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Students will learn an internationally recognized 80-hr 'hands-on' curriculum on how to design human systems that mimic natural systems, using a minimum of energy and resources, and creating real abundance and social justice. We will discuss and utilize permaculture (ecological design) ethics, principles and practices to design integrated systems. As we learn to read the landscape, we will explore solutions to climate change on the home and community scale. Students will gain empowerment with hands on skills redesigning the campus Permaculture Garden during the practicum.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of avian biology. We learn about the diversity of birds through an exploration of avian evolution, physiology, taxonomy and ecology. Students are expected to become proficient in field identification of Northern New York birds by sight and sound, as well as their natural history. Lab focuses on indoor identification of birds using museum study skins, and outdoor identification of local birds in a variety of habitats by sight and sound. One recommended full-day weekend field trip at the end of the semester.

Shinto or the “Way of the Gods” has long been viewed as the “archaic indigenous religion” of Japan. This course explores how, in fact, Shinto is an invented religion that changed radically throughout modern Japanese history as it evolved from local cults worshipping kami to state Shinto and new religious movements in the pre-war period to its modern guise today as religious organizations independent of state control.

The United States and the Soviet Union were the rival superpowers in the Cold War, but European, African, Asian, and Latin American and Caribbean nations also were enmeshed in the conflict, sometimes in “hot” wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated communities and natural environments. In class lectures, discussions, and research-based presentations, this course explores answers to such questions as: What caused the Cold War, and could it have been avoided?

This course introduces students to the comparative study of human cultures and societies. We will learn important anthropological concepts, methods, and theories as we explore topics like subsistence and exchange, kinship and marriage, politics and law, and social change in a wide range of societies. Ethnographic descriptions are a prominent part of the readings as we explore differences and similarities between human populations and how people from different cultures and societies have interacted with and responded to one another. Restricted to first- and second-year students.

Early Canada, 1534-1867.   After laying eyes upon the eastern coast of Canada in May 1534, the French explorer Jacques Cartier remarked that it resembled the “land that God gave to Cain.” Despite Cartier ’s initial misgivings, Canada presented numerous opportunities to Europeans, as it had for the First Nations.

On July 1, 1867, the three British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the United Province of Canada (early Québec and Ontario) joined to create the Dominion of Canada. From the time of Confederation to the end of the Great War, Canada remained in the shadow of Great Britain. In the period following the war, the dominion moved toward closer relations with the United States. It is between these two empires, one across the Atlantic Ocean, the other on the North American continent, that Canada’s evolution as a nation might be understood in the broadest sense.

Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 poem and song-"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"-expressed Black rage as well as criticized consumerism and the Nixon presidency. His phrase is also an apt phrase to characterize the uniqueness of the Seventies. To some, the decade merely filled the gap between the idealistic Sixties and the shallow "Big Eighties." However, a reassessment of the Seventies yields a different story: consider the contributions of the anti-war movement to ending the Vietnam War.

Do you own pets? Perhaps it feels more like they own you. What do our current relationships with animals look like and how do they affect us? As we begin to treat animals such as dogs and cats as family members, what issues will arise and how will we resolve them?  This class will focus on our interactions with other species, starting with domestication before moving on to the many ways our life styles have impacted wildlife. With more and more species affected by climate change and habitat loss, do we have a moral responsibility to address their suffering?