Upper Division Seminars
Two Upper Division Seminars (3 credits each) are required to graduate with Honors. Click for the dropdown menu to see the course description. Western professors can apply to teach an Honors seminar and each year, topics are chosen in a competition like fashion. Each seminar topic is offered no more than once every other year and is exclusive to Honors. Seminars typically have between 10 and 15 students.
Additionally, you can explore past years' seminars by clicking the below button to explore our archive.
Fall 2025
Lori Martindale, Honors
In this seminar on specters, ghosts, and hauntings, we will discuss international ghost stories across the arts, literature, theory, film, legends, and folklore on the scene of the haunted house as a historical site of the gothic, of horror, and resistance. Gothic literature, feminist and queer theory on horror, music, and even the work of cinema will be studied, with the scene of the house and other spaces as sites of observation, analysis, and inquiry. We’ll read and listen to classic and obscure authors of the gothic and uncanny, such as works by: Alice Walker, Shveta Thakrar, Toni Morrison, Shirley Jackson, Elizabeth Hand, Zora Neale Hurston, Andrea L. Rogers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carmen Machado, Honoré de Balzac, Henry James, Christa Carmen, Salman Rushdie, and more. We will listen to folktales from the oral traditions, and study Painting, Music, early Cinema, Photography, and other hauntings. The ambiguous figure of the ghost reveals endless possibilities for discussions on diverse storytelling, uncertainty, liminality, the uncanny, the humorous, unruly tricksters, the Sublime... and beyond. But the ghost can also be a charged figure - how lived experiences of postcolonial modernity are often haunted by the past, the ghost can be a complex figure of injustice, a historical specter who haunts the present, and more. Whether they are humorous tricksters, killer phantoms, optical illusions, or uncanny wailings, be ready to get spooked and delve into a variety of stories which spark creative ideas. Students will craft their own story, as well as reading journals. Students then can work on a research paper or creative project for their final project.
Susan Costanzo, History
Although the Nobel Prize for literature is typically associated with fiction and poetry, that has not always been the case. This seminar explores the connections between literature, history, and memory through the works of Svetlana Alexievich, a writer from Belarus who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015. The Nobel committee praised “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”[1] Trained as a journalist, Alexievich collected oral interviews with survivors of some of the most momentous events in twentieth-century Russian history: World War Two, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Afghanistan War, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Known for her compelling storytelling, her Chernobyl interviews were a key source for the 2019 HBO series Chernobyl.
Maria McLeod, Journalism
This course offers students an opportunity to learn and apply journalistic and oral history research methods while working to create a record of environmental issues, challenges and progress particular to Whatcom County. Each student is to propose an environmental topic in line with their interests and of relevance to Whatcom County, confirming two potential interviewees who can best speak to separate but related aspects of the topic. Subjects should be long-standing environmental experts who have spent their careers engaged in environmental fieldwork, regulatory work, education, research, activism (or combined experiences).
Work for the course will culminate in the production of two full-length, edited transcripts per student, the highlights of which will be presented at the end of the course. These oral histories are intended to be submitted to WWU’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies as a means of preserving and contributing to critical environmental history as a lived experience — stories that, if not recorded, would be otherwise lost. Final presentations could take a creative form and/or utilize digital technologies, including multimedia.
Mark Bussell, Chemistry
It is now well established that the generation of energy via the combustion of fossil fuels is contributing to climate change, and all areas of the world are experiencing the effects of a warming planet. However, countries (and smaller entities) are responding differently to the challenges of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy due to the influences of politics, economics, geography and other factors, and we can learn and improve our thinking about the energy transition by examining how others are working on this challenge. Additionally, a significant obstacle to grasping the scope of the problem (fossil fuels, climate change) and of the complexity of the transition is understanding their magnitude. This proposed Honors seminar course will address these topics by examining how selected countries are approaching the transition to sustainable sources of energy through case studies, and class members will use a powerful, but accessible mathematical technique called “guesstimation” to determine the magnitude of the challenges and solutions in the context of these countries.
Mary Hunt, Public Health
This course will explore the changing landscape of abortion over the last 150 years. Through reading, discussion, and reflection, students will examine the politicization, practices, attitudes, legislation, and research related to abortion in the United States.
Derek Moscato, Journalism
This seminar will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how the Arctic has emerged as a mediated, mythological, and ecologically threatened entity that simultaneously represents international politics, the global economy, and the planetary climate challenge.
Tom Moore, Global Humanities and Religions/ Fellowship
We’ll screen both classic and contemporary films representing such diverse cultures as Japan, Tibet, India, Spain, France, South Africa, and Algeria. Although American directors have recently embraced more diversity, we still tend to see other cultures through a lens of bias, whether intentional or not. Hopefully, this seminar will expand our understanding of people who ask, as we do, what it means to be human.
Anthony Radoiu, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
This course seeks to provide a background in and cultivate an understanding of the European Middle Ages by debunking preconceived notions that it was simply a long, stagnant, and barbaric period between Antiquity and the Renaissance. Instead, this course aims to present it as a vibrant world of bustling people, grandiose cities, diverse beliefs, enlightened rulers, and countless scientific and cultural innovations. It will explore many in-depth aspects of the medieval world, such as rural and elite families, aristocracy, marriage, gender and sexuality, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities, new religious movements and reform, monasteries and convents, legal systems, the Papacy, writing and literacy, warfare, the rise of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, chivalry and court culture, philosophy, theology, and humanism.
Pam Kuntz, Theatre and Dance
When we dance together, something special happens...we see and we feel those with us differently. When we move in unison our awareness expands and our connection grows further. When we add complex spatial patterns and relationships to others, to the extent of maintaining a line or holding hands, the stakes are even higher. This group of dancers starts to feel unstoppable. In this seminar we will do just this...we will line dance our way around the world.
The arts provide us with an opportunity to better understand our world, to understand at a level beyond the books and the lectures…beyond the words. Through learning about and participating in the dances of a specific people we gain a deeper understanding of their culture.
While our embodied research in time and space together will create the foundation for our studies, we will also investigate how these dances came to be, how they have evolved and traveled the world, and we will study the people dancing - both who they are and why they dance.
JoeHahn, LGBTQ+ Director
Afrofuturism is a movement in literature, music, art, and other creative mediums that feature futuristic and science fiction themes which incorporate elements of Black history and culture. In this seminar, students will learn about Afrofuturism through two prominent Afrofuturist creators: Octavia Butler and Janelle Monáe.
Butler’s Parable of the Sower will showcase how community collaboration can combat climate catastrophe and political oppression. Monáe’s Dirty Computer and The Memory Librarian explores themes of Black and Queer erasure and resistance through music, art, love, and community.
Students will reflect upon these works and create their own through creative projects that represent the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, and other identities. Afrofuturism asks students to reflect on the past and dream of the future to change the present.
Winter 2026
Melanie Bowers, Political Science/ Honors
How has religion shaped American politics in recent history? From the role of Progressive Christianity in social movements to the rise of the Religious Right and debates over religious freedom, this course explores the dynamic and often contentious relationship between faith and government in the United States. We will examine how religious movements have influenced elections, shaped public policy, and driven social change, exploring key issues like the influence of liberation theology on social movements, the separation of church and state, the rise of Christian Nationalism, and the implications for democracy itself.
Through case studies, political analysis, and media perspectives, students will investigate the role of religious groups in shaping social movements, power dynamics and legislation, the intersection of faith and political identity, and the ongoing debates over the separation of church and state. The course will also explore how religious rhetoric has been used by political leaders and how shifting demographics are changing the landscape of religion in American politics. In this course we will use thought-provoking discussions and critical analysis of contemporary issues to unpack the evolving influence of religion on U.S. politics today.
Hunter Price, History
The early modern Atlantic world was a place and time of advances in science and increases in human bondage. It turns out that the two were intertwined; the routes of enslavement and the itineraries of natural collection were frequently the same. Enslavers and enslaved people both participated in the growth of botanical, zoological, and geographic knowledge. As a result, many of the era’s institutions of human progress also have difficult histories of human degradation. This course will use readings of historical scholarship and contemporary sources to consider the development of science in the Atlantic world.
Jeff Shaw, Environmental Studies
A nation’s martial arts develop in ways that reflect that nation’s priorities: victory in battle, personal growth, physical health, the rights and freedoms of its participants and more. Those arts are also inextricably linked to human social categories, including race, economic class, gender and sexuality – and the intersections those categories create. This class explores the distribution of modern martial arts throughout the world after the battle of Sekigahara in Japan and discusses the way the fighting arts transform the world and are transformed by it. Students will learn about how the different social and cultural norms inform the development of martial arts — how suffragists used combative practice to literally fight for the franchise in the United Kingdom, and how enslaved people in Brazil developed covert fighting tactics — as well as how those martial arts embed themselves into societies. The class will cover how the martial arts of Japan were transmitted worldwide, evolved locally and were integrated into global culture. The class will examine how a nation’s fighting arts can transform that nation’s economic life, social atmosphere and even foreign policy. We will develop new tools for critical examination of martial arts as tools for self-defense, liberation and popular entertainment. We’ve come a long way from samurai fighting a pivotal civil war to everyday people training for fitness, sport and recreation, or watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship for entertainment. This class explores that complex history via text and performance.
Maura O’Leary, Linguistics
In this seminar, we will explore the linguistic science behind translation issues in the world’s most widely read book: the Bible. The Bible is generally read in the language most familiar to the reader (in the US, often English or Spanish), despite the fact that it was not written in those languages. Therefore, most Bible readers are placing a lot of faith (pun intended) in the work of Bible translators – that they will faithfully and accurately communicate in a modern language what was written in an ancient language from a different culture with different standards of communication. However, perfect translation is a nearly impossible task, especially when trying to keep the translation of verses and chapters to a succinct length. In this class, we will learn about the linguistic factors that play a role in making a perfect translation so difficult: the inflection of words (morphology), grammar (syntax), ambiguity (semantics), and implications (pragmatics).
Tristan Goldman, Honors
Stoicism has been having a popular resurgence. Why? Well, one line of thinking hypothesizes that, as our lives seem to become more chaotic, Stoicism in turn seems to represent a coherent response to that chaos. The popular reception of Stoicism tends to render it into a peculiar form of nihilism: if I do not value anything outside myself, nothing can hurt me. But this is not Stoicism. Stoicism teaches us how to love fully even when life is at its most uncertain.
Kamarie Chapman, Theatre and Dance
This course will examine scripted performance (films/podcasts/plays/poetry/protests/sports/etc.) created by trans artists who live in the United States. Guided by the instructor, the course will engage participants by forming ideation of subjects researched in small collaborative groups, and require a final article, research dossier, or performance created by the individual as a final.
Ernest Hartwell, Language, Literature, and Cultures
World’s Fairs and Biopolitical Modernities will probe the concepts of modernity and humanity through the lens of World’s Fairs and biopolitical theories. The World’s Fairs, also known as Universal Exhibitions, were known to showcase the achievements of individual nations in a joint pursuit of progress and modernization. They were hosted in different cities from London to Paris to New York to Tokyo, even including nearby Seattle, which hosted in 1909 and 1963 (for which the Space Needle was built!). National pavilions exhibited technologies capable of transforming the human experience, such as rapid brick making machines (Paris 1867), massive steam engines (Philadelphia 1876), neonatal incubators (Seattle 1909), and shipping containers (Seattle 1963). Common as well were displays of indigenous and colonized peoples, as seen with Eskimo and Igorrot displays in 1909 in Seattle, Navajo weaving stations in 1893 Chicago, and the Philippine Reservation in 1904 St Louis, just to name a few. Frequently just outside the gates of the fairs, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows dramatized frontier battles and cultural entanglements for global, urban audiences, with reenacted cowboys vs. Indians gunfights and horse-riding competitions. In this class, the students will gain knowledge regarding these understudied historical phenomena, while also sharpening their skills in critical thinking and interdisciplinary analysis through theoretical readings about modernity, biopolitics, feminism, and postcolonial thought read in conversation with historical examinations of the events.
Christie Scollon, Psychology/ Honors
Work is an essential feature of most of our lives, but work can mean different things to different people. Does work give your life purpose? Is work something to pay the bills and fund the things you really want to do? Is work part of your identity? What would you do if you didn’t have to work? How can people achieve work-life balance? This seminar will address these questions and more. We will explore the concept of work from the perspective of history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and literature. We will examine the role of economic systems, technology, culture, education, and public policy on work. This will not be a class where all we do is rail on the capitalist system (though there will be a bit of that). Instead, the major goal of the class is for students to understand and question various perspectives of work as they also examine head on the role of work in their personal constructions of the Good Life.
Lauren Dudley, Chemistry
STEMinist Discourse: Exploring Gender, Identity, and Innovation in Science offers an exciting exploration into the intersection of gender, identity, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This course invites you to critically analyze how gender—shaped by race, sexuality, and class—impacts the practices, communication, and outcomes in these fields. Through discourse analysis, you’ll investigate gendered stereotypes in STEM, explore their implications for research and innovation, and develop strategies for promoting diversity and inclusivity. With a hands-on approach, you'll engage in real-world data analysis and research projects, enhancing your skills in both critical thinking and discourse methods, all while contributing to an ongoing conversation about shaping more inclusive futures in science and technology.
Shri Mare, Computer Science
This seminar will explore how technology shapes our personal information and privacy in the modern world. As our lives become increasingly digital, understanding privacy has become essential for everyone. Through interactive demonstrations, case studies, and accessible discussions, students will learn how digital tracking works, examine surveillance systems, explore the social justice dimensions of privacy violations, understand the trade-offs between convenience and privacy in current technology, and explore potential solutions with privacy-preserving technologies. The course investigates key questions like how (and why) companies track us online, why we say we value privacy but act differently, and how privacy violations disproportionately affect different communities. We will explore both technical aspects of privacy and their broader societal implications, connecting privacy concepts to students' own academic interests and future careers. Students from all disciplines will develop critical thinking skills about privacy through experiential learning activities, small-group discussions, and real-world privacy assessments. No technical background required—just curiosity about the hidden systems that shape our digital lives, and by extension, our society.
Spring 2026
Arna Elezovic, Honors
What is time? We all experience time, and never seem to have enough of it. Historians categorize human activity through time into eras, epochs, periods, and ages. Timelines represent events and things on a linear scale simplified scale, one which implies a sense of progression. And our western calendar is culturally Christian because it contains a moment of rupture with the birth of Jesus, with a distinct before and after division of time (BC/AD). We use clocks, watches, phones, calendars, schedules, and other measurements of time to dictate the rhythm and sequence of events in life. But why? How and when did we agree upon these conventions to organize ourselves and society? How has the idea of time evolved in history? How and why do we perceive time differently depending on what we do during the day?
There are no ready answers to those questions. This course will serve as a preliminary investigation, so you have historical context to find your own answers to those questions. The course will approach the history of time from a western civilizational perspective, but we will compare those conventions to other global systems and practices. Readings will be historical texts, selections from work by scientists, and other media. Coursework will be discussions with some writing to assist in the endeavor to understand the complexity of time. Final projects can be creative and in the media of your choice.
Thomas Hummel, Honors
Outlining the experimental coursework he would come to call kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel described a learning environment of plays and means that promotes the interconnectedness of all things. A program within which even the smallest acts and gestures, by advancing the pupil’s awareness of worldmaking through selfdirected action, secures belief in and respect for interdependent growth. A place where gifts mobilize difference and incite expression without precedent. Some of kindergarten’s earliest students—Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Piet Mondrian, Walter Gropius, Josef Albers—would go on to irrevocably alter how we build, see, and depict existence.
And we, here, now, are in desperate need of irrevocable alteration. Of building and seeing anew.
As an invitation to challenge the perils of our moment, this course—seminar, laboratory, workshop, studio—is a place to make a kindergarten. For ourselves. For our peers. To develop curricula, structures, philosophies, and assignments. To make and shape and fail relentlessly. And, at every step of the way, we will hold ourselves to account for failing Friedrich Froebel. For all the ways that we, here, now dismiss the interconnectedness of all things when we choose not to understand whatever threatens or offends.
Kathleen Brian, Honors
Upon request. Into crater. Into sea. Off house. Off wall. Off top of monument. By coal. By leech. By arsenic tincture. From bridge. From cliff. From the Whispering Galley. Afterwards, in imitation, in much the same manner.
William Makoyiisaaminaa and Kristen French, Blackfeet Tribal Members
We focus on building community and developing healthy social and emotional interactions through the teachings of plants, animals, and our environment (the sky, the water, the land, the plants, animals and people) which create, develop and deepen connections to these alliances and model the care and respect for our Earth. Approaching the classroom as a community of knowledge seekers where we all are learning from one another, uplifting one another, and sharing our love and appreciation for each other is the ultimate inspiration for a better path forward.
Peggy Watt, Journalism
Rights and legal restrictions on the “five freedoms” in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Examines the concepts behind these core constitutional guarantees and their ongoing interpretation through the courts, as well as their implementation in current events.
G. McGrew, AMSEC
‘Food and Chemistry’ will discuss more than just the chemistry behind food, drink, flavor, texture, and nutrition. This highly interdisciplinary course will navigate the significant intersections of food and food technologies – historical and modern – with race, class, and gender, culture and trade, survival, the environment, propaganda, and political conflict. Students will learn foundations of general and organic chemistry alongside topics in home cooking, molecular gastronomy, biochemistry, biology, and even some condensed matter physics.
What are modern uses of chemistry in food enhancement? What are the controversies that come with these advances? How does the chemistry of food shape our daily lives, the future of planet Earth, and everything in between?
Students will participate in readings, group discussions, and complete a multi-part writing project that ties their major to a topic in food chemistry; it will include instructor and peer feedback and revision. The end of the quarter will include student presentation and discussion of special topics.
Julie Dugger, Honors
“Voice” is what makes your writing distinct. It’s a mix of style, content, and tone: of who you are, who your audience is, and why you’re trying to reach them. In this class, we’ll work to develop your writing voice—or rather voices, since we all contain multitudes, and different goals require different approaches. Students can choose creative, professional, or personal writing assignments. In coursework that’s part self-discovery, part persuasion, and equally imaginative and practical, we’ll read, draft, and revise extensively. You’ll spend some time with voices you admire, building awareness of why words on a page feel the way they do, what makes them effective or ineffective, and how you can channel your experience, sensibility, and awareness to create effectively voicey writing.
Mick Cunningham, Sociology
This seminar will investigate the collection of reactionary ideologies and media that are commonly referred to as “the manosphere.” The manosphere is a loosely connected network of online communities espousing various forms of anti-feminist politics. The course will begin with an overview of the ideologies and media that define the manosphere. Although we will need to become familiar with the jargon of “Chads,” “Stacys,” “red-pilllers,” and “incels,” the purpose of the course is to study the scope, appeal, causes, and consequences of the manosphere. We will do that by engaging with scientific research that analyzes the manosphere from perspectives including sociology, gender studies, psychology, political science, history, media studies, and others. One important goal will be to understand why this most recent wave of anti-feminism emerged when it did and how it has drawn adherents. Another goal is to consider how the manosphere affects social and political developments through electoral politics, social media, or other mechanisms. Throughout the course we will devote time to designing and pilot-testing strategies for conducting effective research on the manosphere.
Andrea Reed, Audiology
History of Hearing is a course designed to learn about, engage with, and investigate historical perspectives in audiology and how the development of a relatively new science and research field has shaped the ideals, stigma, and power dynamics of audiology and hearing sciences.
Elizabeth Colen, English
Black feminism is a school of thought that looks at the ways racism, sexism, class oppression, and gender identity are inextricably bound. What would it mean to imagine a world outside or beyond the strictures of white supremacy? What does it mean to imagine a world that centers on Black feminist voices, queer and trans voices, voices of indigenous populations? These are the questions we will keep in mind as we navigate and engage with the course materials.
In this class we will read, respond to, and analyze a wide range of texts. We will begin with a short history of feminism, Black feminism, and Afrofuturism. Operating within this framework, we will examine the work of Black feminist authors writing dystopian and apocalyptic narratives that simultaneously lay bare social injustice and failings of contemporary political and social structures of privilege and reimagine worlds that focus on underrepresented and disadvantaged populations. Students will exercise and refine textual and cultural analysis skills by examining how an author utilizes context, form, language, and elements of style. Students will engage in close analytical readings of texts, active engagement on class discussion board, brief presentations, and a final essay or creative project.
Mart Stewart, History
This course will read into the history of ideas about climate that have been both political/cultural and scientific in origin, and that have been also used to think about the future. We’ll also connect to a substantial history of utopian thinking, some of it by climate scientists themselves -- and some of it, created as we go, by students in the course -- about what might happen to human societies as they respond to climate change and what we might hope to do about it. Ursula Le Guin’s Always Coming Home will be a template. The course will emphasize discussions that will not only be intersectional in content but also in how they imagine time and history.