2013–14 Academic Catalog

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Religious Studies [clear]

Title		Offering	Standing	Credits	Credits	When	F	W	S	Su	Description	Preparatory	Faculty	Days	Multiple Standings	Start Quarters	Open Quarters
Individual Study: East-West Psychology Ryo Imamura anthropology communications consciousness studies cultural studies education environmental studies field studies health history international studies music philosophy psychology religious studies sociology somatic studies sustainability studies Signature Required: Spring		Contract	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day			S 14Spring		This is an opportunity for sophomore, junior and senior students to create their own course of study and research, including internship, community service, and study abroad options. Before the beginning of spring quarter, interested students should submit an Individual Learning or Internship Contract to Ryo Imamura, which clearly states the work to be completed. Possible areas of study are Western psychology, Asian psychology, Buddhism, counseling, social work, cross-cultural studies, Asian-American studies, religious studies, nonprofit organizations, aging, death and dying, deep ecology and peace studies. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis.		Ryo Imamura		Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Spring	Spring
Sacred Intersections: The Arts of Medieval Christianity and Middle Islam Suzanne Simons and Ann Storey aesthetics art history consciousness studies cultural studies history religious studies visual arts		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	8	08	Evening	F 13 Fall	W 14Winter			Sacred Intersections focuses on a thousand-year period of Christian and Islamic art, art history, poetry, and mysticism. As the program continues in Winter quarter, we will turn our attention to a time of, roughly, the 12 through the 14 centuries. This was a period that built on the creativity, spirituality, and change of the previous era and took the arts to new heights through creative and cultural fusion. We will study the motivating ideas and issues of the age: the mystical poetic traditions of the Persian empire (present-day Iran and central Asia) and their influence on contemporary poetry; the awe-inspiring forms of Gothic architecture, and the poetry of the Beguine mystics (of present-day Germany). The idea that both mystic and artist were “seers”—seeing beyond the physical into the transcendent and metaphysical—impelled them into visionary realms. We will examine poets such as Rumi and Hafez and other charismatic figures. We will study illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, stained glass, sculpture, and sacred architecture of European and Byzantine Christendom and Islamic empires stretching from Spain to Central Asia. Art workshops will enable students to move from theory to practice. Class time will be divided among the following activities: faculty lectures, art workshops, seminars, writing, films and a possible field trip to a local mosque. This program is preparatory for further study and/or careers in the visual arts, education, museum studies, religion, communication, international relations, history, and writing.		Suzanne Simons Ann Storey	Tue Thu	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter
Turning Eastward: Explorations in East-West Psychology Ryo Imamura community studies consciousness studies cultural studies health philosophy psychology religious studies Signature Required: Winter		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day	F 13 Fall	W 14Winter			Western psychology has so far failed to provide us with a satisfactory understanding of the full range of human experience. It has largely overlooked the core of human understanding—our everyday mind and our immediate awareness of being—with all of its felt complexity and sensitive attunement to the vast network of interconnectedness with the universe around us. Instead, Western psychology has chosen to analyze the mind as though it were an object independent of the analyzer, consisting of hypothetical structures and mechanisms that cannot be directly experienced. Western psychology's neglect of the living mind--both in its everyday dynamics and its larger possibilities--has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in the ancient wisdom of Asia, particularly Buddhism, which does not divorce the study of psychology from the concern with wisdom and human liberation.In contrast to Western psychology, Eastern psychology shuns any impersonal attempt to objectify human life from the viewpoint of an external observer and instead studies consciousness as a living reality which shapes individual and collective perception and action. The primary tool for directly exploring the mind is meditation or mindfulness, an experiential process in which one becomes an attentive participant-observer in the unfolding of moment-to-moment consciousness.Learning mainly from lectures, readings, videos, workshops, seminar discussions, individual and group research projects and field trips, in fall quarter we will take a critical look at the basic assumptions and tenets of the major currents in traditional Western psychology, the concept of mental illness and the distinctions drawn between normal and abnormal thought and behavior. In winter quarter, we will then investigate the Eastern study of mind that has developed within spiritual traditions, particularly within the Buddhist tradition. In doing so, we will take special care to avoid the common pitfall of most Western interpretations of Eastern thought—the attempt to fit Eastern ideas and practices into unexamined Western assumptions and traditional intellectual categories. Lastly, we will address the encounter between Eastern and Western psychology as possibly having important ramifications for the human sciences in the future, potentially leading to new perspectives on the whole range of human experience and life concerns.	psychology, counseling, social work, education, Asian-American studies, Asian studies and religious studies.	Ryo Imamura		Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter