The Honors Program seminars change every semester, but most fulfill General Education requirements. Enrollment in Honors seminars is limited to 15 students to ensure direct and regular interaction with professors and engage in active discussion during class sessions.
Fall 2024 Seminars
HON 201 The Individual and Society
Instructors: Thomas Festa (English), Madeleine Arseneault (Philosophy), Hamilton Stapell (History), Patricia A. Sullivan (Digital Media & Journalism, Honors), & Vicki Tromanhauser (English)
GE Requirement: Humanities (HUM)
Investigates the relationship between the individual and society through discussion of the philosophic, literary, and historical aspects of major texts.
HON374 The Materials of History, Thought, and Art
Instructor: Cyrus Mulready (English)
GE Requirement: World History and Global Awareness
An interdisciplinary seminar in material cultural studies, this course examines how human interactions with objects and the learned environment have shaped culture and intellectual endeavor through time.
HON 382 Introduction to Sustainability
Instructor: Andrea Varga (Theatre Arts)
Introduction to Sustainability Seminar: An exploration of regenerative, just, and sustainable strategies for the environment and society: Utilizing the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development students will examine the three pillars of sustainability - environment, society, economics - to promote and practice regenerative, just and transformative solutions for contemporary challenges as global citizens. Students will explore how today’s human societies can endure and build healthier systems in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. Cross-disciplinary study and perspectives will be utilized to promote systems-thinking and understanding.
HON383 Human Ecology: Humans and Nature in a New Millennium
Instructor: Eric Keeling (Biology)
GE Requirement: Natural Science
In this course, students will combine scientific knowledge and methods, field experiences, philosophical arguments, social theories, and their own disciplinary expertise and creativity to explore contemporary and perennial questions about humans and nature.
HON393 Culture Jamming
Instructor: Megan Sperry (Digital Media & Journalism)
In this course students will be asked to think critically about the messages that are being portrayed in popular media. The course will draw attention to the power of media, and its influence on society, particularly to our values and personal views surrounding consumerism. Students will be asked to produce creative projects that illustrate their understanding of media literacy and ethics.
Spring 2024 Seminars
HON 316 Debates in U.S. History
Instructor: Patricia A. Sullivan (Digital Media & Journalism, Honors)
GE Requirement: US History and Civil Engagement
An exploration of selected and pivotal topics in the history of the United States from the colonial period through today. Politics, economics, society, and culture will be examined focusing on primary source documents and images.
HON 378 Humans at Play
Instructor: Doug Maynard (Psychology)
An exploration of play across the human lifespan in all of its myriad forms, including play's possible functions, subjective experiences, communities, and the influence of culture and technology.
HON 375 Doing Race and Gender
Instructor: Anne Roschelle (Sociology)
GE Requirement: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice
Using feminist and racial-ethnic theories we will analyze how gender, race, and class oppression shape the experiences of women and how we, as agents of social change, can translate these theoretical insights into methodological strategies.
HON 381 Ethical Fashion: Understanding Consumerism, Globalization, Justice & Sustainability Through Textiles
Instructor: Andrea Varga (Theatre Arts)
Utilizing the Global Goals for Sustainable Development as a framework, students will explore textile, dress and adornment history relating practices from prehistory through the present day to our relationship with textiles, consumer behaviors and sustainability. This course will allow students to understand personal choices and behavior (from understanding fibers to personal economics, and social communication, regulations and industry standards) and connect them to the globalized fashion industry. Students will explore the implications of consumer choices on the environment, people, and other living creatures by utilizing research tools and data available through organizations like Fashion Revolution and Good on You. Students will have the opportunity to empower themselves as consumers to have a voice and be a change agent by making informed choices and communicating sustainability norms to the companies that they engage with.
HON 393 Who are we? Collective Identification in the Contemporary World
Instructor: Benjamin Junge (Anthropology & Latin American and Caribbean Studies)
Who are we? This interdisciplinary course explores how emergent digital technologies and theoretical innovations across the social sciences the humanities have opened up new possibilities for collective identification. The course relies on a series of ethnographic case studies, each focused on a different construction of collective identity--a different "we". Case address the themes of nationalism; race, ethnicity and indigeneity; populism; diaspora; post-humanism; virtual activism; emergent genetic technologies; and collective memory/nostalgia.
HON 379 Love & Heartbreak
Instructor: Lisa Phillips (Digital Media & Journalism)
Romantic love is one of the most fundamental aspects – perhaps the most fundamental aspect – of being human. We will explore love and heartbreak as media and literary narratives, psychological phenomena, and lived experience.
