2011-12 Catalog

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2011-12 Undergraduate Index A-Z

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African American Studies [clear]


Title   Offering Standing Credits Credits When F W S Su Description Preparatory Faculty Days Multiple Standings Start Quarters Open Quarters
A History of "Race": Colonial Era to the Obama Presidency
Michael Vavrus
  Program FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore 16 16 Day S 12Spring This program will explore the origins and manifestations of the contested concept "race." We will investigate the broad question as to how considerations of one's race result in differential social, economic, and political treatment. To do this, we will analyze a racialized history of the United States in relation to dominant discourses of popular culture, science, psychology, health care, law, citizenship, education, and personal/public identity.By making historical connections between European colonialism and the expansion of U.S. political and military dominance in an era of globalization, students will have opportunities to investigate how the bodies of various populations have been racialized. Students will examine related contemporary concepts such as racism, prejudice, discrimination, gender, class, affirmative action, white privilege, and color blindness. Students will consider current research and racialized commentaries that surround debates on genetics vs. culture (i.e., nature vs. nurture).Students will engage race through readings, dialogue in seminars, films, and academic writing that integrate program materials. A goal of the program is for students to recognize contemporary expressions of race by what we hear, see, and read as well as absences and silences that we find. These expressions include contemporary news accounts and popular culture artifacts (e.g., music, television, cinema, magazines). As part of this inquiry, we will examine the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama in relation to discourses on race. As a learning community we will work together to make sense of these expressions and link them to their historical origins.  We may also visit local museums to understand how issues of racial identity have been experienced in the Pacific Northwest.Students will also have an opportunity to examine the social formation of their own racial identities through their own personal narratives. Current approaches from social psychology will be foundational in this aspect of the program. Related to this is consideration as to what it can mean to be an anti-racist in a 21st century racialized society.  history, law, sociology, political economy, social work, education and psychology. Michael Vavrus Tue Wed Fri Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Spring Spring
Against All Odds: The Black Woman's Experience
Kabby Mitchell and Joye Hardiman
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring How did Black women, of many different cultures and ages, succeed against all odds? How did they move from victim to victors? Where did they find the insurmountable courage to deconstruct and reconstruct their lives? In this program, students will participate in an inquiry-base exploration of the efficacy, resiliency and longevity of the lives and legacies of selected Black women from Ancient Egypt to contemporary Seattle. Our exploration will use the lenses of Ancient Egyptian studies, African, African-American and Afro-Disaporic history, dance history and popular culture to investigate these womens' lives and cultural contexts.The class will have a variety of learning environments, including lectures and films, workshops, seminars and research groups. All students will demonstrate their acquired knowledge, skill and insight by: creating an annotated bibliography; giving a final performance based on the life of a chosen black woman; and an end-of-the-quarter "lessons learned presentation" demonstrating how our collective studies applied to each individual student's life and legacy. Kabby Mitchell Joye Hardiman Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Wed Thu Thu Thu Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Individual Study: Performing Arts and Humanities
Ratna Roy
Signature Required: Winter 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day W 12Winter I am interested in working with students who wish to do independent work in the Performing Arts and the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the intersections between the social and the creative worlds, as my own creative work has explicitly dealt with this intersection. As well, since my Ph.D. is in African-American Literature, I am deeply interested in minority arts, be they defined by race, gender or sexual orientation, and whether they be in writing, or in the visual or performing arts.As an artist, I have concentrated in the world of choreography, in particular, in Orissi dance from India. A strong influence on my work has been the ancient mythologies of the Indian sub-continent, and the contemporary realities of neo-colonialism and its consequences.Students interested in working with me should submit an on-line Independent Study form, available at: Click on "Online Contract Process", create a contract, then submit it to me for my review. Ratna Roy Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Winter Winter
Individual Study: Performing Arts and Humanities
Ratna Roy
Signature Required: Spring 
  Contract SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring I am interested in working with students who wish to do independent work in the Performing Arts and the Humanities. I am broadly interested in the intersections between the social and the creative worlds, as my own creative work has explicitly dealt with this intersection. As well, since my Ph.D. is in African-American Literature, I am deeply interested in minority arts, be they defined by race, gender or sexual orientation, and whether they be in writing, or in the visual or performing arts.As an artist, I have concentrated in the world of choreography, in particular, in Orissi dance from India. A strong influence on my work has been the ancient mythologies of the Indian sub-continent, and the contemporary realities of neo-colonialism and its consequences.Students interested in working with me should submit an on-line Independent Study form, available at: Click on "Online Contract Process", create a contract, then submit it to me for my review. Ratna Roy Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring
Jazz Dance
Kabby Mitchell
  Course FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 2, 4 02 04 Evening Su 12Summer Full In this course, students will learn jazz dance basics by exploring the historical aspects of the African Diaspora through movement and lectures. Students will gain greater physical flexibility and coordination. In addition, we will do fun yet challenging combinations, and students will write a synthesis paper at the end of the quarter. No previous experience needed. Kabby Mitchell Wed Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Summer Summer
Political Economy and Social Movements: Local, National and Global Transformations
Anthony Zaragoza and Jeanne Hahn
  Program SO–SRSophomore - Senior 16 16 Day F 11 Fall W 12Winter The world is undergoing profound change at the global, state and local levels. This program will introduce students to the major political-economic concepts and historical developments necessary for a deep and usable understanding of these changes. It is intended to provide a foundation for advanced work in political economy and the social sciences as well as enable students to become effective citizens and social agents. We will examine the historical construction and interrelated nature of the U.S. political economy, including its place in the larger world system and its operation at the local level. We will also consider the role social movements have played and examine possibilities for social justice, self-determination and equality.The nature, development and concrete workings of modern capitalism will be a major focus. This means our study will draw on a range of social science disciplines, including history, political science, economic history, sociology and cultural studies to develop a multidisciplinary, multilevel understanding of the concepts, historical periods and social movements which will form our curriculum.In fall, we will study the U.S. political-economic trajectory from the early national period to the current manifestation, neoliberalism. There will be a particular focus on key events, processes and periods such as migrations, social movements, economic crises, privatization, and industrialization, deindustrialization and automation. Throughout we will attempt to include a global and local context. Our studies of transformation will examine the relationship between building movement (ongoing changing conditions) and movement building (responses to these conditions) and constructions of race, class and gender relations in the context of these transformations.The winter will continue to focus on the interrelationships among the globalization process, the U.S. political economy, and changes at the local level. We will study the causes and consequences of the deepening globalization and technologizing of capital and its effects on daily lives. We will pay attention to the human consequences of imperialist globalization and resistance to it. Beginning in the fall but focused in the winter students will engage in a research project in which they examine the political economy of their own hometowns over the last several decades.Films will be shown throughout the program. There will be a substantial amount of reading in a variety of genres, which will be discussed in seminars. Workshops and role-playing exercises in economics, globalization, writing and organizing for social change will be used. Students will write a series of analytical essays, and learn about popular education, participatory research, and academic methodologies. education, labor, community and global justice, social services, history, law, nonprofit work, political economy and informed civic participation. Anthony Zaragoza Jeanne Hahn Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Fall Fall
Resistance and Social Change: Critical Readings in African American and Latina/o Literature
Elizabeth Williamson and Grace Huerta
  Program FR–SRFreshmen - Senior 16 16 Day S 12Spring Why is it important to consider African American and Latina/o literature in the 21st century? What is the value of studying works based on the identity of their authors, and how can we account for the lasting effects of history, cultural loss, and oppression as represented in these texts without succumbing to the limitations of a "politically correct" politics of identity? How can these authors both fuel and complicate our struggle against all the various forms of oppression we face today?In this program, we address such questions by examining the treatment of hegemony, identity, and gender in the works of authors such as Julia Alvarez, Gayl Jones, Christina Garcia, and Nella Larsen. Together, these authors present culture through the conditions of power relations and its historic aftermath: colonization, slavery, and marginalization. We will focus on writers whose works cross both cultural and national borders and forcefully contest the identity politics of race, gender, class and language.Throughout this quarter, we will also examine social and political change, particularly noting how activism is conceptualized in the literature we read. In addition, we will consider the important role of anticolonial aesthetics by developing our own skills in literary analysis through experimental critical writing. It is through such writing that we will generate even more questions to consider, for example: how do other literary genres and media challenge conventional notions of national belonging for African Americans? How are the cultural borders between the United States and Mexico, or the United States and Cuba, more fluid than the existing political borders? We will strive to get beyond politicized literary analysis, moving instead toward collective cultural reflection and understanding.Our shared concepts and questions will be explored through seminars, workshops, group discussions, and multi-media presentations. Students will co-facilitate seminars and complete critical writing activities, including the use of peer feedback. Elizabeth Williamson Grace Huerta Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR Spring Spring