Winter 2004

391 Course Descriptions

TS2N 391: Ethnobotany of the Southwest

This class offers students the opportunity to conduct in-depth research regarding traditional plant knowledge unique to the various cultures of the Greater Southwest and to become familiar with the important and useful plants of the region.

TS2N 391: Environmental Justice & Sustainability

This course provides an interdisciplinary examination of the ecological, economic, legal and sociopolitical constructions of environmental justice and sustainability. Environmental justice will be examined as the integration of environmental and social justice concepts and movements, especially regarding natural resource use, stewardship and consumption. Sustainability includes issues of ecosystem integrity, economic resource distribution, political organization and current environmental law and policy. A range of proposed solutions will be discussed. Students will work in groups to investigate local environmental issues and to present their findings in the global context of sustainability and environmental justice.

TS2N 391: Fire in the West

This course is an introduction to issues related to fire from a cultural, ecological, political and management perspective with emphasis on ecosystems in the West. This course will focus on historical and current perceptions of fire, basic fire science, fire ecology and political and management issues related to fire including ecological restoration and conservation and how these topics are being applied in different western ecosystems.

TS2R 391: Africans in the Americas

This course focuses on the dispersion of Africans to the Americas during the slave trade and the history and culture (especially social life, religion, folklore, music) of peoples of African descent in the Western Hemisphere.

TS2R 391: Non-Western Theater

This course is a lecture/discussion and practical/experiential course that explores Asian theatre forms as disciplinary engagement, cultural exploration and personal expression. Students develop historical, critical, analytical and expressive skills in conventions and artistic expression that concern a time and place far removed from our own. Focus is on understanding the modes of expression with regard to knowledge of contemporary and historical works and issues of a variety of different genres and cultures.

TS2S 391: Will of the People

This course examines the dynamic tension between groups of individuals and collective society. Various distinct populations emerge within an otherwise heterogenous majority. These minority populations practice and attempt to retain their distinct cultural heritage but are met with resistance. To protect these groups, the right of self-determination is established in international law. But can the international community protect that right?

TS2S 391: Systems Perspective in Language

The purpose of this course is to study language as a cognitive system and to study its uses in different forms of human communication, from the interpersonal to the global setting. The course will initially examine the relationship between language and mind, followed by a discussion of strategies for imparting and learning language. This knowledge will then be applied to a global setting by critical analysis of examples of language usage in political, social and economic life and by studying the power of language in constructing identity and delineating social and ethnic groups on the local, national and global levels.