Honors Seminars
HON 400 Section 001 "German Post-Wall Cinema”
Dr. Daniel C. Villanueva (Foreign Languages)
In this course, we view important post-1989 German films, including ones familiar to Americans such as Good Bye, Lenin and The Lives of Others, to show how German unification has affected culture and society in the formerly divided nation. Film is an important stage on which Germans are reacting to life after the Wall and to the very different postwar history in East and West- some aspects of which are only now being publicly discussed and debated. Some issues we will consider via film include continued socioeconomic division, the legacy of Hitler, the so-called "Wall in the head,” anti-foreigner violence, the East German secret police (Stasi) and the war on terror. We will also look at how German films and directors have influenced American cinema in the past 20 years, since several popular American films are in fact re-makes of German ones!
HON 400 Section 002: Global Post Colonial Identities
Heather Lusty
This course will explore articulations of national and ethnic identity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In the wake of Imperialism, writers from former colonial capitals and outposts strive to narrate their experiences, their struggles with mixed and conflicting identities, and their reinventions of form, style, and self. Writers explored in this course will include Salman Rushdie, Tayeb Salih, Junot Diaz, Anita Desai, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Aravind Adiga and others.
HON 400 H-Section 003, Building and Maintaining the American Empire
Joseph A. Fry
In a 1980 essay entitled, "The American Struggle with ‘Imperialism’: How Words Frighten,” a British-born observer asserted that American historians (and he might have added Americans generally) have been reluctant to use the term imperialism to describe U.S. foreign relations. More recently, neoconservative historians and pundits have proudly declared that the United States has reached a "new imperial moment” in the early Twenty-First Century, that American dominance abroad embodies "liberal and humanitarian imperialism” even if that dominance has been achieved through the use of force. What are we to make of these diametrically opposing perspectives? By examining American foreign relations from the writing of the Constitution through the current involvement in Afghanistan, this course will seek to gauge how imperial U.S. policies and actions have been—to determine whether we have been building an "empire for liberty,” as Thomas Jefferson declared, or engaging in the age old practice of "Big Dog eats Little Dog,” as a student of European diplomacy described imperialism.
HON 400 Section 006: Supreme Court and American Life, Dr. Michael Green
The U.S. Supreme Court decided the 2000 presidential election, and Americans accepted the result--some not happily, but they accepted it. Yet the court, as one of its justices says, has no armies, and no one can watch its proceedings on television. How does the court work? What role does it play in our society? How do justices get appointed--and why are there only two women justices but six Catholics, with liberal and moderate justices who once were attacked as conservatives and conservatives who vote with liberals? This course will explore that through reading, lecture, discussion, video, and other
sources.
HON 400 Section 008 Intelligence
Dr. Cathy Hanks
This course provides an introduction to United States Intelligence. The emphasis will be on strategic, as opposed to tactical intelligence used by policy makers. We will explore what intelligence is, the organizations that make up the intelligence community, counterintelligence, covert action, and oversight of intelligence activities. Concerns related to intelligence activities in a democratic society, include civil liberties and freedom of the press, and the challenges of the post-9/11 environment will also be addressed.
Honors 400, Section 009 Medicine and Literature
Instructor: Russell Gollard, M.D.
We will be reading both works of non-fiction and fiction in this seminar. We will concern ourselves with illness from both the perspective of the patient and clinician. To that end we will read works both of fiction and non-fiction, both classic and newly minted. We will look at the perspective of physicians, particularly their long "training”. We will also look at how biases are built into such training. We will also focus on the different attitudes toward illness manifest in the experience of a patient. Discussion will be required. This class will be of a complete non-lecture format.
HON 400 Section 010 American Society on Film: The 70’s
Dr. Jay Coughtry
Description Coming Soon!
HON 400 Section 012: Mark Twain
Dr. Joseph McCullough
During this semester we will read widely from the work of Mark Twain, assessing his writings, his legacy, his social, political, and religious views, his humor and style.
HON 400 Section 013 Mind in the Physical World
Dr. Gregory Janssen
A common view if the mind, from the ancient times through the present, is that the mind is a nonphysical object – that is, it is not located in space, it is not composed of matter, it does not have a height or weight, and cannot be seen nor touched. The body, on the other hand, is a physical object, is located in space, is composed of matter, has a height and a weight, and can be seen and touched. But now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the physical sciences are dominant. These disciplines have given us good reason to suppose that the world is, at bottom, purely physical. But where does that leave the mind? Is there room in the physical world for the mind? This course will examine various attempts to reconcile these two views, from Descartes through the present. Coursework will consist of several short papers, course discussion, and a final paper.
HONORS 400H CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART
Dr. Louisa McDonald, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art
We will trace the roots of modern art in China from the early 20th century through the Cultural Revolution and beyond. Enter the world of post-Mao contemporary Chinese art coming out of global cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Frankfurt and New York, and explore the art of trend-setters and international sales’ record-breakers like Cai Guoqiang and Zhang Xiaogang, and many others. You will research and write a critique of a contemporary Chinese artist of your choice. Possibility of field trip for this course, more details to come.
