The link to my final presentation is below (also uploaded to the Drive folder):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KzkF9MWuo0PVHyGjkWS9nHBlHAbZZO-V/view?usp=drive_link

I really enjoyed visiting the art exhibitions on Tuesday. Campus often has so much going on that goes completely under the radar for most students, including myself. Getting to hear from the artists themselves was also a particularly exciting opportunity. I rarely visit contemporary art exhibits on my free time so it was a definite learning experience for me, and a drastic departure from the kind of classical art exhibitions I typically visit.

I was so happy that the class was able to visit the planetarium on Tuesday! Despite being a 4^th year, I had never visited nor even heard about the on-campus planetarium. I was pleased to find out that the planetarium offers topical and varied events every Wednesday evening at 8pm (“UCLA Planetarium” n.d.). I had a chance to read through everyone’s wonderful blog posts about the planetarium visit, star dust, and all things astronomy. Everyone had very insightful responses.

It was a pleasure listening to the comprehensive and fascinating guest lecture by Dr. Cristina Albu in class on Tuesday. While each of the sub-topics and art pieces were interesting in their own right and exposed me to works I previously was completely unfamiliar with, I was specifically struck by the discussion surrounding Juan Downey's Plato Now (1973) piece. Learning about Plato Now was a serendipitous moment, as I based my midterm project around Plato's landmark work Republic, reimagining it for the present day.

This week we discussed Chinese Zodiac signs and genetic modifications. As a Political Science major with a keen interest in East Asia, the former topic was most interesting to me. Growing up, I was always unsure of my sign. After conducting some light research in class, I realized why. With my birthday of January 23, 2001, I was born on the final day of the Dragon (Lian n.d.). 

I am continuously interested and pleasantly surprised by the new perspective and insight the course material offers me on familiar topics. Fungi has always been a fascinating topic for me, as it exists as some strange in-between of plants, animals, and bacteria.

Hello everyone, I'm Mher Arutyunyan and I'm looking forward to meeting all of you over the course of the next 10 weeks. I am a 4th year Political Science major with a Russian Studies minor. I just completed a Departmental Honors Senior Thesis about Putin-era Russian politics and foreign policy. I have included a link at the bottom of this post if you're interested in reading it :)