Required Courses • Electives • Online Electives

Required Courses

Early World History: Environment, Hierarchy, and Belief from Our Origins to the Columbian Exchange
This course examines the evolution of human societies, from our divergence from (and lingering behavioral connections to) our primate ancestors in the pre-historical period to the consequences of the Columbian conquest and exchange in the years following 1492. The working theory of the course is that geography— as scholars Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature) have argued—must sit at the center of a broad analysis of history and society. Hence, we examine human adaptation to and transformation of various ecological niches. Special attention is given to the development of the major world religions, with an intensive focus on the intertwined foundations of the three major monotheistic faiths. The competition between Islamic and Christian polities—and the intriguing choices made in medieval China—set the stage for rapid microbial, economic, religious, political, and environmental changes set loose by European conquest of the Americas and the Indian Ocean trading routes. Critical reasoning, close textual analysis, and persuasive, evidence-based essays are the integral skills of the course, with informed discussion and research playing important roles as well. This course is taken by most freshmen and any other students entering after the freshman year who might need such work.

Modern Europe and the World
A survey of modern European history that begins with a study of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and intellectual revolutions that helped to mold the modern world. Students then examine how the French Revolution of 1789 and the Industrial Revolution transformed European society and politics in the 19th century, the causes of European imperialism and its effect on non-Western cultures, and the events leading to World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917. The course also covers the rise of totalitarianism and the failure of democracy, the social and political pressures leading to World War II, the Cold War and its aftermath, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and problems facing contemporary Europe. Particular attention will be given to 19th and 20th century developments in India and China, including the effect of European imperialism, the rise of anti-colonial movements, and the problems of nation-building following independence. Reading will include a textbook survey, a collection of primary sources, and assorted documents and articles. This course is taken by most sophomores and any other students entering after the sophomore year who might need such work.

United States History
While chronological, this course focuses on several themes that have reverberated throughout the American experience. The central theme is the epochal tug-of-war between Jefferson’s credo of equality and its paradoxical partners: conquest, slavery, and racism amidst a diversity of historic proportions; gender discrimination; and the class inequalities generated within a dynamic economy. Accordingly, we will pay significant attention to the history of movements that challenge the dominant meaning of equality, such as labor unions, suffragists, and the multitude of civil rights movements across time. The nation’s history is also traced through the tensions between a deep-rooted fear of centralized power and the drive for an efficient and powerful federal government. Lastly, significant time is given to U.S. involvement in global affairs, with a particular stress on presidential decision-making, and its impact both abroad and at home. While classic political issues are at the core of the course, there are times—such as the era between Reconstruction and World War I—when the magnitude of cultural and economic changes are at the heart of an era. We will use a very wide range of primary and college-level secondary sources. This course is taken by most juniors and any other students entering after the junior year who might need such work.

Electives

Environmental Politics (honors level; fall semester)
This course is taught in conjunction with the Environmental Science class offered through the science department. We will focus on educating students to become discerning and actively engaged citizens regarding a range of environmental dilemmas. By examining the foundational science of energy, water, air, and soil processes, students will acquire key building blocks from which to explore various environmental policies. While traditional methods, such as labs, essays, and discussions will be essential to the learning process, the course will include off-campus site visits, guest lectures, and individual investigations. Recommended co-enrollment: Environmental Science (all year); Revolution in the Middle East (spring semester).

Transitional Justice (honors level; fall semester)
How can a country, scarred by genocide, ever recover and regain a sense of normalcy? How can two rival factions, guilty of committing horrible atrocities against the other, ever learn to live together in peace again? How can victims of torture rebuild their internal worlds while their external circumstances remain equally fractured? This course explores the field of transitional justice, through which countries and the international community endeavor to move from chaos to stability, to punish the guilty, to document historical truth, and to help victims heal. Extensive attention is paid to the story of South Africa; other landing spots include the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, Argentina's stolen children, Bosnia, and truth commissions ongoing today. People interested in law, history, international relations, human rights, and current events may be interested in this class.

Road to the White House: Knight Scholar Seminar (honors level; fall semester)
In the fall Knight Seminar, students will explore the history and politics of presidential campaigns and learn how citizens can make a difference in elections. They will become involved in the political process outside of the classroom in order to learn how a president is elected. The class will attempt to predict the outcome of the Electoral College, educate the community about election issues, and investigate who benefits and suffers from the results of the 2012 Presidential Election. This course is open to freshman Knight Scholars, sophomores by instructor permission, and all juniors and seniors.

Public Health (fall semester)
This course will focus on human health, normal biological functions, protective mechanisms, and biological alterations by disease, as well as biological interventions on individuals and populations. We will study the mechanism for toxic exposure assessment and attempt to understand the actions of environmental factors on human biochemistry. Students will analyze the impact of social, political, cultural and scientific developments on people, learning to assess such impacts through a hands-on approach, and will learn about the overlapping role of policy and science in shaping the environment and health of diverse populations throughout the world and in the Portland region. This is a seminar-style course designed to engage students in real-world health issues on a local and global scale. The course has an experiential and service-learning focus, and students will complete a Health Impact Assessment for a real client. The course is open to juniors and seniors and may be taken for either science or history credit.

History of Modern China (honors level; spring semester)
China recently passed Japan to become the world's second-biggest economy. Most analysts anticipate that it will surpass the United States as well, perhaps as soon as 2020. Why has China become such a force? And what does this mean for the United States? This course examines China from multiple angles, including the tensions between tradition and modernism, freedom and authoritarianism, and development and sustainability, while also placing China within an international context. The course stresses media literacy, examining how American and Chinese newspapers cover the news, as well as data analysis. It will also overlap with the Global Education trip to China, and students are encouraged, though certainly not required, to sign up for both.

Revolution in the Middle East (honors level; spring semester)
Students will engage the seismic shifts in the recent history of the “greater Middle East," from Morocco to Pakistan. The course begins with a brief history of the rise, development, and expansion of Islam, the later ascendancy of Western imperialism in the region, and the emergence of both recently overthrown and (as of today) surviving regimes and philosophies. Serious attention will be given to the variations between and within different states and regions, as students grapple with essential questions: Why do uprisings begin, succeed, or fail, and what will be the nature of the new regimes? Student research and presentations will be a driving force in the class, which will adapt to the events as they are unfolding. This course is recommended, but not required, for students enrolled in Environmental Science and/or Politics.

Economics (honors level; spring semester)
How can we create and measure economic growth? What is the value of a dollar? What is the value of an ocean? What does economic justice look like? Do taxes inhibit or facilitate prosperity? Why did the housing market collapse in 2007, and what is the best way to respond to this problem? This course introduces students to the economic tools and reasoning required to address these and many other sophisticated contemporary questions, and to inform students' choices as consumers, workers, and citizens. Both national and international contexts will be engaged, and students will often use readings from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist to examine economic events and debates.

U.S. Foreign Policy in a Global Era: Knight Scholar Seminar (honors level; spring semester)
The spring Knight Seminar will focus on U.S. foreign policy and how it should be employed abroad. Students will first gain an appreciation of issues including human rights, the use of force, foreign aid, and globalization. With an understanding of important foreign policy issues, students will apply their knowledge in areas of special interest, like China, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, and the European Union. Combining intense area study with relevant foreign policy issues, students will make policy recommendations in a public forum as a culminating experience.

Journalism 101: CatlinSpeak Staff
In this course, you will learn about the fundamental elements of online and print journalism while creating the award-winning CatlinSpeak newspaper. The course will have two formal meetings each week and two studio times dedicated to discussion of articles, editing and layout. All staff members will be asked to write some articles, but there are also other jobs, including layout, photography, and videography. Come challenge yourself and join the fun!

Independent Study: Feminist Studies
This course is an introduction to women’s, gender, and feminist studies for highly motivated seniors, meeting once a week in a seminar format. Students read books, plays, poetry, and feminist theory from around the world and explore the complex relationship between feminism and society.

Online Electives

All online courses are offered through the Global Online Academy, an international consortium of schools of which Catlin Gabel is a founding member. Click here to learn more about the Global Online Academy.

Introduction to Bioethics (Global Online Academy; fall semester)
Ethics is the study of what one should do as an individual and as a member of society. In this course, students will evaluate ethical issues related to medicine and the life sciences. The National Institute of Health's Exploring Bioethics curriculum will be used as a foundation for this course. During the semester, students will explore real-life ethical issues, including vaccination policies, organ transplantation, genetic testing, human experimentation, and animal research. Through reading, writing, and discussion, students will be introduced to basic concepts and skills in the field of bioethics, will deepen their understanding of biological concepts, will strengthen their critical-reasoning skills, and will learn to engage in respectful dialogue with people whose views may differ from their own. In addition to journal articles and position papers, students will be required to read Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Comparative Government: Campaigns & Elections (Global Online Academy; fall semester)
This course introduces students to the comparative method of understanding power by studying the political systems of seven nations: the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, Nigeria, Mexico, and Iran. Students use these case studies to gain insight into international relations and other political science subfields and concepts; histories, institutions, political processes, and current events will be covered through a variety of readings and sources. In the fall 2012 semester, elections will be emphasized and the 2012 American election will be studied as it happens in comparison with other electoral systems.

Declaring Our Humanity: Applying Philosophy to Modern Global Issues (Global Online Academy; fall semester)
Declaring Our Humanity is an applied philosophy course that will connect pressing contemporary issues with broad-range philosophical ideas and controversies, drawn from multiple traditions and many centuries. Topics will include the institution of slavery in the 21st century; the use of torture by Western countries during the War on Terror; the questions that new technologies raise for the rights to property, privacy, and freedom of speech; the deepening problem of global poverty; and the hope (and fear) inspired by the emergence of new populist movements around the globe.

Grassroots History of China (Global Online Academy; fall semester)
This course explores Chinese history from the grassroots perspective of Xiakou Village in western Sichuan Province. By intensively considering one place in the context of China as a whole, the course explores how contemporary issues of sustainability, development, and social justice are connected to local history at the grassroots level in the Chinese countryside. Students will explore how the villagers of Xiakou understand their history, how a local understanding of history reflects or differs from historical narratives based on the nation-state, and what methods can be used to encounter the historical experience of everyday people.

Using Geographic Information Systems to Solve Global Issues (Global Online Academy; fall semester)
GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a multidisciplinary, multifaceted tool used to understand and visualize problems. Through creative visual thinking and analysis, questioning social assumptions, and using evidence to reason and explain concepts, solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems are often found. This course is designed to teach students the basics of thinking with maps and data using basic GIS analysis techniques. After gaining insight into how GIS impacts decisions everywhere, each student will identify, analyze, and solve a local or global problem.

9/11 (Global Online Academy; spring semester)
September 11, 2001, was a tragedy that must be understood on multiple levels. Locally, it radically altered New York City, leaving physical and psychological scars. Nationally, it shook a superpower, prompting widespread fear, confusion, and new policies that highlighted the tension between freedom and security. Internationally, it rewrote diplomatic relationships, launching the War on Terror and spurring many human-rights concerns. While 9/11 was a starting point for all of this, it was also an end point, the product of decades of global transformations. This class situates 9/11 where it belongs, at the center of an extended narrative, amidst the contemporary trends of post-imperialism, globalization, and terrorism.

Environmental Economics (Global Online Academy; spring semester)
Why do corporations have economic incentives to pollute? In a world of scarce resources, why do some firms create products that are not intended to last? Why did the Copenhagen Climate Change forum fail? And why are we running out of fish? Economics can answer these questions, and perhaps even provide the solution to our environmental problems. This is an inquiry-based course that requires students to investigate, conduct experiments, share and analyze data, make conclusions, and generate market-based solutions to environmental challenges.

Global Health (Global Online Academy; spring semester)
What makes people sick? What are the best ways to mitigate health disparities? Using an interdisciplinary approach to address these two questions, this course hopes to improve students' health literacy through an examination of the most significant public-health challenges facing today's global population. Topics addressed will be the biology of infectious diseases; the statistics and quantitative measures associated with health issues; the social determinants of health; and the role of organizations (public and private) in shaping the landscape of global health policy. Additionally, students will learn about the biology and epidemiology of certain diseases and use illness as a lens through which to examine critically such social issues as poverty, gender, and race. Potential readings include The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson; Sizwe's Test, by Johnny Steinberg; and the essays of Paul Farmer, Steve Gloyd, and Atul Gawande. Student work will include analytical and creative writing; problem sets; peer review, critique, and discussion; and online presentations. Writing in this course involves students' personal reflections on their understanding of the workings of disease in society, write-ups of epidemiological studies, journal entries, grant proposals, and descriptive narratives of the dynamics of illness. This course may be taken for either science or history credit.

Modern Ethical Dilemmas (Global Online Academy; spring semester)
This course will ask students to think deeply about some of the major ethical challenges of the modern world and to learn the language and philosophical underpinnings of major world philosophies. Topics include moral philosophies, including the Ethics of Virtue, Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Social Contract Theory; moral fallacies; ethics and religion; ethics and community; the ethics of selfishness; business ethics; media ethics; and moral dilemmas that come up in daily life.

Urban Studies (Global Online Academy; spring semester)
How do cities work? Who does the work? Who are they working for? What are the answers to these questions for your city? Students in this class will explore the answers to these questions within the context of urban planning, sustainability, leadership, and civic engagement. This class will address these issues through experiential and service learning. It is a hands-on, seminar style course designed for students from around the world to work together to engage their respective communities and help address various urban issues through the completion of a plan which students will develop for a client.