“Beyond Borders”  is one example of a cultural studies class.  The class looks at images and ideas of globalization as represented by films, literature, advertising, and other texts. We aim to increase your ability to think critically about the cultural, social, economic, and political repercussions of the so-called “flat world” we have come to inhabit. Some of the questions we ask include “Is globalization a new phenomenon?” “What effects does globalization have on different regions of the world?” and “How do we interrogate global developments that lie beyond individual control?”

The course in Critical Thinking takes you back to the very roots of your mental being and asks you to “think” about “what is thinking?” We will examine both the critical and creative elements that contribute to “good thought” and the result of the course should be a greater consciousness about just what it is you do when you “think” that you are “thinking well.”  You will also be asked to apply this new found awareness of your critical attitude to analyzing philosophical, scientific and aesthetic works.

Traditionally, "history of rhetoric" courses are taught as a survey of the rhetorical canon, beginning with the Sophists and Plato and progressing chronologically to our present era (a period often portrayed as a time of great enlightenment). Instead of stomping through the rhetorical canon, we will examine how contemporary scholars in composition and literature have engaged key works of this canon, or more precisely, we will examine how these scholars have felt compelled to engage these works.

The Philosophy of Evolution is a team taught course by professors from the Environmental Sciences and the Liberal Studies. The goal of the course is to expose students to the diverse tools, methods and ideologies by which all science in general, and evolutionary theory in particular, can be understood. We debate about the nature of evolutionary theory, as illustrated by application to the understanding of diversity in the animal kingdom, as a case study in understanding what kinds of explanation science and evolutionary theory can produce. Our orientation is systematically pluralistic, including a dual focus on biological accounts of the origin of species and on philosophical analyses of the nature of explanation in biological sciences.

The Philosophy of Mind is a team taught course by a scientist and a philosopher where that studies the nature of mind from the scientific, spiritual and experiential perspectives. We consider four major topics in this examination, the mind-body problem, the nature of intelligence, mental causation and consciousness. Our readings reflect the full spectrum of material dealing with the question of “What is a Mind?” We look at a variety of questions from contemporary science, philosophy and religion as well as the tradition and attempt to work out which approaches are most satisfactory to us as human beings with multidimensional ways of knowing our world:

1. Mind-Body Problem – Are we a brain or a mind? Do we have a soul and is it immortal? How can I be certain that other people exist?
2. Intelligence – Can machines think? Can we? Are dolphins intelligent?
3. Mental Causation – Does our free will control our body or does our body control us? Can logic and reason be reduced to chemical reactions?
4. Consciousness – Are animals sentient? Are Martians sentient? What is the mind of God like?

The course provides a survey of Aleut, Yup’ik and Inupiat Eskimo, Athabascan, and Southeast Alaskan peoples and cultures. Studies cover prehistory, the entrance into Alaska by Europeans, and traditional adaptations including economic, social, and ideological components. Historic contact, culture change, contemporary position, and ongoing concerns are also examined.

Students explore world religions addressing how religious traditions influence political, economic, cultural, and social forces in the contemporary world.