Below you will find departmental information on majors, procedures, and common inquiries. For additional information on policies, review the Departmental Policy Guide.

Asian Languages & Literature

• Five majors (Asian Languages and Cultures, Chinese, Japanese Korean, South Asian Languages and Cultures) and 7 minors (the 5 mentioned + Indonesian Languages and Culture, and Vietnamese Language and Culture).
• Proficiency exam and policies for reporting can be found in this webpage. For testing inquiries, Jameel Ahmad is the point of contact to refer students to (jameel7@uw.edu).

Cinema & Media Studies 

• Two majors (Cinema & Media Studies and Comparative Literature) and 1 minor (Comparative Literature). Comparative Literature to be sunsetted; refer interested students to the Global Literary Studies (GLITS) major.
• Offers one Composition course, CMS 240, which often becomes full very quickly during registration.
• Most core courses are major-restricted during Registration Period 1.
• Students with internship inquiries can be referred to Stephen Groening (groening@uw.edu). We can help students register once he approves their internship contract.

Classics 

• We rarely receive questions from this program’s faculty, staff, or about its courses.
• Four majors (Classics, Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies) and 5 minors (Greek, Latin, Classical Studies, Classics and Ancient History, and Hellenic Studies).
• Many of the program's graduates pursue careers in academia.

Comparative History of Ideas 

• One major and minor (CHID).
• Prospective and current CHID majors and minors are referred to the CHID academic adviser, Cynthia Anderson (chid@uw.edu) due to an agreement with the College.
• CHID is an interdisciplinary major and minor that encourages students to explore complex social, cultural, and philosophical questions; many students participate in their robust department-led study abroad programs.

English 

• The largest department in the Humanities; we receive several questions questions about the programs.
• There is one major, but offers two options (Language, Literature and Culture and Creative Writing) and two minors (English and Technical and Professional Communication).
• English, Creative Writing is a capacity-constrained major requiring an application for admission.
• A majority of Composition (C) credit courses are offered through this department, so many registration and course evaluation inquiries will relate to these courses.
• English Composition (C) courses are often linked to First Year Interest Groups (FIGs) in Autumn Quarter. Students who need Composition credit but do not wish to enroll in a FIG are encouraged to take a course in Winter or Spring instead.
• Writing (W) credit courses are also offered through this department, but students will find a wider range of W options across other departments. Encourage them to use the “Writing” filter in MyPlan to view all W-credit courses available in a given quarter.

English Department Contacts

• Internships: Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges (kgb@uw.edu)
• Composition: Stephanie Kerschbaum (kersch@uw.edu)
• Honors Program: Stephanie Clare (sclare@uw.edu)
• Master in Fine Arts: englgrad@uw.edu 
• Creative Writing: cwriting@uw.edu

French & Italian Studies

• One major (French) and three minors (French, Italian, Textual Studies and Digital Humanities).
• For French language courses, the department prioritizes students continuing the sequence during Registration Period 1. For example, a student moving from FRENCH 102 to 103 will have priority. Students who place into FRENCH 103 via the placement test must wait until Registration Period 2 to enroll, though there is usually still space available at that time.
• Italian courses typically have lower enrollment pressure, so students placing into a course or taking courses out of sequence generally do not encounter registration issues.

German Studies

• Not many student or faculty inquiries.
• The most common central inbox inquiry typically involves requests to promote departmental events.
• Two majors (German Studies and German Studies: Cultural Studies) and one minor (German).

Linguistics

• One major (Linguistics) and 2 minors (Linguistics and American Sign Language).
• The major requires one year each (or the equivalent) of two languages, one of which must belong to a family of languages different from the student's own native language. For native English speakers, this means one year of study of a non-Indo-European language. Here is a list of languages offered and the linguistics language requirement in more details.
• For Independent Study LING 499 A contracts, put them in the adviser liaison’s folder or forward it to them.

LING 499 Independent Study Registration Process

There are LING 499 Independent Study enrollment requests each quarter, so it’s important to know how to process them in case the HAS adviser who liaises with Linguistics is unavailable.

Contract Requirement: The student must provide a completed LING 499 contract.

Find Faculty Code (SRF 232)

1. Go to the Independent Study screen (SRF 232) in SDB.
2. Enter "0" for Branch.
3. Enter "LING" for the Curriculum Abbreviation.
4. A list of instructors approved for LING 499 will appear.
5. Find the appropriate faculty member and note their Sequence number which is the faculty code needed for registration.

Register the Student (SRF 104)

1. Go to the Registration screen (SRF 104).
2. Input the student’s information, course details, and the faculty code under the Instructor field.
3. Submit the registration.

Always confirm the following before submitting:

• Correct student
• Correct instructor
• Correct course (LING 499 A)
• Correct number of credits

Once registered, the faculty member will be able to assign a grade for the student that quarter.

LURAP

• The Linguistics Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (LURAP) matches Linguistics undergraduate research apprentices to graduate student and faculty led research projects.
• LURAP provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in original linguistic research.
• Undergraduate Research Apprentices will earn 1-5 units (CR/NC) in Linguistics 499B.
• The LURAP registration process is very involved every quarter. Here is a link with full details on the LURAP registration process.

Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures

• Fewer inquiries about this department in general.
• Offers three majors (Comparative Cultures, Hebrew Bible & Ancient Near East) and six minors (Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Middle Eastern Studies, Persian, Turkic, and Turkish).
• We may see requests from their faculty on providing add code for them. Since they have limited staff, we can assist with this request. Add codes can be found in SDB, under screen SRF 245. You will need to confirm the course(s) the instructor is teaching to provide all the add codes. 
• The most common central inbox inquiry typically involves requests to promote departmental events.

Scandinavian Studies

• Fewer inquiries about this department in general.
• ​​Program offers 5 majors (Scandinavian Area Studies, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish) and 9 minors (Baltic Studies, Scandinavian Area Studies, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, and Swedish).
• This department’s courses are often jointly offered with other departments, which can lead to questions about whether the joint listings are considered equivalent. Students may also ask if all versions of a jointly listed course carry the same General Education requirements. In most cases, the course content is the same, and Gen Ed designations apply across all joint listings, but it’s always best to double-check in the UW Course Catalog or Time Schedule.

Slavic Languages & Literatures

• Fewer inquiries about this department in general.
• Program Offers 3 majors (Eastern European Languages, Literature, and Culture, Russian Language, Literature, and Culture, and Global Literary Studies) and 2 minors (Russian Language and Slavic Languages).
• Global Literary Studies (GLITS) courses are often jointly offered with other departments. As a result, students may ask whether the jointly listed courses are equivalent and whether they fulfill the same General Education (Gen Ed) requirements. In most cases, the content and Gen Ed designations are the same across all joint listings, but it’s best to confirm using the UW Course Catalog or Time Schedule.

Spanish & Portuguese Studies

• The Language Learning Center (LLC) facilitates the placement/proficiency tests. Please refer students to the LLC at llc@uw.edu.
• SPS offers one major (Spanish) and two minors (Spanish and Portuguese Language and Luso-Brazilian Studies).
• There are many course registration policies - take some time to review and become familiar with them.
• In 2024, the department updated their major and minor requirements. Here are their current major and minor requirements, and a guide to supporting students who took courses under the previous requirements.
• The department asks us not to overload 100- and 200-level courses due to Teaching Assistant labor contract limits.
• Once a class is full, students should use seat notifications (Notify.UW) to be alerted if a spot opens. They’ll need to try enrolling right away, as others who signed up for alerts will also be trying to add the class.

• Courses at the 300- and 400-level are taught by full-time faculty; if a class is full, students should contact the instructor directly to request faculty permission to overload.

• Generally, we receive the most inquiries during Autumn registration (starts in May) and Winter registration (starts in November). Note: newly admitted students will want to enroll during the Summer Advising & Orientation.