This course examines agriculture as a set of ecological systems and related social aspects, focusing on organic and/or sustainable production methods, and agroecology. It refers to ecology in the sense of interactions between organisms (e.g., pests and predators; wildlife) and the larger sense of environmental impacts (e.g., pollution; climate change), along with key related social issues and solutions (e.g., power relationships; government subsidies).

This course examines agriculture as a set of ecological systems and related social aspects, focusing on organic and/or sustainable production methods, and agroecology. It refers to ecology in the sense of interactions between organisms (e.g., pests and predators; wildlife) and the larger sense of environmental impacts (e.g., pollution; climate change), along with key related social issues and solutions (e.g., power relationships; government subsidies).

Deepen and redefine your relationship with outdoor spaces during OPRA's course: How We Relate to Outdoor Spaces. This class will critically examine the ways in which humans develop and maintain relationships with outdoor space. We will challenge our biases and assumptions regarding relationships with "nature" and grow our community with our more-than-human neighbors by getting to know: water spaces, rocks, animals, plants, etc through activities like hiking, canoeing, or rock climbing and learning from experts about our responsibility to these spaces.

This course is an opportunity to experience many activities that make up outdoor adventure. Students will be introduced to natural areas in the Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts. There will be a variety of activities including hiking, canoeing, outdoor cooking, and biking. This course is an opportunity to get out each week and learn new outdoor adventure skills. No experience with any of the outdoor activities is required to participate in this class! There will be one required overnight Friday November 10th to Saturday November 11th.

This seven week course will focus on enjoying cycling and learning to be competent road riders. Western Massachusetts is a beautiful area filled with some of the best road and gravel biking in the region, and we will ride in a different location each class. We will also learn how to change a flat tire, and learn how to share the road with other people and vehicles. There will be an optional overnight bike camping trip the weekend of October 21st. You can borrow a Hampshire bicycle for this class.

Introduction to Backpacking: This course will cover the basics of hiking and backpacking, including gear selection and use, how to cook on a campstove, how to take care of the natural spaces we interact with, and how to dress, camp, and live comfortably in the outdoors. We'll learn how to use topographic maps, how to plan a successful backpacking trip, and how to take care of ourselves and each other in the outdoors. No experience is necessary and absolute beginners with no experience are welcome and encouraged!

African American dance and music traditions have played a critical role in how African-Americans chose to convey and sustain their humanity and express joy and pain corporeally and through a particular relationship to rhythm. This class will explore the forms, contents and contexts of black dance traditions that played a crucial role in shaping American dance; focusing on how expressive cultural forms from the African diaspora have been transferred from the religious and social spaces to the concert stage.

This course will explore the chemical ecology and natural products chemistry of New England native and crop plants through a combination of classroom, field and lab experiences. We'll take advantage of both the Farm Center and the richly forested areas on and around Hampshire's campus to learn about the molecules that plants use to communicate and interact with the organisms around them, and how humans have learned to purify and adapt them for use as materials and medicines.

This course is an introduction to the structure, properties, reactivity, and spectroscopy of organic molecules, as well as their significance in our daily lives. We will first lay down the groundwork for the course, covering bonding, physical properties of organic compounds, stereochemistry, and kinetics and thermodynamics of organic reactions. We will then move on to the reactions of alkanes, alkyl halides, alcohols and ethers, alkenes, and alkynes, emphasizing the molecular mechanisms that allow us to predict and understand chemical behavior.

"Sustainability" is today an urgent concern, but how can we understand the term in its broadest sense? Historic preservation--the protection and interpretation of our built environment and cultural landscapes-is a means of both exploring our history and shaping civic identity. One contemporary challenge therefore involves the question of how to deal with "sites of conscience" and oppression: "slave-powered" plantations, Confederate monuments, sites of the Holocaust and genocides.