2010-11 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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Philosophy [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days of Week | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters |
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Astronomy and Cosmology: Stars and Stories
Rebecca Chamberlain |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4, 8, 12 | 04 08 12 | Day, Evening and Weekend | SuSummer | From sacred stories to fundamentals of astronomy, this intensive course will explore a variety of cosmological concepts from mythology, literature, philosophy, and history, to an introduction to astronomy, archeo-astronomy, and theories about the origins of the universe. We will employ scientific methods of observation, investigation, hands-on activities, and strategies that foster inquiry-based learning and engage the imagination. Activities are designed for amateur astronomers and those interested in inquiry based science education as well as those interested in doing observation-based research or in exploring literary, philosophical, cultural, and historical cosmological traditions. Students will participate in a variety of activities from telling star-stories under the night sky, to working in a computer lab to create planetarium programs. Through readings, lectures, films, workshops, and discussions, participants will deepen their understanding of the principles of astronomy and refine their understanding of the role that cosmology plays in our lives through the stories we tell, the observations we make, and the questions we ask. Students will develop skills and appreciation for the ways we uncover our place in the Universe through scientific theories and cultural stories, imagination and intellect, qualitative and quantitative processes. Field studies include visits to an observatory and The Oregon Star Party. We will use a variety of techniques to enhance our observation skills including the use of star-maps and navigation guides to identify objects in the night sky, use of 8” and 10” Dobsonian telescopes to find deep space objects, and the use of binoculars and other tools. Students registering for 12 credits will participate in binary star research at an invitational gathering at Pine Mountain Observatory. This is strongly recommended for those who want do scientific analysis, writing, and research. It is a wonderful opportunity to connect with an active community of amateur and professional astronomers engaged in citizen science. | inquiry-based science education, scientific research, writing, journalism, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, storytelling | Rebecca Chamberlain | Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | |||
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Bodies of Knowledge
Rita Pougiales, Joseph Tougas and Donald Morisato anthropology biology consciousness studies history literature philosophy Signature Required: Winter Spring |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | SSpring | The human body has long been a natural locus of study, interpretation, and storytelling. Corporeal existence has been conceptualized and experienced in radically different ways across time and across cultures, conceived as an irreducible whole by some, and as an amalgam of separate systems or individual elements by others. How has our philosophical and biological conception of the body changed over time? How is the body used to find or express meaning? What is the relationship of the body to the mind and the soul? In this program, we will explore the nature and essence of the body, and reflect on the experience of being human. Knowledge about the body and our lived experiences within our bodies have been created from the culturally distinct perspectives of biologists, social scientists, artists, philosophers and storytellers. We will read philosophical and historical texts, and closely analyze some of the ideas that have helped shape our conception of the body. We will study the genetic development and biological function of the body, carrying out experiments in the laboratory to get a direct sense of the process of scientific investigation. Finally, we will read novels and look at and create art as other ways of engaging with the body, particularly the physical manifestation and representation of emotion. Throughout our inquiry, we will attentively ask how we have come to know what we claim to know. Our investigations will follow a particular progression. In fall quarter, we will consider the body: the history of the conception of the body, images of the body and notions of beauty, the body as the site of meaning-making, medical imaging and genetic approaches to deciphering the development of the human organism. In winter quarter, we will examine aspects of the mind: the Cartesian dualism, the functional organization of the brain, processes of cognition, measuring intelligence, use of language and the importance of emotions. In spring quarter, we will explore the notion of the soul: death and burial rituals in different cultures, philosophical and literary investigations of the soul, ethics and religion. Over the year, we anticipate reading such authors as Michel Foucault, Rene Descartes, Martha Nussbaum, Barbara Duden, Anne Fadiman, Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, Stephen Jay Gould, Henry James and Marcel Proust. | epistemology, cultural anthropology, genetics, neurobiology, history of medicine, and the liberal arts and natural sciences. | Rita Pougiales Joseph Tougas Donald Morisato | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
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Buddhist Psychotherapy
Ryo Imamura |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 8, 12 | 08 12 | Evening and Weekend | SuSummer | Western psychology’s neglect of the living mind, both in its everyday dynamics and its larger possibilities, has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in the ancient wisdom of Buddhism which does not divorce the study of psychology from the concern with wisdom and human liberation. We will investigate the study of mind that has developed within the Buddhist tradition through lectures, readings, videos, workshops, and field trips. Students registering for 12 credits will attend a meditation retreat. | Buddhist Studies, Asian psychology, consciousness studies, psychotherapy, social work | Ryo Imamura | Fri Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | |||
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Critical Reasoning
Stephen Beck |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | FFall | In this intensive writing course, students will learn how to critically evaluate persuasive writing as well as how to write well reasoned persuasive writing of their own. Students will study both formal and informal reasoning, apply what they learn to selections of writing drawn from popular and academic sources, critique the arguments in those sources, read and critique each other's writing, and develop their own abilities to give good reasons in writing for their own views. Credit will be awarded in critical reasoning. | Stephen Beck | Tue | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Critical Reasoning
Stephen Beck |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | WWinter | In this intensive writing course, students will learn how to critically evaluate persuasive writing as well as how to write well reasoned persuasive writing of their own. Students will study both formal and informal reasoning, apply what they learn to selections of writing drawn from popular and academic sources, critique the arguments in those sources, read and critique each other's writing, and develop their own abilities to give good reasons in writing for their own views. Credit will be awarded in critical reasoning. | Stephen Beck | Tue | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Data and Information: Computation and Language
Sheryl Shulman, Jeffrey Gordon and Neal Nelson communications computer science language studies mathematics philosophy |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | Have you ever wondered how web searches work? It is often claimed that one can successfully search for web sites, maps, blogs, images...just by entering a few "key words". How do they do it? More generally, how can computers be programmed to interpret texts and data? This program will bring together faculty and students with interest and expertise in language and computer science with the goal of exploring these questions: When we (or Google's computers) read a text, how do we (or they) understand what the text means? We humans bring to our reading of the text three critical things: 1) knowledge of the language in which the text is written—its grammar and the meanings of the words, and how words are put together into sentences and paragraphs, 2) our understanding of how the world works and how humans communicate, and 3) our natural human intelligence. Even with these abilities, however, we often misinterpret text (or data) or are faced with too much information. The help a computer gives us, however, is sometimes different from how we naturally think about the words, images, maps or other information that we encounter. In this program we will explore how to use computing to understand language. Although the task is complex, an understanding of the abstract structure, logic and organization of language will guide us to successful computational processing of the more complex human languages. In logic, our work will include looking at the structure of words, sentences, and texts (syntax) as well as their meanings (semantics and reasoning). We will examine the underlying grammatical structure of language and its close connection to computing and computer programming. In addition, we will learn to program in Python and study how computers are used to "understand" texts and data. Lectures, seminar and case studies will examine how to make data from text and text or meaning from data. | computer science, formal language study, mathematics, library science, information science and web development. | Sheryl Shulman Jeffrey Gordon Neal Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Death Considered
David Marr |
Program | JR - SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | -Albert Camus Scheherazade, who told the Sultan stories in order to live another day, would agree. She had to get the words right, or else. This program considers the words—the forms—writers and philosophers use when they breathe life into the problem of human death. The inescapability of death can concentrate the mind. The contemporary philosopher Odo Marquard argues that from the facts of life's brevity and death's finality it follows that absolute personal choices are senseless. From other philosophers come perplexing questions: Given that the human being knows he or she will die, how does he or she know this? Is it even possible to imagine one's own death? If my death is not one of my experiences, in what sense is it mine? Some would answer: in the same sense that your birth is yours. But what sense is that? In this program we will read the following works of prose fiction and philosophy: Melville, ; Dostoevsky, ; Tolstoi, ; Hawthorne, ; James, ; Joyce, ; Mann, ; Conrad, ; Faulkner, ; Camus, ; Thoreau, ; and Marquard, . Death Considered is for the intellectually curious, diligent student eager to practice the craft of close reading. There will be weekly in-class exams and seminars on the literary works, exercises in conceptual analysis, seminar reports on authors' lives and times, one essay on an assigned topic and a comprehensive final exam. | any field requiring competence in the uses of language, conceptual analysis and interpretation, especially literature, philosophy, history, law and public service. | David Marr | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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East-West Psychology: Afflictive/Destructive Cognition/Emotion
Jamyang Tsultrim |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | FFall | Are destructive emotions innately embedded in human nature? Can they be eradicated? A growing body of Western research has examined these and other questions through the perspectives of Eastern psychology and philosophy, which view destructive emotions, perceptions, and behaviors as the primary source of human suffering. To alleviate this suffering, Eastern psychology has developed a rich and varied methodology for recognizing, reducing, transforming and preventing these destructive forms of mind and emotion. After examining the nature and function of the afflictive mind/emotions, students will choose one emotion to study in-depth and develop effective East/West interventions to transform this emotion/state of mind. | Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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East-West Psychology: Constructive Cognition/Emotion
Jamyang Tsultrim |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | WWinter | In what ways do our constructive emotions/perceptions enhance our ability to see reality? Are there effective methods for training the mind to cultivate positive thought/emotions? Students will analyze the nature of constructive emotion/thoughts, their influence on our mental stability and brain physiology, and methodologies for influencing and improving mental development and function. Students will explore the correlation between mental training of the mind and physiological changes in the brain. We will also examine the nature of the genuine happiness from Eastern and Western psychological models of mind/emotion as well as from a traditional epistemological model of cognition based on Indo-Tibetan studies. | Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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The Human Element
Charles Pailthorp, Trevor Speller and Nancy Koppelman American studies history literature philosophy physiology writing Signature Required: Winter |
Program | FR - SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | In the early seventeenth century, the philosopher René Descartes chronicled his reflections on how little he actually knew, when he looked closely. He found he even had to ask, “How do I know I myself exist?” His answer, “I think, therefore I am,” became a keystone of Western philosophy. When he asked further, “What then am I?”, he answered, “A thing that thinks,” not just a body, but an . To be human, he concluded, is to be a compound of two elements: mind and body. His contemporary, Thomas Hobbes, argued this was wrong, that we humans, however mind-ful, are entirely material. The debate continues to this day. In concluding that the human element is our immaterial mind, Descartes reasoned that non-human animals differ from us by being only material, that they are completely mindless. Are animals then, only machines, without thought, even without feeling? (This was Descartes’ conclusion!). What about machines that mimic rational conversation (surely a very strong indicator of thought)? Couldn’t they be as mind-ful, and therefore as human, as we? Or from Hobbes’s materialist point of view, if we humans are only machines, how can we justify, for example, punishing a human who has caused some harm? Would we punish a car that has broken down and gone out of control? These questions remain with us today: consider the force of arguments concerning animal rights by organizations such as PETA, or the tangle of human-machine interactions evident in programs such as Second Life. What makes us different from other animals? What makes people different from the machines we create, or envision? To ask the question more broadly: what are the qualities that make humans different and unique – if there are any at all? Is there a “human element,” or are we just made up of those found on the periodic table? Questions about the ‘unique’ nature of humanity will be this program’s driving force. We will consider what makes us different from our animal, vegetable, mineral, mechanical and spiritual peers on planet earth, and how we might or might not live in symbiosis with them. We will consider shifts in our understanding of human nature, shifts that have been shaped by developments in science, from mechanics to evolution, and by developments in how we lead our daily lives, from hunting and gathering to browsing the internet. Fields of study may include the history of technology, epistemology, and the traveler’s tales of the Romantic period. Texts may include Descartes: Hobbes: Shakespeare: John Milton: Mary Shelley: Jonathan Swift: ; and works by Kant and by historians of science and technology. The program will include significant attention to writing and reading well. | American studies, humanities, literature, philosophy, social sciences, and the sciences. | Charles Pailthorp Trevor Speller Nancy Koppelman | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | |||
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Individual Study: East-West Psychology
Ryo Imamura cultural studies philosophy psychology religious studies study abroad Signature Required: Spring |
Contract | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | Individual Study: East-West Psychology offers opportunities for sophomore, junior and senior students to create their own course of study and research, including internship, community service, and study abroad options. Before the beginning of spring quarter, interested students should submit an Individual Learning or Internship Contract to Ryo Imamura, which clearly states the work to be completed. Possible areas of study are Western psychology, Asian psychology, Buddhism, counseling, social work, cross-cultural studies, Asian-American studies, religious studies, nonprofit organizations, aging, death & dying, deep ecology and peace studies. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis. | counseling, cultural studies, peace studies, psychology, social work, religious studies, and human services. | Ryo Imamura | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Individual Study: Interdisciplinary Projects, Arts, Consciousness Studies and Humanities
Ariel Goldberger aesthetics anthropology architecture art history classics communications community studies consciousness studies cultural studies field studies gender and women's studies geography international studies language studies leadership studies literature music outdoor leadership and education philosophy psychology queer studies religious studies sociology somatic studies theater visual arts writing Signature Required: Winter |
Contract | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | Individual study offers students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unqiue combinations of subjects, and to pursue original interdisciplinary projects without the constraints of an external structure. Students interested in a self-directed project, research or internship in the humanities, or projects that include arts, travel, or interdisciplinary pursuits are invited to present a proposal to Ariel Goldberger. Students with a lively sense of self-direction, discipline, and intellectual curiosity are strongly encouraged to apply. Ariel Goldberger supports interdisciplinary studies and projects in the Arts, Humanities, Consciousness Studies, and travel. | humanities, arts, social sciences, and consciousness studies. | Ariel Goldberger | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Individual Study: Interdisciplinary Projects, Arts, Consciousness Studies and Humanities
Ariel Goldberger aesthetics anthropology architecture art history classics communications community studies consciousness studies cultural studies field studies gender and women's studies geography international studies language studies leadership studies literature music outdoor leadership and education philosophy psychology queer studies religious studies sociology somatic studies theater visual arts writing Signature Required: Spring |
Contract | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | Individual study offers students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unqiue combinations of subjects, and to pursue original interdisciplinary projects without the constraints of an external structure. Students interested in a self-directed project, research or internship in the humanities, or projects that include arts, travel, or interdisciplinary pursuits are invited to present a proposal to Ariel Goldberger. Students with a lively sense of self-direction, discipline, and intellectual curiosity are strongly encouraged to apply. Ariel Goldberger supports interdisciplinary studies and projects in the arts, humanities, consciousness studies, and travel. | humanities, arts, social sciences, and consciousness studies. | Ariel Goldberger | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Individual Study: Interdisciplinary Projects, Arts, Consciousness Studies and Humanities
Ariel Goldberger aesthetics anthropology architecture art history classics communications community studies consciousness studies cultural studies field studies gender and women's studies geography international studies language studies leadership studies literature music outdoor leadership and education philosophy psychology queer studies religious studies sociology somatic studies theater visual arts writing Signature Required: Fall |
Contract | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | Individual study offers students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unqiue combinations of subjects, and to pursue original interdisciplinary projects without the constraints of an external structure. Students interested in a self-directed project, research or internship in the humanities, or projects that include arts, travel, or interdisciplinary pursuits are invited to present a proposal to Ariel Goldberger.Students with a lively sense of self-direction, discipline, and intellectual curiosity are strongly encouraged to apply.Ariel Goldberger supports projects in the Arts, Humanities, Consciousness Studies, Arts, and interdisciplinary studies. | humanities, arts, social sciences, and consciousness studies. | Ariel Goldberger | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Internet: Knowledge and Community
Stephen Beck and Douglas Schuler |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Evening and Weekend | FFall | WWinter | The Internet as we know it didn't exist ten years ago, and it's a fair guess that in another ten years it will be radically transformed yet again. How is it changing the ways people see their world and interact with each other — and how does it merely reflect how people have interacted before it existed? In this two-quarter program, we will study the origin and the structure of the Internet, its relation to other technologies, the roles that it plays in our lives, and both the opportunities and the dangers that it opens for us. In fall quarter, we will focus on the way that we construct knowledge and how the Internet affects this. In winter quarter, we will consider the nature of community including the ways that people can build communities through the Internet, and the ways that communities can make use of the Internet for their own goals. | computer science, media, teaching, and public policy. | Stephen Beck Douglas Schuler | Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
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"Liberty and Justice For All"
Stephen Beck |
Program | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 12 | 12 | Evening | SSpring | The United States was founded on a set of political ideals, yet the words we use to express them hide deep and lasting political disagreements. Our history is infused with recurring conflicts over the nature of and of , and most prominently over whom the phrase includes. In this 12-credit, writing-intensive program, we will study several theories of political philosophy through historical and contemporary writings and in the context of different periods of U.S. history. The goal of the program is to come to a better understanding of different political philosophies and their lasting appeal in U.S. society. Credit will be awarded in political philosophy and U.S. history. | Stephen Beck | Tue Wed Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Marxist Theory
Lawrence Mosqueda history philosophy political science Signature Required: Spring |
Program | JR - SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | "I am not a Marxist" -Karl Marx "Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts" -Mary Harris (Mother) Jones If one believes the current mass media, one would believe that Marxism is dead, and that the "end of history" is upon us. As Mark Twain is reported to have said upon news accounts of his demise, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." The same, of course, is true for Marxist Theory. Few Americans have read more than , if that. Very few "educated" people have a clear understanding of Marx's concept of alienation, dialectics, historical materialism, or his analysis of labor or revolutionary change. In this program, we will examine the development of Marx's thought and Marxist Theory. We will read and discuss some of Marx's early and later writings as well as writings of later Marxists. We will also explore concrete examples of how "dialectics" and "materialism" can be applied to race and gender issues. At the end of the program, students should have a solid foundation for further study of Marxist analysis. | philosophy, political theory and economy, history, race and gender studies, and the social sciences. | Lawrence Mosqueda | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Mediated States of Modernity: Distraction, Diversion, and Ambivalence
Kathleen Eamon and Julia Zay aesthetics art history cultural studies media studies moving image philosophy writing |
Program | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | One of the ways that historians and theorists distinguish modernity, and mass and popular culture more specifically, is by describing the ways in which it ushered in a new age of sensation. Using Marx's notion of the "social hieroglyph" as a model for looking at everyday life, we will splice together visual culture studies, cinema studies and 19th and 20th century aesthetic philosophy in an investigation of some of the defining mental and emotional states of attention produced by and for emerging cultural forms, such as cinema, radio, amusement parks, the arcade, and the language of modernist art. We will construct our own partial and fragmented or, to borrow Benjamin's phrase, "little" history of modern senses and sensibilities. In particular, we'll focus in on in-between states of attention that are easily dismissed as unremarkable but that, precisely by going unremarked, play a central role in our mediated public lives. Public intellectuals of the 20th Century like Freud, Benjamin, Kracauer, Gorky and others examine these states closely in their descriptions of everyday life in terms that make evident both the dangers and potentials of these modes of attention. We'll model our approach on the studied "ambivalence" that characterizes the attitude of Frankfurt School figures like Benjamin and Kracauer towards popular or mass culture, thinkers who are not indifferent but who sustain a truly divided, thus complicated, understanding of how one inhabits a mass-mediated, capitalist, industrialized, post-traditional culture - neither submitting to its demands nor removing oneself entirely, one ought to engage it playfully. We'll explore how we ourselves are always both submitting and resisting the ideological forces of mass culture. Some examples of the states we have in mind are: amusement, distraction, diversion, boredom, play, and so on. These states are often "located" in terms of specifically modern places, such as the cinema, amusement parks, and urban centers, and we will ask what kinds of audiences or what kind of "public" gets constituted by these states and contexts. Although our focus will be largely turn-of-the-century to mid-century (the last one, that is), we will follow our line of thought into more recent times with thinkers like Susan Sontag and David Foster Wallace. We will also develop our own practice of paying close attention to everyday life and meta-attention to our modes of engagement with it in our weekly observation exercises and field study. This work will inform both our traditional and our experimental essay-writing as we attempt to yoke the observational with the lyrical and theoretical modes. In summation, we will read and write a lot, watch films, look at art, listen to both music and sound, mix lecture with seminar and workshops with fieldwork. | film studies, humanities, media, philosophy, visual culture studies, and writing. | Kathleen Eamon Julia Zay | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Mindfulness Psychology: Contemplative Clinical Science
Jamyang Tsultrim |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | SSpring | This course will emphasize mindfulness psychology as a clinical tool as well as a method of professional self-care. Recent research has proven the effectiveness of mindfulness training to treat conditions such as stress and pain, addictions, chronic depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other health conditions. Students will explore the similarities and differences between Mindfulness Psychology and Western Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and gain practical skills to help alleviate the psychological suffering of others while maintaining emotional balance and professional ethics. Students will have opportunities for personal practice, observational learning, and the development of counseling skills through role-play, reading and discussion. | Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Prolegomena To A Future Poetics
Leonard Schwartz Signature Required: Spring |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | SSpring | This two-quarter program offers several perspectives on the art of poetry. The winter quarter features a series of intensive readings in ancient and classical poetry, and the compositional efforts of modern and contemporary avant-garde writers to reinvent or renew those works. The central questions of the quarter are: What is the relationship in poetry between original and translation? How are ancient works renewed or reinvented? Thus we will study, among other examples, the classical Chinese poet Li Po in relationship to Ezra Pound's transformation of that poetry in his 20th-century work; Homer's and its contemporary realization as Christopher Logue's ; Sappho and her contemporary translators; the American poet H.D's invention of Egypt in ; and the Afro-Caribbean poet Kamau Brathwaite and his notion of Nation Language Students will work intensively on their own writing practices, both creative and critical. A writing workshop will offer constraint based writing exercises and prompts. The spring quarter will continue the poetry writing workshop but shift in focus to the relationship between philosophical texts and those dimensions of poetry that philosophy can bring to the fore. This quarter the central focus will be on the relationship between image and idea and how, in language, one transforms into the other, with an eye (and mind) towards exploring new territories of poetic composition. This will be accomplished by paired texts, in which the work of an individual poet is read in juxtaposition to a theoretical text. These pairings will include the critical theorist Theodor Adorno and the German language poet Paul Celan, the feminist philosopher Helene Cixous and the American poet Alice Notley, the philosopher Hannah Arendt and New American poet Robin Blaser, and the novelist Marguerite Duras and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. | the arts, creative writing, poetics, literature, and publishing. | Leonard Schwartz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||
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Questions of Philosophy
Stephen Beck |
Course | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Day | SuSummer | How are we to understand ourselves, our world, and our place within the world? We usually depend on "common-sense" presuppositions about these questions. But sometimes we need to reflect on and question those presuppositions. In this course, we will reflect on our presuppositions about ourselves and our world through close readings of several philosophical texts, through intensive writing, and through discussion. In all of this work we will be concerned with how it can help us to live well. Credit will be awarded in philosophy. | Stephen Beck | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | ||||
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Student Originated Studies: Media/Philosophy
Kathleen Eamon and Julia Zay communications media studies moving image philosophy writing Signature Required: Winter |
SOS | JR - SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | SSpring | This SOS is designed to support creative and theoretical projects that can only arise at juncture of these distinct but related modes of academic and creative labor. We invite students, including transfers, who have significant academic experience in media production and studies and/or critical theory and philosophy, and who are committed to exploring the boundaries of these modes of inquiry. Our experiments will be anchored by a central line of inquiry around the relationship between objects, images, figures, and perception on the one hand and judgment, reflection, valuation, critique and synthesis on the other. This means that the entire program will screen films and read texts together. One shared text, for example, will be Mary Ann Doane's , which argues that the cinema participated in representing the singular instant of chance and ephemerality in the face of the increasing rationalization and standardization at the turn of the 19 Century. Media and philosophy students alike will need to develop an understanding of what it means to think historically and concretely about both thought and its objects. Students will research and design individual projects in the first quarter, while focusing on honing a set of shared skills, exploring overlapping areas of student interest, and learning about developing models of creative/critical collaboration. Students will work in depth with one faculty member, depending on their academic focus (media production, critical theory, or philosophy), but seminars, workshops, lectures, and critiques will provide time for work outside these concentrations. The second quarter of the program will provide space for implementing individual projects and will culminate in a public conference. : This part of the program is designed for students who have already developed some expertise in media production, are familiar with aspects of media theory, and wish to do advanced production work that may have developed out of previous academic projects and/or programs. We will focus on experimental and non-fiction forms, which require a period of germination for new ideas to emerge. Students will deepend their understanding of media history and theory through readings, seminars, and writing; they will expand their technical skills through workshops; and they will present their own research to the entire program. In addition, each student or team of students (for collaborative projects) will do extensive pre-production planning and research in the first quarter for a media project to be completed by the end of the second quarter in time for public screening. : This part of the program is for students who have some substantial background in philosophy and/or critical theory. Ideally, students in this track will arrive with a specific set of categories that they find both intriguing and perplexingly abstract, and terms and questions that seem to invite extra-philosophical attempts to render them concrete. Students are free (and are in fact, required) to choose their own topics, but Kathleen Eamon's central areas of research and inquiry include aesthetics, social and political philosophy, and critical theory; a list of figures of interest includes Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, and the Frankfurt School theorists. Students in this section will read texts, participate in and lead seminars, share and critique writing throughout the program, and develop a presentation and conference paper for the end of the second quarter. | the arts and humanities, film history and theory, philosophy, critical theory, experimental media, media arts and digital communications. | Kathleen Eamon Julia Zay | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||
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Student Originated Studies: Poetics
Leonard Schwartz aesthetics literature philosophy writing Signature Required: Spring |
SOS | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | Students are invited to join this learning community of culture workers interested in language as a medium of artistic production. This SOS is designed for students who share similar skills and common interests to do advanced work that may have grown out of previous academic projects and/or programs. Students will work with faculty throughout the quarter; we will design small study groups, collaborative projects and critique groups that will allow students to support one another's work. Poetics involves language as creative functions (writing, poetry, fiction), language as performance, language as image, and language as a tool of thought (philosophy, criticism). Our work will be to calibrate these various acts. | poetics, poetry, metafiction, literary theory and criticism, writing, publishing and the arts. | Leonard Schwartz | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Student Originated Studies: Projects in Literature, Philosophy, and Creative Writing
Marianne Bailey language studies literature philosophy writing Signature Required: Fall |
SOS | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | This program supports students doing individual creative and research projects. Students will enroll for SOS, then design their quarter-long, contract-style work plans using input from the faculty member. In the first week of the program, each student will prepare a project proposal, and then complete that project during the quarter. The program will have weekly class sessions where students will report on their progress, share work-in-progress, conduct peer reviews, get advice and guidance. Students must attend and participate in these sessions. Students will maintain and submit a process portfolio and reading journal. We will have in-class student readings of their work at the end of the quarter. The weekly meeting is intended to provide a sense of community and support to students. All other contract obligations will be worked out individually with the faculty member. The faculty member has particular expertise in the following topics: French, Francophone Caribbean, African and Canadian literature, German philosophy and literature, studies in symbology, ritual, mythology and comparative religions. | writing, languages, literature, philosophy, and teaching. | Marianne Bailey | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Temporal Images
Matt Hamon, Naima Lowe and Joseph Tougas aesthetics art history media studies moving image philosophy visual arts |
Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | This visual art program introduces students to academic enquiry into concepts of time and artistic practices with a myriad of references to temporal space. We will investigate the many ways time is defined, tracked and represented across cultures. From physics to natural philosophy, we will explore references to time from narrative structures to technical communication and abstract images. We will look at the work of realist scholars such as Sir Issac Newton and contrast these concepts to ideas posed by Immanuel Kant and others.Themes emerging in the program will inform the production of written and artistic work. Class time will involve a combination of lectures, workshops, practical assignments, and studio seminars. Students with a strong background in any digital media are encouraged to apply, provided that they have an interest in synthesizing past themes and media in their work with academic enquiry into concepts of time. This program emphasizes art making, conceptual thinking and experimentation. We will focus on core aspects of analog, digital and new media art by challenging ourselves to produce a series of innovative art projects.This program will introduce the core conceptual skills necessary to employ image in the generative and investigative context of art making and scholarly enquiry. Students will work individually and in small teams with digital cameras, digital video cameras, non-linear video editing systems and computer graphics packages to examine a broad range of issues involved in the creation of provocative works of art and images relating to time. Image processing, web content creation, basic animation, temporal structures, interface design, interaction strategy, narrative structures, video editing and sound editing will all be introduced. This program is designed for students who already have a strong work ethic and self-discipline, and who are willing to work long hours in the art studio, on campus, and in company with their fellow students.Students are invited to join this learning community of contemporary artists who are interested in new media based art, design, writing, history and theory, and who want to collaborate with media faculty. | media studies, moving image, visual arts and arts education. | Matt Hamon Naima Lowe Joseph Tougas | Freshmen FR | Fall | |||
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Thinking Straight: A Cooperative Approach to Critical Reasoning
David Paulsen |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | Do you want to work on improving your critical reasoning skills? This program is ideal for students with an interest in exploring techniques of critical reasoning. The program will be taught in a discussion/workshop format with only occasional mini-lectures to set the stage for class work. The program will focus on techniques of understanding and criticizing arguments and theories. It will emphasize a cooperative, dialogic approach to deciding what to believe. Thinking Straight will cover standard topics in informal logic including argument reconstruction, assessment of validity and fallacies. The program will contain an extensive discussion of ethical theory and reasoning about moral issues. It will examine ethical reasoning embedded in some films as well as in case studies. We will explore as well some topics concerning statistical and scientific reasoning. We will apply critical reasoning techniques to a number of contemporary, contentious issues found in a variety of texts including selections from books, newspaper editorials and columns, Web documents, and journal articles. Students will be expected to gather material and make presentations that clarify and assess the reasoning underlying important current issues. They will be evaluated on the basis of performance on assignments, in class discussion and project work, an annotated portfolio of material they collect over the quarter, as well as exams.Students will deal with the elements of the program through a series of structured workshops, including small and large group discussion as well as mini-lectures and assignments. In addition, students will be expected to submit essays growing out of the topics covered in the ethics component of the program and participate in a team project leading to a cooperative, critical exchange that debates two sides of a question in front of the class by providing arguments and appropriate criticism. | This program is ideal for first and second year students as well as others with an interest in exploring techniques of critical reasoning. As well as students interested in further study of philosophy and of law. | David Paulsen | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Tribal Administration and Management
Gary Peterson Native American studies business and management community studies cultural studies economics education government history law and public policy leadership studies philosophy political science sociology writing Signature Required: Spring |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | SSpring | Tribal administration presents unique challenges for policy makers, administrators and employees. This course is designed to provide a framework for understanding the dynamic relationships that must be mastered in order to effectively provide needed services in tribal communities. Students will learn about upheaval in tribal communities and how that affects efforts to manage governmental affairs today.A Native American concept, the Relational World View Model, will be the foundation for understanding tribal management. Learning to maintain workplace balance for individual workers and policy makers, creating a healthy work environment, will be the goal of the program. The concept of a "good spirit" will be a guiding principle in framing that goal. Students will learn the language of culture and organizational culture.Targeted students will include tribal employees, community members, elected officials, planners, etc. Classes will be held in tribal communities evenings and in intensive weekend sessions every third week. Expert tribal, state, and federal administrators, private business operators, community members, employees, and others will engage students in seminars about services in their communities. | administration, management, supervision, planning board/staff relations, human services, social work, and cultural competence. | Gary Peterson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall |