2013-14 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days of Week | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters |
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Nancy Parkes and Hirsh Diamant
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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 | |||
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Kabby Mitchell and Joye Hardiman
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | How did Black women, of many different cultures and ages, succeed against all odds? How did they move from victim to victors? Where did they find the insurmountable courage to deconstruct and reconstruct their lives? In this program, students will participate in an inquiry-base exploration of the efficacy, resiliency and longevity of the lives and legacies of selected Black women from Ancient Egypt to contemporary Seattle. Our exploration will use the lenses of Ancient Egyptian studies, African, African-American and Afro-Disaporic history, dance history and popular culture to investigate these womens' lives and cultural contexts.The class will have a variety of learning environments, including lectures and films, workshops, seminars and research groups. All students will demonstrate their acquired knowledge, skill and insight by: creating an annotated bibliography; giving a final performance based on the life of a chosen black woman; and an end-of-the-quarter "lessons learned presentation" demonstrating how our collective studies applied to each individual student's life and legacy. | Kabby Mitchell Joye Hardiman | Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Wed Thu Thu Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | ||||
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Tom Womeldorff and Alice Nelson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | In the late 1700s, Europeans saw the Caribbean as one vast sugar plantation controlled by French, English, Spanish and Dutch colonial powers. The insatiable need for labor decimated local populations who were replaced by millions of African slaves and, after emancipation, indentured labor from East India and China. Historically, this represents the largest forced mixing of cultures in the world; the result was a host of new Caribbean identities, all developing in the context of the political, economic and ideological structures imposed by Europeans. Today, the identities and cultural expressions of all Caribbean peoples continue to be shaped by the colonial legacy and the rise of post-colonial consciousness. Thinkers like José Martí (" América"), Aimé Césaire ( ), and Frantz Fanon ( ) exposed the negative effects of colonial subjugation and envisioned liberatory processes of social change. Despite the region's shared colonial and post-colonial legacies, a sense of a common Caribbean identity should not be exaggerated. As Jean Casimir writes, the Caribbean is simultaneously united and divided. A Guadeloupian may be more connected psychologically and physically to Dakar, or even Paris, than she is to Puerto Rico. Out of this intense forced mixing of cultures, what forms of identity emerged and continue to emerge? Is there such a thing as a Caribbean culture, or are identities complex amalgams that defy easy categorizations such as Caribbean, Dominican American, creole Martinican, Afro-Cuban, East-Indian Trinidadian? What are the factors that make the identities of each island's peoples similar and in what ways do they defy categorization--even on a single island? How have cultural movements such as and the "New World baroque" contributed to the construction of Caribbean identities and post-colonial consciousness? These will be the questions at the center of this program. We will begin with an exploration of the colonial legacy with close attention to the political and economic forms central to extracting sugar profits from land and laborers. We will explore the impact of diverse political statuses such as independence (e.g., Jamaica), complete incorporation with the motherland (Martinique) and more nebulous forms in between (Puerto Rico). We will explore the symbioses and tensions between these political and economic issues and cultural movements. Finally, we will investigate how migration and globalization continue to play a major role in shaping local realities. Throughout the quarter, we will examine our own positionality with relation to these questions, asking: How can we study about, learn from, and engage across cultural differences in non-dominating ways? Readings will range from fiction and poetry to history and political-economic analysis. In addition to shared readings, lectures and films, each student will engage in synthesis work and a small project. The latter will be on a topic of the student's choosing, such as cultural expression through music and art, political status, religious syncretism, post-colonial literature, globalization, or migrant identities abroad. | Tom Womeldorff Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||||
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Rose Jang and David Shaw
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | In the fall of 2012, China’s 18th Communist Party Congress selected the current generation of Chinese political leaders, moving China into the next chapter of its 3,000-plus years of political history.Today, China’s economic power continues to grow, and its rise globally has drawn increasing attention. Many developing countries are viewing the China model as an alternative to the Western experience of economic growth and middle class prosperity. However, China is faced with many internal and external challenges. Challenges like these have repeatedly threatened China’s social stability in the past. In the extreme case, they might alter its current ideological foundations, potentially undercutting the premises of the China “success story.”This introductory China studies program will focus on China's present situation as a modern state and global power evolved from a lengthy and complicated cultural development over centuries. Within the time constraint of a quarter, we will examine China from selective angles and subject matters suggesting recurrent cultural patterns and distinct national characteristics. In the social sciences, we will touch on China’s geography, political structure and economic and business systems, including sustainability and environmental issues. From the humanities perspective, we will look at prominent examples of China’s religion, philosophy, arts and literature. All these issues are potentially interrelated, leading to a more coherent set of inquiries into the myth or reality of China’s current image of success.Students will be exposed to multiple topics and issues through weekly readings, lectures, discussions and workshops. They will also conduct a research project on a China-related topic of their own choice. This research project will provide them with opportunities to develop skills in research methods and academic writing. The program will introduce the fundamentals of Chinese language and linguistics through program studies but does not contain an independent Chinese language study component. | Rose Jang David Shaw | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | |||||
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Therese Saliba and Naima Lowe
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | "Dangerous creations" emerge out of adverse political conditions and embody new creative strategies and possibilities. This program will explore how writers, media makers, artists and community activists use experimental modes of address to challenge dominant narratives and formal structures, and to confound notions of "the real." With an emphasis on multiculturalism, identity and especially African and Arab Diasporas, this program will examine the histories of slavery, colonialism and Empire and how art, media and literature have been used as tools of both conquest and resistance. We will draw on theoretical tools to analyze the "politics of representation" in popular media, including critiques of Orientalism, the Africanist presence and the gaze. And we will explore how diasporic communities, particularly feminists of color, "talk back" to these representations—by creating dangerously. That is, how do these artists use experimental forms to challenge fixed notions of individual and communal identity, as well as the consumerist system of media and literary production?Through the study of diasporic cultural production, African and Arab American literature and film, Third World Cinema and queer and feminist film theory, we intend to foster critical thinking about race, class and gender identities, and how they are negotiated. We will also explore how certain models of cultural-mixing, hybridity, and border-crossing have created a dispersal of identities and strategic possibilities for solidarities and connections across community struggles.In fall and winter quarters, students will learn to read cultural texts, including film, visual art and literature, to understand the relationships of people and communities, their sense of identity and possibilities for solidarity across differences. Students will develop skills in visual and media literacy, creative and expository writing, analytical reading and viewing, literary analysis, and the terminologies and methodologies of cultural and gender studies, film history and theory. Through workshops, students will also learn a range of community documentation skills, including photography, video, interviewing and oral history. In spring, students will have the opportunity to work on in-depth independent projects in autobiographical representations either through moving image or narrative writing. With faculty guidance and small group workshops, students will write proposals, conduct research and engage in critique groups to produce a major individual or colloborative creation. | visual studies, film studies, cultural studies, literary studies, African-American studies, Arab/Middle East studies, gender studies, community organizing and advocacy, and education. | Therese Saliba Naima Lowe | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | ||
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Gail Tremblay and Rebecca Chamberlain
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | How does culture affect the visions and worldviews of writers, artists and filmmakers? How does place affect culture? We will explore these questions and connections through careful reading and analysis of literature, film, and art history from a multicultural perspective. As students of culture, we will examine the way in which place and migration from place shapes cultural production of texts and art, as well as how our connection to the natural world affects creativity.Over the course of the program we will read books by African American, Native American, Asian American, European American, Chicano and other Latino writers, and will take field trips to museums, and cultural events in Washington and Oregon. There will be guest speakers from diverse communities sharing their perspectives about their practice as writers, artists, and scholars. Workshops in writing composition, poetry, and art will provide the opportunity to develop a creative practice and create art, poetry, and various forms of narrative. Weekly response essays will provide opportunities for reflection and integration. Fall quarter, we will study works by a diverse group of American writers, artists, and filmmakers. The first book will be Linda Hogan's novel, Early in the quarter, a multi-day field trip to the Makah Nation in Neah Bay on the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula will allow us to study the artifacts from Ozette, a 14th village on the Pacific Ocean. We will meet with artists, and cultural experts from the Makah culture and learn about their relationship to place. Winter quarter, we will continue to explore creative works by diverse writers, artists, and filmmakers, which will include essays by multicultural American naturalists that speak to our human connection to earth and place. In addition to field trips and workshops on poetry and art, students will write two five page expository essays, and one ten-page research paper. During the second half of the quarter, they will also do a creative project that grows out of our work over the past two quarters. | literature, education, art, and cultural studies. | Gail Tremblay Rebecca Chamberlain | Mon Tue Thu | Freshmen FR | Fall | ||
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Susan Preciso and Mark Harrison
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 8 | 08 | Evening and Weekend | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | “Culture is simply the ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves” (Clifford Geertz).Those stories, our national myths and cultural icons, will provide the lens through which we will examine American history in this year-long program. Students will study works of fiction, film, and history in order to learn how our culture shapes our understanding of past and present realities. Each quarter students will incorporate quantitative methods to enrich and explain aspects of American culture. We’ll look at cultural products, from high art to popular culture with a particular focus on film and literature, to see how they reflect and shape our ideas about who and what we are. Our study will be organized around three turbulent decades in American history.During Fall Quarter, we will consider the post-Civil War years, to include Reconstruction and western expansion. From dime novels to Hollywood westerns, we’ll examine how deeply we are shaped by 19 and 20 century frontier ideology. Money and technology—capitalism and the railroads—also drove westward migration. We’ll see the tensions around race and class as they figure in film, novels, and popular culture.Winter quarter, we will move to the 1930s. How did the Great Depression and the policy created to deal with that crisis change the way we see government? What was the impact of two great migrations—from the dust bowl states to the West, and from the agricultural South to the industrial north—on American society? In such a time of hardship and deprivation, how did the Golden Age of Hollywood reflect our cultural realities through genre films, such as the screwball comedy, the musical, and the gangster film?In the spring, we’ll focus on the 1950s and ‘60s and how upward—and outward—mobility informed who and where we are today. The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War transformed the country. Cars, freeways, and the rise of the suburbs re-shaped the cultural landscape, and television expanded the scope of mass media and popular culture.Our work will include critical reading of books and films. Students will be expected to learn about schools of cultural criticism, using different approaches to enrich their analyses. They will be expected to participate in seminar, lectures, workshops, and library research and to attend field trips to local museums and live theater performances.Credits may be awarded in American studies (literature, art and history), moving image, and mathematics. | Susan Preciso Mark Harrison | Wed Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
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Marianne Bailey, Shaw Osha (Flores), Bob Haft, Judith Gabriele and Stacey Davis
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | ... ...—Hölderlin, "Bread and Wine" We will study art history, literature, philosophy and music in their social and historical contexts in order to understand the Romantic avant-garde thinkers and artists, outsiders in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe, and their tenuous but fruitful dialogue with mainstream culture and the emerging popular culture of the laboring class. We will emphasize French Romanticism, but will also consider the pan-European nature of the phenomenon. This era offers a figurative battlefield where concepts of art, nature and self, order and chaos, locked swords, testing the limits of rational thought. French language study will be an important component of our weekly work; students will study French at one of four levels, from beginning to advanced.The 19th century was an era of immense political change spanning revolutions, empires and finally the establishment of democracy at home, just as European imperialism spread across Africa and Asia. We will study ways in which average women and men crafted their own identities and responded to the larger social forces of industrialization, the creation of a new working class, the solidification of gender and class roles, the rise of modern cities and the redefinition of the criminal, the socially-acceptable and the outsider.In fall, our work will begin with the paintings, poems and ideas of the early Romantics. The Romantics privileged feeling, intuition and empathy. Like adepts in an ancient mystery cult, they sought to commune with Nature. Romantic philosophers, from Schopenhauer to Nietzsche, spoke of Becoming rather than Being. Rejecting Classical order, clarity and restraint, they envisioned a pure art, beyond language and depiction, which speaks musically through color, passion, suggestion, enigmatically, as do dreams.In winter, focus will turn to the late Romantics. Decadents pushed the Romantic temperament and aesthetic to extremes through self parody and the aesthetic of fragmentation. Symbolists attempted to express the inexpressible through their art. Yet Mallarmé, Wilde and Yeats, Moreau and Gauguin, among others, helped prepare the “rites of spring” of the dawning 20th century, the arising vanguard of modernist and postmodern movements.In spring quarter, students may pursue individual research/creative projects on campus or may travel to France for 10 weeks. There they will study in a Rennes, Brittany, language school, do cultural and historical study in Paris and Lyon, as well as make side trips for research of their own.In this program, students will gain a significant grasp of key ideas in art, history and thought within their context, and will have the opportunity to specialize, creating advanced work in their choice of history, art history or writing and literature. We expect strong interest and background in humanities, and considerable self-discipline and motivation. The workload, including French language study, will be substantial and rigorous. Students will work in interdisciplinary all-program sessions and assignments, as well as choose one of three possible seminar groups. These emphasize: 1) literature and philosophy, 2) history, and 3) photography and visual arts, practice and theory. | Marianne Bailey Shaw Osha (Flores) Bob Haft Judith Gabriele Stacey Davis | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Ulrike Krotscheck and Marilyn Freeman
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Must quotidian always be associated with humdrum? Rather, it is perhaps the quotidian—the everyday, the banal—that, in the long run, heroically ensures the survival of the individual and the group as a whole. -Michel Maffesoli, An “epic” is generally defined as a poem or narrative of considerable length, which explores grand themes such as a hero’s journey, or the origin myth of a country or peoples. As an adjective, “epic” refers to something that is larger than life and often extra-ordinary. By contrast, the “everyday” is flatly defined as ordinary and is often seen as boring, trivial, and lacking in grandeur. Yet, the “everyday” has a rich creative history and garners remarkable attention in contemporary art, spiritual practices, and other areas of study and praxis. Our lives are made up of both the epic and the everyday; both are integral components of the human experience. And the tension that exists between the two is rich territory for insight and imagination.This program interrogates how the essence of the epic enters the everyday and how the quotidian gives meaning to the epic.We will juxtapose the exploration of the “epic” as a literary form with the exploration of the “everyday” as a creative practice that engages experiments in text, sound, and image. We will conduct these explorations through readings, film screenings, analyses, lectures, workshops, seminars, and by developing discovery strategies rooted in the creative practices of writing nonfiction and of crafting video essays.During fall quarter students will read ancient Greek epic poetry, myth, and tragedy. These works tap deeply into the human condition, and they explore our most persistent and universal questions, such as the concepts of destiny, power, morality, mortality, and the (in-)evitabilty of fate. As we analyze the grand questions raised by epic texts we will also consider if or how we encounter such themes in everyday life. Conversely, we will examine how everyday life may intersect with epic-scale experiences and insights.To facilitate these considerations students will develop a daily writing practice and craft a variety of creative nonfiction essays—meditative, lyrical, personal, and hybrid forms—and we will factor into our studies exemplars that engage thematically with the everyday. Fall quarter explorations will move off the page to incorporate sound and image as tools for creative and critical inquiry. Students will take a series of electronic media workshops and gain hands-on experience with audiovisual scriptwriting, audio recording, photography, and video editing. Fall quarter will conclude with students applying their creative writing skills and electronic media competencies in collaboratively crafted video essays that blend students' literary works with audio and images to explore the realm between the epic and the everyday.During winter quarter we will deepen our investigations into the epic and the everyday through additional readings and analyses of classic Greek texts and by furthering our audiovisual inquiries. One goal of this quarter will be to advance students’ understanding of various film and adaptation theories to put into practice in their individual work. Winter quarter will conclude with rigorous individual projects that encompass a research paper on sources and methods of adaptation, and an independently made video essay.This is a full-time program emphasizing classical Greek literature and media arts, creative and critical practice, collaborative learning, and individual accountability. Expect assignments to be process-driven, highly structured, and challenging. Students are expected to participate fully in all program activities, and to work about 40 hours per week including class time. If you’re eager to blend the study of Ancient Greek literature with experiments in media arts, then this program is for you. | Ulrike Krotscheck Marilyn Freeman | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Steven Hendricks
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | In this introductory literary arts program, we’ll investigate the tradition of experimental literature by treating literary experiments—our own included—as creative research into the possibilities of language and narrative. The alphabet, the language, the myriad tropes and formulae for literary expression and the archetypal patterns that haunt our stories: we will view these as a vast table of elements that can be combined and synthesized into new substances: new genres, prose forms, syntax, strategies for reading and making meaning...new reasons to write. Our own creative work will provide a rigorous testing ground for literary ideas. Student writing will be examined by faculty and peers on a regular basis with half a mind toward developing one's craft, and the other half toward investigating, for its own sake, the complex relationship between reader, text and writer. Program seminars will emphasize a lineage of exceptional exceptions: novels and short fiction of the last half century by writers who have taken careful stock of shifts in literary and cultural theory. Lectures will introduce students to analytic reading practices, literary criticism and theory. Throughout the program, we'll practice rich and extended reading of just six book-length works (along with short ancillary texts). Thus, just three pairs of authors will shape our studies: (Pair 1) Virginia Woolf and Samuel Becket;(2) Italo Calvino and Harry Mathews; and (3) Thalia Field and Ben Marcus. Each pair will comprise the focal point for a three week unit; each unit will include an in-class exam. Students enrolled in the program should be prepared to read the range of challenging texts, practice the art of writing in the spirit of experimentation and play, conduct independent research into complex questions relevant to program texts and themes, and participate actively in program seminars, workshops and critiques. Interested students should study the program schedule carefully, as there will be extensive in-class work, as with a studio-based program; in our case, studio practice means writing, reading and critique. | Steven Hendricks | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | ||||
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Greg Mullins
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Human rights law is encoded in the spare language of treaties, but human rights practice comes alive in the materiality of daily life. After a quick tour of human rights law, we will devote our energies in this program toward understanding how human rights accrue force and meaning insofar as they are embedded in cultural practice and specifically, in cultural practices of representation. Our inquiry will be guided by these questions: How do human rights frameworks prevent or redress human wrongs (including atrocities such as torture and genocide)? What leads some people to abuse human rights and other people to respect them? How are human rights struggles pursued using modes of visual and textual representation? What role do cultural forms such as film, literature and public memorials play in either fostering or hindering respect for human rights?The program is designed for students who wish to advance their skills in literary criticism and visual analysis; both literature and film are at the center of the work. The first five weeks of fall quarter will be devoted to legal and philosophical definitions of human rights. We will study critiques of rights from the major ideological camps and students will establish their own assessment of the viability of rights approaches to atrocity and injustice. The second five weeks of fall quarter and six weeks of winter quarter will be devoted to studying works of fiction, films (both feature and documentary), photographs and public memorials that all, in their own ways, attempt to tell human rights stories or open fresh critiques of human rights work. The balance of the winter quarter work will be research projects that result in either a traditional research essay or a more practical implementation of the theory students have learned.Field study will take us, in one day, to memorial parks in Tacoma and Bainbridge Island. A typical week's work will include a film screening, a short lecture followed by discussion and seminars. Students will write weekly one-page papers, two six-page essays in each quarter, an academic statement, a research prospectus fall quarter and a 15- to 20-page research paper (or its equivalent) winter quarter. Students joining fall quarter need not have prior knowledge of human rights, but substantive prior work in literary criticism and/or film criticism and theory will be helpful. Students who wish to join in winter quarter, please note the signature requirement. | Greg Mullins | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Harumi Moruzzi
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This Individual Study offers two options for students: (1) to continue their studies of Japanese literature, culture and society, in the form of Individual Learning Contracts, and (2) to continue their Japanese language and culture studies by studying abroad in Japan. This Individual Study also offers opportunities for students who are interested in creating their own courses of study and research, including study abroad. Possible areas of study are Japanese studies, cultural studies, literature, art and film. Interested students should first contact the faculty via email ( at least 2 weeks before the Academic Fair for spring quarter. | Harumi Moruzzi | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | |||||
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Laura Citrin and Anne de Marcken (Forbes)
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | What are emotions, sentiments, and feelings? What functions do they serve, both for the individual and for society? In this full-time, two-quarter program, we will use social pyschology, scientific research, creative writing, and literary and film analysis as methods of inquiry into the ways that emotions are connected with cultural ideologies and assumptions. We will study the ways emotions are expressed, avoided, embraced, and rejected according to complex display rules that vary across and within cultures based on gendered, raced, and classed social norms. Underlying all of this discussion will be an analysis of the ways that power operates on and through us to get under our skin and into what feels like our most personal possessions: our emotions. If we read between the lines, what is the subtext of our cultural narratives about fear, love, guilt, anger…? We will look to literature and film for examples of dominant and alternative narratives, and we will experiment with creative writing—fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid forms—as both a mode of expression and a method of inquiry: a way of looking under the surface of our habitual reactions and cultural norms.Fall QuarterWe'll survey the "big six" emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise and fear, as well as the socio-moral emotions like embarrassment, contempt, shame, and pride. We will also discuss the field of positive psychology and its analysis of the positive emotions (e.g., joy, hope, interest, love) and the role they play in what positive psychologists refer to as "the good life." We will consider published psychology research and literature from the field of social psychology, and students will design, propose and lay the groundwork for Winter Quarter research projects. Through analysis of films and literary and critical texts, students will consider how stories convey, evoke, and manipulate our emotions. They will develop fluency with critical terminology and concepts related to narrative, literary and cinematic theories. Through creative writing assignments and workshops, students will cultivate facility with elements of narrative discourse such as scene, summary, description, exposition, and dialogue.Winter QuarterOur interrogation of emotions will continue winter quarter with greater focus on independent, in-depth, and finely-crafted work. In addition to continued reading, screening and discussion of literary, critical and research-based texts, students will conduct the primary research projects approved during Fall Quarter, and will work to develop a portfolio of creative work representative of their inquiry. Winter quarter is an opportunity to participate first-hand in knowledge production within the interdisciplinary domain of affect studies, and to engage directly in the contemporary critical/creative discourse as art-makers.The interrogation of emotions in this program will occur via readings, screenings, lectures, research and creative writing workshops, and student-led seminars. Designed as a two-quarter program, the Fall Quarter will lay the foundation for more in-depth work in Winter. We strongly encourage students to enroll who are interested in sustained inquiry. | Laura Citrin Anne de Marcken (Forbes) | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Harumi Moruzzi and Tomoko Hirai Ulmer
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Japan is a vital, energetic and dynamic country which has been constantly reinventing and revitalizing itself even in the midst of gargantuan natural disasters, while struggling to maintain a sense of cultural and social continuity from the long lost past. Meanwhile, the conception and image of Japan, both in Japan and throughout the West, has varied widely over time, mostly due to Japan’s changing political and economic situation in the world. In the late 19th century, when Japan re-emerged into Western consciousness, Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish-American writer who later became Japanese, thought of Japanese society and its people as quaintly charming and adorable. In contrast, Americans in the 1940s viewed Japan as frighteningly militaristic and irrational. The French philosopher/semiotician Roland Barthes was bewitched and liberated by Japan’s charmingly mystifying otherness during his visit in 1966, when Japan began to show its first sign of recovery from the devastation of the WWII. The Dutch journalist Karel Van Wolferen was disturbed by the intractable and irresponsible system of Japanese power in 1989, when the Japanese economy was viewed as threatening to existing international power relations. These examples show how Japan has been viewed by Westerners in the past. The idea and image of Japan is highly dependent on the point of view that an observer assumes and that history makes possible.This full-time interdisciplinary program is devoted to understanding contemporary Japan, its culture and its people, from a historical point of view. We will study Japanese history, literature, cinema, culture and society through lectures, books, films, seminars and workshops, including study of Japanese language embedded in the program. Three levels of language study (1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-year Japanese) will be offered for 4 credits each during the fall and winter quarters.In the fall quarter, we will explore the cultural roots of Japan in its history. In the winter quarter, we will examine Japan after 1952, when the Allied occupation ended. Special emphasis will be placed on the examination of contemporary Japanese popular culture and its position in economic and cultural globalization. Students who are interested in experiencing Japan in person can take Japanese language classes in Tokyo through Harumi Moruzzi’s Individual Study: Japanese Culture, Literature, Film, Society, and Study Abroad in spring quarter. | Harumi Moruzzi Tomoko Hirai Ulmer | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Alice Nelson
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | In recent decades, Latin America has become well known beyond its borders for compelling, politically urgent and aesthetically vibrant literary works. Contemporary writings by Latin American women, increasingly available in English translation, challenge preconceptions about gender and sexuality in the region, while also addressing critical issues of politically motivated violence, collective memory, intersecting oppressions, language, spirituality, democratization and social change. This program seeks to foster greater understanding of the region and its diverse peoples and perspectives. Writers will include Gloria Anzaldúa (U.S.), Rosario Castellanos (Mexico), Ana Lydia Vega (Puerto Rico), Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala), Daisy Zamora (Nicaragua), Conceição Evaristo (Brazil), Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina) and Pía Barros (Chile), among many others.We will read novels, poetry, short stories and testimonials by Latin American (indigenous, mestiza, Afro-Latina) women writers, focusing on legacies of colonialism, authoritarianism and neoliberalism, as well as projects for contesting recent histories. We will situate our literary analysis within the historical and political events that shape Latin American women’s texts, and examine their critique of masculinist narratives that justify domination and exclude women’s voices. We will also view films by and about women, and examine women's and feminist movements in the region. Students will write literary analyses and some creative work, and will conduct research on a writer of their choice. Through this study, students will consider the impact of political, economic and cultural forces on Latin American women's lives and literary production, while also examining literary and film representations as sites of resistance. | Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR | Spring | |||||
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Patricia Krafcik, Evan Blackwell and Carrie Margolin
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | What is creativity? Is there a relationship between states of mind and a fertile imagination? What are the psychological mechanisms involved in the larger action of the human imagination, urging us to explore new avenues, to see what others have not seen, to create what no one has yet created? Many of the world's greatest writers, artists and thinkers have been known to struggle with conditions classified as abnormal by psychologists. We will explore these conditions and their impact on creativity, searching further for any special links between certain kinds of abnormal psychological conditions and the drive to create.Our interdisciplinary program is not intended to serve as therapy, but rather is a serious study of psychology, literature, the arts, imagination and the creative impulse. We will approach our questions through various modes of inquiry. Through an in-depth study of abnormal psychology, we will learn to identify and understand a number of conditions. We will investigate modern art history and its fascination with the art produced by individuals reputed to be cultural "outsiders," such as folk art, art of the insane, art brut and self-taught artists. Through this study we will explore how societies form a group identity which is established in relation to some designated "other." Our readings combine art theory with psychological case studies by writers such as Sacks and Ramachandran and with imaginative literature by Gogol, Dostoevsky, Poe, Kafka, Plath, Gilman and many others that all describe abnormal psychological conditions. We will respond to our readings by channeling the imagination with a variety of creative projects. Finally, we will also study the normal mind and how it functions in both mundane and creative ways.In both quarters of our program students will discuss assigned readings in seminars, will engage in active writing exercises and in rigorous two-dimensional and thre-dimensional visual art work in ceramics, mixed-media sculpture, collage, and drawing. Assignments may include research papers, poster projects, creative writing, performances and visual arts projects. Weekly films and discussions of these films will enhance our examination of the uses or influence of psychological conditions in the creation of literature, art and music. Guest speakers will provide additional workshops and lectures in various artistic modalities. In fall term we will take field trips to the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass, and our work that term will prepare students to undertake a culminating project in winter term. In all our activities, students will have ample opportunities to explore their own creativity and imagination. | Patricia Krafcik Evan Blackwell Carrie Margolin | Freshmen FR | Fall | ||||
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Brian Walter
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | This program is built around intensive study of several fundamental areas of pure mathematics. Covered topics are likely to include abstract algebra, real analysis, set theory, combinatorics and probability.The work in this advanced-level mathematics program is quite likely to differ from students' previous work in mathematics, including calculus, in a number of ways. We will emphasize the careful understanding of the definitions of mathematical terms and the statements and proofs of the theorems that capture the main conceptual landmarks in the areas we study. Hence, the largest portion of our work will involve the reading and writing of rigorous proofs in axiomatic systems. These skills are valuable not only for continued study of mathematics but also in many areas of thought in which arguments are set forth according to strict criteria for logical deduction. Students will gain experience in articulating their evidence for claims and in expressing their ideas with precise and transparent reasoning.In addition to work in core areas of advanced mathematics, we will devote seminar time to looking at our studies in a broader historical, philosophical, and cultural context, working toward answers to critical questions such as: Are mathematical systems discovered or created? Do mathematical objects actually exist? How did the current mode of mathematical thinking come to be developed? What is current mathematical practice? What are the connections between mathematics and culture? What are the connections between mathematics and art? What are the connections between mathematics and literature?This program is designed for students who intend to pursue graduate studies or teach in mathematics and the sciences, as well as for those who want to know more about mathematical thinking. | Brian Walter | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Kathleen Eamon and Trevor Speller
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | .—Theodor Adorno, How and why do we think about “modernity”? What do we mean when we say we are thinking about it? This program will largely be an investigation of modernity as it appears in and behind those discourses produced by and about its forces. These are questions that will lead us primarily into the realms of philosophy, political theory and political economy, sociology and literature.Along the way, we will try on a number of definitions of and arguments about what constitutes modernity, both in the sense of its causes and effects as well as its historical extension. Here are some of the questions we might ask:This program is designed for upper-division students interested in developing and refining their ability to work with complex historical texts and important ideas. An important part of our work will be to help one another develop the skills needed through seminar conversations, close reading sessions, writing workshops and individual and group projects and presentations. We will offer a 14-credit option to students of foreign language. | Kathleen Eamon Trevor Speller | 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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Steven Hendricks and Jean Mandeberg
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | What makes a work of art capable of narrative expressiveness? What constitutes a narrative? How do artists invest tangible records, stories, artifacts and objects with meaning, and how do readers work to recuperate or transform those meanings for themselves?Many artists and writers have used objects, visual forms, books and text in combination to create a hybrid language that can carry narrative possibilities. How do such works exploit the possibilities of conventional and nonconventional narrative to stimulate the intellect and the imagination? Does imposing a narrative on a work of visual or sculptural art limit it, reduce it to a single interpretation? How can we navigate the space between object and idea as artists, as readers, as makers of things and makers of meaning?This program will explore such questions through intensive studio work in fine metals and book arts. Equally important will be our study of literature that tests the boundary between narrative and non-narrative and the practice of critical and creative writing. The general program structure will include alternating periods of focused writing, imaginative reading, seminar discussion and extended, deliberate work in the studio.Student projects will be direct responses to the themes and questions of the program: explorations of the nature of narrative, the various ways in which objects can participate in, contain, and create narratives. This unique opportunity to combine book arts and fine metals will persistently require competence in technical skills, unusual patience, attention to detail and materials, and articulate translations between ideas and visual forms.The second quarter of the program will in part evolve from the discoveries of the first and will involve deepening our work in both studios, with the necessary emphasis on thoughtful self-critique and aesthetic rigor. This program will be important and challenging for students in the arts and humanities who think of artists as aesthetic and conceptual problem solvers, seeking new puzzles, forms and possibilities for constructing meaning using words, the book and small-scale sculptural forms. As a first-year program, this program provides specific support for students at the beginning of their Evergreen careers. | Steven Hendricks Jean Mandeberg | Freshmen FR | Fall | ||||
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Miranda Mellis
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | Miranda Mellis | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||||
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Chico Herbison and Frances V. Rains
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | —Lawson Fusao Inada, Japanese American poetFor Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants, including “war brides” and a “mixed-race” population) in the United States, World War II was a historical, cultural, social, and political watershed. Permanent settlements of immigrant Japanese were first established on the U.S. mainland in the latter half of the 19 century and, in spite of anti-Japanese sentiment and legislative efforts, those communities grew and flourished. However, they would be forever transformed with the outbreak of war and the subsequent removal, detention, and incarceration of 110,000 Nikkei in ten “War Relocation Camps” spread across the country, from California to Arkansas. Forcibly uprooted and imprisoned, families left behind tangible assets (homes, businesses, bank accounts), but perhaps more devastating were the ensuing collapse of communities and the loss of a way of life. They were allowed to take with them, into the unknown, “only what they could carry.” Students in this program will explore the rich history and culture of Nikkei, from their first arrival in this country, through the traumatic events of the World War II period, and beyond. Although we will examine the overall experience of Nikkei in the U.S., our particular focus will be on those in the Pacific Northwest. Accompanying us on our interdisciplinary journey will be historical studies, oral testimony, fiction and poetry, photographs and film, and music, among other texts and tools. We will immerse ourselves in topics such as the earliest Japanese immigration; the 19 - and 20 -century struggles against discrimination and exclusion; the World War II watershed years (including an examination of the often-overlooked resistance movement in the camps, and the legendary exploits of Nikkei soldiers in both theaters of the war); the post-war efforts by Nikkei to reassemble their lives and, for some, to seek redress and reparations; the saga of Japanese “war brides” (women who married U.S. servicemen in Occupied Japan and eventually migrated stateside); and the world of “mixed-race” Nikkei. It is only through such an immersion that we will begin to understand the ways in which this population carried, and continues to carry, “strength, dignity and soul.”Each student will read a series of seminar books and articles related to program topics and themes, participate in weekly seminars and write weekly seminar papers, participate in workshops, and screen and critically analyze films. In addition, there will be field trips to Pacific Northwest locations with Nikkei historical and cultural connections. Finally, students will complete substantial, individual research projects and make summative presentations of their work. | Chico Herbison Frances V. Rains | Mon Mon Wed Thu Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Steve Blakeslee
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | F 13 Fall | This course will help students to develop clearer and more comprehensive understandings of literary texts, as well as to forge a more rewarding relationship with reading in general. In a supportive group environment, students will explore a range of reading strategies, including textual analysis, background research, response and summary writing, and recitation. Then they will apply these tools to an in-depth study of two major works: Charlotte Bronte's and George Orwell's . Students will also pursue additional reading of their choice. Our overall goal is to become more resourceful, effective, and insightful readers. | Steve Blakeslee | Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Chico Herbison
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | (1) Queue up Danger Mouse’s magnificent mash-up, . (2) Traverse the rich critical and cultural landscape of Kevin Young’s . (3) Enter the outrageous world of , whose author, Paul Beatty, was described by writer Jessica Hagedorn as “a nineties Richard Pryor peaking ecstatically on acid.” (4) Discover an aesthetic—variously called “new black,” “post-soul,” and “post-black”—shaped and powered by a group of contemporary African Americans scholars and artists who complicate, in both bold and nuanced fashion, definitions and discussions of this thing called “blackness.” Scholar Mark Anthony Neal employs the “post-soul” label to describe “the political, social, and cultural experiences of the African-American community since the end of the civil rights and Black Power movements.” On the front lines of capturing those experiences is a group of contemporary African American artists whose explorations of the race-identity nexus consistently eschew essentialist notions and, instead, embrace cultural hybridity, multivocality, intersectionality, and intertextuality . . . they insist on “the greyness of blackness.” This program is designed for students seeking advanced study of African American culture in general, and contemporary African American literature in particular. Our primary texts will be fiction: Paul Beatty’s , Danzy Senna’s , Colson Whitehead’s , Percival Everett’s , Jake Lamar’s , and Darius James’s , among others. Our supplemental texts will include essays, poetry, drama, film, and hip-hop music.We will devote two weekly seminars (one facilitated by students) to close readings of written texts, and engage in equally close readings of film and music. In addition to short weekly writing assignments, there will be a major research paper (20–25 pages). Field trips will include museum visits, off-campus films, and music venues. | Chico Herbison | Tue Tue Thu Thu Fri | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Chico Herbison
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | —Mary Frosch This two-quarter program will explore the complex ways in which American individuals, groups and the United States itself come of age. We will immerse ourselves in rites (and rights) of passage as captured in art—primarily through literature and writing, but also as revealed in film, music and other forms. Individuals and groups, on lifelong journeys, navigate relationships, encounter crises, grow and change and move from childhood to adulthood. Like Joseph Campbell’s archetypal hero, people leave home (literally and/or figuratively), encounter and slay demons (recognize and solve problems) and return home forever transformed: they come of age (live happily ever after). Stories of passage from “the Old World” (both voluntary and coerced) set beside stories from the people who already were here chronicle the further realignment and redefinition of this nation, often in destructive ways. American literature explores racial, gender and other forms of “passing.” All of the Americas experienced critical convergences of social, cultural, political and other forces that moved them from infancy through childhood to adolescence to…what? Military involvement abroad, continuing domestic turmoil and various cultural divides mark an uneasy passage into our 21st century. We will focus on “minority” voices who will help us to define the "American" story. In fall quarter, we will read a wide range of ethnic “minority” fiction and nonfiction and will write our personal accounts of passages in essay and creative nonfiction forms. In winter quarter, we will shift from ethnicity to other forms of “minority” status, including those associated with class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, position (as in family) and ability. Winter quarter's writing will be nonfiction and adaptations to fiction. Throughout the program, students will work individually and collaboratively to strengthen their critical and creative writing skills and, ultimately, to tell their own coming-of-age stories. | Chico Herbison | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | ||||
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Trevor Speller and Abir Biswas
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This program is dedicated to understanding the back and forth between the physical environment and the written word. How do texts shape what we are able to see in the physical environment? How does one's understanding of the physical environment shape ways of writing and understanding the world? How do we describe it? What do we read into it?In 1815, William Smith produced the first geological map of Great Britain. His investigations were a product of a new way of seeing his physical world. Rather than assuming the earth to be a stable object which remained unchanged since Noah’s flood, Smith drew on his observations, and began to see the earth as a dynamic physical entity. His discoveries came in a time when Enlightenment thinkers were questioning the order of the world, the role of religion and the value of science and industry. The modern science of geology can thus be said to have arisen from a new way of seeing: William Smith was able to read and write about the Earth not only through observations, but because of the set of cultural changes that changed his frame of mind. Importantly, Smith's observations came at a time when poets, novelists and political philosophers were beginning to actively investigate the influence of the natural world on humans and human behavior.We will consider the frames through which we read and write our physical world, through an introduction to foundational concepts in geology and literary study. We will consider how geologists investigate and describe the physical world, and examine concepts including geologic time, plate tectonics, earth materials and the evolution of life. We will consider how writers investigate and describe the natural world in the works of 18th- and 19th-century literature, as well as contemporary literature about the Pacific Northwest. We will read works of poetry, fiction, political philosophy and travel writing. Program texts may include works by John McPhee, Simon Winchester, William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe and others.Students should expect to participate in lecture, lab and seminar, write critical papers and take examinations. There will also be field trips to locations of geological interest as well as cultural venues. | Trevor Speller Abir Biswas | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Spring | |||||
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Tom Womeldorff, Catalina Ocampo and Alice Nelson
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | The recent history of Latin America can be described as a struggle for self-determination, from the wars of independence to the present-day unequal footing in the world economic system. Taking Mexico as a case study, we will explore how questions of self-determination have shaped Latin America and the lives of the various communities that constitute the region. We will focus, in particular, on the different roles that culture, politics, and economics have played in struggles for self-determination and investigate the tensions and symbioses between them. We will ask ourselves: What roles do culture and economics play as tools of self-determination? How can culture facilitate processes of self-determination at moments when political or economic self-determination is not possible? What are the limitations on the use of culture when one has limited political and economic self-determination? What role do third parties play in struggles for self-determination and how do we situate ourselves with regards to various processes of self-determination in Latin America?Our study of various groups and communities within Mexico and across its borders to the north and to the south will illuminate the country’s diversity, while also highlighting the connections between personal, national, and regional politics in Latin America. We will explore how self-determination is manifested in relationships of class, gender and ethnicity and study the specific ways in which struggles for self-determination have emerged in Mexico from the nineteenth century to the present. We will focus on various historical moments and issues including nation-building efforts and conflicts with the United States in the nineteenth century; issues of violence and class during the Mexican Revolution; contradictory uses of Indigenismo; popular movements and state repression in the 1960s and 70s; the emergence of the Zapatista movement; the economic impact of NAFTA; and questions of economic development and cultural identity during recent migrations to the United States.Throughout the quarter, we will engage historical and contemporary realities in Mexico using multiple frameworks from the humanities and the social sciences. In the process, we will introduce literary and cultural theory, as well as economic theories of capitalist development. Students will gain an in-depth ability to interpret literary texts in their social contexts, and to use economic models to understand specific aspects of Latin American societies. This program will involve frequent writing assignments and develop skills in visual analysis. | Tom Womeldorff Catalina Ocampo Alice Nelson | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||||
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Amy Cook and Chico Herbison
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | —Alicia Imperiale, “Seminal Space: Getting Under the Digital Skin” Organ, membrane, boundary and border. Canvas, map, metaphor and trope. Skin is the identity that all animals present to the world. It has multiple physiological functions and takes a wide variety of forms, from the simple epidermis of a sea anemone to the complex light show of a squid or the intricate system of spines that protects a porcupine. In human culture, skin functions as a marker of “race”/ethnicity, age and gender; provides a canvas on which to create very personal forms of art and cultural narratives; and, in the 21st century, has become a critical site of interface between the “real” and the virtual.In this program we will look at skin through the lenses of biology, culture and art. The biology of skin includes its visual and olfactory role in communication, its structure and physiology and its role in defense of the body from both microbes and large predators. Our exploration of skin in/as culture and art will include encounters with the mythology of “race,” body modification (piercing, tattooing and plastic surgery) and the posthuman meanings of skin (in cyberspace and in the world of cyborgs, androids and prosthetics).Program activities will include lectures; labs in which we will examine the microscopic structure of skin and learn about the various structures that arise from it, including scales, feathers and hair; seminars on a selection of texts (books, films and other texts) that look at skin from a variety of different perspectives; and workshops in which students will explore skin through their own creative writing. Students will have the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of biology and humanities in an interdisciplinary setting, as well as sharpen their critical thinking and reading and college writing skills. | biology and the humanities. | Amy Cook Chico Herbison | Freshmen FR | Spring | ||||
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David Marr
Signature Required:
Fall
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 13 Fall | Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. —Macbeth For centuries, thinkers have argued over the purpose of life. Some hold that the purpose is pleasure, and others to worship God and glorify him forever. Still others believe the aim is to alleviate human suffering or to live free or even to learn to die well. Along comes Shakespeare’s Macbeth whose bleak vision says no to all such notions. We are born, we have our hour on the stage, we die: That’s the human story. Could he be right?In this program, we will keep this disturbing question open, as we read Shakespeare’s plays alongside masterpieces of prose fiction. Our method of inquiry will be close textual analysis of how the plays and novels are put together. To this end, the program will be a seminar on the patterns made of words, the aesthetic forms writers use when they breathe life into their tales of human existence. We will read nine plays of Shakespeare and the following novels: Melville, ; Dostoevsky, ; Mann, ; Faulkner, ; and Camus, . The workload will be heavy. This program is for the intellectually curious, diligent student eager to practice the craft of close reading. There will be weekly exams, seminar reports on the authors’ lives and times, one essay on an assigned topic and a comprehensive final exam. | David Marr | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||||
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Leonard Schwartz
Signature Required:
Spring
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SOS | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | Poetics involves language as creative functions (writing, poetry, fiction), language as performance, language as image and language as a tool of thought (philosophy, criticism). Our work will be to calibrate these various activities, which is to say find the relationships between poetic and critical thought.Students are invited to join this learning "community" of culture workers interested in language as a medium of artistic production. This SOS is designed for students who share similar skills and common interests in doing advanced work that may have grown out of previous academic projects and/or programs. Students will work with faculty throughout the quarter; we will design small study groups, collaborative projects and critique groups that will allow students to support one another's work. | Leonard Schwartz | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | |||||
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Bill Ransom
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SOS | SO–JRSophomore - Junior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 14Spring | This SOS is designed for students who have a body of writing in poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction that they would like to polish and submit for publication. Students will read and research a broad spectrum of contemporary publications that feature work in their genre of choice and will choose three to five publications to which they will send their work at the close of the quarter. Participants will receive instruction in effective workshop and critique methods, professional submission protocols and rewriting strategies. Groups of three will meet weekly for peer critique workshops, and an all-student meeting will be held weekly for a combined lecture/seminar session. | Bill Ransom | Sophomore SO Junior JR | Spring | |||||
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Donald Morisato and Bob Haft
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Both science and art take things apart. In some instances—the evisceration of a frog or an overly analytical critique of a poem—the process can result in the loss of the vital force. In the best scenario, carefully isolating and understanding individual parts actually reconstitutes the original object of study, bringing appreciation for a whole greater than its parts. Sometimes taking things apart results in a paradigm shift: suddenly, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.In one program strand, we use a biologist's tool kit to explore how living organisms function. We learn how biology takes apart and studies life in different ways. In winter, we focus on visual perception, beginning with anatomy, proceeding onto the logic of visual processing, and concluding with an examination of the specialized neurons and molecules involved in phototransduction. In spring quarter, we play with the idea of mutation, exploring how genetics is used to dissect complex processes and provide an entry point for the molecular understanding of inheritance at the level of DNA.Another strand takes visual art as its point of departure. Here, we combine what we learn about the anatomy and physiology of the eye with a study of using sight to apprehend and appreciate the world around us. We will work with different tools—charcoal pencils and cameras—both to take apart and to construct new things. During winter quarter, we will learn the basics of drawing. In spring, we use black-and-white photography to study life at a more macroscopic level than in the biology lab. Ultimately, our goal here is the same as that of the scientist: to reconstitute and reanimate the world around us.There are ideas for which literature provides a more sophisticated and satisfying approach than either science or the visual arts. Thus, in a third strand, we examine how literature depicts and dissects the emotional and behavioral interactions that we call "love." Authors we read will include Shakespeare, Stendhal, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, John Berger, Haruki Murakami and Louise Gluck.Our goal is to weave these strands together to produce an understanding about the world informed by both cognition and intuition. Throughout our inquiry, we will be investigating the philosophical issue of objectivity. This is a rigorous program involving lectures, workshops, seminars, studio art and laboratory science work. Student learning will be assessed by weekly seminar writing assignments, lab reports, art portfolios and exams. | Donald Morisato Bob Haft | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Rose Jang and Mingxia Li
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Classical Chinese drama, as a literary genre, evolved from a long tradition of poetry writing and storytelling. In Chinese theatre, lyrics combine with dance, music, singing, acrobatics and martial arts. For centuries, the poetic and presentational style of Chinese drama and theatre has helped nurture and highlight the fantastic and imaginative side of Chinese culture: the magical beings—spirits, deities, ghosts—and their boundless power in folk tales; dreams, fantasies, mysticism and otherworldliness of the Daoist realm of existence. Monkey King, White Snake, Moon Lady, Butterfly Lovers, roaming spirits and ghosts of the underworld: these ever-popular Chinese archetypes have been repeatedly invoked and embodied in poetry and on stage. Many of these fantastic images and stories will form the core and focus of our program study.Students will study select works of Chinese poetry, drama and theatre with the intention and goal to stage one Chinese verse drama using modern theatre sensitivities and technology at the end of the program. We will combine careful study of Chinese literature—along with folklore, religion and philosophy embedded in it—with serious theatre training and implementation. The end result will be a symbolic, stylized production in the form and spirit of Chinese fantasy for the Western audience.Although there are no prerequisites in performance, poetry, Chinese language or aesthetics, interests or previous study in any of these fields will be useful. Expect plenty of reading and writing, creative workshops featuring small group work, independent research and creative projects. Students will have ample opportunities to develop their individual artistic and academic interests through program activities, as well as performance or technical theatre skills through actual production experience.In winter quarter, we will study existing works of masters, from the ancient to the contemporary, which depict the supernatural and fantastic world in Chinese imagination. We will analyze them as both acknowledged literary masterpieces and tacit philosophical vehicles. Besides lectures and reading, workshops on poetry, theater performance, stylized movements and voice training will allow hands-on learning through practices. Chinese language workshop may be offered within the program to meet student need as a four- or two-credit option.In spring, we will focus on rehearsals and technical theatre work in order to mount a full-fledged theatrical production of an original Chinese verse drama based on the mythical story of Moon Lady. This end-of-program public presentation will put to the test our collective understanding of Chinese mythology, poetry and drama, and help us convey this understanding in a complex form of the theatre of fantasy. | Rose Jang Mingxia Li | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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Naima Lowe
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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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 | |||
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Trevor Speller, Greg Mullins, Stacey Davis and Nancy Koppelman
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation. (European history) specializes in French history from the 18th century to the present, as well as the history of French colonies in North and West Africa. Students who wish to study European social, cultural, political, intellectual or religious history from the Middle Ages to the present, including topics in the history of gender and sociocultural aspects of the history of art, are welcome to propose research projects. Students are welcome to work with Dr. Davis on her ongoing research projects on 19th-century political prisoners, notions of citizenship and democracy in modern Europe, memory and the history of aging. (American studies) specializes in American social, literary and intellectual history until 1920. Students who wish to study in these fields are welcome to propose research projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the social and intellectual history of the Puritans, the founding generation, immigrants, the working class and the middle class; industrialization and reform movements; pragmatic philosophy; the history of childhood; and the history of technology and consumer culture. Students are also welcome to work with Nancy to participate in her ongoing research projects on alcohol reform movements, the histories of social/economic mobility and of individual physical movement, and ethical themes in American cultural history. (American literature, queer theory) specializes in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and comparative American Studies (U.S./Brazil). His broad interests include the crossroads of aesthetics and politics, national versus transnational formations of literary studies, queer gender and sexuality, memory studies and poststructuralist theory. Most of the capstone projects he has supervised in the past have been centrally concerned with literary and cultural theory, including visual culture and queer theory. Students are enthusiastically welcome to work with Greg on his research on cultures of human rights and representations of human rights in literature and film. (British/anglophone literature) specializes in the long eighteenth century (1650-1830), including the Restoration, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Students who wish to study the literature and political philosophy of these periods are welcome to propose research projects, including capstone projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the rise of the novel, the conception of reason and rationality and representations of space and place. Previous projects have included studies of Romantic women writers and travel writing. Students are also welcome to work with the faculty member to develop his ongoing research projects on such authors as Daniel Defoe, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Bishop Berkeley, Jonathan Swift and John Milton. Please go to the catalog view for specific information about each option. | Trevor Speller Greg Mullins Stacey Davis Nancy Koppelman | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Greg Mullins
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation. (American literature, queer theory) specializes in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and comparative American Studies (U.S./Brazil). His broad interests include the crossroads of aesthetics and politics, national versus transnational formations of literary studies, queer gender and sexuality, memory studies and poststructuralist theory. Most of the capstone projects he has supervised in the past have been centrally concerned with literary and cultural theory, including visual culture and queer theory. Students are enthusiastically welcome to work with Greg on his research on cultures of human rights and representations of human rights in literature and film. | Greg Mullins | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Nancy Koppelman
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation. (American studies) specializes in American social, literary and intellectual history until 1920. Students who wish to study in these fields are welcome to propose research projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the social and intellectual history of the Puritans, the founding generation, immigrants, the working class and the middle class; industrialization and reform movements; pragmatic philosophy; the history of childhood; and the history of technology and consumer culture. Students are also welcome to work with Nancy to participate in her ongoing research projects on alcohol reform movements, the histories of social/economic mobility and of individual physical movement, and ethical themes in American cultural history. | Nancy Koppelman | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Stacey Davis
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation. (European history) specializes in French history from the 18th century to the present, as well as the history of French colonies in North and West Africa. Students who wish to study European social, cultural, political, intellectual or religious history from the Middle Ages to the present, including topics in the history of gender and sociocultural aspects of the history of art, are welcome to propose research projects. Students are welcome to work with Dr. Davis on her ongoing research projects on 19th-century political prisoners, notions of citizenship and democracy in modern Europe, memory and the history of aging. | Stacey Davis | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Trevor Speller
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 13 Fall | W 14Winter | S 14Spring | Students of the humanities who are nearing the end of their Evergreen education may wish to pursue a major research project, senior thesis or capstone project in their particular field of interest. Often, the goal is to contruct an original argument around a particular body of literature, set of ideas or historical events. These kinds of projects develop advanced research skills in the humanities, including the ability to read deeply and critically in a particular field, and to discover and engage with important theoretical writings in that field. Students will also gain valuable skills in reading, analyzing, synthesizing, writing and editing long pieces of complex prose. The best kinds of this work will be invaluable for graduate school applications, and will be an asset to those entering the job market directly following graduation. (British/anglophone literature) specializes in the long eighteenth century (1650-1830), including the Restoration, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Students who wish to study the literature and political philosophy of these periods are welcome to propose research projects, including capstone projects and senior theses. Particular interests include the rise of the novel, the conception of reason and rationality and representations of space and place. Previous projects have included studies of Romantic women writers and travel writing. Students are also welcome to work with the faculty member to develop his ongoing research projects on such authors as Daniel Defoe, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Bishop Berkeley, Jonathan Swift and John Milton. | Trevor Speller | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Sara Huntington
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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 |

