Lower-Division

PRTR1 Academic Literacy and Ethos: Arts of Reading

Teaches foundational concepts for intellectual exploration and personal development within an academic community: analysis, critical thinking, metacognition, engagement with others across difference, and self-efficacy. Engages Porter's intellectual tradition of investigating the contribution the arts and humanities make to a good life, a just society, and a flourishing world.

Credits

5

Instructor

The Staff

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to first-year college members.

Quarter offered

Fall

PRTR2 Reading films for Truth

Building on the foundational skills, habits of mind, and interpretive proficiencies developed in Academic Literacy and Ethos: Arts of Reading (PRTR 1), students will explore the ways in which feature-length narrative and documentary films have approached the representation of truth.

Credits

5

Requirements

Prerequisite(s): PRTR 1 or permission of instructor.

General Education Code

IM

Quarter offered

Winter, Spring

PRTR26 Navigating the Research University

Explores critical engagement in education in the context of a research university. Introduces first-year issues and success strategies and ways to participate in the institution's academic life. Investigates strategies for clarifying education goals and devising a plan for success. Students cannot receive credit for this course and Kresge 26 or Stevenson 26.

Credits

2

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to first-year Porter and Kresge College members.

PRTR35M The Mockumentary Film

Mockumentaries such as Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap, and Woody Allen's Zelig grow out of the documentary tradition; but instead of claiming to represent real-world phenomena, they blatantly distort. Ten mockumentaries and their documentary correlates are studied. (Formerly course 80J.)

Credits

5

Instructor

Robert Giges

General Education Code

IM

Quarter offered

Summer

PRTR37L Introduction to Laser Cutting, 3D Prinitng, and Vacuum Forming

Design functional objects, sculpture, and other digitally inspired forms in a variety of 2D (Illustrator) and 3D applications (Cinema 4D, Ketch UP, or AutoCAD), then produce those models as physical objects with a variety of rapid-prototyping methods including laser cutting, 3D printing, and vacuum forming. (Formerly course 38C.)

Credits

2

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

PRTR41I Improvisation

Theory and practice of improvisation in the performing arts with an emphasis on acting improvisation techniques. Readings and films develop a theoretical and historical understanding of spontaneous invention on stage. Students attend area theater improvisational performances. (Formerly course 80I.)

Credits

5

Instructor

Robert Giges

General Education Code

PR-C

Quarter offered

Winter, Summer

PRTR41S Solo Performance Works in the Theater

Explores solo performance works made for the theater. While all course texts fall within the narrative tradition, some center on performers' lives, others on socio-political issues. Course participants screen video recordings of live performances in class., ultimately creating their own brief solo performances. (Formerly course 20F.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Robert Giges

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

General Education Code

PR-C

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR41W Playwriting Workshop

Explores different aspects of written drama: scene and character development, plot, dialogue, monologues, soliloquies, stage direction, setting, and structure. Excerpts of late 20th-century plays serve as the basis for class discussion. (Formerly course 22H.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Kate Hawley

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

General Education Code

PR-C

Quarter offered

Winter

PRTR47K Korean Music and Culture

Introduction to the farmers band tradition. Theory and practice of drumming are emphasized, resulting in a group performance. (Formerly course 21A.)

Credits

2

PRTR47S Sound Art

Several composers and performers of contemporary art music discuss the processes by which works are conceived in imagination, transcribed in notation, and realized in sound. After a brief introduction to contemporary music aesthetics, students attend a series of related presentations, seminars, and concerts. (Formerly course 28.)

Credits

2

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

Quarter offered

Winter, Spring

PRTR51A The Artist's Novel

A cross-cultural survey of the kunstlerroman, or artist's novel, from its origins in late 18th-century Germany to contemporary Latin America and the United States, this course explores how this genre understands artistic development and the role of artists in society. (Formerly course 32B.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Laura Martin

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members or by permission of instructor.

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR61 Seminar in Arts

Theoretical and historical aspects of the arts from one culture or world area are explored through seminar discussion, library research, and film/video presentations. (Formerly course 33.)

Credits

2

Requirements

Priority given to college members. Others by permission of instructor.

Repeatable for credit

Yes

Quarter offered

Fall, Winter, Spring

PRTR61B Handmade Books

This workshop teaches the history and construction of handmade books as a mode of personal and/or political expression leading to an exhibition of student work.

Credits

2

Instructor

Victoria May

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members or by permission of the instructor.

General Education Code

PR-C

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR61J Jewish Personal Narratives on Film

Considers Jewish-American filmmakers as they come to terms with their identity in autobiographical works. Students write responses to texts and create their own brief personal narratives. (Formerly course 39.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Robert Giges

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

General Education Code

PR-C

PRTR61N Personal Narratives in Theater and Film

Considers filmmakers and monologue performers as they come to terms with their identity in autobiographical works. Students write responses to texts and create their own brief personal narratives. (Formerly course 23B.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Robert Giges

Requirements

Priority given to college members. Others by permission of instructor.

General Education Code

PR-C

Quarter offered

Spring, Summer

PRTR61O Documenting Oral History

Students learn basic techniques of interview and camera work to document on film oral histories collected from community elders. Students develop their skills in writing, theater, visual art, music, or film to reinterpret oral histories as artwork. (Formerly course 80L.)

Credits

5

Instructor

Tandy Beal

Requirements

Priority given to college members. Others by permission of instructor.

PRTR61Q Queering the Arts

Exploration of the arts as a way to understand and experience how queerness has been expressed, repressed, denigrated, and celebrated in visual arts, music, film, poetry, and dance. (Formerly course 32A.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Roxanne Hamilton

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR63F Fractals, Chaos Theory, and the Arts

A consideration of chaos theory and fractal geometry as applied by 20th-century artists in all media. All necessary math and computer skills are covered. Students complete essays or art projects. (Formerly course 34B.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Ralph Abraham

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

General Education Code

PR-C

PRTR63W Ways of Knowing

Creativity in different disciplines is developed via different ways of knowing. Musical, visual, scientific, and spatial literacy demand understanding which is not primarily logocentric. Explores how practitioners of arts and science develop their work and conceptualize its execution. (Formerly course 80K.)

Credits

5

Instructor

Brenda Sanfilippo

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to college members.

General Education Code

IM

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR71A Awakening Compassion: Transforming Our Relationship to Self and the World

Develops the qualities of compassion and kindness toward oneself and others. Combining contemporary scientific research, mindfulness training, and traditional contemplative practices, this course supports students in the cultivation of a more discerning, thoughtful, and compassionate life. (Formerly course 60.)

Credits

2

Instructor

Christine King

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR90A Aesthetics and Politics: Spanish Civil War

Addresses questions of aesthetics and politics through a critical and practical examination of some artistic, literary, and broadly cultural developments proper to the political left during the Spanish Revolution and Civil War (1934-1939). Enrollment is restricted to first-year, Challenge Program participants from Stevenson College, Merrill College, Porter College, and Kresge College.

Credits

5

Instructor

David Lau

General Education Code

PR-C

PRTR90B Art and Politics After Google

Addresses questions of aesthetics and politics through a critical and practical examination of some artistic, literary, and broadly cultural developments proper to the history of the Internet (1990s to the present).

Credits

5

Instructor

David Lau

Requirements

Enrollment is restricted to participants in the first-year scholars program.

General Education Code

IM

Quarter offered

Spring

PRTR93 Field Study

Field Study

Credits

5

PRTR95A Arts Education in the Community

Organized in small teams, participants engage with students from public elementary classrooms to develop fully-staged group performance projects by end of term. Students are guided by instructor's models of teaching techniques, designed to stimulate the imagination, and by diverse readings.

Credits

5

Instructor

Tandy Beal

Requirements

Priority given to college members. Others by permission of instructor.

Quarter offered

Winter

PRTR99 Tutorial

Various topics to be arranged. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

PRTR99F Tutorial

Various topics to be arranged. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

2