Honors Course Archive

Course Archive for Winter 2022

* 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 (4)

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

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 211 A: Scandinavian Mythology (A&H, DIV, W)

HONORS 211 A: Scandinavian Mythology (A&H, DIV, W)

SLN 15477 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 10 students

Honors Credit Type

Withered with SCAND 330. Honors students will complete additional assignments.
Integrative study of religious life in the pre-Christian North. Emphasis on source materials, including the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda. Discussion of historical, archeological, and folkloric evidence.

HONORS 211 B: Authoritarianism and its Appeal in Ancient Rome (A&H, W)

HONORS 211 B: Authoritarianism and its Appeal in Ancient Rome (A&H, W)

SLN 15478 (View UW registration info »)

Michael Ritter (Classics)
Phone: 9185197397
Email: mritte@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

The transition from the Republic to the Imperial period in Roman history brought stability and a reprieve from generations of civil wars, but it also signaled a loss of rights. The central question of this course will be what the Romans ultimately gave up for this authoritarian stability and why. Through primary and secondary sources as well as archaeological evidence, we will use this period as a lens to investigate the curtailing of rights such as freedom of speech and democracy. Specifically, we will investigate the following trends and the role they played in the breakdown of the Republican system: 1. Civil War

2. Inequality 

3. Cult of Personality

4. Imperialism

HONORS 241 A: Russian Crime Fiction (A&H, W)

HONORS 241 A: Russian Crime Fiction (A&H, W)

SLN 15487 (View UW registration info »)

Galya Diment (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
Office: A219 Padelford Hall, Box 354335
Phone: 206-543-6848
Email: galya@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 15 students

Honors Credit Type

Must register for this section for Honors credit.

Honors students required to complete a longer mid-term, and either a longer final exam or a 10-12 page paper.

Introduces important trends and movements in Russian literary and cultural history.

HONORS 241 B: Looted? Ethnomusicology, Archives, and Colonial Legacies (A&H, W)

HONORS 241 B: Looted? Ethnomusicology, Archives, and Colonial Legacies (A&H, W)

SLN 15488 (View UW registration info »)

John Vallier (Ethnomusicology; Libraries)
Office: Suzzallo Library 370A, Box 352900
Phone: 206 616-1210
Email: vallier@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

This class will interrogate the field of ethnomusicology through the lens of its archives, those storehouses of sounds recordings that helped establish the field. We will look at how colonial, evolutionary, and racist mindsets helped forge the discipline and its archives, and how residual (or more) traces of those drives remain. By drawing on guest speakers and sources across fields, we will both learn about efforts to right these wrongs (e.g., repatriation) and work together to envision ways to increase and improve such efforts.
 

Honors Science (3)

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

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 221 B: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (NSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 221 B: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (NSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15480 (View UW registration info »)

Audrey Ragsac (Biology)
Email: auragsac@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Emerging infectious diseases (IDs) are infections that have recently appeared within a population or those whose incidence or geographic range is rapidly increasing or threatens to increase in the near future. Emerging infections can be caused by: Previously undetected or unknown infectious agents Known agents that have spread to new geographic locations or new populations Previously known agents whose role in specific diseases has previously gone unrecognized. Re-emergence of agents whose incidence of disease had significantly declined in the past, but whose incidence of the disease has reappeared. This class of diseases is known as re-emerging infectious diseases.

This course will focus on an overview of the basic principles of infectious diseases (IDs) focusing on emerging and re-emerging IDs that affect public health in the U.S. and worldwide.

Topics include:

*Scope and nature of the problem of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (IDs).
*Factors involved in the emergence and re-emergence of IDs.
*Basic biology and epidemiology of selected emerging and re-emerging ID agents (bacteria, viruses, prions, helminths, and eukaryotic protozoans).
*Public health, economic, and social impact of emerging and re-emerging IDs.
*Compare strains of Sars-Cov-2 and other coronaviruses (SARS & MERS) and analyze pathogenicity based on amino acid variations.
*Work in research teams and use bioinformatics to elucidate variations in nucleotides sequences (changes in parts of the genome) of viruses associated with increased pathogenicity/virulence. *Predict the pathogenicity of future mutations and/or viruses that have yet to jump species.
*Strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and control of emerging and re-emerging IDs.

HONORS 221 C: Game Theory and its Applications (NSc, W)

HONORS 221 C: Game Theory and its Applications (NSc, W)

SLN 15481 (View UW registration info »)

Jacob Cooper (Biology)
Office: LSB 5th floor, Box 351800
Email: yankel@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

In game theory, a “game” is any interaction in which decisions must be made. Penalty kicks in soccer. Nuclear disarmament. Predator-prey behaviors. Hostage negotiation. Voting coalitions. Auction bidding. Insurance pricing. Cooperative hunting. Fish schooling. Political collusion. Information sharing. And on and on and on. Game theory is a math toolkit used to analyze games. It’s a way to formalize games, to think about their strategies, their dynamics, and the expected actions of others. Game theory is the study of how we do — and do not — get along.

Topics likely covered:

  • payoffs, utility, moves, strategies
  • nash equilibria, probabilistic strategies
  • prisoners dilemma
  • signaling
  • credibility and non-credible threats
  • risk management
  • cultural conventions
  • auction theory
  • voting systems
  • power & coalitions
  • fair devision and envy
  • two-sided matching
  • decision heuristics

HONORS 221 D: The Science of Human Values (NSc, W)

HONORS 221 D: The Science of Human Values (NSc, W)

SLN 22117 (View UW registration info »)

KC Cole (Physics)
Email: kc314@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Professor KC Cole, Physics

The Science of Human Values: An Exploration of how physics, chemistry, mathematics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology provide an underlying basis for the moral principles that guide human behavior. From antiquity to modern day.

Course Description

It’s a given among many scientists that understanding how the natural world works (including mathematics) is an invaluable guide to understanding both the origins and evolution of human values. Yet these ideas rarely make it into humanities courses. Quantum mechanics offers insight into how  deep truths can appear to be mutually exclusive; special and general relativity demonstrate the power of constants that don’t change no matter what (symmetries), and how notions we accept as fundamental (like space and time) sometimes aren’t. The mathematics of game theory makes strong arguments that cooperative strategies are, in the long run, more successful than ruthlessly competitive ones, and that symmetry can inform fairness. Biology illuminates how symbiotic relations have been central to evolution, and how all life is connected. The “environment” is not something “out there,” separate from us. It IS us. Indeed, everything in the universe is connected, including matter and energy; a sense of community is built into nature. Neuroscience and psychology have given us an understanding of why we so easily fall into logical and destructive behaviors, why we fail to see the future consequences of our actions, why we find it nearly impossible to admit mistakes or “see” any “truths” we do not expect.

Students will read widely in physics, philosophy, mathematics, evolutionary biology. They will be responsible for written assignments based on those readings, independent study and presentations. Students will be encouraged to apply what they learn to their own fields of study and also to their personal lives.

Instructor Bio:

KC Cole is the author of eight non-fiction books, including The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty. Currently a columnist for Wired magazine, she has written for the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Quanta, Discover, The New York Times and many other publications. Professor Emerita at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication, she’s also taught at Yale, Wesleyan and UCLA.

Honors Social Sciences (5)

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

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 231 A: Revealing the Unequal Burden of COVID-19: Structural Racism and the Social Determinants of Health (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 A: Revealing the Unequal Burden of COVID-19: Structural Racism and the Social Determinants of Health (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15482 (View UW registration info »)

Damarys Espinoza (Nursing and Health Studies)
Email: damarys@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

A growing body of literature shows that social determinants – otherwise known as the conditions in which we are born and in which we live, work and play – are key drivers of health inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of these inequities for the world to see. This course examines the social determinants of health through the lens of COVID-19. We will explore how structural racism compounds the impact of COVID-19 on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities in the U.S., resulting in disparate rates of infection and death. We will examine how BIPOC are using community organizing as a vital strategy for unleashing the collective power necessary to uproot inequities at the core of health disparities. Live, in-person dialogues with contemporary community organizers and public health leaders will enrich our learning.

HONORS 231 B: How to Write the History of the Aztecs (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 B: How to Write the History of the Aztecs (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15483 (View UW registration info »)

Adam Warren (History)
Office: Smith 218C, Box 353560
Email: awarren2@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 10 students

Honors Credit Type

This course examines the challenges historians face when writing the history of the Aztecs (Mexica), a people whose codices, or written pictorial records of their past, were largely destroyed by the Spanish after colonization in 1521. In asking how historians investigate and interpret the histories of populations when traditional forms of primary source evidence are unavailable, we will complicate our thinking about how historical knowledge is produced. In the process, we will also examine the broader history of the Aztec Empire and the Spanish colonial society that formed in its aftermath. Particular attention will be paid to notions of religion, cosmology, and daily life among the Aztecs.

HONORS 231 C: Gender, Diplomacy, and Human Rights (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 C: Gender, Diplomacy, and Human Rights (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15484 (View UW registration info »)

Elise Rainer (Scandinavian Studies)
Email: eacr@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Through this class, students will gain an understanding of how women’s rights and LGBTI diplomacy are now a part of modern foreign policy. Feminist foreign policy, gender and security, and equitable international development policies are key themes explored in the course. Students will examine the growing trend of nations declaring a formal feminist foreign policy, including Canada, France, and Mexico in diplomatic efforts to address intersectionality, human security, and challenge global power structures. This class will examine historical institutional barriers and restrictions to women and LGBTI officers in foreign affairs institutions. Looking internationally, class participants will examine examples from New Zealand and Scandinavia to learn how female leadership shapes foreign policy. Students will develop a cross-cultural comparisons, as well as critical approaches to the gendered aspect of policy-making. As a former diplomat who formulated human rights policies and programs, the instructor brings real-world experience of diplomacy and gender to the classroom. Furthermore, the course will host guest speakers who are current and former diplomats, leading human rights LGBTI advocates, as well as scholars with expertise on gender and diplomacy. The course scrutinizes gender roles in relation to power, agency, and influence to shape new norms in international affairs. With a goal to give students both hope and agency, students will learn how individuals and advocacy networks can influence policy reform.
 

HONORS 231 D: Abolishing Poverty: shelter, mutual aid and care (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 D: Abolishing Poverty: shelter, mutual aid and care (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15485 (View UW registration info »)

Victoria Lawson (Geography; Honors Program)
Phone: 206-543-5196
Email: lawson@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 18 students

Honors Credit Type

No freshmen.

We will unlearn poverty and homelessness as framed in popular discourse and public policy. We will learn the recent history of homelessness in Seattle and explore root causes of impoverishment — both socio-economic processes and representations that frame people and places as ‘poor’. We will explore the role of the historical and structural causes in the production of poverty/inequality. In our course we will ethically engage with unhoused people and homelessness activists that are addressing the immediate and root causes of homelessness. We will work on understanding root causes of homelessness in Seattle, considering the role of intersecting forms of oppression and discrimination (race, gender, class, sexuality, citizenship and more), criminalization and state-sponsored violence. Throughout our class, we will consider abolitionist activism and mutual to think through forms engagement, research and action that collectively address intersectional impoverishment.

HONORS 231 E: Leadership, Democracy, and a More Thoughtful Public (SSc, W)

HONORS 231 E: Leadership, Democracy, and a More Thoughtful Public (SSc, W)

SLN 15486 (View UW registration info »)

Roger Soder (Education)
Office: MGH 211, Box 353600
Email: rsoder@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

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. 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.

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

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

6. In a free political regime, assuming free and fair elections, we get the kinds of leaders we deserve and we must consider how to behave in ways to deserve the kinds of leaders we say we want.

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 1-2 page single-spaced papers on texts, plus a longer (approximately 6,500 words) synthesis paper; small and large group discussions with each other, two lectures, and two visiting scholars/practitioners. Throughout the quarter, we will make theoretical and practical applications of key concepts to consideration of the critical issues of climate change and climate change communication.

Professor Soder is glad to talk with you further about any aspect of the course, please reach him via email: rsoder@uw.edu

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: Public Communication of Science (C)

HONORS 345 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Public Communication of Science (C)

SLN 15489 (View UW registration info »)

Leah Ceccarelli (Communication)
Office: CMU 145, Box 353740
Email: cecc@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 12 students

Honors Credit Type

As the modern world encounters increasingly wicked problems such as global climate change and global pandemics, we turn to scientific experts to help us make sense of the risks we face and devise solutions to mitigate harms. But the language of science is dense, designed to efficiently build knowledge among specialists, not communicate with non-specialists. In addition, the values of science are not always shared by lay audiences. So how might scientists and science journalists bridge the gap between the culture of science and the broader public it serves? In this course, you will learn how to translate the communication of scientists for lay audiences. You also will come to better understand how science is typically characterized and mischaracterized in the public imaginary, and discover the available means of persuasion to advocate for science in the public sphere. This class offers students a small workshop setting to build writing portfolios that include different genres in the public communication of science, such as an accommodated scientific research report, an opinion editorial, a film review, a public speech, and a public letter. In the so-called “post-truth” era, it is of vital importance that scientists and science journalists learn how to write about science for public audiences. This course will help you to do that.

HONORS 391 A: Race, Gender, Diaspora & Population Health (A&H / SSc / NSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 391 A: Race, Gender, Diaspora & Population Health (A&H / SSc / NSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15490 (View UW registration info »)

Clarence Spigner (Health Services)
Office: H-692 Health Sciences Building, Box 357660
Phone: 206 616-2948
Email: cspigner@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

This 300-level 5-credit course explores the health of populations across the planet. Multiculturalism and the Problem Based Learning (PBL) allow students to investigate inequalities in health. More than 35 open-ended topics/cases include sex-worker rights, white saviors, Ebola, anti-immigration policies, #MeToo, incarceration, female circumcision, racial admixture, and LGBTQ issues. Randomly selected cohorts of 3-4 students investigate and present on a randomly selected case/topics. Also, a possible mid-term and a definite 5-7 page, typewritten double-spaced written reflection on a critically read book, essay of short story from a reading list more than 40 titles (I&S, VLPA, NW, Diversity, W).

HONORS 394 A: Ways of Feeling (A&H / SSc, W)

HONORS 394 A: Ways of Feeling (A&H / SSc, W)

SLN 15491 (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

The key questions that are addressed in the Ways of Feeling class are:

  • Are there “emotional universals”, that is, feelings that all people share independent of language, culture, gender, and race?
  • Are there “culture-specific” emotions?
  • Are there “gender-specific” emotions?

The class is suitable for all students who are interested in Language, languages, and meaning. Ways of Feeling is a comparative course, with enough Slavic content for it to be relevant for Slavic majors and graduate students, yet accessible to those interested in other languages. Students will be introduced to research methods in semantics, pragmatics and discourse, and will be required to produce a thorough examination of underlying conceptualizations and a semantic analysis of a linguistic expression of emotion in a language of their choice. They will gain an appreciation of the social and cultural underpinnings of their own language and other languages.

Honors students:

Term paper (7-10 pages) INSTEAD OF SHORT PAPER #5: Honors students will work with the instructor to plan the final term paper. The final project includes an oral presentation of your research with handout.

HONORS 394 B: Seattle's "Color Line" and Mediterranean Imprints on the Pacific Northwest (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 394 B: Seattle's "Color Line" and Mediterranean Imprints on the Pacific Northwest (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15492 (View UW registration info »)

Devin Naar (History)
Email: denaar@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Time Schedule listing incorrect: Course will meet Tuesday & Thursday 11:30am-1:20pm.

As W. E. B. Dubois famously observed, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.” Where, how and by whom that line has been drawn has changed over time and across geography. In Seattle, a relatively large but now mostly invisible set of communities from the lands of the former Ottoman Empire–Sephardic Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Turks, and Arabs–troubled the “color line” a century ago. Under the influence of “race science” thinking of the era, in 1925 the Seattle Times classified these populations as “half-breeds”–partly European and partly “Asiatic,” but not quite “white.”

This course explores the experiences of those from the former Ottoman Empire who settled in Seattle, their encounters with U. S. immigration and naturalization policies, their establishment of new communities, their civic engagement in the city, and the ways in their presence contributed to defining the boundaries between who is “white” and who is not. Despite their precarious position, members of these communities contributed to the establishment of major local icons, such as Pike Place Market, Benaroya Hall, and Applets and Cotlets, Washington’s unofficial state candy.

This course offers opportunities for field trips to important sites pertaining to the past and present of these communities–in the Central District and elsewhere—as well as conversation and dialogue with members of the communities today. Finally, the course enables students to embark in public facing digital projects related to oral history, local history, digital mapping projects, and more. 

HONORS 394 C: Liberation Movement - Embodied Research Methodologies and Practice (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 394 C: Liberation Movement – Embodied Research Methodologies and Practice (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 21940 (View UW registration info »)

Rachel Chapman (Anthropology)
Email: rrc4@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

NOTE: course time is changing to Tuesday & Thursday 4:30-6:50pm. Students can still register now using the current SLN.

This course provides opportunity for new and advanced students from any discipline or major to experiment with short-term and group performance ethnography exercises that build individual and collective capacity for using the body and rebel creativity as core approaches to independent ethnographic inquiry. Through studio movement practice and the centering of bodily ways of knowing, participants build heightened exposure and awareness of when and how such methods and inquiry might be useful to community understanding, wellness and justice.  Course materials exam and theories of ethnographic practice, afro-futurism, freedom, social change, community histories of strength and continuity from a variety of perspectives within anthropology, performance studies, queer, crip, critical race and cultural studies, global literature and ethics. Participants are challenged to engage a vibrant intellectual toolkit and movement modalities, to identify core values, ideas, questions and approaches most helpful to their own personal, academic and social development and liberation.  With these tools in hand we invite participants to investigate, experience and create movement that matters and transforms in a world on fire.

“The creative act requires not only freedom of expression, but the assumption we will be free tomorrow.”  Salman Rushdie 2015, World Voices Festival

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 15494 (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: 35 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.

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

SLN 15495 (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: 35 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.

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)

BIOCHEM 451 A: Honors Biochem (NSc)

BIOCHEM 451 A: Honors Biochem (NSc)

SLN 11329 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

Minimum of a 3.0 in BIOC 450 or 3.5 in BIOC 440
Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu to enroll
Add Code required

BIOC 451 is the honors version of BIOC 441; it covers the same topics in metabolism and gene expression using the same textbook, but is taught as a group discussion of selected publications from the primary literature, with an emphasis on research strategy, experimental design, creative thinking, and scientific communication.

CHEM 155: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 155: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 12201 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 72 students

Honors Credit Type

Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu for registration questions

Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 145.
Students must also sign up for Section AA, AB, or AC. See Time Schedule for day/time information.

$75 course fee – auditors exempt
Fee purpose: Lab
LAB SECTIONS CANNOT BE OVERLOADED.
NO WAITLISTS. VISIT NOTIFY.UW.EDU.

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

CHEM 336: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 336: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 12340 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4
Limit: 72 students

Honors Credit Type

Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu for registration questions
Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 335.

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 more than 4 credits can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: CHEM 238, CHEM 336.

CHEM 346: Organic Chemistry Honors Laboratory (NSc)

CHEM 346: Organic Chemistry Honors Laboratory (NSc)

SLN 12341 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 3
Limit: 24 students

Credit Type

Contact Chemistry for add codes.
Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 335.
Students who do not complete the prerequisites will be dropped from this course.
$75 course fee – auditors exempt
Fee purpose: Lab
LAB SECTIONS CANNOT BE OVERLOADED.
NO WAITLISTS. VISIT NOTIFY.UW.EDU.
—————————
OFFERED VIA REMOTE LEARNING

To accompany CHEM 336. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course group: CHEM 241, CHEM 346 (3 credits).

CSE 142 / CSE 390 HA: Computer Programming I (NSc, W)

CSE 142 / CSE 390 HA: Computer Programming I (NSc, W)

SLN 13059 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4+1
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

Contact/Visit CSE Advising to Register

Honors
Credit/No Credit
CSE 142 STUDENTS REGISTER FOR
CSE 390 H & HA

To earn Honors credit, students must register for and complete ALL of the following:

  1. Register for CSE 142 lecture A or B AND a corresponding CSE 142 section
  2. Register for CSE 390 H lecture AND corresponding CSE 390 HA section

(See Time Schedule/MyPlan for course day, time and SLN for both CSE 142 and CSE 390)

CSE 142 will cover 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. The Honors CSE 390 course will be a special topics discussion section decided on by the instructor. 

CSE 143 + CSE 390 HB: Computer Programming II (NSc)

CSE 143 + CSE 390 HB: Computer Programming II (NSc)

SLN 13060 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5+1
Limit: 24 students

Honors Credit Type

Prerequisite: CSE 142
Contact CSE Advising to Register
CSE 143 was recently changed to 5 credits so the additional seminar will be 6 credits total.

To earn Honors credit, students must register for and complete ALL of the following:

  1. Register for CSE 143 lecture A or B AND a corresponding CSE 143 section
  2. Register for CSE 390 H lecture AND corresponding CSE 390 HB section

(See Time Schedule/MyPlan for course day, time and SLN for both CSE 143 and CSE 390)

CSE 143 is a 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. 

The Honors CSE 390 course will be a special topics discussion section decided on by the instructor. 

ENGL 182 H: Composition: Multimodal (C)

ENGL 182 H: Composition: Multimodal (C)

SLN 14297 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Counts for Honors "Additional Any" and UW Composition Requirement
Cannot be taken if student has already received a grade of 2.0 or higher in ENGL 109/110, 111, 121, 131, or 182

Priority I Registration for Freshmen & Sophomore.

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.

ENGL 282 (section B): Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition (C)

ENGL 282 (section B): Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition (C)

SLN 14340 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code required. Email uwhonors@uw.edu to request code

Intermediate Multimodal Composition: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.

MATH 135: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

MATH 135: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

SLN 17131 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code available from Math Department.
Students must have completed or be in Honors MATH 134.

Covers the material of MATH 124, 125, 126; 307, 308, 318. First year of a two-year accelerated sequence. May receive advanced placement (AP) credit for 125 after taking 135. For students with above average preparation, interest, and ability in mathematics.

MATH 335: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

MATH 335: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

SLN 17209 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code available from Math Department.

Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.0 in MATH 334.

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 300, MATH 309, MATH 324, MATH 327, MATH 328, and MATH 427. Second year of an accelerated two-year sequence; prepares students for senior-level mathematics courses. Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.0 in MATH 334. Offered: W.

PHYS 142: Honors Electromagnetism (NSc)

PHYS 142: Honors Electromagnetism (NSc)

SLN 19244 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 44 students

Honors Credit Type

If you have completed either PHYS 121 or PHYS 122 or have transfer credit (including AP credit) for those courses, and you think you are prepared and would like the challenge to take the next course in the sequence in the honors sequence, you should contact the instructor. Based on a discussion with the instructor of your preparedness, the instructor will help you determine what is required to ensure that you succeed in the honors sequence and will determine if the prerequisite should be waived.

HONORS STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR THE HONORS SECTION AND ASSOCIATED QUIZ SECTION TO RECEIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY HONORS CREDIT FOR THIS COURSE

See Physics department for more information and review their Honors Physics 142 and the Honors Physics overview pages:
https://phys.washington.edu/courses/2021/winter/phys/142a
https://phys.washington.edu/141-142-143-courses

Addresses same material as PHYS 122 in more depth and with additional topics such as current research and cross-disciplinary applications. For students with strong calculus preparation. Maximum 5 credits allowed for any combination of PHYS 115, PHYS 118, PHYS 122, and PHYS 142. Prerequisite: a minimum grade of 2.5 in PHYS 141; and MATH 125 or MATH 134, either of which may be taken concurrently; recommended: high-school-level physics course. Offered: W.

Special Topics (2)

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 397 A: Natural History and Culture Museums in the 21st Century (SSc, W)

HONORS 397 A: Natural History and Culture Museums in the 21st Century (SSc, W)

SLN 15493 (View UW registration info »)

Melissa Frey (Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
Office: Burke Museum, Room 203E, Box 353010
Phone: 206-221-7170
Email: freyma@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

Traditionally, natural history and culture museums have served both as a repository for collection objects, and as a place of exhibition, education, and engagement. Today, visitors are still captivated by these museum collections, drawn in by dinosaurs, whales, masks and canoes. However, most natural history and culture museums are able to share only a small fraction of their vast collections and their in-depth research. A key challenge is to connect visitors to museum collections, to share the relevance of museum research, and to make museums matter.

The aim of this seminar is to consider both the public faces (exhibit/education programs) and the behind-the-scene spaces (collections/research) of a modern natural history and culture museum. Students will examine first-hand the Burke Museum’s culture, biology, and paleontology collections, learn about current museum research, and evaluate existing museum exhibits. We will assess how these collections and their stories can be shared in creative and novel ways, and together, what they can teach us about our communities and ourselves.

The course will be hosted at the new Burke Museum, where students will engage with a variety of museum professionals and explore multiple collections. Assignments will include weekly course readings and discussions, two short papers, and a final group project. This seminar will be offered as CR/NC; grading will be based on participation (40%), written assignments (20%), and final presentation (40%).

HONORS 398 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: WRITING AND EDITING PAPERS ON CLASSICAL TOPICS INTENDED FOR A PUBLIC AUDIENCE (A&H, W)

HONORS 398 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: WRITING AND EDITING PAPERS ON CLASSICAL TOPICS INTENDED FOR A PUBLIC AUDIENCE (A&H, W)

SLN 22108 (View UW registration info »)

James Clauss (Classics)
Email: jjc@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 5 students

Credit Type

Modern science and technology have so overwhelmed contemporary society that lost among the terabytes and google searches is a sense of our shared humanity, often threatened by the powers-that-be: wealthy oligarchs, powerful autocrats, brutal dictators, nationalistic institutions from whom the weak and the marginalized have no protection.  Ancient Greek and Roman writers and thinkers observed first-hand the near impossibility of speaking to power. Their observations, demonstrate that nothing has changed except for technology, but they can help moderns see that, unless we learn from the past, we will continue to repeat mistakes. During the seminar, students will examine ancient texts—literary, historical and cinematic—with the goal of learning how to communicate what we observe among the texts in various forms of public writing with the following objectives: 

  • To develop an ability to write with greater clarity, concision, engagement and effectiveness and to acquire editorial skills that will help you achieve this goal.
  • To reflect on what constitutes effective public writing and how such writing influences our perspectives.
  • To gain a greater insight into what the humanities, in particular Classical antiquity, have to contribute to contemporary discussions of the difficulty of preserving our humanity in the face of political and technological power structures.