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- Hot News & Cool Views – Online (Hybrid)
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Item Number: W25SOC140
Dates: 1/7/2025 - 3/11/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 10
Maximum Enrollment: 299
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Rick Vann
Hot News & Cool Views is an open discussion forum to explore and discuss breaking news from Oregon to “around the globe” each week. All differing views and opinions are not only welcome but essential to create the lively discussion in the group. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from politics to climate change, to technology, medicine, and more. An agenda with articles will be sent to you a couple of days prior to each class. Students are encouraged to send in topics and news articles to add to each week’s agenda and our discussion. Please join us for a sizzling hot journey around the world with our fast, fun, and sometimes controversial class! Better than a strong cup of coffee to get your week going!
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- Hot News & Cool Views – In-Person (Hybrid)
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Item Number: W25SOC140A
Dates: 1/7/2025 - 3/11/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 10
Maximum Enrollment: 32
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room D
Instructor: Rick Vann
Hot News & Cool Views is an open discussion forum to explore and discuss breaking news from Oregon to “around the globe” each week. All differing views and opinions are not only welcome but essential to create the lively discussion in the group. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from politics to climate change, to technology, medicine, and more. An agenda with articles will be sent to you a couple of days prior to each class. Students are encouraged to send in topics and news articles to add to each week’s agenda and our discussion. Please join us for a sizzling hot journey around the world with our fast, fun, and sometimes controversial class! Better than a strong cup of coffee to get your week going!
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- Lesbian Culture and Relationships, 1970–Present – Online (Hybrid)
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Item Number: W25SOC309
Dates: 1/14/2025 - 3/4/2025
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 8
Maximum Enrollment: 53
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: LauRose Felicity
This course brings to life lesbian community, culture, and relationships, from the 1970s lesbian feminist movement to the present. Particular emphasis will be on the impact of economic class and race on lesbians’ relationships and the preservation of their viewpoints from all sources. Topics will include the “first” achievements in the community to today. Some of these include women's and lesbians’ music festivals, dance and theater groups, music promotion companies, land communities, and Oregon writers’ groups and journals. We will also discuss the women in print movement, women’s health movement, and women in business and professions. Finally, we will learn about legal reforms for lesbian families. We will use writings, art, music, video, lecture, and drama from academic and popular sources. There may be guest lectures by lesbian authors, land community members, artists or musicians.
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- Lesbian Culture and Relationships, 1970–Present – In-Person (Hybrid)
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Item Number: W25SOC309A
Dates: 1/14/2025 - 3/4/2025
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 8
Maximum Enrollment: 53
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room D
Instructor: LauRose Felicity
This course brings to life lesbian community, culture, and relationships, from the 1970s lesbian feminist movement to the present. Particular emphasis will be on the impact of economic class and race on lesbians’ relationships and the preservation of their viewpoints from all sources. Topics will include the “first” achievements in the community to today. Some of these include women's and lesbians’ music festivals, dance and theater groups, music promotion companies, land communities, and Oregon writers’ groups and journals. We will also discuss the women in print movement, women’s health movement, and women in business and professions. Finally, we will learn about legal reforms for lesbian families. We will use writings, art, music, video, lecture, and drama from academic and popular sources. There may be guest lectures by lesbian authors, land community members, artists or musicians.
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- Mexico, Anglo-America, and the Places In-Between – In-Person
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Item Number: W25SOC307A
Dates: 2/6/2025 - 2/27/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Days: Th
Sessions: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 53
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room D
Instructor: William Hering
In 1845, the northern boundary of Mexico lay just a dozen miles from today’s SOU campus. In the Mexican-American War, the United States conquered roughly half of Mexico, moving the border more than 600 miles to the south. Ever since then, both countries have lived with a muddled memory of this experience. The border has moved over people, and people have moved across the border. In fact, the two countries’ populations, economies, and political histories are so closely interrelated that we may meaningfully ask, “Where does one country end and the other begin?” This course is a lecture series (with extended time for discussion) presented by SOU faculty who have explored this historical and cultural middle ground from a wide range of academic perspectives. It brings together Chicano literature, Spanish literature, history, and anthropology professors to examine the complex relationships between the U.S. and Mexico and among the people and places that belong to both worlds.
NOTE: The faculty presenters are: Alma Rosa Álvarez, “The History and Politics of Chicano Identity”; Enrique Chacón, “Ambiguous Border: The Representations of the U.S.-Mexico in Film”; Sean McEnroe, “The Imagined Communities of the Mexican-American War”; Mark Axel Tveskov, “The Archaeology of the Battle of Buena, 1847: La Angostura and the Construction of Manifest Destiny.”
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- On the Road: How Buddhism Came to China – Online
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Item Number: W25SOC311
Dates: 1/9/2025 - 3/13/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Days: Th
Sessions: 10
Maximum Enrollment: 76
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Ean Roby
One of the most remarkable events in ancient Chinese history is the way in which Buddhism, an early Indian spiritual tradition, made its way to China in 1st century CE. By all rights, Buddhism ought not to have done well in China, a culture distinctly different in language and temperament from India. For instance, Buddhism encouraged celibate monasticism, quite the opposite of the Chinese emphasis on family and filial piety. Despite these sorts of problems, Buddhism did not just survive in ancient China, it flourished. By the 9th century, Buddhism was a major force in Chinese religion, culture, and politics. This lecture and discussion course on Zoom will examine how and why this remarkably effective transplant of Buddhist thought and practice into Chinese society occurred and why Chinese society was able to embrace Buddhism as dramatically as it did. Students need have no background in the subject. Detailed lecture notes will be furnished.
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- The 47th President and 119th Congress – In-Person
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Item Number: W25SOC305A
Dates: 1/9/2025 - 3/13/2025
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Days: Th
Sessions: 10
Maximum Enrollment: 35
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room D
Instructor: David Runkel
The 47th president will be inaugurated on January 20, and two weeks earlier the 119th Congress will have been sworn in. The country could have a president and Congress of one political party, a president and a Congress of different parties, or a Congress with divided party majorities in the House and Senate. We will have lots to talk about, beginning with the results of the November election, the new president’s formation of a government leadership team, and the makeup and leaders of the House and Senate. Articles I and II of the Constitution will be reviewed, along with how those provisions have evolved over the past two centuries. Current issues will also be discussed. Students should have opinions to be shared and a respect for the views of others.
NOTE: There are two sections of this course offered: one is at the Campbell Center in Ashland; the other is at the Higher Education Center in Medford.
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- The 47th President and 119th Congress – In-Person
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The 47th president will be inaugurated on January 20, and two weeks earlier the 119th Congress will have been sworn in. The country could have a president and Congress of one political party, a president and a Congress of different parties, or a Congress with divided party majorities in the House and Senate. We will have lots to talk about, beginning with the results of the November election, the new president’s formation of a government leadership team, and the makeup and leaders of the House and Senate. Articles I and II of the Constitution will be reviewed, along with how those provisions have evolved over the past two centuries. Current issues will also be discussed. Students should have opinions to be shared and a respect for the views of others.
NOTE: There are two sections of this course offered: one is at the Campbell Center in Ashland; the other is at the Higher Education Center in Medford.
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- The Evolutionary Psychology of Morality – In-Person
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Item Number: W25SOC321A
Dates: 1/7/2025 - 2/18/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 7
Maximum Enrollment: 32
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room A
Instructor: Dave Ferguson
Historically, morality has been studied as if it were a human invention. This has been the approach of philosophical thinking and writing in the field of ethics for over 2,000 years. Recently, however, biologists have been studying morality as an adaptation, attempting to discover how morality functions and how it evolved. We’ll examine five types of moral adaptation, all of which share a commonality: They enhance survivorship and reproductive success. Genetically based traits that enhance survivorship and reproduction will pass on copies of genes that produce those traits to their offspring. Over time, both the traits and the genes producing them will increase. Seven sessions cover 1) evolution and misconceptions, 2) genes and behavior, 3) Jonathan Haidt’s six dimensions of morality, 4) kin selection and caring, 5) reciprocal altruism and fairness, 6) groups and sanctity, and 7) hierarchy and liberty. Methods include readings, videos, lectures, and group discussions.
NOTE: “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt is the optional text for this course.
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- Wines of the New World: Americas, Oceania, Africa – Online
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Item Number: W25SOC310
Dates: 1/10/2025 - 1/24/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Days: F
Sessions: 3
Maximum Enrollment: 299
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Thomas Eckert
In Wines of the New World, you will discover the major wine regions of the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as the grape varieties that made them famous. You’ll discover wines country by country over the course of three one-hour lectures. Tasting experiences will be shared with all of you, and your experiences will be welcomed as well. A list of recommended wines from the regions being discussed will be provided by the instructor. All wines discussed will be available locally or through Wine.com. No reading, writing, or purchasing of specific wines is required, just curiosity. Join us as we venture into the fascinating world of wine. Please be aware: This is a broad course curriculum and not focused on the wines of the Rogue Valley. Unfortunately, due to the nature of an online class, group wine tastings are not part of the lecture series. Previous participation in Wines of the Old World is not required.
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