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Washington State University

Courses in the Honors College

Please note: this list is 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. 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 2017


ECONS 198- 3 units
Economics Honors

Prerequisite: Admitted to the Honors College. Enrollment in ECONS 198 is not allowed if credit has already been earned for ECONS 101 and 102. Introduction to economic theory and policy issues.

Principles of Economics
This is an introductory course that covers principles of both micro and macroeconomics. My goal is for the student to learn, rigorously, the concepts that are crucial for her to understand how our political-economic system works. An organizing theme of the course is the question ‘under what circumstances are individual self-interest and the public good aligned, and when are they in conflict?’ Economic theory offers numerous insights into these important questions.

Students will be introduced to the methodology of economic research, and they will learn to apply economic principles to real-world examples.

Section 1: MWF 10:10am-11:00am Instructor: Pat Kuzyk

Section 2: MWF 11:10am-12:00(Noon) Instructor: Pat Kuzyk

**For more information on these sections, please contact the instructor directly.


ENGLISH 298.1 – 3 units
Writing and Research Honors

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

Critical thinking, research, and advanced writing for Honors College students.

Section 1: TuTh 1:25pm-2:40pm Instructor: D.Lee

Section 2: TuTh 10:35am-11:50am Instructor: J. Hughes

(Sections 3, 4 & 5 are no longer being offered)

Section 6: TuTh 12:00(Noon)-1:15pm Instructor: L. Benedict

Section 7: MWF 2:10pm-3:00pm Instructor: R. Eddy

Section 8: MWF 1:10pm-2:00pm L. Hunter

Section 9: TuTh 9:10am-10:25am J. Hughes

Section 10: TuTh 1:25pm-2:40pm L. Benedict

**For more information on these sections, please contact the instructors directly.


HONORS 270.1 – 3 units
MWF 10:10am-11:00am
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Brendan Walker

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

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 texts:
Introduction to Psychology, by Wayne Weiten, 8th ed., ISBN978-0-495-60197-5
(check w/prof. to make sure this is the correct text)

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 270.2 – 3 units
TuTh 12:00(Noon)-1:15pm
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: Shawna Herzog

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

Using the lens of modern imperial and colonial histories, this class is designed to introduce students to the process of research and writing in the discipline of history. Readings and assignments offer students the opportunity to practice their skills at identifying and developing historical questions, analyzing and locating sources, and formulating evidence based arguments – skills that are incredibly valuable regardless of your intended profession.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 270.3 – 3 units
TuTh 10:35am-11:50am
Principles and Research Methods in Social Science
Instructor: David Leonard

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

Race, Gender, and the College Campus
Examining the role that colleges and universities played in American slavery, everyday racism on campus, race-theme parties, and the struggles over equity and diversity, this class looks at the ways that race and racism shapes higher education. At the same time, this class will look at the ways that race intersects with gender and sexuality in terms of both structural arrangements and daily interactions. We will specifically look at the issue of sexual violence on college campuses, party culture, and campus climate within this intersectional framework. By the end of the semester, students will have a firm understanding of the ways that race and gender shape the experiences of students, faculty, staff, and community.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 280.1 – 3 units
MWF 3:10pm-4:00pm
Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Nathan Nicol

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

Ethics & Public Policy
This course has two overarching aims: (1) to study the main normative ethical theories most prevalent in contemporary thinking about public policy, and (2) to master the core critical thinking skills that are essential to all walks of life, but perhaps most essential to the critical evaluation of public policy. We will begin with a brief tour of the main ethical theories. Then, we will turn to our main text: Ethics and Public Policy: A Philosophical Inquiry, by Jonathan Wolff. This will lead us to explore arguments about the ethics of testing on animals, the legalization of drugs, public safety, health-care, the “free market,” and several others (which we can pick out together in class). We will be concerned to find the good arguments in these issues, but also to identify exactly what makes the bad arguments bad: we will thus acquaint ourselves with a great variety of fallacies, sophistry, and other shenanigans. Also, we will incorporate a few highly relevant films into our course work. After all, many of our big ideas now come from films, and so we need to be aware of their influence.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 280.2 – 3 units
TuTh 9:10am-10:25am
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 fiction writing. We will read, analyze, and discuss award-winning short stories, complete weekly writing exercises, and write a short story (employing research/annotated bibliography), working to explore and develop the craft elements of the short story including characterization, point-of-view, dialogue, plot, scene and summary, setting, and the use of metaphorical language.

Required text:
Method and Madness: The Making of a Story, Alice LaPlant. ISBN#: 9780393928174

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 280.3 – 3 units
MWF 9:10am-10:00am
Contextual Understanding in the arts and Humanities
Instructor: William Hamlin

Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student

Origins and Transformations: Classical and Biblical Stories in Renaissance Literature
This class will consider several major narratives from the Bible and the Greco-Roman classical tradition, showing how they are adapted and transformed in Renaissance literary settings. For instance, a unit called “Coping with the Fall” will begin with the Book of Genesis and then move to such literary re-tellings as Milton’s Paradise Lost and Andrew Marvell’s poem “The Garden.” Similarly, a unit on “Despair and Doubt” will start with the Book of Job and then turn to English plays such as Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus or Shakespeare’s King Lear. Other units might concern traditions of vengeance (Euripides’s Medea, Seneca’s Thyestes, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus); love and intimacy during the Trojan War (Homer’s Iliad, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida); or hostility born of sexual desire (Euripides’s Hippolytus, Racine’s Phaedra, Shakespeare’s Othello).

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 290.1 – 3 units
TuTh 1:25pm-2:40pm
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: M. Grant Norton

Course Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.

Ten Materials that Changed the World
Particles of flint, too small to see without a microscope, create razor sharp edges when a stone tool is made. We probably owe our very existence as modern day humans to the way that flint breaks. Iron propelled us into the Industrial Revolution and allowed the global transition towards industrialization. The importance of iron was not due just to its abundance, but because even three thousand years ago our ancestors had found out how to modify the properties of iron for specific applications. Gold has captivated humans for thousands of years, but it is only recently, particularly with the development of nanotechnology, that gold has found technological uses. Why has gold been so prized for millennia and why is it now becoming very useful? Imagine now a world without glass. Not only would we live in a much darker world, but we would never have discovered stars and planets beyond those visible with the naked eye nor would we realize the microscopic world that is part of us and all living things. This course will explore ten examples of materials that have changed our world. We will look at how these materials were formed, how we discovered them, and how they were used in applications that changed the world.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 290.2 – 3 units
MWF 2:10pm-3:00pm
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Michael Allen

Course Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.

This course is about the history of the scientific method as illustrated in the history of western astronomy from the ancient Greeks to Galileo. We will learn how the incomplete method of investigation of the ancients allowed a false model of the celestial realm to propagate forward in time. We will learn about the tension between empiricism and contemplation. We will make a particular study of the Galileo affair, capped by a dramatic reading of Brecht’s 15-scene play, “Life of Galileo”.

This fast-paced course is driven by student seminars interspersed with interpretive discussion and historical readings.

Students are graded upon in-class engagement, short weekly assignments, a seminar, a midterm test, a final exam, and an essay.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 290.3 – 3 units
MWF 9:10am-10:00am
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Sian Ritchie

Course Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.

This course will be used to explore the development of science as a discipline from the perspective of biology and medicine. You will be investigating how the 21st century research scientist works using papers from a range of subjects.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 290.4 – 3 units
TuTh 1:25p,-2:40pm
Science as a Way of Knowing
Instructor: Leah Benedict

Course Prerequisite: Must be a current Honors student. Any B, BSCI, P, PSCI, or SCI lab or concurrent enrollment.

“The Self”
A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed
to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.
― Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet

Reach out two fingers, and gently press them to the side of your windpipe and begin to count the gentle rhythm of your carotid artery. Do you feel a languorous beat? Does your pulse quicken with your close attention? That flutter in your veins as your heart contracts and relaxes might convey singular meaning—in its two-part tempo, a trained observer might hear heightened emotion, tension, disease, or despair. Yet even layman might draw upon the diagnostic potential of the veins. Blood curdles or freezes in the veins of the fearful, while those who are angry might feel their blood boil. Artists might feel that a skill for color and form is in their blood. We do not stop at blood, of course. Every new physiological discovery, from the stomach to the nervous system, gives us new ways of describing and delimiting ourselves. In turn, our new descriptions of feeling are funneled back into new scientific observation.

In this class we will explore how scientific breakthroughs change the way we think of our minds and our bodies. We’ll begin with the classical history of medicine and psychology, and then shift into more recent experiments with pheromones, fascia, and the human microbiome. Along with scientific literature, we will explore the impact scientific discovery has upon everyday thought by examining popular forms such as fiction, poetry, art, and film.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 370.1 – 3 units
MWF 9:10am-10:00am
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Science
Instructor: William (Puck) Brecher

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 270 or ECONS 198

The Two Koreas in the Modern World
This course provides an overview of Korean society and culture with an emphasis on the two Koreas’ confrontation with the modern world (from 1945). It will explore such themes as modernity, Confucianism, colonialism, economic “miracles,” gender roles, regional diplomacy, geopolitical disputes, and popular culture. Additionally, it will consider North Korea’s postwar identity, its place within the global order, and prospects for reunification with the South. This interdisciplinary, thematic approach to the Korean Peninsula seeks to illuminate that region’s varied engagement with the world and its strategies for self-advancement in the 21st century. No prior knowledge of Korean language or culture is required.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 370.2 – 3 units
MWF 10:10am-11:00am
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Science
Instructor: Mary Bloodsworth Lugo

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 270 or ECONS 198

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 370.3 – 3 units
TuTh 10:35am-11:50am
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Science
Instructor: Shawna Herzog

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 270 or ECONS 198

Slavery is one of the oldest and most widespread relationships in human history. Members of virtually every human group have been enslaved at one time or another. What is relatively new in world history is the notion that slavery is wrong and ought to be abolished. The transatlantic abolition movement of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was an unprecedented humanitarian effort to abolish an exploitive and violent system of social relations. However, emancipation did not accomplish all of the goals of the abolition movement. This class will survey slavery’s trajectory in world history with particular focus on reading primary documents that date from different historical periods to get a sense of what slavery was and has become today.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 370.4 – 3 units
TuTh 12:00(Noon)-1:15pm
Case Study: Global Issues in Social Science
Instructor: Craig Parks

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 270 or ECONS 198

Theories of Human Cooperation
One of the most broadly and extensively debated questions in the social sciences (and in some of the hard sciences) is, “Are humans naturally cooperative?” That is, when people engage in actions that help their fellow humans, are they doing so because of an internal inclination to act in that way, or as a response to external pressure? This is a question of major interest to psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, biologists, and mathematicians, and one of growing interest to physicists. This semester we will look at the many different perspectives on why humans do, or do not, cooperate. We will apply this line of inquiry to the problem of carbon emissions. A coordinated effort to reduce worldwide carbon emissions has been underway for many years, but little progress has been made. At a more local level, the US has not seen meaningful behavior change on major actions that produce carbon. We will examine the problems that have arisen in producing meaningful change through the lens of cooperative behavior.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 380.1 – 3 units
TuTh 12:00(Noon)-1:15pm
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Pamela Lee

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 280

Pearls of Global History
Visual art reflects an individual sensibility of existence. Yet, individuals are rooted to societal mooring, influenced by time, place, cultural and political forces.
We will explore visual art as a springboard to cultural history. With our first case study during the early weeks of spring semester, we will examine Johannes Vermeer’s deliciously realistic 17th century paintings. Through lecture, reading, and discussion, we will explore Vermeer in the contrasting context of Dutch domesticity and of global expansion. If you thought that globalism was a new phenomenon, you will learn otherwise. Through Vermeer’s pictures, we will approach art historical research and unravel a tale of 17th century global interconnectedness.
Within a small team, you will actively engage in humanities case study research, probing a pocket of history linked to period art. Perhaps your team will investigate the finely crafted samurai swords, art of the Mughal Empire, Goya’s art during the Napoleonic wars, fresco painting and the Mexican revolution, Fayum portraits, or Zambian Masquerades. Art is the pearl. Through research, you will strive to understand the structural cultural clamshell and the historical machinations that produced the visual pearl.
Your grade will be based on active class participation, research reports, the team presentation and paper. Selected readings (for the case studies we engage in with the entire class) will be provided.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 380.2 – 3 units
TuTh 10:35am-11:50am
Case Study: Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Sergey Lapin

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 280

This course surveys Russia’s cultural past and present. 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 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.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 380.3 – 3 units
TuTh 9:10am-10:25am
Case Study-Global Issues in the Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Kimberly Burwick

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 280

Ghostly Companions from Post-War Europe:
In this course, we will focus acutely on the work of W.G. Sebald (specifically Austerlitz), as we investigate how this virtuoso of the literary world came to reestablish the novel as a medley of travelogue, biography, photo-journalism and art history. Technically classified as “witness literature,” Sebald humanizes and complicates the search for a post-war identity that is both collectively and individually true to the parameters of melancholy. In this class, we will study archetypal reactions to black and white photography, Holocaust narratives, and memory as an archeological construct.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 390.1 – 3 units
MWF 10:10am-11:00am
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Raymond Quock

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, or PHYSICS 206

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.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 390.2 – 3 units
W 5:30pm-8:00pm
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Lydia Gerber

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, or PHYSICS 206

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 text:
Journal articles made available through the WSU Library system.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 390.3 – 3 units
TuTh 1:25pm-2:40pm
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Trish Glazebrook

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, or PHYSICS 206

Zombie Apocalypse
This course is experimental in its teaching methods and topic, and interdisciplinary in its content. It deals with the question, what would happen if Ebola, or some other such communicable or infectious disease, went global? It is designed around multiple unique student engagements and media, and aimed at developing models and increasing capacity to respond to global pandemic from the first moment of disease emergence to outcome-impacts as severe as societal break-down.

A series of guest lecturers will provide their expertise on some aspect of the issue; for example, an animal health expert on disease transfer from animals to humans; a geographer and a mathematician on models of disease propagation through communities; an anthropologist on challenges of outbreak management in the global South, i.e. crossing cultural boundaries when science meets traditional societies; Department of Defense assessment of pandemic preparedness in the US; military personnel on changing military roles from containment to protection; disaster management experts on identifying vulnerabilities and responding to human suffering and need; political scientists on how societies break down and what happens next ….

A popular culture component of the course includes perspectives from young teens growing up gaming zombie scenarios. A film series with in-class comment by film critics on social and gender aspects of contemporary perceptions and projections of the lived experience of pandemic will run parallel to the course. If possible, an early draft of a novel written by a WSU student about a zombie outbreak on WSU campus will be incorporated into the course.

Students will read and respond to relevant research from a variety of disciplines, and provide response on discussion boards. The main assignment is to develop a simulation of an outbreak somewhere on the planet. Several groups of students will be assigned different outbreak locations and will work together to create their simulation of response strategies and outcomes. These simulations will be written up in a group-generated report, and each student will write a brief comparative analysis after simulations have been shared with the class.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 390.4 – 3 units
MWF 11:10am-12:00(Noon)
Case Study: Global Issues in the Sciences
Instructor: Joanna Schultz

Course Prerequisite: HONORS 290, SCIENCE 299, CHEM 116, MATH 182, PHYSICS 205, or PHYSICS 206

We will be examining the history of forensic science, from its first documented application beginning by the use of fingerprinting in the 700s by the Chinese to our advanced 21st century technology using DNA fingerprinting. I will divide the semester into thirds and spend the first third of the semester introducing history and methodology; the second third of the semester we will read the current forensic science literature and engage in discussion forums; and finally we will conduct a mock murder trial. For the trial, students will be assigned roles and to the best of our ability, majors will be considered when assigning roles. For example, a student majoring in biology with an emphasis in molecular biology will serve as an expert witness in DNA profiling; a psychology student can act as the expert in suspect profiling; a pre-med student will be the medical examiner; criminal justice or criminology majors will be our law enforcement witnesses; pre-law students will serve as prosecuting and defending attorneys; and of course, a student must volunteer to be our suspect. We will also have a jury. These specific student majors are under ideal circumstances, i.e. we have these majors in our class, but no matter the majors, we will have a novel and dynamic experience that demonstrates the application of forensic science in the courtroom. Overall, students should gain an understanding of the strengths and limitations of forensic evidence and how this affects all those directly involved in the case.

Topics we will explore (this is not a comprehensive list):

  • Fingerprints
  • Blood type
  • Blood splatter analysis
  • Microscopic analysis, compound to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
  • Hair, fibers, etc.
  • Voiceprint identification
  • Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
  • Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)
  • DNA Databases
  • CODIS (Combined DNA Index System)
  • Gathering and collecting evidence
  • The courts
  • The Innocence Project

Finally, I have not made arrangements yet, but in the past I’ve taken students to the Washington State Crime Lab in Spokane to visit their facilities. I hope the lab will host our students again. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn how forensic evidence is processed at the crime lab.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 398.1 – 1 unit
W 12:10pm-1:00pm
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Robin Bond

Course Prerequisite: Sophomore standing (45 semester hours recommended)

This seminar-style course is designed to assist and support each participant in developing and completing his/her Honors College thesis proposal—the first step in successfully completing the thesis requirement of the Honors College. During the course, each thesis proposal will be constructively criticized during collaborative peer review sessions and each student will give a 10-minute formal presentation on his/her proposal in class. At the end of the class, students will submit for approval a final thesis proposal including title, introduction, research question or creative project, methodology, expected results and possible conclusions, and an annotated bibliography.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 398.2 – 1 unit
Tu 1:10pm-2:00pm
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Annie Lampman

Course Prerequisite: Sophomore standing (45 semester hours recommended)

This is a seminar-style course with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing his/her Honors thesis proposal. By the end of the course you will be ready to submit your Honors thesis proposal for approval and to initiate your thesis research. In the course, you will learn 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 your thesis, how to perform research, and how to 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.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 398.3 – 1 unit
W 2:10pm-3:00pm
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Kim Andersen

Course Prerequisite: Sophomore standing (45 semester hours recommended)

This is a seminar-style course with the purpose of assisting and supporting each participant in completing his/her Honors thesis proposal. By the end of the course you will be ready to submit your Honors thesis proposal for approval and to initiate your thesis research. In the course, you will learn 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 your thesis, how to perform a literature search, and how to 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 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., ISBN: 978-1-60384-440-6

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 398.4 – 1 unit
Th 2:10pm-3:00pm
Honors Thesis Proposal Seminar
Instructor: Pamela Lee

Course Prerequisite: Sophomore standing (45 semester hours recommended)

The purpose of this seminar style course is to assist each student with the inception and completion of her or his Honors College senior thesis proposal. We will engage with each step of your thesis proposal, including the formulation of a successful thesis question, the selection of the thesis advisor, how to conduct an academic literature search, information literacy, critical analyses skills, appropriate methodology, the organization of your bibliography and strategies for organizing your research notes. You will be working on your individual thesis proposal with the support of your advisor, the instructor, and constructively critical peer review sessions. At the end of the class, you will prepare your proposal, offer a 10-minute presentation to peers, and then submit your thesis proposal for approval. Pending Honors College approval, at the completion of our seminar, you will start down the path of your senior research venture. S/F grading.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 430 – units vary
Education Abroad Research
By Arrangement
Instructor: Kim Andersen

Special assignments and research related to education abroad. Read about The Certificate of Global Competencies on this website: http://honors.wsu.edu/studyabroad/index.html

Students interested in completing Honors 430 should meet with an Honors advisor.

**An approved contract is required before Honors staff can register you for this course.

**For more information on this section, please contact the instructor directly.


HONORS 450 – units vary
Honors Thesis or Project
By Arrangement

All students are required to complete a 3-unit Honors Thesis in order to fulfill their Honors requirements. The Honors thesis is an in-depth reading and writing project directed by a student’s major department. Students can choose to complete original research or a creative project. Detailed guidelines on the thesis and the proposal approval process are available on the Honors College website. Final grades for Honors 450 are entered by the Honors College when the thesis is satisfactorily completed and an oral presentation has been given. Oral presentation dates vary throughout the year; please check with the Honors College or watch the FLASH for dates.

**An approved Honors Thesis Proposal is required before Honors staff can register you for this course.


HONORS 499 – units vary
Special Problems (Independent Study)
By Arrangement

Students interested in completing an independent study requirement should meet with an Honors advisor.

**An approved contract is required before Honors staff can register you for this course.


Current and Previous Semesters

Information about courses from previous semesters is also available: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Summer 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Summer 2021, Spring 2021, Fall and Summer 2020, Spring 2020,Fall 2019, Summer 2019, Spring 2019, Summer 2018, Fall 2018, Summer 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Summer 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2016.