Honors Course Archive

Gilbert Simondon claimed that humans must adopt a “technical mentality” for technology to become a part of culture. In our current digitally-mediated world with “Maker” and DIY cultures on the rise, some might argue that such a technical mentality has arrived. In this course, we shall explore technical mentality through hands-on making and critical reflection through theory and philosophy. Through the combined processes of reading, writing, discussing and making we will engage with yet a third term “critical making,” inserting criticality as an underlying aspect of making. Criticality will be a mode of engagement and we will examine maker projects and make our own projects with critical questions.

Thus, the course will explore various modes of multi-modal scholarship and examine hands-on processes within the academy and in mainstream culture. The goal will be to synthesize analysis and hands-on experimentation. At the heart of this process will be a handful of general questions: To what end does “making” foster critical knowledge and understanding? In what ways can theory inform the making process(es)? How can “making” instantiate critical points-of-view in material means.

No technical experience is required for this course.

To the horror of many modern-day critics, J.R.R. Tolkien has several times been selected in national polls in the U.S. and Britain as “the author of the twentieth century,”beating out such worthy opponents as James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. The recent success of Peter Jackson’s film version of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s best known work, has served to increase his popularity even further. This course takes on the challenge of understanding Tolkien in the context of the many different “pasts” he negotiated in the course of creating his complex mythology. Tolkien was first and foremost a philologist: what became Middle Earth had its origins in his habit of inventing complex language systems for which he then felt compelled to construct entire new worlds and populations. He was a medievalist, a specialist in the northern mythologies of early England, Scandinavia, and the Celtic lands; the heroes and monsters of those early tales fired his imagination from his earliest boyhood and continued to animate his scholarly and popular writing throughout his adult life. He as also a devout Catholic who combined complex Neo-Platonic theological notions of good and evil with the fatalism of the Germanic myths. But if Tolkien was a man of the past, he was also a person caught up in some of the most dramatic trends and events of his own day: the trench warfare of World War I, in which he lost two of his closest friends, the battle of the Somme, from which he was himself invalided out, and the changes sweeping over his beloved land of England before and after World War II.

All of these facets-combined with his popularity as an author, of course-make Tolkien an ideal figure through whom to introduce students to the importance of myth as a way of understanding the challenges we face as humans living in the modern world. The themes of this course are the themes with which Tolkien and his contemporaries were so fruitfully preoccupied: the relationship between language and myth, religion and the existence of God, the nature of good and evil, the possibility of heroism in an age of total warfare, the age of the machine and its impact on the environment. At issue also are the ways in which Tolkien and his work have been received and interpreted. Was he, as many have argued, a racist whose only terms of reference for the depiction of evil were black and white? Was he a sexist, unable to imagine women in positions of real independence? An ivory tower sort, complacently divorced from the realities of the world? How can one possibly explain the appeal of a work like The Lord of the Rings in an era of feminism and sexual liberation, racial integration, popular anti-war protests, and the rise of technology? All will be important issues for us as the class progresses.

Almost all of our class sessions will be devoted to in-class discussions of Tolkien’s works, although I will do a few background lectures here and there. There will be two papers: one (5-7 pages) due around midterm comparing Tolkien’s work to that of other writers of the First or Second World War, and the second (10-12) pages a research paper or creative project centered on a Tolkien-related topic of the student’s choice. There will also be a final exam and a brief oral presentation on the midterm essay. NOTE: ALL STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE READ THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS BEFORE OUR FIRST CLASS MEETING.

We might often take our spatial surrounding for granted. Space, however, impacts us in every moment of our life. It influences our experiences, how we move around, how we interact with each other, if we feel safe, confined or mobile. Space is a socially (re)produced political entity that is inextricably related to the intersections of class, race, gender identity, national origin, age, and disability. In this course, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to space, discussing scholarly works from disciplines such as geography, sociology, ethnic, gender and cultural studies. In the first part of the seminar, we will examine different spatial phenomena, including sense of place, home, racialization of space, global power geometries, access to public space and mapping. In the second part, we will scrutinize specific spaces important to the understanding of U.S.-American society, such as borders, gated communities and correctional facilities. Analyzing recent political developments from a spatial perspective, such as the current protests prompted by the Brown and Garner decisions, will also be a central element of the class. Students will have the opportunity to work on their own projects. They are encouraged to explore spaces and spatial practices in different Seattle neighborhoods and will give in-class presentations on their findings.

The course, taught annually, examines the works of Vladimir Nabokov, from his early novels written in Europe to his later masterpieces, including Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, and Ada. By popular demands I will be teaching Nabokov and Joyce this Spring (VN: Stories, Poetry, The Gift, Lolita; JJ: Dubliners, Poetry, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses) but the focus will still be more on Nabokov than on Joyce, whose two novels we will not read in full, unlike Nabokov’s.

ALL READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ARE IN ENGLISH. NO PRE-REQUISITES!

Class participation (20%); Midterm (for all but longer for grads and Honors; 30%); Final (Papers for grads; longer exams for Honors; 50%)

Oil and its environmental consequences are at the center of the Climate Change debate. Could an oil spill fundamentally change U.S. domestic and international policy? These recent headlines provide some insight into how it might:

“Obama to confront oil pipeline, climate change.”
“Shell ship grounding fuels Arctic drilling debate.”
“With Arctic ice melting at record pace, the world’s superpowers are increasingly jockeying for political influence and economic position.”
“Oil-tanker traffic is expected to increase in Washington waters under an expansion by a Canadian pipeline company”
“Syria’s Assad accused of boosting Al-Qaeda with secret oil deals.”

This course explores marine oil spill science, policies, and practices. Students will gain knowledge of key marine science principles and apply them to contemporary issues such as Arctic oil development, fracked oils, and the BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Oil spills provide a lens for viewing the theme of knowledge across disciplines – applied to real-word problems of managing marine ecosystems. Students will examine major oil spills to understand both the scientific and human dimensions of preserving ocean resources.

Oil spills can also provide a window into how society uses science to mitigate the effects of technology. By studying the science of oil spills, students will develop skills for critically evaluating the popular portrayal of scientific concepts and their role in policy debates as a way to gain a deeper appreciation for the complexity of developing sustainable societies.

Over the past decade, there have been between 3,000 and 5,000 marine spill incidents annually. Marine oil spills are among the most visible and potentially damaging threats to fish and wildlife and their habitats, regional economies, and the people of the region. They can impact international relations, national energy policy, and even election outcomes, yet few people understand the scientific foundations of spills and response measures like dispersants.

We will begin the course with an introduction to oil spills that have had a major impact on science, technology, and policy in the United States. Each spill will illustrate key disciplines that provide the scientific foundation for mitigating spill impacts, such as physical oceanography, chemistry, geomorphology, and ecosystem interactions. Understanding oil spills requires an interdisciplinary approach that considers both natural and social sciences.

Learning Goals
At the end of this course, each student will be able to:
-Explain how oil spills behave in the marine environment, with an emphasis on effects to humans and ecosystems.
-Describe, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the basic spill response strategies and their differing impacts to the environment and humans.
– Demonstrate how to apply oil spill tools to an oil spill scenario in order to critique alternative response strategies.
– Recognize the role of old and new media in communicating science and affecting policy.
– Display a leadership role in the classroom community through discussion, group learning, and class presentations.

Recommended preparation
We expect students to be new to this topic and many to be non-science majors. There are no prerequisite courses required to enroll in this class. Students can prepare by reading articles on the Arctic oil development, oil shipping by rail, and oil spills as they occur.

Class assignments and grading
The course will strongly encourage student participation, discussion, and peer collaboration. Differing points of view are encouraged when presented in a positive context. Student can expect a high level of success if they attend
lectures and complete the readings and course assignments.

-Attendance and general in-class participation – 10%
-Discussion briefs and short writing assignments – 20%
-Quizzes – 30%
-Group Project – 20% (10% individual grade, 10% group grade)
-Final Paper – 20%

Pain presents a challenge as a problem in science, as a problem in health policy and patient treatment, and as a problem in understanding deeper human experiences. Pain is a universal experience. While all of us have experienced acute pain following surgery or an injury, not all of us have experienced chronic pain, which is pain that persists after tissue healing has occurred, usually > 3 months after injury. In this seminar course, we will explore pain from multiple perspectives. Some of these include the physiology, pathophysiology and psychology of pain, the epidemiology of and risk factors for pain, the subjective experience of pain. Readings, short lectures, and discussions will address the “sciences” of pain, the expression of pain in literature, philosophic analyses of pain, and social science/anthropologic analyses of pain and its role in different cultures..
Students will be evaluated on the basis of a term paper on a topic of interest to the student (after discussion with one of the instructors), weekly “thought” pieces based upon the week’s reading, and class participation.
We encourage students from any discipline to enroll in the course. It is specifically designed to incorporate multidisciplinary perspectives, and presupposes only a general education and inquisitiveness.
Portfolio Contribution: Term paper and collated weekly writing.

The class will meet for three hours, once per week during the Spring Quarter of 2015. Students will be provided with a reading list for each session; it is our expectation that every student will read some of the suggested materials prior to the class and be able to enter into a discussion of the day’s topic. Lectures by the faculty will be kept to a minimum; the class time will be spent discussing the topic and the readings. We expect each student to turn in at the beginning of each class meeting a 1-2 page brief review of the readings that the student has undertaken for that session. Each student will be required to write a term paper of 10-20 pages length on a topic related to pain of his/her choice. Discussion of the proposed topic with one of the faculty prior to writing is strongly suggested. There will be no final examination. The grade will be based upon class participation (50%) and the term paper (50%).

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course provides an overview of comparative education by examining educational systems and issues around the world. Schooling, at all levels, is examined within its social contexts, namely the historical, cultural, economic and political contexts that help us better understand educational successes and failures. This course also focuses on a variety of issues, both inside and outside the formal classroom, to examine how they relate to teaching and learning.

There are two complementary goals of this course. The first is to provide students with a brief foundation of the field of comparative education in order to understand what constitutes a legitimate comparison. This is a hard question to tackle and requires very careful consideration of the elements being compared and the context of such a comparison. A great deal of our time will be spent understanding the interplay between the larger context of a country and its influence on the role, purpose and structure of education.

The second goal in this course is to provide students with an introduction to a plethora of educational issues. These range from traditional issues, such as teacher preparation and high stakes testing, to those few consider in examining educational achievements, such as children’s health or bullying. Of course, we will examine these issues within a comparative context, but the information also provides an introduction to issues you can explore in future courses within your major or minor.

Comparative education is an interdisciplinary field, because one cannot comprehensively compare across contexts without drawing upon multiple knowledge spheres. As a result, this course is interdisciplinary in essence, but our primary lens will be that of education. Our class is composed of beneficial abundance of fields of study, and we each bring a different perspective to the study of education. I think this only enriches our learning.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
As discussed above, our course goals are:

1. To examine what is meant by ‘comparison’ or ‘comparative’ as related to the study of education;
2. To examine the factors (cultural, social, economic, political) to be considered in drawing comparisons;
3. To develop an understanding of the similarities and differences between schools and educational issues around the world in relation to their historic, cultural, political, social and economic contexts;
4. To compare the U.S. education system with the systems in other countries within a comparative method context;
5. To become familiar with a range of educational issues which are commonly discussed around the world.

Provides a link between general theories of urban development and their specific manifestation in the United States. Explores a series of themes related to contemporary urbanization processes, including urban segregation, gentrification, the rise of fortress cities, homelessness, and the loss of public space.

This course is designed to help students investigate and analyze some of the social and economic inequalities that shape cities in the United States. The class will focus on broad debates and narratives about progress, development, democracy, race, and equity, tying these large themes to how the contemporary American city is produced,governed, and imagined. Rather than delving deeply into one specific field, the course will introduce-on a weekly basis-a number of different lenses through which urban inequality can be seen and analyzed; these include processes such as segregation, gentrification, policing, fortification, and enclaving. Whenever possible, the city of Seattle will be used as a case study and laboratory where theories can be applied and challenged. Students are expected to have a working knowledge of basic urban processes and literatures, and to be willing to consider new ideas and challenge commonly held assumptions. In addition to learning about the city and the processes that shape it, this course is designed to improve and challenge students’ academic skills in critical thinking, writing, and political and geographical debate.

By the end of the class, student will be able to:

·Describe and explain urban inequality in the United States.

·Apply abstract theories of spatial change to specific cities.

·Describe specific instances of resistance to processes and events that worsen urban inequality.

Course-level learning objectives

·Identify and analyze debates over segregation, gentrification, urban redevelopment, fortification, and homelessness.

·Adapt and apply theories of modernity, differential urban capitalization and development, neoliberalism, urban restructuring, and public space & democracy to the urban context.

·Perceive and analyze recent demographic, architectural, and infrastructural changes in US cities.

·Collaborate with peers in a polite and persuasive way, drawing on lectures, readings, and videos from class.

Invented by the Northwest poet Richard Hugo, “The Triggering Town” was an imaginary method to help poets begin new poems. The poet would imagine a town– one created with real memories of actual towns he/she had been visited or knew as a hometown, and then furnish the place with made-up oddities. Then, the poet would stumble upon a compelling subject, one humming below the surface of the “triggering town.” By following the music of the language, the poet would find the real subject of the emerging draft, and follow it into a new, and surprising, poem.

In this class, we’ll read and write poems that begin with particular places and then move on to other subjects. Students will each write (and revise) four poems and one midterm literary analysis paper, and they will also work in a team to create a written project on a the work of a poet whom they choose.

Description:

Throughout human history, war has been a particularly devastating and violent precursor to much of the formulation and development of law, policies, and financial allocation for those killed or wounded in military action and their families. Veterans, wounded in combat, provide an important glimpse into the broader national narrative regarding people with disabilities. This course examines war and conflict in this country as it relates to both public awareness and acceptance of these individuals as they re-join society highlighting their influence on laws and policies regarding disability, including its definition. 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 human rights perspectives.

Course objectives:

1. Students develop habits in writing, speaking, reasoning and vocabulary within a historical context necessary for in class discussion and continued learning – modes of inquiry that challenge students to ask well-reasoned questions, look for bias, and require evidence before making decisions.
2. Students develop an understanding of the interrelatedness of various disciplines intimately linked to disability and its history by integrating knowledge from several disciplines and applying that knowledge to an understanding of important problems and issues towards challenging existing notions and assumptions common in historical and contemporary literature generally and from a military perspective specifically.
3. Students develop social responsibility and preparation for citizenship through global awareness, environmental sensitivity, an appreciation of cultural diversity and full inclusion through an understanding of the human and financial efforts put forth and sacrificed by soldiers abroad and domestically towards these ideals.
4. Students develop basic vocabulary and historical framework on which to build a knowledge base of understanding disability and its inherent intersections in this country through the eyes and advocacy of United States service men and women.

Tentative assignments:
Students will be graded on their in-class participation and in graded completion of various tasks throughout the quarter associated with and culminating in a final research project and accompanying presentation.

Course text: AIDS: Science and Society. 7th (SEVENTH) edition, Fan, Conner, Villarreal. Available on-line (cheaper), or electronically. Please make sure you get the SEVENTH edition. Chapter summaries, review questions (for Fan, et al., 7th edition) can be accessed at: (http://biology.jbpub.com/fan/aids/7e ).

Course Description: 5 credits / graded
As part of course requirements, students will present a current event based on each day’s readings or lectures, to be turned in twice weekly by midnight the day before each class period. Link to current event story can be emailed to professors, or turned in as a hard or scanned copy each class period. The current event must relate to topic covered in class-and a paragraph must describe how the ‘AIDS of the day’ current event ties into the class lecture.

Students will be required to write a 15 page research paper focused on the Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000 (http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/) to be achieved by
2015. We are in the year 2015. Students will choose a lower or middle-income country and describe how their country has fared with meeting their in-country AIDS epidemic Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Students will summarize the in-country AIDS epidemic in terms of its current epidemiology (disease transmission and spread) and compare it to the epidemic in that country when the MGD goals were set in 2000. Students will describe in-country HIV/AIDS evidence-based prevention and treatment (medical/clinical and/or behavioral), and social or economic programs that were designed to reduce the in-country AIDS epidemic. Students will summarize the evidence for how the country impacted or did not impact its HIV/AIDS epidemic. Students will document the evidence of how their country achieved their HIV/AIDS MDGs. Papers will be due last week of class (week of June 1, 2014) on JUNE 5, 2015.

This course will survey the demographics and linguistics of local heritage languages, how they are taught and learned at home and in the community, and what policies are at play at the institutional level from the perspective of heritage language maintenance, and whether there are national or regional trends or changes. There will be a brief introduction to language acquisition and heritage language attrition/maintenance theories.

Class time will include a panel of heritage language students and of teachers as well as guest lectures by other UW instructors. For each meeting, there will be pre-assigned readings based on which take-away summaries will be assigned. Students will team up with one or two classmates to lead the discussion for one or more weekly meetings. As a final project, students will be asked to choose a local heritage language and to study its speakers’ immigrant history in Washington and its maintenance prospects based on its community practices, “official” teaching and learning practices and policies. A portfolio submission will be required.

Pdf of assigned readings will be made available for students.

No quizzes or final exam.

This Honors/CHID seminar invites students to think critically about violence, memory and social movements in Latin America. Ideally, the course would be linked to the CHID/Honors study abroad program to Peru (Summer 2015) where students will engage with narratives about political violence and with intellectuals, artists and activists working toward social change. 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 and ethnicity 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 of violence and social movements in Latin America. Given the connection to the Peru summer program, the class will use Peru as an anchor for thinking about questions of violence and struggle, but the class will also consider examples beyond this Andean country such as language and terror in Argentina, racial conflict in Guatemala, the violence of extractive industry in Ecuador, and the politics of memory in Chile.

Architecture 352 presents a survey of architecture from 1750 to the present (primarily, but not exclusively, in Europe and North America). Emphasis is placed on the development of the architecture of this period including significant buildings and projects, important theories and critical writings.

Architecture 352 is the third course in the architecture 350-351-352 series. Knowledge of material covered in Architecture 350 and Architecture 351 is expected of those enrolled in Architecture 352. Like other courses in the 350 series, Arch 352 is offered as a series of lectures illustrated with slides. The Honors Section will also include a weekly discussion session focused on additional readings (including primary texts and articles of scholarly research) that address relevant events, practitioners, movements, influences, or broad cultural factors that influenced modern architecture from 1750 to the present. The principal objective in the Honors Section is to serve as an enrichment for the course lectures, exploring (in greater depth) issues that have been raised during the lecture sessions. The readings and assignments are designed to facilitate discussion and an in depth, critical inquiry of architecture, history and theory from 1750 to 2000. Architecture is seen not only as built form but also as consisting of the social practices and cultural discourse that it embodies. The aim of the Honors Section is to develop a deeper understanding of the past by incorporating a diversity of viewpoints.

Resources for the course include two texts that are available at the University Bookstore: Trachtenberg and Hyman, Architecture from Prehistory to Post-Modernism/The Western Tradition (New York, 2002); and William J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900 3rd Edition (New York and London, 1996).

A complete course guide (slide list) for all lectures may be purchased in a single bound booklet at the University Bookstore (available by the first day of class). A web site will also be accessible to those enrolled in the course.

The Honors Section will have a selection of focused readings that will enhance the content of the lectures, but address topics in greater depth. These readings will be available on e-reserves. Course requirements for students in the Honors Section will include an in-class midterm, a final exam, and regular written assignments based on the additional readings.

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: 162, 165 (5 credits); 165, 312 (5 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. Includes 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 course groups: CHEM 239, CHEM 337.

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.

Modern political and economic systems are founded and maintained by combinations of subtle workings of ideas and overt violence. This course examines how the systems of meaning and social organization we call ‘culture(s)’ organize the experiences, ideologies, and institutions of power which we call ‘politics’ at the local, national, and international level. This course introduces a critical approach to understanding the relationship between culture and politics by examining the problem of political violence and armed conflict and its relationship to society and culture in the post-WWII world. The questions this course will address include: In what ways are strategies of power produced through forms of knowledge that are culturally organized? How does power become internalized and personalized so that people actively reproduce it? What does it mean for a society to become ‘militarized’? What are ‘cultures of terror’ and what does it mean to rule by fear rather than by consent or coercion? How is torture and the violent inscription of the body a ‘modern’ political practice? How do cultural expectations shape international recognition of conflicts as ‘war’, ‘civil insurgency’, or ‘terrorism’ and of impacted people and populations as ‘victims’, ‘refugees’, ‘perpetrators’ or ‘terrorists’? What is the distinction between modern and postmodern warfare and how do their political economies differ? How do post-cold war peace-making paradigms of accountability and reconciliation rely on the transformative possibilities of political culture? We adopt an ethnographic perspective to examine the these questions through the examination of processes of political violence and armed conflict in the daily lives of ordinary people, drawing on case studies from the US, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

An examination of North American attitudes towards land, nature, and natural resources, and the relationships between those attitudes and the creation of laws and policies affecting nature. Readings from varied sources will focus attention on the ways that culture and ideals shape attitudes towards use and ownership of the natural environment and define relationships of human societies to the land.

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.

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.

Electromagnetic waves, optics, waves in matter, and experiments in these topics 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 116 and PHYS 123. Prerequisite: MATH 126, MATH 129, or MATH 134, any of which may be taken concurrently; PHYS 122.

Getting ready to go abroad isn’t only about booking a convenient hotel and reading up on the most famous sites. Going abroad also can be thought of as a series of reflective journeys through ourselves as well as others. From this perspective, we can ask a few questions: how do we imagine ourselves and our homes, in this particular society and culture? What would it mean to interact in a new cultural context, with those who seem “different” in some way? Whether we’re talking about traveling across our city, state, nation or farther away, all travel invokes categories of who we are and who others might be in relation to ourselves. In this class, a required pre-departure course for students traveling to Bangalore, India in the summer as well as other interested students, we will read travel literature, memoir, ethnography and creative nonfiction in order to better imagine the relationship between ourselves and others, here and there.

Learning Goals:
–increased familiarity with theories of identity and social difference
–familiarity with theories and issues of culture, travel, globalization, and identity
–increased familiarity and comfort discussing issues of identity and social difference

This seminar will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to the summer study abroad program in Germany “Reenacting German and American Identities”. The seminar will be comprised of classroom instruction and discussion, reading and writing assignments, and guest speakers who will provide both cultural and language instruction as preparation for in-country learning. The seminar will provide a space to decide on the focus on their projects and create a working draft of group and individual research projects, which they will then use to guide their projects during their time in Germany.

We will walk through the steps of creating and hosting a simple portfolio on your UW web space, in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Taking this course will provide experience in the basics of each technology, and help you understand the core technologies of the Internet. Collaborative assignments push your portfolio and technology thinking forward, and individual assignments will put emphasis on your ability to build, think inventively, and critically about making things online.

No prior coding experience expected.

Scenario planning is a powerful tool used by the most successful organizations for strategic analysis and decision making, enabling an organization to chart a course or optimize its resource allocation in complex situations when the future is uncertain. In this course, participants learn to evaluate an organization’s strategic position, competencies, and plans for expansion across a full range of potential future developments.

We’ll all read a book, titled – not coincidentally, Buddhist Biology – recently written by David Barash and just published by Oxford University Press. Each week, we’ll discuss material covered in various chapters, leading (one might hope) to a deeper understanding of Buddhism and of biology, and of the convergences between the two. A deep knowledge of neither Buddhism nor biology is required, since the book itself is intended for a general non-specialist audience. What is necessary, however, is interest and a willingness to talk about the important and stimulating ideas in question. No written papers or exams will be involved; this will simply be an opportunity to agree, disagree, point out weaknesses or strengths in the book, and possibly expand your understanding.

The teaching of science normally involves sharing what we know, which sometimes has the unfortunate result of making it seem that we know everything! The reality, of course, is quite different: there is much more that we DON’T know! In this seminar, we’ll consider various aspects of human evolution (not paleontology, but characteristics of human nature that we don’t yet understand), and speculate about various hypotheses to explain these mysteries.

The seminar will involve reading the book, Homo mysterious (Oxford University Press, 2012, written by the seminar instructor), and talking about it, chapter by chapter. No previous knowledge of evolutionary biology is necessary. No exams or papers, but participants will be expected to read the material and and come to class eager to agree, disagree, add new ideas, criticize existing ones, make trouble (within reason), and generally contribute to an intellectually lively undertaking. Should be fun!