2013-14 Undergraduate Index A-Z
Have feedback about the online catalog?
Have ideas about what Evergreen could offer in the future?
Communications [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days of Week | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Nancy Parkes and Hirsh Diamant
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 12 | 12 | Evening and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | In this two-quarter, interdisciplinary program, we will cultivate a “Sense of Wonder” while building skills as writers, activists, artists, and interdisciplinary scholars. Our work will combine theory and practice as we delve into the rich areas of literature, cultural studies, writing, creative arts, contemplative practice, natural history, and environmental/outdoor education. We will explore how we develop roots to the natural world and explore themes related to natural history literature, the Pacific Northwest, and global multicultural traditions that have an intimate connection to place. At the core of our inquiry will be the questions: What enlivens Culture? What motivates change? Working from a rich, interdisciplinary perspective, we will study what it means to be rooted to place and how place connects us to a deep sense of purpose and meaning through word and image, language and tradition, stories and activism, and education and scholarship.Program expectations for education and scholarship: By the end of the two-quarter study, students will: | Nancy Parkes Hirsh Diamant | Mon Wed Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
|
Thuy Vu
|
Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | S 14Spring | Success in international business and community development requires a certain level of proficiency in international trade, globalization, and intercultural communication. This course provides basic knowledge and skill training for potential entrepreneurs and managers in the areas of international business, communications, and finance. This course focuses on the international and community development aspect of business management, namely international trade, marketing, intercultural communication, globalization, and international organizations.Students in this course are expected to complete 10 hours of community service or in-service learning with a local business or community-based organization. | Thuy Vu | Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
|
Thuy Vu
|
Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | F 13 Fall | Success in business and community development requires a certain level of proficiency in finance, economics, and management. This course provides basic knowledge and skill training for potential entrepreneurs and managers in the areas of business management, economics, and finance. This course focuses on the micro aspect of business management, namely business planning, microeconomics, business finance, fund raising, and human resource management.Students in this course are expected to complete 10 hours of community service or in-service learning with a local business or community-based organization. | Thuy Vu | Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
|
John Filmer
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | 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 non-profit 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 Hayek, by Thomas Paine and by DeToqueville. In fall quarter, we will establish a foundation in economics, business, critical reasoning and the history of business development in the United StatesWinter 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. You will be actively involved in research and project work with some of these organizations and it will provide an opportunity to investigate and design exciting internships for the spring quarter.In spring quarter, the emphasis will be on individual projects or internships. Continuing students will design their own curriculum. This will require students to take full responsibility for their learning, including a bibliography, the design of the syllabus, and learning schedule. The faculty sponsor merely acts as an educational manager and not as a tutor. In-program internships provide a different opportunity to apply prior learning but in this case, with the intent of developing applied skills and people skills rather than focusing solely on advanced study or research. | John Filmer | Mon Wed Fri | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
|
Nancy Anderson, Frances V. Rains and Lori Blewett
|
Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 8 | 08 | Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This year-long program will introduce the scope and tools of communication, social science, and public health. Public health and prevention are often the invisible part of health policy. Those who are healthy or whose diseases have been prevented never know what they missed. Yet we know that all people are not equally likely to have long and healthy lives. Understanding the factors associated with health and wellness, including the effects of class, race, and ethnicity, will be the focus of fall quarter. In addition we will consider ways that communication between health providers and people who use health services can affect health outcomes, particularly in cross-cultural and cross-class contexts. In the fall quarter, we will begin by exploring individual health narratives and progress to an exploration of a variety of modes for communication of population health issues, including spoken, written, and electronic communication. We will learn to interpret and critique health journalism in the lay press, including the accompanying quantitative information. Students will develop oral and written communication skills that facilitate their active engagement in community awareness of public health issues. This preliminary work during this quarter will equip us to better understand the specific challenges that Native American people in the Salish Sea region face, in terms of cultural as well as physical survival.During winter and spring quarters, the Grays Harbor program will focus on the Peoples of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Georgia Straits). Central elements of the winter and spring portions of the program will include the colonization of Native peoples of the Salish Sea that accompanied European settlement, Indigenous resistance, rights and cultural renewal, a critique of current policies and practices that have not promoted the achievement of social or health equity, and the public health and social policies that may intervene to improve overall health and wellness in the surrounding communities. We will explore the intersection of place, culture, and health and how these factors reflect inequity in access to—and degradation of—resources in and around the Salish Sea. We will examine these themes through multiple lenses including political ecology, public health, history, and Native studies. Our readings will include current case studies, empirical research, and counter-narratives.The overarching questions that will carry us through these two quarters include how European settlement has affected the wellbeing of the Salish peoples, the interaction through time and space between Native and non-Native peoples, and the effects of these interactions on health, wellbeing, and sustainability of these communities. We will also examine ways in which lessons from history and current vulnerabilities can help us create a viable and equitable future that will heal and honor the Salish Sea and all its people. During spring quarter the program plans to visit the Elwha River and learn about the history of the Elwha River ecosystem as a case study and example of social injustice. We will study the effects of the Elwha Dam as well as the expected effects of dam removal on the Elwha ecosystem, tribal sovereignty, and overall health and wellness of the Elwha Klallam people.Throughout the year, learning will take place through writing, readings, seminars, lectures, films, art, and guest speakers. Students will improve their research skills through document review, observations, critical analysis, and written assignments. Verbal skills will be improved through small group and whole class seminar discussions and through individual final project presentations. Final projects will focus on assessment of issues related to community health, the sustainability of the Salish Sea, and the wellbeing of the Native Communities that have lived at the shore of the Salish Sea for thousands of years before European settlement. | Nancy Anderson Frances V. Rains Lori Blewett | Sat Sun | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
|
Diego de Acosta
|
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 fall include: phonetics, phonology, morphology, language change, the history of English and English dialects, key issues facing multilingual communities and language planning. In winter, 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 | ||||
|
Heesoon Jun and Bret Weinstein
|
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 | ||
|
Anne Fischel and Ruth Hayes
Signature Required:
Fall
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Anne Fischel Ruth Hayes | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
|
Lawrence Mosqueda and Michael Vavrus
Signature Required:
Spring
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | In this program students will investigate how political events are constructed and reported in the media, compared to actual political and economic realities. By media we mean mainstream periodicals, television, radio and films and emerging social media. We also include the growth of Internet blogs, websites, independent media and other media outlets in the 21st century. We will take a historical approach that focuses on U.S. history from the colonial era to contemporary globalization. We will compare corporate media concentration of ownership to community-controlled media and social media. We will examine how issues surrounding race, class and gender are perceived by the media and subsequently by the public. During winter quarter, students will receive a theoretical and historical grounding in the political economy of the media. We will explore the question of who owns the media and what difference this makes to how stories are reported, framed, sourced or just ignored. Films, lectures and readings, along with text-based seminars, will compose the primary structures used by this learning community. Students will regularly engage in a critical reading of and other media outlets. Also during the winter quarter, students will create a research proposal that includes an annotated bibliography. Research projects may either be traditional research papers or equivalent projects determined in collaboration with the faculty, such as an independent media blog or website. During spring quarter, students will devote approximately half of the program time to completing their proposed projects and presenting the results of their research. The remaining program time will focus more in-depth on program themes as we examine contemporary issues through a variety of sources. | Lawrence Mosqueda Michael Vavrus | Tue Wed Fri | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||
|
Sally Cloninger
|
Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Ready Camera One investigates the politics of representation. Therefore, students who choose to enroll should be vitally and sincerely interested in the issues and ideas concerning the representation of gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation in the mass media. Ready Camera One’s focus on gender and identity in American television will be explored in a research project called INTO FOCUS that will combine media research, critical writing, a visual essay, and an oral presentation.This program is also designed for students interested in exploring visual literacy, television production, performance, and media criticism. Students will be introduced to both media deconstruction and media production skills through a series of lecture/screenings as well as workshops and design problems that focus primarily on collaborative multi-camera studio production. In addition to a series of studio exercises, students will complete a collaborative final project that combines media analysis, research, performance and production about broadcast content and ideology.We will take a critical, performative and historical approach as we examine and even emulate the production style and lessons from the early history of 20th century live television as well as more contemporary models. Students will be expected to perform in front of as well as behind the camera and will explore the logistics and aesthetics of multi-camera direction and design. Activities will include training in the CCAM, a multi-camera TV studio facility, instruction in basic performance and writing for television, and an immersive production schedule that requires a professional attitude including perfect attendance and timeliness.No prior media production experience is required. However, Ready Camera One is also an excellent opportunity for students who do have experience in the performing arts or media arts to explore intensive studio production and collaboration. | Sally Cloninger | Tue Thu Fri | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
|
Douglas Schuler
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8, 12 | 08 12 | Evening and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | We are surrounded with problems that aren't going away; problems that cannot be solved by individuals acting alone. At the same time, a variety of powerful barriers often stand in the way of working together successfully. And all too frequently, the institutions that are supposed to help in these matters seem either oppositional or ineffectual.How can we develop and nurture the "civic intelligence" that will help ensure our actions produce the best outcomes? What sorts of creative and, often courageous, actions, events, policies, and institutions are people devising to help meet these challenges? And how can these "add up" to more widespread and enduring social change? As John Robinson of UBC's Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability stated, "If we can't imagine a better world, we won't get it."Social innovation helps us to create and ponder possible futures. Civic intelligence is an evolving, cross-disciplinary perspective that examines, proposes, initiates, and evaluates collective capacity for the common good. It builds on concepts from sociology and other social sciences but also intersects with most — or all — of the other disciplines including the hard sciences, education, cognitive science, the media, and the humanities. In this three quarter program we will focus our efforts—both reflective and action-oriented—on the theory and practice of social innovation and civic intelligence in which "ordinary" people begin to assume greater power and responsibility for creating a future that is more responsive to the needs of people and the planet. We will consider and critique cases of collective action as diverse as the World Social Forum and the Occupy Movement in addition to local and regional approaches in Thurston County and beyond.Throughout the program we will gain understanding and skills through collaborative projects, workshops, films, experiments, games, and group processes. All quarters will include theoretical readings and workshops. Spring quarter will also involve student projects with the goal of effecting real-world change.During fall we will focus on deliberation, collective intelligence, patterns and pattern languages, media, social movements, and the sociology of knowledge. Students will help determine the topics for winter and spring but reasonable candidates include education, alternative economics, collective memory, cooperation, media, participatory design, inequality, or war and peace.Students registering for 12 credits will be working within CIRAL, the Civic Intelligence Research Action Laboratory, for 4 of their credits. CIRAL is designed to help support ongoing, student-led, collaborative projects. It is intended to foster sustained and engaged relationships with groups, organizations, movements, and institutions. In addition to our regular meetings times and the work that they undertake outside of class these students will meet each Wednesday before class from 4:30 to 6:00. | Douglas Schuler | Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
|
Julia Zay and Amjad Faur
|
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 | ||||
|
Sarah Williams
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
|
SOS | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 12 | 12 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This year-long program provides an opportunity for students to work on a large, highly collaborative project that requires a multiplicity of skills and knowledge: documenting an Olympian patron of the arts. Students will form a learning community in order to work collectively and collaboratively on a feature-length documentary film about philanthropy and patronage of the arts. Each student will take on specific roles related to editing, marketing/PR, soundtrack composition, and interviewing/researching. However, in order to build new skills, all students will collaborate on every aspect of the project. Students will work together, share research results, and participate in regular critiques with faculty and staff. Collaborative work will include field trips, audio recording, cinematography, marketing, interviewing, and editing. Faculty and staff will support student work through regular meetings, critiques and problem-solving discussions. The peer learning community will collaboratively determine the direction and success of this project. Academic work for each quarter will include weekly meetings with the continuing student director/producer and bi-monthly meetings with faculty and staff in Media as well as Development and Alumni Programs. In addition, students will maintain an academic blog to document the progress of the on-going project . For Fall and Winter Quarters the students will produce a work-in-progress screening. In the spring, the students will organize a campus-wide screening and prepare the film for festival submission. This program is ideal for responsible, enthusiastic and self-motivated students with an interest in developing and reflecting on a substantial project over a substantial period of time. | Sarah Williams | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
|
Marja Eloheimo
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 12 | 12 | Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Working as a multidisciplinary project team, this yearlong program has a mission. Students will engage in hands-on work to continue to transform the fledgling ethnobotanical garden at the Evergreen “House of Welcome” Longhouse by refining existing habitat areas and developing the sayuyay Sister Garden (a medicinal portion of the garden patterned after a project on the Skokomish Indian Reservation). Through this work, we will create a valuable educational resource and contribute to multiple communities including Evergreen, local K-12 schools, local First Nations, and a growing global collective of ethnobotanical gardens that promote environmental and cultural diversity and sustainability.During fall quarter, students will become acquainted with the garden and its plants, habitats, history, and existing interpretive materials. We will carry out fieldwork, develop plant identification skills, engage in seasonal garden care, review archival materials, and meet some of the people behind the garden's development. We will also refine specific garden and book designs and implementation plans. Students will have the opportunity to select specific projects for individual and group work.During winter quarter, we will focus on the garden's "story" through continued work on existing signage, a book draft, and/or other interpretive materials such as a web page. Students will work independently on skill development, research, and project planning or implementation in their selected areas of interest. Students will also be active during the winter transplant season and will prepare procurement and planting plans for the spring season.During spring quarter, we will plant and care for the garden and present our interpretive materials to the community, wrapping up all of the work we have begun.This program requires commitment to a meaningful real-world project and strongly encourages yearlong participation. It also cultivates community by nurturing each member's contributions and growth and acknowledges the broader contexts of sustainability and global transformation. | Marja Eloheimo | Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
|
Marla Elliott and Marcella Benson-Quaziena
|
Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 8 | 08 | Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | You are the most powerful and versatile tool you have. Do you know who are you and what you stand for? Is that who you want to be? How can you use your presence as an instrument of change? How do you know what you evoke/provoke in others? How do you move in the world with awareness of your authentic self? The ability to communicate and influence is crucial to our effectiveness as we move through many systems. This program is designed for students who want to develop skills of self-knowledge and “use of self” as an instrument of social change. | Marla Elliott Marcella Benson-Quaziena | Sat Sun | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
|
Naima Lowe
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
|
Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | V | V | Day, Evening and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement. (experimental media and performance art) creates films, videos, performances and written works that explore issues of race, gender, and embodiment. The majority of her work includes an archival research element that explores historical social relationships and mythic identities. She is currently working on a series of short films and performances that explore racial identity in rural settings. Students working with Naima would have opportunities to learn media production and post-production skills (including storyboarding, scripting, 16mm and HD video shooting, location scouting, audio recording, audio/video editing, etc) through working with a small crew comprised of students and professional artists. Students would also have opportunities to do archival and historical research on African-Americans living in rural settings, and on literature, film and visual art that deals with similar themes. Please go to the catalog view for specific information about each option. | Naima Lowe | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
|
Naima Lowe
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
|
Research | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | V | V | Day, Evening and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement. (experimental media and performance art) creates films, videos, performances and written works that explore issues of race, gender, and embodiment. The majority of her work includes an archival research element that explores historical social relationships and mythic identities. She is currently working on a series of short films and performances that explore racial identity in rural settings. Students working with Naima would have opportunities to learn media production and post-production skills (including storyboarding, scripting, 16mm and HD video shooting, location scouting, audio recording, audio/video editing, etc) through working with a small crew comprised of students and professional artists. Students would also have opportunities to do archival and historical research on African-Americans living in rural settings, and on literature, film and visual art that deals with similar themes. | Naima Lowe | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
|
Sara Huntington
|
Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | You write alone but you always write for others: readers matter. Here, you will keep company with great authors and your peers as you master the rhetorical tools needed to write persuasively, compellingly, and beautifully. We will proceed from Annie Dillard’s advice that if you like sentences, then you can become a writer because you have a place to start—not to mention a passion for what makes writing lively and pleasurable. Storytelling will feature prominently in our common work, especially descriptive practices that move prose toward shape and meaning. In other words, we will learn how to show, rather than just tell, a story.We will begin with a review of sentence structure focusing on subjects and verbs, clauses and phrases. With the aim of achieving clarity, students will study editing techniques, especially ways to rewrite overly abstract prose. Working with samples of professional writing, students will learn how to use agent-action analysis, how to start and end sentences and paragraphs, and how to coordinate and balance the parts of longer sentences. Rather than focusing on writing rules, we will approach style as the range of choices available in different rhetorical contexts. Students will also revise a piece of their own writing to identify patterns and problems in their craft. After these trial runs, they will begin original composition in a genre, mode, or vein of their choosing.Readings include three types of texts: those about the practice and theory of rhetoric, from Plato and Aristotle to Stanley Fish and Barbara Tufte; those that exemplify beauty, eloquence and force, from Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy to Darwin and Watson and Crick; and those that fail to persuade, from examples of academic discourse to the ghastly delights of purple prose. Students will search for an author who will teach them how the commitment of close reading fuses with the practice of good writing. Students must reach for the development of aesthetic standards that should inform any piece of writing that’s worth reading and that merits any meaningful critical response.Our work will be collaborative and social. The class blends lectures, student presentations, workshops, and seminar periods. Students will present their work regularly for critique (generally in small sections), and they will enjoy the difficult work of responding to their peers with concrete suggestions. Students from all disciplines are welcome, especially since effective writing and rhetoric is a fundamental part of a good liberal arts education. | Sara Huntington | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall |