Cool Courses for Summer 2023

As you start thinking about summer quarter 2023 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. Some courses are on campus; many are online. 

The Arts
Mythology & Magic
Understanding our World
Identity
Earth & Sky & the Apocalypse
More Cool Courses 

DRAMA 171A: The Broadway Musical
The Broadway Musical is a uniquely American art form, created predominately by people marginalized from mainstream society. This course, full of theatre and music, covers the evolution of the Broadway Musical, its mid-20th century “Golden Age” and 21st century resurgence, and how musicals have both reflected and shaped American culture — especially related to race, gender, sexual orientation, social justice, and equality.
David Armstrong, Drama
5 credits, A&H, DIV

ART 253: Introduction to Ceramics
The School of Art + Art History + Design has a brand-new ceramics studio! Learn how to create amazing works out of clay in a state-of-the-art facility. You will learn ceramic hand-building and wheel throwing techniques and explore functional and conceptual considerations with clay in a contemporary context and art practice.       
Samuel Jernigan, Art
5 credits, A&H    

SCAND 330: Scandinavian Mythology
(online, asynchronous)
In this class, students will read great medieval literature, with a focus on myths and their expressiveness of Viking culture. You’ll read several of the primary sources for gods, heroes, and beliefs in the Nordic pre-Christian tradition, and learn about the long period when Pagan and Christian belief systems co-existed in Scandinavia.
Lars Jenner, Scandinavian Studies
5 credits, A&H

GERMAN 298: 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 roles of religion and magic in understanding the world in medieval and pre-modern times. Learn how witchcraft has been narrated and explored in literature and art, including during the age of witch trials, a dark period of fear and defamation.
Annegret Oehme, German Studies
5, A&H, DIV 

JSIS 202 : Cultural Interactions in an Interdependent World
(online, synchronous)
Learn how culture shapes every aspect of our world, from economic systems to media politics. For the final project, students conduct a cultural study of an online space they frequently use, applying new concepts to better understand and explain their own cultural niches. Previous students have analyzed social media influencers and body image, political disagreements among youtubers, and more.
Vanessa Freije, International Studies
5, SSc, W

CHID 206 / JEW ST 206: Violence and Contemporary Thought: Antisemitism, Racism, and Historical Memory After Auschwitz
(online, asynchronous)
Engage directly with philosophy, visual art, poetry, and other texts created in response to mass violence in the 20th century. Using a comparative approach, we learn how Black thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois made sense of antisemitism in relation to racism, and how "multidirectional" approaches to historical memory of the Holocaust and European colonial violence can help us ground practices of solidarity against racism in the present.
Nicolaas P. Barr, Comparative History of Ideas
5 credits, SSc, DIV

GEOG 445: Geography of Housing
(online, asynchronous)
Why is the American dream of home ownership out of reach for so many? This class will address topics that are particularly urgent at this moment in this region: housing affordability and differential access to home ownership, homelessness, the history of public housing, discrimination in the housing market, and more.
Instructor to be announced
5 credits, SSc, DIV

SPAN 362 / JEW ST 362 / GEOG 373: Food and Community: Cultural Practices in the Hispanic World
(online, asynchronous)
How do the foods of Hispanic cultures intersect with community? In this tasty course, learn about food and material culture, urban design, foodways and gender roles, race, diet and hygiene, celebrations, food preparation techniques, and other cultural practices related to food in the Hispanic world from premodern and colonial to contemporary times.
Ana M. Gómez-Bravo, Spanish & Portuguese Studies, Jewish Studies
5 credits, SSC, DIV

AIS 313: Southern Lushootseed Language
(online, synchronous)
This fun and interactive class will teach you to speak, read, and write in Southern Lushootseed, the first language of this area. Struggled with language classes before? The instructor welcomes non-traditional learners, and uses storytelling and games like Bingo to help students use the language every day. This is the first in a three-course sequence. Take all three and fulfill your Foreign Language requirement!
Tami Hohn, American Indian Studies
5 credits, World Language

GWSS 302: Feminist Theories and Methods
(online, synchronous)
Traditional research has been critiqued for objectifying marginalized communities and replicating uneven power dynamics.  This class provides the tools to approach research differently, using research methods and methodologies that consider issues of difference and power. Focusing on a subject of your own choice, by the end of the class you will have a strong research proposal and tools to complete that project.
Instructor to be announced
5 credits, SSc   

GEOG 205: Our Global Environment
(online, asynchronous)
This course brings together physical and human geography elements to evaluate causes, consequences, and solutions to environmental problems. Students will explore environmental systems using a geographic perspective that emphasizes spatial patterns of phenomena, relationships between different places, and interconnections between people and environment.           
Instructor to be announced
5 credits, NSc

ASTRO 150 E: The Planets
(online, asynchronous)
Where did our Solar System come from? What is made of? Are we alone? Learn how studies of extrasolar planets have changed our views of how planets and planetary systems form and evolve. We will explore these fundamental questions through the patterns we recognize in nature on all scales, in the terrestrial planets.
Toby Smith, Astronomy
5 credits, NSc, RSN

CHID 211A: Apocalypse and Popular Culture
(online, synchronous)
This class will focus on secular imaginings of the end of the world as we know it in film. 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 consider the cultural anxieties engaged and expressed through these representations. And we will be sure to beef up our zombie apocalypse kits!
Annie Dwyer, Comparative History of Ideas
5 credits, A&H, DIV 

RELIG 120 / CHID 120: Yoga: Past and Present
(online, asynchronous)
Learn about the global phenomenon of yoga as a way to think about the world and your place in it.  The course covers 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.               
Christian Novetzke
5 credits, A&H, SSc, DIV