The Art and Politics of Walking

a Discovery Core Experience

May be taken as BCORE 107 (Social Sciences) or BCORE 104 (Arts & Humanities)

About This Course

Walking, like eating, breathing, and sleeping, is for many of us an unremarkable part of being alive, something we do without much thought or socio-cultural critique. But walking is a medium that can give us perspectives on society, nature, and ourselves. This class will examine the relation of walking to human evolution, health, cognition, contemplation, spirituality, place-based knowledge, environmental protection, urban design and wild trail networks, pedestrian rights, citizenship, public space, protest marches, social movements, and more. In addition to rigorous intellectual engagement with ideas about walking we will attend to a practice of walking consciously and deliberately, both in solitude and in groups, on and off the Bothell campus.

Why Should I Take This Course?

The class exposes students to ideas about walking through contemporary research, literary traditions, and social practices such as marches and protests. But it also offers students different experiences in arts of walking on and off the UW Bothell campus, in parks and urban cores, with classmates and with the professor as a guide. You will learn to slow down, de-stress, and take in the places you inhabit in all its intricacy and magnificence.

What Will I Study?

Walking seems simple, but upon closer inspection it is really complex. We will examine the relation of walking to human evolution, health, cognition, creativity, contemplation, spirituality, place-based knowledge, environmental protection, urban design and wild trail networks, pedestrian rights, citizenship, public space, protest marches, social movements, and more.

Selected Texts & Films

  • Thich Nhat Hahn, How to Walk
  • Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
  • Frederic Gros, A Philosophy of Walking
  • Alexandra Horowitz, On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation
  • Kevin Craft, Traverse: Poems About Walking in the PNW

Selected Projects & Activities

Weekly Walking Journal with suggested activities. Research into “epic walks” — walking adventures that people do to test limits, set records, raise money for social causes, find themselves, or become enlightened.

Professor Jason Frederick Lambacher (he/him/his)

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Professor Lambacher

Ph.D. Political Science, University of Washington 2013

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