The Honors Program has a few spots available in the following courses.
- Mestizx Consciousness and the ‘Racial’ Shadow (VLPA, DIV)
- Shift Happens: Moving the Humanistic Conversation in the Classics from the Classroom to the Public Arena (VLPA)
These courses are all “Areas of Knowledge” and “W” designated and offer an exciting opportunity for students across campus to engage in interdisciplinary learning. All classes are now open for registration for students across campus! You do not need to be an Honors student to register. Visit our autumn courses webpage for more details.
HONORS 210 C: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Mestizx Consciousness and the ‘Racial’ Shadow (VLPA, DIV) - 5 credits
SLN 16128 (View UW registration info »)
In this seminar we will become familiar with the genre of Mestiza/o/x literature and engage in informed conversation about this body of literature in the United States. We will look globally at critical mixed race and border identities and consider epistemological questions, power, and privilege. Relatedly, a key goal of this seminar is to practice public writing through a variety of creative expressions and through collaborative work with peers for community building and activism (praxis).
We will write to articulate understanding of texts and engage in the complexities of identity and its construction (individual, family, community, nation, etc.). Students will write weekly and be authors and editors in a collaborative active learning environment with sensitivity to different learning and communication styles. Students will also have the opportunity to learn about digital storytelling and create a multimedia digital story of their own.
HONORS 398 A: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Shift Happens: Moving the Humanistic Conversation in the Classics from the Classroom to the Public Arena (VLPA) - 3 credits
SLN 16147 (View UW registration info »)
Ancient Greek and Roman writers and thinkers observed first-hand the near impossibility of speaking to power. Their observations, demonstrating that nothing has changed except for technology, could help moderns see that, unless we learn from the past, we will continue to repeat mistakes but those which have even greater potential for death and destruction given technological advances. During the seminar, students will examine ancient texts—literary, historical and philosophical—with the goal of communicating the lessons learned in various forms of public writing with the following objectives:
- To develop an ability to write with greater clarity, concision, engagement and effectiveness and to acquire editorial skills that will help you achieve this goal.
• To reflect on what constitutes effective public writing and how such writing influences our perspectives.
• To gain a greater insight into what the humanities, in particular Classical antiquity, have to contribute to contemporary discussions of the difficulty of preserving our humanity in the face of political and technological power structures.