Congratulations to our newest MALAS Graduates!

MALAS Goes Kubrick...

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL. 
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. 
Dave Bowman: What's the problem? 
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. 
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL? 
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. 
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL. 
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. 
Dave Bowman: [feining ingorance] Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL? 
HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move. 
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock. 
HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave? You're going to find that rather difficult. 
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore! Open the doors! 
HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye. 

MALAS/SDSU HONORS LECTURE ON ITALIAN AMERICAN SUBJECTIVITY AND JOHN FANTE

CLICK TO ENLARGE

New Spring 2012 MALAS Seminar | Voyeurism and Surveillance: American Panopticons

updated syllabus link

Voyeurism & Surveillance: 

American Panopticons

alternate title: American Panopticons: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and Televisual Subjectity in Literature, Film, Photography, and Art of the Americas

Spring 2012 | English 725 SEMINAR | Dr. William A. Nericcio, Professor, English & Comp Lit/Director, MALAS

In Spring 2011, my esteemed colleague, Professor Quentin Bailey, taught a memorable seminar for the English and Comparative Literature graduate program entitled "Police and Panopticons." It is in that vein, but with a decidedly different line-up of texts, that I now propose to teach a seminar on Voyeurism and Surveillance entitled "American Panopticons." Please don't tell Dr. Bailey that I stole his idea; he may set those aforementioned police on my tail. Seriously, when it comes to the dizzying mirror of the panopticon, invented by Brit polymath Jeremy Bentham in 1791, there is plenty of good material on both sides of the Atlantic, and so it is that in my first American Literature graduate seminar in ages, I turn my eye to Uncle Sam's mirror and to the cultural space of the United States with a course focused on seeing, subjectivity, television, film, art, and more.

The book, art, and film list is tentative, but should probably include Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, Robert Storr et al's Gary Panter, Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, Oliver Mayer's The Hurt Business, yours truly's Tex[t]-Mex, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, Gilbert Hernandez's Human Diastrophism, David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Nathanael West's Day of the Locust, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Chris Ware's Acme Novely Library, Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, Hal Hartley's Flirt, John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces, Klaus Honnef's Andy Warhol and Sophia Coppola's Somewhere. Photography by Diane Arbus, essays by Susan Sontag, Frantz Fanon, and Michel Foucault, and more will supplement our main readings/screenings/sightings.

Through all of these masterworks lurks a deep and abiding curiosity about screens, representations, subjectivity, simulacra, celebrity, and mimesis. The goal of our seminar will be to give ourselves over to a kind of intellectual scopophilia, a libidinally-laced "satisfaction derived principally from looking."

update

the working logo for the class syllabus...

The MALAS Self-Study Document is Now LIVE

Faculty, Graduate Students, and Friends,

I am happy to announce that the self-study report for MALAS, the Master of Art in Liberal Arts and Sciences is now part of the public record.  Feel free to peruse it at your leisure by clicking the image opposite, but do beware: you are linking to a 74megabyte file!

MALAS and the San Diego LATINO FILM FESTIVAL | DEL AMOR Y OTROS DEMONIOS

more info...

Steve Jobs, redux, via WALT MOSSBERG

"He lived at the intersection 
of technology and liberal arts."


Walt Mossberg on Steve Jobs

MALAS--the MA in Curiosity for the "Crazy Ones" | The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences Pays Tribute to Apple's STEVE JOBS

MFAC: The MALAS Faculty Advisory Cohort Formed!

Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 16:46:04 -0700
To: Paul Wong & Linda Holler, DEANS, CAL
From: Bill Nericcio
Subject: MALAS Faculty Advisory Cohort

Deans Wong and Holler,

With the MALAS self-study in the can and preparations
fully in the works for the visit of the external review team,
I thought it prudent to form a MALAS Faculty Advisory
Cohort (MFACS) to assist the me as we move forward
with the program--this was actually a suggestion made in
the 2003 MALAS self-study that had never been implemented,
so it seemed the perfect timing to put this team of interdisciplinary
and cross-disciplinary afficionados together.

The exercise of authoring the self-study has convinced me of the
value of MALAS to the College of Arts and Letters and I am
very much looking forward to the findings of Professors
Djlal Kadir (Penn State) and Maribel Alvarez (Arizona),
in addition to those of Lei Guang (Director, Asian Studies),
who is also on the review team, when they visit Thursday
and Friday, October 20th and 21st.

The members of the MALAS Faculty Advisory Cohort
include the following members of the CAL faculty:

Huma Ahmed-Ghosh
Professor and Chair, Women's Studies

Stuart C. Aitken
Professor and Chair, Geography

James Gerber
Professor and Director, International Business

Seth Mallios
Professor and Chair, Anthropology

Harry Polkinhorn
Professor, English and Comparative Literature
Director, SDSU Press

David Kamper
Associate Professor and Chair, American Indian Studies

Ghada Osman
Associate Professor and Chair, Linguistics

Dr. Joseph Andrew Smith
Associate Professor, Classics and Humanities

Edward J. Blum
Associate Professor, History

Peter Atterton
Associate Professor, Philosophy

Roberto D. Hernández
Assistant Professor, Chicana/o Studies

Yetta Howard
Assistant Professor, English & Comparative Literature

Recent developments in the humanities, best evidenced
in the work of the American Studies Association, the
American Comparative Literature Association, the Modern
Language Association, and the Cultural Studies Association,
convince me that interdisciplinary studies and cultural
studies are dynamic, contemporary fields and that
MALAS should continue to evolve as part of this trend.


Yours,

Dr. William A. Nericcio
Director, MALAS

Music and the Sciences! MALASheads! Spread the Word! "Sync or Swarm - The Complex Dynamics of Improvisation and Influence" The Bronowski Art & Science Forum

MALAS IS SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT COOL UCSD LIT DOINGS: Raúl Zurita | Friday, September 30, 2011 5:00 p.m.

MALAS! Co-sponsor of a cutting-edge mini-conference focused on Latina/o Cultural Studies | September 8, 2011 | Gustavo Arellano, Bill Nericcio, Josh Kun, and Los Hollywood

Colleagues, Friends, Former and Future Students!

I hope your new semester is off to a bang!
I am writing to invite you and to invite you to....

CHICANOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
a latina/o cultural studies event at the
CENTRO CULTURAL DE LA RAZA, Balboa Park
this coming Thursday night...

...the details in plaintext appear below,
links for the cyberdigirati are here and here...

CHICANOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS
featuring Gustavo Arellano,
Josh Kun, Los Hollywood
y mucho mas MORE!

Thursday, September 8, 2011 @ 8pm
This party/gala/fiesta celebrates
"Mextasy: Seductive Hallucinations of Latina/o Mannequins
Prowling the American Unconscious" showing at the Centro
Cultural de la Raza, Balboa Park, September 1st through the 10nth.

There will be readings, performances, book-signings,
live-music, and more, more, more:

GUSTAVO ARELLANO, of ASK A MEXICAN fame!

JOSH KUN, author of AUDIOTOPIA and Communications profe from USC

BILL NERICCIO, author of Tex[t]-Mex and infamous
San Diego Chicanoholic 12-step Mextasy addict

& providing live music... LOS HOLLYWOOD!!!! 

more info:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102723999824760

https://bitly.com/chicanoholics_anonymous


Chicanoholics Anonymous is an part of
the MALAS Program's Arts Outreach Initiative--
tying together SDSU with the great San Diego
community. It is hosted by the one and only
Centro Cultural de la Raza and co-sponsored
by San Diego State University Press, pacificREVIEW:
a West Coast Arts Review Annual; Hyperbole Books;
the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS@ SDSU),
and the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences, "The
MA in Curiosity @ SDSU"



map:

View Larger Map

Fall 2011 MALAS COURSE DESCRIPTIONS!

Fall 2011 MALAS COURSE DESCRIPTIONS!

MALAS 600B "Technosexualities" with Professor Bill Nericcio
course description

MALAS 600C "Comparative Approaches to Cities" with Professor Kate Swanson
course description

MALAS 600D "Moral Courage: Prison Literatures" with Professor Chris Frost
course description


updated

Inspiration via IRA GLASS

MALAS Invites You to a Comic-Con/Latina/o Studies Event!!! Cartoonista with LALO ALCARAZ!

click to make muy, muy grande!

For more info--hit the CENTRO CULTURAL website!

MALAS LOGO Courtesy of Ryan Frease's Incredible Designhaus!

click to enlarge; source.

Fall 2011 Supplementary List of Authorized MALAS Classes and Seminars is now LIVE!

Click for instant tele-transportation!

New Look for Old MALAS Logo...

CultureLab: Arnie, damaged brains and lost selves at film festival

CultureLab: Arnie, damaged brains and lost selves at film festival

Logo Test

Varmints! Varmints!

New Coupon! Forward to Prospective MALASheads!

Mark Your Calendars! Fall 2012 Marks the 25th Anniversary of the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at SDSU!

Fall 1987 ~ Fall 2012

25 Years of Interdisciplinary Brilliance @ SDSU

Lecture on Neurobiology and Art History: A Sciences/Arts Fusion Hosted by the Systems Neurobiology Lab, Salk Institute, and UCSD | Thursday Night, June 2, 2011 @ 7pm

Though MALAS loves its beautiful roost on Montezuma Mesa @ SDSU, we are not so limited in our curiosity that we eschew other local area research institutions like the Salk Institute and UCSD; so it is that I invite you to consider attending a lecture next Thursday, June 2, 2011 on Art History and Neurobiology--find out more and get free tickets for the  event here.

Technosexualities, Fall 2011 MALAS Seminar

Imagine a class the blends late-breaking theoretical and artistic developments from women's studies, ethnic studies, art history, gaming, literature, philosophy, cinema and you get 'technosexualities'.... more on this new seminar breaking this August.... click the image for more...

CDR! A New Illustrator Added to the MALAS Visual Collage

illustration by CDR

Test Logos For Fall 2011 | MALAS/M.A.L.A.S | The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences @ SDSU

Indigenous people prepare to celebrate the 50 years of Indigenous Park of the Xingu

One of our cool incoming new MALAS students is up to great good in South America.... check out the press release!

Indigenous people prepare to celebrate the 50 years of Indigenous Park of the Xingu

The Festival of Cultures will gather all the 16 ethnic groups of the Indigenous Park of the Xingu, between 10 and 12 June, in the village Ipavu, of Kamaiurá people, in the upper Xingu

Fernanda Bellei, ISA

Dances, traditional games, like Huka Huka, tug of war and archery, film screenings and debates about politics for indigenous peoples as well as reflections on the history of the Indigenous Park of the Xingu will mark the 1° Festival of Cultures of Xingu, in celebration 50 years of creation of the park. The event is hosted by the Xingu Indigenous Land Association (ATIX), in partnership with other indigenous associations of Xingu, and has the support of the Instituto de Pesquisa Etno Ambiental do Xingu (IPEAX) Xingu-regional coordination of Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

Kumaré Ikpeng, one of the organizers, of the Ikpeng people, says that this will be an important moment for the Xingu people. "During the festival, we will make a political reflection on the 50-year existence of the Indigenous Park of the Xingu and its future prospects. This celebration will be a milestone because it recovers our history since the time of contact until the present day and reflects the changes we have been through here".

The event also has the support of the companies Ecoar Comunicação, O2 Filmes, Funai, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and local business. For details of the event and the organization, visit our blog: www.xingu50anos.org.br.

Indigenous Park of the Xingu
The Indigenous Park of the Xingu was created in April 1961, as a result of several years of work and political struggle. The park is recognized by UNESCO as an important set of cultural and linguistic diversity and was the first major indigenous land demarcation in Brazil. Its creation involved the Villas Boas brothers and important personalities such as Marechal Rondon, Darcy Ribeiro, Noel Nutels and Café Filho, among others.

"Child plays at the Mawaiaka lagoon during Kuarup celebrations,
at Kamaiurá village. Photo: Marcello Casal Jr."

Today, more than six thousand indians live in the park. The south area of the park, known as the “upper Xingu”, due to the geographical point, is home for the following peoples: Aweti, Kalapalo Kamaiurá, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Naruvotu, Wuaja and Yawalapiti. In the “middle Xingu”, live the Trumai, Ikpeng, Kaiabi and Kamaiurá peoples and at lower Xingu live the Ikpeng, Kaiabi and Yudjá. The east is home for the Kisêdjê (also know as Suya) and Tapayuna peoples.

The celebration of 50 years of Indigenous Park of the Xingu has different meanings for these peoples, who faced conflicts and changes of land and then settle. To Ianukulá Kaiabi Suya, coordination assistant of Funai, in Canarana - a city in the state of Mato Grosso, close to the park - the event is an opportunity to rethink the relation between the Xingu and the world of non-Indians. "We must think about the years to come, because the changes come at a very fast pace, which makes us wonder whether we are prepared to face the pressure that we are suffering. We feel the obligation of following the speed of things that are happening in Brazil and worldwide. Reconciling this speed in the world of non-Indians and keep our traditions is a challenge for us all".

Ianukulá also talks about the park's boundaries and territorial loss of the ethnic groups. "The park is a large territory, but it is too small if we compare it to the traditional area, which previously had no borders and our natural wealth had no limits. Xingu is a symbol of conservation, at least inside of it, culturally and environmentally".

"Dance in honor of the dead during Kuarup celebrations, at Kamaiurá village.
Photo: Marcello Casal Jr."

Winti Kisêdjê, president of Indian Association Kisêdjê (AIK), says that it is an especial opportunity to gather all the ethinic groups to think about the future of Xingu. "The 50 years festival is important to us, because it is a chance to analyse the political problems within the Xingu and outside of it as well. I hope this will help us build a single policy and unite the Xingu peoples".

Andre Villas-Boas, coordinator of the Xingu Program, from ISA, explains that the creation of the park was a 'social engineering'. "The creation of Indigenous Park of the Xingu resulted in the concentration of groups of different ethinc origin within one single area and the release of the remaining land for the occupation on the regional context. It was a social engineering. Its boundaries were not discussed with indigenous peoples, and it was not the result of an anthropological report. There were no studies of the traditional forms of occupation to set the limits. At that time, it was merely an interpretation".

Xingu numbers

16 ethnic groups: Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Matipu, Nahukuá, Mehinako, Waurá (Waujá), Aweti, Kamaiurá, Trumai, Yawalapiti, Kisêdjê (Suya), Kawaiwetê (Kaiabi), Ikpeng (Txicão), Yudja (Juruna), Naruvotu and Tapayuna.
14 languages: Kamaiurá and Kaiabi (Tupi-Guarani family); Juruna (Juruna family); Aweti (Aweti family); Mehinako, Wauja and Yawalapiti (Aruák family); Kalapalo, Ikpeng, Kuikuro, Matipu, Nahukwá and Naruvotu (Karíb family); Suyá e Tapayuna (Jê family); Trumai (isolated language).
Population: 6.152 people (Funasa, 2009)
Area: 2,6 million hectares

Links:
ISA: http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
Xingu: http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/xingu/1539

MALAS Helps Sponsor Suzan-Lori Parks @ SDSU | May 4, 2011

5/3/11

more info

5/10/11

Update! The Reviews of the SUSAN LORI PARKS gig are in!


-- From Director of the TTF Randy Reinholz, emailed as the event was in progress: "What a great night we are having with SLP."

-- From Professor Margaret Larlham: "What a triumph for all!"

-- From Professor Peter Cirino: "Many of my students attended and were completely impressed with her. They couldn't stop talking about her."

-- From San Diego theatre critic Pat Launer: "What an inspiring speech! It was better than a commencement speech."

-- From Grad Student Alex Matsuo: "Today was a GREAT day. Suzan-Lori Parks was so amazing and inspiring!"

-- From Undergrad Courtney Howard: "my new response to those asking if I am nervous about graduating and moving to Los Angeles... 'it hasn't occurred to me to be afraid yet.' (quote from Suzan-Lori Parks, my new girl crush)"

-- From alumni Patrick Kelly: "Suzan-Lori Parks was so inspiring last night, I am now planning on spending some of my weekend trip to Joshua Tree meditating on my art :-)"

-- From a lower-division student in my 100-level class: "Wow. What can i say except what an inspirational human being. I didn't know anything about this woman before going to the Don Powell theatre, and leaving I knew a lot about her, and even more about myself."

-- And a facebook status from alumni Derek Smith: "Suzan-Lori Parks was the best."


MALAS is proud to have co-sponsored this remarkable campus event!

MALAS Thesis/Project Guide

Fall 2011 MALAS Seminar: On Moral Courage: With Notes from a Prison Cell | Professor Chris Frost

click to enlarge

Suzan-Lori Parks! A MALAS Co-sponsored Event

Myriam Gurba @ SDSU | sponsored by MALAS and Robotic, Erotic, Electric {engl 220}

sponsored by MALAS and Robotic, Erotic, Electric

MALAS is Helping to Cross-Promote the Annual SDSU Burnett Lecture | Helen Morales on Scandal and the Artist's Model

click to enlarge

From: Rebecca Moore
Subject: Burnett Lecture this Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:33:14 -0700
To: calfolk


Dear Colleagues,

You are all invited to attend the 42nd Annual Gail A. Burnett Lecture in Classics on April 29, at 1:30 p.m. in Hardy Tower 140.
Dr. Helen Morales of U.C. Santa Barbara will discuss “Celebrity, Scandal, and the Artist’s Model: Ancient Answers to Modern Dilemmas.”

The lecture examines the stories and anecdotes told about Phryne, a celebrity prostitute said to have lived in the 4th century BCE and to have been the model for the notorious statue, Aphrodite of Cnidos. Dr. Morales argues that Phryne’s exploits allow for reflection upon questions that were important in the ancient world and are still urgent today: In what ways are images powerful? How should God be represented? What is the model’s role in the creative process?

Dr. Morales has authored Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2007), has edited Petronius Satyricon (Penguin forthcoming), and is the author of Pilgrimage to Dollywood (Chicago, forthcoming).

The event is sponsored by the Department of Classics and Humanities at San Diego State University. It is free and open to the public. Refreshments follow the lecture.

Rebecca Moore
Chair, Department of Religious Studies
Interim Chair, Department of Classics
and Humanities
San Diego State University

MALAS Approved Summer Graduate Courses

click to enlarge or go here for the SDSU Summer 2011 schedule...

Be aware that all of these classes have prerequisites--write the individual professors, identify yourself as a graduate student in the MALAS program, and get clearance to take these seminars! Cheers, your fearless leader,


Bill Nericcio
Director, MALAS


ps: Thanks to new, incoming Fall 2011 MALAShead, Francisco Miramontes, for spelunking the meager SDSU summer course listings--let me know if you run across a killer summer SDSU course, 500-level and above, that should be added to this list.  Who belongs on the list? Top-shelf professors teaching cutting edge topics regardless of field...  That's the MALAS credo, "always curious, always learning"...

the OBSCENE machine: Lyle the Robot

the OBSCENE machine: Lyle the Robot

a short film by MALAS coordinator McHANK!

MALAS is Remodeling for the Spring!

out with the old cellular motif...

in with the new neuron-driven look...

MALAS Helping Bring SAM QUINONES to SDSU...

click to enlarge