Fall 2018
HNR 1100-01, 02 & 03: Humanistic Inquiry, Criminal Minds and Bodies: Narratives of Gender, Crime, & Deviance
Dr. William Carpenter, Director of Honors, Professor of English
Dr. Nahed Eltantawy, Chair and Associate Professor of Communication
Dr. Joey Fink, Visiting Assistant Professor of History
- Course Description:
This course will explore the relationship between stories and truth as they relate to historic, literary, and media constructions of gender and the body with respect to deviancy and crime. Students will analyze historical texts, literature, film, journalism and other forms of contemporary media with the goal of understanding the ways gender frames our understanding and consumption of the documenting, reporting, and representation of deviancy, victimhood, and criminal behavior.
- Sample Readings:
- From Dr. Fink’s unit, an example of a reading on the Borden murders in Fall River, MA, 1892: Ann Schofield, “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe: History, Feminism and American Culture,” in American Studies 34, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 91-104.
- From Dr. Eltantawy’s unit, an example of a reading on media framing would be: Gillespie, L. K., Richards, T. N., Givens, E. M., & Smith, M. D. (2013). Framing deadly domestic violence: Why the media’s spin matters in newspaper coverage of femicide. Violence against women, 19(2), 222-245.
- From Dr. Carpenter’s unit, an example of a reading on the role of narrative in reflecting and shaping social constructions of gender, deviancy, and crime: the novel Sula by Toni Morrison.
- Sample Project:
The final project will be a collaborative exercise in researching a specific topic or theme from one of the units. Students will work in small groups to select their chosen topic/theme, identify and analyze additional sources, and develop their research project. Each group will produce a polished, finished public-facing product that demonstrates the new knowledge and critical analyses generated by the group. The public-facing product may be a multimedia presentation, a digital or artistic installation, or a performance exhibit, which will presented to the class during the final exam period.
HNR 1100-04, 05 & 06: Humanistic Inquiry, The Beautiful & The Good
Dr. Matthew Carlson, Assistant Professor of English
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Assistant Professor of Theater and English
Dr. Claudine Davidshofer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
- Course Description:
Our work together will entail a survey of the most penetrating insights into aesthetics and ethics in Western philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Kant), complemented by three case studies in artistic practice and reflection (Greek sculpture, Medieval Painting and Theatre, 19th-century Aestheticism) and framed by the unique socio-cultural concerns of these artists and thinkers. More, students will have regular opportunity to reflect critically on the often hidden assumptions and proclivities of contemporary American taste. Toggling between theory and practice, historical context and universal concerns, our course will enable students to build their own working theory of beauty and goodness, informed by the Western tradition but crafted for a contemporary audience.
- Sample Readings:
Aristotle, Poetics
Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment
Oscar Wilde, critical dialogues and The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Sample Project:
In consultation with the home instructor, the student will select and write a substantive piece of criticism on an artifact of beauty on campus. This 4-5-page essay will demonstrate facility with at least two of our thinkers (Plato, Kant, Pater, Wilde, etc.) or systems of thought (Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, etc.) by applying them to the artifact at hand to discern whether and in what way the artifact is beautiful, whether it posits a relationship with the good, and in what ways the theories may fall short of accounting for the artifact’s beauty or goodness.
HNR 1300-01: Quantitative Reasoning, The Art of Never Being Wrong
Dr. Alixandra Yanus, Associate Professor of Political Science
- Course Description:
This course will equip students with the skills necessary to be educated consumers of the data-driven arguments that surround us daily. From public opinion data to fantasy sports statistics to consuming endless charts, tables, and graphs, we are constantly confronted with “big data”. All too often, the people who present this information to us are skilled data analysts tasked with persuading us to believe their “spin” on an issue. In this course, we will learn to approach these presentations with a critical eye. We will learn basic statistical methods that will help us to understand many of the most commonly used (and misused) tools of data analysis. We will also learn to approach others’ data with a careful eye and quantitative consciousness that will make us more informed citizens, less gullible purchasers, and more ethical producers.
- Sample Readings:
Statistics for People who (Think They) Hate Statistics by Neil Salkind
Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan
- Sample Project:
Will be a collaborative effort using multiple types of evidence and forms of analysis to answer a data-driven question of your choice. Students will be asked to prepare a range of materials making a pitch for their argument, including but not limited to: an executive summary, a research report (with visuals), and a PowerPoint presentation. Students will also be asked to complete a critical evaluation of their work and that of their teammates that explores the ethical implications and potential unintended consequences of their argument.
HNR 1300-02 & 03: Quantitative Reasoning, Mathematics of Democracy
Dr. Adam Graham-Squire, Associate Professor of Mathematics
- Course Description:
Mathematics of Democracy examines quantitative aspects of democracy, including methods of voting, apportionment, and redistricting/gerrymandering. Concepts will be taught through inquiry-based exploration, followed by simplified examples, and capped with real-world applications and data analysis from current and historical elections and events. While certain historical events, including laws passed and supreme court cases, will be included in the course to illuminate the context of changes to democracy, the focus will be on methods of quantifying democracy and the fairness of electoral systems.
- Sample Project:
The group project will be an in-depth research analysis of local and/or state democratic institutions. Students will analyze why a particular area (of their choosing) has chosen their democratic methods and make recommendations (rooted in the material taught in the course) for ways of improving democracy in that region.
HNR 2400-01: Scientific Reasoning, Uniquely Developing You
Dr. Kristin Ackerman, Assistant Professor of Biology
- Course Description:
This section will use Biological Concepts to explore characteristics that initiate within the womb and that ultimately define us as unique adult human beings. The biological fields of genetics, cell/molecular biology, and embryology will provide the backbone to understanding physical development. The impacts of these developmental cues on our daily adult lives will also be explored with ideas from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, ethics, and global inquiry. This course will be divided into six main modules, and each will explore a distinct timeframe during the first 4 months of development: 1) Gross/Physical human development, 2) Intelligence, 3) Gender Identity, 4) Skin Color, 5) Face Shape, and 6) Handedness.
- Sample Project:
At the end of each 2-3 week module, one laboratory group will present its project in PowerPoint/lecture format: Intro, methods, data, conclusion, etc. They will then write/record/film a PSA announcing “the scientific” break through. The class will debate whether the PSA was an accurate reflection of the scientific work.
HNR 2400-02: Scientific Reasoning, The Domestication Syndrome
Dr. Cindy Vigueira, Assistant Professor of Biology
- Course Description:
This course is about doing and thinking about science as professional scientists do. We will work together to ask questions, design experiments, make predictions, take risks, fail, revise experiments, fail again, and keep working until we get it right. Specifically, this section will use biological concepts to explore crop and animal domestication. The fields of evolution, genetics, and physiology will be used to explore how and why the same suite of traits are selected during domestication (sometimes referred to as the domestication syndrome). We will use historical, archaeological, and anthropological approaches in understanding how domestication shaped human civilizations and why humans have benefited from domesticating particular species of plants and animals. We will explore how domestication has changed in the last 10,000 years from trial and error approaches to modern crop and animal breeding and genetic modification. We will also explore the ethical implications of all approaches in domestication. In lab, we will conduct our own domestication and selection experiments.
- Sample Readings:
Domestication: Evolution in a Man-Made World by Richard C. Francis
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
- Sample Project:
Teach to Learn Presentation and Paper: Each student will choose a domesticated organism or a technique in selection and present the class with details on that topic. The presentations are testable material for the course and students will be asked to be the ‘expert’ on that topic as it comes up in class throughout the semester. Students will also write a five-page research paper on the same topic as their presentation.
HNR 2500-01: Aesthetic Inquiry, What’s the Use of Art?
Dr. Bryan Vescio, Chair and Professor of English
- Course Description:
What role does art play in our practical lives, and is its value predicated on how well it performs that role? Opposing answers to that question determine two major approaches to thinking about art: formalism and anti-formalism. The formalist approach takes meaning and purpose as irrelevant to the value of art, while the anti-formalist approach takes the value of art as at least partly determined by what it means for our other everyday practices. This course will critically evaluate arguments for both positions, exploring the consequences of adopting one or the other for our practices of creating and appreciating art works, including ethical consequences involving the social responsibility of artists. We will also evaluate some attempts to find a middle ground between formalism and anti-formalism. Our own approach to these questions will be interdisciplinary, examining disciplines from art history to the philosophy of art to literary and film criticism, and spanning artistic genres from music to literature to painting to theater to film. Your exploration of the implications of formalism and anti-formalism will involve not only writing in multiple genres, including theory, criticism, and reviews of art, but also the creation of your own work of art in a medium of your choice. We will be engaging not only with theories and works of art, but also with the institutions that provide access to art in the Piedmont Triad area and even with practicing, professional artists themselves.
- Sample Readings:
“Significant Form” by Clive Bell
“The Art-World” by Arthur Danto
- Sample Project:
Each of you will create your own work of art in a genre of your choice after researching the history and theory of that medium throughout the semester. I will not be grading you on the quality of your work of art, but rather I will grade you on a presentation during the final exam period in which you reflect on your experience, describing how your intentions and process were informed by formalist or anti-formalist considerations.
HNR 3600-01: Scholar Seminar, Who Am I? Locating the Self Through the Whedon-verse
Dr. Tony Kemerly, Professor of Exercise Science
- Course Description:
We will work together to build a conception of self that draws on your individual experiences and your scholarly research. Who are you? What has your world imparted to you? How has it affected the person who sits in this room today? Your understanding of who you are is basic to your thought processes and fundamental to the world and the way you think about it. Therefore, in order for us to expand our conception of self, we will combine publications related to understanding the self with texts from popular culture, specifically the works of Joss Whedon and his “Whedon-verse”. Such a combination enables us to examine the behaviors of others to whom we can relate, as the characters within the Whedon-verse are undergoing many of the same life changes and experiences that you are right now.
- Sample Readings:
Ford: “Willow’s Sexuality & Empowerment”
Reiss: “Taming the Darkness within Ourselves”
- Sample Project:
Includes a character analysis of the character with which the student most connects and folding that into a larger paper highlighting either the personal or social significance of that character.
HNR 3605-01: Scholar Seminar, The Cost & Value of Higher Education
Dr. William Carpenter, Professor of English & Director of Honors Scholar Program
- Course Description:
This course looks to generate and evaluate radical alternatives to the dominant systems and structures of U.S. higher education. Under specific scrutiny will be the areas of recruitment, financial aid, student services, and curriculum design and assessment. Our analytical lenses will be shaped by critical theories that aggressively question the values and practices associated with grand narratives, meritocracy, capitalism, privatization, utilitarianism, and credentialing processes – with the understanding that such questioning will help alienate students from engrained and traditional ways of thinking about college and careers and encourage them to invent new ideas about what college should be. By the end of the semester, students will be able to identify, analyze, and propose changes to the ideologies and practices (good and bad) that now define higher education.
- Sample Readings:
Delblanco, Andrew. College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be. Princeton, 2013.
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress. Routledge, 1994.
- Sample Project:
Oral and visual presentation of “The College of the Future.”
Spring 2019
HNR 1201: Educational Change
Dr. A. Blosser
In this course, students will hone their observation, interview, writing, and presentation skills as they become social scientists for the common good. Through extensive service in a local school, students will explore problems in the school’s community and through their research, become agents of educational change. This is a service learning course.
HNR 1202: Approaches to the Justice System
Dr. T. Dearden
Many of us desire to help others. Yet, we may wonder what is the best approach? How do I know if what I am doing has any lasting impact on people’s lives? This class explores these ideas by adopting a research approach to helping. Working with the Guilford County Reentry Council we will explore what happens to prisoners returning to society. Our service project involves reviewing programs offered to inmates and former inmates to see how/if they are being helped. By so doing we will be faced with complex questions such as: why do people commit crime? what is the purpose of the United States’ Justice System? and what programs will reduce crime and help inmates succeed? This is a service-learning course.
HNR 1203: Serving the Social (and Self-) Interest
Dr. D. Hall
This is a Social Scientific Inquiry Honors Course that focuses on the question, “How shall we serve the social interest when human behavior is often motivated by self-interest?” We will explore this question using tools from the social sciences. Students will experience the challenges voluntary associations face in the provision of public goods and services, reflecting critically on the questions regarding human behavior and the institutions that surround them. Private provision (voluntary, nonprofit, and for profit) will be compared with government provision, determining whether these approaches are complimentary or in competition for resources. This course has a service learning placement which requires a minimum of 25 service hours on projects selected for the course. Most of these service hours will be met outside our normal class meeting time.
HNR 1204: Learning to be a Mind Reader
Dr. S. Lipowski
The main topic of this course is theory of mind, which is the ability to attribute mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires) to oneself and to others. It also involves understanding that others act based on their beliefs, wishes, and goals, which may be different from ours. Students will learn how theory of mind develops throughout childhood, how it is measured, and how understanding varies by culture. Students will also learn how theory of mind is related to a variety of other topics, including autism, empathy, altruism, and religious beliefs.
HNR 1206: Social Collapse and Human Resilience
Dr. S. Rosenfeld
How do human beings adapt to a changing climate and how can societies determine their own futures are issues of tremendous importance. As we consider these issues in present times it is useful to look to the past to see if there is evidence of societies that have succeeded or collapsed in the face of a changing world. This course will examine the popular press books, Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, as well as the response to those books, Questioning Collapse, in an attempt to resolve some of these issues. We will also draw upon original archaeological, historical, and environmental data to further contextualize these case studies. These issues are discussed from a deep historical as well as a present perspective in order to come to some conclusions about where we think human societies are headed.
HNR 1302: The Art of Never Being Wrong
Dr. A. Yanus
This section of HNR-1300 will equip students with the skills necessary to be educated consumers of the data-driven arguments that surround us daily. From public opinion data to fantasy sports statistics to consuming endless charts, tables, and graphs, we are constantly confronted with “big data”. All too often, the people who present this information to us are skilled data analysts tasked with persuading us to believe their “spin” on a issue. In this course, we will learn to approach these presentations with a critical eye. We will learn basic statistical methods that will help us to understand many of the most commonly used (and misused) tools of data analysis. We will also learn to approach others’ data with a careful eye and quantitative consciousness that will make us more informed citizens, less gullible purchasers, and more ethical producers. Students will demonstrate their knowledge and application of these ideas through a series of three unit and a culminating final project.
HNR 1304: Mathematics of Democracy
Dr. A. Graham-Squire
This course examines quantitative aspects of democracy, including methods of voting, apportionment, and redistricting/gerrymandering. Concepts will be taught through inquiry-based exploration, followed by simplified examples, and capped with real-world applications and data analysis from current and historical elections and events. While certain historical events, including laws passed and supreme court cases, will be included in the course to illuminate the context of changes to democracy, the focus will be on methods of quantifying democracy and the fairness of electoral systems.
HNR 2401: Story of Color and Light
Drs. K. Fogarty and J. Paul
What does it mean to see? In this class, we’ll use that question to probe the interplay between scientific reasoning, its discoveries, and the cultural context in which those discoveries are made. We’ll begin by exploring how the Classical world, despite a biology consistent with our own, couldn’t perceive blue, had no word for the color…until they developed the means to commercially dye fabric blue. From there, we’ll move to what it meant for the early Renaissance world to contend with the notion that we weren’t, after all, the center of our solar system, let alone the universe. We’ll return from the heavens to grapple with what it meant, upon the discovery of photographic emulsions and the invention of the photograph, for noncombatants to see the travails of modern battlefields. And, finally, we’ll end back in the sky, where our capacity to see blue (and red, too) have allowed us to begin to measure the size, speed, duration of the universe itself.
HNR 2402: Uniquely Developing You
Dr. K. Ackerman
This section will use Biological Concepts to explore characteristics that initiate within the womb and that ultimately define us as unique adult human beings. The biological fields of genetics, cell/molecular biology, and embryology will provide the backbone to understanding physical development. The impacts of these developmental cues on our daily adult lives will also be explored with ideas from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, ethics, and global inquiry. This course will be divided into six main modules, and each will explore a distinct timeframe during the first 4 months of development: 1) Gross/Physical human development, 2) Intelligence, 3) Gender Identity, 4) Skin Color, 5) Face Shape, and 6) Handedness.
HNR 2404: Neglected Tropical Diseases
Dr. T. Lyda
This course is directed at thinking about science as professional scientists do. We will work together to ask questions, design experiments, make predictions, take risks, fail, revise experiments, fail again, and keep working until we get it right. Specifically, this section will use biological concepts to explore the dynamics involved with Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). This course will combine 3 main units in lecture and lab, each will explore Neglected Tropical Diseases: 1) Getting to know the major NTDs, 2) Drug Discovery Research and 3) Global Outreach.
HNR 2501: Building and Being
Mr. J. Linn
This course is an intentional inquiry into the natures of practice, value, and experience within the realm of aesthetics. We will explore the practice of aesthetics through inquiries of building and drawing, reading and analyzing. We will discuss the value and meaning of aesthetics through collective inquiry, and discern the experience of aesthetics through reflection. In general, this is a course intended to develop your abilities in aesthetic awareness and discernment; it is not a course intended to develop your manual craftsmanship or ‘artistic’ skills, although both could evolve.
HNR 2503: Hip Hop
Dr. J.W. Turner
In HNR 2503 Aesthetic Inquiry: Hip Hop, students will consider the nature, value, and purpose of Hip Hop music in light of its context, history, production, and aesthetics. The course will focus on the sources and development of Hip-Hop from the late 1970s to the present day, with an emphasis on critical listening and interpretation. The major assignments will include song analyses, a 5-7 page research paper, and an original four-song EP created with a digital audio workstation (DAW) demonstrating specific historical styles.
HNR 2504: When do Newsletter Become Art?
Dr. E. Trauth
In this class, students will examine art as well as professional writing conventions and technologies with the aim of understanding how to best respond as writers and designers employing both artistic and visual content and information and data in professional genres. As such, students will acquire rhetorical flexibility and the ability to analyze and respond to evolving professional writing contexts. The course will guide students to compose professional information effectively and artistically, particularly in newsletter formats.
HNR 2505: Art, Protest, Persuasion, or Propaganda?
Dr. M. Malburne-Wade
W.E.B. Du Bois asserted “all Art is propaganda and ever must be.” Is that true? How do we define art? When does art become persuasion, protest, or even propaganda? Can propaganda ever be art? In this course, we will explore a variety of primary texts—novels, poems, essays, critical theory, plays, posters, film, and photography—as we define the boundaries and duties of art. Through critical analyses of written and visual texts, we will create the theories that will guide our final projects: our own creations and presentations of art, persuasion, and propaganda.
HNR 3602: (Neuro)Science Fiction
Ms. A. Walker
Have you ever wondered why the science fiction narrative remains so pervasive in our culture? Despite our technological advances, we never seem to tire of fantasies that speculate wildly beyond our own reality. We devour science fiction in literature, film, video games, and pseudoscience, our hearts pound when we watch a scary sci-fi
movie, and we delight in the telling of a good speculative yarn, even as it unravels under our scientific scrutiny. Neuroscientists tell us that our brains light up with “mirror neuron” pathways when we read, see, or hear of another person’s narrative peril. Some of our earliest memories revolve around make believe, and while we may not view ourselves as “creative” individuals, millions of us create and consume elaborate fantasy and science fiction narratives our entire lives. So how might science fiction stories help us survive? How might an examination of the theories of popular cognitive psychology and popular neuroscience enhance our understanding of the science fiction literary genre? By exploring our shared evolutionary history and the multilayered complexity of that “big brain” that makes our species unique and enables us to tell such entertaining and prescient stories, students will develop intellectual STEAM, solidifying our place as the storytelling species and proving why, indeed, we can’t live without science fiction.
HNR 3605: The Cost and Value of Higher Education
Dr. W. Carpenter
This course looks to generate and evaluate radical alternatives to the dominant systems and structures of U.S. higher education. Under specific scrutiny will be the areas of recruitment, financial aid, student services, and curriculum design and assessment. Our analytical lenses will be shaped by critical theories that aggressively question the values and practices associated with grand narratives, meritocracy, capitalism, privatization, utilitarianism, and credentialing processes – with the understanding that such questioning will help alienate students from engrained and traditional ways of thinking about college and careers and encourage them to invent new ideas about what college should be. By the end of the semester, students will be able to identify, analyze, and propose changes to the ideologies and practices (good and bad) that now define higher education.
HNR 3606: The Art of Playing Around
Mr. J. Putnam
A creative research seminar into the nature and performance of immersive and non-traditional theatre. In this course, students will research the growing trend in ways of performance that shift the relation of performer and audience. Students will explore and discuss source material that examines the nature of audience desire and the ways in which theatrical performance has evolved to meet these needs. And, students will develop personal creative skills in order to test and communicate these ideas in performance.
HNR 3607: HPU LifeLines: Narrative Medicine in Action
Ms. A. Walker
Narrative medicine seeks to replace hurried and impersonal care with careful listening and empathy. All of us have stories to share, and all of us will face health choices and challenges that narrative medicine can help us navigate more effectively. Narrative medicine gives us a chance to heal each other through the simple act of storytelling. This course focuses on close reading and analysis of literary texts and addresses the ethical questions raised by narrative medicine. This course also includes a substantive Service Learning project in cooperation with the local community. These community partnerships will offer students firsthand experience as narrative medicine practitioners, leading “HPU LifeLines” creative writing workshops with residents of a local assisted living facility and middle school students at an after-school program located near campus. Students will complete a minimum of 25 hours of service with community partners and must be available during selected hours at off-campus locations.
HNR 3608: Death
Dr. J. Davis
Death is a topic that is universal, but that invokes fear, dread, and mourning. As such, it is often avoided. In this course, we will look at death as clearly and objectively as possible. We will first address the scientific question: What is death? Then we will go on to explore death in its cultural contexts, examining the portrayal of death in art, literature, and music and ultimately identifying how these factors influence our own understanding of death and, in turn, life.
HNR 3609: Origins of Anime
Dr. B. Carter
Do you enjoy anime? Do you want to know more about Japanese story telling? The “Origins of Anime” course reveals the roots of popular Japanese films and stories by engaging premodern Japanese texts (in English language translation) and modern literary theory. Throughout the semester we will pay particular attention to commonalties among Japanese premodern texts and modern stories, as well as the extent they differ due to temporal/socio/religio/political concerns. Western and Asian literary theories, especially those concerning topics of translation, replacement, negotiation with classics, and gender and sexuality will also be extensively explored. We will interpret the historic human endeavor of story telling within the contexts of time and space with a keen self-awareness of our own positions in the modern world.
