In this capstone course, a portfolio studio, students will complete the Interdisciplinary or College Honors Program by creating educational narratives within vibrant, creative, online portfolios. Each student will reflect upon the intersection of formal coursework and experiential learning by exploring, collaborating, articulating, testing out, refining, and showcasing the Honors portfolio to a community of peers and mentors. Using portfolio platforms introduced in Honors 100, students will be asked to creatively reflect on the connections between and across their UW courses and disciplines, as well as to consider in-classroom knowledge and its interface with academia and experiences outside of the classroom.

 

Students must request an add code via this link: https://forms.gle/fahxhGcTR6r7P4my9

In this capstone course, a portfolio studio, students will complete the Interdisciplinary or College Honors Program by creating educational narratives within vibrant, creative, online portfolios. Each student will reflect upon the intersection of formal coursework and experiential learning by exploring, collaborating, articulating, testing out, refining, and showcasing the Honors portfolio to a community of peers and mentors. Using portfolio platforms introduced in Honors 100, students will be asked to creatively reflect on the connections between and across their UW courses and disciplines, as well as to consider in-classroom knowledge and its interface with academia and experiences outside of the classroom.

 

Students must request an add code via this link: https://forms.gle/fahxhGcTR6r7P4my9

This course will be an introduction to modern Japan through films, in which we will use a wide variety of twentieth-century works to discuss an array of topics. Not only will we be viewing films in a variety of genres – documentary, drama, comedy, historical pieces, the avant-garde, gangster films, and animation – we will also be discussing topics ranging from the nature of art to the moral questions of nuclear modernity. Although our discussions will be sensitive to the specific nature of film as an expressive medium, we will consider the topics of art, history, society, war, propaganda, tradition, and morality.

This course will examine the topic of attention through the lens of contemporary art. We will examine how attention is perceived, mediated, and valued, and utilize art as a way to consider issues of focus and awareness. Through attending local exhibitions, installations, and performances, students will have opportunities to concentrate on practices of close-looking, while additionally encountering artworks that challenge traditional modes of engagement. In class, students will participate in exercises that are intended to train skills in noticing and recording. Guest speakers will supplement these activities by sharing how attention relates to their individual research practice, and readings will further investigate issues of attention from a range of disciplinary perspectives including art history, philosophy, psychology, and media studies. Throughout the course, students will be challenged to question what they are paying attention to, how they are paying attention, and why it matters.

Humans make music. The music we make assumes many forms, but species-wide we share certain basic musical capacities and these, in turn, are part of what make us human. Seen in evolutionary perspective, we also share some of these capacities with other species, including now-extinct hominids and other living mammals. But among the examples of musicality in the animal kingdom, none has occupied so potent a place in human imaginations as birdsong. Drawing together writings in musicology, ethnomusicology, anthropology, sound studies, animal studies, ornithology, and evolutionary studies, as well as artworks and creative non-fiction, this interdisciplinary course will explore some of the ways in which birdsong has served as the animal foil for human music-making: as an object of aesthetic interest and academic study, as a source of metaphors for conceptualizing the world around us, and as a matrix for defining human and species-level differences. Together we will begin to clarify what’s at stake when asking a question that arises repeatedly in readings, lectures, and field work: is birdsong music?

International law obligates States to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. Yet in a world of global markets where the practices of transnational businesses have a profound impact on human rights conditions, potential limits on the authority of States and the reach of international law are apparent. This course will consider what role non-state actors can and should have in the protection of human rights and how effective international law is in holding corporate actors accountable for their violation. It will provide an overview of the growing field of business and human rights practice and examine the parts played by different actors in the private and public sector in giving human rights meaning. The course will raise core questions about the relationship between corporate power, human rights, and the effectiveness of international law in regulating unequal relationships in the global economy. The course will consider the differences between corporate social responsibility, corporate accountability, and corporate philanthropy, and evaluate how (and if) each lead to better human rights outcomes for communities, workers, and others. We will also look at the connections between gender, business, and human rights, and what companies are (and are not) doing to manage the human rights impacts of their operations and business relationships. Students will have the opportunity to explore the strategies used by actors working in the field and consider their own roles as consumers in the protection of human rights.

Everybody always talks about democracy. Most people seem to support it. Today, lots of people worry that it is under threat. But what does democracy actually mean? What are the many possible understandings of that term? This course is an opportunity for you to read, understand, and critically evaluate the many ideas of democracy, from ancient Greece to the present. We will seek to understand, together, what those ideas are, what we think of them, and how we can use them as a resource in our own thinking about democracy today.

Success is demanding, as any student knows, and all that discipline-hard work, sacrifice, perseverance-can come to seem an end in itself. But as queer theorist Jack Halberstam has noted, sometimes failure turns out to be a better bet than success: it can reveal the blindspots of dominant ideologies, while opening up alternative ways of living in the world. The racialization of Asian Americans, in particular, is tied to concepts of success, failure, and achievement that reflect long histories of colonialism, racism, and immigration, operating simultaneously through ‘model minority’ stereotypes in pop culture, ethnic community and family dynamics, and the structure of US higher education. Taking Asian American racialization as our point of entry, this course guides students of all backgrounds through meditations on failure emerging from Asian American studies, Black studies, queer theory, and disability studies, as well as wide-ranging genres including poetry, indie comics, and creative writing. Students will work collaboratively to explore what failure can reveal about higher education and academic institutions, and develop a framework for naming the predicaments of education, achievement, family, and community that shape their academic paths and collective well-being. Authors studied may include Mimi Khúc, erin Khuê Ninh, Steven Salaita, Lynda Barry, Fred Moten, and more.

This course explores the natural and history of the Pacific Northwest. The role that biodiversity and ecological processes have had in ancestral and modern societies in the PNW will be an important part of our understanding of natural history and the relationships of human and the environment. As a contribution to this, students will read about and discuss issues of the value and role of biodiversity in their own life. A further goal of the class will be to improve the student’s observation skills by turning them into written naturalist journals that include reflective pieces, and by contributing to a class blog. Other creative methods of communication to larger audiences, for example with visual or other artistic pieces, will also be encouraged.

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these: Why are women and men different? Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy? Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children? When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these: Why are women and men different? Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy? Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children? When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?

Humans make music. The music we make assumes many forms, but species-wide we share certain basic musical capacities and these, in turn, are part of what make us human. Seen in evolutionary perspective, we also share some of these capacities with other species, including now-extinct hominids and other living mammals. But among the examples of musicality in the animal kingdom, none has occupied so potent a place in human imaginations as birdsong. Drawing together writings in musicology, ethnomusicology, anthropology, sound studies, animal studies, ornithology, and evolutionary studies, as well as artworks and creative non-fiction, this interdisciplinary course will explore some of the ways in which birdsong has served as the animal foil for human music-making: as an object of aesthetic interest and academic study, as a source of metaphors for conceptualizing the world around us, and as a matrix for defining human and species-level differences. Together we will begin to clarify what’s at stake when asking a question that arises repeatedly in readings, lectures, and field work: is birdsong music?

The Ecology of Urban Seattle examines social, design, political, and environmental factors that promote healthy urban neighborhoods and the integration of urban communities and ecological realities. We will use these interactions to gain a deeper awareness of how these systems function in relationship to each other, to social and economic diversity, and to growth management and climate change. A Race and Social Justice (RSJ) screen will be employed as a key element in evaluating how communities are shaped. Cities function as a place where human communities come together to work, live, and interact. They also exist in a specific social, political, and ecological context, including the relationship between development and the environment, the interaction of human habitation and natural systems, and the relationship of human activities to the health of diverse cultures and the long-term viability of the local and global climate. This class tells the story of the emerging urban paradigm built around resilience and sustainability, along with the social context through which that evolves (past and future). Participants will study three communities, take field trips to them, review their history and ecological context, examine the course of neighborhood development, and discuss these elements in class. The instructor will lead the class through an RSJ review of each community, beginning with an introduction to the technique and presentation on the initial neighborhood, and leading to student papers applying the RSJ screen to a neighborhood.

International law obligates States to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. Yet in a world of global markets where the practices of transnational businesses have a profound impact on human rights conditions, potential limits on the authority of States and the reach of international law are apparent. This course will consider what role non-state actors can and should have in the protection of human rights and how effective international law is in holding corporate actors accountable for their violation. It will provide an overview of the growing field of business and human rights practice and examine the parts played by different actors in the private and public sector in giving human rights meaning. The course will raise core questions about the relationship between corporate power, human rights, and the effectiveness of international law in regulating unequal relationships in the global economy. The course will consider the differences between corporate social responsibility, corporate accountability, and corporate philanthropy, and evaluate how (and if) each lead to better human rights outcomes for communities, workers, and others. We will also look at the connections between gender, business, and human rights, and what companies are (and are not) doing to manage the human rights impacts of their operations and business relationships. Students will have the opportunity to explore the strategies used by actors working in the field and consider their own roles as consumers in the protection of human rights.

Everybody always talks about democracy. Most people seem to support it. Today, lots of people worry that it is under threat. But what does democracy actually mean? What are the many possible understandings of that term? This course is an opportunity for you to read, understand, and critically evaluate the many ideas of democracy, from ancient Greece to the present. We will seek to understand, together, what those ideas are, what we think of them, and how we can use them as a resource in our own thinking about democracy today.

Success is demanding, as any student knows, and all that discipline-hard work, sacrifice, perseverance-can come to seem an end in itself. But as queer theorist Jack Halberstam has noted, sometimes failure turns out to be a better bet than success: it can reveal the blindspots of dominant ideologies, while opening up alternative ways of living in the world. The racialization of Asian Americans, in particular, is tied to concepts of success, failure, and achievement that reflect long histories of colonialism, racism, and immigration, operating simultaneously through ‘model minority’ stereotypes in pop culture, ethnic community and family dynamics, and the structure of US higher education. Taking Asian American racialization as our point of entry, this course guides students of all backgrounds through meditations on failure emerging from Asian American studies, Black studies, queer theory, and disability studies, as well as wide-ranging genres including poetry, indie comics, and creative writing. Students will work collaboratively to explore what failure can reveal about higher education and academic institutions, and develop a framework for naming the predicaments of education, achievement, family, and community that shape their academic paths and collective well-being. Authors studied may include Mimi Khúc, erin Khuê Ninh, Steven Salaita, Lynda Barry, Fred Moten, and more.

This workshop-based course will walk students from all disciplines through the methods and processes of interdisciplinary research writing and publication. To simulate a scholarly environment, students will work in small groups organized around subject specializations within the broader field of Popular Culture Studies. Students will collaborate to research these areas and support each other as they write scholarly journal articles.

Introduction to systematic inorganic chemistry: representative elements, metals, and nonmetals. Includes coordination complexes, geochemistry, and metallurgy. Additional material on environmental applications of basic chemistry presented. Includes laboratory. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: CHEM 162, CHEM 165 (5 credits); CHEM 165, CHEM 312 (5 credits).

Chemistry majors and other students planning three or more quarters of organic chemistry. Structure, nomenclature, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. Theory and mechanism of organic reactions. Biomolecules. Introduction to membranes, enzyme mechanisms, prosthetic groups, macromolecular conformations, and supramolecular architecture. No more than 4 credits can be counted toward graduation from the following courses: CHEM 239, CHEM 259.

Computer programming for students with some previous programming experience. Emphasizes program design, style, and decomposition. Uses data structures (e.g., lists, dictionaries, sets) to solve computational problems motivated by modern societal and scientific needs. Introduces data abstraction and interface versus implementation. Recommended: CSE 121 or completion of Paul G. Allen School’s Guided Self-Placement.

Computer programming for students with significant previous programming experience. Emphasizes implementation and run-time analysis of data structures and algorithms using techniques including linked references, recursion, and object-oriented inheritance to solve computational problems motivated by modern societal and scientific needs. Recommended: CSE 122 or completion of Paul G. Allen School’s Guided Self-Placement.

English 182 focuses on teaching strategies and skills for effective writing and argument that are required of traditional academic genres, such as the research essay, while also expanding the skills for composing in multimodal genres that our increasingly digital and media saturated world demands.

Section G is an Honors discussion driven class with minimal lecturing and grounded in a disability studies analytic.  Students will reflect on their own growth as scholars and their learning process as an evolving product. Honors students will write longer reflective papers with emphasis on metacognitive critical takeaways.

Strategies for composing effective multimodal texts for print, digital physical delivery, with focus on affordances of various modes–words, images, sound, design, and gesture–and genres to address specific rhetorical situations both within and beyond the academy. Although the course has no prerequisites, instructors assume knowledge of academic writing.

Pain presents a challenge as a problem in science, as a problem in health policy and patient treatment, and as a problem in understanding deeper human experiences. Pain is a universal experience. While all of us have experienced acute pain following surgery or an injury, not all of us have experienced chronic pain, which is pain that persists after tissue healing has occurred, usually > 3 months after injury. Some chronic pains appear to have no antecedent acute pain. In this seminar course, we will explore pain from multiple perspectives. Some of these include the physiology, pathophysiology, psychology and sociology of pain, the role of opioids and other medications in the treatment of pain, the epidemiology of and risk factors for pain and disability, and the subjective experience of pain. Readings, short lectures, and discussions will address the “sciences” of pain, health care for pain, the expression of pain in literature, philosophical aspects of pain, and social science/anthropologic analyses of pain and its role in different cultures. This is distinctly not a medical school course.

Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry introduces students to the role of poetry in dealing with illness and grief, and where poetry originates in the human brain. Students will work in a workshop setting and write their own poems culminating in a book that will be published by the end of the semester. Great poets of the 19th and 20th centuries will be reviewed as well as basic brain anatomy, physiology and functional imaging techniques.