2000-2001 Programs for First-year StudentsReturn to Index
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study This program will examine how the changing world of materials has shaped and governed our lives. We are interested in such questions as: How do scientists transform the raw materials of the wilderness into the “stuff” of the modern world? How does one make intelligent decisions about the stuff we purchase, e.g., household products, clothing, outdoor equipment (bikes, snowboards, hiking gear, etc.), cabin building materials, etc. What criteria drive consumer demand (convenience, social status, high performance) in the context of ever-escalating global consumer desires? What are the economic trade-offs? How do organizations make these same decisions? Why don’t public agencies utilize more green materials? We will investigate the chemical, social, environmental, philosophical, legal and historical aspects of the “stuff” that surrounds our daily lives. We will study the origin of everyday materials by detailing a biography of each, from its primary source (in the animal, vegetable or mineral world), through the various transformations in its production and fabrication, into usable products. We will learn the chemical makeup, physical properties and material science relevant to understanding the molecular structure of materials by examination using hands-on laboratories. Our results will be related to their uses in daily life, and we will examine their ultimate fate and impact on the environment when each material has lived its useful life. Ultimately we’ll examine the rapidly changing world of materials and the forces that drive these changes. We’ll explore the following: (1) the economic implications of consumption within the dominant culture ethic that promotes (to use Bookchin’s phrase) “insensate receptacles of consumption,” (2) the alternative consumption lifestyles, e.g., voluntary simplicity movement, sustainable communities and the use of green materials, (3) the lifestyle, social status and psychological impacts on historical and contemporary communities that have chosen to reduce consumption, e.g., sumptuary laws and research that suggest one’s relative social position (i.e., the amount of stuff they possess) may have deeply rooted evolutionary implications and (4) compare our own consumptive habits to others here and abroad. As faculty, we have a strong interest in promoting a learning community via multiple modes of learning including lectures, laboratories, seminar, films, workshops, program retreats and field trips. In spring quarter, students will design and conduct independent research (individual or team) projects to investigate a topic of interest related to the program themes. These may take the form of independent or group study, internships or community service. Texts may include: Stuff: The Materials the World is Made of, Ivan Amato; Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century, Stephen Fenichell; Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau; or Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are, Elizabeth Storr.
Fall/Coordinated Study Your idea about time forms meaning of self and others. It flies as an arrow from cradle to grave, or on a circular, a seamless journey. Wordsmiths revel in it (Woolf), schemers profit from it (Taylorism), world beaters bet in it (Marx), visionaries overcome it (Buddha), technologists build with it (Internet), postmodernists disdain it. Stephen Hawking would slice and dice it. But what is time? About Time investigates time’s impact on spiritual values, world views and personal commitments, giving rise to notions of secularism and theism, tradition and progress, nature and culture, love and violence. This study also looks at how we communicate with each other molded by our view of time. Moreover, students will do research about time in unique contexts, e.g., how a chosen novel, photograph, hit song, mathematical theorem, ecological niche, martyrdom and other interesting cases can only be deciphered through special interpretations of time.
The Development of Sail Power: Scientific Principles, Historical and Cultural Processes Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study This yearlong program combines the practical skill of operating college sailing vessels with an intensive study of navigation, science and cultural studies. We will use the theme of navigation as our window to non-Western cultures and to maritime literature. We will use the evolution of navigation as our window to the history of Western science and technology, social structure and the political economics of industrialization, exploration and trade. We will sail the waters of Puget Sound while studying Pacific Northwest history and reading maritime literature about the age of sail. Students will study the mathematics of navigation and piloting, and about the physics of sail power while learning to sail aboard the Resolute (44-foot Annapolis yawl) and the Seawulff (38-foot custom cutter). We will begin fall quarter with a wide-ranging study of the oral tradition of navigation in selected non-Western cultures. We will study people who navigated the seas guided by oral traditions, their sense of place in the stellar universe, experience and their physical senses. We will then begin our study of Western navigation technologies, the evolution of sail configuration and changing vessel design and material selections. Piloting and sailing skills will be developed in the classroom and on local waters. In winter quarter the focus will shift to the more recent history and contemporary evolution of modern navigation methods. We will read about the development of longitude, modern nautical charts and navigation systems, and we will practice using sextants and GPS for celestial navigation. Readings will explore the nexus of social structure, political economic change and scientific inquiry from the 17th through the 20th centuries. A field trip to the west coast of Mexico is planned, and day sails in local waters will continue when weather permits. In spring quarter we will focus on the Pacific Northwest. Readings will examine indigenous cultures, regional history during the age of sail and maritime literature. Field trips aboard the vessels will take us throughout the Puget Sound and into the San Juan and Canadian waters. This program will be intellectually as well as physically challenging. Students who join the program must commit to spending hours each week on the boats, often in inclement weather and uncomfortable conditions, as well as keeping up with a normal load of college-level reading, writing and other academic assignments. Studies in both fall and winter will include quantitative treatments of the science of sailing, from the physics of fluids to the vector forces involved in tacking the vessels and piloting in strong currents, as well as astronomy as it relates to celestial navigation. Students should be familiar with algebra and fractions and be willing to learn more mathematics. In spring quarter, the skills emphasis shifts to library research, close reading and essay writing. Students should be well prepared to read and write extensively. Careful reading, thoughtful discussion and effective writing will be emphasized all year.
Diaspora, A Journey Toward Destiny Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study Diaspora, A journey toward destiny Diaspora, A journey toward destiny Diaspora, A journey toward destiny More often than not, many of us feel a yearning for something or someplace we call home. This yearning is derived in part from a sense of dislocation and “otherness” and speaks to a desire to be at rest. Our program, Diaspora, A Journey Toward Destiny, addresses the patterns of longing and the yearning for a homeland. Through an examination of the forced migrations of two peoples, the Jews and people of African descent, we intend to examine the multiple influences that shape our beliefs about culture, place and time as related to that which we call home and the journey to home. The first quarter and part of the second quarter of our program explores the African and Jewish diaspora brought about through slave trade, through the exodus of Jews from Europe, and through centuries of intolerance. Referring to specific historical periods, we will examine the factors that shaped these forced migrations and the continual redefining of the concept of home. We will examine the slave trade to Europe and America and the trafficking of people as property. We will explore the factors that led to the extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust. Along with this search, we will look at how culture both endures and is transformed through its interaction with geographic place. We will examine the dynamic tension of creating a home in hostile lands and of the influence on our current American landscape of these two communities of people. Using as our foundation a historical understanding of the creation of home by Jews and people of African descent, we then turn our attention to ourselves. The remaining academic year explores our yearning for “home” where no home can be found and no other truly exists. We will develop our understanding of place and identity and how identity formation is associated with place as related to time. This identity, with multiple influences, is blended into the broader American cultural landscape. How does this happen? How do we end up calling any one place home? How do we place ourselves in the overall landscape and make our communities our homes? What roles do education and the media play in creating our cultural sense of home? Our program explores the psychological and sociological structures that support our identity development as an American phenomenon. Diaspora, A Journey Toward Destiny will frame our current challenge to work together as disparate communities affected by this common experience and as a journey toward a common destiny. We will figure out how we can make our lives useful and productive through engagement with one another, community involvement, and through thoughtful and purposeful living. As is true of any journey, the final destination is far less important than the journey itself.
From Lab to Living Room: Science, Public Policy, Personal Behavior Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study Science does not stop at the door of the laboratory or the border of the field station. Directly and indirectly the work of scientists finds it way into public and private life. From decisions as large as the federal government’s commitment to reduce pollution to questions of whether it’s important to eat bran muffins (or should that be bran cereal?) for breakfast, people have to contend with the effects of science in their lives. This program is about the way science makes its way from the lab into our living rooms, how it shapes public policy, how it influences our private lives. Students will develop a critical appreciation of the scientific process and of the means by which science is communicated to others—to other scientists, citizens and policy makers. Fall quarter will be devoted to an intensive study of the process of scientific inquiry. Lectures and student projects will take students through the various stages of the scientific process: topic choice, question formulation, hypothesis construction, scientific inquiry and scientific reporting. Students will learn how to find and read and evaluate scientific papers, how to edit scientific reports and how to do simple statistical analyses of data sets. In winter quarter, we will spend most of our time studying specific mechanisms by which science is communicated to the public and the effects of living in a wash of scientific information. What is gained and what is lost when state-of-the-art research on forest canopies is turned into a National Geographic TV episode? What happens to a woman who, in former times, would be “expecting” (a child) but who is now, in the bright light of popularized medical science, a “reproductive niche” (harboring a “fetus”)? During this part of the program students will learn a critical approach to the study of science, one that calls into question the authority and burden socially granted to scientists in the modern age.
History: A Celebration of Place Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study History: A Celebration of Place is a student-centered program, institutionally designed to incorporate community interaction in the education process. The student, faculty and Indian community will mutually share authority in developing a valuable education within a constantly changing pluralistic society and political environment. Students will work toward cultural competence and a basic familiarity with the history of Indian relations in the United States and the Americas. Students will exit from the program knowledgeable about the identity of American Indian Tribes in the different geographic areas of the United States, their current conditions and the social, political, economic and cultural differences between the tribes and the majority society. There is an emphasis on the historical and contemporary experiences of the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest, specifically Western Washington. Concentrated study using an “Encounters Model” approach will focus on distinctive cultural perspectives, the geographical areas tribes inhabited historically and now occupy, and tribal responsibilities as co-managers of the resources of the Puget Sound along with the federal and state governments. The program provides an academic framework for experience in a genuine community with a spirit of hospitality and reciprocal respect. It is important that students understand that this program, as a Native American Studies offering, includes a Native American philosophical form in its nature of teaching and learning. It is not designed to be a study of Native Americans, though it includes issues especially relevant to Native Americans. That is to say, the faculty of History: A Celebration of Place are interested in providing an environment in which faculty and students share in an experience in which they identify topics of mutual interest and share as partners in the exploration of those topics. Four major questions frame the education process for the program: (1) What do I want to do? (2) How do I want to do it? (3) What do I plan to learn? and (4) What difference will it make? Serious consideration of the questions provides a reliable structure for educational pursuit. This program is an open, alternative educational opportunity intended to include student-designed projects into a coordinated studies theme that values significant human relationships in terms of time, space, people, place.
Imagining the Middle East and South Asia Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study From colonial travel novels to contemporary media, images of the Middle East and South Asia are often exotic or dangerous, the fulfillment of Western fantasies and nightmares. And yet these extremely diverse regions have a rich history of intellectual and religious thought, trade, cultural exchange, colonial conquest, and liberation struggles. This program will examine Western literary and media representations of “the Orient”—which includes contemporary India, Pakistan, Iran, the Arab world and surrounding countries—as well as how the peoples of the Middle East and South Asia represent themselves. In the process, we will learn about the history, culture, religions, literature and contemporary political developments in these regions. Focusing on the history of cultural contact and exchange between South Asia and the Middle East, as well as between the “East” and “West,” we will examine how these relations have shaped present (mis)perceptions of the peoples, their religion, politics and gender roles. We will explore ways in which religious and cultural practices (e.g., those associated with Sufism) both linked and separated the historic Persian, Arab-Islamic, Moghul and Ottoman empires. The religious diversity of the region includes Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. Through case studies of current political conflicts, such as Israel and the Palestinians, India and Pakistan, and Turkey and the Kurds, we will investigate the connections between religion, nationalism, liberation movements and gender relations, as well as the role of ethnic/religious minorities. We will also explore how debates about national identity are often played out on the bodies of women, and how practices such as veiling and widow burning (sati) become sensationalized in the West. We will look at how recent developments in the global economy as well as movements for women’s rights, liberation and religious reform are reshaping the political and social terrain of the region. During spring quarter, students may have the option of traveling to the Middle East for further study. For those not traveling, the program will focus on contemporary remappings of the Middle East and South Asia by studying diaspora communities, including their Internet Web sites, literature and film. Students may also have the opportunity to work with local Middle Eastern or South Asian ethnic/religious communities, or local political solidarity movements.
Individuals vs. Societies: Studies of American and Japanese History, Literature and Cinema Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study In this program we examine the concepts of individual, society, and the interaction between the two through the critical exploration of American and Japanese history, literature, cinema, as well as popular media. When the 19th-century Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, chose “that individual” as his own epitaph, he was proclaiming himself as an individual, the only concrete mode of human existence, though at the same time he was keenly aware of the consequence of such a stance: an unidentifiable feeling of dread and anxiety derived from being an individual as the sole responsible agent for what he/she was. In America, however, the concept of individuals as autonomous and free agents with an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness seems to have been accepted quite cheerfully, and indeed without much anguish. As a truism and self-evident throughout much of its history, it is manifested variously from the self-acquisitiveness of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard to Thoreau’s “rugged” self-reliance to Great Gatsby’s misguided self-creation. At times, such as in the 1950s, some books like William Whyte’s The Organization Man and David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd revealed conformist tendencies of individuals belonging to some American communities. These books, however, were written precisely to criticize the group orientation of certain segments of society, while reclaiming the value of individualism in America. Meanwhile, in Japan, which often appears to emphasize the opposite human values of the American ethos, the importance of group cohesion and harmony rather than, to the horror of most Americans, the individual right or happiness has been stressed throughout much of its history. In fact, the Japanese often seem to consider themselves as embodiment of concepts such as nationality, gender or family rather than individuals. Certainly, the reality is not as simple or clear-cut as these stereotypical representations of two societies indicate. Nevertheless, this dichotomized comparative frame presents an interesting context in which we can explore the concepts of individual, community/society and the dynamic relationship between these two concepts. Throughout the academic year we will study American and Japanese history, literature, cinema and popular media through lectures, workshops, book and film seminars, as well as expository writings while focusing on the ideas of individual and community/society and their interrelationships. Spring quarter may involve group projects in media production or group research projects.
Myth and Sensibility: A Study of Eastern and Western Cultures Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study Myth and Sensibility is a Core-level program designed to introduce students to the study of Asian and Western cultures as they are reflected in their various forms of art and literature. Each quarter we will look at one Eastern and one Western culture in order to begin to understand the differences and appreciate the similarities between the two. Fall quarter (subtitled The Dragon and The Minotaur) we will study the art and myth of ancient China and Greece. We will look specifically at the period from roughly 1000 B.C. to 320 B.C. For China, this includes time from the Bronze Age to the Han dynasty; for Greece, from the Geometric to the end of the Classical Periods. We will read literature from and about each country (including myths, contemporary historical fiction and drama), look at the art the people produced and write about what we have learned. To help us better understand the nature of ancient art, we will also learn the basics of drawing (including working with Sumi ink and Chinese brushes) and of working with clay. Sometime during the quarter, we will visit the Seattle Art Museum to study the collection of Chinese and Greek antiquities. Winter quarter (subtitled The Rooster and The Crane) we will jump forward in time to the 18th and 19th centuries, where we will study the sense and sensibilities of the French and the Japanese. We will be particularly concerned with the way in which the two civilizations influenced one another and how patronage of the arts shifted from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie. As in fall quarter, we will read literature from and about the period, view and discuss the art that was produced, and continue to write about our discoveries. We will continue to study drawing and—in keeping with the mechanical mania of the era—we will also learn the rudiments of photography.
Natural Histories: Botany, Biography, Community Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study This program develops a naturalist approach to the study of human life and nature. We will ask: How do we, individually and collectively, enact our relationship to the natural world? How do society and nature affect our sense of who we are? How do we tell the stories and construct the knowledge that shape our experience of place? How can persons, institutions and communities act morally to nourish the well-being of humans and the surrounding world? Our exploration entails a highly integrative blend of sociological, ecological and humanities-based thought. We will be especially concerned with cultural frameworks that guide people’s interpretations. These will involve such topics as gender, religion, class, family and ethnicity as sources of identity; Euro-American and Native American outlooks on place in the West; the role of science, trained professionals and environmentalism in mediating views of nature; and the power of mass media and corporate capitalism to channel our sense of possibilities. The focus in fall includes field study of Puget Sound oral history and natural history, as well as grounding in the value of stories and the social theory of community. In winter, students will undertake ethnographic field study of a local institution and library-based research on Northwest forest ecology. Spring will feature more advanced research (or, if appropriate, internships), with topics chosen in light of faculty expertise. In each quarter there will be some instruction in basic botany (including classification, evolution and anatomy). Throughout the year, we will emphasize writing in journal, essay and documentary forms. Readings will span community studies, environmental studies, imaginative literature and critical thought. The program work will be intellectually challenging and demand much time. We welcome first-year students who are ready for intensive engagement in their studies. We will also provide strong support to upper-division students ready to specialize in cultural, political or ecological inquiry while seeking integrated understanding of the whole.
The Olympic Peninsula: Salmon, Timber and Energy Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study In this program we will study the natural history of the Olympic Peninsula while exploring the effects of human activities on the land. We will also examine the effects of the landscape on the humans that came to live on the Peninsula. To do this we will investigate three themes that are currently embroiled in controversy on the Peninsula: salmon, timber and energy. With some species of salmon on the Peninsula currently listed as threatened species by the federal government, significant controversy regarding forest practices and whether to log remaining old-growth timber and disagreement about removing hydroelectric dams from the Peninsula, these issues are both timely and serve as metaphors for human interaction with the environment. While these elements are interrelated, we will focus our attention on a single issue during each of the three quarters of this program. Students will read accounts from early settlers in an attempt to explore the historical roots of our land use and resource extraction policies. We will study the natural history of salmon and timber on the Peninsula and survey the history of human use of these resources. We will examine closely the human interactions with the environment—population growth, environmental degradation, use of natural resources, water quality and allocation and issues of ecological health, and we will examine related current environmental policy topics. We will construct mathematical models of these systems, run computer simulations to study their dynamics and explore implications of our simulations. In addition, we will use field sampling techniques to gather data about water and soil quality and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a powerful tool with which to study human interaction with the environment. Activities will include field trips, fieldwork, seminar discussions, lectures, interactive workshops, simulated public hearings, science laboratories, computer labs and group projects. Students will work collaboratively in small groups throughout the program, and will be expected to develop substantive group-process skills. This will be a demanding program that will require a significant amount of time commitment (at least 40 to 50 hours per week) from each student. Students can expect to learn a significant amount of natural and human history associated with the Olympic Peninsula, to wrestle with conflicting environmental values, become engaged with current environmental policy issues, develop facility with mathematical modeling, field sampling and GIS skills and hone their writing and public presentation skills.
Performing Arts in Cultural Context Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study This program examines the ways in which artists interact with and affect societies. What happens when a composer chooses to write music “outside the box,” or a choreographer interprets societal shifts onstage in an entirely new way? How do actors absorb the essence of—and portray—certain figures in history? Should Shakespeare or Beethoven continue to be relevant in the 21st century? Would The Beatles have taken America by storm at any other point in history? Why do so many people claim to “hate” opera when they can so easily (even eagerly) get hooked on other forms of musical theatre? Our work will take the form of seminar conversations, reading, writing and research, with the history, practice and sociology of the performing arts (music, dance, theatre) as our focus. We expect students to participate in skill workshops and group performance projects, but no previous performing experience is required. If you see yourself as a “specialist” in a particular performing art, you will be asked to explore related arts. If, for example, you have played piano for 12 years but have no prior experience in dance or theatre, we expect you to emphasize the areas you know the least. Becoming well-versed in all three of the performing arts is not only a good idea for participating in interdisciplinary work, but it is also essential in developing your competence as a performer. In examining the performing arts through sociology, your grasp of context and meaning will expand in depth and breadth, causing you to better understand the currents traveling underneath the surface of music, dance and theatre. This program’s thematic explorations are likely to include the role of European and other cultural models in performing arts history; the pluralistic nature of American society, its structures and art forms; and the effect of the mass media on the performing arts in the past century.
Fall, Winter/Group Contract The 20th century has brought about a revolution in our understanding of the physical universe. We have been forced to revise the way we think about even such basic concepts as space and time and causality, and about the properties of matter. An important part of this revolution has been the surprising discovery of fundamental ways in which our knowledge of the material world is ultimately limited. These limitations are not the result of surmountable shortcomings in human understanding but are more deeply rooted in the nature of the universe itself. In this program we will examine the mental world created by the physicist to make sense out of our experience of the material world around us, and to try and understand the nature of physical reality. We will ask and explore answers to the twin questions of epistemology: What can we know? and How can we know it? We will start with the pre-Socratic philosophers and continue through each of the major developments of 20th- century physics, including the theories of relativity, the quantum theory, deterministic chaos, and modern cosmology. We will trace the development of answers to these questions about the physical world, and we will specifically examine the nature and the origins of the limits that our answers impose on our ultimate knowledge of the world. No mathematical prerequisites are assumed. Mathematical thinking will be developed within the context of the other ideas as needed for our purposes. The only prerequisites are curiosity about the natural world and a willingness to read and think and write about challenging texts and ideas. This program will cover everything you always wanted to know about physics but were afraid you wouldn’t be able to comprehend. We will discover that these ideas are not accessible only to physicists, but are within the grasp of anyone curious about them and willing to work to satisfy that curiosity. We will read primary texts, such as works by the pre-Socratics, Aristotle, Lucretius, Galileo, Newton and Einstein, plus selected contemporary writings on physics. In addition to the other texts, a book-length manuscript has been written for this program that will serve as an extended outline and guide to the works and ideas that we will read and discuss. Fall quarter will concentrate on the period up to the beginning of the 20th century; winter quarter will cover developments during the 20th century.
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study Observing, sensing and perceiving are not simple activities. As we grow up, our experiences are increasingly mediated by the internalization of our cultures and our imbibing of knowledge organized and codified by some one other than ourselves. As a result, our curiosity and creativity, particularly in regard to the specific, concrete places in which we live, are often hijacked, or at least mislaid. Through seminars, workshops, experiments and writing we will examine the complex functions of, and interactions between, seeing and perceiving with the intention of becoming self-reflective about how our curiosity and creativity happen. Our intention in this program is to gradually move together from being mere residents in our places and in ourselves, to genuine inhabitants of both. We will bring seeing and perceiving, curiosity and creativity outdoors with us, spending significant time in urban, rural and disturbed settings around campus, Olympia and Thurston County, as well as undertaking two weeklong field trips each quarter. Further, all students will undertake four-credit internships with local organizations within Thurston County with the overt aim of making contributions to the people and places to which they are responsible by virtue of the fact that they live here. We will read natural history, psychology, nature writing, cultural history and studies of living in place, while developing skills in bird and plant identification, nature writing, cultural analysis and drawing. Our program will take 12 hours or more per week of program time, at least 10 hours per week of internship time, and at least 40 hours per week of study and preparation. In addition, neither rain, nor hail nor snow will prevent our outdoor work. We expect all students at the outset to seriously commit to the full duration of the program.
Technology, Cognition, Education Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study All sorts of people are getting on the Internet—government officials and cyberpunks, Nigerians and Australians, school kids and scientists. The news is full of pronouncements about cyberspace and the information revolution; some of them claim that earlier changes in communications led to profound transformations of consciousness, politics, education and social life, and that we’re in the midst of another one. Do you think that moving from a world in which everything has to be spoken and remembered to one in which people write things down makes a big difference in how people learn? How about going from scribes’ manuscripts to printed books? Do you think photography, film, television and video are changing how you think and feel and act? For better or for worse . . .? Will the rapidly unfolding conversion of words, sounds and images to digital versions flowing around the planet at electronic speeds make much difference in people’s experiences and the course of history? This program explores questions such as these, drawing on the faculty’s backgrounds in philosophy and cognitive science, video and installation art, literature and experimental music. Our central focus will be on developing our capacity to respond to, describe and share the ways in which different sorts of representations express, convey and shape experiences. Since the communication of experience through representations of various kinds is a central part of education, we’ll be interested throughout the program in how changes in technologies for representation have affected the ways people got educated in the past, and what current and past changes in such technologies might suggest about how we should be getting educated now. A lot of our work will involve careful reading, writing and discussion; we will also spend time learning to use computers and media equipment, doing studio assignments using sound and video, and working in the computer labs. We’ll begin by looking at the history of several sorts of representation—writing, images, created sounds and the visual display of quantitative information. Then we’ll focus on some case studies—the shifting relations between orality and literacy in the time of Socrates, in colonialism and today; the creation of “realistic” representation in painting and literature and its ongoing destruction in this century; and the effects of modern media from the telegraph to contemporary electronic art and proliferating Web technologies. We’ll study theoretical and historical works such as Ong’s Orality and Literacy and Plato’s dialogues, as well as contemporary material, art as well as theory. One way and another, we will keep circling around our central questions. Speech, writing, print, audio-visual images, cyberspace—how do the means that we have available for communicating shape what we experience, if they do? What effects have the changes in them had on education, and should the ways in which they’re shifting now change how we’re educating ourselves, or not?
Spring/Coordinated Study Have you ever made an insect collection? A stamp collection? Do you have names for the kinds of food you eat or the kinds of trees you see? Identification and classification are fundamental activities in all cultures. In the sciences, these urges manifest themselves in the disciplines of taxonomy and systematics. These disciplines arose during an explosion of popular interest in natural history in the 18th and 19th centuries. The exploration of new lands brought Europeans in contact with previously unimaginable cultural and biological diversity. We will study the history of the “collecting craze” that swept western Europe in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and use it to gain a better understanding of the practice and application of contemporary taxonomy and systematics. Program activities will include lectures, seminars, weekly writing exercises and laboratory/field studies of local plants and insects. Evaluation will be based on writing assignments, laboratory performance and written exams.
Spring/Group Contract Learn beginning-to-intermediate astronomy through lectures, discussions, intractive workshops and observation, using naked eyes, binoculars and telescopes. Students will build (and take home) learning tools such as celestial spheres and spectrometers, research a topic of interest (in the library and through observations), learn to create a Web page, and share your research with classmates. We will also seminar on cosmologies: how people across cultures and throughout history have understood, modeled and ordered their universe. We will study creation stories and world views, from ancient peoples to modern astrophysicists. Students are invited to help organize a field trip to clear skies, perhaps to Chaco Canyon.
Civilization as a Transient Sickness: The Life and Poetry of Robinson Jeffers Spring/Group Contract From the publication of his first major work in 1924 until his death in 1962, Robinson Jeffers had a controversial career as a major American poet. He went from being hailed as the most promising new voice in American poetry by critics such as Archibald MacLeish, and being featured on the cover of Time magazine, to being later condemned as a misguided misanthrope for his uncompromising philosophical stance and for his unpopular political views during and after World War II. In between, he wrote long, book-length, narrative poems dealing with classical themes from Western mythology and tragedy, and shorter but powerful lyric poems of deep insight and measured wisdom. In both, he advanced a harsh and unrelenting view of the relative unimportance of humans in the natural order, a view that he himself labeled inhumanism. In his work he constantly takes civilization to task for what he sees as its overriding record of human folly and arrogance, and advocates in its place the beauty and the primacy of the natural world. Although he drew upon contemporary life in the Big Sur region of California for his poems, Jeffers believed that poetry “is bound to concern itself chiefly with permanent things and the permanent aspects of life . . . that a reader two thousand years away could understand and be moved by.” In this program we will read the major narrative poems written by Jeffers, from “Tamar” to “The Double Axe,” along with all of the short poems. In addition, we will read criticisms of Jeffers’ work and a biography about the life and times of the poet. Students will write responses each week to the readings and will produce a longer expository paper on some chosen aspect of Jeffers’ poetry. In our work we will pay attention to both the aesthetic qualities of the poems and to their meaning and relevance, responding to the question: What is the poet doing, and how does he do it? Depending upon student interest the program may conclude with a field trip to Tor House, Jeffers’ home in Carmel, California, and the surrounding countryside, the setting for his poems.
Spring/Group Contract The program is intended for students who have an interest, but limited background, in computing. It will be useful for students who want some exposure to computing as a basis for future work in a variety of disciplines that use computing (especially the sciences). This program is also helpful, though not required, for students interested in additional course work in computer science or mathematics. Topics may include programming, algebra and discrete mathematics, computational organization, the World Wide Web and logic as well as topics concerning the historical, philosophical, social or ethical implications of computing.
Spring/Coordinated Study The early part of the 20th century was marked by the trauma of war and depression. Therefore, the major concern of the post World War II era was to avoid a repetition of those tragedies. Accordingly, there was strong effort to build military superiority and also make sure that governmental policies would guarantee economic growth and prosperity into the foreseeable future. In this program we will examine how these two concerns dominated the politics, economics and cultural trends of the postwar era. The focus will be on understanding the major events of this period including the Red Scare, the beat generation, the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights movement, the feminist and gay rights movements, Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagan revolution and Clinton’s impeachment. Program activities will include lectures, workshops, seminars and contemporary films. There will be frequent writing assignments and the program will end with a symposium week featuring student presentations on critical issues of the period.
Daguerreotype to Digital:
The Impact of Photography on the Modern World Spring/Group Contract Daguerreotype to Digital is a one-quarter full-time group contract
designed for intermediate and advanced students in photography who are interested
in improving their darkroom skills and in learning about the historic and contemporary
impact that the medium has had on our world. We will be working with materials
that run the gamut from pinhole and small and medium-format to digital cameras.
In addition to making images, we will critique our work, study how the photographic
image has both evolved and devolved over the past 170 years, participate in
seminars on books and articles that relate to photography, and write responses
to images and the readings.
Our reading will include works by Susan Sontag, Terry Barrett and Roland Barthes
(among others) in an effort to understand the nature of some of the contemporary
criticism about photography and how the medium fits historically into the realm
of the visual arts. Credit will most likely be awarded in black and white photography, aesthetics
and issues in contemporary art and art history Total: 16 credits. Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in photography and in
arts and the humanities.
Spring/Group Contract Traveling to the caves of the Dordogne and the Pyrenees, to the petroglyphs in Italy and France, to the excavations of ancient Minoan villages on Crete, to the citadels of the Homeric in Mycenaean Greece we will study the paintings, sculptures, tools, habitat, monuments and milieu of the prehistoric and ancient humans. This will be an intensive on-site study of archaeological sites of the prehistoric world in France, Italy and Greece, including Crete. Our activities include seminars, research reports, informal on-site discussions, image writing, and individual site research. The goal of the program is to develop an enhanced understanding of the life and culture of prehistoric peoples and to discover both commonalities with and differences from modern humans. This study will be primarily focused on selected sites from the Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Minoan, Mycenaean and Early Greek eras. Activities include image response writing, lectures, research presentations, seminars and site discussions. You will learn to use your eyes and sensibilities to make discoveries of your own and share your conclusions. Our sites will include caves, petroglyphs, museums and ancient remains. To keep expenses low, we will stay in campgrounds and prepare our own food. Detailed information will be available beginning September 15, 2000, from Academic Advising.
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