Honors Course Archive

Modernity’s unprecedented assertion of human rights has been an equally unprecedented disaster for our fellow creatures. Never before have humans so systematically slaughtered and tortured the other animals on the planet in service of their own needs. To boot, human-caused global warming threatens the survival of as much as 65 percent of the known species on the planet. How is it that we have come to be at war with our animal nature? Has it always been that way or is it something about how humans have come to view themselves in the wake of the Enlightenment and its civilizing processes that now threatens the very survival of our fellow creatures. These are the questions that will frame discussions in this course. We will pursue a loose historical trajectory, beginning with antiquity, to consider how previous ages have understood their relations with the animal kingdom. We will be also interested in how privileging the human has led to the dehumanization and slaughter of so-called lesser humans. In other words, how the emergence of the human has led to a devaluation of difference and diversity.

Focuses on the diversity of human experience and the social and cultural conditioning of language use. Language as a mirror of culture and national character. Universal and culture/language specific components in linguistic expression of emotions, courtesy/politeness and rudeness, prejudice and (in)sensitivities, linguistic expression of gender differences in different cultures.

What is karma?
Is our fate predestined?
Or do we have free will?

This course explores these questions in the context of the major Indian philosophical systems including Jainism, Abhidharma & Mādhyamika Buddhism, Sāṅkhya, Nyāya, the Grammarians, Mīmāṃsā, the major systems of Vedānta, and other theistic traditions. In the process salient features of these systems will be introduced.

All readings in English, no knowledge of Sanskrit or other Indian languages is required.

From czars to comrades and to new Russians, from Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoevsky to Boris Akunin and Alexandra Marinina, the course will cover more than two centuries of Russian crime writing. Other featured writers include Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Nabokov. It’s all about who is good, who is evil, who is up, who is down, and, of course, who dunnit. All readings, lectures, and discussions will be in English. No prior knowledge of Russian, Russian literature or history is required to take this course. No prerequisites.

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these:

-Why are women and men different?
-Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy?
-Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children?
-When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?
-What can we do to reduce the rate of spousal abuse and homicide?

My goal is to help students learn selection thinking; that is, to help them learn to reason like evolutionary biologists. I hope to help students pose questions, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and critically evaluate the quality of evidence. After taking this course, students will be able to:

-Apply evolutionary theory to human interactions, especially those involving social conflict, and make predictions about how the divergent interests of the parties involved will affect their behavior.
-Design observational studies and experiments to test these predictions.
-Interpret and critically evaluate graphs and tables showing data on behavioral patterns in humans and animals.
-Provide evolutionary interpretations of various human social institutions, such as laws, wills, and social policies.

The theory of evolution by natural selection is the underlying theme that unites all fields of biology. In this course we will cover the basic principles of evolution, explore ways in which evolutionary theory can be applied to human biology and behavior, and consider how evolutionary thinking might guide the development of social policy. We will consider questions such as these:

-Why are women and men different?
-Which is more egalitarian: monogamy or polygamy?
-Why do step-parents and step-children often have more conflicted relationships than biological parents and biological children?
-When do people cooperate, when are they selfish, and why?
-What can we do to reduce the rate of spousal abuse and homicide?

My goal is to help students learn selection thinking; that is, to help them learn to reason like evolutionary biologists. I hope to help students pose questions, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and critically evaluate the quality of evidence. After taking this course, students will be able to:

-Apply evolutionary theory to human interactions, especially those involving social conflict, and make predictions about how the divergent interests of the parties involved will affect their behavior.
-Design observational studies and experiments to test these predictions.
-Interpret and critically evaluate graphs and tables showing data on behavioral patterns in humans and animals.
-Provide evolutionary interpretations of various human social institutions, such as laws, wills, and social policies.

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 student 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 roles 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 will use a “flipped classroom” model and expect the students do do most of the talking during our sessions.

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 Winter Quarter of 2016. 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%).

To better understand the key factors that control the earth’s present and future climate, this course examines episodes in the earth’s past when extreme climate conditions existed. Dramatic changes in the earth’s climate have resulted from natural variations in solar insolation, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, rates and pathways of ocean circulation, plate tectonics, and the evolution of vascular plants and, in modern times, the burning of fossil fuels.

The impact of these factors on climate through interactions between the atmosphere, oceans and land will be evaluated. The processes that produced past climate changes will be discussed primarily as a framework to evaluate modern and future climate change resulting from human activity.

The class will utilize lectures, in-class problem solving, discussion of scientific papers and weekly homework to learn the material on both a qualitative and quantitative level. Students are expected to have had sufficient science-based coursework to feel comfortable solving quantitative in-class and homework problems using basic algebra and, in some cases, using the spreadsheet program Excel. Honors students will work as multi-student teams on separate projects to quantify the impact of human CO 2 emissions on local and regional climate change.

General Description: This class provides a survey of Muslims living in non-Muslim context, but primarily in the US and Europe. This course explores the historical journey(s), either forced or by choice, of this religion/culture and its eventual settlement in the western world and eventually to North America. We will examine the diversity of Islam in the US and in Europe, and will explore and compare the experiences of Muslims in the US and other parts of the western world, especially in the light of intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric in recent years. Discussions over gender roles, transnational ties, and different interpretations of Islamic texts will be examined and debated. The larger question posed by the class deals with the compatibility between Islam as a religion and a culture, and modernity and western democracies, and the extent to which the anti-Muslim feelings are significant in determining the relationship between Islam and the Western world. In a sense, this course will provide a way for students to explore real contemporary issues of significance in the classroom, and will be able to observe on and examine diverse positions and analyses about Islam and Muslims in western contexts, with an emphasis on the US.

Expectations: This class is an interactive, discussion-based class, where students are involved in the teaching and learning process. Students will read a total of 4 books, and around 15 scholarly articles on various aspects f the topic. There will be a total of Four 4-page response papers on prompts that will be announced throughout the quarter, typically a week before each assignment is due.

NOTE: On Feb 22, 2017: There will be no regular class session. Instead students are required to attend a lecture by a leading American Muslim public figure, Dalia Mogahed, in the evening of the same day at the University of Washington Bothell campus.

Grand Challenges for Entrepreneurs explores big problems and opportunities facing society, ranging from healthcare and education to climate change and poverty. The course examines how solutions to these massive challenges can be researched, validated, and implemented using entrepreneurial skills such as creativity, opportunity recognition, business models, pivoting, and execution

HONORS 205 is a thinking class masquerading as a writing class. Well, no, not quite. HONORS 205 is an action class concealing a thinking class masquerading as a writing class. That’s better, but let’s try again. 205 is a reflecting and understanding class operating through an action and production class revealing a thinking and discussing class expressed in writing. There, that’s about write.

What sorts of writing? All sorts. Does the content of Hons. 205 fit neatly, snugly, tightly and conveniently, i.e. precisely and specifically, into pre-determined, clearly-bounded, explicitly-stated, adamantinely-unambiguous academic categories and curricula? Nah. Life, messy and real, gets in the way. As systems thinker Donella Meadows says: “Let’s face it, the universe is messy. It’s nonlinear, turbulent & dynamic.” Education is the process of making up your mind. Make up your mind whether to take Hons. 205 and make up your mind if you do. We hope Hons. 205 will be useful to you.

Expectations: Students will bring to the class their innate curiosity, enthusiasm to experiment and a willingness to actively engage in dynamic explorations of writing as if their lives depended on it.

Assignments includes in-class exercises and longer individual writing projects exploring a variety of forms of written communication. The final writing assignment, developed collaboratively throughout the quarter, will be a publication documenting our explorations in writing.

Reading, writing and traveling are all acts of the imagination. This course will allow us to “see” the places we’ve already visited, and imagine the places we plan on visiting. Our workshop will offer the memoirist and the returning traveler a way to synthesize experiences, transforming them into essays, articles, poems or stories. Our time together will help to set a practice for writing and exploring so that writing becomes a multi-modal practice to document life as it goes along.

Our goals include: helping you to keep a fantastic notebook/record of the sights, sounds, smells and impressions of the places you’ve visited and creating methods to transform that notebook into a more formal piece of writing. By reading poems, stories, essays and articles that illuminate the art of travel and of recording memories, we’ll test out a range of styles and stances. These activities will surface our initial assumptions about what it means to travel as a method of inquiry and imagination, and of acceptance, through places we don’t yet know– or places we have already been.

This 10 week seminar/discussion is an intense interactive discourse about college life. Emphasis is given to the 2004 Tom Wolfe novel, I am Charlotte Simmons which chronicles the college experiences of an 18 year old low-income undergraduate female, Charlotte Simmons, during her first semester at DuPont College. The second book is the 1965 (republished 2012) novel, Stoner by John Williams, about the college life of English professor William Stoner. The seminar will mainly explore the trials of Charlotte as she deals with issues such as sexuality, acceptance and rejection, narcissism, grade inflation and deflation, depression, disclosure, fraternity/sorority culture, glorification of student-athletes and elitism. Amazingly, Professor Stoner’s life in many ways are similar to Charlotte’s but from a generational and gender point of view.

The two novels, I am Charlotte Simmons and Stoner critically explore situations which have real-world implications for the well-being of any college student. Our discussions can and will become sensitive and intense. Students should not enroll unless they are prepared to take matters as acceptance and rejection, classism, sexism, acculturation, aspects about coming of age, also issues of self-esteem and the results of risk-taking.

TEACHING METHODS
This 5-credit seminar meets twice a week and all students are expected to be in attendance. Any absence must be excused. A complete reading of I am Charlotte Simmons and Stoner is required. Read the novels and not about the novels.

Teaching Approach: The Socratic Method is employed. This gives voice to the students which comes from Charlotte herself and from the students’ impression of Stoner (and speculation of what Stoner probably thinks of them.)

Final Paper: A 5-7 page, double-spaced, type-written paper in 12-font with title page and proper margins with APA style references as appropriate is due on the last day of the week of instruction. No late papers will be accepted!

Attendance: If absence cannot be helped, notify the instructor. However, too many absences can and will result in a failing grade.

No Lap-tops, Smart Phones or Use of Electronic Equipment while Seminar is in session! Please put these items away during the seminar. Connecting to the Internet while class is in session is strictly prohibited and this includes texting. The instructor is interested in what YOU think, not what some else has written in cyberspace. Note-taking can be done by pencil and paper and/or be audio-recorded.

Occasional Pop Quizzes: There will be unannounced quizzes. These will be one-two page in-class responses to a question taken from the Charlotte Simmons Discussion Guide. Individual feedback will be given but will not be graded, just remembered.

Occasional Group Exams: These are also unannounced administered in the style of the ancient TV quiz show, The GE College Bowl!

Individual Participation: This is informed participation. Students are expected to provide comments, insights and opinions based on the substance of the material, and not rhetoric.

There is a Western myth that human rights are “self-evident”, but nothing could be farther from the truth. This course will give you an appreciation for historical development of the idea of human rights and of the acceptance of human rights as a struggle against beliefs that seemed self-evident-for example, the belief that some peoples are natural slaves and the belief that women are inferior to and subordinate to men. This history is a history of bottom-up change, driven by human rights activists who opposed specific human rights abuses. The course will begin with some historical background, focusing on the development of rights of religious toleration and the development of a right against slavery. Then we will move to contemporary human rights issues as illuminated by guest lectures by U.W. faculty from a variety of disciplines as well as guest lectures from human rights activists from the Seattle area. Course topics include the European Union and human rights, mass incarceration and human rights, workers and human rights, a global right to health, human rights and immigration, women’s empowerment and human rights, and disability and human rights. Other topics will be added if further guest speakers identified.

Course requirements: Weekly short papers; one 5-7 page paper; a final paper (10-12 pages); and a 2-page reflection on the course. You will do drafts of the two longer papers and receive feedback on your drafts to assist you in preparing the final draft.

Music can be heard all over our planet. It finds its place in the chants of a shaman healing their patient, accompanies television commercials to help sell a product, helps create an atmosphere at social events, and accompanies societal rites of passage. Its inspiration can also be found in nature, for example, as a bird singing in our back yard or in the Amazon rainforest. Academically, music weaves its magic into many fields, making it an interdisciplinary powerhouse. It is present from the hard sciences through the most esoteric arts. Examples include recording technology in engineering; the use of music for healing in medicine and psychology; the study of sound production and building of musical instruments in physics; copyright and performance rights in law; and its use as a teaching aid in education.

In this experiential course we will examine some of the universal themes emerging from the use of music and its influence on humanity and our world. Our ten week journey will utilize various lenses through which we will explore the topic, including scientific and academic research, observation of collective human experience, and your own personal experience both in and outside of class. Our time together will be partially modeled on the goals and objectives of collaborative teaching/learning communities. Activities will include class visits from guest experts and group and individual research opportunities along with weekly musical explorations facilitated by the instructor. During this process we will also examine how it affects and empowers our own lives.

For the first time in the history of the planet humans are causing changes on a global scale – the Anthropocene. Scientists discovered global climate change, identified its human origins, and are forecasting change to every corner of the globe. There is overwhelming consensus about the facts underpinning our knowledge of climate change. Powerful forces are aligned against implementing changes necessary to mitigate climate impacts. By introducing uncertainty, and doubt about scientists’ motives, complexity and uncertainty have been turned into disagreement, undermining the public’s understanding and belief in climate science.

Understanding climate change requires an interdisciplinary approach that considers natural and social sciences, art, and the role of activism. A first step is to understand the often complex and sometimes perplexing science of climate change, in all its disciplines. Beyond the natural sciences, we can learn from history how past civilizations succumbed to climate change, we can further examine how the human brain limits our ability to process complex problems in a moral context. Just as importantly, we can explore how artists and musicians work with scientist to extend the expression of hard facts to intellectual and emotional enrichment.

The course will begin by building a foundation for understanding climate change causes and impacts, including atmospheric science, oceanography, chemistry, and ecology. First comes information on how the atmosphere works and mechanisms of climate alteration. Next, how the ocean works, atmospheric-ocean interactions, and their role in climate alteration. Then we will follow with key ecosystems and species in Arctic.

Interwoven with the science will be discussions of how Arctic states are working together to mitigate climate change impacts. Arctic indigenous peoples are also working with Arctic states to engage in the climate change discussion. The course consider the impacts of climate change to those nations and people, and also how they are contributing through literature, music, art.

Student learning goals

Students planning to enroll in this course should have substantial college-level preparation. That preparation should include completing at least one Natural World course and one English composition and writing course. Students will be reading, interpreting, and analyzing materials from a broad range of disciplines with guidance from the instructor. With good comprehension and writing skills, students from all schools and departments can be successful in this class. At the end of this course, the student will be able to:

Explain climate change in the context of atmospheric and oceanic systems, with an emphasis on effects to humans and ecosystems.

Describe how Arctic indigenous people understand and articulate climate change.

Explain the role of Arctic Council members, permanent participants, and non-member observer nations in investigating, communicating, and mitigating climate change impacts.

Describe and compare the advantages and disadvantages of climate policy strategies and their differing impacts on the environment and humans.

Recognize the role of art, music, and activism in communicating science and affecting policy.

Display a leadership role in the classroom community through discussion, group learning, and class presentations.

Class assignments and grading
In-class participation – 10%
Discussion briefs and short writing assignments – 30%
Quizzes – 20%
Group Project – 20%
Final Paper – 20%

This seminar will examine the ways Chicana feminist theories have critiqued neoliberal conceptions of identity and diversity and, as theorist Chela Sandoval writes, theorized difference not as an objective in itself but instead as a point of departure and a method. Readings will examine the debates about gender, nation, and social justice Chicana feminist publications engendered, and the way these debates have troubled nativism by invoking and documenting life in the borderlands.

In addition, the seminar will examine the particular forms in which Chicana feminist theoretical practices are embodied, including theoretical texts, poetry, and music. We will consider the ways Chicana feminist theory has transformed and been transformed by intellectual, poetic, and aesthetic traditions. We will look at the ways Chicana feminist theory both troubles and works within, across, and between disciplinary frameworks. We will also explore the national and transnational roots and routes of Chicana Feminist Theory. Finally, the seminar will examine the relationship of Chicana feminist theory to the discourse of “planetary civil society.”

Structure of class time:
This course is structured as a dynamic discussion seminar. In the first part of the seminar, the instructor will provide an overview lecture. Afterwards, the seminar will move into discussion break out groups. This will be followed by a mid-way break. The seminar will resume to collectively view or to listen to relevent film, media or audio texts, and end with a collective discussion.

BIOC 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. Offered: W.

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).

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.

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

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

Students enrolling in this class will attend Greek 300: Introductory Greek. First year Ancient Greek courses give you direct access to the thoughts and writings of the ancient Greeks and allow you to explore the dynamic and often dangerous cultural, social and political world in which they wrote. Learning to interpret and use an ancient language requires you to explore unknown areas and think in new ways. Our focus is on Greek as a literary language. Course activities are designed to foster a collegial and collaborative atmosphere and to encourage you to make strong connections between the ancient language and literature we are exploring together and your other interests, passions and pursuits. Additionally, students enrolling in the honors section will meet in a small section for critical analysis of historical and cultural aspects of the Greek language in the ancient world, with an emphasis on making productive and illuminating connections between the study of Greek and students’ other interests and goals. Students completing Greek 300 can extend their study of Greek in Spring Quarter by enrolling in an honors version of Greek 103.

Small section meetings will be held with Professor Catherine Connors, Chair of the UW Classics Department.

Recent comments from UW students in First year Greek:

“Ancient Greek is super fun”

“Ancient Greek teaches problem solving abilities that can be transferred to any discipline”

“In addition to simply being a fascinating language, Greek at UW is a very enjoyable class that will be an extremely unique and fun experience for you as you tackle a complex new language.”

“Take Greek and learn to solve wonderful puzzles.”

“Greek is fun and the instructor does not nitpick you on incredibly small details”

“It is easy to say ‘Oh it is Greek to me!’ Why not join us and see how fun it is learning Greek for real.”

“Greek is a beautiful language. You won’t regret it.”

Provides a historical understanding of the twentieth century and major global issues today. Focuses on interdisciplinary social science theories, methods, and information relating to global processes and on developing analytical and writing skills to engage complex questions of causation and effects of global events and forces.

Students enrolling in this class will attend Latin 300: Introductory Latin. First year Latin courses give you direct access to the thoughts and writings of the ancient Romans and allow you to explore the dynamic and often dangerous cultural, social and political world in which they wrote. Learning to interpret and use an ancient language requires you to explore unknown areas and think in new ways. Our focus is on Latin as a literary language. Course activities are designed to foster a collegial and collaborative atmosphere and to encourage you to make strong connections between the ancient language and literature we are exploring together and your other interests, passions and pursuits.. Additionally, students will meet in a small section for critical analysis of historical and cultural aspects of the Latin language in ancient Rome, with an emphasis on making productive and illuminating connections between the study of Latin and students’ other interests and goals. Students completing Latin 300 can extend their study of Latin in the spring by taking an honors version of Latin 103.

Small section meetings will be held with Professor Catherine Connors, Chair of the UW Classics Department.

Recent comments from UW students in First year Latin:

“This class was incredibly intellectually stimulating. The TARecent students c was engaging and always asked thought-provoking questions.”

“I have honestly never enjoyed a class more in all my time at UW.”

“Learning the structure of the language was different from anything I have ever done before and challenged me to find new ways of thinking.”

“Relating Latin to English and seeing where certain words and roots came from was cool.”

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.

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, 324, 326, 327, 328, and 427. Second year of an accelerated two-year sequence; prepares students for senior-level mathematics courses. Prerequisite: 2.0 in MATH 334.

Basic principles of electromagnetism, the mechanics of oscillatory motion, 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 115 and PHYS 122.

In life (and college) you will learn tremendous amounts of information, and integrate that information into work, love, and play. However, we rarely talk about how we learn or how we can learn better. This course is your chance to talk and learn more about: learning, how you learn, and how learning research is performed.

In this course, you will be guided through several ways of studying for your current classes, work, or life. Weekly, you will apply learning theories to your studies, and write brief reports on the experience. We’ll discuss each learning theory in-class, and your applications of these theories. At the end of the course, you will bring these reports together into a research paper, around five pages long. Activities will help you to study for courses you are taking now, and I hope will help you learn throughout your career.

This course may be especially applicable to anyone considering a career in a field involving human learning, beyond teaching and instructional design to management and process improvement.

This 2 credit seminar explores the root causes of impoverishment and homelessness in the U.S. We will unlearn poverty and homelessness as framed in popular discourse and the ‘poverty industry’. We will explore root causes of impoverishment including both material processes and representations that frame individual people and places as poor. We will think about the role of the non-poor and structural causes in the production of poverty/inequality. In the first part of the course we will ethically engage with non-homed people, homelessness activists and political movements that are addressing the immediate and root causes of homelessness. We will then work on understanding root causes of homelessness, considering the role of housing and employment markets, criminalization and social policy. Finally, we will consider what relational poverty politics can contribute to addressing impoverishment in new ways. Students will be assessed on participation and their leadership of our discussions. The seminar is open to all students, no prior classes are required.

Join us at the Seattle Symphony! This winter quarter, the class “Experience Music” (Honors 398) will be going to five concerts at Benaroya Hall. We’ll prepare for these concerts by discussions and readings in classes held on campus and we’ll have talks given by Symphony staff. Students will purchase the Symphony’s Campus card; all ticket arrangements will be made by the instructors. Questions? Contact Claudia Jensen (cjensen@uw.edu). Concert dates: Jan. 19, 26; Feb. 2, 9, and 24.

Open to all students, all instruments. An ensemble approach to the teaching of jazz improvisation, and playing in a small jazz ensemble. This class is designed to develop students skills and knowledge of playing in a small jazz combo. Repertoire will be arrangements from the jazz canon with opportunity for students to create their own music. Students will be expected to prepare (practice!) their parts for weekly class meetings.

Audition is required for this class and will consist of playing a pre-selected jazz standard and/or a blues. Lead sheets and charts will be pro­vided for all play­ers at the audi­tion. Please contact Greg Sinibaldi (sinibald@uw.edu) for more information and to schedule an audition.

We’ve known about climate change for decades. And yet, the response to this planetary crisis has been
slow, in large part because the stories that we tell about climate change are disconnected from most
people’s everyday experience. Often presented as either a science issue, emphasizing data and expert
knowledge, or about vanishing symbols like polar bears and ice caps, climate change stories do not
reflect everyday people as agents of change.

To create a powerful movement for climate change, we need new kinds of climate stories, stories that
connect climate science and symbols with our experiences, identities and relationships. And we’ll need new ways of telling those stories, ways that call up the creativity, the connection, and the purpose we need to act together on climate change.

With an emphasis on collaborative storytelling, art as activism and climate justice, this seminar brings
students together to explore these new kinds of climate stories. What happens when we weave our own
stories into the climate conversation? How does sharing these stories transform our understanding of
climate change, and where we see ourselves in the issue? How do these new understandings empower us as learners, educators and change-makers in the climate movement?

Over the quarter, students will use writing, visual art, performance and reflection to tell their own climate stories. We’ll learn about creative responses to the climate crisis happening here in Seattle, as well as from people’s movements for climate justice from around the world. We’ll also think critically about the relationship between storytelling, power, and resistance – and how storytelling creates new possibilities in a climate-changed world.