Site Index

Current Year's Catalog 2005-06

Undergraduate Studies

A-Z Index

Programs for Freshmen

Culture, Text and Language

Environmental Studies

Expressive Arts

Native American and World Indigenous Peoples' Studies

Scientific Inquiry

Society, Politics, Behavior and Change

Tacoma Campus Programs

Evening and Weekend Studies

Evening and Weekend Class Listing

Summer Studies

Summer Class Listing

Graduate Studies

Master of Environmental Studies

Master of Public Administration

Master in Teaching

 

 


[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Central America: Poetry and Politics
Columbia River: Origins, Salmon and Culture
Consuming Utopia: From Wilderness to Wal-Mart
Cycle Makers and Cycle Breakers

Central America: Poetry and Politics

Fall quarter

Enrollment:
50
Schedule:
Class Schedules
Class Standing:
Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome.
Prerequisites:
Three quarters of intermediate Spanish language skills or one quarter of creative writing that includes a workshop/critique format.
Faculty Signature:
Students must be assessed for their ability to meet the prerequisites. Contact Alice Nelson via email or call (360) 867-6629. Assessments completed by May 13, 2005, will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills.
Special Expenses:
Approximately $150 for program retreat; $50 for field trips; $50 for community service project.

The Central America region-particularly Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala-has experienced both brutal repression and dynamic liberation movements over the last several decades. Literary expression flourished on dangerous ground. Poetry, novels, testimonios, short stories, radio and film have responded to brutality with the contemporary art of literary witness. We will explore the relationships between literature and politics in Central America from the 1960s to the present, with emphasis on the complex cultural contexts within which the stories of personal, national and social change have been told. We will also explore the role of literature in solidarity work and the complex roles of solidarity, resistance and literature throughout the region.

In addition to analytical work on literary texts, this program joins two academic practices: creative writing and literary translation (Spanish to English; perhaps some English to Spanish). As a group, we will produce a bilingual literary anthology based on short works recommended to us for translation by local Latino community members. Throughout the quarter, we will work in collaborative writing groups, balancing students' strengths in creative writing and Spanish language, to assemble and produce this anthology, which we will distribute to libraries, schools and community organizations in Washington State and in Central America.

Credit awarded in:
Central American literature, creative writing, literary translation, and the history and politics of Central America.
Total:
16 credits.
Program is preparatory for:
careers and future studies in language, history, literature, writing, editing, publishing and international studies.
top

Columbia River: Origins, Salmon and Culture

Spring quarter

Enrollment:
46
Schedule:
Class Schedule
Class Standing:
This Core program is designed for freshmen.
Special Expenses:
$175 for field trips to the Columbia River Basin, to be paid by April 7, 2006.

The story of land and sky, of people and place, is told by water in the Pacific Northwest. Our program will focus on a river called the "most dammed river in the West," the mighty Columbia-immortalized in Woody Guthrie's famous song "Roll on Columbia." Our combined efforts will investigate the rich study of place. Students in this program will learn this river's story, and its many names and faces, by studying the natural, environmental and social history of the Columbia River watershed. Because several salmon species and their associated migration runs offer an important thread that connects these themes, we will also study the ecology of salmon and their historical, cultural, spiritual and economic values to humans.

We will take several field trips to the river to study both its natural ecosystems and the impacts that humans have had throughout the river basin. We will engage ourselves in a study of the hydrological, geological and geographical legacy of the river and the land through which it flows. We will read and hear the stories told by Native peoples and newcomers who have made the river their home. Throughout the program, we will ask how place shapes human lives and how human action changes place. We will ponder the nature of transformation and investigate the many transformations endured by this river and its people.

Part of our learning this quarter will demand that we inquire how political, cultural and technological power informs these transformations and manifests itself in the stories told by and about this river. We also will study the changes brought by the hydroelectric dams, the irrigation system for agriculture, the creation of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and the emergent recreation industry associated with the river.

Students will engage in research related to the Columbia's history and its future. Topics will include natural history, introductory salmon ecology, hydroelectricity, literature, Native American history and culture, social and political history, and public policy connected to the many themes of the Columbia River.

Weekly writing assignments and workshops will include creative and expository writing, analysis of our readings of texts and our workshop activities. Students will keep a weekly research log and an activities journal that is connected to seminar and program activities. Students will write two three- to five-page papers linking content themes during the quarter and one project summary at the end of the quarter. Skills-based weekly activities and workshops will include seminars, basic research and activities such as log-keeping, map-reading, field trip analysis and evaluation writing.

Program activities and workshops will prepare students to complete a small, end-of-quarter project that shows the student's ability to research and analyze individually and in groups. For this project, students will be expected to critically analyze course content, in a program theme of their choice, using assigned materials and those found through research. Media for analysis and expression of learning will include writing/poetry, art/performance arts, photography and mapping. For the final project, a two- to three-page written introduction, with bibliography, will contextualize the final work.

Credit awarded in:
introductory ecology: Columbia River Basin; Pacific Northwest cultural and political history: Columbia River Basin; and contemporary policy: Columbia River Basin.
Total:
16 credits.
Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in:
environmental studies, history, science, geography, political and policy studies, teaching and Native American studies.
top

Consuming Utopia: From Wilderness to Wal-Mart

new


not in printed catalog

Fall and Winter quarters

Faculty:
Robert Smurr, Nancy Koppelman
Enrollment:
46
Schedule:
Class Schedules
Class Standing:
This core program is designed for freshmen.
Prerequisites:
No prerequisites are required to join this continuing, two-quarter program during winter quarter. Students will be required to complete some readings from fall quarter and meet to discuss these readings on a few occasions.
Faculty Signature:
New students are welcome. Students may obtain a faculty signature at the Academic Fair, November 30, 4-6 p.m., CRC Gym, or at any other time prior to the first day of class. For information, contact Robert Smurr, (360) 867-5056 or Nancy Koppelman, (360) 867-6383
Special Expenses:
$Approximately $120 each quarter for field trips.

A map of the world which does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. —Oscar Wilde

What is utopia? Is it the freedom of wilderness, the convenience of Wal-Mart, or something in between? Visions of a perfect world take many forms, but a theme common to all utopian societies is a land of plenty in which people exist harmoniously and effortlessly amidst a bountiful and benign natural world. What, then, does the good life have to do with goods?

Join us as we learn about environmental, social and political efforts to improve the human condition, and the beneficial and detrimental consequences of those efforts. American society is a unique political experiment that has proven long on innovations in everything from automobiles to disposable coffee cups, yet short on appreciation for the limits of its resources. Our society has become wedded to consumption and economic growth. We spend money on everything from water to gasoline to eco-tours, but something in us still suspects that the best things in life are-or ought to be-free. We Americans are creatures of these tensions. Consuming Utopia will analyze the roots of these tensions as well as the utopian visions they have inspired. The program invites students who wish to embrace a sense of wonder, look at the planet anew and critically explore ways to improve the relationship between people and the lands that sustain us.

In the fall, we will learn about what North America was like when most people produced the means of life directly through their own labor, and how daily life changed when most people began to work for wages and consume the means of life by spending money. We will also study utopian visions that responded to these developments and attempt to create responsible visions of our own. Throughout these studies, we will examine how people think about the natural environment. We will assume that human work-by pre-colonial native peoples as much as factory farmers-is integral to the natural environment, and that a viable sustainability celebrates both culture and nature. During winter quarter, the program will examine and evaluate a wide range of responses and challenges to consumer culture at home and abroad, with special attention paid to "misfits" and "rebels" who seek their own utopias in the non-western world.

Our work will include overnight field trips that will ground the program's topics in first-hand experience. We will witness the stunning natural glory of Washington's coastal beaches and marvel at the power of human-built dams on the Columbia River. Diverse destinations, such as ancient forests, clear-cuts, mountains and shopping malls will instill in us profound respect for our remarkable-and remarkably threatened-planet. These journeys will enable us more fully to identify what we mean when we use words such as progress, wilderness, balance and recreation. Critical reading, writing and film viewing skills will be emphasized through weekly workshops, writing assignments and tutorials.

Credit awarded in:
history, environmental history, literature, philosophy, film studies and environmental studies.
Total:
16 credits each quarter.
Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in:
education, history, writing, eco-tourism, environmental studies and cultural studies.

Program Updates

06.15.2005:
New, not in printed catalog.
11.11.5005:
Prerequisites: No prerequisites are required to join this continuing, two-quarter program during winter quarter. Students will be required to complete some readings from fall quarter and meet to discuss these readings on a few occasions. Faculty Signature: New students are welcome. Students may obtain a faculty signature at the Academic Fair, November 30, 4-6 p.m., CRC Gym, or at any other time prior to the first day of class. For information, contact Robert Smurr, (360) 867-5056 or Nancy Koppelman, (360) 867-6383.
top

Cycle Makers and Cycle Breakers

Fall, Winter and Spring quarters

Enrollment:
200
Schedule:
Class Schedule
Class Standing:
Juniors or seniors; transfer students welcome.
Prerequisites:
Formal admission to the Tacoma program, including an intake interview. For information about admission and the application process, call (253) 680-3000.
Special Expenses:
Approximately $25 to $50 each quarter.
Internship Possibilities:
Spring quarter with faculty approval.

This year's program is designed for students who want to understand decision making in the 21st century. We will address the cyclical nature of the patterns and paradigms that surround us by researching and examining the multiple cycles that interact and create the worlds in which we live. This will include personal cycles of development and those contained in cultural worlds, social worlds and natural worlds. These cycles may occur on a daily or even second-by-second basis, on a centurial or millennial basis, or somewhere in between. These cycles may have positive or negative effects. Observing and understanding patterns of repetition can help us make decisions and act on those decisions in more effective ways.

During fall quarter, students will focus on their own experience and the world around them in order to find patterns or cycles of repetition. These include, but are not limited to, cycles related to power, belief, technology, commercialism, art, science, oppression, love, fear, greed, war and the environment, as well as cycles of written and visual literacy.

During winter quarter, based upon work done in the fall, students will identify, develop, and explore specific cycles for further research and study. They will examine the microcosms and macrocosms of these cycles in order to create a synthesis of ideas concerning how the cycles operate or do not operate in their own present experience and that of their community.

In spring quarter, students will use a variety of expansive methods, from writing to media, to demonstrate and communicate their perceptions and findings. The intent is to gain a wider understanding that will enhance their own lives, the lives of their community, and the world that we all share.

Credit awarded in:
urban education, community and environmental studies, public health, law and public policy, science and social science research, research methodology, literature, the humanities, composition, media literacy, computer studies, multimedia, statistics, and the history of ideas.
Total:
16 credits each quarter.
Program is preparatory for:
careers and future studies in community development, organizational development, law and public policy, education, social and human services, public administration, communication and media arts, environmental studies and public health.

Program updates:

05.18.2005:
Barbara Laners, Juris Doctorate, has joined the faculty team.

06.08.2005:
Zhang Er and Allen Olson have joined this program's faculty team.
top

Contact the Site Manager

 

Last Updated: August 25, 2017


The Evergreen State College

2700 Evergreen Parkway NW

Olympia, Washington 98505

(360) 867-6000