Fall 2012 Honors Courses
Honors 201, Perennial Questions (3 Hours Credit)
HON 201 H Section A
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Perennial Questions
TH 9:30–10:45 Dr. Michael Papazian
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HON 201 H Section B
|
Perennial Questions
TH 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:
It is clear that Western civilization is the result of at least two major influences: Judaism and Hellenism ("Greek things"). From the Jews came religion, ethics, law and a lot of other things. From the Greeks came philosophy, science, logic and a lot of other things. But there's a conflict between the Greek focus on reason and the Jewish focus on faith. How has that conflict worked to produce the civilization that we all live in and which structures our lives? We will attempt to answer this question by reading some of the great books from both Jerusalem and Athens.
Honors 201, Perennial Questions (3 Hours Credit)
HON 201 H Section C
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Perennial Questions MWF 9:00-9:50 Dean Tom Kennedy
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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 questions 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?
HON 203 H, Democracy and
Its Friendly Critics (3 Hours Credit)
HON 203 HB Democracy and Its Friendly Critics TH 2:00 – 3:15 Dr. Michael Bailey
|
Course meets these requirements:
- Required course for all honors
students
- General Education core
requirement in Behavioral & Social Sciences -- 200 level for
Government and International Studies.
Course
description:
America's leading statesmen such as James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt
understood that popular government is extremely difficult to sustain. They
understood what we largely have forgotten: Democracy, like all forms of government,
comes with its own set of challenges and pathologies. These lessons
about democracy are best expressed by Alexis de Tocqueville, a critic, albeit a
friendly one, of American democracy who thoughtfully and forcefully
articulated the dangers facing the emerging democratic world. This
course will use Tocqueville's Democracy in America to illustrate the perpetual issues and problems of
democracy—many of which are still very real despite our being blind to them—and
we will also draw on works of literature, philosophy, film, and theology to
give concrete meaning to these problems as they are manifested in American
political and social life.
BIO 107, The Great Neglected Diseases (4 Hours Credit)
BIO 107 HB with lab
|
Great Neglected Diseases TH 8:00-9:15 Dean Bruce Conn
Lab meets on Thursday 2:00-4:00
|
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:
An initiative known as “The Great Neglected Diseases” campaign was begun several years ago by various humanitarian 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 from the instructor’s background as an international researcher and scientific advisor to the U.S. State Department and White House, 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.
COM 203, Rhetoric and Public Address, Honors (3
Hours Credit)
COM 203 H section C
|
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.
ECO 110, Principles of Economics I, Honors (3
Hours Credit)
ECO 110 H Section G
|
Principles of Economics
I MWF 11:00-11:50
Dr. Lauren Heller
|
Course
meets these requirements:
- An HON 250 course (3 of 9
elective required hours for all Honors students)
- General Education core
requirement in Behavioral and Social Sciences—Economics (3 of 9 hours required)
Course
description:
Analysis of how markets determine prices and the role of the price system in society. Introduction of the factors that determine macroeconomic activity and growth. Discussion of the American financial system and international trade. Consistent with the placement in the College's general education curriculum, this course emphasizes economic literacy for understanding historical and current events.
Honors 250HA/PSY 385IA, Psychology of Women (3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section A
|
Psychology of Women
MWF 11:00 - 11:50
Dr. Susan Conradsen
|
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
|
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 writer’s workshop and will respond to a different writing prompt on the
final exam.
Honors 250HC/HIS 450B, History of Rock ‘n Roll
(3 Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section C
|
History of Rock ‘n Roll TH 9:30-10:45 Dr.
Christy Snider
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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:
This
course focuses on the rise and development of rock-and-roll music in the United
States in the wake of World War II.
Students will explore how music was shaped by events and culture, even
as society and culture were shaped by the music of the United States and the
wider English-speaking world. This is
not a music theory class or a music history class, but a course which will
analyze the influence and role popular music had on development of U.S.
society, culture, and politics.
Honors 250HD/REL 360A, Religion & Film (3
Hours Credit)
HON 250H Section D
|
Religion & Film
MW 2:00 – 3:15 Dr. Jeffrey
Lidke
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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:
How can art, particularly film, be
used as an effective medium through which to address philosophical and
religious issues? In this course we
will carefully evaluate these questions through the viewing and analysis of a
variety of films—from diverse genres and cultures—which, in their distinct
ways, address the diverse and complex questions posed by philosophers and
theologians throughout the world and across the ages.
Honors 251HA, Oxbridge Lecture Series: What
Should Law Do? (3 Hours Credit)
HON 251H Section A
|
Oxbridge Lecture
Series TH 3:30-4:45 Dr. Brian Carroll
|
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:
This course explores the related questions,
“What should law do?” and “How should law do it?” As corollary questions, the
course asks what a citizen should look to law to reasonably accomplish, and how
law should go about accomplishing these desired outcomes. The course seeks to
help students think about the nature of law and to step outside the realm of
law in order to critically examine that realm, and to interrogate the
assumptions and values implicit in U.S. jurisprudence in particular, realizing
that U.S. law is one way to “do law,” but not the only way, even in the Western
tradition. In exploring what law can or should do, the course also asks
students to hone their own understandings of liberty, and to think through
notions of sovereignty, power, coercion, citizenship,
community, and national identity.
Honors Thesis
Register
for HON 450H if you are starting your thesis.
Register for HON 451H if you have completed HON 450H.
To register for a thesis course, you will need an authorization form (available
on this webpage-http://www.berry.edu/provost/honors/page.aspx?id=7879)
signed by your thesis director. (Be
certain to have the other committee members’ names indicated on the form). Also
obtain a reasonably detailed description of the work to be completed during the
semester provided by your thesis director. Bring both the description and the
signed authorization form to Dr. Carroll for his signature. Take the signed
authorization form to the Registrar’s window to have the course added. (This
process should be done during pre-registration.) After the course is added
to Viking Web, your thesis director will need to authorize you to take the
course before you can finally register for it on Viking Web.
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. Carroll.