Honors Course Archive

Course Archive for Spring 2020

* Add codes are placed on all courses one week after the first day of the quarter. If you need an add code, please email the course instructor for permission, and once approved, forward the confirmation from your instructor to uwhonors@uw.edu. We will be in touch with registration details as soon as possible.

Honors Arts & Humanities (1)

Arts & Humanities courses may only count for your H-Arts & Humanities requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 212 A: (Near)/Middle East Illustrated: Representations of Place, Culture and Society in Comics, Graphic Novels, Animation and Computer Games (A&H, DIV)

HONORS 212 A: (Near)/Middle East Illustrated: Representations of Place, Culture and Society in Comics, Graphic Novels, Animation and Computer Games (A&H, DIV)

SLN 14928 (View UW registration info »)

Selim Kuru (Near East Language and Literature)
Office: Denny 220F, Box 353120
Phone: 206-543-4959
Email: selims@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Through a variety of reading material, with a focus on a set of graphic novels, “(Near)/Middle East Illustrated” discusses verbal and visual expressions in order to represent Near and Middle East.

The course develops an understanding of imagined/promoted diversity through study of graphic novels and argues that diversity in the region is much more complicated. As students think about and discuss Orientalism, stock imagery, reporting vs. talking, facts vs. functions through short reading assignments, they will learn about history and today of the Near and Middle Eastern cultures.

Through visual depictions of most commonly discussed issues in the form of graphic novels in the region. Students will be encouraged to incorporate relevant video games and anime in their projects or portfolio assignments.

Honors Science (2)

Science courses may only count for your H-Science requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 222 A: HIV/AIDS: Issues and Challenges (NSc, DIV)

HONORS 222 A: HIV/AIDS: Issues and Challenges (NSc, DIV)

SLN 14930 (View UW registration info »)

Danuta Kasprzyk (Family & Child Nursing)
Phone: 206-524-9314
Email: kasprzyk@uw.edu
Genya Shimkin (Health Services)
Email: gshimkin@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

This course is an overview of the AIDS epidemic including history, virology, clinical manifestations and treatment, biomedical and behavioral prevention policies and strategies of the contrasted via presenting HIV/AIDS epidemiology, research, policies, and public health approaches in both upper-, middle- and lower-resourced settings and countries. Students will recognize the differing patterns in national and international spread of HIV and AIDS and distinguish differential risk patterns of the spread of HIV in countries around the world. Students will be able to identify how biological and behavioral co-factors play a role in the world-wide spread of HIV, and discuss effective medical/clinical, vaccine and behavioral HIV treatment and prevention strategies. They will be able to summarize the structural, psychosocial, and medical impact of HIV on individuals, families, communities and nations.

HONORS 222 B: Pain (NSc)

HONORS 222 B: Pain (NSc)

SLN 14931 (View UW registration info »)

John Loeser (Neurological Surgery; Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine)
Phone: 206-499-1408
Email: jdloeser@uw.edu
Jonathan Mayer (Epidemiology; Geography)
Phone: 206-543-7110
Email: jmayer@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

This seminar course will utilize a flipped classroom model to investigate all aspects of pain; from the anatomy and physiology and psychology that create this common complaint, to the sociology, history, ethics, legal and medical issues that are associated with pain. This course does not presuppose any educational background and is open to students in any major.

Honors Social Sciences (2)

Social Science courses may only count for your H-Social Sciences requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 232 A: Improving Population Health through Social Entrepreneurship (SSc, DIV)

HONORS 232 A: Improving Population Health through Social Entrepreneurship (SSc, DIV)

SLN 14934 (View UW registration info »)

Akhtar Badshah (Evans School of Public Policy; UW Bothell Business)
Email: akhtarb@uw.edu
Meher Antia (Population Health)
Email: meher@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

The course will offer students a fundamental understanding of the process of social innovation, and the role that social enterprises can play in addressing population health challenges. Through a combination of lectures, guest speakers, case studies and a team project, students will learn how organizations can advance work that has a positive societal impact while also remaining financially sustainable.

HONORS 232 D: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Rethinking US Foreign Policy (SSc)

HONORS 232 D: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Rethinking US Foreign Policy (SSc)

SLN 14937 (View UW registration info »)

Daniel Bessner (Jackson School of International Studies)
Phone: (206) 685-1043
Email: dbessner@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 12 students

Honors Credit Type

Today, the future of U.S. global leadership is in serious doubt. The election of Donald J. Trump, which occurred over the protests of hundreds of foreign policy professionals and despite his repeated attacks on the U.S.-led world order, has revealed that the American public has grown weary of U.S. hegemony. Meanwhile, the emergence of China as a major power has suggested that in the future the United States will have to rethink many of its military, political, and economic commitments. In this course, students will study the history, theory, and practice of U.S. foreign policy in order to produce several pieces that will provide the public and policymakers with guidance on how to manage and plan the future of U.S. foreign policy. Students will workshop these pieces with peers, who will edit them for structure, style, and argument.

Honors Interdisciplinary (5)

Interdisciplinary courses may only count for your Interdisciplinary Honors requirement or your Honors Electives requirement. These courses cannot count for your Honors Science, Honors Humanities/Arts or Honors Social Science requirements, even if they bear the corresponding Areas of Inquiry designation.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 345 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Interpreting the Middle East (C)

HONORS 345 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Interpreting the Middle East (C)

SLN 14939 (View UW registration info »)

Joel Walker (History)
Office: Smith Hall, Room 206B, Box 353560
Phone: 206-890-0241
Email: jwalker@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 12 students

Honors Credit Type

In partnership with the Calderwood Foundation, UW Honors has launched a new series of seminars designed to foster high-caliber undergraduate writing for non-specialist audiences. This Calderwood seminar, organized in a workshop format, will focus on learning to write cogently about the Middle East. Participants can come from any discipline. Background knowledge is welcome, but most important is a willingness to engage in thoughtful and rigorous inquiry into the history, politics, literature, and culture of the Middle East, broadly defined.

HONORS 391 A: Yoga: Past and Present (A&H / SSc / NSc, DIV)

HONORS 391 A: Yoga: Past and Present (A&H / SSc / NSc, DIV)

SLN 14944 (View UW registration info »)

Christian Novetzke (Jackson School of International Studies)
Email: novetzke@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

In this course we will study yoga through its history, practice, literature, and politics. From the ancient past to modern yoga, we will study essential texts and ideas, as well as the effects of class, religion, gender, nationalism, development, colonialism, politics, and physical culture on yoga. Yoga’s long history in India reveals that this practice of imposing discipline on the body and mind was far more than a set of physical or meditative practices, but a means to reformulate social, political, and cosmic worlds as well. Practiced by people of all religions and none, yoga not only transcends any single culture but it links many cultures together.  

HONORS 394 A: Art, Memory and Violence in Latin America (A&H / SSc, DIV)

HONORS 394 A: Art, Memory and Violence in Latin America (A&H / SSc, DIV)

SLN 14945 (View UW registration info »)

Maria Elena Garcia (Comparative History of Ideas; Anthropology; American Indian Studies; Geography; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies)
Office: B102 Padelford Hall, Box 354300
Phone: 206 221-0561
Email: meg71@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 15 students

Honors Credit Type

There will be 25 students total in this course (15 Honors/10 CHID)

This Honors/CHID seminar invites students to think critically about violence, memory and social activism in Latin America. Theoretically, students will examine how notions of “otherness” and the power to label are central to the cultural politics of violence. After examining the forces and discourses of state authoritarianism, the gendered strategies of torture, and the role of race in political violence, students will learn about the politics of struggle, resilience and hope. Specifically, students will learn about Indigenous movements for food sovereignty and against extractive industry; they will consider the role of art in social activism, and they will read and hear from human rights activists and other social justice actors. In addition to ethnography and social scientific analysis, we will rely on films, documentaries, historical fiction, plays, and testimonials to interrogate the complexities and intersections of art, memory, and violence in Latin America.

HONORS 394 B: Feminism in the Borderlands (A&H / SSc, DIV)

HONORS 394 B: Feminism in the Borderlands (A&H / SSc, DIV)

SLN 14946 (View UW registration info »)

Michelle Habell-Pallán (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
Office: PDL B110 T, Box 354380
Phone: (206) 543-6981
Email: mhabellp@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

This undergraduate seminar examines the particular forms in which Chicana feminist theoretical practices are embodied, including theoretical texts, poetry, music, and other creative works. Seminar considers how Chicana feminist theory has transformed and been transformed by intellectual, poetic, and aesthetic traditions as it moves throughout the U.S. borderlands. Each seminar meeting consists of a brief lecture, discussion break-out groups, a mid-way break, and a viewing/listening to relevant film, media or audio texts, or assignment workshop.

Course linked to annual Women Who Rock (un)conference. 

HONORS 394 C: Ways of Meaning (A&H / SSc, DIV)

HONORS 394 C: Ways of Meaning (A&H / SSc, DIV)

SLN 14947 (View UW registration info »)

Katarzyna Dziwirek (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
Office: Padelford A217, Box 354335
Phone: 206-543-7691
Email: dziwirek@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

There will be 55 students total in this course (25 Honors/30 Slavic)

Universal and Culture Specific Aspects of Language examines key moral and societal concepts in several languages (freedom, home, friendship, homeland). We also consider pragmatic aspects of different languages (politeness, rudeness, forms of address, names) and look for cultural differences and similarities.

HONORS 100/496 (2)

HONORS 100 must be taken the first autumn quarter you are admitted to Interdisciplinary Honors. Students may register for HONORS 496 after completing at least 6 of 9 Honors core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning activities. See our requirements page for more details.

HONORS 496 A: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

HONORS 496 A: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

SLN 14951 (View UW registration info »)

Juliana Villegas (Honors Program; English)
Office: MGH 211, Box 352800
Phone: 206-543-7172
Email: villegas@uw.edu

Credits: 1
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

For Interdisciplinary Honors students only. Students must have completed 6 of 9 Honors Core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning projects.

To request an add code, please submit this form:
http://tinyurl.com/honors496 (students who are graduating this year will get priority)

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.

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

SLN 14952 (View UW registration info »)

Juliana Villegas (Honors Program; English)
Office: MGH 211, Box 352800
Phone: 206-543-7172
Email: villegas@uw.edu

Credits: 1
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

For Interdisciplinary Honors students only. Students must have completed 6 of 9 Honors Core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning projects.

To request an add code, please submit this form:
http://tinyurl.com/honors496 (students who are graduating this year will get priority)

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.

Honors Electives (11)

Any course without the “HONORS” prefix may only count for your Honors Electives requirement. You will earn Areas of Inquiry credit as indicated in the parentheses after each course title.

Other Honors courses (without HONORS-prefix)

BIOC 442 A: Honors Biochemistry (NSc)

BIOC 442 A: Honors Biochemistry (NSc)

SLN 11135 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4
Limit: 16 students

Honors Credit Type

Add Code required
PREREQ: 3.5 GPA in either BIOC 440 or 450

Register for lecture and Honors section (AC)
CONTACT ADVISERS@CHEM.WASHINGTON.EDU TO ENROLL

For Biochemistry majors and molecular and cell biology majors. Core concepts in biochemistry, including protein structure, compartmentalization of reactions, thermodynamics and kinetics in a biological context, energy production, and regulation of metabolic pathways. HONORS BIOC covers the same topics as BIOC 440, but emphasizes group exercises and analysis of primary literature.

CHEM 165: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 165: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 11936 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 48 students

Honors Credit Type

Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.2 in CHEM 155

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).

CHEM 337: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 337: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 12044 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 50 students

Honors Credit Type

Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.2 in CHEM 336.

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 337.

CSE 142: Computer Programming I (NSc)

CSE 142: Computer Programming I (NSc)

SLN ?

Credits: 4

Honors Credit Type

To earn Honors credit, students must register for:
1. CSE 142 lecture A or B
2. corresponding CSE 142 section
3. CSE 390 H
AND
4. the corresponding CSE 390 Honors section (HA)

See CSE Time Schedule for course day, time and SLN for both lecture and CSE 390 H.

Contact CSE advising (ugrad-advisor@cs.washington.edu) for add code

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.

CSE 143: Computer Programming II (NSc)

CSE 143: Computer Programming II (NSc)

SLN ?

Credits: 5+1

Honors Credit Type

To earn Honors credit, students must register for:
1. CSE 143 A or B
2. corresponding CSE 143 section
3. CSE 390 H
AND
4. corresponding CSE 390 Honors section (HB)

See CSE Time Schedule for course day, time and SLN for both lecture and CSE 390 H.

Contact CSE advising (ugrad-advisor@cs.washington.edu) for add code

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.

DESIGN 166 AG: Honors Foundations of Design (A&H)

DESIGN 166 AG: Honors Foundations of Design (A&H)

SLN 21136 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 18 students

Honors Credit Type

Students must register for DESIGN 166 lecture and Honors section (AG) to earn Honors Additional Any credit. Registration will be restricted to Freshmen during Period I registration.

Students not present for the first day of class are expected to drop.

$15 additional course fee

Examines the rudiments of visual structure and problem solving in two and three-dimensional design. Emphasizes design methodology and design processes with emphasis on the formal principles of composition and organization.

Designer, Jayme Yen is the instructor of Des 166  and can be reached at jaymey@uw.edu” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>jaymey@uw.edu and Samer Fouad is the grad student who will be leading the quiz section, samerfouadstudio@gmail.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>samerfouadstudio@gmail.comhttps://www.samerfouad.com/about&source=gmail&ust=1580490996439000&usg=AFQjCNETKJmMH34bSZ1Lln1w9pX33RnSAw”>https://www.samerfouad.com/about 

ENGL 282 B: Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition: Composing the Anthropocene (C)

ENGL 282 B: Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition: Composing the Anthropocene (C)

SLN 13850 (View UW registration info »)

Elizabeth Boyle (English)
Email: erboyle@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Must Register for Honors section to earn Honors Additional Any credit

Recently, scientists have proposed that due to the impact of the human species on the planet, the earth now belongs to a new geologic epoch: the Anthropocene. Although official designation of this new epoch is still in the process of being formalized by the scientific community, the “Anthropocene” now appears in mainstream news publications, documentary films, podcasts, as well as social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. It is quickly emerging as a buzz word associated with today’s most urgent environmental concerns. In this course, the Anthropocene will serve not so much as a course theme, but rather as a “platform”—a starting place or organizing principle for considering how and why different mediums, across different contexts, present and express issues and ideas related to human impacts on the environment. We’ll draw from academic sources in both the sciences and humanities, as we explore the way different cultural texts represent and discuss a range of topics related to the way humans interact with and alter the environment.

As a multimodal composition class, we will carefully consider how and why different cultural texts deploy different modes to convey meaning(s) about human-environment relations. More specifically, we will examine and actively engage with the semiotic resources available to each mode of expression—whether linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, or gestural—as we cultivate a deeper understanding of the way meaning is produced in varying compositional contexts. In other words, we will develop and improve our knowledge—as well as our “sense”—of what is involved in the process of examining and constructing thoughtful and effective compositional forms (e.g. essays, blog posts, podcasts, and digital stories). Through developing a keen sense of how each modality operates, we will all learn how to better think, read, and create critically with the multiple modalities that compose the world’s many texts.

JSIS A 301 AD: Europe Today (SSc, DIV)

JSIS A 301 AD: Europe Today (SSc, DIV)

SLN 21373 (View UW registration info »)

Sabine Lang (Jackson School of International Studies)
Email: salang@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

Must register for lecture (JSIS A 301 A) & Honors quiz section (AD) to earn Honors credit

This lecture class will introduce you to the political, economic, and social challenges that Europe faces thirty years after the fall of the Wall. Among the most pressing issues are the future of European integration after Brexit; the ongoing refugee crisis; the rise of illiberal democracies and new right-wing reactionary movements or parties; Turkey’s authoritarian turn, and finding a common response to climate change. We will explore these issues in the context of post-war European integration and interrogate the capacities of the EU to cope with multiple simultaneous challenges. How are these issues addressed in member states and on the supranational level of the EU? What remains of the ‘European Model’? Is there a European identity? Throughout the quarter, we will assess how the European Union works and ask if it can be a model for multilevel governance beyond state borders.

MATH 136 A: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

MATH 136 A: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

SLN 16549 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code available from Math Department only. Contact: advising@math.washington.edu

Students must have completed Honors MATH 135.

Sequence covers the material of 124, 125, 126; 307, 308, 318. Third quarter of the first year of a two-year accelerated sequence. May not receive credit for both 126 and 136. For students with above average preparation, interest, and ability in mathematics.

MATH 336: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

MATH 336: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

SLN 16610 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

Prereq: Minimum grade of 2.0 in MATH 335

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 309, 324, 326, 327, 328, and 427. Third quarter of the second year of an accelerated two-year sequence; prepares students for senior-level mathematics courses.

PHYS 123 B: Waves (NSc)

PHYS 123 B: Waves (NSc)

SLN 18596 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 44 students

Honors Credit Type

Explores electromagnetic waves, the mechanics of oscillatory motion, optics, waves in matter, and experiments in these topics for physical science and engineering majors.

This is intended for students with a strong interest and preparation for Physics. Please email Professor Kybka (grybka@uw.edu“>grybka@uw.edu) for more information about this course. 

Lecture tutorial and lab components must all be taken to receive credit. The Thursday section will only be required for three days of the quarter. Credit is not given for both PHYS 116 and PHYS 123.

 

Study Abroad (4)

The Study Abroad category consists of variable-credit courses that may span multiple quarters and do not fit clearly within other categories. Consult each program’s study abroad page to learn more about the credits you will receive upon completion.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 213 A: Sweden/Iceland Study Abroad Pre-departure Seminar (A&H)

HONORS 213 A: Sweden/Iceland Study Abroad Pre-departure Seminar (A&H)

SLN 21404 (View UW registration info »)

Lauren Poyer (Scandinavian Studies)
Office: Raitt Hall 305 U
Email: lpoyer@uw.edu
Kim Kraft (Scandinavian Studies)
Email: kimkraft@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

Sweden/Iceland Study Abroad Students Only
Class time will be determined based on schedules of students admitted to the program

Sweden/Iceland Study Abroad Pre-departure Seminar

HONORS 382 A: Costa Rica Study Abroad Prep Seminar (SSc / NSc)

HONORS 382 A: Costa Rica Study Abroad Prep Seminar (SSc / NSc)

SLN 21385 (View UW registration info »)

Michael Kennedy (Biology)
Email: kennem@uw.edu
Ann Heitkemper (Biology)
Email: heit@uw.edu

Credits: 2
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

Costa Rica Study Abroad Students Only

HONORS 384 B: Italy in Historical and Comparative Perspective (SSc / NSc)

HONORS 384 B: Italy in Historical and Comparative Perspective (SSc / NSc)

SLN 14942 (View UW registration info »)

Kristi Govella (Jackson School of International Studies)
Email: kgovella@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

Rome Study Abroad Students Only
Hybrid course with first 6 weeks online and in-person meetings on May 15, May 22, May 29, and June 5

This interdisciplinary prep seminar is restricted to students participating in the Summer 2020 UW Honors Rome study abroad program, Italy from Crisis to “Crisis”: Disaster, Migration, Politics and Art. This course provides an introduction to Italian society, economics, and politics to lay the foundation for exploring how Italy has experienced, constructed, and coped with crises both real and imagined from ancient times to the present. In addition to providing historical context, the seminar will situate Italy in comparative perspective, allowing students to gain a sense for how the country converges and diverges with trends in the United States, Europe, and Asia. We will draw on material from fields such as history, political science, public health, security studies, economics, sociology, anthropology, and literature. Students will also become familiar with the basics of Italian language in preparation for their study abroad experience. This is a hybrid course: the first six weeks will be conducted online and there will be in-person class meetings on May 15, May 22, May 29, and June 5.

HONORS 384 C: Sumak Kawsay: Well-Being, "Race," and Gender in Ecuador Prep Seminar (A&H / SSc, DIV)

HONORS 384 C: Sumak Kawsay: Well-Being, "Race," and Gender in Ecuador Prep Seminar (A&H / SSc, DIV)

SLN 14943 (View UW registration info »)

Michelle Habell-Pallán (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
Office: PDL B110 T, Box 354380
Phone: (206) 543-6981
Email: mhabellp@uw.edu
Jaime Cardenas, Jr. (History)
Email: cardenas333@gmail.com

Credits: 3
Limit: 25 students

Credit Type

Required for and restricted to Ecuador study abroad program participants.

This course engages students and faculty in collaboration on campus and through a digital platform (Canvas). Course will introduce the students key topics in Ecuadorian society. At the end of the course, students will be able to: identify the major cultural, political, and economic changes in northwestern South America during the last three decades; and, identify the major origins and developments of social movements in northwestern South America during the last three decades.

Special Topics (3)

Special Topics courses are between one and three credits and do not fulfill Interdisciplinary Honors requirements. They will award non-Honors UW elective credit and a great experience.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 396 B: Dealing with Fermi's Paradox: Are we Alone in the Universe? (NSc)

HONORS 396 B: Dealing with Fermi's Paradox: Are we Alone in the Universe? (NSc)

SLN 21267 (View UW registration info »)

Richard Freeman (Physics)
Email: rrfree@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

Note: this is a 3 credit course so will only count towards UW general education requirements, not Honors core curriculum.
In a famous exchange during the Manhattan Project in WWII, several eminent scientists were discussing the fact that the universe evidently consists of billions upon billions of stars, with presumably an even greater number of planets, and that these planets have been in existence for over 10 billion years. The apparently obvious conclusion was there must be many millions, if not billions, of instances of life in the universe, with an untold number of these made up of advanced civilizations with beings capable of space travel. Enrico Fermi, a Noble

Laureate in physics, and remembered as the finest scientist of his time, is recorded as saying in response to this assertion: “So, where are they?”

The fact is that then, as now, there is no clear evidence that we have ever been visited by alien beings, and, further, that we have detected no evidence of communication from any advanced civilization, despite concentrated efforts to detect such communications. So here lies “Fermi’s Paradox”: no one disputes the fact that the universe contains billions of planets, with millions having superficial qualities similar to earth, and with most having been in existence longer than earth, yet we have no evidence that any advanced civilization is “out there”. What’s going on? Here we will examine the specific circumstances of our planet earth, and ask the question whether our position in the universe could possibly be unique: is the existence of intelligent life on earth a result of inevitable biology/chemistry that is easily replicated on vast numbers of planets in the universe, or, is the history of the earth a story that has such improbable circumstances that permit life to evolve that it is reasonable that these particular circumstance are indeed “a one off”. The course will follow the book “If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens, Where is everybody? Seventy-Five Solutions to Fermi’s Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life” by Stephen Webb, an eminent astrophysicist in the UK. There will be writing assignments, student presentations, and a term paper.  

HONORS 397 A: Honors 100 Peer Educator Seminar (SSc)

HONORS 397 A: Honors 100 Peer Educator Seminar (SSc)

SLN 14949 (View UW registration info »)

Carissa Mayer (Honors Program; Advisor)
Office: MGH 211, Box 352800
Phone: 206-221-0774
Email: cdmayer@uw.edu
Claire Grant (Honors Program; Advisor)
Office: MGH 211, Box 352800
Email: claireag@uw.edu

Credits: 2
Limit: 25 students

Credit Type

For 2020 Peer Educators Only.

Honors 100 Peer Educator Spring prep seminar.

HONORS 398 A: The Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry (A&H)

HONORS 398 A: The Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry (A&H)

SLN 21356 (View UW registration info »)

Arthur Ginsberg (Classics)
Office: Classics, Box 353110
Phone: 2063694836
Email: arthurginsberg@msn.com

Credits: 2, c/nc
Limit: 15 students

Credit Type

Note: this is a 2 credit course so will only count towards UW general education requirements, not Honors core curriculum.

This course will be conducted in a workshop setting. We will explore brain anatomy, physiology and MR imaging to understand creativity in the creation of poems about personal, socio-political and ecological grief. Students will create and assemble a book of their work including graphic cover art, that will be published by the end of the semester. A public reading by all students will constitute the final examination.