their proposal for a new angle for study of an archaeological site in Egypt. The interactive poster sessions encouraged students to present their big picture ideas and then to field questions from their colleagues about their research design.
GSI: Serena Trac Anh Le
Course: English R1B: The Sonic Artifact
Project Title: Field Trip to AUDIUM
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Serena and her students attended a “sound sculpture” performance at the AUDIUM theatre in San Francisco. Before attending the performance Serena’s students read pieces that traced over a century of literary engagements with sound. The field trip allowed students the opportunity to challenge their typical expectations and experiences related to sound. Students were asked to write about their experiences at AUDIUM, which they then posted to the course website and discussed in class.
Fall 2012
GSI: Drucilla Anderson
Course: Art Practice 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Artist Lectures/Workshop
Number of Students: 25
Project Description
Drucilla invited six artists in various stages of their artistic careers to discuss their art practice and techniques, to display their work, and to talk about how they fund their art. Students benefitted from learning about traditional and contemporary art-making and gained knowledge about how to develop their own artistic styles. Two of the visitors were recent Berkeley graduates and their presentations, along with others, helped students to imagine where they might be as artists in the future.
GSI: Bradford Taylor
Course: English R1A: Taste Matters
Project Title: “Cupping” at Blue Bottle Coffee Roasters
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
After finishing a segment of the course in which students learned to understand “taste as a thoroughly historical, constantly changing concept,” Bradford brought his students to Blue Bottle Coffee Roasters in Oakland to experience a traditional “cupping.” The “cupping,” which is similar to wine tasting, helped students to learn how to go beyond likes and dislikes by becoming more attuned to their senses. They were then able to apply what they learned in developing an understanding of how taste is shaped by culture, geography, and biology.
GSI: Chloe Kitzinger
Course: Slavic 4
Project Title: Class Trip to see the film Anna Karenina
Number of Students: 4
Project Description
In Chloe’s intermediate language course students read an excerpt from Tolstoy’s novel and then attended a showing of the new American film version of Anna Karenina. The film helped students to place the excerpt they read into context within the plot of the whole novel, sparked interest in the novel more generally, and allowed Chloe to begin a conversation with students about how the novel has been adapted for other media.
Spring 2012
GSI: Lauren Naturale
Course: English R1B
Project Title:”Cult of Beauty” at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Lauren’s students took a field trip to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to see “The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860-1900” as part of their R&C course on late Victorian literature. This experience brought to life the products of the aesthetic movement students learned about in class and enhanced their understanding of the theory they had been studying during the semester. Lauren prepared her students so that they could attend the exhibit with an understanding of the cultural context of the art and a tool-kit of skills to help them interpret what they saw.
Fall 2011
GSI: Frank Marquez-Leonard
Course: Art Practice 8: Intro to Visual Thinking
Project Title: Young Emerging Artists Talk
Number of Students: 26
Project Description
Frank’s students were able to learn more about the professional production of art through a series of talks with three young emerging artists. Corinna Brewer, Miguel Arzabe, and Garrett McLean — three artists working in different mediums and in different stages of their careers — spoke with Frank’s students about their “creative and content experiences” as a supplement to his curriculum in Intro to Visual Thinking.
GSI: Chia-Yi Seetoo
Course: Theater R1A: Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
Project Title: Seeing Faustin Liyekula/Studio Kabakos Performance at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Chia-Yi and her students experienced Faustin Linyekula’s Studio Kabakos experimental production of “more, more, more…future” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Combined with supplemental course readings, a viewing of the documentary film Movement (R)evolution Africa and a post-performance class session with the international choreographer Byb Chancel Bibene, the performance challenged Chia-Yi’s students to “[expand] their experiential and intellectual horizons” and “[deepen] their understanding and appreciation of contemporary African dance as well as ‘performance’ in general.”
GSI: Gammeron Girvin
Course: Slavic 27A: Introductory Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
Project Title: Goran Bregovic Concert
Number of Students: 5
Project Description
In an effort to combine language learning with an introduction to the music and culture of the Balkans, Cammeron’s students attended a performance by Goran Bregovic and his orchestra at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA. Prior to the performance, students in Cammeron’s Introduction to Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian were introduced to Bregovic and his music through background research projects and innovative linguistic and listening activities that developed their foreign language skills. Bringing the language and culture to life through Bregovic’s performance “visibly raised student interest in learning more about the language and culture of the former Yugoslavia.
Spring 2011
GSI: Mark Andrew Kelly
Course: ED 11A: An Introduction to Freehand Drawing
Project Title: Forms of Expression
Number of Students: 86
Project Description
The students of Environment Design 11A: An Introduction to Freehand Drawing were able to visit the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum and view an exhibition on drawings from The Economist magazine over the past 60 years and a complete collection of Warner Brothers animation stills. This exposure to other drawings and illustrations give the students the “opportunity to evaluate and assess the success of other professionals in hand-drawing.” As the students are required to construct a portfolio of their work at the end of the course and the museum visit allowed the students to “see a professional standard of work, composed with creativity, originality and care.” Ideally the drawings and techniques on display at the museum inspire the students to bring the same standards to their own work.
GSI: Margaret Rhee
Course: Asian American Studies R2B: Reading and Composition
Project Title: Beyond the Page: Embodied and Participatory Experience of Asian American Literature
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Margaret’s students were able to experience several performances of Asian American and ethnic literary works through her “Beyond the Page” course improvement grant. Poet and Mills College professor Barbara Jane Reyes made two visits to the class to read her poetry with student from the course; performance artist and UC Davis professor Alex Luu performed a short excerpt of a performance piece; and Margaret’s students also attended a production of Anna Deavere Smith’s play “Let Me Down Easy” at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Additionally, the course students held a reading at the end of the summer session at University Press Books and many of the students were able to share their work with the public. By demonstrating “the experiential quality of literature,” Margaret was able to “provide crucial opportunities to enhance critical thinking, writing, and learning skills for [her] students.”
GSI: Rosa Martinez
Course: English R1B: Racial and Queer Passing in American Literature and Culture
Project Title:The Script, the Performance, and the Playwright: Philip Kan Gotanda’s “I Dream of Chang & Eng” at the Zellerbach Playhouse
Number of Students: 18
Project Description
Rosa’s students attended a production of Philip Kan Gotanda’s play “I Dream of Chang and Eng” at the Zellerbach Playhouse. and the playwright also visited Rosa’s class shortly after the performance to discuss the writing and directing of scenes as they relate to the lives his play’s main characters, Chang and Eng Bunker. The reimagining of these characters is contrasted with another literary depiction of the Bunkers, Mark Twain’s “Siamese Twins.” Studying these literary adaptations in conjunction with a more historical narrative, students are able to explore the collective imagination of 19th Century America on such issues are race, racial passing, ethnicity, and immigration.
Fall 2010
GSI: Brian Gillis
Course: English R1A: Alcatraz
Project Title: Examining Alcatraz Island
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
As a supplement to his reading and composition course on the treatment of Alcatraz in 20th-century American film and literature, Brian organized a class trip to the notorious island to see the historical buildings and landscape first-hand. As Brian explains, the goal of the experience is to help his students contextualize the history and historical significance of the island in their own research and writing.
GSI: Juliana Chow
Course: English R1A: 19th-Century American Literature and the Aesthetic Turn to Natural History
Project Title: The Marvelous Museum: Representing Natural History
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Juliana and her students toured the “Marvelous Museum” exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California as a part of their course, 19th-Century American Literature and the Aesthetic Turn to Natural History. The museum tour and exhibit allowed the students to apply the knowledge they had gained throughout the semester, especially in terms of synthesizing the representation of nature and people in 19th-century American writings. As a follow-up to the museum visit, Juliana had her students undertake a freewriting exercise where they responded to the “Marvelous Museum” exhibit and analyzed an object or installation — connecting their own ideas and theories to the course materials.
Spring/Summer 2010
GSI: Jennifer Gipson
Course Title: The Cultures of Franco-America
Project Title: Cajun and Zydeco: Sights and Sounds of French Louisiana
Number of Students: 8
Project Description
Jennifer’s course improvement grant allowed her to purchase course materials — books, CDs, and a DVD not currently in the library collections — allowing her to bring the history and development of Cajun and Zydeco music alive for the students of her Cultures of Franco-America summer course. Her students also adopted songs from the course and researched their “origins, evolution, and recording history and then present [their] song to the class.”
GSI: Charles Legere
Course: English R1B: Green Reading
Project title: Nature’s Avatar / Avatar’s Nature
Number of Students: 18
Project Description
Charles used his course grant to take his class to a screening of the science fiction-fantasy film “Avatar,” which touched on several ideas explored in the course: representations of the natural world, humans in natural landscapes, and environmental justice. Follow-up homework assignments and in-class discussions analyzed the film to prepare students to think through their final paper topic, the “future of nature.”
GSI: Daniel Brooks
Course: Slavic Languages 1: Elementary Russian
Project title: Russian Language Through Chekhov in Literature and Film
Number of Students: 19
Project Description
Daniel’s students attended a screening of the film “Lady with a Dog” that is part of the Pacific Film Archive’s “Celebrating Chekhov” series. Not only did the students gain a greater appreciation of Chekhov but the film supplemented the Russian language learning exercises that were central to Daniel’s course. The film screening also dovetailed well with the capstone project for the course, which is to write a brief screenplay for the Russian silent film “Bed and Sofa.” After viewing “Lady with a Dog,” and paired with other activities throughout the semester, Daniel’s students would become “better equipped to write their screenplays, in which they [would] not only demonstrate their enhanced knowledge of Russian grammar and the breadth of their vocabulary, but … also show that they are capable of writing narratologically complex stories and cohesive descriptions of actions and emotions.”
Fall 2009
GSI: Celine Piser
Course: IJS39A: Jewish American Literature
Project title: The Modernization of American Jewry
Number of Students: 12
Project Description
Celine brought her students to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco to see the exhibit “Jews in Vinyl” and to attend a lecture by Professor Ted Merwin. Professor Merwin’s talk focused on “the way culture, food and identity converged to create a new public profile for American Jews,” and the exhibit showed students how Jewish culture influenced twentieth century American popular music and culture. The class also explored the exhibit “There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak,” which revealed the “hidden stories” of the Holocaust and childhood fears in Sendak’s work, and added to class readings on Jewish American literature.
Fall 2009
GSI: Celine Piser
Course: IJS39A: Jewish American Literature
Project title: The Modernization of American Jewry
Number of Students: 12
Project Description
Celine brought her students to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco to see the exhibit “Jews in Vinyl” and to attend a lecture by Professor Ted Merwin. Professor Merwin’s talk focused on “the way culture, food and identity converged to create a new public profile for American Jews,” and the exhibit showed students how Jewish culture influenced twentieth century American popular music and culture. The class also explored the exhibit “There’s a Mystery There: Sendak on Sendak,” which revealed the “hidden stories” of the Holocaust and childhood fears in Sendak’s work, and added to class readings on Jewish American literature.
GSI: Margarita Zaydman
Course: Comparative Literature R1B: Moving Parts
Project title: Dress Rehearsal of Verdi’s ‘Otello’ at SF Opera
Number of Students: 34
Project Description
Margarita used funds from a Course Improvement Grant to attend the San Francisco Opera’s Teacher Development Workshop and then to bring her students to the San Francisco Opera’s dress rehearsal of Verdi’s “Otello.” Before attending the opera, students spent three weeks reading and discussing Shakespeare’s “Othello” in class. In addition to grappling with Shakespeare’s original, they both created and critiqued a variety of film and theatrical performances, addressing questions of generic adaptation and historical context while acquiring the terminology for analyzing different art forms. After attending the dress rehearsal students reflected on how the artistic choices made by Verdi and the performers contributed to a unique reading of Shakespeare’s play, and how, in turn, Verdi’s reading influenced their own. Many went on to compose final papers and multimedia projects inspired by these reflections. The handful of students who had previously been to the Opera admitted to sleeping through it, so this was a novel experience for the entire class in terms of exposure as well as engagement. Everyone was grateful that the grant made such an exciting opportunity possible.
Spring/Summer 2009
GSI: Jessica Shade
Course: IB 117L: Medical Ethnobotany Lab
Project title: Lip Balm and Salve Making Workshop
Number of Students: 80
Project Description
Jessica used funds from a Course Improvement Grant to purchase supplies to be used in a “Lip Balm and Salve Making Workshop.” Before the workshop, students visited the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden to observe the plants that are involved in salve-making; they then sketched these plants in their lab notebooks. Seeing the plants in a real-world context gave students concrete examples of the botanical origins of the products they would use in the workshop. Following their trip to the Botanical Garden, students participated in a kinesthetic and tactile “Lip Balm and Salve Making Workshop” where they worked with ingredients such as shae butter, coconut butter, sweet almond oil and olive oil to make their own lip balms and salves. Each student was able to take a jar of balm home with them as a reminder of the project. This project provided an applied example of the uses of medicinal plants, linking the conceptual employment of botanicals to the finished medicinal products available in most pharmacies.
GSIs: Yolanda Anyon and Jennifer Morazes
Course: Social Welfare 280: Introduction to Social Welfare Research
Project title: Making the Research-Practice Connection to Improve Student Engagement and Comprehension
Number of Students: 75
Project Description
Jennifer and Yolanda invited three guest lecturers to their classes to help students understand how social work research informs future professional practice. Students were more likely at the end of the course — after hearing the three speakers — to see the value of learning about research as part of their social work training. Many students described important links between research and their professional interests working in health, mental health, with children and families, and gerontology.
GSI: Alani Rosa Hicks-Bartlett
Course: Italian R5A
Project title: Miss Julie Theater Outing
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Alani brought her students to a performance and discussion of “Miss Julie” at the Aurora Theater Company in Berkeley after studying the play in class. The trip to the theater allowed students to engage with themes from the class in a new context. The project benefited 16 students, many of whom were attending a theatrical production for the first time. The experience facilitated discussion, analysis and critique of both the written play and the live performance, and the students were unanimous in their enthusiasm and appreciation for the opportunity.
GSI: Elizabeth Stokkebye
Course title: Nordic Female Rebels and their Legacy
Project title: Miss Julie Performance
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Elizabeth brought her students to a performance of “Miss Julie” at the Aurora Theater Company in Berkeley after reading the play in her class. Seeing the play in person allowed Elizabeth’s students to think more about Miss Julie’s status as a rebel. In the words of one of Elizabeth’s students, “Seeing ‘Miss Julie’ live was crucial in helping me fully understand the characters and intention of the author.”
GSI: Catherine Cronquist Browning
Course title: The Confessing Animal
Project title: Interfaith Panel on Confession
Number of Students: 18
Project Description
In order to give students a broader perspective on the topic of confession, Catherine assembled a panel of five representatives from different faiths to talk to her “The Confessing Animal” class about their personal thoughts on confession and what confession means within their faith traditions. Students reported that the panel gave them a richer, more complete understanding of the role that confession and penitence play in a variety of major religious traditions. In the words of one student respondent, the panel helped “put a face and personality” to the religious traditions that we were studying based on primary and secondary documentary sources in class.
GSI: Jilllian Porter
Course title: Plot and its Discontents
Project title: Readers’ Theater: Crime and Punishment on Stage
Number of Students: 16
Project Description
Jillian brought her students to a performance of “Crime and Punishment” at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Before attending the theater performance Jillian’s students read Crime and Punishment and engaged in a “Readers’ Theater” classroom activity in which they worked in small groups to convert a portion of the book into a theatrical script, which they then read aloud for the class. After attending the play, students discussed it in relation to Bakhtin’s classic theory of Dostoevskian dialogism, considering whether and how the playwrights may be engaging with this theory in their adaptation of Crime and Punishment.
Fall 2008
GSIs: Karen Spira and Suzanne Scala
Course title: Social Fiction, Social Fact
Project title: August Wilson’s Socially Engaged Theater
Number of Students: 34
Project Description
Karen and Suzanne brought their students to a production of August Wilson’s play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This along with specially designed classroom learning activities emphasized how literature and performance comment on social and political issues, in this case early twentieth-century, post-slavery America.
GSI: Jasper Bernes
Course title: Literature and the City
Project title: Buried Treasure Island and the Bay Area Research Group in Enviro-Aesthetics
Number of Students: 14
Project Description
Jasper invited local conceptual artist David Buuck to his class to discuss his recent public art project, Buried Treasure Island, on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The talk helped students make connections between experiences of the city, artistic movements, and literature.
GSIs: Kristin Dickinson and Jason Vivrette
Course: Turkish 1A
Project title: Music and Multiculturalism in Istanbul
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Kristin and Jason brought their students to view the documentary film Crossing the Bridge by Fatih Akin to broaden their exposure to multiple cultural traditions and perspectives of Turkish society.
GSI: Lucas Stratton
Course: Slavic 1
Project title: Russian Bazaar in San Francisco
Number of Students: 19
Project Description
Lucas brought his students to a Holiday Concert Bazaar at the San Francisco Russian Center to give them a personal experience with Russian people, food, crafts, and music.
Spring 2008
GSI: Nathaniel Dumas
Course: Anthropology 3AC: Introduction to Global American Anthropology
Project title: Anthropology in/of the Contemporary World
Number of Students: 27
Project Description
Nate ordered a class subscription to Newsweek magazine as source material, on which his class could apply the techniques of anthropological inquiry. Students were responsible for selecting their cases to study, and the diversity of examples culled from the Newsweek magazines, promoted collaborative engagement between the students and the instructor. The project overall strengthened students abilities to apply anthropological concepts to contemporary problems and promoted an appreciation of critical thinking practices.
GSI: Katrina Dodson
Course: Comparative Literature R1B: Word and World
Project title: “Curse of the Starving Class” Theater Outing
Number of Students: 27
Project Description
To bring students in contact with literature outside the classroom, Katrina’s grant sponsored a class visit to the see Curse of the Starving Class at the American Conservatory Theater. Preparations to see the play included an acting workshop for the students to understand how an actor watches live theater. The visit included participation in a discussion with the ACT actors and dramaturge.
GSI: Marguerite Nguyen
Course: English R1B: News and Literary Forms
Project title: Maps and Power
Number of students: 18
Project Description
Marguerite invited visual artist Lordy Rodriguez to lead a workshop on deconstructing cultural ideologies found in the visual cues of contemporary media. Marguerite and Lordy first contextualized how everyday images act as maps that guide societal desires, politics, and one’s sense of self. Using magazine advertisements, students evaluated one product’s campaign and isolated the various visual cues that advertisement invoked (e.g. wealth, hipness, leisure, gender normativity etc). Lastly, students mined magazine images to create independent collages as a way of replying to the original advertisment’s symbology.
GSI: Terri-lynn Tanaka
Course: Near East Asian/Religious Studies C104: Bablyonian Religion
Project title: Clothing the Gods: Textile Production in Mesopotamia
Number of Students: 28
Project Description
As a way to bring ancient Mesopotamian culture to life, Terri-lynn designed a hands-on lesson plan in which students learn how to spin yarn on homemade spindles. Mesopotamian gods required both food and clothing, making allocation of time and effort to produce these necessities central to Mesopotamian temple life. Students experienced first hand the magnitude of the task of spinning and weaving garments for temple personnel and for the gods.
GSI: Jason Vivrette
Course: Near East Asian / Arabic 1B: Elementary Arabic
Project title: Teaching Arabic Conditionals and the Conditions of Arab Realities
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Jason brought his class to the San Francisco International Film Festival’s screening of the Jordanian documentary “Recycle” as way to reinforce his students’ comprehension of Modern Standard Arabic. At the screening, students were introduced to the film’s maker and had the opportunity to ask him questions. The film also broadened students’ understanding of social issues facing contemporary Arab communities in countries like Jordan.
GSI: Michelle Baron
Course: Theater, Dance & Performance Studies R1B: Representing
Queer Identities in Theater and Film
Project title: Live Queer Theater
Number of Students: 31
Project Description
Michelle brought her class to the New Conservatory Theater in San Francisco to view a staging of I am My Own Wife, which won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. Not only did Michelle want to deepen her students’ connection to the text, but she also introduced her class to queer and queer-themed theater and to the Bay Area’s important role in supporting it.
Spring 2007
GSI: Celeste Henrickson
Course: Anthropology 131: Archaeological Science
Project title: Building a Lifetime Learning Agenda in the Classroom
Number of Students: 18
Project Description
Sensing the need for archaeology students to gain hands-on experience with collecting and identifying geologic samples, Celeste augmented her course with sections that introduce her students to geologic concepts. The rock collections and test kits that she acquired for her project benefit not only her current students, but also future students in the archeology department.
GSI: Karen Alexandra Spira
Course: Comparative Literature R1B: Books with Motives
Project title: A Night at the Theater
Number of Students: 32
Project Description
As part of her course in exploring the different kinds of experiences literature can create, Karen and her co-instructor Ruth took their students to see a live performance of After the War, a play by Gotanda about the impact of Japanese internment in the aftermath of WWII. In preparation for the play, her students researched the playwright and the play and spent the section after the play discussing their impressions. Students additionally participated in an online discussion, using bSpace*, in which they critiqued the play. For a number of students, this was their first experience with professional theater. The play animated many of the concepts students had discussed in class, as well as introduced students to the rich cultural offerings of the Bay Area.
*bSpace was the predecessor to bCourses.
GSI: Luis Ramos
Course: Comparative Literature 60AC: Culture Clash: Incommensurability in Migrant Narrative
Project title: Reading Incommensurability On Screen: The Namesake
Number of Students: 25
Project Description
Luis took his students to the see the film The Namesake, an adaptation of the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, as part of their ongoing discussions of issues of cross-cultural encounters. His students compared the screen adaptation to the novel, and discussed the perspective on immigration offered by the film and those by other texts they had read in the class. Luis also asked students to examine how the film offers a different perspective from other texts examined in class by factoring into their critical purview the ways that categories of race, gender, and class shape the film’s overall portrayal of immigrant lives.
GSI: Maya Fisher
Course: Comparative Literature 41D: Performing Gender
Project title: Tickets to Theatrical Performance
Number of Students: 13
Project Description
In her entry-level course on drama with a focus on performing gender, Maya took her students to a live performance of the musical The Gay Divorce. In addition to examining typical gender roles, role-playing, and identity confusion, her students discussed the differences between reading and viewing dramatic texts and drew connections to the other dramas they studied in the course. Through an essay question in the final exam and questions on the course evaluation form, Maya assessed both her students’ grasp of the material and the success of her project.
GSI: Jeremy Ecke
Course: English R1A: Facing West From California’s Shores
Project title: Watershed Ethics: Documenting Strawberry Creek
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Jeremy incorporated photography into his R1A course by leading his students on a documentary photography project of Strawberry Creek. The course explored the parallelism between photographic and textual framing, examining the rich literary tradition of nature writing through the concepts of bioregionalisn and watershed ethics. His students’ efforts resulted in a photography collection as part of the Strawberry Creek Cleanup project. The collection will be housed in the Marian Koshland Bioscience & Natural Resources Library.
GSIs: Daniel Graham and Jessica Lage
Course: Geography 130: Natural Resources and Population
Project title: Community Consequences of Gold Mining in Honduras
Number of Students: 125
Project Description
In a course that explores the complex interrelationships between human and natural systems, Daniel and Jessica brought three guest speakers with extensive experience with the mining industry in Honduras to their classroom. The students prepared for the speakers’ visit through readings, discussion, and a special lecture by the GSIs. In their term papers, students connected the guest lectures to the themes of the course.
GSI: Vesna Rodic
Course: R1B: Reading and Writing about Visual Experience
Project title: Visit to the SF MOMA for a study of Picasso and American Art
Number of Students: 14
Project Description
In her introductory course in the field of visual studies, Vesna took her students to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to see the exhibit “Picasso and American Art.” The visit reinforced the students’ understanding of Picasso’s work and its historical context. This deeper understanding is reflected in their journal entries where they compared a work discussed in class to one they saw in the museum. In the same journal, her students also identified the kinds of critical and analytical skills that they were able to practice in the museum that they otherwise did not experience in class.
GSIs: Aubrey Gilbert and Bradley Voytek
Course: Integrative Biology 245L: Functional Neuroanatomy Lab
Project title: Neuroanatomy Enrichment
Number of Students: 28
Project Description
Aubrey and Bradley added a number of innovations to their neuroanatomy class. Their students not only were aided visually in their understanding of the brain through illustrations in the Netter Neuroscience Flashcards, but they also gained hands-on understanding of the brain structure by molding the brain using multi-colored clay. Moreover, they also visited the UCSF Medical Center to speak with a neuropathologist and to witness a cerebral autopsy.
Students’ comments:
“I love the hands-on experience on diagnosing neuropathologies — very useful!’
“It was fun and forced me to learn structure, yay!”
“[The clay modeling] reinforced structural understanding and orientation.”
“See how neuroanatomy is exactly applied in the real world.”
“So very cool. Dr. Tihan was really approachable and encouraging.”
“Dr. Chen’s lecture made me realize how much I learned and how much I want to be a neurologist.”
GSI: Greggor Mattson
Course: Sociology of Prostitution
Project title: Illustrating SF’s Prostitution History
Number of Students: 24
Project Description
To give his students a better understanding of the current issues surrounding sex workers, Greggor invited a speaker to talk to his students about her work with the St. James Infirmary in San Francisco. In a related project not supported by the grant, Greggor gave his students a walking tour of the 19th century prostitution sites in San Francisco. In a short paper following the projects, his students integrated what they learned from the guest lecture and the walking tour into the course.
GSI: Gita V. Pai
Course: South & Southeast Asian Studies R5B: India in the Writer’s Mind
Project title: Movie Tickets to The Namesake
Number of Students: 22
Project Description
As part of their course on the nature of South Asian diaspora, Gita took her students to view the movie The Namesake, adapted from a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. In response to the movie, her students drew comparisons not only to the novel, but also to other readings and documentaries about the East Indian immigrant experience.
Student’s comment:
“It was nice to see the themes we read about and discussed portrayed in a different form of media, and in many ways film is more easily accessible.I think watching movies and reading works that closely relate makes both experiences more meaningful, because while I absorbed more details and understood themes more deeply by reading The Namesake,I felt like I was physically closer to the characters when I saw them on the big screen in front of me.”
Fall 2006
GSI: Kara Hearn
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Guest Artist Speakers
Number of Students: 25
Project Description
Kara invited three practicing artists working in different media to speak to her students. In preparation for each speaker her students wrote a short statement of what they wanted to learn from the guest artist, and afterwards they noted in their sketchbooks what they found interesting and/or problematic about the artists with regard to materials, content, concept, technique, and process.
GSI: Sophia Wang
Course: English R1A: Reading and Composition: Image and Text: Visual Reading
Project title: Aurora Theatre Company’s Production of Wilde’s Salome
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
In exploring the relationship between visual culture and textual works of art, Sophia took her students to a theatrical performance of Wilde’s play Salome. Her students prepared for the theater performance through three discussion sessions and their online discussion forums, and they evaluated the performance by writing a critical analysis of the production’s response to the written work.
GSI’s comment: “Students reported being surprised by the humor in Wilde’s writing which the performance made evident, and were motivated to reconsider their initial assessment of the play’s narrative after experiencing nuanced portrayals of characters who had seemed unsympathetic in our reading and discussion of the play. I now feel that attending a live performance is an indispensable part of studying dramatic writing, and will incorporate this kind of experience in future classes — even if it means we have to perform the play ourselves!”
GSI: Penelope Anderson
Course: English R1A: Reading and Composition: Reason is but choosing: Ethical
Dilemmas and Literary Form
Project title: Ethical Dilemmas and Visual Art: Anselm Kiefer
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Penelope took her students to the “Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth” exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as they explored ethical dilemmas in her composition course. She arranged for a docent-guided tour at the museum; in preparation, the students each prepared two or three questions for the docent and articulated their expectations for the trip. As part of the visit, the students chose one piece of art to study in detail, which they later analyzed in an in-class essay.
GSI’s comment: “Many students named this trip as their favorite part of the course, citing the exposure to modern art (many of them had never been to a modern art museum before) and the way it helped them, as visual learners,
to consider course materials from a new perspective. The trip also helped me to interact with my students in a different way: both in the tour and in informal conversations afterward, we shared in the discovery of something that was new to all of us.”
GSI: Hélène Bilis-Gruson
Course: French 4: Special Section
Project title: French Presidential Election
Number of Students: 18
Project Description
Recognizing past students’ interest in cultural and political events relating to contemporary France, Helene created a special section of French 4 in Spring 2007 that focused on the French Presidential Election. Her course was designed with both textual, audio, and visual material to help students understand the events surrounding national election in France.
GSI: Corinne Reich-Weiser
Course: Mechanical Engineering 101: High-Mix Low-Volume Manufacturing
Project title: Manufacturing with Legos
Number of Students: 31
Project Description
Corinne’s students gained hands-on experience with manufacturing authorization techniques by simulating an assembly line in a “lego factory.’ They learned about the techniques prior to the project through lectures and homework assignments, and provided direct feedback on how to improve the simulation as it occurred and afterwards.
GSI: Kathryn Schild
Course: Slavic 1: Beginning Russian
Project title: The Moscow Circus: v tsirke
Number of Students: 17
Project Description
Kathryn enriched her students’ experience with Russian with a performance by the Moscow Circus. Her students learned circus and theater-related vocabulary in class and were able to discuss the logistics of the performance in Russian. After the performance, they followed up with discussions in class, a guest presentation on the role of the circus in Russian culture, and an essay titled In the Circus about how life is like in a Russian circus. This excursion motivated communication and served as a foundation for various grammatical and lexical elements, but it was also a great bonding opportunity which improved the tenor of class discussions for the rest of the semester.
Spring 2006
GSI: Jonn Herschend
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Guest Artist Speakers
Number of Students: 20
GSI: Jaime Cortez
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Guest Artist Speakers and Visit to the Asian Art Museum
Number of Students: 28
GSI: Stephen Katz
Course: English R-50: Stylin’
Project title: Dave Brubeck Quartet
Number of Students: 17
GSI: Elizabeth Carter
Course: Political Science 147: Domestic Politics of Western Europe
Project title: Engaging with British Political Attitudes
Number of Students: 55
Fall 2005
GSI: Kenneth Lo
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Guest Artist Speakers
Number of Students: 18
GSI: Dori Aspuru-Takata
Course: English R1A: Reading and Composition: Reading and Writing About Visual Experience: Art and Collaboration
Project title: Confronting Art: The Winter’s Tale
Number of Students: 17
GSI: Leslie Walton
Course: English R1A: Reading and Composition: Adapting the Nineteenth Century
Project title: Pride and Prejudice Tickets
Number of Students: 16
GSI: Bibiana Obler
Course: History of Art R1B: Reading and Composition: Reading and Writing about Visual Experience: Art and Collaboration
Project title: Author in Person: Tirza Latimer and Excursion to SFMOMA
Number of Students: 17
GSI: Kendra Willson
Course: Scandinavian R5B: Ghosts
Project title: Finn in the Underworld at the Berkeley Rep
Number of Students: 17
Spring 2005
GSI: James Gaylord
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Visiting Artists
Number of Students: 25
GSI: Selby Schwartz
Course: Comparative Literature 40: Dancing Girl
Project title: Tickets to Performance of Trisha Brown Dance Company
Number of Students: 23
GSI: Naomi Shulman
Course: Comparative Literature R1A: Exotic and Erotic
Project title: Othello Performance by Impact Theatre
Number of Students: 29
GSI: Misa Oyama
Course: English R1B: Reading and Composition: Strange Relationships
Project title: Theater tickets for Caroling or Change
Number of Students: 17
GSI: Allison Pugh
Course: Sociology 190: Interviewing
Project title: Guest Speaker Tabitha Soren
Number of Students: 25
GSI: Mattie Richardson
Course: Women’s Studies 144: Black Diaspora Genders and Sexualities
Project title: Guest Speaker on Black Lesbian Femme Identity and Performance
Number of Students: 40
Fall 2004
GSI: James Gaylord
Course: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Visiting Artists
Number of Students: 20
GSI: Melissa Day
Course title: Art 8: Introduction to Visual Thinking
Project title: Visiting Artists and Field Trip
Number of Students: 25
GSI: Kofi S. Inkabi
Course title: Engineering 36: Engineering Mechanics I
Project title: Application of Hands-On/Interactive Engineering Mechanics
Number of Students: 40
GSI: Rune Storesund
Course: Engineering 36: Engineering Mechanics I
Project title: E-36 – Hands on Project
Number of Students: 39
GSI: Janet Alviso
Course: Engineering 36: Statics
Project title: E36 Statics Course Project
Number of Students: 40
GSI: William Tyson Hausdoerffer
Course: Comparative Literature R1A: Writing (about) Difference in Literature
Project title: Dramatic Mediations: Aeschylus’ Persians in Text and Performance
Number of Students: 34
GSI: Selby Schwartz
Course: Comparative Literature R1B: Women Behind Locked Doors
Project title: Visit to Asian Art Museum’s Geisha Exhibit
Number of Students: 37
GSI: Heidi Saleh
Course: Near Eastern Studies 102A: Archaeology of Egypt
Project Title: Egyptian Opera – Akhnaten
Number of Students: 18
Spring/Summer 2004
GSI: Irene J. Nexica
Course: Chicano Studies 133: Chicano Music
Project title: Course materials and speaker honoraria
Number of Students: 20
GSI: Amelia Borrego
Course: Comparative Literature R1B: Writing Violence
Project title: Art Spiegelman lecture
Number of Students: 40
GSI: Yehoshua Sayar
Course: Comparative Literature 41E: Influence vs Appropriation
Project title: PFA Bergman Festival
Number of Students: 14
GSI: Suzie Park
Course: English R1B: Cyborgs and the Inclusive Embrace of Media
Project title: Robot Stories film
Number of Students: 17
GSI: Luke Clossey
Course: International and Area Studies 45: Survey of World History
Project title: Globalization Simulation
Number of Students: 135
