From dog-headed saints to unicorns and werewolves, this course examines how premodern cultures imagined monsters to define and challenge the boundaries of what it is to be human. 

In this course we will marvel at how fairy tales are part of a transcultural ecologies of storytelling that stretch from 16th century Italy to 19th century Germany to contemporary North America. 

Modern research universities like the University of Washington are a 19^th-century German invention. We think of the university’s divisions into areas of knowledge (natural sciences, social sciences, humanities) and departments (e.g., physics, psychology, history) as naturally reflecting the world, but in fact these categories artificially shape and determine what counts as knowledge in the first place.

Through a multi-disciplinary approach, we will look at how current threats to the planet's biodiversity are inseparable from threats to cultural diversity. Course readings will indulge in, but ultimately resist, the apocalyptic appeal of art that depicts terminal extinction scenarios. Course assignments are oriented toward imagining and generating collective, livable futures in the wake of biodiversity loss associated with the Sixth Mass Extinction. All readings in English.

Jason Groves, German Studies

5 credits, Diversity (DIV); Social Sciences (SSc)

This class provides an introduction to the modern university and an exploration of the relationship between knowledge and power. Using the lens of visual and written contributions from German speaking lands, we will examine how they speak to contemporary issues such as race, gender and climate change. Readings will include thinkers whose marginalized status have challenged and produced alternatives to the dominant culture.
You will learn about the foundations of the modern university, why you are studying here, and what you can get out of your college experience. 

How was gender portrayed in Vienna 1900, and what did people do to resist and undercut rigid definitions and stereotypes?  Why were healthy expressions of sexuality forbidden during this time?  How does a society react when their stable, comfortable world begins to collapse?  What do you do when language fails and you can no longer describe your thoughts and feelings?  This course, The Naked Truth: Crisis and Dissolution in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna, seeks to hold up a mirror to Vie

How are modern travel and migration experiences narrated by a diverse group of writers? Whose voices do we hear in their stories? How are they portraying self and Other? Which encounters and adventures do they feature in their texts? We will discuss the poetics of walking and contemporary slow travel, fictional East-West travelogues, Arctic adventures, Italian journeys, tales of displacement and post-migration stories.

Have we learned nothing?  Recent events around the globe and here at home have revived frightful memories of the Holocaust and the devastating possibility that history could repeat itself. 

Delve into the rich linguistic history of English, German, and their Germanic relatives while gaining insights into language evolution and creating a collaborative digital exhibition.