COWL - Cowell College

COWL1 Academic Literacy and Ethos: Imagining Justice

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. Examines the emergence and development of key concepts of justice including procedures, rights, and reparation.

Credits

5

COWL10 Becoming a Successful Student

An interactive approach to effective studying, note-taking, critical thinking, and exams. Also explored: time management; good communication with staff and faculty; major and career exploration; and use of campus resources. Enrollment priority given to first-year students and sophomores.

Credits

5

COWL12 Public Speaking

This introductory level seminar is designed to reduce anxiety and increase competence and confidence in a variety of public speaking situations. While providing some theory, this seminar emphasizes the practice of composing and delivering speeches, including formal, informal, and extemporaneous occasions.

Credits

5

COWL39 Brain, Mind, and Consciousness

An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the brain, mind, and consciousness. Topics include the philosophy of mind, neuroscience, cognition, and social psychology, and their applications in fields such as health science, technology, and social development.

Credits

3

COWL40 Near-Death Experiences: Evidence and Inference in the Post-Modern World

Explores evidence and inferences from existing literature surrounding near-death experiences. Uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate concepts, such as consciousness, aging, life, and death.

Credits

5

COWL50 Library Skills for the Digital Age

Intended to enhance students' skills in using the most powerful learning tool in any university: the library. Topics: organization of the library; how to begin researching; search engine and database use; judging the quality of sources; using sources responsibly. Disciplinary focus changes from quarter to quarter.

Credits

2

COWL52 Personal Finance and Investing

Overview of the financial responsibilities that young adults take on after college. Topics include: taxes, budgeting, student loans, credit, and investing in the stock market. Ubiquitous terms, such as 401(k), are defined, and financial principles are used to develop a framework for personal financial decision-making.

Credits

5

COWL61 Critical Journeys

For publication in a Cowell literary journal, students substantively revise one of their fall quarter essays by studying a major work that influences, acknowledges, or further clarifies a required reading of the Cowell core course.

Credits

2

COWL64 Social Justice: Issues and Debates

Focused followup on social justice topics and readings introduced in the Cowell core course. Allows first-year students to pursue social justice themes in greater depth. Students must have previously taken a Cowell core course (or equivalent).

Credits

2

COWL65 Meaning, Paradox, and Love

Mary Holmes--legendary founding faculty member of UCSC, keen observer, painter of mythic images, and profound thinker--had a visionary's insight into the mysteries of love, paradox, and meaning. This course explores her art, teaching, and wisdom. (Formerly Love and Wisdom.)

Credits

5

COWL70A Introduction to Book Arts

Students learn techniques of bookbinding, construction, and design, and fundamentals of letterpress printing. Enrollment is by permission of instructor. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Bookbinding.)

Credits

5

COWL70B Intermediate Book Arts

Learn fundamental skills in fine letterpress printing, including hand typesetting and instruction in the operation of printing presses. Basic typography explored as students design and print a small edition of a selected text. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Printing I: Elements of Printing.)

Credits

5

COWL70C Advanced Book Arts

Students learn fundamental skills in fine letterpress printing, including hand typesetting and instruction in the operation of printing presses. Basic typography explored as students design and print a small edition of a selected text. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Printing II: Typography and Book Design.)

Credits

5

COWL78 Children, Technology, and Development

First-year honors seminar focusing on current research and theory related to children and technology. Attention is given to the gaps between public opinion about the impact of technology on children and the actual evidence regarding such impacts. Topics may include how use of digital devices may influence children's thinking; how children learn to use new technologies; computer gaming and aggression; and how children's social development may be influenced by social media and other technology.

Credits

5

COWL82 Good vs. Good

Explores the world of philanthropy. Examines the different models of philanthropy to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. Also examines what drives philanthropists to give. Enrollment by permission and restricted to College Scholar students.

Credits

5

COWL83 The Modern Metropolis: Paris, London, New York 1770-1860

A comparison of three great modern cities, with emphasis on their roles as incubators of new forms of art, spectacle, and entertainment; the specters of alienation, poverty, and crime during periods of explosive growth; and immigration and diversity as sources of cultural dynamism.

Credits

5

COWL84 Chinese Approaches to Human Values

Through study of primary sources in translation, considers a range of classic Chinese approaches to basic reflective questions about human experience, with special focus on issues of justice, social engagement, and meaning and authenticity in everyday life.

Credits

5

COWL85 Introduction to Chinese Writing Systems

Gateway course illuminating the operation of the writing systems of greater China. Intended for students who are curious about the world's longest continually used symbol set as well as for those who may be considering a serious commitment to learning the language.

Credits

5

COWL86 Leading Social Change

Offers students the knowledge and skills required to lead diverse teams. Topics include the social-change model of leadership and principles of collaboration. Geared toward Cowell and Stevenson Residential Assistants, but students interested in the topics may take the course with permission from the instructor.

Credits

2

COWL87 The History of Time

Examines the history of temporality or the human experience of time. Theoretical readings and primary sources are used to explore the ways that humans have related to the past, present, and future. Course focuses on research and writing methods.

Credits

5

COWL89 Faculty Research Colloquium

Introduction of UCSC as a research university, our notable researchers, and their work. Weekly discussions with UCSC faculty from a variety of disciplines.

Credits

2

COWL93 Field Study

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

Credits

5

COWL93F Field Study

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

Credits

2

COWL94 Group Tutorial

A program of independent study arranged between a group of students and a faculty instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

COWL94F Group Tutorial

A program of independent study arranged between a group of students and a faculty instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

2

COWL99 Tutorial

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

Credits

5

COWL99F Tutorial

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

Credits

2

COWL107 Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good People from the Bad

Students learn practical tools and techniques for assessing trustworthiness, including your own, and applying these tools in a variety of situations. Integrating insights from practical experience, philosophy, and psychology, this course teaches us how to pay attention to red flags in relationships and ultimately develop a network of trustworthy people that will help us succeed in work and in our personal lives. (Formerly Trust Rules: How to Tell Good People from Bad People in Work and Life.)

Credits

2

COWL110 Introduction to Mock Trial

Introduces Mock Trial, which is open to all students. Covers the basics of argumentation, cross and direct examinations, permissible evidence, witness testimony, and courtroom protocol. Special emphasis is on public speaking. Students write speeches for opening and closing arguments and create questions for witnesses. Students must read the Mock Trial handbook for examples and strategies. Each student has an opportunity for public speaking and creating a coherent legal argument.

Credits

2

COWL111 Mock Trial Workshop

Mock Trial teaches public speaking in the context of law. Students learn direct examination and cross examination strategies, characterization, and different ways to improve your public speaking skills. Class is open to everyone regardless of experience in Mock Trial. Class is also a way to gain experience for students considering joining the Mock Trial team.

Credits

2

COWL118B Words & Music: Poetry, Musical Theater, Opera

Study of significant texts enhanced by music for performance. Topics vary annually. Course compares original texts in English translation with their adaptation to musical theater (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, etc.) and opera (Carmen, etc.)

Credits

5

COWL122 United Nations Contemporary Issues

Introduces the Model United Nations through discussion of contemporary issues. Students learn parliamentary procedures and U.N. protocols, as well as how to work collaboratively to research and to present position papers. Students learn resolution writing, alliance building, and persuasive speech.

Credits

2

COWL126 Trajectories of Justice: Standing Rock, Climate Change, and Trump's Potential Impeachment

Enables students to become expert on the potential impeachment of Donald Trump in the context of progressive American history, emphasizing his Neglect of Duty regarding global climate change through the lens of The Native Uprising against the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Formerly The Trajectory of Justice in America.)

Credits

5

COWL138A The Place of Higher Education in a Democratic Society

Centers around interviews of alumni and involves a reflective term paper on a specific topic having to do with the role of higher education in a democratic society. Teaches students how to conduct interviews.

Credits

5

COWL138B Life Development

Visits from alumni form the centerpiece of this course. In teams, students study the lives and the issues of the visitors. The aim is to reflect on the meaning of education in adult development.

Credits

2

COWL156M Medical Ethics and Justice in Literature and Film

Course approaches literature and literary devices in their capacity to address the patient's experience of illness, medical education and practice, and medical ethics and to understand and assess how considerations of justice impact these themes in medicine. Particular issues raised by a variety of topics are examined and discussed in the context of case examples as presented in literature and film, e.g., informed consent, the doctor-patient relation, withdrawing vs. withholding life-sustaining treatment, organ transplantation, health care reform, rationing/social justice, etc. (Formerly Arts and Sciences.)

Credits

5

COWL158A Special Topics: Oral History

Introduction to the art and science of conducting and oral history. Readings include books that offer both theoretical and practical insights. Students conduct interviews and construct oral histories, focusing on the alumni of Cowell College.

Credits

5

COWL161A Bards to Bloggers: Literature and Technology in Transhistorical Focus

Through study of ancient and contemporary forms (epics to e-literature), students study the connections that have tied literary reading and writing to specific technologies, including memory, the alphabet, pens, printing, radio, computing, the Internet, and handheld devices.

Credits

5

COWL165 Fundraising Practicum

Covers the fundamental skills, ethics, and practices of crowd-sourced fundraising in the liberal arts. Students build a project portfolio that includes mission statement, donor-cultivation tools, and action reports. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Meet with the instructor to verify enrollment in a Giving Day campaign with liberal arts focus.

Credits

3

COWL168 Social Change

How do you change the world, working alone and in concert with others? To find out, students work in groups with specific community partners who, in turn, help place students in social-change organizations in Santa Cruz County.

Credits

2

COWL170F Freedom and Race

Interrogates the relationship between freedom and race in our current political moment by looking to historical and theoretical models that inform the present. Considers how race operates in legal, scientific, and visual discourses to shape individual and collective freedoms.

Credits

5

COWL184A Leadership and Institution Building

Through lectures by senior administrators and student consensus-and-recommendation teams, students learn how leaders work with constituent groups, build cooperation, and develop implementation plans in an institution such as the University of California, specifically, UC Santa Cruz. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates accepted in the Chancellor's Undergraduate Internship Program. Students submit applications winter quarter for the following academic year.

Credits

2

COWL184B Leadership and Institution Building

Through lectures by senior administrators and student consensus-and-recommendation teams, students learn how leaders work with constituent groups, build cooperation, and develop implementation plans in an institution such as the University of California, specifically, UC Santa Cruz. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates accepted in the Chancellor's Undergraduate Internship Program. Students submit applications winter quarter for the following academic year.

Credits

2

COWL184C Leadership and Institution Building

Through lectures by senior administrators and student consensus-and-recommendation teams, students learn how leaders work with constituent groups, build cooperation, and develop implementation plans in an institution such as the University of California, specifically, UC Santa Cruz. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates accepted in the Chancellor's Undergraduate Internship Program. Students submit applications winter quarter for the following academic year.

Credits

2

COWL192 Directed Student Teaching

Teaching of a lower-division seminar under faculty supervision. (See course 42.) Upper-division standing required and a proposal supported by a faculty member willing to supervise.

Credits

5

COWL193 Field Study

Program of study arranged between a group of students and an instructor, which may involve work with an off-campus or non-departmental agency (e.g., internship or field work). Interview only; prior arrangement with instructor. Enrollment is restricted to juniors and seniors.

Credits

5

COWL193F Field Study

Program of study arranged between a group of students and an instructor, which may involve work with an off-campus or non-departmental agency (e.g., internship or field work). Interview only; prior arrangement with instructor. Enrollment is restricted to juniors and seniors.

Credits

2

COWL194 Group Tutorial

A program of independent study arranged between a group of students and an instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

COWL194F Group Tutorial

A program of independent study arranged between a group of students and an instructor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency. Enrollment is restricted to juniors and seniors.

Credits

2

COWL195 Senior Thesis

Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Credits

5

COWL198 Independent Field Study

Provides for college-sponsored individual study programs off campus, for which faculty supervision is not in person (e.g., supervision is by correspondence.) Up to three such courses may be taken for credit in any one quarter. Approval of student's adviser, certification of adequate preparation, and approval by provost required.

Credits

5

COWL199 Tutorial

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

Credits

5

COWL199F Tutorial

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

Credits

2