Spring 2023 Courses
Berlin: Poets and Dictators: Philosophy, Art, and Politics in Modern Germany
Credits: 4 (PHI 3770) Spring semester course with May travel in Germany for two weeks
Instructors: Jay Miller (professor of philosophy) & Brian Conlan (director of the library)
This course will be an immersive experience that will provide students with a rich understanding of the major cultural and intellectual developments of modern Germany. We will begin our sojourn with the art, politics, and philosophy of the nineteenth century and trace the growing tensions among these through the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Coupling in-depth analysis of key texts with on-site experience of the modern urban center of Berlin (with day trips to Weimar and Dessau), we will focus critical attention on the collision between artistic culture and political dictatorship that defines modern Germany.
Netherlands: Growing Resilience: Care Farming in the Netherlands
Credits: 4 (SWK 3250) Spring semester course with May travel in the Netherlands for two weeks
Instructors: Sarah Himmelheber (professor of social work) & Alisha Strater (garden manager)
Students will develop an understanding of the principles and practices of care farming, with special attention to the development of this modality as a treatment approach with multiple populations including older adults, people with SPMIs, people with ID/DD diagnoses, people coping with addiction, among others. During the campus-based portion of this course, students will also visit multiple facilities in the region that utilize interaction with plants and animals as therapeutic interventions. While in the Netherlands, students will explore urban centers and will spend time living and working at care farms in the countryside alongside Dutch citizens.
Indonesia & Singapore: Fields, Markets, and Kitchens: Gender and Food in Indonesia & Singapore
Credits: 4 (SOC 3XXX) Spring semester course with May travel in Indonesia & Singapore for three weeks
Instructors: Siti Kusujiarti (professor of sociology) & Matt Hoffman (instructor of religion)
This exploratory, innovative course sits at the intersection of two important aspects of daily life: gender and food. Join Siti Kusujiarti and Matt Hoffman as we explore society, culture, food systems and gender dynamics in Singapore and Indonesia. Our time in Singapore will center around the creation of and co-existence of communities and culture through food, religion, gender dynamics, and street food cultures. In Indonesia, we will explore the unique cultural and social environment of Yogyakarta, a city known for education, religious pluralism, and varied approaches to understanding gender. Yogya sits at an interesting crossroad defining and reimagining Javanese food connected to gender, religious, and agricultural identities. In addition to touring various sites in both countries, students will have the opportunity to build deep connections with locals through homestays and service-learning opportunities.
Other Previous Courses
Italy: In the Nature Studio: Ceramics in Italy (Spring 2022)
Credits: 4 (ART 3770) Spring semester course with May travel in Italy for two weeks
Instructors: Leah Leitson (professor of ceramics) & Julie Caro (professor of art history)
While in Italy, we will spend the first week living in the Medieval hill town of Certaldo and make daily site visits to Florence, Siena, Volterra and Faenza to look at examples of ceramics, painting, sculpture, and architecture and visit the studios of contemporary artisans and artists. We will bring those experiences to bear on our studio work and independent research realized during the second week of the trip at La Meridiana School of Ceramics located just outside of Certaldo. Founded in 1982 by renowned Italian ceramic artist Pietro Elia Maddalena and set in the characteristic landscape of Tuscany, La Meridiana’s outdoor Nature Studio will allow us full access to create within the natural light, colors, and atmospheric effects of the local Tuscan landscape. On studio days in Italy, we will eat lunch at La Meridiana and experience traditional Tuscan cuisine prepared by local chef and potter Lucia and plated on pottery created by Pietro and other artists in the La Meridiana community. Days spent at La Meridiana will allow us to connect with the other artists and members of this community through informal conversations and interviews.
In the clay studios at Warren Wilson College and at La Meridiana, students will learn or continue their study of ceramics through hand building and wheel throwing, glazing, and firing. In addition, students will learn and begin a journaling practice while on campus and continue that practice in Italy as we gather material to inspire our clay work. It is our hope that students will bring back their ideas to continue to make Italian inspired work at Warren Wilson the following year. Through studio work, readings, and independent research, students will learn to ask and answer the types of questions posed by artists and art historians as they endeavor to connect their sense of place to a new place and culture, to draw inspiration from it, and to develop their creative, intellectual, and intercultural awareness. Students will also learn some basic travel Italian.
France: Climate Crisis in Context (spring 2022)
Credits: 4 (ENS 3XXX) Spring semester course with May travel in France for two weeks
Instructors: Amy Knisley (professor of environmental policy & law) & Liesl Erb (professor of conservation biology)
In this course, we compare the framings of and responses to climate change in the United States and France, from grassroots movements to global policy. Focusing questions include: How have responses at different scales -- local, national, international -- played out in the two countries? How has geography, e.g. urban and rural, coastal and inland, shaped residents’ reactions? How does protest culture in the two countries compare? How has climate science been perceived and used in understanding and responding to climate change? Classroom study is complemented by connections with community organizers in Asheville and Paris, climate scientists in the US and France, and nongovernmental organizations at the front lines of climate migration.
BORNEO: Indigenous Land Use In Borneo: Food, Farming, and Forest (spring 2019)
Credits: 4 (ENS 3XX)-- Spring semester course with three weeks travel in May
Course Instructors: Mary Bulan and John Odell
This course introduces students to tropical ethnobiology and indigenous farming and land use in the rainforests of Borneo. Readings, field work, class discussions and student research projects will be used to explore issues of indigenous land rights and traditional natural resource management. During the travel component, students will travel to a highland village area in the state of Sarawak and experience the food, forests, farming and culture of the modern Kelabit tribe. Students will discuss environmental threats and social change with tribe members in the context of ecological and cultural survival. The class will complete a service project in collaboration with in-country hosts.
LATVIA & SWEDEN: Traditions of Civic Engagement in Intercultural Context (spring 2018)
Credits: 4 (SWK 377)-- Spring semester course with two weeks of travel in May-June
Instructors: Lucy Lawrence and Māra McLaughlin-Taylor
Through the distinct and multi‐disciplinary lens of civic engagement, students compare and contrast a myriad of interdependent social/environmental/political/economic/cultural issues in Latvia, a Baltic nation ruled by the Communist ideology of the Soviet Union for more than five decades, and the neighboring Scandinavian independent socialist democracy of Sweden. Students will examine the ways in which both Latvia and Sweden develop policies, programs, and practices that create a safety net to address current societal issues. Focus points of the course include intercultural comparisons of approaches to civic engagement that advance community self‐sufficiency while promoting active citizen participation. Students will have intercultural exchange and engagement through rigorous academic endeavor and transformational field study in both countries, including service-learning, building relationships with Latvian and Swedish students and professionals, exploring natural and historical landmarks on the Baltic coast, and experiencing traditions of food, art, music, and dance. This course fulfills General Education requirement AIM 5 Service Learning, General Education requirement AIM 15 Intercultural Perspectives, and PEG 2 of the Community Engagement Commitment.
TANZANIA: Intercultural Comparisons of Agricultural and Social Welfare Systems in Tanzania and Appalachia (winter 2018)
Credits: 4 (SWK 301)-- Fall semester course with travel in December/January
Course Instructors: Lucy Lawrence and Virginia Hamilton
Through the distinct and multi-disciplinary lenses of agriculture and social welfare, students compare and contrast a myriad of interdependent social/environmental/political/economic/cultural civic engagement issues in Tanzania, East Africa, and in the southern Appalachian region of the United States from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The course aims to provide students with an intercultural understanding of agriculture and social welfare in southern Tanzania, compared to practices and structures and policies in Appalachia. The course will trace the historical beginnings and necessities of the development of social welfare systems along with restrictions and conventions of agriculture and social welfare in both countries. Students will examine the ways in which both Tanzania and Appalachia develop policies, programs, and practices that create a safety net to address current societal issues. Focus points of the course include intercultural comparisons of approaches to agriculture and social welfare that advance community self-sufficiency while promoting active citizen participation. Additionally, this course provides students the opportunity for intercultural exchange and engagement through rigorous academic endeavor and field study in Tanzania, including service-learning. This course fulfills General Education requirement AIM 5 Service Learning and PEG 2 of the Community Engagement Commitment.
CUBA: Appalachia to Cuba - Intercultural Approaches to Social Welfare & Education (winter 2017)
Credits: 4 (SWK 377)-- Fall semester course with two weeks of travel in January
Course Instructors: Lucy Lawrence and Anna Welton
Through the distinct and interconnected lenses of social welfare and education, Warren Wilson students will come together to compare and contrast myriad and interdependent social, environmental, political, economic, and cultural issues in Appalachia and Cuba, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The course aims to provide students with an intercultural understanding of poverty and approaches to addressing poverty through social welfare and education. The course will trace the historical beginnings and necessities of the development of the social welfare systems and innovative education systems in the contexts of Cuba and Appalachia. This course examines the ways in which both the U. S. (Appalachian region specifically) and Cuba develop policies, programs, and practices that create a safety net to address current societal issues. Focus points of the course include intercultural comparisons of social welfare service delivery and educational structures and practices that advance community self-sufficiency while promoting active citizen participation. Additionally, this course provides students the opportunity for intercultural exchange and engagement through rigorous academic endeavor and field study in Cuba.
See the Appalachia to Cuba program in the news!