Courses in the Honors College
Please note: this list may be incomplete and will be updated with new information as it is received. If you have questions about the following courses, please contact honors@wsu.edu.
A wide variety of course topics are available to Honors College students. Please check back often, as changes may occur until the semester begins. Need an appointment with an Honors College advisor? Stop by the Honors College main office in Elmina White Honors Hall 130 or phone 509-335-4505.
Course descriptions are intended to provide general information about the scope of the class, the name of the faculty member teaching it, credits, and texts. All descriptions are posted as soon as possible the semester preceding so students can consider their options and plan accordingly. Listings from previous semesters are located at the bottom of this page.
Fall 2026
HONORS 201.1*
MESI Workshop Series
Instructor: Robin Bond
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Introduction to Mindfulness
Research into mindfulness has shown that regular practice can offer benefits for physical and emotional health (for example, reduced stress, improved sleep, reduced anxiety, just to name a few). This one-credit class offers an experiential introduction to mindfulness. In our class meetings we will explore different approaches to practicing mindfulness and introduce information on how mindfulness can benefit us. Occasional guests will present on their own experiences and offer a variety of practices. Each meeting will begin with a practice session followed by open discussion and exploration of topic for the week. The class can serve as an introduction for those with no experience in mindfulness and can also support students who are already familiar, offering an opportunity for deepening self-awareness and mindful presence.
Assignments will include a weekly brief written reflection on the meeting, along with suggestions for optional practices outside of class. This course may be repeated for credit. The class is part of the Honors College Mindfulness-based Emotional and Social Intelligence (MESI) program and satisfies one (1) MESI workshop credit. The class is open to any student in the honors college and there is no requirement to be pursuing the MESI certificate.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate.
HONORS 211.1*
Introduction to Community Engagement
Instructor: Jessica Perone
This class includes a service-learning component in collaboration with the Center for Civic Engagement.
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Note: Class Dates: September 15 – Nov 17
Students will develop academic, personal, and professional skills through community engagement and critical reflection. Over the 10-week course, the class will meet once per week for seven weeks, with three weeks dedicated to participating in community engagement projects. Class sessions will include discussions, guest speakers, and interactive workshops. Students will explore how they can create positive social change while engaging with topics such as reciprocity, equity, human rights, advocacy and activism, civic leadership, social justice, civil discourse, environmental justice, socioeconomic status, and discrimination.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
HONORS 212.1*
Active and Immersive Community Engagement
Instructor: Jessica Perone
This class includes a service-learning component in collaboration with the Center for Civic Engagement.
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student, Must have taken Honors 211
Students will complete 45 hours of community service (approximately 3–5 hours per week) to deepen their understanding of critical issues facing society and explore social issues they are passionate about. Students will work with the instructor to establish an ongoing relationship with an appropriate community partner for their community service projects. Throughout the course, students will submit reflection assignments through Canvas to connect their service experiences with course themes.
Through this experience, students will develop a stronger sense of social responsibility, greater intercultural understanding, and the ability to collaborate effectively while building leadership and communication skills. This course fulfills one credit of the Community Engagement requirement for Honors students in the Mindfulness-based Emotional and Social Intelligence (MESI) certificate program.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
HONORS 270.1
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Tekla Schmaus
Prerequisite: Must be an Honors Student
Honors 270: The Archaeology of Death and Burial
When you think of archaeology, you may think of burials and tombs. And although they’re cool on their own, archaeologists think it’s even more interesting to use those burials to help us understand what life was like in the societies in which those people lived. We’ll start with an introduction to how anthropologists think about death, and then move on to an overview of archaeological methods.
After that, we’ll tackle some archaeological questions, like: What beliefs did people have about the afterlife, and can we tell if a person died a “good” death? Can we use burials to determine if a society was egalitarian or hierarchical? How did people use burials to send signals about power or authority? Keeping in mind that the dead don’t bury themselves, what information can we glean about individual identities from burials? We’ll also discuss the politics and ethics of excavating human remains. Please be aware that there will be images of human remains. None of the images will be from cultures that prohibit such displays.
NOTE: Honors Introduction to Economics (ECONS 198) will fulfill the HONORS 270 requirement. It also counts as ECONS 101 and 102 for those who need them. There is also a special section of HD 205 (section #6 with Mary Kay Patton) that will fulfill the HONORS 270 requirement. This HD 205 section counts towards the MESI certificate.
HONORS 270.2
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Eugene Smelyansky
Prerequisite: Must be an Honors Student
Deviants, Heretics, and Outcasts: Understanding Persecution in Medieval Europe
Why do societies persecute some and tolerate others? What can looking at who is marginalized or kept out of power tell us about the society as a whole? How can we use social sciences to understand persecution, marginalization, and toleration in the past? This class will try to answer these questions by looking at medieval Europe. Often depicted as socially, culturally, and religiously homogeneous, medieval Europe was anything but that. And while violence and intolerance were common, important examples of toleration and coexistence complicate any simplistic understanding of the Middle Ages.
We will examine the lives of a broad spectrum of people who existed at the margins of medieval society: heretics, Jews and Muslims, the poor, the displaced and disabled, women, and those deemed sexually deviant. In the process, we will examine the social, political, and cultural factors that influenced persecution and toleration, and consider how some of the categories that enabled marginalization in the Middle Ages continue to shape intolerance to this day.
NOTE: Honors Introduction to Economics (ECONS 198) will fulfill the HONORS 270 requirement. It also counts as ECONS 101 and 102 for those who need them. There is also a special section of HD 205 (section #6 with Mary Kay Patton) that will fulfill the HONORS 270 requirement. This HD 205 section counts towards the MESI certificate.
HONORS 280.2
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Annie Lampman
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Please note: This is an online course
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
Creative Writing: Fiction, The Short Story
This is a creative writing course that introduces students to the art and craft of short-form fiction writing. We will read, analyze, and discuss award-winning short stories, complete writing exercises, and write two short stories while working to explore and develop short-story craft elements including characterization, point-of-view, dialogue, plot, scene and summary, setting, and the use of metaphorical language and themes. Throughout the semester, each student will have one of their short stories workshopped with written peer reviews and instructor feedback provided. No previous creative writing experience is necessary, although strong general writing abilities are required to do well in this course. This is also a MESI course where you will keep a mindfulness journal that is meant to correlate to your creative work.
Required Texts:
1. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway, ISBN#: 9780226616698
2. Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: 50 North American Stories since 1970, 2nd Edition, Michael Martone, ISBN#: 9781416532279
3. I Am Here Now: A Creative Mindfulness Guide and Journal, The Mindfulness Project, ISBN#: 9780399184444
HONORS 280.3
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Bill Kabasenche
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
Neuroscience, Ethics, Law, and Society
The findings of brain science are rapidly changing our understanding of human agency and decision-making, moral capacities, and even our sense of having a private thought life. All of this has significant implications for ethics, for moral and legal responsibility, and for many of the norms around which our society has been shaped. Some believe neuroscience disproves the claim that we think and act freely. Some believe we can enhance moral capacities like trust and generosity. Some believe we can hack the brain to live better lives, while cautioning that this will require us to give up a significant amount of mental privacy to do so.
In this course, we will examine the claims of neuroscientists, philosophers and ethicists, and legal scholars regarding all of this. In particular, we will consider the implications of neuroscience for free will and moral/legal responsibility, for addiction/substance use disorder, for enhancement of cognitive and moral capacities, and for tracking and controlling brain activity.
Required Course Materials:
1. Joshua May, Neuroethics: Agency in an Age of Brain Science (New York: Oxford UP, 2023). ISBN: 9780197648094
2. Nita Farahany, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2023). ISBN: 9781250272959
HONORS 280.4
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Grant Maierhoffer
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Adaptations of Shakespeare
This course will focus on the film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays. We’ll read and analyze a good number of the plays on their own for their poetry, drama, and language, and then look at the many different ways filmmakers have realized his works for the screen. Students will gain a deep understanding of one of the greatest writers who ever lived, and an appreciation for some of the greatest films ever made. Some of the films we’ll watch are Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, multiple iterations of Macbeth, multiple iterations of Hamlet, and others.
HONORS 280.5
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Cameron McGill
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Sibling Art: Poetry & Song
Do you think your favorite song could be a poem? Could your favorite poem be a song? Perhaps, though these questions may prove more difficult to answer than you initially might think. In an era of unlimited access to recorded music and the written word, the lines of the genre are blurring in beautiful ways. We will explore how these two disciplines (whose origins can be traced to the ancient
world) have carved out unique artistic spaces while seamlessly influencing one another. We will study works by contemporary avatars of each discipline: those who write poems, those who write songs, and those who write both. This course will explore the art and craft of poetry and lyric writing, and seek to answer the following questions: Where do these distinct disciplines overlap and diverge? Which craft elements and techniques are most transferable between the disciplines? Why are certain song lyrics referred to as “poetic” and their writers as poets? We will establish a groundwork of poetic terminology to aid our discussions, and seek out as Dr. Elizabeth Renker suggests, “the intersections between these sibling art forms.”
This course will provide foundational knowledge and the related tools with which to begin the effective reading, writing, and analysis of poetry and song lyrics. We will focus on honing your ability to read and analyze poems and song lyrics and to understand the techniques employed by writers to achieve meaning, feeling, and resonance. Through close reading and a discussion of terminology, craft, language, and form, we will seek to broaden the scope of techniques and styles available in your own writing. Coursework will include weekly reading and listening, craft exercises, a short pair presentation and discussion lead, group peer reviews, and a short craft analysis essay. And yes, you will write your own poems and lyrics (no previous musical knowledge is required, but if you have some, wonderful!). A final portfolio will combine your revised poems and lyrics, a revised poetry craft analysis, and a reflective letter. I aim for a fun, discussion-based, and collaborative learning environment!
Required Course Materials:
Addonizio, Kim, and Dorianne Laux. The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
All other readings will be available online or via Canvas.
HONORS 290.2
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Blythe Duell
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
The Psychology of Happiness: A Mindfulness-Based Approach
What does it mean to live a good life, and why does happiness sometimes feel elusive? This course introduces positive psychology, the scientific study of human flourishing, while also acknowledging that well-being is more than simply maximizing pleasant emotions. We take a wholeness approach, examining how both positive and negative experiences shape a meaningful life and how psychological resilience develops over time.
Students will examine research on gratitude, character strengths, compassion, flow, and the role of relationships on well-being. We will also consider common obstacles to happiness, including stress, rumination, and cognitive biases. Mindfulness will be woven throughout the course as both a contemplative practice and an evidence-based method for cultivating awareness and emotional balance.
Course activities include readings, reflective writing, experiential exercises, and guided mindfulness practices. By the end of the semester, students will understand key findings in the science of happiness and will have developed a set of empirically supported strategies to enhance their own well-being and support others
HONORS 290.4
Science as a Way of Knowing
(online course listed on the Pullman Campus Schedule)
Instructor: Joanna Schultz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
Please note: This is an online course
The Hungry Plague
The bestselling novel by MR Carey, “The Girl With All The Gifts” (2015), depicted the following: a future dystopian Earth caused by a worldwide plague. A highly infectious fungal pathogen, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis resulted in the near total demise of Homo sapiens as we define our species. We will examine how near human extinction occurred and evolution/natural selection operated in this postapocalyptic environment.
In this course, you will use the Socratic Method to assess the bridge between MR Carey’s bestselling novel, “The Girl With All The Gifts” and the evolutionary processes driving the fungal pathogen, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which at its core, is the fundamental element in the novel and the primary force behind the downfall of our species.
You will spend the first third of the semester examining evolutionary patterns and processes in an in class discussion format reading essays from Stephen J. Gould’s “Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History” as you read the novel. Subsequently, you will break into the Socratic Method partners to facilitate a discussion for the remainder of the term. You will be challenged to develop creative and critical thinking, information literacy, and written communication.
Black Box Warning: The novel contains language that might be offensive to some students (R rated).
Required Cours Materials:
1. “The Girl With All The Gifts”, MR Carey, Publisher: Reprint Edition. 2015. ISBN-10: 0316334758 ISBN-13: 978-0316334754
2. “Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History”, Stephen J. Gould, Publisher W.W. Norton and Company. 1993.
3. Free pdf download: https://www.docdroid.net/wx3my2U/eight-little-piggies-stephen-jay-gould-pdf
HONORS 370.1
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Vilma Navarro-Daniels
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 270 or ECONS 198, or transferrable degree.
Crossing Paths Between the Public and the Private
“Most films are more faithful to sociology in establishing the context of their plot
than in unravelling the plot itself.” – Nicholas Demerath
This course interweaves analysis of cinematography and culture in film to reveal how societies respond to contemporary issues in a global context. It is taught in the discipline of Film Studies, an interdisciplinary field that integrates knowledge of cinematography, visual arts, history, literature, music, theater, politics, economics, gender, and race to promote a greater understanding of film as a cultural product. In other words, in this course, students will learn how film interpretation requires the exercise of what has been called “sociological imagination.” Why? Because cinema introduces the viewers to cultural, social, economic, and historical realities beyond their own personal realities and experiences as culturally, socially, economically, and historically situated human beings. Therefore, as viewers, we need to learn that any narrative is constructed within a social context, which is reflected in and by such narrative. Films, as socially and culturally built narratives, may support hegemonic points of view or, conversely, they can challenge, subvert, and destabilize those perspectives.
Students will broaden and deepen their knowledge of film by exploring cinematic traditions outside of the United States. Through the study of films from a variety of countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Morocco, and South Africa), students will develop a “cinematic vocabulary” to discuss film and gain a sense of film as a text with visual, auditory, and semantic elements key to comprehend its deeper meaning. By applying these analytical and interpretative strategies, students will understand film as a medium that embodies the society and culture in which it was produced.
As this course focuses on films produced in twelve different countries, students will critically learn about the complexities of social, cultural, and political changes experienced by a variety of peoples around the world. Through the eyes of a group of characters of diverse age, race, nationality, language, religious beliefs, gender, social class, culture, and ideology, students are invited to look at other societies in a totally new way, letting the film protagonists “take” them to their homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, towns, and cities, places where students will “meet” the characters’ families and friends, but also the potential enemies and dangers that surround them. Through these fictitious personas, students are introduced to worlds that, perhaps, they do not even suspect may exist. Students learn about the interaction between the social and the individual, the public and the domestic realm, the historical and the transcendental, and the dynamics between political constraints and the intimacy. In brief, students are invited to witness the lives of others, their struggles and fears, but also their dreams and hopes.
This course includes comedy as well as historical, political, religious, animation, and coming of age films, among other genres. Students will become active participants in the film viewing experience, rather than mere spectators, by developing the skills to achieve a more discerning “reading” of films produced outside their own social and cultural contexts, exploring the familiar in otherness (and vice versa). Students will be able to differentiate and value the cultural diversity represented in these films, and, therefore, re-interpret the place of the self as an identity culturally situated. They will study and analyze representative films from different cinematic traditions, considering the historical, social, and political context in which they were produced, and how this context is represented in these films.
Students will greatly develop their skills and abilities to communicate in a persuasive way in both written and spoken language.
HONORS 370.2
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Bill Smith
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 270 or ECONS 198, or transferrable degree.
The United Nations
The UN and Global Diplomacy focuses on the United Nations system as it pertains to peace and security, health and humanitarian issues, economics, resources and development, and culture, The Course also considers the perspectives of various regions/nations (according to student interest) on such issues using modeling. Speaking and writing skills will be particularly emphasized.
This course tracks the development of a global, multilateral system that takes into account what developing nations “want” alongside the aims of the developed world. Students should retain the framework of this throughout their life and understand something about multilateral issues.
Enrolled students have the option of joining the Spring 2027 Honors College delegation to the National Model United Nations conference in New York City.
HONORS 370.3*
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Tekla Schmaus
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 270 or ECONS 198 or transferrable degree.
Honors 370: Animals and Society
Animals play many roles in our lives, whether as pets, food, or commodities. Have these roles changed through time? How do they vary between cultures? In this course, we’ll examine human-animal relationships and how they simultaneously shape and are shaped by society.
We’ll cover historical topics like domestication and the development of private property. We’ll think about the different ways the foods prepared and served at celebrations foster social relationships, and the ways different societies incorporate animals into their religious rituals and spiritual beliefs. We’ll also discuss the ways societies distinguish working animals from pets, and the social implications of these distinctions. Throughout the semester, we’ll also think about how our various interactions with animals shape our interactions with the environment. Students will also have the opportunity to do a small independent research project.
HONORS 380.1
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Colin Criss
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 280 or transferable degree.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
Poetry Outside of English
“Translation of poetry is a utopian project.” -Charles Simic
“Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” -Robert Frost
Can you translate poetry? No. Poetry is inseparable from the language and culture that submerge its composition. On the other hand, people do translate poetry. So, yes? Some (including I) would even say: we must translate poetry if we are to recognize and understand other people, particularly those who do not share our language. By doing so, I’d add, we understand ourselves…
This paradox will motivate our course: translation of poetry is both impossible and necessary. Poetry exists in all parts of the inhabited world. People, wherever they are, make poetry. I believe this adamantly—though we will argue over the definition of “poetry.” In this course, we’ll read widely across modern and contemporary international poetry in translation, and think carefully about the cultural contexts of those poems. At the same time, we’ll think about the translation of poems. We’ll do this through practice—each student will begin learning a language that is new to them, and begin to recognize and grapple with, in poems from that language, the impossible choices a translator has to make. This is an ethically perilous road, but an important one…
We will read translation theory. We’ll read multiple translations into English of the same poem from another language. Students will borrow from the library dictionaries and grammars in languages they are unfamiliar with. From all these resources, students will make initial translations of a few poems, and formulate their own theory of poetic translation.
Required Course Text: Into English: Poems, Translations, Commentaries.
HONORS 380.2*
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Melissa Parkhurst
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 280 or transferable degree.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
Music and the Mind
What can music offer us beyond entertainment, as one of humanity’s most powerful, accessible, and essential forms of medicine? Music and the Mind is an interdisciplinary exploration of how music perception, cognition, and emotion influence mood and act as potent therapies for a wide array of conditions, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
Examining the latest findings in neuro-musical research, we’ll consider the profound benefits of music on the brain, from language development to neuroplasticity to the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Through experiential activities and discussions of emerging neuro-musical discoveries, students will bridge the gap between artistic appreciation and empirical science, exploring the mechanisms through which music promotes wellbeing and fosters profound human connections.
Required Course Materials:
I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daneil Levitin. W.W. Norton & Company, 2024. ISBN: 978-1324036180
Additional readings will be available through WSU subscriptions.
HONORS 380.4
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Phil Gruen
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 280 or transferrable degree.
The Global Palouse
The Palouse region is popularly imagined as a picturesque landscape of rolling hills embedded with rich soils that permit the seasonal growth of wheat and lentils. This is, of course, an apt description. But too often, the picture stops there: the Palouse is infrequently understood for its transformation following conquest; its processes of production and distribution; its extractive economies and their environmental impact; and its regional and global spread. The Global Palouse will cover the region in a variety of manifestations: from hills to rivers, from campus to town; from people to place, from forests to fish, from dams to data centers. At times, our course content will include the broader Columbia River Plateau (including Walla Walla, the Tri Cities, northeastern Oregon, and northwestern Idaho).
The Global Palouse will be a seminar-style, discussion-based “flipped classroom” course. Active student participation and group-led, teaching-oriented presentations will accompany topic previews or research-oriented discussions given by the professor, often within the same class session. Informed and energetic involvement by the students will account for the majority of the semester grade. Students should consider Palouse- or Columbia River Plateau-related topics for their final projects but are welcome to seek topics aligned with their major field of interest or chosen profession.
A selection of articles, chapters, videos (or video clips), podcasts, and/or documentaries will accompany weekly themes or topics. Efforts will be made to provide course materials free of charge.
HONORS 380.5
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Annie Lampman
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 280 or transferrable degree.
Please note: This is an online course
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but open to all Honors Students
Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
In this creative writing course we will examine the role of memoir and personal narrative in shaping and defining how we see and experience the world. Through readings and analysis, discussion, and a variety of in-class writing exercises and essay/memoir writing work, we will explore the following questions: As global citizens, how can we represent our own experiences and stories through creative writing in a way that is universally understood and felt? How do we (and the authors we read) define/explore/write about the issues that trouble or fascinate us? What are we (and the authors we read) struggling to make sense of or understand about our own lives and the world around us?
Throughout the semester, we will work on developing the basic craft elements of creative nonfiction and each student will have one of their essays “workshopped” with written peer reviews and oral feedback provided. No previous creative writing experience is necessary, although strong general writing abilities are required to do well in this course. This is also a MESI course where you will keep a mindfulness journal that is meant to correlate to your creative work.
Required Course Materials:
1. Tell it Slant, Third Edition, Brenda Miller & Suzanne Paola, ISBN#: 9781260454598
2. Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction, Judith Kitchen, ISBN#: 9780393326000
3. Into Nature: A Creative Field Guide and Journal, The Mindfulness Project, ISBN#: 9781615194803
HONORS 390.1*
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Shane McFarland
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, PHYSICS 206, or transferable degree.
*This course qualifies as credit for the MESI Certificate but is open to all honors students
The Science and Practice of Mindfulness
The science and Practice of Mindfulness course integrates three key domains—mindfulness science, experiential practice, and prevention science—to deepen students’ understanding of how internal states influence global outcomes. Students will critically explore the science of mindfulness by examining operational definitions, measurement tools, effect sizes, and current research findings. Simultaneously, they will engage in progressive mindfulness practices designed to foster self-awareness, emotional regulation, and autonomy of practice. These experiential elements will be contextualized through a prevention science and public health framework, where students will assess the quality and applicability of mindfulness-based interventions using tools such as epidemiological data, logic models, literature reviews, needs assessments, and evidence-based program design. Emphasis will be placed on understanding how mindfulness is rigorously evaluated and applied in diverse settings to reduce risk factors and promote protective outcomes. By linking personal practice with empirical inquiry, the course equips students to critically evaluate the scalability, cultural relevance, and impact of mindfulness interventions on both individual and societal well-being.
HONORS 390.3
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: M Norton
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, PHYSICS 206, or transferable degree.
What A Load of Rubbish
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris that extends for more than 1.6 million square kilometers. Most of the debris is plastic waste that finds its way from land-based activities into the ocean. In this course, we will look at the following questions:
1. What is plastic?
2. Why does so much of it end up in the ocean or in landfills?
3. Why doesn’t plastic biodegrade?
4. How can we reduce our consumption and disposal of plastic?
By completing a “Plastics Inventory” at the beginning, middle, and at the end of the course students will identify how much plastic they use and what might be some possible alternatives. Students will also complete a “Plastics 360” where they will look around them and see how plastic has become part of almost every aspect of our daily lives.
In the second part of the course when we discuss the so-called “critical minerals”, students will explore where these minerals are found, how they are extracted, and why they are important. This will be an in-class activity.
The course will look at issues related to the extraction of critical minerals such as Coltan (a source of tantalum), which is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and fuels a vicious armed conflict and nickel, which is mined in Guatemala creating an environmental nightmare in the surrounding Mayan villages. These metals, and many others, are essential components of our modern technology and have been defined as “critical minerals”. We will look at why we need these minerals, are there more sustainable alternatives, and what role, if any, is recycling playing.
Finally, through a series of case studies, students will make cases for and against implementation of various “green” technologies, such as deep-sea mining and electric vehicles. This will involve group presentations.
HONORS 390.4
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
(online course listed on the Pullman Campus Schedule)
Instructor: Joanna Schultz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, PHYSICS 206, or transferable degree.
Please note: This is an online course
The Catastrophe of Man
Imagine living in a future dystopian Earth following the consequences of cataclysmic climate change, disease, food shortages, extinction, de-extinction, bioterrorism, GMOs, and class stratification. The world is reliant on genetically bio-engineered products, including foods, human organs, medicines, plants and animals, and even beauty treatments generated and marketed by large corporations, who employ scientists and the required personnel necessary to market these products. These employees live in secure, guarded compounds. The remainder of the human population live at risk outside these pristine, fenced areas at various income levels in the pleeblands. A bioengineered worldwide plague breaks down the entire infrastructure, killing most Homo sapiens. One man believes he is the only H. sapiens to survive the plague and is the unwilling guardian to a new, genetically engineered, human species known as the Crakers, developed to succeed under Earth’s hostile conditions.
In this course, we will explore many issues raised by Margaret Atwood in her novel Oryx and Crake. For example, extinction, de-extinction, anthropogenetic impacts, climate change, genetics/bioengineering, and xenotransplantation are some topics you explore at the scientific, economic, social, and ethical levels. You will begin by reading and discussing the peer-reviewed scientific literature, popular press reports, and watching various types of media in the scientific topic areas explored in Oryx and Crake (2004), while you read the novel.
Subsequently, you will break into Shared Inquiry/the Socratic Method for the remainder of the term. Two students will develop a “Basic Question” based on a topic derived from the novel, which you will present to your peers. The two student facilitators will ask questions to maintain the discussion, as the remainder of the cohort will discuss the facilitators ’questions originating from the basic question. You will be challenged to develop creative and critical thinking, information literacy, and communication skills in this course.
Black Box Warning: The novel contains language that might be offensive to some students (R-rated).
Required Course Materials:
Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood. 2004. Publisher: Anchor, Reprint Edition ISBN-10: 0385721676 ISBN-13: 978-0385721677
HONORS 398.1
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Tekla Schmaus
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; sophomore standing.
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
This is a seminar-style course with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing his/her Honors thesis proposal. In the course, you will generate an Honors thesis topic, formulate your thesis question, identify a thesis advisor, and prepare you thesis proposal. We will discuss ways to structure your thesis, perform research, and evaluate the information you obtain in relation to your chosen topic. During the course, we will discuss and constructively support and critique projects as they develop in the proposals. Each student will present their proposal to the class, and submit a complete proposal—including title, introduction, research question, methodology, and annotated bibliography—as a final product. S/F grading.
HONORS 398.4
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Colin Criss
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; sophomore standing.
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
This is a seminar-style course with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing his/her Honors thesis proposal. In the course, you will generate an Honors thesis topic, formulate your thesis question, identify a thesis advisor, and prepare you thesis proposal. We will discuss ways to structure your thesis, perform research, and evaluate the information you obtain in relation to your chosen topic. During the course, we will discuss and constructively support and critique projects as they develop in the proposals. Each student will present their proposal to the class, and submit a complete proposal—including title, introduction, research question, methodology, and annotated bibliography—as a final product. S/F grading.
HONORS 398.5
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
(online course through WSU Global Campus)
Meetings: Online
Instructor: Joanna Schultz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; sophomore standing.
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
This is a seminar-style course with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing his/her Honors thesis proposal. In the course, you will generate an Honors thesis topic, formulate your thesis question, identify a thesis advisor, and prepare you thesis proposal. We will discuss ways to structure your thesis, perform research, and evaluate the information you obtain in relation to your chosen topic. During the course, we will discuss and constructively support and critique projects as they develop in the proposals. Each student will present their proposal to the class, and submit a complete proposal—including title, introduction, research question, methodology, and annotated bibliography—as a final product. S/F grading.
ENGLISH 298.1
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student.
TBA
ENGLISH 298.2
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student.
TBA
ENGLISH 298.3
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student.
TBA
ENGLISH 298.4
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
TBA
ENGLISH 298.5
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
TBA
ENGLISH 298.6
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
TBA
ENGLISH 298.7
Writing and Research Honors
Instructor:
TBA
ENGLISH 298.13
Writing and Research Honors
(online course through WSU Global Campus)
Instructor:
TBA