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INTERDISCIPLINARY
STUDIES
The
Interdisciplinary
Studies
(IDS)
designation
provides
a
curricular
home
for
courses
which
move
beyond
the
boundaries
of
traditional
disciplines
and
which
are
taught
beyond
the
boundaries
of
the
Willamette
University
campus.
Courses
in
Interdisciplinary
Studies
include
the
required
Freshman
Seminar,
a
wide
variety
of
interdisciplinary
junior-
and
senior-level
courses,
the
Presidential
Scholars
Program,
and
courses
taken
on
foreign
study.
The IDS designation identifies
on-campus or post-session courses
that are characteristically
interdisciplinary in orientation
and are often taught by faculty
drawn from several departments.
This multi-perspective way of
thinking prepares students to
solve problems on the job and in
other settings.
The FSTD (Foreign Study)
designation is given to course
credit earned through
twenty-three Willamette
University-sponsored
international education
experiences, including programs
in England, Chile, France, Japan,
Spain, Germany, Ecuador, and
Ukraine. Titles and descriptions
of these courses vary and are
available on request.
FACULTY
The
Interdisciplinary Studies Area
faculty is drawn from all
departments of the College of
Liberal Arts and varies from
semester to semester depending on
course offerings.
COURSE
DESCRIPTIONS
IDS
103X Wallulah (Yearbook)
(.25)
This
course provides credit for
creating Willamette's yearbook,
the Wallulah, and teaches
students about all aspects of the
yearbook, including photography,
layout and design and
journalistic writing. Students
are responsible for meeting
during class time, but much of
the work is performed outside of
class. No previous yearbook
experience or class requisites
are required. Every semester.
Long, Maynard
IDS
105 Transition to College
Learning (.25)
In
this
course,
students
will
learn
practical
applications
of
the
developmental
psychology
literature
of
Erikson,
Perry
and
Chickering
as
it
relates
to
young
adult
experiences
during
college
years;
psychological
research
on
memory
function
as
it
relates
to
studying,
reading
and
test-taking;
and
the
psychological
research
on
group
processes
and
cultural
differences
as
it
relates
to
classroom
and
campus
environments.
Specific
topics
will
include
organizational
skills,
goal-setting,
time
management
and
memory
enhancement.
Every
semester.
Loers,
Miller-Moe
IDS
123
(W)
World
Views:
The
Making
of
the
Modern
World
A
writing-centered
seminar
course
designed
to
explore
the
constitution
of
a
world
view
and
its
relationship
to
the
modern
world.
Interdisciplinary
in
focus
emphasizing
critical
discussion
and
critical
writing,
the
course
will
draw
upon
the
varying
approaches
to
inquiry
within
the
University.
The
course
will
provide
an
understanding
of
the
sources
of
contemporary
modes
of
thought
and
the
ways
we
develop
a
concept
of
ourselves.
Required
for
all
entering
freshmen.
Fall.
Staff
IDS
130
Cultural
Awareness
(.5)
Focus
is on cultural identity and on
contemporary issues relating to
the values and goals of diverse
cultural groups. An emphasis also
will be on examining and getting
beyond prejudice and
institutionalized racism.
Supplementary readings, guest
speakers, participation in campus
cultural and intellectual life
provide the format of the course.
Fall. Staff
IDS
135 (CA, W) Interdisciplinary
Performance Workshop (1)
Students
in this course explore different
aspects of performance through
the use of awareness and movement
disciplines, including the
Alexander Technique and Authentic
Movement. No previous performance
experience is required; students
engage in whatever medium (music,
acting, dramatic reading,
improvised movement) most
interests them. Emphasis is
placed on the anatomy of movement
and on the role that awareness
plays in the creative process
from conception to realization in
all performing disciplines.
Creating in the Arts.
Writing-Centered. Spring.
King
IDS
140 (NW) Introduction to
Cognitive Science (1)
Cognitive
science focuses on how people,
animals and machines come to be
intelligent. It is an
interdisciplinary field at the
interface of psychology,
linguistics, computer science,
anthropology, philosophy, and
neuroscience. This introductory,
lab-based course explores the
origins, methodologies,
accomplishments, and current
controversies associated with
this rapidly emerging field, thus
challenging students to think
critically yet creatively about
this new approach to
investigating mind, brain, and
behavior. Understanding the
Natural World. Alternate years.
Stewart
IDS
150 Research in the Information
Age (.5)
This
course will acquaint students
with the many aspects and uses of
information in contemporary
society, from the World Wide Web
to discipline-specific databases.
While introducing the students to
basic information technologies
needed to excel in their academic
career, this course will
emphasize critical thinking and
research skills. It is especially
recommended for freshmen. Spring.
Haring-smith, Meyertons,
Simonsen
IDS
155 Linguistics (1)
The
study of language touches a
variety of academic disciplines
from sociology, anthropology,
philosophy, English and foreign
language studies to psychology,
computer science, and neurology.
However, the one discipline
solely devoted to its study is
the field of linguistics. This
course takes the approach of
mapping out the broad landscape
of language study for those who
have little or no understanding
of the field of linguistics.
Students are introduced to core
areas of linguistics: Phonetics
(the study of human speech
sound), Phonology (the study of
the sound systems of languages),
Morphology (the study of the
structure of words), Syntax (the
study of the structure of
sentences), Semantics (the study
of meaning in language) and
Pragmatics (the study of meaning
from the point of view of the
user). Students are also led to
apply these basic concepts to a
variety of interdisciplinary
areas, such as the psychology of
language, language
learning/teaching, language
variation, language and the
brain, and computational
linguistics. Alternate springs.
Fujiwara
IDS
165 Journalistic Writing (.5
credit)
This
course will introduce students to
the basics of journalistic
writing. Topics will include
story structure, news analysis,
research, grammar, and editorial
columns and interviewing. Some
attention will also be given to
liability issues, journalistic
ethics and layout. Fall.
Hughes
IDS
202 Convocation: Reflecting on Campus, Community
and Cosmos (.5)
An
action and reflection seminar resulting in the
production of the University Convocation each
week of the semester. Students will research issues
that academia can and should address and invite
to the University Convocation public intellectuals
and artists who can speak to an educated general
audience of students, faculty, staff and local
citizens. Reading, discussions, conversations
with faculty and community leaders will lead to
the planning, publicizing, presiding and hosting
of the University Convocation series. Prerequisite:
Sophomore standing or consent of instructor. Every
semester. Wallace
IDS
203 (W) Intercultural Study within Cultural Immersion
(1)
Course
is designed to facilitate and promote the experiential
learning process in an intercultural context.
Introduces students to the value of cultural comparison
that illuminates both similarities and differences.
Improves the overall study abroad program by providing
essential pre-departure and re-entry training
designed to capitalize on the cultural immersion
experience. Prepares students to learn from the
psychological and conceptual challenges they will
face during each phase of the experience. Examines
the advantages and disadvantages of culture study,
including the contrast of internal and external
perspectives, and the concept of critical self-consciousness.
Exposes myths and misconceptions about other cultures,
in order to encourage critical thinking about
culture and to develop perspective-taking abilities.
Explores forces that contribute to the development
and changes of cultures, including social, economic,
political, geographic, environmental, agricultural,
and religious factors. Globalization trends and
interactions between cultures and nation-states
are also included as developmental forces. Encourages
and challenges students to continue learning about
other cultures and other perspectives. Prerequisite:
Only students participating in an off-campus,
cultural immersion program are eligible. Every
semester. Lou
IDS
209
Cross-Cultural
Communication (.5)
This
class is designed to teach students cognitive
and behavioral skills needed to communicate with
others from a significantly different cultural
background. Emphasis is focused on Asian cultures,
however, the class is appropriate for students
in any major who are interested in cross-cultural
communication and for those who are going or returning
from abroad. The course material is adapted from
Ivey and Ivey's multi-cultural counseling theory
as well as intercultural theory. Emphasis will
be on teaching the basic listening sequence in
a multi-cultural context. Mastery of these skills
will expand the repertoire of communication skills
available to the individual, so that the individual
is enabled to better communicate with others from
a significantly different background. Every semester.
Loers/Bragg
IDS
220 (AR, NW) The Body in Science and Society (1)
This class will use exemplars from the history
of anatomy, physiology, and medicine to examine
the intellectual processes that underlie science
as a way of understanding the world. In addition,
students will be introduced to paradigms for making
reasoned judgments about the moral consequences
associated with various advances in human biological
science. Analyzing Arguments, Reasons, and Values
and Understanding the Natural World. Spring. Harmer
IDS
222 (NW) Fundamentals of Neuroscience (1)
This
course covers fundamental principles of the development,
function, and occasional malfunction of the human
nervous system, the methodologies, discoveries,
and frontiers of this interdisciplinary area of
inquiry. Lectures and mandatory laboratories are
designed to challenge students to think in new
ways about the relationship between brain, body,
and behavior. Understanding the Natural World.
Alternate Springs beginning Spring 2006. Stavrianeas,
Stewart
IDS
230 (US) Rites of Passage in Japan and the United
States (1)
This
course focuses on the events of birth, marriage,
and death as they are socially construed by way
of symbols, rituals, and myths. Initially, attention
is directed to theoretical foundations and the
constructs of symbol, ritual and myth themselves.
Readings are drawn from anthropology, communication
studies, linguistics, and sociology. Thereafter,
focus turns to each of the events--birth, marriage,
and death--and the ways that various cultures
make them meaningful. The constructs examined
earlier in the term are applied to selected case
studies from Japan and the United States. Understanding
Society. Alternate falls. Douglass and TIUA Staff
IDS
260 (NW, W) Women Naturalists of the Western Americas
(1)
The
course will include lectures, reading of primary
literature, field work, and journaling. Students
will also critique and analyze traditional approaches
to the natural sciences. Students will review
selected research articles and readings with a
focus on women's career development; specifically,
the influence of gender roles identity on the
participation of girls and boys in science classes.
Students will develop writing and communication
skills that are used by naturalists (male and
female) to include field notes, formal plant descriptions,
biography, and autobiography. Understanding the
Natural World. Writing-Centered. Alternate years,
beginning Spring 2004. Rose
IDS
321 (AR) Ethics in the American Tradition (1)
The
aim of this interdisciplinary course is to address
the institutional structures which define American
society and shape our ability to make responsible
ethical decisions. The course will begin with
an analysis of current American values, broadly
defined, and will conclude with a study of the
major ethical systems which are attempting to
respond, through these issues, to the decisions
which confront us in the modern world. Several
case studies will be conducted to test the implications
of these ethical systems and the options they
pose for corporate ethics. Analyzing Arguments,
Reasons, and Values. Prerequisite: Junior/Senior
standing or consent of instructor. Alternate years.
McGaughy
IDS
322 (IT) The Idea of Europe (1)
This
course will examine the emergence and development
of cultural identities in Europe, with a particular
focus on the emergence and development of a conception
of “Europe” and “European”
from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. In order
to understand these notions more clearly, it will
be pertinent to study what was NOT Europe/European
throughout this same time period. Interpreting
Texts. Alternate years, fall or spring. DeLeonibus
IDS
325 (W) Field Studies in Hawaii (1)
A
field course consisting of lectures and field
trips which will touch on the following topics
related to Hawaii: description of the islands
and the causes of the present appearance based
upon geological, biological, sociological and
cultural information. Special emphasis will be
placed on the geological formation, biological
aspects (present distributions and the origins
of the flora and fauna) and present major activities
(i.e., sugar cane, pineapple and tourism industries;
environmental quality control; methods of preserving
and maintaining original habitat and culture).
Some aspects of the immediate marine environment
will also be investigated. Post-session. Writing-Centered.
Goodney, Rose, Thorsett
IDS
327 (AR; W) The American Story and the Legacy
of Vietnam (1)
Language
has become a problem in the modern world: its
expanding role as a means of global communication
has, at the same time, accented the barriers to
human understanding posed by competing ideologies
concealed within languages. As a result, power,
rather than argument or persuasion, has become
the normal means for achieving national and personal
ends. This seminar addresses, through selected
case studies, the relationship of language and
power in the American tradition and their impact
on politics and ethics. The Vietnam War is offered
as a case study. Writing-centered. Analyzing Arguments,
Reasons, & Values. Narrative and Ethics in
the American Tradition Cluster. Alternate years,
spring. Collins, McGaughy
IDS
329 Mythology and Symbolism (1)
This
seminar explores how symbols found in myths, legends,
rituals and dreams relate to key developmental
transitions in the human life cycle: birth, puberty,
young adulthood, mid-life and death. Symbolic
expression is examined at both a cultural level
(a comparative study of contemporary symbolism
in Anglo, Native American and Eastern cultures)
and at an individual level (i.e., one’s own
creative symbolism, especially in dreams). A major
focus will be on how knowledge gleaned through
these Modes of Inquiry can enhance the ability
to make decisions that affect one’s own and
others’ personal development. Prerequisite:
Permission of instructor. Alternate years, fall.
Fischer
IDS
330 (W) Science Studies (1)
This
course analyzes the scientific enterprise. We
shall see how different disciplines from the humanities
and social sciences (history, philosophy, sociology
and anthropology) can be used to illuminate different
aspects of science. Topics include: logical positivism,
the social construction of scientific knowledge,
interest theory, entity realism, skills and practices
in science, gender and science and ethnomethodological
approaches to studying science. Previous knowledge
of a science is helpful. Writing-centered. Annually.
Jackson
IDS
331 Religion and Science (1)
Relation
of religious and scientific perspectives: the
historic and philosophical tensions between the
Christian tradition and the natural and social
sciences and the ways of mutual clarification
of these perspectives in the 20th-century. Alternate
years, fall. McGaughey
IDS
332 Mysticism and Creativity (1)
An
exploration of Eastern and Western mystical traditions
as expressed in literature and other arts. Students
will explore their own creative and spiritual
experiences by writing a series of personal, reflective
essays. Spring. G. Bowers
IDS
336 (W, 4th Sem Lang Req) Field Studies in Ecuador:
A Perspective on Latin America (1)
A
post-session field studies course centered in
Ecuador at several geographical locations and
focusing on topics related to the natural sciences,
language and culture, the arts, sociology and
political science. Emphasis will be on a historical
and modern approach to study of the interrelationships
among indigenous and Spanish-speaking groups,
the interaction between culture and environment
and the tremendous biological and geological diversity
in Ecuador. It will also explore the impact of
development, economics and land reform on the
environment and its people. Writing-centered.
Fourth Semester Language Requirement. Post-session.
Staff
IDS
343 Field Studies in Chicago (1)
This
is a four-week off-campus program. It employs
readings as well as guided tours of different
racial and ethnic communities, the commercial
centers, architecture and museums; explorations
of the visual arts, music, theater; a service
learning internship; and a seminar to investigate
and reflect upon the complexity, diversity and
problems confronting modern urban America from
an interdisciplinary perspective. Arrangements
are supported by the Urban Life Center in Chicago.
Post-session. Staff.
IDS
347
Chemistry,
Economics
and
the
Environment
(1)
A
case study approach to environmental issues, considering
both the technological and economic perspectives
on causes and solutions. Issues considered may
include acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming
and toxic wastes. Prerequisites: A course in Chemistry
and a course in Economics. Spring. Goodney
IDS
350 (US) The Sociology of Science (1)
The
course analyzes the role sociology has played
over the past four decades in elucidating the
scientific enterprise. We shall explore the impact
of institutions on research, the role of social
interests in science and the importance of skills
and practices in the scientific enterprise. Understanding
Society. Annually. Jackson
IDS
351 (W) Culture of Ancient Greece (1)
A
postsession course in Greece which includes field
trips to museums and key archaeological sites
to complement lectures and readings in the archaeology,
culture, history, and rhetoric of ancient Greece.
Examination of the geographical and cultural milieu
of the classical Greek tradition as revealed in
the art, architecture, and artifacts will enhance
understanding of the rhetorical tradition exemplified
in texts by Demosthenes, Aristotle, and Plato.
Writing-centered. Post-session. Clark, Collins
IDS
355 An Introduction to Opera (1)
Major
works of European and American musical drama studied
in their literary, theatrical and musical contexts.
This course aims to enhance understanding and
appreciation of opera through the study of libretti
(playscripts), audio and video recordings and
several live performances of great operas. No
previous musical training assumed. Spring. Staff
IDS
356 Studies in Cuba (1)
The
program runs as an intersession and as a post-session
and it focuses on a course entitled Introduction
to Contemporary Cuba at the prestigious University
of Havana. The course presents the political,
social and economic history of Cuba with a particular
emphasis on the period since 1898. There are two
sections of the course, one for students fluent
in Spanish and another for those lacking language
fluency. The program also involves field trips
in Havana and its environs. Annually. Staff
IDS
363
Studies
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