Multidisciplinary Courses

California Studies focuses on how water affects the state of California in economic, environmental, political, and daily ways. This field-based class meets during both B & C periods throughout the term; students spend two full weeks traveling around California in late May. Most of us know little about our water supply beyond what we see fall between the tap and the drain. Where does the water in San Francisco come from? This class will trace San Francisco’s water supply back to its source through indoor pipes, city streets, reservoirs, treatment facilities, tunnels, pipelines and along rivers to the snowpack. As we meet with activists and policy makers, we’ll use visual art, science, and equity frameworks to interpret the conflicting uses and needs around water in California. (1 credit; fulfills Service Learning 12 requirement) (Open to 12th Graders only) (Meets during two class periods)

Cross-listed in Service Learning and Multidisciplinary Courses

Homelands: Discovering Diaspora through Oral History and Media is a multidisciplinary course that examines contemporary trends in the movement of people around the world with a focus on indigenous, immigrant, and refugee communities, and other intersectional borderland experiences. By engaging with Bay Area community organizations and individuals, students will achieve a more nuanced understanding of global migration trends, social issues impacting migration, the practical efforts of local organizations, and grass roots movement building. Students investigate displacement factors such as war, violence, poverty, and climate change through storytelling, oral histories, media arts, archives, and community-based participatory research. Students will interview and document individual stakeholders using audio, video and photography, creating a final collaborative and community based capstone project. (1/2 credit; fulfills Service Learning 12 requirement for 12th graders) (11th and 12th Graders only)

Cross-listed in Service Learning and Multidisciplinary Courses

Voices of Incarceration addresses the problem of “attention violence,” so named by civil rights activist Reverend William Barber II, describing how we turn our eyes away from the experiences of people who most deserve our attention. More than 70 million Americans bear the marks of the legal system, and they — and their families — have been victims of that “attention violence.” This elective aims to turn the light of our shared attention upon them: their individual experiences, as well as the systems, beliefs and practices that created our current era of mass criminalization. Against a backdrop of racism and mismanaged resources, many forces converge to give America the highest incarceration rate in the world: from policing, to policy, to the legal system, to the emphasis on “correction” rather than “rehabilitation.” As we learn about the root causes and possible solutions for this issue, the content of the course, will come primarily from those directly impacted. We’ll listen to podcasts and interviews, we’ll read first-person narratives, and we’ll meet with speakers who have been released back into their communities after spending decades under the surveillance of the state. Students will also partner with individuals and organizations that are working to change the experience of those impacted by the criminal legal system. (1/2 credit)

Cross-listed in English and Multidisciplinary Courses