Tentative Course Offerings

COGS ​2​60 (B00): Neuroimaging and brain disorders | Professor Deanna Greene

This course surveys current “hot topics” in cognitive neuroscience with a focus on brain disorders and neuroimaging. In the field cognitive neuroscience, there are often certain questions of interest or methods that become at the forefront of discussion and the direction of many labs. Some of these topics cause a splash, some are controversial, and some are critical for moving the field forward. Students will read the literature on these topics and gain an understanding of the many moving parts in this evolving field.

Class meet Thursday 9:00am-11:50am in CSB 272

COGS ​2​60 (C00): The Evolution of Language | Professor Chris Johnson

In this seminar we will read and discuss research and speculation on the evolution of language - in particular, on the transition from iconic, mimetic communication to symbolic speech. Inter-disciplinary readings will include foundational papers, and contemporary data and discourse, on evolutionary theory, hominin archeology (“bones & stones”), comparative neuroscience, the genetics of psychiatric and motoric brain disorders, as well as conversational ethnography, development, and cognitive linguistics. We will address these topics from a “Cognitive Ecology” perspective, which emphasizes embodied engagement with the social and physical environment. The goal is to focus on how “cognitive niche construction” provided both selective pressures, and potential adaptive pathways, for the hominin transition to speech.

Students will be expected to complete the assigned readings, attend a weekly meeting prepared to actively engage in discussion, and help facilitate select meetings. A short final paper, integrating class material with a relevant topic of interest, will be required.

Class meet Wednesday 1:00am-3:50am in CSB 272

COGS ​2​60 (A00): Scientific Writing Workshop | Professor Anastasia Kiyonaga

This course is a workshop and practical seminar to promote effective scientific writing. The main goal is to help students write more frequently—and to produce more writing in general—with the understanding that the practice will lead to better writing.

Class meet Monday 3:00pm-5:50pm in CSB 272

SIOC 216A: Introduction to the Physics of Complex Systems | Professor Brad Werner

The study of complex systems is centrally focused on deciphering the ways in which the complicated interacts with the simple - the way a sand grain relates to a river, a tree relates to a forest, a worker relates to global capitalism, an Indigenous clan relates to millennia of their culture, a resistance fighter relates to their resistance movement and the struggle against injustice.

In SIOC 216A, we will discuss the philosophical underpinnings of complexity and its implications, the conceptual and mathematical apparatus that has been developed (and continues to be developed) for analyzing complex systems, specific tools for probing different kinds of complex systems, modeling, measurement and data analysis strategies, and a framework for asking questions and answering them for any complex system.

Applications will include physical systems from canyons to climate, biological systems from flagella to forests, human systems from consciousness to culture, economic systems from stock markets to socialism, and political systems from colonialism to collectivism.

You will finish the course with a working knowledge of the concepts and methods used in the study of complex systems and how they have been and can be applied in the natural and social sciences.

In the last several weeks of the course in 2025, we will use the methods of complexity to analyze anti-Blackness and the struggles against it; unnatural disasters; the dynamics of injustice, centers of power and resistance movements; and the climate crisis.

Class meet Tu/Th 11:00am-12:20pm in OAR 150