Global Challenges 2025: What’s Next?

November 21, 2025

Global Challenges 2025: What’s Next?

Looking for ways to keep this year’s Global Challenges conversation going? Explore these upcoming UW courses, readings, and opportunities to get involved in projects both on and off campus to become part of the conversation on public trust in science. 

Upcoming Courses

In Honors

Winter 2026

  • HONORS 221 A: The Science of Human Values (5 credits) NSc, W. Instructor: K.C. Cole 
  • HONORS 221 B/C: DNA & Evolution  (5) NSc, W. Instructor: John Herron
  • HONORS 221 C: The Scientific Toolbox: Using Scientific Technologies to Investigate the Natural World (5) NSc, W. Instructor: Lincoln Harris
  • HONORS 231 B: Improving Population Health through Social Entrepreneurship (5) SSc, DIV, W. Instructor: Akhtar Badshah
  • HONORS 394 D: lovework: an unfinished syllabus (5) A&H, SSc, DIV, W. Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell

Spring 2026

  • HONORS 222 C/D: Evolution & Human Behavior (5) NSc, W. Instructor: Jon Herron
  • HONORS 394 B: What is Democracy? (5) A&H / SSc, DIV, W. Instructor: Mark Purcell

And Beyond

  • ARCTIC 400: Integrating Policy and Science in Arctic Studies (3) NSc, SSc
  • ASTR 270: Public Outreach in Astronomy (3) A&H, NSc
  • ATMOS 111: Global Warming: Understanding the Issues (5) NSc, SSc
  • ENGL 296: Critical Literacy in the Natural Sciences (5) C, W
  • Science Communication Courses for Undergrads and Grad Students Curated by the UW College of the Environment
  • ENVIR 103/JSIS B103/SMEA 103: Society and the Oceans (5), NSc, SSc, DIV 
  • ENVIR 201/ SMEA 201: Climate Governance: How Individuals, Communities, NGOs, Firms, and Governments Can Solve the Climate Crisis (5) NSc, SSc, DIV
  • ENVIR 239: Sustainability: Personal Choices, Broad Impacts (5) NSc, SSc
  • ENVIR 439: Attaining a Sustainable Society (5) NSc, SSc, DIV
  • ESRM 421: Role of Culture and Place in Natural Resource Stewardship: Yakama Nation Experience (3) NSc, SSc, DIV
  • G H 101: Introduction to Global Health: Disparities, Determinants, Policies, and Outcomes (5) SSc
  • G H 201: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Global Health (1) SSc, DIV
  • G H 305: Global Health and Justice (3) SSc
  • G H 306: Introduction to Collaborative Approaches and Respectful Partnerships in Global Health (5) SSc
  • JSIS B216/PHYS 216: Science and Society (5) NSc, SSc
  • PHG 200: Implications of Public Health Genomics for the Modern World (3) NSc, SSc
  • PHIL 160: Why Do We Believe in Quarks, Evolution, and Other Crazy Things? Perspectives on Science, Reason, and Reality (5) NSc, SSc
  • POL S 384: Global Environmental Politics
  • NMETH 210: Science, Evidence and Health: Mastering Health Information and Personal Health Technologies (4, 5) NSc, SSc

Resources

Centers & Projects Underway at UW

Recommended Reading

By GCIT Speakers

  • “A Climate of Stigma, Uncertainty, and Distrust: Stakeholder Perception of Barriers to SNF Placement for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder Treated with Methadone,” by Maralyssa Bann et al.
  • “The atomic bomb, exile and a test of brotherly bonds: Robert and Frank Oppenheimer,” by K.C. Cole
  • First You Build a Cloud by K.C. Cole
  • Sympathetic Vibrations: Reflections on Physics As a Way of Life by K.C. Cole
  • Evolutionary Analysis by Jon C. Herron and Scott Freeman  
  • “Five Decades of Radioglaciology.” Annals of Glaciology, by Michelle Koutnik et al.

Further Recommended Reading