2013-14 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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Consciousness Studies [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days of Week | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters |
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Ryo Imamura and Bill Bruner
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | With the aging of the post-war baby boom generation, the United States population aged 65 years and older is increasing rapidly. Between 2010 and 2030 this age group is expected to double in size, from 35 million to 72 million individuals and, by 2030, will represent nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population. Relative to earlier generations, today's seniors tend to be more affluent, better educated and in better health. But the aging of the population will present challenges to institutions and individuals. This program will examine the impacts of growth of the senior population, both on the aging individual and on U.S. society as a whole.A central focus of our study will be on the social and economic impacts of an aging population. In spite of their relative health and affluence, the senior population will put stress on a number of institutions and government programs. We will try to sort out the effects on Social Security, Medicare and other programs, and consider alternative public policy responses to these impacts. We will also study the economic impacts on individuals and families. What economic and financial decisions do we face as we grow older? How can we make choices that will secure a reasonable quality of life in our senior years?We will also focus on the psychological, sociological and spiritual changes of aging and their profound impacts on individuals, families, and society in general. We will consider the many losses associated with aging but pay equal attention to the possible areas of growth and happiness such as increased wisdom, life satisfaction, inner peace and cooperative living. We will also look at the rapidly growing field of geriatric social services and meet with several Evergreen graduates who are actively involved in providing essential services to local senior citizens. | Ryo Imamura Bill Bruner | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | |||||
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Walter Grodzik and Cynthia Kennedy
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | How does imagination respond to the emotional self, the physiology of the body and the psychology of the mind? How can we become more expressive and responsive to our inner selves? This program will explore the interior spaces where performances begin and the exterior spaces where performances are realized. Through the understanding and embodiment of somatic concepts such as awareness, intention, centering, authenticity and the interplay of mind and body, students will have the opportunity to explore the creative imagination as it expresses itself from their own life processes, rather than from externally imposed images, standards and expectationsStudents will begin with movement and theatre exercises that center and focus the mind and body in order to open oneself to creative possibilities and performance. Students will also study movement/dance and theatre as a means of physical and psychological focus and flexibility that enable them to more fully utilize their bodies and emotional selves in creating theatrical performance. Students will be invited to explore and enjoy the dance already going on inside their bodies to learn to perceive, interpret and trust the natural intelligence of intrinsic bodily sensations. The class will use experiential techniques derived from several traditions of somatic philosophy. In seminar, students will read a broad variety of texts about creativity, dance, theatre and dramatic literature.The program will include weekly seminars, workshops in movement/dance and theatre and film screenings of various dance and theatre productions. We welcome students of all abilities who bring their excitement, commitment and creativity to the performing arts. | teaching, theatre, expressive arts, dance and movement theory. | Walter Grodzik Cynthia Kennedy | Freshmen FR | Spring | ||||
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Mukti Khanna and Cynthia Kennedy
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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 | ||||
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Terry Setter
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 12 | 12 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This program is a two-quarter-long investigation of the relationship between sound, music and human consciousness. We will compose original music and explore the psychological and aesthetic effects that music has on us. The program is for experienced composers and performers. It is primarily a musical endeavor, working with aspects of psychology and contemplative studies, rather than a study of psychology that involves aspects of music. The program goal is to become better composers and performers and to develop greater understanding of the qualitative aspects of listening, how music “functions” in our lives and how it relates to the broad field of Consciousness Studies. To do this, we will read texts that deal with established contemporary compositional techniques as well as seminal texts and recent findings in Consciousness Studies. Research topics could include the effects of music at the somatic level, studies in psycho acoustics, and surveys of techniques used in music therapy. Students will be expected to complete compositions, research projects and listening exercises and to keep a journal related to their experiences with the music that we create.In fall, we will build listening and compositional skills and begin to relate these to the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the pieces, learning to use appropriate vocabulary and critical techniques. In winter, students will deepen these musical skills and they will select a topic for a twenty-minute formal research presentation that will be presented during week nine. There will also be a public concert of original pieces at the end of the winter quarter. | Terry Setter | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Ratna Roy and Joseph Tougas
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 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 their 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, or to raise their voices in song.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 reading literature from a variety of cultures as well as philosophical and scientific texts. Students will write short essays on the weekly readings in preparation for seminar discussions. They will also participate in workshop activities learning musical and dance skills. During the fall quarter the workshop emphasis will be on building skills; during winter our attention in the workshops will be directed toward creating and presenting music and dance in performance. | Ratna Roy Joseph Tougas | Freshmen FR | Fall | ||||
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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 | ||
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Charles Pailthorp
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | Some living things are conscious, but not all. Some conscious things are self-aware, but not all. The same applies to our own experience: sometimes we are conscious and sometimes not; sometimes we are self-aware and sometimes not. But when we are conscious and self-aware, are we aware of? Is it just our bodies, or our brains? Is it something non-physical but somehow associated with our bodies and brains. Could it be some combination of the physical and non-physical, of body and mind, or body and soul? Three philosophers explored these questions in the first half of the 17th c., and each vigorously defended the emergent new science of that period. Each argued that Galileo had mapped a path that promised a truly scientific understanding of humankind. Nonetheless, each disagreed fundamentally with the other two. In the first weeks, we will study this dispute between René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza. Today many continue the debates of Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza. In the second half of the quarter, we will study contemporary writings by philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists and journalists such as John Searle, Antonio Damasio, Bruce Hood, and Brian Christian. What does the new science of today reveal, or change, about our sense of self?Familiar and challenging questions surround this work: “Will brain science replace psychology in our understanding of human nature?”; “Will machines surpass humans in all cognitive activities?”; “Could our conscious, self-aware lives extend beyond death?”; “Is our sense of self a mirage, if not an hallucination?”; “Is our sense of free choice illusory?”All students will be expected to read challenging texts, discuss them openly in seminar, and write short, critical essays aimed at deeper understanding of the texts and questions we address together. In addition, more advanced students will be expected to complete a longer essay. | Charles Pailthorp | Mon Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Suzanne Simons and Ann Storey
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 8 | 08 | Evening | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | This two-quarter program will examine a thousand-year period of Christian and Islamic art, art history, poetry, and mysticism from roughly the 4th through 14th centuries. This was a singular period of creativity, spirituality, and change. We will study the motivating ideas and issues of the age: the dynamic influence of migrating tribal cultures on inherited classical traditions, the problem of iconoclasm, and Neoplatonic philosophy expressed through the visions of the mystics. 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 learn about the mysticism of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Sufi poets, and other charismatic figures as we see their visions expressed in superb mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, sculpture, calligraphy, sacred geometry, miniature painting, and sacred architecture of European Christendom and Islamic empires stretching from Spain to Central Asia. Sacred music of the era will be experienced through recordings and a possible field trip. Art workshops will enable students to move from theory to practice. | Suzanne Simons Ann Storey | Tue Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Sarah Williams
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SOS | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | J.W. Goethe Like the role of bees and seeds in the evolution of agriculture, beads—which often are seeds, shells, wax or bone—have an inside and an outside that commute, are interpenetrating and entail reciprocal creation. They form assemblages with centers and their use over time can be a measure of the fertility of mind, spirit and body. This SOS will support students in bead-like studies of biodynamic processes in conjunction with an internship, creative practice or field research project. Whether defined in relationship to agricultural, artistic or craniosacral practices, biodynamic processes are characterized by interconnected, recursive and iterative movements that form holistic patterns. Biodynamic processes are mutually causative and are engaged in by organisms (i.e., living entities) according to temporal rhythms (e.g., respiration) and sustaining cosmic forces such as tides and sunlight.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. In addition to classroom work, each student will create an individual course of academic learning including an internship (e.g., at a local organic farm), creative practice (e.g., nature writing), or field research project (e.g., discovering the differences—and why they matter—between commercial and biodynamic beekeeping). Collaboration, including shared field-trip opportunities, with the Ecological Agriculture and Practice of Sustainable Agriculture programs will be available. Academic work for each quarter will include weekly group meetings, an annotated bibliography and maintenance of a field journal to document independent project learning. In addition to this independent project component, students will engage in weekly readings and written responses, seminar discussions and a final presentation. Unless designed into students projects and agreed upon in advance, all students will be required to attend and actively participate in this one day of weekly class activities, as well as individual self-assessment meetings with the faculty at mid-quarter and the end of the quarter. Interested students should browse the following authors and texts to explore their ability to think and act biodynamically within an intentional learning community. , edited by David Seamon and Arthur Zajonc; by Wolf Storl; by Charles Ridley; by Catherine Cole; by Gary Snyder; by Robert Bringhurst; by Ruth Ozeki; and : by Rudolf Steiner | Sarah Williams | Tue | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
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Marja Eloheimo
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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 | ||
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Ryo Imamura
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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 |