Spring 2019 Honors Program Courses

Spring 2019 Honors Program Courses

We provide course descriptions written by instructors whenever possible (scroll further down this page to see them).
For official descriptions, visit the University Catalog.

For official descriptions, visit the University Catalog.
We provide course descriptions written by instructors whenever possible. 

Course Descriptions

EBIO 1040-880: Biology: A Human Approach 2
Robert Buchwald
Did you know that poor oral health can make you more susceptible to heart disease? Did you know that severe allergies to peanuts have been steadily increasing in the United States but are virtually non-existent in the developing world? This course focuses on the biology of the human body and is intended for non-science majors. We will employ a combination of diagrams, models, movies, podcasts and animations to learn about the various systems of the human body and, ultimately, to understand why amazing facts like those listed above are true. As we discuss each body system and study its function, we will then apply our newfound scientific knowledge to more interactive topics like Lance Armstrong’s Lungs, Meditation & Metabolism, Veganism, and ‘Roid Rages. Throughout the semester, students will also give formal presentations on topics in modern biology, such as the pervasiveness and safety of pharmaceuticals, childhood obesity, and the effects of exposure to hormone-like compounds in our environment. Guest speakers and field trips will round out our exploration of human anatomy and physiology.

EBIO 1220-880: General Biology 2
Robert Buchwald
Are humans currently evolving? Should you be concerned about eating genetically modified plants? What, exactly, is a cephalopod? We will answer all these questions and more in EBIO 1220 – a concentrated introduction to evolution, the diversity of life, and ecology & conservation biology. As an honors class, we will also incorporate several outside readings, critical thinking exercises and presentations, such as “Biology in the News,” “Nutrition Myths, Truths & Quackery,” and “Natural Selection Misconceptions.” This course is intended for EBIO (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) majors, other science majors (such as Psychology, Kinesiology, Biochemistry, etc.), as well as other majors for which biology is a requirement. EBIO 1240 (laboratory) is a co-requirement for potential EBIO majors and as specified by your particular major (please see your departmental advisor if you have questions). Students who simply need to satisfy the Natural Sciences core requirement should consider taking EBIO 1030, 1040, & 1050, “Biology—a Human Approach,” which are lecture/lab courses for non-Biology majors. If you have questions about this, please see me or your departmental advisor. Although it is not a pre-requisite, this course assumes that you have taken EBIO 1210 or its equivalent, since lectures in EBIO 1220 often rely on knowledge gained from EBIO 1210. If you have not taken EBIO 1210 or the equivalent or are concerned about your background, please see me.

ENGL 3377-880: Multicultural Literature: Inve[n/r]ting “Multicultural”
Nicole M. Wright
In a provocative 2004 speech entitled “I Have a Plan to Destroy America,” Richard D. Lamm, the former three-term Governor of Colorado, equated “multi-culturalism” with “the doctrine of ‘Victimology.’ ” A decade later, CU Boulder renamed the “Center for Multicultural Affairs” as the “Cultural Unity & Engagement Center.” Yet “multicultural literature” is still taught at CU Boulder; infact, it is the catalog label for this course. Is “multiculturalism” tainted? Defunct? In this course, we will survey texts ranging from maps to verse to novels to Wikipedia entries to music videos to explore the development—and, some would say, the demise—of the concept known as “multiculturalism.” What does it mean to say that race is a social construct? How does literary fiction (broadly conceived) reinforce or challenge various ideas about culture, race, and the capacity of people from different cultures to live peacefully and communicate effectively with each other? We will consult earlier texts, including the influential work of the seventeenth-century French physician Pierre-François Bernier, who promoted the concept of race through his account of what he depicted as the “different species” of human beings inhabiting the world. Echoing Lamm’s sentiments, the novelist Martin Amis once stated, “The deal with multiculturalism is that the only culture you’re allowed to disapprove of is your own.” Is this true on the CU Boulder campus? How can studying literary works of previous decades and generations illuminate our understanding of views of culture and race today?

GEOG 1972-880: Environment-Society Geography 
Abby Hickcox
The goals of this class are to increase your understanding of key contemporary environmental issues and to introduce you to the ways in which the field of geography has approached the interaction between society and nature. In pursuit of these goals, the class will survey global and regional environmental issues and problems, with an emphasis on their social, political-economic, and cultural dimensions. The study of these issues evokes one of the most profound questions of our times: What is, and what ought to be, the relationship between humans and the environment? We will address this question through an examination of selected environmental issues, varied social responses to environmental change, and the different ways in which human societies have transformed the earth. We will also ask:  How do we understand “nature”?  What drives human modification of the earth, and how are specific groups of people differently affected by those modifications? What kinds of assumptions have led to the creation of certain environmental problems (and for whom are they problems)? Topics covered include: population and consumption; environmental hazards; ecology; environmental ethics; biodiversity and environmental conservation; anthropogenic climate change; and water use. Through this class, you should find that geography offers an integrated way of understanding environment and culture that is increasingly useful for addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems and their potential solutions. Formerly GEOG 2412. Meets MAPS requirement for social science: geography.

GEOG 3742-880: Place, Power, and Contemporary Culture
Abby Hickcox
Place, power, and culture are dynamics that shape our social structure and our daily life. This course takes a geographic approach to place, power, and culture, examining different ways to understand each and how the three relate to each other to shape our society and urselves. It presents a radical reexamination of the geography of culture, asking whether culture is a thing with causal powers or a way of understanding how we experience the world and what that experience means to us. The course explores how the globalization of economics, politics, and culture shapes local cultural change and how place-based cultural politics both assist and resist processes of globalization. The first half of the course introduces key terms such as culture, place, power, globalization, mobility, identity, and difference and explores their relationship with one another. The second half of the course focuses on specific contemporary cultures, such as the culture of things (material culture), American car culture, food culture, sports culture, and music culture. Seeing culture as both a way of life and a lens through which to understand the world, we will consider not only the uniqueness of American music, for example, but also the way that music shapes American people, politics, and life. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

HIST 1011-880: Greeks, Romans, Kings and Crusaders - European History to 1600
David Paradis
This course will emphasize the reading, analysis, and discussion of translated primary sources from the Ancient Near East, Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages.  These sources include epic poems, Greek comedies, Roman political and cultural analysis, and short stories in addition to legal codes, foundation myths, and government documents.  Although the course has a few quizzes, most of the course assignments will involve discussions, two short essays, and a final project.  The skills developed in the class will be innovative critical thinking, interpretation of evidence, and the professional presentation of thoughts.

HONR 3220‐880: Advanced Honors Writing Workshop
Andrea Feldman
This course introduces honors students to an analysis and argumentation as they are rendered in longer prose forms. As such, the course provides excellent preparation for writing an honors thesis. With the collaboration and thoughtful feedback of your colleagues in class, you will have the opportunity to engage in independent scholarship in your area of expertise. Our informal theme for the semester will be cultural rhetoric. In responding to texts that represent cultural diversity, students will evaluate issues and relate them to their own experiences. Through these readings as well as class discussion of written assignments, students will learn to make reasoned arguments in defense of their own opinions. By examining diverse voices, this course helps students meet the challenges of academic writing. This course will extend your ability to adapt rhetorical strategies and arguments on cultural issues and diversity to address the needs of a range of different audiences and stakeholders. Writing Process and the Workshop Format: The course offers an opportunity to understand writing from the audience or reader perspective by focusing on the peer review of work in progress. Through this approach, you will discover how revision is central to the writing process. Your own writing will be the principal text; we will all work together as a team to improve each paper. We will adopt the attitude that any paper can be improved, and give constructive criticism to everyone. Your job will be to provide oral and written commentary on other students' papers when assigned to do so. Approved for Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum: Written Communication.

MUEL 3642-880: History of Jazz
Daniel Jones
This course focuses on the jazz tradition, studying it from a variety of perspectives. As this is a non-majors course, no prior knowledge of music or the jazz tradition is expected. The basic goals of this course are: 1) to become familiar with basic practices of the jazz tradition; 2) to become familiar with the evolution of the jazz tradition; and 3) to be able to contextualize the jazz tradition and its evolution. Toward these goals, our course will be organized as a chronological survey of jazz history from the late 19th century to the present. Over the course of this survey, we will spend time studying certain regular practices (e.g., improvisation) that serve to characterize jazz as a genre, as well as certain issues (e.g., race) and circumstances (e.g., current technologies) as matters of context. The central materials of this course are a jazz history text, a set of core recordings prescribed by this text, as well as a number of ancillary readings selected by the Instructor. Since jazz is in large part a live performance art, we will also take advantage of live jazz experiences as course materials when possible. 

PHIL 1000-880: Introduction to Philosophy
Jason Potter
Aristotle claimed that philosophy begins “in wonder". This course explores the many interesting, absorbing, difficult, sometimes maddening questions arising out of the state of mind to which Aristotle refers. These questions, and attempts to answer them, form the elements of a long conversation extending back at least 2600 years. Here are some examples: What is the nature of reality? What is our nature as human beings? Can we think usefully about the world? Why should one care that we might? What is a good explanation? What is it to be rational? How is my mind connected to my body? Why should I be moral? Am I free to choose the right action, or is such freedom of choice impossible? What is a good life? How do I know whether God exists?

Our purpose in this course is to read from the records we have left of that conversation, and by application of our own capacities for thought and understanding, to discover what particular interests, questions, worries and/or confusions drove so many of these people to converse and think in this unusual, often apparently odd way. We will discover which of their concerns continue to fascinate and disturb us, which seem no longer of interest, and of those we continue to care about, consider which of their answers seem to ring true, which false. Over the course of time you should develop some idea how philosophers tackle the difficult questions they raise, and begin to fashion some philosophical tools of your own, tools you will find useful even outside philosophy.

PSCI 3021-800: U.S. Campaigns and Elections
Janet Donavan
In this class, we will explore campaigns and elections in the United States. First, we examine the political processes that led to the expansion of voting right from the very limited voting rights of the constitutional period to the universal adult suffrage rights of today. We will also explore the continuing political barriers to exercising voting rights in the United States today. Second, we will explore the structures and processes of campaigns and elections in the United States today. Finally, we will look in-depth at the role campaign finance plays in campaigns and elections in the United States.

PSCI 3211-800: Politics of Inequality in the United States
Janet Donavan
In this class, we will examine the politics of economic inequality from a variety of angles and perspectives. First, we will read and discuss ideas about whether and when economic inequality is something of concern in a representative democracy. Second, we will seek to understand the level of economic inequality in the United States. We explore disparities in economic well-being by race, ethnicity and gender; issues of intergenerational poverty and economic mobility; and how public policies contribute to and/or alleviate economic inequality.  Third, we examine the relationship between economic inequality and political inequality, looking at how economic disparities affect campaigns and elections, national governance, and the public policies that are adopted by the national government.  Finally, we spend some time looking at economic and political inequality in the current context, with events that are happening or have happened recently.

SOCY 2031-880: Social Problems
Ali Hatch
This course explores a wide variety of different social problems in contemporary American society from a sociological perspective. We will examine how these problems arise and consider possible solutions. In addition to general class readings, students will get to pick a book from a list of subject-related options on a topic of their choosing.

SOCY 3016-880: Marriage and Family in the United States 
Ali Hatch
This course is designed to examine marriage and the family in the U.S. from a sociological perspective. We will look at how marriage and family are fluid constructs, transforming and evolving over time. As the majority of families currently do not fit the “nuclear” model, special emphasis will be placed on the various realities of people’s lives and how they differ from cultural ideals. In addition to general class readings, students will get to pick a book from a list of subject-related options on a topic of their choosing.

WGST 2600-880: Gender, Race, and Class in a Global Context
Kate Fischer
This introductory course examines how constructions of gender, race, and class are structurally determined and lived through in today’s global society. It applies an interdisciplinary perspective to identify how history, politics, culture, economics, and social life converge with and shape the way gender, race, and class are understood. While the course primarily focuses on women, it is impossible to ignore how race and class articulate with ideas about gender and how these socially determined characteristics form a triad for identity construction and subjectivities. The goal of this class is to create awareness of the contemporary inequities that plague our global society and develop a critical understanding of how forms of privilege and exclusion based on gender, race, and class are written about, comprehended, and contended with. To that end, we will read a novel, a graphic novel, and two academic books as well as a number of scholarly articles during the course.