University of Washington Honors Program

Course for Winter 2024

* Add codes are placed on all courses one week after the first day of the quarter. If you need an add code, please email the course instructor for permission, and once approved, forward the confirmation from your instructor to uwhonors@uw.edu. We will be in touch with registration details as soon as possible.

Honors Arts & Humanities (3)

Arts & Humanities courses may only count for your H-Arts & Humanities requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 211 A: Authoritarianism and its Appeal in Ancient Rome (A&H, W)

HONORS 211 A: Authoritarianism and its Appeal in Ancient Rome (A&H, W)

SLN 15446 (View UW registration info »)

Michael Ritter (Classics)
Phone: 9185197397
Email: mritte@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

The transition from the Republic to the Imperial period in Roman history brought stability and a reprieve from generations of civil wars, but it also signaled a loss of rights. The central question of this course will be what the Romans ultimately gave up for this authoritarian stability and why. Through primary and secondary sources as well as archaeological evidence, we will use this period as a lens to investigate the curtailing of rights such as freedom of speech and democracy. Specifically, we will investigate the following trends and the role they played in the breakdown of the Republican system: 1. Civil War

2. Inequality 

3. Cult of Personality

4. Imperialism

HONORS 211 B: Diversity in the Middle Ages (A&H, DIV, W)

HONORS 211 B: Diversity in the Middle Ages (A&H, DIV, W)

SLN 15447 (View UW registration info »)

Annegret Oehme (Department of Germanics)
Email: oehme@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

One day in-person, one day virtual
In pop culture, especially TV shows and movies, the Middle Ages are often whitewashed and portrayed as the ‘Dark Ages’ (with Game of Thrones being the perfect example). Yet, a closer look reveals that medieval society tackled issues of diversity not just negatively but also in positive ways. We can learn from the Middle Ages that religious and cultural diversity was and is an essential feature of societies and that it is up to the people of each epoch to embrace or reject societal plurality. This seminar will provide you with a new understanding of the “not-so-dark” Middle Ages through the topic of diversity, specifically diversity aspects concerning race and racism, religion (specifically Islam, Judaism, and Christianity), disability, and gender. The class introduces discourses from this period through primary and secondary literature. However, you won’t just learn about medieval times; rather, this class also offers them an opportunity to critically review our own understanding and perception of diversity through learning about medieval ways of engaging with heterogeneous societies. You will gain direct knowledge about the Middle Ages and use it to examine our modern understanding of diversity and our modern realities. Critically engaging with ideas about the medieval times, you are guided in and encouraged to rethinking the value as well as the challenges diversity poses while learning to embrace our own contribution to the campus community and beyond as well.

HONORS 211 C: What is Time? Understanding and Organizing Temporalities (A&H, DIV, W)

HONORS 211 C: What is Time? Understanding and Organizing Temporalities (A&H, DIV, W)

SLN 15448 (View UW registration info »)

Francesca Colonnese (English)
Office: Padelford B-29, Box 354330
Email: fcolonne@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Time exists for us as both a felt experience in our lives and an abstraction. The clock ticks slowly for the bored students waiting for class to end at 12:20 pm. Yet, what does 12:20 even mean? We accept the notion of an objective time measured and built away from our felt experiences as a way of coordinating our lives. This class will explore various ways of abstracting time and understanding the different methods for it shaping our lives. In doing so, we’ll read a variety of theoretical and literary texts to think through how we depict time and how we might undo the assumptions we make about it. We’ll engage with ideas about time at both short and long time scales-with how we feel time in the moment compared to how we think about centuries passing. This class will also touch on how time becomes intertwined with identity; it is presented in ways that create “norms” around how to live one’s life that are resisted in various ways. Part of your task will be deciding how to represent your own experiences in time and to create a final project and presentation that engages with your own subjective sense of time while focusing on a cultural object of your choosing.

Honors Science (3)

Science courses may only count for your H-Science requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 221 A: DNA and Evolution (NSc, W)

HONORS 221 A: DNA and Evolution (NSc, W)

SLN 15449 (View UW registration info »)

Jon Herron (Biology)
Office: 205D Burke Museum, Box 351800
Phone: (206) 547-6330
Email: herronjc@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 38 students

Honors Credit Type

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.

HONORS 221 B: Calderwood Seminar: Math That Lies (NSc, W)

HONORS 221 B: Calderwood Seminar: Math That Lies (NSc, W)

SLN 15450 (View UW registration info »)

Neal Koblitz (Mathematics)
Office: C-335 Padelford, Box 354350
Phone: 543-4386
Email: koblitz@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 7 students

Honors Credit Type

This will be a 5-credit seminar on public writing. Students will learn how to interrogate quantitative arguments and dubious uses of numerical data – in controversies regarding public health (COVID-19), race (redlining), education (value-added modeling), investment strategies (buying land), and other aspects of society. Each student will write five short pieces (such as a book review or op-ed), which will be edited by other students and further workshopped during class. Readings will consist of three books and several shorter pieces, including “Weapons of Math Destruction” by Cathy O’Neil and a chapter of “How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff.

The goal will be to learn to write clearly and persuasively for a general readership about quantitative aspects of socially important controversies. The course is open to mathematical science majors as well as to students in any major in the Honors Program.

HONORS 221 C: The Science of Human Values (NSc, W)

HONORS 221 C: The Science of Human Values (NSc, W)

SLN 15451 (View UW registration info »)

KC Cole (Physics)
Email: kc314@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

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.

Honors Social Sciences (3)

Social Science courses may only count for your H-Social Sciences requirement or your Honors Electives requirement.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 231 A: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 A: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15452 (View UW registration info »)

Linh Thủy Nguyễn
Email: lnguye@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

Through a combination of thematic and genre-based inquiries, we will broadly define a field of AAPI women’s narratives via film, oral history, and cultural and theoretical texts. We will examine how contemporary representations speak to histories of AAPI racialization and gendering in relation to US empire, war, militarism and dispossession.

HONORS 231 B: Interrogating the Influence of "Western Civilization" on Care (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 B: Interrogating the Influence of "Western Civilization" on Care (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15453 (View UW registration info »)

LaShawnDa Pittman (American Ethnic Studies)
Office: B517 Padelford
Email: lpittman@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

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 wellbeing outcomes, as well as the laws and public policies aimed to improve people’s well-being and reduce inequalities.

HONORS 231 C: Improving Population Health through Social Entrepreneurship (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 C: Improving Population Health through Social Entrepreneurship (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15454 (View UW registration info »)

Akhtar Badshah (Evans School of Public Policy; UW Bothell Business)
Email: akhtarb@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 30 students

Honors Credit Type

The course will offer students a fundamental understanding of the process of social innovation, and the role that social enterprises can play in addressing population health challenges. Through a combination of lectures, guest speakers, case studies and a team project, students will learn how organizations can advance work that has a positive societal impact while also remaining financially sustainable.

Honors Interdisciplinary (5)

Interdisciplinary courses may only count for your Interdisciplinary Honors requirement or your Honors Electives requirement. These courses cannot count for your Honors Science, Honors Humanities/Arts or Honors Social Science requirements, even if they bear the corresponding Areas of Inquiry designation.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 345 A: How to Read E-Literature (C, W)

HONORS 345 A: How to Read E-Literature (C, W)

SLN 15455 (View UW registration info »)

Ileana Marin (Comparative History of Ideas; Comparative Literature)
Phone: 206 604-1831
Email: marini@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

“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”.

HONORS 393 A: Rhetoric of Science (A&H / NSc, W)

HONORS 393 A: Rhetoric of Science (A&H / NSc, W)

SLN 15456 (View UW registration info »)

Leah Ceccarelli (Communication)
Office: CMU 145, Box 353740
Email: cecc@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 24 students

Honors Credit Type

Insofar as scientists use language and visual displays to communicate with others, they use rhetoric, selecting some aspects of reality to convey, and deflecting other aspects of reality from attention. Studying how scientists use rhetoric to communicate, and how nonscientists use rhetoric to argue about science and its effects in the public sphere, students in this class will discover the means of persuasion available to shape science, its products, and the relationship between both and the publics that surround them. Those who are considering a career in science will learn how to think critically about the internal and external discourse of science, improving their use of rhetorical tools in the process. Those who do not intend to become scientists will learn how to critically analyze the claims of science and respond thoughtfully and effectively to its potential influence on them in the modern world. Student Learning Goals: 1) Understand and critically evaluate scholarship on the rhetoric of science. 2) Identify, define and use rhetorical concepts in the analysis of communication about science. 3) Recognize and evaluate the means of persuasion that can be utilized by scientists in communicating with other scientists and/or the public. 4) Recognize and evaluate the means of persuasion that can be utilized by advocates critiquing or protesting against science and/or its consequences in the public sphere. 5) Write an original rhetorical criticism essay that contributes to the subfield known as “rhetoric of science.”

HONORS 394 A: Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 394 A: Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15457 (View UW registration info »)

Catherine Connors (Classics)
Office: Denny 262 B, Box 353110
Phone: 206- 543-2266
Email: cconnors@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

In this course we shall read and discuss ancient Greek and Roman sources on religion, philosophy, medicine and law along with modern scholarly analyses of ancient society to explore the roles of women in ancient Greek and Roman society. Our goals are: to acquire a strong familiarity through analysis of primary sources with the features of social and civic life in the ancient Greek and Roman world; to gain a critical awareness of scholarly analysis of the lives of women in the ancient Greek and Roman world; to reflect on the beliefs, policies and actions that shaped and constrained the lives of women in the ancient Greek and Roman world and how these issues can be understood in relation to intersectional issues of gender, class and status in modern contexts.

HONORS 394 B: Black Slavery and Indigenous Dispossession: Twin Tools of Settler Colonialism (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 394 B: Black Slavery and Indigenous Dispossession: Twin Tools of Settler Colonialism (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15458 (View UW registration info »)

Stephanie Smallwood (History; Comparative History of Ideas; Honors Program)
Email: ses9@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 20 students

Honors Credit Type

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.

HONORS 394 C: Ways of Feeling (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 394 C: Ways of Feeling (A&H / SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15459 (View UW registration info »)

Katarzyna Dziwirek (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
Office: Padelford A217, Box 354335
Phone: 206-543-7691
Email: dziwirek@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

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.

HONORS 100/496 (2)

HONORS 100 must be taken the first autumn quarter you are admitted to Interdisciplinary Honors. Students may register for HONORS 496 after completing at least 6 of 9 Honors core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning activities. See our requirements page for more details.

HONORS 496 A: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

HONORS 496 A: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

SLN 15460 (View UW registration info »)

Nicole Peters (English)
Email: petersnc@uw.edu

Credits: 1
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

For Interdisciplinary Honors students only. Students must have completed 6 of 9 Honors Core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning projects.

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

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

HONORS 496 B: Integration of the Honors Curriculum

SLN 15461 (View UW registration info »)

Nicole Peters (English)
Email: petersnc@uw.edu

Credits: 1
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

For Interdisciplinary Honors students only. Students must have completed 6 of 9 Honors Core courses and 1 of 2 Experiential Learning projects.

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

Honors Electives (11)

Any course without the “HONORS” prefix may only count for your Honors Electives requirement. You will earn Areas of Inquiry credit as indicated in the parentheses after each course title.

Other Honors courses (without HONORS-prefix)

BIOC 451 A: Honors Biochem (NSc)

BIOC 451 A: Honors Biochem (NSc)

SLN 11288 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

Minimum of a 3.0 in BIOC 450 or 3.5 in BIOC 440
Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu to enroll
Add Code required

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.

CHEM 155 A: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 155 A: Honors General Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 12113 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 72 students

Honors Credit Type

Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu for registration questions

Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 145.
Students must also sign up for Section AA, AB, or AC. See Time Schedule for day/time information.

$75 course fee – auditors exempt
Fee purpose: Lab
LAB SECTIONS CANNOT BE OVERLOADED.
NO WAITLISTS. VISIT NOTIFY.UW.EDU.

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).

CHEM 336 A: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

CHEM 336 A: Honors Organic Chemistry (NSc)

SLN 12255 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4
Limit: 72 students

Honors Credit Type

Contact advisers@chem.washington.edu for registration questions
Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 335.

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 336.

CHEM 346 A: Honors Organic Chemistry Laboratory (NSc)

CHEM 346 A: Honors Organic Chemistry Laboratory (NSc)

SLN 12256 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 3
Limit: 48 students

Credit Type

Contact Chemistry for add codes.
Prerequisite: 2.2 in Honors CHEM 335.
Students who do not complete the prerequisites will be dropped from this course.
$75 course fee – auditors exempt
Fee purpose: Lab
LAB SECTIONS CANNOT BE OVERLOADED.
NO WAITLISTS. VISIT NOTIFY.UW.EDU.

To accompany CHEM 336. No more than the number of credits indicated can be counted toward graduation from the following course group: CHEM 241, CHEM 346 (3 credits).

CSE 122 / CSE 390 HA: Introduction to Computer Programming II (NSc)

CSE 122 / CSE 390 HA: Introduction to Computer Programming II (NSc)

SLN 12984 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4+1
Limit: 25 students

Honors Credit Type

CONTACT CSE (ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu.) with registration questions

To earn Honors credit, students must register for:
1. CSE 122 lecture A or B
2. corresponding CSE 122 section
3. CSE 390 H
AND
4. the corresponding CSE 390 HA section

NOTE: CSE 390 MUST be taken concurrently with CSE 122 to have it count toward an Honors core requirement. You cannot take the two courses in separate quarters.

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.

CSE 123 / CSE 390 HB: Introduction to Computer Programming III (NSc)

CSE 123 / CSE 390 HB: Introduction to Computer Programming III (NSc)

SLN 12985 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 4+1
Limit: 24 students

Honors Credit Type

CONTACT CSE (ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu.) with registration questions

To earn Honors credit, students must register for:
1. CSE 123 lecture
2. corresponding CSE 123 section
3. CSE 390 H
AND
4. CSE 390 HB

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.

ENGL 182 H: Composition: Multimodal (C)

ENGL 182 H: Composition: Multimodal (C)

SLN 14280 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Counts for Honors electives and UW Composition Requirement. Student must be registered for Honors specific section.

Cannot be taken if student has already received a grade of 2.0 or higher in ENGL 109/110, 111, 121, 131, or 182

Priority I & II Registration for incoming honors students. Fill out Honors Add Code and Course Override form to request add code.

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.

 

ENGL 282 A: Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition (C)

ENGL 282 A: Honors Intermediate Multimodal Composition (C)

SLN 14326 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 23 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code required. Email uwhonors@uw.edu to request code
Honors section:

The first few weeks of the quarter will encourage you to use multimodal, digital pathways to teach me and your peers about the thing you know best – yourself (and hopefully you’ll learn something new about yourself in the process).  As you get more comfortable with these new writing methods, we will expand into using multimodal writing to educate ourselves on social issues of interest–ultimately carving out a space for you to enter into academic (and public) conversations with your chosen form of compositional activism. The key here is that we begin to consider how writing can be used as a powerful catalyst for change, while revising what it means to be a writer and thinker in the process. Though each discipline you encounter throughout your studies at UW (and beyond) will inevitably require specific kinds of writing/communicating, this class will equip you with flexible tools that you can adapt and apply to all situations.

Intermediate Multimodal Composition:Strategies for composing effective multimodal texts for print, digital physical delivery, with focus on affordances of various modes–words, images, sound, design, and gesture–and genres to address specific rhetorical situations both within and beyond the academy. Although the course has no prerequisites, instructors assume knowledge of academic writing.

MATH 135: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

MATH 135: Accelerated Honors Calculus (NSc)

SLN 17149 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code available from Math Department.
Students must have completed or be in Honors MATH 134.

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.

MATH 335: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

MATH 335: Honors Accelerated Advanced Calculus (NSc)

SLN 17232 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 40 students

Honors Credit Type

Add code available from Math Department.

Prerequisite: minimum grade of 2.0 in MATH 334.

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.

PHYS 142: Honors Electromagnetism (NSc)

PHYS 142: Honors Electromagnetism (NSc)

SLN 19347 (View UW registration info »)

Credits: 5
Limit: 44 students

Honors Credit Type

If you have completed either PHYS 121 or PHYS 122 or have transfer credit (including AP credit) for those courses, and you think you are prepared and would like the challenge to take the next course in the sequence in the honors sequence, you should contact the instructor. Based on a discussion with the instructor of your preparedness, the instructor will help you determine what is required to ensure that you succeed in the honors sequence and will determine if the prerequisite should be waived.

HONORS STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR THE HONORS SECTION AND ASSOCIATED QUIZ SECTION TO RECEIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY HONORS CREDIT FOR THIS COURSE

See Physics department for more information and review their Honors Physics 142 and the Honors Physics overview pages:
https://phys.washington.edu/courses/2021/winter/phys/142a
https://phys.washington.edu/141-142-143-courses

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.

Special Topics (2)

Special Topics courses are between one and three credits and do not fulfill Interdisciplinary Honors requirements. They will award non-Honors UW elective credit and a great experience.

HONORS-prefix courses

HONORS 397 A: Prison Education & Freedom in Washington State (SSc)

HONORS 397 A: Prison Education & Freedom in Washington State (SSc)

SLN 22182 (View UW registration info »)

Claudia Jensen (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
Phone: 206-543-6848
Email: cjensen@uw.edu

Credits: 2
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

This 2-credit peer-led course critically analyzes issues surrounding incarceration and the criminal legal system. Through student-led projects, we will collaboratively explore themes surrounding decarceration, abolition, and coalition-building that center the voices of incarcerated people and their work in prison organizing. The course will incorporate various forms of media including artwork, readings, speaker testimonies, legislative material, etc. Group projects, reflective essays, and other assignments will be organized based on students’ selected topic. Topics include (but are not limited to): art as liberation, legislation as a tool for community organizing, politics of reintegration.

HONORS 398 A: Human/Transhuman/Posthuman (A&H, W)

HONORS 398 A: Human/Transhuman/Posthuman (A&H, W)

SLN 21952 (View UW registration info »)

John (Jack) Whelan (Foster School of Business)
Email: jwhelan@uw.edu

Credits: 3, c/nc
Limit: 20 students

Credit Type

NOTE: this is a 3 credit course so will only count towards UW general education requirements, not Honors core curriculum.

This course is as a continuation of Honors 211a: “The Disenchantment of the West: From Shakespeare to the Coen Brothers” but can be taken without Honors 211a as a prerequisite. If the Diesenchantment course focused on the shift in the social imaginary of Western societies from premodern to modern, this course will focus on the shift in their imaginaries from modern to postmodern. The course content will primarily focus on the intellecutal history of North Atlantic societies in the 19th and 20th centuries to the present moment in the early 21st century. 

The course will give students the opportunity to engage with the work of a wide variety of thinkers and artists so that they might become acquainted with the dynamic cultural landscape that is profoundly changing our ideas of the human.

The instructor will provide background information and resources to acquaint students with the different perspectives they will encounter, but the main goal of the course will be to provide an opportunity for lively discussion around a topic that is of central concern for all thoughtful human beings: What do you think it means to be human?

This is a profoundly important question for students engaged in business, engineering, computer science, and the natural sciences to consider since the work they will be doing in their disciplines will have enormous consequences in shaping the answer to this question.

 

Weekly themes:

Week 1: Disenchantment and the Possibility of Renchantment

Week 2: To Inifinity & Beyond: Idealism & Romanticism

Week 3: The Capitalist Imaginary: Classical Liberalism and Neoliberalism

Week 4: The Breakdown of the Liberal Order 1: The Avant-Garde and the Revolutionary Left

Week 5: The Breakdown of the Liberal Order 2: Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

Week 6: Social Justice Warriors: Redefining the Left

Week 7: From Taoism to Neoplatonism: The Persistence of Post Axial Wisdom Traditions

Week 8: AGI, Biotechnology, Cognitive Science, & Possibilities for Human Self-Transcendence

Week 9: Utopian and Dystopian Futures: Imagining Human Self-transcendence

Week 10: Metaphysical Imaginaries for the Future