Palouse Matters: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum

FAIN: AKA-270151-20

Washington State University (Pullman, WA 99164-0001)
Jolie Kaytes (Project Director: September 2019 to present)

Planning for an interdisciplinary pathway that would integrate courses on the region into the university’s core curriculum.

“Palouse Matters” proposes a general-education humanities course pathway at Washington State University that explores the complex relationships between people and place in the Palouse: a globally-significant, scenic, and complicated environment. Team-developed and interdisciplinary, Palouse Matters encourages students to read the university’s regional terrain as a rich and contested landscape of beauty, imbalance, transformation, and injustice. Along with augmenting current general education offerings with place-based learning opportunities, Palouse Matters provides hands-on opportunities for field study, civic engagement, and public presentations. Ultimately, the Palouse Matters program will facilitate deep understandings of seemingly incongruous subjects and the relationships among the personal, global, and local, helping students prepare for a lifelong commitment to any community and region.

Associated Products

Introducing students to the Palouse (Web Resource)
Title: Introducing students to the Palouse
Author: Tina Hilding
Abstract: An interdisciplinary WSU team has received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to develop a series of courses for students to dig deeply into Palouse history and culture.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://news.wsu.edu/2020/05/14/introducing-students-palouse/
Primary URL Description: News and information for faculty, staff, and the WSU Community
Secondary URL: https://ucore.wsu.edu/news/
Secondary URL Description: Website for UCORE: UNIVERSITY COMMON REQUIREMENTS, DIVISION OF ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Dining Services collaboration brings taste to student courses. (Web Resource)
Title: Dining Services collaboration brings taste to student courses.
Author: Nakata, S.
Abstract: WSU News article highlighting an event in the Palouse Matters course "Landscapes of the Palouse."
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://news.wsu.edu/2020/05/14/introducing-students-palouse/

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