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Barking
at the Moon
Fall/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Charles Pailthorp, Sara Rideout
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Music moves. Mountains have feet. Morality
is straight. Ideas are born. Love is a journey. Hearts
sink, break, and soar. Pictures speak. Words are containers.
North is up, south down. Lust is heat. Computers shake
hands. The fetus has legal rights. Metaphor informs
and shapes all of our articulate practices and seems
to be at the core of human meaning-making, from social
policy to aesthetic experience, from scientific inquiry
to operatic performance, from taking a walk to reading
a book. "Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life,
not just in language but in thought and action. Our
ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both
think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature."
(Metaphors we Live By, Lakoff p. 3)
Barking at the Moon will explore metaphor
in the contexts of art, music, literature, and science.
We will observe and describe how metaphor works as expressive
device, as tool of inquiry, as explanatory framework.
Our work will extend beyond traditional studies of metaphor
in literary contexts to examine the ways in which music
is composed and enjoyed through specialized forms of
metaphor. Similarly, we will explore medical representation
practices where metaphor is often not admitted but,
nevertheless, abundantly present as metonymy and synecdoche.
We will balance theory with source materials:
music, literature, poetry, art, medical records, etc.
Working individually or in (very) small groups, students
will engage in an extended study of metaphor, using
discursive, visual, or musical modes of inquiry and
representation.
This program is intended for lost intellectuals
who are not only bookish but also irreverent in outlook.
We will admit students at all levels and from all disciplines
with the goal of creating a close-knit learning community.
Total: 16 credits.
Beyond
Description
Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Hiro Kawasaki
Enrollment: 23
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Art Supplies.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
In this program, we will examine how
seeing functions in the creation and appreciation of
visual art. The basic premise of this study is that
the eye plays different roles in the creation and viewing
of art work than in our daily perception of the physical
world. We will study some theoretical ideas on artistic
vision and examine some examples from Art History and
learn how a particular mode of artistic seeing reflects
the historical, social and cultural conditions of a
given time and place. We will pay particular attention
to how this "artistic" seeing occurs as the artists
manipulate form and expressive mediums. We will examine
how the images in so-called realistic art differ from
the way we see the world in our daily lives. We will
study the development of abstract art in the 19th and
20th century. The program emphasizes the development
of student's skills in visual analysis through intensive
seeing workshops. Students will learn how to write about
art. Along with the theoretical and historical study
of artistic perception, the students will have opportunities
to do some hands-on work in drawing and other projects
to gain a better insight into how seeing functions in
the creative process.
This program offers the development of seeing and analytical
skills necessary for students who are interested in
pursuing the study of studio art and/or who want to
become a perceptive and well-informed audience of visual
art. Credit awarded in expository writing, drawing,
history and art history.
Total: 16 credits.
Changing
Minds, Changing Course 
Fall, Winter, Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Virginia Hill
Enrollment: 24
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 6 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: Yes, 8 to 16 credit internship
spring quarter.
Travel Component: None
Rhetoric and propaganda remain our close
companions as we rush from the world of unadorned print
into the dot com age. People's attempts to influence
one another are as old as language itself, yet the mass
media and the Internet extend a communicator's reach
more deeply into the lives of others, promising to magnify
that influence. This program examines a wide range of
planned influence attempts, from cults and brainwashing
to political campaigns and Internet advertising, asking
how communications media in concert with persuasive
messages re-form the social landscape. We will study
the psychology of persuasion, as well as the ways in
which various communications media encourage or inhibit
particular forms of discourse. We will also discuss
how telecommunications policy and media ownership might
affect the persuasion process. To better understand
the interplay of media and mind-changing, students will
learn production techniques in print, video and the
Internet, and they will design their own propaganda
campaigns. Students will also learn research skills
to evaluate and influence programs. In the spring, students
will take part in internships to get a first-hand look
at media as instruments of influence.
- Credit awarded in persuasion and propaganda, mass
communication and society, principles of marketing,
campaign design, media technology and public policy.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter; 8 to 16 credit internship
spring quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in mass communications, marketing, political campaigns,
law and social science.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language.
Children's
Literature and Lives
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Thad Curtz, Michael Pfeifer, Stacey Davis
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Possible retreat costs: between $40
and $75.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Children's stories and books are created
by and for adults, as well as for children. As the relations
between adulthood and childhood change through history,
in different cultural settings, these works change.
We will study them and critical essays on them - along
with children's own writing and ideas about how to encourage
it. Work on actual children's fantasies, ideas and lives
by psychologists, historians, anthropologists and autobiographers
will provide us with concepts and theories to help deepen
our understandings of the stories and their appeal to
their audiences.
Since we will often be reading original
works of these kinds, a number of the texts will be
rather demanding. We'll also be asking students to do
careful, detailed interpretation and analysis of the
stories, of theory and of selected primary historical
sources like old letters and newspaper articles. In
addition to writing frequent academic essays about literature
and psychology we'll work regularly on storytelling,
autobiographical journal exercises and creative writing
for children. We'll also regularly view and discuss
films and television programs for and about children.
In all these ways, we'll keep trying to deepen our understanding
of the interactions between childhood and adulthood
in different social worlds, between children's actual
experience and the ways people have represented childhood
- to themselves and to children.
- Credit awarded in social history, children's literature,
developmental psychology, introduction to film, cultural
history, expository writing, storytelling and creative
writing.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities, creative writing or the social
sciences.
China:
The Waking Lion
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rose Jang, Andrew Buchman
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $75 for event tickets
and art supplies.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The old proverb, "China is a sleeping
lion," no longer applies. An apt metaphor for our
work will be to study a waking lion. The goal of this
program is to become familiar with dominant and divergent
cultural traditions of the peoples of China with an
emphasis on the present, but also a serious appreciation
of the past two thousand-plus years of unbroken Chinese
cultural lineage. Our themes will include: the effects
of geography on Chinese societies; the continuity and
persistency of China's traditional philosophical, political
and esthetic systems; historical perspectives on relations
between China, its Asian neighbors, European countries
and the United States; and, in expansion, the Chinese
Diaspora, especially to Taiwan and the United States.
Our subject matter and area of study will
include Chinese, Chinese-American, relevant American
and European authors of histories, travelogues, biographies,
essays, poetry, drama, fiction, movies and films. Workshops,
some led by visiting artists and scholars, will introduce
students to spoken and written Chinese language, calligraphy
and brush-painting, movement, music and such everyday
tools as the abacus. All students will develop their
own approved research topics and share their findings
in several presentations, in addition to completing
weekly papers. Authors and composers studied may include:
Wang Wei, Li Po, Du Fu, Tang Xianzu, Lu Xun, Lao She,
Pearl S. Buck, Gustav Mahler, Giacomo Puccini, Su Tong,
Li Ang, C.Y. Lee, Richard Rogers, Maxine Hong Kingston,
David Henry Hwang, Gretel Ehrlich and Tan Dun.
- Credit awarded in Chinese history, philosophy,
literature and performing arts, Asian studies and
comparative cultural studies.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in Asian studies, cultural studies and the performing
arts.
- This program is also listed in Expressive Arts.
The
Citizen Artist: Activism Through Art
Fall, Winter and Spring quarters
Faculty: Steven Hendricks, Margaret Tysver
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None. New students are welcome
to join the program at the beginning of each quarter
as openings allow.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $100 for art
materials, museum tickets and field trip expenses.
Internship Possibilities: Yes, winter and spring quarters
with faculty approval.
The artist is first and foremost a teller of stories.
Whether the story is in the actual work an artist does
or in how that work fits into history, the story of
art and the stories of artists help us to understand
who we are as individuals, as communities, as human
beings. In The Citizen Artist: Activism Through Art
we will explore the roles of an artist as an individual
with creative vision, as a collector and interpreter
of communal memories, and as an agent of action and
change in communities. We will become artists, historians,
activists, critical readers and thinkers, writers and
involved members of our community. Fall quarter, we
will begin our two streams of focus: developing artistic
vision through many different media, and building our
understanding of how history is transmitted and interpreted.
If history is, in the words of one historian, "the gossip
of winners", our history-local, national and global-can
be both limiting and liberating, depending on whose
stories you are told. Historical principles will be
explored through alternative histories in art and literature
that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction.
Writing will focus on personal narrative, research and
creative writing workshops. Studio sessions will consist
of developing proficiencies in two- and three-dimensional
media, creating work that responds to formal and conceptual
challenges, and exploring the process and purpose of
making artwork for display in a gallery. Winter quarter
turns from visionary art and historical principles toward
the museum and the artifact. Museums organize history
in order to reflect and frame the present, though not
necessarily the truth. We will investigate how museums
can support or question the dominant culture in service
to society. Should museums shape culture or be shaped
by it? Our creative work and study of museums will focus
on reframing history in ways that transform our connection
to the past by investigating contemporary alternative
museums in order to reconceive the concept of "museum".
Through creative and curatorial experiments, we will
explore the role of the artist in telling communal stories.
Fiction, non-fiction and proposal writing will be emphasized.
Spring quarter, students will be responsible for creating
"community art projects," projects which either incorporate
community members in the creative process or respond
to community needs. Public art takes art from the world
of privilege-museums and galleries-and onto the streets.
How does the artist transform social issues into art,
creating with and for the public? Does the act of making
art public redefine art itself? Through our understanding
of local "histories" of all kinds, we will work in groups
to develop our own artistic visions and carry out projects
that explore the role of artists as agents for communal
creativity and change. Proposals and reports will be
the major writing forms through this quarter. Credit
awarded in art, art history, history, writing and editing,
and student individualized projects.
Total: 16 credits each quarter.
Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in art, art history, education, history, community development,
editing and writing and project management.
Christian
Roots: Medieval and Renaissance Art and Science
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Frederica Bowcutt, Lisa Sweet
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: $200 for art supplies and $150 for
field trips.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Students in this two-quarter program will
explore Medieval and Renaissance (1100–1750) European
culture through studies in art and science. We will
examine trends that emerged in religion, medicine and
visual arts with interest in how these values have changed
and/or remained the same through the centuries. In fall
we will develop a foundation in the precipitating factors,
cultural and scientific, that led to the Middle Ages.
We will study Greek botanists such as Dioscorides and
explore the impact they had on the study of plants during
the Middle Ages. Additionally, we will learn about life
during the Middle Ages through readings about individuals
- from poets to mystics to witches. In winter we will
address the emerging Humanism that accompanies the Renaissance.
The radical transformation of botany from
the Middle Ages to the Renaissance will be an important
part of this program. During the Middle Ages, botany
was a branch of medicine, heavily shaped by Christian
values and beliefs. Exploration and colonization of
the "New World" resulted in a dramatic increase
in the number of plants known to the botanist. This
inspired a different approach to plant naming. New technology,
such as the light microscope, also allowed for a deeper
understanding of the internal form and function of plants.
Christian values also determined the look
and function of art created during the Middle Ages.
The church developed a code of representation that involved
a complex iconography for Christian images; it also
was the primary patron of artists until the High Renaissance.
During the Renaissance the Humanist obsession with science
seeped into the arts as well. Science influences the
visual arts in the form of study and portrayal of human
anatomy; studies of nature through illustration; and
the development of complex systems of optics and perspective.
The sciences have a pervasive impact on what had been
a strictly spiritual content in art. In the process,
the roles of artists change from that of artisans to
intellectuals.
Finally, we will explore the lives and
works of various individuals (with special emphasis
on medieval women) who contributed to shaping the Middle
Ages - scientists and artists, scholars and mystics.
We will consider the rational studies of botanists and
the intuitive expressions of artists and those called
to a life of faith. By examining their lives and works,
students will gain a unique perspective on the culture
of the European Middle Ages.
- Credit awarded in printmaking, art history, history
of science and European ethnobotany.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in art, healing arts and ethnobotany.
- This program is also listed in Environmental Studies
and Expressive Arts.
Destiny:
Welcoming the Unknown
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Kristina Ackley, Raul Nakasone(F), Corky Clairmont(W)
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: Kristina will require a signature
for spring quarter. The students must submit
independent project prosposal to Kristina. Faculty interview
required.
Special Expenses: Approximately $100 per quarter for
field trip expenses.
Internship Possibilities: Yes
Travel Component: None
This program is a part of the Native American
and World Indigenous Studies area. While the program
will not be a study specifically of Native Americans
we will explore Native American historical perspectives
and will look at issues that are particularly relevant
to Native Americans. We will concentrate our work in
cultural studies, human resource development and cross-cultural
communication. The program will examine what it means
to live in a pluralistic society at the beginning of
the 21st century. We will look at a variety of cultural
and historical perspectives and use them to help us
address the program theme. We will also pay special
attention to the value of human relationships to the
land, to work, to others and to the unknown.
We will ask students to take a very personal
stake in their educational development throughout the
year. Within the program's themes and subjects students
will pay special attention to how they plan to learn,
what individual and group work they want to do and how
they plan on doing it, and what difference the work
will make in their lives. Students will be encouraged
to assume responsibility for their choices. The faculty
and students will work to develop habits of healthy
community interaction in the context of the education
process.
- Credit awarded in Native American history, cultural
studies, philosophy and content areas dependent on
students' individual project work.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in education, the arts, anthropology, multicultural
studies, tribal government and Native American studies.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language, Social Science and Native American and World
Indigenous Peoples Studies.
Drawing
From the Sea: The Aesthetics, Form and Function
of Marine Life
Fall/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Gerardo Chin-Leo, Lucia Harrison
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program will accept
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $100 for art supplies.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The marine environment is a complex habitat
which harbors a beautiful, abundant and diverse array
of life forms. This program combines the study of the
marine environment as a habitat and source of inspiration
for the visual imagination. We will examine how to use
this information to pursue creative work in the visual
arts and sciences. Students will study the form and
function of marine organisms, develop a basic visual
vocabulary and learn to draw from observation. Students
will travel to local beaches and explore Budd Inlet
in the college's sailing vessels. They will keep field
journals, conduct field surveys, collect organisms and
learn microscopy. They will attend a weekly seminar
to discuss the various ways the marine environment is
represented in scientific articles, mythology, literature,
poetry and visual images. Students will explore their
personal interests in the marine environment as a source
for scientific exploration and the theory of visual
images. Individually, students will complete a research
project on a marine organism and develop a small body
of visual images related to their scientific and/or
aesthetic interests.
- Credit awarded in marine biology and visual arts.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in science and visual arts.
- This program is also listed in Environmental Studies
and Expressive Arts.
Eco-Design
in the Real World
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rob Knapp, Robert Leverich
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 30 percent or 14 first-year students. Students
must be willing to tackle open-ended problems, respond
with insight to real-world needs and obstacles and produce
carefully finished work.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Art supplies; field trips (in-state
overnight field trips fall and spring quarters, approximately
$25 payable on the first class day; out-of-state field
trip winter quarter, approximately $45 payable during
first week of class); basic scientific calculator required.
Internship Possibilities: Spring quarter, consult with
faculty.
Travel Component: Three- to six-day out-of-state field
trip winter quarter.
How can human settlement coexist with
the rest of Earth's web of life? What patterns of living,
working and moving about could be ethical, beautiful
and sustainable indefinitely - and how can we Americans
move toward those ways of life? These are the animating
questions of the emerging field of ecological design,
and the focus of this yearlong program.
Ecological design grows from many roots
- architecture, appropriate technology, indigenous cultures,
restoration ecology, community development and activism,
environmental art and others - and is at a stage of
searching for symbiotic patterns and practices among
these fields. The faculty believe the emerging shape
of eco-design includes close designer-community collaboration,
designing for recycling or rejuvenation as much as for
permanence, biology as a source of form, attention to
justice and engineering based on renewable materials
and energies. Students should be ready to join experiments
and explorations of these ideas, and should expect it
to take two or more quarters for connections among them
to become clear.
The subtitle of this program is "Fitting
into Place." We have the hypothesis that designs
can be ethical, beautiful and sustainable only if they
are closely fitted into the specifics of a physical
place - its forms, its habitats and its inhabitants.
Through lectures, studio, fieldwork, library and Internet
research, writing, drawing and calculating, we will
investigate what gives places their character, and how
designing can express, preserve and enhance it. There
may be some chances for hands-on building, but the program
will emphasize careful analysis and design, not actual
construction.
The core activity is a yearlong design
studio (balanced between physical design and three-dimensional
art), backed by studies of community dynamics, ecological
engineering and history of environmental design, and
aiming at significant involvement with current local
building projects. The latter may include cabins for
a creative writing institute, assistance to a local
affordable housing group, progress toward the "zero-runoff"
goal for campus storm water, and finding proper uses
for trees cut down in the current expansion of college
facilities. These projects will involve students in
real-world processes, constraints and trade-offs - essential
experience for those who wish to make a difference.
- Credit awarded in environmental design, natural
science, visual art, community studies, social context
of design and expository writing.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in design professions, community development, environmental
studies, visual art, natural science and social science.
- This program is also listed in Environmental Studies,
Expressive Arts and Scientific Inquiry.
The
Ecology of Hope
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rita Pougiales, John Bullock, Matt Smith
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $200 for field trips,
retreats, etc.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Global warming, rainforest devastation,
industrial pollution, environmental injustice, alienation
from place and community, spiritual malaise and personal
cynicism - seem to live in a world characterized by
crisis, fear and despair.
So, what can we do? How can we find hope
in a hopeless world? How can we have sustainable, meaningful
lives that enable us to create appropriate and effective
action for positive change over the long haul? How can
we, in short, generate an ecology of hope?
For a start, we need to understand the
actual state of the world, the ways in which the world
works and the multiple roles we play within it. This
means moving beyond slogans and bumper stickers, and
becoming comfortable with scientific, ecological, quantitative
and logical language, information and methods, for these
are the means by which environmental problems are analyzed
and discussed.
Further, we need to understand the political,
economic, social and cultural systems and ideologies
that drive environmental problems. As Americans we have
inordinate responsibility for the depletion of the world's
natural resources and the creation of global pollution.
We cannot point our innocent fingers at guilty others,
pretending that we are not ourselves deeply implicated
in the problems to which we seek solutions.
How then shall we live responsibly together
on the earth? What practices and principles of reflection,
creativity and community might we generate to approach
our problems from fresh perspectives and with engaged
spirits so that we might illuminate our lives without
burning out?
We will actively participate in- and out-of-doors
in workshops and seminars, challenge programs, retreats
and field trips. Students will be expected to commit
to the program work for the full year of its duration.
- Credit awarded in writing, quantitative reasoning,
environmental studies, art, cultural studies, scientific
methods, history and political economy.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities, environmental sciences, sciences
and arts.
The
Expression of Self, West to East
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Sean Williams, Ryo Imamura, Yoko Matsuda
Enrollment: 52
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $75 for concert tickets
and approximately $25 for one overnight retreat each
quarter.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This program focuses on the examination
of the self in the mind, the spirit, the heart and the
community. We will approach our study from a variety
of perspectives, including psychological, historical,
spiritual and artistic. We will emphasize the development
of writing based on research, participating in and facilitating
seminars and becoming comfortable with library and Internet
resources.
Fall quarter we will study Western European
and American traditions of psychology in examining the
individual self, particularly the images of the struggling
hero, the solo genius and the tortured artist. In focusing
on specific individuals (e.g., Beet- hoven) we will
examine the ways in which the North American understanding
of the self is based on 19th-century ideals from the
European Romantic era. We will close fall quarter with
a study of the "exotic other" - how Western
writers, artists, theologians, philosophers and psychologists
began to look for a mirror of the self in the face of
the other.
Winter quarter we will examine the Asian
self within the community, the family and the natural
world. We will also focus on the ways in which the individual
ego-self of Western Europe and America differs from
the interdependent self of East and Southeast Asia.
As we move closer to the idea of the self as a member
of a community, we will explore collaborative research
and presentation, weekly group projects, community service
and the placement of the self in an Asian context. The
faculty for this program include Ryo Imamura, a counseling
psychologist/Buddhist priest, and Sean Williams, an
ethnomusicologist specializing in Asian music. Together,
we expect our students to be prepared to take themselves
and the subject matter seriously, to meet program expectations
in a timely manner and to participate fully in all program
activities. Students will keep a program portfolio that
includes all program material (including lecture notes,
handouts, notes on the readings and individual responses
to program events). Lastly, students will participate
in weekly workshops in music of Asia (especially Indonesia)
and self-awareness through psychology and meditation.
- Credit awarded in psychology, Buddhism, religious
studies, history and ethnomusicology.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in liberal arts, religious studies, Asian studies,
psychology and ethnomusicology.
Introduction
to Environmental Studies: Trees, Timber and Trade
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Paul Przybylowicz, Peter Dorman
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: This all-level program will accept up
to 25 percent or 12 first-year students. We expect that
students will have reasonable facility working with
numerical data and that they can clearly express themselves
in a well-organized essay.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $100 for two overnight
field trips.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This two-quarter program is designed to
introduce students to the interrelationships between
the ecology and economy of specific locations with the
global market and environmental issues. The forest ecosystems
of the Pacific Northwest have provided numerous products
and services to both local and global societies - fresh
water, oxygen, salmon, timber, rich soils, recreation
and wildlife. We will examine the ecology of these ecosystems
- both economic and biologic - to understand the complex
interactions we have with our surroundings. By examining
the products and services forests provide and how we
value and use these services, students will gain an
appreciation of how humans and societies shape the ecology
of specific locales.
We will study forest ecology of the Pacific
Northwest, learn to identify many of the trees and plants,
look at how we manipulate these ecosystems, and examine
the underlying physiological processes that allow trees
and forests to work. Coupling this with natural resource
economics, we will explore timber policies, treaties
and international trade. Students will be introduced
to elements of forest ecology, forestry, botany, fieldwork,
micro- and macroeconomics, trade policies and the global
economy through lectures, workshops and a number of
field trips.
- Credit awarded in forest ecology, field botany,
introductory economics, ecological economics and statistics.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in environmental studies, field biology and environmental
education.
- This program is also listed in Environmental Studies
and Social Science.
Filming
Fictions
Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Bill Ransom, Caryn Cline
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program will accept
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Up to $300/student may be required
for materials, equipment and theater admissions.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This one quarter coordinated studies program examines
the choices writers and filmmakers face when telling
stories. We will study the work of a number of writers
and the filmmakers who've brought adaptations of their
work to the screen. Engaging in a close critical reading
of literary texts, and building our skills as print-text
readers, we will also learn to look at their film adaptations
and to read the filmic uses of space and time, images
and sounds.
What are the requirements of fiction? Of film? How do
the elements of plot, character, setting, mood, point
of view, narrative voice, tone and foreshadowing work
in fiction? In film? When to translate from the text
literally and when to diverge? What makes for a successful
adaptation? How does the screenwriter translate words
into images and sounds? What is gained and lost in the
translation?
This program emphasizes small group work in workshop
and seminar, supplemented with lectures by visitors
and faculty. Along with four program peers, students
will write weekly seminar papers, keep extensive lecture
and journal notes, participate in on-line and in-person
workshops. Each participant will write a short story
from scratch and will adapt this story to screenplay.
Faculty will present the basics of story writing and
adaptation, shooting and editing video, and students
will create a short video from their completed screenplay
(or a scene from that screenplay). The emphasis for
the production component of the program will be on process
rather than product. No video experience is necessary,
but students with intermediate and/or advanced production
experience may enroll in the program. For students with
media production skills, alternative assignments must
be arranged with the faculty. Guest speakers and an
extensive reading/viewing list will infuse this program
with effective methods for approaching the fiction-to-film
process.
Total: 16 credits.
.life
Fall/Group Contract
Faculty: York Wong
Enrollment: 24
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 6 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
February 15, 2000
"What did you do today, Justin?"
"I wrote my name."
"How exciting!" exclaims
his young mother, handing him a crayon. "Show me."
The two-and-a-half-year-old proudly
scribbles out: J U S T I N . C O M
"And you are my mommy dot com!"
Technology transforms culture. Cars spew
suburbs and change our notion of community. Television
alters how we see ourselves and others. Computers shift
control from workers to management.
.life probes our world now bonded to new
technology. What is meaningful when virtual is real,
time stretched and compressed, bodies programmable and
mind mapped?
So what?
In addition to weekly reading and writing,
lectures and seminars, students will also carry out
independent projects on emerging biological, chemical
and physical developments on social and psychological
techniques that will impact race and gender identification
and behavior, and missions to the unknown.
- Credit awarded in political economy, research and
content areas dependent on students' project work.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in technology and the humanities.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language.
Looking
Backward: America in the Twentieth Century
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: David Hitchens, Jerry Lassen
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The United States began the 20th century
as a second-rate military and naval power, and a debtor
nation. The nation ended the century as the last superpower
with an economy that sparked responses across the globe.
In between, we sent men to the moon and began to explore
our place in space. 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, especially after the national
participation in World War I.
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 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
program-wide public symposia at the end of fall and
winter quarters, and a presentation of creative projects
to wrap up the spring.
- Credit awarded in U.S. political and economic history,
U.S. social and intellectual history, American economics
and global connections, and American literature.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities and social science areas of inquiry,
law, journalism, history, economics, sociology, literature,
popular culture, cultural anthropology and teaching.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language and Social Science.
Marriage,
Families and Public Policy
(This program has been Cancelled)
Length of Program: Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Stephanie Coontz, Greg Weeks
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Almost 45 percent of marriages now end
in divorce, although a larger proportion of couples
than ever before will live to celebrate their 40th wedding
anniversary. More fathers live apart from their children
than at any point in American history, yet more fathers
also participate equally in child rearing than ever
before. Family definitions, norms and legal rights are
in flux. All this has produced major disagreements over
how to evaluate changes in family life, along with a
growing debate about family policy.
This program puts contemporary debates
over marital arrangements and family policy in historical
and cross-cultural perspective. We will look at the
historical role of marriage in several different cultures
and time periods, then discuss its changing nature in
U.S. history, paying particular attention to variations
by class, race and ethnicity. We will also examine several
theoretical analyses of marriage and family life. Finally,
we will review contemporary trends in marriage, divorce,
singlehood, cohabitation and child rearing, discussing
the policy implications of our findings.
Reading and writing demands in this program
will be heavy, and students should be prepared to accept
challenges to every point of view, both from other seminar
participants and in feedback from the faculty. Students
will also revise and critically examine their writing
in weekly writing workshops.
- Credit awarded in history, gender and family studies,
anthropology, sociology, public policy studies and
literature.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the social sciences, law, public policy, social
work and teaching.
Natural
and Unnatural Histories: Fishes and Fisheries
Fall/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Tom Womeldorff, Amy Cook
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $100 for field trip
expenses.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Since World War II, the size of fishing
fleets has increased dramatically, decimating many of
the world's fisheries. At the same time, some whale
species have rebounded from near-extinction, prompting
the call to renew whaling. This raises many questions.
Should certain organisms be protected? How should we
determine how marine organisms are used? As marine ecosystems
collapse, what rights should fishing communities have
to continue fishing? What environmental, ecological
and economic factors determine the depletion and recovery
of marine populations?
In this one-quarter program, we will explore
the natural history of fishes and human management of
fisheries, both locally and globally. To manage marine
resources, we must understand the organisms and their
environment, the economic forces behind their exploitation
and current and proposed management structures. To that
end, we will study economics, ichthyology and marine
biology. Each student will also engage in a research
project focusing on one marine organism. The project
will culminate in recommendations on how the organism
should be managed, based on the organism's biology and
the economics of its fishery.
- Credit awarded in introductory economics, fisheries
management and marine biology.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in social sciences and natural sciences.
The
Physicist's World
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Tom Grissom, Neal Nelson
Enrollment: 48 (12 Freshmen)
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
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 that
what we can know about the physical 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.
We will examine the mental world created
by the physicist and the mathematician 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? starting with the pre-Socratic philosophers and
continuing through each of the major developments of
the 20th century, including the theory of relativity,
the quantum theory, deterministic chaos and modern cosmology.
We will trace the development of answers to such questions
about the physical world, and we will specifically examine
the nature and the origins of the limits that each imposes
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. We will discover that these
ideas are not accessible only to physicists and mathematicians,
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 and mathematics.
A book-length manuscript has been written for this program,
and will serve as an extended outline and guide to the
works and ideas that we will read and discuss.
- Credit awarded in philosophy of science, history
of science, introduction to physical science, introduction
to mathematics and quantitative reasoning and expository
writing.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities and the sciences.
Pícaros,
Peanuts and Pokémon: Exploring Popular
Culture
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Nancy Allen, Setsuko Tsutsumi, Hilary Binda
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: No
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The ad copy on your cereal box, the music
you listen to on your clock radio while waking up and
the T-shirt you put on in the morning all have something
in common with traditional phrases your family might
say around the breakfast table: "A watched pot
never boils," "Don't cry over spilled milk."
These quite different phenomena are all elements of
everyday life, so close to us that we hardly notice
them as objects of study. All of them form part of what
scholars call "popular culture." And all of
them act as the raw material writers use to create literature.
This program is designed to look in great detail at
the all-pervasive world of popular culture, both historically
and cross-culturally. We'll attempt to "defamiliarize"
popular culture by looking at it in other places and
times: medieval Japan, early-modern England and Spain.
Beginning with the distant realities, we'll then view
contemporary realities in their light, drawing constant
comparisons.
Popular culture has often been used to
question the cultural and social forms set up by the
powerful, who create "high culture." But these
categories are not absolute and are always in process;
some of our greatest literary classics, books considered
"high culture" now and read by only a few,
began as popular culture. Lady Murasaki's The Tale of
Genji was a Harlequin romance for court ladies of her
day. Shakespeare's plays appealed to all classes in
Elizabethan England, as did Cervantes' Don Quixote to
those in Spain. We will study these works and other
less-lasting ones along with social theory about the
many meanings we may draw from popular culture and discuss
them in twice-weekly seminars. We will view films, dramatic
productions and puppet shows, hear music and poems,
and study several popular-culture traditions in depth.
Besides reading for seminars, each student
will be required to do extensive writing and rewriting
- some of it personal reflections on experiences with
popular culture, some of it critiques and interpretations
in expository essay form. At the end of each quarter,
each student will produce a piece of popular culture
in a self-chosen form - a comic strip, a cycle of rock
songs, a guerrilla theater piece, a video - and present
it to the group.
- Credit awarded in popular culture studies, Japanese
literature and history, European literature and history
and social theory.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in humanities and social science.
The
Politics of Sin and Punishment
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Mario A. Caro, Carol Minugh (F), Jules Unsel
Enrollment: 60
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses : Approximately $50.00 for art supplies
each quarter. Various field trips. Students in the Gateway
program will meet on the Maple Lane Campus.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This program will take a close look at how we, as a
society, deal with people we deem dangerous. We will
think about how the criminal is defined, not only by
studying those laws that regulate our behavior but also
by looking at how the criminal is represented within
popular culture. Part of this study will include a critical
review of film, television, video, art and the Internet.
We will, for example, try to relate the romantic image
of the lone outlaw to the glorification of violence
in gansta rap. As part of our investigation, we will
also examine the history and effectiveness of systems
that manage this segment of our population, paying special
attention to the prison system. We will end our program
by thinking about alternative ways to address the problem
of deviance.
Some of the questions we will address include: Why is
the US prison population the fastest growing in the
world? Why are prisoners disproportionately people of
color? Why are they disproportionately poor? Do institutions
without rehabilitation make sense? Does adjudicating
youth through the adult system make sense?
In the fall quarter we will study the current prison
system in the US. We will use library research and free
writing to investigate the nature, size and history
of the legal system, from the post-WWII Red Scare, the
civil rights movement, the youth movements of the 1960s,
to the current war on drugs. We will be theorizing race,
class and gender in the contemporary prison system through
seminars, readings, creative projects, and writing.
We will analyze images of youth and deviance in contemporary
Hollywood film, television, music, and the internet.
In the winter quarter, we will step back and look at
the development of other regulating institutions in
the nineteenth century US as historical antecedents
to the current situation. These broader institutions
include the reservation system, slavery, and mental
hospitals. Our readings will include slave narratives,
native biographies, prison writings, films, and other
documents that show how people have found dignity and
agency within difficult circumstances. We will also
look at earlier visual representations that form the
legacy of how we view the deviant today. Our main term
project will be a research paper.
In spring we will focus on finding what works. We will
compare contemporary prison systems and reform movements
in other countries in an effort to uncover ways to intervene
in our own system. We will visit and compare a variety
of currently operating regulating institutions. Our
readings will include current self-representations of
prisoners, including prisoner art and writings. We will
look at international organizations that attempt to
monitor human rights in penal institutions. Our main
term project will be a multi-media project, which could
include a photographic essay, music, video, or any other
art form.
Our primary goal in this year-long program will be to
integrate the information and insights presented within
the program materials into a dynamic, interdisciplinary
understanding of contemporary institutions, social regulation
and punishment with a vision toward progressive social
and political change. We will combine creative and intuitive
approaches to learning with a practical curriculum of
graduated assignments designed to build college-level
reading, writing , and research skills. We will strive
always to help students maximize the level of engagement
and personal responsibility that they take in structuring
their own learning.
A limited number of students will participate in the
Gateways program at Maple Lane School for incarcerated
your.
- Credit will be awarded in US history, visual studies,
ethnic studies, political science, social theory,
research methods, expository writing, speech, and
art.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- This program is preparatory for careers and future
studies in social science, law, journalism, history,
economics, and communication arts.
Revolution!
The Arts and Social Change (Cancelled)
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Terry Setter, Stacey Davis
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: $50 for overnight retreat.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Every revolution has produced a number
of artistic responses such as Beethoven's Eroica
symphony that celebrated the triumphs
of Napoleon, or the paintings of Diego Rivera that mirrored
upheavals in Mexican society. This two-quarter program
will look at forms of artistic expression that were
created within the context of revolutions. We will ask
fundamental questions such as What is a revolution?
and How does a revolution manifest itself in the arts?
We will study several periods in history, and explore
how some of the world's great upheavals led to new forms
of artistic expression. The program will also explore
the possibility that some artistic revolutions may have
preceded related, large-scale changes in society. For
example, early rock 'n' roll played a major part in
fostering the youth "revolutions" of the sixties
and the "velvet" revolution in Czechoslovakia
was the direct product of a theater movement in that
country.
Students will learn how to act and direct,
be introduced to basic skills in music composition and
performance, and learn to appreciate and analyze visual
art. The program will provide weekly skill-building
workshops in addition to lectures, seminars and guest
performances. At the end of the program students should
be able view the development of the arts and society
as dynamic, interrelated processes and to understand
the major concepts behind some of the larger historical
and artistic movements.
- Credit awarded in music theory, history and performance;
theater history, theory and performance; literature;
cultural history; aesthetics; art criticism; research
techniques; and expository writing.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in music, theater, art history and cultural studies.
Tragic
Relief: Comedy, Tragedy and Community, from Athens
to America
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Helen Cullyer, David Marr, Sam Schrager
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program will accept
up to 67 percent or 46 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $300 for week-long trip
to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: Out-of-state field trip.
Jokes, humor and comedy are central to
human experience, but too often have been considered
unworthy of serious study. Tragedy, suffering and "the
slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," on the
other hand, have been thought to strike closer to the
truths of the human condition. We will investigate comedy
and tragedy as powerful rival visions of life. Our yearlong
study of great texts will include masterpieces of ancient
and modern drama and prose fiction, along with oral
humor, films and television sitcoms.
We will read comedies and tragedies from
ancient Greece and Rome, England and America. By approaching
these works in their social and political contexts we
will seek to understand how comedy and tragedy shape
human outlooks on life, make political statements, reaffirm
or challenge stereotypes, and work for or against human
community. Among the authors whose works we will examine
are Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sopho- cles, Plautus, Shakespeare,
Herman Melville, Mark Twain and Arthur Miller. To aid
us in our investigations, we will also read philosophical
commentaries by Aristotle, Roland Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin
and Ted Cohen.
Our studies will not be confined to works
in written and visual media which are traditionally
labeled comedy and tragedy. We will also consider the
role of jokes and humor in everyday life, questioning
the time-honored belief that ranks comedy beneath tragedy
in seriousness. To test this belief students will undertake
a fieldwork project to document occasions of humor and
responses to it. In the same spirit of skepticism we
will also question the view that tragedy is out of place
in a democratic society of equals.
In fall and winter students will perform
scenes from famous comedies and tragedies. In winter
and spring students will collaborate in writing and
performing their own plays.
- Credit awarded in classical studies, humanities,
folklore, literature, history, philosophy, social
thought and foreign language.
- Total: 12 credits each quarter. All students will
take a four-credit course in a foreign language: Latin,
Spanish, French or Japanese.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities, theater, teaching, law and community
work.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language.
Trash
Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Sharon Anthony, Cynthia Kennedy, Sonja Wiedenhaupt
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: One overnight field trip per quarter,
approximately $75 per person. Fees due during the first
week of class each quarter.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This program is a yearlong inquiry into
trash and how it defines us. At its most basic level,
trash is worthless or discarded material. On a deeper
level, trash is more than material objects. The word
permeates many levels of our existence, including literary
and artistic material as well as people and cultures
who are regarded as ignorant or contemptible.
We will address the fundamental question:
"What is trash?" Given that "trash"
is relative, the definition is open for debate. How
much trash do we produce? How has this changed throughout
history and how is it different from culture to culture?
What are our attitudes, values and behaviors around
waste? How can we better understand our trash to create
a healthy, sustainable environment both physically and
emotionally?
We will then turn our attention to "How
do we decide where our trash goes?" We will look
at how ethics, public policy, government, technology,
economics, culture and geography inform our decisions
around waste production and disposal. How have people
adapted their behaviors to changes in waste management
such as the introduction of recycling programs? What
is the impact of a flushing toilet and garbage pick-up
on our relationship to and behaviors around waste? Do
we act as responsible inhabitants or temporary residents
in the places we live?
Finally, we will debate "Where do
we go from here?" synthesizing and applying issues
we have investigated throughout the year. What should
we do with our garbage? What sort of individual or societal
changes, if any, do we propose? What are the mechanisms
through which these changes could happen?
Real-life case studies and community service
projects will provide a context for exploring the year's
questions. Highlights of the program include guest speakers,
retreats, field trips and community service projects.
Throughout the year we will develop a set of skills,
including library research, information technology,
quantitative reasoning, oral and written communication,
leadership and group dynamics. A significant portion
of the pro-gram will be spent working collaboratively.
- Credit awarded in economics, environmental science,
ethics, psychology, information technology, statistics,
leadership and group dynamics, and writing.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in environmental studies, psychology, public policy,
business and waste management.
Wildlife,
Habitat and Landscape
Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Peter Impara and Nobi Suzuki
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $50 for materials for
independent projects
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This two-quarter program will introduce
students to the interactions of ecological elements,
especially those associated with wildlife and their
habitats, at different spatial scales. This understanding
will help students to address and consider the complexity
of ecosystems, communities and populations and the related
issues surrounding their conservation.
We will cover fundamental concepts and issues in general
ecology, wildlife-habitat ecology, conservation biology,
and landscape ecology. Students will learn field identification
of major plant and wildlife species and characterization
of habitats at a variety of spatial scales. Students
will also learn topics in habitat association and population
analysis of wildlife as well as ecological processes
responsible for population fluctuation and distribution
of wildlife across the landscape. Major concepts in
conservation biology will be integrated into the lecture
to further students' understanding in the process of
habitat loss and the conservation of biodiversity and
endangered species. Basic landscape ecology will be
covered, including the concepts of pattern-process interactions
and scale. Landscape disturbance processes will be studied
in lecture and in field trips in order to understand
the ecological function of disturbance.
During fall quarter computer labs will focus on basic
computer skills, especially quantitative skills and
fundamental statistics. Winter quarter computer labs
will focus on Geographic Information Systems and their
applications to landscape ecology and conservation biology.
Credit will be awarded in ecology, quantitative
and spatial use of computers, landscape ecology, and
habitat analysis and conservation.
Total: 16 credits per quarter.
OFFERINGS
BEGINNING WINTER QUARTER
Ocean
Life and Environmental Policy
Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Erik Thuesen, Jay Singh
Enrollment: 46
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: Yes
Special Expenses: Up to $150 for overnight field trips.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This Core program is designed to provide
legal knowledge and scientific skills necessary to understand
problems facing global ecosystems. Water is essential
to life, and the management and regulation of its resources
will provide many of the subjects for our study in this
two-quarter program. We will study the standard topics
of first-year college biology, using marine organisms
as our focus. The overall objective of this component
is to gain basic familiarity with the biology and ecology
of ocean life. When combined with introductory policy
components of the Pacific Northwest, our studies of
the biological, physical and chemical characteristics
of oceans will provide the knowledge necessary to make
intelligent decisions about marine resources and habitats.
Focal topics in the social sciences will
include the use and abuse of decision-making authority,
particularly with respect to the Endangered Species
Act and Boldt Decision to assess how science and culture
interact to safeguard endangered biota. International
markets for raw resources and international waters for
anadromous fish make state commerce issues dependent
on larger ecological components. Can we reduce these
to private entitlements or are policy impacts necessarily
public?
Learning will take place through lectures,
seminars and biology laboratory exercises. Work in the
field and a multi-day field trip in spring are also
planned to gain first-hand exposure to various marine
environments. We will also experience Puget Sound via
trips on the Evergreen sailing vessels. Students will
improve their policy research skills through field observations
and short group presentations.
- Credit awarded in general biology, general biology
laboratory, marine science, environmental policy,
environmental studies and resource management.
- Total: 16 credits each quarter.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in law, government, life sciences and marine biology.
OFFERINGS
BEGINNING SPRING QUARTER
Algebra
to Algorithms: Mathematical Methods for Science
and Computing
Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Neal Nelson
Enrollment: 23
Prerequisites: High school algebra.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Science emerged in the Western world with
a fundamental reliance on mathematics as a powerful
language for expressing the character of the observed
world. Mathematical models of behavior in the natural
world allow us to predict (more or less) what complex
systems will do. The emergence of computing has magnified
the power of mathematical models and helped shape new
kinds of modeling that increasingly influence our planetary
decisions in the 21st century. Computer science has
grown out of mathematics as a specialized study of problem
solving.
While the heart of computer science is
problem solving, the language and culture of problem
solving is mathematics. Computer science is concerned
with how we can build mathematical models to run on
computers. In essence, computer science is the constructive
branch of mathematics. This program explores the fundamental
connections between mathematics, computer science and
the natural sciences.
Algebra to Algorithms will develop the
mathematical abstractions and mathematical skills needed
to express, analyze and solve the kinds of problems
that arise in the sciences and particularly computer
science. Mathematical techniques will be developed with
attention to the fundamental problems of science and
computing. The program is intended for serious students
who want to gain a fundamental understanding of mathematics
and computing before leaving college or going on to
more work in the sciences. The emphasis is on the development
of fluency in mathematical thinking and expression along
with reflections on science and society in a weekly
book seminar.
Topics will include concepts of algebra,
logic, functions, algorithms, data modeling, programming
and calculus, along with historical, philosophical or
ethical readings on science.
- Credit awarded in mathematics.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in mathematics or the sciences.
Bodies
of Contention
Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Alice Nelson, Greg Mullins
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: Two quarters of college. This all-level
program accepts up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $35–$50 for possible
in-state, overnight field trips.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Bodies are not only biological. They are
also a medium of culture, a powerful symbolic space
where the central rules and values of a given cultural
context may be expressed. Our bodies are trained, shaped
and impressed with prevailing historical forms of selfhood
and desire, masculinity and femininity. As feminism
and queer studies have insisted, this regulation of
the body is political, and the prevailing norms shaping
bodies must be contested and questioned if exclusionary
social hierarchies are to change.
Focusing on literary and historical texts,
and drawing centrally from feminist and queer theory,
this program will explore the following questions: Why
and how has the body been used as a site for political
contention in the period 1950–2002? More specifically,
what battles have been waged over gender and sexuality,
as expressed through bodies, and what can literature
tell us about these struggles? How are bodies and desires
regulated and contested differently in different cultural
contexts? How do transgressions of bodily, gender and
sexual norms compare with other sorts of crossings:
of geographical borders, ethnic/racial categories, social
classes, pleasure/pain, aesthetic hybridity? Please
note that much of the reading is sexual in nature. Students
enrolled in the program must be prepared to approach
this material in scholarly ways.
This program will focus on texts, both
those we read and those we write. Students will explore
program questions through writing and extensive revision,
as well as through seminar discussion. In addition,
students will work on media literacy skills through
critical viewing and analysis of one film per week.
For more information about this program, visit Greg
Mullins' Web site, linked to Evergreen's home page through
"Personal Home Pages" www.evergreen.edu/users2/mullinsg/home.htm.
- Credit awarded in literature, history, critical
theory and gender/sexuality studies.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in liberal arts professions such as education, law,
arts, management, humanities and social services.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language.
Bridges,
Not Walls: Culture and Communication
Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Betsy Diffendal, Jan Kido, Llyn DeDanaan
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program will accept
up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Students should expect to spend approximately
$20 on special student-selected program events.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
One of the functions of culture is to
provide humans with a set of lenses that serve as a
highly selective screen between the individual and the
outside world. Culture, therefore, designates what we
pay attention to and what we ignore. Today we live in
a world of increasing intercultural and international
contacts. Sometimes these interactions are on an interpersonal
level; sometimes they occur in organizational settings.
We know that intercultural interactions can include
moments of conflict, friendship, hatred, romance, dominance
and cooperation. This quarter we will explore the question,
How can we develop competence in dealing with the increased
cultural complexity of the 21st century? In lectures,
workshops and seminars we will explore the importance
of understanding "context" as a way of making
sense of the unfamiliar. Our purpose is to work toward
a self-awareness of our own cultural perspectives and
to develop strategies for approaching cultural differences
effectively.
We welcome first-year students ready to
be seriously engaged in their studies and offer strong
support to upper-division students.
- Credit awarded in applied anthropology, intercultural
communication and human behavior in the social environment.
Upper-division credit is available for those whose
background preparation and program work demonstrate
its appropriateness.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in anthropology, education, business, law, communications,
human services, psychology and community development.
- This program is also listed in Social Science.
Eyes
and Ears
Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Terry Setter, Lisa Sweet, Mario Caro
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: $50 for overnight retreat.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Every era has produced new modes of artistic
expression. This one-quarter program will look at forms
of artistic expression that combine sculpture and sound.
We will ask fundamental questions, such as How are these
works intended to be read? What special uses of sculptural
and musical techniques are found in such works? What
are some of the technical hurdles to be overcome when
producing such pieces of art? Why are these works so
powerful, and why are they finding such acceptance in
society? How do contemporary ideals manifest themselves
in these works? and What is possible to achieve in these
works which would not otherwise be possible?
The program will focus primarily on the
study of 20th-century art and music, and we will explore
some of the greatest successes in this form of artistic
expression. The program will also explore the possibility
that some of these works may have laid the groundwork
for large-scale changes in many popular art forms.
Students will be introduced to basic skills
in music performance and history, and they will learn
about the appreciation, analysis, and production of
the sculptural elements of these works. The program
faculty will provide weekly opportunities for viewing
and critique sessions in addition to lectures, seminars
and guest appearances. At the end of the program, students
should be able to appreciate developments in 20th-century
arts and contemporary society as dynamic, interrelated
processes, and understand the major concepts behind
some of the larger, historically important pieces.
- Credit awarded in music history, art history, cultural
history, aesthetics, art criticism, research techniques
and expository writing.
- Total: 12 or 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in music, sculpture, art history and cultural studies.
Hemingway:
The Writing Life
Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Tom Grissom
Enrollment: 24
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program will accept
up to 25 percent or 6 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Ernest Hemingway, more than any other
American writer, lived a life that became inextricably
identified with his writings. From his beginnings as
a writer in Paris in the 1920s to his death in Idaho
by suicide in 1961, his own life and experiences became
the source of his material and the spark of his imagination.
He developed a style of storytelling that was uniquely
his own. He aimed at uncompromising honesty in his writing,
and strived always to create a depiction of the actual
in his spare, unadorned and precise prose. He ranks
as one of the most distinctive prose stylists in American
literature in his novels, short stories and nonfiction
works.
This program will be an intensive examination
of major works of fiction and nonfiction by this important
writer, including such works as The Sun Also Rises,
A Farewell To Arms, To Have and Have Not, For Whom the
Bell Tolls, Across the River and Into the Trees, The
Old Man and the Sea, Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills
of Africa and A Moveable Feast, plus the collected short
stories. In addition, we will read literary criticisms
and commentary of Hemingway's work and a biography of
the life and times of the writer. Students will write
responses each week to the readings and will produce
a longer expository paper on some chosen aspect of Hemingway's
writing. In our work we will pay attention to the structure
and aesthetic qualities of the writings and to their
meaning and relevance, responding to the question: What
is the writer doing, and how does he do it? We will
read and discuss with the aim of understanding and assessing
Hemingway's contribution to and place in American literature.
Classes will be seminars and recitations in which students
will be responsible for presenting their own writing
and work.
- Credit awarded in topics of 20th-century American
literature, contemporary intellectual history, research
and expository writing.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in literature and the humanities.
- This program is also listed in Culture, Text and
Language.
Main
Stage Production
Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Stepan Simek
Enrollment: 24
Prerequisites: Performing Arts in Cultural Context or
Revolution! The Arts and Social Change or equivalent.
This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent or 6
first-year students.
Faculty Signature: Yes. Admission by audition and/or
interview. Auditions will be conducted at the end of
winter quarter (watch for audition notices). After auditions
and/or interview students may pick up an application
form from the Communications Building Program Secretary,
The Evergreen State College, COM 301, Olympia, WA 98505,
(360) 867-6605.
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The program will consist solely of participating
in a faculty-directed main-stage production of a play
chosen by the instructor. The audition, rehearsal and
production work will follow a professional theater practice
that the students can expect in any Off-Broadway or
regional theater.
The play will be chosen from the realistic/naturalistic
theater canon, such as a work by Anton Chekhov, August
Strindberg, Henryk Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill or others who
are firmly rooted in the realistic/naturalistic tradition.
This will allow us to work with acting and directing
techniques that are developed specifically for that
kind of theater. These techniques include the Stanislavski
Method of Physical Action, the Maisner technique and
the American Method Acting. Students will experience
a thorough training in these techniques and will learn
to apply them in the performance of the play.
Participation in the production involves
acting in the play, dramaturgical work, assistant directing,
set, costume lighting and sound design, stage management,
publicity work, set and costume construction and all
the other areas related to a successful play production.
For example, after a successful audition a student will
be cast in the play, she will spend maybe half to three
quarters of her time in rehearsal, and the rest of the
time she might work in the shop building the set. A
student might present a portfolio of his lighting design,
and he will become the lighting designer for the production
as well as the publicity coordinator. In short, every
student will participate in more than one area of the
production process. While the production will be directed
by the faculty, the process will be an interactive collaboration
among all participants.
The program will spend the first eight
to nine weeks in rehearsal, and it will culminate in
a weeklong run of a fully mounted production in the
Experimental Theatre.
In addition to rehearsals and production
work, the program will meet once a week for an all-program
seminar on dramaturgical matters closely related to
the production. For example, if the production is a
play by Anton Chekhov, the seminars will deal with other
plays by the same author, Chekhov scholarship, the social,
political, economic and cultural environment of the
play, and so on. Those weekly seminars will help us
to understand the world of the play, as well as the
world of the author.
- Credit awarded in acting, directing, design, stage
management, company management, dramaturgy, according
to which function the individual student specializes
in, and in theater history, theory, literature for
the seminar preparation and participation.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the arts and humanities.
- This program is also listed in Expressive Arts.
Performative
Shakespeare
Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rose Jang, Hilary Binda
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: This all-level program accepts up to
25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Admission fees for theater tickets
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
In the program, we will study Shakespearean dramas as
both masterpieces of literature, as well as theatrical,
performative texts. We will concentrate on a select
group of plays from the Shakespearean canon and apply
the most up-to-date, cutting-edge theories of literary
criticism to them. We will also complement literary,
theoretical explorations with practical applications
and performances, by experimenting with and acting out
different interpretations of scenes and characters from
the plays, using both literary criticism and performance
theory as interpretative and cognitive foundation. Besides
general group meetings and film-viewing sessions, there
will be smaller workshops focused on literary analysis
and performance training. Students are required to engage
in both activities in the process, but they have the
choices of responsibilities and concentration for the
final production. The program will culminate in a public
performance of Shakespearean scenes, with suggestive
costumes, makeup and scenic components, in the Recital
Hall at the end of the quarter.
Credit awarded in Shakespearean study, literary and
dramatic criticism, dramaturgy, theater acting, movement
and technical theater.
Total: 16 credits
Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in literature and performing arts.
Portraits
Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Marilyn Frasca, Sandie Nisbet
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: Freshmen must bring evaluation from Core
program to the first day of class. This all-level program
accepts up to 25 percent or 12 first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Students must provide their own art
supplies; cost varies on projects, approximately $50
for drawing workshops and $10 for one theater/gallery
event.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Students will be asked to choose a subject
for a portrait they will finish by the quarter's end.
We will study the nature of portraits in the visual
arts, in literature, performance and media. While some
people agree that portraits can only be made of human
beings, others believe that you may call an image of
a house or a car a portrait if it makes present the
soul of the thing. Can things have souls? What does
soul or essence have to do with portraits? Opportunities
to work in writing, two-dimensional image making and
performance will be provided during the first half of
the quarter. Students will be encouraged to research
a variety of subjects for their own work with portraits
and asked to make a choice of a subject and a discipline
for their final project.
Activities will include: journal workshops,
drawing sessions, slide talks, performance workshops,
seminars, film screenings, critiques of works in progress,
weekly assignments, rehearsals/practice, small-group
discussions and quarter-end presentations. The performance
workshop will include sessions in basic acting, readers'
theater technique, scripting, dialogue writing, one-act
play analysis, etc.
Texts and topics for our review will be
drawn from the following works and/or authors and artists:
Schneider's The Art of The Portrait, Wallace Stevens'
The Necessary Angel, Toni Morrison's Sula, Miguel De
Unamuno's Abel Sanchez; poetry by Emily Dickinson, Adrienne
Rich, Allen Ginsberg, Gertrude Stein, Ntozake Shange;
paintings by Giotto, Bellini, Rembrandt, Caravaggio,
Ingres, Kokoschka, Khalo, O'Keefe, Picasso, Dubuffet,
Laurencin, Balthus, Schiele, Neal, Lichtenstein, Hockney,
Marisol, Bacon; plays by Samuel Beckett, Tony Kushner,
Tina Howe and Edward Albee.
- Credit awarded in art history, drawing, creative
writing and performing arts.
- Total: 16 credits.
- Program is preparatory for careers and future studies
in the humanities, art and theater.
- This program is also listed in Expressive Arts.
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