LAS 101 - Beyond Consumption: Exploring a Sustainable Future

This exciting new one-credit, two-day weekend interdisciplinary course will explore the question: In a world increasingly focused on economic growth and consumption, how can we develop and sustain the things we value? Working with faculty, staff, and community partners, participants will look at how history, tradition, culture, spirituality, politics, and science shape our relationship to the natural world. We will examine sustainability through selected readings, videos, and links on our web site, by studying the evolution of Lowell, looking at the use of recycled materials in art, conducting scientific experiments on water, and making a guided examination of our own use of resources. The weekend will include lectures, debates, experiments, large and small group activities. Matter of Fact, MCC’s Improv group, will dramatize the dilemmas in the modern world, and we will attend the MCC Theater Company production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. There will be the world premiere of a composition written specifically for the weekend by adjunct music faculty member Mark Berger. Dinner Friday night in Lowell and lunch Saturday in Bedford are included.

Prerequisite(s): Eligibility for ENG101 and MAT 080.

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