Courses of Interest
Autumn 2008
Overview
These "Courses of Interest" are classes that sound interesting to us, and will most likely be an excellent addition to your schedule if you're trying to figure out what to take. None of these are Honors courses themselves, but they may be applicable towards the College Honors Core requirements through the Ad Hoc method. However, you must first get approval from an Honors adviser and the course instructor if you would like to take any of these courses as ad hoc (see an Honors adviser if you have questions about this). And don't forget about the Honors Program Electives Handbook.
Courses
BIO A / ENVIR 475: Environmental Impacts of Small-Scale Societies
M W F 1:30-2:50pm
5 credits
Instructors: Don Grayson, Eric Smith
The ongoing debate concerning the impact (both positive and negative) of hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies on their resources and landscapes has implications for current issues in conservation biology and related fields. This course, team-taught by an archaeologist and an ecological anthropologist, examines the prehistoric, historic, and ethnographic evidence bearing on this debate, within a framework provided by theory from evolutionary ecology and biogeography.
The format of the course will involve a combination of lectures by the instructors, and seminar discussion and presentations by students. Each student will prepare a research paper on a selected topic relating to the course. Readings will consist primarily of journal articles from the professional literature in ecological anthropology and archaeology.
Enrollment is limited to a maximum of 15 students (junior, senior, or grad), and an entry code is required. We are eager to have students from a variety of relevant academic backgrounds and programs. To be considered for enrollment, please email one of the instructors (easmith@u.washington.edu or grayson@u.washington.edu) with information on your major, relevant background (e.g., coursework in anthro, ecology, or related fields) and reasons for wanting to take this course. This course is jointly listed under Biocultural Anthropology (BIO A 475) or Program on Environment (ENVIR 475); students may enroll under either course number, but must let an instructor know which one so the correct entry code can be sent to you.
POLS 442 / SISEA 449: Government and Politics of China
T Th 1:30-3:20pm
Will the 21st Century in China see the "end of history" and the triumph of liberal democracy or a "new age of authoritarianism"? The May 12th Earthquake was an opportunity for the government to mount a massive rescue and recovery effort, while the Olympics was supposed to be China's "coming out party to the world". Yet, the earthquake spawned protests by grieving parents of thousands of children who died in shoddily constructed schools, while the Olympics occasioned an intensified crackdown against protests by both Chinese citizens and foreigners. Are such protests harbingers of democratic revolution, or is the current regime riding high on a wave of nationalism? Take POLS 442/SISEA 449 to find out.
GH 415 / GH 515: Global Health Challenges
Instructor: Chris Murray
5 credits
T Th 10-11:20am, with 1-hr quiz section
Prerequisites:
- GH 415/Undergraduate prerequisites: MATH 124 or equivalent, and at least one of the following or equivalent: BIOL 180, STAT 311 or QSCI 381.
- GH 515/Graduate prerequisites: BIOST 511/512/513 or BIOST 517/518, and EPI 511 or EPI 512/513; or permission of instructor
This course introduces the principal health problems of the world's populations, and the major challenges to improving health at a global level. It is an inter-disciplinary exploration of the factors that account for these health patterns, ranging from their physiological basis to their economic, social and political context. Topics include: infectious diseases, injuries, risk factors, health system performance, and the role of international agencies in shaping the landscape of global health policy. Throughout the course, a heavy emphasis is placed on what we know and how we know about global health problems.
Entry codes are required for the graduate-level course. Please contact Sean Lassiter at (206) 897-2832 seapl@u.washington.edu for codes and/or questions.
CHID 498H: Poetics of Play in Digital Roleplaying Games
SLN 20281
5 credits
MW 7-9:20pm
In his recent book Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, Alexander Galloway includes an epigraph from Hans Magnus Enzensberger on new media that frames the dominant view about digital games today: "The new media are oriented towards action, not contemplation; towards the present, not tradition." While this view has explanatory power in a very general sense when applied to digital games, it can play all too easily into the very tired and reductive moralisms which have inhibited inquiry and haunted the cultural assumptions about the medium since its creation: the playing of video games is either an unproductive escapist pastime of little or no intellectual consequence, or worse yet, an active corruption of culture in general and youth in particular. Galloway and others have done compelling scholarship on games that reveal this as a misguided interpretation, but they have done so primarily by crafting innovative theories and concepts about gaming in general without really bearing down on any of the games themselves. In light of these two issues "the commonsense tendency to view games as primarily unreflective action, and the generalized theory-oriented beginnings of game studies" there seems to be a need for an engaged consideration of the interpretive and imaginative dimension of digital games, and particularly the genre most resistant to prevailing theoretical models: the roleplaying game (RPG).
To this end, this seminar will be anchored by a collective gaming experience of 4 monuments in the history of the fantasy RPG: Quest for Glory, Ultima VII, Final Fantasy VII, and Morrowind, and framed by critical readings from game studies and new media studies, including essays by Espen Aarseth, Ian Bogost, Alexander Galloway, James Paul Gee and Jesper Juul, among others. These readings and game experiences will hopefully give us some concrete purchase on the efficacy of current theory, but also "and more importantly "a way to talk about and imagine this genre that engages some larger questions: What is the nature and what are the qualities of the imaginative work created and supported by the experience of digital roleplaying games? What philosophical insights can this increasingly popular art form offer contemporary notions of digital mediation? What is unique about the way in which the RPG configures and affects the imaginative experience?
Recommended preparation
Regular access to a computer that meets the following minimum requirements:
- a. OS: Windows 98SE/ME/XP
- b. CPU: Pentium III 800Mhz or better
- c. Mem: 256 MB+
- d. Video: nVidia GeForce2 series +or ATI Radeon 7500 series+
- e. Space: 2 GB free
Class assignments and grading
The work of the class will consist of weekly discussion of the readings and game experiences, writing and sharing a short analytical paper on a critical essay or book chapter of choice, proposing a digital RPG mini-canon with rationale in which you talk through the significance of the games you chose to foreground, and a research project of your own design.
Biofutures
CHID 250
SLN 11805 A
MW 3:30-5:20, and Friday sections
Instructor: Phillip Thurtle
thurtle@u.washington.edu
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!