Fall 2007 Events
Spring 2008 Events
UNIV300I course (Art and Social Action: A Global Perspective)
UNIV301I course
For 2007-2008, the CSULB Odyssey Project
theme will be The Leadership Imperative: A Mandate for Social Responsibility. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, it will become more and more important to develop leadership strategies that are accountable to the greater good as well as to build partnerships across boundaries.
Thus the Odyssey Project’s thematic focus on leadership (hosted by the College of Liberal Arts) will seek to find cross-disciplinary connections among numerous viewpoints and perspectives
(e.g., the media, public policy, economics, socioloty, art, literature, geography, and philosophy).
In cooperation with the other CSULB Colleges, the Division of Student Services, and the local and global community, we will examine topics like social action and social change; the role and responsibility of the individual; the implications of the so-called leadership vacuum; the emerging role of service leadership; and peaceful solutions to individual, local, and global problems.
These topics will be explored through two team-taught Interdisciplinary General Education Courses on the theme (University 300I and 301I) featuring guest experts; events in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (e.g., Jane Fonda and Hal Holbrook); theatre performances; films; field trips; and exhibits in the University Art museum.
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About the Odyssey Project
During the 1996-97 academic year, California State University, Long Beach inaugurated the first in a series of theme years. Each theme year involves the campus and the community in a year-long series of major speakers, performances, films, events, field trips, and classes (across campus and in the community) focused on a single intellectual issue of importance to our time.
The name "Odyssey" was chosen as the title for the theme year project because of its identification with Homer's epic tale of Odysseus. This mythical Greek hero's years of wandering have come to symbolize a voyage of discovery and adventure. Each year CSULB students and members of the community have the unique opportunity to engage in their own "intellectual" voyage of discovery and adventure by taking courses, attending guest lectures and performances, and participating in field trips and collaborative experiences.
Odyssey 1996-97: The City was the first thematic year and was devoted to exploration of The City in southern California, America and the globe at the turn of the millennium.
During Odyssey 1997-98: The Earth-Origins, Evolution, and The Search for Meaning , students, faculty, and members of the community explored issues related to new scientific discoveries.
The odyssey continued in 1998-99 with The Self and Its Sources: Individuals and Community where self-expression in the arts and literature, cross-cultural conceptions of the self, the social and psychological dimensions of identity, and the implications of the biotechnology revolution informed the discussion.
For 1999-2000, the Odyssey theme was The Community: Spatial, Cultural, and Virtual . Throughout the year, the complex, interdependent matrix of communities that make up human social groups was examined focusing on health, leisure, family, the homeless, gangs, public policy, education, and social responsibility.
The academic year 2000-2001 had as its theme The Future: Values and Technology in a Global Community . Technology as it related to the environment, ethics, values, the arts, literature, education, science, the media, public policy, and architecture was explored.
Sponsored by the College of Education, the 2001-2002 topic was The Citizen: Rights, Roles, Responsibilities . We examined such questions as: What impact does citizenship have on education and vice versa? What are the responsibilities of citizenship-individually and collectively? How do we cultivate citizenship?
For 2002-2003, the Odyssey returned to the College of Liberal Arts with The World We Are Making Guest speakers explored the interaction of cultures; identity and politics; the nature of evil; human rights; interconnectedness; living with uncertainty; sustainability and environmental concerns; and globalization.
During 2003-2004, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics hosted"The Voyage of Discovery." Such issues as the impact scientific advances have on our lives and the earth, the challenges of communicating science outside the scientific community, sustainability and environmental issues, the Human Genome Project, genetic engineering, and the responsibilities of society as they relate to science were examined.
For 2004-2005, the theme was The Process: Creativity Reviled and Revealed. The project's thematic focus on the creative process as it relates to social issues (sponsored by the College of the Arts) examined such issues as the first amendment and artist expression, art and spirituality, risk and failure, societal perception of artists, art as a political process, and the art of experience.
The 2005-2006 academic year, hosted by the College of Health and Human Services, was titled The Lifespan: Mind, Body, Health. Such issues as consumer debt, identity theft, and consumerism; disabilities both physical and mental; violence and fear in our culture, including the role of the media; peer pressure (HIV, smoking, alcohol, gangs); health and nutrition as they relate to addiction, rehabilitation, aging, alternative medicines, sports, humor, intentionality, childhood obesity and weight control, cancer research, and cardio-vascular disease were explored.
For 2006-2007, the CSULB Odyssey Project focused on ethics with The Ethical is Personal (hosted by the Colleges of Business Administration and Engineering). Such issues as the role of corporations, non-government organizations, government and civil society for cultivating ethical and socially responsible actions (e.g., stem cell research, privacy rights); the nature of ethical and philosophical problems in all spheres of daily life (e.g., the right to die, cheating and plagiarism); the importance of developing personal methods for addressing ethical dilemmas; and intellectual property rights; were examined.
Over the last eleven years Odyssey has hosted guest speakers like Walter Mosley, Christo, Richard Dawkins, Lucy Jones, Edward James Olmos, Octavia Butler, Patch Adams, Jean Houston, Ralph Nader, Erin Brockovich, Dr. Demento, Julia "Butterfly" Hill, Jan Lundberg, Mike Farrell, Judy Shepard, and former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.
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