New courses in cognitive archaeology to be offered soon

Professors Thomas Wynn and Frederick Coolidge have long been in the process of developing new courses that will provide students with the opportunity to earn a certificate in cognitive archaeology.

The courses, some of which are already up and running, will be offered through the new Center for Cognitive Archaeology. The courses will be offered as a mix of lectures on campus and online courses; as such, they will allow for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as professors and experts from across the world, to participate in the courses.

The Center for Cognitive Archaeology is still in its youth, explains Coolidge; however, the idea had been percolating in the minds of Coolidge and Wynn for quite some time.

"Professor Wynn and I had been colleagues for 20 years," Coolidge explained, "and we never said anything but hello."

However, in 2001, Coolidge was developing an idea concerning the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, particularly whether or not they had language. Coolidge admitted that, at the time, "I didn't know anything about anthropology," so he visited the office of Wynn, who was associate dean at the time.

It was fortuitous that the office Coolidge walked into happened to be the office of an anthropologist who pioneered the field of cognitive archaeology.

Ten years, numerous articles and three books later, the two are creating the Center for Cognitive Archaeology. The center, as explained by Wynn, is simply "an idea that exists on paper and in the minds of Wynn and Coolidge;" it is more of an administrative entity that allows Wynn and Coolidge to offer courses in cognitive archaeology without taking resources away from other departments.

"It wouldn't be a department," said Wynn, "so it wouldn't come with all the baggage that can be associated with a department...which allows us to focus on [more specialized] issues."

"The major reason we went with a center, as opposed to an emphasis in a department, is that the approach is truly interdisciplinary," he said.

At this point, the center is still in its infancy; however, the center, the courses and the certificate should be fully online and available by the end of 2012.

The courses that will be offered, to name but a few, include Cognitive Evolution, History of Cognitive Archaeology, Rock Art and Hominid Paleoneurology.

Although not all of the courses are yet available to students, those who are interested in the program can enroll in Cognitive Evolution, which is offered this Spring semester.

Senior Klint Janulis, who has completed the class, says that the inception and actualization of the center was "the deciding factor" in his decision to pursue graduate work at UCCS. "The University is fortunate to have a pair of professors with such intellectual firepower," he said.

Lee Overmann, a graduate student in the psychology master's program who is currently studying cognitive archaeology with Wynn and Coolidge, says that after having helped draft the center's charter, she wants to earn the program's first certificate.

"This is a cutting-edge field," she explained, "and the certificate serves to highlight academic accomplishment within it."

The new center is already attracting students who attend UCCS, but in all actuality, "most students who have asked about graduate work [in cognitive archaeology] have been foreign students," said Wynn. Because of this, the center will offer most of the classes as either on-campus or online, which is sure to stimulate the growth rate of our already blossoming school.

For those students who are interested in cognitive archaeology, the center will have a website up by the end of the Spring semester.