Cool Courses for Autumn 2023

As you start thinking about autumn 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.

History & Culture
Film & Media
The Environment
Identity
Literature
Arts & Creativity
More Cool Courses

HSTAA 231: Race and American History
How has race shaped American history? From Thomas Jefferson, colonial dispossession, and chattel slavery to Barack Obama, immigration debates, and #BlackLivesMatter, learn how race has enabled conceptions of the American nation and empire from its beginnings to today, and how race has shaped everyday practices and social interactions among different peoples.
Moon-Ho Jung, History
5 credits, DIV, SSc, W

FRENCH 376 / HSTEU 490A / JSIS 488B: Culture, Politics, and Society in France from the Religious Wars to Revolutions
Learn about the history of France and the Francophone world from the Religious Wars in the 1500s up to the Revolution of 1789, as France emerged as a modern state and ultimately a nation with an official language and the claim to a shared French culture and national identity. Students will read a mixture of historical documents from the time. Readings and class sessions will be in English.
Geoffrey Turnovsky, French & Italian Studies
5 credits, A&H, SSc

JSIS B 100D: US and the Middle East
(listed as "Issues in International Studies")
Delve into the intricacies of US-Middle East relations, particularly since 1945, to understand the profound impact on global diplomacy and socio-political dynamics. The course emphasizes the diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural implications of interactions between the US and the Middle East, looking at how those interactions have shaped the modern world and the reasons behind the US's long-lasting interventions in the region.
Steven Simon, International Studies
5 credits, SSc

MELC 386 / CMS 320 E: The Middle East through Cinema
In this class, we will watch movies — including some that do not have a place in mainstream cinema — and analyze the function of cinema in shaping communal and individual identities in Middle Eastern cultures. Topics to be covered include religious transformation, violence, immigration, exile, identity, and gender, including the role of women in the culture and society of the Middle East.
Naghmeh Samini , Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures
5 credits, A&H
 

CMS 315B: Robots and Virtual Assistants
(listed as “History of New Media”)
Explore robotic and virtual servants and assistants in film, television, and commercial advertising. Students will discuss media from a range of decades and genres, examining post-human assistants as new media and considering their intersections with race, gender, sexuality, and class.
Golden Owens, Cinema & Media Studies
5 credits, A&H  

GEOG 272: Geographies of Environmental Justice
This course looks at the role of markers of difference — gender, race, nationality — in debates about equity and justice by exploring the places where people live, play, and work.
Megan Ybarra, Geography
5 credits, DIV, SSc

FRENCH 228A / CHID 270A / LIT 228: The Water Crisis in Literature and Film
Through literary, cinematic, and other texts that address the water crisis, this class will explore how water's meaning has changed as people become more conscious of risks posed by pollution, scarcity or overabundance (as a function of political economies and climate), infrastructure, and other factors. We get at this emergent meaning of water by interpreting a variety of documents and objects — even the fountains of Versailles and a sewage treatment plant.
Richard Watts, French & Italian Studies
5 credits, A&H, SSc

CHID 260A: Rethinking Diversity 
Investigate the meanings and implications of race, gender, class, sexuality, and other social differences. We will discuss how ideas about "Differences" and "Diversity" play out in society, our campus, and our lives. Course texts will be a combination of scholarly essays, films, creative nonfiction, short stories, and novels. This introductory course is designed to welcome students of all majors and intellectual interests.
Anu Taranath, Comparative History of Ideas
5 credits, SSc, DIV

GWSS 320: Black Feminist Thought
This course uses essays, speeches, and creative work to examine important contributions of Black feminist thought to the fields of Black studies and Women's and Gender studies. The professor’s recent book, "Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought," explores how Black women artists use embodied knowledge to create work that resonates.
Bettina Judd, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
5 credits, SSc, DIV

AIS 270 / JSIS A 270: Native Peoples of the Northwest Coast
Meet the Native and Indigenous cultures of the Northwest Coast, from Southeast Alaska to the coastlines of British Columbia to Seattle. Learn about the peoples who shaped the land where we are today and the ongoing life and relationships with those cultures, including coastal Indigenous peoples’ social and political organization, economic and subsistence systems, food traditions, and artistic expression, and how these were impacted by settler colonialism.
Charlotte Coté
5 credits, SSC, DIV

ITAL 262 / GLITS 311 A / C LIT 361A: Dante's Divine Comedy
Discover Dante Alighieri's “Divine Comedy,” one of the most influential masterpieces of Western literature. We will not only observe Dante's journey through the afterlife but participate in it as well, as we encounter questions about the nature of evil, the possibility for spiritual improvement, and the experience of true happiness. We will also explore surprising cultural and political parallels with our own time, particularly since the Italian government decreed March 25th as National Dante Day in honor of the celebrated author as a “symbol of unity.”
Beatrice Arduini, French & Italian Studies
5 credits, A&H

GLITS 251A / SLAVIC 200A / C LIT 251A: War Literature
The genre of war literature ranges from eyewitness accounts of combat to depictions of civilians caught in the crossfire. Our readings will include works by writers from France, East Germany, Poland, the US, Bangladesh, Ukraine, and more. In addition to focusing on close-reading and comparative analysis of novels, short stories, hybrid works, photography, music, and poetry, we will examine how various social, political, and cultural contexts may have impacted the authors.
Piotr Florczyk, Slavic Languages & Literatures
5 credits, A&H

GWSS 235 / ANTH 235: Global Feminist Art
Explore how feminist artists, working in diverse locations and cultural traditions, challenge conventions and representations of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationality. In this class, students learn to apply feminist thought in considering feminist art practice in terms of social hierarchy, aesthetic form, and ideology.        
Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
5 credits, A&H, SSc, DIV

Drama 203: Resilience and the Creative Process: Courage, Optimism, Creativity
This course uses and teaches artistic practice as a practical example of resilience in action. The goal is to encourage students to become their fullest, most human, most creative, most productive, most successful selves.
Valerie Curtis-Newton, Drama
5 credits, A&H

MELC 301: Art of the Ancient Near East
Examine the artistic remains of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia — roughly 3000 BCE-550 BCE. We will explore topics including art as ritual power, the relationship between text and image, art and cosmology, visual propaganda, and the legacy of ancient Near Eastern art. This is the only course taught in the U.S. that explores the principles of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian art comparatively. Though there are no prerequisites, NEAR E 201: Introduction to the Ancient Near East is recommended.
Scott Noegel, Middle Eastern Languages & Civilization
3 credits, A&H  

ART 360 / DESIGN 365: Technocrafting: Hands on Digital 3D Practices
This class is built around a central question: What would it look like to create an object where the act of creating it reinforced the health and vibrancy of the natural, social, and cultural ecosystem in which that object resided? We explore how designers and artists might make things that heal and strengthen the world that we are part of.  What material, ethical, emotional, and conceptual strategies can move us forward in this direction? In this hands-on course, you will conceptualize, design, and build an object that is suitable for small-scale production.
Timea Tihanyi, Art & Dominic Muren, Design
5 credits, A&H  

RELIG 220: Introduction to the New Testament
This introduction to the writings in the New Testament explores their nature and origins and the first decades of the Christian religion. As you learn about the origins of one of the world's largest religions, which continues to play a powerful role in politics and culture today, you'll also learn about the pagan religions and ancient Mediterranean contexts from which Christianity emerged, including "heretical" movements such as Gnosticism.
Nathan J. Lilje, Comparative Religion
5 credits, A&H, SSc

GEOG 271: Geography of Food and Eating
Explore the political, social, and economic dimensions of food and eating in particular spaces, places, environments, contexts, and regions. Students will learn about the development of the world food economy, current responses to instabilities and crises, and issues relating to obesity, hunger, and inequality in relation to food systems. Through the theme of food and eating, this course provides an introduction to the discipline of geography.
Gretchen Sneegas, Geography
5, DIV, SSc