Courses of Interest
Summer 2009
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
DXARTS 450 - Digital Video Foundations
Day/Time: MTWTh 12:40-3:20
Credits: 5
Instructor: Tivon Rice
(offered during both Summer A and Summer B terms)
Digital video studio designed towards the individual creation of experimental short films and video art. Emphasis on art-making, conceptual thinking and experimentation. Focus on core generative processes of digital film, including preproduction, production, and presentation. Students work individually and in small teams to explore a broad range of issues involved in creation of their projects.
DXARTS 460 - Digital Sound
Day/Time: MTWTh 9:40-12:20
Credits: 5
Instructor: Hugo Solis (Summer A Term) / Nicolas Varchasky (Summer B Term)
(offered during both Summer A and Summer B terms)
Foundations of digital sound for digital arts applications. Digital sound theory; transducers; audio signals; mixer architectures; field recording strategies. Multi-track editing for recording, analysis, editing, montage, mixing, synchronization, and mastering. Problem-solving for innovative applications in video, multi-media, and installation art.
ASTR 190 - Intro to Astrobiology
Day/Time: MTWTh 9:40-11:50
Credits: 5 (NW)
Instructor: Tyler Robinson, UW Astronomy Department and Astrobiology Program
Introduction to the new science of astrobiology, the study of the past, present and future of life in the Universe. An emphasis will be placed on the role of astronomy in the search for microbial and intelligent life beyond Earth. Select topics include the history of life on Earth, the search for life in the Solar System, extrasolar planets, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Method of Instruction: Class time will be divided between hands-on activities, internet-based exercises, and lectures. Homework load will be light and group projects will be assigned.
RUSS 420 - 'Bad Love' in Russia
Day/Time/Room: M T W Th 9:10-11:20
Credits: 5 (VLPA)
Instructor: Alaniz
Love, that mysterious and powerful force, can often turn dark and destructive. It can even come to threaten the body politic. At least, so has Russian culture often viewed "alternative" expressions of love and sexuality. This course examines several examples of "bad love" in Russia (from the Czarist era through the Soviet period and to the present day) for how they reflect and refract the culture's values, politics and anxieties over time. Among other things, we will learn about Russian Orthodoxy's views on sex, Soviet attempts to redefine marriage, post-Soviet treatments of homosexuality and the oldest profession throughout all these periods. More broadly, we'll investigate the creation and enforcement of cultural values, and how "alternative" institutions negotiate always-fraught ideological terrain. We will examine the idea of love in Western culture - what is it? why is it important? what counts as love? - before turning to its critique. For this we will rely on the work of, among others, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Laura Kipnis and Lionel Trilling as we analyze short stories, novels and films. Authors include Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Nabokov, Eduard Limonov and Lyudmilla Ulitskaya.
Please note that we will be discussing mature subject matter which some may find disturbing, liberating, offensive, or all of the above.
CHID 390: The Interpretation of Texts & Cultures
Day/Time: T Th 12:30-2:20
Credits: 5 (I&S or W credit)
Basic theoretical issues of ideas as a disciplined mode of inquiry; examination of representative historical figures and problems.
CHID 250: The Idea of Metamorphosis
Day/Time: T Th 1:10-3:20
Credits: 5 (I&S)