Catalog: Fall 2007 - Spring 2008

2007-08 Catalog: L

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Landscape Processes

Spring quarter

Faculty: Paul Butler (geology), Wendy Gerstel (geology)

Major areas of study include geology and geomorphology. Upper-division science credit will be awarded.

Class Standing: Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: One year of college-level science.

The need to understand landscape processes has gained new urgency as awareness of global climate change has increased. For example, by studying changes in the landscape due to past climatic events, we will be better able to understand and predict the future direction of landscape adjustments that are now underway. In addition, human modification of Earth's surface, whether for agriculture, mining, forestry, or urbanization, is often undertaken without adequate knowledge of Earth's surficial processes, sometimes with dire consequences. Process geomorphology (the processes that make and modify physical landscapes) draws on a number of overlapping physical and biological sciences, which include physics, chemistry, hydrology, soil science, geography, meteorology, climatology and biology. This program will combine text discussion and lab exercises, with the opportunity for separate field studies at selected sites in Washington and the Grand Canyon to gain an understanding of these processes. Our goal is to improve students' ability to make the connection between landscape form and process. The focus of our studies will be on river systems, glaciated regions and coasts.

This program has two travel options available. Students can choose to participate in a 16-day, Grand Canyon field trip, or attend a one-week field trip to Eastern Washington and complete a research project.

Total: 12 or 16 credits. Students unable to attend either extended field trip should enroll in the 12 credit option.

Enrollment: 50

Special Expenses: The Grand Canyon field trip expense is approximately $1,800. Students planning to participate in this option should contact the faculty no later than February 1, 2008, to obtain the application criteria for the trip. The deadline for payment is February 29, 2008. The Eastern Washington field trip is approximately $150. The deadline for payment is April 4, 2008.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in earth science, environmental studies, land-use planning and forestry.

This program is also listed under Environmental Studies.

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Latin American Development: Rhetoric or Reality

Cancelled

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Jorge Gilbert (sociologist, international studies), TBA (economics)

Major areas of study include Latin American studies, economics, sociology, history and demography.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: Faculty signature required (see below).

Faculty Signature. Students must provide a letter of recommendation from a former faculty. For more information, contact Jorge Gilbert at (360) 867-6740. edu. Materials received by the Academic Fair, May 16, 2007, will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills.

During the fall quarter, students will study Latin America from a historical, cultural, economic and political viewpoint. The historical and international context that produced the current socio-political and economic conditions of the region such as colonial structure, dependent state and the current neo-liberal model will also be studied.

In the winter quarter, students will analyze present-day issues such as poverty, foreign debt, migrations, remittances, fair trade, capital flight, unequal competition and Latin America's role in today's globalized world. Finally, within this context the program will evaluate current political events such as Cuba's continuing relevance and its connection to the shifting political-economic paradigm taking place in the region.

Students will have the option to travel to Chile for four to ten weeks during spring quarter. This study abroad opportunity will focus on the study of different aspects of Chilean life. The main subjects will include the particular struggles and issues facing different sectors of the population under Chile's current neoliberal model of economic development, poverty, popular culture, artistic expression, women's issues and environmental concerns of the people. The studies will involve research, observation, and close collaboration with community organizations, cooperatives and public institutions.

In addition, students can enroll in a Spanish language course for four credits through the Evening and Weekend Studies program.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 50

Special Expenses: Approximately $3,150 for an optional, spring quarter, four- to ten-week study abroad component to Chile. The cost includes transportation, including airfare, room and board, and field trip expenses.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in Latin American studies, political economy, international studies, sociology, diplomacy, cultural studies, public administration, economic development and anthropology.

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

Program Updates:
03.23.2007: This program has been cancelled. For an alternative program see International Policy and Business: Latin American Reality.

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Learning About Learning

Spring quarter

Faculty: Sonja Wiedenhaupt (psychology)

Major areas of study include educational psychology, socio-cultural context of learning and expository writing.

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

Who are we as learners? How do we learn? How does learning involve our physical, thinking, feeling, social and cultural selves? In this program, we will actively explore what biology, developmental psychology and education can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between teaching and learning. We will also actively use the program as a lab to observe our individual learning processes and to experiment with different ways to engage learning.

The program will involve reading, writing, visual representation, public presentation, collaborative group work and other tools we discover that we need to fully understand what we set out to learn. The program will contain a variety of learning laboratories, one of which will include a quarter-long project in which groups work together to learn something of their choice. The function of these learning laboratories is to observe, examine, and apply learning theories and strategies.

This program will be useful to those who are thinking about teaching as a profession. It will also be a very useful program for those who are wondering about how to nurture and maximize their learning as students. And of course, it will be useful to any parent or future parent who wants to support, bring joy to and nurture a sense of empowerment in their child's experience of learning.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 24

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in education, early childhood education, human services and developmental psychology.

This program is also listed under Programs for Freshmen.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in cultural studies, literature, writing, education and international studies.

Program updates:

02.05.2008: Anita Lenges will no longer be teaching this program. The enrollment has been changed.

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Literature of the Americas: Brazil and the United States

Fall or Spring quarter (one quarter program)

Faculty: Greg Mullins (comparative literature)

Major areas of study include literature, literary history, literary criticism, film and writing.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: One quarter of college writing emphasizing literature.

Faculty Signature: none required

In the 20th century a great deal of literary scholarship was organized around national literary traditions, but in the 21st century cultural forms increasingly flow through transnational circuits of production and meaning. How can we, as readers, critics, and writers, approach literary history today? How can we leverage comparative studies to provide needed national contexts while questioning nationalism?

We will address these questions by reading key works of fiction from Brazil and the United States, by exploring appropriate methods for comparing the two largest societies in the Americas, and by revisiting the classic phases of literary history in those societies. Students will emerge with a strong foundation in critical studies of the novel through Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism, Modernism, and Postmodernism. Possible authors may include Alencar, Azevedo, Machado de Assis, Rheda, and Santiago from Brazil and Hawthorne, James, Faulkner, Morrison, and Danticat from the United States.

Total: 16 credits.

Enrollment: 25

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in cultural studies, literature, writing, education and international studies.

Program updates:

09.21.2006: This program is being offered in the fall of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008.
05.18.2007: The signature requirement for this program has been removed. No signature is required for registration, but students must meet the prerequisites.

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Local Knowledge: Community, Public Health, Media Activism and the Environment

Cancelled

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: Anne Fischel (media, community studies), Lin Nelson (public health, environmental studies, community studies)

Major areas of study include community studies, public health, media production, media analysis, environmental studies, labor studies, popular education and participatory research.

Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.

Prerequisites: Some community service experience desirable. Faculty signature required (see below).

Faculty Signature: Students must interview with the faculty at the Academic Fair, May 16, 2007, to discuss their interest in the program. Some background in community service or studies is useful, but not required. For information, contact Anne Fischel at (360) 867-6416 or Lin Nelson at (360) 867-6056. Interviews conducted by the Academic Fair will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills.

Local Knowledge is a program focused on the theory and practice of community-based work, using video, oral history, participatory research, and other forms of activist learning. Our goal is to develop frameworks, methodologies, strategies and skills for collaborating with local communities. We hope to work closely with people in the region and support their efforts to sustain and empower their communities. We believe local knowledge is a valuable base from which to construct responses to new challenges, one which we, as collaborators, need to understand and incorporate into our work.

The history and identity of a community are inscribed in stories, documents, images, places, forms of knowing and social practice. The ways communities define problems, envision solutions and plan for the future are both enabled and limited by this collectively held sense of history and identity. But communities are also shaped by institutions—government, mass media, globalized corporations, and academic and policy expertise—that are far removed from local values and experience. As centers of power and decision-making move out of local reach, community knowledge and experience are marginalized.

What is at stake here is the capacity of local people to be informed and empowered citizens, creatively identifying, confronting and resolving the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental challenges they face. We will learn from locally initiated efforts and participate in ongoing projects that tackle problems local citizens have identified and begun to address.

Through reading, field trips, film screenings, meetings with community mentors and archival research we will develop our knowledge of four local communities: Tacoma, Shelton, Centralia and Olympia. As we shape these case studies, we will ask: What sense of history, identity and common experience guides these communities? What challenges do community members confront, and how are these being defined and evaluated? How does a community's ability to define and represent itself affect its relationship to regional or national policies, issues and debates? How does "expert" information and input affect how communities identify and solve problems? What regional, national, or international networks can offer information or support to local struggles?

Our studies will draw from the literature of popular education, community-based research, environmental studies, public health, political economy and media analysis. We will learn how to conduct research and analyze locally held knowledge, support community initiatives and implement projects for sustainable community development. We will familiarize ourselves with community resources and develop relationships with community members and organizations. We will learn skills in documentary video, media literacy, historical research, oral history and the use of government documents. We will develop a strong sense of local place, story, history and culture. Through these studies we will build a base for collaborative community work.

In fall everyone will learn the basic skills involved in doing library and archival research, document analysis, oral histories and documentary video. In winter students can choose one or two areas in which to deepen the skills most relevant to their project work. We will develop collaborative projects in winter and spring in response to what we have learned about community needs and interests. The faculty encourage students to focus on one of the following project areas: public health, the environment, labor, immigrant rights and education, food systems, public art and media.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 50

Internship Possibilities: Spring quarter with faculty approval.

Special Expenses: $150 for project materials, video and possible field trip.

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in community development, media, public policy, environmental studies, non-profit and social justice groups.

This program is also listed under Environmental Studies.

A similar program is expected to be offered in 2010–11.

Program Updates
04.17.2007:
This program has been cancelled. For an alternative program please see the program description for The Practice of Community: Growing Home.

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Logical Foundations of Science and Computing

Fall quarter

Faculty: Neal Nelson (computer science)

Major areas of study include introductory computer programming, mathematical logic, digital logic and history of science.

Class Standing: This all-level program accepts up to 33 percent freshmen.

This program introduces the logical, historical, and mathematical foundations of problem solving and computing in the sciences. Students in the program will study the evolution of rational thought and mathematical abstraction in the history of science along with the systems of logic and programming that we use today for problem solving in science, mathematics, and computing.

Early Greek philosophers dared to assume that humanity could comprehend the true nature of the universe and the material world through rational thought. Using historical readings we will investigate key conceptual developments in the evolution of scientific and mathematical thought from those early intellectual explorations to the twentieth century. At the same time we will learn the powerful formal systems of logic and computing into which those early ideas have evolved today. We will study first order mathematical logic and its relationship to early Greek rational thought, contemporary critical reasoning, and scientific theories. We also will study how logic is used to build modern digital computers and how mathematical abstraction and logic combine in the creative act of constructing computer programs to solve problems. Class activities will include hands-on laboratory work in programming and logic along with lectures, weekly readings, seminar discussions, written essays and weekly homework problems.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 24

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in science, mathematics and computer science.

This program is also listed under Scientific Inquiry and Programs for Freshmen.

Program Updates
05.02.2007:
This is a new fall program. It replaces the cancelled program Data and Information: Computational Science.

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Looking Backward: America in the 20th Century

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Faculty: David L. Hitchens (American diplomatic history), Jerry Lassen (economics)

Major areas of study include American history, economic thought, American literature and mass culture.

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

Faculty Signature: No new students will be admitted into this program spring quarter

The United States began the 20th century as a second-rate military and naval power, and a debtor country. The nation ended the century as the last superpower with an economy and military that sparked responses across the globe. In between, the United States invented flying, created atomic weapons, sent men to the moon and began to explore the physical underpinnings of our place in the universe. Many observers have characterized the 20th century as "America's Century" because, in addition to developing as the mightiest military machine on the face of the earth, the United States also spawned the central phenomenon of "the mass." Mass culture, mass media, mass action, massive destruction, massive fortunes—all are significant elements of life in the United States.

Looking Backward will be a retrospective, close study of the origins, development, expansion and elaboration of "the mass" phenomena and will place those aspects of national life against our heritage to determine if the political, social and economic growth of the nation in the last century was a new thing or the logical continuation of long-standing, familiar impulses and forces in American life. While exploring these issues, we will use history, economics, sociology, literature, popular culture and the tools of statistics to help us understand the nation and its place in the century. At the same time, students will be challenged to understand their place in the scope of national affairs, read closely, write with effective insight and develop appropriate research projects to refine their skills and contribute to the collective enrichment of the program. There will be workshops on economic thought, student panel discussions of assigned topics as well as program-wide symposia. Each end-of-quarter symposium will provide a culmination of the quarter's work. Students will gain valuable experience in public speaking and presentation.

Total: 16 credits each quarter.

Enrollment: 46

Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the humanities and social sciences, law, journalism, history, economics, sociology, literature, popular culture, cultural anthropology and teaching.

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

A similar program will be offered in 2008–09.

Program Updates
02.19.2008
: The faculty signature requirements have been changed to reflect that no new students will be accepted spring quarter.

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