Search Courses
You may search for a Senior Capstone course by selecting a THEME or TERM from the menu at the left. You may also search by entering a part of the title or the instructors name in the box below. For concise listings of all 2021-2022 Capstone offerings, review our Capstone Capsule. If you need assistance, contact the Capstone Office/University Studies at 503.725.5890.
Please refer to the PSU Class Schedule regarding the days, hours, and meeting location. For information about when the new class schedule is available or when you can register for the new term, follow this link: When to Register.
NOTE: Due to the intensive nature of Capstones, students must receive permission from the course instructor prior to the first day of class if they are going to miss the first class session. For on-line Capstones, students must demonstrate active participation during the first week of the term. All Capstone courses factor in student attendance and participation into the final grade which is deeply impacted by missing the first week of the term.
NOTE: "Sustainability" tagged courses will NOT automatically count toward the Sustainability Minor. Students must seek approval from Joseph Maser, Ph.D. in the Environmental Science & Management department to count any Capstone toward that specific minor.
SEARCH BY Title or Instructor: Enter a single word from the title of a Capstone, "gardens", "justice", "literacy", etc., the Course Registration Number (CRN), or a professor's first or last name in the box below.
Instructor Name: M. Khalil Zonoozy
CRN: 44137
A comprehensive and engaging examination of contemporary multicultural and cross-cultural imperatives, this capstone explores the barriers to justice for ethnic and racial minorities. Special attention will be given to the U.S. institutional structure and the justice system. Utilizing a progressive and proactive approach, students will acquire a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation of the root causes of the existing disparities. Their learning outcome will be enhanced through...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Community Health Criminal & Juvenile Justice
Instructor Name: Erik Bodegom, Drake Mitchell (Winter 2022)
CRN: 64794
IMPORTANT: This Capstone course will not be available for the 2020-2021 academic year.
This Capstone takes place over the winter and spring terms. Students enrolled in Research Experience for Science Majors will develop an understanding and appreciation for scientific, societal, economic, political, and ethical dimensions of science. This will be accomplished through group work, where a selection of readings will be the springboard for presentations and discussions. Further work is...
Spring 2020Spring 2022Winter 2020Winter 2022
Business-Engineering-Technology Research Science
Instructor Name: Gabe Sheoships
CRN: 81166, 14129
Students will participate in interpretive programs facilitated within the Tryon Creek State Natural Area.
It is important to ground ourselves and acknowledge the people whose land we are utilizing; the
Clackamas Chinook, the Wasco-Wishram, the Willamette Tumwater, the Multnomah, and other
Chinookan peoples, as well as the Tualatin Kalapuya, the Cayuse, the Molalla and other tribes and bands
of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. It is important to acknowledge the original inhabitants of the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Summer 2019Summer 2020Spring 2020
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science Culture
Instructor Name: Sarah A. Bunton, PhD
CRN: 63933
Cultivating Leadership Capacity and Promoting Educational Equity
This interactive course explores the conceptual intersections of educational equity, social responsibility, and the development of leadership capacity. Using a tiered leadership model as a framework, and with a foundation emphasizing education as a key influence on an individual’s social and economic future and opportunities, this class partners with Portland Public Schools (PPS). Throughout the term, PSU students have...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022
educational equity Education-Youth Leadership social change
Instructor Name: David Osborn
CRN: 64057
Forests, Narratives and Social Movements
Social movements have shaped the world we live in and are one of the most important sources of social change. They often organize to address issues of inequity, oppression or prejudice in local, regional, national and transnational spheres. They arise to address factual situations: the number of people without health care, levels of air pollution, racial profiling, unemployment, deaths in war or the destruction of the environment. However, facts alone...
Spring 2020
Sustainability Activism social movements Ecology Leadership Sociology
Instructor Name: Eva Thanheiser
CRN: 63760
We will explore how mathematics can be used to understand, explore, and investigate racial and social injustices in the United States. We live in a society where mathematics is at the foundation of many injustices. In " The Mathematics of Racism," you will use mathematics to explore and examine various topics that allow us to understand systemic racism in the United States. Each week we will examine either a current topic or one or more of the following topics in depth:
1. The...
Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2020
Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: Don Trapp
CRN: 64080
Service Coordination Team is multi-agency, multi-faceted program to manage what have been identified as chronic offenders in Multnomah County, Oregon. The purpose of this Capstone is to develop and undertake an evaluation of this program from both a process and outcome perspective. Students will work with all stakeholders in this program at various sites in the community. The final product will be a summary, presented orally and in writing, of the research findings.
Spring 2020
Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Ann McClanan
CRN: 63768
The Medieval Portland capstone is a great fit if you love research, for in this class each student undertakes--with mentoring from the Professor--an individual research project about either a locally housed medieval object or a Portland building with influence from medieval architecture. Students from many different majors have done well in the capstone, as long as they work hard doing the detective work involved in original research. The community partner varies depending on the term, but...
Spring 2020Spring 2022Spring 2023
Research Arts Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Marylin (Katie) Kissinger
CRN: 63990
Strengthening Headstart: Health, Growth And Justice Head Start is this nation's largest investment in young children to date. It is also one of the few remaining efforts from the 1960's "War on Poverty".
Students will:
review data and documentation of the historical successes and challenges of Head Start;
analyze and reflect on the impact it has had in communities;
engage in a qualitative/participatory research project;
design a collective action project in conjunction with Head Start...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Research Education-Youth Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Deborah Arthur
CRN: 64484, 44169
How do I transform my own life? How do I transform my community and the world? This course provides an opportunity for a small group of students from PSU and a small group of students incarcerated at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility (MYCF) to work together in a structured peer and collaborative learning environment to address these questions. Each week, a small group of PSU students and incarcerated young men will meet at MYCF in Woodburn. Students (both outside PSU and inside students)...
Spring 2020Winter 2020
Education-Youth Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Debra Lindberg
CRN: 63980
Faculty Bio
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022
Instructor Name: Laura Mulas
CRN: 63969
This capstone is designed to provide an opportunity to learn about Spanish culture and society by means of synchronous and asynchronous discussion group forums between American and Spanish middle and high school students. The communities of students will be from: Portland, Oregon, various schools in Washington state and Zamora, Spain. These forums will be between paired classes (one USA and one Spanish) of similar grade and language level and will be facilitated and monitored by both teachers...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Spring 2022Summer 2020Winter 2020
Education - Youth Global Perspectives Online or Hybrid Courses Education International Capstones International Relations social justice
Instructor Name: Dr. Rajiv Sharma
CRN: 63932
Students will contribute to an ongoing research project on access to healthcare. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own experience with the healthcare system as well as collect, analyze and disseminate information on access to primary care in the US. No prior research experience required. Results will be presented to Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
Portland State University has the only group in the US that conducts a national longitudinal audit of primary...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022
Instructor Name: Michelle Swinehart
CRN: 63784
This Capstone partners with two schools in Oregon - Walt Morey Middle School in the Reynolds School District and Wilson River School in Tillamook, Oregon. PSU students will provide creative mentoring to students to help them express themselves through storytelling. The course will examine issues of social justice; power and privilege in our society, community and classrooms; holistic learning; the power of empathy and being vulnerable in a leadership role; and what creates self-advocacy. PSU...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023
Education - Youth Youth education and social justice
Instructor Name: Carmen Denison, and Guest Faculty: Keela Johnson
CRN: 64796
This six credit course combines applied critical race theory, historical and contemporary Black Liberation narratives, and community-based learning to address pressing social issues affecting Black communities across the state of Oregon. Using critical dialogic pedagogy, the Black Civil Rights/Black Liberation class seeks to create collaborative learning spaces where students and Black-led initiatives can engage in prescient conversations about race and racism. The capstone class contributes...
Spring 2020Spring 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022
Instructor Name: Nariyo Kono
CRN: 44067
The goal of this course is to give students a solid background in historical and societal issues that influence language diversity through hands-on collaboration with current language sustainability efforts. This capstone partners with endangered language communities in the Northwest (tribal language programs in general and the Warm Springs Tribal Language Program, specifically) to work together to support those programs by giving students “on-the-ground” skills to accompany class studies....
Spring 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Online or Hybrid Courses Activism Education Fund Raising indigenous Sustainability
Instructor Name: Neera Malhotra
CRN: 81601
Trauma often leads to contemplative dissociation- a detachment from the body and the mind. Through a social justice framework, together we will explore trauma and healing using Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). IPNB is relational neuroscience that offers kinder, broader wisdom to understand how we are hurt and how we heal within relationships (including the relationship with the self). In this class, you will learn about trauma, including internalized oppression, grief, and suffering; healing...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Summer 2021Summer 2022
trauma-healing; contemplative practices; interpersonal neurobiology; social justice
Instructor Name: Annie Knepler
CRN: 63807
This Capstone will partner with the Learning Gardens Laboratory (LGL), a 12-acre garden education site on Portland’s southeast side. Students work collaboratively to gather stories of community gardeners, teachers, and community partners who regularly gather at LGL to learn and farm. Capstone students will gain skills in interviewing, storytelling, and using narrative as a means for social change, in addition to learning about sustainable food systems and the impact of learning gardens.
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023
Community Health Sustainability Education social justice Ecology Garden-based learning food
Instructor Name: Amy Collins
CRN: 63775
Violence Prevention
This course will provide students with the opportunity to explore the primary prevention of interpersonal violence and other forms of systemic harm. Essential to the praxis of the course is a social justice framework that scrutinizes the impact of socialization on the creation of judgments and prejudices that lead to inequities in experiences of violence. Success in this work requires innovative, integrated approaches that leverage partnerships to drive structural, societal...
Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2020