Course Offerings 2024

Africa in the Global Era

This course examines major areas and issues in contemporary Africa. Using an
interdisciplinary approach, it examines in some detail the major political,
economic, cultural, and environmental realities that characterize contemporary
Africa. Among the topics to be explored are the impact of the spread of capitalism and
consumer culture, the dynamic involvement of international organizations, and the influential
power of the media. The course’s ultimate goal is to familiarize students with the
many challenges and opportunities facing Africa and its diaspora in the global
twenty-first century.

Allies, Accomplices, Co-conspirators: White People’s Role in Antiracism

What does it mean for white people to “show up” against racism and white supremacy, particularly as they benefit from the same unjust power arrangements they wish to end? Because white participation is needed if we are to craft a racially just society, the identity, role and impact of white people is worth understanding. In this course, we will consider what emerges when white people participate in antiracist social movements and the organizing work led by communities of color. We will explore questions such as: Why are allies, accomplices and co-conspirators needed in everyday interactions and in movements for racial justice? What role does identity play in shaping whether and how white people participate in dismantling racism and white supremacy? What are behaviors and actions that demonstrate effective allyship and move beyond symbolic/performative commitments? What are the problems with and limits of allyship? What are the implications of allyship on and for people of color? What do alternative frameworks of solidarity, coalition, and conspiracy offer for building antiracist futures?

Beyond Good and Evil: The Myths and Legends of Genesis

Cosmologists tell us that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang, thus freeing us from the burden of reading the Bible as a primitive science book. If Genesis is not about how the world began, what is it about? Long before people had much to say about science, it seems they had a lot to say about human nature. In this colloquium we’ll explore the myths and legends of Genesis as they take us into the heart of human experience—of life, love, desire, murder, trust and betrayal. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This colloquium is about what came next.

Bringing balance to the Force: Investigating themes in the Star Wars Universe

In this course, we will explore the many themes seen throughout the Star Wars canon as well as the extended universe. You will be encouraged to compare and contrast some of these themes as they appear in films, television, video games and books. We will also investigate the impact of Star Wars on the world as well as the early influences that shape it to discover why it is so appealing and draws so much interest through the generations.

Building Just, Resilient, and Healthy Cities

Chemicals and Society: Narratives and Perspectives

What is a chemical? What does it mean for something to be natural or synthetic? Does chemical innovation create more problems than it solves? From polymers (like silk and nylon) and dyes (such as carmine and indigo) to drugs (including morphine and penicillin) and spices (like salt and nutmeg), the pursuit of new chemical compounds through exploration of natural resources and synthetic innovation is intertwined with cultural changes. In this course we will look at the stories behind the discovery and use of some notable chemical compounds, and examine both positive and negative contributions they have made to societies: many new innovations have both intended and unintended outcomes. In examining these narratives, we will play close attention to how they are told and who is telling them: what perspectives are included, and which might be missing? While we will discuss a wide range of compounds based on the interests of the class, we will pay particular attention to both environmental issues and how medicinal compounds have been developed and tested throughout history.

Culture Without Borders: Global Poetry, Art in the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries

This course will foster intercultural awareness through the study of modern and contemporary visual artists and poets from different continents. Many of these artists and authors developed friendships and cultural connections, thereby creating an intercontinental channel of cultural exchange. We will study the poetic work of Federico García Lorca (Spain), Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Aimé Césaire (Martinique) and Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine), among others. Along with these poets, we will explore the art of influential cultural icons around the world, such as Frida Kahlo (Mexico), Salvador Dalí (Spain), and Yayoi Kusama (Japan). We will delve into this intercultural dialogue between artists of words and images using an anthropological approach. This approach involves examining poems and artworks, as expressions of cultural identity-- within their social, historical, and political context, as well as analyzing their symbolism and themes alongside the relationships between artists, their audiences, and the power dynamics at play. With this perspective, we will appreciate visual art and poetry not just for their aesthetic value but as windows into the cultural psyche and social fabric of its time.

Dante's Journey

Political corruption and betrayal, pilgrimage and exile, good and evil, justice and vengeance: Dante’s 700-year-old masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, takes readers on a journey that traverses the full range of human experience. This seminar will use a modern verse translation – featuring Sandow Birk’s illustrations which set the Comedy on the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles – alongside a traditional one to explore how the Comedy engages our contemporary political and moral challenges. How does Dante create a work of poetic genius that draws on the Latin poets of classical antiquity and theological texts from throughout the Middle Ages that still speaks today? Our focus throughout will be on Dante the pilgrim and his personal journey of transformation, and what reflecting on that journey offers us today.

Digital Lives & Futures

What are we getting from the internet, and what do we give it in return? This colloquium will explore the role of digital technologies in our lives and society. Through experiential learning, creative work, reading and discussion, students will develop a deeper understanding of the benefits and harms of digital technologies we encounter everyday. Ultimately, we’ll consider how to strengthen our digital agency in order to thrive now — and to work toward the futures we want.

Enemies, Friends, Allies? The Path of Nonviolent Resistance

Gandhi and Martin Luther King demonstrated the power and the perils of nonviolent resistance in promoting political and social change. This course will explore how varied nonviolent resistance strategies have been utilized in one of the world's most intractable conflicts, a conflict typically reported in the news as a "cycle of violence," i.e., Israel/Palestine. From slingshots to hip hop, tax resistance to tree planting, refusing military service to rebuilding homes, monitoring checkpoints to painting walls, milk production to cultural boycotts, Palestinian and Israeli activists have engaged a range of nonviolent methods to promote what they understand as a peaceful end. The methods are often controversial; their "nonviolence" is sometimes disputed; their potential for efficacy is uncertain. Together we will ponder what constitutes "nonviolence" and what may be required for such strategies to work. We will examine media coverage of the "cycle of violence" and consider what a "peace journalism" coverage of events might look like. We will review documentary accounts of nonviolent resistance groups. We will evaluate the use of the social media by Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent activist groups. In addition to analyzing the nonviolent strategies employed by others, you will develop messages and strategies to promote your own chosen cause through nonviolent resistance.

Food Media

Food gives us life and connects us to each other. It provokes strong feelings—we love some foods and hate others. What is food? What is cooking? How do we communicate about food? Together we will explore these questions through the study of food media. Every day we consume media that focus on food. Have you ever shared a photo of food with somebody in your life? Then you are also a producer of food media. In this course we will get a taste for the work of scholars, journalists, celebrity chefs, public intellectuals, food justice activists, business owners, and social workers who communicate about food. We will discuss, critique, and design food media of our own, sampling a variety of genres: articles, movies, social media posts, advertising messages, manga, cartoons, podcasts, and more. We will work in teams and share our food media critique, design, and production to become more conscious eaters who care about people, culture, and the environment and therefore about the system of food in our lives and in the world.

Forests in Mind: Real and Imagined, Physical and Emotional

What is a Forest? Are they physical, natural entities replete with soils, topography, plants, animals, water, climates, and maybe even people, or are they constructions of human values, histories, and social relations? Or are they somewhere in between? What do our conceptions of forests tell us about our relationship with the world and with each other? Through the use of novels, satellite imagery, philosophy, scientific research, silvicultural practice, and a few other ways of knowing and experiencing, we will explore the meaning and significance of forests in general – and the University’s Zena Forest in particular. Forests can be both physical and metaphorical – tangible, physical entities that fill ecological niches, provide ecosystem services, and can be fashioned into valuable commodities, or they can be abstract patches of intellectual, cultural, or emotional meaning. The interrelation of these tangible and intangible dimensions of forests lies at the center of our perceptions of them as cathedrals, cultural homelands, “wilderness,” or timber. Their interrelation also gives rise to many historical and contemporary controversies in the American West, like the persecution and displacement of indigenous peoples, the loss of biodiversity, and urban flight. By critically examining – and working with – both the physical and metaphorical forest, we shall also explore the fundamental task of developing a sense of place and responsibility in a globalizing world.

Health, Longevity, & Meaning for Generation Z

In this course, we will explore what the future holds for Generation Z (Gen Z), the cohort born between 1997-2012. What can our elders’ experience tell us about what makes for a good life? How has the experience of growing up and growing old differed in previous eras? Is it fair to characterize a whole generation of people as having a unique outlook, set of habits, and values. Together we will consider the experiences of recent American generations (e.g., the Greatest Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials) and work toward some projections for the generation that is coming of age: Gen Z. How is the world different for Gen Z, and how is Gen Z different from previous cohorts? How will these differences affect Gen Z's health and life satisfaction and guide their pursuit of achievement, contribution, and meaning?

Improv: Making Something from Nothing

Many of today’s best comedic actors have training in improv: the creation of a theatrical scene by two or more actors who work together without a script or other pre-planning. Improv is often used as a method of idea generation for sketch comedy, such as the sketches seen on Saturday Night Live or Key & Peele. But improv itself can be an end product, either in the form of live productions or television shows like Whose Line is it Anyway? In this course we will explore the art of improv and learn how actors tell a story collaboratively through a process of mutual agreement often summarized as “Yes, and…”. We will consider questions such as: What are the different schools of thought on improv performance, and how does an actor “rehearse”? Where does the funny come from in an improv show? What does cognitive science have to say about the brain on improv? How have the techniques of improv been applied outside of the theater, to such diverse areas as business, politics, and mental health? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we will all DO improv every week in two-hour-long workshops, and then put on a show at the end of the semester! No experience in improv or other theater is necessary to join this class – just a willingness to be bold, take a risk, and have fun supporting your fellow improvisers. Unlike most College Colloquium sections, this course will meet for four hours each week. We will have two hours of regular class time, and then the two-hour improv workshop. The extra fourth hour will be considered part of the work that students are expected to do outside of official class time.

In Search of Life

What is life? What does it mean to be alive? Is there, or can there ever be, a universally accepted definition of life? In this course, we will explore and integrate both classical and contemporary perspectives on the nature of life. We will consider the thoughts of philosophers including Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant, as well as physicists, chemists and biologists including Haldane, Schrödinger, Sagan, and Dawkins. We will strive to understand how ideas of what defines life have changed over time, and what factors have motivated or contributed to these changes. We will also analyze case studies that include prions, viruses, and ‘extremophiles’ - life forms that exist in the most extreme environments on earth. We will challenge our preconceived assumptions and biases on what constitutes life, and what it means to be alive.

Knitting Culture

The 21st century has seen a remarkable resurgence in the popularity of knitting, crocheting, and the fiber arts in general. In part, this is because activities such as knitting have the ability to play many roles and serve diverse functions. Knitting can be practiced as a craft, and it can also be a medium for art and fashion. Knitting can be used to express political views, and it can also simply be a way to relax. And these various facets are not mutually exclusive. For example, if I am knitting a sweater with an American flag on the front, I may be partaking in craft, political activism, and leisure all at the same time.

The goal of this class will be to examine the impact and value of knitting through a multidisciplinary approach, exploring its significance through the lenses of history, fashion, politics, and science. Questions that will be addressed include: What has driven the recent knitting revival? How is knitting perceived, and in what ways is it an effective method of expression? Does hand knitting present opportunities and experiences that machine knitting is incapable of providing? What is the relationship between knit products and social equality? During this exploration, you will also learn how to knit (if you do not already know how).

Mathematical Puzzles, Secret Codes, and Great Escapes

Since their arrival in 2007, escape rooms have taken the puzzling community by storm. They provide an ideal landscape in which to explore the interplay of logic, creativity, and teamwork. In this course, we will study mathematical topics including symbolic logic, graph theory and modular arithmetic, which underlie many mathematical puzzles, codes, and cryptosystems. We will put our knowledge into action, collaborating in teams to create, revise, and refine our own mathematical puzzles and on-line escape room experiences. From designing the narrative, to the logical flow of the hurdles, to the puzzles and artifacts involved, you will take control of the innovation, play testing, and implementation of an original escape room experience.

Mathematical Puzzles, Secret Codes, and Great Escapes

Since their arrival in 2007, escape rooms have taken the puzzling community by storm. They provide an ideal landscape in which to explore the interplay of logic, creativity, and teamwork. In this course, we will study mathematical topics including symbolic logic, graph theory and modular arithmetic, which underlie many mathematical puzzles, codes, and cryptosystems. We will put our knowledge into action, collaborating in teams to create, revise, and refine our own mathematical puzzles and on-line escape room experiences. From designing the narrative, to the logical flow of the hurdles, to the puzzles and artifacts involved, you will take control of the innovation, play testing, and implementation of an original escape room experience.

Plato

Plato is one of the most important philosophers who has ever lived. His writings are thousands of years old, yet they still have the power to provoke and captivate. His influence is so great that some have said that Western philosophy "consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." This course will be a study of several major works by Plato, works that stand out not only as wonderful examples of philosophy but also as examples of great literature. Some of the questions we will address are: What is the nature of reality? Do we have souls, and is there life after death? What does a just society look like? Is it possible to teach virtue? And what is the nature of love?

Podcasting Revolution: Empowering Ideas and Shaping the Digital Landscape with Stories

Get ready to dive into the dynamic world of podcasting! This course provides students with practical skills to create compelling podcasts. Through group work, students will explore different podcast formats and styles, developing their unique voices. From conducting interviews to scripting episodic stories and crafting fictional narratives, students will gain hands-on experience in all aspects of podcast production.

The Power of Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of an Envelope

What area of solar panels would be required to provide all of the United States’ energy needs? This is the kind of question that sounds like it would take an expert to answer, but we can easily make a rough estimate using just a little information and a few educated guesses. Guesstimation of this type can give us an important quantitative context for understanding many of the big issues being talked about in the world today. In this course, students will get lots of practice guesstimating various interesting quantities both individually and collaboratively in groups. We will start simple and work our way up to more complex estimates driven by the interests of the students. Along the way we will develop a deeper understanding of how the world works and the challenges facing humanity. No particular math skills or science knowledge is required.

PSY FI: Exploring the Science of Human Behavior through Science Fiction

Putin’s Wars

Russia's war on Ukraine will affect the world for generations. How did we get to this point? From the outset, twenty-first century Russia has been mired in violence, both physical and ideological. Putin's first action as Prime Minister in 1999 was to initiate the second Chechen war. He went on to use violence against the people of Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine. He has also waged war on the Russian constitution and the independent press, attacking nascent democratic institutions and individual human rights. Writers and artists across the region continue to push back. We will investigate their works, along with journalistic and historical texts, to better understand the context of these wars and their impact on ordinary citizens.

Rethinking the Classics: What to do with the Greeks and Romans?

Ancient Greek and Roman history, literature, and culture have long provided powerful ideas and images that have been used in later periods for both good and ill. What used to be taken for granted as the largely positive legacy and influence of the Greeks and Romans as the originators of foundational Western ideas has recently come in for severe criticism. This course provides an introduction to some of the key themes and texts from Greek and Roman antiquity as well as to some of the ways in which "the classics" have been used and misused in later eras, and why they continue to be both so relevant and so fraught. We will explore the enduring power of these classical legacies and why they have frequently been appropriated to legitimize far-right ideologies. Can the Greeks and Romans be redeemed? Should they be? Can we come to terms with them by using them to study some of the problems we are dealing with today?

Science Behind the News

The media plays a large role in communicating scientific topics and discoveries to the public and connecting science and society. However, there is often a gap between scientists and journalists, as these groups speak different languages and work toward different goals. In this class, students will explore the real science behind popular science stories in the mainstream media. After becoming familiar with background material through lectures and podcasts, students will critically read and analyze the primary journal articles behind several news stories (both instructor-selected and student-selected) in a variety of scientific disciplines.  In the final project, students will work to effectively communicate a scientific research article of their choosing so that a broad audience can understand and appreciate it. 

Sexual Citizens

What does it mean to be a good “sexual citizen?” What are “sexual projects” and “sexual geographies?” In their book, “Sexual Citizens,” Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan argue it is a lack of sexual citizenship that leads to sexual violence on college campuses. Many college strategies for attempting to reduce or prevent sexual violence focus on victim control; that is, the message is aimed at changing the behavior of potential victims so that they do not become survivors of sexual violence. This approach may not only be harmful to survivors of sexual violence, but it also does not address the cause of sexual violence – the offenders who offend and the culture that allows that to happen. Using Hirsch and Khan's book as a framework, we will ask questions such as: What does sexual violence look like on college campuses? Who is most likely to be a victim of sexual violence on a college campus? How might sexual violence on college campuses manifest differently depending on the gender or ethnic identity or sexual orientation of the survivor and/or offender? What are the impacts of campus sexual violence on survivors and the campus community? How can the development of our own and others’ good sexual citizenship transform the way we conceptualize the causes of and prevention strategies regarding sexual violence on college campuses? The last third of the course will focus on specific strategies we can use at Willamette to help those in our community become better sexual citizens. Content Advisory: This CC is focused on sexual violence on college campuses; as part of our exploration of this topic, we will read a book detailing a firsthand account from a survivor of sexual violence.

Storytelling and Environment

Have you ever wondered why magical stories often take place in dense forests or high up in the mountains? How did people come up with the idea of trees that can talk and walk? And why do impenetrable fortresses in the mountains always seem to have an abundance of gold and silver, and their inhabitants live forever? “Storytelling and Environment” is a course that delves into a vast collection of myths and tales from various cultures around the world, both ancient and modern. The course explores how humanity’s stories have always been intertwined with nature, and how these stories can help raise awareness about environmental conservation. Employing some theories on this topic, the course analyzes stories from different traditions, including Native American folklore, European tales, and Chinese and Persian mythology, to better understand the historical relationship between humanity and nature, and how storytelling can influence environmental consciousness and advocacy.

Tabletop Game Design

Like any creative medium, games combine technical and artistic processes in their design, and can be analyzed and critiqued from a variety of academic perspectives. Game designers use mathematical and computational tools to balance complex interconnected systems of abstract rules, and narrative and storytelling structures to give their designs meaning. Game critics think about games in the context of modern societies, and games succeed and fail in their relationships with player psychologies. In this course, students will design and iteratively redesign their own paper and cardstock games. We'll learn modern design principles, including mathematical tools to analyze game probabilities and game trees; best practices in graphic design; and technical rules writing. We'll work to translate between abstract systems and graphical visualizations in game components. Students will refine their designs through game critiques and workshops, iterative playtesting, and discussion of scholarly works on game design and criticism.

Darwin and Scientific Racism

The History of American Fascism: 1920 to the present

The Most Important Novel

The Politics of Punishment

Despite some criminal justice reform in recent years, the United States still locks up more people per capita than any other nation. Our large carceral state does not protect us from crime and violence, which are endemic to U.S. communities. Why do so many Americans continue to believe in punishment as a policy solution when it has clearly failed to keep us safe or to heal the effects of violence? What are the interests and institutions driving our politics of punishment? Understanding the answers to these questions can help us find the levers to decarcerate and imagine alternatives to a system that disproportionately damages Black, Brown, poor, and Indigenous communities. In this course, we examine the uses and abuses of a politics of punishment that undergirds our system of mass incarceration and we explore movements for reform, abolition, and transformation.

Thinking Machines

War on Work

Hard work, overwork, and workaholism are an expected part of our wired lives today, and yet who among us does not crave a day or two with nothing at all to do? A positive work ethic has been lauded in many cultures and societies throughout history, but starting in the mid-19th century, with the formation of formalized labor movements and anti-capitalistic economic and political theories in Europe and America, a new set of ideas began to emerge. Laziness, lassitude, the desire for a 10-hour, 8-hour, or even 3-hour workday, and even outright work refusal, rose to the fore as a way of battling exploitation in the face of capitalism's demands. Strike and sabotage emerged as tactics. Our seminar discussions will trace the beginnings of this war on work while constantly connecting back to present-day issues of work resistance. In this interdisciplinary exploration of work refusal, we will laze around with Samuel Johnson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Arthur Rimbaud, Edward Bellamy, Karl Marx, Paul Lafargue, William Morris, Marcel Duchamp, the Dadaists, the surrealists, Jacques Tati, punk rockers, and many others.

What’s the Craic? Ireland in Language and Culture

“Irish is a part of our soul; without it we are without identity, we are empty,” declared Irene Coen of the Dingle peninsula. In fact, the Irish people’s deep love of their indigenous language, Gaelige, which was nearly exterminated by the English, has fueled one of the few successful language revitalization projects in Europe. In this course we examine the nexus of Irish language, culture, and identity in Eire after the island's 1922 partition into the English-occupied state of Northern Ireland and the independent country Ireland. We dip our toes into the complexities of the Irish language, then explore the Irish people’s own understanding of their Celtic identity in the realms of sports, politics, and economics, from Druidism to Catholicism to the rise of the Celtic Tiger.

Work: Making a Life Making a Living

Work is more than a way to make a living; it’s also a big part of life. What makes for a good career or even just an adequate work-life? The answers have changed throughout history, differ across cultures and societies, and vary by individual perspective. Some people’s jobs define their personal identities while others work to support other life priorities. Some people pursue long-term career ambitions while others change jobs repeatedly. Social distinctions - gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, health status, and generation – condition the experience of work. Some jobs are prestigious or lucrative or both, while other work is less respected or low-paid, even when it is essential to society. What factors make-up working lives and cause them to differ? Do people craft good work-lives by choosing their endeavors thoughtfully and taking pride in their work, or does it depend much more on circumstances and luck? Do public policies and social conventions determine work-life’s patterns and value, or are jobs intrinsically better or worse? How have the basic features of work-life changed across history, and will current trends related to automation and artificial intelligence systems, job-hopping and the gig economy make the goal of a planned, coherent career obsolete? Our colloquium will explore these questions by reading, speaking, and writing about a variety of texts - social science studies, journalism, ethnographic interviews, and documentary films.

‘You’re on the WHAT diet?’ Searching for “truth” amid the onslaught of misinformation

Diet and fitness are multi-billion dollar industries in the United States that are aiming to profit from America’s increasingly common sedentary lifestyle. With the bombardment of advertisements, blogs, and “expert” testimonials, it can be difficult to discern fact from fiction, science from pseudo-science. In order to evaluate these fantastic claims, this course will explore the impact of America’s physical inactivity and growing waistline on people’s personal health and well-being as well as the broader impact on the healthcare system and the welfare of society as a whole. Students will then investigate the “science” and psychology of diet fads, popular workouts, and popular weight loss programs in order to critique and, in some cases, debunk the alleged scientific foundation of modern snake oil remedies.