The College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences is pleased to announce its second annual "CHASS Theme." Each year, the College selects a focus for university-sponsored classes, speakers and events to take place over the course of the academic year. Each year we also select a "First Book," which is presented to all CHASS first-year students during Bear Facts orientation and we provide a Gateway Lecture and Learning Community on the theme.

For its second year, CHASS Themes has chosen to focus on Democracy. Through a series of events, speakers and courses, we will try to think about what democracy is, how it can be nurtured and what its pitfalls are. Is the United States really a democracy? What are the burdens of citizenship in a democracy? What is the relation between democracy and the rights embedded in the U.S. Constitution? What is the relation between democracy and capitalism? How can transitions to democracy proceed? How are aspirations to democracy expressed in art and literature?

Our First Book this year is A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Naition by UCR's own Catherine Allgor of the Department of History. Read the book and give it to family and friends. Also read English Professor Vorris Nunley's Study Questions for the First Book and plan to attend Professor Allgor's events on campus. 

Our Gateway Lecture this year is CHFY 010: Political Science -- Democracy given by John Medeiris. As he writes "From a term of derision or ridicule in the 17th century, 'democracy' has become the universal label to which all states and movements aspire. You and I have grown up in the age of democracy, in which everyone claims to be a democrat, and in which democratic transitions have been almost commonplace. Yet it is not at all clear what democracy really is or should be. This creates great interest and great potential confusion. Must democracy be just a dressed-up form of elite rule? Should democracy be extended to the workplace or to international institutions? What is the core value of democracy - participation or deliberation, or something else?" His course will explore these questions and more.

Please search this website for other courses on the theme and refer back to the website for information on upcoming events.