10 Questions: What is Time?
"10 Questions" is a collaboration with UCLA and is an interdisciplinary course/public event series featuring conversations with leading scholars that provides both students and the public a special opportunity to experience the conversations that drive innovation at the university.
Every Tuesday for ten weeks UCLA faculty members from disciplines as diverse as dance, medicine, photography, astrophysics, athletics, Chicana and Chicano studies, law, philosophy and religious studies will join UCLA Arts Dean Brett Steele to explore a fundamental question such as: What is space? What is failure? and What is freedom? The goal is to stimulate dialogue and exchange, and to seed a greater understanding of the profoundly interdisciplinary nature of knowledge production in the 21st century. We present a discussion primer for each week's session to get the conversation started.
Art&Arc100: 10 Questions sessions will be held on Tuesdays through December 4 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Glorya Kaufman Hall theater (room 200). Free and open to the public (RSVP required). Pay by space parking available on campus adjacent to Kaufman Hall (Structure 4).
This week, Rebeca Méndez, James Newton, Asma Sayeed, and Scott Waugh will join Brett Steele, dean of the UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture to explore the question, "What is Time?"
Rebeca Méndez, designer and media artist
Professor, Department of Design|Media Arts
Rebeca Méndez is an artist and designer who uses a variety of media — photography, 16mm film, video, and installation — to explore the nature of perception and media representation, specifically how cultures express themselves through the style of nature that they produce at a given time and the medium through which they construct this nature. Méndez’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Latin America. Her numerous awards and recognitions include the 2017 Medal of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Artists), the 2012 National Design Award bestowed by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the 2010 California Community Foundation Mid-Career Fellowship for Visual Artist.
Narrated Photo Essay: Oscar Castillo on La Raza's Enduring Importance
In the 1960s and 70s, a group of young idealists-activists came together to work on a community newspaper called La Raza that became the voice for the Chicano Movement. With only the barest resources, but a generous amount of dedication, these young men and women changed their world and produced an archive of over 25,000 photographs. Read more.
We Are More Similar Than We Realize: Interconnecting Identities in the Work of Ahree Lee
Ahree Lee explores the paradox of similarity and difference, demonstrating that even in a world that seems increasingly fragmented culturally, racially and economically, we are more similar than we realize. Read more.
Portraits Document Women and the Grains Tied to Their Ancestral Homeland
Photographer Jaydee Dizon takes the portraits of women from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, their faces sprinkled with a grain that is part of their cultural identity. Read more.
Artworks by Rebeca Méndez
Professor Rebeca Méndez encourages you to visit her website to view a multi-media collection of her artworks. Visit website.
James Newton, composer, flutist and conductor
Distinguished Professor, Department of Ethnomusicology
James Newton (composer/flutist) is one of the world’s true flute virtuosos in numerous musical idioms. His work encompasses chamber, symphonic, and electronicmusic genres, compositions for ballet and modern dance, and numerous jazz and world music contexts. Mr. Newton has been the recipient of many awards, fellowships and grants, including the Ford Foundation, Guggenheim, National Endowment of the Arts and Rockefeller Fellowships, Montreux Grande Prix Du Disque and Downbeat International Critics Jazz Album of the Year, as well as being voted the top flutist for a record-breaking 23 consecutive years in Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics Poll. Described as a musician’s renaissance man, Newton has performed with and composed for many notable artists in the jazz and classical fields. His compositions have been performed on distinguished stages throughout the world.
Jazzman John Ellis On Writing in L.A.
Saxophonist and composer John Ellis has spent his residency at 18th Street Arts Center by composing 30 new pieces of work. Read more.
Music is Medicine: Using Art Therapy to Repair Pathways in the Brain
After a car accident left clarinetist Christine Blue in a coma, her doctors weren’t even sure she’d wake up. Pioneering music therapists worked to painstakingly build up her memory and return her to the instrument. Read more.
Joffrey Ballet Reconstructs 'Le Sacre du Printemps'
The Joffrey Ballet returns to Los Angeles in February with performances of "The Rite of Spring," one of the most influential works of the 20th Century. Read more.
A listening sheet compiled by Professor James Newton
This sheet contains examples of how time is used in three different cultures. Learn more. (Note: This is a pdf document.)
Asma Sayeed, scholar of Islamic studies
Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures
Program Director, Islamic Studies
Asma Sayeed’s primary research interests are in early and classical Muslim social history, the history of Muslim education, the intersections of law and social history, and women and gender studies. She teaches survey GE courses “Introduction to Islam” and “Islam in the West” as well as seminars on research methodologies in Islamic studies and Muslim social and intellectual history. She received her PhD from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. She has published on topics related to Muslim women and their religious participation in journals such as "Studia Islamica" and "Islamic Law and Society" and has contributed a number of encyclopedia articles on women’s history in early and classical Islam. Her current project relates to Muslim education and in particular to an examination of texts and textual practices in diverse regional and historical contexts.
Watch: Surf's Up for Muslim American Females
They are a small but dedicated group of Muslim women who love the waves, but also want to dress modestly on the beach. Reporter Dija Dowling finds out how these young women surfers and a Muslim swimwear designer make water sports easier for observant Muslim women. Watch the clip.
Hijabistas: Inside the World of Muslim-American Fashion
Hijabista. The word — which fuses "hijab" and "fashionista" — gained traction a few years ago when young Muslim women realized they could follow the Islamic rules for modest dressing without stifling creative expression. Now, in Irvine, Muslim-American women discover new ways to express themselves through fashion. Read more.
Thinking Outside the Mosque: On Learning to be Muslim in America
Religious study isn't enough at this college. Islam may be the world's second-largest religion, but in the United States, it is the subject of much misunderstanding and even hatred, and its adherents are often maligned. At Zaytuna, young Muslims are asked to figure out the future of their faith in America. Read more.
Time in Islamic Thought (Selected Readings)
A selection of Quranic verses referencing time in different contexts, a selection of sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad and other revered early Muslims, plus authors on the topic. Read more. (Note: This is a pdf document.)
Scott Waugh, executive vice chancellor and provost
UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott L. Waugh is the chief operating and academic officer for the campus. He works closely with the Chancellor and an extensive group of campus colleagues in guiding strategic planning, policy development, campus-wide academic initiatives and in defining budgetary and development priorities. He has previously served as the Dean of the Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, where he holds a professorial appointment in the Department of History.
HistoricPlacesLA Maps Los Angeles History
HistoricPlacesLA is an online public repository of cultural sites across L.A. It is the country's most sophisticated inventory management systems for cultural resources to date. Read more.
Hiking the Ghostly Tracks of Forgotten Trains
The phantom switches, markers, rails, and ties of old rail trails tell stories of travel and transport, history and happenings, and the growth of Southern California. Read more.
How Women Built Early Hollywood — And Transformed Los Angeles
In early Hollywood, women outnumbered men as stars. They also wrote, publicized, directed, edited, and produced films in numbers unequaled until the 1980s — or beyond. Read more.
Selected Reading: Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism — The Past and Present Society
Please prepare for the discussion by reading these texts regarding history and time. Read more. (Note: This is a pdf document.)
Top Image: The geologic time spiral — A path to the past (ver. 1.1), 2008 | Joseph Graham, William Newman and John Stacy. United States Geological Survey
