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This course examines Native American, Spanish, and Anglo arts and cultures of the American Southwest between 100 CE and the 21st century. It considers the effects of ethnicity, gender, and community identity on regional art traditions and places artworks within their material, religious, political, and economic contexts. Astronomical alignments, water, earth and sky, spirits and saints, the living and their ancestors—these are among the themes in the art of the region. Emphasis is placed on careful seeing, individual analysis and reflection, and collaborative learning. The course is designed for 51����-in-Taos. Many class days include field trips or interactive projects. Films, readings, and PowerPoint slide talks set the stage for visits to artists’ studios, archaeological sites, pueblos, churches, and museums. Hands-on art projects are simple and require no previous art experience to succeed. They will help you understand the technical and aesthetic qualities of artworks we study in this class.

This non-major introductory biology course with a special focus on aquatic biology studies the aquatic systems of the American Southwest, emphasizing the unique challenges and adaptations of life in semi-arid environments prone to drastic seasonal and occasional catastrophic (e.g., wildfire) disruptions. The 51����-in-Taos campus serves as an ideal hub for this course by providing direct access to study these specific environments. Students benefit from hands-on field experiences, allowing them to conduct fieldwork, collect data, and directly observe the region's aquatic biodiversity, thus deepening their understanding of the ecological principles discussed in the course. Taos' geographical location and the richness of its surrounding aquatic environments serve as a living laboratory, enabling students to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world settings.

Counts as an Honors course. This interdisciplinary course explores the history of New Mexico, from the pre-contact era to the present. In the first half of the class, we will consider New Mexico’s successive and overlapping waves of human settlement, from Pueblo Indians, to the Spanish Empire, the Mexican Republic, and the United States, with particular attention to the complex relationships between Native peoples, Hispanos, and Anglo-Americans. Then we will turn to a handful of key topics that continue to define the so-called Land of Enchantment even today: religion and spirituality; the natural world (particularly New Mexico’s scarce water resources); and its enduring cultural symbolism as reflected in literature and film.

Counts as an Honors course and a Business Elective. This course will show students how to leverage fundamental marketing frameworks and apply them to the nuances related to social impact marketing. In this course, the term “sustainability” will cover both Planet and People related issues (i.e. environmental as well as social issues), as it is known that these are many times inter-related. In the beautiful natural environment of Taos, New Mexico, students will have the chance to engage with 4 organizations that have either or both an environmental and social mission. After our site visits, students will be able to choose which of the 4 organizations they want to focus on for the duration of the course.

Mountain Sports is a class where students will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities such as hiking, rafting, rock climbing, and fly-fishing. Students will have the opportunity to apply the five components of health related fitness to all of the activities that they pursue.

A survey of the theoretical, practical, and ethical issues associated with creative thinking and making. Examines strategies for promoting creativity and the creative thinker’s role in shaping culture. As a special “Taos Edition” of this course, taught in the beautiful and culturally-rich American Southwest, our exploration of creativity will feature extended discussions of the ways in which beauty plays a special role in our understanding of art and creativity with an emphasis on Georgia O’Keeffe who lived and worked for many years in the high-desert landscape surrounding Taos. The course will feature at least two field trips that takes full advantage of the unique opportunities offered by our learning environment. This course is devoted to understanding the mysterious nature of creativity as both art and science. Considerations from philosophy, ethics, biology, sociology, economics and the fine arts will all be brought to bear on our study of this elusive concept, cultiminating in an exploration of creativity as it takes shape in the realm of advertising - from ideation to execution, as well as in organizational dynamics.

An overview of the ecology, evolution, and identification of plants and animals of the Southwest region. The course will heavily rely on the wildlife around Taos as a teaching tool. You will go on 2 hikes, learn to identify plants and animals, and give two presentations on evolution and wildlife. An introduction to the major concepts of biological thought for the nonscience major. Learn about the geology and ecology of the Southwest, the role human plays in conservation and sustainability of our planet, and the major events that took place in the evolution of life. BIOL 1300 is not open to students with prior credit in BIOL 1301 or BIOL 1401.

In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of experimentation research for the purposes of designing novel measurement studies for drone communications. Students will also learn about the unique problems that are facing wireless communications when designed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which has the challenges of Doppler effects induced by high levels of mobility, limited power consumption, and highly-restrictive load capabilities. In the advanced version of the course (7393), students take on leadership roles with the labs and the projects and are expected to lead efforts to publications in top-tier conferences with measurement results.

Mountain Sports is a class where students will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities such as hiking, rafting, rock climbing, and fly-fishing. Students will have the opportunity to apply the five components of health related fitness to all of the activities that they pursue.

Addresses issues that pertain to how individuals adjust to various developmental, social, and cultural challenges across their lifespan and environments. Throughout life one is faced with many challenges whether that is learning how to walk and talk, developing one’s own identity, getting through school, starting and keeping friendships and romantic relationships, establishing a successful career, maintaining mental and physical health, or dealing with the impact of a global pandemic. Why do some individuals navigate these challenges seemingly easily while others struggle? Can we predict how successful people will be? What role did early life experience play in navigating such challenges? By taking a scientific look at the challenges that have shaped your life, and an empirical examination of individual differences and their association with life challenges, this course will provide you with the tools to both better understand your life challenges and apply what you have learned to everyday life. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, papers and presentations, and experiential learning in a field trip, this class will highlight the major theoretical perspectives and contemporary research findings regarding individual differences and how they are related to challenges throughout the lifespan. We will incorporate research and theory from Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Social Psychology, and Personality Psychology. Broadly speaking the course is split into two sections. The first section of the course will focus on individual differences and challenges during childhood and adolescences that have shaped your development in life up to this point. The second section will focus on adulthood and predicting challenges one might encounter into the future. As a whole, this class will push you to think critically about the application of psychological science to challenges of everyday life. The format of this course as an interim course will allow for in-depth discussions, application, and application of psychological concepts to a variety of life experiences and challenges.

Counts as an Honors course. First, the course seeks to provide you with an introduction to a wide variety of religious traditions, communities and practices within the context of globalization. Topics we will cover include the rise of religion as an academic subject in the age of modernity, religion as it relates to colonialism and national identities, religious expression in the media and in popular culture, and changing religious practices and expressions in the light of globalization and immigration. Second, this course aims to introduce you to several approaches to the academic study of religion. Throughout the course we will explore the ways that people have and do investigate religious histories, practices and people. Finally, this course is designed to build your skills in the analysis of complex argumentation and your abilities to discuss matters critically, curiously, and civically.

Explores the nonprofit sector’s role in addressing myriad social problems. Students examine issues such as poverty, domestic violence, health care, and the aging population. Traditional lectures on campus introduce concepts relating to the social issue being explored and the specific ways in which the nonprofit sector is working to mitigate the problems. Includes fieldtrips to local nonprofit agencies to tour facilities and meet with administrators, volunteers, and clients who are working to address the social problems discussed in class.

Counts as an Honors course. This interdisciplinary and experiential course examines the intersections of food and identity in the Southwest. Through literary and scholarly texts, film, fine arts, pop culture, and experiences, students explore topics such as heritage and tradition, cultural contact and exchange, conquest, resistance and revolution, issues of gender, and responses to modernity and change in the so-called “American Southwest.” Examines how technology (including agriculture, cooking technology, commercial farming, global trade networks, and social media) impacts the production, consumption, distribution, dynamics of power, and systems of meaning of food and eating in this region.