Summer Session 2021 Courses

4 Credit Courses

Note: All are 4-credit courses, unless otherwise noted. Courses that fulfill Goucher Commons Requirements are noted in parentheses with “GCR” and the requirement it fulfills.

ART 137: Finding One's Way with Clay (4 credits) (GCR Arts)
The title of this course comes from a text by the clay artist Paulus Berensohn. We begin by focusing on fundamental clay-forming techniques with an emphasis on sculptural uses of clay, and basic studio practice. Studio work can include the traditions of pinch, slab, coil, tile, wheel thrown work, press molding, as well as learning electric and sawdust firing. Cross-cultural study of clay's uses all through time, including functional ware, ritual objects, adornment, architectural use, and free form sculpture.

Format: In-person, July session, Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Allyn Massey

ART 259: Special Topics in Studio Art: Nature Speaks (4 credits) (GCR Arts area)
There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, not quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.
~ Linda Hogan, poet, and the Chickasaw Nation’s Writer in Residence

Consider the possibility of letting the woods talk to you, of letting the land speak its truth. And consider that you could spend time in nature listening. This studio course invites students at all skill levels to look more closely at the natural world as the first step in the process of making art. The class is designed for students with an interest in closely observing the natural environment through drawing, readings, and learning to think through multiple mediums, including simple three-dimensional work. Students are encouraged to work across disciplines, to explore how immersion in the forms and materials of nature can serve as a way to spend deep time appreciating silence and making art.

Format: In-person, June session, Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Allyn Massey

CPEA 211: To Walk With Nature: Environment and the Artist (4 credits) (GCR Environment & Sustainability, GCR Arts area)
This course will examine the multiple relationships that exist between art and environment. We will look at ways in which the natural environment has inspired artists and arts movements, and we will look at the Environmental Art Movement that uses art to advocate for environmental change. We will also explore ways in which specific environments (galleries, place-based installations, outdoor exhibitions, for example) have on the perception of art, we will examine environmental art movements, and study art exhibits that are related to specific environments. We will learn about artists who work in sculpture, music, dance, theater, photography and architecture to address environmental issues, and we will meet and talk with artists for whom the environment is an inspiration. Students will engage in making environmental art projects based on their individual interests and art backgrounds, and they will work on collaborative art projects in media that may be new to them. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester.

Format: HyFlex (synchronous online & in-person), July session, Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Michael Curry

CPEC 253: The Optimist’s Telescope: Futuring and Imagination (4 credits) (GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)

When addressing social problems from climate change to homelessness, racial disparities to the impact of COVID-19, our solutions are often limited by what we can’t imagine; we try to paint pictures of what could be using only the palette of what already-is. This class is a laboratory of imagination, looking at the strategies of imagination that introduce futuristic and sometimes seemingly-impossible ideas, practicing mapping, learning from, and rearranging existing information into the possible and the necessary. Utilizing speculative thinking and borrowing from artistic strategies, studying social science and creative text, students will choose examples of problems from real life to explore and venture past what’s considered “unthinkable,” mapping out possible solutions and new ways of seeing. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester.

Format: HyFlex (synchronous online & in-person), June session, Monday – Friday 1:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.
Instructor: Ailish Hopper

CPEC 258: This is Human; That is Nature: How Radically Rethinking the Human-Nature Relationship Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis (4 credits) (GCR Environment & Sustainability)
In 2008, two researchers set out to study Americans’ perception of their connectedness to the natural world. They asked respondents, “Do you consider yourself part of or separate from nature?” Overwhelmingly those surveyed responded, “Of course humans are part of nature.” A second question asked these same respondents how they defined nature. Again, an overwhelming majority responded with phrase likes “uninhabited” and “undisturbed by humans.” What does it mean-and what are the implications for the environment-that many of us see ourselves as part of a nature that we define by our absence? This CPE will explore the cultural assumptions and attitudes that lead to or interfere with our collective and personal behaviors that are environmentally sustainable. As part of this we will examine written and visual interventions that have significantly altered or shifted (for better or worse) our cultural assumptions about the natural world. This course gives students the opportunity to think more rigorously and imaginatively about environmental issues by integrating insights from the Humanities

“My interest is that there is a disconnect between the science and the size of the threat that people mention about nature, the planet and the climate, and the emotion that this triggers. We are supposed to be extremely frightened people, but despite that we appear to sleep pretty well. ” –Bruno Latour

Our goal in this course is to explore effective ways to disturb our sleep.

Format: In person, June session, Monday – Friday, 1:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.
Instructor: Mary Marchand

CPED 207: The Addicted Brain: America’s Drug Crisis (4 credits) (GCR Biological and Physical Science area)
The opioid crisis is one of the deadliest drug epidemics in U.S. history. “Opioids” include illegal recreational drugs (such as heroin), but also powerful pain relievers often prescribed for patients with chronic medical conditions. In this course, we will dive into the neurobiology of opioid drugs, the effects they have on the brain, and how this contributes to the development of an addiction. We will also examine the many intersecting factors (education, class, race, cultural background, genetic predisposition, psychological health, and others) that influence who becomes addicted to opioids, and what help they receive. Students will then conduct collaborative investigations of a drug of their choice in a specific local or national setting (for example, methamphetamine abuse in the rural Midwest, or Ritalin abuse by urban teens), working to understand the factors influencing the abuse of this drug from social and biological perspectives. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester.

Format: Synchronous Online, July session, Monday – Friday 12:00 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.
Instructor: Gillian Starkey

DMC 101 - DATA ANALYTICS (4 credits) (GCR DA-F)
Trillions of terabytes of data are generated and recorded daily by just using a smartphone, driving a car, or using a credit card. In this course, students examine how data is created, obtained, examined, and used to shape everyday life. Students will collect, represent, analyze, and interpret data from a variety of interests including social justice, environmental studies, social media, and business. Students perform statistical analysis and learn graphing techniques using data software such as R, Stata, and Microsoft Excel.

Format: Synchronous Online, June session, Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m. – 12:10 p.m.
Instructor: Joe Cutrone

PSY 105 – Introduction to Psychology (4 credits)
This course provides an overview of the contemporary discipline of psychology, integrated with experiential learning activities designed to develop scientific thinking and research skills. Topics include fundamental issues in psychology, brain and behavior, perception, learning and cognition, personality theories, psychological disorders, and humanistic, developmental, and social psychologies. Students will learn the philosophical and methodological foundations of psychology as a scientific study of mind, brain, behavior, and human experience.

Format: Asynchronous online, June session
Instructor: Jennifer McCabe

SP 120: Elements of Spanish II (4 credits)
Continued development of the four basic language skills-listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing-within the context of Hispanic cultures. Four contact hours. Prerequisite: SP 110 or SP 110V with a minimum grade of C- or placement exam.

Format and Time: Synchronous Online, with some asynchronous activities, June session, Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Maria Gomis-Quinto

SP 130: Intermediate Spanish (4 credits) (GCR FL – Platforms 1 & 2)
This course is designed to expand your knowledge of the Spanish language and explore the cultural diversity in the Spanish-speaking world through the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. This is the third and final course of the lower-division language sequence. Successful completion of this course fulfills Platforms 1 and 2 of the Foreign Language and Culture Requirement. Prerequisite: SP 120 or SP 120S or SP 120V, with a minimum grade of C- or placement exam.

Format: Synchronous Online, with some asynchronous activities, July session, Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Frances Ramos-Fontán

VMC/ARH 350: Practicum in Visual and Material Culture (2 credits)
A museum studies course in Visual and Material Culture focused on the practical and narrative aspects of exhibition design. Students will learn from both selected texts and in a hands-on, applied context, working to mount a cohesive exhibition in Silber Gallery. Students will learn the museum process of borrowing objects from private and institutional collections, the record-keeping and documentation of inventory; the handling of objects and their packing materials; strategies for narrative organization, and the proper methods of installation. Students will have the opportunity to brainstorm and propose programming to support the theme of the exhibition and its relevance to their extended community.

Format: In-Person, June session, Monday-Friday 11:20 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Alex Ebstein

WRT 285: Analyzing Linguistic Data (4 credits) (GCR DA-AC, WEC course)
This course has four main goals: to introduce students to some areas of linguistic study such as dialect variation, register analysis, and sociolinguistics; to explore some of the ways that linguists use data to learn more about language and how people use language; to examine how linguists, academics in general, and students themselves use written language; and to introduce students to the genre of scholarly linguistic writing (and academic writing more generally). Students will read scholarly and popular works in the field of linguistics; collect, analyze, present, and write about linguistic data; conduct group and individual research; and share their findings with the class. Students will learn to work with several corpora such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the Dictionary of American Regional English, and will also create and analyze data from their own choice of corpus. They will also analyze aspects of their own writing. The class will culminate with students developing their own research question, conducting their own research, and presenting it to the class as both an oral presentation and a paper written in the style of published linguistic research. This final paper will be a multi-draft paper, and we will conduct peer review and one-on-one conferences to help students revise their work.

Format: Synchronous Online, July session, Monday – Friday, 1:00 p.m. – 3:40 p.m.
Instructor: Susan Garrett