From kindness to chocolate: Learn online with discounted SBS community classes

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This fall, University of Arizona employees can take online, noncredit courses offered through the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences' Community Classroom Program at a 30% discount.

The college is offering 11 virtual courses – lasting from two hours to seven weeks – on topics ranging from racial violence and cannabis policy to professional editing and Tucson food. Courses fall into four categories: lifelong learning, professional development, cultural immersion experience and classes with professor Noam Chomsky.

"We are excited by our lineup of fall classes. They include topics that are top of mind for many of us, such public opinion and racial violence, and we are proud to share our expertise with those wanting to delve deeper into these issues," said Maribel Alvarez, associate dean of community engagement. "We are also offering classes on topics such as kindness and chocolate that can hopefully provide a welcome respite from the stresses of this time."

Most courses are offered live online, while others consist of a mixture of prerecorded lectures and live online sessions. All live online sessions will be recorded and shared with registered participants who were unable to join the live sessions.

• In the run-up to the election, political scientist and associate professor in the School of Government and Public Policy Samara Klar will teach Politics of Polling: The Impact of Public Opinion. The six-week course covers not just how opinions are measured but what influences citizens' opinions, and how these opinions can be used and abused.
• Jeannette Maré, founder of Ben's Bells and graduate student in the Department of Communication, is teaching the course No Time for Nice: Kindness as a Force for Personal and Social Change. In this five-week course, participants will learn about kindness through a social science lens. Maré will also provide tools to help participants develop a plan for putting their kind intentions into action.
• Jennifer Roth-Gordon, associate professor of anthroplogy, is teaching Whiteness and Racial Violence in America. The course will offer insights on how racial violence works with other forms of structural racism and how race and whiteness structure our world.

Additional lifelong learning courses include:

• Modern Cannabis Policy: Prohibiting, Legalizing, and Regulating a Commonly Used Substance – Anne Boustead, assistant professor, School of Government and Public Policy
• Power to the People? Lessons from Europe's Populist Turn – Paulette Kurzer, professor, School of Government and Public Policy

Community members can also learn about language and the brain from the founder of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky. Chomsky, professor of linguistics and holder of the Agnese Nelms Haury Chair, co-teaches the linguistics course Language, Mind, and Brain with Thomas Bever, Regents Professor of Linguistics, and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, professor of linguistics.

There also will be two cultural immersion experience courses. Cocina del Pueblo: Tucson Basin Foodways is a three-part course presented in collaboration with Tucson Meet Yourself that will feature live food demonstrations by three cooks (attendees will receive recipes for the dishes). In the two-part workshop The Cultures of Chocolate, attendees will explore chocolate production, both historical and present-day, and will be able to order chocolate boxes for tastings.

The fall lineup also includes three professional development courses: Planning Powerful Presentations, The Craft of Editing in Professional Contexts, and Nothing About Us Without Us: Community-Based Program Evaluation.

Complete descriptions of the fall courses can be found online. Full-price tuition charges range from $40-$300.

To request more information or the registration code for University employees, contact Kerstin Miller at kbmiller@email.arizona.edu.