Area around Drumheller Fountain on the UW campus

Cool Courses for Summer 2022

Back to All Stories
03/31/2022

As you start thinking about summer quarter 2022 course registration, check out these unique Arts & Sciences offerings. They’re open to all students, have no prerequisites, and fulfill Areas of Knowledge requirements as noted.

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Peoples & Places

AIS 103 JSIS 100 A: The Indigenous Pacific Northwest      
Learn about Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples through a hands-on class with plant walks, cedar weaving, visiting the Intellectual House, the Seattle Art Museum, or Northwest Canoe Journeys. Unlike the academic year, when this class is taught in lecture format, the summer quarter course provides experiential learning in a more intimate setting.
Charlotte Coté (American Indian Studies)
5 credits, DIV, I&S          

SPAN 362 / GEOG 373 / JEWST 362: Food and Community: Cultural Practices in the Hispanic World
(Online, Asynchronous)
Learn about the intersection of food and community in Latin America and Spain from premodern and colonial times to today. Topics include food and material culture; food and race; foodways and gender roles; diet and hygiene; the role of food in celebrations and rituals; urban planning and design pertaining to food; and socioeconomic factors in food practices.
Ana M. Gomez-Bravo (Spanish & Portuguese Studies)
5 credits, I&S

NEAR E 359 A / ANTH 369 A:  Language and Ethnicity in China
Examine the relationship of linguistic diversity to social and cultural identity and the role of language in the construction of ethnic identities among China's 56 nationalities.
Talant Mawkanuli (Near Eastern Languages & Civilization)
5 credits, I&S, VLPA       

GEOG 277: Geography of Cities
(Online, Asynchronous)
Curious about how cities operate the way they do? Explore economic, cultural, social, and political dynamics of cities — their location, functions, and internal structure. Learn how issues of class, race, and gender are embedded in the geographies of cities through discussions of economics, housing, social geography,  suburbanization and urban sprawl, inner-city gentrification, and more.
Sam Kay (Geography)
5 credits, DIV, I&S

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Words on the Page & Stage

Drama 200: Literature of the Plague
(listed as “The Art of Story”)
Now that it's behind us, what did we just live through? This course explores how the great epidemics of the past were remembered on the page and on the stage, and what stories we now tell.
Odai Johnson (Drama)
5 credits, VLPA 

GERMAN 298 A: Witchcraft. From History to Pop Culture
(Online, Asynchronous)
With witchcraft as the focal point, this class explores the perception of the female as well as the two central poles of understanding the world in the medieval and premodern world: religion and magic. We will explore how witchcraft has been narrated and explored in literature and art, discussing pre-modern images of women including the age of witch trials — a dark period of fear and defamation.           
Annegret Oehme (German Studies)
5 credits, DIV, VLPA

AAS 402A: Contemporary Asian American Literature
They keep asking “Where are you really from?” But are they ready for the answer? The idea of an “Asian American literature” was born out of the radical Third Worldist movements of the 1960s and 1970s — so it’s still relatively new, even though writers of Asian descent had been active in the US for a century before then.
Vince Schleitwiler (American Ethnic Studies)
5 credits, DIV, VLPA 

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Big Questions

CHID 110 A: The Question of Human Nature
Examine how works of culture produce competing accounts of the “Human” and what’s at stake in the different ways that the category of the “Human” has been imagined, contested, and refused. Course texts will include neoslave narratives, cyborg manifestos, prison autobiographies, marine science musings, ghost stories, space poetry, and more.              
Caleb Knapp (English, Comparative History of Ideas)
5 credits, I&S, VLPA

GWSS 251: Introduction to Gender and Popular Culture
How are gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality presented in music, film, television, and the internet? Explore cultural meanings and social uses of popular culture by various communities in local and global contexts.
Instructor to be finalized  (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
5 credits, I&S, VLPA

AES 380: Race, Ethnicity, and United States Public Policy
(Online)
This course explores the causes of disproportionate representation for people of color among the country's impoverished population.  
LaShawnDa Pittman (American Ethnic Studies)
5 credits, I&S

GWSS 244: Indigenous Feminisms
Examine the formation of feminisms within a transnational Indigenous framework, exploring topics including Indigenous knowledge production, sovereignty, analyses of genders and sexualities, violence, poverty, the politics of reproduction, cultural identities, media, and environmental and social justice.             
Fabian Romero  (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies)
5 credits, DIV, I&S          

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Mind & Body

RELIG 120 / CHID 120: Yoga Past & Present
(Online, Asynchronous)
Study the history, culture, philosophy, and practice of yoga from ancient times to the present, from religion and art to politics and film, from mind and soul to body and brain. As an entirely online asynchronous course, you will have the freedom to explore at your own pace and location.
Christian Novetzke (International Studies/Comparative Religion, Comparative History of Ideas)
5 credits, DIV, I&S, VLPA             

244A: Commercial Dance
(listed as "Movement Practices: Special Topics")
Ready to star in a music video? This class will introduce you to all the basic moves of commercial dance styles and how they draw on the aesthetics of other traditions — Hip-Hop, Street, and Jazz — that originated in African American and diaspora communities.                
Gary Champi (Dance)
2 credits, VLPA 

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Film

CHID 250 A: Film and the Post-Apocalyptic Imagination
(listed as “Special Topics: Introduction to the History of Ideas”)
As we explore cultural representations of cataclysmic events that range from the outbreak of zoonotic disease to environmental disaster to cybernetic revolt — and let’s not forget the zombie apocalypse! — we will discuss a number of cultural anxieties engaged and expressed through these representations in film.   
Annie Dwyer (English, Comparative History of Ideas)
5 credits, I&S, VLPA       

PORT 365 A / JSIS A 365 A: Luso-Brazilian Cinema
(listed as “Mapping Luso-Brazilian Cultures”)
This course looks at several cultural representations of Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking countries through contemporary films and documentaries produced mostly in Brazil.
Eduardo Viana da Silva (Spanish & Portuguese Studies)
5 credits, I&S, VLPA         

             

Language Intensives

SWA 134: Intensive Basic Swahili                             
This course introduces the Swahili language and the diverse cultures and customs of the people of East Africa, providing a basic foundation in speaking, reading, and writing.        
Jacqueline Waita (American Ethnic Studies)
15 credits, VLPA*  

ASL 134: Intensive First Year American Sign Language 
Intended for beginners, this fun, accessible course gives students an introduction to American Sign Language conversational methods, vocabulary, grammar, and culturally appropriate behavior. There will be four sections; one will be a remote option.
15 credits, VLPA*                                      

TAGLG 134: Intensive Basic Tagalog
This provides an intensive introduction to Filipino language & culture, using language through speaking, listening, reading, and writing at the novice level.
Kell Juan (American Ethnic Studies)
15 credits, VLPA*           

JSIS E 134: Intensive Elementary Modern Greek
(Online)
This course is equivalent to the full first-year college level language series and teaches students the fundamentals of oral and written modern Greek. Meets the one-year foreign language requirement needed for many degrees.  
15 credits, VLPA*

GREEK 300 A (A Term) and GREEK 103 A (B Term): Accelerated Introductory Greek
LATIN 300A (A Term) and LATIN 103 A (B Terms):  Accelerated Introductory Latin
Accelerated Greek and Latin courses give you direct access to the thoughts and writings of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. At the end of the summer you will have the framework you need to continue into second-year courses or start reading on your own. These courses will be held online, with the B-Term 103 courses picking up where the A Term courses leave off.  
5 credits (10 credits for full summer), VLPA*        

*First year foreign language courses may, under certain conditions, count toward the VLPA component of your degree requirement. See website or your adviser for more information.                             

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