Spring 2016 Honors Colloquia
Last Updated: 10/29/15
Notes
American Studies Honors Students:
Beyond any major credit indicated in this document, certain courses may count for credit in American Studies.
Determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Consult your academic advisor for details.
Anthropology Honors Students: Beyond any major credit indicated in this document, certain courses may count
for credit in Anthropology. Determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Consult your academic advisor for
details.
SIS Honors Students:
You are encouraged to speak with your SIS academic advisor to determine whether a colloquium might be
considered for another functional area or regional field.
SOC Honors Students:
Many of these course offerings may meet the “hours outside of SOC” or the “Liberal Studies” requirement.
Please check with your SOC academic advisor to determine applicability.
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors Students:
Certain courses may count for credit in WGSS. Determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Consult your
faculty academic advisor for details.
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HNRS-300-001H Marginal Political Identities:
Power, Protest and the Limits of Representation
Dr. Farhang Erfani
Th 8:10 pm – 10:40 pm
This seminar is about the political troubles of representation. Generally speaking, the trouble
with any representation is that it must - at least to some extent - exclude some details. Of
particular interest to us is the political determination of that exclusion. We accordingly examine
the process of marginalization in view of the recent global protest movements.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; PHILOSOPHY; POLITICAL SCIENCE (Comparative Politics or Political Theory
concentration); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture and Justice, Ethics and Human Rights); SOCIOLOGY
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HNRS-300-002H Creative Non-Fiction
Dr. Patrick Kelly Joyner
TF 1:10 pm – 2:25 pm
In this intensive prose writing course, students will come to define, study, write, and revise
examples of “creative nonfiction,” a broad term that encompasses many different forms of
composition. Those forms will invite both the use of memoir and the kinds of research that
provide the foundation for literary journalism. We will spend time on generative writing
exercises and in workshops in which students will sharpen the ability to consider critically both
their own work and their classmates’.
MAJOR CREDIT: LITERATUR; SOC (FILM: Advanced Requirement; JOURNALISM: Skills)
HNRS-302-001H National Security Debates
Professorial Lecturer Jennifer Gumbrewicz
W 11:45 am – 2:25 pm
This class will focus on current debates in national security and analyze them from both of these
perspectives. First, the class will identify and assess whether the policy or law can be
implemented by studying the national and international legal regime governing this action.
Second, the class will then assess whether the policy or law should continue to be implemented
in the way that it has. In doing these assessments, the goal is to have the students become more
informed consumers of news and media accounts of issues that are of intense concern for the
foreseeable future in national and international policy.
MAJOR CREDIT: CLEG (Government Component); JUSTICE and LAW (Criminal Justice Concentration or Terrorism
concentration or Related Major Elective); LAW and SOCIETY (Major Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (American
Government or Policy Concentration); SIS (Foreign Policy and National Security; Justice, Ethics and Human Rights)
HNRS-302-002H The Psychology of Happiness
Dr. Anthony Ahrens
TF 11:45 am – 1:00 pm
In this course, we will explore the nature of happiness, why people so often misunderstand what
makes them happy, and whether steps can be taken to increase happiness. One view of happiness
emphasizes cultivating our strengths. Given that, we will also discuss some human strengths.
These will include consciousness, forgiveness, compassion, relationship, love, and positive
emotions such as gratitude, hope, and elevation. We will also examine some ways in which
culture might shape our experience of and beliefs about the good life.
MAJOR CREDIT: HEALTH PROMOTION; PUBLIC HEALTH (Health Science elective cluster); PSYCHOLOGY
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HNRS-302-003H How We Learn
Dr. Lauren McGrath
TF 10:20 am – 11:35 am
The question of how humans learn covers a vast expanse from brain cells to classrooms and
beyond. Many fields have a keen interest in learning, but these different perspectives are rarely
integrated. In response to this gap, this class will investigate emerging findings about learning
from fields such as neuroscience, psychology, and education, and explore how to move these
findings from basic science to practice. Students will learn to improve their own learning, to
appreciate variation in learning abilities and disabilities, to recognize and dispel neuromyths, and
to think and work collaboratively across disciplines.
MAJOR CREDIT: EDUCATION; HEALTH PROMOTION; PSYCHOLOGY
HNRS-302-004H Bioethical/Legal Healthcare Dilemmas
Professor Daniel Freeman
TF 2:35 pm – 3:50 pm
This colloquium provides students with a basic understanding of the relationships between
bioethics and the law, a grounding in the principles of bioethics, and introduction to the key
bioethics debates. Students will learn about a range of legal and bioethical issues that confront
healthcare providers and patients in a time of rapid technological change and about new ways of
thinking about these issues. Students will relate fundamental principles of bioethics to several
clinical topics and public policy problems, including informed consent, diagnostic genetics, endof-life care, advanced directives, the “right to die” and physician-assisted suicide. A major
portion of the course will be devoted to examining the evolution of bioethics decision making in
judicial contexts and where U.S. society is in the contemporary debate. Students will look at
recent bioethics issues that have stirred public controversy and have yet to be decided by the
courts, and will consider the role of bioethical issues in public policy making. This course is an
excellent overview of contemporary issues relating to law and medicine and foundational for
student considering careers in law, medicine or other healthcare professions. Beyond the
substance of the issues it presents, this course will help students to enhance their analytical
thinking, public speaking ability and skills in writing clearly and cogently.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; BIOLOGY; CLEG (Law); HEALTH PROMOTION; JUSTICE and LAW (Major
Elective); LAW and SOCIETY (Major Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Law and Politics Concentration or Political Theory
concentration); PUBLIC HEALTH (Policy elective cluster)
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HNRS-302-005H Free Speech: Inalienable Right and Vile Crime
Professor Susan Benesch
M 2:35 pm – 5:15 pm
The right of freedom of expression is being put to vigorous use around the world, in the best and
worst ways - especially online. In China, netizens meet on a bootleg version of Twitter and on
Web forums, racing government censors who delete their posts. In France, cartoonists and others
were massacred in January, for the content of their newspaper. On YouTube, female students'
daily movements were tracked online by their classmates, along with scenarios for raping
them. ISIS proudly posts videos of beheadings. In Russia, extremist bloggers call for another
Holocaust. In Kenya, hate speech was broadcast via SMS blasts, leading to mass killings -- but at
the same time, Kenyans used SMS and the web to report and contain violence. In this
interdisciplinary course, we will examine how speech contributes to democracy as well as to
hatred and atrocities. We will study international law and policy related to freedom of expression
- with special reference to digital communications - together with cases like the ones mentioned
above and the knotty questions they pose --such as how to let free speech flourish while
inhibiting hate, terrorism and genocide.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; JUSTICE (Major Elective); LAW AND SOCIETY (Major Elective); POLITICAL
SCIENCE (Comparative Politics concentration); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture and Justice, Ethics and Human Rights);
SOC (Major Credit with the permission of SOC advisor; SOCIOLOGY
HNRS-302-006H The American 1990s: Scandal, Conflict, and the Internet
Dr. W. Joseph Campbell
Th 11:45 am – 2:25 pm
We take a look at a decade defined by a remarkable variety of decisive moments and
developments, including the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web and the
spectacle of the impeachment of a U.S. president. As we’ll see, the 1990s were further defined
by spasms of domestic terrorism, by war and genocide, by a robust domestic economy in the
decade’s second half, and by innovations in cinema and popular culture. We’ll take our inquiry
off campus on occasion, to conduct research at the Library of Congress and to visit 1990srelevant exhibits at the Newseum.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; ANTHROPOLOGY; CLEG (Communication); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major
Related Social Science Requirement); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture); SOC (COMMUNICATION STUDIES: All
Concentrations; JOURNALISM and PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: Media Studies; FILM: Film and Media Studies; PUBLIC
RELATIONS & STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: Advanced Topics and Specialties); SOCIOLOGY
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HNRS-302-007H Who Killed JFK?
Professor Donald Fulsom
MTh 10:20 am – 11:35 am
This colloquium is a full examination of the many continuing mysteries and the latest findings
about the murder of President John F. Kennedy in the streets of Dallas more than 50 years ago.
Questions of who was responsible and why will be supplemented by a thorough look at the
impact this tragic event has had on America’s government and its citizens.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; HISTORY; JUSTICE, LAW and SOCIETY (Elective); JUSTICE and LAW;
LAW and SOCIETY (Major Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science Requirement)
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