A View From the Other Side: Partisan Politics in Trump's America

Sue Ikenberry, Lisa Rauschart, Michael Manson

Over the course of our minimester, we will explore the other side -- meaning the political, social, economic world beyond the typical GDS view of things. A variety of speakers, from “explainer” journalists and commentators to those who inhabit the conservative spectrum, will engage with us as we dive deeply into the current political landscape and the operative theme of, "how did we get here?" We’ll also journey outward, exploring the world beyond the Beltway and the GDS bubble focusing on candidates' platforms and what it is that people have not been hearing for years from either Democrat or Republican candidates. We will consider what the world looks like to Americans living in Appalachia, the Rust Belt, and other parts of the country, and why they might take a chance on a non-politician who says, "No one cares about you, but I do." One hoped-for outcome might be a service trip to Appalachia in the Spring. As Zora Neale Hurston wrote, "You have to go there to know there."

Afropolitanism: Art, Food, and Social Justice

Aisha Sidibe, Tom Spilsbury

West Africa is vast with a wide array of cultures, languages, and cuisines. These influences have begun to become more popular across borders with Ghanaian Hi-Life, Senegalese cuisines, and Nigerian dance moves. Some have called this movement Afropolitanism - the fusion of African culture with American and/or European culture. The Afropolitanism group will head to New York City, where through food, art, and music, we will begin to wrestle with the current political and social questions of cultural fusion, appreciation, and appropriation.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Art Behind-the-Scenes in New York City Museums: An Exclusive VIP Pass

Michelle Cobb, Nick Ryan, Adrian Loving, Laura Tolliver

Join us for a trip to the Big Apple - center of the Artworld! Calling all art lovers, future artists, curators, designers and cultural creatives. This minimester will grant you behind-the-scenes access to locations including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim, gallery visits, and to a working artist’s studio or college art department visit. During the trip, students will experience firsthand what it takes to become a professional artist. We will have the opportunity to explore multicultural artworks in areas of Photography, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture and Film & Video. We will also make a trip to one or more of the great DC art museums. Part of the museum experience will expose students to what it takes to become a museum professional, and meet the designers and curators who plan these world-class exhibits.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Art Outside the Lines: A Baltimore-and-DC-Focused Crash Course in Intersectional Feminist Art History

Anna Howe, Katherine Dunbar

Artist Kara Walker installs a massive sugar-coated sphinx in an abandoned Domino Sugar factory. Carrie Mae Weems photographs herself at her kitchen table every day for a year. Nancy Holt positions four huge cement tubes in the Utah desert to align with the sun. Catherine Opie photographs two women needlepointing a tribute to their menstrual blood.

Is your curiosity piqued? Want to learn more about contemporary intersectional feminist art? Join us for three days of feminist art exploration, where we’ll ask ourselves how intersectional feminist artists radically force us to reexamine the mainstream visual landscape – calling into question the role of artist, audience, and art itself. We’ll spend the first day-and-a-half in Baltimore, where highlights will include exploring the new installations and exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art and hearing from BMA curators about the museum’s year-long focus on women artists. At the end of that first day, we’ll head to our hotel for a deep-dive discussion of some of the most important and disruptive contemporary feminist artists representing a wide range of diverse identities. The next morning, we’ll return to DC to spend our remaining day-and-a-half visiting a handful of Washington museums, focusing on feminist pieces as they are positioned within the museums’ broader contemporary collections. We’ll also visit artist/curator workspaces to better understand our local feminist art scene. No art history or feminist studies experience necessary!

**This course will include an overnight component.

Bar-B-Curious?

Matthew Bachiochi, Kathleen Glines, Emily Landau

Are you BAR-B-CURIOUS? Come and explore the wonderful world of cooking with fire and smoke. In this minimester, we will sample the local barbecue scene; speak with the proprietor of a local barbecue joint; meet with a butcher to get the scoop about cuts; and best of all: we will prepare a delectable feast with a variety of main dishes and all the sides. We will also learn about the regional variations of barbecue and some of the musical traditions associated with different barbecue hot spots.

You don’t want to MARINATE too long on this decision! Rather, STEAK your claim to a spot at the grill. We can’t wait to MEAT you!

Black Broadway: The Artistic History of DC’s U Street

Nicole Gainyard, Jason Strunk

In a city blemished by Jim Crow, DC’s historic U Street Corridor stood at the center of African-American life throughout the late 19th century until the late 1960’s. Dubbed “Black Broadway” by singer Pearl Bailey, U Street was a thriving nexus of art, culture, and intellectual activity. Home to several theaters, performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway made regular appearances. Authors Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes lived and created in the “neighborhood that hummed day and night.”

The onset of desegregation brought the economic collapse of the U Street Corridor, and coupled with the gentrification of today, very little remains to tell the prolific history of this vibrant neighborhood.

Join us as we discover one of DC’s greatest jewels. We will begin our minimester with a walking tour of the neighborhood, lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl, and looking for iconic anchors of U Street that are hiding in plain sight. We will then explore the authors and artists who not only richly contributed to the cultural fabric of the neighborhood, but also to the distinctiveness of our city.

Black Panther Party: Vanguard of the Revolution

Kevin Jackson

Take a deeper look into the history of The Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Students will explore artifacts and events that led to the formation of the party, and the dismantling of the organization through media and firsthand accounts.

Changing the World for Animals: Hands-On Work, Advocacy, and the Law

Alison Grasheim

Jane Goodall said, “The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.” And there are so many ways to do so! In this minimester, we’ll check out the three main ways people “speak out” for domestic animals—through hands-on care, advocacy, and litigation—and visit local and national animal nonprofits and government agencies to learn more about their work and how you can get involved. At the end of the three days, you’ll have met some leading voices in the animal rights/animal advocacy movement, learned about laws that lead to animals being killed in shelters, pet some dogs/cats/bunnies, and learned how you can speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Chesapeake Bay Boat Building & Restoration

CA Pilling, Cori Coats, Derek Brunn

Here is a hands-on opportunity to learn woodworking skills from a master craftsman and boatbuilder and to help restore one of two historic vessels for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

Travel out to St. Michaels, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay, where we will learn a collection of boat-building techniques -- the art of constructing frames (what the hull planking is fastened to), the use of steam bending (softening the wood by heating it up and then placing it into a jig or mold of a desired shape), and the practice of lofting and layout (translating information from a full-scale drawing of the vessel to a desired piece).

Students will then design and create their own trail boards (the name board on a wooden boat) using the skills they learned during their restoration work. We’ll stay overnight camping in the museum’s lighthouse.

Note: While we will be in a lighthouse, there is no heat! It will be cold! You will need a warm sleeping bag and sleeping pad (we can work together to outfit you if you do not have these), but please be aware that it might be chilly!

**This course will include an overnight component.

Chocolates Galore

Maria Watson, Juan Vidal

Come join us for a chocolate culinary adventure! Learn the ins and outs of making chocolates and desserts with local chocolatiers. Enjoy international chocolate sweets from all over the world. Such sweets may include: lemon dark chocolate truffle rolled in toasted coconut, cocoa nib brittle ice cream, chocolate dipped caramels with sea salt, triple chocolate espresso eclairs, and let’s not forget... a day trip to Hershey’s Chocolate World where we get to make it, tour it, and taste it. Yum, yum!

Contemporary Dance and Composition

Katie Gibson

Spend three days immersed in the world of contemporary dance with movement style influences including West African, Hip Hop, Capoeira, and more. We will dance A LOT - both in the dance studio at GDS and at local studios. There will also be an intensive experience in composition culminating in the creation of a collaborative piece of choreography. There will likely be an evening performance - TBD as we get closer to the date.

Context and Conflict: Dealing with War (and Other) Monuments

Julia Fisher, Richard Avidon, Andy Lipps

Calhoun College at Yale was named for Vice President John C. Calhoun, an avid defender of slavery. Should the name remain or be changed? At the state capitol in Montgomery, AL, a statue of Jefferson Davis stands alongside one of Martin Luther King, Jr. Should both remain? Who gets to decide? Monument Avenue in Richmond is a hymn to hallowed champions of the Confederacy (though one can find a statue of black tennis great Arthur Ashe nearby).

How do monuments honor wars and the people who fought or were caught up in them? Who should be honored, and how should those decisions be made? What role should changing values and demographics play? Wanting neither to honor injustice nor to ignore history, what can one do? We’ll explore those and other questions about how and why public monuments get built and the new battles they can spur. We’ll focus primarily on the Civil War, but will explore other monuments, too. Readings may include opinion pieces, court cases, and war poetry. One day will be spent visiting sites in the DMV; another may involve a day trip to Richmond to visit Monument Avenue and other sites.

Croissants, Eclairs, and Macarons, Oh My!

Polly Martin

Learn to make croissant pastry dough from scratch and turn it into croissants, pain au chocolat, and cinnamon buns. Combine choux pastry dough and ganache to make eclairs that will make you salivate. Finish up with homemade macarons to finish off three days of sugary, buttery goodness.

Dogs in Schools: An Exploration of School Facility Dogs as Community Members

Kim Palombo, Brooke Coleman

Take a walk in the dog park and learn about how schools incorporate dogs into their communities. We will learn about the process of introducing a dog into a school community, visit a school with a facility dog, and grow our understanding of how a facility dog can impact a school community and the careful considerations needed throughout the process.

Escape Rooms: Adventures in Puzzle Design

Aden Richards, Greg Dallinger

Escape rooms have grown explosively in popularity since their introduction less than a decade ago. In this course, we’ll examine what makes escape rooms so much fun (by going to one, obviously), how they (and other puzzles/games) are designed in order to maximize entertainment, and then design our own puzzles right here at GDS that you can share with your friends.

Examining the Brains of Serial Killers and Adolescents: You Have More in Common with Mass Murderers Than You Think

Bobby Asher, Chris Levy

Since the 1990s, the so-called “Decade of the Brain,” researchers used advanced imaging techniques to learn about the human mind. Our rapidly expanding knowledge base includes a deeper understanding of the brain’s structure and the ways in which it communicates both chemically and electrically. Recent discoveries about how various regions act and interact have shed light on some surprising similarities between adolescent brains and those of some of the more notorious criminals of recent times. After learning some basics about neural communication, students will take a deep dive into the brain scans of several serial killers and the analyses by prominent neuroscientists from across the country. They will watch interviews with researchers and their subjects to gain a sense of both what the killers’ brains look like and how they themselves talk about what they were (and weren’t) thinking before, after, and during their crimes. Similarly, students will learn about their own minds and the ways in which they are similar (and thankfully dissimilar). The hope is that we will visit with and hear directly from experts on adolescent and the psychopathic neuroscience, and that we will get off campus to see firsthand how it is that we study the brain in the 21st century.

Experiencing Climate Change? Perspectives from the Front Lines

Chris Oster, Matt Friel

Climate change is no longer an abstract concept. The effects of climate change are being felt in the United States, from year over year average temperature increases, increased favorable conditions for severe storm formation, to sea level rise. Yet, many who are currently experiencing these phenomena deny the existence of climate change or attribute their hardships to other natural occurrences (such as erosion). In the nearby Chesapeake Bay, the shores of Maryland and Virginia are rapidly receding, including the historic Smith and Tangier Islands. This minimester will explore the issue of climate change through the lens of those who are working to prevent its devastating effects and those who are experiencing those impacts and denying the root cause. Students will learn about the work being done to adapt to sea level rise in the United States and interview people who are already becoming “climate refugees”, including those who find the term not applicable to them.

Exploring Reproductive Justice

Julie Stein, Marjorie Brimley, Emily Livelli

Are reproductive rights civil rights?

For a long time, the most prominent issue in the feminist movement was abortion. But reproductive rights encompass much, much more. The concept of reproductive justice is a powerful new way of thinking about these issues. It argues that reproductive rights are not merely a matter of individual choice - they’re a social justice issue. That means that we also need to look at sex education, birth control, the right to have children, and the specific needs of women of color. This movement also looks at how racial, economic, and social inequalities limit the reproductive choices of marginalized groups. In this course, you’ll explore the history of abortion and current laws surrounding issues of reproductive justice. You’ll also meet with practitioners of reproductive justice who will share their stories and experiences working within the movement.

Film Appreciation 102: A World of Classic Movies

Jim Mahady, Tuan Nguyen, Pam Stanfield

Love the movies? Come spend a few days watching several classic films, many of which celebrate the diversity of the world we live in. There’ll be a good variety - an anime, a Western, a comedy or two, a French gangster film, an LGBTQ film, and more. We’ll see 2-3 films a day, with time to discuss each one, and additionally, there will be highlight clips from some of the other greats. The plan includes making a trip to the AFI Theater in Silver Spring. Popcorn and drinks provided!

Finding Bliss

Khalid Bashir, Meg Blitzer, Meredith Chase-Mitchell

A Blue Zone is the term used to describe the five places in the world where people live the longest and are the healthiest. Why is this true? What are the “power 9” and how might you apply them to your own creativity and happiness? How can being in nature, expressing your creativity, finding your tribe and eating well impact your wellbeing and longevity? We will witness exciting performance poetry, explore the urban outdoors, manifest creativity, and enjoy a recipe or two on this journey to finding bliss.

Food Justice in DC: The Feasibility of Locavorism

Ricardo Carmona, Nicola McCutcheon

Join us as we delve into the local DMV food scene in an effort to understand the feasibility of and what it means to really eat local. We will visit nonprofits that deal with the issue of food justice, restaurants that strive to use only local produce, and have the opportunity to learn how to shop for and cook with local ingredients.

Food, Culture and the Immigrant Experience (Chinese Track)

Denise Li, Min Wang, Veronique Mattei

Have you ever wondered why the Chinese eat what they eat? Do you know how many regional cuisines there are in China? Do you know the history behind General Tso's Chicken or the fortune cookie?

In this course, you'll learn the answers to each of these questions, and more... On Day 1, we’ll explore how and why Chinese food became so popular worldwide. Then we’ll visit a Chinese grocery to purchase ingredients for making our own dumplings. Afterward, we’ll share a meal at a restaurant that’s famous for authentic Southern-style, Cantonese cuisine. On Day 2, we’ll spend time in the kitchen learning to cook a few specialty dishes. On Day 3, we’ll shift our focus to Vietnam, where many Chinese emigrated in search of a more peaceful life. We’ll examine how the subsequent French colonization of Vietnam influenced Vietnamese-Chinese cuisine. By the end of the Minimester, you’ll have a better understanding of how Chinese immigrants worldwide adapted to their new environments. This course is open to all students.

Food, Culture and the Immigrant Experience (Latin Track)

Eduardo Gonzalez, Yka de Castillo, Nicole Sade

Two main aspects of a culture that define and differentiate it from another are its relationship with food and with dance. Cooking and dancing are enjoyable activities which allow us to understand and relate to others. During this minimester, you will interview and cook with chefs from different regions that have influenced Latin American cuisine. Do you like to cook? Do you want to take a cooking class? Are you ready to accept a challenge?

In addition, the tango's vibrant beat fuses traditions of European immigrants, South-American natives and descendants of African slaves. The tango is a phenomenon that was marked by successive waves of massive immigration, creating extraordinary diversity when mixed with the native culture. Are you ready to explore the origin of this dance? Would you like to learn how to tango?

Come join us as we learn to cook and dance!

Forest Bathing Through History: Sugarloaf and C&O Canal

Abe Pachikara

Get ready to move! Hike the trails at Sugarloaf Mountain and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal to learn the history of a mountain and historic trails close to DC! Hike through some of the most beautiful nearby trails and experience having lunch with magnificent views and great company. Gain a sense of the beauty that first drew explorers to the area in the 1700s and learn about the importance of the mountain during the Civil War. Bring a water bottle, layers of clothing, proper shoes, and a positive attitude! We will be exploring Sugarloaf Mountain for the first two days (without an overnight component) and end with a short walk along the C&O Canal. Get excited!

From Angels to Inheritance: Theater, Power, Change

Laura Rosberg, Bill George

We’ll travel early Wednesday morning to NYC to see the epic 6 hour, two part Broadway show, Inheritance, by Matthew Lopez, Wednesday afternoon and evening. This multi-award winning play directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) and based on E.M. Forster’s Howards End examines love between gay men in NYC a generation after the AIDS epidemic. Before returning to DC Thursday, we’ll take a walking tour of the Stonewall Inn neighborhood where the Uprising began. Back at GDS, we’ll read and discuss the play and view the movie version of Angels in America, one of the first and most influential of the many plays about the AIDS epidemic. By Friday morning, we’ll be ready to consider the extraordinary role theater plays in social change.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Growth, Inequality and HQ2: A Socio-Economic Look at Amazon’s Arrival in DC

Topher Dunne, Belinda Lartey

DC has been changing both quickly and drastically even before Amazon announced HQ2’s arrival at the newly-renamed ‘National Landing.’ We will look at three areas - Park View along Georgia Avenue, SW Waterfront and the new Wharf, and Crystal City/National Landing - with a trip to each to gain insight on the ground. Overall, we will examine cultural and socio-economic changes for longtime residents, newcomers to DC, and businesses in the region. This will include a look at how Amazon is affecting our daily lives as consumers.

Hip-Hop Studies: History of Rhymes

Cliff Coates

This course will provide students with a historical, cultural and social overview of Global Hip-Hop Music while simultaneously providing an opportunity for students to create their own Hip-Hop song from scratch. Students will examine key documentaries, feature films and seminal articles that document the development of Hip-Hop rhyme writing and music creation. Students will spend time listening to groundbreaking Hip-Hop recordings to get a sense of the development of Hip-Hop music from 1979 to the present. We will also analyze the impact of various Hip-Hop songs on mainstream global culture. For the culminating project, students will meet with local producers to pick beats and ultimately write and record their own Hip-Hop song to be included in an EP.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Amy Killy, Quinn Killy

Do you love ice cream as much as we do?! Join us as we road trip to Turkey Hill to take a tour of their ice cream factory, taste-test the best scoop shops in DC, and even make our own ice cream deliciousness! We’ll learn about the history of the fantastic frozen fare and the science used to make it, compare mass production to hand-crafted small batches, and explore the types and flavors of ice cream in our region… all in search of the tastiest treat to inspire our own custom creation!

Lego MindStorm RoboChallenge

Elyon Olaniran

The robots are coming! Look around — Roombas are cleaning your floors, drones are delivering your packages, and Alexas are listening at home! Robots and connected machines are all around us, doing work that humans used to do, and sometimes solving problems we didn’t even know we had. Who will come up with the next generation of helpful bots? Will it be you?

Designing and programming your own robot is a cinch with Lego Mindstorm. They can talk, roll, lift, grab, crawl, climb, and more. You can snap new parts on and program them to solve a variety of problems. Play soccer? Yes. Fetch coffee? Sure. Play guitar? No problem. Print Braille? Yup! And there’s no need for remote controls: Mindstorm Robots can sense their environment and respond on their own.

You and a friend will be given a Lego Mindstorm Robot, a Chromebook to program it, and three challenge problems. You’ll work together to snap sensors and motors, then program and test your robot to solve each problem. Teams will ultimately put their creations to the test on the challenge course. Prizes will be given for design, playfulness, speed, and effectiveness.

If you’ve ever thought it might be cool to try out robots and have fun, this is your chance!

Making Comics

Mike Wenthe, Rhona Campbell

Join us for an intense and fun experience creating your own comics (cartoons, graphic novels, manga, what have you). Our ultimate goal: an anthology zine of new material produced by this Minimester group! No prior comics-making experience necessary—we’ll get you up to speed and your work will be featured in the zine!

Making Records

Tim Lyons

Students will learn about music production, audio engineering and studio musicianship by spending their Minimester making radio-quality audio recordings in the GDS recording studio. Proficiency as a singer or instrumentalist is welcome but NOT required for participation in this minimester!

Instruments will be played. Lyrics will be sung. Sick beats will be made. Good times will be had, by all.

We will produce our own original music, record the music of a visiting professional artist, and possibly take an off-campus field trip to a “real” studio nearby. Only green M&M’s will be served!

Mathematics of Gambling

Jason Aigen, Ed Stern

Want to play? We will introduce the group to Backgammon, Blackjack, and Poker. In addition to discussing the rules of basic gambling, we will use mathematics to inform and direct your playing and betting strategies. Gameplay will be a component of each day. We will also watch at least one movie. Absolute novices are welcome, as long as you come ready to learn.

Minimester Mini-Tour

Brad Linde

Experience life on the road with three days of rehearsal, travel, performance, and all aspects of life as a touring musician. Students will quickly compose a set list of music and rehearse, then travel, promote, perform, and survive together in a van with 2 performances (one in Columbus, OH). The students will share the bill with local ensembles. *Overnight component. Prerequisite: participants should have experience playing an instrument, reading music, and improvising in a jazz style.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Paddle the Potomac

Danny Stock

On this river trip down the Potomac River, you'll develop your leadership capacity, identify social entrepreneurship opportunities, and become a steward of our river. You'll enjoy liquid-gold sunrises and sunsets on the scenic Potomac. You'll get fit paddling hard in our 30-person-capacity canoes or take it easy and experience the presence of mind that comes from being immersed in nature. Other highlights will include an overnight at an historic C&O Canal lockhouse, campfire fun, and daily team-challenge activities, including cooperative and competitive cook-offs.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Relatively Weird: Time and Space on a Soft Watch

John Burghardt

By the end of our three days together, the student will have seen -- and done -- most of the basic math of Special Relativity. (Linear functions and Cartesian graphs, the first semester topics of first year Algebra, take us quite far into this strange realm). Students will figure out, for instance, why any vehicle we see moving shrinks in the direction of the motion, why clocks on that vehicle run slower than our own, and why observers of that vehicle see our clocks getting sluggish and our shapes shrinking in exactly the same way.

We will study how the famous equation E = mc^2 follows necessarily from this state of affairs, and how the physical world we experience and the science we call Physics are increasingly at odds with one another -- to the point that truths we discover through the laws of physics radically contradict our basic intuitions about time and space. The course will conclude with a discussion of the philosophical implications of living in a world that seems to become less knowable the more we know about it.

Sabermetrics

Suzy Hamon, Lee Goldman

Join us for an opportunity to delve into the debates around amateurism, including topics like Title IX, athlete compensation and university revenue, athletic campus culture, and more. We will have an opportunity to connect with former and current college athletes and coaches, visit college campuses, and learn about the ongoing role sports has in the pursuit of justice. Whether you are a student, a student athlete, or a superfan, athletics affects your experience at school; join us and score a few days discussing how athletics has been engaged to improve the experience for all.

The Art of DJing: Vinyl, Sound Systems and Mastering The Mix

Adrian Loving

This is a hands-on exploratory dive into what DJs do for a career. Students will visit a record store and performance venues. They'll shop for equipment and experience live demos by professional DJs. Participants will learn the basics of mixing with vinyl and digital formats and also gain a history of dance music and its pioneers.

The Story of DC Punk

Carlos Angulo

In this course, we will undertake an in-depth study of the music and culture of the DC Punk Scene that began in the late 1970’s and has remained a major cultural and artistic force in indie music ever since. The class will read chapters of Our Band Could Be Your Life, a seminal study of 1980’s indie music, that focus on DC punk bands Minor Threat and Fugazi; watch “Salad Days,” the 2014 documentary on this scene; tour some of the local landmarks; meet some of its key figures, some of whom attended GDS and Wilson; and of course, listen to the music itself!

Theatrical Thrills and Chills: Deep Dive into (Haunted) DC Performance

Christal Boyd, Nadia Mahdi

Two theater companies, two performances, two widely different productions with haunting at their center. Experience theater from the inside with your happy hosts, Nadia and Christal. Jump aboard and cruise with us on a thespian’s theatrical thrill-ride! **No previous theater experience required.**

Ukrainian Easter Egg Decorating

Nina Prytula, Sarah Redmond

Learn to make pysanky, the Ukrainian Easter eggs that are famous for the intricate designs and vibrant colors that give them such jewel-like beauty. The art form and the traditional symbols artists incorporate into their designs are so ancient they reach back into the pre-Christian era, and legends about the eggs' talismanic powers abound in Ukrainian culture. One such legend has it that an evil monster lurks chained at the edge of the world: each newly-decorated pysanka adds another link to its chain.

Through its carefully chosen symbols, each egg tells a story of the artist's hopes and wishes: giving a decorated egg to someone is supposed to help their wishes--for health, children, prosperity, productive work, long life--come true.

While mastering the wax-resist technique artists use to create these miniature masterpieces requires practice and some patience, anyone can learn. The process itself, using only a stylus and beeswax melted over a candle flame, is peaceful and meditative, even spiritual--a welcome antidote to our stress-filled, hyper-wired everyday reality. This course will give you ample opportunity to create your own pysanky; we will also take a related cultural excursion off campus.

Unplugged in the Wilderness

Taylor Brown, Gaby Grebski

We will be winter camping in Barnum Whitewater rustic cabins with no running water, a space heater, a lamp, and platform bunk beds (no mattresses). During our three days and two nights hiking in the West Virginia Mountains, learn to navigate with a map and compass; learn fly-fishing and other fishing methods; learn a number of outdoor skills; and cook all meals on an open fire. We invite you to "leave no trace" and soak up the beauty of winter days and nights in the beautiful outdoors!

Note: Minimeser is in February! It will be cold.

**This course will include an overnight component.

Walls or Bridges? Immigration and Cultural Encounters

Maribel Prieto, Yani Aleman, Larry House

This course will provide opportunities for you to engage in meaningful interactions with people who recently migrated to the DC area from a variety of countries. You will learn about push factors driving immigrants’ circumstances and will hear first-hand narratives of personal stories. You will be able to use artistic expression to make sense of these interactions and of your thoughts about current immigration policies and dynamics. The course may include opportunities such as: visits to Carlos Rosario Public Charter School, and to local organizations that support the immigrant community, such as Mary’s Center and Centro Nía; hearing from professionals who work directly with this topic in the fields of immigration law and immersive journalism; and sampling foods of local immigrant communities in DC neighborhoods. Visits to embassies and to museum exhibits that explore immigration through art might be an additional component. Students with a variety of backgrounds, viewpoints, and experiences are encouraged to join.

Were You Born a Racist? The Neuroscience of Implicit Bias

Bill Wallace, Vinay Mallikaarjun

You can't be a racist, can you? Unfortunately, all of us are born with a fundamentally racist response to others called implicit bias. It is an automatic feature of our brains that is an instant response to social interactions. Implicit bias has a big impact on every aspect of life, from personal interactions to police engagement with the public, where split-second decisions must often be made.

So... are you a racist? (You will measure your own degree of implicit bias, and we are planning to hear from leading experts in the field, such as NPR’s Shankar Vedantam). What parts of the brain are involved? (We are planning to visit a brain imaging facility to see how brain MRI imaging is conducted and how the images are interpreted). What are some ways that it shows up in everyday speech and how does that affect the justice system? How does taking an extra moment to think about your implicit bias overcome it by using a different part of your brain? (We will hear how the Washington Metropolitan Police Department trains officers to overcome implicit bias).

Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation

Julia Penn, Beth Stafford, Trish Heatherman

In your daily life at GDS, it's easy to get caught up in the grind: you may feel stressed and overwhelmed and at times unable to cope with what life throws at you. All of these external factors can obscure your ability to be your most authentic (and happiest) self. Yoga, mindfulness, and meditation are all strategies you can use to slow down and tune in to your true inner self. This minimester is a retreat of sorts, in which we will work with DC-based yoga and meditation teachers, as well as give time to discussion, journaling and self-reflection. In creating an intentional space and time to slow things down, you will be able to live more fully in the present moment and develop strategies to carry with you through the rest of the school year and beyond.