Courses in the Comparative History of Ideas

 

The Comparative History of Ideas Program is interdisciplinary, meaning that CHID students are expected to draw from departments all across campus and beyond to fulfill their CHID requirements.  Below are some resources for finding available courses each quarter.  Visit the Requirements page for more information on choosing courses to fulfill CHID requirements.

• Class Websites

• CHID Course Catalog

• Groups A, B, and C (see Requirements page for more information)

• Colloquium and Senior Project (CHID 390 and CHID 491)

• New Major Focus Group (strongly recommended for all new CHID majors)

• CHID 496: Focus Groups

• See the CHID Time Schedule for more information on other CHID courses (click on the instructor's name for course descriptions)

• Tips for finding and getting into courses

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Class Websites

• CHID 110: The Question of Human Nature

  • Autumn 2007 :: Instructor: Wendy Wiseman

  • Summer 2007 :: Instructor: Wendy Wiseman

• CHID 260: (Re)Thinking Diversity

  • Spring 2007 :: Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell

  • Winter 2006 :: Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell

• CHID 270C: "Photography: Theoretical Reflections and Ethnographic Applications"
  Winter 2006 :: Instructor: Giorgia Aiello

• CHID 309: Marx and Nietzsche: The Assault on Bourgeois-Christian Civilization
  Spring 2007 :: Professor John Toews

• CHID 390: "The Interpretation of Texts and Cultures

  • Summer 2008 :: Instructor: Rahul Gairola

  • Winter 2008 :: Professor: Phillip Thurtle

  • Winter 2008 :: Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell

  • Winter 2008 :: :: Instructor: Stacey Moran

  • Autumn 2007 :: Instructors: John Toews and Stacey Moran

  • Summer 2007 :: Instructor: Stacey Moran

  • Winter 2007 :: Instructors: John Toews and Stacey Moran

  • Summer 2005 :: Instructor: Amy Peloff

• CHID 480: Special Topics: Advanced Study of the History of Ideas

  • Spring 2008 :: Instructor: Stacey Moran
    Topic: Cultural Theory and Criticism

  • Summer 2007 :: Instructor: Rahul Gairola
    Topic: Queering Home: Race/ Class/ Sexuality and the Politics of Belonging in a Transnational Frame

• CHID 490: Research Seminar

  • Summer 2008 :: Instructor: Stacey Moran
    Topic: Textual Bodies

  • Winter 2008 :: Professor: Phillip Thurtle
    Topic: Love and Attraction

• CHID 498: Special Colloquia 

  • Topic: Critical Pedagogy
    Winter 2008 :: Instructor: Stacey Moran

  • Topic: BreakOut! Mentoring Program
    Winter 2008 :: Instructor: Amy Peloff and Angela Simpson

  • Topic: CHID Pedagogy for Peer Facilitators Current and Future
    Autumn 2007 :: Instructor: Stacey Moran

• HSTEU 407: 20th Century European Cultural History

  • Winter 2008 :: Professor John Toews

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Group A: Introduction to the History of Ideas

 

Regular Group A Offerings

• HUM 201, 202, 203: Themes in the Humanities (formerly HUM 101, 102, 103)

• CHID 110: The Question of Human Nature

• CHID/ENGL 205: Method, Imagination, and Inquiry

• CHID/HIST 207: Introduction to Intellectual History

• CHID 210: The Idea of the University: Ways of Learning, Exploring, and Knowing

• CHID/RELIG 380: The Nature of Religion and Its Study

• CHID 260: (Re) Thinking Diversity

Special Group A Offerings

• GEOG 123: Introduction to Globalization (with Professor Matt Sparke and T.A. Lydia Ruddy only)

• SOCSCI 202, spring 2003: Genomics & Society (Tupper)

• CHID 270C, winter 2006: Photography: Theoretical and Ethnographic Applications (Aiello)

• CHID 270A, spring 2006: Communication Matters: The Material History of Communication Practices (Thurtle/Aiello)

• CHID 270B, autumn 2006: Religion & Existentialism (Wiseman)

• CHID 270C, autumn 2006: Culture, Communication, and the Human Relationship with Nature (Milstein)

• CHID 498E, autumn 2006: Historical Experience Outside the Academy (Magi)

• CHID 480, summer 2008: Secret Histories of the City (Giles)

• CHID 498B, autumn 2008: Animals: Articulating Human and Non-Human Struggles

Group B: The Study of Distinct Historical Cultures

 

These Group B courses are suggestions and examples, and there are many more courses that may count for this requirement.

• Most coursework completed abroad, including CHID 470–477 CHID Study Abroad; Europe (471), Latin America (472), Africa (473), Asia(474), East Asia (475), S. Pacific (476), Middle East (477)

• AIS 311-317 North American Indians: Pacific Northwest (311), The Intermountain West (312), The Southeast to 1850 (316), The Southwest (317)

• ASIAN 201-205 Lit. & Culture of China (201) Japan (202) India (203) China (204) Japan (205)

• ASIAN 411 Buddhist Literature

• CLAS 322 Intellectual History of Classical Greece

• ENGL 315 Literary Modernism

• ENGL 330 The Romantic Age

• GERMAN 322, 323 German Studies

• GERMAN 351 Vienna 1900
  GERM 423 20th Century Literature & Culture

• HIST 311-313 Science in Civilization

• HSTEU 401 The Reformation

• HSTEU 405-407 European Intellectual History

• HSTEU 470 England 1580-1630

• PHIL 320-322 Ancient (320), Medieval (321), Modern (322)Philosophy

• PHIL 386 Introduction to the Philosophy of India

• POL S 308,309 Western Tradition of Political Thought, Ancient & Medieval, Pre-Modern

• POL S 310 Western Tradition of Political Thought

• RELIG 301 Religious Thought Since the Middle Ages

• RELIG 320/ANTH 322 Comparative Study of Death

• RELIG 352 Hinduism

• RELIG 430/NEAR E 430 Scripture & Law in Islam

• SISRE 444 Imperial Russia: 1700-1900

Group C: The History of Particular Ideas or Themes

 

These Group C courses are suggestions and examples, and there are many more courses that may count for this requirement.

• AFRAM 321 History of Afro-American Women and the Feminist Movement

• AFRAM 350 The Black Aesthetic

• AIS 203 Philosophical and Aesthetic Universes

• ANTH 305 Anthropology of the Body

• ANTH 362 Anthropology of Tourism

• C LIT 323 Studies in the Literature of Emerging Nations

• C LIT 331 Folk Narrative

• CEP 301 The Idea of Community

• CEP 461 Ethics and Identity

• CHID/LSJ 332 Disability and Society

• CHID/WOMEN 350 Women in Law & Literature

• CHID 370/CMU 302 Cultural Impact of Information Technology

• CHID/LSJ 433 Disability Law, Policy, and the Community

• CHID/LSJ 434 Civil & Human Rts. Law for Disabled People

• CHID/HSTEU 484 Colonial Encounters

• CLAS 326 Women in Antiquity

• CLAS 424 The Epic Tradition

• COM 322 Global Communication

• COM 437 Rhetorical Persp. in Intellectual Revolutions

• DRAMA 416 History of Western Dress

• ECON 407 Development of Economic Thought

• ENGL 305 Theories of Imagination

• ENGL 367 Women and the Literary Imagination

• GEOG 300 Concepts of Regions

• GEOG 431 Geography and Gender

• GERMAN 370 History of German Cinema

• HIST 309 Marx and Nietzsche

• HIST 314 The Psychoanalytic Rev. in Historical Persp.

• HSTAM 367 Medieval Jewish History

• INFO 300 Intellectual Foundations in Information

• LSJ 316 Law, Justice, and Social Theory

• MUSIC 384 Ideas in Music

• NEAR E 457/RELIG 457 The History of Biblical Interp.

• PHIL 314 Philosophy of Crime and Punishment

• PHIL 447 Philosophy of Literature

• PHIL 465 Philosophy of History

• SIS 301 War

• SIS 333 Gender and Globalization: Theory and Process

• SIS 342 Social Theory in International Context

• SIS 440 History of Communism

• SISLA 355 Social Change in Latin America

• URBDP 370 Reading the City

• WOMEN 305 Feminism in an International Context

• WOMEN 323 History of Racial Formation in the US

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Colloquium and Senior Project

 

See the Requirements page for more information on these courses.

• Colloquium: CHID 390: Colloquium in the History of Ideas is offered quarterly, and it often fills up quickly.  To secure your place in the course, please let the Academic Counselor know in advance during which quarter you would like to take CHID 390.

• Senior Project: CHID 491, CHID 492, and CHID 493: Senior Thesis are offered quarterly.  Typically students take only one of these courses per quarter.  CHID 491 is a class that meets once per week with an instructor.  CHID 492 and CHID 493 (optional for extended theses) have no meetings, and credit is received for independent work under the guidance of your thesis adviser.  While you take CHID 492 and/or CHID 493, you may also participate in a peer-facilitated focus group, Advanced CHID Thesis Workshop, designed to provide support, structure, and peer workshop opportunities.

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New Major Focus Group

 

The New Major Focus Group is listed as CHID 496B.  It is offered autumn, winter, and spring, and is facilitated by the CHID Academic Counselor.  Topics include the history and philosophy of CHID, planning your coursework, international programs, and preparing for your senior project/thesis.  Additional topics include Focus Groups, Peer Facilitation, Special Colloquia, and other unique opportunities at CHID and UW.  The New Major Focus Group also provides a cohort of CHID majors to help situate new majors within the CHID community, and ensures that new majors understand the requirements for graduation. 

 

Please email chid@u.washington.edu for information on registration.

 

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Tips for finding and getting into courses:

• Check the CHID 496 (Focus Groups) and CHID 498 (Special Colloquia) listings in the Time Schedule or in the quarterly listings below.  Every quarter, these are some of the coolest courses going on around campus.

• Do a General Education Requirement Course Search to find all the open courses at the UW.  VLPA and I&S courses tend to best fulfill CHID requirements.  Try selecting a Course Range of 300 to 499 to get more focused, advanced courses.  Courses are listed in order of time of day; don't forget to click "More" at the bottom of the results page.

• Do a Course Catalog Search with keywords related to your academic focus in CHID.

• Visit the New Courses/Special Offerings page.

• The Enrollment Summary lists the current number of seats available in all courses offered by a single department. For example, if you want to take an anthropology course but want more up-to-date information than the open/closed shading in the Time Schedule (which is updated only once a day, around midnight), you can click on "Enrollment Summary" and see the number of seats available right now in each anthropology course. The Enrollment Summary for each department is available near the top of that department's page in the Time Schedule.

• Search the Course Evaluation Catalog to see how students rated courses in the past.

• Instructor Class Descriptions give information on recommended preparation for a class, typical assignments, and grading. If an Instructor Class Description has been prepared there will be links to it from the Course Catalog and the Time Schedule. Just click on the instructor's name, or you can look at the whole catalog by using the link above.

• Sit in on a course now to plan for next quarter. Every quarter, the Office of Admissions lists dozens of courses for prospective students to sit in on, and you can sit in on them, too.  Just click on "Drop In On UW Classes."

• Keep checking the online Time Schedule. There is a great deal of dropping and adding, and it's amazing how many students eventually get into a course by finding a space that just opened up. Also, sometimes departments add new sections to crowded courses.

• Contact department advisers. Sometimes they know if the department plans to add space to the course, or if the instructor is taking a waiting list. Department advisers also usually know when in the future the course will be offered again.

• Contact the instructor. A few instructors take waiting lists, although this isn't very common. Sometimes instructors will "overload" you into the course -- although they aren't required to overload, and most won't do so until the quarter starts and they can see what the demand is. Some courses and some instructors never overload -- it never hurts to ask.

• Go to the course on the first day of the quarter. If you're the only student who wants an overload, your chances are good.

• Some UW courses are "double-listed" or "joint-listed," which means one course is offered under two names. An example is COM 440/POL S 461: Mass Media Law. COM 440 and POL S 461 are the same course, same times and places, same instructor. In the Time Schedule these courses have the notation "offered jointly with" or "meets jointly with." You can enroll in a double-listed course under either title, and the tip is that there may be registration restrictions under one title but not under the other, or one may be full while the other is still open. Always check under both titles,

• The CHID Academic Counselor can give you more specific guidance in choosing and getting into courses.  Make an appointment at the Advising Calendar.

• The UW creates a quarterly "Tips for Getting into Closed/Restricted Courses" guide.

• You'll never know if you can take a closed or restricted class until you ask!

The information above has been modified from the UW Information Navigator's Tools for Finding Courses page.

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