Dunbar Pavilion

It is difficult to understand China today without understanding the China of Mao Zedong. Over the course of Mao’s lifetime China experienced imperial rule, warlordism, republicanism, and ultimately communism. The country experienced invasion, civil war, and famine. And through this all, Mao led an insurgent movement that allowed China to “stand on its own two legs.” Governing, however, was at least as challenging as making revolution. This challenge to Mao would be summed by the official assessment of Mao after his death: Mao was a great revolutionary leader, but made mistakes governing China. 

This course examines the grand sweep of 20th Century Chinese history through the lens of Mao’s life – a life that was complex and often contradictory, but one that ultimately left a lasting legacy for today’s China. The meaning of Mao and Maoism is contested by historians of modern China, but all would not argue with a Time Magazine assessment several years ago that he was among the 20th Century’s most significant historical figures. The course also will examine this historical legacy to surface the meaning of Mao in today’s China – a China that resonates with Maoist goals, namely a country of wealth and power, but differ significantly in the social and cultural means towards those ends.

Registration

Online registration for this course opens on Thursday, November 21, 2019, at 10 a.m.

Refunds are available and need to be requested before the second class meeting (January 12). To drop a class, please contact Kerstin Miller at 520-621-5111 or sbs-communitymatters@email.arizona.edu.  A $25 administrative fee for each cancellation will apply.

Location & Parking

This class meets in the meeting room in the historic side of the Dunbar Pavilion at 325 W. 2nd Street, Tucson, Arizona 85705 .

Plenty of free parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to the Dunbar Pavilion. Please enter the parking lot from Main Street just south of West 2nd Street and park in the upper parking lot directly south of the Dunbar Pavilion.

If you are interested in food writing, this Community Classroom Cultural Immersion will provide you with a chance to join teacher, writer, and artist Melani “Mele” Martinez  for a three hour workshop. 

This workshop will explore the connections between food and language to discover how food work translates into narrative work. Students will share a hearth full of both flavor and story. “Recipes have a story arc,” and “’like a short story, a good recipe can put us in a delightful trance,” writes Bee Wilson. In “The Pleasures of Reading Recipes,” Wilson explores the narrative qualities of food preparation and recipe writing. In her lecture, “We Eat What We Are,” folklorist Maribel Alvarez says food is such an important part of our lives that it “penetrates our speech in the form of metaphor.” She shares the claim of anthropologist Mary Douglas—we must look at food as a system of communication, as something that is intrinsically symbolic. 

In short excerpts, students will read famed food writers like Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl as well as lesser-recognized food story-tellers who have contributed songs, prayers, or those little recipe boxes tucked away in our pantries for generations. Together, we will make food and create story, mingling the five senses in this hands-on, metaphor-building writing course.

Readings and Syllabus

Possible artifacts the instructor will use in this workshop:

• Excerpts from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain.
• Excerpts from Tender at the Bone chapter, “The Queen of Mold” by Ruth Reichl
• Excerpts from “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner.
• Excerpts from “Sentences that End with Food” by Joe Watson
• “There’s No Tortillas” by Lalo Guerrero
• Excerpts from Put an Egg On It mag– various authors
• My grandmother’s recipe box

Registration

This workshop is sold out. For waiting list information, contact Kerstin Miller at 520-621-5111 or sbs-communitymatters@email.arizona.edu.

Refunds are available and need to be requested by 4 p.m. on Thursday, November 14.

To drop this workshop, contact Kerstin Miller at 520-621-5111 or sbs-communitymatters@email.arizona.edu. A $25 administrative fee per cancellation will apply.

Location & Parking

This class meets at the Dunbar Pavilion at 325 W. 2nd Street, Tucson, Arizona 85705

Parking is free in the parking lot directly south of the Dunbar Pavilion.

Join Professor Kurzer, an expert in European politics, for an overview of how and why Brexit happened. This Community Classroom course will examine the interaction between post-war developments in British politics and the growth of the European Union. Domestic political developments influenced British policy towards European integration, but progress in European integration also affected British politics and policies. For four decades, British elites debated the utility of Britain’s membership in the EU. When a referendum was finally held, a narrow majority voted for leaving the European Union. The final class meeting will address the most recent complications in the Brexit saga.

If you are interested in European politics, you will not want to miss Professor Kurzer’s analysis about what is unique about the British story and why it is highly unlikely that another EU member state will leave the EU.

This course is offered in partnership with Dunbar African American Cultural Center.

Registration

You can register online starting Monday, August 19, 2019, at 10 a.m. 

Refunds are available and need to be requested before the second class meeting (October 29). To drop a class, please contact Kerstin Miller at 520-621-5111 or sbs-communitymatters@email.arizona.edu. A $25 administrative fee for each cancellation will apply.

Location & Parking

This class meets in the meeting room in the historic side of the Dunbar Pavilion at 325 W. 2nd Street, Tucson, Arizona 85705 .

Plenty of free parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to the Dunbar Pavilion. Enter the parking lot from Main Street just south of West 2nd Street and park in the upper parking lot directly south of the Dunbar Pavilion.

Join Patrisia Gonzales to learn to identify healing desert plants and discover a connection to Place. In this three hour workshop she will demonstrate how the use of flowers and aromatic plants can calm the spirit, feed the heart, and relax the system so that it can release stress. Participants will make herbal infused honeys, teas, and floral waters. Offered in partnership with Dunbar African American Cultural Center.