Fall 2014 Honors Colloquia
Courses and major credit information
as of 5/5/14
Departmental/School review of these Honors Colloquia is in progress.
Please check back for updates.
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.
KSB Honors Students: Colloquia designated as “major credit” will count toward “free electives” and/or the
12-credits required for “University Honors in Business.” Colloquia may not be substituted for Kogod core courses.
Religious Studies Honors Students: Please see your Religious Studies advisor for approval to apply a religion-related
colloquium to your major.
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:
Beyond any major credit indicated in this document, certain courses may count for credit in WGSS.
Determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Consult your faculty academic advisor for details.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
HNRS-300-001H Oral Histories of the Civil Rights Movement
Julian Bond
M 5:30-8 p.m.
This class surveys 1960s civil rights movement figures and instructs students in oral history techniques. Students
conduct a tape-recorded interview with a 1960s civil rights figure to construct an oral biography.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; ANTHROPOLOGY; CLEG (Government Component); EDUCATION; HISTORY;
LAW AND SOCIETY (Related Elective); LITERATURE; POLITICAL SCIENCE (Race, Gender and Politics Concentration); SIS (Identity,
Race, Gender, Culture; Justice, Ethics, and Human Rights); SOC (Satisfies the SOC U.S. History Requirement); SOCIOLOGY
HNRS-300-002H American Conservatism
Allan Lichtman
T 5:30-8 p.m.
This course examines the origins of modern conservatism, its self-defined values and mission, its enduring
appeal to ordinary people, and the ebb and flow of its influence on American life. In focusing on the
emergence and development of modern right-wing perceptions, ideology, and activities, the course redefines
accepted ideas about America’s political Left and Right. It challenges the notion that liberal institutions have
been at the center while conservative forces have been on the periphery of American politics.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES, HISTORY (Satisfies a Distribution Requirement for American history and for 300+ Level
Courses); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science Requirement)
HNRS-300-003H Rebellious Women in the Francophone World
Naima Hachad
M,TH 2:35-3:50 p.m.
This course is an introduction to 20th and 21st century feminist thought in the Francophone world as
expressed in cultural productions by women from France, Belgium, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Senegal, and former Indochina. Through a variety of material comprising fiction, film, painting,
photography, philosophical texts, and blogs, students will explore women’s take on gender, race, class,
religion, national identity, history, and memory. We will examine how female artists and intellectuals from
changing societies of post-World War II Europe and post-colonial West Africa, North Africa, and the
Caribbean deal with issues of female agency in particular local contexts. The course will also expose
challenges these women face engaging with international feminism while attempting to remain relevant
within particular socio-cultural contexts. Focusing on major Francophone female voices such as those of
Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigary, Marguerite Duars, Assia Djebar, Fatima Mernissi, Maryse Condé, and
Mariama Bâ, the course will also highlight women’s contributions in relation to existentialism, écriture
féminine, Négritude, Créolisation, and post-colonial thought. Finally, considering recent acts of women in
the public sphere such as those of Tunisian ex-FENEM member Amina Sboui, the course will also reflect on
the legacy of 20th century feminist thought on contemporary struggles.
To fully benefit from the multi-disciplinary, historically, and culturally rich aspects of the material proposed,
students will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with guest scholars from different academic
areas. Throughout the semester, students will also have the opportunity to enhance their analytical thinking,
public speaking ability, and writing skills in personalized research and creative projects in relation to the
subjects and geographical areas discussed in the course. To foster collaboration and exchange, students will
be invited to publicly present their final projects in a colloquium at the end of the semester.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; HISTORY (Satisfies a Distribution Requirement for American History and for 300+ Level Courses);
POLITICAL SCIENCE (Political Theory or Gender, Race and Politics Concentration); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture; and Justice,
Ethics and Human Rights); WOMEN’S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
HNRS-300-004H Reading Food: Identity, Power, and Representation
Stephanie Hartman
M,TH 10:20-11:35 a.m.
What are people really writing about when they write about food? What can studying food and food practices
tell us about an individual, a subculture, a nation? In this course we will discuss representations of food in
fiction, memoir, journalism, cookbooks, films, and art. Cookbooks, for example, are far more than how-to
guides: they can offer insight into the ideals of a 1960s commune, African-American identity in the Civil
Rights era, or the psychology of surviving a concentration camp. We’ll also extend our close reading
practices to actual foods: a hamburger, a military MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat), a last meal on death row, a TV
dinner, Spam, a food truck taco. Much as literary theorist Roland Barthes saw wine and steak to be invested
with French bourgeois values, the form and content of our meals can tell us about what makes us American.
Studying the eating habits of other countries--this course will highlight Japan and France--can also help us
recognize the cultural specificity of our own “normal”-seeming food practices, as well as enabling us to
better comprehend the complexity and depth of cultural difference. This course will be interdisciplinary as
well as international in approach. As food studies has grown into a vibrant and diverse academic field,
scholars have brought disciplinary perspectives to bear upon food in revealing ways, from a historian reading
the spectacular form of Victorian wedding cakes in terms of contemporary political anxieties to an
anthropologist interweaving theoretical training and personal experience to discuss Japanese bento boxes.
Throughout the semester, we will interrogate the nature of reading and the interpretation of symbols;
examine food in relation to identity, both personal and collective; and further develop our understanding of
how fields of power shape daily practices, including what and how we eat.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; ANTHROPOLOGY; HEALTH PROMOTION; SIS (Environmental Sustainability and Global
Health, and Identity, Race Gender and Culture); SOCIOLOGY
HNRS-302-001H Legal Issues in Globalization
Michael Mass
T 2:35-5:15 p.m.
This course examines the legal aspects of international trade and investment. It explores the nature of
international investment law, the private customary law of trade, and both domestic and international
schemes for the regulation of international trade. Students become familiar with the legal mechanics of
engaging in direct foreign investment, as well as questions surrounding the choice of law issues in national
regulation. Special emphasis is placed on the trade protection laws of the United States and the development
of the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the course examines these issues from a legal
perspective, it also deals with the political, social, economic, and environmental aspects of trade regulation
and economic regulation in this era of globalization.
MAJOR CREDIT: CLEG (Economics Component); ECONOMICS; JUSTICE and LAW; KSB (International Business); LAW AND
SOCIETY (Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science Requirement); SIS (The Global Economy; Global Inequality
and Development; Global and Comparative Governance); SOCIOLOGY; WORLD LANGUAGES AND CULTURES (Language and Area
Studies: French/Europe, German/Europe, Russian/Area Studies, Spanish/Latin America - Fulfills a Social Sciences Requirement)
HNRS-302-002H Masterworks in African Studies
James Mittelman
W 2:35-5:15 p.m.
Masterworks are central to understanding civilizations. They are a window on ways of thinking and living.
They can provide deep insights into the history of peoples and contemporary dynamics. How then to grasp
the masterworks of global Africa: diasporas as well as the continent itself? In major texts on Africa, whose
voices are represented and silenced? Who produces these works? How to address oral as well as literary
production? This colloquium probes novels, films, prison diaries, histories, political speeches, music, art, and
scholarly analysis. You will be asked to engage differences—values about race and ethnicity, class, religion,
gender and sexual orientation—in various contexts.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; EDUCATION; LITERATURE; POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science
Requirement); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture); SOCIOLOGY; WOMEN’S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
HNRS-302-003CBH Social Construction of Childhood in the U.S.*
Jane Palmer
M 11:45 a.m.-2:25 p.m.
What rights do children have and what rights should they have? The United Nations 1959 Declaration of the
Rights of the Child states: “The child shall enjoy special protection… to develop physically, mentally,
morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity.
…The best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration.” This course will explore the
evolution of protections children are afforded in the US; the extent to which children have a “voice” in the
policies that affect them; and how issues of inequality affect a child’s experience of childhood. Course
content will include a review of the socio-cultural and historical context of the passage of public policies to
protect children (such as child labor, compulsory schooling, and protection from child abuse) so students can
critically analyze the current state of the right to be a child in the U.S.
* “CB” signifies that this is a “community-based learning” course.
This course will include 20 hours of work, over the semester, with a course-relevant non-profit in the D.C. area.
Students will complete an individual or group project that will be a component of the final course grade.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; ANTHROPOLOGY; CLEG (Government Component); EDUCATION; JUSTICE and LAW
(Major Elective); LAW and SOCIEY (Major Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Policy Concentration); PUBLIC HEALTH
(Social/Community Health cluster); SIS (Justice, Ethics and Human Rights); SOCIOLOGY; WOMEN’S, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
STUDIES
HNRS-302-004H Justice Stories
Robert Johnson
W 11:45 a.m.-2:25 p.m.
The justice system is a world apart from the larger world. From arrest to trial and disposition, the justice
system offers moments of high drama and excitement against a background of mind-numbing boredom and
empty routine. Violence and violation are recurring hazards experienced by people processed by the justice
system and by some of the people who work in the system as well. We will explore the contours of the
strange and often paradoxical world embodied in our justice system using stories of all sorts, fiction and
nonfiction, all true to life in their own way.
Course texts, documentaries, and a possible field trip to Maryland’s now-defunct death house will be used to
inform and to promote empathy, putting students in the shoes of persons directly affected by the justice
system. One book will present 52 original short stories by inmates. The stories will be a mix of fiction and
nonfiction on key issues like the death penalty, including one entry by a man who writes about why he plans
to “volunteer” for execution by dropping his appeals. (He did in fact do just that a few years later, a
cautionary tale from real life). Another book will follow a man from arrest through imprisonment on a life
without parole sentence, ending with his death by suicide after 27 years of empty confinement. There will
also be a book by a woman serving a life without parole sentence, who records the growing difficulty of
living with this sentence as her parents age and her children drift away from her. Finally, we will end the
course with a book by a young African American man sent into the adult prison system when he was still a
juvenile (and a first offender, too); he describes his “coming of age” in prison, including a stint at a supermaximum security prison. Sadly, his is a fairly common experience in America today, though the story ends
well for the author.
Students will be encouraged to try their hand at various forms of writing, from editorial essays, to creative
writing, and finally to social-science and law-review research papers. I publish the best literary work with
my press, Bleak House Publishing, which is an incentive for students to try to write creatively, whether it be
flash fiction, short stories, one-act plays, or poetry. Art is encouraged as well, from sketches to paintings to
photography. The Bleak House website features, among other things, two magazines (one literary, one fine
art), and an art gallery that have been used to showcase student work. The 2013 issue of Tacenda Literary
Magazine, to give an example, is edited by an honors student (now an alum) and features the work of most of
the students in an Honors colloquium I taught on the death penalty in 2012.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; CLEG (Justice Component); EDUCATION; HEALTH PROMOTION; JUSTICE and LAW
(Criminal Justice Concentration or Related Major Elective); LAW and SOCIETY (Major Elective); LITERATURE; POLITICAL SCIENCE
(Law and Politics Concentration); SIS (Justice, Ethics and Human Rights); SOCIOLOGY
CANCELLED
(Course likely to run in spring’15)
HNRS 302-005H National Security Debates
Jennifer Gumbrewicz
TH 5:30-8 p.m.
Surveillance. Enhanced interrogation. Unmanned aerial vehicles. There seems to be a news story every few
weeks, sometimes every few days, that relates to a national security issue. By the very nature of the topic and
the need to protect certain types of information and disclosures from enemies, the debate that is played out
in the national and international news media and blogs tends to focus on small parts of a larger program or
policy. This tends to lead to a conflation of two lenses in analyzing policy or program choices. Can the
United States act in this way? Should the United States act in this way?
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 Related Major Elective);
LAW and SOCIETY (Major Elective); POLITICAL SCIENCE (American Government or Policy Concentration); and SIS (Foreign Policy
and National Security; and Justice, Ethics and Human Rights)
CANCELLED
(Course likely to run in fall’15)
HNRS-302-006H Future and Foresight
Erran Carmel and John Mahaffie
TH 11:45 a.m.-2:25 p.m.
Have you wondered why, in spite of the Jetsons’ version of the future, we don’t have flying cars? Would you
like to learn how to use the tools of foresight to explore questions about the future: 10, 20, or 30 years from
now? Smart organizations use those foresight tools to chart a course for a successful future. Future success
for business and government, and for global society—some would even say survival—depends on our ability
to understand change. And then drive to the futures we want. In nearly any professional area, you will need
the ability to recognize and understand the trends that affect the future and then predict the resulting future
challenges and opportunities.
The dual goals of this class are to futurize each student and then equip each student with a toolbox of future
methods. By futurizing we mean to develop an anticipatory consciousness. The future methods are
qualitative methods for exploring the future (this is not a mathematical modeling course!). The course, cotaught by an AU professor and a professional futurist John Mahaffie, includes techniques to create future
scenarios and how to choose an “aspirational” future. This is a learning-by-doing course. It will have clients
around whose interests we will explore change, build scenarios, and look for preferred future outcomes.
MAJOR CREDIT: EDUCATION; HEALTH PROMOTION; KSB (Business Elective Credit); and SOC (Major Credit with SOC Advisor
Approval)
HNRS-302-007H Alien Contact: Science and Science Fiction
John Weiskopf
W 5:30-8 p.m.
* M 2:35-5:15 p.m. Film Screenings
This course is about mankind’s desire for extraterrestrial contact. We will see classic science fiction films
from the 1950s to the present and read the novels the spawned them as well as examine television shows that
have become part of our “alien pop culture” for fifty years. Archival news footage of space exploration will
be integrated into the course as well as interviews with Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku. We
will examine the historical links between film and television to historical world events as they relate to
increased reports of contact. We will read and study about the Roswell Incident in 1947, the Phoenix lights
in 1997, and other UFO phenomena revealed by the recent declassification of international government files
on UFO sightings. Leslie Kean, a prominent author who wrote a best-selling book about worldwide UFO
sightings and global government reports, will be a guest speaker, along with Colonel Charles Halt, who was
the deputy base commander of a large military base in England when a UFO landed. Colonel Halt
approached the UFO, and stood only feet away from it recording the event. He will play the recording in
class. There has never been a course quite like this.
*As part of their preparation for the Wednesday lecture/discussions, students are required to view films for homework.
Students will have the opportunity to see these required films at the optional screenings Monday 2:35-5:15 p.m. in MCK
201 (Forman Theater), or they may check out the required films on reserve in the AU Library Media Center at a time
convenient for their schedules.
MAJOR CREDIT: AMERICAN STUDIES; EDUCATION; LITERATURE; SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture); SOC (Major Credit with
SOC Advisor Approval)
HNRS-302-008H The Critical Media Consumer/Participant
Ron Elving
T 5:30-8 p.m.
Consumers are bombarded daily with news and information from outlets that are considered conservative or
liberal or balanced. And social media has become the tool of the “everyman” who wants to reach audiences
directly. A savvy consumer can separate opinion from fact, hype from news, and entertainment from
information by critically examining the information, its source, and its purpose. In this class, which is taught
by the Senior Washington Editor at National Public Radio (NPR), students will focus on critical thinking
skills to evaluate and understand both the purpose and the performance of the mass media, as well how they
themselves can become active participants in the media. Assignments will include critiques of news
coverage, movies, plays, music, and other cultural phenomena. Students will be encouraged to generate their
own ideas for assignments and will become more comfortable critiquing themselves as well as others.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; CLEG (Communication); HEALTH PROMOTION; KSB (Business Elective Credit); POLITICAL
SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science Requirement); SIS (Identity, Race, Gender, Culture); SOC (Major Credit with Advisor Approval);
SOCIOLOGY
HNRS-302-009H Development and Democracy in South Asia
Adam Auerbach
T 8:55-11:35 a.m.
South Asia presents striking divergences in democratization and development, both within and across
the countries that compose the region. India has largely maintained the integrity of its democratic institutions
since Independence despite high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and social diversity. Several of India's
neighbors, however, exhibit political histories that are marked by periods of authoritarianism
and military rule. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai boast incredible wealth and are centers of
innovation and international investment. Concurrently, underdeveloped villages and vast urban slums
remind us that South Asia is a region of extreme poverty and inequality. With a nuclear-armed India and
Pakistan, networks of terrorist groups, a Maoist insurgency, border disputes, and episodes of ethnic and
religious conflict, the region of South Asia continues to experience serious instability and violence. Still,
social movements have emerged throughout the region to promote and deepen democracy, protect human
rights, curb corruption, and hold politicians and officials accountable. This course will examine trends in
democracy and development across South Asia. A majority of the course will focus on India, but will also
cover Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. We will investigate a number of related themes, including
democratization, federalism and local governance, urbanization and urban poverty, elections and political
parties, ethnic conflict, and the political economy of development.
MAJOR CREDIT: CLEG (Government Component); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Comparative Politics Concentration); SIS
(Global Inequality and Development; Global and Comparative Governance; and Foreign Policy and National Security, South
Asia Regional Credit)
HNRS-302-010H The Politics and Policy of Health Care
Christopher Jacobs
M 5:30-8 p.m.
Have you wondered what's actually in the health care bill that politicians have spent the last five years
debating? Are you curious to know how Medicare affects your grandparents' health care -- and your
taxes? Do you know why most Americans get their health insurance -- but not other forms of insurance -through their job?
This course attempts to answer these questions -- and more -- about the American health care system. We
will examine how government programs and private initiatives work (or don't), and how American health
care grew into the hybrid private-public system it has become. We will study the political factors that
influence policy-making, and the policy trends that impact debates about health care and entitlements. The
course is intended to provide a policy background for all those interested in how our health care system
works now, and the debates about what it may become in the future.
MAJOR CREDIT: CLEG (Government Component); HEALTH PROMOTION; KSB; POLITICAL SCIENCE (Policy
concentration); PUBLIC HEALTH (Policy/Program Planning Cluster); SOCIOLOGY
HNRS-302-011H Uniforms or Pin-Stripes? Are We Militarizing US Foreign Policy?
Gordon Adams
T 11:45 a.m.-2:25 p.m.
As the U.S. military forces left Iraq and leave Afghanistan, they are not withdrawing from the world.
Instead, a smaller number of U.S. military forces, many of them Special Forces, are more globally deployed
than ever. According to the Pentagon, they are “Building Partner Capacity (BPC).” Their mission is to fight
terrorist organizations and prevent the collapse of fragile states by participating, deeply and intensively, in
building the capacity of what is called the “security sector” of other countries. Today the U.S. military is not
only training, equipping, and advising the militaries of more than 80 other countries, they are also training
border guards, para-military forces, and internal security forces. They are helping build ministries of defense
and of the interior, advising court and prison systems, and training civilian and military lawyers. As a way
of “winning the hearts and minds” of local populations, the U.S. military are providing humanitarian, health,
educational, and development assistance, as well as engaging in psychological/propaganda operations. The
goal of BPC is ostensibly to help strengthen security in other countries, using their own security sector forces
and institutions to do so, instead of sending American soldiers in to stabilize those countries. Call it the
“anti-Iraq” strategy, at least in the minds of its supporters.
There is potentially a significant downside of this broad, global engagement by the American military.
Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan suggests the military may not be very good at this broader set of tasks,
which means the risk of failure could be high. Giving the US military the responsibility for security sector
assistance could be having the effect of weakening the civilian institutions of U.S. foreign policy – State and
USAID. This global U.S. military engagement could create “blowback” – the assumption that the U.S.
should be the global cop is not welcome everywhere. And having the U.S. military perform missions that are
not their core competence – ministry-building, policing, justice and court systems, lawyer training, social and
economic assistance – may fly directly in the face of the advice the U.S. has been giving foreign militaries
for years – stay out of politics, stay out of the economy, focus on military missions. In the end, building an
intense relationship with the security sector in other countries could have the opposite of its intended effect drawing the US military and, thus, the nation, more deeply and more broadly into the internal affairs of
others countries, whether they are important to the U.S. or not.
This colloquium will explore this gradual “militarization” of U.S. foreign policy on a global basis and
examine its implications for U.S. foreign policy and U.S. national security. The class will do intensive
reading and discussion on Iraq and Afghanistan experience, on the emergence and recent history of the BPC
program, on the history of U.S. military involvement in the security sector, and on the broader historical
context for one nation seeking to arrange the affairs of another. Guest speakers from the Defense
Department, Special Operations forces, U.S. Department of State, National Security Council, Congressional
staff, and outside experts will discuss and debate the wisdom of this military engagement. There will be
field trips to the institutions involved in the program. And students will be asked to write major research
papers, which will evaluate the impact of BPC activities both on the U.S. and on the recipient countries, and
make recommendations for how BPC might be changed, how the civilian institutions involved in security
sector policy might be strengthened, how transparency and accountability for BPC might be increased, and
how the U.S. might construct a more balanced engagement overseas.
MAJOR CREDIT: CLEG (Government Component); POLITICAL SCIENCE (American Government or Policy
Concentration); SIS (Foreign Policy and National Security Credit)
HNRS-302-012H Environment and Development
Robin Broad
W 2:35-5:15 p.m.
This course is an overview of the multi-disciplinary field of environment and development. It focuses on
debates concerning various human-made or development-related root causes of natural-resource degradation
in the South. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the rural poor and the environment. The
course also looks critically at current innovative policy initiatives –from local to global levels – attempting to
resolve the linked problems of environment and development. Students learn “root-cause analysis” to assess
both the debates and the policy initiatives.
Note: This course is not for students who have taken Professor Broad’s SIS-338-course.
MAJOR CREDIT: ANTHROPOLOGY; ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (BA in Environmental Studies only; credit is not granted for the BS
in Environmental Science or for the Environmental Studies minor); POLITICAL SCIENCE (Major Related Social Science Requirement);
and SIS (Environmental Sustainability and Global Health; and Global Inequality and Development)