2020-2021 Upper Division Seminars

Michael Karlberg, Communications

MW 3:00 – 4:20 pm, REMOTE SYNC

Against a backdrop of social injustice, economic inequality, ecological degradation, and potentially catastrophic climate change, growing numbers of people on every continent are seeking to address these and other issues through nonviolent activism. What are the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of nonviolent collective action? What different forms does nonviolent action take? How effective are nonviolent actions in achieving their aims? How ethical are such actions? What are the risks and the limitations of such actions? Students will explore these questions by engaging selected readings from literature on nonviolent social change, viewing documentaries on nonviolent campaigns, and exploring the practical implications for nonviolent action. The class will be a participatory seminar in which all students contribute diverse insights and interpretations that enrich one another’s learning.

Ed Love, Marketing

TR 10:00 – 11:20 am, OM 330C

The goal of this course is to help students see the world differently, and to help them change it. Although Innovation was originally conceived as a course on New Product Marketing, this course is really oriented around solving problems in innovative ways rather than the commercialization of new products. While many examples used in the course come from the world of business, this focus on solving problems means that that the learning outcomes may be applied much more broadly. Anyone interested in social change would benefit from this course.

Joan Connell, Journalism

MW 10:00 – 11:20 am, OM 330C

This seminar places climate crisis in a cosmological frame, raising questions of how humans fulfill their ethical responsibilities to the species with whom we share a fragile planet. By studying creation narratives from world religions and science's story of evolution, this class seeks new understandings of our true origins, responsibilities, and collective destiny.

Mark Neff, Environmental Studies

TR 1:00 – 2:20 pm, OM 330C

"Inventing the future" Technologies do not just magically appear; rather, we invent them. Society establishes the conditions that incentivize some areas of innovation while leaving other potential areas unaddressed. Our government actively pursues some technologies with deliberately-directed funding, and it limits or regulates other potential research subjects. If society creates the conditions that shape our choices of research directions, that means that it is also possible to actively govern research and development to ensure that the future we invent is better than today. This seminar will critically examine our current mechanisms and structures of technological governance in order to empower students to become thoughtful participants in inventing our future. We will draw on readings the academic fields of science & technology studies and history & sociology of technology, as well as from contemporary journalistic pieces. The content should be appealing to students from across the university, as it applies humanistic insights to the cutting edge of science and technology. STEM students will have the opportunity to think critically about the ways in which their work might contribute to a better future, and those from the humanities and social sciences will see issues where their work can help to shape and inform our choices of the future we invent.

Anika Tilland-Stafford, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

R 2:00 – 4:50 pm, REMOTE SYNC

As climate change challenges food production and globalized systems leave many without land, there exist strong movements where local communities secure food for their people. Food and land rest at the intersections of gender, disability, class, colonialism, and diaspora. The study of food sovereignty movements is therefore intertwined with the efforts of black, indigenous, and migrant communities to create non-exploitative and sustainable food production networks. In order for students to leave this course with concrete ways to support food security in their communities, the term will blend academic study with hosting and visiting communities working for food security and land justice in the local context. Students will have the opportunity to apply their own interest areas to course material and assignments.

Lori Martindale, Honors Program

MWF 12:00 – 12:50 pm, OM 330C

We’ll delve into international legends, folklore, fairy tales, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and contemporary re-imaginings and subversions of those stories with a focus on the Crone, the Witch, and the Hag. Characters like the Baba Yaga, the Bell Witch, Circe, Calypso the sea-witch, The Wicked Witch of the West, Lady Tremaine, Frau Perchta, and others will be examined to comment on the stereotypes as well as the diverse roles of these elusive outcasts. We’ll study the lore of the Chilean Kalku and the West Indies Obeah. In addition, classical fairy tales from early feminist versions of Catherine d’Aulnoy, short stories from The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson; contemporary fairy tales written by Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Rebecca Solnit, Anne Sexton, Italo Calvino, and others will be studied to uncover alternate representations of the crone, the witch, and the hag. We’ll also read international depictions of infamous fairy tales such as “Hansel and Gretel,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Little Mermaid” and the Scottish “Lasair Gheug,” and compare these to American versions to reveal themes of class, etc. We’ll read in an international context as well as study Arts (book illustrations), historical essays on the witch hunts, and philosophical critiques of these tales, particularly within the trope of the wise, cackling Crone.

Kimberly Lynn, Global Humanities and Religions

TR 11:00 – 12:20 pm, REMOTE SYNC

This seminar examines the cultural history of early modern Europe (c. 1450-c. 1750) from the perspective of one of the forms of expression which proliferated in that era: autobiographies. In fact, the seminar will examine that modern category quite broadly, looking at a wide variety of ways – and circumstances – in which early modern Europeans told and wrote their own life histories. The lines between biography and autobiography were much less clear than we might expect, as were questions of truth versus fiction; early modern people also often told the stories of their lives under duress. In addition, the seminar will examine the proliferation of self-portraits in early modern Europe – visual self-depictions – together with written forms of life writing. In other words, this seminar explores how early modern Europeans represented themselves and how they told their life stories. In doing so, it examines how such self description could be a form of self-promotion or self-defense; how autobiography could be used to shape and communicate religious experience; how self-depiction was used to make claims about identity in highly charged social, religious, political, and legal circumstances; and the complex ways in which gender was represented in such narratives.

Tracey Pyscher, Education

TR 9:30 – 10:50 am, REMOTE SYNC

Trauma is having a moment. Generations of researchers have exposed the capacity of systemic, intellectual, and popular discourses that contribute to reproducing the inequities of US society in relation to theorizing trauma. Historically, clinical and psychological perspectives dominated trauma studies (i.e. theorizing PTSD). However, new perspectives from sociology, comparative studies, cultural studies, literary studies, gender and race studies, and history have broadened the scope of trauma studies to encompass a more critical understanding. At the conceptual heart of critical trauma studies is a set of tensions between the everyday and the extreme, between individual identity and collective experience, between history and the present, between psychic and experiences in the body, between experience and representation, between facts and memory, between deficit and resistance, and between the "clinical" and the "cultural." In this course, the category of trauma is not taken for granted but rather is unraveled and interrogated to assess the political and cultural work that trauma does especially in relation to our bodies, our social and cultural, and psychic experiences. The goal of this seminar is to deconstruct how these conceptualizations of trauma have emerged, how they are sustained, and reconstruct new, more critical oriented conceptualizations that trouble the traditional arguments that have shaped the discourse of ‘trauma.’

Julie Dugger, English

TR 9:00 – 10:20 am, Blended WP3

There’s no more important skill in any discipline or profession than communicating your ideas effectively, and sometimes that means communicating them to a popular or non-specialist audience. Students in this class will explore the challenges of writing for general audiences in a clear and engaging manner, then practice techniques for meeting those challenges. Together, we’ll examine successful writing from both creative and academic/professional fields, including scientific writing and popular fiction, with readings ranging from Aristotle to internet social media. Individually, you will design and complete a popular writing project from one of your fields of academic or creative interest. Students are encouraged to work with research material from another course when appropriate (with permission from the instructor of that course).

Sarah Zarrow, History

MW 11:00 – 12:20 pm, Synchronous

The events we have now come to call the Holocaust ended in 1945, with the surrender of Germany at the end of World War Two. The reverberations of the Holocaust, however, are felt to the present day. This course opens up exploration of the many ways—legal, personal, artistic—that individuals, families, communities, and states reckoned with the Holocaust and its legacy.

Ryan Castle

TR 10:30 – 11:50 pm, Synchronous WP3

This course will explore the legal and political foundations of the LGBT and Religious civil rights movements. Both causes are clashing in a cultural and legal battle that is only beginning. How is this clash manifesting itself in everyday lives as well as behind the scenes with lawyers, judges, and politicians? What are the legal and policy solutions? Students will attempt to answer these questions in class and in a final research paper. For a solid foundation, we will start with a general overview of the Constitution and Civil Rights laws, and then focus our attention on the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 70s. With that needed context, we can then dive into the past, present, and future of the Religious and LGBT rights movements, largely from a legal perspective. Class will be structured using the Socratic method with student discussion, interspersed with lecture and Internet use to introduce students to various resources. Students will learn how to analyze a body of law, to read court decisions and legislative statutes, to create public policy, to communicate professionally, and to challenge their own biases.

Mary Erickson, Communication Studies

TR 10:00 – 11:20 am, Blended WP1

Netflix has been heralded as the vanguard of a changing media landscape, leading the charge for sweeping transformations in how people watch films and television. Streaming platforms have altered the accessibility of media as well as the potential for legacy corporations and structures to be dismantled and for new voices to emerge. Yet the popular discourse around streaming media, and Netflix in particular, obscures how these new players utilize very similar strategies to gain dominance in their respective fields. Although it is often labeled as revolutionary, Netflix has made a number of business decisions to build a corporation that mirrors its major media competitors. What then, if anything, makes Netflix different in the overall media landscape? This course investigates the emergence of Netflix, how it has ridden the wave of digital distribution, and how it has become a dominant player around the globe. The overall objective of this course is to develop students’ critical media literacy skills by applying the lessons of a Netflix critique to our understanding of media systems and media habits more broadly.

Brandon Dupont, Economics

TR 3:00 – 4:20 pm, Synchronous

This seminar is focused on the economics of inequality. It will explore a variety of perspectives that will help us better understand the forces that are shaping inequality today. We will consider a number of topics including how economists measure inequality, the evolution of inequality over time, its longer-term implications for economic performance and possible policy solutions. Since patterns in the income and wealth distributions develop over fairly long periods of time, the seminar will take a largely historical approach to the question. Previous coursework in economics would be helpful, but it is not required.

Ryan Dudenbostel, Fine and Performing Arts

MW 2:00 - 3:20 pm, Synchronous

One hundred years from now, what will historians call the culture of today? Since the end of World War II, Western art and literature have been grouped together under the vast umbrella of Postmodernism. However, recent world events seem to signal an entirely new era in terms of global culture and the ways in which art is created and disseminated. While a number of terms have been proposed, no single name for our present state of the arts has found widespread acceptance.  This seminar will examine artistic and literary movements from around 1890 to the present day, with the goal of identifying and naming the core characteristics of our contemporary art that set it apart from its predecessors.

Peggy Watt, Journalism

TR 2:00 – 3:20 pm, Blended WP3

This course studies the rights and legal restrictions on the “five freedoms” in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We’ll examine the concepts behind these core constitutional guarantees and their ongoing interpretation through the courts, as well as their implementation in current events, notably balancing free speech with a commitment to inclusion and diverse voices. This course is a mix of theory and skills development. You’ll learn the philosophy and principles behind the First Amendment, learn legal terminology and read landmark court rulings to help you understand how the courts balance those five freedoms – and we will examine how they apply in everyday life.

Jennifer Seltz, History

MWF 10:00 – 10:50 am, Remote Blended (WF Synchronous)

This class will examine the history of 20th and 21st-century epidemics and pandemics in American and international contexts. We will discuss the impacts, causes, and private and public memories of influenza, polio, smallpox, and HIV/AIDS, and end with the emerging history of Covid-19. Key questions include: How and why did new and old diseases spread throughout the world in new ways in the 20th century? How did epidemics change medical knowledge, practices, and institutions, as well as the politics of public health? How did epidemics expose, deepen, or alleviate social inequities? How did these epidemics change state power and international organizations? How and why did individuals and communities try to remember, forget, and memorialize these epidemics?

Susan Haines, Dance

TR 12:00 – 1:20 pm, Hybrid

This course will introduce students to methods and practices of movement and movement ecology for healthy human beings and a healthy environment. Students will examine the detrimental effects of our sedentary and consumerist culture, the relationship between body and the environment, and systems of practice for implementing more movement into daily living. Students will analyze and experience how connecting to their physicality, natural environment, and community can support wellness and sustainability for body and earth.

Marion Brodhagen, Biology

MWF 11:00 – 11:50 am, Remote Synchronous

Organisms interact with one another and with their surroundings. An important component of those interactions is the perception of and response to chemical signals – chemical communication. For example, plants communicate with one another. Bacteria also communicate with each other and with plants and animals (including humans). From a practical point of view, understanding this "chemical language" can (and does) lead to discovery of drugs and agrichemicals for controlling disease-causing microorganisms. Many drugs and pesticides were originally isolated from microorganisms and plants. On a more esoteric note, "eavesdropping" on the chemical conversations of our fellow earthlings allows us to understand them a little better – in terms of ecology, evolution, and molecular biology.

Melina Juarez, Political Science, & Stephanie Gomez, Communication

TR 10:00 – 11:20 am, Remote Blended (R Synchronous)

Political Communication is an interdisciplinary subject found at the intersections of Political Science and Communication. This course is centrally concerned with investigating: What is hegemony? How does it operate through modes of communication? And, how can intersectional decolonial frameworks increase our understanding of the functions and effects of these processes? We will explore these questions using political speeches and digital media coverage of critical issues affecting minoritized communities, with a particular focus on climate change and immigration.

Jimena Berzal de Dios, Art History

MW 2:30 – 3:50 pm, Remote Blended (M Synchronous)

The seminar “Liberty and Libertinage” presents an interdisciplinary study of French 18th-Century art and culture, giving gravity to the period’s aesthetic levity and taking seriously its playfulness. Among other topics, we will explore: Rococo painting, the sociopolitical status of women, the new male archetype and its critics, libertine literature, philosophies of freedom, identity as performance, the artistic significance of make-up, and utopian social visions at the brink of the French Revolution. Throughout the course we will read primary sources—philosophy, essays, fiction, and personal letters—and also recent scholarship that re-evaluates the period’s visual forms. 

Katie Brian, Global Humanities and Religions

TR 12:00 – 1:20 pm, Remote Synchronous

The contemporary carceral network impacts us all. When understood as the matrix of technologies, institutions, persons, and practices that organize, discipline, and contain the human subjects within its jurisdiction, this network reveals itself in surprising ways. It materializes not only as prison, court, and legal code, but also as mapping technology, diagnostic practice, and local foodway. Physicians, insurance underwriters, and religious leaders are as likely to appear as judges, lawyers, and police officers. The ideas, practices, and exchanges connecting these nodes are complex and multivalent, while the discourses justifying it produce powerful emotional resonances: we hear of “risk levels,” “community safety,” and “justice for the victims.” This mutable, ubiquitous, and unwieldy organism will constitute our central object of analysis. To render such complexity manageable, we will take an inquiry- and place-based approach. Within our central problematic of “carcerality,” we will attend to three embedded problems: “race,” “disability,” and “risk.” Each of these will be considered as identity, identification, and analytical category. When thinking about disability, for example, we might ask: how, why, and with what consequences are people with psychiatric diagnoses and substance abuse disorders disproportionately incarcerated? What are the criteria for distinguishing someone as “disabled,” and how does the criteria change in different spatial, temporal, and epistemological locations? What are — and have been — the connections between jails, prisons, and correctional facilities, on the one hand, and, on the other, ostensibly humanitarian institutions such as hospitals, organized charity, and classrooms for children with emotional disabilities? And, finally, how do we account for the ways that carcerality (re)produces disability, or functions to debilitate targeted populations? We will then turn our analytical attention to local institutions, curated to highlight these problems. As locations for the (re)production of carceral praxis, they will be rigorously historicized, situated within national contexts, and considered in relationship to one another. This last pursuit—connectivity—is particularly important because these types of institutions are often studied in isolation; yet Western students are, spatially speaking, well-situated to interrogate them as a vibrant system of interactions. While undertaking this intentional mapping of the Whatcom County carceral network, we will studiously attend to the fugitive practices and world-making strategies that, historically speaking, have resisted it. To do so imaginatively, we will pair ward notes, architectural drawings, prison literature, and other primary material with recent scholarship from a range of disciplines (see Appendix A). Whether tracing “actuarial justice” to its roots in insurance law, uncovering discourses of risk and security in popular documentaries, or exploring how, when, and why people have turned to the arts as a mode of resistance, our classroom will become an intellectual space at the very intersection of history, literary criticism, sociology, and psychology.

Tom Moore, Global Humanities and Religions and Honors Program

TR 2:00 – 3:20 pm, Remote Synchronous

The relative void left by the diminished influence of Christianity in the late 20th c. opened up new ways of thinking about the transcendent, whether one thinks of it as the sublime, the Brachman, Jehovah, the Way or the great goddess.  Some of the texts we’ll read are T. S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail, Hesse’s Siddhartha, and Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies.  We’ll hear speakers representing a variety of religious traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Zen Buddhism, and others.   We’ll also screen films like Paths of the Soul and look at several of Joseph Campbell’s DVDs from The Power of Myth.   

Mart Stewart, History

TR 2:00 – 3:20 pm, Remote Synchronous

Amitav Ghosh’s observation in The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016), that our climate crisis is first and foremost a crisis of the imagination will be the center of gravity for this course.  Current and pervasive conversations about global warming and anthropogenic climate change are built upon predictions about climate futures that are in turn based on scientific projections but also on social and political conditions in the present – which in turn have embedded within them assumptions and processes that have a long history.  This course will excavate just what it means for discussions of climate change to be a “history of the future” but will look closely at what Ghosh and others have argued has been missing in preparing us for the complexity and enormity of global climate change.  What has been the history of climate and culture, how are climate futures already nascent in the present, and what can imagination have to do with it?  How alternate visions of society, both utopian and dystopian (and some of them by climate scientists themselves) have been a springboard for political initiatives for equity and justice as we think about climate change and the history of the future will be especially important to this course.