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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).