Fall 2008 Honors Courses
ENG 102, Rhetoric and Writing, Honors (3 Hours Credit)
ENG 102 H section D
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Critical Inquiry and Writing TH 9:30 – 10:45
Dr. Lara Whelan
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- General Education core requirement in Communication (3 of 9 hours required)
Course description:
The purpose of the course is to prepare students to
become knowing and productive participants in academic, cultural, or civic
discourse. Students will learn to use multiple and sustained modes of critical
inquiry to build arguable perspectives within particular cultural contexts and
conversations. These modes might include writing to learn, report, review,
criticize, clarify, convince, persuade, or negotiate. In addition, students will
be coached in the rhetorical concepts of persona, ethos & pathos, argument
structure, counterargument, and logical fallacy. By the end of the course,
students will be able to summarize, evaluate, and synthesize multiple sources in
order develop a critical perspective and advance a thesis of their own. Students
will also receive guidance in the evaluation and appropriate documentation of
print and non-print sources (e.g., online databases, world wide web, film,
photography, television, etc.).
COM 203, Rhetoric and Public Address, Honors (3 Hours Credit)
COM 203 H section B
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Rhetoric and Public Address MWF 1:00 - 1:50 Dr. Bob Frank
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- General Education core requirement in Communication (3 of 9 hours required)
Course description:
This class surveys pivotal rhetorical documents of
American movements for social change including abolitionist, women's rights,
civil rights, and environmentalism. Through written rhetorical analysis and oral
presentations on social justice issues, students will understand rhetorical
strategies that best promote social justice.
Honors 201, Perennial Questions: What is the Good Life?
(3 Hours Credit)
HON 201 HA
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Perennial Questions TH 12:30-1:45 Dr. Michael Cooley
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HON 201 HB
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Perennial Questions TH 2:00-3:15 Dr. Michael Cooley
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Course meets these requirements:
- Required course for all Honors students
- Counts as the 200-level literature requirement or the fifth free elective
course in the Humanities general education core (3 of 15 hours required)
Course description:
The course investigates the “perennial question” of
what makes a life “good” and how best one might understand and pursue that “good
life.” Readings from classical and contemporary philosophy, literature,
psychology, sociology, pop-culture, religion and education each provide
perspectives on the question of “What is a Good Life?” Four films provide
further perspectives on the basic issue of the good life.
Class is conducted
as a seminar; discussion of assigned readings rather than lecture is the general
format for class. Reading journals and a term essay are required.
Honors 201, Perennial Questions (3 Hours Credit)
HON 201 HC
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Perennial Questions MW 2:00 – 3:15 Dr. Michael Papazian
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Course meets these requirements:
- Required course for all Honors students
- Counts as the 100-level philosophy course requirement or the fifth free
elective course in the Humanities general education core (3 of 15 hours
required)
Course description:
This course is an honors introduction to the main
questions and problems of philosophy. The best way to approach these questions
is to read, discuss, and write about how some of the best philosophers have
answered them. So we will read and discuss how philosophers such as Plato,
Augustine, Descartes, Nietzsche and others have dealt with such questions as the
following: Is there any good reason to believe in God? Or is it OK to believe
things without good reasons? Is the mind a machine like a computer or is it not
physical at all? Are moral positions just subjective opinions? What is the
relationship of religion and morality? How should human societies be organized?
What is the purpose of education? Why should we care about any of
this?
Honors 250A/PSY 385, Psychology of Women (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section A
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Psychology of Women MWF 11:00 - 11:50
Dr.
Susan Conradsen
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- Counts as the psychology course requirement in the Behavioral and Social
Sciences general education core (3 of 9 hours required)
- May count toward the major with departmental approval
Course description:
This course is an interdisciplinary investigation of
the psychological, social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of gender in our
society. In particular, the unique issues and challenges to women’s
psychological well-being created by the impact of society (both direct and
indirect) and culture will be addressed. Some of the specific topics we will
cover include how gender identity is formed, the preponderance of sexist
stereotypes, how the media influences our ideas of masculinity and femininity,
the occupational and domestic challenges women face, the culture of violence
against women across their lives, the experience of birth and mothering, love
relationships, and other developmental events unique to women’s development such
as menstruation and menopause. Throughout the course the existence of sexism
within American culture and beyond will be covered such as inequity in political
representation and salaries, sex trafficking, female genital mutilation, and
role expectations. This class is a discussion oriented class. Students take
weekly quizzes, complete a group presentation on a topic of their choice, and
complete five writing assignments.
Honors 250B/COM 416IA, Media Law (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section B
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Media Law MWF 1:00 - 1:50 Dr. Brian Carroll
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- May count toward the major with departmental approval
Course description:
Constitutional and legislative foundations of freedom
of speech and press, with special emphasis on the law of privacy, libel,
censorship, access and broadcast regulation.
We examine the delicate balance
that exists between freedom and control of the media in the United States. The
First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is, of course, the major guarantee of
freedom of expression. Since the courts, especially the U.S. Supreme Court, are
ultimately responsible for interpreting the First Amendment and maintaining the
balance between freedom and control, our study focuses on judicial decisions and
reasoning, examining how tensions in the law are resolved. Other very
significant sources of press freedoms and controls exist, as well, including
those produced and enforced by the marketplace, government regulation and even
popular opinion or sentiment. Therefore, we consider other factors that
influence the balance between freedom and control of mass communication,
including statutory law, executive and administrative actions, and ethical
concerns. The course also examines how the nature of a medium affects or even
dictates how it is controlled or not controlled.
Honors 250C/PSY 370A, History and Systems of Psychology
(3 Hours Credit)
HON250 H
Section C
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History and Systems of Psychology TH 9:30-10:45
Dr. Richard Hughes
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- Counts as the psychology course requirement in the Behavioral and Social
Sciences general education core (3 of 9 hours required)
- May count as one of the two free electives, outside of major/minor, required
for graduation.
Course description: Modern Psychology
is a diverse, multi-perspective discipline that seeks to describe, to predict,
and to explain human mental and behavioral processes. The major objective of
this course is to introduce the student to the many theoretical
perspectives-both past and present-that psychologists use to understand human
and animal behavior. Throughout its short history, psychology has been through
many important ‘revolutions’ in terms of how the discipline views the causes of
why we think and behave as we do. At any point in its past, what academic
psychology believed to be the appropriate subject matter was greatly influenced
by older, more established traditions such as philosophy, the physical and
natural sciences, theology, and anthropology; today, though modern psychology
continues to be affected by these traditions, conceptual analogies from computer
science and research on genes and behavior also permeate contemporary
psychological science.
HON 250D/BIO 107A, The Great Neglected Diseases
(4 Hours Credit)
HON 250 H, Section D
HON 250 HD, Lab
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Great Neglected Diseases TH 8:00-9:15 Dr. Bruce Conn
Lab meets on Thursday 2:00-4:00
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (4 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors students)
- General Education core requirement in Math and Natural Sciences (4 of 11
hours required)
Course description:
For humanitarian reasons, an initiative known as “The
Great Neglected Diseases” campaign was begun by the Rockefeller Foundation and
other groups around the world that were seeking to increase an awareness among
residents of North America and western Europe of the plight of tropical
Third-World countries in dealing with health problems unique to or vastly more
devastating in the tropics. A major focus of this program was to generate
funding for and increase research activity related to tropical parasitic
diseases. Many public health experts now warn that global warming, which so
often grabs today’s environmental headlines, will allow the spread of some
tropical diseases into what have been temperate latitudes.
We can only hope
that as we continue to learn about parasites, the diseases they cause will
become less “neglected,” and in turn will ultimately come to be problems that
are not as “great” as they now are. Otherwise, as our planet continues to
shrink, our problem with parasitic diseases will loom larger than ever. This
course, taught by an internationally recognized authority in parasitology, draws
the student into a deep interdisciplinary exploration of the biological,
economic, political, and cultural aspects of these diseases and the peoples and
societies that they affect.
Honors 251A, Oxbridge Lecture Series: Got Freedom of
Expression®? (3 Hours Credit)
HON 251H Section A
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Oxbridge Lecture Series MW 3:30-4:45 Dr. Brian Carroll
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250/251 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honors
students)
- May count as one of the two free electives, outside of major/minor, required
for graduation.
- May count toward the major with departmental approval
Course description:
Got Freedom of Expression®? examines the origins and
historically unique character of the First Amendment, the evolution in
interpretations of its freedoms over time, and the contemporary challenges to
one of the United States’ most basic laws. These challenges include
technological change, a seemingly endless war, religiosity in politics, and, as
Neil Postman persuasively argued, the ignorance that results from a society’s
members “amusing ourselves to death.”
Honors Thesis
Register for HON 450H if you are starting your thesis.
Register for HON
451H if you completed HON 450H last semester.
You will need an
authorization form signed by your thesis director, department chair, and the
honors director.
Honorization of Courses
“HONORIZING ” a course or a course within a major.
As
you know, an honors student may request to change a “regular” course within a
major into an honors course. Follow the procedure below.
BEFORE you begin
attending the course, during registration, meet with the instructor. Print and
take the form with you (see Forms on the Honors Web page); this form has
guidelines for you and your instructor. Discuss with the faculty member your
interest in receiving “honors” credit for a particular course. He or she will
define the nature of the honors work to be completed.
Honorizing any course
is NOT Permitted after the first week of classes.
Complete your part of the
form and return the form to Dr. Cooley.