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Freshmen
Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters | Open Quarters |
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Andrea Gullickson and Bret Weinstein
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Humans are unique products of adaptive evolution. Our most remarkable evolutionary features are associated with our overwhelmingly cultural brains, far more flexible and dynamic than the brains of any other creature on earth. But this level of uniqueness creates a problem in the quest to understand ourselves. How are we to comprehend human characteristics that have no parallel, and little precedent, elsewhere in the biota?Of all the unique cultural attributes of humans, music is uniquely perplexing. It exists in every culture, is a significant feature of nearly every human life. Music is produced by both males and females. It can be made with tools as elaborate as a piano, or as sparingly as with a single human voice. It is both collaborative and solitary. It can be enjoyed as a participant or spectator. And music is powerful—reaching into our deepest emotional core where it has the capacity to trigger profound responses, often with zero associated narrative content.This program will confront this deepest evolutionary mystery full force, and on its own terms. We will cultivate an appreciation and comprehension of the structure, meaning and effect of music as we address the evolutionary mechanisms that must have produced it. We will strive as a learning community to experience music’s full glory and mystery, while we grapple rigorously with it as an evolutionary phenomenon. Weekly program activities will include reading, focused listening, workshops, lectures and seminars. Together we will approach program content in a manner that is accessible to students with little background in these areas, while still challenging those with prior experience. | Andrea Gullickson Bret Weinstein | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Rik Smoody
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Computers are a driving force of our modern world and increasingly influence our lives. Mathematics and mathematical models lay at the foundation of modern computers; furthermore, we increasingly rely on mathematics as a language for understanding the natural world, such as complex climate models that predict major changes in weather patterns world wide over the next 50 years. Mathematics and computational thinking enable people as citizens to make good decisions on a wide range of issues from interpreting the evidence for climate change to understanding the potential impacts of technology; as such, they are an integral part of a liberal arts education. In this program, we will explore connections between mathematics, computer science, the natural sciences and graphic arts.We will develop mathematical abstractions and the skills to express, analyze and solve simple problems in the sciences and the arts and explore how to program interesting visual shapes using simple geometry. Class sessions include seminars, lectures, problem-solving workshops, programming labs, problem sets and seminars with writing assignments. The emphasis will be on fluency in mathematical and statistical thinking and expression along with reflections on mathematics and society. Topics will include concepts of algebra, algorithms, programming and problem solving, with seminar readings about the role of mathematics in education, the sciences and society.This program is intended for students who want to gain a fundamental understanding of mathematics and computing before leaving college or before pursuing further work in the sciences or the arts. | Rik Smoody | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Zoltan Grossman and Kristina Ackley
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Students will explore the juxtaposed themes of Frontier and Homeland, Empire and Periphery and the Indigenous and Immigrant experience. We will use historical analysis (changes in time) and geographic analysis (changes in place) to critique these themes, and will turn toward cultural analysis for a deeper understanding of race, nation, class and gender. We will take as our starting point a critique of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”—that the frontier is "the meeting point between savagery and civilization"—as a racist rationale for the colonization of Native American homelands. We will consider alternative histories of Anglo-American expansion and settlement in North America, with interaction, change, and persistence as our unifying themes.We will study how place and connection is nurtured, re-imagined and interpreted, particularly in Indigenous and recent immigrant communities. We will connect between the ongoing process of "Manifest Destiny" in North America and subsequent overseas imperial expansion into Latin America, the Pacific and beyond. The colonial control of domestic homelands and imperial control of foreign homelands are both highlighted in recent patterns of recent immigration. These patterns involve many "immigrants" who are in fact indigenous to the Americas, as well as immigrants from countries once conquered by the U.S. military. The American Empire, it seems, began at home and its effects are coming back home and will be contested again.In fall quarter, we will track the historical progression of the frontier across North America and overseas and the territorial and cultural clashes of immigrant and colonized peoples. We will hear firsthand the life stories of local individuals and communities to understand their narratives of conflict, assimilation, resistance and survival. In the winter quarter, we will look at contemporary case studies that show the imprint of the past in the present and how 21st-century North American communities (particularly in the Pacific Northwest) are wrestling with the legacies of colonization, imperialism and migration. In particular, we will examine the overlapping experiences of Native Americans and recent immigrants, and Indigenous territories and migrations that transgress or straddle the international border as defined by "Homeland Security. This program offers ideal opportunities for students to develop skills in writing, research, and analysis. | Zoltan Grossman Kristina Ackley | Tue Wed Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
Kristina Ackley and Zoltan Grossman
|
Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Students will explore the juxtaposed themes of Frontier and Homeland, Empire and Periphery and the Indigenous and Immigrant experience. We will use historical analysis (changes in time) and geographic analysis (changes in place) to critique these themes, and will turn toward cultural analysis for a deeper understanding of race, nation, class and gender. We will take as our starting point a critique of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”—that the frontier is "the meeting point between savagery and civilization"—as a racist rationale for the colonization of Native American homelands. We will consider alternative histories of Anglo-American expansion and settlement in North America, with interaction, change, and persistence as our unifying themes.We will study how place and connection is nurtured, re-imagined and interpreted, particularly in Indigenous and recent immigrant communities. We will connect between the ongoing process of "Manifest Destiny" in North America and subsequent overseas imperial expansion into Latin America, the Pacific and beyond. The colonial control of domestic homelands and imperial control of foreign homelands are both highlighted in recent patterns of recent immigration. These patterns involve many "immigrants" who are in fact indigenous to the Americas, as well as immigrants from countries once conquered by the U.S. military. The American Empire, it seems, began at home and its effects are coming back home and will be contested again.We will track the historical progression of the frontier across North America and overseas and the territorial and cultural clashes of immigrant and colonized peoples. We will hear firsthand the life stories of local individuals and communities to understand their narratives of conflict, assimilation, resistance and survival. In particular, we will examine the overlapping experiences of Native Americans and recent immigrants, and Indigenous territories and migrations that transgress or straddle the international border as defined by Homeland Security. This program offers ideal opportunities for students to develop foundational skills in writing, research, and analysis. | Kristina Ackley Zoltan Grossman | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | |||||
Rachel Hastings and Steven Scheuerell
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 12, 16 | 12 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This is a yearlong interdisciplinary program that incorporates sociolinguistics, geography, history, cultural ecology, global change, biocultural diversity conservation, food systems and sustainable development studies to explore how societies evolve and survive in relation to their environment and a globalizing world. Our studies are based on the belief that many cultures have developed rich linguistic and ecological traditions that have provided the means for communication, food, clothing and shelter based on a sustainable relationship with the land. More recently, cultural and economic globalization are increasingly impacting local knowledge systems worldwide, in particular when measured by changes to language, land-use and food systems. These changes, together with such factors as increasing human population, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and climate change, compel us to explore the ways in which knowledge systems are preserved or lost. In particular, we recognize the urgent need to preserve cultural knowledge that allows a society to be rooted in place, recognize ecological limits and provide for its needs. The Andean region of South America is an ideal region to study these issues.The academic program consists of two phases. The first phase over fall quarter will focus on program themes using texts, lectures, workshops, film, writing and local field trips. Fall quarter the program will be offered for 12 credits to provide students with the option to separately register for an appropriate Spanish language course. Selection for the second phase over winter and spring quarters will be based upon criteria including successful completion of fall quarter work, demonstrated readiness for study abroad and Spanish language ability. In winter and spring, students will be full time in the program, which will be offered for 16 credits per quarter. Winter quarter will begin with 5 weeks of travel preparations and intensive study on Peru, followed by a 15-week study abroad experience in the Cusco region of the Peruvian Andes that incorporates intensive Spanish or Quechua language study, regional travel, seminars, urban and rural home stays and independent research or service learning with local organizations. At the end of the independent project period, we will reconvene for final student presentations and evaluation conferences in the Sacred Valley near Cusco.As the former Incan capital, and home to vibrant cultures and immense biodiversity, the Cusco region of Peru offers immersion in the study of biocultural diversity and how the preservation of linguistic diversity is related to the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, biodiversity and local food systems. While in Peru, we will continue language and cultural studies while experiencing regional initiatives to preserve cultural landscapes and indigenous knowledge systems in the midst of development pressure. Given the region's rich history, knowledge systems, architecture, agriculture, weaving, ceramics and music, we will ask how is knowledge transferred across generations and between communities, and how can traditional knowledge be maximized in sustainable development projects? As we address these academic questions, our own experiences will also lead us on to consider on a more individual level how learning another language and traveling abroad can increase our understanding of culture and what it means to fit into place. | Rachel Hastings Steven Scheuerell | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
Michael Paros
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | Why do humans keep pets and at the same time raise animals for food? What are the psychological and moral complexities that characterize our relationships with animals? What is the impact of human–animal interactions on the health and well-being of people and animals? How do we assess the relative welfare of animals under a variety of circumstances? Anthrozoology is the interdisciplinary study of human (anthro) and animal (zoo) interaction. This topic of inquiry will be used to study general biology, zoology, anthropology and philosophy. Through field trips, guest speakers, reading, writing and discussion, students will become familiar with the multiple and often paradoxical ways we relate to companion animals, animals for sport, zoo animals, wildlife, research animals and food animals. We will use our collective experiences, along with science-based and value-based approaches, to critically examine the ever-changing role of animals in society.We will begin the quarter by focusing on the process of animal domestication in different cultures from an evolutionary and historical perspective. Through the formal study of animal ethics, students will also become familiar with different philosophical positions on the use of animals. Physiology and neuroscience will be used to investigate the physical and mental lives of animals while simultaneously exploring domestic animal behavior. Students will explore the biological basis and psychological aspects of the human-animal bond. Students will then study the science of animal welfare and complete a final project in which they will apply their scientific and ethical knowledge to a controversial and contemporary animal welfare question.Students will be expected to read primary literature in such diverse fields as animal science, ethology, neurobiology, sociobiology, anthropology and philosophy. Student success in this program will depend on commitment to in-depth understanding of complex topics and an ability to combine empirical knowledge and philosophical reflection. | Michael Paros | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
Rob Cole
|
Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | Sustainability - what does it mean? Sustainability for whom? Consumption, social stratification, increased indebtedness, and environmental destruction are existing hallmarks of ‘civilization.’ Many of our current cultural, social and economic systems are unsustainable. This program will explore different visions of sustainability that offer alternatives to the dominant industrial/corporate model. We will examine approaches taken by different groups of people, in differing circumstances, to forge a more just, equitable and sustainable future that doesn’t outstrip the regenerative capacity of our ecosystem.In particular, we will compare and contrast two major approaches to sustainability; that of The Natural Step, and that of ‘transition communities.’ We will explore how these visions address equity and justice in the face of climate change, social stratification and ecosystem degradation. We will examine metrics and indicators of sustainability, and various measures of the regenerative capacity of the planet. We will survey a wide array of actions individuals and groups can take to foster a future that is more sustainable and more equitable and just for both human and other species.Through workshops, readings, films, personal audits and seminar discussions, students will engage a variety of sustainability concepts and approaches. They will learn skills useful in assessing actions that foster sustainability, and they will explore the habits of mind so essential to taking action in the twenty-first century. | Rob Cole | Mon Tue Wed Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall | ||||
Rebecca Chamberlain and Gail Tremblay
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | How does place affect the worldview and visions of writers, poets, artists, storytellers, and filmmakers from diverse cultures in the Americas? How can we develop an ecological and ethical identity that shapes culture and place through creative and artistic practice? As we study art history, natural history, and the natural world, we will use these questions to explore our connections to the earth and place through analysis and creation of poems, essays, and multimedia art projects. Through observations of the natural world, we will cultivate our ability to heighten sensory perceptions and gain insights that feed metaphors, images, and imagination. As we examine the way in which our relationships to words, images, myths, cultural teachings, stories, and the arts enhance our understanding, we will reflect on the strategies we need to address environmental education, activism, and the ecological challenges and health of our planet.Readings include essays by American Transcendentalists like Thoreau, Emerson, and Fuller, and natural history writers and eco-poets such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Terry Tempest Williams, Linda Hogan, Alice Walker, Mary Austin, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Gary Snyder, David Abrahm, Pablo Neruda, Eric Chock, and other diverse writers. Field trips and workshops include hikes, natural history observations, writing, a trip to Mt Rainier, and visits to museums, cultural, and arts events like the “Procession of the Species,” and the “Cascadia Poetry Festival.” We will work to develop practices of close observation of the natural world to fuel creativity. The quarter’s work will include the creation of art, poetry, personal essay, and a creative journal that allows us to refine our observations of local places, and to sketch and develop concepts for use in our artistic practice. Students of different skill levels will work on improving their writing and editing abilities so they can write and work towards publication. They will create multimedia art installations on campus and in the community, submitting proposals for one individual art project, and one group collaborative artistic project, and preparing the works for public presentation by the end of Spring quarter.Assignments: Writing includes a personal essay about place, a series of ten poems, and a creative journal. Art includes an individual multimedia installation and a group multimedia installation. Each student is responsible for presenting one of the projects on which they worked, in a community setting. Note: This class was formerly called Creativity and Diversity in American Culture: Art and Narrative in Response to Place. You can review fall and winter quarters at: | Rebecca Chamberlain Gail Tremblay | Tue Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Yvonne Peterson, Michelle Aguilar-Wells and Gary Peterson
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | How does a group of indigenous people from different countries: (1) create an activity to reclaim ancient knowledge? (2) develop communication strategies in the 21 century to build a foundation to support gatherings numbering in the thousands? (3) relate tribal governance/rights to state agreements and understandings? (4) appraise economic impacts on local/regional economies when a Tribe hosts a canoe journey destination? and, (5) how does one move to allyship with indigenous people and begin preparation for the historic journey from coastal villages of Northwest Washington to Bella Bella in British Columbia, Canada? Evergreen has a history of providing community service coordinated with the Center for Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) to Tribes during the canoe journeys. This program expands the venture by researching the canoe journey movement, understanding Treaty rights and sovereignty, economic justice, cultural preservation, and the social economic, political and cultural issues for present day Tribes participating in the 2014 canoe journey to Bella Bella. As a learning community, we’ll pose essential questions and research the contemporary phenomenon of the tribal canoe journeys to get acquainted with Tribes and Canoe Families and the historic cultural protocol to understand Native cultural revitalization in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.Upper-division students will have the option to engage in service learning volunteer projects and program internships during winter and spring quarters. All students will participate in orientation(s) to the program theme and issues, historic and political frameworks, and work respectfully with communities and organizations. Participation in this program means practicing accountability to the learning community and to other communities, interacting as a respectful guest with other cultures, and engaging in constant communication with co-learners. | Yvonne Peterson Michelle Aguilar-Wells Gary Peterson | Mon Tue Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||
Andrea Gullickson and Robert Esposito
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | How do our experiences in the performing arts impact our understanding of and relationship to our environment? How can music and dance be used to transform lives? This two-quarter, core program will focus on the study of music and dance as powerful methods for both exploring and expressing our experiences in the world. Throughout the program we will examine fundamental concepts of music and dance and consider cultural and historical environments that influence the development of and give meaning to the arts. Our work with progressive skill development will require physical immersion into the practices of listening, moving, dancing and making music. Theory and literature studies will require the development of a common working vocabulary, writing skills, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking skills.Weekly activities will include readings, lectures, seminars and interactive workshops, which will provide the basis for focused consideration of the ways in which our relationship with sound and motion impact our daily lives. Weekly in-program performance workshops will provide opportunities to gain first-hand understanding of fundamental skills and concepts as well as the transformative possibilities that exist through honest confrontation of challenging experiences. Weekly writing workshops and assignments will encourage thoughtful consideration of a broad range of program topics with a particular emphasis on developing an understanding of the power and importance of bringing one’s own voice into the conversation.This balanced approach to the development of physical craft, artistry and intellectual engagement is expected to culminate in a significant written and performance work each quarter. | Andrea Gullickson Robert Esposito | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
Yvonne Peterson
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | Johnson Charles, Jr., Lower Elwha Klallam This program is intended for students wishing to analyze a modern day dilemma: American Indians have standing in their land, cultural protocols, and legal relationships with the U.S. Government; the State of Washington wants/needs to repair a bridge and provide jobs; and local community people plan to develop a waterfront. Students will use the text , related print/non-print documents, the case study and interview WSDOT employees and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members to formulate cross-cultural communication models. Students will build an academic foundation in law and public policy as they move from theory to praxis using the following texts: , , and . We are interested in providing an environment of collaboration in which faculty and learners will ask essential questions, identify topics of mutual interest and act as partners in the exploration of those topics. Learners will be exposed to research methods, the politics of ethnographic research, interview techniques, writing workshops, and educational technology. Students will effectively use Bloom’s Taxonomy, develop essential questions, and commit to Paul’s 35 Elements of Critical Thinking. Students will also use the expectations of an Evergreen graduate and the five foci as a guide to their development. Students will have the opportunity to improve their skills in self- and group-motivation as well as communication (including dialogue, email, resources on the Web and our moodle site).Students (in groups) will propose, undertake and evaluate a three-week ethnographic interview project to understand how student groups have formed on campus and the politics of their existence. Students will present their academic project during week ten. | Yvonne Peterson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
Glenn Landram
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Would you like to better understand the business world? This program will provide the analysis and reasoning for the conduct and understanding of business and finance in today’s world. We will focus on contemporary business issues, as well as offer an introduction to strategy, personal finance and investing. We will examine the financial challenges faced by smaller businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals, and what it takes to be effective in our current economic environment. There will be workshops, lectures, films, guest speakers and student-led sessions. Readings from daily newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, magazines such as the Economist and Kiplinger’s, and texts such as by Thomas Friedman and by Jim Collins will increase student familiarity with current business topics and help students develop the skills to organize and analyze business, economic and financial information. Strategies for effectively presenting quantitative information will also be covered. Students will compete in an advanced business simulation in teams. The simulation will require substantial student research, including analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Students will emerge from the simulation with improved teamwork skills, as well as a greater understanding of financial statement analysis, competitive strategy, marketing, operations, and business economics. | Glenn Landram | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Bill Arney and Michael Paros
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | Most of you are in school because you want to live a better life; many of you probably think about what it might mean to live a good life. Is a good life one full of pleasure and devoid of suffering? A moral life? A long and healthy life? Of course, it is possible that the good life cannot be defined at all and simply has to be lived and attended to. Let's start with the premise that most of our reliable, useful knowledge comes from science. Scientists work according to philosophically sound methodologies, which include commitments to impersonal inquiry and trying, always, to find the data most likely to defeat their favorite hypotheses; they work in open communities of other scientists, all of whom are obligated to be vigilantly critical of their colleagues' work; they generally qualify their claims to knowledge based on the limitations of their methodologies and their understandings of the probabilities of their claims being incorrect. But can science help us to be , to live a good life? Some think that science can help us recognize, even define, our values, and we will explore this possibility from the perspectives of neuroscience, brain evolution, psychology, social science and philosophy. Some say that science can never answer questions of morality or what it means to live a good life, or even a better life; something more is necessary, they say. Reading and written assignments, faculty presentations and deliberate discussions with vigilantly critical colleagues will assist students in an independent inquiry about how science can help a person live better with regard to some question of critical concern to the investigator(s). This program explores the power and limitations of scientific inquiry. Students should be able to imagine themselves discussing neurotransmitters and the moral life in the same sentence, but they should know that any education aims, finally, to help them know themselves. | Bill Arney Michael Paros | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
Tom Womeldorff and Alice Nelson
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | In the late 1700s, Europeans saw the Caribbean as one vast sugar plantation controlled by French, English, Spanish and Dutch colonial powers. The insatiable need for labor decimated local populations who were replaced by millions of African slaves and, after emancipation, indentured labor from East India and China. Historically, this represents the largest forced mixing of cultures in the world; the result was a host of new Caribbean identities, all developing in the context of the political, economic and ideological structures imposed by Europeans. Today, the identities and cultural expressions of all Caribbean peoples continue to be shaped by the colonial legacy and the rise of post-colonial consciousness. Thinkers like José Martí (" América"), Aimé Césaire ( ), and Frantz Fanon ( ) exposed the negative effects of colonial subjugation and envisioned liberatory processes of social change. Despite the region's shared colonial and post-colonial legacies, a sense of a common Caribbean identity should not be exaggerated. As Jean Casimir writes, the Caribbean is simultaneously united and divided. A Guadeloupian may be more connected psychologically and physically to Dakar, or even Paris, than she is to Puerto Rico. Out of this intense forced mixing of cultures, what forms of identity emerged and continue to emerge? Is there such a thing as a Caribbean culture, or are identities complex amalgams that defy easy categorizations such as Caribbean, Dominican American, creole Martinican, Afro-Cuban, East-Indian Trinidadian? What are the factors that make the identities of each island's peoples similar and in what ways do they defy categorization--even on a single island? How have cultural movements such as and the "New World baroque" contributed to the construction of Caribbean identities and post-colonial consciousness? These will be the questions at the center of this program. We will begin with an exploration of the colonial legacy with close attention to the political and economic forms central to extracting sugar profits from land and laborers. We will explore the impact of diverse political statuses such as independence (e.g., Jamaica), complete incorporation with the motherland (Martinique) and more nebulous forms in between (Puerto Rico). We will explore the symbioses and tensions between these political and economic issues and cultural movements. Finally, we will investigate how migration and globalization continue to play a major role in shaping local realities. Throughout the quarter, we will examine our own positionality with relation to these questions, asking: How can we study about, learn from, and engage across cultural differences in non-dominating ways? Readings will range from fiction and poetry to history and political-economic analysis. In addition to shared readings, lectures and films, each student will engage in synthesis work and a small project. The latter will be on a topic of the student's choosing, such as cultural expression through music and art, political status, religious syncretism, post-colonial literature, globalization, or migrant identities abroad. | Tom Womeldorff Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||||
Rose Jang and David Shaw
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | In the fall of 2012, China’s 18th Communist Party Congress selected the current generation of Chinese political leaders, moving China into the next chapter of its 3,000-plus years of political history.Today, China’s economic power continues to grow, and its rise globally has drawn increasing attention. Many developing countries are viewing the China model as an alternative to the Western experience of economic growth and middle class prosperity. However, China is faced with many internal and external challenges. Challenges like these have repeatedly threatened China’s social stability in the past. In the extreme case, they might alter its current ideological foundations, potentially undercutting the premises of the China “success story.”This introductory China studies program will focus on China's present situation as a modern state and global power evolved from a lengthy and complicated cultural development over centuries. Within the time constraint of a quarter, we will examine China from selective angles and subject matters suggesting recurrent cultural patterns and distinct national characteristics. In the social sciences, we will touch on China’s geography, political structure and economic and business systems, including sustainability and environmental issues. From the humanities perspective, we will look at prominent examples of China’s religion, philosophy, arts and literature. All these issues are potentially interrelated, leading to a more coherent set of inquiries into the myth or reality of China’s current image of success.Students will be exposed to multiple topics and issues through weekly readings, lectures, discussions and workshops. They will also conduct a research project on a China-related topic of their own choice. This research project will provide them with opportunities to develop skills in research methods and academic writing. The program will introduce the fundamentals of Chinese language and linguistics through program studies but does not contain an independent Chinese language study component. | Rose Jang David Shaw | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||||
David Shaw
Signature Required:
Spring
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This China studies program will take an in-depth look at modern China through the perspective of the social sciences, building on readings and issues discussed in the fall program However, any student with an interest in China or East Asian studies should be able to join the program in winter or spring quarter and succeed in their studies. Our overriding goals are to understand today's China as a vital global power, while critically exploring the lingering influence of its rich yet strife-torn cultural past on behavior and decisions made at the national, institutional and individual levels. Building on our shared texts and themes, students will do independent research individually or in small groups, becoming experts in a particular facet of Chinese business, economy. society and/or sustainability. Our work will also extend beyond uniquely Chinese experiences into topics on which the future of Asia, the global economy and our small planet depend, including the natural environment, paths to ecological, social and economic sustainability and strategies to redress economic inequalities and social dislocations. China's environmental history, its rural-urban dynamic and its economic development will also serve as core threads through both quarters of study. During winter quarter, we will study ancient Chinese texts (in translation), as well as popular and academic articles, books, films and documentaries on China, particularly those exploring and reinterpreting ancient themes. Chinese philosophy, comprised of the primary "Three Teachings" of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, will inform our study of Chinese culture. Sun Tzu's will introduce us to one of the world's oldest sources of strategic thought and Chinese concepts of leadership. Other topics likely to be covered include China’s trade and travel with the outside world, the Chinese diaspora, China's contact and interactions with foreign powers and its industrialization and political transformations from an imperial dynasty to a republic to a Communist state. Spring quarter we will focus on present-day China. We will examine China's current image as a dynamic economic powerhouse and “global factory” and as an enigmatic political player internationally. We will also look at its internal, problematic quests for domestic harmony, a well-functioning legal system and a truly civil society.In both quarters, we will meet in seminar, workshop and lecture settings. Weekly readings from books, popular media (newspapers, magazines) and academic journal articles should be expected for seminar and workshop. A peer-review approach will be taken in a Writing and Research Workshop to complement individual or small-group efforts on their research projects. Regular film and documentary viewings will build a closer familiarity with Chinese culture and society. Finally, in spring quarter, students will make an individual presentation on a book they have read and critically reviewed on their own. Another student completing the same reading will provide feedback on the presentation based on their reading of the book. This should expand the range of perspectives covered beyond the readings assigned to the entire class.Separate enrollment in Chinese language courses is strongly encouraged as a complement to this program. This program would also serve as good preparation for students who plan to travel to China via independent learning contracts or subsequent study abroad programs. | David Shaw | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | ||||
Jennifer Gerend and Steven Niva
|
Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Does the way we live—in suburbs, malls and automobiles—shape the foreign policy conducted in our name? Can we change our foreign policy by living differently?Our program will explore these questions through the prism of American foreign policy in the Middle East. The program will examine how the suburbanized and automobile dependent culture of the United States after World War II was made possible by American involvement in the Middle East to secure access to cheap and plentiful oil, particularly through our close alliances with oil-rich regimes. This ongoing involvement has been central to the rise of anti-American sentiment and the resultant wars in the Middle East during the past decade. While some have called for a new foreign policy which supports democracy, this program will also explore the question of whether a new domestic policy—one focused on shifting our way of living from suburbia to more walkable, dense and sustainable ways of urban living--may also be a necessary element of a new foreign policy. How do we create ways to live that reduce our dependency on access to non-renewable resources and support for repressive regional governments? What do sustainable and walkable cities look like? Should urban planning be a key element of foreign policy? Where do these decisions get made, and how can residents help shape their communities?Students will be introduced to the history and practice of U.S. foreign in the Middle East as well as central issues in the history and theory of U.S. urban planning and development. We will read texts, watch films and hear guest speakers who will address these issues, as well as write papers and engage in discussion and debates. | Jennifer Gerend Steven Niva | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | |||||
Lin Nelson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This program is an exploration of how to do Community-Based Research (CBR) and develop meaningful documentation in relation to community needs and challenges. Our focus will be on the social and environmental justice issues that are part of community life and that become the focus of the work of community-based organizations and social movements. A key feature of this two-quarter program will be grounded approaches with community groups. We’ll be working actively with Evergreen’s Center for Community-Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) to learn about the pressing needs in our region and to shape and sharpen our research skills and approaches. Some of the groups we will likely connect with include Parents Organized for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER), People for Puget Sound (on environment and sustainability), Fertile Ground (community sustainability), Garden-Raised Bounty (community agriculture and food justice), Stonewall Youth (on the rights of youth and the LGBTQ community) and Teen Council of Planned Parenthood, among others.Central to our work, especially in winter quarter, will be an examination of the history, philosophy, debates and strategic modes of CBR—which is also called “participatory research,” “popular education” and “action research.” Readings and resources will draw from academics who work with communities in initiating or supporting research; at the same time, we’ll learn from community organizations about research they launch and how they work with faculty, staff and students in colleges and universities. CBR as a social movement in the U.S. and internationally will be the grounding for our efforts. Our reading will be drawn from the growing literature on CBR: key ideas and frameworks, cross-cultural and cross-national approaches, methods and skills, and vivid case material. We will sustain a persistent examination of ethics, community rights and co-learning and collaboration. Winter quarter will focus on exploring the literature and resources, learning with area organizations, posing and launching projects. Spring quarter will shift to more of a community base, with substantial fieldwork, community documentation and participation, project review and planning for future applications.Some important skills that will be developed include project design and development, interviewing and questionnaire design, researching public/government documents, participant-observation and creative approaches to documentation and presentation. We’ll be working to link our projects with compelling social, political and ecological issues and to place our work in regional to international contexts. There will be a strong focus on “give back” to the community and working with and contributing to the resource base of the CCBLA. Students will come away from the program with ideas, experiences and skills that should be helpful to them if they’re interested in future work in social justice, community organizing, environmental protection and environmental justice, public health, fieldwork, social analysis and documentation. | Lin Nelson | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||
Neal Nelson, Paul Pham, Sheryl Shulman and Richard Weiss
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | The goal of this program is for students to learn the intellectual concepts and skills that are essential for advanced work in computer science and beneficial for computing work in support of other disciplines. Students will have the opportunity to achieve a deeper understanding of increasingly complex computing systems by acquiring knowledge and skills in mathematical abstraction, problem solving and the organization and analysis of hardware and software systems. The program covers material such as algorithms, data structures, computer organization and architecture, logic, discrete mathematics and programming in the context of the liberal arts and compatible with the model curriculum developed by the Association for Computing Machinery's Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium.The program content will be organized around four interwoven themes. The computational organization theme covers concepts and structures of computing systems from digital logic to the computer architecture supporting high level languages and operating systems. The programming theme concentrates on learning how to design and code programs to solve problems. The mathematical theme helps develop mathematical reasoning, theoretical abstractions and problem-solving skills needed for computer scientists. A technology and society theme explores social, historical or philosophical topics related to science and technology.We will explore these themes throughout the year through lectures, programming labs, workshops, and seminars. | computer science, education and mathematics. | Neal Nelson Paul Pham Sheryl Shulman Richard Weiss | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||
Zoe Van Schyndel
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Despite access to all sorts of information, people continue to be conned, swindled and cheated out of their hard-earned money. Is it really true anyone can be conned? How can we protect ourselves and our communities against cons who by their very nature make situations seem reasonable and socially compelling.This program is an overview of various schemes and trickery that fraudsters employ in the financial world and elsewhere. From the original Charles Ponzi and his schemes in the early 1900’s to the current day massive affinity fraud perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, we will look at the schemers and their victims. If an investment sounds too good to be true, it probably is—but the success of real-life swindlers shows how often this simple advice is ignored. We will explore what makes investors and others reach for the fool’s gold of seemingly foolproof and lucrative investment opportunities. We will also look at the psychology of fraudsters and try to determine what makes them operate outside the normal laws of society.The program is designed for students with a strong interest in finance and investments or those interested in what drives the most basic of human instincts, greed. Spotting a con requires us to think critically about situations and to find a balance between trusting and self-preservation. By the end of the program we expect you to be able to think creatively about ways to protect yourself and society from fraudsters. | Zoe Van Schyndel | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Karen Gaul, Rita Pougiales and Julie Russo
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 8, 16 | 08 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | In , the historian William Leach writes, “Whoever has the power to project a vision of the good life and make it prevail has the most decisive power of all.” Since the early 20th century, the pleasures of consumption have dominated prevailing visions of the good life in the United States. Innovations in mass production and mass media went hand in hand to link pleasure and prosperity with acquiring the latest commodities. Leisure has also been central to those pleasures, often in the form of tourism, fashion and entertainment, as people consume not only goods but experiences and ideas about what it means to be successful and happy. This program is an inquiry into these features of American consumer culture, particularly the values of convenience and authenticity that characterize the objects and desires it produces and exchanges.Students in this program will study the history and logic of U.S. consumer culture. We will consider the forces that have shaped each of us into consumers in this capitalist society, from representation and ideology to material and technological development. Sustainability will be a critical lens for our inquiry, as we consider the raw materials, labor and waste streams inherent in goods and in cultural experiences. Life cycle analysis of objects—from their origins in nature to their presence on retail shelves, personal spaces, garbage bins and landfills—will help us build a broader context for understanding the materiality with which we all engage every day.Our historical arc will be sweeping: from hunter-gatherers nearly two million years ago, to the origins of animal and plant domestication, to the formation of colonial settlements which created unprecedented challenges and opportunities, to the modern era. We will explore the patterns of resource use, social inequality and relative sustainability. We will examine how habits of conservation, thrift and re-use that were endemic to pre-modern societies transformed in tandem with the unprecedented energies of industrialization. We will investigate the theory and economics of post-industrial capitalism to better understand the impact of new media and technologies on the ways we produce and consume in the present day. We will also examine how curiosity about foreign and mysterious cultures in the context of globalization paved the way for tourism in which cultural authenticity is a central attraction. We will study the relationship between consumption and sustainability, pursuit of the good life through self-help and imported cultural practices such as yoga and meditation, between entertainment industries and communication networks, advertising and buying habits, spending money and self-worth. These contexts will enable us to destabilize and interrogate notions of what feels "normal" in the ways we engage as consumers today, including as consumers of knowledge in increasingly digitized institutions of higher education.Students will have the opportunity to examine ingrained routines of daily life, become conscious of the origins and meanings of their own habits and desires, and thereby become critical thinkers and actors in consumer culture. Our activities will include reading, writing papers and participating in seminar discussions on program topics, learning ethnographic research methods, experimenting with multimodal and collaborative work, viewing relevant films and participating in field trips. In fall quarter, we will build foundational skills and introduce key concepts and themes; winter quarter students will begin to develop their own research agenda; and in spring quarter, they can apply theory to practice in research and/or community-based projects. Spring quarter readings emphasize responses to consumer culture through alternative practices and collectives. Texts on on intentional communities include by Juliet Schor, by Karen Litfin, , and . Texts on virtual communities include by Fred Turner, by Lawrence Lessig, and selections from the anthology Digital Labor. These and related topics comprise an 8 credit academic block taught on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Students enrolling for 16 credits should be prepared to engage in substantial independent learning or work in the community (faculty can structure or guide this piece for new students). One option is a media production intensive that includes a series of technical workshops and a collaborative project. Program learning activities include: seminar responses and essay assignments, field trips, digital media workshops, yoga and awareness practices. Field trips may include Procession of the Species, visits to Fertile Ground, NW Ecobuilders Guild, the Arbutus School, and intentional communities in the PNW, and/or a tour of tiny homes. | Karen Gaul Rita Pougiales Julie Russo | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | |||
Therese Saliba and Naima Lowe
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | "Dangerous creations" emerge out of adverse political conditions and embody new creative strategies and possibilities. This program will explore how writers, media makers, artists and community activists use experimental modes of address to challenge dominant narratives and formal structures, and to confound notions of "the real." With an emphasis on multiculturalism, identity and especially African and Arab Diasporas, this program will examine the histories of slavery, colonialism and Empire and how art, media and literature have been used as tools of both conquest and resistance. We will draw on theoretical tools to analyze the "politics of representation" in popular media, including critiques of Orientalism, the Africanist presence and the gaze. And we will explore how diasporic communities, particularly feminists of color, "talk back" to these representations—by creating dangerously. That is, how do these artists use experimental forms to challenge fixed notions of individual and communal identity, as well as the consumerist system of media and literary production?Through the study of diasporic cultural production, African and Arab American literature and film, Third World Cinema and queer and feminist film theory, we intend to foster critical thinking about race, class and gender identities, and how they are negotiated. We will also explore how certain models of cultural-mixing, hybridity, and border-crossing have created a dispersal of identities and strategic possibilities for solidarities and connections across community struggles.In fall and winter quarters, students will learn to read cultural texts, including film, visual art and literature, to understand the relationships of people and communities, their sense of identity and possibilities for solidarity across differences. Students will develop skills in visual and media literacy, creative and expository writing, analytical reading and viewing, literary analysis, and the terminologies and methodologies of cultural and gender studies, film history and theory. Through workshops, students will also learn a range of community documentation skills, including photography, video, interviewing and oral history. In spring, students will have the opportunity to work on in-depth independent projects in autobiographical representations either through moving image or narrative writing. With faculty guidance and small group workshops, students will write proposals, conduct research and engage in critique groups to produce a major individual or colloborative creation. | visual studies, film studies, cultural studies, literary studies, African-American studies, Arab/Middle East studies, gender studies, community organizing and advocacy, and education. | Therese Saliba Naima Lowe | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
Gail Tremblay and Rebecca Chamberlain
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | How does culture affect the worldviews and visions of writers, artists, storytellers, and filmmakers? How does place affect culture? We will explore these questions and connections through careful reading and analysis of literature, film, and art history which reflects a multicultural perspective. As students of diversity in American culture, we will examine the way in which place, and migration from place, shapes cultural production of texts and art, as well as how our connection to the natural world affects creativity.Over the course of the year we will study works by a diverse group of writers, artists, and filmmakers, including African American, Native American, Asian American, European American, Chicano, Latino writers, and other cultures. We will take field trips to museums and cultural events. Guest speakers from diverse communities will share their perspectives about their practice as writers, artists, and scholars. Workshops in writing, composition, poetry, and art will provide the opportunity to develop a creative practice and create art, poetry, and various forms of narrative. All students will work on improving their academic and writing skills so by the end of the program they can write and work towards publication. Fall quarter, we will study works by a diverse group of American writers, artists, and filmmakers, beginning with Linda Hogan's novel, A multi-day field trip to the Makah Nation in Neah Bay, on the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula will allow us to study the artifacts from Ozette, a village on the Pacific Coast buried by a mud slide during the 17th century, some of whose artifacts carbon date from the 1500s. We will meet with contemporary artists, and cultural experts, from the Makah Nation and learn about their relationship to place. We will also study works by African American, Chicano, Jewish American, Armenian American, and Arab American writers and filmmakers. Students will explore the role of art, film, literature, storytelling, and filmmaking as they begin their own artistic practice. They will participate in workshops on creating narrative and visual art and will write weekly synthesis essays that reflect on texts and integrate the various materials we are studying. Winter quarter, students will continue to explore creative works and anthologies by diverse writers, including texts by a variety of Asian Americans, European Americans, and other Native Nations and cultural groups. We will also continuie our study of the works of diverse artists and filmmakers. In addition to field trips and workshops on poetry and art, students will write two five-page expository essays and one ten-page research paper. Students will continue to participate in creative workshops and complete two creative projects that grow out of our work over the past two quarters. They will present their creative projects for their classmates and friends on campus. | literature, education, art, and cultural studies. | Gail Tremblay Rebecca Chamberlain | Mon Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
Michelle Aguilar-Wells
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | -Laura Bickford, Oscar nominated producer of "Traffic" Film can revolve around complex issues found in society and offer different perspectives on human and societal behavior. Students in the all level class will view and analyze a minimum of 20 films from the big screen, small screen, and documentary categories. The class will be divided into four topical areas: race relations, corporate influence and impacts, LGBT community issues, and a miscellaneous category. Examples of films that may be included are: Crash, Milk, American History X, Wall Street, Grand Torino, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Traffic, Two Spirits, and How to Survive a Plague. Students will review critiques of the films, participate in seminars, use organizing techniques to identify concepts, and review competing and historical perspectives. In addition, students will analyze each film’s individual perspectives, techniques, and impacts. Students will produce reflections and/or film analysis, a final term paper that is a comparative analysis within one of the categories, deep reflective questions for each film, and research work associated with each film category. They will learn to apply critical modes of questioning to issues in their own communities. They will understand the meaning of social consciousness and the value of significant dialogue. Students should be prepared to enter into difficult discussions with civility and respect. Students can expect to examine their own beliefs in light of differing perspectives. Students can expect to receive credit in film analysis, critical thought, and social consciousness or justice. : students in this program must be prepared to view films that offer controversial subject matter and perspectives and may be rated R. | Michelle Aguilar-Wells | Mon Tue Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Peter Bohmer
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | The outcome of current social and economic problems will shape the future for us all. This program focuses on analyzing these problems and developing skills to contribute to debates and effective action in the public sphere. We will address major contemporary issues such as national and global poverty and economic inequality, immigration, incarceration, climate change, and war. U.S. economic and social problems will be placed in a global context. We will draw on sociology, political science, economics and political economy for our analysis, with particular attention to dimensions of class, race, gender, and global inequalities.We will analyze the mainstream and alternative media coverage of current issues and of the social movements dealing with them. We will build our analyses using data-driven descriptions, narratives of those directly affected, and theories that place issues in larger social and historical contexts. Students will be introduced to competing theoretical frameworks for explaining the causes of social problems and their potential solutions (frameworks such as neoclassical economics, liberalism, Marxism, feminism, and anarchism). We will study how social movements have actively addressed the problems and investigate their short- and long-term proposals and solutions as well as how they would be addressed in alternative economic and social systems.We will choose the specific issues to be investigated in the program as spring 2014 approaches, so that our study will be as relevant as possible. For each topic examined, we will combine readings with lectures, films, and workshops, along with guest speakers and possible field trips as appropriate to observe problems and responses first hand.Students will write short papers on each of the social problems we analyze. In addition, you will study in more depth and report on one of the economic or social issues we are studying. | Peter Bohmer | Tue Wed Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | ||||
Robert Esposito
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | How can dance serve as a central metaphor for the holistic organization and transformation of personal life experience into aesthetic objects expressing the dynamic connectivity of self, world, and others? Using an expressive arts therapy model, movement study will be integrated with work in writing, drawing, and music in this multidimensional modern dance program exploring an integrative approach to choreography. It will involve disciplined physical and intellectual study, including weekly dance composition homework assignments.Studio activities will include progressive study in Nikolais/Louis dance technique, theory/improvisation, composition, and performance. Readings, self-inventories, and seminars in the philosophy and psychology of the creative process, designed to broaden and enhance the student’s palette of creative choice, will explore factors such as self-image, linguistics, cultural and educational conditioning, and multiple learning styles. In solo and group collaboration, students will workshop formal craft elements of composition, such as shape, space, time, and motion. Workshops will use various media to draw and integrate content from students’ life experiences and/or past interdisciplinary study in order to create original multimedia work. Compositions will be shared in weekly performance forums that include faculty and student-centered critique and analysis.Texts will be used to explore the development of dance and movement therapy, draw distinctions between art and psychology, and explore the creative and therapeutic effects of the expressive arts. Seminar discussions will emphasize critical analysis in order to situate texts, art, film, and student work in historical and sociocultural contexts. Writing assignments will balance creative, analytical, and research styles, with a comparative overview of linguistic and communications theory. The program culminates with a Week 10 studio recital of selected student work. | Robert Esposito | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Paul Pham
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 12, 16 | 12 16 | Day | S 14Spring | What is computer science, who is it for, and can it combine with art, design, and engineering to help us be more free? What is the relationship of computation to human socialization, physical embodiment, psychology, play, intelligence, or gender? This program addresses these questions through four interrelated threads: (1) Massively Multi-language Computer Programming (MMCP), (2) Software Anthropology, (3) Arduino Robotics, and (4) Seminar and Speaker Series. Each thread has a concrete but open-ended goal, which students will pursue in small groups documented with an online journal.In MMCP, students will learn a programming language of their own choice in a self-directed way and help jointly develop software for an interactive online storybook to teach computer science. Each week, a student group will help prepare a lesson to teach the rest of the class. In Software Anthropology, students will study communities centered around technology including makerspaces, software companies, and schools. They will actively provoke social interaction with other Evergreen programs. The end goal of this thread will be organizing a sustainable Evergreen computer club. In Arduino Robotics, students will learn the basics of computer architecture and system design by using the Arduino electronics platform to control small robots. In the Seminar and Speaker Series, students will hear from a variety of Evergreen alums with careers in technology. In addition, they will help organize the logistics of the speakers' visit.One or more of the above threads will be shared with the programs "Computer Science Foundations" and "Student-Originated Software." Students wishing to prepare for "Computability and Language Theory" in 2014-2015 may take a 12-credit version of this program and the Discrete Math thread from "Computer Science Foundations." The final goal of the overall program is a single creative work to which all students will contribute. It will be part ethnography and part how-to manual to recreate a future program in a similar spirit.The program is designed to be self-bootstrapping, vastly exploratory, and evolving, with all students actively participating in ongoing activity planning. It is perfect for responsible, self-motivated students who can tolerate confusion, excitement, boredom, joy, and the gradual formation of new insights. No previous computer science background is required, only a strong desire to improve and not give up.Activities will include field studies, long hikes, movable feasts, guest lectures, studio time, seminar discussions, student presentations, lively group discussions, silent reading parties, watching films and TED talks, giving peer feedback and critiques, and meetings with the instructor.Possible texts include "Design Patterns" by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides; "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman; "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson; "Logicomix" by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos; "Thinking with Type" by Ellen Lupton; and "Artificial Knowing: Gender and the Thinking Machine" by Alison Adam. | Paul Pham | Mon Mon Tue Tue Tue Wed Thu Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Dharshi Bopegedera and Abir Biswas
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This interdisciplinary, introductory-level program will explore topics in physical geology and general chemistry. It is designed for students with a desire to have a broader and deeper understanding of the Earth, the structure of matter that makes up the Earth, and their interconnectedness. The study of lab and field sciences through rigorous, quantitative, and interdisciplinary investigations will be emphasized throughout the program. We expect students to finish the program with a strong understanding of the scientific and mathematical concepts that help us investigate the world around us.In the fall quarter we will study fundamental concepts in Earth science such as geologic time, plate tectonics, and earth materials supported by explorations into the atomic structure and bonding. We will focus on skill building in the laboratory with the goal of doing meaningful field and lab work later in the year. Winter quarter will focus on Earth processes such as nutrient cycling and climate change supported by the study of stoichiometry, chemical equilibria, acid-base chemistry, and kinetics. Quantitative reasoning and statistical analysis of data will be emphasized throughout the program and students will participate in weekly geology and chemistry content-based workshops focusing on improving mathematical skills. Opportunities will be available for field work and to explore topics of interest through individual and group projects. | Dharshi Bopegedera Abir Biswas | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Michael Paros
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This field-based program will provide students with the fundamental tools to manage livestock and grasslands by exploring the ecological relationships between ruminants and the land. We will begin the quarter learning about the physiology of grasses and their response to grazing and fire. Practical forage identification, morphology and production will be taught. Ruminant nutrition, foraging behavior, and digestive physiology will be covered as a precursor to learning about the practical aspects of establishing, assessing and managing livestock rotational grazing operations. We will divide our time equally between intensive grazing and extensive rangeland systems. Classroom lectures, workshops and guest speakers will be paired with weekly field trips to dairy, beef, sheep and goat grazing farms. There will be overnight trips to Willammette Valley where we will study managed intensive grazing dairy operations and forage production, and Eastern Washington/Oregon where students can practice their skills in rangeland monitoring and grazing plan development. Other special topics that will be covered in the program include: co-evolutionary relationships between ruminants and grasses, targeted and multi-species grazing, prairie ecology and restoration, riparian ecosystems, controversies in public land grazing, interactions between wildlife and domestic ruminants, and perennial grain development. | Michael Paros | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Bill Arney
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | —T. S. Eliot, “Two Choruses from the Rock” Education is not schooling. Schooling is for fish and maybe for getting a job. Life is not living. Living is what you have to make or, to some, everything that happens between birthing and dying. What could “Education for Life” mean? We’ll read some sages, all of them our contemporaries, who seem to have wisdom enough to offer an answer. Annie Dillard muses on God that, “Sometimes, en route, dazzlingly or dimly, he shows an edge of himself to souls who seek him, and the people who bear those souls, marveling, know it, and see the skies carousing around them, and watch cells stream and multiply in green leaves.” We’ll see where comes from and where it leads. Alain de Botton says it is possible to build new institutions to “generate feelings of community,” “promote kindness,” to help us “surrender some of our counterproductive optimism,” to “achieve perspective through the sublime and the transcendent,” and to do it without ethical codes, religions, morality and all the other trump cards that, while they might help us live, distract us from life. We’ll see. Wendell Berry believes that we can disentangle ourselves from a science that tells us everything worth knowing about a world that is one grand mechanism or, more recently, a total system, and from an economy where value means only price. He thinks we can recover the old virtues of living together not on the Earth but on the land and must do so “motivated by affection, by such love for a place and life that [we] want to preserve it and remain in it.” We’ll see. Charles Bowden asks, “How can a person live a moral life in a culture of death?,” and answers, by saying Yes to all of life. There are other sages who might help us claw our way back up T. S. Eliot’s slippery slope to our future. We’ll find some. | Bill Arney | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
Ulrike Krotscheck and Caryn Cline
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Must quotidian always be associated with humdrum? Rather, it is perhaps the quotidian—the everyday, the banal—that, in the long run, heroically ensures the survival of the individual and the group as a whole. -Michel Maffesoli, An “epic” is generally defined as a poem or narrative of considerable length, which explores grand themes such as a hero’s journey, or the origin myth of a country or peoples. As an adjective, “epic” refers to something that is larger than life and often extra-ordinary. By contrast, the “everyday” is flatly defined as ordinary and is often seen as boring, trivial, and lacking in grandeur. Yet, the “everyday” has a rich creative history and garners remarkable attention in contemporary art, spiritual practices, and other areas of study and praxis. Our lives are made up of both the epic and the everyday; both are integral components of the human experience. And the tension that exists between the two is rich territory for insight and imagination.This program interrogates how the essence of the epic enters the everyday and how the quotidian gives meaning to the epic.We will juxtapose the exploration of the “epic” as a literary form with the exploration of the “everyday” as a creative practice that engages experiments in text, sound, and image. We will conduct these explorations through readings, film screenings, analyses, lectures, workshops, seminars, and by developing discovery strategies rooted in the creative practices of writing nonfiction and of crafting video essays.During fall quarter students will read ancient Greek epic poetry, myth, and tragedy. These works tap deeply into the human condition, and they explore our most persistent and universal questions, such as the concepts of destiny, power, morality, mortality, and the (in-)evitabilty of fate. As we analyze the grand questions raised by epic texts we will also consider if or how we encounter such themes in everyday life. Conversely, we will examine how everyday life may intersect with epic-scale experiences and insights.To facilitate these considerations students will develop a daily writing practice and craft a variety of creative nonfiction essays—meditative, lyrical, personal, and hybrid forms—and we will factor into our studies exemplars that engage thematically with the everyday. Fall quarter explorations will move off the page to incorporate sound and image as tools for creative and critical inquiry. Students will take a series of electronic media workshops and gain hands-on experience with audiovisual scriptwriting, audio recording, photography, and video editing. Fall quarter will conclude with students applying their creative writing skills and electronic media competencies in collaboratively crafted video essays that blend students' literary works with audio and images to explore the realm between the epic and the everyday.During winter quarter we will deepen our investigations into the epic and the everyday through additional readings and analyses of classic Greek texts and by furthering our audiovisual inquiries. One goal of this quarter will be to advance students’ understanding of various film and adaptation theories to put into practice in their individual work. Winter quarter will conclude with rigorous individual projects that encompass a research paper on sources and methods of adaptation, and an independently made video essay.This is a full-time program emphasizing classical Greek literature and media arts, creative and critical practice, collaborative learning, and individual accountability. Expect assignments to be process-driven, highly structured, and challenging. Students are expected to participate fully in all program activities, and to work about 40 hours per week including class time. If you’re eager to blend the study of Ancient Greek literature with experiments in media arts, then this program is for you. | Ulrike Krotscheck Caryn Cline | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
Steven Hendricks
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | In this introductory literary arts program, we’ll investigate the tradition of experimental literature by treating literary experiments—our own included—as creative research into the possibilities of language and narrative. The alphabet, the language, the myriad tropes and formulae for literary expression and the archetypal patterns that haunt our stories: we will view these as a vast table of elements that can be combined and synthesized into new substances: new genres, prose forms, syntax, strategies for reading and making meaning...new reasons to write. Our own creative work will provide a rigorous testing ground for literary ideas. Student writing will be examined by faculty and peers on a regular basis with half a mind toward developing one's craft, and the other half toward investigating, for its own sake, the complex relationship between reader, text and writer. Program seminars will emphasize a lineage of exceptional exceptions: novels and short fiction of the last half century by writers who have taken careful stock of shifts in literary and cultural theory. Lectures will introduce students to analytic reading practices, literary criticism and theory. Throughout the program, we'll practice rich and extended reading of just six book-length works (along with short ancillary texts). Thus, just three pairs of authors will shape our studies: (Pair 1) Virginia Woolf and Samuel Becket;(2) Italo Calvino and Harry Mathews; and (3) Thalia Field and Ben Marcus. Each pair will comprise the focal point for a three week unit; each unit will include an in-class exam. Students enrolled in the program should be prepared to read the range of challenging texts, practice the art of writing in the spirit of experimentation and play, conduct independent research into complex questions relevant to program texts and themes, and participate actively in program seminars, workshops and critiques. Interested students should study the program schedule carefully, as there will be extensive in-class work, as with a studio-based program; in our case, studio practice means writing, reading and critique. | Steven Hendricks | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | ||||
Leonard Schwartz
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | In this two-quarter program we will read contemporary fiction, poetry, and essays as well as several theoretical texts that pertain to our central inquiries: What kind of knowledge do we encounter in fiction and poetry? What is the relation between the artifice of form and the experience of truth? In what way is the factual (that which we take to be given) also artefactual (that which has been made)? By what powers and strategies do poetry and fiction convey truths?Fall quarter will develop the coordinates of the inquiry via reading, writing, and visitors; winter extends the inquiry into our own writings. Required texts include poetry by modernists such as Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein; and poetry and prose by Robert Duncan (from whom we take our course title) much of which was written in response to the generation of modernists who preceded him. The required texts are extremely diverse formally, but share overlapping preoccupations with memory and amnesia; metaphysics and transformation; realism and perception; and ethics and poetics.Fall quarter will be reading-intensive and comprised of seminars on the required texts; a range of writing exercises aimed towards generating material; and opportunities to hear and dialogue with visiting writers. In this quarter students will learn literary critical vocabulary and close reading skills. Winter quarter will involve an extended writing project and intensive writing workshops in small groups in which we will utilize the skills learned in the first quarter towards critiquing and revising student writing. | Leonard Schwartz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Frederica Bowcutt
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This program fosters the skills needed for field work in the fields of floristics and plant ecology particularly vegetation studies. Students will learn how to use Hitchcock and Cronquist's , a technical key for identifying unknown plants. We will spend time in the field and laboratory discussing diagnostic characters of plant families. Seminar readings will be focused on floristics, biogeography and vegetation ecology. Students will learn how to collect and prepare herbarium specimens and apply this knowledge to a collaborative research project. Students will also learn about herbarium curation.A multi-day field trip to the Columbia River Gorge will give students an opportunity to learn about Pacific Northwest plant communities in the field, including prairies, oak woodlands and coniferous forests. Students will be expected to maintain a detailed field journal and will be taught basic botanical illustration skills to support this work. Through the field trip, students will learn qualitative vegetation sampling methods and how to analyze their observations. The field trip is required.Students who successfully complete the course will earn 16 units of upper-division science credit in field plant taxonomy, vegetation ecology of the Pacific Northwest, and floristic research. | Frederica Bowcutt | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Dharshi Bopegedera and Susan Aurand
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | In this program, we will explore how artistic and scientific inquiries can lead to a better understanding of ceramics, a material that has been in human use since antiquity. We will study the principles of chemistry that will enable us to understand the properties of ceramics, which is an exceptional medium for creative expression. In the studio, students will learn basic hand-building techniques and gain an introduction to slips, stains, glazes and the firing process. We will also explore the basics of the chemistry of clay bodies, glaze formation and reduction versus oxidation firing. Program activities will include lectures, workshops, seminars, studios and labs. We expect everyone to create original artworks in ceramics and participate in lab experiences that will enrich their understanding of this material that has evolved with human history. No prior ceramics or chemistry experience is necessary. | arts and sciences. | Dharshi Bopegedera Susan Aurand | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | ||||
Elizabeth Williamson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 4, 8, 16 | 04 08 16 | Day and Evening | Su 14 Full Summer | Elizabeth Williamson | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||||
Robert Leverich, Gretchen Van Dusen, Robert Knapp and Anthony Tindill
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | In a world full of man-made stuff, what does it mean to be a maker of things? How does what you make, the materials you choose, and how you shape them define and speak for you, as an individual, and as part of a culture or community, or an environment? What’s been handed to you, and what will you hand on? This is a foundational program for those who are drawn to envisioning and making things, from art and craft to architecture and environments, and who are open to thinking about that work as both creative self-expression and responsive engagement with materials, environments, and communities. It’s a serious introduction to studio-centered creative work – each student will be part of a working studios to focus on individual and group 3D projects that address art, craft, and construction challenges at a variety of scales, with supporting work in drawing, design, and fabrication skills, materials science, environmental history and ideas, and sustainable practices. Collaboratively, we will engage this work as art, science, expression, and service, challenging such distinctions and looking for commonalities of approach and meaning. Book possibilities include Pallasmaa: Cooper: ; Berge, Steele: Rothenburg: Engaged students will leave this program with new drawing, design, and building skills, experience with design as a multidisciplinary approach to complex problems, deeper understanding of materials and their environmental and social impacts, and fuller awareness of how the arts and architecture can shape environments and communities in ways that are ethical, beautiful, and sustainable. This program is preparatory for that follows in Winter and Spring quarters. | Robert Leverich Gretchen Van Dusen Robert Knapp Anthony Tindill | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||||
Robert Leverich and Anthony Tindill
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This program builds on ideas and skills introduced in Green Materials: Arts, Science, and Construction in the Fall. It focuses on craft and construction at different scales, from details and furnishings to building systems and construction methods. Each student will be part of a working studio to focus on individual and group 3D projects that address design and construction challenges, with supporting work in drawing, fabrication skills, building science, environmental history and ideas, and sustainable practices. We will engage this work as art, science, expression, and service, challenging such distinctions and looking for commonalities of approach and meaning.Detail projects – furniture, hardware, built-ins, lighting, and other building details - will explore craft and sustainability through smaller scaled work with wood, metals, composites, and repurposed materials – where some of the most creative craft work is being done today. Work at this scale is where one literally gets in touch with a building, so issues of ergonomics, comfort, usability, and equal access will come to the fore. We’ll focus on wood and wood products in the winter quarter and metals in the spring quarter, introducing basic skills in each area. Construction projects will address materials at the scale of sustainable building. Energy is a primary concern: currently buildings account for 42% of U.S. energy use, larger even than transportation and industrial energy use. New design and construction – or even better, renovating and retrofitting - can reduce that energy use in the future, even with an increase in numbers of buildings. We will consider emerging technologies that enhance energy efficiency, design strategies that reduce the overall energy needs of a building, and the impact of current sustainable building movements. Projects at both scales will emphasize informed use of materials – their benefits and their environmental, social, and economic impacts, and skillful use of tools and techniques, to design and build wisely. Lectures, workshops, and seminars will address themes common to both craft and construction: the history of environmental art and design, structure principles, ethics, beauty, community and sustainability. Likely books include: (Adamson), (Walker), (Lechner),and (Lovins). Engaged students will gain new skills in drawing, design, craft, and construction as sustainable practices, and the ability to speak for that work effectively through, graphics, writing, and public presentations. | Robert Leverich Anthony Tindill | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
Eirik Steinhoff
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This intensive introductory critical and creative writing program will investigate the relation between and , between making in language and taking action . We will do this by studying the ways in which the arrangements of our words influence the shapes of our thought and vice versa. The objective is to better comprehend the material consequences and political upshots of the choices we make with the language we use both on and off the page. We will read (and sometimes write) poetry and fiction and drama, in order to sharpen our alertness to the operation of a variety of verbal tactics and strategies. But the primary form in which we conduct our experiments, both as readers and as writers, will be that old stand-by, the essay. Our effort shall be to re-animate this form, prying it free from any knee-jerk reflexes, worn-out proficiencies, and straight-up allergies we might have by reconnecting ourselves to the form’s roots in the French word for “attempt,” , as one of the essay’s progenitors, Michel de Montaigne, will so helpfully remind us. The wager here is that the essay itself is a kind of laboratory, a space in which experiments in language can be composed, where new forms of thought may be invented, and new actions and practices persuasively proposed. Our reading will be organized around a handful of case studies designed to expose us to various ways of doing things with words in relation to particular subject matter. These will allow us to build our toolkit together as readers and writers, and they will prepare us to branch out into areas of research we will conduct on our own as the program proceeds. Authors to be consulted range from philosophers to poets to scientists to fiction writers, such as Hannah Arendt, Anne Carson, Charles Darwin, and Franz Kafka. Case studies to be considered are likely to include: metamorphosis, metaphor, tricksters, slogans chanted in Tahrir Square, the commodity form, pencils, cargo containers, the placebo effect, LCD screens, and how to think in an emergency. The short of it is this: we’ll be reading and writing (and re-writing) a lot, both in class and out of it, on the page and on the screen. No experience necessary, some assembly required, all students welcome. But whoever you are, be sure to bring a notebook and a good pen to our first class. The only way to do this right is by writing. | Eirik Steinhoff | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Bill Arney
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Individual Study offers opportunities for students to pursue their own courses of study and research through individual learning contracts or internships. Bill Arney sponsors individual learning contracts in the humanities and social sciences. All students, including first-year students and transfers, ready to do good work are welcome to make a proposal to Bill Arney. 12-16 variable credit options are available. | Bill Arney | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Diego de Acosta
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This two-quarter program explores the fascinating world of languages. What do you know when you know a language? How do you get that knowledge? Are there properties that all languages share? How do languages change over time? Why are half of the world's languages now under threat of extinction? How are communities held together or torn apart by the languages they speak?We will consider these questions and others through the lens of linguistics. Topics to be examined for winter include: phonetics, phonology, morphology, language change, the history of English and English dialects, key issues facing multilingual communities and language planning. In spring, topics will include: syntax, semantics, pragmatics, first language acquisition, language and gender and linguistic politeness. We will look at well-known languages and lesser-known languages and discover why they matter in our lives today. Through the course of the program students will learn a variety of conceptual and empirical techniques, from analyzing speech sounds to interpreting the rationale behind current language policy.This program will be an intensive examination of topics requiring a significant amount of reading as well as regular problem sets and essays.Students interested in taking a language course alongside this program can arrange to take this program for 12 credits. | Diego de Acosta | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
Amy Cook and Ralph Murphy
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This program is designed to serve as a foundation for advanced programs in Environmental Studies. It will survey a range of disciplines and skills essential for environmental problem solving from both a scientific and social science perspective. Specifically, we will study ecological principles and methods, aquatic ecology, methods of analysis in environmental studies, the political and economic history of environmental policy making in the United States, micro-economics and political science. This information will be used to analyze current issues and topics in environmental studies.In fall quarter, we will study ecology with a focus on aquatic systems. We will examine the major physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic environments, the organisms that live in these environments and the factors controlling the species diversity, distribution and growth of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. These scientific issues will be grounded in the context of politics, economics and public policy. During fall quarter we will examine, from the founding era to the present, how the values of democracy and capitalism influence resource management, the scope and limitations of governmental policymaking, regulatory agencies and environmental law. Understanding the different levels (federal, state, local) of governmental responsibility for environmental protection will be explored in depth. Field trips and case studies will offer opportunities to see how science and policy interact in environmental issues. During fall quarter, we will develop an introduction to research design, quantitative reasoning and statistics.In winter, the focus will shift to a more global scale. We will examine in depth several major challenges for the early 21st century; forest and fish resources, global warming and marine pollution. These are three related topics that require an understanding of the science, politics and economics of each issue and how they interact with one another. Globalism, political and economic development and political unrest and uncertainty will be discussed within each topic as well as how these macro-level problems overlap one another. During winter quarter, micro-economics will be studied as a problem solving tool for environmental issues as well as an introduction to environmental economic analysis.The material will be presented through lectures, seminars, labs, field trips/field work and quantitative methods (statistics) and economics workshops. Labs and field trips will examine the organisms that live in aquatic systems, measure water quality and study local terrestrial habitats. Quantitative methods workshops will present the use of computers to organize and analyze data. Microeconomic principles and methods will provide the foundation for environmental economic analysis. | Amy Cook Ralph Murphy | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
James Neitzel, Mario Gadea and Kristopher Waynant
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 12, 16 | 12 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This introductory-level program is designed for students who are prepared to take their first year of college-level science using an interdisciplinary framework. This program offers an integrated study of biology, chemistry, and physics that serves as an introduction to the concepts, theories and structures which underlie all the natural sciences. Our goal is to equip students with the conceptual, methodological and quantitative tools that they will need to ask and answer questions that arise in a variety of disciplines using the models and tools of chemistry, biology, and physics. . Students will also gain a strong appreciation of the interconnectedness of biological and physical systems, and an ability to apply this knowledge to complex problemProgram activities will include lectures and small-group problem-solving workshops, where conceptual and technical skills will be developed. There will be a significant laboratory component--students can expect to spend at least a full day in lab each week, maintain laboratory notebooks, write formal laboratory reports and give formal presentations of their work. Biology laboratories in this program will include participation in the SEA-PHAGE program coordinated by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the use of bioinformatics tools on a bacteriophage genome. We will make extensive use of mathematical modeling in all program activities.Seminar will enable us to apply our growing understanding of scientific principles and methodology to societal issues such as genetic testing and engineering or the causes and effects of climate change. In addition to studying current scientific theories, we will consider the historical, societal and personal factors that influence our thinking about the natural world. Students will be exposed to the primary literature of these sciences and develop skill in writing for diverse audiences. During spring quarter, students will have the opportunity to design and carry out their own laboratory investigations, the results of which they will present in talks and papers at the end of the quarter.All laboratory work and approximately one half of the non-lecture time will be spent working in collaborative problem-solving groups. It will be a rigorous program, requiring a serious commitment of time and effort. Overall, we expect students to end the program in the spring with a solid working knowledge of scientific and mathematical concepts, and with the ability to reason critically and solve problems.Students completing this program will have covered material equivalent to one year of general biology and general chemistry, with a significant amount of physics. | James Neitzel Mario Gadea Kristopher Waynant | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | |||
Harumi Moruzzi and Tomoko Hirai Ulmer
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Japan is a vital, energetic and dynamic country which has been constantly reinventing and revitalizing itself even in the midst of gargantuan natural disasters, while struggling to maintain a sense of cultural and social continuity from the long lost past. Meanwhile, the conception and image of Japan, both in Japan and throughout the West, has varied widely over time, mostly due to Japan’s changing political and economic situation in the world. In the late 19th century, when Japan re-emerged into Western consciousness, Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish-American writer who later became Japanese, thought of Japanese society and its people as quaintly charming and adorable. In contrast, Americans in the 1940s viewed Japan as frighteningly militaristic and irrational. The French philosopher/semiotician Roland Barthes was bewitched and liberated by Japan’s charmingly mystifying otherness during his visit in 1966, when Japan began to show its first sign of recovery from the devastation of the WWII. The Dutch journalist Karel Van Wolferen was disturbed by the intractable and irresponsible system of Japanese power in 1989, when the Japanese economy was viewed as threatening to existing international power relations. These examples show how Japan has been viewed by Westerners in the past. The idea and image of Japan is highly dependent on the point of view that an observer assumes and that history makes possible.This full-time interdisciplinary program is devoted to understanding contemporary Japan, its culture and its people, from a historical point of view. We will study Japanese history, literature, cinema, culture and society through lectures, books, films, seminars and workshops, including study of Japanese language embedded in the program. Three levels of language study (1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-year Japanese) will be offered for 4 credits each during the fall and winter quarters.In the fall quarter, we will explore the cultural roots of Japan in its history. In the winter quarter, we will examine Japan after 1952, when the Allied occupation ended. Special emphasis will be placed on the examination of contemporary Japanese popular culture and its position in economic and cultural globalization. Students who are interested in experiencing Japan in person can take Japanese language classes in Tokyo through Harumi Moruzzi’s Individual Study: Japanese Culture, Literature, Film, Society, and Study Abroad in spring quarter. | Harumi Moruzzi Tomoko Hirai Ulmer | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Richard Weiss and Diego de Acosta
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | This program links together computer science and linguistics through the written forms and grammars of languages. First, we’ll consider writing: what do the world’s alphabets, syllabaries and pictographic writing systems tell us about the structure of human languages? Are some writing systems particularly appropriate for some languages, or is it possible to represent any language with any writing system? Ciphers deliberately conceal information without removing it. What does cryptography tell us about the nature of information?Second, we’ll look at the grammars of human and computer languages. The syntax of a computer language can be described precisely, while human languages have exceptions. Yet there have been many attempts to model human language with computers, and to create ways for computers to “read” and “listen” to human languages. To what extent have automatic translation programs and Internet search engines been successful? Why is it that humans can handle ambiguity, but computers have such a difficult time?Major topics of the programStudents will participate in lectures, seminar, labs and workshops on linguistics, programming and computation. They will be evaluated on quizzes, exams, papers and programs. | Richard Weiss Diego de Acosta | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
Alice Nelson
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | In recent decades, Latin America has become well known beyond its borders for compelling, politically urgent and aesthetically vibrant literary works. Contemporary writings by Latin American women, increasingly available in English translation, challenge preconceptions about gender and sexuality in the region, while also addressing critical issues of politically motivated violence, collective memory, intersecting oppressions, language, spirituality, democratization and social change. This program seeks to foster greater understanding of the region and its diverse peoples and perspectives. Writers will include Gloria Anzaldúa (U.S.), Rosario Castellanos (Mexico), Ana Lydia Vega (Puerto Rico), Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala), Daisy Zamora (Nicaragua), Conceição Evaristo (Brazil), Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina) and Pía Barros (Chile), among many others.We will read novels, poetry, short stories and testimonials by Latin American (indigenous, mestiza, Afro-Latina) women writers, focusing on legacies of colonialism, authoritarianism and neoliberalism, as well as projects for contesting recent histories. We will situate our literary analysis within the historical and political events that shape Latin American women’s texts, and examine their critique of masculinist narratives that justify domination and exclude women’s voices. We will also view films by and about women, and examine women's and feminist movements in the region. Students will write literary analyses and some creative work, and will conduct research on a writer of their choice. Through this study, students will consider the impact of political, economic and cultural forces on Latin American women's lives and literary production, while also examining literary and film representations as sites of resistance. | Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | |||||
Patricia Krafcik, Evan Blackwell and Carrie Margolin
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | What is creativity? Is there a relationship between states of mind and a fertile imagination? What are the psychological mechanisms involved in the larger action of the human imagination, urging us to explore new avenues, to see what others have not seen, to create what no one has yet created? Many of the world's greatest writers, artists and thinkers have been known to struggle with conditions classified as abnormal by psychologists. We will explore these conditions and their impact on creativity, searching further for any special links between certain kinds of abnormal psychological conditions and the drive to create.Our interdisciplinary program is not intended to serve as therapy, but rather is a serious study of psychology, literature, the arts, imagination and the creative impulse. We will approach our questions through various modes of inquiry. Through an in-depth study of abnormal psychology, we will learn to identify and understand a number of conditions. We will investigate modern art history and its fascination with the art produced by individuals reputed to be cultural "outsiders," such as folk art, art of the insane, art brut and self-taught artists. Through this study we will explore how societies form a group identity which is established in relation to some designated "other." Our readings combine art theory with psychological case studies by writers such as Sacks and Ramachandran and with imaginative literature by Gogol, Dostoevsky, Poe, Kafka, Plath, Gilman and many others that all describe abnormal psychological conditions. We will respond to our readings by channeling the imagination with a variety of creative projects. Finally, we will also study the normal mind and how it functions in both mundane and creative ways.In both quarters of our program students will discuss assigned readings in seminars, will engage in active writing exercises and in rigorous two-dimensional and thre-dimensional visual art work in ceramics, mixed-media sculpture, collage, and drawing. Assignments may include research papers, poster projects, creative writing, performances and visual arts projects. Weekly films and discussions of these films will enhance our examination of the uses or influence of psychological conditions in the creation of literature, art and music. Guest speakers will provide additional workshops and lectures in various artistic modalities. In fall term we will take field trips to the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass, and our work that term will prepare students to undertake a culminating project in winter term. In all our activities, students will have ample opportunities to explore their own creativity and imagination. | Patricia Krafcik Evan Blackwell Carrie Margolin | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Grace Huerta
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 4, 16 | 04 16 | Day | S 14Spring | The intent of this 16-credit program is to undergraduate students to the foundational theories, research and pedagogies specific to teaching English language learners (ELLs) in adult and K-12 classroom or international settings. Students will examine how such conditions as history, political climate, school policies and program models impact the access and quality of education ELLs receive. Students will then focus on the study of language as a system with an emphasis on three important aspects of ELL pedagogy: a) literacy development, b) academic language/content area instruction, and, c) assessment of language proficiency and performance. Students will analyze the central theories, structures and conventions presented in functional linguistics and language acquisition research. With this knowledge base, students will design literacy curriculum and instructional strategies that align with Washington’s K-12 English language development and Common Core standards and competencies, or the TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) standards for adult ELLs.Next, students will explore methods for content-area teaching (i.e. math, science, social studies) and formative and summative assessments specific to the Common Core and four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as the four developmental levels of language proficiency: pre-production, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Students will also learn the principles of backward design lesson planning, analyze instructional tasks for ELLs, provide ELLs opportunities for comprehensible input (receptive language instruction) and comprehensible output (productive language instruction); and offer content-area lesson demonstrations for peer feedback. A field experience, in which students will tutor ELLs in a bilingual school setting one day a week, is a required component of the "Making Meaning" program.Lastly, students will conduct a case study in which they will interview and examine the philosophy and experiences of a professional ELL educator. By analyzing the interrelationship between language learning and communities of practice, students will consider how ELLs' sociocultural experiences influence the language acquisition process.Students taking the 4-credit option will join the rest of the program during our review of language acquisition theories and will use that knowledge to design curriculum, instructional and assessment strategies for English language learners (ELLs). Students will also explore the underlying assumptions that impact language learning and how such assumptions can be addressed through the Washington state K-12 ELL and/or TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) standards. | Grace Huerta | Mon Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Clyde Barlow and Neil Switz
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Modern science has been remarkably successful in providing understanding of how natural systems behave. Such disparate phenomena as the workings of cell-phones, the ways in which we detect supermassive black holes in the galactic core, the use of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of disease, the effects of global carbon dioxide levels on shellfish growth, and the design of batteries for electric cars are all linked at a deeply fundamental level. This program will introduce you to the theory and practice of the science behind these and other phenomena, while providing the solid academic background in mathematics, chemistry, and physics necessary for advanced study in those fields as well as for engineering, medicine, and biology.We will integrate material from first-year university physics, chemistry, and calculus with relevant areas of history and scientific literature. The program will have a strong laboratory focus using computer-based experimental control and analysis to explore the nature of chemical and physical systems; this work will take place in a highly collaborative environment. Seminars will provide the opportunity to explore the connections between theory and practice and will provide opportunities to enhance technical writing and communication skills. The program is intended for students with solid high-school level backgrounds in science and mathematics, but the key to succeeding will be a commitment to work, learn, and collaborate. | Clyde Barlow Neil Switz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | |||
Mukti Khanna and Cynthia Kennedy
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This two-quarter program explores the creation of health through mind-body perspectives. How can we engage in transformational conversations about the connections between personal, community and planetary health? Knowing that in every moment choices we make can move us toward health, or away from it, this program will explore the myriad ways we can embody choices that keep us and our communities vital and alive. Throughout the program, we will recognize that our individual choices can help us create both personal health and a sustainable environment, a conscious life and a positive presence in society.Fall quarter we will explore systems of health and healing from multicultural, neurobiological and ecopsychological lenses. There is a synergistic relationship between planetary and personal well-being; the health of one is related to the health of the other. We will explore the relationship between the body and the natural world. We'll also explore somatic (body-based) literacy as it relates to leadership, communication and engagement with social issues. Somatic literacy includes listening and acting on information from the body. Winter quarter will allow students to design their own health-based project studies while continuing to explore self-leadership, creativity, emotional intelligence, health and self-image.Students will have an opportunity to learn in many ways using diverse modalities and multiple intelligences. We will integrate somatic learning into our studies, including movement workshops (no prior experience necessary). Our inquiry will ask us to attune ourselves to the wisdom that is available and present in our mind-body awareness. We will participate in community readings, community service, rigorous writing assignments and critical study of important texts. Learning through multiple intelligences can be enjoyable.Come join us! | Mukti Khanna Cynthia Kennedy | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Terry Setter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | Su 14 Full Summer | This program provides instruction in the use of digital recording studio equipment, microphone design and placement techniques, mixing console design, signal flow, monitoring techniques, room acoustics, and signal processing. There will be written assignments based upon readings in Huber's , and students will present research on topics related to audio production. Students will do at least 50 hours of recording and familiarization work in teams of two in addition to the in-class activities. We will record local musicians and produce finished mixes of the sessions. | Terry Setter | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
Arun Chandra
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | How shall we study music? We can watch others doing it on YouTube, we can hear others doing it on YouPod or we can read about others doing it on YouKindle.Let's DO it! (Sadly, there's no "YouDo".)Let's study music by creating and performing it. After all, music's a thing made by the brain, the heart and the fingers.You'll be asked to sing, study an instrument and perform for others in the class, write vocal and instrumental arrangements and sing and perform them. The class environment will not be a competitive one: the goal is to stretch out and learn and challenge oneself and not compare one someone with another one someone. The study of music requires a commitment to practice, to listen, to remember and to learn. This program aims to offer you time in which to do just that.You'll learn about writing harmonies, singing them, and about how difficult it is to write vocal parts that are interesting both melodically and harmonically. There will be a strong emphasis on ear training, sight singing and aural dictation, along with studies in tonal harmony. You'll be asked to write and perform musical canons. We'll study the history of Western classical music, jazz music from the early 20th century, popular music of the past 50 years and experiments in music composition as well. There will be regular listening sessions, along with readings from the arts.In class, students will be assigned performance groups, and each group will be asked to prepare a vocal or instrumental work. This will happen twice each quarter. Rehearsal time will be set aside for such practice, and the faculty will act as a coach for the rehearsals. Each quarter, students will be asked to write one substantial research paper exploring an aspect of music they are unfamiliar with. There will be class trips to concerts in Seattle and Portland, along with visiting guest artists throughout the year. During spring quarter, students will be working on independent projects under faculty supervision. These projects will be developed and submitted by the end of winter quarter. They should combine research and study with creativity and performance, culminating in an end-of-spring-quarter mini-conference, with students delivering both research presentations and musical performances.In addition to classroom activities, each student will be expected to take instruction in a musical instrument outside of class and bear the cost of that instruction (the faculty member can help you find a teacher for your instrument). Practicing an instrument is a way to bring together the seemingly separate activities of the brain, the heart and the fingers: it concretizes music theory, gives a goal to the wobbling fingers and releases the heart from its regularity of "thump thump thump". | Arun Chandra | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
Ratna Roy and Joseph Tougas
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Have you ever felt that your mind and your body were just “out of sync”? How about the other experience—when your mind and body were working together flawlessly—when you felt “in the flow”? These kinds of experiences invite other questions about the relation between the mind and the body, questions that have been the focus of thinking and research in cultures around the world. There is, for examples, a tradition in Western philosophy that has emphasized the separation between the mind and the body. Other traditions emphasize mind/body interaction and unity. Does the mind control the body? Or is it the other way round? What can we learn about these questions if we challenge ourselves to use our bodies to interact precisely and skillfully with others? This is the kind of thing people do when they learn to move together in dance, to raise their voices in song, or to make music together.This program will explore the connections between the mind and the body through the media of music and dance. We will learn about the scientific investigation of the interaction between mind and body, especially in connection with the kinds of social activities that bring people together in communities of artistic endeavor—for example, a jazz band or dance group. We will examine both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions to see what we can learn about different ways of understanding the relationship between the mind and body as manifested in disciplines of motion and rest. We will also engage in practice involving music and dance, experiencing first hand the unity of thought and action. The work of the program will include readings about music and dance from a variety of cultures as well as philosophical and scientific texts. The philosophical texts deal with the relationship between the mind and the body; the scientific texts provide information about brain function and what neuroscience can teach us about how the mind and body interact in music and dance. Students will write essays on the weekly readings in preparation for seminar discussions and a final research paper. They will also participate in workshop activities learning musical and dance skills. During the fall quarter the workshop emphasis was on building skills. At the end of fall quarter students, working in groups, created scripts of performance pieces combining music and dance. During winter our attention in the workshops will be directed toward developing those scripts into fully realized music and dance performances for presentation to an audience in the 9 week of the quarter. | Ratna Roy Joseph Tougas | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Steven Hendricks and Jean Mandeberg
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | What makes a work of art capable of narrative expressiveness? What constitutes a narrative? How do artists invest tangible records, stories, artifacts and objects with meaning, and how do readers work to recuperate or transform those meanings for themselves?Many artists and writers have used objects, visual forms, books and text in combination to create a hybrid language that can carry narrative possibilities. How do such works exploit the possibilities of conventional and nonconventional narrative to stimulate the intellect and the imagination? Does imposing a narrative on a work of visual or sculptural art limit it, reduce it to a single interpretation? How can we navigate the space between object and idea as artists, as readers, as makers of things and makers of meaning?This program will explore such questions through intensive studio work in fine metals and book arts. Equally important will be our study of literature that tests the boundary between narrative and non-narrative and the practice of critical and creative writing. The general program structure will include alternating periods of focused writing, imaginative reading, seminar discussion and extended, deliberate work in the studio.Student projects will be direct responses to the themes and questions of the program: explorations of the nature of narrative, the various ways in which objects can participate in, contain, and create narratives. This unique opportunity to combine book arts and fine metals will persistently require competence in technical skills, unusual patience, attention to detail and materials, and articulate translations between ideas and visual forms.The second quarter of the program will in part evolve from the discoveries of the first and will involve deepening our work in both studios, with the necessary emphasis on thoughtful self-critique and aesthetic rigor. This program will be important and challenging for students in the arts and humanities who think of artists as aesthetic and conceptual problem solvers, seeking new puzzles, forms and possibilities for constructing meaning using words, the book and small-scale sculptural forms. As a first-year program, this program provides specific support for students at the beginning of their Evergreen careers. | Steven Hendricks Jean Mandeberg | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall | ||||
Heesoon Jun and Bret Weinstein
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | The human mind is perhaps the most fascinating, and least understood, product of Darwinian evolution. In this program we will endeavor to understand how the mind functions and why it has come to work in the way that it has. We will study human psychology as modern empirical science has come to understand it, and we will combine that hybrid model with a consideration of the evolutionary path humans have traversed, as well as a deep investigation of those portions of evolutionary theory most relevant to hominid cognition, perception and behavior. Our program will seek to unify important conclusions from multiple schools of thought within psychology as we consider humans from a broadly cross-cultural perspective. We will range from the Jungian to the Cognitive, and from the modern !Kung people of the Kalahari to the ancient Maya of Central America. Our objective is to generate an integrative model of the human mind that can accommodate humans as individuals and as interdependent social beings.Winter materials will build on content covered in the fall. There will be educational value and intellectual reward for staying in the program both quarters. | biology, psychology, health related studies, human and social services. | Heesoon Jun Bret Weinstein | Tue Tue Wed Wed Fri Fri | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
Matthew Smith
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Today as we move into the second decade of the 21 century, environmental issues are in the mainstream. Concerns about the environment have compelled us to rethink everything from the food we eat to climate change, from the philosophy of the nature to the nature of our communities, from economic policy to our understanding of earth and human history. This program provides an opportunity for students to read and respond to some of the best new environmental writing and ideas in the context of classic texts in the field. We will trace the origins of nature writing, the twin traditions of exploration and romanticism as they emerge and develop in the early 19 and early 20 century. Texts including H.D. Thoreau's ; R.W. Emerson's ; John Muir's and Aldo Leopold's A will form the background for our reading of contemporary nature writing and environmental thinking. We will read contemporary works including Timothy Morton's Gary Snyder's ; John Vaillent's ; Ann Coplin's ; Marc Fiege's ; and other articles, poems and essays.We will read and discuss each text carefully. We will maintain a reader’s journal in which we reflect upon the text and themes that have emerged in our reading. Students will be expected to write short formal essays, an extended piece of nature writing, and a research essay dealing with a particular topic, writer, or theme that arises from our work. Each student should anticipate becoming the resident expert in the work of at least one of our authors or one major issue.The program is designed to give students an opportunity to read a variety of important pieces of environmental literature and to work on their own writing. We will share our writing with peer and faculty support and all students will be expected to participate regularly in all phases of the program. Our work will offer opportunities for serious conversation, focused research, and reflection on personal and collective understandings of environmental ethics and action. | Matthew Smith | Wed Thu Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Jennifer Gerend and Glenn Landram
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This two-quarter program focuses on Northwest communities from the perspective of public policy, land use and economics/personal finance. This program will be an eye opener for anyone who wonders why and how places develop. Where did that Walmart come from? Why did those trees get cut down for new homes? What will happen to that empty building? We will focus on the local decision making that shapes our built and natural environments while considering what types of development and redevelopment are more sustainable, both financially and environmentally.As the Northwest continues to grow, we will consider the voices of property owners, renters, business owners and other community members who often have divergent views on growth, preservation, conservation and property rights. These perspectives will aid our understanding of public places from urban and suburban cities to less connected subdivisions or rural developments. What do we want our public and private spaces to look like? How do communities plan for and accommodate growth? How are progressive policies developed and financed? Comparisons to other communities, cities, states and countries (Germany in particular) will be examined and discussed.Students will explore different communities' orientation to cars, transit, bicycles and pedestrians. Architecture and urban design aspects will round out our analysis. Class sessions will include lectures, workshops, films and field trips to Port Townsend and Seattle. The fall quarter will focus on the public policy, land use planning and economics necessary for students to conduct their own significant project during winter quarter. Seminar texts will offer a theoretical background in these issues as well as a look at some contemporary communities in the news.During winter quarter, students will continue their theoretical learning while taking on an applied group project around community planning and economic development. Specifically, students will work in teams to prepare research or other solutions for selected urban and rural planning issues around Washington. These projects may involve group travel. With faculty support, students will hone their ability to work in teams and develop their presentation skills. | Jennifer Gerend Glenn Landram | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Erik Thuesen
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | Water is essential to life, and the environmental policies related to marine and aquatic ecosystems will provide many of the subjects for our study in this full-year program. When combined with introductory policy components starting with the Pacific Northwest and looking globally, our studies of the biological, physical and chemical characteristics of oceans will provide the valuable knowledge necessary to make instrumental decisions about marine resources and habitats. It is essential to understand the interconnections between biology and ecology in order to make informed decisions about how environmental policy should proceed. This core program is designed to provide scientific skills and policy knowledge necessary to understand problems facing Earth’s ecosystems. Learning will take place through lectures, seminars, a workshop series and biology laboratory exercises. Work in the field and multi-day field trips in fall and winter are also planned to gain first-hand exposure to various marine environments.In the fall, we will cover standard topics of first year college biology, using marine organisms as our foci. The overall objective of this component is to gain basic familiarity with the biology and ecology of ocean life. We will examine the use and abuse of decision-making authority in order to assess how science and culture interact to safeguard endangered biota. Specific topics will include policies surrounding marine mammals, anadromous fish, ocean acidification, etc. Fall quarter topics will be mostly gathered from local and regional issues. | Erik Thuesen | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall | |||||
Andrew Buchman and Ratna Roy
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | We will focus on the dance and music culture of central eastern India, specifically the art-rich state of Orissa. While some music or dance background would be useful, it is not necessary. This is a culture and history offering, along with some practical hands-on experience in dance and music. We will immerse ourselves in both the history and sources of this ancient culture of dance and music, and its active contemporary scene. Our readings will include cutting-edge articles and book chapters exploring themes such as gender, colonial history and post-colonial theory and the economic ferment that is transforming many aspects of Indian society today. In seminars, we'll compare and contrast ancient and modern, Indian and American aesthetics, world views, values and attitudes. In workshops, we will explore the rich vocabularies of sound and movement that make Orissa's traditional performing arts so rewarding to study. The music workshop will focus on modal improvisation, performance, and composition, and study contemporary improvisational musicians influenced by South Asian aesthetics, like Vijay Iyer and John Coltrane, as well as traditionally trained musicians with multiple musical careers, such as Ravi Shankar. The dance workshop will focus on classical Odissi dance, technique and repertoire.The first evidence of Orissa's dance and music culture is preserved in sculptures and images that are about 2,000 years old. The culture thrived for centuries before it declined under colonial rule in the 1800s, and began to revive in the 1950s and 60s after India became an independent nation-state. This revival still continues, and we will be a part of that effort. Dancers, musicians and scholars will work together and re-create the tradition for our own times. At the end of the quarter, we will present a performance incorporating music and dance from Orissa at various levels of skill so that most students can participate.Some previous training in dance or music would be useful, but is not expected. Students who don't wish to focus on music or dance performance can pursue a research option, in consultation with faculty. | Andrew Buchman Ratna Roy | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Rika Anderson
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | Water is essential to life, and the environmental policies related to marine and aquatic ecosystems will provide many of the subjects for our study in this program. When combined with introductory policy components starting with the Pacific Northwest and looking globally, our studies of the biological, physical and chemical characteristics of oceans will provide the valuable knowledge necessary to make instrumental decisions about marine resources and habitats. It is essential to understand the interconnections between biology and ecology in order to make informed decisions about how environmental policy should proceed. This core program is designed to provide scientific skills and policy knowledge necessary to understand problems facing Earth’s ecosystems. Learning will take place through lectures, seminars, a workshop series and laboratory exercises.We will approach these issues from the perspective of the whole ocean ecosystem: how do currents, seasons, nutrient cycles, and other physical and chemical properties affect life in our oceans? What part does each type of organism play within the ecosystem? How can changes in one component of the ecosystem have ripple effects on the rest? We will apply this scientific knowledge to critically assess important marine environmental issues, focusing on ocean acidification, climate change, fisheries policy, and deep-sea mining. A week-long field trip to Friday Harbor will provide hands-on oceanographic experience, and a trip to the Capitol will allow us to witness legislation of important marine issues in action. | Rika Anderson | Freshmen FR | Winter | Winter | |||||
Eric Stein and Toska Olson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | “My soul would be an outlaw.”—Harlan Ellison, 1965Play incites the experience of aliveness, drawing us out of the routinized patterns of the everyday into realms of spontaneity, risk and imagination. Through play, the ordinary becomes temporarily disrupted: rules of propriety are suspended, social roles are inverted and everyday objects transform into the monstrous or fantastic. The vibrant, potentially transgressive nature of play raises questions about how it stands in relation to the forms of power that order society and shape us as individuals. How we play, when we play, and who we play with may unsettle these forms of power or become a part of how they operate. In this interdisciplinary program we will explore play as a creative pathway for the development of an authentic self, and also as a bold challenge to social mechanisms that limit autonomy and create borders between people. When we play, is there something we are playing against? What can the study of play teach us about the nature of power?In fall, we will explore how play has been shaped culturally and historically, with a focus on childhood in the United States and around the world. We will consider how the emergence of modern school discipline, the commodification of toys, the patterning of gender in childhood and the persistence of bullying has both constrained possibilities for play and allowed new forms to emerge. We will use ethnographic field studies of playgrounds, toy stores, children’s museums and primary school classrooms as the basis for creative work designing play structures, games, exhibits and school workshops. By exploring childhood play, we will gain an understanding of power dynamics between children and teachers, parents and children and among children themselves. Winter quarter will emphasize the strategic, symbolic forms of play that arise through adolescence and adulthood. We will consider how subcultures play with fashion, food, collections, fetishes and other social “tastes” to both mark and subvert hierarchies of class, gender and race. We will investigate the construction of “high” and “low” culture and the controlling notions of disgust, purity and danger through studies of tastings, sports tournaments, carnival and mass entertainment. We will also study humorous forms of verbal play and body play that have the capacity to construct or violate normalized social practices.Spring quarter turns to explorations of utopia and transgression in play. We will consider how particular forms of pleasure and desire are normalized and resisted, and how leisure and fantasy can reverse or co-opt power. Our inquiry will encompass topics such as science fiction, sexuality, space and architecture. Library research and ethnographic fieldwork will form the basis of a creative culminating project.Our studies will be grounded in sociology, anthropology and history, but will turn to other fields, including philosophy, education, literature and visual studies, to enrich our understandings of play. Readings may include works by Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault, Douglas, Barthes, Bourdieu, Stewart and Butler. Throughout the year, students will engage in seminars, films, workshops, fieldwork exercises, writing and research projects designed to deepen their knowledge and apply theory to real-world situations. | Eric Stein Toska Olson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
David Muehleisen and Paul Przybylowicz
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Do you want to produce food for yourself, your family and other families in your community? What does it take to grow food and feed yourself and others every day throughout the year? This three-quarter program (spring, summer and fall quarters) will explore the details of sustainable food production systems using three primary measures of sustainability—economic, environmental and social justice. While our primary focus will be on small-scale organic production, we will examine a variety of production systems. Our focus will be on the scientific knowledge, critical thinking and observation skills needed to grow food using ecologically informed methods, along with the management and business skills appropriate for small-scale production.We will be studying and working on the Evergreen Organic Farm through an entire growing season, seed propagation to harvest. The farm includes a small-scale direct market stand and CSA as well as a variety of other demonstration areas. All students will work on the farm every week to gain practical experiential learning. This program is rigorous both physically and academically and requires a willingness to work outside in adverse weather on a schedule determined by the needs of crops and animals raised on the farm.During spring quarter, we will focus on soil science, nutrient management, and crop botany. Additional topics will include introduction to animal husbandry, annual and perennial plant propagation, season extension, and the principles and practice of composting. In summer, the main topics will be disease and pest management, which include entomology, plant pathology and weed biology. In addition, water management, irrigation system design, maximizing market and value-added opportunities and regulatory issues will also be covered. Fall quarter's focus will be on production and business planning, crop physiology, storage techniques and cover crops.Additional topics covered throughout the program will include record keeping for organic production systems, alternative crop production systems, techniques for adding value to farm and garden products, hand tool use and maintenance, and farm equipment safety. We will also cover communication and conflict resolution skills needed to work effectively in small groups. We will explore topics through on-farm workshops, seminar discussions, lectures and laboratory exercises, and field trips. Expect weekly reading and writing assignments, extensive collaborative work, and a variety of hands-on projects. The final project in the fall will be a detailed farm and business plan which integrates all the topics covered in the program.If you are a student with a disability and would like to request accommodations, please contact the faculty or the office of Access Services (Library Bldg. Rm. 2153 , PH: 360.867.6348; TTY 360.867.6834) prior to the start of the quarter. If you require accessible transportation for field trips, please contact the faculty well in advance of the field trip dates to allow time to arrange this.Students planning to take this program who are receiving financial aid should contact financial aid early in fall quarter 2013 to develop a financial aid plan that includes summer quarter 2014. | David Muehleisen Paul Przybylowicz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
David Muehleisen and Paul Przybylowicz
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Summer
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | Su 14 Full Summer | This is a spring, summer, fall program and is open to new students in summer. For the full program description, see . The weekly schedule will be similar to spring, which is Mon 1-3, Tue 8-4:30, Wed 9-1, and Thu 8-4:30. | David Muehleisen Paul Przybylowicz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||||
Julia Zay and Miranda Mellis
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | S 14Spring | In this interdisciplinary foundational program in visual studies, literature, cultural theory, and creative and critical writing, we will practice observing, rendering, and reflecting on the ordinary and the everyday. We’ll study texts, objects, ideas, art and films, aspiring to Henry David Thoreau’s lifelong goal: to be surprised by what we see, in “the bloom of the present moment.” Slowing down to observe, render, and reflect on what tends to go unnoticed will galvanize curiosity and insights about our basic experiences of embodiment and raise new questions to pursue critically, ethically, and artfully. We’ll write, read, make images, and perform thought experiments to heighten our awareness of practices often obscured by the habitual and overly-familiar aspects of daily life (for example, calendar time, e-mail correspondence, house-cleaning, eating, and even walking to get from point A to point B – what other kinds of walks might we take?). By activating our perceptual abilities to make visible and thinkable these quotidian structures, we will in turn consider the ways the everyday constitutes not only our private lives, but also our public and social worlds. We will study a range of philosophical, poetic, filmic, visual, and fictional texts that theorize and enact the constitution of dailiness. In all our work we will focus on cultivating practices of attention—skills essential to creative and critical engagement – while furthering our abilities to read and view closely, attend to historical and cultural context, and write – academically and creatively – with precision and patience. Class sessions will include lectures, screenings, workshops and seminar. Students can expect to both work individually and collaborate with peers on assignments. Finally, we'll expand our critical and creative lexicons by intersecting with two campus arts and humanities forums: the Critical and Cultural Theory lecture series on Monday evenings and the Art Lecture series on Wednesday mornings. | Julia Zay Miranda Mellis | Mon Mon Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | Spring | ||||
Cynthia Kennedy and Walter Grodzik
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Weekend | S 14Spring | This one-quarter long, introductory program is a ten-week examination of the role that cheap art, performance and play have fulfilled in society, not only historically, but also in more modern times. Because of the powerful role they can play in shaping human consciousness, we will explore ways of returning them to their popular roots where they can thrive outside the reign of corporate control, mainstream media, and money. Together we will investigate ways cheap art (such as masks, puppets and costumes made with everyday inexpensive materials) and performance can have meaning that is created by “regular” people and for “regular” people rather than fed us by the entertainment industry. We will explore the answers to many questions. What is it like for performance art to spring from our imaginations without the need for large amounts of money? What if performance art was accessible to all people, not just those with the means and education to consume it? What would it be like if performance art reflected deeply felt social truths that connected to our own lives? How does street theater interrupt everyday life in the public sphere in a way that helps us connect to our own humanity? How does the use of material objects (puppets, masks, signs, banners), as well as performers voices and bodies, connect performer and audience in ways that create meaning? Our program will approach these questions in two ways. On the one hand, we will have a strong academic component in which students will acquire knowledge about the history of performance and art in the hands of the people, looking at its aesthetics, theories, and controversies. We will examine the rich cultural heritage of performance in the streets and connect it to the people and places where it lives on today. Our exploration will be situated in an international context, and we will use film and text to examine performance throughout history and around the world, such as, but not limited to, political street theater, Carnival, Mardi Gras, the Bread and Butter Puppet Theater, Anna Halprin’s Planetary Dance and more. On the other hand, we will engage in large doses of experiential learning as we use simple materials like recycled fabrics, cardboard, scraps of wood, paper, reused items and other inexpensive materials to create our own cheap art and performance, which we will share with our friends and neighbors in the local streets of Olympia (or other surrounding areas) and the college campus. During the first half of the quarter we will participate in , Olympia's yearly one-of-a-kind celebration of the natural world, held in conjunction with Earth Day. 2014 will mark the 20th year of this community celebration, which often draws crowds of up to 30,000 and has serious creative intent. The Procession was designed to bring a deep love of life into the heart, and onto the streets, of Olympia. In preparation, students will work in one of the largest community art studios in the country where people of all ages create costumes, masks and puppets from inexpensive and recycled materials. Participation in this part of the program will require three Sunday evening rehearsals in the community, as well as the Saturday afternoon Procession. During the second half of the quarter we will continue to use the street as a live public space, a radical act in response to the privatization of such public space by radio, television and film. We will use unorthodox methods to create our own cheap art, performances, celebrations, protests, and social commentary, which we will develop in response to current events happening both locally and around the world. Throughout the quarter our work together will develop our visual imaginations, critical thinking and writing skills, all of which are essential to academic learning and readily transferable to any profession or vocation.No performance or art experience is necessary for this program. | Cynthia Kennedy Walter Grodzik | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Trevor Speller and Abir Biswas
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This introductory program is dedicated to understanding the back and forth between the physical environment and the written word. How do texts shape what we are able to see in the physical environment? How does one's understanding of the physical environment shape ways of writing and understanding the world? How do we describe it? What do we read into it?In 1815, William Smith produced the first geological map of Great Britain. His investigations were a product of a new way of seeing his physical world. Rather than assuming the earth to be a stable object which remained unchanged since Noah’s flood, Smith drew on his observations, and began to see the earth as a dynamic physical entity. His discoveries came in a time when Enlightenment thinkers were questioning the order of the world, the role of religion and the value of science and industry. The modern science of geology can thus be said to have arisen from a new way of seeing: William Smith was able to read and write about the Earth not only through observations, but because of the set of cultural changes that changed his frame of mind. Importantly, Smith's observations came at a time when poets, novelists and political philosophers were beginning to actively investigate the influence of the natural world on humans and human behavior.We will consider the frames through which we read and write our physical world, through an introduction to foundational concepts in geology and literary study. We will consider how geologists investigate and describe the physical world, and examine concepts including geologic time, plate tectonics, earth materials and the evolution of life. We will consider how writers investigate and describe the natural world in the works of 18th- and 19th-century literature, as well as contemporary literature about the Pacific Northwest. We will read works of poetry, fiction, political philosophy and travel writing. Program texts may include works by John McPhee, Simon Winchester, William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe and others.Students should expect to participate in lecture, lab and seminar, write critical papers and take examinations. There will also be field trips to locations of geological interest as well as cultural venues. | Trevor Speller Abir Biswas | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
Lucia Harrison
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | This is an art-based program that combines the study of stream ecology and visual art to provide a framework and tools to examine, observe, record, and know a place. We will explore the role of art and science in helping people develop a deep and reciprocal relationship with a watershed. Designed for beginning students in art and ecology, we will study the characteristics of local streams and make drawings that are inspired by a connection to a specific stream. The Nisqually River Watershed will be the focus for our collective work while the numerous local streams will serve as individual focal points for student projects throughout the quarter.Through reading, lectures and field study, students will learn the history of the watershed, study concepts in stream ecology, learn to identify native plants in the watershed and learn about current conservation efforts. They will develop beginning drawing skills and practice techniques for keeping an illustrated field journal. Students will work in charcoal, chalk pastel, watercolor, and colored pencil. Students will explore strategies for using notes and sketches to inspire more finished artworks. Students will study artists whose work is inspired by their deep connection to a place. Each student will visit a local stream regularly, keep a field journal, and in the second half of the quarter, students will create a series of artworks or an environmental education project that gives something back to their watershed. | Lucia Harrison | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||||
Paula Schofield and Andrew Brabban
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Are you curious about the world around you? Would you like to really understand "buzz terms" the media uses such as sustainability, green materials, climate change, the water crisis, the energy debate, genetic engineering, DNA fingerprinting and cloning? How can we believe what we are being told? What is the evidence? How is scientific data actually collected, and what analytical methods are being used? Are the correct conclusions being drawn? As responsible citizens we should know the answers to these questions.In this two-quarter program we will demystify the hype surrounding popular myths, critically examine the data, and use scientific reasoning and experimental design to come to our own conclusions. In fall, we will study "water" and "energy" as themes to examine our environment, considering local and global water issues. We will also examine current energy use and demand, critically assessing various sources of energy: fossil fuels, nuclear, hydropower, etc.We will begin the program on September 23 (Orientation Week), one week BEFORE the regularly scheduled fall quarter start, so that we are prepared for our field trip by beginning our study of energy, and establishing our learning community. The Eastern Washington field trip will be a unique opportunity for personalized tours of Hanford Reactor B (the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor which produced the plutonium for the "Fat Man" bomb dropped over Nagasaki in 1945), Grand Coulee Dam (the largest hydropower producer in the U.S.), and the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Energy facility (150 turbines across 10,000 acres serving more than 80,000 homes). On this trip, we will also learn key field science techniques: how to take measurements in the field, collect samples for laboratory analysis and precisely determine concentrations of nutrients and pollutants.In winter quarter, we will use "natural and synthetic materials" as a theme to study petrochemical plastics, biodegradable plastics and other sustainable materials, as well as key biological materials such as proteins and DNA. We will carefully examine the properties of these materials in the laboratory and study their role in the real world. "Forensics" will be our final theme, learning techniques such as DNA fingerprinting, blood spatter analysis, ballistics and other modern forensic procedures.In this field- and lab-based program, scientific analysis—rather than conjecture or gut-feeling—will be the foundation of our work. Other class activities will include small group problem-solving workshops, seminars, student researched presentations and lectures. | Paula Schofield Andrew Brabban | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Tom Womeldorff, Catalina Ocampo and Alice Nelson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | The recent history of Latin America can be described as a struggle for self-determination, from the wars of independence to the present-day unequal footing in the world economic system. Taking Mexico as a case study, we will explore how questions of self-determination have shaped Latin America and the lives of the various communities that constitute the region. We will focus, in particular, on the different roles that culture, politics, and economics have played in struggles for self-determination and investigate the tensions and symbioses between them. We will ask ourselves: What roles do culture and economics play as tools of self-determination? How can culture facilitate processes of self-determination at moments when political or economic self-determination is not possible? What are the limitations on the use of culture when one has limited political and economic self-determination? What role do third parties play in struggles for self-determination and how do we situate ourselves with regards to various processes of self-determination in Latin America?Our study of various groups and communities within Mexico and across its borders to the north and to the south will illuminate the country’s diversity, while also highlighting the connections between personal, national, and regional politics in Latin America. We will explore how self-determination is manifested in relationships of class, gender and ethnicity and study the specific ways in which struggles for self-determination have emerged in Mexico from the nineteenth century to the present. We will focus on various historical moments and issues including nation-building efforts and conflicts with the United States in the nineteenth century; issues of violence and class during the Mexican Revolution; contradictory uses of Indigenismo; popular movements and state repression in the 1960s and 70s; the emergence of the Zapatista movement; the economic impact of NAFTA; and questions of economic development and cultural identity during recent migrations to the United States.Throughout the quarter, we will engage historical and contemporary realities in Mexico using multiple frameworks from the humanities and the social sciences. In the process, we will introduce literary and cultural theory, as well as economic theories of capitalist development. Students will gain an in-depth ability to interpret literary texts in their social contexts, and to use economic models to understand specific aspects of Latin American societies. This program will involve frequent writing assignments and develop skills in visual analysis. | Tom Womeldorff Catalina Ocampo Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
Amy Cook, Catalina Ocampo and Chico Herbison
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | —Alicia Imperiale, “Seminal Space: Getting Under the Digital Skin” Organ, membrane, boundary and border. Canvas, map, metaphor and trope. Skin is the identity that all animals present to the world. It has multiple physiological functions and takes a wide variety of forms, from the simple epidermis of a sea anemone to the complex light show of a squid or the intricate system of spines that protects a porcupine. In human culture, skin functions as a marker of “race”/ethnicity, age and gender; provides a canvas on which to create very personal forms of art and cultural narratives; and, in the 21st century, has become a critical site of interface between the “real” and the virtual.In this introductory program we will look at skin through the lenses of biology, culture and art. The biology of skin includes its visual and olfactory role in communication, its structure and physiology and its role in defense of the body from both microbes and large predators. Our exploration of skin in/as culture and art will include encounters with the mythology of “race,” body modification (piercing, tattooing and plastic surgery) and the posthuman meanings of skin (in cyberspace and in the world of cyborgs, androids and prosthetics).Program activities will include lectures; labs in which we will examine the microscopic structure of skin and learn about the various structures that arise from it, including scales, feathers and hair; seminars on a selection of texts (books, films and other texts) that look at skin from a variety of different perspectives; and workshops in which students will explore skin through their own creative writing. Students will have the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of biology and humanities in an interdisciplinary setting, as well as sharpen their critical thinking and reading and college writing skills. | biology and the humanities. | Amy Cook Catalina Ocampo Chico Herbison | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Carrie Margolin
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Students will investigate theories and practices of psychologists to enhance their understanding of counseling, social services and the science of psychology. We will cover history and systems of psychology. Students will read original source literature from the major divisions of the field, including both classic and contemporary journal articles and books by well-known psychologists. Students will explore careers in psychology and the academic preparations necessary for these career choices. We will cover the typical activities of psychologists who work in academia, schools, counseling and clinical settings, social work agencies and applied research settings.Among our studies will be ethical quandaries in psychology, including the ethics of human and animal experimentation. Library research skills, in particular the use of PsycInfo and Science and Social Science Citation Indexes, will be emphasized. Students will gain expertise in the technical writing style of the American Psychological Association (APA). The class format will include lectures, guest speakers, workshops, discussions, films and an optional field trip.There's no better way to explore the range of activities and topics that psychology offers—and to learn of cutting edge research in the field—than to attend and participate in a convention of psychology professionals and students. To that end, students have the option of attending the annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, which is the western regional arm of the APA. This year's convention will be held in Portland, Oregon, on April 24-27, 2014. | psychology, education and social work. | Carrie Margolin | Mon Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||
Jon Davies
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This program will explore the role that sport plays in contemporary North American culture. It is a social phenomenon that provides opportunities for identity formation and personal development as well as for learning values about work, play, entertainment, and family. Sport is one of many arenas that reflect our society’s contestation surrounding race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.The program will examine sport from multiple perspectives and genres. Through a close reading of sports literature, including informational texts, stories, poetry, film, journalism, and other media, we will explore the following social theories that offer various frameworks in which to study sport in society: Functionalist theory, conflict theory, interactionist theory, critical theory, and feminist theory.Functionalist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How does sport fit into social life and contribute to social stability and efficiency? How does sport participation teach people important norms in society? Conflict theory seeks to answer questions such as: How does sport reflect class relations? How is sport used to maintain the interests of those with power and wealth in society? How does the profit motive distort sport and sport experiences? Interactionist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How do people become involved in sports, become defined as athletes, derive meaning from participation, and make transitions out of sports into the rest of their lives? Critical theory seeks to answer questions such as: How are power relations reproduced and/or resisted in and through sports? Whose voices are/are not represented in the narratives and images that constitute sports? Feminist theory seeks to answer questions such as: How are sports gendered activities, and how do they reproduce dominant ideas about gender in society? What are the strategies for resisting and transforming sport forms that privilege men?Above all, sport offers a way to engage larger social issues in contemporary American culture. Some would argue sport personifies the American Dream through personal stories of sports champions, both in their accomplishments and in the barriers that they overcome. Sports champions and sports teams also produced sports fans, people who are fanatically loyal to those athletes and teams they cherish.The primary objective in the program is for students to develop a greater sensitivity to the world of sport and the philosophical and sociological relationship between that world and contemporary society. Students will have opportunities to write personal narrative and critical analysis and produce in-depth research on a particular, self-selected sport sociology topic. | Jon Davies | Mon Wed Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
Julia Zay and Amjad Faur
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This is an art foundations program invested in opening up the dense histories and meanings of photographic images in their many forms, from still to moving and back again--and the unsettled places between. We explore what it means both to know and to make an image– photographic, moving, and time-based. We will pay equal attention to the history, theory and practice of the photographic image, both still and moving, in the context of visual studies--a field that yokes a broad study of the visual arts with social and cultural history and theory--art history, film/cinema history, and philosophy. Through a critical engagement with still and moving photographic images as well as related forms of visual art, we will map a broad contextual territory and challenge received notions of the boundaries between forms, genres, and mediums.Photography can never be thought of as simply a medium, technology or practice but a convergence of material, history, culture and power. In the Fall, we will start with the unfolding of the Western enlightenment, from the 16th to the 19th century, when optical technologies radically reorganized the senses and methods of knowledge production, posing new questions about temporal, spatial and visual relationships to artists and scientists alike. We will then move more deeply into the 19th and first half of the 20th century, when photography emerged into an art world dominated by painting, a visual culture organized around print technologies, and societies in the throes of rapid industrialization. Photography initially emerged not out of art contexts but out of the institutions of science and industry, so we will consider, in particular, the ways it was used to produce social categories, shaping dominant discourses of gender, class and criminality. For example, we’ll look at the language of portraiture so central to the emergence of both a middle class and the language of criminal and medical photography. Our materials and techniques will first be limited to those from the 19th century (proto-photography, early processes, hand-built cameras). In winter, we move from the 19th to the long 20th century and the emergence of cinema. We will look at the way early cinema was organized around a fascination with duration, spectacle, and experimentation and on the relationship between photography and cinema, stillness and movement. We will continue to work in still photography, broadening our range of techniques, and add a small amount of 16mm filmmaking to the mix as we explore the larger social and historical contexts and philosophical questions surrounding the relationship between still and moving photographic images. In our creative and intellectual work, we’ll ask many questions about the phenomenon, concept and experience of time--for example, how is a four minute exposure in a still photograph both similar to and different from a four minute continuous shot of film or video of the same subject?In all our work we will focus on building essential skills in practices of attention--learning how to slow down our modes of seeing, experiencing and working. In our photographic practice, this will mean moving away from the pursuit of “finished” images and towards experimental processes and conceptual problem solving. In our work with texts and images, this will mean developing our ability to read and view closely and write with precision and patience. Class sessions will include lectures/screenings, workshops, seminar, critical reading and writing, and critique. In addition to working individually, students can expect to collaborate regularly with their peers on a variety of assignments and larger projects. All along the way we will intentionally examine how our investments in collaboration animate our intellectual and creative work. We will spend significant time in critique to help each other see, describe, evaluate and improve our creative and critical work. | Julia Zay Amjad Faur | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
Donald Morisato and Bob Haft
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Both science and art take things apart. In some instances—the evisceration of a frog or an overly analytical critique of a poem—the process can result in the loss of the vital force. In the best scenario, carefully isolating and understanding individual parts actually reconstitutes the original object of study, bringing appreciation for a whole greater than its parts. Sometimes taking things apart results in a paradigm shift: suddenly, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.In one program strand, we use a biologist's tool kit to explore how living organisms function. We learn how biology takes apart and studies life in different ways. In winter, we focus on visual perception, beginning with anatomy, proceeding onto the logic of visual processing, and concluding with an examination of the specialized neurons and molecules involved in phototransduction. In spring quarter, we play with the idea of mutation, exploring how genetics is used to dissect complex processes and provide an entry point for the molecular understanding of inheritance at the level of DNA.Another strand takes visual art as its point of departure. Here, we combine what we learn about the anatomy and physiology of the eye with a study of using sight to apprehend and appreciate the world around us. We will work with different tools—charcoal pencils and cameras—both to take apart and to construct new things. During winter quarter, we will learn the basics of drawing. In spring, we use black-and-white photography to study life at a more macroscopic level than in the biology lab. Ultimately, our goal here is the same as that of the scientist: to reconstitute and reanimate the world around us.There are ideas for which literature provides a more sophisticated and satisfying approach than either science or the visual arts. Thus, in a third strand, we examine how literature depicts and dissects the emotional and behavioral interactions that we call "love." Authors we read will include Shakespeare, Stendhal, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, John Berger, Haruki Murakami and Louise Gluck.Our goal is to weave these strands together to produce an understanding about the world informed by both cognition and intuition. Throughout our inquiry, we will be investigating the philosophical issue of objectivity. This is a rigorous program involving lectures, workshops, seminars, studio art and laboratory science work. Student learning will be assessed by weekly seminar writing assignments, lab reports, art portfolios and exams. | Donald Morisato Bob Haft | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | ||||
Rose Jang and Mingxia Li
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Classical Chinese drama, as a literary genre, evolved from a long tradition of poetry writing and storytelling. In Chinese theatre, lyrics combine with dance, music, singing, acrobatics and martial arts. For centuries, the poetic and presentational style of Chinese drama and theatre has helped nurture and highlight the fantastic and imaginative side of Chinese culture: the magical beings and their boundless power in folk tales; dreams, fantasies, mysticism and otherworldliness of the Daoist realm of existence, and roaming spirits and ghosts of the underworld: these ever-popular Chinese archetypes have been repeatedly invoked and embodied in poetry and on stage. Many of these fantastic images and stories will form the core of our program study; they will also be absorbed and chained together into a final musical performance piece with a coherent plot and overriding theme—a symbolic, stylized production in the form and spirit of Chinese fantasy for the Western audience.The program will engage students in serious study of Chinese poetry and dramatic literature with a creative push. The program will also serve as an ideal training ground for students who are interested in acting, performance, singing, music performance and composition, kinetic and vocal training in physical theatre, and skill building and implementation in technical theatre including set, lighting, costume, sound and stage management. As the final performance is a meant to be an original and experimental piece bridging Chinese drama and Western theatrical sensitivities, and the performance style will reply on an innovative fusion of music and lyrics as well as creative collaboration between singing, movement and musical accompaniment on many different levels, the faculty of the program is seriously recruiting music students ready to engage in creative music composition and performance (including electronic music) to join the program.In winter quarter, we will study select dramas and stories of fantastic imagination from the Chinese tradition which bear direct relevance to our final performance piece. We will study their literary and creative qualities in general program meetings and workshops. We will also work through sequential theatre exercises in workshop and performance projects to bring these literary qualities into staging possibilities and physical realizations. A weekly music workshop will also be offered to prepare students for the unique musical creation and implementation for the final performance.In spring, we will focus on rehearsals and technical theatre work in order to mount a full-fledged theatrical production bringing all the previous experimentations and innovations together into a fantastic and coherent production. This end-of-program public presentation will put to the test our collective understanding of Chinese mythology, poetry and drama, and help us convey this understanding in a complex form of the theatre of fantasy. | Rose Jang Mingxia Li | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | ||||
Gilda Sheppard and Carl Waluconis
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 8, 16 | 08 16 | Day | Su 14 Full Summer | This program will explore the role that movement, visual art, music, and media can play in problem solving and in the resolution of internalized fear, conflicts, or blocks. Through a variety of hands-on activities, field trips, readings, films/video, and guest speakers, students will discover sources of imagery, sound, and movement as tools to awaken their creative problem solving from two perspectives—as creator and viewer. Students interested in human services, social sciences, media, humanities and education will find this course engaging. This course does not require any prerequisite art classes or training. | Gilda Sheppard Carl Waluconis | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
Gilda Sheppard and Carl Waluconis
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 8, 16 | 08 16 | Evening | Su 14 Full Summer | This program will explore the role that movement, visual art, music, and media can play in problem solving and in the resolution of internalized fear, conflicts, or blocks. Through a variety of hands-on activities, field trips, readings, films/video, and guest speakers, students will discover sources of imagery, sound, and movement as tools to awaken their creative problem solving from two perspectives—as creator and viewer. Students interested in human services, social sciences, media, humanities and education will find this course engaging. This course does not require any prerequisite art classes or training. | Gilda Sheppard Carl Waluconis | Mon Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
Anthony Zaragoza and Savvina Chowdhury
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Political economy asks basic but often overlooked questions: who has what, who does what work, why, how it got to be that way and how to change it. Given this starting point, what do some of the most basic and everyday things around us look like through the lens of political economy? How could we better understand our food system, popular culture and social movements using this interdisciplinary set of questions and perspectives? For example, we'll look at how apples are grown and harvested, , and what's grown out of the Occupy Movement, each as its own window into the way the economic system we were born into works, and how people just like us are responding to it and trying to remake the world. Through these explorations of food systems, popular culture and social movements, we will get a better understanding of the ways in which society itself becomes hierarchical and divided by race, class, gender and sexuality. In fall quarter, our guiding question will ask how capitalism evolved and came to be the way it is. How did relationships based on food, popular culture and social movements influence and become influenced by the emergence, development and concrete workings of U.S. political economy in the 20 century? In tandem with the evolution of the capitalist system, we will examine competing historical visions of political economy put forth by indigenous struggles, immigrant struggles, anti-slavery struggles, the feminist movement, the labor movement. At the same time, we will emphasize the lives of exploited and marginalized people as they encountered capitalism as an economic system. Through this work we will work to become better readers of our texts and of the world. In winter quarter, we will examine the interrelationship between the U.S. political economy and the changing global system, as well as U.S. foreign policy. We will study the causes and consequences of the globalization of capital and its effects on our daily lives, international migration, the role of multilateral institutions and the meaning of various trade agreements and regional organizations and alliances. We will look at the impact of the global order on our food system and explore the politics of culture, as people negotiate and contest new emerging regimes of labor, property and citizenship. Through protests, revolutions and riots, social movements continue to raise core questions regarding democracy, power, equality and the relationship between citizens, the state and the global economy, providing fruitful alternative analytical perspectives for the study of capitalist globalization and transnational networks. This quarter's work will allow us to deepen and strengthen our analytical skills.In spring, we will focus our efforts to learn from diverse, community-based institutions that offer us alternative visions of how to organize social and economic activity, in accordance with the basic principles of human rights, ethical labor practices and cooperative work and decision-making, through processes that respect the integrity of our environment and ecology. Working in conjunction with Evergreen's Center for Community-Based Learning and Action, schools, advocacy groups, veteran's rights groups and other nonprofit organizations, students are invited to examine strategies put forward by popular education models, immigrant rights advocates, gay/lesbian/transgender advocates and community-based economic models. In our last quarter, we will work to further develop our communication skills, organization and accountability. | Anthony Zaragoza Savvina Chowdhury | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | |||
Steven Hendricks and Nancy Parkes
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen–Senior | 8, 16 | 08 16 | Evening and Weekend | Su 14 Full Summer | Fiction! Essays! Non-fiction! Creative non-fiction! Academic writing! Journalism! Poetry! Dive into any of these genres in . This craft-intensive program has it all: weekly peer-critique groups; copious feedback from faculty; seminars on fiction and creative non-fiction; workshops to sharpen skills and generate ideas; and one-on-one and online critique. Deepen your engagement with your own writing, build critical reading skills, and refine your editorial eyes and ears. Use your summer to draft a number of small projects, push yourself to produce a finished, publishable manuscript, or build on academic or professional work to develop your individual projects— will challenge you to follow through on your passion for writing. In addition to intensive writing and revision, you’ll engage in writing-related activities that explore the creative process and the written word, including meditative hikes, daytime program retreats (on weekends), workshops on conventional and self-publishing strategies, and a variety of playful and rigorous approaches to the art of reading and writing. is designed to help beginning and accomplished writers to develop skills that they can use artistically, academically, and professionally. Regular weeknight sessions will include lectures, workships, seminar, and guided critique group opportunities. We'll have two weekend retreats per session during which we'll meet all day Saturday and Sunday for workshops, walks, sharing work, and discussion. Each five week session will culminate in a Saturday workshop and celebration. We have designed this program schedule to include students who work and for anyone who wants to work intensively on writing. The schedule is summer friendly. Students may enroll for the full 10-week quarter or for either of the 5-week sessions. Students can expect to have significant time with faculty, as well as opportunities to work independently and with strong peer support. *This program may help future Master in Teaching Students to fulfill the 12-credits in expository and other writing. The program may also help current MIT students to meet English Language Arts endorsements. Please contact faculty ( ) to further discuss this, or see us at academic fair for summer. | Steven Hendricks Nancy Parkes | Tue Wed Thu Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer |