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Catalog: Fall 2007 - Spring 2008

Undergraduate Studies

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Expressive Arts

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Evening and Weekend Class Listing

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Master of Environmental Studies

Master of Public Administration

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Adagio: Dance and Music Inquiry

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Kabby Mitchell (dance, African American history)

Major areas of study include beginning dance technique, dance anthropology, Laban Movement Analysis, multicultural movement and non-verbal communication, music and dance history, expository and critical writing, collaborative performance, introduction to choreography and research.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Adagio represents the space of inner reflection between opening and closing movements of a cycle. In Western classical and contemporary dance, it is a central piece of movement that allows for individual expression of kinesthetic and emotional interpretation. In this program, students will experience and explore connections between musical and movement phrasing and analysis.

We will study African, Afro-American and Euro-American dance choreographers who challenged and changed rigid classical form to contemporary expressive form. We will listen to and critique major classical and contemporary musical compositions that were either written for or adapted to dance performance. The composers we will study include: Beethoven, Vivaldi, Stravinsky, Barber, Ellington, Gershwin and Jarrett. Students will choose from these composers, as well as others, to research musical selections used to create improvisational and faculty-choreographed work. The texts students will study and adapt to their individual research include: Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Massine, Laban, Wigman, Ailey, Dunham, Graham, Primus, Duncan, Limon, DeMille, Alonso, the Nicholas Brothers, Balanchine, Brown and Jamison. Students will also participate with guest artists who will explore dance forms as interpretations from their formal training (e. g. , trained Western classical dancers who interpret Japanese classical and contemporary dance forms, Hispanic flamenco dancers who have trained in classical Spanish dance, Afro-Cubans who have integrated traditional ritual dance with Euro-Western dance forms, and capoeira as a martial arts/dance form adapted to the Euro-Western body).

One component of this program will be the study of experiential and intellectual uses of dance, specifically movement in general, through the application of dance therapy and authentic movement. Student activities will include: viewing films and live performances, writing critical analysis in journals and meeting with noted guest artists to discuss their work.

During spring quarter, students will prepare for a public performance. Among the requirements will be attendance at a minimum of two dance and/or music performances each quarter.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 20

Special Expenses: Approximately $75 each quarter for performance tickets.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in anthropology, dance, history and music.

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Advanced Chemistry

Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Dharshi Bopegedera (Chemistry)

Major areas of study include quantum mechanics, advanced inorganic chemistry, instrumentation laboratory, advanced chemistry laboratory and coordination chemistry. Upper division science credit will be awarded.

Class Standing: Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: One year of college-level chemistry, ability to do integral and differential calculus required for quantum mechanics.

What do chemists do? In answering this question, this upper-division chemistry program will further students' studies in chemistry and prepare them for graduate studies or a career in chemistry. In all aspects of the program, classroom studies will be connected with the applications chemists encounter in their everyday work. In the lecture component, we will explore topics in quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, descriptive inorganic chemistry and the chemistry of transition elements. Students taking quantum mechanics must be comfortable working with differential and integral calculus.

The laboratory portion of the program will demand a high level of independence from students. In the winter quarter, students will learn to use analytical instruments for chemical analysis. In the spring quarter, students working in small groups will conduct experiments in advanced inorganic and physical chemistry. Technical writing skills will be developed throughout both quarters. Career guidance for those interested in pursuing careers in chemistry will be an important aspect of the program.

Total: 6, 12 or 16 credits each quarter. The 6 or 12 credit option requires a faculty signature. For more information, contact Dharshi Bopegedera, (360) 866-6620 or bopegedd@evergreen. edu.

Enrollment: 25

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in chemistry, chemical engineering, chemical physics, medicine, biochemistry and teaching.

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Alchemy: Spiritual and Chemical

Spring quarter

Faculty: Lydia McKinstry (chemistry), Kevin Francis (history, philosophy of science)

Major areas of study include chemistry, history of science and art history.

Class Standing: This lower-division program is designed for 50 percent freshmen and 50 percent sophomores.

Prerequisites: Strong algebra skills.

Alchemy was a scientific pursuit that integrated chemistry, astrology, art, metallurgy, medicine and mysticism. The philosophical and practical roots of alchemy span ancient China and India, classical Greece and Rome, Arabia during the Islamic Golden Age, and medieval Europe. Today alchemy is of interest mainly to historians of science. However, the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of alchemy continue to intrigue philosophers, theologians and artists.

In this program, we will explore the origins of both spiritual and chemical alchemy. We will look at the parallel development of these two strands and study their influences on modern science and philosophy. Part of our inquiry will focus on the chemical principles and processes discovered by early alchemists. In addition, we will learn how seemingly magical transformations are now the mainstay of today's chemical industry.

Program activities will include lectures, problem-solving workshops, laboratories, field trips, seminars and independent projects. Most of our readings and discussions will be concerned with the history of alchemy as it relates to modern philosophy and science. Students will undertake assignments focused on interpreting and integrating these themes. This work will emphasize critical and quantitative reasoning, as well as the development of proficient writing and speaking skills.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 46

Special Expenses: Approximately $40 for field trips to the Tacoma Museum of Glass, other museum exhibits and/or theater performances in Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in humanities, natural science and education.

This program is also listed under Programs for Freshmen.

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Algebra, Algorithms and Modeling: An Introduction to Mathematics for Science and Computing

Spring quarter

Faculty: Neal Nelson (computer science, mathematics)

Major areas of study include algebra, precalculus and computer science.

Class Standing: This all-level program offers appropriate support for freshmen as well as supporting and encouraging those ready for advanced work.

Western science relies on mathematics as a powerful language for expressing the character of the observed world. Mathematical models predict the behavior of complex systems, within limitations. Modern computing has significantly magnified the power of mathematical modeling and helped shape new models that increasingly influence 21st-century decisions. This program will explore the ways mathematics and computing are used to construct the scientific models that express our understanding of the natural world. Students will explore computing, study mathematical abstractions and develop the mathematical skills needed to express, analyze and solve problems arising in the sciences. The common basis for the mathematics we know today arose from ancient Greek philosophies and the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries when the predictive power of science became a significant influence on the world. An historical component of the program will allow students an opportunity to develop the mathematical concepts and skills of today by expressing, analyzing and solving problems within the original historical contexts in which they arose in the natural sciences.

This program is intended for students who want to gain a fundamental understanding of mathematics and be exposed to computer science before leaving college or pursuing further work in mathematics, teaching or the sciences. The emphasis is on the development of fluency in mathematical thinking and expression while reflecting on the role and influence of mathematics in the history of science. Topics include college algebra and pre-calculus, introduction to modeling, history of science and introductory concepts in programming. This program is not intended for students who have had calculus or are otherwise ready to take calculus.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 24

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the sciences, education and mathematics.

This program is also listed under Programs for Freshmen.

A similar program is expected to be offered in 2008–09.

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All About Me: Writing and Wellness

Fall and Winter quarters

Faculty: Bill Ransom (writing, advanced life-support medic), Betty Kutter (biology, human health and behavior, complementary medicine, bioethics)

Major areas of study include human biology and health, developmental psychology, academic and creative writing, literature and ethics.

Class Standing: This Core program is designed for freshmen.

This two-quarter, interdisciplinary program explores the many aspects of nature and nurture that converge to create what we think of as Self. Science of the body, creativity of the mind and questing of the spirit form the foundation of our inquiry. Students will observe and study their own development of Self through lectures, readings, films, experiments, and guest speakers, as well as through expository writing, poetry and creative nonfiction prose. This process will require the coordination of observation, detailed note-taking, lab work, data recovery and quantitative analysis with these written genres to reach a range of audiences with the final results. Writing assignments and quizzes are designed to assess comprehension, to provide review and to prompt focused discussion in both large and small group sessions. We value careful inquiry, effective writing and statements backed with facts.

Areas of study include, but are not limited to, developmental biology, genetics, microbiology, nutrition, individual and community health; writing for science and for mainstream audiences; developmental psychology, cross-cultural sociology, anthropology, folklore and ethics. Students will study themselves and will further this study through the writing of poetry, essays, memoirs and research papers to determine their direction in college and to acquire skills for future academic work.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 46

Special Expenses: $100 for retreat expenses to Camp Bishop.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the health sciences, writing, social work, anthropology and education.

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America Abroad

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Sam Schrager (American studies), David Marr (American studies)

Major areas of study include American studies, literature, history, anthropology and international studies.

Class Standing: Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome. Exceptions may be made for sophomores on the basis of a writing sample and interview with faculty prior to registration. For information, contact Sam Schrager, (360) 867-6335 or schrages@evergreen.edu or David Marr, (360) 867-6751 or marrd@evergreen.edu.

Democracy . . . is the rock upon which we toil, and we thrive or wane in the communication of those symbols and processes set in motion in its name. -Ralph Ellison

To educated Europeans around 1800 the new republic called The United States of America was founded on an incredible idea: that human beings could govern themselves. Uneducated Europeans only a few decades later were struck not so much by this odd idea as by the promise of a new start, the lure of opportunity. The numbers tell a story: the handful of visitors who came to America to see with their own eyes the new land and to witness self-government firsthand versus the 35,000,000 immigrants who crossed the oceans between the 1840s and the close of unrestricted immigration in the 1920s. When foreign observers such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Frances Trollope were finished looking around, they went home. The many millions, though, stayed here, and continue to come.

These complex comings and goings-of people and ideas-underlie Americans' fascination with democracy. Where, we will ask in this program, do these democratic ideas come from? How have they been contested and shaped in the harsh crucible of American history? What have been-and continue to be-their imprints in personal lives? What do our characters as Americans owe to the cultural traditions of racial, ethnic and religious groups who, from the seventeenth century to the present, have constituted the nation's citizenry? And what effects do these ideals have elsewhere in the world, especially now, with the United States an increasingly dominant political and cultural force?

The program will explore questions such as these through close readings of texts, writing, research projects, and internships and field studies either in a foreign country or the U. S. During the first half of the year we will examine works by novelists, historians, ethnographers, essayists, and filmmakers who, like Ralph Ellison, take fresh looks at American experience. Students will learn essentials of ethnographic fieldwork by documenting oral history and community life. From mid-winter to mid-spring they will undertake community-based study here or abroad, including research on an aspect of American culture or comparative values and practices in another society. There will be opportunities for both individual and group work, including language study. In the concluding weeks of spring, the class will review students' work in light of major issues of our inquiry. The program will provide a strong, supportive context for independent projects, internships (with NGOs and other service organizations), and senior theses.

Among the topics we are likely to study: liberty and authority in the American colonies, the emergence of an American empire, the dawn of American literature, foreigners' firsthand observations of the new republic, the creation of community on the moving frontier, 1920s expatriates, war as both agent and enemy of democracy, the permeability and patrol of geographical and cultural borders, Diasporas and bicultural identities, and remodeling or rejection of aspects of American culture in other societies.

Total: 16 credits each quarter; 12 or 14 credit option fall and winter for students taking a foreign language in preparation for study abroad.

Enrollment: 50

Internship Possibilities: With faculty approval from mid-winter to mid-spring.

Special Expenses: $90 for three day fieldtrip. Approximately $1,500 to $3,000 for students studying abroad from mid-winter to mid-spring.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the humanities and social sciences, community service, international relations, journalism, law, media and teaching.

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The American Eye: A History of America in Photographs and Fiction

Fall quarter

Faculty: Bob Haft (photography)

Major areas of study include American literature and black-and-white photography.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: Core program or its equivalent.

This program involves both hands-on photography and a study of the American history that helped shape the way photographic images of the U. S. have looked from the 1850s to the present. We will begin with a short look at the birth of photography in Europe and then how it was used as a tool of documentation for major points in American history, such as the Civil War, the opening of the American West, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, World War II, and the 1950s.

In addition to looking at and learning to read photographs by others, we will learn to make photographs (black and white) ourselves as recording devices for our own lives and times. Subsequently, students will learn to become proficient in the use of 35mm cameras, how to correctly expose, develop and print film, and how to discuss images intelligently.

Our main text for the quarter will be American Photography by Miles Orvell. We will also read a number of novels including The Red Badge of Courage, The Jungle, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, On the Road, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 25

Special Expenses: Approximately $200 to $250 for photographic supplies.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the arts and the humanities.

This program is also listed under Culture, Text and Language.

A similar program is expected to be offered in 2009–10.

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American Indian Sovereignty: Competing Contexts

Fall and Winter quarters

Faculty: Kristina Ackley (Native American studies), José Gómez (constitutional law and politics)

Major areas of study include Native American studies, American history, political theory, federal Indian law and policy, legal research and writing, and theory and methodology in the social sciences.

Class Standing: Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome.

American Indians have a relationship with the federal government unlike that of any other ethnic or political group in the United States. They also have complex understandings of tribal sovereignty that contest all attempts to make them subordinate to colonial powers. In this two-quarter program, we will consider the various ways in which sovereignty has been understood and argued, taking as our broad starting points the two competing contexts of tribal knowledge systems and the U. S. Constitution.

The concept of sovereignty must be placed within a local, historical, cultural and global context. Through theoretical readings and discussion, we will move from nation building in America to Native forms of nationalism. We will examine the historical background and basic doctrines of federal Indian law, including the history of federal Indian policy, the foundations of tribal sovereignty, federal roles in Indian affairs and the complex interplay of federal, tribal and state authorities in Indian country. Students will learn about traditional tribal governmental structures, contemporary tribal governments and the areas in which they exercise authority and proposals for future self-determination. We will also examine the sources and limitations of federal power over Indigenous peoples and tribes, state and federal constraints on tribal authority, and state claims to power over both Indian tribes and non-Indians living or working in Indian country.

In the fall quarter, students will gain an understanding of the legal nature of the relationship between American Indians and the United States. Beginning with the American Constitution and the era of the early republic, the federal-Indian relationship will be discussed in terms of the developing American nation state. Central to this discussion will be an analysis of the retention of tribal sovereignty in the face of political and geographic encroachment justified with arguments over federalism and carried out through treaty making, Indian removal and systematic military campaigns. The origins of modern, legal tribal sovereignty will be contrasted with the implications of the plenary powers doctrine.

In the winter quarter, we will move from this foundational overview to topical issues that have emerged in the 20th and 21st centuries, including early attempts to appeal to international law, conservation efforts and their impacts on treaty rights, tribal interests and subsistence needs of Aboriginal people. We will also examine the rise of modern inter-tribal political organizing in the face of termination, treaty rights and tribal sovereignty. Finally, the emergence of land claims, social welfare issues and economic development as critical areas of study in the late 20th century will be contrasted with the rise in broad-based appeals to other global Indigenous people and the reclamation of traditional voice in a decolonization context in recent years.

In major projects during the fall and winter quarters, students will work on a contemporary issue within Washington state that is of particular interest to local tribes. This will culminate in writing appellate briefs and presenting arguments in mock court. Alternatively, students may research and write about tribal sovereignty through a case study.

Students will challenge post-colonial theory that merely deconstructs and move to a consideration of decolonizing practices. We will take as our basic premise in this program that those wishing to know about the history of a particular native group should learn about it with a purpose to be of support to these people today. Students will develop skills as writers and researchers by studying scholarly and imaginative works and by conducting policy research and fieldwork. We will require extensive reading and writing on these topics. There will be films and guest speakers that reflect important aspects of Indigenous experiences.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment:50

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in Native American studies, law, public policy, tribal government and policy.

This program is also listed under Native American and World Indigenous Peoples Studies.

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Art and Religious Practice

Fall and Winter quarters

Faculty: Jean Mandeberg (fine metalworking), Lisa Sweet (printmaking)

Major areas of study include art, art history and religion.

Class Standing: This Core program is designed for freshmen.

One way to look at both art and craft is that they have historically been held in the service of religion in order to capture the fleeting moments of ritual. How can we better understand religion by examining and making images and objects that reflect these rituals? How has visual art encouraged spiritual experience and religious practice?

Two examples of religious objects which have particular meaning and remarkable visual variety are Rosary beads and Torah pointers. Rosary beads are aesthetically considered and crafted objects used in the practice of prayer to help one keep track of the prayers already said. They are symbolic of the rose garden-roses being the symbol of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the Christian religion. Torah pointers in Judaism are small sterling silver rods used to follow the reading of Torah and keep the reader from ever touching the sacred scroll. They are one of a number of objects, never merely utilitarian, designed to perform religious commandments in the most beautiful way possible. Rituals often make use of objects like these whose forms are constantly reinterpreted and created by artists.

This program will be based in two visual art studios: printmaking and fine metalworking. Working back and forth between 2-D and 3-D, between image making and object making, we will study basic design, studio skills and art history. Our study of art will provide a lens through which we will look at world religions, focusing on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Since the purpose of ritual is to repeat and rehearse stories, many of the artworks we will consider will be functional. We will examine the narratives printed in books, painted in frescoes, and carved in stone, as well as sacred images like those on a bishop's cope, a silver chalice, and a common gravestone. In most cases the effect is the same: to see and remember.

This program is designed for freshmen with an interest in studio art, art history, philosophy and religion who are interested in a focused and demanding combination of studio work, writing, reading and seminar discussion. Half of the students' time will be focused on artistic practice; half will be a rigorous study of art history and religion. We will invite visiting scholars in religious studies to complement our expertise in visual art. We hope to work as a community of artists to examine ideas that have a rich historical background as well as pressing contemporary significance.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 40

Special Expenses: Studio art supplies, $250 each quarter.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the arts and the humanities.

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Art and Science of Light

Fall quarter

Faculty: Dharshi Bopegedera (physical chemistry), Susan Aurand (studio art, humanities)

Major areas of study include chemistry, art, art history and humanities.

Class Standing: This Core program is designed for freshmen.

Prerequisites: Strong algebra skills.

This program is a one-quarter, interdisciplinary study of light. We will explore light in art, science, art history and culture. All students will do studio work exploring how light is depicted in art, the phenomenon of color, and light as a tool for creating photographic images. All students will also explore the interaction of light with matter in the classroom as well as in the laboratory. In addition, collectively, we will explore how light has been thought about and depicted in various times and cultures.

This integrated program is designed for students who are eager to explore both art and science in a hands-on way. Our weekly schedule will include studio and science labs, specific skills workshops, lectures and seminars. We will focus on helping students build basic skills in both art and lab science, as well as library research and expository writing skills. As part of our program work, students will have the opportunity to undertake an individual or collaborative interdisciplinary project on a topic related to the theme of light.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 46

Special Expenses: Approximately $125 for art supplies and tickets to museums.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in science, art and the humanities.

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The Arts of the Sailor

Spring quarter

Faculty: John Filmer (maritime studies)

Major areas of study include history, critical reasoning, writing, coastal navigation, communication, leadership and seamanship.

Class Standing: Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: Faculty signature required (see below).

Faculty Signature: Students must submit a one-page summary of their goals and objectives as well as their expectations of the program. Acceptance into the program will be based on the students background and aspirations. For information and to schedule a faculty interview, contact John Filmer, (360) 867-6159 or write to The Evergreen State College, Seminar 2 A2117, Olympia, WA 98505. Applications received by the Academic Fair, March 7, 2008, will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills.

This program is intended for students who want to do more than just learn how to sail. It provides an opportunity for students to learn coastal navigation, seamanship and the sailing arts aboard the Yawl Resolute. Students will learn power cruise and sail seamanship, become part of a working crew, learn the "rules of the road," tides and currents, weather, boating safety and regulations, coastal navigation (not celestial) and various sailor's arts including knots, splices, hitches, reefs and the correct use of lines in docking and un-docking. This program will be demanding and include a reading and writing schedule covering the history and development of sail and Northwest maritime history. The development of leadership and teamwork skill is a primary goal.

Sailing days will generally consume a full day. Students must be willing to work hard and engage academically with the material.

Total: 8 credits.

Enrollment: 11

Special Expenses: $500 lab fee to be paid by April 4, 2008.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in leadership, management, business, maritime industry and seafaring.

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Astronomy and Cosmologies

Spring quarter

Faculty: E. J. Zita (physics, astronomy)

Major areas of study include astronomy, physics, mythology and history of science.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: Strong writing and algebra skills.

In Astronomy and Cosmologies, we will learn beginning-to-intermediate astronomy through lectures, discussions, interactive workshops, and observations. We will use naked eyes, binoculars, and telescopes. We will build simple astronomical tools such as spectrometers, motion demonstrators, and position finders. We will learn about the structure and evolution of our universe and celestial bodies. Students will research a question that interests them, share research with classmates, and publish their work on our program Web page. We will also discuss cosmologies: how people across cultures and throughout history have understood the universe and our place in it. We will study creation stories and world views, from those of ancient peoples to modern astrophysicists. We will learn ways in which human understanding and knowledge are constructed.

Students are invited to help organize an optional field trip to a location with clear skies. Students must be willing to work in teams and to use computer-based learning tools, including the Internet. We may have some online seminars using chat-room software. Look for program details and updates on the Academic Program Web page, linked to the professor's homepage.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 25

Special Expenses: $15 equipment fee; optional field trip expense is possible.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in astronomy, education, science, history and philosophy of science.

A similar program is expected to be offered in 2009–10

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Awakening the Dreamer, Pursuing the Dream

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Terry Setter (music, instrument building, media), Cynthia Kennedy (leadership, movement, sailing, cultural studies)

Major areas of study include movement, music, leadership studies, cultural studies, research presentation, critical writing and thinking, community studies, holistic education, sailing and philosophy.

Class Standing: This Core program is designed for freshmen.

Our greatest challenge is how to live a humane existence in inhuman times — Joseph Campbell

Awakening the Dreamer, Pursuing the Dream is designed to help students meet this challenge. To do so, we will focus on the individual's relation to self, society, leadership and the creative process. This program is intended for students who seek to explore and refine their core values in a context where they can act upon them with increasing awareness and integrity.

The faculty recognize that the social and psychological challenges of every era have required people to live their lives in the face of hardships and, often, in the midst of chaos. Therefore, the program will begin by focusing on how people in the past have worked to create a meaningful relationship between themselves and the world around them. We will trace music, dance, stories and images of many creative practices and spiritual traditions, from ancient to modern times. We will examine these in an attempt to discover which of them are relevant to our own lives. As students gain knowledge and skills in these areas, they will develop their own multifaceted approaches to prioritizing and pursuing their dreams.

Throughout the year, the program will make use of cognitive and experiential approaches to learning. Students will engage in their own practice of music, movement (such as dance or yoga), writing, drawing, or theater in order to cultivate the senses as well as the imagination. These practices will help us explore the deeper aspects of the human experience, which is the source of self-leadership, intentional living and change. Students will read mythology, literature and poetry while exploring ideas that continue to shape contemporary culture. We will also look to Indigenous cultures to deepen our appreciation of often-overlooked wisdom and values such as social justice and sustainability. We will seek to develop a broader understanding of contemporary culture as a stepping stone to thinking critically about how today's dreams can become tomorrow's reality.

During fall quarter, we will look at how people have drawn on diverse resources from personal to global in scale including intuition, mythology, psychology, religion, the arts, and nature, in order to be guided to richer, more meaningful lives. We will use a combination of lectures, seminars, collaborative and individual projects, research presentations, critical and creative writing, expressive presentations, and service learning. Weekly workshops will include music, movement and somatic practices. We will also make use of the water and islands of the Puget Sound through field trips, including day and overnight sailing trips. There will be an overnight retreat during week three at which we will work with Native arts practitioners. These activities are designed to help us know ourselves better, to build real-world skills, to develop leadership within small groups, and to intentionally create community within the program.

In the winter, we will begin to build students' skills in incorporating these resources into their own lives. We will continue to draw upon poetry, literature, philosophy, science, music, dance, meditation, and creative collaborations between the students. We will also engage in leadership development activities and other means to investigate ways in which students can define and pursue their own dreams. By spring quarter, students will develop individual projects for presentation in the many communities of which they are members. These might include (but are not limited to) internships with local support services, working on the "Procession of the Species" (a local artistic pageant where community members celebrate their relationships with each other and with the natural world), volunteering to help various organizations or needy individuals, or creating opportunities for public presentation of art works that reflect the concepts that were contained in the program materials. Possible study materials include works by Joanna Macy, Gabrielle Roth, Margaret Wheatley, David Whyte, Beethoven, W. A. Mathieu, Steven Nachmanovitch, bell hooks, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Joseph Chilton Pierce and John Cage.

The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 46

Internship Possibilities: With faculty approval.

Special Expenses: Approximately $75 each quarter for field trip and sailing activity expenses.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in community studies and expressive arts.

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Awareness: Omnia Extares in Hesychia

Spring quarter

Faculty: Bill Arney, Sarah Williams

Major areas of study include education, consciousness studies, creative writing, social and cultural studies, feminist theory, history and somatic studies.

Class Standing: This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent freshmen.

Awareness-a program devoted to exploring the complementarity of ascetical and critical studies-has been offered in various forms for the past three years. It has raised questions for the college, faculty and students: What is the value, or the virtue, of contemplative education in modern institutions of higher education? Can we reclaim the virtues of Evergreen's mascot or animal totem-the geoduck's predisposition for stillness (hesychia) and letting it all hang out-as we contemplate anew what is extolled when we sing our alma mater, "Omnia Extares!" at graduation ceremonies? Our collective inquiry will involve a look back-through important texts, student work and evaluations, institutes and retreats, programs at other institutions-to help answer these questions. Join us as we assess, appreciate, and incorporate within our own work together the best of what has been learned about the influence of this curriculum on learning communities as well as on collegiality at the college. In addition to this core work for everyone in the program, students also will design their own learning experiences. These field studies, which will constitute up to half the work of the quarter, can be anything: walking, reading, sailing, midwifery, writing, gardening, Aikido, hospice care, welding, cooking, meditation, etc. (These may seem mundane activities but any independent work will be undertaken knowing that your work, reflections and study will be conducted in light of the bookish and somatic inquiries of the program. ) Each person will answer these questions: What do you want to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to know when you have learned it? How are you going to show others-faculty and colleagues-that you have learned it? And, what difference will it make?

Learning happens when you have an experience and then reflect on it. Our focus will be on the craft of reflection. Our interest is the relationship between conscious reflection-awareness-and learning.

As a learning community we will participate in mind-body practices, as well as bookish study, that facilitate and enhance our ability to reflect on our current situation in historical, cross-cultural and gendered contexts.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 48

Special Expenses: $30 for yoga workshops.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in education, consciousness studies, creative writing, social and cultural studies, feminist theory and somatic studies.

This program is also listed under Culture, Text and Language.

A similar program is expected to be offered in 2008–09.

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Awareness: Writing and Renunciation

Fall and Winter quarters

Faculty: Bill Arney, Sara Huntington (These faculty gave up expertise in favor of attitude. Take the program or not; dont do anything because someone is an expert. )

Class Standing: This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent freshmen.

"The certainty that I can get along without is one of the most efficacious ways of convincing yourself, no matter where you stand on the intellectual or emotional ladder, that you are free. Renunciation, self-imposed limits are the basis for a practice that prepares people, perhaps even politically, to discuss what kinds of limits do we want to impose on ourselves." -Ivan Illich

Attend. Paying attention to how events, people, the big wide world in all its tiny manifestations-how they all appear, how they mean anything, how they engage us-that's what we'll do. We'll attend to the terms of our engagement, the costs, the ways we renounce in order to have a modicum of freedom-a freedom that turns out to be so strikingly different from the freedom that we think about, carelessly, as living beyond restraints, limits, duty. The freedom that is the effect of careful craft, discipline and practice-that's what we want to focus on. We'll write a lot, not as a means of self expression, not to find a voice or a self, but to pay attention, to study, commit, love. " Creative writing requires a dual love of language and life, human and otherwise. The storyteller then sculpts these raw loves with acute observation, reflection, creative struggle, allegiance to truth, merciless awareness of the foibles of human beings, and unstinting empathy toward human beings even so" (David James Duncan).

Our inquiry requires attention to ascetic as well as critical practices. We will all participate in mind-body practices, lectio and other communal reading, community service and bookish study. Writing may include socio-historical inquiry, reportage, annotations, comedy, antilamentations, jeremiads, humor, fictionings of the present, manifestoes, confessions, statistics-based scandals, rants, incautious cautions, sightings or prayers, but no poetry, plays or, especially, plans.

Students should attend this class for two quarters. This program provides continuity for those students enrolled in previous quarters of Awareness and those interested in joining Awareness in the spring. The program, Awareness: Writing and Renunciation, shares with the program, Made for Contemplation, interests in contemplative education. There are possibilities for collaboration between the two learning communities.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 36

Special Expenses: Approximately $35 each quarter for yoga workshops.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in any area of pursuit where people enjoy awareness on a daily basis, not for the monetary rewards and not for the lifelong opportunities a career or future study might provide, but for the love of being engaged in their work.

This program is also listed under Culture, Text and Language.

A similar program is expected to be offered in spring 2008.

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Last Updated: August 25, 2017


The Evergreen State College

2700 Evergreen Parkway NW

Olympia, Washington 98505

(360) 867-6000