Spring 2026 EXCO 301 Course Descriptions
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EXCO 301.01 Inside the Circle: A Space for Growth and Support
Teacher: Yovana Marina Valdivia-Anaya, yvaldiviaanaya@sfsu.edu
Inside the Circle is a 15-week guided support course designed to create a safe, judgment-free environment for open conversation, emotional growth, and reflection. Each session encourages participants to share experiences, explore personal challenges, and learn from one another through guided topics, mindfulness practices, and community-building activities. Weekly themes may include stress management, self-compassion, communication, setting boundaries, coping with anxiety, and personal empowerment. The circle format promotes listening, empathy, and understanding, helping participants connect and grow both personally and collectively.
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EXCO 301.02 Design, Psychology, and Society
Teacher: Elliot Sum, msum@sfsu.edu
Design, Psychology, and Society aims to introduce students to how visual design influences people at an individual and societal level. This class will explore the psychological and sociological effects of design choices, from art pieces and clothing to logos and architecture; we will cultivate our awareness and appreciation for all types of artists and creators. We will have activities, live lectures, and optional readings to deepen our understanding of what design can do and widen our perspective on design. Additionally, this class will use critical lenses to examine how design choices may have extremely harmful or helpful effects on specific marginalized populations.
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EXCO 301.03 Fan Fiction Writing
Teacher: Babette Wagener, bwagener@sfsu.edu
Students will learn how to write fan fiction. We will use interactive and collaborative techniques to foster an environment of creativity. Students will be tasked with writing for their own individual tastes while also being streamlined through different assignments. By working together, we will all help each other improve our writing.
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EXCO 301.04 Philippines Society and Revolution (with GABRIELA SFSU)
Teacher: Carmella Obrusnik, cobrusnik@sfsu.edu
Students will learn about the history of colonization and resistance in the Philippines and develop critical analysis skills to describe the class structure and conditions of contemporary Philippine society.
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EXCO 301.05 Intro to Computer Graphics
Teacher: Aaron Herr, cherr1@sfsu.edu
Students will learn vector geometry, transformation, and the graphics pipeline for drawing discrete lines, clipping and shading. Writing data to GLSL shaders that is sent to the GPU. Code written in this course will be in C++.
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EXCO 301.06 Fade To Grey: Androgyny, Style and Art In Dance Music
Teacher: Eva Palma, epalma@sfsu.edu
Based on the book “Fade To Grey: Androgyny, Style and Art In 80s Dance Music” by Washington DC based curator and DJ Adrian Loving. Through essays, interviews, and mixtapes, Fade To Grey examines gender and racial identity, fashion, music, film, and visual art from the 1970s, 80s, and early 1990s. Punk, funk, heavy metal, new wave, hip hop, and house music all get showcased. Each week’s readings will be provided online by the instructor’s own copy. Students will also listen to the book’s mixtapes as well as the readings. Film watching homework will be occasional.
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EXCO 301.07 Study of Amado Guerrero's "Philippine Society and Revolution" (with The League of Filipino Students)
Teacher: JJ Bernas, 923979586@sfsu.edu
Students will learn about the rich revolutionary history of the Philippines against Spanish colonization, Japanese occupation, and the ongoing fight against U.S. imperialism. In addition, we will discuss Filipino identity and philosophy, the three basic problems in the Philippines, and the struggle for National Democracy. This course is based on the book "Philippine Society and Revolution" by Amado Guerrero, a Filipino writer, poet, and activist.
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EXCO 301.08 Introduction to Game Development
Teachers: Ian Lin, Declan Holmes, Jose Gonzalez, ilin@sfsu.edu, dholmes@sfsu.edu, jgonzalez24@sfsu.edu
In collaboration with the Roblox University Engagement Team, this program introduces the fundamentals of game development using the Roblox Studio engine. Designed for beginners, the course covers all key aspects of game creation, including (but not limited to) 3D asset creation, UI/UX design, scripting, and marketing. Students will apply their acquired skills to develop an original Roblox experience, showcasing their progress throughout the course. No prior experience with Roblox or other development engines is required.
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EXCO 301.09 Skateboarding and Urban Policy
Teacher: Ed Gaites, egaites@sfsu.edu
This class will be an introduction to street skateboarding, you will be taught how to ride a skateboard and do flat ground tricks. Ollie, shuvit, 180 and kickflip. Graded on participation not on tricks landed. Additionally we will discuss urban decisions within San Francisco regarding skate culture.This will include the creation of new skateparks and current issues regarding street skating in the city. I want to also include a section where we discuss the birth of skating in Venice Beach with the film “Lords of Dogtown.”
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EXCO 301.10 Introduction to Beach
Teacher: Christ Martinez, 924200742@sfsu.edu
The intent of this course is to learn more about more the physical processes commonly seen at the beach. This can be used as a way to learn the science behind the beach and grow more confident in going to the beach. We can go over broad topics in waves, winds, common public views, safety, and unique geographic aspects of the California coast. Trip to Ocean Beach possible.
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EXCO 301.11 Digital Defense 101: A Proactive Approach to Staying Safe Online
Teacher: Joseph Altareb, jaltareb@sfsu.edu
The Internet is an extremely powerful tool for good.. and bad. A modern issue of our time is that we as a society do not have a full understanding of the things that go on day-to-day as citizens of cyber-space. It really seems like a lot of us are moving online without any defense. Everyday there are breaches, hacks, rampant misuse of data, surveillance, social engineering, and a whole host of malicious activity online. In this course we will discuss these events as they happen in real time, past events that had occurred, and some real world solutions to staying safe online. This will start as a beginner friendly course and work our way up, and we will talk about and implement:
- Hiding in plain sight / security by obscurity
- Operational Security (OPSEC)
- Alternatives to popular (and unsafe) services
- Using new-age authentication methods and practices
- Secure methods of communication
- Email filtering
- Resisting fingerprinting
- Seeking out and deleting personally identifiable information of yourself
- The basics on advanced topics like network firewalls, Linux, the Tor browser, etc.
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EXCO 301.12 Let’s Go! The World of Japanese Superheroes: Tokusatsu - A Special Effects Fantasy
Teacher: Rehnzo Nocon, rnocon@mail.sfsu.edu
Rejoice! Tokusatsu is a prominent form of Japanese entertainment where film and television heavily rely on practical special effects, often basking in the genres of science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror. One of the earliest and most well- known examples are the Godzilla and Gamera films, effectively kickstarting the kaiju boom. Due to the undeniable grasp superheroes have had on pop culture for many years now, this course in particular will prominently cover the impact and significance of the big 3 Toku franchises in the superhero/mecha subgenre: Ultraman, Super Sentai, and most importantly Kamen Rider. We will analyze common writing tropes prominent in the big 3, the storytelling process, their production histories, and also take a deep dive into their fandoms. We will come to understand why they’ve come to be endured in the hearts of many and how they’ve become immortalized in the corners of pop culture worldwide. So let’s ride! And together we will explore the worlds of heroes you may or may not know!
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EXCO 301.13 Introduction to Marxism
Teacher: Brian Yan, byan5@sfsu.edu
Marxism is a commonly misunderstood and misrepresented philosophy. This course is to not only clear up any such misunderstandings but also to thoroughly examine and explain the ideas, critiques, and debates contained within the broad scope of Marxism.
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EXCO 301.14 Cliterature: A History of Erotica
Teacher: Fyrdous Siddiqee, msiddiqee@sfsu.edu
This course will focus on taking a deep look at where erotica as a genre started and how it has evolved. Students will focus on how relationships are portrayed, and how the wider social contexts influenced changes in the genre. Students will also practice close reading and analytical writing in relation to the materials.
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EXCO 301.15 Armenian Awakening in Literature & History
Teacher: Zepyur Elise Kasparian, zkasparian@sfsu.edu
In this course, students will engage with Volume I of the novel "Awakening" by Malkhas, a foundational work of Armenian revolutionary literature, to explore themes of identity, resistance, and national awakening under Russian and Ottoman imperial rule. Through close reading, historical analysis, and class discussions, students will examine how literature shapes and reflects political consciousness. By situating the novel within its historical context, students will gain a deeper understanding of Armenian struggles for justice and self-determination.
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EXCO 301.16 Dissent
Teacher: David Flin, dflin@sfsu.edu
Everyone has ideas or beliefs that go against the grain of our society. Some things aren't meant to be said within our bubbles. Rarely ever can we find the appropriate time and space to discuss dissenting opinions directly to other human beings without having an emotional or careless response. We live in a country that waits for businessmen and politicians to make choices on their behalves. The reason why...? Because it's their job to spend hours, days, or years to discuss novel resolutions with their select groups of people. They may have direct means to enact their policies, but we have the ability to spread our ideas.
This is an environment to say and discuss any opinion or knowledge you believe is valuable enough to be shared face to face with your peers. Bring any notion to the table, so long as you truly believe it. We are not here to judge one another's character; we are here to understand why we believe such and such. This is not a space to discuss plans or desires for violence against any individual or collective people.
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EXCO 301.17 Knitting
Teacher: Roman Rodriguez, rrodriguez@sfsu.edu
Students will learn the basics of knitting. They will learn techniques and theory that will help build skills to where they can self teach after the class.
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EXCO 301.18 Affordable Housing Development 101
Teacher: Tryphena Arthur, tarthur1@sfsu.edu
This course introduces students to how affordable housing actually gets built in the United States, from the first idea to the final ribbon-cutting. We will break down the basic steps of development—site selection, financing, design, approvals, and long-term operations—using real Bay Area examples and plain language. Students will learn key concepts such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), capital stacks, community partnerships, and the role of local government in funding and zoning decisions. Through short readings, discussions, hands-on exercises, and collaborative mapping of a sample project, students will gain a clearer understanding of what it takes to turn a housing need into a real building that people can live in.
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EXCO 301.19 A Brief History of Superhero Comics in the United States
Teacher: Aristotle Reed, areed6@mail.sfsu.edu
This course had previously been offered in Spring 2025, and was inspired by another previous EXCO course: "The history of comic books in America". This course intends to briefly summarize the history and key moments of the superhero genre in comic books in the United States as well as explore the industry trends and influences on the genre. History will be divided between Pulp/Comic Strip Era, the Golden Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age. Some topics we might cover include the Comics Code Authority and censorship, the various waves of female superheroes, creator's rights, the "Marvel Method", the Multiverse, minority and diversity representation in superhero comics, the "direct market", politics in comics, the speculator bubble and comic crash, etc. Each week we will do readings, watch videos, do activities, etc. and discuss and analyze them over Zoom.
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EXCO 301.20 Botany + Physiology of Cannabis and Entheogenic Plants
Teacher: Max Benbow, mbenbow@sfsu.edu
NO PREREQUISITES, NO HOMEWORK, and NO TESTS. Students will learn how cannabis and other entheogenic plants form psychoactive compounds. They will learn the history of many sacred plants, and indigenous theology of the Americas. Students will grow their own cannabis, hemp, and/or other entheogenic plant at home or in the lab. Students will have the opportunity to visit a licensed medical cannabis farm during harvest season. Guest lectures and workshops from local professionals. 15 lectures, 5 optional field trips. Part of the Core Four curriculum.
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EXCO 301.21 Finding Your Art Style
Teacher: Aidan Millar-White, amillarwhite@sfsu.edu
Each week, students will experiment in a different art style, learning the techniques for each and making a small artwork of their own in the style of that week's art. By the end of the course, they should have about 15 small artworks that they made. They will gain newfound knowledge on the different kind of art styles there are, how to use them, and what art styles they prefer for themselves. Whether it's palette knife art, bokeh painting, or oil pastels (among others), they will find a style that suits them and they enjoy working with.
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EXCO 301.22 Home Gardening 100
Teacher: Elliot Sum, msum@sfsu.edu
In Home Gardening 100, students will work with the instructor to build home gardening skills or gardening as a hobby. The class will cover subsistence gardening, flower-focused and succulent gardening, and more, along with skills such as composting, layering, watering, weeding, etc. Students will work with the space that they have to grow their own plants. The class will also have volunteer opportunities where students can experience and work with larger gardens, discover community gardening spaces, and learn about the benefits of community garden spaces.
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EXCO 301.23 Hustle & Flow: Economic Survival & Innovation, How to make side money, hack the system and gain social clout
Teacher: Chris Roberts, Croberts@sfsu.edu
This interdisciplinary course examines how individuals and communities engage in economic survival through nontraditional and informal means. Drawing from urban economics, social psychology, law, and design, students will explore the systems that shape access to wealth, legitimacy, and status and how those systems are resisted, hacked, or creatively navigated. Topics include side hustles, underground markets, social clout as currency, legal gray zones, and the design of personal economic systems. Students will develop applied tools for building influence, sustaining income, and designing adaptive strategies in high-cost urban environments like San Francisco.
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EXCO 301.24 Applied AI: Professional Training in Artificial Intelligence Tools and Strategies
Teacher: Chris Roberts, Croberts@sfsu.edu
Participants will gain hands-on experience in prompt engineering, generative AI, automation, and creative content development. Emphasis is placed on practical use across business, education, and creative industries. Through industry guest speakers, field visits to leading AI organizations in San Francisco, and a capstone project, students will develop a portfolio of AI-driven solutions.
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SPRING 2026 EXCO 302 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS (CSL Component)
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EXCO 302.01 Learning and Lust: Sex Ed on Campus
Teacher: Maddux Eckerling, meckerling@sfsu.edu
This Community Service Learning course will provide students with hands-on experience in Sexual Health Education on college campuses. We will collaborate with programs at SF State, learning about sexual health issues that specifically impact college students and how universities across the state and country are addressing them. We will analyse the California State University system, the University of California system, the California Community College System, and select universities in the private sector and outside of California.
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EXCO 302.02 Designing Inclusive Urban Spaces
Teacher: Swetha Parekh, Sparekh@sfsu.edu
This course explores the relationship between urban design, public spaces, and community well-being. Students will engage in 20 hours of community service work with local organizations focused on city planning and neighborhood improvement. Through a combination of classroom discussions, site visits, and hands-on projects, students will analyze public spaces, learn principles of inclusive and sustainable urban design, and contribute to initiatives that enhance community accessibility, safety, and social interaction.
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EXCO 302.03 Bridging the Gap: Food Security and Healthcare
Teacher: Tyla Williams, twilliams22@sfsu.edu
In this course, we will explore the powerful connection between food, health, and community through hands-on cooking, storytelling, and weekly volunteering. Together, we'll prepare nutritious meals using accessible ingredients, reflect on food justice, and build relationships with local organizations serving food-insecure populations.
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