Honors Course Archive

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

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

Students will work independently and collaboratively as we participate in the age-old activist practice of community building through making a group textile piece.

This class will focus on Japanese-language literature of North and South America. The texts we will read were written from the first decade of the twentieth century through the first decade of this century, by everyone from travelers who did not intend to stay abroad indefinitely to immigrants who hoped to make a new home outside of Japan. With works by both men and women, the class will examine the varieties of experiences had by individuals spanning from positions of relatively economic, social, and educational privilege to positions of significant deprivation and struggle. Students should be prepared for the texts to contain many distressing elements, from racial discrimination to exploitation based on gender and economics. At the same time, the texts reveal the various forms of joy, camaraderie, and hope that kept many alive under oft-trying circumstances. Students will not only be exposed to the history of Japanese abroad, but to the histories of North and South America from a perspective they might not yet know.

All readings are in English translation. No Japanese language ability is required or expected.

In this course we go global, with Shakespeare! Starting from the US, we will traverse across the world following the travels of a selection of plays across diverse locales such as China, Japan, Vietnam, India, the Caribbean islands and Martinique. We will consider the traffic between Shakespeare and world cultures, attending to the impact the plays have had on people around the world and the impact the latter have had on the plays. Along the way, we will destabilize conventional interpretations and modes of representation of Shakespeare. It is hoped that our engagement will enable a new understanding of why Shakespeare has been of use around the world. You should also be able to hone in your analytical skills from taking the course so that you can read and ponder the texts on your own. No prior familiarity of the subject matter is required. This course will be of interest to you if (a) you wonder: why Shakespeare? and/or (b) unfamiliar cultures, cultural productions, inter-cultural contacts and global travels fascinate you. Plays we will read- Richard III, The Tempest, Macbeth, King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Assignments and Evaluations:

·Class participation: 20%

·4 Short written responses to films/documentaries: 20%

·An outline for the final paper: 10%

·A final paper: 30%

·A group project: 20%

Offered jointly with GREEK 101A. Additional section meeting times TBD.

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

There is no “bigger” book than Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which we will be reading and analyzing in the Autumn Quarter of 2015. We will explore the historical times during which it was written as well as the Napoleonic Wars within which Tolstoy places his novel. The course will also examine the cultural and social milieu that produced the novel and examine critical literature that focuses on it.

Instructor: Marisol Berrios-Miranda (marisolbmd1@yahoo.com)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

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

COURSE GOALS

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

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

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

Which aspects of gender are influenced by nature and which are influenced by environmental factors? How do the brains of gay sheep differ from those of heterosexual ones? How does the brain regulate ovulation? Does sexual activity boost cognitive brain function? Should cheaters take a love hormone to help them stay committed to their partners? Students will explore these questions and others by discussing case studies, news stories, and primary scientific articles. Students will analyze information with the scientific method as their guide, generate hypotheses, propose experiments, and interpret data. In addition, students will evaluate the accuracy and clarity of news articles written about the primary scientific research articles. In the second half of the course, students will write their own news articles based on primary scientific papers and submit their work for publication to Grey Matters Journal, RealClearScience, or another science news source.

We will consider the following five propositions:

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

2. Leadership involves at its base the creation of a persuaded audience, but, more than persuasion, involves creating and sustaining a more thoughtful public, a public capable of rising above itself.

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

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

5. 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, creating 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.

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 short papers on texts, plus a longer (8-10) synthesis paper; small and large group discussions with each other and visiting scholars/practitioners.

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

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

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

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

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

The Anthropocene presents us with the problem of all problems for the following reasons:
• It was a colossal accident.
• It is a consequence of the everyday life choices of over seven billion people.
• These choices are strongly driven by an amalgamation of psychological and institutional forces with deep historical and even biological roots.
• The everyday actions of a few of us are far greater drivers than those of most us, but our lower-impact members are quickly adopting the habits of the affluent.

Taken alone, each of these factors presents a conundrum; taken together, they cry out for deep inquiry into the peculiar place of the “anthros” in the scheme of things. The dawning of the Anthropocene seems to compel us to ask ourselves not only, “What on Earth are we doing?” but even more fundamentally, “What on Earth are we?” If nothing else, the new geological era highlights our species’ paradoxical relationship to the rest of creation. While these questions can be illuminated by the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, so too can we investigate them through personal and interpersonal introspection. For our complicity in the Anthropocene implies that each of us must answer the question, “Who am I in relation to this?” The very magnitude of the problem and its undeniable biophysical dimensions tend to transfix our gaze outwardly, yet coming to understand the “anthros” must surely also entail looking within.

The premise of this course is that cognition will be necessary but not sufficient on addressing the global challenges of the 21st century. Rather than studying such issues as climate change, the extinction crisis, world food challenges, and global justice as happening only “out there,” we will view them as also happening “in here” by continually asking ourselves, “Who am in relation to this?” This holistic approach involves integrating cognitive learning with affective and somatic awareness through reflective and contemplative exercises and community.

Course requirements will include:
• Intensive reading on the human and biophysical dimensions of the Anthropocene
• Active participation in seminar discussions
• A daily reflective or contemplative practice
• Writing in both a private journal and a public blog
• Bi-weekly meetings with your “study buddy”
• A class-wide community service project
• A final creative project (paper, video, performance, multi-media) addressing the question, “Who am I in the Anthropocene?”

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

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

This reading seminar offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the material and cultural production of racialized meanings that have and continue shaping the lives and identities of Afro-descendants in the regions we today recognize as Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx U.S borderlands.

We will investigate the violences, inequities, and erasures embedded in key historical processes unleashed particularly by but not exclusive to Spanish and Portuguese colonial endeavors, decolonization efforts, and processes of nation-state formation. Most importantly, we will examine how Afro-descendent communities creatively navigated the treacherous political and economic landscapes of the Americas yesterday and today as well as how they envision a more just future. We will look at the production of blackness as a relational process overlapping, intersecting, and colliding with other formations of race as well as gender, sexuality, class, age, region/nationality, and religion, among others.

The ultimate aim is to reveal the multiplicity of Africanidades and Negritudes populating our Americas.

The course will include a wide array of texts including historical monographs, memoirs, fiction writing, anthropological pieces, and works based on oral interviews.

Assignments include in-class participation and attendance, weekly Go-Post reflections and commentaries, a set of short analytical essays to be included in the production of a class newsletter, and participation in a selection of the workshops and dialogues in the 5-week event series MAS ORGULLO sponsored by various UW units and MAS (Movimiento AfroLatino Seattle).

Builds basic drawing skills, develops understanding of primary concepts which relate to drawing and develops an understanding of the grammar or syntax of two-dimensional language. Students move beyond their current knowledge and abilities and link new skills, concepts, and understandings to creative expressing.

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

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

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

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

Focuses on building an historic and critical overview of modernism and modernist designs in the practice and discipline of landscape architecture. Focuses on critical readings of historical narratives to explore the emergence of theory in practice.

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

First quarter of a sequence; sequence covers the material of 124, 125, 126; 307, 308, 318. First year of a two-year accelerated sequence. May receive advanced placement (AP) credit for 124 after taking 134. For students with above average preparation, interest, and ability in mathematics.

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

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

Our seminar in Autumn 2015 provides a formal space for us to process and make sense of our travels, with a focus of travels in India. We will have asked each other many questions before and during our journey, and our class gives us the chance to formulate some possible answers about how to continue to animate our trip abroad now that we are back home.

The purpose of the US-Japan Leadership seminar is to shape and hone an understanding of leadership, friendship, and a caring community among the next generation of leaders in each country. The relationship between two of the world’s most powerful democracies and economies has become complex and multilayered, transcends boundaries and demands consideration of global issues, understanding of the self and others. Yet, we to suffer from misunderstandings, neglect or stereotyped images of each other that arise from our very distinct histories and cultures.

The seminar aims to foster dialogue among future leaders across areas of study. The seminar will bring students together to discuss leadership, citizenship, historical and current issues in bilateral relations, as well as issues reaching beyond our two countries. Students will engage
in serious conversation along with shared cultural experiences and seeks to nurture lifelong friendships. The overall goal of the seminar is to take steps toward the formation of leadership for a more caring global community– Omoiyari no aru kokusai shakai ni mukete no ridashippu.

This is an introductory course to international business. International business differs from local business in many aspects. If a company wants to conduct business in foreign countries, it must confront the following situations that differ from its home country: language, currency, culture, policies, market size, economic growth, demographic changes, appropriate marketing technique, and so forth.

In the first half of the course I will provide short lectures and discuss some materials/ideas on international business. No previous knowledge about business or economics is necessary.
Further, there will be no exams or papers. However, participants will be expected to contribute to the class discussion. I will ask you to complete a group work presentation in the second half of the class. Here is an
example of the presentation topic: “Suppose you start up your own business in a country outside of the US. What should you do in order to maximize the profits from your business in that
country?” Class-participation (not just attendance) and the uniqueness of the group work presentation are important for the final evaluation.

The evidence is increasingly clear that human beings are biologically predisposed toward polygamy (that is, one male mated to multiple females, and/or one female mated to multiple males). This background aspect to our evolution has numerous consequences – some of them rather surprising – for our bodies and our behavior. In this seminar, we’ll read a book ms, written by the instructor (Barash) but not yet published: it’s scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in early 2016. We’ll read the ms and discuss it; Barash will doubtless revise it based on student input, so that the only requirement is to read a chapter each week and come to class prepared to discuss it – i.e., agree, disagree, suggest improvements, expand upon various topics, etc. Should be fun …

In this one-credit seminar, you will learn and practice strategies for speaking effectively about you own skills, accomplishments, and experiences in a variety of academic or workplace contexts (e.g., poster sessions, final project reports, interviews). We will address content selection and organization, delivery techniques, design and use of visual aids, and Q&A sessions. You will have opportunities, in a relaxed, small-group environment, to practice strategies learned in class through the presentations you make to
your peers. You will also gain experience evaluating your own presentations and providing feedback to peers on theirs. You will also receive instructor feedback aimed at helping you improve your skills and prepare for future speaking opportunities.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

-Create and organize presentation content for a given audience and situation

-Design visual aids that complement and enhance the oral message

-Deliver presentations effectively, with and without visual aids, and within a specific time limit

-Manage-and leverage-anxiety that can accompany oral presentation

-Engage in question-and-answer sessions, as both speaker and audience member

-Listen attentively to peers’ presentations and provide meaningful feedback