Home Critical Issues in America Grant and Rupe Debate

Critical Issues in America Grant and Rupe Debate

Each year, the College of Letters and Science sponsors two distinguished endowed programs, the Critical Issues in America program and the Arthur N. Rupe Great Debates Series. 

Administered by the College of Letters and Science, the Critical Issues in America endowment provides funds for educational and public programming to support courses, conferences, and related programs that bring together faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, community members, and visiting scholars or public officials to discuss an important topic of contemporary concern or significance.

The topic for 2011-12 is Speculative Futures, "an interdisciplinary approach to questions of risk and uncertainty that engages with imaginative and open-ended forms of speculation in fiction, videogames, art, and film." The series will "bring together public intellectuals, scholars, media practitioners, and artists — in addition to technical experts, analysts, policymakers — so as to mobilize critical speculation on the spectrum of possible futures." The primary investigators are Bishnupriya Ghosh (English), Rita Raley (English), Bhaskar Sarkar (Film & Media Studies), and Greg Siegel (Film & Media Studies).

Past topics have included Marriage: Race, Sexuality, and Citizenship;  Forty Years after the Big Spill -- Looking Back, Looking Ahead: 21st  Century Environmental Challenges in a Global Context;  Toward Economic Justice: Policy and the Political Imagination; Race, Place, and Power; Human Rights and the Humanities in Times of Torture; Media Ownership: Research and Regulation; America and the Reshaping of a New World Order; Executing Justice: America and the Death Penalty; Discrimination, Sexual Orientation, and the State; and Environmental Issues and Policy Reform in America. 

Preference is given to proposals that encourage broad interdisciplinary participation. Only one proposal can be funded. Elements of a proposal are as follows: offering the topic for discussion as a Freshman Seminar; including the topic in other related courses at the undergraduate level; lectures for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, staff, and when appropriate, the community; panel discussions with nationally-known experts open to the UC Santa Barbara and external community as appropriate; and dissemination of the information gathered from the discussions, classes, guest speakers, and research, either published or in other formats. 

The Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate Series was established with a grant from the Rupe Foundation to explore contemporary societal issues of national and international significance through the presentation of eminent figures who hold divergent viewpoints. Previous Great Debates have included: 
  • Academic Freedom in a Time of Crisis, with Stanley Fish and Cary Nelson
  • Torture and the Law: Can U.S. Officials be Held Accountable?, featuring Scott Horton and Stuart Taylor
  • Religion in American Politics - Too Much or Too Little?, featuring Rabbi Michael Lerner and Michael Novak  
  • The American News Media - Liberal or Conservative Bias?, featuring Eric Alterman and Tucker Carlson 
  • Iraq and the War on Terror: Were We Wrong?, featuring William Kristol and Ambassador Joseph Wilson 
  • Should the U.S. Ban Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering?, featuring Dr. Gregory Stock and George J. Annas 
  • The Conflict of Civilizations - The Question of Whether Conflicts between the World's Major Cultures in the Post-Cold War Era Are Inevitable, featuring Senate George J. Mitchell and Samuel P. Huntington 
  • National Security vs. Personal Liberty, featuring Judge William Webster and Nadine Strossen 
  • The Impact of the Media on American Life, featuring Jeff Greenfield, William Safire, and Richard Rodriguez

The call for proposals is issued in the Spring quarter. Proposals from groups of faculty, departments and programs, and department-based and interdisciplinary centers are encouraged. Critical Issues in America activities take place during the academic year and funds are available beginning September 1. Some projects have found it most feasible for planning purposes to concentrate activities in the Winter and Spring quarters. 

For further information or details of the proposal elements, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Assistant Dean, College of Letters and Science.