Courses in the Honors College
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. NOTE: Advising will be offered by email or telephone ONLY to students currently studying abroad.
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 with their Honors College academic advisor. Listings from previous semesters are located at the bottom of this page.
Spring 2019
HONORS 270.1
TuThu 10:35 – 11:50 a.m.
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Brendan Walker
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Psychology and Drugs of Abuse
The objectives of this course are to familiarize the students with both an historical and contemporary perspective on the field of psychology. This will be achieved by evaluating the genetic, biological, and environmental contributors to the behavior of both humans and animals in a manner designed to promote critical/creative thinking, quantitative/symbolic reasoning, information literacy, communication, and a sense of self in society. By striving to embrace these course goals, the students should depart with an enhanced level of disciplinary knowledge that should translate into effective long-term strategies for the evaluation of information over their life span. The course will begin by identifying important historical ideologies and theories that have been instrumental in shaping the way we now view the field of psychology and introducing the concept of psychology as a science. This will be followed by an exploration of the various sub-domains of psychology that will provide a solid understanding of the many systems designed to assist us in navigating through the trials and tribulations of our daily existence. The course will also have a generalized sub-theme in which different aspects of the substance abuse research field will be applied to different sub-fields of psychology that are presented during the course as a means to enrich the learning experience and allow for a more in-depth exposure to experiment-based methodologies.
Required text:
Introduction to Psychology, by Wayne Weiten, 8th ed., ISBN978-0-495-60197-5
HONORS 270.2
TuThu 1:25 – 2:40 p.m.
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Clif Stratton
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Sports and Politics In American Society and History
In August 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and teammate Eric Reid took a knee during the national anthem to call attention to a spate of recent police killings of African Americans that summer. While Kaepernick and Reid have garnered much support, their protest also became a political lightning rod, including for then candidate presidential Donald Trump and for NFL owners, who have thus far colluded to keep Kaepernick out of the league. In September 2018, Serena William’s expressed righteous indignation against accusations of cheating during a US Open match. Her on-court protest called attention to the disparate and unequal treatment of female tennis players, who are expected to behave in ways that the likes of male tennis star “Superbrat” John McEnroe are never held to account. Though not in these exact words, both Kaepernick and Williams were essentially told to “stick to sports” and to “shut up and play.” Their naysayers deny that an intersection of sports and politics does or should exist.
Yet Kaepernick and Williams are only two of the most recent (and most famous) examples of the ways in which sports and politics have collided in American history. This course will not only help us critically examine this intersection of sports and politics in the present, but also to understand the deeper historical connections between them, including the politics of race, class, gender, and US international relations. We will address these intersections through an examination and use of historical research methods and social science methodologies, including the use of both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Required texts:
TBD
HONORS 270.3
MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m.
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: TBD
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
HONORS 280.1
TuTHu 12:00 – 1:15 a.m.
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Kim Burwick
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
The Environmental Documentary
The aim of this course is to consider how environmental documentaries can help communicate, critique, and educate the public about the complex environmental and social issues of our times. There are many excellent (and not-so-excellent) documentaries that focus specially on climate change, but we will go beyond this and also investigate issues of oil, activism, pollution, waste, animals and extinction and the role of film as it relates to these topics.
HONORS 280.2
TuThu 10:35 – 11:50 a.m.
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Kim Andersen
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Art & Theory of Art
For a good 30,000 years humans have produced images, tales, spectacles, and much more which we now call art. Cave paintings, graffiti, murals, fetishes, drama, sitcoms, literature, performance, pottery, painting, architecture, jewelry, carvings, music, country, western, medieval cathedrals, tattoos, rap, twist, hip, funk, bop, American Idol, and The Blue Heart—we call it all art, we call them all artists! Does it make sense?
In this course we will seek enlightenment on the nature of art. We will investigate theories of art (a selection, from Plato onwards) to try to determine what it is we appreciate about art. We will discuss art theories that offer specifically discriminating viewpoints on the nature of art as we assess the possibilities for obtaining an all-encompassing perspective on art. Simultaneously, we will actively experience, review, discuss, and present artworks, especially painting. We will make use of videos and excursions to local museums and exhibits.
As we develop our contextual understanding of art – as art is created in the flux of individual human creativity and social norms – we will also develop an appreciation for the function, methods, and value of research and scholarship in the Humanities.
Final grade to be determined by active participation, written assignments, and an in-class presentation.
Required text:
But Is It Art? by Cynthia Freeland, Oxford University Press, ISBN:10-0192853678
Other texts handled in class, available on Blackboard.
HONORS 280.3
TuThu 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Phil Gruen
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Reading the American Landscape
Is it possible to read, understand, and appreciate the totality of the American landscape: its farms, grain elevators, indigenous communities, small towns, suburbs, roads, and restaurants as well as its spectacular national parks, glittering skyscrapers, and exquisite residences? This course is intended to deepen an understanding of the American built environment and, by extension, American culture. We will critically investigate everyday or vernacular landscapes built by ordinary people and often shaped by politics, economics, race, and gender; that is, meaningful spaces and places that comprise the vast majority of our physical settings but are typically overlooked in favor of professionally-designed, high-style landscapes. To provide tools for reading the landscape, we will employ disciplinary methods from the visual arts, architecture, history, geography, anthropology, and literature. A segment of the course will feature our regional landscape: the Pacific Northwest, eastern Washington, the Palouse, Pullman, and WSU. For contextual, comparative, and historical purposes, examples may be drawn from across the globe.
This course will be a mix of readings, discussion, lectures, movies, videos, field exploration, and student presentations. To help illuminate our readings and discussions, our location in White Hall permits short “field trips” around campus and/or Pullman during class time (weather permitting). Student participation and presentations will account for the majority of the grade.
Required texts:
A selection of articles and/or videos will accompany weekly or bi-weekly themes or topics.
HONORS 280.4
TuThu 1:25 – 2:40 p.m.
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Annie Lampman
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Fiction: The Short Story
This course is an introduction to the art and craft of short-form fiction writing. We will read, analyze, and discuss award-winning short stories, complete weekly writing exercises, and write a full-length short story (employing research/annotated bibliography) 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 their story workshopped with written peer reviews and instructor feedback provided.
Required text: Method and Madness: The Making of a Story, Alice LaPlant. ISBN#: 9780393928174
HONORS 290.1
TuThu 9:10 – 10:25 a.m.
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Lydia Gerber
This course satisfies the requirement for the MESI Certificate
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
The Science of Leading a Richer Life
Cutting edge science claims it knows ways to lead a happier life. What methods are scientists using to establish their claims? What practices, skills and attitudes do they point to as means for achieving this goal? What are ways of testing these claims in our own lives and with the tools we have at hand?
This class will introduce students to the emerging field of Happiness Studies as a gateway to scientific research. Students will critically assess examples of the current state of Happiness Studies. They will explore the relationship between a “rich” and a “happy” life and engage in limited-scale projects to examine whether happiness is indeed a skill that one can seek to enhance in one’s own life.
Required texts:
There is no textbook for this course. We will rely on published journal articles made available without charge through the WSU Library system.
HONORS 290.2
MWF 2:10 – 3 p.m.
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Richard Gomulkiewicz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
Science Thinking
Most people think of science as a discipline of action and apparatus: microscopes, telescopes, computers, test tubes, pipetting, data entry, measuring things, formulating mixtures, performing intricate experiments in the laboratory, making crosses or implementing treatments in a greenhouse, taking observations or collecting data on field survey trips, etc. Most people are also aware that science involves “thinking”, but very few are familiar with how most scientists think aside from perhaps a collection of famous “aha!” moments (Archimedes, Pasteur, the Curies, Watson & Crick, etc.). Another common misconception is that science is driven entirely by data when, in fact, scientific concepts are equally and possibly more crucial.
The overarching goal of this course is to illuminate the role of conceptual thinking (i.e., theory) in the scientific process and help students better understand how scientists think about what they do. To this end, the class will unpack several key questions including:
- How do scientists decide what to study?
- Why and how are scientific hypotheses formed?
- How are scientific studies designed?
- How are studies interpreted?
- How do scientists deal with unavoidable limitations, such as sampling and measurement errors, haphazard vs random choices, etc.
- How are findings communicated? (Is it “science” if no one knows about it but you?)
In the process of discussing these questions, the course will highlight the roles of curiosity, precedent, skepticism, creativity, imagination, uncertainty, and logic in the scientific process. In addition, we will discuss models (verbal, physical, mathematical, computational, statistical) and their uses in science.
Required texts:
Theory and Reality by Peter Godfrey-Smith. ISBN# 9780226300634
HONORS 290.3
TuThu 1:25 – 2:40 p.m.
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Cynthia Faux and Lane Wallett
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
History of Life
This course will explore the history of life on earth. Students will discover the origins of paleontology as a science, and how its modern practice shapes our understanding of evolutionary theory and the complex interactions of species. The course may include discussion of scientific journal articles and texts, laboratory activities, and examination of fossil and modern anatomical specimens.
Required text:
History of Life, 5th edition
Richard Cowen, PhD
Wiley-Blackwell
HONORS 290.4
MWF 9:10 – 10:00 a.m.
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Sian Ritchie
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.
History of Medicine
We will explore the development of science as a discipline from the perspective of biology and medicine. We will move from the ideas of Aristotle and Hippocrates through the major developments in our understanding of organisms, disease and treatment. Then we will look at how the 21st century research scientist works. Individual projects will use research papers from a range of scientific disciplines depending on student interest.
HONORS 301 (1 credit)
Jan 15–Mar 08
Tu 4:15 – 6:00 p.m.
University Scholars Lecture Series
Instructor: Cory Custer
This course satisfies the requirement for the MESI Certificate
Happiness as a Skill
Why did LinkedIn tap one of its senior leaders to head its mindfulness programs full-time? Why did Aetna create a chief mindfulness officer role? Why do Microsoft, Starbucks, Google, Apple, Facebook, REI, and Salesforce invest millions of dollars to provide mindfulness programs to their employees?
Fueled by a recent surge in evidence suggesting happiness is a skill, these companies believe that teaching their employees mindfulness will help them get better at everything they do and ultimately be happier and more engaged in life.
Taught by Cory Custer, director of compassion at Seattle-based wealth management firm Brighton Jones, this highly interactive and experiential course will introduce you to various mindfulness practices designed to increase your emotional and social intelligence—key competencies in today’s globally competitive marketplace. You will learn the skills of self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and relationship management, all of which have the potential to improve your performance, relationships, health, and happiness.
In addition, you will gain exposure to the ways leading local and global companies are teaching these happiness skills at work. Guest presenters will include Jon Jones, CEO of Brighton Jones and Honors alumnus (’93), and leaders at companies such as Google, LinkedIn, REI, Boeing, Microsoft, Moss Adams, Facebook, and Apple.
The final grade will be determined by active participation, journal entries, one approach-comparison paper, and one written exam.
Required Texts :
Emotional Intelligence 2.0, Travis Bradberry, et al., ISBN: 978-0974320625
HONORS 370.1
TuThu 10:35 – 11:50 a.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Marsha Quinlan
Human Health and Healing Across Cultures
This case study explores contemporary cross-cultural trends in health and healing. Across societies, what healing features do we share, what features vary and how? What explains these patterns? Lectures and readings will survey medical anthropology subfields including ethnomedicine, epidemiology, nutrition, reproduction, and mental health. Environmental, genetic, physiological, psychological and sociocultural forces are examined in relation to health. Students will conduct their own medical anthropology research, either via interviewing or using a database for cross-cultural research. They will learn the steps involved in framing a research question, deriving hypotheses from theory, design of measures, coding procedures, reliability, analyzing results, writing an article, how to perform and respond to peer review, revision, and, potentially, publication. Students will develop global understandings of human medical systems they experience the professional academic research process.
HONORS 370.2
MWF 12:10 – 2:00 p.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
The Global Food System
Raj Patel notes, “Global hunger and obesity are symptoms of the same problem.” The “stuffed and starved,” he maintains, “are also linked through the chains of production that bring food from fields to our plate.” Barry Estabrook points out, “the life expectancy of a migrant worker in the United States is only forty-nine years, about the same as that of a person living in equatorial Africa.” And regarding access to clean water, Anna Clark conveys, “Monthly water rates [in Flint] were among the most expensive in the country, and yet 42 percent of residents lived below the federal poverty level.” Using a case study framework, we will examine the modern global food system (including access to the world’s water supply) to understand various issues and inequalities embedded within it.
Required Texts:
Patel, Raj. 2012. Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Revised and Expanded Edition. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House. ISBN# 978-1-61219-127-0 (paperback)
Estabrook, Barry. 2018. Tomatoland: From Harvest of Shame to Harvest of Hope. Third Edition. New and Revised. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN# 978-1449489533 (paperback)
Clark, Anna. 2018. The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books. ISBN# 978-1250125149 (hardcover)
HONORS 370.3
MWF 11:10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Shawna Herzog
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Slavery in World History
Slavery is perhaps the most pervasive social institution in human history. At some point in history, virtually every society has in some sense of the term either enslaved, been enslaved – or both. Moreover, in spite of a protracted global effort to stop it, the status of slave still exists in modern society. Indeed, the term itself is historical and has had changing meanings and social consequences around the world over time.
Through an investigation of both primary and secondary sources, this course examines the institution of slavery, the anti slavery movement, and efforts to emancipate enslaved populations in the world history from 1500 to the present. Reading materials, class discussion, and the final research project are all designed to challenge students to draw comparisons between slave systems, investigate the impact anti slavery efforts have had on global systems of labor, and analyze the historical features of slavery and indenture in the modern world.
Required texts:
Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012).
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Boston: Bedford St. Martin, 2010).
Additional materials provided in Blackboard course space.
HONORS 370.4
TuThu 9:10 – 10:25 a.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Sciences
Instructor: Craig Parks
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Human Behavior and Climate Change
In this class we will look at the psychology underlying resource consumption and conservation and relate it to the technologies that attempt to reduce the global carbon footprint. Our primary goal is to understand why there is a disconnect, at least in the United States, between development of these technologies and people’s willingness to use them. A major focus of the course is to lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary collaboration between social scientists, climate scientists, and engineers. Solution of the climate change problem requires approaches that integrate human expectations with engineered solutions, all while taking into account the principles of climate. Students will leave the course with a basic understanding of the key concepts in all three areas, and areas of potential collaboration among the areas.
HONORS 380.1
TuThu 2:50 – 4:05 p.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Annie Lampman
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Creative Nonfiction
In this creative writing course we will examine the role of the personal voice in shaping and defining how we see and experience the world. Through readings and analysis, classroom discussion, and a variety of writing exercises and essays (including explorations in memoir, flora/fauna, and place) 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? No previous creative writing experience is necessary, although strong general writing abilities are a benefit in this course. Throughout the semester, we will work on developing the basic craft elements of creative nonfiction and at the end of the semester each student will have one of their essays “workshopped” with written peer reviews and oral feedback provided.
Required texts:
Tell it Slant, Second Edition, Brenda Miller & Suzanne Paola, ISBN#: 9780071781770
Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction, Judith Kitchen, ISBN#: 9780393326000
Now Write! Nonfiction, Sherry Ellis, ISBN #9781585427581
HONORS 380.2
TuThu 10:35 – 11:50 a.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Sergey Lapin
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Introduction to Russian culture, history and language
This course is an introduction to Russian civilization, presenting an overview of art, architecture, literature, music, philosophy, and film. In this course we will place the cultural phenomena into a larger historical context. Examples of Russian culture and the Russian Religious faith are discussed alongside with daily life and folk beliefs. Also included is a brief introduction to the Russian language: alphabet, elementary reading and minimal conversational skills.
The course format consists of lectures, slides, video and audio presentations. Questions and discussions are strongly encouraged. All materials are in English. No prior knowledge of Russian language, history, literature or culture is required.
Students will utilize research skills developed in Honors 280 and further develop their skills in creative and critical thinking, information literacy, and written and oral communication skills.
HONORS 380.3
MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Nathan Nicol
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Food Ethics
In this class we will examine food in its ethical dimensions. More generally we will consider how we experience food, the social roles it plays, how it is associated with wicked problems, and how we judge it to be delicious or repulsive. And in particular we will analyze (1) the nature of food and how it is different from other edible things, (2) how we understand food (scientifically, culturally, personally), (3) what eating is and how it affects human experience (as nourishment, celebration, spirituality), (4) several ethical issues in agriculture and food (genetically-modified food, animal welfare, vegetarianism), (5) several political issues in agriculture food (corporate responsibility and political governance, consumption and social inequality, hunger and food rights), and (6) what taste in food has to do with taste in music and other arts.
Required course materials:
Kaplan, D. 2012. The Philosophy of Food. California.
ISBN: 978-0-520-26934-7
Sapontzis, S. (ed.) 2004. Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat. Prometheus.
ISBN: 978-1-59102-118-6
Singer, P. & Mason, J. 2006. The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Holtzbrinck.
ISBN: 978-1-59486-687-6
HONORS 380.4
MWF 1:10 – 2:00 p.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: K McCarthy
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Narrating the 20th Century though Art and Music
This course will explore the years between 1900 and 2000 through a study of aesthetic trends. The broader focus is a series of 20th-century western confluences- alliances between movements in music and art that reflect societal responses to historical events. We will start at the turn-of-the-century, with Expressionism and Impressionism, continue into mid-century trends towards Abstract Expressionism and serialism, and the post-WWII movements of Anti-formalism and minimalism. Throughout the course we will investigate globalism and its impact on art and music. From exoticism and primitivism in the early decades, increased collaborations mid-century, and late-century exchanges of artistic forms and ideals, we will seek to understand how individuals borrowed inspirations and materials from other cultures, and how institutions (cultural representatives) created their own persuasive narratives by (re-)appropriating these “isms”. Through these studies, students will develop unique narratives of the 20th century and the ways in which art and music reflected and impacted events and cultures.
HONORS 390.1
MWF 11:10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
390 Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Raymond Quock
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student; HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, or PHYSICS 206
Drug Abuse—A Global Perspective
According to national surveys, the use of illicit drugs in the United States has been continually on the rise since 2002. The increase is driven mainly by marijuana use and abuse of prescription pain killers. The 2015 World Drug Report also notes an explosion in the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) which pose a significant health threat to drug users and, at the same time, increase the demand for treatment programs for drug abuse. The topics in this course will 1) provide a scientific background in the psychopharmacology of drugs of abuse; 2) analyze trends in global illicit drug use; and 3) discuss the societal impact of drug abuse.
HONORS 390.2
W 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Lydia Gerber
This course satisfies the requirement for the MESI Certificate
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
The Practice, Science and History of Mindfulness
Mindfulness, defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally,” is an inherent human capacity, cultivated throughout history. Mindfulness training enhances one’s ability to cope with anxiety and stress, decreases the likelihood of burnout in challenging professions, and has a beneficial effect on overall health. Among mindfulness training programs Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, stands out as a program that has been rigorously researched for its safety and effectiveness. This class invites students to explore the practice (following the eight-week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn) and the growing field of published research on MBSR in academic disciplines ranging from Psychology and Education to Neuroscience and Cell Biology.
The instructor has received her training in MBSR through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She has been teaching classes in the Pullman community and at WSU since 2012 and is looking forward to working with you! Please feel free to contact her at lgerber@wsu.edu if you have questions about the class!
Required course materials:
There is no textbook for this course. We will rely on journal articles made available without charge through the WSU Library system.
Students are expected to bring their own yoga mats to the class.
HONORS 390.3
TuThe noon – 1:15 p.m.
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Joanna Schultz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
Climate Change and Extinction
The geologic record clearly documents five major extinctions throughout earth’s history. We are now undergoing a “Sixth Extinction” event, caused by anthropogenic impacts. This semester, we will examine these six extinctions, with particular attention to the Anthropocene extinction, its causes, rates, implications, and similarities and differences with past extinctions. We will also explore the scale of climate change and its contributions to the Anthropocene extinction.
We will begin the semester with an examination of climate change by reading and discussing essays from the non-fiction book
“Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change” by Elizabeth Kolbert.
Subsequently, for the remainder of the term, we will engage in shared inquiry, an approach derived from the Socratic Method. For each remaining class meeting, two students will develop a “basic question” based on the Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction book “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, her investigation into the five major extinctions and the current sixth. You will present this basic question to your peers during the class period. The two student facilitators can only ask questions to maintain the discussion, as the remainder of the students discuss the facilitators questions derived from the basic question.
Required texts:
Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
Elizabeth Kolbert
2006, 2007
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 1-59691-125-5
ASIN: B001TKBLGM
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, 1st Edition
Elizabeth Kolbert
2014
Henry Holt and Co.
ISBN-10: 0805092994
ISBN-13: 978-0805092998
HONORS 390.4
MWF 1:10 – 2:00 p.m.
390 Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Pete Meighan
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
History, Physiology and Ethics of Athletic Doping
The course will begin by examining the history of athletic doping and performance-enhancing drug (PED) use in organized athletic competition. In addition to assessing the personal, social and political circumstances surrounding notable instances of doping in sport, we will consider the biological underpinnings by which various doping techniques produces the physiological benefits that enhance athletic performance. Second, this course will examine the ethical issues surrounding the use of PEDs to gain a competitive advantage. This will include a rigorous examination of the increasingly muddy line between socially acceptable means of increasing athletic performance (e.g., optimal nutrition, supplement use, altitude training) versus illicit performance enhancing methods.
HONORS 398.1
Thu 11:00 11:50 a.m.
Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Joanna Schultz
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
HONORS 398.2
Tu 10:35 – 11:25 a.m.
Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Annie Lampman
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student
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 398.3
W 2:10 – 3 p.m.
Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Kim Andersen
Prerequisite: Must be an Honors student; sophomore standing (45 semester hours recommended).
This is a seminar with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing an Honors thesis proposal. By the end of the course students will submit an Honors thesis proposal and be ready to initiate honors thesis research. The course will focus on how to generate an Honors thesis topic, how to formulate a thesis question, how to identify a thesis advisor, and how to prepare the thesis proposal. In addition, we will discuss ways to structure an honors thesis, how to perform a literature search, and how to evaluate information relevant to a chosen topic. During the course we will constructively support and critique projects as they develop in the proposals. Each student will submit a complete proposal including title, introduction, research question, methodology, preliminary annotated bibliography, as a final product. S/F grading.
Required text: Writing A Successful Research Paper: A Simple Approach by Stanley Chodorow. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co.
HONORS 398.4
9:10 – 10:00 a.m.
Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Nathan Nicol
Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student