Special Offerings

Learning will center on gaining a basic understanding through first hand experience and practice of all aspects of operating a gallery and working in a museum. Readings and discussion will focus on current issues in the field. Students will visit local galleries and museums to meet and talk with curators, owners, and administrators about the details of their professional practices. The class will center in the Jacob Lawrence Gallery where students will work with a variety of artists to create five public exhibitions of work. Work outside of class hours is expected.

The course will begin with a short overview of the history of furniture from 1850 to present. Major movements and figures will be discussed. Cultural and material developments will be emphasized and their design contexts. Students will then learn the tools and techniques of the wood shop. Entry- level skills will be developed using hands-on projects with real materials and equipment. Material properties and processes will be emphasized and each student will produce a series of small tables.

Explores photography as a means of visualizing ideas in the context of learning in the field of documentary photography. Includes a series of assignments that consider technical and formal issues, critical thinking, concept development, and experimentation.

This course covers what the usual introductory astronomy course at the University of Washington does not in any great detail, and thus complements the Astronomy 101 and Astronomy 150 courses. In this ASTR 190 course, we will learn about the celestial sphere; orbital motion of the Earth; stars, constellations, and deep sky objects; time; navigation; and the phases of the Moon. We will also study light and telescopes, and find out about the process astronomers use to observe celestial objects. Each student will spend at least one night (about 4 hours) observing with the Astronomy Department's 12" Meade telescope, taking actual digital images of many celestial objects. These may include variable stars, galaxies, nebulae, planets, or the Moon. Each student will pick one of the objects and write a scientific paper that summarizes their observations, the "data reduction and analysis," and interesting facts about their object.

Course type: Seminar, integrating case studies, literature, films / other media material, and research / creative projects.

Participants analyze the interdependent connections between and among: ethics and identity and the environment, from a variety of cross-disciplinary
concepts and applications.

In- / out-of-class experiences, discussions, readings, viewings, assignments, and presentations center on philosophies and pragmatics influencing individual thought
and social behavior.

Tentative topics include:
Definitions and models of ethics, identity, and environmental communication; virtues, standards, and practices; environmental justice; green marketing; participatory decision-making; persuasion information; and risk communication.

It is difficult to imagine a region of contemporary criticism that does
not take the body as one its crucial terms. Cultural, ethical, aesthetic,
political, and economic discourses, to name just a few, adopt it as both a
governing metaphor and an object for investigation. At once intimately
familiar and conceptually elusive, whatever we manage to say about the
body seems always to raise new problems, to which we can only offer
provisional answers.

This course seeks to begin offering ways into the question of the body by
probing those discourses that embrace, resist, and constitute bodies
across a broad spectrum of historical, theoretical, and literary contexts.
We will examine ways to dismember, remember, and generally ‘flesh out’ the
body and its texts. Readings include: Roland Barthes, Helene Cixous, Donna
Haraway, Katherine Hayles, Michel Foucault, and others.

CHID 490 is a seminar-style course designed to prepare students to produce
a research project at the end of the quarter (which counts as a 5-credit
CHID thesis for majors).

This course is designed to act as a bridge between the 200 and 300 levels, giving students the opportunity to enhance their writing and reading abilities while exploring the genres of l’autobiographie, la nouvelle, and la science-fiction. Sharp writing and reading skills are very important for a successful experience taking an advanced level French class. For that reason, this course will help to develop greater proficiency in writing and reading as well as provide additional practice in oral communication as preparation for classes at the 300 level and beyond. This class can also be of use to students at the 300 level who would like additional practice with reading and writing skills, or who simply want to participate in a creative writing class. The writing and reading components will complement each other so that students can put into practice the literary techniques and strategies studied in class. The assignments are organized with three specific goals in mind: to provide an opportunity to improve writing, reading and conversation skills in French; to investigate the targeted genres with a balanced attention to theory and practice; and to expose students of French to several Francophone authors and texts from different geographical places. Class time will be used to discuss the primary texts that will serve as case studies of the three genres, to complete in-class activities as well as a workshop in which students will act as peer-editors for the writing assignments. Class will be conducted in French.
Prerequisite: FRENCH 203.

Comparative Urban Planning, Design and Related Urban Issues: Mexico and the USA. June 15th-24th, 2008. The course is open to juniors and seniors as well as graduate students.
Professor Fritz Wagner and Dr. Regent Cabana will lead it. We will visit three Mexican cities - Mexico City, Morelia and Guanajuato - where a number of professors, govenment officials and other urban experts will give lectures and tours.

The course will examine similarities and differences between U.S. and Mexican cities. We will look more particularly at current urban issues confronting communities in Mexico. We will study the physical layout of cities, urban design, urban growth, problems related to the environment, governmental institutions as well as historical, social and cultural factors specific to Mexico and Mexican cities. Students will write a paper on a topic related to an issue encountered in Mexico. Students pay own travel to and from Mexico and pay for own lodging, meals and ground transport. Estimated cost to you is approximately $1000. Flight times and accommodations will be organized by instructors. For further info. contact Prof. Wagner 206-543-7459, fwagner@u.washington.edu, or see him in Gould 342.

Using a multi-disciplinary classroom approach that combines lectures, films, and discussions, the class will explore the culture and civilization of this Middle Eastern society through such manifestations as architecture, carpet-weaving, story-telling, and the composition of poetry.

How did we get the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)? What do we mean by “the” Hebrew Bible? Hands-on facsimiles and detailed images supplement other course materials in this exploration of the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and its ancient translations. Beginning with the earliest textual witnesses — two tiny silver amulets from the 6th century BCE with texts of the Priestly Blessing — this course follows the trail of manuscripts until the age of printing, with special attention on the the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This course also investigates several methodological approaches to issues surrounding textual variants, drawing upon the instructor’s Ph.D. dissertation: “Textual Histories of Early Jewish Writings: Multivalences vs. the Quest for the ‘Original.’”

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This course explores the relationship between received text and developing theology in early Christianity. How do New Testament writers use texts from the Hebrew Bible to promote their theological positions? What exactly is the “text” that New Testament writers cite? Why do many New Testament “quotations” differ in numerous details from their Old Testament counterparts?

The course begins with a survey of the manuscript traditions of the Hebrew Bible and its ancient versions, upon which New Testament writers depend. After examining underlying textual issues, contextual and historical considerations are explored which provide insight into the lens through which early Christians read and understood their Old Testament.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This summer we will partner with C.A.S.T. for Kids, a non-profit, national organization that runs educational fishing expeditions for disabled and disadvantaged children. For this course, enrolled students will design, test, and publish an evaluation tool, which will be used by C.A.S.T. nationally to help assess and improve services, as well as help generate new funding opportunities. As a part of this study, students will be required to attend an all-day, open-water fishing event in Des Moines on July 26. For more information on C.A.S.T., go to http://www.castforkids.org.

We associate metaphor with abstract thoughts and sentiments. But research now shows metaphor to be central to all human cognition (a finding which raises important questions concerning the flow of information within institutional contexts). How does metaphor relate to vocational concerns like human-computer interaction, information architecture, and organizational communication? And how can metaphor help mediate new obstacles to clarity (including the growth of technical specialization)?

Our goal is to produce metaphors within creative contexts in order to illuminate factors of technical clarity which are otherwise hard to pick out. Course objectives include experimentation with creative hypertext; derivation of practical communication strategies; and the improvement of a specific document, article, website, interface, or information system.

For more information, visit the course site at:
http://faculty.washington.edu/shea0016/498/index.htm

Extrasolar planets are planets found around stars other than our Sun. This course will cover how we look for and find extrasolar planets, what we've learned about the extrasolar planets discovered to date, and how studies of extrasolar planets have changed our views of how planets and planetary systems form and evolve. This course will also focus on the science behind the planned searches for Earth-like planets and life beyond our Solar System.

Introduction to astronomical computing and research methods for students interested in Astronomy and in the Pre-Major in Astronomy Program (Pre-MAP). See http://www.astro.washington.edu/premap for more information about Pre-MAP.

How have Russian directors, actors, screenwriters, and studio moguls shaped Hollywood? We'll trace the collaborations and migrations that typified the Silent Era, move to the decades of the Cold War when exchanges were rare, and end in the Glasnost and post-Soviet eras, when Russia's finest directors came once again to the West in search of friendly studios and generous producers. No prior knowledge of Russian language, literature or history is required.

This class explores key legal, ethical, cultural, scientific, and commercial aspects of the rapidly changing world of biotechnology and bioinformatics. It specifically asks how new discoveries in biology encourage us to rethink issues of ownership, communication, geography, identity, and artistic practice. The class will be structured around six specific case studies that students will use to understand underlying issues. Come find out about the often exhilarating and frequently frightening scenarios for the future of your body.

Students will be specifically encouraged to ask the following questions:

What are the ethical and legal issues involved in patenting human cell lines?

How are recent biotechnologies portrayed in science fiction films? What can we learn by studying these portrays?

What does it mean to suggest that biotechnology is part of "an information society"?

How are race, class, gender, and disability mapped onto or intersect with biomedicine?

How are artists using live organisms in their art work? What can we learn about art, ethics, and scientific practice by studying this work?

How do scientists manipulate space and time in the laboratory?

This class is designed to appeal to all. No prerequisites needed!

Travels in Ecotopia will explore the ideas of Umberto Eco who is generally regarded as Italy's most famous contemporary intellectual in response to the broad popularity of his first novel, The Name of the Rose, which became an international bestseller in 1980 and was later produced as a film starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater. The novel's popularity was considered an oddity because of extensive passages in untranslated latin and references to arcane aspects of ancient and medieval philosophy which offers a useful starting point for considering Eco's particular perspectives on history and contemporary society.

This upper division seminar course will explore histories of knowledges and knowledge systems other than what we predominantly find within the westernized academy, the U.S. public education system, or U.S. society in general. Given the personal history and scholarly interests of the instructor, it will have a marked leaning towards the historical knowledges of the indigene of North America.

This course examines the historical development of the city of Athens from a Bronze Age settlement to the multicultural capital of Greece in the twenty-first century. Topics to be examined include the ancient Athenian democracy, the Athenian empire during the fifth-century BC, Athens during the Byzantine and Ottoman eras and the urban and demographic expansion of Athens during the twentieth century. This is a “writing” course that will be conducted as a senior research seminar. Students will have to write a research paper and make a presentation of their findings in class. Some knowledge of Greek history is preferred.

This course examines the reception of ancient and medieval traditions and material culture in modern Greece, as well as their role in constructing modern Greek identity. In this way, modern Greece serves as a case-study that allows us to examine broader issues related to nationhood and identity construction. Topics to be examined include the effect and use of ancient and medieval art and monuments in promoting Greekness, the use of kathareuousa (purified form of Greek language, more akin to ancient Greek than modern spoken Greek) as official language until 1976, the legacy of ancient Olympism and its effect on the modern Olympic movement and modern Greece (with particular emphasis on the 2004 summer Olympics), the link between history, irredentism and foreign policy since the creation of the modern Greek state etc.

Examines the biblical accounts (in translation) concerning the formation and collapse of the united Israelite monarchy. Investigates the archaeological and textual evidence for their historicity, the literary sophistication of these accounts, and Israelite kingship within the wider context of the ancient Near East. No knowledge of the Bible is required. Offered: jointly with SISJE 455.

A general-interest course for science and non-science students -
including students in art, architecture, history, theatre, etc.
(uses pre-college-level mathematics)

Topics include:

Color, cameras, the eye, paints, perspective, polarized light,

and

what light and color tell us about atoms, stars, and the universe.

Three lectures per week, one discussion hour,
one workshop hour in a small group.
Workshops will deal with color mixing, lenses, shadows,
reflections, polarization, images, illusions, lasers.

MTWF 10:30
Instructor: N. Fortson - fortson@phys.washington.edu

This course is an introduction to Polish literature and film, through an examination of cinematic adaptations of important Polish literary works. Students will become familiar with representative works of Polish literature whose story lines refer to Polish historical and political reality. The course will introduce the Polish film school with a special focus on literary adaptations by Andrzej Wajda. We will focus on artistic expressions and possibilities of both arts and consider literary and historical contexts of a given work, and the ways in which the movies adapted, shortened or ignored elements of the written text. Film viewing will be preceded by thorough preparation through reading the short stories, drama, or novels on which the movies are based.

This fall quarter, we will partner with the ACLU and the Racial Disparity Project on two exciting projects. The first project will explore issues surrounding racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests made after the passage of Initiative 75 in 2003. (I-75 made marijuana possession a low priority crime for Seattle law enforcement officers.) Students enrolled in this practicum will participate in a follow-up study to the final report of the Marijuana Policy Review Panel. Research may include analyzing incident reports and other police data, as well as on-site observations of key neighborhoods and police ride-alongs. The weekly seminar will prepare students to analyze data and write a report of findings based on their analysis and current research.

Students participating in the second project of this practicum will study truancy and discipline rates in grades 7-12 in two key school districts, Students will analyze school discipline policies and data to identify racial disparity patterns (if any) that may impact the “school-to-prison” pipeline. The practicum will also prepare students to analyze data, conduct interviews, and write a report of their findings.

(Note: This course is offered in two sections, Soc 494A (SLN 18283) and SOC 494B (SLN 18284)

The Sociology Department continues its long-standing partnerships with Aki Kurose and Madrona K-8, schools serving extremely diverse student populations. Enrolled students will assist teachers in the schools 3 hours/week. Students will also attend a 2-hour seminar each week to share teaching experiences, discuss educational policy and current research, and develop research projects.

This Fall, students will have the added opportunity to tutor at Rainier Beach, Cleveland or Garfield High Schools through the MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) program which serves primarily African-American, Native American, Latino and female students.

This course provides an analysis of Ukrainian literature from the viewpoint of gender studies. It first describes and critically examines the pervasive images of women in works of literature by male authors and then moves to introduce the tradition of women's writing, beginning in the 19th century. The course follows a historical sequence with selections from as early as the late 12th century to the present. Students will investigate the roles in which women have been typically cast and study how female authors have rejected male-imposed definitions by opening the doors for self-exploration of female identity. Some premises of feminist critical theory will be introduced. The reading list includes poetry, short studies, plays and novels. All readings are in translation.