Academic Program
This is a study program. Students must carry a 15-credit load and are expected to fully participate in all class activities. Students will take History, Biology and a third course to be announced in summer 2023. See detailed course descriptions below.
Courses are scheduled Monday through Friday, with field trips integrated throughout.
Course Descriptions
Biology: Natural Science of Australia/New Zealand
Australian and New Zealand Faculty - 5 Natural Science Credits
Focuses on the ecology of Australia and New Zealand, including ecosystems and human impact on ecosystems. The biodiversity, characteristics, and interactions of Australian and New Zealand flora and fauna will also be investigated within various habitats and ecosystems. A significant portion of the course will involve field observations and experiences. This course does not meet the lab distribution requirement. and is designed for the beginning college student.
English: Introduction to Poetry
Dr. Patrick Milian - 5 English Credits
Serves as an introduction to reading, interpreting, analyzing, and discussing poetry, with particular attention to the works' formal elements and cultural contexts. This particular offering will focus on the indigenous poets of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. In doing so, students will still experience an in-depth study of poetics such as form, rhyme, meter, imagery, figurative language, etc., but they will also experience poetry as a vital force. Throughout Aboriginal and Maori history, poetry has served a major role in shaping culture and motivating protest movements, and this class offers a unique way into these histories and movements.
English: Creative Writing (offered if 16-19 students enroll)
Dr. Patrick Milian - 5 English Credits
In Creative Writing, students will engage in creative writing as a means to explore the landscapes, ecosystems, and cultures of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. By weaving together place-based essays, poems, and short stories with their excursions to parks, gardens, and wildlife sanctuaries, students will use the creative process to deepen their understanding of their natural surroundings in these two biologically unique countries. This class will transform the work students complete in their biology course into creative expressions. Along the way, students will explore the storytelling traditions of Aboriginal Australians and the Māori peoples of Aotearoa. We will see how these narrative forms are tied to land and climate as we create our own original works with deep ties to local environments
Music: Music in the World Cultures (offered if 20+ students enroll)
Dr. Ruth Muller- 5 Fine Arts Credits
This course explores the intersection of music, environment, and culture in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Students develop their listening skills as we venture in a variety of soundscapes from natural to urban both formal and informal. Students will investigate how traditional Indigenous music and contemporary popular genres reflect and respond to ecological contexts, cultural identities, and social issues. We will look the ways that human sounds (cars, planes, roadways, etc.) impact the natural habitat of animal and bird species and how these changes impact indigenous lifestyles. Through a combination course work, fieldtrips, and interactive projects, students will fostering a deep appreciation for the role of sound in shaping environmental and cultural narratives.
Faculty
Meet the Green River College faculty.
Lectures will also be provided by highly qualified Australian and New Zealand faculty.
Dr. Patrick Milian
Dr. Patrick Milian is a professor of English at Green River College, where he specializes in creative writing and multimedia/digital writing. Patrick received his MFA and PhD from the University of Washington, where he was a Joff Hanauer Fellow and recipient of the Richard J. Dunn Teaching Award. He's the author of a forthcoming book of poetry, as well as pieces that have been published in POETRY, Gulf Coast, Mid-American Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. He's also published academic articles in Joyce Studies Annual, Pacific Coast Philology, and Modernism/modernity.
Dr. Ruth Mueller
Dr. Ruth Mueller is a professor of Ethnomusicology at Green River College where she leads the Asian drumming ensemble and teaches coursework in ecomusicology and global traditional and popular music. She received her PhD from The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom with a focus on gender and cultural preservation in South Korea funded by the Petrie Watson Exhibition and British Anglo-Korean Society Postgraduate Research prizes. Her current work focuses on the risks and trauma of female-identified scholars in fieldwork environments. Her publications can be found in the journals Asian Musicology, Notes (Music Library Association), the Irish Journal of Asian Studies, Sage Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, Ethnomusicology (Society for Ethnomusicology), Comparative Literature and Culture, and the Yearbook for Traditional Music.