Honors Course Archive

This Honors Interdisciplinary Study discussion course explores knowledges, philosophies and histories as told by indigenous people, including S’Klallam, Lakota, Puyallup, Snohomish, Mohawk, Pueblo, Athabascan, Blood, Navajo, Iroquois, Blackfoot, Sto:lo, Anishinaabe, Potawatomi, Seminole, Cherokee, Tlingit, Choctaw, Makah, Suquamish, Cree, Salish, Maori, and others.

“Story” and “Knowledge” are the central concepts of this course with stories and storytelling used as both pedagogy and source information. Story is understood to be any narration on any topic about any event with any amount of veracity and/or claim to exclusiveness of accuracy – from storytellers in a bighouse to LAN video game parties to LARP events. Politics, philosophies and performances will be large components of our time together.

We will be conversing with these ideas:
* performances of living
* methodologies for scholarship
* knowledge systems and their genealogies including creation stories
* negotiating and negotiated histories
* identity – including gender, phenotype, ability, history

Objectives:
In the next ten weeks I would like to see us spend time with these tasks:
* develop and revise a syllabus for our next ten weeks learning together
* learn within Anishinaabe pedagogical concepts
* undertake cognitive and experiential explorations of knowledges and philosophies within stories told by indigenous [and other] peoples
* share our insights and knowledges with other learners in the class as we encounter new knowledges and come to more developed understandings
* learn as a group with an implied responsibility for each of us to optimize the learning of everyone
* explore Anishinaabe, Snohomish and S’Klallam concepts of storytelling as pedagogy and source material
* hone our critical thinking skill, by which we mean:
-know our knowledges and their frames / systems
-question our knowledges, then ponder our questions
-learn knowledges that are discordant with our own
* improve our ability to develop and ask good questions
* write and perform a story similar to those within Anishinaabe, Snohomish or S’Klallam practices

Assignments:
PARTICIPATE- 60% OF GRADE: CR/NC. Conversations, Questions, Words, Sharings – something spoken and something written due each week.
WRITE- 10% OF GRADE: GRADED. Write an essay about stories that are associated with your major field of study here at UW. DRAW- 5% OF GRADE: GRADED. Make one or more frames that tell part of a story heard in class.
PERFORM- 25% OF GRADE: GRADED. Final Work – Perform two stories with descriptive/analytical paper and drawing.

This course will be an introduction to modern Japan through its cinema, in which we will use a wide variety of twentieth-century films to discuss a wide variety of topics. Not only will we be viewing films in a variety of genres — documentary, drama, comedy, science fiction, historical, supernatural, avant-garde, 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, discrimination, social justice, and morality.

This course introduces the romance in India, a literary genre of fantastic adventures, supernatural encounters, and brave heroes. Major readings comprise The Arabian Nights, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, A Tale of Four Dervishes, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. We will explore the development of the genre by reading some of the most famous and beloved examples of romance from India. All works will be read in English translation, and no prior knowledge is assumed. Assignments will include short essays and a group assignment.

This studio art/research course will reveal cultural politics of cloth through the layering of histories that have been recorded by the evidence of cloth, textile processes and materials choices ending up as contemporary textile art. Students will read interviews, articles and writings about and from historical texts and contemporary textile artists, as well as watch film, go on museum visits and listen to guest artists’ presentations.

This course will introduce students to processes such as embroidery, knitting, applique and quilting to create one piece throughout the quarter. This final piece will be made from fabric and will be an accumulation of the different textile processes and a record of the researching, making and interacting during in this course.

Students will work independently and collaboratively as we participate in the age-old activist practice of community building through making a group textile piece. This course ends with a final exhibition of your book.

One of the greatest “romances” ever written, Anna Karenina is judged by many to be an unprecedented masterpiece of not only Russian but world literature. We will explore the historical times during which it appeared and read, among other criticism, Vladimir Nabokov’s delightful take on the novel. The course will also examine the novel’s moral and ideological assumptions and how these reflected the author’s views as well as the culture and society around him.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Latino contributions to popular music in the United States have too often been relegated to the margins of a narrative dominated by African and European Americans-an overly black and white view of our musical history. Latin music is often portrayed as an exotic resource for “American” musicians, as suggested by pianist Jelly Roll Morton’s reference to “the Latin Tinge.” This course turns that phrase and that perspective on its head. “American Sabor” addresses problems of cultural representation that concern an increasingly visible and influential community in the U.S. We will document the roles of U.S. Latino musicians as interpreters of Latin American genres. We will also highlight their roles as innovators within genres normally considered indigenous to the U.S., such as rock and roll, R & B, jazz, country/western, and hip hop. The course distinguishes regional centers of Latino population and music production-exploring unique histories,
artists, and musical styles. At the same time it draws out broader patterns of boundary crossing, language, social struggle, generational difference, racial/ethnic/class/gender
identification, and other factors that shape the experiences of U.S. Latinos everywhere.

COURSE GOALS

The goals of this course include learning to distinguish a variety of music styles and develop a rudimentary vocabulary for describing musical sounds and instruments; learning about the histories of specific U.S. Latinos and their music: learning about the ways Latino musicians have shaped U.S. popular music generally; and considering a variety of social and historical factors to which music-making in U.S. Latino communities responds, including immigration and migration, racism, gender inequality, the music industry and media generally, and changing U.S. identity politics.

Storytelling is ancient, effective, and satisfying, but using stories to communicate the nuances and ambiguities of science can be a challenge. Clear and accurate science communication is crucial to understanding our world and how it changes. In this course students will craft presentations that reflect their personal interests in nature and science.

This class is centered around three presentations. The planetarium presentation is intended to develop the student’s storytelling skills, with the suggested subject being the origin myth of a constellation. The remaining two presentations are scientific in nature, and draw from the student’s interests in the natural world. Students will work closely in small groups as they develop their presentations, and the best (by peer evaluation) will be invited to present in front of the entire class.

Evolution and genetics are the cornerstones of modern biology. DNA & Evolution will explore these fields in the context of contemporary issues that are important to individuals and societies. Although examples will be drawn from a variety of organisms, the primary emphasis will be on humans. Among the questions we will consider are these: Where did modern humans come from? Why are women and men different? Why do children resemble their parents? Do genes influence variation in personality, intelligence, and sexual orientation? What can genetic analyses reveal about evolutionary history and the relationships among species? Can genetic analyses allow us to predict the evolutionary future? Given what our society knows about evolution and genetics, should we take responsibility for guiding the evolutionary future of human populations?

Throughout the course the goal will be to help students develop sufficient biological sophistication to understand new discoveries in genetics and evolution, talk to their doctors, and make rational personal and political choices about biological issues. Students will read secondary and primary literature, ask questions, design experiments, analyze and interpret data, and draw their own conclusions.

Assignments will include essays, problem sets, and computer labs.

We will consider the following six interrelated propositions, and we will consider the implications of these propositions for the conduct of good (i.e., ethical and effective) leadership.

1. Leadership involves at its base the creation of a persuaded audience; but beyond that, leadership involves creating and sustaining a more thoughtful public, a public capable of rising above itself.

2. A more thoughtful public must not only be created and sustained, but, given that things inevitably fall apart, must be recovered and reconstituted.

3. Distinctions must be made in the leadership functions of (a) initiating, (b) sustaining, and (c) recovering and reconstituting. What it takes for a leader to sustain isn’t quite the same as what it takes to initiate, and neither of these approach what it takes to recover and reconstitute when the organization or regime falls apart.

4. Good leadership involves ethical and effective information seeking. A leader must have knowledge of what must be done, knowledge of what it takes to persuade others of what must be done (and, in persuading, helping to create a more thoughtful public), and knowledge of how an audience/public will respond. Only with a thorough understanding of the principles, strategies, and costs of information seeking will one be able to engage in ethical and effective leadership.

5. Leadership always has a political context; leadership in a democracy is necessarily different than leadership in other kinds of political regimes.

6. Leadership always involves assumptions (tacit and acknowledged) about human nature.

Sources of texts will include Tocqueville, Orwell, Machiavelli, Bacon, Dostoevsky, and Sophocles, as well as contemporary authors.

Method of instruction: close reading of texts, coupled with fifteen short papers on texts, plus a longer (9-10 page, single-spaced) synthesis paper; small and large group discussions with each other and visiting scholars/practitioners.

For further details, please see 230 class page at: https://catalyst.uw.edu/workspace/rsoder/7019. The class page links to most of the readings plus a draft of the Aut2016 syllabus. I strongly recommend consulting the syllabus with care in order to get a sense of expectations and consequent demands on your time.

You will note that some of the readings are deceptively short in length. For example, our readings from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America are all of thirteen pages. The Bacon essay, just three pages. But these texts (and others throughout the course) demand multiple close readings.

I will be glad to talk with you further about any aspect of the course. The surest way to reach me is via email: rsoder@uw.edu

A poll of journalists and scholars at the turn of the millennium found that their choice of the most important story of the twentieth century was the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The decision was perhaps the most controversial decision any president has made. Japanese and Americans see this decision in very different ways. In 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the Pew Research Center carried out a joint opinion poll which found that 79% of Japanese said the bombing was “not justified,” while 56% of Americans considered it “justified.” Japanese believe that Japan was defeated and on the verge of surrender, while a majority of Americans hold that the use of the bomb was necessary in order to avoid a costly invasion.

This seminar course will consider the many aspects of this set of events, including: the origins of the Manhattan Project, Roosevelt’s unconditional surrender policy, American planning for the invasion of Japan and the use of the bomb, the Potsdam Declaration, Soviet entry into the war, Japan’s internal struggle over the decision to surrender, the continuing controversy among Japanese and American historians in interpreting motivations and responsibility, the Japanese sense of victimhood, issues of morality in warfare, and the consequent reflections on war and human nature in Japanese and American literature.

Historical controversy over the use of the atomic bomb has revolved around many issues including:

1.Was it necessary: was not Japan already defeated and on the verge of surrender?

2.Were there not viable alternatives such as a demonstration of the bomb or a naval blockade or modification of unconditional surrender policy or waiting for Soviet entry?

3.Was the second bomb on Nagasaki necessary?

4.Did use of the bomb save lives by averting an invasion?

5.Were the bombs morally justified?

This course offers the student an opportunity to see how historians and other social scientists dealing with the same sequence of events have come to a wide range of interpretations of its meaning. The course will consider the reasons why historians often differ in their interpretations, such as difference in motivation, selectivity in emphasis, generational and national perspective, bias, academic discipline, levels of analysis, and appearance of new materials of historical evidence. By its nature, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki decisions have been subject to the use of counterfactuals, i.e. questions of “What if…?” The course will consider the value of these questions and of assertion of alternative courses of action and “missed opportunities” to avoid the way in which the war terminated.

Ultimately, the course will force the student to grapple with achieving her/his own interpretation. It is not a course for the faint hearted. Rather, it is for the student who wants a challenge in order to improve her/his thinking, debating, research and writing ability.

The course will have no examination but each student will choose a topic of particular interest on which to do extensive research, to make an oral presentation to the seminar and to write a paper on the findings of the research. The approximate length of the paper is 15 pages. The paper will constitute 50% of the course grade. The oral presentation and participation in the seminar discussion will constitute the remainder of the grade.

For freshmen only, this course is an introduction to college-level methods of inquiry. Throughout your academic life at the university, you will be called upon to write, read and converse in order to absorb knowledge and test out ideas. Since academic disciplines are bound by their respective ways of knowing, and because other ways of knowing are empirical and creative, this course will present different ways of coming to knowledge. We’ll engage in reading, lectures, dialogue, persuasive writing, journalistic writing, writing for academic papers as well as in creative writing-poems, short stories and vignettes. Expect a lively forum for testing out ideas and a venue to enhance your writing repertoire.

Expectations for students include: attending all classes with the (substantial) assigned readings completed; contributing to small group presentations; considering one’s own belief systems and the belief systems in a respectful and curious manner; being willing to experiment in writing styles and genres. In the end, students should be active questioning learners and show evidence of this engagement.

Goals for the course include: learning how to negotiate and navigate with different ways of knowing; developing empathic and creative imagination; enhancing student writing; creating models for civic dialogue; and articulating individual learning.

The course will connect often-separated worlds of research and practice, university and “real world” expertise, and writing and dialogic education.

This course is the introduction to a year-long sequence-in the winter quarter, the course topic will be “Teaching What We Know” and in the spring, the class will culminate in internships throughout the area. Enrollment in all three terms is not required.

Throughout human history, war continues to be the most efficient, man-made mechanism for creating injured bodies and minds. Governments, including the United States, have chosen to respond to the devastating aftermath in a variety of wars including influencing laws, policies and medical advancements in attempts to mitigate the deleterious effects war has on soldiers and their families. As such, veterans, wounded in combat, provide an important glimpse into the broader national narrative regarding people with disabilities and contemporary rehabilitation efforts across a wide range of rehabilitative disciplines. Topics include representation of veterans and war in the media, historical models of disability, military culture with regards to individual disability and difference, cultural memory, as well as societal and governmental response with specific emphasis on advocacy from a human rights perspective.

Insofar as scientists use language and visual displays to communicate with others, they use rhetoric, selecting some aspects of reality to convey, and deflecting other aspects of reality from attention. Studying how scientists use rhetoric to communicate, and how nonscientists use rhetoric to argue about science and its effects in the public sphere, students in this class will discover the means of persuasion available to shape science, its products, and the relationship between both and the publics that surround them. Those who are considering a career in science will learn how to think critically about the internal and external discourse of science, improving their use of rhetorical tools in the process. Those who do not intend to become scientists will learn how to critically analyze the claims of science and respond thoughtfully and effectively to its potential influence on them in the modern world.

Student Learning Goals:
-Understand and critically evaluate scholarship on the rhetoric of science.
-Identify, define and use rhetorical concepts in the analysis of communication about science.
-Recognize the means of persuasion that can be utilized by scientists in communicating with other scientists and/or the public.
-Recognize the means of persuasion that can be utilized by advocates critiquing or protesting against science and/or its consequences in the public sphere.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
An exploration and critique of the dominant themes and paradigms which have shaped Western European thought, with special focus on concepts of “woman” and “man.” Theories of knowledge and reality will also be covered. Feminist perspectives will be studied along with more traditional viewpoints.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
-To provide an overview of the dominant philosophical paradigms in western thought
-To assess such paradigms critically, especially from feminist perspectives
-To become familiar with the concepts of major thinkers regarding “woman” and “man”
-To analyze the social and metaphysical contexts for these concepts
-To develop the student’s ability to analyze and formulate theory
-To facilitate the thoughtful verbal and written expression of knowledge gained this term (including material for portfolios)

What exactly is an archive? Is it a vast warehouse full of crated artworks or specimens in the back of a museum? Is it a non-descript government building filled with filing cabinets? Is it a dusty set of old family albums hidden in one’s attic? Or is it a vast server farm fueled by cheap hydropower that processes and stores our Instagram pics? Through site-visits to numerous archives, weekly readings, group discussions, and faculty lectures, we will examine these and other definitions of an archive. We will explore how, as creative individuals, we can engage with archives not only as a source of
research and inspiration, but also as material for potential imaginative re-appropriation.

This ongoing investigation of the archive will provide the overarching theme for the development of your own quarter-long creative project. The subject of your project could be intensely personal, it could be political, or it could explore a broader conceptual theme, however your work must engage with some form of archive, be it in the form of inspiration, research, or direct appropriation. Learning outcomes will include an understanding of visual literacy and the connections between creativity and investigative research.

You will be expected to produce work on a regular basis to present for class critique meetings, developing your project over the quarter through comprehensive research. Budget your time and resources wisely. You are expected to work hard, complete the following requirements and be dedicated and attentive to your creative practice and the class.

Honors Chem 145 and 155 cover material in 142, 152, and 162. Includes laboratory. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: 142, 145 (5 credits); 145, 155, 162 (10 credits).

For chemistry majors and otherwise qualified students planning three or more quarters of organic chemistry. Structure, nomenclature, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. Theory and mechanism of organic reactions. Studies of biomolecules. No organic laboratory accompanies this course. No more than 5 credits can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: 221, 223, 237, 335.

Basic programming-in-the-small abilities and concepts including procedural programming (methods, parameters, return values) , basic control structures (sequence, if/else, for loop, while loop), file processing, arrays and an introduction to defining objects.

Continuation of CSE 142. Concepts of data abstraction and encapsulation including stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees, recursion, instruction to complexity and use of predefined collection classes. Prerequisite: CSE 142.

Students enrolling in this special offering will attend GREEK 101, Elementary Greek. Additionally, students will meet in a small section to further explore the learning process required for dealing with an ancient inflected language, teasing out the metacognitive process that lies at the heart of the Honors curriculum. Small section meetings will be held with former Honors Director Dr. James Clauss of the Classics Department.

Additional section meeting time TBD.

Origins of the modern world system in the sixteenth century and its history until World War I. Interacting forces of politics and economics around the globe, with particular attention to key periods of expansion and crisis.

Welcome to ancient Rome! First year Latin courses give you direct access to the thoughts and writings of the ancient Romans and allow you to explore the dynamic and often dangerous cultural, social and political world in which they wrote. Learning to interpret and use an ancient language requires you to explore unknown areas and think in new ways. Our focus is on Latin as a literary language. Course activities are designed to foster a collegial and collaborative atmosphere and to encourage you to make strong connections between the ancient language and literature we are exploring together and your other interests, passions and pursuits.

The honors version of this course is designed to offer Honors students a chance to deepen and complicate their study of Latin. We will meet for one hour per week to discuss additional readings and develop critical perspectives on materials studied in the class. Additional meeting time TBD based off of student/instructor schedules.

Examines the structure of the American legal system and how laws are made. Surveys key doctrinal areas of the law learning fundamental legal concepts, and explore how the law functions and evolves over time, including legal issues and decision-making related to statutory or common law.

First quarter of a sequence; sequence covers the material of 124, 125, 126; 307, and 308. First year of a two-year accelerated sequence. May receive advanced placement (AP) credit for 124 after taking 134. For students with above average preparation, interest, and ability in mathematics.

Introduction to proofs and rigor; uniform convergence, Fourier series and partial differential equations, vector calculus, complex variables. Students who complete this sequence are not required to take MATH 309, 310, 324, 326, 327, 328, and 427. Second year of an accelerated two-year sequence; prepares students for senior-level mathematics courses.

Basic principles of mechanics and experiments in mechanics for physical science and engineering majors. Lecture tutorial and lab components must all be taken to receive credit. Credit is not given for both PHYS 114 and PHYS 121.

Governments and leaders around the world agree that renewable energy, including photovoltaics, is the way of the future. This course strives to provide an introductory overview of climate change and renewable energy sources, the operational principles of solar cells, and the various deposition and characterization tools for thin film layers. Two lab visits will offer a hands on experience of solar cell manufacturing and cutting-edge research facilities. In addition, two course quizzes and a final reflection paper are designed to strengthen your understanding of global warming, various photovoltaic technologies, and material science in general.

How can you become a more effective and powerful catalyst for social change? Working with Citizen University CEO Eric Liu – whose TED Talk on civic power has been viewed over 1.5 million times – students will learn about the forms of power in political and economic life, how power operates, who has it and who doesn’t, and how to change that. This seminar will combine theories of power with practical case studies. Students will have opportunities for close conversation with notable activists and organizers, and will get a chance to apply what they learn in weekly exercises on campus and beyond.

This honors seminar seeks to explore the interface between poetry and the healing arts and science. In an age when technology dominates our daily experience, the emotional parameters of illness are often overshadowed. The human brain has not changed in the last ten thousand years in its need for expression surrounding fear and grief. We will review brain anatomy and physiology, and correlate brain domains thought to be essential to the creative process and the use of functional MRI scans to investigate these brain structures.

Students will start by acquiring basic poetic craft and techniques to bring music and emotion into language. The history of poetry in medicine will be examined: its value in retrospective reflection, as a tool for teaching compassion to medical students, and as a vehicle for expression in mentally and physically afflicted patients. Renowned physician-poets will be discussed and each student will participate in vocalization of a selection of their poems. Cross cultural traditions will be honored.

The format of the class will be in a round table, workshop tradition with constructive, collegial critique. Each student will be required to generate “in-class” writing as well as weekly writing assignments, and to create 3-4 poems relevant to illness, death and healing. A broad spectrum of environmental, socio-political and personal grief can be the subjects for powerful poems that move us.

An editor, co-editor and graphic design artist and publicity agent will be chosen by the class to produce a 30-40 page book of poetry for publication by the University by the end of the seminar. A group reading at the University Bookstore or Seattle venue, in which all students must participate, will be graded as the final examination. My role will be as a facilitator and guide to provoke thought, to generate innovative poems, and to open minds and hearts to the possibilities of poetry for self exploration in the realm of illness, death and healing.

The intent of this seminar is to offer an interdisciplinary overview at a crucial period of Italian history. More specifically, the purpose is to investigate how literature and cinema have depicted the partisan Resistance and the civil war that anguished Italy between 1943 and 1945. Through historical documents, novels and movies, we will understand the life of simple people that found themselves involved in the darkest period of the nation’s history.

This seminar provides an entry way to cultivating your music creativity. The ensemble will create their own music using improvisation and composition techniques geared toward students who aren’t comfortable doing either! Bring your instrument and an open mind.