Glossary
UW Seattle Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
BIS 111 Digital Thinking (5) RSN
Introduces the fundamental concepts behind computing and computational thinking including logical reasoning; problem solving, data representation; abstraction; complexity management; computers and network operations; effective web searches; ethics; and legal and social aspects of information technology through the creation of popular digital artifacts such as web pages, animations, and video games. Course overlaps with: CSE 110. Offered: jointly with CSS 101; AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 111
BIS 115 Digital Cultures (5) SSc
Explores technology as a lived experience and discusses how digital media has transformed social relations, the economy, and the politics of scale.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 115
BIS 121 Introduction to Drawing (5) A&H
Builds basic drawing skills, develops understanding of primary concepts which relate to drawing and develops an understanding of the grammar or syntax of two-dimensional language. Students move beyond their current knowledge and abilities and link new skills, concepts, and understandings to creative expressing. Course equivalent to: ART 190. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 121
BIS 130 What Is Art (5) A&H
Asks and answers the question "What is art?" by exploring the purpose and intent of diverse art practices and projects. Students will engage in art-making that leads them to engage this basic question.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 130
BIS 131 Introduction to Arts Practice (5) A&H
Includes active exploration of processes through which artists discover and translate ideas, feelings, and concerns into various forms of objects. Uses a wide variety of methods and approaches, from traditional to technological, to promote artistic expression. Promotes discussions and critiques to lead to a better understanding of the creative process. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 131
BIS 132 Introduction to Photography (5) A&H
Introduces photography as an art form and artistic medium. Focuses on camera operation and capturing images with full creative control. Encourages students to explore the visual language of photography; learn about contemporary and past photographers; communicate in the visual medium; and look at photographic works with a critical eye. Course equivalent to: ART 140.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 132
BIS 133 Introduction to Acting (5) A&H
Introduces the fundamentals of theatre performance through partnered scenes, character and script analysis, acting theory, and physical, vocal, focus, awareness, improv, and creativity-building exercises.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 133
BIS 134 Introduction to Dance (2, max. 6) A&H
Provides the opportunity for students to understand dance as a physical practice, creative art, and academic discipline as well as learn about the structural elements of dance, choreographic tools, and the art form's history. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 134
BIS 135 Introduction to Painting (5) A&H
An exploration of visual skills, materials, and conceptual possibilities for water-based painting, including its purposes and potential for image, concept, and communication. Students incorporate interdisciplinary, personal, and cultural interests into their images and develop their skills through work, peer reviews, and written artist statements.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 135
BIS 136 Introduction to Art History (5) A&H
Introduces various themes, periods, styles and ideas of art. The emphasis will be on familiarizing students with major concepts, interpreting art works within their various historical and political contexts. Topics may include Ancient Art, Medieval Art, Western Art, Renaissance, Modern, and others.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 136
BIS 140 Numbers in News Media (5) RSN
Introduces strategies for thinking critically about numbers, graphs, and/or data visualizations presented in news media.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 140
BIS 141 Natural History and Environmental Science (5) NSc
Introduces the study of the natural world through the approaches and tools of both traditional natural historians and modern scientific inquiry. Emphasizes the application of these approaches to studying nearby natural areas and using education principles to communication and interpret nature.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 141
BIS 161 Introduction to Film Narrative (5) A&H
Surveys the historical, biological, and cultural basis for film narrative and provides students with a critical understanding of its components and variations to enable them to create an original film treatment. Combines readings and critical viewings of films. Offered: AW.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 161
BIS 162 Race, Gender, and Sexuality through Film and Television (5) A&H, DIV
Examines representations of race, gender, and sexuality in films and television. Analyzes influence of media representations on cultural attitudes and vice-versa.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 162
BIS 163 The Lives of Objects (5) A&H
Introduces students to the field of art and visual culture through everyday - and not so everyday - objects. Beginning with their own belongings, students explore the ways objects make meaning, hold knowledge, and bear witness. Students will understand how do we live with objects, how do we understand the pleasure we take in them and how are objects embedded in histories of empire and how do they offer resources for healing.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 163
BIS 164 Introduction to World Literature (5) A&H, DIV
Introduces students to texts from diverse literary traditions. Explores major themes and debates within World Literature. Interrogates how World Literature is defined, translated, and received by a global audience.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 164
BIS 165 Introduction to Ethnic Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Focuses on differences of power, perspective, and privilege of racial and ethnic groups within and beyond the United States. Explores opportunities and strategies for alliance and coalition historically and into the present. Stresses diverse interpretive and methodological approaches. Course equivalent to: AES 151.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 165
BIS 167 People's History of the United States (5) SSc, DIV
Focusing on the experiences of indigenous people, Black Americans, and various waves of different immigrant populations, history of United States through colonization and immigration from its origins to the present, with special attention to changing constructions of race and ethnicity and shifting understandings of concepts of liberty in social movements and identity formations. Course equivalent to: HSTAA 105.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 167
BIS 170 Introduction to Psychology (5) SSc
Surveys major areas of psychological science. Core topics include human social behavior, personality, psychological disorders and treatment, learning, memory, human development, biological influences, and research methods. Related topics may include sensation, perception, states of consciousness, thinking, intelligence, language, motivation, emotion, stress and health, cross-cultural psychology, and applied psychology. Course equivalent to: PSYCH 101 and TPSYCH 101. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 170
BIS 174 American Lives (5) A&H/SSc
Studies the biographies of Americans who made significant contributions during a particular era in American history. These biographies provide a platform for examining social, political and economic developments, as well as how those developments shaped American attitudes, identities, and institutions. Offered: W.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 174
BIS 175 Introduction to American Government (5) SSc
Examines the major institutions and processes of American government, including civil liberties and rights, federalism, Congress, the presidency, the judiciary, executive branch, political parties and elections, interest groups, and civic engagement. Course equivalent to: POL S 202 and TPOL S 202. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 175
BIS 176 Introduction to Analyzing Media (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces the fundamentals of analyzing various forms of media and with key terms and theories used in the study and practice of media production. We will examine analog and networked/digital forms of media, examining the ways that media formats, production and circulation contexts, and sites of encounter shape how we make sense of the media we encounter.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 176
BIS 177 Introduction to Making Media (5) A&H
Examines historical trends and traditions of media making through hands-on media production activities. Explores histories and traditions of media making with hands on productions. Activities will allow us to examine the media production process to consider the relationship between the methods, techniques, and approaches to how media has been produced.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 177
BIS 178 Introduction to Media and Communication (5) SSc
Introduces a general overview of theories and practices on human communication, surveying basic structures, processes and effects of communication in interpersonal, social and public contexts, such as conversation, argumentation, identity management, technologies, persuasion, mass media, health, family and organizational communication. Course overlaps with: COM 200.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 178
BIS 179 Introduction to Journalism (5) SSc
Identify, compare, and analyze news stories across mediums for a mass media audience. Situate news journalism within frameworks of political economy and democracy. Explore basic principles and practices of contemporary news journalism. Identify key skills used for reporting, editing, and producing news journalism. Evaluate news journalism's critical historical moments and ethical controversies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 179
BIS 180 Introduction to Human Geography (5) SSc
Introduces approaches, concepts, and topics from human geography. Addresses subjects including population and demography, culture, race and ethnicity, political organization, economics and industry, agriculture, patterns of human settlement, human-environment interactions, and more. Course equivalent to: GEOG 100 and T GEOG 101.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 180
BIS 181 Introduction to Sociology (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the fundamental sociological principles and seeks to describe individuals in both groups and societal contexts. Familiarizes students with sociological theory and research methods and applies these to the historical and contemporary inequities associated with social structure, class, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, and age. Course equivalent to: T SOC 165. Course overlaps with: SOC 110. Offered: AW.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 181
BIS 183 Introduction to the Middle East (5) SSc
Introduces the cultures, politics, and histories of the region known as the "Middle East." Examines the emergence of nation-states and the lasting influences of colonial projects and their modern manifestations. Develops critical analytical frameworks to move away from facile reductions of the region as primordially chaotic to understand the history, present, and future of a diverse area in nuanced, responsible ways.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 183
BIS 185 Art and Climate Change (5) A&H/NSc
Focuses on the intersection of art and science and how the nexus of these disciplines inspires thinking in novel ways about complex scientific information, meets societal challenges and envisions another possible world. Bridging art and science makes visible the interdependency of science and critical issues of race, gender and power.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 185
BIS 193 Introduction to Philosophy (5) SSc
Major philosophical questions relating to such matters as the existence of God, the foundations of knowledge, the nature of reality, and the nature of morality. Approach may be either historical or topical. Course equivalent to: PHIL 100 and T PHIL 101. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 193
BIS 200 Introduction to Microeconomics (5) SSc, RSN
Analysis of markets: consumer demand, production, exchange, the price system, resource allocation, government intervention. Course equivalent to: ECON 200; TBECON 220; and TECON 200. Offered: jointly with B BUS 220; AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 200
BIS 201 Introduction to Macroeconomics (5) SSc, RSN
Analysis of the aggregate economy: national income, inflation, business fluctuations, unemployment, monetary system, federal budget, international trade and finance. Course equivalent to: ECON 201; TBECON 221; and TECON 201. Prerequisite: BIS 200, B BUS 220 or B CUSP 200. Offered: jointly with B BUS 221; AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 201
BIS 202 Critical Reasoning (5) SSc, RSN
Engages students as active thinkers in their reading, analysis of writing and media, and writing. Emphasis is placed upon formulating, and critically evaluating arguments in examples and essays typical of both academic inquiry and active citizen engagement in everyday life.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 202
BIS 203 Economics of Gender (5) SSc, RSN, DIV
Introduces the insights of economic analysis into gender, with a global comparative framework. Topics include household divisions of labor, paid and unpaid carework, labor market inequality, and the gendered consequences of macro policy.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 203
BIS 205 Technologies of Expression (5) A&H/SSc
Explores fundamental technologies of expression such as the book, film, and the computer and their implications for social and individual identity-formation, cultural critique, and art-making. Examines how media functions to shape human identity.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 205
BIS 206 Engaging Literary Arts (5, max. 15) A&H
Foregrounds questions about literary arts: What are the purposes of literary arts? What approaches might we use to understand them? How to they relate to the societies and cultures in which they are located? May focus on individual writers, movements, historical periods, genres, or topics.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 206
BIS 207 Shakespeare & Film (5) A&H
Provides tools to understand and analyze Shakespeare's written plays and their film adaptations.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 207
BIS 208 Experimenting Through the Arts (5, max. 15) A&H
Explores the relationship between creative arts and research. May focus on performance, visual, or literary arts as well as diverse media. Research may include study of artistic forms as well as specific topics.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 208
BIS 209 Engaging Visual and Media Arts (5, max. 15) A&H
Foregrounds questions about visual arts: What are the purposes of the visual arts? What approaches might we use to understand them? How do they relate to the societies and cultures in which they are located? May focus on individual writers, movements, historical periods, genres or topics.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 209
BIS 212 Engaging Performing Arts (5, max. 15) A&H
Foregrounds questions about performing arts: What are the purposes of the performing arts? What approaches might we use to understand them? How do they relate to the societies and cultures in which they are located? May focus on individual performers, movements, historical periods, genres, or topics.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 212
BIS 215 Understanding Statistics (5) RSN
Introduces basic statistical concepts in the social and natural sciences including variance and distribution, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, correlation, and hypothesis testing. Concepts learned throughout the quarter will continuously build on one another, adding complexity as the quarter progresses. This course will use a combination of conceptual understanding, mathematical computation, and conceptual application. Course equivalent to: B HLTH 215 and B MATH 215. Course overlaps with: B BUS 215; B EDUC 295; STAT 220; and TMATH 110.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 215
BIS 216 Introduction to Cultural Studies (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces cultural studies as an interdisciplinary field and practice. Explores multiple histories of the field with an emphasis on current issues and developments. Focuses on culture as a site of political and social debate and struggle. Equivalent to ENGL 207. Course equivalent to: ENGL 207.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 216
BIS 217 Introduction to Debate (5) SSc
Introduces the practice or argumentation and debate. Focuses on how to compose an argument, construct a case, methods of attack and defense, effective communication strategies, and variations in debate style. Course overlaps with: TPOL S 210.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 217
BIS 218 The Power of Maps (5) SSc
Introduces maps, cartography, and geographic visualization, with an emphasis on digital and GIS maps on the web. Addresses maps and human understanding, map abstraction and generalization, and key map elements.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 218
BIS 219 The Politics of Sex Education (5) SSc
Examines the history and politics of sex education, reproduction, and sexual health in the United States, with cross national/regional comparisons. Explores how various cultural and ideological positions bring about different concepts of sexuality, the body, rights, personhood, and social and global responsibility.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 219
BIS 220 Developmental Psychology (5) SSc
Overview of the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of human development. Facilitates a greater understanding of children, adolescents, and adults as they develop and change over time in specific cultural contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 220
BIS 222 Introduction to Human Sexuality (5) SSc, DIV
Explores biological, psychological, and sociological theory and research on human sexuality and diversity. Also, examines social institutions that shape cultural norms and influence sexual health and well-being with attention to power, policies, and distribution of resources. Course equivalent to: PSYCH 210. Course overlaps with: TPSYCH 202.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 222
BIS 224 Introduction to Feminist Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces feminism as it developed over the last two centuries. Investigates theories of gender and power, including the sources of and solutions to gender inequality, and how gendered identities have been produced, questioned, and critiqued.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 224
BIS 225 Social Psychology (5) SSc
Analyzes contemporary research in social psychology and how that research informs social issues including conformity, propaganda, prejudice, attraction, and aggression. Focuses on a person's relationship with other people, how he or she influences them and is influenced by them. Course overlaps with: PSYCH 245.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 225
BIS 226 Foundations of U.S. Social Service (5) SSc
Introduces the field of social services in the U.S., including its organization, forms of professional practice, and historical development. Focuses on social welfare: theory, court decisions, case studies, and policy. Considers competing assumptions about and approaches to solving social problems.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 226
BIS 227 Radical Women in the Global South (5) SSc, DIV
Uses an intersectional lens to analyze both the roles of the gender norms in women's experience with misogyny, and the creative ways that women, girls, and femmes challenge and resist the gender based repression. These women, girls, and femmes are seen as both radical (as change makers) and rad (as in awesome) women that students will learn throughout the course.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 227
BIS 231 Linear Algebra With Applications (5) NSc, RSN
Introduction to linear algebra (i.e., concepts, tools, and operations related to matrices and vectors) with emphasis on interdisciplinary applications. Provides an introduction to the mathematical concepts, arguments, and proofs that occur in linear algebra. Prerequisite: BCUSP 124, B MATH 144, or STMATH 124
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 231
BIS 232 Introduction to Data Visualization (5) NSc, RSN
Introduces descriptive statistics and visual representations of quantitative data. Examines data sets using graphing and statistical software packages. Demonstrates how to present data in ways that are accurate, effective, and visually appealing.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 232
BIS 233 Social Media in Context (5) A&H/SSc
Examines critical issues in contemporary social media histories, discourse, and practice. Develops new media literacies that enables students to navigate, critique, and actively participate in the development of new media forms.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 233
BIS 234 Media, Culture, and Capitalism (5) SSc
Examines the processes and issues surrounding media production, representation, effects and regulation in the U.S. popular and mass media culture. Analyze the factors that contribute to U.S. media industry's global dominance. Explore media and communication scholarship from various traditions.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 234
BIS 235 Critical Media Literacy (5) SSc
Explores how contemporary media communicate and produce meaning with the goal of developing students' abilities to engage critically with their various media environments. Examines, interprets, and evaluates technologically mediated communications in order to critically assess their social, cultural, and political meanings and implications. Course overlaps with: TCOM 101 and TCOM 340.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 235
BIS 236 Introduction to Interactive Media (5) SSc/A&H
Explores the role of interactive media in shaping society and culture.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 236
BIS 237 Public Speaking and Communication (5) A&H/SSc
Introduces students to a range of approaches to effective public speaking in professional and personal environments. Emphasizes the use of reflective practice in evaluating and improving arguments with attention to evidence, audience, and social context.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 237
BIS 238 Language, Identity, Culture, and Power (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the relationship between language, identify and power by examining social, cultural and historical perspectives on language and identity in the United States.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 238
BIS 241 Nature in the Northwest (5) NSc
Examines local and regional ecosystems and their interaction with human communities. Applies approaches from the environmental sciences and the practice of natural history to develop an understanding of ecosystem functions, organisms, and their relationships.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 241
BIS 242 Environmental Geography (5) SSc/NSc
Investigates the interactions of a dynamic planet and society. Analyzes geographic variability and the human consequences of environmental phenomena such as climate, natural resources, natural hazards, and infectious diseases. Emphasizes the application of geographic tools and methods.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 242
BIS 243 Introduction to Environmental Issues (5) SSc/NSc
Introduction to the major environmental challenges confronting society, and the science of understanding and addressing those challenges. Provides an overview of major issues such as global climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainability; as well as in-depth understanding of specific issues.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 243
BIS 244 Wetlands Discovery (2-3) NSc
Provides an experimental introduction to environmental science, education, and policy through an exploration of wetland ecosystems. Explores how humans interact with wetlands ecosystems. Stresses active learning in relation to the campus Wetlands.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 244
BIS 245 Environment and Humanities (5) A&H/SSc
Examines complex and historically situated ways that humans imagine, represent, and inhabit more-than-human worlds. Focuses on close reading and interpretation skills by analyzing cultural texts such as fiction, nature writing, poetry, and the visual arts. Traces interdisciplinary relations between literary history, environmental studies, and critical theory.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 245
BIS 246 Introduction to Sustainability (5) SSc
Provides a framework to explore the various meanings, justifications, possibilities, and contentious nature of both sustainability and sustainable development. Differentiates between these terms as buzzwords, philosophical ideals, political movements, and ethical lenses for analysis, policy, and management of human actions. Course overlaps with: TEST 200.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 246
BIS 249 Introduction to Labor Studies (5) SSc
Examines the role of labor in a historical and contemporary context. Explores the rise of the labor movements, including the formation of unions as well as other forms of organizing in the informal sector. Highlights the importance of labor movements as well as intersecting social justice movements (racial, sexual, gender, immigrant rights, ecological justice) for understanding historical patterns and contemporary issues in labor rights. Course equivalent to: POL S 249/HSTCMP 249/SOC 266. Course overlaps with: T EGL 266.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 249
BIS 250 How Things Work: Motion and Mechanics (5) SSc/NSc
Introduces basic scientific concepts needed to understand technologies encountered in everyday life. Themes may include the physics of motion and thermodynamics, and the applications in heating/coming and transportation. Readings focus on the history of science and invention.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 250
BIS 251 How Things Work: Electricity and Invention (5) SSc/NSc
Introduces basic scientific concepts needed to understand technologies encountered in everyday life. Focuses on electricity and its applications in various electronic devices, appliances, and systems. Readings in the history of technology develop the context in which discovery, invention, and innovation unfold.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 251
BIS 252 Politics of Science (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the cultural politics of scientific practice with particular attention to toxic exposure, biomedical research, genetic science, and constructs of race and gender. Investigates how social and scientific "truths" are negotiated through normative understandings of the body. Considers the powerful role of doubt and uncertainty in scientific knowledge production.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 252
BIS 255 Critical Diversity Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces theories, concepts, research, and polices that provide a foundation for exploring connections between diversity and equity and for recognizing ways in which these connections are relevant to individuals, institutions, and the world. Offered: jointly with B EDUC 255; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 255
BIS 256 Introduction to African American Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the history, culture, and politics of people of African descent in inside and outside the United States.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 256
BIS 257 Introduction to Asian American Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the histories, cultures, and politics of Asian Americans. Draws from history, literature, humanities, philosophies, the arts, film, and related areas of inquiry to examine power and politics in the Asian American experience. Course overlaps with: AAS 101 and T SOC 270.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 257
BIS 258 Introduction to United States Latina/Latino Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the history, culture, and politics of people of Latin descent in local and global context. Draws from history, literature, humanities, philosophy, the arts, film, and related areas of inquiry.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 258
BIS 261 Introduction to Film Studies (5) A&H
Provides an introduction to cinema as an artistic medium, as a source of entertainment, as a platform for cultural critique, and as a cluster of social institutions with significant political and economic power. Course equivalent to: CMS 270 and T FILM 201.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 261
BIS 264 Africa on Film (5) A&H/SSc
Introduces historical and contemporary issues facing the continent of Africa through an examination of films dealing with African themes. Addresses the strengths and weaknesses of how African issues are depicted within and outside the continent.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 264
BIS 266 United States History to 1865 (5) SSc
Examines key events and problems in U.S. history from European-Native American contact to the end of the Civil War. Focuses on the practice of "doing history" by applying historical thinking skills to a wide range of primary documents.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 266
BIS 267 United States History from 1865 (5) SSc
Examines key events and problems in U.S. history from the Civil War to the recent past. Focuses on the practice of "doing history" by applying historical thinking skills to a wide rage of primary documents.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 267
BIS 268 Problems in World History to 1500 (5) SSc
Surveys problems in world history up to 1500. Offered: WSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 268
BIS 269 Problems in World History after 1500 (5) SSc
Surveys problems in world history from 1500 to present. Course equivalent to: T HIST 151.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 269
BIS 270 Abnormal Psychology (5) SSc
General instruction to the study and treatment of psychopathology. Covers research on and theories about definitions and "causes" of psychological problems from a variety of perspectives. Addresses some of the major classes of mental health problems, such as mood and anxiety disorders, their causes and treatment.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 270
BIS 279 Introduction to Law & Society (5) SSc
Introduces students to the mutually influential relationship between law and society. Examines how law shapes the everyday world, how that shaping is experienced differently, and how people can and do shape law. Course materials combine theory with historical and contemporary examples to accomplish a broadened and contextualized understanding of the relationship between law and society. Course equivalent to: LSJ 200.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 279
BIS 280 U.S. Political Processes (5) SSc
Studies interaction between U.S. governmental institutions at all levels and civil society. Examines a variety of theoretical viewpoints and the relationships between private and public institutions, behaviors, and traditions.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 280
BIS 282 Introduction to Globalization (5) SSc, DIV
Provides an introduction to the debates over globalization. Focuses on the growth and intensification of global ties. Addresses the resulting inequalities and tensions, as well as the new opportunities for cultural and political exchange. Critically examines contemporary global processes in order to explore their impacts on our lives. Course equivalent to: GEOG 123. Course overlaps with: TPOL S 123.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 282
BIS 283 Introduction to Law (5) SSc
Introduction to the structure of the legal system. Covers how the United States legal system reflects and forms social values; resolves disputes; deals with criminal procedures; addresses torts and contracts; and examines the functioning of the Constitution. Course equivalent to: MGMT 200 and T BGEN 218. Course overlaps with: B BUS 230. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 283
BIS 284 International Relations (5) SSc
Surveys basic themes in international relations within the context of diplomatic history and American foreign policy. Emphasizes basic motivational drives of world politics, including national interests, ideology, morality, and nationalism. Discussion of war, diplomacy, American foreign policy, and international organization sheds light on the perennial struggle for power among nations, the security dilemma and instruments of global cooperation. Course overlaps with: JSIS B 200.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 284
BIS 285 Seminar in Biology (3, max. 9) SSc/NSc
Supervised readings and group discussion on a specific area of biology. Topics vary with instructor. Offered: jointly with B BIO 285.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 285
BIS 290 Interdisciplinary Writing Seminar (5)
Focuses on writing critical analyses of scholarly and creative texts in the arts and sciences. Emphasizes close reading, critical thinking, and the writing as a process of inquiry. Prepares students for upper-division writing tasks. Course overlaps with: ENGL 281 and TWRT 211. Prerequisite: B WRIT 135 or ENGL 141. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 290
BIS 293 Special Topics (2-5, max. 15)
Examines different subjects or problems from an interdisciplinary framework.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 293
BIS 294 The Arts of Collaboration: Working in Teams (5)
Explores the theoretical foundations for effective team leadership, collaboration, and shared decision making. Develops team leader and member competencies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 294
BIS 295 Community-Based Practice (5, max. 15)
Links academic study to experiential and community-based learning conducted at on- or off-campus sites. Topics and sites may vary with instructor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 295
BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry (5)
Introduction to advanced work in interdisciplinary studies centered on broadly based questions and problems. Stresses the skills necessary to engage in upper-division research and learning in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Course overlaps with: BEARTH 300. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 300
BIS 301 Narrative Forms (5) A&H
Examines the form, function, and textual conventions of such narrative forms as (auto) biography, personal experience narratives, short stories, and novels. Explores literary language useful for discussing narratives, how narratives work for their readers/listeners, and what interpretive tools readers/listeners bring to narratives.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 301
BIS 302 Issues in Mathematics Across Cultures (5, max. 10) SSc
Examines the role of mathematics in informing and shaping human understanding of the world. Explores contemporary and historical issues in the development and application of mathematical theories and philosophies. Focus varies with instructor and may include ethnomathematics, women in mathematics, media representations of the mathematical sciences, and mathematics and warfare.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 302
BIS 304 Introduction to Political Economy and the Environment (5) SSc
Studies an interdisciplinary approach to political economy and the environment. Focuses on the theoretical and historical basis of modern economic ideas and the history of industrial development, examining the interaction between politics, market formation, notions of value, and the natural world. Explores the promises and limitations of markets to justify, allocate resources, and the sustainability of capitalism.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 304
BIS 305 Issues in Social and Political Philosophy (5, max. 10) SSc
A philosophical investigation of conceptual and normative issues associated with one of several broad domains of social and political thought: human rights, the varieties of human conflict, and war and peace. Examines both classical and recent texts. Brings theoretical perspectives to bear on contemporary issues.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 305
BIS 306 Marine Diversity and Conservation (5) NSc/SSc
Explores marine biodiversity. Basic concepts in evolution, development, ecology, and conservation are introduced through inquiry-guided exercises based in the marine environment. Examines human impacts on marine environments and subsequent consequences for human health and welfare.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 306
BIS 307 Environmental Justice (5) SSc
Explores issues of social equity associated with environmental hazards, risks, and benefits. Examines the ways social structures, environmental decision-making procedures, and scientific and technological practices distribute the burden of environmental problems, as well as community response through political action and cultural production.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 307
BIS 310 Women, Culture, and Development (5) SSc, DIV
Facilitates a critical understanding of the social, cultural, political, and economic positions of women in the developing world. Addresses colonialism and post-colonialism, feminist theories of development, and practices of globalization.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 310
BIS 312 Approaches to Social Research (5) SSc
Deals with the why and how of social research. Covers two main themes: the epistemology of social science and the logic of research design. Students learn to assess the strengths of various methodologies, evaluate research results, and initiate future inquiries of their own. Recommended: BIS 215.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 312
BIS 313 Issues in Media Studies (5, max. 15) A&H/SSc
Examines a variety of issues involved in understanding different forms of media and their impact on our lives, in contexts spanning from local to global, using a wide range of theoretical, disciplinary, and methodological approaches.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 313
BIS 314 Topics in Geography (5, max. 10) SSc
Topics/areas of study may include: cultural geography, physical geography, geography of globalization.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 314
BIS 316 Topics in Psychology (5, max. 15) SSc
Examination of a specific topic in order to provide a deeper understanding of a particular aspect of psychology. Topics may include the history of psychology; human memory; dreaming; cognitive psychology.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 316
BIS 317 Language, Society, and Cultural Knowledge (5) A&H/SSc
Explores the determining role of language in human communication, culture and worldview; and the implications of language structure and content to forms of communicative interaction. Review and critique of theories of language as a social phenomena.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 317
BIS 318 Global Scholars: Foundations & Preparation (3) SSc, DIV
Introduces students in the Global Scholars Program to issues of power, difference and identity in global learning and intercultural communication. Students examine their life experience in relation to global citizenship and develop tools for navigating issues of power and privilege. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 318
BIS 319 Public Arts and Ecological Restoration (5) NSc/A&H
Explores the intersection of public art and ecological restoration. Examines how the natural environment informs human identity and how humans have transformed the environment. Provides an understanding of environmental challenges related to artistic representations of nature and some of the possible opportunities for solving them.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 319
BIS 320 Comparative Political Economies (5) SSc
Examines the production and distribution of goods, the organization of labor, and systems of wealth and power in diverse cultural settings within and outside the realm of "classical" capitalist development. Analyzes interactions between political constituencies and the economies they attempt to govern.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 320
BIS 322 Topics in Performance Studies (5, max. 15) A&H
Examination of a specific topic in order to provide a deeper understanding of a particular aspect of the study of performance. Topics may include transnationalism and performance; eco-performance, community performance; African and Asian theatre. Topics and approaches may vary with instructor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 322
BIS 323 History of Photography (5) A&H/SSc
Examines the history of world photography with an emphasis on European, North American, and Latin American photography. Course overlaps with: T ARTS 335. Offered: AS.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 323
BIS 324 Gender, Human Rights, and Global Cinema (5) SSc/A&H, DIV
Examines cinematic narratives of human rights violations across the world, with a special focus on gender. Students will examine films in major filmmaking centers globally. Central to our discussions will be an application of interdisciplinary and critical perspectives on gender, human rights, social justice, postcoloniality, migrancy, borders, and race.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 324
BIS 326 Race, Space, and Segregation (5) SSc
Explores intersections between race, human space (i.e, perceived, conceived, and lived), and segregation through law, policies, and other institutional practices. Focuses primarily on US locations/cases in historical and comparative perspectives. Topics include spatial control during settler colonization and slavery, Jim Crow segregation, ghettoization, the border, and environmental racism.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 326
BIS 327 History of U.S. Labor Institutions (5) SSc
Examines the evolution of the institutions that have shaped labor. Discusses indentured servitude, slavery, apprenticeship, schooling, wage labor, unions, and the laws that surround each of these institutions.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 327
BIS 328 Diversity, Leadership, and Engagement (1-5, max. 20) DIV
Explores theories and practices of diversity, leadership, and engagement. Provides opportunity for leadership development and academic reflection in relation to initiatives in which students work on questions of diversity and campus or community engagement. Recommended: BIS 255/B EDUC 255. Offered: jointly with B EDUC 328.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 328
BIS 329 Topics in Mathematics Across the Curriculum (5, max. 10)
Examines mathematical theories and concepts within their historical and cultural contexts. Topics vary with instructor and may include mathematical symmetries, the organization and modeling of space, cryptology, mathematical models of social decision making, and/or theories of change and strategy.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 329
BIS 330 Democratic Capitalism in the United States (5) SSc
Critical examination of the relationship between three political perspectives (libertarian, liberal and radical) and democratic capitalism. Course overlaps with: JSIS B 329/CHID 329/LABOR 329.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 330
BIS 331 Journalism and Media History (5) SSc/A&H
Explores collaboratively and individually the social forces, political institutions, and cultural productions in U.S. journalism and media history. May use podcasts, literary texts, archives, film, photographs, comics, newspapers, oral histories, documentaries, and government documents to see how journalism changes over time. Produces historical research using primary and secondary sources.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 331
BIS 332 Global Digital Industries (5) SSc
Provides critical understandings about global digital industries as political, economic and cultural institutions. Taking a political economy approach, the course foregrounds the power dynamics, social relations and policy controversies that enable and constrain the practices in digital production, distribution, consumption and regulation across national borders. Course overlaps with: JSIS B 449.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 332
BIS 335 Human Rights in America (5) SSc, DIV
Study of the literature of civil liberties, civil rights, and human rights in the United States. Examines the way writers try to justify specific rights and to communicate the need for social change in American society. Recommended: a previous course in human rights, political science, or law and society
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 335
BIS 336 History of Mass Incarceration in the United States (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the rise of mass incarceration across economic, legal, political, and social terrains. The class situates mass incarceration in a longer history of American approaches to punishment and includes a focus on how these issues have manifest in Washington state. Course overlaps with: LSJ 478.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 336
BIS 338 Political Institutions and Processes (5) SSc
Studies the nature, structure, and functions of political institutions. Develops a theoretical and empirical analysis of both formal (state and government) and informal (non-state) institutions and actors:
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 338
BIS 339 Issues in Global Cultural Studies (5, max. 15)
Examination of various topics and approaches to the study of culture in a global context. May include the study art, literature, theater, cultural history, music history/ethnomusicology, and/or cultural anthropology/geography. Topics and approaches may vary with instructor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 339
BIS 340 Approaches to Cultural Research (5) A&H/SSc
Examines different approaches to understanding the production and consumption of culture and cultural practices. Invites students to evaluate cultural research, to experience with different research methodologies, and to carry out research assignments. Explores ethnographic, textual, and arts-based methods.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 340
BIS 341 Topics in the Study of Culture (5, max. 15)
Examines the study of cultural forms, artifacts, and practices. May include art, art history, literature, theater, music history, ethnomusicology, dance, and/or religion. Topics and approaches may vary with instructor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 341
BIS 342 Geographic Information Systems (5) SSc
Examines the concepts and methods of geographic information systems (GIS) and related elements of spatial analysis and representation. Through projects and lab exercises, student gain basic proficiency in the use of GIS and an interdisciplinary understanding of the applications of GIS.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 342
BIS 343 Geographic Visualization (5) SSc, RSN
Focuses on different geovisualization techniques to represent physical, social, and cultural phenomena associated with spatial data and designing maps. Addresses GIS programs and explores how geovisualization can be applied to various research and policy areas. Course overlaps with: GEOG 360 and T GIS 460.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 343
BIS 344 Intermediate Geographic Analysis and Applications (5) NSc, RSN
Provides intermediate level training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the analysis of environmental and spatial data. Emphasizes on the applications of raster and vector modeling to map and analyze geo-spatial phenomena, and proposes solutions to environmental problems. Course overlaps with: ESS 420 and T GIS 311. Prerequisite: BIS 342 or BIS 343.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 344
BIS 345 American Environmental Thought (5) SSc
Explores the development of current ideas about nature and the relationship between humans and the natural world, as expressed in literature and other cultural forms. Emphasizes historical, cultural, philosophical, and global dimensions of American environmental thought, along with implications for human interactions with the environment.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 345
BIS 346 Topics in Environmental Policy (5, max. 10)
Explores specific topics in environmental policy in an interdisciplinary context, combining considerations of politics, policy, economics, and science. Emphasizes quantitative analysis and scientific method.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 346
BIS 347 History of American Documentary Films (5) A&H/SSc
Exploration of the important technological and cinematic innovations of non-fiction films within their cultural contexts, and examination of theoretical issues such as objectivity and the blurred line between fact and fiction. Stresses the skills necessary for the critical evaluation and interpretation of documentary films.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 347
BIS 348 Industrial and Organizational Psychology (5) SSc
Explores the field of industrial and organizational psychology. Examines the theories and research involved in the scientific study of people working in formal organizations, and the practice of industrial and organizational psychology, applying theories and research to enhance the well-being and effectiveness of organizations and the people working in them. Recommended: BIS 170.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 348
BIS 349 Personality Psychology (5) SSc
Introduces the field of personality psychology and the scientific study of psychological individuality. Addresses three key approaches to personality; basic traits; motives, goals, schemas, and tasks; and broad and culturally shaped life stories that provide identity, purpose, and meaning. Integrates classical personality theories and contemporary research in the field. Cannot be taken if credit received for either PSYCH 203 or PSYCH 303.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 349
BIS 351 Topics in American Culture (5, max. 15) A&H
Explores a particular topic in American culture that highlights the methodological tools needed to integrate the interpretation of cultural texts, including literature, film, music, and art, with their historical contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 351
BIS 352 Mapping Communities (5) SSc
Uses mapping and other methods to examine the concept of community. Explores the intersections of life in urban areas including perception and interaction with built environments, political and economic relationships, and social and cultural ties.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 352
BIS 353 Human Rights in Theory and Practice (5) SSc
Introduces political, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of the theory and practice of human rights. Students will explore, critique, and develop theories of human rights.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 353
BIS 354 Modern European Intellectual History (5) A&H/SSc
Study of key figures and intellectual debates of Western modernity, and of major literary movements (romanticism, realism, modernism). Analysis of seminal texts such as Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, and Woolf's To the Lighthouse.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 354
BIS 356 Ethics and the Environment (5) SSc
Examination of the "environmental crisis" and associated social conflicts, tracing them to their philosophical roots. Focuses on the facts of the current situation, on classic and recent readings from the environmental literature, and on ethical responses to current issues.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 356
BIS 357 Native American Religious and Philosophical Thought (5) SSc
An exploration and comparison of religious and philosophical themes developed by tribal people in the New World; an analytical examination of various forms of religious and philosophical expression and how they relate to our human sense of an existing moral order.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 357
BIS 358 Issues in Environmental Science (5, max. 10) SSc/NSc
Explores environmental problems from stratospheric ozone depletion to the preservation of endangered species to acid rain. Focuses on methods of analysis from the physical and life sciences as well as economics, psychology and related fields. Examines issues within their larger social, historic, and political contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 358
BIS 359 Principles and Controversies of Sustainability (5) SSc
Focuses on the challenges, principles, and controversies of sustainability. Analyzes the sustainability issues, identifying the values underlying societal actions and conflicting perspectives, and considers the ecological, ethical, and human well-being ramifications of following different sustainability proposals and cultural trajectories.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 359
BIS 360 Pollinator Diversity and Conservation (5) NSc
Examines the critical roles that animal pollinators play in maintaining biodiversity and healthy agricultural systems. Focuses on the study of plant-pollinator relationships, the threats facing pollinators and efforts to conserve, protect and restore pollinators and their habitats. Requires field work and close observation of native bees and honeybees in an outdoor setting.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 360
BIS 361 Studies in American Literature (5, max. 10) A&H
Examines important literary movements and literary genres with attention to their historical context. Emphasizes issues of race, class, and gender.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 361
BIS 363 Politics and Popular Music (5) A&H
Explores the role that music has played and continues to play in political action and the contestation over political power. Focuses on key national and international political movements and examines the songs, music genres, and artists that have played important roles in those movements. Course overlaps with: AFRAM 337.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 363
BIS 364 Realities and Representations of Adolescent Development (5) SSc
Uses research and theories from adolescent psychology to learn about adolescent development and critically evaluate the ways adolescents are depicted in society.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 364
BIS 365 Institutions and Social Change (5) SSc
Explores the patterns of power that create our social world and how those patterns can be challenged or modified. Examines cultural, institutional, and interpersonal ways that people gain, challenge, and are affected by power and considers how and whether to bring about social change.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 365
BIS 367 Ethics and Society (5) SSc
Examination of major ethical alternatives (egoism, utilitarianism, hedonism, virtue ethics, relativism, emotivism) along with competing visions of the good society (libertarian, communitarian, feminist). Analyzes several contemporary problems, such as legal moralism, affirmative action, euthanasia, capital punishment, corporate responsibility.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 367
BIS 368 Asian American Psychology (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the psychological experiences of Asian Americans in the U.S. at individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. Includes discussions on Asian American immigration, ethnicity, the model minority myth, racism, family dynamics, intersectional identities (e.g., gender, sexuality), mental health, and clinical- and community-based practices that facilitate healing. Course overlaps with: PSYCH 461 and TPSYCH 461. Recommended: either BIS 170, PSYCH 101, or TPSYCH 101.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 368
BIS 369 Indigenous Psychology and Health (5) DIV
Explores cultural constructions of personhood, health, and healing in different professional mental health and indigenous community practices for promoting wellness and ameliorating debilitating distress. Requires careful reading and written analyses of peer-reviewed journal articles describing mental health interventions in indigenous communities.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 369
BIS 370 Nineteenth-Century American Literature (5) A&H
Examination of significant writers and literary developments within nineteenth-century American culture and society. Addresses issues surrounding the formation of an American literary canon. Stresses themes and methods for advanced literary interpretation within American Studies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 370
BIS 371 Twentieth-Century American Literature (5) A&H
Examination of significant writers and literary developments within twentieth-century American culture and society. Addresses issues surrounding the formation of an American literary canon. Stresses themes and methods for advanced literary interpretation within American Studies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 371
BIS 372 Representation, Colonialism, and the Tropical World (5) A&H, DIV
Examines representations of the tropical world across a range of visual culture forms, including photography, and film. Also, focuses on ideas and images that have become synonymous with the tropics--sublime landscapes, excessive sexuality, contagion and disease--and their entanglement with colonial projects. Students will engage dominant representations as well as subaltern texts that seek to rework or undo those images.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 372
BIS 374 Middle East Politics (5) SSc
Examines major socio-economic and political themes in the Middle East from colonialism to the present. Topics may include: emergence of republics/monarchies, gender and patriarch in the Middle East, Arab Nationalism, Palestinian-Israeli conflict, politics of oil, and political Islam.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 374
BIS 377 British Literature and the Gothic Novel (5) A&H
Traces the emergence, rise, and continuing popularity of the British gothic novel. Reading texts that span from the 18th to the 21st centuries, this class focuses on why figures such as the monster, the vampire, and the incarcerated woman gathered such social force as to become recognizable literary tropes and how they express both the fears of and challenges to society. Emphasis on Britain's imperial project.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 377
BIS 378 The Language of Poetry (5) A&H
Study of how poetic meanings are formed and interpreted. Explores different forms of poetry within diverse cultures and historical times.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 378
BIS 379 American Ethnic Literatures (5) SSc/A&H, DIV
Studies multiple ethnic literatures within American culture and society. Addresses issues surrounding the formation of an American literary canon. Stresses themes and methods for literary interpretation within American Studies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 379
BIS 380 Bioethics (5) SSc
Explores concepts and questions in the field of bioethics and addresses key debates from different philosophical, social, and cultural perspectives.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 380
BIS 381 The History of Life (5) NSc/SSc, RSN
Explores the principles of evolution by examining the fossil record, focusing on how past events shaped today's biodiversity. Engages with contemporary controversies regarding scientific literacy.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 381
BIS 382 The Visual Art of Biology (5) A&H/NSc
Explores the intersection of biology and art through representations of nature in illustrations, photography, and film. Examines the effect of technological discoveries such as the telescope, microscope, and camera that shape and enhance our representations of nature.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 382
BIS 384 Health, Medicine, and Society (5) SSc
Examines health, disease, and healing as social phenomena. Explores the nature and experience of illness through the study of patients, communities, healthcare providers, and medical systems in different cultural, social, political, and economic contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 384
BIS 386 Climate Change Adaptation Policy (5) SSc
Examines various ecosystem and infrastructure-based approaches to climate change adaptation, assesses the policies and norms that influence why certain adaptations are considered, and explores the actions to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 386
BIS 387 Women and American Literature (5, max. 10) A&H
Study of women writers and the ways women have been portrayed in literary texts. Focuses on certain themes, such as selves and subjectivities, or on writers from specific historical, economic, ethnic, or racial backgrounds.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 387
BIS 388 Literature in Translation (5) A&H
Examines global literatures written in languages other than English in translation. Emphasizes cross-cultural perspectives and theories. Encourages students to think critically about both the politics and practice of reading translated texts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 388
BIS 389 American Indian Literature (5) A&H/SSc
A survey of both traditional and contemporary American Indian Literary genre; oral and written modes of expression, including oral narratives, autobiography, oratory, traditional and contemporary poetry, fiction.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 389
BIS 391 Environmental History of the Pacific Northwest Bioregion (5) SSc
Examines the history of the relationships between humans and their environments in the Pacific Northwest, from the time of earliest human inhabitants to the present, with particular reference to current environmental and resource issues.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 391
BIS 392 Water and Sustainability (5) NSc/SSc
Provides an understanding of past and present water challenges and some of the possible opportunities for solving them. What is the state of water in the United States and how did we get to this point? Examines the future prospects for wisely using water resources.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 392
BIS 393 Special Topics (3-5, max. 15)
Various topics designed to respond to faculty and student interests and needs.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 393
BIS 394 Comparative Economic Development (5) SSc
Introduces a variety of issues affecting Third World economies in a framework that emphasizes their particular and varied post-colonial histories. Draws on economic theory, cultural and economic anthropology, literature, and other sources to understand institutions and sources of change in these economies.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 394
BIS 395 Environmental Change in Washington State (5) NSc/SSc
Examines issues in science, society, technology, and policy that impact the future of natural ecosystems and their relationship to human communities in Washington State. Issues include climate change, urban sprawl, environmental policies, management of natural resources, and loss of agricultural lands.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 395
BIS 397 Topics in Environmental Studies (5, max. 15)
Examines topics in Environmental Studies. Includes social, political, historical, cultural, artistic, economic, or scientific explorations of environmental issues.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 397
BIS 398 Directed Study/Research (1-5, max. 15)
Opportunity for directed group or individual research on a topic/theme mutually agreed upon by instructor and student.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 398
BIS 399 Portfolio and Career Development (2, max. 6) SSc
Explores connections among academic portfolios, IAS Learning Objectives, and personal and professional goals. Offered: WSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 399
BIS 403 Washington D.C. Seminar on Human Rights (5)
Examines human rights as a philosophical concept, an historical movement, and a contemporary political phenomenon, both in its inherently international scope and in its distinctly U.S. expression in congressional and executive-branch processes. Uses expert guest speakers, both on campus and in Washington, D.C., as major learning resources, along with readings and written assignments.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 403
BIS 405 Environmental Education (5) NSc
Analyze various environmental programs and prepare an individualized project. Learn to apply ecological concepts in the classroom and learn how to teach about various environmental education programs.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 405
BIS 406 Urban Planning and Geography (5) SSc
Examines historical and modern conceptualizations of "'urban"', covering topics such as urban systems, urban forms, urban ecologies, urban planning, and urbanism. Investigates the integration of built forms; human interactions; and the environmental, social, political, and economic aspects of urban places.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 406
BIS 407 Children's Literature and Reader Response Criticism (5) A&H
Studies children's literature and its use in classrooms. Explores theories of reader response and the design of response-based activities.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 407
BIS 408 Critical Physical Geography (5) NSc, DIV
Explores environmental issues by applying knowledge of biophysical and technological systems with an understanding of social power structures and critical theory. Emphasizes the use of interdisciplinary physical and social methods to solve complex environmental problems.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 408
BIS 410 Topics in Qualitative Inquiry (5, max. 15) SSc
Provides a background for understanding qualitative inquiry. Focuses on ethnographic inquiry and interpretative cultural analysis. Discusses forms of data collection such as observation, participant observation, and interviewing. Also stresses strategies for data analysis and for handling qualitative data.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 410
BIS 411 Network Analysis and Visualization (5) RSN Joseph Ferrare
Network analysis is a set of mathematical and statistical tools for studying simple and complex relationships. This course covers a variety of such tools, including graph theory, small worlds, hubs, communities, and network models. The techniques covered in this course are widely applicable, including the fields of data science, social and natural sciences, humanities, public health, education, business, and communications. Prerequisite: either BIS 215, BIS 232, B BUS 215, B MATH 215, B DATA 200, or STAT 220.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 411
BIS 412 Advanced Data Visualization (5) RSN
Provides advanced trainings on visualization methods to show data in complex and compelling ways. Applies complex visualization methods to examine topics including, project management, the grammar of graphics, data types, data structure, modeling, complex and interactive data visualization, and data dashboards. Prerequisite: either BIS 215, BIS 232, B BUS 215, or B MATH 215.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 412
BIS 414 Topics in Human Rights (5, max. 10) SSc
Explores a critical issue of human rights theory and practice and its intersection with the other fields of thought and disciplines. Topics may include such issues as the rights of children, workers, or women; or the relationship of human rights to democracy, globalization, and the arts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 414
BIS 415 Public Policy and Law (5) SSc
Examines the different histories of and processes by which law and public policy create rules that govern a society. Discusses the nature and influence of law and policy in our society via a sociological perspective.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 415
BIS 416 U.S. Constitutional Law (5) SSc
Examines how the U.S. Constitution helps to shape the foundations of the political process and, for better or worse, the structure of political debate and protest in the modern United States. The class will engage with many fundamental areas of constitutional law, including voting rights, executive power, free speech, equal protection and civil rights, federalism, the right to privacy, and due process.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 416
BIS 418 Global Scholars: Global Citizenship in Context (5) SSc, DIV
Explores questions of power, privilege, difference, and identity and how they play out in hands-on international-facing experiences. Students in the Global Scholars Program will reflect on and make sense of their global learning experiences in the context of larger social, political, economic and cultural processes. Prerequisite: BIS 318.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 418
BIS 420 Colonizing History in Sub-Saharan Africa (5) SSc
Considers the history of colonization in Africa and the writing of that history, dealing with debates around post-colonial theory. Provides a better understanding of how relationships between Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world have developed, and how we have come to understand those relationships.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 420
BIS 421 Technology Policy (5) SSc
Examines the role of public policy in managing the tradeoffs between benefits and risks of new technology. Discusses how to evaluate U.S. technology policies against the standards of democracy, economic efficiency, and social justice. Course overlaps with: JSIS B 255.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 421
BIS 422 Clinical Psychology (5) SSc
Explores the intellectual, emotional, biological, psychological, and behavioral aspects of human functioning. Topics include maladjustment and adjustment, discomfort, disability, and adaption. Specifically addresses assessment and diagnosis; theory and strategies of intervention; ethics and standard, research methods; and training and specializations. Prerequisite: BIS 270.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 422
BIS 424 Pacific Northwest History (5) SSc
Explores the region known as the Pacific Northwest (primarily the land now occupied by the American states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) from approximately the 17th century to the late 20th century. Course equivalent to: T HIST 444. Course overlaps with: HSTAA 432.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 424
BIS 425 Topics in U.S. Social and Political History (5, max. 15) SSc
Intensive examination of a particular topic on American institutions, ideologies, movements, and social conditions.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 425
BIS 431 Issues in Sexual Politics and Cultures (5, max. 10) SSc
Examines the ways that sexual beliefs, practices, identities, and behaviors are connected to various cultural, economic, political, and historical forces. Ideally builds on students' previous critical study of sex and sexuality, either at the UW or elsewhere. Specific focus and topic varies with instructor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 431
BIS 433 Gender, Work, and Family (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the interlocking institutions of gender, work, and family. Explores the impact of changing patterns of work on the lives of men and women and the effect of changes in work and occupations on demography and family patterns.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 433
BIS 438 Prevention and Promotion (5-) SSc
Examines prevention and promotion, the two fundamental intervention approaches of community psychology. Explores the strategies employed for each, and the array of phenomena, or variables, they address. Focuses on applications at the small group, community, and socio-cultural levels of analysis. Prerequisite: BISCP 343 or BISPSY 343.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 438
BIS 441 Global Labor Markets (5) SSc
Explores the history, theory, and institutions that affect labor's position in an increasingly globalized labor market. Fosters critical inquiry upon the globalization of labor markets and makes connections between global markets and local employment conditions. Prerequisite: B CUSP 200.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 441
BIS 442 Advanced GIS Analysis and Applications (5, max. 15) SSc
Provides advanced training in Geographic Information Systems and other geospatial applications for display and analysis of environmental and socio-economic data. Prerequisite: either BIS 342 or BIS 343.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 442
BIS 443 Educational Policy and the American Economy (5) SSc
Examines relationships between the economy and our educational and training infrastructure: What are we doing and what should our educational policy be?
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 443
BIS 445 Meanings and Realities of Inequality (5) SSc, DIV
A socioeconomic investigation into the meanings and realities of inequality using a variety of theoretical frameworks and empirical research. Focuses on the determinants of economic mobility and social status. Addresses discrimination, poverty, welfare, and education.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 445
BIS 447 Topics in Quantitative Inquiry (5, max. 15) NSc, RSN
Examines methods for quantitative data analysis. Uses current software packages to model data. Topics vary with instructor and may include probability, surveys, regression techniques, forecasting and time series, decision-making, or spatial analysis and data maps.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 447
BIS 448 Social Policy (5) SSc
Addresses the need for and purposes of US social policy by linking policy interventions and advocacy to social welfare. Examines causes and policy solutions to social welfare issues such as poverty, income, public assistance, food and housing, mental health and substance abuse, child welfare, and social security.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 448
BIS 449 Advanced Topics in Psychology (5, max. 15) SSc
Advanced study of selected theoretical and research topics of contemporary interest in psychology.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 449
BIS 450 Decolonizing Psychology (5) SSc
Introduces students to Decoloniality as a framework for psychology to interrupt systems of power that have inherently reproduced oppressions at multiple levels. Students will collectively analyze and reflect on the ways that colonialism has influenced psychology and strategies to decolonize it. Topics include positionality, research ethics and politics, indigenous ways of knowing, disciplinary divestments and decolonial pedagogy.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 450
BIS 452 Marx, Nietzsche, Freud (5) SSc
Study of the challenges to the traditional Western conceptions of the self, history, knowledge, and art by these classic authors of modernity. Examines the critical impact of their writing within its historical and cultural context and the ongoing significance of their work through the study of prominent examples of contemporary theory.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 452
BIS 455 Literature and Sexuality (5, max. 10) SSc/A&H
Advanced study of the changing definitions and discourses of sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their relationship to literary representations. Stresses historical, psychoanalytic, and literary perspectives.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 455
BIS 456 Climate Anxiety, Grief and Resilience (5) SSc
Examines the emotional and mental health impacts of climate change and the role of affect more generally in environmental discourse and education. Emphasizes the psychological burdens of our climate crisis on different groups, including people of color and front line communities, scientists, students, indigenous communities, activists, and survivors of climate disasters.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 456
BIS 458 Energy, the Environment and Society (5) SSc
Discusses energy production, distribution, and consumption in modern society. Topics include basic scientific, technological, economic, political and environmental issues and questions raised by the utilization of traditional and alternative energy sources.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 458
BIS 459 Conservation and Sustainable Development (5) SSc/NSc
Examines the connections between human welfare and diverse and healthy ecosystems. Considers tensions among economic development, poverty eradication, and biodiversity conservation. Examines efforts to create sustainable development solutions to easing poverty and protecting biodiversity.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 459
BIS 460 Topics in Critical Theory (5, max. 10) A&H
Investigates theoretical approaches to the study of literature. Topics may range from chronicles of critical theories to psychoanalysis and literature, or the examination of individual theoreticians such as Michel Foucault.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 460
BIS 464 Topics in Advanced Cinema Studies (5, max. 15) A&H
Builds on the analytical and methodological skills gained in 300-level cinema studies courses. Focuses on specific topics which examine cinematic texts and institutions and their complex interrelationships within modern culture.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 464
BIS 466 Human Rights and Resistance (5) SSc
Examines how cultural practice interacts with the modern human rights movement, exploring how cultural production such as music, literature, theater, or the visual arts can promote the human rights regime as it resists challenges to justices and human dignity.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 466
BIS 468 Human Rights and Sustainable Development (5) SSc
Examines social aspects of a human right to sustainable development including education, democratic participation, the rule of law, human capabilities and functioning, nationality, religion, and a right to a safe environment.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 468
BIS 470 Art, Politics, and Social Change (5) A&H/SSc
Explores explicit and implicit linages among arts, activism, and social transformation at various scales.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 470
BIS 471 Women in Art (5) A&H/SSc
Examines work of women artists and women in art. Explores women's creative production, societal roles, and feminist critiques of the roles of women in art.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 471
BIS 475 Americans in Europe (5) A&H, DIV
This four-week study abroad course in France and Spain focuses on a diverse group of cultural workers to explore the meanings and practices of gender, race, (trans)nationalism, empire, and belonging that emerge in encounters between "Americans" and "Europe." Offered: S.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 475
BIS 480 International Study Abroad (2-5, max. 20)
Combines study at UW-Bothell with seminars and field trips organized by the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences faculty or the faculties of host institutions in foreign countries. Topics include politics, political economy, public policy, business, and literature, and the arts.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 480
BIS 481 Modernism, Postmodernism, and American Literature (5) A&H
An investigation into the multiple descriptions and definitions of Modernism and Postmodernism through the study of such twentieth-century writersas Eliot, Pound, Willi Stevens, Moore, Stein, Ashbery, Creeley, Antin, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Faulkner, Ellison, Barnes, Bowles, Paley, Morrison, and Silko.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 481
BIS 483 Community Organizing (5) SSc
Provides a theoretical and practical approach to community organizing. Students examine the phases of the organizing process including assessment, research, action/mobilization, and reflection. Students undertake the process of organizing through a community-based learning and research project. Recommended: either BISCP 343, BISPSY 343, BISSEB 304, or BISSTA 304.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 483
BIS 485 Topics in Cultural Studies (3-5, max. 15)
Explores in depth specific historical, political, or social aspects of cultural practice. Links this analysis to an examination of the processes involved in doing various forms of cultural work.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 485
BIS 486 Studies in Women and Literature (5, max. 10) A&H
Advanced study concentrating on individual or a group of related women writers with attention to such subjects as women and language, feminist literary criticism, and canon formation.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 486
BIS 487 Topics in American Literature (5, max. 10) A&H
Advanced study in American literature concentrating on individual writers, literary movements, specific critical approaches to literature, or literary canons and their critics.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 487
BIS 488 Topics in British Literature (5, max. 10) A&H
Advanced study of significant authors, issues and movements in English literature. Topics include Shakespeare and the idea of tragedy, Virginia Woolf as artist and cultural critic, and canon formation and the Romantic movement.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 488
BIS 489 Projects in Community Psychology (5)
Provides the opportunity to apply concepts from BIS 343 in a relevant organizational setting, to engage in a meaningful community-based intervention or research project, and to critically reflect on the project as it is conceived and carried out. Prerequisite: BISPSY 343.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 489
BIS 490 Advanced Seminar (5, max. 10)
Research seminar focused on special topics in interdisciplinary arts and sciences. Includes reflection on the practice of research and its importance for students' career and life goals.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 490
BIS 491 Topics in Policy Studies (3-5, max. 15)
Explores in depth a specific topic in policy analysis and implementation. Topics include environmental policy, educational policy, cultural and arts practices, labor policy, and health care policy.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 491
BIS 492 Senior Thesis (5-, max. 10)
A significant independent research project planned and carried out by the student under the direction of two or more faculty on a significant scholarly topic selected by the student in consultation with thesis advisor.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 492
BIS 493 Special Topics (3-5, max. 15)
Advanced course offerings designed to respond to faculty and student interests and needs. Topics include French Impressionism, social movements in late nineteenth-century Japan, international business and the changing European economic structure.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 493
BIS 494 Task Force (2-5, max. 15)
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 494
BIS 495 Internship (2-6)
Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 495
BIS 496 Community Service Project (3-15, max. 15)
In conjunction with faculty adviser, students develop and implement a community service-learning project. Involves activities such as assistance to disadvantaged populations, community outreach programs, policy analysis, or related work intended to improve the quality of life in the community. Includes academic study designed to integrate practical applications with learning and theory. Course equivalent to: T URB 496. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 496
BIS 497 Political Internship in State Government (5, max. 20)
Students serving in approved internship program with state government agencies. Course overlaps with: POL S 497 and TPOL S 497.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 497
BIS 498 Undergraduate Research (1-5, max. 15)
Individual advanced research on topics conducted under the direction of one or more instructors.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 498
BIS 499 Portfolio Capstone (5)
Focuses on developing a learning and professional portfolio, advancing skills of critical thinking and interdisciplinary synthesis, and honing writing and presentation capacities for appropriate audiences. Stresses collaboration with other graduating students. Prerequisite: BIS 300 or BEARTH 300. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: BIS 499
