This program focuses on the literature, art, history and culture of France from the Medieval, Renaissance and Classical eras. A tension of two world views marked intellectual and artistic works as well as French social life during these centuries. On one hand lay a traditional world view rooted in the material, the body and the seasonal cycle, a spirit which valued passion and intuition, communality and immanence. Philosophically Heraclitean, it saw the world as flux and becoming. On the other hand was a world view of platonic, ascending idealism, valuing the immutable over the fleeting, trumpeting reason and hierarchy.

As we explore these tensions, our guiding metaphor will be the notion of "Illumination," which for the Medieval spirit glowed red-gold as the alchemist's athanor, or gems buried deep. By the 16th century, the crucial "Illumination" for French humanists was that of a mirror, whose reflection shed light on the age's inquiries into the inescapably fleeting but glorious human existence. Finally, in the 17th century, the neo-classical world turned its eyes upward: now the illuminating light of truth came from a new type of monarch, that of the reasoning mind.

In this humanities program, we will concentrate our work in the disciplines of cultural history, literature, art history, symbology and philosophy, as well as French language. To a lesser extent, we will also study music and ritual. This program attempts what the French call the "Histoire des mentalités", and as an example and one of our working paradigms, we will use Michel Foucault's studies of sexuality, discourse and reason/unreason. To this end, we will learn about such phenomena as feudalism, chivalric traditions, the rise of courtly love, and the religious reformation and wars of religion which rocked 16th-century Europe.

We will study peasant practice and myths as well as explore the conflicts between traditional family and community organization, notions of justice and identity, and the increasingly solidified social, political and religious hierarchies of the Catholic Church and French state as the Middle Ages gave way to the early modern era.

We will practice close analysis of literary and philosophical texts (of and about or influenced by these eras); we will read secondary histories and primary texts to see how common people crafted their own identities in light of these changing world views; we will view and interpret imagery of occult, religious and secular traditions; and we will study music and performance rituals. Our readings will include folktales and their earliest transcriptions, including the cycle of the Grail, guest tales, and Marie de France's tales of the conflict between "amour-passion" and duty, or "devoir".

Finally, of particular importance to our work will be the influences of the thought and images of these eras in more modern times, particularly for 19th-century authors like Hugo and Artaud, and 20th-century writers like Ionesco, Beckett and Camus.

To cement this yearlong inquiry into French thought and culture, students will study the French language at one of four levels. Each quarter these language studies, as well as the reading of literature in French, will be an integral part of the program.

In spring quarter, students will have the option to travel to France for ten weeks. There they will study in a Rennes, Brittany language school, visit Paris, and live for several weeks in Lyon (France's most important Renaissance city), as well as make side trips for research and pilgrimages of their own to some of the great French Medieval, Renaissance and early modern sites.

Students who elect not to travel to France are invited to continue their studies in French, and to create a personal project for spring quarter.

Independent Learning Contracts and Internships: Environment/Community Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the quarter, interested students or student groups need to consult with the faculty about their proposed projects. The project is then developed as an Independent Learning Contract or as an Internship, as appropriate. The faculty sponsor will support student research, learning and practice in a cluster of areas, linking environment, public health, community, local-to-global movements and sustainability. There will be strong support for students developing projects that feature connections to and applications in the region, from Olympia to neighboring communities. Lin Nelson will host these Learning Contracts and Internships through Evergreen's Center for Community-Based Learning and Action. CCBLA will serve as a support base for learning about, engaging with and contributing to community life in the region.

Students-through individual or group projects-will be able to link up with regional government, agencies, organizations and movements that focus on environmental sustainability, public health and social justice.

In this program, we will examine the concepts of individual, society and the interaction between the two through the critical exploration of American and Japanese literature, cinema and media.

When the 18th-century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard chose "that individual" as his own epitaph, he was proclaiming himself as an individual, the only concrete mode of human existence, though at the same time he was keenly aware of the consequence of such a stance: an unidentifiable feeling of dread and anxiety derived from being an individual as the sole responsible agent for what he was. However, in America, the conception of individuals as autonomous and free agents with an inalienable right to pursue happiness seems to have been accepted quite cheerfully, and indeed without much anguish, as a self-evident truism throughout much of its history, manifested variously in the self-acquisitiveness of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard, to Thoreau's "rugged" self-reliance, to the Great Gatsby's misguided self-creation. True, at times such as the 1950s, some books like William Whyte's The Organization Man and David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd revealed the conformist tendencies of individuals belonging to some American communities; however, these books were written precisely to criticize the group orientation of certain segments of society, while reclaiming the value of individualism in America.

Meanwhile, in Japan, which often appears to emphasize the opposite human values from the American ethos, the importance of group cohesion and harmony rather than, to the horror of most Americans, individual rights or happiness, has been stressed throughout much of its history. In fact, Japanese often seemed to consider themselves as the embodiment of concepts such as nationality, gender or family, rather than individuals. Certainly, the reality is not as simple as these stereotypical representations of two societies indicate; nevertheless, this dichotomized comparative frame presents an interesting context in which we can explore the concepts of individual, community/society and the dynamic relationship between these two concepts. Program activities will include lectures, workshops, book and film seminars as well as expository writing.

Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of spring quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor about their proposed projects. The project is then described in an Individual Learning Contract. The faculty sponsor will support students to do research in entomology, biology, ecology and environmental studies.

Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of fall quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor about their proposed projects. The project is then described in an Individual Learning Contract. The faculty sponsor will support students to do research in environmental studies (preference given to projects centered in the Pacific Northwest), biology, ecology and marine science. Students wishing to conduct laboratory-based projects or environmental fieldwork should have the appropriate skills needed to carry out the work.

Individual Learning Contracts or Internships with this faculty sponsor would be appropriate for students who have an interest in learning more about how a policy organization works or whose academic interests find focus with the state legislative process. Students so enrolled can work either directly within a senate or assembly office at the state capitol or directly within a public organization to better understand the sorts of trade offs and potential compromises involved in getting a crucial policy issue effectively addressed. For those who would like to expand their study of growth management in a particular county or water policy in the state or one of a set of intrastate and tribal issues that are presently a part of the legislative or judicial process, a final paper will be due at the quarter's end that forms a report, intended for presentation before a legislative committee or state hearing board. Those interested in an internship will work their minimum hours in a field office or public agency, directly under the tutelage of a field supervisor whose end of quarter evaluations will be a central part of the achievement of full credit.

Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of fall quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor about their proposed projects. The project is then described in an Individual Learning Contract. The faculty sponsor will support students to do research in environmental studies (preference given to projects centered in the Pacific Northwest), biology, ecology and marine science. Students wishing to conduct laboratory-based projects or environmental fieldwork should have the appropriate skills needed to carry out the work.

Individual Study: Internships in Science and Environmental Studies offers students the opportunity to gain specialized knowledge and real-world experiences. Sharon Anthony will sponsor internships in the sciences or environmental studies, or in other areas as proposed by prospective students. Students should submit their proposals to Sharon by email as soon as possible, before the beginning of spring quarter.

Individual Learning Contracts traditionally offer students an opportunity to do advanced study in areas that are not usually possible through regular programs or courses at Evergreen and in which they already have established skills and/or background.

John welcomes the opportunity to work with students interested in Maritime Studies including history, geography, sociology, literature, navigation and the technology of sailing vessels. He also can prove of great value to students interested in business and non-profit development, organizational management, project management, international business, financial analysis, international trade, maritime commerce, economics, inter-modal transportation and seaport management. John also sponsors legislative internships and internships with state and federal government agencies, ports, freight forwarders and other private sector organizations including freight forwarders, banks and financial houses.

Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of winter quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor about their proposed projects. The project is then described in an Individual Learning Contract. Frances will consider contracts in topics such as Native American or U.S. history, race issues, women's studies, cultural studies or education, and related topics. Frances is not accepting contracts on spirituality, story-telling or mythology.

Individual Contracts and Internships offer opportunities for intermediate and advanced students to create their own course of study and research, and include contracts, internships, community service, and study abroad options. Prior to the beginning of spring quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must describe in an Individual Learning or Internship Contract the work to be completed. The faculty sponsor will support students wishing to do work that has 1) a question to be answered, 2) a method for inquiry, 3) a connection with others who have asked a similar or related question, and 4) an outcome that matters. Special consideration will be given to students studying themes and activities related to contemplative arts and education, creative process, cultural studies, feminist theory, somatic studies and consciousness studies. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

In the fields listed, Gail Tremblay offers opportunities for intermediate and advanced students to create their own course of study, creative practice and research, including internships, community service and study abroad options. Prior to the beginning of each quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must describe the work to be completed in an Individual Learning or Internship Contract. The faculty sponsor will support students wishing to do work that has 1) skills that the student wishes to learn 2) a question to be answered, 3) a connection with others who have mastered a particular skill or asked a similar or related question, and 4) an outcome that matters. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Individual Study offers opportunities for students to pursue their own courses of study and research. Bill Arney sponsors individual learning contracts in the humanities and social sciences.

Latin America has developed differently from North America, due in large part to the particular colonial structures of the Spanish conquerors and their interaction with the highly advanced indigenous civilizations already present when the Spanish arrived on their shores. This program will explore the historical and international context that produced the current situation of the region, including the colonial structure, the dependent state and the current neo-liberal model of governance through sociological and economic points of view.During fall, we will analyze Latin America's historical, cultural, economic, and political condition. This overview will help students understand the historical context that produced the current socio-political and economic conditions of the region. At the same time we will learn some basic economics. In particular, the economics part of the program will survey fundamental economic concepts such as economic markets, the firm's decision to produce, and consumer behavior. By the end of the quarter we will have learned how these concepts apply to present-day Latin American issues.

During winter we will explore issues including dependency, poverty, unequal competition, migration, fair trade, capital flight, and Latin America's role in today's globalized world. Since each quarter's study will stand alone, completion of fall quarter is not a prerequisite for enrolling winter quarter.Students will be introduced to the basics of scientific studies and the foundations of social thought, completing an independent project pertaining to Latin America and Latinos in the United States. Students will gain proficiency with formulating research questions and demonstrate how to conceptualize and operationalize concepts and theories.During spring quarter, students will have the option to travel to Chile. Chile 2008 will focus on the study of different aspects of Chilean life. The main subjects will include the particular struggles and issues facing different sectors of the population under Chile's current neo-liberal model of economic development such as poverty, popular culture, artistic expression, women's issues and environmental concerns of the people. The studies will involve research, observation, and close collaboration with community organizations, cooperatives and public institutions.

This program will provide students with an introduction to chemistry using environmental issues as a motivating theme. We will use chemistry to understand environmental problems such as climate change, the ozone hole and acid rain. We will investigate questions such as: What should we do about global warming? Why does the ozone hole form in the Antarctic spring?

During fall quarter, we will focus on chemistry topics such as stoichiometry and molecular shapes; during winter quarter, we will move to equilibrium and chemical kinetics. Students will be introduced to topics in chemistry primarily through workshops and small-group activities and will also gain lab experience. Each student will choose an environmental problem as a topic for a research project. Scientific writing is a focus of the program, and students will be required to meet weekly with a writing tutor to strengthen their writing skills.

North American Pacific Basin Native and Indigenous peoples perceive the Basin region from a unique set of cultural and physical perspectives. In this program, we will focus on environmental studies through the lenses of Native rights, resources and Native identities. We will emphasize physical geography and cultural and political ecologies from the perspective of political and social histories of Native and Indigenous groups in the region. We will focus on environmental histories, issues of climate change and impacts on Native cultures, tribal, local and global sustainability; Native resource management strategies from historical, cultural and ecological perspectives; and Native identity formation in a rapidly changing world. The program will also include skill building for environmental studies students including field and lab data analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), social data analysis, ethnography and writing for social scientists within environmental work groups. We will work on case studies of different tribal or Native groups. Local field trips will support classroom and seminar investigations.

During fall quarter, we will become familiar with the regional context of the North American Pacific Rim, environmental histories, Native tribal identities and social histories, as well as issues of sustainability. Students will develop research skills including GIS and spatial analysis, policy interpretation, ethnography and writing for social sciences in environmental contexts. During the winter quarter, students will continue their investigation of regional and Native topics from case studies. We will write a case study of individual Native groups from the perspective of social, cultural and environmental relationships using the skills developed during fall quarter. The program will include a series of books for seminar, lectures by faculty, guest speakers and local field trips.

This two quarter program is designed to serve as a foundation for advanced programs in environmental studies. As such, it will survey a range of disciplines and skills essential for environmental problem solving from both a scientific and social science perspective. Specifically, we will study ecological principles and methods, aquatic ecology, methods of analysis in environmental studies, American political and economic history of environmental policy making, micro economics and political science. This information will be used to analyze current issues on a range of topics in environmental studies.

In fall quarter, we will study ecology with a focus on aquatic systems. We will examine the major physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic environments and the factors controlling the species diversity, distribution and growth of aquatic organisms. Current issues such as marine pollution (eutrophication), introduced exotic species, over-fishing and forest management will be also be discussed. These scientific issues will be grounded in the context of politics, economics and public policy. In addition, we will examine how the values of democracy and capitalism from the founding era to the present influence resource management, the scope and limitations of governmental policymaking, regulatory agencies and environmental law. Understanding the different levels (federal, state, local) of governmental responsibility for environmental protection will be explored in-depth. Field trips and case studies will offer opportunities to see how science and policy interact in environmental issues. Finally, during fall quarter, we will develop an introduction to research design, quantitative reasoning and statistics.

In winter quarter, the focus will shift to a more global scale. We will examine in depth three major challenges for the early 21st century: natural resources, global warming and energy. These are three related topics that require an understanding of the science, politics and economics of each issue and how they interact with one another. Globalism, political and economic development of the developing world and political unrest and uncertainty will be discussed within each, as well as how these macro-level problems overlap one another. Microeconomics will be studied as a problem solving tool for environmental issues as well as an introduction to environmental economic analysis.

The material will be presented through lectures, seminars, labs, field trips/field work and quantitative methods (statistics) and economics workshops. Labs and field trips will examine microscopic life in aquatic systems, measure water quality and study local terrestrial habitats. Quantitative methods workshops will present the use of computer software such as Excel to organize and analyze data (statistics). Microeconomic principles and methods will provide the foundation for environmental economic analysis.

Our world has been abundant with life since the first single-celled organisms emerged from the chemical soup of early Earth three and a half billion years ago. In the intervening period, life has evolved to an incredible degree of complexity, both in the structure and function of individual organisms, and in the interactions between them. But what is life exactly? What are the physical and chemical processes of life that distinguish it from ordinary matter? Are there mathematical rules that govern the formation and growth of life? And, how does life evolve? These are some of the fundamental questions that we will be looking at in this program.

This is an introductory-level program, designed for students who are prepared to take their first year of college-level science. Specifically, it will include a full year of introductory biology, chemistry and a foundation in mathematics, which will include precalculus during fall quarter and topics in mathematical biology in the winter quarter. Our goal is to equip students with the conceptual, methodological and quantitative tools that they will need to ask and answer questions that integrate these three disciplines.

Program activities will include lectures and small-group problem-solving workshops, where conceptual and technical skills will be developed. We will have significant hands-on lab experience in biology and chemistry. We will also make use of computer software for mathematical modeling investigations. In seminars, we will explore historical ideas about the origins of life, how theories have developed, and the reactions to them in society. During spring quarter, students will have the opportunity to design and carry out their own laboratory investigations, the results of which they will present in talks and papers at the end of the quarter.

This program will prepare students for more advanced work in biology and chemistry, such as in the programs Molecule to Organism and Environmental Analysis.

Invertebrate animals comprise an extremely diverse group of organisms, and knowledge of invertebrate zoology is a key component to understanding biodiversity on the planet. This program will examine the invertebrate phyla with particular regards to functional morphology, phylogeny and ecology. The evolution of invertebrates will be an underlying theme throughout the course. Students will study the science of evolution through seminar readings and oral presentations.

he proximity of Evergreen's campus to various marine, fresh-water and terrestrial habitats provides excellent opportunities to study many diverse groups of invertebrate organisms. Emphasis will be placed on learning the regional invertebrate fauna. Fundamental laboratory and field techniques in zoology will be learned, and students will be required to complete a research project utilizing the available microscopy facilities (light and scanning electron microscopes). This program will include extensive work in both the lab and field.