Honors Course Archive

Examines the works of Vladimir Nabokov, from his early novels written in Europe to his later masterpieces, including Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, and Ada.

This course provides a glimpse into India’s wisdom literature by studying the ever-popular songs of its holy men (and a few women), the saints of the bhakti or devotional tradition. These songs are still sung in temples and village courtyards, and heard in movie soundtracks and on the classical concert stage. They are used not only in worship, but also in education, performing arts, and politics. We will read, listen to, and watch film versions of some of the most influential works of the Indian devotional tradition, studying how they are interpreted and mobilized in contemporary religion and politics.

“The city stands as one of the defining symbols of humanity- its built forms reflecting the highest aspirations and advances in society. But its most celebrated artifacts have typically been the towering monuments that serve as emblems of power and control. This seminar seeks to explore the invisible cities, the hidden spaces and edifices that serve as the domain of anonymous urban dwellers, marginalized due to their race, class, ethnicity, gender or culture. Studying written, visual and spoken texts, we seek to recover the lost stories of the silenced voices – the urban nomads and exiles overlooked in built narratives that privilege the authority of collective power.

The class will follow a roughly chronological structure in studying the history of the architecture of the city but will highlight themes of nature, technology and society that weave across time and place. Topics will range from creation myths and native American landscapes to places of work and living, like sweatshops and tenements, and institutional interiors from the cell to the closet. Requirements include discussing, writing and mapping those urban stories that have been concealed and buried, while building an awareness and understanding of the built environment. On the edges and in the interstices, behind and beneath its polished surfaces and public spaces, the invisible city will be mapped as a mosaic of lost spaces of transgression, resistance and non-conformity.”

The course offers several perspectives on bilingualism. From personal to global, from the linguistic aspects of code-switching to cultural aspects of living in two languages. We examine how bilingual children acquire two languages, consider the experiences of bilingual adults, and study bilingualism as a societal phenomenon (diglossia and language choice, language policies, linguistic identity, language rights, linguistic minorities, etc.). Students do not need to speak a Slavic language. Language maintenance and linguistic diversity in the Pacific Northwest are important topics of the course.

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

This course considers current issues in biology that are commonly known to the public. In particular, the scientific validity of these issues will be addressed. The intent is to dispel the myths found in the popular press.

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

Throughout this course, students will investigate how human rights impact international affairs. Participants will critically examine cases when states prioritize human rights in diplomacy, and when they do not. Specifically, students will look at the recent foreign policy change of LGBTI rights in U.S. and Swedish diplomatic relations towards Uganda and other nations. Through a survey of the major concepts, theories, and controversies in the contemporary human rights discourse, class participants will learn the theoretical and practical approaches to crafting modern foreign policy. Dr. Carlson-Rainer will utilize her applied knowledge from over a decade of serving as a U.S. diplomat in places such as Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Morocco. The course will blend real world challenges addressed by modern diplomats, with theoretical analysis of human rights literature.

This course has 3 aims: 1) To introduce students to contemporary human trafficking as one of the darkest sides of globalization, but also in relation to historical forms of slavery and issues of human rights, international migration and trade/labor flows, and socioeconomic conditions that give rise to the commodification of some people by other people; 2) To build students’ understanding of the scope, scale, and complex dynamics of human trafficking; 3) To equip students to assess the current state of anti-human trafficking efforts with appreciation for the difficulty of such efforts, and to begin strategizing more and better ways to combat human trafficking.

These aims will be accomplished through a) the reading, written analysis of, and in-class discussion of relevant texts produced by concerned government bodies and nongovernmental organizations as well as scholars; b) visits by local experts representing local and/or national law enforcement, providers of services to trafficking victims, and community organizers; c) written analyses of case studies and a research paper on a particular aspect of the problem of human trafficking and/or efforts to combat it; d) completion of a service learning assignment during the latter half of the quarter. There will be a few small quizzes on key terms/concepts, but no midterm or final exam.

What’s it like to live in Seattle? Can you put it into words?

This course considers a range of writers who have taken on that challenge and, in a variety of ways, in different eras, have depicted life in Seattle. Reading assignments for this class include fiction, poetry, vignettes, essays, and popular song lyrics that explore the city, its history, its geography, and its diverse population.

How has the literary imagination perceived and portrayed Seattle? One of the goals of this course is to ask how literary representations have shaped, conformed to, diverged from, and /or contested prevailing images of Seattle. In popular culture and commercial contexts Seattle has often been associated with economic cycles of boom and bust; it has been cast as a town beset by provincialism, booster, and hucksters; as a singular locale that has evolved from pioneering outpost to radical hotbed to hi-tech hub. Often defined as a gateway to the great outdoors, Seattle has also been called a livable city and a city of neighborhoods. It has come to be known, too, as a hip city, celebrated for its coffee culture, grunge music, and cutting edge arts scene. The texts selected for this course illuminate, complicate, and enrich such understandings of the city. As Peter Donahue remarks in Reading Seattle: The City in Prose, literature may serve to “amplify, augment and add to” readers’ own experiences of Seattle, making the city more legible to them and guiding them to interpret it with new insight.

In the past two decades, even as literature of Seattle has proliferated, Seattle has emerged as one of America’s most literate cities. Literary festivals, readings, bookstores, and special events abound. This course encourages students to discover and experience some of that cultural vitality. Students will have opportunities to work with community organizations that promote writing in and about Seattle, so as to learn about contemporary literary voices and about museums, historical societies, and other agencies engaged with recounting stories of Seattle’s past. Students may choose to volunteer 2-3 hours a week, to reflect on their experiences in connection with issues raised in classroom discussion and reading assignments, and to include written reports of their activities in their Honors portfolios. Students who prefer may write a 7-8 page research paper in lieu of service learning.

This is a C (Composition) course, which means that student will compose several drafts of their essay assignments and they will receive peer review along with feedback from the instructor. Editing and revision are an integral part of the process of writing; students will rework their essays in order to refine their prose, articulate their views, and practice proofreading, citation and documentation of sources.

In this seminar we bring together historical, anthropological, scientific, literary and fine arts perspectives on mixed race, mixed ethnicities and intersections with gender. The course provides a multi-disciplinary approach to the problems of national, socio-economic and cultural forms of exclusion, as well as the possibilities of creating more inclusive societies. The course begins with some of the legal and scientific history that were used to justify and contribute to discriminatory practices, policies and politics. We look at how these policies were challenged by an early 20th century cultural anthropology attuned to problems of biological determinism, imperialism and dispossession. We will read about and discuss how these policies and politics in many cases were intertwined with the formations of nation-states and national identities.

Our main focus is on the social and cultural realities of the mixed race and mixed ethnic experience today and representations of and by multi-racial people in art, film and literature around the world. Our explorations will go beyond the classroom to include events and exhibitions on campus, in the broader Seattle community, meetings with other faculty on campus working in related fields, and the use of social media to access activism, and online community formation happening in different locations around the world. We will work to become aware of and de-naturalize assumptions made about being mixed race today; think about the relation between assumptions, representations and lived realities, and explore the intersectionality between race and other social divisions such as gender and sexuality.

Together with close reading, discussion and short writing assignments, students in the class will be guided through a small scale interdisciplinary research project involving library research, interviewing and participant-observation approaches. The project will culminate in a student-led research presentation forum. Students will use the feedback and comments from this forum to compose their own final work. They will be encouraged to, and receive support for, combining verbal and visual mediums in their final work that will enhance their honors portfolios. Depending upon the interest and desire of students in the course, we will also discuss the possibility of compiling this work for online publication.

For more information about the instructor, please see: https://jsis.washington.edu/people/andrea-arai/

Also please join our panel presentation on on mixed race, ethnicities and creating inclusive societies on February 21st in the Walker Ames Room, 7-8:30pm. https://jsis.washington.edu/japan/

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

*Course linked to the 2019 Hip Hop Feminista Encuentro

We will critically analyze notions of love, where our understandings of love have come from, and where we can proceed with a love consciousness. We will ponder and attempt to perceive how love is incorporated into our daily lives as members of communities. We will vision possible logic trajectories and frames of understandings in which love, or lack thereof, is included individually and societally. Musical, biological, philosophical, psychological, religious, political, cultural, and social perspectives of love will be discussed.
We will explore:
• ways in which love is expressed by human people
• words and metaphors associated with love in English and other languages
• where love is placed in different philosophical and scholarly schema
• historical concepts and discourses regarding human love
• how love can be a force for social action, resistance against oppressions, and positive change within our societal institutions
• what sorts of actions are attributed to human love

In this capstone course, a portfolio studio, students will complete the Interdisciplinary or College Honors Program by creating educational narratives within vibrant, creative, online portfolios. Each student will reflect upon the intersection of formal coursework and experiential learning by exploring, collaborating, articulating, testing out, refining, and showcasing the Honors portfolio to a community of peers and mentors.
Using portfolio platforms introduced in Honors 100, students will be asked to creatively reflect on the connections between and across their UW courses and disciplines, as well as to consider in-classroom knowledge and its interface with academia and experiences outside of the classroom.

In this capstone course, a portfolio studio, students will complete the Interdisciplinary or College Honors Program by creating educational narratives within vibrant, creative, online portfolios. Each student will reflect upon the intersection of formal coursework and experiential learning by exploring, collaborating, articulating, testing out, refining, and showcasing the Honors portfolio to a community of peers and mentors.
Using portfolio platforms introduced in Honors 100, students will be asked to creatively reflect on the connections between and across their UW courses and disciplines, as well as to consider in-classroom knowledge and its interface with academia and experiences outside of the classroom.

This course presents a survey of architecture from 1750 to the present. Emphasis is placed on the development of the architecture of this period including significant buildings and projects, important theories and critical writings.

This is not an introductory level course. Familiarity with architectural terminology will be expected. Students seeking an introductory level class should consider taking the Architecture 150-151 series.

This is the third course in the Architecture 350-351-352 series. Knowledge of material covered in Architecture 350 and 351 is expected of those enrolled in Architecture 352.

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

Introduction to systematic inorganic chemistry: representative elements, metals, and nonmetals. Includes coordination complexes, geochemistry, and metallurgy. Additional material on environmental applications of basic chemistry presented. Includes laboratory. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course groups: CHEM 162, CHEM 165 (5 credits); CHEM 165, CHEM 312 (5 credits).

Chemistry majors and other students planning three or more quarters of organic chemistry. Structure, nomenclature, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds. Theory and mechanism of organic reactions. Biomolecules. Introduction to membranes, enzyme mechanisms, prosthetic groups, macromolecular conformations, and supramolecular architecture. No more than 4 credits can be counted toward graduation from the following courses: CHEM 239, CHEM 337.

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.

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.

Explores electromagnetic waves, the mechanics of oscillatory motion, 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.

This seminar will prepare students to engage in in-depth study and travel in Japan through lectures, films, and discussions. The course will begin with a brief overview of Japanese history to provide a foundation for our discussions of contemporary issues. In order to better understand the transformation that Japan is experiencing today, we examine key domestic institutions and actors in Japan, including the major political parties, the bureaucracy, business, civil society, and the media. We will also consider important issues in Japan’s relations with its Asian neighbors and the United States. Throughout these discussions, students will be introduced to major theories from history, political science, economics, sociology, and anthropology in order to put Japan into comparative context. The course will also provide a practical guide to Japanese culture and customs. At the end of the quarter, each student will propose an independent project to pursue during their summer study abroad experience.

Honors 100 Peer Educator Spring prep seminar.

Making change, particularly in large and complex organizations and institutions, takes not only vision and creativity and grit – it is immeasurably aided by a broad and deep understanding of the contexts and constraints involved. The University of Washington is a complex institution with constituencies and players, history, mission, objectives, priorities, resources, which interact and influence each other in a fluid and often unpredictable and chaotic way.

In this seminar, we will explore several perspectives on a major institution we’re all familiar with (or at least we think we are) – the UW – and work through such issues to build a deeper understanding and learn to ask critical questions of the institution.

There are now generations of young (and youngish) people who have no memory of the once all-consuming societal terror of an Armageddon from a nuclear weapons exchange with the then Soviet Union. Yet the threat to our existence remains as real today as at its peak in the late twentieth century. Nuclear weapons, if used on the Korean Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent, or in the Western Pacific, in addition to creating nearly unimaginable death and human misery for millions, have a very real prospect of drawing the US into an all out attack/response scenario with Russia and/or China, escalating the disaster to quite literally billions of people.

This course will actually teach the basic physics of nuclear weapon design,
(algebra level math), study the effects of nuclear weapons (drawn from US archives of our 30 year testing of nuclear weapons), view several of the legendary films of the 1970-80s (e.g. Fail Safe, Dr. Stangelove), debate the only event in which nuclear weapons were used in anger (Hiroshima), and through research and class discussion, show that the Cold War was all about nuclear weapons, and how the cold war begat our present day terrorism.

Grades will be assigned on class participation, assigned essays, and a term paper.