Upcoming Courses

The year 2023 was the fourth consecutive year that saw more anti-trans legislation introduced in the U.S. than any previous year on record. In this particular historical moment, the study of queer and trans* cultural production is especially timely and pressing. This course teaches the analysis of queer and trans* film in the U.S., arguing that the analysis of cultural objects produced by a society gives us valuable information about how power operates in that society, and offers us tools through which to challenge abusive systems of power like homophobia and transphobia, and to imagine otherwise. Looking to a variety of films that engage topics which range from the criminalization of transness* and queerness, to queer paranormal romance, this course invites reflection on what queer and trans* film has to tell us about the world in which we live, and the world we want and need to forge in its place.

Self-publishing and online social communities (like BookTok) are rapidly changing the landscape of the literary world. However, these are not new phenomena. This class will situate contemporary publishing conversations within the larger historical backdrop of fringe and communal content production–from nineteenth-century penny dreadfuls and origins of the “novel,” to serialized comics and fanfiction, to the twentieth-century popularization of book clubs. In all of these cases, emerging media has functioned as a space for marginalized groups to engage with media in a way that “traditional” or “highbrow” publishing spaces did not. As we read across centuries, we will consider how literary value is always contingent, relational, and connected to various systems of power.

First employed in 1688 as a medical diagnosis for homesickness, “nostalgia” has evolved to mean “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past” (Oxford Languages Online). Nostalgia has since become a cultural phenomenon, a force seen in writings from the Industrial Revolution that long for an escape to a pastoral past to the bubblegum pop of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Nostalgia has inspired authors, filmmakers, and other creators, and research into the psychological effects of nostalgia has shown that feeling nostalgic boosts memory, improves mood, and fosters feelings of community and connectedness; however, nostalgia has also been cast as a cultural villain-a source of sentimentality and rose-colored perceptions of the past, or even as a manipulative tool wielded for commercial and political gain.

This course explores the multifaceted role nostalgia has played in shaping cultural, commercial, and political landscapes, particularly through period media-or media set in the past. We will chart the rise of nostalgia as a cultural phenomenon, engaging with works ranging from In Search of Lost Time to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, from Persepolis to Stranger Things. Our discussions will be guided both by psychological studies on nostalgia, as well as critical frameworks from nostalgia studies, as we explore how period media and nostalgic appeals can invent, reinforce, or subvert myths about the past.

Questions we’ll consider:
What am I nostalgic for? Why? And how does my nostalgia differ from my neighbor’s?
How can we critically analyze the ways creators evoke and manipulate nostalgia for different creative, political, and financial purposes?
How does nostalgia shape memory and identity, both on a personal level and on a larger scale (ex: generational identity, cultural identity, or national identity)?

Evolution and genetics are the cornerstones of modern biology. DNA & Evolution will explore these fields in the context of contemporary issues that are important to individuals and societies. Although examples will be drawn from a variety of organisms, the primary emphasis will be on humans. Among the questions we will consider are these: Where did modern humans come from? Why are women and men different? Why do children resemble their parents? Do genes influence variation in personality, intelligence, and sexual orientation? What can genetic analyses reveal about evolutionary history and the relationships among species? Can genetic analyses allow us to predict the evolutionary future? Given what our society knows about evolution and genetics, should we take responsibility for guiding the evolutionary future of human populations? Throughout the course the goal will be to help students develop sufficient biological sophistication to understand new discoveries in genetics and evolution, talk to their doctors, and make rational personal and political choices about biological issues. Students will read secondary and primary literature, ask questions, design experiments, analyze and interpret data, and draw their own conclusions. Assignments will include essays, problem sets, and computer labs.

Students who have previously taken “DNA and Evolution” are not eligible to enroll in this course again. Additionally, students who have taken or are planning to take BIOL 354 with Professor Herron should not register for this course as there is significant overlap in material.

Evolution and genetics are the cornerstones of modern biology. DNA & Evolution will explore these fields in the context of contemporary issues that are important to individuals and societies. Although examples will be drawn from a variety of organisms, the primary emphasis will be on humans. Among the questions we will consider are these: Where did modern humans come from? Why are women and men different? Why do children resemble their parents? Do genes influence variation in personality, intelligence, and sexual orientation? What can genetic analyses reveal about evolutionary history and the relationships among species? Can genetic analyses allow us to predict the evolutionary future? Given what our society knows about evolution and genetics, should we take responsibility for guiding the evolutionary future of human populations? Throughout the course the goal will be to help students develop sufficient biological sophistication to understand new discoveries in genetics and evolution, talk to their doctors, and make rational personal and political choices about biological issues. Students will read secondary and primary literature, ask questions, design experiments, analyze and interpret data, and draw their own conclusions. Assignments will include essays, problem sets, and computer labs.

Students who have previously taken “DNA and Evolution” are not eligible to enroll in this course again. Additionally, students who have taken or are planning to take BIOL 354 with Professor Herron should not register for this course as there is significant overlap in material.

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

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

In 2021, the most stringent abortion ban since before Roe v. Wade took effect in Texas, with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to intervene. Now, a post-Roe future, in which the Constitution will no longer protect the right to abortion, is our reality. But what if some communities were already living in a post-Roe environment? What if the fundamental promise of Roe v. Wade was actualized for some communities at the exclusion of others, specifically Black, Indigenous and People of Color?

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the history and contemporary politics of reproduction. We will explore how the focus on abortion and care as the most significant determining factors of reproductive rights has silenced the reproductive histories and experiences of communities furthest away from justice. We will examine how reproductive justice as a framework and a movement repositions reproductive rights in a political context of intersecting race, gender, class, and other forms of oppression. Live, in-person dialogues with contemporary community organizers and reproductive justice leaders will enrich our learning.

In this course, we will explore definitions, ideologies, values, processes, and geopolitics associated with “Western Civilization.” We will look at how feminism, Afrocentrism, and other critical frameworks have challenged assumptions about “Western Civilization.” We consider the impact of “Western Civilization” on the United States and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The OECD is an international organization that works with governments, policy makers, and citizens to establish evidence-based international standards and find solutions to a range of social, economic, and environmental challenges. In this course, we will investigate the ways in which the OECD and its 38 member countries represent diverse experiences of “Western Civilization.” As I center the relationship between “Western Civilization” and the United States, students will choose an OECD country to investigate similarly. Course assignments will assess students’ independent and group work around this and other tasks. We will also examine how the United States compares to other OECD countries; specifically, regarding (1) social and welfare issues (social policy that protects individuals and their families), (2) education; (3) employment; (4) economy; (5) health; and (6) green growth and sustainable development. The OECD has a database that provides up-to-date statistics for making comparisons between countries and identifying trends over time. Finally, we will investigate gaps by race and ethnicity (including migrants), gender, and age across well–being outcomes, as well as the laws and public policies aimed to improve people’s well-being and reduce inequalities.

“How to read electronic literature” is a hands-on experiential, interdisciplinary course that guides students to profit from their exploration of digital media. We will acquaint ourselves with a selection of the most creative electronic works of the twenty-first century as we cross disciplinary boundaries, engaging recent literary history, technology, aesthetics, visual arts, sound design, and multimedia. With the rapid development of electronic and digital tools, e-literature competes with digital games for players’ interest. Engaging with the multimedia jargon of digital literature (remediation, digital poetics, cyberspace textuality, active creation of belief, and medial ideology) we will go through the non-trivial process of reading famous digital works by Michael Joyce, Talan Memmott, John Zuern, Shelley Jackson, Laura Okkema, and Serge Bouchardon, among others. Our journey through digital works will open the path to self-discovery as we will immerse ourselves into various forms of “reading” and “writing”.

We live in an age of unparalleled technological innovation, political instability, and worldwide change. This interdisciplinary honors course explores the art of transforming personal experience, academic fact, observational reality, and futuristic possibility into creative works of literary fiction.

Drawing on analysis of famous works of intellectually significant speculative fiction, detailed investigation of scientific papers on engineering and climate topics, scholarly nonfiction about social and cultural change, and observational experience, students will write, edit, and critique 2-3 short stories over the course of the quarter.

Fiction is an engine for considering the day-to-day impacts of longer term dynamics. To ground ourselves in the world of fiction, we’ll explore the underpinnings of the short story; the theory and practice behind speculative fiction; and the practice of observing real detail from life. Expanding our viewpoint to the world of academic research, we’ll examine sociological and scientific texts, learning to glean detailed ideas of possible and theoretical futures from descriptive works.

This course takes the dual phenomena of Indigenous American territorial dispossession and African enslavement in the Americas as its point of departure, and is guided by a growing body of scholarship that understands dispossession and enslavement as closely entwined tools of European colonizing across the hemispheric Americas beginning in the late 15th century. What otherwise obscured dimensions of Indigenous American and African American experience can this approach bring more clearly into view? What shared strategies of resistance and opportunities for coalition and a politics of mutual care are opened up by an understanding of shared Indigenous and African American experiences of settler colonialism? What do present-day (and in some instances local Seattle/PNW) examples of Afro-Indigenous coalition and solidarity teach us about the liberatory possibilities of anticolonial, antiracist, and anticapitalist movement building? To explore these questions, we will engage materials from a wide-ranging interdisciplinary archive, including historical and literary scholarship, fiction, audiovisual content, and music.

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

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

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

The requirements consist of 3 short papers, an image collection, and a final term paper.

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.

Students must request an add code via this link: https://forms.gle/fahxhGcTR6r7P4my9

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.

Students must request an add code via this link: https://forms.gle/fahxhGcTR6r7P4my9

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

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 258.

To accompany CHEM 258. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course group: CHEM 241, 261(3 credits).

This course does not count towards Interdisciplinary Honors requirements as it is 3 credits.

Computer programming for students with some previous programming experience. Emphasizes program design, style, and decomposition. Uses data structures (e.g., lists, dictionaries, sets) to solve computational problems motivated by modern societal and scientific needs. Introduces data abstraction and interface versus implementation. Recommended: CSE 121 or completion of Paul G. Allen School’s Guided Self-Placement.

Computer programming for students with significant previous programming experience. Emphasizes implementation and run-time analysis of data structures and algorithms using techniques including linked references, recursion, and object-oriented inheritance to solve computational problems motivated by modern societal and scientific needs. Recommended: CSE 122 or completion of Paul G. Allen School’s Guided Self-Placement.

English 182 focuses on teaching strategies and skills for effective writing and argument that are required of traditional academic genres, such as the research essay, while also expanding the skills for composing in multimodal genres that our increasingly digital and media saturated world demands.

Section K is an Honors discussion driven class with minimal lecturing and grounded in a disability studies analytic.  Students will reflect on their own growth as scholars and their learning process as an evolving product. Honors students will write longer reflective papers with emphasis on metacognitive critical takeaways.

Development of profession and art of landscape architecture in the United States, Europe, South America, and Japan in relation to prevailing social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Relationships with other professions, especially architecture and urban planning, and other arts, such as painting and sculpture.

Honors section meets with L ARCH 553A on Thursdays
1:30-2:20PM in Gould 208J.

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

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