CRTSD

What does it mean to make amends? To amend a fire, or to amend the soil means to add something to it that strengthens it. To amend a book or a law means to correct errors found within it, or to modify, revise, or alter it. Older uses of “amend” were closer to what we now speak of as “mending”—that is, to repair, or fix; or to repurpose and alter something for a new use. In medical contexts to amend is to heal or to mitigate symptoms. Often when we speak of amends we are talking about acts taken to rectify or atone for a wrong that was done, either by oneself, one’s community, one’s ancestors, or one’s nation. As artists, we may ask: how and when does our making become a form of amends?In this class, we will develop our critical thinking skills by exploring the multiple connotations, metaphors, histories, and applications of amends. We will turn to the work of artists, theorists, scientists, farmers, healers, activists, and spiritual practitioners and discuss practices of making amends (such as mending and repurposing; individual apologies or atonement practices in different spiritual contexts; soil amending, river restoration, or community gardens) and different social and political movements focused on amends (such as Restorative and Transformative Justice, Reparations, and Land Back.) We will study how amends are practiced at an individual, collective, and global scale and consider how these practices might offer useful metaphors and strategies for our own lives and creative praxis.Through close reading and active response to cultural texts and phenomena drawn from multiple disciplines and reflecting diverse perspectives, we will work with a transdisciplinary methodology reading across and between different disciplines, projects, and movements looking for useful juxtapositions that help us develop our critical capacities. 

Politics is always physical. We literally live and die according to the flow of resources, force, and freedom. The stakes are high and controversies get heated, so how do we make up our minds? People want to tell us what to believe about what's good for us as individuals and as a society; how do we know the difference between a fact and an opinion, or between a reasonable belief and a false one? This course uses contemporary journalism and science scholarship to  explore two kinds of current topics: some where well-informed people legitimately disagree--and others where existing evidence strongly supports some views over others. We’ll talk about using psychedelic drugs to treat trauma; whether eating meat is bad for the planet; gender affirming medical care; and other topics. This course won’t teach you what to think, but it will teach you how to think critically and well about complicated and significant subjects.