2014–15 Academic Catalog

2014-15 Undergraduate Index A-Z

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American Studies [clear]

Title		Offering	Standing	Credits	Credits	When	F	W	S	Su	Description	Preparatory	Faculty	Days	Multiple Standings	Start Quarters	Open Quarters
The Age of Irony: 20th Century America Susan Preciso and John Baldridge American studies geography history literature		Program	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	12	12	Evening	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter	S 15Spring		What is history for? This year-long investigation of 20 Century American history and culture will be organized around the pivotal roles of wars and social movements as shapers of American life and thought, especially the development of our sense of irony as reflected in politics and culture. Fall quarter's work will focus on World Wars I and II and the Vietnam War. During winter quarter, we will study three key movements for social change: the Progressive movements of the early 20th century, the African American Civil Rights Movement of the mid-century, and the second wave of feminism of the 1960s and 1970s. Students will write articles based on their own historical research and will publish them in a program web-zine. During spring quarter's study of culture as history, we will see how these turning points were and are reflected in our cultural lives. This is an all-level program, ideal for returning and transfer students, especially those pursuing the “Upside Down” BA degree. It is a broad liberal arts program designed for students who want to improve their historical knowledge, research skills and (multi)cultural literacy. We especially encourage those who would like a supportive atmosphere for senior-level project work to attend. Credits may be awarded in twentieth-century American history, labor history, American literature, Geography, and academic writing. It will be possible in our work over three quarters to meet some endorsement prerequisites for the Master in Teaching program. *We strongly encourage students to plan to enter the program in the fall and stay with us for winter and spring. Evergreen is unique in that it gives students the chance to be engaged with a complex intellectual project over time. By the concluding quarter of an all-year program, students amaze us with the quality and complexity of their work.		Susan Preciso John Baldridge	Mon Wed Thu	Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter Spring
The Art and Science of Sport Mark Harrison and Allen Mauney American studies cultural studies mathematics media studies physics		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	8	08	Evening and Weekend	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter			-- Sport embodies an ideal of performance and meaningful action. Since ancient times, we have engaged in spectacles of play, utilizing formal and complex actions governed by rules (or conventions), rituals and aesthetics, and the laws of physics. As audiences, we derive meaning through winning and losing; we construct narratives and project values onto players and play. Through conflict, competition, and collaboration, sport reflects our deepest individual and cultural identities and desires. In its numerous iterations, sport is a singular form of human play where success and failure are by and large determined by numerical outcomes. In the last 100 years, statistical bookkeeping and quantitative analysis have played an increasingly important role in defining the quality of competiton and performance, of winning and losing. This trend points to societal values that displace human expression and cultural meaning in favor of outcomes drained of human involvement. The widespread intrusion of technology into sports training suggests that the athlete is increasingly viewed in part as a machine that can be retooled to achieve desired outcomes.Participants in this program will examine the human condition “cut to the bone” and be challenged to re-conceptualize the way we experience and think about sport through the perspective of art and science. Sport is born of human imagination and embodies deeply held ideas including competition, conflict, and collaboration. Sport is played on a moral stage with scripts taken from our culture. We will develop statistical tools to engage in increasingly data-driven conversations about sports. We will use human movement to study basic scientific descriptions of the operations of our world. Through sport we will be able to examine the psychology of play and playing, constructions of time and space, and the intersections of aesthetics, science, and technique. We will also consider the ways we mediate performance (through film, television, and other media) to generate excitement, meaning, and profits.Expect to engage through readings, films, discussions, writing and statistical assignments, and independent and collaborative work. Active learning in the form of workshops, exercises, and field trips to sporting events and performances will be a central focus of the program.		Mark Harrison Allen Mauney	Wed Sat	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter
Counter Narratives: Songs and Stories Across Cultures Andrew Buchman and Leslie Flemmer American studies cultural studies gender and women's studies language studies media studies music sociology writing		Program	JR–SRJunior–Senior	16	16	Day			S 15Spring		Counter narratives are personal stories that alter our understanding of dominant cultural narratives. Detailed descriptions of the particular and the local convey unique personal experiences. Storytelling, songs, biographies, and ethnographies all enable us to engage imaginatively in the lives and experiences of people from different cultures, times, and places. Such counter narratives can document the daily encounters of marginalized people, generate knowledge, and build community. They can expand our understanding of reality, and help us to imagine future possibilities. The stories of young people who understand more than one culture through personal experience often undermine older ideas of social identity. Counter narratives can point us toward a future in which people from diverse cultural backgrounds can co-exist peacefully and learn from one another. How can different forms of literacy such as music or songs, media, and popular culture help generate counter narratives? In this unique and collaborative program between two institutions of higher education, Evergreen and Daejeon University in Korea, we will begin to investigate what it means to understand and tell our own stories, across different cultural domains, through music, storytelling, and learning in community. This program will also serve as an opportunity to support students developing more complex language skills through everyday encounters with each other. Evergreen students who engage with the participating group of visiting Korean students in their English language studies will acquire skills in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). How can examining and sharing stories enable us to develop greater social and academic language skills? Students will mentor each other and collaborate on in-class projects, including ethnographies, story-telling and songwriting workshops, lectures and seminars on films, books, and works of art, field trips and nature walks in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and other individual and small group creative and scholarly projects. Students in this program may earn credit in cultural studies and humanities, musicianship and story-telling, writing and language studies.		Andrew Buchman Leslie Flemmer		Junior JR Senior SR	Spring	Spring
Current Economic and Social Issues: Explanations, Actions and Solutions Peter Bohmer American studies communication economics media studies political economy political science sociology		Program	FR ONLYFreshmen Only	16	16	Day			S 15Spring		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 poverty and economic inequality, immigration, sexual violence, incarceration, climate change, and war on a global and national level. We will draw on political science, economics and political economy, sociology, and communication studies for our analysis, with particular attention to dimensions of class, race, gender, and global inequalities.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 and perspectives 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. We will also examine how alternative economic and social systems address these issues.Through critical analysis of media representations of current issues, students will learn to create alternative representations in the form of radio broadcasts or podcasts. Students will learn basic recording, editing, writing, and performance skills needed for audio interviews, commentaries, and documentaries.We will choose the specific issues to be addressed in the program as spring 2015 approaches, so that our study will be as relevant as possible. For each topic studied, we will combine readings with lectures, films, and workshops, along with guest speakers and field trips as appropriate to observe problems and responses first hand.Students will write short papers on each of the social and economic issues we are analyzing. You will also in groups examine in more depth and report on one of these areas.		Peter Bohmer	Tue Tue Wed Fri Fri	Freshmen FR	Spring	Spring
Earth Dynamics: Climate, People and History EJ Zita, Bret Weinstein and Nancy Koppelman American studies agriculture biology ecology economics environmental studies history physics sustainability studies Signature Required: Winter		Program	FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter			Earth’s environment has been shaped by human activity for hundreds of thousands of years, since early humans discovered fire. More recently, since Earth warmed out of the last ice age, humans developed agriculture and stable societies enabled the rapid development and self-transformation of cultures. Agricultural activities began to emit greenhouse gases and to change Earth’s air, water and land. People changed as well and began to document their activities, ideas and reflections. Millennia later, modern human societies use fossil fuels and modify landscapes with such intensity that Earth is unlikely to experience another ice age. Both contemporary industrial and ancient subsistence practices are part of the same long story of how human beings have used and shaped the environment and, through it, ourselves.This program will examine how changes in the Earth system facilitated or necessitated human adaptations or evolutions. To Western eyes, until perhaps 150 years ago, the Earth’s resources seemed virtually inexhaustible. Organized human thought and activity unleashed unprecedented powers which reshaped the Earth. Life expectancy increased; arts flourished. The ideas of Enlightenment thinkers and the energies they harnessed seemed to promise unlimited progress. Yet some wondered if progress might have a dark side. They developed critiques of the practices changing how people produced food and materials, traveled and warmed their homes. What can we learn from their voices in the historical record, given what we now know about global warming and other anthropogenic impacts on Earth systems?We’ll ask how human practices changed not only local environments but large-scale global processes. We’ll note patterns of interaction between people and Earth over time. We'll study natural as well as human drivers of climate change, including Sun-Earth interactions, volcanoes and greenhouse gases. We’ll consider the changing role of science in providing the understanding required for people and planet to thrive together. We’ll examine whether/how modern consumer societies are uniquely positioned to hasten and/or slow the dangerous direction in which modern resource use is driving our planet’s ecosystem. Is global warming a disaster, an opportunity or both? How do we adapt now, in the face of the most dramatic change to the Earth system in human history?Our work will include lectures, discussions, workshops, labs, quantitative homework, expository essays, responses to peers’ essays, teamwork and field trips.		EJ Zita Bret Weinstein Nancy Koppelman		Freshmen FR Sophomore SO	Fall	Fall Winter
Entrepreneurship and Economic Development cancelled		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter			How are organizations managed? What skills and abilities are needed? Organizations fail or succeed according to their ability to adapt to fluid legal, cultural, political and economic realities. The management of organizations will play a seminal role in this program, where the primary focus will be on business and economic development. Management is a highly interdisciplinary profession where generalized, connected knowledge plays a critical role. Knowledge of the liberal arts/humanities or of technological advances may be as vital as skill development in finance, law, organizational dynamics or the latest management theory. An effective leader/manager must have the ability to read, comprehend, contextualize and interpret the flow of events impacting the organization. Communication skills, critical reasoning, quantitative (financial) analysis and the ability to research, sort out, comprehend and digest voluminous amounts of material characterize the far-thinking and effective organizational leader/manager.This program will explore the essentials of for-profit and nonprofit business development through the study of classical economics, free market principles, economic development and basic business principles. Selected seminar readings will trace the evolution of free market thinking in our own democratic republic. Critical reasoning will be a significant focus in order to explicate certain economic principles and their application to the business environment. You will be introduced to the tools, skills and concepts you need to develop strategies for navigating your organization in an ever-changing environment. Class work will include lectures, book seminars, projects, case studies, leadership, team building and financial analysis. Expect to read a lot, study hard and be challenged to think clearly, logically and often. Texts will include by Thomas Zimmerer by Thomas Sowell, by M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley, and by John A. Tracy. A stout list of seminar books will include , by Friedrich von Hayek, by Thomas Paine, and by Alexis De Toqueville. In fall quarter, we will establish a foundation in economics, business, critical reasoning and the history of business development in the United States.Winter quarter will emphasize real-life economic circumstances impacting organizations. You will engage in discussions with practitioners in businesses and various other private sector and government organizations. A primary focus in winter will be on spreadsheet analysis of financial documents.		John Filmer	Mon Wed Fri	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall
Entrepreneurship and Economic Development new Brenda Hood American studies business and management communication economics government history law and public policy leadership studies political economy		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall				What does it mean to be a successful entrepreneur? What does authentic success look like, to the individual, to the organization, to the larger community, and to the economy? Organizations fail or succeed according to their ability to adapt to fluid legal, cultural, political and economic realities. The management of organizations will be a central theme in this program, where the primary focus will be on business, economic, and community development through the lens of sustainability. Management is a highly interdisciplinary profession in which generalized, connected knowledge plays a critical role. Knowledge of the liberal arts or of technological advances may be as vital as skill development in finance, law, organizational dynamics or the latest management theory. An effective entrepreneur must have the ability to read, comprehend, contextualize and interpret the flow of events impacting the organization. Communication skills, critical reasoning, quantitative (financial) analysis and the ability to research, sort out, comprehend and digest voluminous amounts of material characterize the far-thinking and effective organizational entrepreneur.The program will be foundational for forming business pathways to move toward greater cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability. Throughout the program, we will ask: how might entrepreneurs innovate, challenge, and transform their cultures and their environments as well as themselves? One of the goals of this program is to develop a set of competencies that will address this need in an increasingly challenging economic and business climate, as we also engage in developing a well-rounded education. Critical reasoning will be a significant focus in order to explicate certain entrepreneurship principles and their application to the business environment. You will be introduced to the tools, skills and concepts you need to develop strategies for navigating your organization in an ever-changing environment. Class work will include lectures, book seminars, projects, case studies, leadership, team building and financial analysis. Expect to read a lot, study hard and be challenged to think clearly, logically and often. Students can expect to attain a diverse skill set, including entrepreneurship, economics, sustainable business practices, critical reasoning and the ability to integrate business within community development.Texts will include by Norman Scarborough, by Thomas Sowell, by M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley. Seminar texts include by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox, by Andres Edwards and David Orr, and by Elane Scott and Rick Stephens.		Brenda Hood	Mon Wed Fri	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall
Gateways for Incarcerated Youth Chico Herbison American studies cultural studies education Signature Required: Fall Winter Spring		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter	S 15Spring		This program offers Evergreen students the opportunity to co-learn with individuals incarcerated in a maximum-security institution for juvenile males. It is high stakes work that demands consistent engagement—approximately 10-12 hours a week in class and 4-6 hours a week at the institution (including travel time). The learning of students enrolled in this program fuels and is fueled by the learning of the incarcerated students.A fundamental principle of the Gateways program is that every person has talents given to them at birth and valuable experiences that can contribute to our shared learning. It is our job as human creatures to encourage each other to seek out and develop our passions and gifts. These values are manifested in the practices of popular education, which will serve as both the process and the content of our work. Our goal is to create an environment in which each person becomes empowered to share their knowledge, creativity, values and goals by connecting respectfully with people from other cultural and class backgrounds. All students will wrestle with topics in diversity and social justice alongside other subjects chosen by the incarcerated students—the main feature of popular education is that it empowers those seeking education to be the local experts in shaping their own course of study.Popular education works through conscientization, the ongoing process of joining with others to give a name to socioeconomic conditions, to reflect critically on those conditions, and thereby to imagine new possibilities for living. In order to do this work successfully, students will practice learning how to meet other learners "where they are at" (literally, in order to better understand the conditions that put some of us in prisons and others in colleges). Students will also develop or hone their skills in contextualizing and analyzing socioeconomic phenomena. Most importantly, students will learn that solidarity does not mean "saving" other people or solving their problems—it means creating conditions that allow them to articulate those problems through genuine dialogue and supporting them as they work toward their own solutions. Program participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how different individuals access and manifest their learning as they gain experience in facilitating discussions and workshops. In the process of collectively shaping the Gateways seminar, they will also learn how to organize productive meetings and work through conflict. Each quarter, students will take increasing responsibility for designing, implementing and assessing the program workshops and seminars. Throughout the year we will seek to expand our collective knowledge about various kinds of relative advantage or privilege while continually working to create a space that is welcoming and generative for all learners.High stakes community-based work requires trust, and trust requires sustained commitment. This program requires that all participants be ready to commit themselves to the program for the entire academic year.		Chico Herbison		Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter Spring
In Search of Lost Time Stacey Davis and Samuel Schrager American studies anthropology cultural studies history literature writing		Program	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	16	16	Day			S 15Spring				Stacey Davis Samuel Schrager		Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Spring	Spring
Individual Study: Water Law, Cultural Studies and the Arts Cheri Lucas-Jennings American studies aesthetics agriculture community studies cultural studies ecology environmental studies field studies gender and women's studies government health hydrology international studies law and public policy media arts political economy political science sustainability studies visual arts writing Signature Required: Fall		Contract	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day and Evening	F 14 Fall				Individual studies offers important opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individuals or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor to develop an outline of proposed projects to be described in an Individual Learning Contract. If students wish to gain internship experience they must secure the agreement and signature of a field supervisor prior to the initiation of the internship contract.This faculty welcomes internships and contracts in the areas of the arts (including acrylic and oil painting, sculpture, or textiles); water policy and hydrolic systems; environmental health; health policy; public law; cultural studies; ethnic studies; permaculture, economics of agriculture; toxins and brownfields; community planning, intranational relations.This opportunity is open to those who wish to continue with applied projects that seek to create social change in our community; artists engaged in creative projects and those beginning internship work at the State capitol who seek to expand their experience to public agencies and non-profit institutions; and to those interested in the study of low income populations and legal aid.		Cheri Lucas-Jennings		Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall
Political Economy and Social Movements: Race, Class and Gender revised Peter Bohmer, Martha Schmidt and Savvina Chowdhury African American studies American studies cultural studies economics gender and women's studies government history international studies political economy political science sociology Signature Required: Winter		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter			We will examine the nature, development and concrete workings of modern capitalism and the interrelationship of race, class and gender in historical and contemporary contexts. Recurring themes will be the interaction of oppression, exploitation, social movements, reform and fundamental change, and the construction of alternatives to capitalism, nationally and globally. We will examine how social change has occurred in the past, present trends and alternatives for the future. We will examine different theoretical frameworks such as liberalism, Marxism, feminism, anarchism and neoclassical economics, and their explanations of the current U.S. and global political economy and of key issues such as education, the media, climate change, hunger, debt, immigration and the criminal justice system. There will be workshops on popular education and movement building skills.In fall, the U.S. experience will be the focus, whereas winter quarter will have a global focus. We will begin with the colonization of the U.S., and the material and ideological foundations of the U.S. political economy from the 18th century to the present. We will explore specific issues including the slave trade, racial, gender and economic inequality, the labor movement and the western push to "American Empire." We will examine the linkages from the past to the present between the economic core of capitalism, political and social structures, and gender, race and class relations. Resistance and social movements will be a central theme. We will study microeconomics principles from a neoclassical, feminist economics and political economy perspective. Within microeconomics, we will study topics such as the structure and failure of markets, work and wages, growing economic inequality, poverty, debt as a means of dispossession, and the gender and racial division of labor.In winter, we will examine the interrelationship between the U.S. political economy and the changing global system, and U.S. foreign policy. We will study causes and consequences of the globalization of capital and its effects in our daily lives, international migration, and the role of multilateral institutions and trade agreements. This program will analyze the response of societies such as Venezuela and Bolivia and social movements such as labor, feminist, anti-war, environmental, indigenous and youth and the global justice movement in the U.S. and internationally in opposing the global order. We will look at alternatives to neoliberal capitalism including socialism, participatory economies and community-based economies and study strategies for social change. We will study macroeconomics, including austerity and critiques of it, causes and solutions to the high rates of unemployment and underemployment and to economic instability. In winter quarter, as part of the 16 credits, there will be an optional internship for two credits in organizations and groups whose activities are closely related to the themes of this program or the opportunity to write a research paper on a relevant political economy topic.Students will engage the material through seminars, lectures, guest speakers, films, workshops, synthesis papers based on program material and concepts, and take-home examinations.		Peter Bohmer Martha Schmidt Savvina Chowdhury	Tue Wed Fri	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Fall	Fall Winter
Race to the Top, Race to the Bottom: Interrogating Educational Policy, Law and Media Grace Huerta and Artee Young American studies communication community studies education field studies law and public policy media studies writing		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	16	16	Day			S 15Spring		Educational ranking in the United States and globally has long been controversial, even more so today as student and teacher accountability measures drive our perceptions of what constitutes an effective and equitable American school. How exactly have these perceptions of educational success and failure been formed: by history, by legal precedent, by educational policy, by economics, and by the media? In this program, we will analyze how such factors influence our perceptions and assessment of American schooling today.By conducting field research and tutoring in the public schools, comparing and contrasting school practices, policies, local, state and federal laws, as well as tracking media representation, we will analyze the nature of public education and how it has been conceptualized and depicted in the United States and abroad.Our final research project will consider how to interrogate both the depictions of schooling and how accurate depictions play an important role in the shaping of equitable U.S. educational policy in the future.		Grace Huerta Artee Young	Mon Tue Thu	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Spring	Spring
Under the Influence: Art, Writing and Inspiration Ann Storey and Nancy Parkes American studies aesthetics art history gender and women's studies international studies literature visual arts writing		Program	SO–SRSophomore–Senior	8	08	Evening and Weekend			S 15Spring		What are the relationships among art, writing and transformation? Have artists been inspired by creative writing and have writers been inspired by art? The answer is a resounding yes! In this interdisciplinary art and writing class we will explore examples of mutually creative influence coming from these sister arts. In turn we will create art and writing that draws on these twin sources of creativity, with a special emphasis on relationship to environment and place. We are concerned with art and writing that addresses both cultural and personal transformation. We will learn the formal analysis of art and literature so that we can engage in "close reading" of both. Also, we will read literature that shows the many ways that works of art can be cherished and understood throughout time. Our primary studio practices will be drawing, assemblage, book arts and collage. Students will also engage in creative writing workshops that often involve art.		Ann Storey Nancy Parkes	Wed Sat	Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Spring	Spring
What Are Children For? Nancy Koppelman and Charles Pailthorp American studies history sociology writing		Program	FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore	16	16	Day			S 15Spring		Childhood is not just a biological fact of life. Philippe Aries famously argued that children and childhood did not exist before the modern era. How do ideas about children, the conditions of child rearing and of childhood, and conventions of education change over time? And if the meanings of "children" and "childhood" change throughout history and across cultures, how can people ever know if they are making the "best" decisions on behalf of the children whom they raise, educate, care for, advocate for, employ or support? In this program, students will learn how children’s experience and adult interpretations of childhood have changed in the Western world over the last 400 years. Until about 150 years ago, most children were necessary: they contributed labor to the maintenance of the family home and were expected to reproduce the circumstances of their birth. The social revolutions of the 18th century disrupted all social hierarchies, including those within families. We will examine how these disruptions transformed childhood and moved children from the periphery to the center of adult intellectual, moral and medical interest.Students will learn how children in North America lived and were viewed by adults from the 16th century forward, and examine how the meaning of childhood was transformed during the flowering of the Enlightenment. We will study the changing meanings of innocence and sin, labor and leisure, value and sacredness, and how those meanings figured in the way children were seen and treated. Guest speakers from the community who have a professional or political interest in children will share their experiences with the program.The class befits students who work with or care about children. It will also enlighten anyone who has grown up, is still trying to grow up, or wonders if she or he has, or should ever, grow up.		Nancy Koppelman Charles Pailthorp		Freshmen FR Sophomore SO	Spring	Spring
What Does it Mean to be an "American"? Colonial America to Present Michael Vavrus, Artee Young and Liza Rognas American studies cultural studies gender and women's studies history law and public policy political economy political science		Program	FR–SOFreshmen–Sophomore	16	16	Day	F 14 Fall	W 15Winter			This introductory program examines how the meaning of “American” has changed historically and into our current era. Specifically, we examine how the concept of “democracy” has been applied historically. Democracy is a participatory form of government, yet many groups and individuals have not been allowed to participate fully in U.S. democratic systems since the beginning of the Republic. Our inquiry includes: What does social belonging involve? Why are some individuals included while others are excluded from full participation in civic life? How do individual or group identities influence participation in social, economic and political processes? Where and how do differences and diversity fit with the idea of the “American Dream?”To address these questions and others, this two-quarter program explores the origins and manifestations of the contested concepts of race, gender, and socioeconomic class in U.S. history as part of an investigation into identity. We will explore how identity and perceived identity have resulted in differential social, economic and political treatments and how social movements emerged to challenge systemic inequities.Central to this program is a study of historical connections between European colonialism prior to U.S. independence as a nation and the expansion of U.S. political and military dominance globally since independence and into the 21st century. In this context, students are provided opportunities to investigate how the bodies of various populations have been racialized and gendered. Students will examine related contemporary concepts such as racism, prejudice, discrimination, patriarchy, gender, class, affirmative action, white privilege and color-blindness. Students will consider current research and commentaries that surround debates on genetics vs. culture (“nature vs. nurture”).Students will engage historic and contemporary perceptions of identity through readings, dialogue in seminars, workshops, films, and academic writing that integrate program material. A goal of the program is for students to acquire knowledge of the past and its association with the present in order to connect and recognize contemporary expressions of power and privilege by what we hear, see and read as well as absences and silences that we find.These expressions include contemporary news accounts and popular culture artifacts (e.g., music, television, cinema, on-line media). As part of this inquiry, we will examine the presidency of Barack Obama in relation to discourses on race. As a learning community, we will work together to make sense of these expressions and link them to their historical origins. Students will also have an opportunity to examine the social formation of their own identities by researching the historic foundations of their own personal narratives. Current approaches from social psychology will be foundational in this aspect of the program.Visits to local cultural museums, to the Washington State Archives, the National Archives in Seattle, and attendance at a theatrical performance are tentatively planned as part of this program. Disclaimer: Films and other program materials periodically describe and present images of violence and use language that may be considered offensive, especially in regards to racial identification. The purpose of this material is to present significant events within their respective historical contexts.		Michael Vavrus Artee Young Liza Rognas	Tue Tue Wed Fri Fri	Freshmen FR Sophomore SO	Fall	Fall Winter
Winning the Pulitzer Prize: A Century of American Literature Emily Lardner American studies literature writing		Course	FR–SRFreshmen–Senior	4	04	Evening		W 15Winter			Since 1917, a Pulitzer Prize has been awarded to one novel written by an author in the U.S. that focuses on life in the U.S. We’ll use the list of Pulitzer winners to explore what makes literature good, and what literature is good for. We’ll start with the most recent winner, , by Donna Tartt, and work our way back, selectively, to the first winner, , by Ernest Poole, published in 1917. Along the way, we’ll use Terry Eagleton’s book on literary theory to help us become better, more intentional readers.		Emily Lardner	Mon	Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR	Winter	Winter