CONSUMING UTOPIA: FROM WILDERNESS TO WAL-MART
Fall, Winter, 2005-2006

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Program Schedule (Winter 2006)

Week 1– Intellectual and Philosophical History

1/9 Course Introduction, First Workshop/Assignment (25K Word Doc)
1/9 Seminar: Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.

1/11 Film, Discussion and Seminar:
Documentary film: The Worship of Nature
Reading: Marx, The Communist Manifesto

1/13 Seminar: Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
1/13 Lecture (Nancy): Revolution vs. Reform in the United States

Workshop: Introduction to writing research papers; Preliminary Statements Due

 

Week 2 – Intellectual and Philosophical History (continued)

1/16 NO CLASS. MLK Holiday

1/18 Lecture (Rob): Environmental Consequences of Soviet Utopian Visions
1/18 Film: Against the Current, and The Wood Goblin from the Glasnost Film Festival
1/18 Seminar Special Meeting Time, 3:00-5:00: Mintz, Moralists and Modernizers through Chapter 3

1/20 Seminar: Mintz, Moralists and Modernizers to the end
1/20 Lecture (Nancy): Hawthorne

 

Week 3 – Literary and Artistic Responses

1/23 Text Workshop: The Scarlet Letter
1/23 Seminar: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, through Chapter 10; Preliminary Bibliographies Due

1/25 Film & Discussion: Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times

1/27 Seminar: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, to the end.
1/27 Lecture (Nancy): Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn

 

Week 4 – Literary and Artistic Responses (continued)

1/30 Lectures (Nancy & Rob): Synthesizing Our Work
1/30 Seminar: Twain, The Adventures of Huck Finn

2/1 Film: Dersu Uzala

2/3 Seminar: Vonnegut, Galapagos
2/3 Workshop: Preparing group presentations

 

Week 5 – Escapists and Drop-Outs

2/6 Lecture (Guests): Allen Gimbel, Composer and Professor of Music -- Curriculum Vitae
and Michael Singer, Architect -- Biography, Bibliography
2/6 Seminar: Adams, Winter Music; First 5 pp. Of Paper Due

2/8 Film & Discussion: excerpts from Crossing the Stones, a Portrait of Arne Naess; Lost Horizon

2/10 Seminar: Krakauer, Into the Wild
2/10 Group meetings and individual meetings with faculty

 

Week 6 – Escapists and Drop-Outs (continued)

2/13 Lecture (Guests): Melly and Mike Pelly on Living Off the Grid
2/13 Seminar: Nearings, The Good Life (pp. 1-205 only, Living the Good Life)

Take-home exam distributed

2/15 NO CLASS: work on exam

2/17 NO CLASS: work on exam. EXAM DUE in faculty mailboxes by 5:00 PM.

Week 7 – Analyses of Modern and Historical Crises

2/20 NO CLASS (Presidents’ Day)

2/22 Lecture (Nancy & Rob): Synthesis
2/22 Workshop/Seminar Special Meeting Time, 3:00-5:00: Diamond, Collapse through Chapter 9

2/24 Seminar: Diamond, Collapse to the end
2/24 Workshop/Film: excerpts from Baraka; Soylent Green; First 10 pp. of Paper Due

 

Week 8 – Analyses of Modern and Historical Crises (continued)

2/27 Film & Discussion: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and A Civil Action
2/27 Seminar: Hollander, The Real Environmental Crisis

3/1 Lecture (Guest): Paul Horton (Energy Outreach Center)

3/3 NO CLASS: finish research papers. Faculty available for meetings.

 

Week 9 -- Forms of Activism

3/6 Lecture (Guest): Paul VanDevelder, author of Coyote Warrior
3/6 Seminar: VanDevelder, Coyote Warrior

3/8 NO CLASS: Meetings with faculty as needed

3/10 Seminar: Dave Foreman, Eco-Warrior
3/10 Lecture (Guest): Harvey Halpern of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

 

Week 10 -- Our Responses

3/13 FINAL PAPERS DUE; Group Presentations
3/13 Group Presentations

3/15 Group Presentations

3/17 Seminar: Mitchell, The Wildest Place on Earth
COMPLETE PORTFOLIOS DUE WITH SELF-EVALUATIONS
3/17 Potluck Lunch and Final Faculty Lectures

 

Week 11 -- NO CLASS -- Evaluation Week -- March 20-24

 

 

Program Schedule (Fall 2005)

Week 1

9/26 Lecture: Course Introduction
9/26 Seminar: Course Reader: "Introduction" to Utopia Reader (pp. 1-5); "Utopianism before Thomas More" (pp. 6-7); and "Cannibals," (pp. 99-103).
Also “Utopia and its Discontents,” (pp. 1-17) The Organic Machine, "Introduction"

9/28 Film & Discussion: Cadillac Desert II
NOTE: Bring TWO TYPED COPIES of your "Utopia" essay.

9/29 Seminar: Course Reader: "The Sixteenth Century: Thomas More's Utopia," (pp. 77-93)
The Organic Machine, Chap. I.
9/29 Workshop: Introduction to critical writing
PAPER I TOPIC DISTRIBUTED

Paper Assignment I Handout

 

Week 2 -- The Columbia as Utopia       FIELD TRIP ALL WEEK
(This academic week will start SUNDAY, 11:00 a.m. and end Wednesday afternoon.)

10/2 Destination: Bonneville Dam and overnight at Brooks Memorial Environmental Learning Center (ELC) near Goldendale, WA.
10/2 Seminar: The Organic Machine, (chaps. II-III)

10/3 Destination: Maryhill Museum, Hanford Reach, and overnight at Sun Lakes ELC near Grand Coulee.
Seminar: Individual meetings with faculty, writing workshop on Paper #1

10/4 Destination: Remain at Sun Lakes ELC. Day trip to Grand Coulee Dam.
Seminar: The Organic Machine, Chap. IV

10/5 Destination: Return to TESC in afternoon.
Seminar: Course Reader: Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" (pp. 240-273) and William Dean Howells' "A Traveler from Altruria" (pp. 301-311)
America as Second Creation, Introduction

Columbia River Fieldtrip Handout

 

Week 3 -- Wilderness and Nature

10/10 Lecture: Examining The Nature of Wilderness and Wilderness in Nature (Rob)
PAPER I DUE, 9:00 a.m.
PAPER II TOPIC DISTRIBUTED
10/10 Seminar: America as Second Creation, Chaps. 1-6.

10/12 Film & Discussion:
Wild by Law
Never Cry Wolf

10/13 Seminar: America as Second Creation, Chaps. 7-Conclusion
10/13 Workshop: Analyzing Critical Essays

Paper Assignment II Handout

 

Week 4 -- Olympic National Park    FIELD TRIP ALL WEEK

10/17 Destination: LaPush, WA
10/17 Seminar: Course Reader: Fredrick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
PAPER I RETURNED

10/18 Destination: Remain in LaPush
10/18 Seminar: Course Reader: Wm. Cronon, "Intro. In Search of Nature" and , "The Trouble with Wilderness"
Workshop: Working on Paper II

10/19 Destination: Remain in LaPush. Day trip to Hoh Rainforest, Olympic Natl. Park
10/19 Seminar: Course Reader: Robert Pyle, "The Sack of the Woods"; "The Last of the Old Growth"; and "There Ought to be Bears" (chaps. 9-11 from Wintergreen.)

10/20 Destination: Return to TESC in afternoon
10/20 Seminar: Nature/Walking

 

Week 5 -- Consumerism and Labor

10/24 Lecture: Consumerism and Labor (Nancy)
PAPER II DUE, 9:00 a.m.
PAPER III TOPIC DISTRIBUTED
10/24 Seminar: Waste and Want, chaps. 1-3.

10/26 Film & Discussion: Golddiggers of 1933

10/27 Seminar: Waste and Want, chaps. 4-7.
REWRITE of PAPER I DUE, 9:00 a.m.
10/27 Workshop: Persuasiveness
PAPER II RETURNED

 

Week 6 -- Mobility (Faculty Retreat Nov. 2-4)

10/31 Lecture: Mobility (Nancy)
10/31 Seminar: Land of Desire, chaps. 1-7.

11/2 Film & Discussion: The Magnificent Ambersons

11/3 Seminar: Land of Desire, chaps. 8-Conclusion
REWRITE of PAPER II DUE, 9:00 a.m.
11/3 Workshop: On Clarity

 

Week 7 -- Viewing Consumption      ONE DAY FIELDTRIP - MONDAY

11/7 Field Trip: LeMay Museum and Wal-Mart
11/7 Seminar: Course Reader, Jennifer Price, "Looking for Nature at the Mall"

11/9 Film & Discussion: This is Nowhere and The Overspent American

11/10 Seminar: The Grapes of Wrath (all)
PAPER III DUE, 9:00 a.m.
11/10 Workshop: On Elegance

Paper Assignment III Handout

Consumerism Fieldtrip    Map to LeMay Museum

 

Week 8 -- Conservation, Conservationists, Environment, Environmentalists

11/14 Lecture: Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold (Rob)
11/14 Seminar: The Wilderness World of John Muir (all)
PAPER III RETURNED

11/16 Film & Discussion:
The Wilderness Idea
Cadillac Desert I

11/17 Seminar: A Sand County Almanac (all)
11/17 Workshop: On Originality
RETURN REWRITE II
PAPER IV TOPIC DISTRIBUTED

 

THANKSGIVING BREAK (for us, Fri., Nov. 18 – Sun., Nov. 27)

 

Week 9 -- Work, Recreation and Adventure

11/28 Lecture: Playing and Toiling in Nature's Utopia (Rob)
REWRITE of PAPER III DUE, 9:00 a.m.
11/28 Seminar: No Picnic on Mt. Kenya (all)

11/30 Film & Discussion: Touching the Void

12/1 Seminar: The Lost River (all)
PAPER IV DUE, 9:00 a.m.
12/1 Workshop: Guest speakers: John Yost and Richard Bangs

 

Week 10 -- Quo Vadis, Consumers and Environmentalists?

12/5 Lecture: Where do We (Americans) Go from Here? …And Looking to Winter Term (R & N)
12/5 Seminar: Evaluation Writing Workshop

12/7 Film & Discussion: 2001: A Space Odyssey

12/8 Seminar: COURSE FINAL
COMPLETE PORTFOLIOS DUE WITH SELF-EVALUATIONS
12/8 Workshop: Course Reader, Shellenberger and Nordhaus, "The Death of Environmentalism"

Week 11 -- NO CLASS -- Evaluation Week -- Dec. 12 – 16

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Last updated: February 2, 2006 © Robert Smurr. All Rights Reserved.