Culture, Literature & the Arts
BACHELOR OF ARTS
On this page: Major Description | Requirements | Learning Objectives | Faculty & Staff | Courses
Use your creativity, imagination, and passion for innovation to express meaning across audiences!
Do courses like Shakespeare & Film and Representation, Colonialism, & the Tropical World sound exciting to you?
Do you want to explore a career in Education, Journalism, or Public Relations?
The Culture, Literature & the Arts major (CLA) inquires into the make-up of diverse cultures and societies, and their literatures and arts.
Students in the major study written and visual texts, interactive and performative modes of practice, and philosophical and theoretical accounts of those texts and practices.
Students gain an understanding of the complex relations among lived, represented, and speculated existence. CLA courses focus on the historical, social, and aesthetic dimensions of arts and culture, with special attention to the intersections among gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, disability, and other vectors of power and privilege.
Passion
Students in the Culture, Literature & the Arts major are passionate about understanding diverse cultures and societies, and their literature and arts. Students who are passionate about diversity as it relates to visual & written texts, interactive & performative practices, and the philosophical & theoretical accounts of them will thrive within the CLA major.
Practice
Courses in the Culture, Literature & the Arts major focus on the historical, social, & aesthetic aspects of art and culture, with special attention to the intersections among gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, disability, and other vectors of power and privilege. Students gain an understanding of the complex relations among lived, represented, and speculated existence.
Profession
Using their background in Culture, Literature & the Arts, graduates in this major communicate with others through their use of the English language in career roles such as education, advocacy, and consulting. Students in the CLA major end up working as teachers, public relations consultants, journalism/social media, and publishing among others.
Major requirements
Recommended preparation
Interested in exploring this major, but not ready to commit? Consider taking one of the below courses! Any of these selections will help familiarize you with the academic program and prepare you for advanced coursework in the major.
- BIS 161 Introduction to Film Narrative
- BIS 206 Engaging Literary Arts
- BIS 209 Engaging Visual and Media Arts
- BISIA 207 Introduction to Creative Writing: Words, Stories, Dialogues
- BISIA 230 Performing Arts Techniques
- BISIA 240 Visual and Media Arts Techniques
Prerequisites
While there are no official prerequisites for this major in the School of IAS. UW Bothell students in good standing can declare a major in Culture, Literature, and the Arts at any time. Once ready to submit a declaration form follow this link to the IAS Major Declaration Form
Degree requirements
- BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry*- min. 2.0 grade (5 credits)
- CLA Core (5 credits)
- CLA Courses (35 credits)
- BIS 499 Portfolio Capstone – min. 2.5 grade (5 credits)
- Additional IAS Coursework (20 credits)
TOTAL = 70 Credits
*Should be taken in the first quarter of IAS enrollment.
Learning objectives
The Culture, Literature & the Arts curriculum advances the five core IAS learning objectives. Students taking courses and/or majoring in Culture, Literature & the Arts:
- Engage the complex question of what cultures are and do;
- Analyze diverse forms of cultural production and consumption, including literature and language, film and media, music and sound, visual arts and images, performing arts and kinesthetics;
- Appreciate the richness and complexity of artistic communication, language, and imagination;
- Investigate the importance of form, design, and genre across the arts;
- Understand how creativity and artistic expression are embedded within larger social and cultural contexts;
- Understand how artistic practices and cultural production vary across time and space.
People
Faculty
- David Goldstein
Faculty Coordinator - Jennifer Atkinson
- Amaranth Borsuk
- Gary Carpenter
- Ching-In Chen
- Stevie Costa
Academic Advisor
Research Librarian
Courses
A. Introduction to Culture, Literature & the Arts (CLA:CORE)
- BISCLA 318 Performance, Identity, Community and Everyday Life
- BISCLA 380 Arts in Context
- BISCLA 384 Literary and Popular Genres
B. CLA Courses (CLA)
Creative Writing
- BISIA 207 Introduction to Creative Writing: Words, Stories, Dialogues
- BISIA 310 Creative Writing: Poetry
- BISIA 311 Creative Writing: Prose
- BISIA 401 Literary and Arts Journal Editorial Board
- BISIA 410 Advanced Creative Writing Workshop
Art, Film, and Literary Histories
- BIS 206 Engaging Literary Arts
- BIS 207 Shakespeare and Film
- BIS 208 Experimenting through the Arts
- BIS 209 Engaging Visual and Media Arts
- BIS 212 Engaging Performing Arts
- BIS 245 Environmental Humanities
- BIS 261 Introduction to Film Studies
- BIS 263 Literature into Film
- BIS 301 Narrative Forms
- BIS 321 Human Rights and the Arts
- BIS 324 Gender, Human Rights, and Global Cinema (formerly offered under BIS 339)
- BIS 331 Journalism and Media History
- BIS 332 Global Digital Industries (formerly offered under BIS 313)
- BIS 347 History of American Documentary Film
- BIS 361 Studies in American Literature
- BIS 363 Politics and Popular Music
- BIS 370 Nineteenth Century American Literature
- BIS 371 Twentieth Century American Literature
- BIS 378 Languages of Poetry
- BIS 379 American Ethnic Literatures
- BIS 382 The Visual Art of Biology
- BIS 383 American Art and Architecture
- BIS 385 Art and Climate Change
- BIS 387 Women and American Literature
- BIS 388 Literature in Translation
- BIS 389 American Indian Literature
- BIS 407 Children’s Literature and Reader Response Criticism
- BIS 465 Performance, History, and Memory
- BIS 471 Women in Art
- BIS 476 Issues in Art History
- BIS 481 Modernism, Postmodernism, and American Literature
- BISIA 230 Performing Arts Techniques
- BISIA 240 Visual and Media Arts Techniques
- BISIA 250 Photography as Art
- BISIA 283 Interdisciplinary Art Techniques
- BISIA 319 Interdisciplinary Arts
- BISIA 340 Visual and Media Arts Workshop
- BISIA 344 Video Art
- BISIA 350 Photography and Digital Art
- BISIA 383 Interdisciplinary Arts Workshop
- BISIA 450 Image and Imagination
- BISIA 483 Advanced Interdisciplinary Arts Workshop
- BISIA 484 Arts Learning in the Community
Thought and Theory
- BIS 345 American Environmental Thought
- BIS 357 Native American Religious and Philosophical Thought
- BIS 452 Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
- BIS 460 **Topics in Critical Theory
Culture Studies
- BIS 203 History of InterArts
- BIS 204 Introduction to Journalism
- BIS 205 Technologies of Expression
- BIS 216 Introduction to Cultural Studies
- BIS 227 Rad Women in the Global South
- BIS 233 Participatory Media Culture
- BIS 235 Critical Media Studies
- BIS 236 Introduction to Interactive Media
- BIS 238 Language, Identity, Culture and Power
- BIS 256 Introduction to African American Studies
- BIS 264 Africa on Film
- BIS 265 Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies
- BIS 310 Women, Culture and Development (formerly offered under BIS 339)
- BIS 313 Issues in Media Studies
- BIS 314 Topics in Geography
- BIS 317 Language, Society and Cultural Knowledge
- BIS 319 Education and Society
- BIS 322 Topics in Performance Studies
- BIS 325 Disability and Human Rights
- BIS 326 Race, Space, and Segregation
- BIS 329 Topics in Mathematics Across the Curriculum
- BIS 339 Issues in Global Cultural Studies
- BIS 340 Approaches to Cultural Research
- BIS 341 Topics in the Study of Culture
- BIS 351 Topics in American Culture
- BIS 354 Modern European Intellectual History
- BIS 362 The United States-Mexico Borderlands: Culture, History, Theory
- BIS 372 Representation, Colonialism, and the Tropical World
- BIS 375 Mexican Art and Culture
- BIS 431 Issues in Sexual Politics and Cultures
- BIS 440 Topics in Everyday Social and Cultural Life
- BIS 450 Performance and Healing
- BIS 455 Literature and Sexuality
- BIS 462 The Culture of the Cold War in America
- BIS 464 Topics in Advanced Cinema Studies
- BIS 470 Art, Politics, and Social Change
- BIS 474 Topics in European Cultural History
- BIS 480 International Study Abroad
- BIS 485 Topics in Cultural Studies
- BIS 486 Studies in Women and Literature
- BIS 487 Topics in American Literature
- BIS 488 Topics in British Literature
- BIS 491 Topics in Policy Studies
- BIS 496 Community Service Project
- BISAES 364 Public Memory and Dissent in American Culture
- BISAES 367 Exploring American Culture: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
- BISAES 368 Sex, Love, Romance
- BISAES 369 American Culture and Mass Media
- BISGWS 303 Approaches to Feminist Inquiry
- BISMCS 234 Media and Communication Techniques
- BISMCS 333 Media and Communication Studies
- BISMCS 343 Media Production Workshop
- BISMCS 471 Advanced Topics in Media and Communication
- BISMCS 472 Advanced Media Production Workshop
- BISPSY 348 Cultural Psychology
- BISSTS 397 Topics in Science, Technology, and Society
- BISSTS 497 Advanced Topics in Science, Technology, and Society
- B EDUC 474 Global Englishes
Historical Epochs
- BIS 266 United States History to 1865
- BIS 267 United States History from 1865
- BIS 323 History of Photography
- BIS 402 Modern China