This course is designed as a critical interdisciplinary introduction to the many histories and stories of photography, from its origins in the desire to work with light and shadows to craft an image, to the declarations of its so-called "death" in the digital age. We will begin with theoretical questions of what a photograph actually is, what it does, and how we look at and interpret them. As a starting point, we will examine the mediums disputed beginnings and the investigators and inventors who searched for methods to "write" with light and fix an image.

This Connections course will develop your understanding of the natural world through the lenses of art, history, and science. We will explore the natural history of local ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest including the history and ecology of the plants and animals in these systems. Through various activities that will include guest Professors from varying disciplines, such as nature walks, field journals, eco-art, and quiet time in nature, you will hone your observation skills and contrast how different disciplines study and understand nature.

When human beings watch a performance, do we ¿suspend¿ our disbelief? Do we ¿lose¿ ourselves in the illusion of the fictive world created on stage or on a screen? Even if that ¿feels¿ like what we are doing, is it what is happening in our brains, in our cells and synapses and neurons? And what is happening in the minds of artists who are performing? What does it mean, cognitively, to enact a story, to be in role as a character, or to be a spectator for theatrical events? And why does neuroscience need and use theatrical metaphors to explain cognition?

This interdisciplinary course investigates walking as a transformative practice for understanding and engaging with the environment, drawing on perspectives from environmental arts and humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and cultural studies. Students explore the sensory, cognitive, aesthetic, and political dimensions of walking while considering how movement through landscapes¿whether urban or natural¿shapes both personal and collective knowledge.

Why do some pitches sound better together than others? How did we decide the frequency that would correspond to each note on a piano keyboard? Why is Western music based on 12 pitches? All of these musical questions have mathematical answers. In this course, we will explore the interplay between math and music. Musical topics will include rhythm notation, polyrhythms, pitch, tuning, 12-tone music, and music generation.

How do love and violence interact in secular and religious literature from the 10th to the 14th centuries? We will examine the ideal of courtly love in love poetry, depictions of marital violence in epic poetry and` instances in which love of God inspires or justifies violence, especially sadism and masochism. With each text we will ask how love engenders, justifies, or resists violence. Throughout the semester, we will also interrogate our own positionality, specifically how love and violence in a medieval context `read¿ in the modern era, including insights from the #metoo movement.

This course is for students who have wondered why logos speak, why contracts cast spell-like trances, why fine print has big meaning, and why business people shake hands with one another. From trademark symbols to titles, from dress codes to codes of conduct, from legal codes to unwritten rules, the business landscape is filled with signs, rituals, and customs that signify meaning. This course examines the rich intersection of semiotics, business etiquette, and law, where we study these meaning-makers in the U.S. business world.

This course is for students who have wondered why logos speak, why contracts cast spell-like trances, why fine print has big meaning, and why business people shake hands with one another. From trademark symbols to titles, from dress codes to codes of conduct, from legal codes to unwritten rules, the business landscape is filled with signs, rituals, and customs that signify meaning. This course examines the rich intersection of semiotics, business etiquette, and law, where we study these meaning-makers in the U.S. business world.

Senegalese pop culture is a dynamic and evolving force that reflects the country¿s deep historical roots, diverse traditions, and engagement with global trends. This course provides an interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary cultural expressions in Senegal¿including music, film, fashion, digital media, and the performing arts. Students examine how these forms are shaped by historical influences such as pre-colonial traditions, the Negritude movement, and post-independence cultural policies.

The 'witchcraze' of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to the executions of tens of thousands of people, a large majority of them women, and threw communities across Europe into turmoil.