The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams

UC Davis Undergraduate Education invites faculty in all disciplines to teach a First-Year Seminar around the Campus Community Book Project. The FYS-CCBP collaboration is an ideal way to introduce students to critical issues and explore UC Davis's Principles of Community.

Seminars may be taught in any department from myriad perspectives, with support of strong programming already in place. In lieu of weekly class meetings, students and faculty can attend presentations including the author's talk at the Mondavi Center during winter quarter. Limited complimentary tickets will be provided. A full schedule of multidisciplinary programming is available, as well as a winter quarter curriculum outline incorporating the author's talk and other presentations.

“What the Dalai Lama and I are offering is a way of handling your worries: thinking about others. You can think about others who are in a similar situation or perhaps even worse a situation, but who have survived, even thrived. It does help quite a lot to see yourself as part of a greater whole”

― Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Support for CCBP Seminars

In addition to the $2,500 academic enrichment fund for offering a one-unit seminar or $3,000 for a 2-unit seminar, we offer

• A curricular structure built around the CCBP event schedule that can be adapted to your line of inquiries.  With this structure, class meets 4-6 times during the quarter, and students attend 3-6 events. 
• A First-Year Seminars mini-grant of up to $500.
• Winter quarter seminars may receive tickets to attend the author's talk through the Mondavi Center's Curriculum Connections program.

Please send a brief statement of interest to Janet Chambers at jachambers@ucdavis.edu or call 530-752-1772 and submit your application by October 12 in order for your seminar to be included in the Pass 1 registration period.  As with all First-Year Seminars, courses may be one or two units, and graded or P/NP.  Please see Teach a Seminar for more information.

A Suggested Syllabus for Winter 2018

We have created a seminar framework that takes advantage of on-campus programming, including the author's talk at the Mondavi Center.  This plan allows faculty to have six one-hour class meetings and assign students to attend eight hours of events as optional out-of-class assignments to augment the seminar curriculum. Faculty will need to plan the remaining out-of-class hours, and faculty may request consultation with FYS Associate Director Eddy Ruiz to help plan their CCBP Seminar. The example course below is taught Wednesdays from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm to align with the scheduled events; however, faculty are welcome to schedule at a different time or for longer than an hour. Additional optional events can be found on the CCBP calendar and tickets to attend the author’s talk at the Mondavi Center will be available at no cost for a limited number of courses.