The Honors Core Curriculum consists of 39 credits amassed through twelve courses and over seven semesters. It includes EXP 1101: President’s Seminar and a world language course. All courses engage students in project-based learning and entail direct writing instruction. This Honors Core Curriculum is in place of the General Education Requirements.
The Foundations Courses (HNR 1100 – 2500) introduce five areas of the liberal arts: humanities, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, and arts. Scholar Seminars (HNR 3600) explore interdisciplinary topics and give students the opportunity to lead 40% – 60% of class activities. The Qualifying Signature Project (HNR 3700 & 3800) is the defining piece of the curriculum; students work in multidisciplinary teams to plan, propose, and complete a project related to a public issue or problem. The capstone course HNR 4900 Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts assists students with connecting their liberal arts education to their personal and professional goals.
Students are required to take each course listed below. AP/IB/Cambridge credits do not replace these requirements, though they can count toward prerequisites and graduation, depending on departmental policies. Substitutions are available to students who join the Honors Scholars Program at the start of their sophomore year.
The program has created a Honors Curriculum Checklist for students and academic advisers to track progress toward completion. This can be a useful tool for academic planning.
The President’s Seminar on Life Skills course is taught by Dr. Nido Qubein, President of High Point University. (1 credit)
“…this course gives students a hefty dose of Real World pragmatism as they enter HPU. The skills they learn are meant to help them succeed in all aspects of life-academic, professional, and personal. By taking the course as freshmen, the rest of their course work is often experienced through the lens of practical application. It sets the tone for developing an intentional life plan.” ~ Dr. Nido Qubein
Honor Scholars are asked to study a world language other than English. They can complete this requirement by completing one of the following options:
- One world language course at 1020 level or at placement (whichever is higher); or
- Study abroad in a country with a home language other than English and with one course in the home language; or
- Participation in an approved language-intensive program; or
- Students who place at or above the 1020 level in a world language may elect to take EDU 1020: American Sign Language II (note EDU 1010 is a prerequisite) OR CSC 1710: Introduction to Programming.
Students analyze the evolution of human thought and culture, with particular attention to the relationships between stories and truths. With guidance from faculty in multiple disciplines of humanistic study (history, art, music, theater, literature, rhetoric, philosophy, religion), students interrogate how humans use narrative to organize, revise, and propagate ideas, values, beliefs, and identities. In so doing, they practice strategies for identifying, framing, and examining questions concerning meaning, spirituality, truth, and selfhood. Students complete one unit-length (3-4 week) project. (4 credits)
Students develop strategies for observing and analyzing individual and collective human behavior. In light of comparative discussions regarding the intellectual traditions that define the social sciences, students identify real-world problems related to human thought and behavior and employ social scientific methods to evaluate research, generate options, and propose solutions. Readings and assignments prompt students to analyze cultural perspectives and to develop self-awareness about their own sociocultural conditions. Students complete one semester-long project. (4 credits)
Students interpret relationships in nature through mathematical equations, developing facility with mathematical languages and methods of symbolic representation. Students also explore the methods, rhetoric, and ethics of data accumulation, categorization, and representation. Students complete one unit-length project. (4 credits)
Students investigate the importance of scientific understanding to human development. In examining science as a human endeavor, students discuss the dynamism and evolution of scientific inquiry, with attention paid to cultural, historical, and ethical contexts. In class activities and project-based labs, they gain experience with the concepts of experimental design, data collection, and interpretation, as well as with handling and manipulating materials. (4 credits)
Students confront questions about the nature, value, and purpose of art, with consideration of how art is produced and consumed and of how we define beauty. Structured interactions with works of art and critical theory, as well as hands-on experiences in studios, hone students’ abilities to see from multiple perspectives, employ spatial reasoning, appreciate ambiguity, and craft interpretations. Students complete at least one unit-length project. (4 credits)
Studies in topics that range across disciplines, driven by faculty interests and expertise. Seminars develop students’ abilities to formulate and pursue research questions, explore primary and secondary sources, lead in-class discussions, and communicate new ideas to public audiences. Courses are student-led roughly 40%-60% of the semester. Two Scholar Seminars are required. (4 credits each)
First part of a year-long cooperative project which investigates and proposes a solution to some aspect of a larger issue or problem. Student teams create a problem statement, explore inquiry methods, and complete a project proposal. (2 credits)
Second part of a year-long cooperative project. Student teams, with guidance from a faculty mentor, work independently to complete their projects, keeping in mind the cultural, socio-economical, political, and ethical assumptions and implications. (2 credits)
In this capstone experience, students explore the question, How has a liberal arts education prepared me for life and work? To build their answers, students complete a final curating of their Honors Portfolios, using it to shape a professional web presence and a public presentation. (2 credits)
Spring 2024
HNR 1204: [Social Science Inquiry] Learning to be a Mind Reader
Dr. S. Lipowski, Associate Professor of Psychology
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 1207: [Social Science Inquiry] Health and Wealth of Nations
Dr. P. Summers, Assistant Professor of Political Science
This course will focus on the evolution of standards of living and rates of economic growth in the long run (decades, generations, or centuries). Why are some nations (such as the U.S., Germany, and Australia) so wealthy and others (like Somalia and Haiti) so poor? Some nations that were among the poorest in the world fifty years ago (like South Korea and Malaysia) are now some of the wealthiest. What did they do to make that happen, and can their experience be replicated elsewhere? Why do wealthier countries also tend to be healthier? Students will approach these and similar questions using economic growth theory as an organizing framework. Related perspectives from other social science fields such as political science, sociology and anthropology will also be incorporated. Students will also analyze the evidence for these theories using appropriate analytical tools such as data visualization and basic statistics.
HNR-1206 [Social Science Inquiry] Social Collapse & Human Resilience
Dr. S. Rosenfeld, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Can Societies collapse? 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.We will analyze historical, archaeological, and environmental data to 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-1209 [Social Science Inquiry] Human Migration *New!*
Dr. J. Graeber, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Students develop strategies for observing and analyzing individual and collective human behavior. In light of comparative discussions regarding the intellectual traditions that define the social sciences, students identify real-world problems related to human thought and behavior and employ social scientific methods to evaluate research, generate options, and propose solutions. Readings and assignments prompt students to analyze cultural perspectives and to develop self-awareness about their own sociocultural conditions. Students complete one semester-long project.
HNR-1210 [Social Science Inquiry] Learning Around the World *New!*
Dr. A. Leak, Assistant Professor of Education
The main topic for this course is learning around the world. How do we learn? Why do we go to school? What does school look like in different countries? Who has access to education? Who decides what is important to learn? Students will explore learning through the lens of developmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, and political science to examine fundamental questions about themselves and their own learning, compare education systems in different countries, and propose solutions to complex education-related problems in our world. This course will also introduce students to the methods social scientists use to collect, analyze, and critically evaluate data. Students will gain hands-on experience and develop academic writing skills by participating in a semester-long book project focusing on learning in a selected country or marginalized community.
HNR 1301: [Quantitative Reasoning] Graph Theory & the Science of Networks
Dr. J. Fuselier, Associate Professor of Mathematics
This course is a project-based introduction to the field of network science. Network science allows students to craft solutions to real-world problems arising in a variety of fields using the mathematical language of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs formed by collections of vertices (or points) and edges between them. Graphs can be used to represent data in many realms, including biology, political science, travel, and social connections between people groups. In conjunction with an introduction to graph theory, students will learn methods for collecting network data, representing it in graphs and matrices, and analyzing network models.
HNR-1305 [Quantitative Reasoning] Mathbusters
Dr. R. Harger, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Innumeracy is to quantitative skills what illiteracy is to literacy. While illiteracy is not acceptable in most circles, many people will revel in their lack of quantitative skills. “I’m just not good with numbers” is seemingly acceptable in contemporary culture, even a badge of honor, but never “I can’t read.” Early In the course we will cover the necessary mathematics, probability, and statistics where innumeracy most commonly reveals itself. For example, we’ll analyze pseudosciences such as astrology, numerology, and parapsychology, probability vs. coincidence, and fraudulent business and medical schemes. We will transition to applications of that knowledge to contemporary popular culture, discovering how basic number sense is a key element in understanding our daily diet of information. From the Senate, to SAT’s, crime, celebrities and cults, we will consider stories that may not seem to involve mathematics, but demonstrate how a lack of mathematical knowledge can seriously hinder our understanding. Finally, in the last few weeks, teams of students will work toward presenting a case study of their own where innumeracy meets popular culture, with serious consequences for public understanding.
HNR-2402 [Scientific Reasoning] Uniquely Developing You
Dr. N. Coffield, Assistant Professor of Biology
Scientific Reasoning. Uniquely Developing You. 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 2401/L: [Scientific Reasoning] 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-2508 [Aesthetic Inquiry] Realism: Aesthetics & Politics
Dr. V. Leclercq, Assistant Professor of English
An especially dynamic period for art and politics, the nineteenth century in Britain and France saw the rise of the middle class, the explosion of the periodical press, and the reign of a new paradigm for apprehending and understanding human experience: Realism. Through examinations of novels, short stories, paintings, photography, and music in nineteenth-century Britain and France, we will explore how Realism revolutionized aesthetics and the political implications of these new forms of representation. Our discussion will ask many of the questions that artists and the public at large were debating: what and who is worthy of representation (both aesthetic and political)? How best can one capture experience? What is the real and is it art?
HNR 2510: [Aesthetic Inquiry] Autobiographics
Professor M. Richard, Instructor in English
This course considers what feminist scholar Leigh Gilmore terms “autobiographics,” life narratives that highlight the construction of the self as a complex act, particularly for individuals belonging to historically / culturally marginalized groups. In other words, the texts we encounter purposely call attention to self-representation as a performance that troubles easy distinctions between “truth” and “fiction.” Along the way we also have to consider questions about the nature of autobiography as a generic category, how (and, more importantly, who) shaped and institutionalized the qualities of texts defined as autobiographical. We reflect on issues such as the working of memory and the tension between invention and disclosure, and we examine texts that blur and taunt generic boundaries. These texts include Oscar Wilde’s prison writings, particularly De Profundis; Nora Krug’s recent graphic novel of reckoning with Nazi connections in her family’s past, Belonging; Kiese Laymon’s powerful memoir Heavy, which contends with race, education, addiction, and abuse (written as a letter to his mother); and Maggie Nelson’s hybrid (auto)biography of her aunt’s murder, Jane. We’ll also look at autobiographics in photographs, art, and film by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Frieda Kahlo, and Natalia Almada. We’ll consider how music, especially popular music, performs a generational and cultural sense of self. Course assignments and projects include weekly class blogs and open group-led discussions centered on the texts and theories of interest to students, a presentation on music that has defined students / their generation, and a multi-modal autoethnography where students create and / or gather a set of artifacts and genres that tell a story from their family or community histories.
HNR-2509 [Aesthetic Inquiry] Country Music
Dr. J. Turner, Associate Professor of Music
Students confront questions about the nature, value, and purpose of Country music, with a consideration of its context, history, production, and aesthetics. Structured interactions with works of art and critical theory, as well as hands-on experiences in studios, hone students’ abilities to see from multiple perspectives, employ artistic reasoning, appreciate ambiguity, and craft interpretations. Over the course of the four units, students will create an original Country single (A and B sides) collaboratively.
HNR 3602: [Scholar Seminar] (Neuro)Science Fiction
Ms. A. Walker, Instructor in English
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-3604 [Scholar Seminar] Spanish Civil War: Words & Images
Dr. A. Winkle, Assistant Professor of Spanish
This Honors Seminar introduces students to literature and the arts produced by participants and observers of the war in Spain. In conjunction with a historical and geographical appreciation of the conflict, students will study primary sources originally in English and in Spanish-to-English translation. Films, poems, photographs, novels, paintings, memoirs, and propaganda posters will lead students to question how a conflict is remembered through the various narratives that are told about it.
HNR 3608: [Scholar Seminar] Death
Dr. T. Kemerly, Associate Professor of Exercise Science
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-3616 [Scholar Seminar] Performing Cultures
Dr. N. Hedman, Director of the Honors Program
Humans rarely just act in the world, they typically perform those actions for others. Many of these performances become highly codified cultural traditions documenting the commitments of a people. We will examine several non-Western theatrical traditions so as to sharpen our intercultural competence with the unfamiliar and better understand our own performance traditions.
HNR-3611 [Scholar Seminar] The Art of Melancholy *New!*
Dr. L. Alexander, Associate Professor of English
This honors section investigates classical, early modern, and modern perspectives on melancholy by artists, philosophers, doctors, literary figures, and psychologists in conversation across time. We’ll research the art of melancholy across centuries and continents as writers, religious figures, artists, and doctors respond, refute, adjust, and engage the philosophical, medical, literary, theological, and cultural study of melancholy. We’ll discuss questions about the ambiguous relationship between the earliest artistic and medicinal conceptions and practices of melancholy and modern understandings and depictions of the psyche. As an honors scholar seminar, our process will largely be student-led. Together, we’ll read literary, philosophical, and historical contexts for understanding ancient melancholy and particularly ethical implications of gendered models of melancholy drawn from the earliest medical understandings of the ‘condition’ of melancholy that still persist today. Students will take the lead in formulating meaningful questions for class discussion based on their research and writing. Four credits.
HNR-3612 [Scholar Seminar] Graphic Memories *New!*
Dr. Denis Depinoy, Assistant Professor of Language
This course introduces students to some of these reflections. After an introduction to the specificities of graphic narratives, students will become familiar with the tools necessary to the analysis of bandes dessinées, taken from a variety of fields ranging from literary analysis to semiotics. Students will then use these tools to read, analyze and interpret key primary texts, supplemented with a selection of critical essays. More specifically, students will examine and compare two major approaches to the conceptualization of graphic memory: the construction of a shared collective memory in historical and biographical works and the development of individual and personal memories in autobiographical works.
HNR-3617 [Scholar Seminar] Marriage Divorce & Singlehood *New!*
Dr. A. Allen, Assistant Professor of History
This course will explore the complex developments with marriage and divorce in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, as this provides a foundational geographic and chronological framework for the modern Western tradition. The course will highlight primary documents ca 1200-1650AD, including, but not limited to letters, diaries, literature/poetry, religious writings, and legal documents. In analyzing these sources, this course will emphasize there was no singular standard perception on marriage, divorce, and singlehood in this timeframe. Rather, perceptions varied based on changing social structure, economic connections, religious affiliation, and gender constructs/roles across the timeframe, many of which still have grounding in modern viewpoints on these topics.
HNR-3800 Qualifying Signature Project
Various Honors Faculty
This course is the second part of a year-long cooperative project. Student teams, with guidance from a faculty mentor, will work independently to complete the research projects they proposed in the Methods, Proposals and Planning course (HNR 3700), keeping in mind the cultural, socio-economic, political, and ethical assumptions and implications. Once the research projects are complete, students will develop a research report, give a public poster presentation, and create an artifact (to be made available to the public) that appropriately represents their projects (i.e., a website, commercial, public service announcement, app, physical device). Prerequisite: HNR 3700. Two credits.
HNR 4900: Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts
Various Honors Faculty
The liberal arts were conceived as the education necessary for a free people, those who would be practiced in thinking through the kind of difficult questions that enrich our lives and sustain democratic institutions. In this capstone experience, you will explore how your liberal arts education has prepared you for life and work. Students will curate and design an ePortfolio to present a holistic and professional web presence, and a self that demonstrates–however particularly–the values of a liberally educated person. Two credits.
Fall 2024
HNR-1100L Humanistic Inquiry Lab
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Director of the Honors Scholars Program
Required colloquium session for HNR 1100: Humanistic Inquiry. The lab sessions introduce students to the requirements and practices of the Honors Scholar Program, paying particular attention to the academic habits of mind necessary for student success: inquiry, analysis, information literacy, and reflective thinking. Zero credit.
HNR 1104: [Humanities Inquiry] Here Be Dragons
Dr. Amanda Allen, Assistant Professor of History
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Assistant Professor of Theater and English
Dr. Mark Toole, Associate Professor of Religion
Moving through three units, we’ll investigate the formation of “England” as a geographical, cultural and linguistic creation, we’ll explore Eastern Vedic and Buddhist transmigrations of The Self, and we’ll discover the early modern theatre-of-the-world tradition in Shakespeare and Marlowe. With each unit, you’ll be given fresh opportunity to critically reflect on your own geographies that help orient you to the world, comparing them to Western historical formulations of “the other” and non-Western traditions of “the self.” Toggling between theory and practice, literal and metaphorical maps, historical context and universal concerns, this course will help you discover the depth of your orienting frameworks and practice habits that facilitate your encounter with the strange. Four credits.
HNR-1103 [Humanistic Inquiry] Working Class Protest Culture
Dr. Paul Ringel, Assistant Professor of History
Dr. Scott McLeod, Assistant Professor of Music
Dr. Virginia Leclercq, Assistant Professor of English
Students analyze the evolution of protest in working class thought and culture, with particular attention to the relationships between stories and truths. With guidance from faculty in multiple disciplines of humanistic study (English, History, and Music), students interrogate how humans use narrative to organize, revise, and propagate ideas, values, beliefs, and identities. In so doing, they practice strategies for identifying, framing, and examining questions concerning meaning, spirituality, truth, and selfhood. Four credits.
HNR 1304: [Quantitative Reasoning] Math of Democracy
Dr. A. Graham-Squire, Associate Professor of Mathematics
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. Four credits.
HNR 1303: [Quantitative Reasoning] Mathematical Modeling
Dr. A. Titus
This course is a project-based introduction to mathematical modeling. A mathematical model is a set of equations, determined from simplifying assumptions and constraints, to describe a system. Students will learn to construct models to solve real-world systems in physics, biology, economics, and social science. Students will learn techniques to solve models, will use their models to make predictions, and will use measured data to test and refine their models. Finally, students will learn tools to facilitate writing data- and code-driven narratives. Four credits.
HNR 2403/L: [Scientific Inquiry] Domestication Syndrome
Dr. J. Lattier, Assistant Professor of Biology, Conservatory Manager
We 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 for during domestication (sometimes referred to as the “domestication syndrome”). We will use historical, archeological, 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.
HNR 2402/L: [Scientific Reasoning] Uniquely Developing You
Dr. N. Caufield, Instructor of Biology
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-2405/L: [Scientific Reasoning] How Molecules Shape Experience
Dr. A. Wommack, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
What makes a chemical good or bad? Molecules are a part of everything around us and are incorporated into every product that we use. In this course, we will use lessons of scientific misunderstanding and misconduct to evaluate the past and current production of consumer goods. We will also look at the creativity behind how drug-like molecules are isolated and designed by engaging in the practice of chemical synthesis and analysis in the laboratory. Accompanying this modern laboratory experience will be discussions of how performing and communicating science is always accompanied with the potential for error and fraud. To further contextualize the issues around appropriate categorization and application of different molecules, we will consult readings related to cultural and ethical traditions while we learn about drug approval processes, ethnopharmacology, and illicit drug scheduling. This course seeks to provide a deeper understanding of how molecules can impact our environment, personal health, and culture. Four credits.
HNR-2509: [Aesthetic Inquiry] Country Music
Dr. J. Turner, Associate Professor of Music
Students confront questions about the nature, value, and purpose of Country music, with a consideration of its context, history, production, and aesthetics. Structured interactions with works of art and critical theory, as well as hands-on experiences in studios, hone students’ abilities to see from multiple perspectives, employ artistic reasoning, appreciate ambiguity, and craft interpretations. Over the course of the four units, students will create an original Country single (A and B sides) collaboratively.
HNR 3601: [Scholar Seminar] Who am I?
Dr. T. Kemerly, Associate Professor of Exercise Science
In this course, we will begin from this conception of self, and work together to expand this conception, drawing 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. Such a combination enables us to examine the behaviors of others to whom we can relate, characters undergoing many of the same life changes and experiences that you are right now.
HNR-3609: [Scholar Seminar] Origins of Anime
Dr. S. Hall, Associate Professor of Communication
Modern anime and manga authors and artists captivate audiences with rich stories and stylized art. This course investigates the origins of these 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 these literatures and narrative genres, 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 and through a critical self-awareness of our own positions in the modern world. Four credits.
HNR-3611: [Scholar Seminar] The Art of Melancholy
Dr. L. Alexander, Associate Professor of English
This honors section investigates classical, early modern, and modern perspectives on melancholy by artists, philosophers, doctors, literary figures, and psychologists in conversation across time. We’ll research the art of melancholy across centuries and continents as writers, religious figures, artists, and doctors respond, refute, adjust, and engage the philosophical, medical, literary, theological, and cultural study of melancholy. We’ll discuss questions about the ambiguous relationship between the earliest artistic and medicinal conceptions and practices of melancholy and modern understandings and depictions of the psyche. As an honors scholar seminar, our process will largely be student-led. Together, we’ll read literary, philosophical, and historical contexts for understanding ancient melancholy and particularly ethical implications of gendered models of melancholy drawn from the earliest medical understandings of the ‘condition’ of melancholy that still persist today. Students will take the lead in formulating meaningful questions for class discussion based on their research and writing.
HNR 3613: [Scholar Seminar] Politics of Prosecution
Dr. Scott Ingram, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice
Does the President have the right to do whatever he wants to do with the Department of Justice? Can he order someone prosecuted? Can he order a case dismissed? Today’s news headlines are littered with the intersection of politics and criminal prosecution. This course examines the relationship in-depth and from a variety of perspectives. Students will spend the first third of the class learning about the prosecutor’s powers and how politics should or should not influence prosecutorial discretion. For the remaining two thirds of class, students will create their own podcast episodes examining real life incidents of politics and prosecution.
HNR 3700: Methods, Proposals, & Planning
Various Honors Faculty
First part of a year-long cooperative project which investigates and proposes a solution to some aspect of a larger issue or problem. Student teams create a problem statement, explore inquiry methods, and complete a project proposal. Two credits.
HNR 4900: Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts
Various Honors Faculty
The liberal arts were conceived as the education necessary for a free people, those who would be practiced in thinking through the kind of difficult questions that enrich our lives and sustain democratic institutions. In this capstone experience, you will explore how your liberal arts education has prepared you for life and work. Students will curate and design an ePortfolio to present a holistic and professional web presence, and a self that demonstrates–however particularly–the values of a liberally educated person. Two credits.
Spring 2025
HNR 1204: [Social Science Inquiry] Learning to be a Mind Reader
Dr. S. Lipowski, Associate Professor of Psychology
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 1207: [Social Science Inquiry] Health and Wealth of Nations
Dr. P. Summers, Assistant Professor of Political Science
This course will focus on the evolution of standards of living and rates of economic growth in the long run (decades, generations, or centuries). Why are some nations (such as the U.S., Germany, and Australia) so wealthy and others (like Somalia and Haiti) so poor? Some nations that were among the poorest in the world fifty years ago (like South Korea and Malaysia) are now some of the wealthiest. What did they do to make that happen, and can their experience be replicated elsewhere? Why do wealthier countries also tend to be healthier? Students will approach these and similar questions using economic growth theory as an organizing framework. Related perspectives from other social science fields such as political science, sociology and anthropology will also be incorporated. Students will also analyze the evidence for these theories using appropriate analytical tools such as data visualization and basic statistics.
HNR-1206 [Social Science Inquiry] Social Collapse & Human Resilience
Dr. S. Rosenfeld, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Can Societies collapse? 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.We will analyze historical, archaeological, and environmental data to 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 1301: [Quantitative Reasoning] Graph Theory & the Science of Networks
Dr. J. Fuselier, Associate Professor of Mathematics
This course is a project-based introduction to the field of network science. Network science allows students to craft solutions to real-world problems arising in a variety of fields using the mathematical language of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs formed by collections of vertices (or points) and edges between them. Graphs can be used to represent data in many realms, including biology, political science, travel, and social connections between people groups. In conjunction with an introduction to graph theory, students will learn methods for collecting network data, representing it in graphs and matrices, and analyzing network models.
HNR-1305 [Quantitative Reasoning] Mathbusters
Dr. R. Harger, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Innumeracy is to quantitative skills what illiteracy is to literacy. While illiteracy is not acceptable in most circles, many people will revel in their lack of quantitative skills. “I’m just not good with numbers” is seemingly acceptable in contemporary culture, even a badge of honor, but never “I can’t read.” Early In the course we will cover the necessary mathematics, probability, and statistics where innumeracy most commonly reveals itself. For example, we’ll analyze pseudosciences such as astrology, numerology, and parapsychology, probability vs. coincidence, and fraudulent business and medical schemes. We will transition to applications of that knowledge to contemporary popular culture, discovering how basic number sense is a key element in understanding our daily diet of information. From the Senate, to SAT’s, crime, celebrities and cults, we will consider stories that may not seem to involve mathematics, but demonstrate how a lack of mathematical knowledge can seriously hinder our understanding. Finally, in the last few weeks, teams of students will work toward presenting a case study of their own where innumeracy meets popular culture, with serious consequences for public understanding.
HNR-2402 [Scientific Reasoning] Uniquely Developing You
Dr. N. Coffield, Assistant Professor of Biology
Scientific Reasoning. Uniquely Developing You. 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 2401/L: [Scientific Reasoning] 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 2506/L: [Scientific Reasoning] Eat This! The Chemistry of Food
Dr. M. Blackledge, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Food, at its most basic level, fuels us. Yet, it also becomes part of our social gatherings, our family’s history, and our ancestral traditions. This course explores food and cooking as a form of science – from the basic chemistry of food and nutrition, to the chemical transformations that occur during cooking, and the ways that different societies modify cooking techniques to fit their ingredients, location, and culture. Students investigate the importance of scientific understanding to basic processes that unite us as humans: cooking and eating. Four credits.
HNR-2508 [Aesthetic Inquiry] Realism: Aesthetics & Politics
Dr. V. Leclercq, Assistant Professor of English
An especially dynamic period for art and politics, the nineteenth century in Britain and France saw the rise of the middle class, the explosion of the periodical press, and the reign of a new paradigm for apprehending and understanding human experience: Realism. Through examinations of novels, short stories, paintings, photography, and music in nineteenth-century Britain and France, we will explore how Realism revolutionized aesthetics and the political implications of these new forms of representation. Our discussion will ask many of the questions that artists and the public at large were debating: what and who is worthy of representation (both aesthetic and political)? How best can one capture experience? What is the real and is it art?
HNR 2510: [Aesthetic Inquiry] Autobiographics
Professor M. Richard, Instructor in English
This course considers what feminist scholar Leigh Gilmore terms “autobiographics,” life narratives that highlight the construction of the self as a complex act, particularly for individuals belonging to historically / culturally marginalized groups. In other words, the texts we encounter purposely call attention to self-representation as a performance that troubles easy distinctions between “truth” and “fiction.” Along the way we also have to consider questions about the nature of autobiography as a generic category, how (and, more importantly, who) shaped and institutionalized the qualities of texts defined as autobiographical. We reflect on issues such as the working of memory and the tension between invention and disclosure, and we examine texts that blur and taunt generic boundaries. These texts include Oscar Wilde’s prison writings, particularly De Profundis; Nora Krug’s recent graphic novel of reckoning with Nazi connections in her family’s past, Belonging; Kiese Laymon’s powerful memoir Heavy, which contends with race, education, addiction, and abuse (written as a letter to his mother); and Maggie Nelson’s hybrid (auto)biography of her aunt’s murder, Jane. We’ll also look at autobiographics in photographs, art, and film by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Frieda Kahlo, and Natalia Almada. We’ll consider how music, especially popular music, performs a generational and cultural sense of self. Course assignments and projects include weekly class blogs and open group-led discussions centered on the texts and theories of interest to students, a presentation on music that has defined students / their generation, and a multi-modal autoethnography where students create and / or gather a set of artifacts and genres that tell a story from their family or community histories.
HNR-3604 [Scholar Seminar] Spanish Civil War: Words & Images
Dr. A. Winkle, Assistant Professor of Spanish
This Honors Seminar introduces students to literature and the arts produced by participants and observers of the war in Spain. In conjunction with a historical and geographical appreciation of the conflict, students will study primary sources originally in English and in Spanish-to-English translation. Films, poems, photographs, novels, paintings, memoirs, and propaganda posters will lead students to question how a conflict is remembered through the various narratives that are told about it.
HNR 3608: [Scholar Seminar] Death
Dr. T. Kemerly, Associate Professor of Exercise Science
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-3611 [Scholar Seminar] The Art of Melancholy
Dr. L. Alexander, Associate Professor of English
This honors section investigates classical, early modern, and modern perspectives on melancholy by artists, philosophers, doctors, literary figures, and psychologists in conversation across time. We’ll research the art of melancholy across centuries and continents as writers, religious figures, artists, and doctors respond, refute, adjust, and engage the philosophical, medical, literary, theological, and cultural study of melancholy. We’ll discuss questions about the ambiguous relationship between the earliest artistic and medicinal conceptions and practices of melancholy and modern understandings and depictions of the psyche. As an honors scholar seminar, our process will largely be student-led. Together, we’ll read literary, philosophical, and historical contexts for understanding ancient melancholy and particularly ethical implications of gendered models of melancholy drawn from the earliest medical understandings of the ‘condition’ of melancholy that still persist today. Students will take the lead in formulating meaningful questions for class discussion based on their research and writing. Four credits.
HNR-3612 [Scholar Seminar] Graphic Memories
Dr. Denis Depinoy, Assistant Professor of Language
This course introduces students to some of these reflections. After an introduction to the specificities of graphic narratives, students will become familiar with the tools necessary to the analysis of bandes dessinées, taken from a variety of fields ranging from literary analysis to semiotics. Students will then use these tools to read, analyze and interpret key primary texts, supplemented with a selection of critical essays. More specifically, students will examine and compare two major approaches to the conceptualization of graphic memory: the construction of a shared collective memory in historical and biographical works and the development of individual and personal memories in autobiographical works.
HNR-3617 [Scholar Seminar] Marriage Divorce & Singlehood *New!*
Dr. A. Allen, Assistant Professor of History
This course will explore the complex developments with marriage and divorce in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, as this provides a foundational geographic and chronological framework for the modern Western tradition. The course will highlight primary documents ca 1200-1650AD, including, but not limited to letters, diaries, literature/poetry, religious writings, and legal documents. In analyzing these sources, this course will emphasize there was no singular standard perception on marriage, divorce, and singlehood in this timeframe. Rather, perceptions varied based on changing social structure, economic connections, religious affiliation, and gender constructs/roles across the timeframe, many of which still have grounding in modern viewpoints on these topics.
HNR-3800 Qualifying Signature Project
Various Honors Faculty
This course is the second part of a year-long cooperative project. Student teams, with guidance from a faculty mentor, will work independently to complete the research projects they proposed in the Methods, Proposals and Planning course (HNR 3700), keeping in mind the cultural, socio-economic, political, and ethical assumptions and implications. Once the research projects are complete, students will develop a research report, give a public poster presentation, and create an artifact (to be made available to the public) that appropriately represents their projects (i.e., a website, commercial, public service announcement, app, physical device). Prerequisite: HNR 3700. Two credits.
HNR 4900: Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts
Various Honors Faculty
The liberal arts were conceived as the education necessary for a free people, those who would be practiced in thinking through the kind of difficult questions that enrich our lives and sustain democratic institutions. In this capstone experience, you will explore how your liberal arts education has prepared you for life and work. Students will curate and design an ePortfolio to present a holistic and professional web presence, and a self that demonstrates–however particularly–the values of a liberally educated person. Two credits.
Fall 2025
HNR-1100L Humanistic Inquiry Lab
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Director of the Honors Scholars Program
Required colloquium session for HNR 1100: Humanistic Inquiry. The lab sessions introduce students to the requirements and practices of the Honors Scholar Program, paying particular attention to the academic habits of mind necessary for student success: inquiry, analysis, information literacy, and reflective thinking. Zero credit.
HNR 1104: [Humanities Inquiry] Here Be Dragons
Dr. Amanda Allen, Assistant Professor of History
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Associate Professor of Theater and English
Dr. Matt Brophy, Associate Professor of Religion
Moving through three units, we’ll investigate the formation of “England” as a geographical, cultural and linguistic creation, we’ll explore The Self and Reality as contested ideas, and we’ll discover the early modern theatre-of-the-world tradition in Shakespeare and Marlowe. With each unit, you’ll be given fresh opportunity to critically reflect on your own geographies that help orient you to the world, comparing them to Western historical formulations of “the other” as well as notions of identity and reality. Toggling between theory and practice, literal and metaphorical maps, historical context and universal concerns, this course will help you discover the depth of your orienting frameworks and practice habits that facilitate your encounter with the strange. Four credits.
HNR-1105 [Humanistic Inquiry] The Meaning of Children
Dr. Claudine Davidshofer, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Dr. Matthew Carlson, Associate Professor of English
Dr. Nathan Hedman, Associate Professor of Theater & English
Through three disciplinary angles-literature, philosophy, and film-we will analyze the way childhood has been represented in the western world. Each section examines different periods in Western history-late-classical, early modern, romantic, modern and contemporary-to show how the figure of “the child” captures the period’s human ontology, (i.e. what people finally are), and provide a pedagogy, (i.e. a roadmap for how they should be raised). Finally, together, students will practice reading across literary artifacts–philosophical autobiography, romantic poetry, fiction, and film-to trace not only the changing story of childhood in the west, but versions of their own childhood and their understanding of what childhood is in the process. Four Credit Hours.
HNR 1301: [Quantitative Reasoning] Graph Theory & the Science of Networks
Dr. J. Fuselier, Associate Professor of Mathematics
This course is a project-based introduction to the field of network science. Network science allows students to craft solutions to real-world problems arising in a variety of fields using the mathematical language of graph theory. Graph theory is the study of graphs formed by collections of vertices (or points) and edges between them. Graphs can be used to represent data in many realms, including biology, political science, travel, and social connections between people groups. In conjunction with an introduction to graph theory, students will learn methods for collecting network data, representing it in graphs and matrices, and analyzing network models.
HNR 1303: [Quantitative Reasoning] Mathematical Modeling
Dr. A. Titus
This course is a project-based introduction to mathematical modeling. A mathematical model is a set of equations, determined from simplifying assumptions and constraints, to describe a system. Students will learn to construct models to solve real-world systems in physics, biology, economics, and social science. Students will learn techniques to solve models, will use their models to make predictions, and will use measured data to test and refine their models. Finally, students will learn tools to facilitate writing data- and code-driven narratives. Four credits.
HNR 2402/L: [Scientific Reasoning] Uniquely Developing You
Dr. N. Caufield, Instructor of Biology
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-2405/L: [Scientific Reasoning] How Molecules Shape Experience
Dr. A. Wommack, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
What makes a chemical good or bad? Molecules are a part of everything around us and are incorporated into every product that we use. In this course, we will use lessons of scientific misunderstanding and misconduct to evaluate the past and current production of consumer goods. We will also look at the creativity behind how drug-like molecules are isolated and designed by engaging in the practice of chemical synthesis and analysis in the laboratory. Accompanying this modern laboratory experience will be discussions of how performing and communicating science is always accompanied with the potential for error and fraud. To further contextualize the issues around appropriate categorization and application of different molecules, we will consult readings related to cultural and ethical traditions while we learn about drug approval processes, ethnopharmacology, and illicit drug scheduling. This course seeks to provide a deeper understanding of how molecules can impact our environment, personal health, and culture. Four credits.
HNR 2510: [Aesthetic Inquiry] Autobiographics
Professor M. Richard, Instructor in English
This course considers what feminist scholar Leigh Gilmore terms “autobiographics,” life narratives that highlight the construction of the self as a complex act, particularly for individuals belonging to historically / culturally marginalized groups. In other words, the texts we encounter purposely call attention to self-representation as a performance that troubles easy distinctions between “truth” and “fiction.” Along the way we also have to consider questions about the nature of autobiography as a generic category, how (and, more importantly, who) shaped and institutionalized the qualities of texts defined as autobiographical. We reflect on issues such as the working of memory and the tension between invention and disclosure, and we examine texts that blur and taunt generic boundaries. These texts include Oscar Wilde’s prison writings, particularly De Profundis; Nora Krug’s recent graphic novel of reckoning with Nazi connections in her family’s past, Belonging; Kiese Laymon’s powerful memoir Heavy, which contends with race, education, addiction, and abuse (written as a letter to his mother); and Maggie Nelson’s hybrid (auto)biography of her aunt’s murder, Jane. We’ll also look at autobiographics in photographs, art, and film by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Frieda Kahlo, and Natalia Almada. We’ll consider how music, especially popular music, performs a generational and cultural sense of self. Course assignments and projects include weekly class blogs and open group-led discussions centered on the texts and theories of interest to students, a presentation on music that has defined students / their generation, and a multi-modal autoethnography where students create and / or gather a set of artifacts and genres that tell a story from their family or community histories.
HNR 3608: [Scholar Seminar] Death
Dr. C. Mobley, Instructor of Philosophy
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-3617 [Scholar Seminar] Marriage Divorce & Singlehood *New!*
Dr. A. Allen, Assistant Professor of History
This course will explore the complex developments with marriage and divorce in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, as this provides a foundational geographic and chronological framework for the modern Western tradition. The course will highlight primary documents ca 1200-1650AD, including, but not limited to letters, diaries, literature/poetry, religious writings, and legal documents. In analyzing these sources, this course will emphasize there was no singular standard perception on marriage, divorce, and singlehood in this timeframe. Rather, perceptions varied based on changing social structure, economic connections, religious affiliation, and gender constructs/roles across the timeframe, many of which still have grounding in modern viewpoints on these topics.
HNR 3606 [Scholar Seminar] Beyond the Frame
Mr. Jay Putman, Associate Professor of Theater
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. Four credits.
HNR 3614: [Scholar Seminar] Ideal Community
Dr. R. Moses, Assistant Professor of Religion
Four credits.
HNR 3700: Methods, Proposals, & Planning
Various Honors Faculty
First part of a year-long cooperative project which investigates and proposes a solution to some aspect of a larger issue or problem. Student teams create a problem statement, explore inquiry methods, and complete a project proposal. Two credits.
HNR 4900: Life, Work, and the Liberal Arts
Various Honors Faculty
The liberal arts were conceived as the education necessary for a free people, those who would be practiced in thinking through the kind of difficult questions that enrich our lives and sustain democratic institutions. In this capstone experience, you will explore how your liberal arts education has prepared you for life and work. Students will curate and design an ePortfolio to present a holistic and professional web presence, and a self that demonstrates–however particularly–the values of a liberally educated person. Two credits.