Fall 2010 Honors Courses
ENG 102, The Rhetoric of Analysis & Argumentation, Honors (3 Hours
Credit)
ENG 102 H section A
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Critical Inquiry and Writing MWF 9:00 –
9:50
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 C
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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 TH 9:30–10:45 Dr. Michael Papazian
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HON 201 HD
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Perennial Questions MW 3:30-4:45 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 250HA/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 250HB/COM 416IA, Media Law (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section B
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Media Law MWF 1:00 - 1:50 Dr. Kathy Richardson
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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 libel, privacy,
censorship, access and broadcast regulation.
Topics include discussion of the
ways in which the interests of the state, society and individuals have been
balanced in such arenas as political speech, commercial speech, sexual
expression, student speech and technological change. For example, examining the
changes in the freedoms or restrictions governing student speech require an
examination of the purposes served by public and private K-12 educational
systems; the changes in both prompted by social movements from the integration
of the 1950s to the social conservative movement of the 1980s, and the changes
in technologies available to students inside and outside the school
environments.
Honors students will be required to complete an annotated
bibliography as they prepare for the major research-based essay required of all
students. They will also complete a more detailed writer’s workshop report and
will respond to a different writing prompt on the final exam.
HON 250HC/REL 320IA, Religion in American History (3 Hours
Credit)
HON250 H Section C
|
Religion in American History TH 2:00-3:15 Dr. Harvey
Hill
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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 Religion gen. ed. requirement or the fifth free elective in
the Humanities general education core (3 of 9 hours required)
- 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:
The topics included in this study of religion in American history are quite
diverse and include bits on Native American religions, different world religions
in the US (e.g. Buddhism, Islam), a range of Christian denominations, and new
religious movements. The course will be significantly historical, proceed
chronologically and will relate the different religions discussed to the
relevant time periods. At the same time, the course will have a significant
theological component. Topics will include the evolution of mainstream
Christianity over time in response to changing historical circumstances and
particularly in response to growing religious pluralism.
HON 250HD, Science Fiction and Politics (3 Hours
Credit)
HON 250 HD
|
Science Fiction and Politics MWF 12:00-12:50 Dr. John
Hickman
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Course meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9 elective required hours for all Honor
students)
- An elective requirement for the Government major or minor (GOV
450)
Course description:
Writers and filmmakers have long found science fiction irresistible as a
vehicle for arguing their politics. This course explores the political in
science fiction’s stories of dystopian societies and encounters with the
extraterrestrial, machine or post-human Other. Implicit or explicit in these
stories are questions about individual identity, and thus the legal rights
associated with that identity, and about human nature, and thus political
ideology. Typical of the assignments would writing an essay on the possible
scope of the legal rights that might be extended to the short lived artificial
humans in the 1982 film Blade Runner and David Brin’s 2002 novel
Kiln People. This course also explores the effect of popular anxieties
in the 20th century that made specific works of science fiction effective as
vehicles for political arguments.
HON 250HE/BIO 107A, The Great Neglected Diseases
(4 Hours Credit)
HON 250 H, Section E
HON 250 HE, Lab
|
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.
HON 250HF/WNS 344A/SOC 450A, Social Movements (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section F
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Social Movements MW 2:00-3:15 Dr. Carrie Baker
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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 or minor with departmental approval
Course description:
Movements for social change have profoundly shaped the
world we live in. In this course, we will address fundamental questions about
social movements. What is a social movement? When do they occur? How are they
organized? Who joins them? How do movements try to gain influence? What effects
do movements have on society? Drawing on scholarship from multiple disciplines,
including sociology, history and political science, this course will engage with
theoretical debates in the study of social movements, as well as empirical
studies about particular social movements.
HON 250HG/WNS 344B/SOC 450B, Sexual Harassment (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section G
|
Sexual Harassment TH 2:00-3:15 Dr. Carrie Baker
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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 or minor with departmental approval
Course description:
This course is an interdisciplinary examination of
sexual harassment historically and today in a variety of locations, including
the workplace, schools, the home, the military, and on the street. We will
explore the emergence and evolution of the social movement opposing sexual
harassment and study how this movement advanced law and public policy on the
issue in the United States. We will explore how relations of power based on
gender, race, class, sexuality, age, disability, and nationality shape people’s
experiences of sexual harassment and their responses to it.
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.