Honors Course Offerings
Honors classes are characterized by their presentation of interesting and challenging coursework in a supportive, seminar-style format where you will actively engage in the learning process through vibrant discussions. In all your Honors classes, you are expected to demonstrate aptitude in critical thinking, communication, ethical reasoning, and creative exploration of ideas. You will work toward developing these skills further through full participation in the reading, writing, and research projects that are the focus of each Honors class.
For information on our classes, use the links below
Other HON class descriptions
Seminar in critical reading/writing
HON 190
Course description
Honors 190 is a reading- and writing-intensive course designed to introduce you to a liberal studies education. An important part of this course is your acquisition of specific skills:
- close reading
- analytical writing
- cogent speaking
- attentive listening
- critical thinking
The readings for this class, as well as the tasks required of you, have been carefully chosen and arranged in order for you to attain and enhance these skills.
Your 190 instructors come from a variety of departments and will help you to define and explore these key issues in a manner that reflects their unique training, specialties, and perspectives.
Select Fall 2012 Honors classes
Select Fall 2013 classes appearing soon!
Winning Arguments with Anyone
HON 240-1
Prerequisite: Honors Student Group AHI
Professor: Robyn Slayton-Martin
This course, using a variety of written texts, multimedia and pop culture examples, teaches the important art of persuasion and deliberative argument. It provides students with important tools and strategies to use so that you can win over anyone when arguing about anything!
Philosophy of the Undead: Vampires and Zombies
HON 240-3
Prequisite: Honors Student Group AHI
Professor: Constance DeVevereaux
This course approaches the mythologies and histories of the undead from a philosophical point of view emphasizing the aesthetic nature of their representation in a variety of forms: literature, film, visual and performing arts, documentary and comedic mock-umentary. The philosophical underpinnings of stories and images of vampires and zombies highlight many political and social concerns emphasized through aesthetic means. The course provides students with an overview of philosophy and aesthetics as tools for exploring the ongoing popularity of the undead as cultural forms. Students will read selected philosophical texts, as well as a wide range of literature – both historical and contemporary – in the vampire and zombie genres. The course will also expose students to film, visual art, and other artistic forms dealing with vampire and zombie lore. The course is reading and writing intensive and emphasizes inquiry in the aesthetic domain.
Introduction to Playwriting
HON 291-
Professor: Kerri Quinn
In this course we will examine the elements of craft necessary to the construction of various narrative forms including the short story, the short-short, and the prose poem. Through practice (individual and collaborative writing assignments) we will explore the elements and techniques that these forms share, keeping the focus on the student writer and on the writing process.
The workshop component will provide you with the opportunity to write and complete your own work, read and discuss the work of others, and to revise your work for your final portfolio.
Reading assignments will offer illustrations of concepts with attention to variety in style and mood and encourage you to analyze narrative styles and choices as you learn how to read as a writer. In addition, we will read and examine professional writers’ thoughts on the craft, the business, and future of writing. Discussions will place you in dialogue with published authors—as you begin to develop habits and patterns of writing, as well an understanding of the different ways to create art.
Privilege, Power and Difference, Performing Diversity in Contemporary America
HON 292-1
Professor: Season Ellison
Performance is a valuable tool through which artists and audiences alike may grapple with difficult problems in the contemporary world. In this course, we will use performance as a tool to interrogate the larger concepts of Privilege, Power, and Difference in America. We will turn to theatre, film, fiction, poetry, and daily life performance to consider the question: “What does difference mean in contemporary American society.” The answers will vary widely depending on ability, class, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexuality—in fact, defining answers may not be possible at all! However, it is through our questioning that we will develop a better understanding of our society and those people we view as different from ourselves in our ever-shrinking, global world.
Gravity
HON 293-1
Professor: Peter Kosso
This class will be a study of theories of gravity. We will clarify the descriptions of gravity from Aristotle – a stone falls because it seeks its natural place at the center of the universe, to Newton – a stone falls because of an instantaneous force from the massive earth, to Einstein – a stone falls because, with no forces acting, it follows the curved geodesic of spacetime. Equally important to understanding these scientific results will be understanding the scientific methods. By studying how the theories were derived and tested, we will try to clarify what makes science scientific.
The Story of Water
HON 392-1
Professor: Cassandra Dakan
Life depends on it. Civilizations rise and fall because of it. Humans revere and fight over it. Futures will be shaped by it. This course explores the natural and cultural dimensions of this precious resource.