News

IN THE NEWS: UCSB Conference on U.S.-China Forum to Discuss Climate and Environment

Tony Chabolla

From The Santa Barbara Independent:

U.S.-China Forum to Discuss Climate and Environment

Conference Brings Scholars Together at UCSB over Earth Day Weekend

The weekend Santa Barbara celebrates Earth Day is being marked at UCSB by a conference that brings together scholars from the U.S.and China to discuss the eco-issues of the day. Organized by the university’s Confucius Institute and Bren School, the two-day talkfest features keynote talks by Michigan State University’s Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability, Jianguo “Jack” Liu, and New York University’s founding director of Environmental Studies, Dale Jamieson.

Mayfair Yang

Conference organizer Mayfair Yang noted of the two major polluting countries: “The U.S. is such a huge country for climate change deniers, contrary to China. While China is a huge polluter, they don’t deny climate change. They have made a lot of effort to try to stem it.” Yang, a cultural anthropologist and director of Confucius Institute, added that China had good environmental laws: “The main problem is implementation, especially among lower-level local officials. China also has this problem of not moving quickly to shut polluting industries, because what are they going to do with those people out of jobs?”…

 

Read Full Story:

http://www.independent.com/news/2016/apr/11/us-china-forum-discuss-climate-and-environment/

“Teaching Islamic Law (After 9/11, After Paris, or at Any Point in the Future),” by Prof. Ahmad A. Ahmad

Tony Chabolla

Professor Ahmad Atif Ahmad posted on The Huffington Post about why he chose to study Islamic law and how he came about developing the Religious Studies’ undergraduate teaching program centered on the topic.

Read the full entry: “Teaching Islamic Law (After 9/11, After Paris, or at Any Point in the Future)” by Prof. Ahmad Atif Ahmad

 

Special Topics Courses in Religious Studies for Spring 2015

Tony Chabolla

This spring quarter, Religious Studies is offering five “Topics in Religious Studies”. Below are the course numbers and titles with downloadable course flyers:

  • RGST 190JA/FEMST 185EG – Politics of Veiling in Modern Egypt (pdf)
  • RGST 190VM – Gods, Minds & Bodies (pdf)
  • RGST 190NF – World Making: Religious, Fictional and Virtual (pdf)
  • RGST 190JD – Jewish Dream Interpretation from the Bible to Freud (pdf)
  • RGST 190IE – Vocabularies of Islamic Ethics (pdf)
  • RGST 190TC – God, Death, Love: On Seeing and Believing in Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (pdf) *(posted 3/10/2015)

Capps Center hosts Sandra Day O’Connor

Wade Clark Roof, Director of Capps Center, hosted Sandra Day O’Connor’s appearance at UCSB on May 10, 2014. Moderating a question-and-answer conversation that followed the retired Associate Justice’s speech, Roof commended her commitment to improving civics education in the digital age. More details are in the story.