my.evergreen.edu
2011-12 Undergraduate Index A-Z
Have questions about the curriculum? Contact Academic Advising
Tips for Using the Catalog
American Studies [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters | Open Quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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 | |||
|
Geoffrey Cunningham
|
Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Day and Evening | Su 12Summer Session I | This course will explore the American Civil War as a struggle to create, as Lincoln said, "a new birth of freedom." We will study the causes, consequences, course and legacy of secession, slavery, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. Participants will evaluate the war as it is described, portrayed, interpreted, mythologized, and remembered in a variety of historical texts, personal accounts, and films. The course will conclude by examining the promise and failure of Reconstruction, and its subsequent impact on race and the meaning of liberty in America. | Geoffrey Cunningham | Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
|
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 | ||||
|
Stephanie Coontz
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | In the second half of the program we discuss the origins of 20th-century marriage and parenting norms and explore the dramatic shifts that have occurred in family formation and relationship norms over the past 50 years. Students will also do individual projects that will culminate in presentations at the end of the quarter. These will cover topics such as the causes and consequences of divorce, the changing dynamics of cohabitation, singlehood and marriage, the emergence of new sexual norms, legal issues connected with changing family structures and practices, the rise of biracial and multiracial families, and debates over same-sex marriage and parenting. Many of our topics will be controversial. We seek not simple answers but intelligent questions to inform our study. Students are expected to consider several different points of view, to fairly evaluate arguments with which they disagree, and to explore the possible contradictions or exceptions to their own positions. You should expect to back up your position with concrete examples and logical argumentation, and be prepared to be challenged to defend your positions. We are not simply sharing feelings or exchanging points of view but rigorously testing different interpretations and theories against each other. Because this is a demanding and intensive program, student should not attempt to work more than 15 hours a week. | sociology, history, family studies, research, social work, teaching, family law and counseling. | Stephanie Coontz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
|
Charles Pailthorp and Matthew Smith
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | Power can be as direct as a blow to the head or as subtle as the lyrics of a song. The dimensions of power, the way it operates in the world to constrain choices and provide opportunities gives shape to our daily lives. This program will examine different ways philosophers and theorists have understood power and assessed how it is deployed in politics and practice.We look forward to close study of works by: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Christopher Hill, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, David Harvey, Michel Foucault, Steven Lukes and others.Each student will be expected to gain authority over a controversy currently found in the news. The choice of controversies will be limited to a selection made by the faculty or suggested by a group of students. Each person will conduct their own inquiry into the chosen controversy, but each must find a small group whose members will support one another’s work. A preliminary list of possible areas: homelessness, reproduction, social revolutions, global warming, global economy, diminishing middle-class expectations, immigration, initiative campaigns, campaign finance, land policies, intellectual property and technology, collective bargaining... For others, follow the news. This work will culminate in a 15 pp. essay and a formal presentation of all work that meets a high standard.This program is an excellent choice for students new to Evergreen and for those returning to undergraduate study after a period of work or travel.Faculty will take care to introduce students to collaborative, interdisciplinary work, and research topics will be designed to make sense from a practical, applied perspective. Our understanding of power and how it is deployed will be directed towards the consequences of power in our daily lives and how our choices can help shape these outcomes. | history, philosophy, political science, law, journalism, politics and government, and public policy. | Charles Pailthorp Matthew Smith | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
|
Anne de Marcken (Forbes) and Jennifer Calkins
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | Participants in this quarter-long creative writing and literary studies program will study and practice writing across genres and movements. We will use a variety of critical frameworks to analyze, interpret, and create a diverse selection of American literature, interrogating the boundaries of nation, identity and genre. Program participants will learn about and practice the elements of narrative and lyrical discourse, developing a portfolio of short fiction, poetry, and hybrid forms. There will be an emphasis on the relationship between critical and creative thought and practice, as well as on development of a sustaining, independent creative writing practice.The program will have five major components: presentation, workshop, peer critique, seminar, and practice. Students, faculty and guest writers will gather for presentations and lectures on creative and critical texts and on ideas related to our area of inquiry. In hands-on workshops, students will develop creative and critical skills. Working in small groups, students will develop critical skills in support of one another's creative objectives. Students will gather in seminar to discuss critical and creative texts at depth in light of overarching program concerns. And finally, each student will define, develop, and maintain an independent creative writing practice to support his or her program goals. Possible texts include: Maggie Nelson's Elaine Scarry's Alice LaPlante’s , as well as works by American writers ranging from Emily Dickinson to Claudia Rankine, from Jean Toomer to Yi Yun Li. | Anne de Marcken (Forbes) Jennifer Calkins | Mon Mon Tue Tue Tue Thu Thu Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
|
Rita Pougiales
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Day | Su 12Summer Session I | Anthropologists are interested in uncovering the complexity and meaning of our modern lives. They do so through ethnographic research, gathering data as both "participants" and "observers" of those they are studying. Doing ethnographic research is simultaneously analytical and deeply embodied. This program includes an examination of and application of ethnographic research methods and methodologies, a study of varied theoretical frameworks used by anthropologists today to interpret and find meaning in data, and an opportunity to conduct an ethnographic project of interest. Students will read and explore a range of ethnographic studies that demonstrate what an anthropologist, what Ruth Behar calls a "vulnerable observer," can uncover about the lives of people today. | Rita Pougiales | Mon Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
|
Cheri Lucas-Jennings
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | This program will explore the broad conditions that shape environmental health, both for humans and within the ecosystem context. We will be moving across and between questions of science, public policy (from municipal to international) and social justice: examining the workings of non-governmental organizations. With the use of regularly scheduled lecture, seminar, work shops and field trips, we will dedicate ourselves to bridging the understanding among scientific, policy and social perspectives. The program goals is to examine emerging strategies and solutions for ecological sustainability - from regional, community-based monitoring to UN negotiations. By means of a small group, quarter-long research project on a topical issue the chemical, biologic and physical risks of modern life will be considered, with an emphasis on industrial pollutants. We will examine models, evidence and debates about the sources, causal connections and impacts of environmental hazards. We will be learning about existing and emergent regulatory science in conjunction with evolving systems of law, regulation and a broad array of community response. This introductory, core program considers problems related to public and environmental health in a broader context of the key frameworks of population/consumption and sustainability. Throughout the program, students will learn from a range of learning approaches: computer-based analysis and collaboration with regional experts, officials and activists. : ? Website: | public policy; communications; political science; planning; public health; law; social welfare; environmental and natural resources | Cheri Lucas-Jennings | Tue Wed Fri | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
|
Susan Preciso and Marla Elliott
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Evening and Weekend | S 12Spring | In this one-quarter program, students will read classics in American literature, learn about American music, and explore American culture as it was shaped in the vibrant, chaotic years that frame the Civil War. Herman Melville, Stephen Foster, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and B.F. White are some of the authors and composers we will study. Students will learn and participate in our exploration of American music by learning shape note singing, an American folk choral tradition. Exploring ante and post-bellum beliefs about race and the politics of slavery will be central to our study. Students should expect to be active participants in all program activities, which will include seminar, workshops, lectures, and films. We will also meet for one full Saturday this quarter, which may be a field trip or other program enrichment. | teaching, American studies | Susan Preciso Marla Elliott | Mon Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||
|
Rita Pougiales
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | “Communities of faith” are those groups of people who are dedicated to one another and to seeking the good. We will approach “faith” as a commitment to a good that can be illusive and hard to grasp, yet represents what Paul Tillich describes as an “ultimate concern.” Faith, as such, is a matter of trust in the process of seeking that ultimate concern. Faith, understood in this way, cuts across all dimensions of our society including those committed to political, environmental, educational, and spiritual ends.We are particularly interested in the means by which members of religious communities embody their faith and beliefs. Our study will be largely ethnographic, looking in depth at the rituals, devotions, and practices of faith communities. In particular, we will focus on those practices that depend on the body for expression, movement and sound. Such practices are not only reflections of faith, they also expand its experience and meaning. We will look at the cultural practices, experiences and shared expectations of members of communities of faith, and attempt to understand what is meaningful for them. We will be guided in our study of “faith” by Tillich’s and additional readings by authors Karen Armstrong and Richard Niebuhr. We will delve into the nature of communities through ethnographic and historical case studies including a medieval religious community led by Hildegard of Bingen, Orthodox fire-walking communities in rural Greece and Maine, and a contemporary Catholic convent in Mexico. In addition to these studies, each student will conduct her or his own research on a particular community of faith. | religious studies and community studies. | Rita Pougiales | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
|
Nancy Koppelman
|
Contract | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | Individual study offers the advanced, highly disciplined student the opportunity to pursue a self-directed and self-constructed syllabus. The work may be completely academic in nature, or may be combined with an internship. Students interested in pursuing such work in American Studies are invited to contact me. I specialize in American history before 1920, particularly social history, industrialization, economic history, American literature, popular culture, pragmatism, and the history of technology, and how all these topics intersect with ethical concerns of the modern era. I am interested in working with students who want to study American history and culture in an effort to understand contemporary social, cultural, and political concerns. (Students interested in this offering are also encouraged to consider enrolling in , where they can pursue a major independent project as part of an ongoing learning community.) Students with a lively sense of self-direction, discipline, and intellectual curiosity are encouraged to contact me via e-mail at koppelmn@evergreen.edu. | Nancy Koppelman | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
|
Samuel Schrager
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | This Individual Studies offering is for students with some fieldwork experience who want to undertake more advanced ethnographic study about persons, a group, an organization, a community, or a place. The focus can be on any topics meaningful to those involved in the study--for instance, cultural identity, oral history, values, traditions, equality, and everyday life. Sam will provide guidance on ethnographic method (including documentation, interpretation, and ethics) and on creative non-fiction writing for a final paper about the study. An internship or volunteer work can be linked to the project. (Students interested in this offering are also encouraged to consider enrolling in , where they can pursue a major independent project of this kind as part of an ongoing learning community.) | Samuel Schrager | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
|
Zoltan Grossman
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Weekend | W 12Winter | Individual study offers students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unique 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 Geography (including World Geography), Native American and World Indigenous Peoples Studies, or social movements should contact the faculty by email at . | Zoltan Grossman | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
|
Walter Grodzik
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | Individual study offers individual and groups of students the opportunity to develop self-direction, to learn how to manage a personal project, to focus on unique combinations of subjects, and to pursue original interdisciplinary projects without the constraints of an external structure. Individual and groups of students interested in a self-directed project, research or internships in Queer Studies or the Performing and Visual Arts should contact the faculty by email at | Walter Grodzik | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
|
Jennifer Gerend
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individual students may consult with faculty about their proposed projects or internships. The project is then described in an Independent Learning Contract. Students interested in urban planning, community and economic development, historic preservation, urban design, and urban history are encouraged to apply. | Jennifer Gerend | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
|
Jennifer Gerend
Signature Required:
Spring
|
Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | Individual Studies offers opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individual students may consult with faculty about their proposed projects or internships. The project is then described in an Independent Learning Contract. Students interested in urban planning, community and economic development, historic preservation, urban design, and urban history are encouraged to apply. | Jennifer Gerend | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
|
Laura Citrin and Anne de Marcken (Forbes)
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | Jean-Paul Sartre (1948) What are emotions, sentiments, and feelings? From whence do emotions come? What functions do they serve, both for the individual and for society? In this full-time psychology program, we will examine the ways that emotions -emotional experience and expression- are connected with cultural ideologies and assumptions. We'll cover the "big five" emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, and fear, as well as the socio-moral emotions like embarrassment, contempt, shame, and pride. We will also discuss the field of positive psychology and its analysis of the positive emotions (e.g., joy, hope, interest, love) and the role they play in what positive psychologists refer to as "the good life." We will study the ways emotions are expressed, avoided, embraced, and rejected according to complex display rules that vary across culture and within culture based on gendered, raced, and classed social norms. Underlying all of this discussion will be an analysis of the ways that power operates on and through us to get under our skin and into what feels like our most personal possessions -our emotions. The interrogation of emotions in this program will occur via readings, lectures, films, workshops, and twice-weekly, student-led seminars. Students will also engage in the process of primary data collection for a research project centered on an emotion that is of particular interest to them. Conducting research will enable students to participate first-hand in knowledge production within the interdisciplinary domain of affect studies. Readings will be selected to provoke thought and incite debate and discussion. Possible texts include Larissa Tiedens & Colin Leach (Eds.), ; Melissa Gregg & Gregory Seigworth (Eds.), ; Sara Ahmed, ; William Miller, Tom Lutz, ; and Barbara Fredrickson, | psychology, sociology, mental health, and cultural studies. | Laura Citrin Anne de Marcken (Forbes) | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
|
Chico Herbison
|
Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Day | Su 12Summer Session II | This course will provide an introduction to jazz music, an overview of its history and styles, and an assessment of its impact on American culture. Students will explore the musical elements of jazz; its aesthetic, cultural, and historical roots; its evolution through a variety of styles, including New Orleans, Swing, Bebop, Cool, and Avant-Garde; and the ways in which the music, its players, and its history have helped shape American culture. A musical background is not required; rather, a willingness to listen carefully will enable students to feel and appreciate what Robert G. O'Meally has called "the jazz cadence of American culture." | Chico Herbison | Mon Tue | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
|
Arleen Sandifer
|
Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | W 12Winter | Currently, one in every five students in elementary school in the U.S. comes from a home where Spanish is the most-spoken language. Already Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority in several of the largest U.S. states. What are some of the ways that this demographic shift is affecting U.S. culture? How are Latino cultures affected/changed by their presence in the U.S.? What are some of the issues that we need to face and resolve together as we undergo this transition? These questions will be some of the guiding questions in this course as we study Latino culture as it exists in the U.S. while exploring how current and historical issues are framing the debates around education and immigration and what it means to be "Latino" in the U.S. A basic knowledge of Spanish will be helpful, but not necessary. | Arleen Sandifer | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
|
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 | |||
|
Amy Gould
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Harold Lasswell stated, "politics is about who gets what, when, where, and how." Therefore, we need leaders who can access the underpinnings of politics and the consequences of political ideologies. In the fall, students will learn to be actively engaged in politics by first understanding where politics come from and the myriad of ideologies in practice globally. In the winter, students will focus on how they can hone their own leadership style. We will explore how engagement in politics can test our character regularly. To this end, Bill George stated, "successful leadership takes conscious development and requires being true to your life story." Throughout both quarters, as members of a learning community and society, we will endeavor to excavate the nature of leadership and the relational space of politics via classic and contemporary readings, guest speakers, seminar, debate, lecture, workshops and local field trips. We will seek to understand the dynamics of politics by applying leadership techniques for decision-making through program analyses, policy briefs, and legislative testimony. We will also pursue an understanding of philosophical foundations of Western political thought, the history of the U.S. Constitution and Constitutions of regional Tribal Nations, and concepts of political "otherness." In this pursuit we will define multiple political ideologies internationally and assess the nexus of leadership and politics. Students will have the opportunity to develop leadership skills of active listening, analytical thinking, scholarly dialog, effective communication, and writing for public administrators. | public administration, public service, non-profit management or political office. | Amy Gould | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
|
Lawrence Mosqueda
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | This program focuses on the issue of power in American society. In the analysis we will investigate the nature of economic, political, social, military, ideological and interpersonal power. The interrelationship of these dimensions will be a primary area of study. We will explore these themes through lectures, films, seminars, a journal and short papers. The analysis will be guided by the following questions, as well as others that may emerge from the discussions: What is meant by the term "power"? Are there different kinds of power and how are they interrelated? Who has power in American society? Who is relatively powerless? Why? How is power accumulated? What resources are involved? How is power utilized and with what impact on various sectors of the population? What characterizes the struggle for power? How does domestic power relate to international power? How is international power used? How are people affected by the current power structure? What responsibilities do citizens have to alter the structure of power? What alternative structures are possible, probable, necessary or desirable? In this time of war and economic, social and political crisis, a good deal of the program will focus on international relations in a systematic and intellectual manner. This is a serious class for serious people. Please be prepared to work hard and to challenge your and others' previous thinking. | social sciences, law and education. | Lawrence Mosqueda | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
|
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 | |||||
|
Trevor Griffey
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Day | Su 12Summer Session I | This program will study surveillance as a mode of governance by exploring the portrayal of the surveillance state in literature, film, social science literature, and U.S. history from World War I to the War on Terror. The primary work of the program will involve different kinds of close readings of texts. Each week, students will collectively analyze government surveillance documents, watch and discuss a film, and write a review essay on a book they read. The final week of the program will be devoted to student individual or group projects in surveillance studies broadly defined. | Trevor Griffey | Mon Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
|
Cheri Lucas-Jennings
Signature Required:
Winter
|
SOS | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | W 12Winter | This program will explore the broad conditions that shape legislation; it will examine models, evidence and debates about the sources, causal connections and impacts of evolving systems of law, regulation, governance and a broad array of community and political responses to wicked social dilemmas facing our state. Students apply to become interns for the 2012 Washington State Legislative session in the fall. Those who are selected work a regular, full week with the legislative office they are assigned to in the winter. Evergreen students also participate in a bi-weekly Seminar with focus on select readings and themes. Journal writings in response to these readings, discussion and experience in the 2012 session are a critically important feature. This is an upper division internship with a possible 16 credits to be earned, when combined with academic reflection and analysis on your work in the legislature. To receive full credit, each student intern will write about the challenges, learning and implications of this work. Students will also be making public presentations about their learning at the end of the session and participate in workshops with larger intern groups from throughout the state. Focused writings submitted to the faculty sponsor on a regular basis will be reflective, analytic and make use of appropriate legislative data bases and all relevant references. Students will develop and submit a portfolio of all materials related to their work as legislative interns and receive evaluation both from their campus sponsor and a legislative supervisor at the capitol. | Cheri Lucas-Jennings | Wed | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
|
Mark Harrison
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Weekend | Su 12Summer Session I | The Western is the richest and most enduring genre of American film. It is both formula film and a source of great innovation. Beginning with Reconstruction, this program will examine the important connections between the Western and the tale of expansion (economic, geographic, ecological, cultural) and violent conquest that is the American frontier myth. The primary texts for this program will be Richard Slotkin's James McPherson's and by David Lusted. Supplementary readings will include passages from Richard White’s by Thomas Schatz, and other short readings. This is a partial online program. Students will need access to a comprehensive source for DVD rentals (such as Netflix, Amazon.com, Deep Discount, etc.) and will be using Moodle for required online seminars. | Mark Harrison | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
|
Samuel Schrager, Chico Herbison and Nancy Koppelman
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | S 12Spring | These words of Ralph Ellison's are the starting point for our inquiry. This program will explore diversity and unity in the United States through outstanding narratives by artists and scholars who, like Ellison, capture distinctive characteristics of the hybridity endemic to American experience. Students will use these studies to take their own fresh looks at American life and to become adept practitioners of the writer's craft.The program involves close reading of literary, historical, and anthropological-sociological texts, and attention to traditions of story, music, film and humor. We will consider a range of group experiences-African American, Asian American, Jewish, working-class, place-based, queer, female, youth, differently-abled, and others. We will focus on understanding dynamics between historical pressures and legacies, and present realities and aspirations. How, we will ask, have race relations, immigrant experiences, and family life both expressed and extended democratic ideals, and both embodied and challenged a wide range of power hierarchies? What are the most compelling stories that this unpredictable culture has produced, and how have they nourished and articulated community? What will be the impact of emergent technologies on the increasingly permeable boundaries between human and machine, "real" and virtual, self and other, particularly for the making of democracy?Fall and the first half of winter will feature intensive practice of writing in non-fiction, imaginative and essay forms. Research methods will also be emphasized: ethnographic fieldwork (ways of listening, looking, and documenting evidence to make truthful stories), and library-based scholarship in history, social science and the arts. From mid-winter to mid-spring, students will undertake a full-time writing and research project on a cultural topic or group in a genre of their choice, locally or elsewhere. These projects are akin to the kinds that students pursue with Individual Learning Contracts; students in Writing American Cultures will undertake them in community, with strong faculty support. The project is an excellent context for senior theses. In the final weeks of spring, students will polish and present their writing in a professional format. Throughout the program, dialogue about our common and individual work will be prized. Among the fiction writers we may read are William Faulkner, Maxine Hong Kingston, Herman Melville, Toni Morrison and Ishmael Reed; essayists Gerald Early, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Murray, Cynthia Ozick and Mark Twain; ethnographers Joan Didion, Zora Neale Hurston, Joseph Mitchell and Ronald Takaki; historians John Hope Franklin, Oscar Handlin and C. Vann Woodward. Films may include , , and Music we'll hear may be by Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, and Tupac Shakur. Humor/comedy will be provided by Lenny Bruce, Margaret Cho, Richard Pryor, and others. Students who are serious about becoming capable writers are warmly invited to be part of this program. Those who give their time and energies generously will be rewarded by increasing their mastery as writers, critics and students of American culture and society. | the humanities and social sciences, community service, journalism, law, media and education. | Samuel Schrager Chico Herbison Nancy Koppelman | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter |
