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This course uses the diverse parks and reserves of Patagonia as a laboratory for understanding the pros and cons of protected area conservation as they impact flora, fauna, and local people. We will explore national parks and protected areas (PAs) in both Argentina and Chile, as well as the flourishing establishment of private parks and reserves in the region. We will use a series of case studies to ask: (1) What approach to protected area (PA) conservation has been taken in each case? Who are/were the key proponents and what are/were their main objectives? Was climate change taken into account and if so, how? (2) What have been the main costs and benefits of the PA, and who has received them? Where benefits are not commensurate to costs what is being done to address the imbalance? And (3) Are there alternatives or variations-on-the-theme of protected area conservation that would be more beneficial for wildlife and local people? How could the interests of parks and people be made more compatible in each case? Throughout the course we will look for ways to achieve conservation in a manner that is socially just, biologically successful, and beneficial to local livelihoods.nnThe class will begin on the Stanford campus at the same time as other Sophomore College courses. But on Sept. 12 we depart on an intensive thirteen-day expedition (at no extra cost) to Argentina and Chile to observe firsthand many of the conservation issues and successes discussed in class. For this portion of the class, undergraduates will be joined by a group of Stanford alumni and friends in a format called a Stanford "Field Seminar." Because our class time on campus is limited to one week before travel, students will be required to complete all course readings over the summer. Both on campus and in South America, the course emphasizes student contributions and presentations. Students will be asked to lead discussions and carry out literature research on the conservation challenges of particular Patagonian protected areas and species. The final assignment for the seminar is to complete a seven- to ten-page paper on their findings and to present the main conclusions of that paper in a joint seminar of undergrads and alumni as we travel in Patagonia. nnNote: Students will arrive on campus and will be housed at Stanford until we leave for Patagonia. The travel components of the course are organized and managed by the Travel/Study Program of the Stanford Alumni Association. The costs of the trip (except incidentals) are included, thanks to the support of the Stanford Field Seminar Fund and generous donors. Students will return to campus on Sunday, September 25, the day before the fall term begins. Sophomore College course, applications required. Submit by April 5, 2016 at http://soco.stanford.edu .

"All photographs are accurate. None is the truth." Richard Avedon (1923-2004)nThe invention of photography inspired the belief that there could be a truthful and objective way to visually record the world. From portraits to travel photographs to documentary, photography has influenced how modern history is understood and remembered. Yet, a photograph is a manipulated image, shaped by the perspective of the photographer and further framed by its printing, presentation, and interpretation. The complex ethical and political issues associated with photography significantly impact how events and moments are recorded by history. Consider, for example, the US government's 18-year ban (ended in 2009) on photographing the flag-draped coffins of America's war dead as their bodies are returned to the United States. What matters most: protecting the privacy of military families or protecting American citizens from the death toll of war?nnOver the past decade, the number of photographers has increased exponentially, further blurring the boundary between what is truth and what is fiction. Even the concept of "gatekeepers" is obsolete: anyone with a smartphone is armed with a camera and can create their own stories, their own records, and their own truths. Further, the Internet grants nearly universal freedom to document and disseminate images that record, incriminate, illuminate, persuade, enrage, and glorify. In this course, we will examine the ethical parameters of photography and the many ways in which photography contributes to presenting powerful truths, creating compelling fictions, and recontextualizing history.nnThe course will feature opportunities to work with photographs in the Cantor's collection and to explore the many photographic communities of the Bay Area including extensive field trips to museums, galleries, artists studios, private collections, photo studios, and more. Our discussions will also be informed by course readings. In addition, special sessions covering photographic techniques will familiarize students with the diversity of the medium and hands on experience to create work, if interested. No prior experience required. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu

Monterey Bay is home to the nation¿s largest marine sanctuary and also home to Stanford¿s Hopkins Marine Station. This course, based at Hopkins, explores the spectacular biology of Monterey Bay and the artistic and political history of the region. We will conduct investigations across all of these contexts toward an inclusive understanding of ¿place¿, ultimately to lead us to explore our own lives in relation to the natural world, historical and cultural milieu, and the direction of our individual life path.n The location at the entry point to the Big Sur Coast of California provides a unique outdoor laboratory in which to study the biology of the bay and the adjacent coastal lands. It is also an area with a deep cultural, literary and artistic history. We will meet marine biologists, experts in the literary history of Cannery Row and the writings of John Steinbeck, local artists and photographers, experts in the neuroscience of creativity, as well as people who are very much involved in the forces and fluxes that steer modern culture. This rich and immersive approach provides students a rare opportunity to reflect on their relationships to nature, culture, and their own individual goals.nThe course emphasizes interactions and discussions. We will be together all of the time, either at our base at the Belden House in Pacific Grove, hiking and camping in Big Sur¿s pristine Big Creek Reserve on the rocky coast, and traveling to the Tassajara Mountain Zen Center in the Ventana wilderness for several days. This is not an ordinary academic experience, instead it is an adventure of a personal, intellectual, spiritual and physical kind. We welcome people with wide interests; artists, poets, writers, engineers, scientists and musicians. Mostly we invite people with an open mind and a sense of adventure. nStudents are expected to have read the several books provided as introductory material before the course begins, and each is also expected to become our local expert in an area such as plant identification, bird identification, poetry, weather prediction, photography, history, ethnography, etc. The course requires an individual research project of your choice on a topic related to the general theme. Final reports will be presented at the last meeting of the group and may involve any medium, including written, oral, and performance media.n Note: This course will be held at the Hopkins Marine Station in the Monterey region, and housing will be provided nearby. Transportation from campus to the housing site will be provided once students arrive to campus on Monday, September 5 (Labor Day). Transportation to campus from the Belden House in Pacific Grove will be provided on Saturday, September 24. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu

There is growing interest in the intersection of art and science, whether from artists adapting technology to suit their visions or from scientists and engineers seeking to explain various visual effects. To take advantage of possible creative sparks at the art/science interface, it is necessary for fuzzies and techies to have some knowledge of the language used by the other side. This interface will be explored through examining approaches used by an artist and an engineer in the context of the materials science of cultural objects. In-class lectures, hands-on studio practice, and field trips will be used to illustrate these different perspectives. At the heart of the scientific approach is the notion that a cultural object, e.g., a painting, is a physical entity comprising materials with different physical properties and different responses to environmental stresses presented by light, heat, and water. In support of this outlook, in-class lectures and discussions will focus on the basic concepts of color, optics, mechanics, composite structures, and response of the object to environmental stress, and we will visit Bay Area museums to see how artists employ such techniques. The hands-on studio experience is designed to increase students' confidence and develop their appreciation of differences in materials. It is not necessary to have any artistic training, only a willingness to experiment. The in-class studio projects will include working with line and shadow; color, binders, and mordants; global sources of pigments; substrates and writing; and material failure. Students will make one technical presentation on a topic in one of the five areas relevant to a painting: color, optics, mechanics, composites, and stress response. In addition, they will prepare one essay on the issues surrounding the intersection of art and science. Finally, they will complete a project related to one of the thematic areas covered in the hands-on studio sessions and make a final oral presentation describing their project. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

The last time you walked past a public monument, did you stop to read the plaque (if there was one) or otherwise contemplate its meaning and commemorative purpose? Your answer may well reflect your familiarity with the terrain in which that monument stood. In any case, for various reasons we will want to discuss, monuments often struggle to convey the meanings intended, if indeed we can reconstruct those original intentions. This difficulty is especially true of monuments made in traditional form, yet more experimental forms are by no means safe from oblivion and indifference. Paradoxically, the longer a monument exists ¿ and some have lasted for millennia ¿ the further it is removed from its original context, a situation which engenders both problems of communication between creator and audience and at the same time rich histories, for objects too can have eventful life-histories.n In this course, both object biographies and their long-term communicatory challenges will be part of a broader discussion. Our task will be to explore the commemorative landscape, including our own campus ¿ established by grieving parents in 1891 with the goal of remembering their fifteen-year-old son, who had died of typhoid while travelling in Italy. Apart from the university per se, statues and a museum were central to the elder Stanfords¿ commemoration of Leland jr. (1868-84). nThrough the tragic Stanford family story and other case studies, we will rethink the very nature of collective memory. What forms has it taken? What difference does materiality make? Why do some scholars insist on a difference between monuments (often triumphalist in character) and memorials (typically more reflective and somber), and is that a feasible distinction in practice?nWe shall discuss such themes with reference to core readings. Beyond that, students will work in groups to focus consistently on selected histories, as determined by collective identities. Students will regularly contribute to class discussions on the basis of these specializations.nBy way of a final project, students will design a memorial of their own choosing. They will motivate their choice of what or whom they are commemorating; likewise they will explain their choice of medium, location and form. The success of these memorials will hinge, in large measure, on the thoughtfulness of their choices and ultimately their ability to engage with viewers. Students will present their evolving projects to each other for formal peer critique (itself graded). Final public presentations of these memorials will be part of the symposium in the final week. nThe course will be timely in several senses: the nationwide remembrance of September 11th, 2001 coincides with the first week of classes; the university celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2016; and more generally emerging technologies both offer and demand new approaches to public commemoration. Sophomore College course, applications required. Submit by April 5, 2016 at http://soco.stanford.edu .

Do you speak Arabic at home? Are you studying Arabic at Stanford? Have you done a year of Arabic study elsewhere? If you answer yes to any one of these questions then "Arabic in America: Language Immersion" might be for you. nnOur intensive course is designed to improve your command of Arabic while living in an active community of Arabic speakers and learners. We will be talking about films, poetry, politics, religion, gender and much more--all the while practicing how to talk to people, read newspapers, recite poetry, write emails, all with the goal of communicating better in Arabic. nnOur immersive experience will include: mosques and churches in the Bay Area and beyond, cultural festivals, research in the Hoover Archive, film, music, food, culture, and politics. Whether it is a trip to the beach or a classroom session on Arabic gender and sexuality, we will be talking in Arabic. All Arabic is welcome, from Morrocan or Iraqi colloquial (and everywhere in betweeen) to Quranic recitation and Classical poetry. Sophomore College course, application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

This class will provide the student with a deeper appreciation for the diversity of the mammalian orders, along with the fundamentals of comparative anatomy, physiology, and basic dissection techniques. In addition to dissection labs, Dr. B has a large collection of skulls, bones and plastinated organs that will facilitate learning mammalian anatomy. A field trip to the California Academy of Sciences will expose the students to the ¿behind the scenes¿ collection of 1000¿s of mammalian species, and a field trip to a local zoo will enable students to appreciate behavior and locomotion of assorted mammals in their ¿native¿ habitats. Course assignments: There will be 1 exam, 1 short presentation on an evolutionary topic and 1 final power point presentation on a human/animal or animal/animal interaction or conflict. The presentations will highlight animals from the students' assigned mammalian orders. Summer reading assignments will help prepare students for this enjoyable but intensive class. Sophomore College course, applications required. Applications due 12 noon April 5, 2015; apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

The ecologically and geologically diverse Rocky Mountain area is being strongly impacted by changing land use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains, covering a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the present; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. In addition to the science aspects of this course we will also investigate the unique western culture of the area particularly in regards to modern ranching and outfitting in the American West. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field-study as we examine earth/ environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous region of Teton National Park. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, September 6. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of September 6, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Friday, September 23. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

This seminar will study and examine the varied environmental and resource challenges facing Indian reservations in the western United States. Over 360 Indian reservations, the majority of which are in the western United States, encompass over 56 million acres - a land total approximating the size of the State of Idaho While Indian treaties and executive orders often relegated tribes to isolated and unwanted lands, Indian reservations frequently contain valuable natural resources such as oil, gas, hard minerals, and forests. Many Indian tribes, moreover, enjoy special fishing rights and the legal right to vast amounts of water. At the same time, Indian reservations face serious environmental challenges, including water contamination, habitat decline, and climate change. To examine these questions, we will start with a week of classroom study and discussion. During this week, we will examine the nature of the environmental and resource challenges facing Native American tribes today, the relevant ins and outs of federal Indian law and the legal rights of tribes, Native American governmental systems, and the approaches that tribes are currently taking to these challenges. We will then move into the field and spend approximately ten days in the states of Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, meeting with tribal officials and seeing firsthand the environmental and resource challenges that they face. On our return to Stanford, students will break into groups, and each group will analyze a particular challenge facing a Native American tribe and how best to address that challenge. The course will culminate in student presentations on these analyses. Over the summer, students also will be responsible for assigned readings, online interactive materials, and relevant recent news articles. The class begins on-campus and then travels to Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Travel expenses during the course will be provided (except incidentals) by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu. Cross-listed with Earth Systems (EARTHSYS 15SC), Native American Studies (NATIVEAM 15SC) and Political Science (POLISCI 26SC).

In nearly all polls, American voters rank the economy as one of their most important concerns. In the presidential election, full debates are dedicated to questions of economic policy. In this course, we will delve deeply into economic policy issues to understand options for government intervention and possible outcomes. Focus will be on the economic issues, not on the political aspects of the campaign. Specific areas of interest will be taxation, budget, entitlement programs, economic regulation and competition policy, trade, demography, income inequality, and monetary policy. We expect to incorporate timely and salient economic issues as they arise during the course of the campaign. The course will include four days of meetings in Washington, DC with economic policy analysts. Students will be expected to write a short paper and make an oral presentation to the class. A wide range of topics will be acceptable, including those directly related to campaign issues as well as other long-term economic issues facing the country. Sophomore College course, applications required by deadline April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

Recently, The New York Times and the National Geographic have hailed the "new face of America" as young, global, and hybrid. The NY Times gave this demographic a name: Generation E.A. (Ethnically Ambiguous). Our course examines the political and aesthetic implications of Generation E.A., and the hot new vogue for all things mixed. Galvanized by the 2000 census with its "mark one or more" (MOOM) racial option, dozens of organizations, websites, affinity and advocacy groups, modeling and casting agencies, television pilots, magazines, and journals--all focused on multi-racial/multi-cultural experiences--have emerged in the last few years. We will analyze representations of mixed race and multiculturalism in law, literature, history, art, performance, film, comedy, and popular culture. These cultural and legal events are changing the way we talk and think about race. Importantly, our seminar also broadens this discussion beyond race, exploring how crossings of the color-line so often intersect with other aspects of experience related to gender, religion, culture, or class. Field trips, films, communal lunches, and interactive assignments help us explore the current controversies over mixed-race identification and, more generally, the expressive and political possibilities for representing complex identities. Requirements include three two- to three-page analytical writing assignments, a presentation that can include an optional artistic or media component, and a final group-designed project. If you are a citizen of the 21st century, this class is for and about you.

Who doesn't love going to a play: sitting in the darkened theater, an anonymous member of the audience waiting to be entertained, charmed, and challenged? But how many of us know enough about the details of the plays, their interpretation, their production, and acting itself, to allow us to appreciate fully the theatrical experience? In this seminar, we will spend 13 days in Ashland, Oregon, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), where we will attend these plays: Shakespeare's Hamlet, Richard II, The Winter's Tale, Timon of Athens, and Twelfth Night; the world premiere of Lisa Loomer's Roe; Qui Nguyen's Vietgone; William F. Brown and Charlie Smalls' The Wiz (adapted from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz); the world premiere of Penny Metropulos and Linda Alpers' adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, and a world premiere adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard. (To read more about these productions, go to www.osfashland.org). We will also spend time backstage, meeting with actors, designers, and artistic and administrative directors of OSF. Students will read the plays before the seminar begins. In Ashland, they will produce staged readings and design a final paper based on one of the productions. These reviews will be delivered to the group and turned in on Thursday, September 22. n Note: This seminar will convene in Ashland on Monday, September 5, and will adjourn to Stanford on Sunday, September 18. Students must arrive in Ashland by 4:00 p.m. on September 5. Room and board in Ashland and transportation to Stanford will be provided and paid for by the program.

The ecologically and geologically diverse Rocky Mountain area is being strongly impacted by changing land use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains, covering a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the present; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. In addition to the science aspects of this course we will also investigate the unique western culture of the area particularly in regards to modern ranching and outfitting in the American West. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field-study as we examine earth/ environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous region of Teton National Park. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, September 6. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of September 6, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Friday, September 23. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

Do you dream of studying in the Latin quarter? Love the sound of French? And do the names Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre make your mind tingle with excitement? <br><br>Then you will want to spend next September immersing yourself in French and reading its most famous Existentialists. Spend mornings brushing up on your spoken and written language proficiency, and afternoons talking about some of the great works of the twentieth century (including L¿Etranger, Huis clos, and Le Deuxième sexe). <br><br>We will also broaden our discussions with French films (including Les quatre-cent coups and A bout de soufflé) and other cultural activities (like a trip to the Legion of Honor), including a performance starring YOU! Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu .

We designed this course for students who have some German, and who want to jump-start their language acquisition through an intense and immersive experience. If you have taken two or three quarters of German, or if you took German in high school, this course will allow you to dramatically improve your proficiency, all the while immersing you in German music, film, literature and journalism. Our main thematic focus will the city of Berlin, and the many groups that have migrated there over the years: their experiences and artistic creations, from concertos to hip hop videos, from poems to comic books, and from classic films to viral videos will be our guides through both a fascinating city and a fascinating language. Sophomore College course: Applications required, March 1 - April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu

The ecologically and geologically diverse Rocky Mountain area is being strongly impacted by changing land use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains, covering a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the present; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. In addition to the science aspects of this course we will also investigate the unique western culture of the area particularly in regards to modern ranching and outfitting in the American West. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field-study as we examine earth/ environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous region of Teton National Park. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, September 6. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of September 6, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Friday, September 23. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

This course uses the diverse parks and reserves of Patagonia as a laboratory for understanding the pros and cons of protected area conservation as they impact flora, fauna, and local people. We will explore national parks and protected areas (PAs) in both Argentina and Chile, as well as the flourishing establishment of private parks and reserves in the region. We will use a series of case studies to ask: (1) What approach to protected area (PA) conservation has been taken in each case? Who are/were the key proponents and what are/were their main objectives? Was climate change taken into account and if so, how? (2) What have been the main costs and benefits of the PA, and who has received them? Where benefits are not commensurate to costs what is being done to address the imbalance? And (3) Are there alternatives or variations-on-the-theme of protected area conservation that would be more beneficial for wildlife and local people? How could the interests of parks and people be made more compatible in each case? Throughout the course we will look for ways to achieve conservation in a manner that is socially just, biologically successful, and beneficial to local livelihoods.nnThe class will begin on the Stanford campus at the same time as other Sophomore College courses. But on Sept. 12 we depart on an intensive thirteen-day expedition (at no extra cost) to Argentina and Chile to observe firsthand many of the conservation issues and successes discussed in class. For this portion of the class, undergraduates will be joined by a group of Stanford alumni and friends in a format called a Stanford "Field Seminar." Because our class time on campus is limited to one week before travel, students will be required to complete all course readings over the summer. Both on campus and in South America, the course emphasizes student contributions and presentations. Students will be asked to lead discussions and carry out literature research on the conservation challenges of particular Patagonian protected areas and species. The final assignment for the seminar is to complete a seven- to ten-page paper on their findings and to present the main conclusions of that paper in a joint seminar of undergrads and alumni as we travel in Patagonia. nnNote: Students will arrive on campus and will be housed at Stanford until we leave for Patagonia. The travel components of the course are organized and managed by the Travel/Study Program of the Stanford Alumni Association. The costs of the trip (except incidentals) are included, thanks to the support of the Stanford Field Seminar Fund and generous donors. Students will return to campus on Sunday, September 25, the day before the fall term begins. Sophomore College course, applications required. Submit by April 5, 2016 at http://soco.stanford.edu .

Wouldn't it be great if you could quickly increase your Spanish proficiency through an intensive immersion experience right here at Stanford? Wouldn't you love to gain the cultural and historical knowledge necessary to begin taking film, literature, and culture courses generally reserved for advanced students? This intensive Spanish immersion course is designed to help students who have completed a year of Spanish to move forward quickly toward greater linguistic and cultural competence.nnAfter a year of Spanish, students tend to be able to handle straightforward interactions related to basic needs and personal information, but they generally lack the ability to handle more abstract discussions or to combine short utterances into longer presentations of their ideas. Most students likewise have little knowledge of the rich and complex history that surrounds the Spanish language or the central role that Spanish has played in the cultural, artistic, and political life of California. nnIn this course, a team of experienced instructors will help students improve their Spanish through intensive lessons that incorporate film, literature, and social issues. Through a focused discussion of the themes of immigration and democracy in Latin America, Spain, and the United States, as well as excursions and guest lectures by Stanford faculty and community leaders, this course will immerse students in Spanish and help them to gain advanced proficiency much more quickly. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

Trigger Warning: Over the past three years, the issue of campus sexual assault has exploded into the public discourse. While definitive figures are difficult to obtain due to the necessarily private nature of these events, several recent studies estimate that between 20-25% of college women (and a similar proportion of students identifying as transgender and gender-nonconforming, as well as around 5-10% of male students) experience sexual assault. Survivors have come forward across the country with harrowing stories of assault followed by what they describe as an insensitive or indifferent response from college administrators. These survivors have launched one of the most successful, and surprising, social movements in recent memory. As a result, the federal government has stepped up its civil rights enforcement in this area, with 124 colleges and universities under investigation for allegedly mishandling student sexual assault complaints as of July 2015. This courses focuses on the legal, policy, and political issues surrounding sexual assault on college campuses. The class is rigorous and includes substantial reading over the summer and during the course. We will spend the first week of the course learning some background about sexual violence and the efforts to implement legal protections for survivors. We will study the basic legal frameworks governing campus assault, focusing on the relevant federal laws such as Title IX and the Clery Act. During the second week we will travel to Washington, D.C., where we will meet with journalists, activists, experts, policymakers, elected officials, and others who are actively involved in shaping the national response to this issue. Expected guests speakers include Catherine Lhamon, the Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA); lawyers from the National Women's Law Center; the Legislative Director for Senator Kristin Gillibrand (D.N.Y.); Kirby Dick, the director of the acclaimed documentary the Hunting Ground; and many of the activists who appear in the film, as well as journalists, policymakers, and theorists. We will also visit sites and museums with relevant exhibits. On our return to campus students will create and present final projects. Travel expenses to DC (except incidentals) are provided by Sophomore College. Students are expected to do all readings, and participate in all class sessions, meals, field trips, films, and discussions. Requirements include 2-3 reaction papers, preparing for discussions with outside speakers, and the development and presentation of a final paper or final group-designed project which can include a multi-media or artistic component. The subject matter of this course is sensitive and students are expected to treat the material with maturity. Much of the reading and subject matter may be upsetting and/or triggering for students who identify as survivors. There is no therapeutic component for this course, although supportive campus resources and Title IX staff are available for those who need them. Please consider this prior to enrolling in the course. Sophomore College course, application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

This seminar will study and examine the varied environmental and resource challenges facing Indian reservations in the western United States. Over 360 Indian reservations, the majority of which are in the western United States, encompass over 56 million acres - a land total approximating the size of the State of Idaho While Indian treaties and executive orders often relegated tribes to isolated and unwanted lands, Indian reservations frequently contain valuable natural resources such as oil, gas, hard minerals, and forests. Many Indian tribes, moreover, enjoy special fishing rights and the legal right to vast amounts of water. At the same time, Indian reservations face serious environmental challenges, including water contamination, habitat decline, and climate change. To examine these questions, we will start with a week of classroom study and discussion. During this week, we will examine the nature of the environmental and resource challenges facing Native American tribes today, the relevant ins and outs of federal Indian law and the legal rights of tribes, Native American governmental systems, and the approaches that tribes are currently taking to these challenges. We will then move into the field and spend approximately ten days in the states of Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, meeting with tribal officials and seeing firsthand the environmental and resource challenges that they face. On our return to Stanford, students will break into groups, and each group will analyze a particular challenge facing a Native American tribe and how best to address that challenge. The course will culminate in student presentations on these analyses. Over the summer, students also will be responsible for assigned readings, online interactive materials, and relevant recent news articles. The class begins on-campus and then travels to Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Travel expenses during the course will be provided (except incidentals) by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu. Cross-listed with Earth Systems (EARTHSYS 15SC), Native American Studies (NATIVEAM 15SC) and Political Science (POLISCI 26SC).

This course focuses on the HIV epidemic, contrasting the origin and spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa and the emergence of HIV in the U.S., in particular the history of HIV in San Francisco and the Bay Area. We will meet the people and visit the institutions which played key roles in the Public Health prevention, care, and treatment of HIV in San Francisco and consider the impact of HIV globally in our thinking about epidemic disease and the international responses to HIV. This will include key locations in the City, including the AIDS Grove, San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the Castro, and local AIDS service organizations. Students will also hear from patients, physicians, and activists who are living with AIDS. We will also meet with scientists at UCSF, Stanford, and local pharmaceutical companies who are at the forefront of new prevention, therapeutic, and diagnostic research. By examining the relationship between the emergence of Gay activism and AIDS in California and New York and the pandemic in Southern Africa, the course will emphasize the multi-disciplinary and multi-sector approach to epidemic infectious disease. How sis physicians, patients, epidemiologists, pharmaceutical companies, and policymakers develop effective responses to the AIDS epidemic? What are we learning from Africa and what can Africa learn from us about how communities react to deadly threats from infectious disease.nAIDS experts from the Stanford community and Africa are invited to share their perspectives with us. In preparation for the seminar, you will be required to read And the Band Played On and Barnett and Whiteside's AIDS in the Twenty-First Century and selected scientific articles. As part of a group, you will also develop an AIDS-related project of your choice which you will present on the last day of class. Sophomore College course, applications required, due 12noon April 5, 2016. To apply, see http://soco.stanford.edu.

Viruses are unique biological entities that resemble both living and inanimate objects. Despite their simple structure they include some of the most devastating and ubiquitous causes of human disease. The compelling nature of this topic is illustrated by the recent Ebola epidemic, which emerged coincident with the last time this class was offered. From smallpox to measles to HIV to the common cold, viruses have literally changed the course of human history and impacted evolution. They have also been important experimental tools for probing the molecular nature of key biological processes, and they have been utilized in many key discoveries and Nobel Prize-winning research programs. In books, movies, newspapers, and electronic feeds, viruses continue to make the news on a daily basis. Using contemporary media, content experts, model building, interactive sessions, and field trips, we will explore the essential nature of viruses, what makes them unique, how they are classified, how they cause disease, key molecular processes, breakthroughs in prevention and treatment, current efforts in trying to eradicate viruses, and cultural iconography pertaining to viruses. In short, this seminar is intended to go viral. Sophomore College course, applications required, due at noon on April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu .

This seminar will study and examine the varied environmental and resource challenges facing Indian reservations in the western United States. Over 360 Indian reservations, the majority of which are in the western United States, encompass over 56 million acres - a land total approximating the size of the State of Idaho While Indian treaties and executive orders often relegated tribes to isolated and unwanted lands, Indian reservations frequently contain valuable natural resources such as oil, gas, hard minerals, and forests. Many Indian tribes, moreover, enjoy special fishing rights and the legal right to vast amounts of water. At the same time, Indian reservations face serious environmental challenges, including water contamination, habitat decline, and climate change. To examine these questions, we will start with a week of classroom study and discussion. During this week, we will examine the nature of the environmental and resource challenges facing Native American tribes today, the relevant ins and outs of federal Indian law and the legal rights of tribes, Native American governmental systems, and the approaches that tribes are currently taking to these challenges. We will then move into the field and spend approximately ten days in the states of Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, meeting with tribal officials and seeing firsthand the environmental and resource challenges that they face. On our return to Stanford, students will break into groups, and each group will analyze a particular challenge facing a Native American tribe and how best to address that challenge. The course will culminate in student presentations on these analyses. Over the summer, students also will be responsible for assigned readings, online interactive materials, and relevant recent news articles. The class begins on-campus and then travels to Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Travel expenses during the course will be provided (except incidentals) by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu. Cross-listed with Earth Systems (EARTHSYS 15SC), Native American Studies (NATIVEAM 15SC) and Political Science (POLISCI 26SC).

Our understanding of warfare often derives from the lofty perspective of political leaders and generals: what were their objectives and what strategies were developed to meet them? This top-down perspective slights the experience of the actual combatants and non-combatants caught in the crossfire. This course focuses on the complexity of the process by which strategy is translated into tactical decisions by the officers and foot soldiers and on what actually occurs on the field of battle. We will visit Washington, DC, and meet with national security officials and members of non-government organizations there. In addition, we will spend a day visiting the battlefields of Gettysburg (July 1863) in Pennsylvania, and the Little Bighorn (June 1876) in Montana. The course's battlefield tours are based on the "staff rides" developed by the Prussian Army in the mid-1800s and employed by the U.S. Army since the early 1900s. While at Stanford, students will conduct extensive research on individual participants at Gettysburg and Little Bighorn. Then, as we walk through the battlefield sites, students will brief the group on their subjects' experience of battle and on why they made the decisions they did. Why did Lt. General Longstreet oppose the Confederate attack on the Union Army at Gettysburg? What was the experience of a military surgeon on a Civil War battlefield? What role did just war principles or law play in the treatment of enemy fighters and civilians? Why did Custer divide his 7th Cavalry troops as they approached the Little Bighorn River? What was the role of Lakota Sioux women after a battle? The final part of the class covers contemporary military conflicts discussing what the US public, political leaders, and military commanders have learned (and not learned) from the past. The course is open to students from a range of disciplines; an interest in the topic is the only prerequisite.

This seminar will study and examine the varied environmental and resource challenges facing Indian reservations in the western United States. Over 360 Indian reservations, the majority of which are in the western United States, encompass over 56 million acres - a land total approximating the size of the State of Idaho While Indian treaties and executive orders often relegated tribes to isolated and unwanted lands, Indian reservations frequently contain valuable natural resources such as oil, gas, hard minerals, and forests. Many Indian tribes, moreover, enjoy special fishing rights and the legal right to vast amounts of water. At the same time, Indian reservations face serious environmental challenges, including water contamination, habitat decline, and climate change. To examine these questions, we will start with a week of classroom study and discussion. During this week, we will examine the nature of the environmental and resource challenges facing Native American tribes today, the relevant ins and outs of federal Indian law and the legal rights of tribes, Native American governmental systems, and the approaches that tribes are currently taking to these challenges. We will then move into the field and spend approximately ten days in the states of Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, meeting with tribal officials and seeing firsthand the environmental and resource challenges that they face. On our return to Stanford, students will break into groups, and each group will analyze a particular challenge facing a Native American tribe and how best to address that challenge. The course will culminate in student presentations on these analyses. Over the summer, students also will be responsible for assigned readings, online interactive materials, and relevant recent news articles. The class begins on-campus and then travels to Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Travel expenses during the course will be provided (except incidentals) by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu. Cross-listed with Earth Systems (EARTHSYS 15SC), Native American Studies (NATIVEAM 15SC) and Political Science (POLISCI 26SC).

In the new millennium, the popularity of TV courtroom drama has been staggering: according to a weekly Nielsen ratings conducted a few years ago, 30 million people watched CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in one night, 70 million watched at least one of the CSI shows, and 40 million watched two other forensic dramas (Without a Traceand Cold Case). These widely popular shows offer a somewhat distorted image of American criminal courtroom. In this class we will go "behind the scenes" to engage in a hands-on investigation of performances in the criminal trials. nWe will begin by visiting Bay Area courthouses to investigate the courtroom as a "set" for powerful legal dramas that are happening there on a daily basis. In these field trips we will also observe the courtroom proceedings and talk to judges and other legal professionals. After this introduction to the real-life courtroom, we will investigate landmark theatrical court dramas. Using mock trial techniques, we will approach playtexts as legal "cases." We will try to identify weaknesses and strengths of these cases, and then use them as mock trial scenarios. Ultimately, this class engages the questions of what does it take to build a solid courtroom case and how does it differ from a powerful piece of theater. While getting acquainted with both courtroom and theater techniques, we will keep a critical eye on (mis)representations of criminal courtroom in the popular media. No previous experience in acting or mock trials is necessary. The class satisfies the WAYS Creative Expression requirement. Sophomore College Course: Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.