"M*A*S*H" television star and human rights activist Mike Farrell will join other distinguished speakers this spring in challenging UC Davis students and the community to examine their beliefs about capital punishment.

The spring quarter "Forum on Capital Punishment" will feature public lectures by people involved in the death penalty debate — pro and con as well as observers. The lectures will be open to the general public and university community.

The unusual program has been organized by Professor Allison Coudert, the Castelfranco Chair in Religious Studies, and Professor Malaquias Montoya of Chicana/o studies and art studio. The class coincides with an exhibition by Montoya that features a suite of prints, drawings and paintings titled "Premeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment" at the Richard L. Nelson Gallery.

Students started the class by attending the March 30 opening of Montoya's exhibition in the gallery. As part of the exhibition, Swedish artists Bigert and Bergstrom are presenting their videotape, "The Last Supper." This hour long work (shown continuously) interviews those who prepare the final meals of condemned inmates around the world.

Farrell, who serves as president of the Death Penalty Focus advocacy group, will speak at 6:30 p.m. April 11. Other speakers will include Montoya, a prosecutor, supporters and opponents of capital punishment among victims' families, a defense attorney who represents serial killers, a newspaper reporter who has covered a number of executions, and an advocate for alternatives to capital punishment.

'Personal involvement'

Students in this class will be asked to step out of the comfortable boundaries of a traditional college class, said Coudert, who came to UC Davis two years ago from Arizona State University. She was hired as the first endowed chair in the Religious Studies Program because of her reputation as a scholar and a teacher.

"The structure of a 'forum' allows students to experience learning on a level of depth and personal involvement unavailable in a traditional university setting," Coudert said.

Students, for example, may elect to work with recognized organizations that can establish pen pal relationships with death row inmates or volunteer with pro- or anti-capital punishment advocacy groups located throughout the greater Sacramento area.

In addition to weekly reading assignments, students will keep journals of their responses to the readings, commenting on speakers and out-of-class activities in relation to capital punishment. They also will be expected to do in-depth research on particular aspects of capital punishment as their final class project.

Montoya's exhibition first opened at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. It has appeared in eight art galleries across the nation before coming to UC Davis.

He believes that art serves the purpose of challenging people to rethink their understandings of the world.

"What concerns me is, why do we kill and what happens to us as a humanity, as a culture?" Montoya said. "Why is state-sanctioned killing any different from a killing that takes place in the streets?"

Coudert anticipates that the "forum" approach will be a spur to further interdisciplinary studies, involving topics especially relevant to UC Davis such as medical ethics, environmental policy, genetic engineering, animal rights and euthanasia.

To learn more about the class, contact Coudert at apcoudert@ucdavis.edu.

List of speakers, activities

These talks are free and open to the public, but seating capacity will be limited. Because the schedule is still being organized, interested persons are urged to check www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7686 for updated information on speakers.

• April 6, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Malaquias Montoya, UC Davis professor of Chicana/o studies and art studio, "Social Justice and the Artist." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• April 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Mike Farrell, actor and president of Death Penalty Focus, "Ending the Death Penalty." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• April 13, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Defense attorney Ellen Eggers, "Discussion of the Babbitt Case." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• April 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Maggie Elvie, Crime Victims United. 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• April 27, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, Eastern District of California. 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• May 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Lisa Rea, Restorative Justice, "A New Paradigm: Prevention and Solutions without the Death Penalty." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• May 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Nick and Amanda Wilcox, "Perspective from a Murder Victim's Family." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• May 23, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Sam Stanton, Sacramento Bee reporter, "Eyewitness to Executions." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.
• May 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. — Bill Hing, UC Davis professor of law and Asian American studies, "Political Challenges to Criminal Justice Reform in California." 3201 Hart Hall, UC Davis.