Discovery Seminars

Students working with Professor Michael Swaine in the Art Building

 

College Edge Discovery Seminars are full UW courses led by top faculty and experienced instructors. The small-class environment promotes instructor and student interaction and collaborative learning.

There are Discovery Seminars devoted to all kinds of thought-provoking subjects in different aspects of the arts and sciences. All Discovery Seminars will count towards general education requirements needed to complete your UW degree. Explore the course options below, organized into three categories; Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. 

Explore Discovery Seminar Options

  • Students in the dining hall

    ARTSCI 160 A: Food!

    Everybody loves to eat, but how much thought have you given to where your food comes from? How it got to you? Who grew/raised/ processed it? Whether they had decent working conditions and got paid a living wage? What in fact your food contains? Whether food is as much culture and psychology as it is a material substance? We will examine food in literature, cinema, art and journalism. We will consider food as nourishment; cultural phenomenon; status symbol and propaganda prop – among other things! Read more... 

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Students speaking together on Hub lawn

    ARTSCI 160 B: The Bilingual Advantage

    This seminar explores the benefits of being bilingual, the crucial steps to learning a language, and what students can do to reinforce their language learning. It also includes community engagement elements where students will visit organizations that provide services to non-English speaking communities. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • downtown Seattle

    ARTSCI 160 C: New Media, New Communities

    How do we become part of the city around us? How can we contribute to a city in which we will belong? How can we use new media — especially real-time, networked text and video — to forge communities? How can the city transform our use of new media? Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • fashionable clothing and handbag

    ARTSCI 160 D: Fashion and Literature

    What are you wearing? This class takes fashion seriously as a means of self-expression and something you can read for. Starting with a short history of modern Western fashion (aka post-toga), we’ll then skip up to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, looking at avant-garde fashion in the 1910s and 1920s, and how fashion worked as a political expression for American and British suffragists. Read more... 

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Mountain and lake, nature scene

    ARTSCI 160 F : Nature Writing: Arcadia, Wilderness, and Crisis

    How does our relationship with nature shape the way we define ourselves and our place in the world?  What unique perspectives do writers and artists bring to an exploration of this foundational connection between self-identity and nature? Read more.. 

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Two UW Students holding cupcakes in Red Square

    ARTSCI 160 G: How to Be a Person

    What does it mean to “just be yourself”? To “act natural” or “act normal”? These statements seem paradoxical. After all, when are we not ourselves? The cliché to just be yourself seems like one of the worst bits of advice for living, yet it touches on one of the most profound inquiries in the humanities: what does it mean to be a person? Read more... 

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • flags waving in the air

    ARTSCI 160 H: Crossing Borders: Latin American Speculative Futures

    What kinds of borders arise between people in romantic or political relationships, between countries or communities, and amid nostalgia or memories?  In this course, we’ll work creatively to interpret borders in 20th- and 21st-century Latin American and US Latinx literature: short stories, poetry, and cultural journalism (all in English translation) by writers who address ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, family life, citizenship status, community values, and other identities. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Japanese illustration

    ARTSCI 160 I: Modernity Through Japanese Film & Fiction

    Japanese culture is well known throughout the world — from ancient traditions like samurai and the tea ceremony to popular modern phenomena such as Pokémon and the film Spirited Away. But what do these cultural touchstones actually reveal about modern-day Japan, one of the globe’s most prosperous countries? And how do the ways that the Japanese approach the complex challenges of modern life reflect and explain the world of today? Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Beowulf and Barbie

    ARTSCI 160 J: Adaptation: From Beowulf to Barbie

    A playwright rewrites a 500-year-old play to fit contemporary times. Another does the same thing with the same play 500 years later. A successful book becomes a Broadway musical, which becomes a movie. A movie is reimagined as a video game, and then a theme park ride. And so forth! In this course we’ll look at historical and contemporary examples of creative artists adapting material for their audiences. Along the way we’ll consider the criteria for a successful adaptation.  Read more..

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • painting of medieval society

    ARTSCI 160 K: Diversity is Coming. Medieval Societies beyond Game of Thrones

    This seminar provides students with direct knowledge about the Middle Ages and enables them to use it to critically review our modern understanding of diversity and our modern realities. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Angela Davis

    ARTSCI 160 L: Women of Color Feminist Theory and Practice

    Writing during its emergence in the 1970s-1980s, Cherríe Moraga has described women of color feminisms as generating an analytical framework “that makes sense of the seeming paradoxes of our lives.” This course considers what forms of knowledge might be marshaled towards a practice that “makes sense of” the multiple forms of interpersonal and state violence perpetrated against minoritarian subjects.  We will engage with prominent themes in women of color feminist thought, such as the politics of representation, interlocking oppressions, reproductive justice, and strategies of resistance.  Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Space odyssey

    ARTSCI 160 M: Meanings of Life: Literature, Cinema, and Philosophy

    This course focuses on how multiple meanings of life are explored in literature, art, cinema, and philosophy from different world regions and eras. It proposes an interwoven analysis bridging literary and philosophical texts, as well as films, music, paintings, and other artistic expressions from a wide array of perspectives. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • bird singing

    ARTSCI 160 N: Music, Birdsong, and Limits of the Human

    Is birdsong a form of music? This seminar explores how approaches to this question from different perspectives reveal the boundaries of the concepts of “music” and “birdsong.” We will consider what it means to listen to avian song in various contexts, incorporating historical and indigenous perspectives from around the world alongside contemporary academic approaches from various disciplines in the arts and sciences. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • javanese-gamelan concert

    ARTSCI 160 O: Exploring Place, Culture and History in Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

    What better way to launch your career at the UW than playing in a Javanese gamelan (a type of gong ensemble) to explore cultural politics in Indonesia, the negotiation of gender norms, religious syncretism, and how gamelan music and musicians came to the U.S.? Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Arts and Humanities coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Environmental mural

    ARTSCI 160 P: Environmental Activism Through Arts

    How do the arts: film, music, the visual arts, and literature play a role in environmental activism? This seminar explores the role of arts as a tool for activism on issues related to climate change and environmental protection. Read more... 

    General Education Requirement Info: This course counts towards 5 credits of Arts and Humanities requirement. 
  • Palestine Poster

    ARTSCI 161 A: Palestine 101

    Are you interested in learning about Palestine, but don’t know where to start? Do you have some knowledge about Palestine, but are looking to deepen your understanding? This seminar is a foundational primer on Palestine, covering major historical events, political and cultural geographies, and key concepts including refugeehood, steadfastness, and the right of return. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • law gavil

    ARTSCI 161 B: Civil Rights and Law: Exploring Equity for Race, Gender, and Sexuality

    Most people never have access to legal education. This course explores civil rights in the United States from the perspective of our legal system and is facilitated by a distinguished teaching professor from our school of law. The history of civil rights in the United States is intertwined. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • DNA strand

    ARTSCI 161 C: Body Futures: The Past, Present, and Future of the Human Body

    We live in a rapidly changing world of biomedicine and bioinformatics. This course will specifically ask how new discoveries in biology encourage us to rethink issues of ownership, communication, geography, identity, and artistic practice. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Sciences coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Canoe journey

    ARTSCI 161 D: Native UW

    This is a class designed by Indigenous faculty specifically for first-year Indigenous students. This seminar is part of an ongoing effort by UW faculty, staff, and students at the University of Washington to foster respect for Indigenous knowledge and support for Indigenous peoples on campus and in the surrounding area. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Social Science coursework towards the Areas of Knowledge requirement. 
  • visual of a graph

    ARTSCI 162 A: Numbers and Reasons

    This course dives into quantitative reasoning (reasoning based on numbers) in the natural sciences and the social sciences.  Our basic concern is "the passage from arithmetic to understanding,"  the ways that numbers can sometimes (but not always) validly persuade you of something.  Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • fetus

    ARTSCI 162 B: Fetal Origins of Adult Diseases: a Public Health Perspective

    Are you ready to embark on a transformative educational journey with our cutting-edge fetal origins class that delves deep into the relationships of fetal experience and adult diseases? The course will review scientific work on fetal origins hypotheses as well as the role of maternal characteristics and exposures in a wide range of offspring diseases throughout life. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework that counts towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • hands typing on keyboard with lock images

    ARTSCI 162 C: Secret Codes and Online Security

    Security breaches in communications -- whether in the form of identity theft or alleged Russian interference in elections --- are very much in the public eye.  Because the challenges are so complex, people from many different fields contribute to the study of security issues.  This seminar welcomes students with diverse interests.  Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework in the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • image of a brain

    ARTSCI 162 D: This is Your Brain on Drugs

    In this class, we’ll explore the topics of neuropharmacology – drugs that affect our brains. From stimulants like amphetamines, to depressants like ethanol, and psychedelics like psilocybin, we’ll learn how these drugs affect cells and how the cell-drug interactions affect the mind and behavior. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • Image from the CSI show

    ARTSCI 162 E: CSI Seattle

    In this laboratory-based course students will investigate a modified crime/mystery based on an actual case that took place in Australia. In our Seattle event, the victim is a talented graduate student in Genome Sciences.  He is found dead one morning with a large gash on his head, lying in a puddle of vomit among a variety of items in disarray in a secluded area on the UW campus.  By following clues left by the victim, interviewing UW research staff across campus, and chemically tracing the origins of materials at the scene of the crime, the investigators will discover the victim’s medical history, secret laboratories, and the past series of events that have lead to the tragic event. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • human and robot fingers touching

    ARTSCI 162 F: Game Design for Global Challenges Using Python and Artificial Intelligence

    Many of the world’s toughest problems-- such as climate change, homelessness and nuclear proliferation — are sometimes called “wicked problems,” because they are difficult to formulate, let alone solve. Unless a problem is well formulated, even technologies such as computer modeling and artificial intelligence can’t help much. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • bowl of yogurt with fruit on the top

    ARTSCI 162 G: The Impact of Food on Your Brain

    Everyone understands the importance of food. But the phrase “you are what you eat” has taken on new meaning in recent years, as we’ve learned more about how different kinds of foods impact basic cognitive functions, including attention, learning, memory, and decision-making. Have you ever wondered how food affects your thoughts and emotions? Do vitamin supplements improve memory and happiness?  Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirement. 
  • brain image

    ARTSCI 162 I : The Biology of Human Consciousness

    How do our brains give rise to consciousness?  Once though to be a question reserved for the realms of philosophy and psychology, recent advance have begun to unravel the biological mechanisms of consciousness. This course will begin with the structure and function of the human brain. Read more...

    General Education Requirement Info: 5 credits of Natural Science coursework towards the Areas of Inquiry requirements.