UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
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Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
CHID 101 Introduction to the Comparative History of Ideas (2)
Provides a methodological, curricular, and intellectual introduction to comparative history of ideas. Teaches the importance of interdisciplinary inquiry in research and provides models for how to formulate, undertake, and present interdisciplinary research projects. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 101
CHID 110 The Question of Human Nature (5) A&H/SSc
Considers the relationship between the individual and his/her culture. Traces the evolution of the notion of human nature in Europe and the United States and compares this tradition with representations of the human being from other cultural traditions.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 110
CHID 111 History of the Present (5) SSc
Introduces students to thinking about social, cultural, and political issues of current relevance as objects of historical inquiry and about the role of historical argumentation in contemporary public debate. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 111.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 111
CHID 112 Introduction to Visual Culture in the Global South (5) A&H
Introduces the study of visual images in everyday life. Topics include theories of vision, histories of visual technologies such as photography, and the role of images in art, journalism, advertising, and social media in shaping self and social identity in various locations in the Global South.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 112
CHID 120 Yoga: Past and Present (5) A&H/SSc, DIV
Studies yoga and its history, practice, literature, and politics. From the ancient past to modern yoga, studies essential texts and ideas, as well as the effects of class, religion, gender, nationalism, development, Marxism, colonialism, and physical culture on yoga. Offered: jointly with RELIG 120; A.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 120
CHID 201 Radical Poetics (5) A&H
Explores writing and other creative works that experiment with existing formal conventions, with a focus on political and historical contexts. Offered: A.
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CHID 205 Method, Imagination, and Inquiry (5) A&H
Examines ideas of method and imagination in a variety of texts, in literature, philosophy, and science. Particularly concerned with intellectual backgrounds and methods of inquiry that have shaped modern Western literature. Offered: jointly with ENGL 205.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 205
CHID 206 Violence and Contemporary Thought (5) SSc, DIV
Modern and contemporary ideas about violence and their emergence as intellectual responses to historical events. Topics may include histories of physical violence, such as slavery, colonialism, or the Holocaust, as well as structural forms of violence. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 206/JEW ST 206; AS.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 206
CHID 207 Introduction to Intellectual History (5) SSc
Ideas in historical context. Comparative and developmental analysis of Western conceptions of "community," from Plato to Freud. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 207.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 207
CHID 210 The Idea of the University: Ways of Learning, Exploring, and Knowing (5) SSc
Considers different ways of learning, exploring, and knowing in the context of the historical development, social context, and impact of universities in general and of the University of Washington in particular. Includes reflective workshops on choosing areas of study (majors) in collaboration with Undergraduate Advising.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 210
CHID 211 Apocalypse and Popular Culture (5) A&H, DIV Annie Dwyer
Introduces strategies for interpreting popular culture and film, focusing on a range of filmic subgenres that imagine future worlds, while situating these films within wider cultural, political, and historical contexts and foregrounding questions of power and difference, science and technology, and the politics of representation. Offered: AS.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 211
CHID 212 Critical Perspectives on Belonging in Western Europe (5) A&H, DIV
Emergence of ideals now associated with Western Europe through analysis of literary, artistic, or cinematic sources. How those ideals contrast with reality as experienced by marginalized others within and without its borders. Course overlaps with: FRENCH 226.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 212
CHID 220 Literature and Science (5, max. 15) A&H
Introduces the rich and complex relationship between science and literature from the seventeenth century to the present day. Students examine selected literary, scientific, and philosophical texts, considering ways in which literature and science can be viewed as forms of imaginative activity. Offered: jointly with C LIT 210.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 220
CHID 222 BioFutures (5) SSc/NSc
Explores key legal, ethical, cultural, scientific, and commercial aspects of the rapidly changing world of biotechnology and bioinformatics. Specifically asks how new discoveries in biology encourage us to rethink issues of ownership, communication, geography, identity, and artistic practice.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 222
CHID 230 Introduction to Disability Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the field of disability studies. Focuses on the theoretical questions of how society predominantly understands disability and the social justice consequences. Examines biological, social, cultural, political, and economic determinants in the framing of disability. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 230/LSJ 230.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 230
CHID 234 Environmental Justice and the Humanities (5) A&H/SSc
Introduces central concepts and concerns within the environmental humanities. Includes scholarly debates in the field in relationship to wider cultural, political, and historical contexts as well as the imperatives of environmental justice.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 234
CHID 235 Representations of Disability in Popular Culture (5) SSc, DIV
Social construction of 'disability' reflected in and shaped by popular culture. Examples from sports coverage, film, television, fashion, and art both by and about disabled people. Ways in which disability representations in the media reify, problematize, and/or challenge marginalization of this social status. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 235/SOC 235.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 235
CHID 250 Special Topics: Introduction to the History of Ideas (5, max. 15) SSc
Examines a different subject or problem from a comparative framework. Satisfies the Gateways major/minor requirement. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 250
CHID 260 Re-Thinking Diversity (5) SSc, DIV
Considers the notion of diversity from many scholarly perspectives and from personal engagements. Critically engages historical thinking about diversity and examines contemporary issues such as racism, sexism, and the cultural politics of difference.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 260
CHID 270 Special Topics (5, max. 15) SSc
Each special topics course examines a different subject or problem from a comparative framework.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 270
CHID 280 Global Indigenous Politics: Culture, Representation, Decolonization (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the contemporary cultural and political transformations advanced by Indigenous peoples and their advocates around the world. Examines the concept of indigeneity, the cultural politics of Indigenous mobilization, and the effects of international development policies on Indigenous communities. Offered: jointly with JSIS A 280.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 280
CHID 298 Pre-Departure Seminars (2) SSc
Prepares students to participate in CHID international programs. Prerequisite: students must be accepted to an international program prior to registration. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 298
CHID 309 Marx and the Marxian Tradition in Western Thought: The Foundations of Modern Cultural Criticism I (5) SSc
Critically examines the formation of modern Western culture, politics, and society through an historical analysis of the work of Karl Marx and the thinkers, artists, and activists who assimilated and transformed Marxian concepts from the late nineteenth century to the present. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 309.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 309
CHID 314 The Psychoanalytic Revolution in Historical Perspective (5) SSc
Genesis and evolution of Freudian theory in context of the crisis of liberal-bourgeois culture in central Europe and parallel developments in philosophy, literature, and social theory. Emergence and division of the psychoanalytic movement. Transformation of psychoanalysis in British, French, and especially American cultural traditions. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 314.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 314
CHID 319 Nietzsche and the Nietzschean Legacy in Western Thought: Foundations of Modern Cultural Critique II (5) SSc
Critically examines the formation of modern Western politics, society, and cultures through a historical analysis of the thought of Freidrich Nietzsche and the thinkers, artists, and activists who assimilated and transformed the Nietzschean perspective during the twentieth century. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 319.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 319
CHID 320 Seminar in Public Writing: Writing for Good (5) A&H
Writing seminar focused on translating artistic and humanistic knowledge into forms and genres accessible to the public. Explores writing as an intellectual practice oriented toward the public good. Students learn how to craft narratives for various publics, including museums, art galleries, newspapers, and general audiences.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 320
CHID 325 Mathematics: Practice and Power (5) SSc
Introduces the cultural, historical, artistic, political, and scientific resonances of the practice of mathematics.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 325
CHID 329 Introduction to Capitalism (5) SSc
Defines and differentiates between capital and capitalism. Examines the evolution of the global capitalist system and the framework shaping our world today. Analyzes historical and contemporary links between capitalism's development and social and political processes. Covers events from the late nineteenth century to the present, emphasizing perspectives from history, economics, sociology, anthropology, and literature. Course overlaps with: BIS 330. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 329/LABOR 329.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 329
CHID 332 Disability and Society (5, max. 15) SSc
Analyzes disability representations in literature, film, and other cultural texts; social science approaches to disability marginalization and empowerment; intersectionality of disability with other markers of diversity and identity. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 332/LSJ 332; AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 332
CHID 335 Sex, Gender, and Disability (5) SSc, DIV
Examines ways that disability, sex, and gender are connected as socially constructed categories. Topics include the ways in which the sexuality of people with disabilities is experienced and represented, the intersection of disability and gender inequality, and how the field of disability studies relates to and can transform other theoretical approaches to gender and sex. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 335/GWSS 335.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 335
CHID 337 Social Construction of Madness and Mental Health in the United States (5) SSc
The construct of "mental health" and mental "un-health" from a sociological perspective. How categories such as mental illness, intellectual and developmental disability, cognitive impairment, and Mad Studies developed in the United States. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 337/SOC 337.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 337
CHID 350 Women in Law and Literature (5) SSc/A&H, DIV
Representations of women in American law and literature. Considers how women's political status and social roles have influenced legal and literary accounts of their behavior. Examines how legal cases and issues involving women are represented in literary texts and also how law can influence literary expression. Offered: jointly with GWSS 350.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 350
CHID 360 Social Reproduction Theory and Radical Politics of Care (5) SSc
Develops critical understandings of the current neoliberal conditions shaping social reproduction and care including the many ways everyday life and slow death are sustained by intersecting systems of power and changing relations between and within the Global North and South. Offered: jointly with GWSS 360/LABOR 360.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 360
CHID 370 The Cultural Impact of Information Technology (5) SSc/A&H
Utilizing approaches from the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary theory, seeks to analyze the cultural and social impact of information technology. Considers how information technologies impact our relationships with others, our concept(s) of self, and the structure of the communities to which we belong. Offered: jointly with COM 302.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 370
CHID 380 Theories In the Study of Religion (5) SSc
Provides a variety of approaches to the study of religion centered on examining the relationship between religion and modernity in the tradition of post-enlightenment, Euro-American scholarship. Examines theories of religion across disciplines: history, anthropology, sociology, Marxism, feminism, postmodernism, political theology, and Freudian psycho-analytical theory. Offered: jointly with RELIG 380.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 380
CHID 390 Colloquium in the History of Ideas (5) SSc
Investigates the theoretical and practical problems of interpretation and knowledge production in a topic chosen by the instructor. Primarily for majors. Prerequisite: CHID 101.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 390
CHID 395 Knowledge and Practice in the Interdisciplinary Humanities (5)
As preparation for senior thesis work, introduces a range of interdisciplinary humanities methodologies. Builds upon the importance of reflection and research design in the form of a research praxis. Offered: ASp.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 395
CHID 399 Internship (5, max. 10)
Off-campus engagement with a local, national, or international organization, in an apprenticeship or internship capacity. Supervised by on-site field supervisor and Comparative History of Ideas faculty member.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 399
CHID 417 Enter the Dragon: Seminar on World Cultures through the Asian Martial Arts (5) SSc
Examines how the martial arts have preserved religious, cultural, and philosophical aspects of the world areas of their origin, as well as the new cultures and international communities that have adopted and reinvented their practices and philosophies, including India, China, Japan, Korea, Brazil, and Euro-America. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 417.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 417
CHID 419 Disability in the Arts (5) SSc/A&H, DIV
Examines how the expressive capacities of the arts capture, complicate, and transform the experience of disability. Recommended: DIS ST 230, LSJ 230, or CHID 230. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 419.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 419
CHID 420 Seminar in Editing and Publishing for the Public Good (5) A&H
Skill-based seminar on editing and publishing in the humanities, culminating in the publication of an online journal of student prose, poetry, and other forms of writing. Engages publishing as an intellectual practice oriented toward the public good.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 420
CHID 430 Topics in Disability Studies (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Theoretical, critical, analytical, or comparative examination of an issue or issues in Disability Studies. Topics vary. Prerequisite: either DIS ST 230/CHID 230/LSJ 230, DIS ST 332/CHID 332/LSJ 332, DIS ST 433/CHID 433/LSJ 433, or DIS ST 434/CHID 434/LSJ 434. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 430/LSJ 430.
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CHID 433 Disability Law, Policy, and the Community (5) SSc, DIV
Addresses the history of legal rights of disabled people, U. S. disability policy, and the role of community activism and other forces in policy development and systems change. Introduces the existing social service system that affects disabled people. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 433/LSJ 433.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 433
CHID 434 Civil and Human Rights Law for Disabled People (5) SSc, DIV
Expands knowledge of civil and human rights for disabled people. Examines the American perspective (ADA) as well as various international models including the United Nations' International Human Rights treaties as they relate to disabled people. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 434/LSJ 434; A.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 434
CHID 437 Crime, Law, and Mental Illness (5) SSc, DIV
Explores experiences of those with mental illness in the criminal justice system and involuntary civil commitment system. Emphasis on societal responses including the emergence of therapeutic courts and specialized police training. Examines how courts, legislature, and communities balance public safety and civil liberties. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 437/LSJ 437.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 437
CHID 442 Roma Eterna (5) A&H/SSc
Explores the historical layers of meaning in the artifacts and monuments of Rome to reflect on its transformation over time as a symbol of the human aspiration for both temporal order and spiritual and aesthetic transcendence. Specific periods considered for reading and daily site visits include Ancient Rome; Imperial Rome; Medieval Rome, Renaissance Rome; Baroque Rome; Romanticism, The Grand Tour and the Risorgimento; and Fascist Rome.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 442
CHID 444 Eye and Mind (5) NSc/SSc/A&H
Investigates life as an emergent phenomenon across the disciplines of biophilosophy, art, art history, literary criticism, and information studies with an emphasis on interdisciplinary methods. Addresses key issues in phenomenology, social theory, contemporary bioart, and complexity studies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 444
CHID 459 Narrative Journalism (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces the rigorous reporting and literary writing techniques of narrative journalism. Concentrates on producing nonfiction narrative articles for publication. Offered: jointly with COM 459.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 459
CHID 461 Democracy and Development in Central and Eastern Europe: Study Abroad (5) SSc
Examines the relationship between democratization, economic development, and social transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Offered on CHID study abroad programs in Central and Eastern Europe. Offered: ASpS.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 461
CHID 470 CHID Study Abroad (1-5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 470
CHID 471 Europe Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 471
CHID 472 Latin America Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 472
CHID 473 Africa Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 473
CHID 474 Asia Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 474
CHID 475 East Asia Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 475
CHID 476 South Pacific Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 476
CHID 477 Middle East Study Abroad (5, max. 15) SSc
For participants in study-abroad program. Specific course content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 477
CHID 479 Art, Politics, and Culture in Global Context: Traveling Theory (5, max. 15) A&H
Examines the arts, broadly defined, as forms of political engagement. Specific to location of designated study abroad program. Offered for study abroad programs hosted by the Department of Comparative History of Ideas.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 479
CHID 480 Special Topics: Advanced Study of the History of Ideas (5, max. 15) SSc
Examines a different subject or problem from a comparative framework with an interdisciplinary perspective. Satisfies the Gateways major/minor requirement. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 480
CHID 484 Colonial Encounters (5) SSc
History of European colonialism from the 1750s to the present, with an emphasis on British and French colonial encounters. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 484.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 484
CHID 485 Comparative Colonialism (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the historic roots and practices of colonialism throughout the world, focusing on the roles of nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and imperial domination. Treats colonialism as a world event whose effects continue to be felt and whose power needs to be addressed. Offered: jointly with HSTCMP 485.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 485
CHID 487 Culture, Politics, and Violence in Latin America (5) SSc, DIV
Examines notions of "otherness" and the power to label as central to understanding inequality, human rights, and social struggle. Uses academic texts, films, documentaries, historical fiction, plays, and testimonials to interrogate the complexities of violence and social justice in Latin America, one of the most unequal regions in the world. Offered: jointly with JSIS A 485.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 487
CHID 488 Encountering Animals: Ethics, Culture, and Politics (5) SSc, DIV
Explores some ethical, political, and cultural questions regarding non-human animals and invites student to engage in debates about companion animals, the industrial food complex, zoos, and links between race, class, gender, sexuality, and species.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 488
CHID 490 Research Seminar (5) SSc/A&H
Intensive readings in specific topic. Students complete individual research projects. Satisfies the CHID senior thesis requirement for students who declared the CHID major prior to Summer 2014. Prerequisite: CHID 390.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 490
CHID 491 Senior Thesis (5-) SSc
Critical and methodological issues. Required of candidates for an Honors degree. Prerequisite: CHID 390.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 491
CHID 492 Senior Thesis (-5-) SSc
Critical and methodological issues. Required of candidates for an Honors degree.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 492
CHID 493 Senior Thesis (-5) SSc
Research and writing of thesis under supervision of a faculty member. Required of candidates for an Honors degree.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 493
CHID 495 Close Readings in Theory (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Close readings of a specific work, author, artist, or body of work.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 495
CHID 496 Focus Groups (1-2, max. 4)
Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 496
CHID 497 Peer Facilitators (5, max. 20)
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 497
CHID 498 Special Colloquia (1-5, max. 20) SSc
Each colloquium examines a different subject or problem from a comparative framework.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 498
CHID 499 Undergraduate Independent Study or Research (1-5, max. 10)
Supervised independent study for students who wish to pursue topics not available in regular course offerings.
View course details in MyPlan: CHID 499
