gbagheri

gbagheri@arizona.edu

Bagheri, Golsheed

Adjunct Instructor

Goli Bagheri is a teacher and an aspiring artist. Trained as a sociocultural historian of the modern era, she focused much of her academic work on cultural production, popular culture, youth movements, media consumption, consumerism, resistance and revolution, with regional expertise in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Since obtaining her doctorate in 2018, she has expanded her research interests to include art, mythology, political economy and postcolonial studies. Goli is deeply committed to public education and also teaches Humanities at Pima Community College.

Currently Teaching

PAH 160D1 – Play: An Interactive Introduction

This course introduces students to the study of play, from ancient games of chance to cutting edge playgrounds like amusement parks, escape rooms, and even workplaces. Students will learn and practice a set of critical and practical skills designed to help them both understand how play regularly changes the world around them, and how to use play as a tool for personal, professional, and political transformation. Over the course of the semester, we will: 1) survey the origins of play, paying particular attention to how the act of play is used to change or solidify the status quo; 2) examine research-informed case studies to learn and practice techniques for theorizing about how and why play does real work in the world; and 3) experiment with a variety of tools and techniques for using play to alter how individuals, communities, and organizations interact.

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PAH 221 – Creating, Imagining, Innovating: Intercultural Approaches for Academic and Career Success

The course helps students to engage deeply with the habits of mind and an expanding set of critical and practical applied humanities skills developed specifically for understanding and improving the human condition. Over the course of the semester we will: (1) read and critically analyze the writing of people from many cultures who have found creative and innovative approaches to a variety of complex challenges, with particular attention to their applied habits of mind; (2) engage in reflective projects that open pathways to developing students' own creativity and imagination for real-world applications of successful habits of mind; and (3) design a project in which students focus on something in the world that requires personal applications of at least three of the habits of mind they have studied. Students will use project management and planning methods to write a project description, carry out an initial pilot version of the project, report on steps they have accomplished, and write a critical analysis of the project.

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PAH 150A2 – Weird Stuff: How to Think About the Supernatural, the Paranormal, and the Mysterious

Few claims seem to arouse more interest, evoke more emotion, and create more confusion than those dealing with the paranormal, the supernatural, or the mysterious. "Weird stuff", as it is often called; astrology, ghosts, fairies, ESP, psychokinesis, UFO abductions, channeling, dowsing, near-death experiences, prophetic dreams, demon possession, time travel, and parapsychology, among others clearly defies conventional wisdom and understanding, yet belief in them is a widespread component of human culture, often exerting a profound effect on people's lives. Why are such unusual beliefs part of the human experience for so many? Why do some people find such phenomena to be compelling, while others reject them outright? How do we decide which claims are credible? What distinguishes rational from irrational claims? This course is designed to help students answer such questions, to understand why people believe weird stuff, and through that process become more empathetic and independent thinkers and learners.

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PAH 160D4 – Life in the City of Tomorrow: Time Travel, World Building, and Speculative Futures

This course explores the past, present, and future of urban life by looking at speculative representations of cities. We focus especially on practices of time travel and world building used by futurists and creatives as tools for thinking about how our cities ought to be. In addition to engaging with a range of materials that demonstrate these practices over the course of the term, we will also experiment with using these practices as methods for problem solving, critical study, and the creation of urban futures in the real world, taking into particular consideration markers of identity such as race, gender, or class.

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PAH 240 – Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Global Perspectives on Human/Animal Relationships

Human and animal lives have always been intertwined, and animals are omnipresent in human society on both metaphorical and practical, material levels. Animals often play a central role in cultural metaphors and myths, but they are also physically present in homes and workplaces, and in local as well as global economies. Both levels in this complex web of relationships structure society in areas as varied as art, economy, entertainment, health, law, media, and science. However, the ways in which human society deals with its coexistence with animals, and the ways it interacts with, uses, and handles them; are complex and embedded in paradoxes that are often affected by structures of power. The purpose of this course is to stimulate critical reflections on different social constructions and the ethical and moral implications of human relationships with animals. Over the course of the semester we will: (1) examine the evolution of human/animal relationships over time, (2) consider the unique roles that different species play in human lives and the ways we treat them as a result, and (3) engage in interviews, personal reflections, argumentative essays, and research reports about human/animal relationships.

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PAH 260 – Asian Pacific American Cultures in Public Life

From Bruce Lee to Crazy Rich Asians, from General Tso's Chicken to Korean tacos, and from Yuri Kochiyama to Kamala Harris, Asian Pacific American (APA) cultures and public figures have transformed and been transformed by their relationship to other cultures in the United States. We will consider some of these notable examples as models and highlight how they represent public culture, connecting to contemporary debates in the field of Asian Pacific American studies. Course themes will include: the cultural construction of race; representations of APAs in the media; APA gender and sexuality; hybridity and multi-generational diasporas; consumption and APA food culture; politics of the model minority; collective APA action and urban cultures; and the culture of refugees and war. Methods of intercultural competence and public humanities, both key applied humanities approaches to engaging with a globalized world, will be introduced as frames through which these APA Studies themes can be understood and analyzed.

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