Course Descriptions- Fall 2018

WRC 1010.101 INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS FOR WRC

Gen Ed. Attribute: Quantitative Literacy
Instructor: Sarah Greenwald
M: 4:00pm-4:50pm & TR 3:30pm-4:45pm

Prerequisite: passing the math placement test or MAT 0010.

You’ll receive full general education quantitative literacy credit while developing a liberal arts appreciation of mathematics. While much of the class is similar to MAT 1010, it differs via an interdisciplinary and thematically linked format and a focus on local to global connections as you develop creative inquiry skills, research techniques, and communication skills. You’ll also develop an appreciation of what mathematics is, what it has to offer, why it is useful, how it contributes to an understanding of truth and consequences, and the diverse ways that people can be successful and impact mathematics (including you!), as we study:

Geometry of our Earth and Universe: How we view the world around us and what it actually looks like.
Personal Finance: Interest formulas as they apply to the real world and decisions we make about our own lives - credit cards, student loans, savings accounts, car and house purchases, taxes, retirement.
Consumer Statistics: To recognize misrepresentations of studies and statistical data in the real world by applying statistical techniques and understanding the role of probability.
What is Mathematics? To reflect more broadly about the course themes as we tie the segments together. You’ll become a mathematician with a topic you are interested in as your field of study. You will communicate your expertise in a research session that is modeled after poster presentations at science fairs and research day at Appalachian.

From our text: “When our own future is at stake, most of us want to use every effective approach we can find. The mathematical mode of thought is not the only way to approach decisions, but the reasoned strategies that mathematics illustrates are powerful tools that give us surprising strength for analyzing and conquering life’s issues.”

WRC 1103.102 INVESTIGATIONS LOCAL: FOOD, COMMUNITY, AND PLACE

Gen Ed. Attribute: Serves as First Year Seminar and ENG/RC 1000 for Watauga College students.
Instructor: Julia Kark Callander
Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm & TR 11:00am-1:45pm

By looking carefully at how and what we eat, we can gain insight into our place in the world. In this seminar we will consider a variety of food-related questions, such as: how do certain foods come to be identified with particular regions or groups of people? Why do people care about whether food is “authentic” or not? How does a growing interest in “foodieism” affect social and economic inequality? How do people use food to negotiate, confirm, and/or appropriate cultural identity? Our inquiry will span a wide variety of materials, from poetry and TV, to 19th-century cookbooks and family recipes, to local events, politics, and public policy. Our immediate focus will be on food in western North Carolina, but—as we’ll discover firsthand—even the most local of food experiences involves us in complex historical, cultural, and ecological networks. As with other Watauga classes, your work in this seminar will require active participation, critical thinking, and an openness to having your preconceptions challenged by new people and ideas. Over the course of the term you’ll complete a number of traditional writing assignments that build on each other, and you’ll also do creative presentations, archival research, community service learning, and cooking.

WRC 1103.103 INVESTIGATIONS LOCAL: DEMOCRACY: AN OWNER'S MANUAL

Gen Ed. Attribute: Serves as First Year Seminar (including Honors) and ENG/RC 1000 for Watauga College students.
Instructor: Joseph Gonzalez
Time: TR 11:00am-1:45pm & TR 2:00-3:15pm

Democracy is under attack. Both in the United States and Western Europe, substantial numbers of citizens express disillusion with or contempt for democratic governance. Perhaps most troubling of all, young people (by some measures) express the greatest degree of indifference, refusing to participate in important democratic and civic rituals, such as voting. This semester we will consider how we came to this point--and what we can do about it. In the best traditions of Watauga, we will explore the foundations upon which our republic was created, some of the crises it has endured, and its current state. Just as important, we will investigate democratic institutions locally and nationally, critically evaluating the U.S. Constitution and local organizations, such as schools, newspapers, and service clubs, that contribute to our civic life. Students will emerge from the course with an enhanced sense of how they can both participate in and care for the institutions that make our republic function.

WRC 1103.104 INVESTIGATIONS LOCAL: METAMORPHOSES IN LIFE: LOVE AND DEATH

Gen Ed. Attribute: Serves as First Year Seminar (including Honors) and ENG/RC 1000 for Watauga College students.
Instructor: Michael Dale
Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm & TR 11:00am-1:45pm

Love and death are oftentimes experienced as seismic upheavals in our lives; we are changed in puzzling, perhaps even mysterious ways by these two forces, sometimes delightfully and sometimes terrifyingly or painfully. In love, suddenly someone or something that perhaps we did not even know existed comes into our life and now is seen and felt as a presence we cannot imagine living without. In death, as the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins puts it, "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day." How should we see and understand the experiences and transformations wrought by love and death? The question is especially important in a society that frequently trivializes love, and at times and in some circumstances, makes death something to either be avoided, not spoken of, or a spectacle of entertainment.

WRC 1103.105 INVESTIGATIONS LOCAL: COLLEGE: WHAT IS IT AND WHY?

Gen Ed. Attribute: Serves as First Year Seminar (including Honors) and ENG/RC 1000 for Watauga College students.
Instructor: Clark Maddux
Time: TR 11:00am-1:45pm & TR 2:00-3:15pm

What is the purpose of college? How is a college related to a university, and how do colleges and universities emerge historically? How can literature of college life inform our own experiences as students and teachers? What, exactly, is a residential college and how is it different from other collegiate institutions? How is Watauga Residential College like or unlike Black Mountain College and other experiments in higher education? This Investigations Local class will tackle these and other questions. We will read James Axtell's Wisdom's Workshop: The Rise of the Modern University , Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University and several novels and poems, as well as shorter non-fiction works, related to modern universities. Among the novels we will read are: John Williams Stoner, Zadie Smith's On Beauty, and Elif Batuman's The Idiot. Students who are dual enrolled in the Honors College and Watauga will either need to take this investigations class or that of Michael Dale.

WRC 1103.106 INVESTIGATIONS LOCAL: STORIES CAN SAVE US

Gen Ed. Attribute: Serves as First Year Seminar and ENG/RC 1000
Instructor: Joseph Bathanti
Time: TR 11:00am-1:45pm; TR 2:00-3:15pm

“Words are all we have,” Samuel Beckett reminds us. All of us bear stories and they all matter and I would hazard that sharing stories comes as naturally to humans of every stripe as breathing. Stories make us jointly human. They kindle intimacy. Stories can save us even when we don’t know we need saving – by returning us to who we are essentially, by highlighting what matters most to us, by taking us back home, wherever that home might reside – an abstract in all likelihood. Tim O’Brien writes, in his short story, “Spin,” from The Things They Carried: “Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story." This course will tackle story from a generous vantage. While the bulk of the reading will be short stories, some classic, some obscure, we’ll also read other kinds of stories: poems, memoirs, essays, interviews and even a play or two. And, of course, you will write some stories too.

WRC 2001.101 28607: DAYS IN THE LIFE

Gen Ed Attribute: Sophomore Writing, Fills ENG/RC 2001 requirements
Instructor: Audrey Fessler
Time: TR 3:30pm-4:45pm

Writing is about making choices. We will read texts from a variety of academic disciplines, including analyses of disciplinary writing per se, in order to identify other writers’ rhetorical choices and discipline-specific writing strategies and conventions. Several writing projects, some of which will entail independent research, will provide students opportunities to make effective choices in their own writing for specific purposes and academic communities, and in various media. Learning to assess different writing situations and make effective context-specific rhetorical choices should prepare students to meet all kinds of writing challenges in the future, whether it be for another college course, on the job, or for civic or personal reasons.

WRC 2001.102 28607: DAYS IN THE LIFE

Gen Ed Attribute: Sophomore Writing, Fills ENG/RC 2001 requirements
Instructor: TBD
Time: MWF 2:00pm-2:50pm

WRC 2201.101 HEARING VOICES: SCIENCE AND NATURE IN LITERATURE

Gen Ed Attribute: Integrative Learning Experience Theme; Literary Studies Designation
Instructor: Michael Dale
Time: TR 9:30am-10:45am

"Living in relationships with the natural world (land, oceans, and the larger universe of galaxies and star systems) and reaching for an understanding of nature provides fertile ground for novelists, short-story writers, and writers of narrative non-fiction. In this seminar we will explore and examine the intellectual and emotional landscape of fictional and non-fiction beings as they are immersed in and navigate the world of science and nature. What happens when the sciences and humanities meet? Our narrative journey will also include selections of poetry."

WRC 2202.101 WHAT IF? ASKING HISTORICAL QUESTIONS: "WAIT, WHAT HAPPENED?!" EXPLORING EARLY MODERN ENGLAND THROUGH NARRATIVE HISTORY AND HISTORICAL FICTION

Gen Ed Attribute: Integrated Learning Experience theme; Historical Studies designation
Instructor: Marjon Ames
Time: MWF 11:00am-11:50am

How do we know what we think we know? What informs our understanding of the past? This course examines both historical nonfiction and fictionalized accounts of Tudor-Stuart England to help us shape the ways we think about this seminal period in history. Students read a variety of historical works in order to form a foundation of techniques and theories on which to build. Students read fiction in conjunction with nonfiction, and consider what makes for successful storytelling and why it has fascinated people throughout history. Students examine different storytelling techniques employed, question the quality of the portrayal of the historical backdrop, and observe how different approaches in narrative can result in different stories. The course's main foci are the stories told by the students themselves. By the end of the semester, each student is expected to produce a substantial piece of historical fiction. The class is structured around a series of workshops in which students lead the discussions and critique each other's work.

WRC 2202.102 WHAT IF? ASKING HISTORICAL QUESTIONS: "WAIT, WHAT HAPPENED?!" EXPLORING EARLY MODERN ENGLAND THROUGH NARRATIVE HISTORY AND HISTORICAL FICTION

Gen Ed Attribute: Integrated Learning Experience theme; Historical Studies designation
Instructor: Marjon Ames
Time: TR 11:00am-12:15pm

WRC 2204.101 CONTEMPLATIVE LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

Gen Ed Attribute: Liberal Studies Experience
Instructor: Elaine Gray
Time: TR 12:30pm-1:45pm

This course explores contemplative theory, practice, and leadership. Learners will engage in the experience of basic mindfulness training and meditation practices. Using phenomenological research methods and introspection students will reflect on methods of personal transformation intended to support well-being, personal growth, stress reduction, meaning making, insight, and leadership skills. Selected course readings and student research will address the philosophies, practices, cultural influences, critical theory, and leadership attributes of historical and contemporary contemplative leaders. The course culminates in the student's development of a personal leadership philosophy based in contemplative ideals or practices.

WRC 2400.101 MASTERPIECES IN LATIN AMERICAN ART

Gen Ed. Attribute: Aesthetic-Creat Exp of Culture; Fine Arts; ILE-Las Americas
Instructor: Josie Bortz
Time: MWF 10:00am-10:50am

In this multi-sensory course, students explore academic, conceptual, and experiential expressions of distinct cultures in Latin America. Students build a foundation of knowledge upon basic geography and (his)tories then deepening multi-cultural understanding through immersion in oral stories, cuisine, religion, music, dance, film, and cultural arts. Students discover how particular masterpieces "work" intellectually, functionally, and aesthetically within the belief system of the individual or community that created them. Likewise, student gain insight about how art expresses social, political, and cultural convictions. Analysis of accomplished artists and representative masterpieces of Latin America will provide insight into diverse cultures, spirituality, people, their successes and their struggles. Participants should be prepared to dance, cook, taste, paint, and play; therefore, dress appropriately and bring your curiosity.

WRC 2403.101 THE PRACTICE OF POETRY: WHERE YOUR LIFE STILL MATTERS

Instructor: Joseph Bathanti
Time: TR 3:30pm-4:45pm

"A creative-writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters," claims the great Northwest poet, Richard Hugo. This course introduces the basics of poetry writing. It tackles poetry through a "writerly eye" (reading like a writer) and pays careful attention to the kinds of craft (a protean word we'll use regularly and seek to define contextually) choices that influence the emotional impact and meaning of a given poem. An extremely important component of the course will be careful readings and analyses of poems from a number of realms and "schools." Approximately half the class time will be spent workshopping student-generated poems. We'll also engage in plenty of in-class writing assignments and hopefully do a good bit of writing out of the classroom. Our ultimate aim, by the end of the semester, is to have an understanding of, and instinct for, various elements and strategies – all revolving around craft choices – employed by writers in building/composing poems, elements and strategies you can then employ in your own poetry. Regardless of whether you consider yourself primarily a poet, fiction writer, or creative nonfiction writer, this course is the right place for you.

WRC 2530.101 SELECTED TOPICS- LIVING AND LEARNING: A ROAD MAP TO SUCCESS

Instructor: Holly Ambler
Time: MW 2:00pm-3:15pm

This course will provide you an opportunity to take a thoughtful approach to your academic path both in and out of the classroom. We will explore personal development, engagement in the community and responsible citizenship through the lense of an academic course of study. We will look at your strengths and skills combined with your interests to examine or confirm your choice of academic major and career path. As stated in Roadmap (one text we will use in this course) “Self-Construction never stops. There’s no finish line. Life is an open-ended pursuit that constantly leads us to new truths, and those truths can only come from within ourselves.” This book along with other books and readings will be a resource for this semester as we explore what it means to be successful.

WRC 3203.101 WHY ART? RESPONDING TO THE WORLD AROUND US-- EmBODYment

Gen Ed Attribute: Integrative Learning Experience Theme; Fine Arts Designation
Instructor: TBD
Time: T 5:00-7:30pm

American culture remains entrenched in dismissing the body as our oldest, deepest, most essential way of knowing. To teach and learn through embodiment necessitates innovation and deviation in today's classroom environment. One goal in this course is to provide structured opportunities for students to explore and teach each other how to meet the world with the whole Self present. Innovation during this course requires inhabitation of your body. Bodyworkers and Somatic practitioners recognize one anecdote to accumulating stress in the body IS the body. This wisdom is exemplified in many traditional cultures. We find examples of expressive dance in religious ritual such as those of Indigenous tribes, embodiment of power in Capoeira and the dances of African Slave descendants, ecstatic gestures of prayer as in Sufi Whirling Dervishes or the Asanas in Yoga. Thus, embodiment can imply expressions of heritage. Other topics of study could include conceptualizations of foods and the symbolism of ingested substances. The Body itself- as a canvas, a vehicle of transformation, and as a wellspring of creativity or holism- becomes a mode of inquiry. This opens up possibilities of inquiries into aesthetic scarification & tattoos, tai chi, coming of age rituals, and more. In-class, students should be prepared for Socratic dialogue, multi-sensory learning, intentional use of touch, and kinesthetic exercises. Therefore, dress in comfortable attire to play or paint or perspire!

WRC 3401.101 MYTH AND MEANING; STORYTELLING, TELLING STORIES

Gen Ed Attribute: Hist & Soc Theme-Culture in Social Practice and Liberal Studies Experience, Literary Studies Designation
Instructor: Audrey Fessler
Time: MW 3:30pm-4:45pm

"This class will explore how truth and meaning are created through telling stories. The literature we will read and discuss will explore how authors and characters use stories to create personal truth and apply meaning to the world around them. These stories will help students discuss ideas of why humans tell stories, what stories mean in our own culture, and how we can use our own stories to be heard. The class will also look at how stories are used to construct identity and how stories are used to manipulate how people, places, and ideas are perceived. We will discuss the circulation of stories and how stories can be used to create both myth and meaning."

IDS 3530.101 ECOTHERAPY: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

Instructor: Patience Perry
Time: F 9-11:30

This course offers an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of Ecotherapy and other nature-based Allied Therapies to include Wilderness Therapy, Horticulture Therapy, and Animal-Assisted Therapy. Coursework, readings, assignments, and student inquiry-based projects explore philosophical origins, multi-cultural perspectives, and applications for diverse populations, locations, and settings.

WRC 4001.101 SEMINAR IN EXPERIENTIAL INTEGRATIVE LEARNING

Instructor: Clark Maddux
Time: MWF 9:00-9:50am

This is the culminating course for the Watauga minor. In this class, we'll compare the history and organization of Watauga Residential College with other residential colleges. Students will draft and revise a written reflection on their own experience in WRC; draft and revise a seminar paper on the history of WRC; compose an annotated bibliography related to residential colleges; develop an original policy or procedure designed to improve the work of the College and present research, findings, and recommendations to the faculty of the College. Students will also compile a final portfolio containing evidence of their work in the minor during this class and submit it on Aportfolio.