Japanese literature by women writers flourished at Heian court from 794 to 1185. These court ladies demonstrated a rich variety of talents and personalities in their diaries, essays and novels. In spite of this illustrious beginning, not many literary works bore female names in the following years until westernization in the late 19th century. It is only in the last century that women again began expressing their voices.

This program will examine the changes in the images of women, from their awakening to their search for new self-identity, portrayed in literary works by both male and female writers during the last century. The focus will be on contemporary women writers who are making unprecedented changes in the literary world of Japan today—the themes which preoccupy them, the conflicts which they face between the old and the new, and the ways in which they carry on Japanese literary tradition through their works. We will explore their efforts to break out of men’s paradigm in order to search for new sexual identity and relationships with family and children.

We will examine the different ways in which the notions of imperialism and colonization can be understood broadly as well as in specific geographic and historical contexts. Focusing on the historical experiences of people of color in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, we will explore the ways in which imperialism and colonization served as tools for conquest and domination as well as subjugation and exploitation. We will examine the context in which these tools were, and continue to be, employed, and the resistance of different kinds with which they have to contend.

Our purpose is to both make distinctions and identify similarities between the imperialist practices of the past and those that are at work now. Exploring the role of image, representation, and knowledge—incentives for their production, and the prospects for their distribution—will be significant elements of the program. Quite often the critique of orientalism will guide us.

The learning goals will emphasize engagement with the reading material in a way that lifts both the author and the reader, collaborative and cooperative skills, and learning across differences. We expect to accomplish these goals through frequent writing assignments and active student participation in seminar facilitation, introduction of films and documentaries and leadership in organizing discussions. Among the writing assignments will be short weekly papers based on the readings and a longer paper on a relevant topic selected by the students. The readings will include classical texts by Aimé Césaire and Franz Fanon, as well as more recent authors.

This interdisciplinary program will examine dance, politics and culture in the world’s largest democracy: India. India has a rich social and political history and is the home of the Indus Valley Civilization as well as the Sanskritic legacy of art, architecture, dance, music and theater. In the fall quarter, we will immerse ourselves in a study of India. We will attempt to understand how, upon independence in 1947, India became a functioning democracy. Its democratic institutions were shaped in large part by its long history, colonial rule and the social context at independence. To understand India’s complex experience with democracy since 1947, we will investigate the changing relations of religion, caste, class and ethnicity, as well as the recent formation of a vibrant middle class.

India has also been shaped by its ancient traditions of art, dance and literature. Since dance, theater, and music have a special place in the context of Indian life, politics and culture, we will study some of the ancient literature that has shaped Indian thought over the centuries, as well as some of the art forms, visual and performing, that have continued to the present day or have been re-created in their neo-classical form from classical archives. Over the fall, students will design collaborative or individual projects to be carried out in the winter as they travel and study in India. Priority for enrollment in this program will be given to students who plan to travel to India in the winter.

In the winter, we will spend six weeks traveling in India deepening and contextualizing our fall studies. We will experience political dance theater and gain a deeper understanding of India’s culture, traditions and rapidly changing present. We will spend time in several major cities to experience a measure of India’s diversity and complexity and engage with groups involved in political dance theater. We will return to Evergreen with sufficient time to complete the projects and to reflect upon and analyze the two quarters’ work.

When I am dead and gone, I want to leave something. I want my granddaughter to be sitting someday talking like I talk about my grandmother. That’s the kind of legacy I want to leave. I want my granddaughters, great-grandsons, too, to say, “My great-grandma was a fighter. She did this and she did that to protect the land, to protect the culture, to protect the language, to maintain what we have left.” —Madonna Thunder Hawk, Lakota

Native women in North America have been alternatively portrayed as either beasts of burden or Indian princesses. They have been denigrated and romanticized by these conflicting images, while these images simultaneously have obscured their lived experiences. Many Native activists, leaders and elders have challenged these stereotypes and offer alternative voices for us to consider. Using the stories and experiences of these women, we will explore the ways in which leadership is developed and articulated in many Indigenous communities. We will analyze gender-based political systems in their historical context and how these roles have been affected by colonialism. We will critique how feminist theory has both served and ignored Native women. Through case studies, autobiography, literature and theory we will analyze how Native women have argued for sovereignty and developed agendas that privilege community. We will also examine how women have been cultural mediators.

In the fall quarter, we will examine how Native women challenged federal policies that dispossessed Native people of their land. We will analyze U.S. education policies that concentrated on assimilation, with particular focus on gender-based vocational and domesticity training. Drawing on critical race and decolonizing theories, we will examine how 19th-century Native women were encouraged through the education system and colonizing political practices to bring “civility and piety” to their homes, by way of subservience training for all women. Questions that illuminate the various strategies that Native people took in terms of accommodation and resistance will be at the heart of this interrogation, such as: How were Native women educated and controlled? What Native women leaders emerged during the 19th and early 20th century and how did they impact their communities?

In the winter quarter, we will explore the activism of 20th-century Native women leaders, particularly in the areas of the environment, family system and the law. We will examine how Native women view community and determine how best to serve their community. Control over women’s bodies, particularly reproduction, will be examined as we consider forced sterilization determined by race, class and gender. Students will examine how environmental contaminants affect women and children, particularly through pregnancy and breast milk. Federal and tribal policies that have gender-based tribal membership will be explored and critiqued. Students will undertake a significant life-history project with Native women. Finally, the beginnings of a global Indigenous identity as defined and articulated in the 21st century will be examined, although this class will mainly focus on North America.

Students will challenge post-colonial theory that merely deconstructs and move to a consideration of decolonizing practices. We will take as our basic premise that those wishing to know about the history of a particular Native group should write it with the purpose of supporting these people today. Students will develop skills as writers and researchers by studying scholarly and imaginative works and by conducting policy research and fieldwork. We will require extensive reading and writing on these topics. There will be films and guest speakers that reflect important aspects of Indigenous women’s experiences.

The chemical and biotechnology industries have huge impacts on our society, particularly influencing our economy and quality of life. Cutting edge techniques and processes are continually being developed by biologists and chemists to produce the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and materials we use daily. Examples include synthetic drugs, gene therapies, biocompatible materials and modern materials such as GORE-TEX® and Kevlar®.

In this program, we will focus on the practical applications of modern molecular biology and polymer technology. Based predominantly in the lab, students will learn the theoretical principles and relevant techniques needed to work in these technically and intellectually challenging fields. We will study the properties and technology of plastics, fibers, elastomers, biodegradable polymers and biomedical polymers. In addition, theory and techniques of molecular cloning, protein biochemistry, biocatalysis and transgenics will be emphasized.

Student presentations, such as an analysis of a U.S. corporation including research and development, corporate finance, stock market position, patents, sales, market share, new technologies and outlook, will be a significant component of the program. Seminar readings will be primary literature in the fields of biotechnology and polymer science. We will also discuss the professional biologist’s and chemist’s relationship with industry, government and universities, and examine employment opportunities for biologists and chemists.

Students will be evaluated based on their laboratory techniques and reports, class presentations, examinations and homework assignments.

What is the future of environmental protection in the United States? In the world? Why is the environmental agenda of the 21st century so different from its incredible vigor of the 1970s? How do specialists and citizens communicate with a powerful, active voice that embodies a hope for a sustainable future? These are the questions that motivate this two-quarter advanced program.

During the winter, we will read about the origins of the environmental movement in the 1970s, the enormous development of environmental science, and the innovations in the United States, state and tribal law and practices. We will then explore executive discretion and congressional shifts, especially during the period 1980 to 2004. In the process, we will examine how an activist movement for environmental protection changed into a specialized industry based on increasingly advanced science with ritualized activities and modes of communication. Additionally, we will see how “innovation” became a prominent theme for government after the mid-1990s.

Prominent examples of innovation included: substitution of “cap and trade” for “command and control” regulations, development of environmental management systems, advocacy of the “precautionary principle” as a regulatory framework, integration of environmental impact assessment with permitting processes, development of habitat conservation plans as the foundation for development schemes, using “sustainability” as a guideline for investment and development, and the promotion of alternative lifestyles and technologies to avoid existing problems. What were these innovations for? Where did they come from? Did they work, or were they a degradation of older laws?

Students will prepare a prospectus for team or individual projects to be completed in spring quarter. All projects will focus on a topic of innovation and the communications that must accompany any proposed change in an issue of natural resource management or preservation, development of alternative sources, environmental justice, or health.

In the spring, the program will focus on a series of projects currently under consideration by federal, tribal, state and local agencies, environmental coalitions, and other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Some of these will be derived from national symposia on environmental innovation held in 2000, 2003, and 2005. Students’ final presentations will be to the campus and larger community at the end of spring quarter, framed in such a way as to be appropriate for presentation at an EPA sponsored environmental symposium.

The program will feature two kinds of skill-building workshops: basic statistical methods for data presentation and alternative presentation methods, including print, broadcast and web-based communications.

This two-quarter program will focus on creativity in business-how businesses respond to new opportunities, create new goods and services and develop new processes and organizational schemes. We will examine business practices, including such traditional topics as accounting and finance, organizational development and organizational behavior, marketing, economics, business history and ethics. But always our focus will be on the new and particularly on the roles of leadership and entrepreneurship when dealing with and bringing about change.

During fall quarter, we will develop analytical frameworks, subject expertise and basic skills that we will apply in winter quarter to the examination of business creativity. We will look at the history of business innovation in the United States, at how creativity is fostered and sustained in businesses now and what creative challenges might come in the future. Among these challenges, we will consider globalization and sustainability as topics of particular interest.

In this program we will analyze Latin America's historical, cultural, economic, and political condition through a sociological and economics viewpoint. The concepts we'll learn from sociology will help us understand the historical international context that produced the current socio-political and economic conditions of the region. The program will also cover the theory of International Economics. We will demonstrate how concepts such as international finance and international trade apply to present-day Latin American issues. Issues explored will include poverty, foreign debt, migration, remittances, fair trade, capital flight, unequal competition, and Latin America's role in today's globalized world.

This program will explore the many connections between the landscapes and the waterscapes of the Pacific Northwest. The region is characterized by its geology, its climate and the vast interplay between land and water. We will adopt an ecosystems approach to study the forests and their interaction with the atmosphere and the soils and the hydrology of the region. We will also examine how humans have historically used the resources of the Pacific Northwest, as well as explore options for the future that are more sustainable than the historic ones.

Physical principles of water movement in forest ecosystems play a large role in determining how the natural world works in multiple temporal and spatial scales. We will study the energy, hydrological and nutrient cycles in forest and stream ecosystems. Students will explore the energy requirements to lift water from the soil to over three hundred feet in the air where it evaporates from the surface of a leaf and understand why there are hydraulic limits to the height of a tree. We will explore the physical principles of forest metabolism and the role these principles play in other portions of the ecosystem.

Field work will be a significant part of this program. We will be monitoring and measuring a variety of parameters of forest respiration and water quality and indices of physical and biological health. We will trace the hydrological cycle in forests and construct simulation models of the processes involved. Students will gain a solid understanding of quantitative model building based upon their field data. Group projects and workshops will focus on measuring water and energy budgets for forest ecosystems and will use state-of-the-art technology to estimate the nature of these budgets. Field trips and workshops will provide hands-on opportunities for group research and will expose students to topics in current Northwest ecological research.

Introduction to Natural Science is designed to provide the basic knowledge and skills students need to continue in the natural sciences and environmental sciences. We will cover key concepts in general chemistry, general biology and pre-calculus mathematics. Introductory physics may be covered during the latter part of the year. Program activities will include lectures, laboratories, workshops, scientific writing and student presentations. These presentations will require students to actively engage in conversations on current topics in science such as global warming, genetic engineering and alternative energy sources. Students will also be required to do library research, writing and poster presentations to communicate their knowledge of these topics to others.

During the fall, we will focus on skill building in the laboratory and acquiring the basic tools in chemistry, biology and mathematics. We will integrate the disciplines during the winter and spring quarters after students have acquired the basic skills and can better appreciate the interdependence of the disciplines.

With the support of faculty, all students will be required to complete at least one science education project outside program hours. Participation in the college’s annual Science Carnival at the end of the spring quarter is mandatory for all students. These opportunities are provided so that students can use their knowledge of science to teach schoolchildren (in K-12) in order to improve their own understanding of science.

Upon completion of the program, students will have completed one year of general chemistry with laboratory, general biology with laboratory and pre-calculus. In addition, some introductory physics may also be covered.

The tide gone out for good
Thirty-one words for seaweed
Whiten on the foreshore. —Aidan Mathews

This contemporary poem by Aidan Mathews describes the imminent loss of the Irish language. Indeed, Ireland has seen more than its share of hardship; between colonization, famine and poverty, it has weathered upheavals and tragedies. However, in the past decade Ireland has experienced a great resurgence in nearly every aspect of its culture, from language to literature to the economy. Its revival has been dramatic and explosive, and has been both good and bad for Ireland and the Irish people. This program explores the histories, political struggles, spiritualities and multiple perspectives of Ireland and Irish America through the lenses of music, poetry, film, literature, dance, language and other expressive arts.

Fall quarter begins with a foray into the culture of ancient Ireland, then focuses on the arrival of Christianity and the incursions of the Vikings, the English and others. We will examine the Great Hunger of 1845–50 as a watershed event in the history of Ireland and its impact on Irish America. In winter quarter, we turn first to the Irish in America and the development of the feedback loop that has kept the two Irelands in communication and swept by waves of mutual influence. Then we return to contemporary Ireland by the end of winter quarter, examining the troubles of the North, the impact of the European Union, and the abrupt modernization of the country. By the end of winter quarter, we will see the ways in which Mathews’ poem is both true and false; like many aspects of Irish culture, it is in opposition.

How do you describe a world in which there is no word for ownership, emotions are “on” you, and there is no simple way to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’? You describe it by learning to speak, read and sing in Irish. Irish is the original (and national) language of Ireland; it bears almost no resemblance to English, and it carries unique and revealing concepts buried in its grammar and syntax. Yet, English has benefited from its exposure to Irish words and phrases like galore, so long, smithereens and kibosh—all part of our daily lexicon. One of the goals of this program is to enable students to conduct small talk in Irish, to sing (as a group) and read poetry in Irish, and especially to understand the importance of the language in the history and development of Irish cosmologies. Students will begin studying Irish in the fall and continue it throughout the program.

During spring quarter, we will spend six weeks traveling in Ireland from our base in the northwestern village of Gleann Cholm Cille, County Donegal. Students will take daily classes in the Irish language, and will have a choice of other classes including weaving, dancing, poetry writing, landscape art, bodhrán drumming, pennywhistle playing, local history, among others. Upon their return, students will be expected to develop a major integrative essay reflecting on the experience of the year and weaving their field study into that experience. Perhaps most importantly, this field study is an opportunity to put the theory of Ireland into the practice of Ireland. There is no substitute for actually living in a place where some people still speak Irish, spring lambs co-exist with mobile phones and history occurs in cycles so that the Famine happened yesterday.

Students may participate in the spring quarter study abroad component with the consent of the faculty. Students’ children will not be permitted to join their parents in Ireland. Faculty will determine student eligibility to travel to Ireland based on consistently high-quality work in fall and winter quarters, a willingness to conform to local customs and rules while living in Ireland, and good progress in the Irish language. Travel to Ireland is a required component of spring quarter. Students unable to travel must make other academic plans.