Evergreen State College
On-Line Catalog
http://www.evergreen.edu/studies/programs.htm
Programs for First-Year Students
This page last updated 07/09/2001
First-year students have several options: Core programs, all-level programs and some intermediate programs. Core programs, like all Evergreen programs, may extend to one, two or three quarters. Some, like Drawing From the Sea: The Aesthetics, Form and Function of Marine Life, .life and Natural and Unnatural Histories begin in the fall. Others, like Ocean Life and Environmental Policy begin winter quarter. Still others, like Algebra to Algorithms, Bodies of Contention and Bridges, Not Walls are offered only in spring quarter.
In a Core program you learn about several traditional academic disciplines in relation to the program’s central theme or topic, while at the same time learning about your own goals, about defining and dealing with problems and about the college’s people and facilities. Core programs are designed to give first- or second-year college students a solid foundation of knowledge and skills in preparation for advanced studies. Core programs will introduce you to the central mode of study at Evergreen—coordinated studies—in which faculty members from different academic disciplines use their knowledge to help you explore a central theme or problem. This interdisciplinary approach means you will explore an issue or a topic as a whole, rather than as a collection of unrelated fragments. Core programs reveal a fuller breadth of the issues that will concern you—the connection of artistic expression to social conditions, for example, or the relationship of biological facts to individual psychology. These are integrated study programs combining several activities: seminars, individual conferences with faculty members, lectures, group work, and in most cases, field trips and laboratories.
Core programs emphasize the development of college-level skills necessary for you to do advanced college work. For most students this means learning how to write at a college level, read carefully, analyze arguments, reason quantitatively or mathematically, work cooperatively in small groups and use resources in the Library and elsewhere on campus. Core programs also provide an opportunity to connect your studies with your own intellectual and personal concerns. You will learn the skills you will need to design your education, both at Evergreen and afterwards. The small student-faculty ratio in Core programs (23:1) ensures close interaction between you, your faculty, and other students.
All-level programs, as the name suggests, enroll a mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Typically 25 percent of the mix are first-year students. Like Core programs, they are broadly interdisciplinary coordinated studies. They combine seminars, individual conferences with faculty members, lectures, field trips and, perhaps, laboratories depending on the content and goals of the program. Because most students in these programs will have already had some years of college experience you should anticipate that faculty will provide less guidance about basic skills and that their expectations about what you already know and what you can learn on your own will be higher.
There are several things you should consider if a program that appeals to you is designated all-level. The strength of your academic work in high school is one indication of readiness for an all-level program. Already having a good background in one of the main areas of inquiry is another. You should have strong writing skills. Perhaps most critical is a strong, sustained interest in the topic. You should weigh the advantages of in-depth study of an all-level theme that interests you against the advantages of a Core program’s emphasis on foundation for college work. If you are ready to work with a wide mix of students (age, experience, stages in learning), all-level programs might be a good option for you.
Intermediate programs are designed for sophomore-level students and are listed elsewhere in the catalog. These programs may admit a particularly well-qualified first-year student. Consult the faculty if you are interested in an intermediate program.
Core
Algebra to Algorithms: Mathematical Methods
for Science and Computing
Children's Literature and Lives
The Ecology of Hope
The Expression of Self, West to East
Eyes and Ears
Marriage, Families and Public Policy
Natural and Unnatural Histories: Fishes and
Fisheries
Ocean Life and Environmental Policy
Pícaros, Peanuts and Pokémon: Exploring Popular Culture
The Politics of Sin and Punishment
Revolution! The Arts and Social Change (Cancelled)
Trash
Wildlife, Habitat and Landscape
All Level
Barking at the Moon
Beyond Description
Bodies of Contention
Bridges, Not Walls: Culture and Communication
Changing Minds, Changing Course
China: The Waking Lion
Christian Roots: Medieval and Renaissance Art and
Science
Destiny: Welcoming the Unknown
Drawing From the Sea: The Aesthetics, Form and Function of
Marine Life
Eco-Design in the Real World
Filming Fictions
Hemingway: The Writing Life
Introduction to Environmental Studies: Trees,
Timber and Trade
.life
Looking Backward: America in the Twentieth Century
Main Stage Production
The Physicist's World
Portraits
Tragic Relief: Comedy, Tragedy and Community, from
Athens to America
---------Core
Programs---------
The Ecology of Hope top
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Fall, Winter, Spring/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rita Pougiales, John Bullock, Matt Smith
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $200 for field trips, retreats, etc.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Global warming, rainforest devastation, industrial pollution, environmental injustice, alienation from place and community, spiritual malaise and personal cynicism—seem to live in a world characterized by crisis, fear and despair.
So, what can we do? How can we find hope in a hopeless world? How can we have sustainable, meaningful lives that enable us to create appropriate and effective action for positive change over the long haul? How can we, in short, generate an ecology of hope?
For a start, we need to understand the actual state of the world, the ways in which the world works and the multiple roles we play within it. This means moving beyond slogans and bumper stickers, and becoming comfortable with scientific, ecological, quantitative and logical language, information and methods, for these are the means by which environmental problems are analyzed and discussed.
Further, we need to understand the political, economic, social and cultural systems and ideologies that drive environmental problems. As Americans we have inordinate responsibility for the depletion of the world’s natural resources and the creation of global pollution. We cannot point our innocent fingers at guilty others, pretending that we are not ourselves deeply implicated in the problems to which we seek solutions.
How then shall we live responsibly together on the earth? What practices and principles of reflection, creativity and community might we generate to approach our problems from fresh perspectives and with engaged spirits so that we might illuminate our lives without burning out?
We will actively participate in- and out-of-doors in workshops and seminars, challenge programs, retreats and field trips. Students will be expected to commit to the program work for the full year of its duration.
· Credit awarded in writing, quantitative reasoning, environmental studies, art, cultural studies, scientific methods, history and political economy.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the humanities, environmental sciences, sciences and arts.
Children’s Literature and
Lives top
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Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Thad Curtz, Michael Pfeifer, Stacey Davis
Enrollment: 69
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Possible retreat costs: between $40 and $75.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Children’s stories and books are created by and for adults, as well as for children. As the relations between adulthood and childhood change through history, in different cultural settings, these works change. We will study them and critical essays on them—along with children’s own writing and ideas about how to encourage it. Work on actual children’s fantasies, ideas and lives by psychologists, historians, anthropologists and autobiographers will provide us with concepts and theories to help deepen our understandings of the stories and their appeal to their audiences.
Since we will often be reading original works of these kinds, a number of the texts will be rather demanding. We’ll also be asking students to do careful, detailed interpretation and analysis of the stories, of theory and of selected primary historical sources like old letters and newspaper articles. In addition to writing frequent academic essays about literature and psychology we’ll work regularly on storytelling, autobiographical journal exercises and creative writing for children. We’ll also regularly view and discuss films and television programs for and about children. In all these ways, we’ll keep trying to deepen our understanding of the interactions between childhood and adulthood in different social worlds, between children’s actual experience and the ways people have represented childhood—to themselves and to children.
· Credit awarded in social history, children’s literature, developmental psychology, introduction to film, cultural history, expository writing, storytelling and creative writing.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in the humanities, creative writing or the social sciences.
The Expression of Self, West
to East top
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Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Sean Williams, Ryo Imamura, Yoko Matsuda
Enrollment: 52
Prerequisites: None
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $75 for concert tickets and approximately $25
for one overnight retreat each quarter.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
This program focuses on the examination of the self in the mind, the spirit, the heart and the community. We will approach our study from a variety of perspectives, including psychological, historical, spiritual and artistic. We will emphasize the development of writing based on research, participating in and facilitating seminars and becoming comfortable with library and Internet resources.
Fall quarter we will study Western European and American traditions of psychology in examining the individual self, particularly the images of the struggling hero, the solo genius and the tortured artist. In focusing on specific individuals (e.g., Beet- hoven) we will examine the ways in which the North American understanding of the self is based on 19th-century ideals from the European Romantic era. We will close fall quarter with a study of the "exotic other"—how Western writers, artists, theologians, philosophers and psychologists began to look for a mirror of the self in the face of the other.
Winter quarter we will examine the Asian self within the community, the family and the natural world. We will also focus on the ways in which the individual ego-self of Western Europe and America differs from the interdependent self of East and Southeast Asia. As we move closer to the idea of the self as a member of a community, we will explore collaborative research and presentation, weekly group projects, community service and the placement of the self in an Asian context. The faculty for this program include Ryo Imamura, a counseling psychologist/Buddhist priest, and Sean Williams, an ethnomusicologist specializing in Asian music. Together, we expect our students to be prepared to take themselves and the subject matter seriously, to meet program expectations in a timely manner and to participate fully in all program activities. Students will keep a program portfolio that includes all program material (including lecture notes, handouts, notes on the readings and individual responses to program events). Lastly, students will participate in weekly workshops in music of Asia (especially Indonesia) and self-awareness through psychology and meditation.
· Credit awarded in psychology, Buddhism, religious studies, history and ethnomusicology.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in liberal arts, religious studies, Asian studies, psychology and ethnomusicology.
Changing Minds, Changing
Course
Fall, Winter, Spring/Group Contract
Faculty: Virginia Hill
Enrollment: 24
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent or 6
first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: No
Internship Possibilities: Yes, 8 to 16 credit internship spring quarter.
Travel Component: None
Rhetoric and propaganda remain our close companions as we rush from the world of unadorned print into the dot com age. People’s attempts to influence one another are as old as language itself, yet the mass media and the Internet extend a communicator’s reach more deeply into the lives of others, promising to magnify that influence. This program examines a wide range of planned influence attempts, from cults and brainwashing to political campaigns and Internet advertising, asking how communications media in concert with persuasive messages re-form the social landscape. We will study the psychology of persuasion, as well as the ways in which various communications media encourage or inhibit particular forms of discourse. We will also discuss how telecommunications policy and media ownership might affect the persuasion process. To better understand the interplay of media and mind-changing, students will learn production techniques in print, video and the Internet, and they will design their own propaganda campaigns. Students will also learn research skills to evaluate and influence programs. In the spring, students will take part in internships to get a first-hand look at media as instruments of influence.
· Credit awarded in persuasion and propaganda, mass communication and society, principles of marketing, campaign design, media technology and public policy.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter; 8 to 16 credit internship spring quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in mass communications, marketing, political campaigns, law and social science.
· This program is also listed in Culture, Text and Language.
China: The Waking Lion
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Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Rose Jang, Andrew Buchman
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent or 12
first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: Approximately $75 for event tickets and art supplies.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
The old proverb, "China is a sleeping lion," no longer applies. An apt metaphor for our work will be to study a waking lion. The goal of this program is to become familiar with dominant and divergent cultural traditions of the peoples of China with an emphasis on the present, but also a serious appreciation of the past two thousand-plus years of unbroken Chinese cultural lineage. Our themes will include: the effects of geography on Chinese societies; the continuity and persistency of China’s traditional philosophical, political and esthetic systems; historical perspectives on relations between China, its Asian neighbors, European countries and the United States; and, in expansion, the Chinese Diaspora, especially to Taiwan and the United States.
Our subject matter and area of study will include Chinese, Chinese-American, relevant American and European authors of histories, travelogues, biographies, essays, poetry, drama, fiction, movies and films. Workshops, some led by visiting artists and scholars, will introduce students to spoken and written Chinese language, calligraphy and brush-painting, movement, music and such everyday tools as the abacus. All students will develop their own approved research topics and share their findings in several presentations, in addition to completing weekly papers. Authors and composers studied may include: Wang Wei, Li Po, Du Fu, Tang Xianzu, Lu Xun, Lao She, Pearl S. Buck, Gustav Mahler, Giacomo Puccini, Su Tong, Li Ang, C.Y. Lee, Richard Rogers, Maxine Hong Kingston, David Henry Hwang, Gretel Ehrlich and Tan Dun.
· Credit awarded in Chinese history, philosophy, literature and performing arts, Asian studies and comparative cultural studies.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in Asian studies, cultural studies and the performing arts.
· This program is also listed in Expressive Arts.
Christian Roots: Medieval
and Renaissance Art and Science top
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Fall, Winter/Coordinated Study
Faculty: Frederica Bowcutt, Lisa Sweet
Enrollment: 48
Prerequisites: None. This all-level program accepts up to 25 percent or 12
first-year students.
Faculty Signature: No
Special Expenses: $200 for art supplies and $150 for field trips.
Internship Possibilities: No
Travel Component: None
Students in this two-quarter program will explore Medieval and Renaissance (1100–1750) European culture through studies in art and science. We will examine trends that emerged in religion, medicine and visual arts with interest in how these values have changed and/or remained the same through the centuries. In fall we will develop a foundation in the precipitating factors, cultural and scientific, that led to the Middle Ages. We will study Greek botanists such as Dioscorides and explore the impact they had on the study of plants during the Middle Ages. Additionally, we will learn about life during the Middle Ages through readings about individuals—from poets to mystics to witches. In winter we will address the emerging Humanism that accompanies the Renaissance.
The radical transformation of botany from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance will be an important part of this program. During the Middle Ages, botany was a branch of medicine, heavily shaped by Christian values and beliefs. Exploration and colonization of the "New World" resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of plants known to the botanist. This inspired a different approach to plant naming. New technology, such as the light microscope, also allowed for a deeper understanding of the internal form and function of plants.
Christian values also determined the look and function of art created during the Middle Ages. The church developed a code of representation that involved a complex iconography for Christian images; it also was the primary patron of artists until the High Renaissance. During the Renaissance the Humanist obsession with science seeped into the arts as well. Science influences the visual arts in the form of study and portrayal of human anatomy; studies of nature through illustration; and the development of complex systems of optics and perspective. The sciences have a pervasive impact on what had been a strictly spiritual content in art. In the process, the roles of artists change from that of artisans to intellectuals.
Finally, we will explore the lives and works of various individuals (with special emphasis on medieval women) who contributed to shaping the Middle Ages—scientists and artists, scholars and mystics. We will consider the rational studies of botanists and the intuitive expressions of artists and those called to a life of faith. By examining their lives and works, students will gain a unique perspective on the culture of the European Middle Ages.
· Credit awarded in printmaking, art history, history of science and European ethnobotany.
· Total: 16 credits each quarter.
· Program is preparatory for careers and future studies in art, healing arts and ethnobotany.
· This program is also listed in Environmental Studies and Expressive Arts.
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