华体会

Courses in this cluster will explore how embodied experiences and cognitive processes shape what it means to be human, will make knowledge through moving and being active in bodies, and see bodies as a way into larger scientific and social inquiry.

Associated Course Pairings:

Course Descriptions

CC102: Directing and Acting for the Cinema

Instructor: Arom Choi
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Creative Process
CRN# 18286
Block: 1

CC120: Inside Out: The Psychology and Philosophy of Emotions

Instructor: Tomi-Ann Roberts
CRN# 18324
Block: 2

CC102: Our Bodies in Motion: Moving, Thinking, Collaborating

Instructor: Shawn Womack
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Creative Process
CRN# 18258
Block: 1

Our movements, gestures, stories, and physical actions are the materials for individual and collective creative exploration. Drawing on somatic exercises, movement composition and improvisation, we will broadly investigate the interconnection between body and mind, between ideas and their kinesthetic manifestation and between expression and physical form. How does movement communicate? What do our bodies already know and how might our bodies become a source of new knowledge for us? We will explore our movement potential, move extemporaneously, analyze movement, and arrange movement drawing on a variety of creative processes. During our three and half weeks together, the fundamental aim is to become a community of movers and thinkers. No previous specialized physical or dance abilities are necessary to participate in and enjoy this course.

Two afternoon sessions for the block. Wednesday of Week 2 and Tuesday of Week 4.

CC120: Playing & Plays

Instructor: Ryan Platt
CRN# 18302
Block: 2

This course proposes that serious learning depends on a frequently neglected skill: play. Play cultivates our capacity to make discoveries, imagine alternative possibilities, and contend with setbacks, failures, and challenges. The course explores many types of play, including children’s play, rule-based competitions, improvisation, combat sports, and games of chance. It also introduces hands-on methods and materials that theatre artists use to write plays and hone their skills as actors. While taking inspiration from theatre, the course focuses on the craft and pleasures of writing, so no prior experience with acting or performing on stage is required. Following the model of a creative, participatory workshop, students can expect to undertake daily in-class exercises asking them to play around with writing that mixes critical analysis with the vital energy and voice that comes from personal experience. These writing exercises will intersect with course readings about play, which are drawn from an unruly combination of scholarly and non-academic readings drawn from philosophy, sociology, performance studies, journalism, and literature.

There may be one 1 p.m. field trip.

CC102: Yoga and the Scientific Method

Instructor: Meredith Course
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Creative Process
CRN# 18251
Block: 1

“For there is no subject which is so much wrapped up in mystery and on which one can write whatever one likes without any risk of being proved wrong.” I.K. Taimni wrote these words about yoga, highlighting how prone the practice is to non-evidence-based claims. In this course, we will explore what it means for evidence to be “scientific,” and use the topic of yoga to practice differentiating between quality science and pseudoscience. Along the way, we will study the biological basis for the benefits and harms of yoga and mindfulness practices. This class will include a significant movement component (daily yoga practice), so please let the instructor know as soon as possible if you will benefit from modifications to make this more accessible.

CC120: Hindu Traditions

Instructor: Tracy Coleman
CRN# 18297
Block: 3

An introduction to the discipline of religious studies via Hindu traditions, exploring the connections between religious beliefs and cultural practices in everyday life. Readings include primary sources (hymns, epic literature, and poetry) that span the ages, and critical studies that engage historical developments and social hierarchies related to caste and gender; audio-visual materials introduce a variety of popular ritual practices. As a writing-intensive introduction to the discipline, the course will acquaint students with different genres of religious writing and with academic studies exemplifying different methodologies, ranging from close textual and historical analysis to ethnographic and sociological approaches. The aim of the course overall is to introduce students to the academic study of religion/s, and to enable students to improve their writing by learning to assess and analyze sources more carefully, and to position their own perspective among others in a way that is informed, critical, and respectful.

CC106: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior

Instructor: Greg Peters
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behaviors
CRN# 18262
Block: 1

Humans are just one of approximately 250 species of primates on earth. This course will examine various aspects of human behavior including culture, stress, racism, aggression and altruism through the lens of primatology. Students will become familiar with how researchers in the biological sciences approach study questions about animal behavior by using those same approaches to examine the behavior of humans themselves. The class will explore the features of human behavior that set us apart from other primates, but maybe more importantly we will examine the behavioral characteristics that humans share with other species. Students will develop an understanding of our own behavior beyond the perspective of human “uniqueness” and will learn to think critically about the evolutionary origins of human behavior, which will inevitably include confronting who we are both at our best and our worst.

Day-long field trip to Denver or Colorado Springs Zoo in week 2.

CC120: Documenting, Interpreting, and Writing the Human Past

Instructor: Scott Ingram
CRN# 18305
Block: 2

How do we know what happened in the past when we don't have any written or oral records of what occurred? The answer is archaeology -- the scientific study of the past through the material traces of past human activity. Archaeology, a sub-discipline of anthropology, seeks to create new knowledge of the world by documenting and interpreting the diversity of past human ways of doing and being. In this course, we will investigate how writing functions to produce and communicate archaeological knowledge of both the past and present. We'll consider the opportunities and consequences of social, natural, and interdisciplinary approaches to writing and interpreting the past. We will investigate how interpretations of the past are created and evaluated by archaeologists and how disciplinary practices have generated positive and negative consequences. To develop our writing, we will practice documenting, mapping, and interpreting past human activities at archaeological sites relying on multiple modes of inquiry used by archaeologists and researchers in many other disciplines.

Second Tuesday and Thursday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm we will be off campus conducting field work to document an archaeological site.