| Class |
Course Title |
CRN# |
Time |
Instructor |
Section Description |
| HON 100 |
Honors Seminar: AI and the Future of Work |
82120 |
T (Tue), 3-4:00pm, GEB 238 |
Danny Alexander |
What does the Digital Revolution mean for us? At least since the 1964 Presidential Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress, we have understood that the science that gave us microchips was changing the world in fundamental ways. Today’s increasing presence of artificial intelligence has every discipline considering how best to adapt to a rapidly changing future. In this class, we will explore what we know and what is not yet certain about how this revolutionary change will affect our passions and disciplines in the years ahead. |
| HON 100 |
Honors Seminar: The Science of the Chocolate Chip Cookie |
82121 |
T (Tue), 8-8:50am, GEB 238 |
Amanda Glass |
Why do some recipes call for salted butter? Do we really have to refrigerate dough overnight before baking scrumptious cookies? What would happen if we didn’t? What makes an ooey, gooey cookie so structurally different from a crisp cookie with a snap? In this course, we will explore the science of food and baking with at-home experiments and class readings, and investigate through the lens of the complex biological polymers found in the foods we create and enjoy. |
| HON 100 |
Honors Seminar: What is Pop? |
82122 |
W (Wed), 12-12:50pm, GEB 238 |
Danny Alexander |
As a longtime pop music journalist, your teacher has learned the most obvious questions can be the most difficult. We all use the word “pop” in our everyday vernacular, but we mean contradictory things when we use the term. This course will help us foster an individualized approach to entering the cultural conversation regarding this vast subject, and it will challenge you to find paths yet unexplored. We will consider a variety of approaches to researching our culture and finding what’s been said and what there is left to say. We will study research techniques and think outside of the boxes that limit our understanding of the most everyday elements in the world around us. This class should offer a supportive environment that empowers you to forge your unique path forward. |
| HON 100 |
Honors Seminar: Absence & Erasure |
82123 |
Th (Thur), 4-5:00pm, Hyflex (Zoom or GEB 238) |
Anne Dotter |
The interconnected concepts of erasure, absence and silence offer more than the eye can meet. Indeed, from veal-parchments to contemporary efforts to reuse materials, the fabric of our very culture is made of build-overs, cover-ups, remixes and other repurposing of what was, to make what will be. Incidentally, this is also how knowledge is constructed: from the pieces of past-thoughts without which our present and future could not be. This course aims at scratching the surface to see more of what our complex and layered culture is made of; it will also introduce students to new approaches to what knowledge is, how it is constructed and how to engage critically and creatively in its production. |
| HON 270 |
Honors Forum: What’s the Trouble with Masculinity? |
82124 |
W (Wed), 2-5pm, GEB 238 |
Jessica Killeen, Cathy Schrag, & Anne Dotter |
Masculinity and femininity are often mistaken for unchanging norms. Instead, they change with time, with location and culture, and even within one society they change depending on context – be they structural, institutional, cultural, or psychological. This course will explore the construct of masculinity in various contexts to seek a better understanding of its conversation within a binary that often obfuscates our understanding of the term. Students will acquire theoretical tools to explore what some have called a “crisis” of masculinity, and to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing discussion of tangible struggles among community partners in the non-profit sector. |
| HON 270 |
Honors Forum: Material Culture and Sustainability |
82125 |
M (Mon), 4-7:00pm, Online |
Kristy Howell & Anne Dotter |
It is easy to take for granted the stuff that surrounds us: tables and chairs, a bed, a couch, various objects serving as ornaments to our living spaces. We are surrounded by stuff! Some of us keep more (hoarders) than others (minimalists), but all of us have stuff and most of it is used. But do we need it? Do we endow every object with the same value? Do I define what objects mean, or do objects define me? Understanding material culture as the study through artifacts of the beliefs, values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions of a particular community or society at a given time, we will endeavor to answer these questions to equip ourselves with the tools necessary to collaborate with curators of the Toys & Miniature museum on enhancing the experience of visitors engaging with objects they may not think belong in a museum’s collection. |
