The following spring 2016 Honors courses will fulfill the Honors Core requirement for Sophomore Honors.  Double check to be sure you are registered for the Honors section.

Course Number	Title	Gen Ed
AH 1030-001	Interdisciplinary Approach to Obesity Prevention	CA 3
ANTH 2400-001	Honors Core: Analyzing Religion	CA 2, CA 4-Int
CLCS 1002-001	Reading Between the Arts (online!)	CA 1
DRAM 2134-001	Honors Core: Analyzing Sports as Performance	CA 1
ECON 1107-001	Honors Core: Economics, Nature, and the Environment	CA 2
ENGR 2243-001	Nanoscience & Society
HEJS 1103-001	Literature and Civilization of the Jewish People	CA 1, CA 4
HRTS/SOCI 3835-001	Refugees and Humanitarianism
POLS 3023-001	Politics & Literature
SLHS 3295-001	Special Topics: Introduction to Communication Disorders: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Brain to Behavior
SOCI 1701-001	Society in Global Perspective	CA 4-Int
SOCI 3823-001	Sociology of Law: Global and Comparative Perspectives	CA 2, CA 4-Int
WGSS 2105-001	Gender and Science	CA 4-Int

AH 1030: Interdisciplinary Approach to Obesity Prevention

Obesity is considered a national epidemic and possibly a pandemic as it affects many developed countries around the world. This interdisciplinary course explores the biology of obesity, including genetic predispositions and behaviors that increase obesity risk (dietary, physical activity, social, and psychological); the obesigenic environment, including how communities are physically built as well as the economic relationship to obesity risk; and the policy and ethical implications for obesity prevention. Multi-level obesity prevention approaches that involve the individual, family, organization, community, and policy will be considered. The format will consist of common lectures, weekly discussions, hands-on activities, team projects, and synthesis of material presented.

Trouble registering? This class is open to freshmen and sophomores in the Honors Program. If you will be a first- or second-year Honors student with 54 or more credits in Spring 2016 and you want to register for this course, please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) the class number (7646); (4) the course number and section (AH 1030-001); (5) the semester you entered UConn as a freshman (e.g., Fall 2014); and (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.

ANTH 2400: Honors Core: Analyzing Religion

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the academic study of religion. The goal of the course is to acquaint students with frameworks for understanding religion as an institution embedded in culture and social life. Students will learn conceptual tools for understanding religious phenomena and religious conflicts in their social, historical, and political contexts, and will consider rationalist and atheist critiques of ‘religion’ and religious belief. Analysis of the common components of religion–theology, cosmology, myth, ritual–will be illustrated with examples drawn from both indigenous non-Western and Western religious systems. Case studies will show how religion has operated as a means of political resistance to colonialism and capitalism. Other topics include comparative models of the divine in the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and the “science versus religion” debate. Course activities will include student-led discussions of issues and texts, group exercises, and independent projects. Active engagement in the class is expected of all students.

CLCS 1002: Reading Between the Arts – ONLINE CLASS

In everyday reading of news media, we are often exposed to a dynamic intermixing of media and arts as well as an intermixing of images and stories about events around the world. This intermixing is also prevalent in the arts and cultural expressions such as cinema, theater, visual art, text, music, and computer and video games. In this course, students will explore, analyze, and unravel some of this intermixing and transmedia. The course is an introduction to aesthetics, semiotics and structures of interart relations. Students will develop transferable multimedia reading skills in an effort to become interpreters of 21st century multi- and transmedia products. Much of the work will bridge natural sciences and the humanities.

Questions that will inform discussions and work include: Are there similarities connecting the diversity of expression in various arts and media? Can one characterize the arts as an area of research comparable and equal to scientific inquiries; and if so, how? Does art, as a diverse world of signs, help us recognize and understand reality? What can we learn about individual approaches to experiencing art and media when focusing on sensory perception?

DRAM 2134: Honors Core: Analyzing Sports as Performance

Through a rigorous critical investigation of lived human experience, this course uses the lenses of theatre studies, performance studies, and cultural studies to analyze and articulate the parallels between sports and performance. Consideration of gender, sexuality, nationalism, race, human rights, and ethics will be mediated through readings, attendance at live athletic events, film/media viewings, written assignments, multimodal research presentations, experiential activities, and student-led discussions of various sports. Students will be assigned innovative writing prompts and participate in lively discussions to identify and examine the interrelated aesthetic, performative, and humanistic values in the arts and athletics.

Permission number A permission number is required. Please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) the class number (14847); (4) the course number and section (DRAM 2134-001); and (5) confirmation that there are seats available in the class.

ECON 1107: Honors Core: Economics, Nature, and the Environment

In this course students study the interactions between economies and their natural environment from global and historical perspectives. The course is multidisciplinary and synthesizes insights from various disciplines, including economics and the social sciences, geography, archaeology, history, and ecology, while emphasizing a scientific approach. Among the many topics discussed are the effects of geography and climate on economic development and income inequality, the impact of humans on their environment, the causes and consequences of environmental problems, the environmental collapses of societies, the valuation of ecosystem services.

Beyond offering a solid understanding of the subject, this course aims to:

• Illustrate that a multidisciplinary approach is critical to the analysis of most real-world problems.
• Emphasize the scientific method as that the basis for our understanding of such problems (and for possible subsequent actions).
• Foster students’ long-term interest in current research and recent findings in various fields.

ENGR 2243 : Nanoscience & Society

Recommended preparation: High school chemistry, physics, and biology

Nanotechnology is already ubiquitous in our daily lives, including food packaging, automobile components, computer devices, and even toothpaste. This course will introduce some of the science and technology behind such nano-enabled products, ranging from commonplace examples to realizations of what sounds like science fiction. In this highly interactive course, weekly group and class discussions will address the opportunities, and costs, of these various advances. Societal implications to be considered include the environment, natural resources, 3^rd world development, food security, the legal system, and human health. Regardless of your intended major, this class is thus an opportunity to learn and discuss what’s the big deal about something so small: Even though a nano-sized Earth would only be about as large as an M&M, the manufacturing and application of this technology is more than a ~$20 billion annual market that can only get bigger.

HEJS 1103: Literature and Civilization of the Jewish People

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the history, religion, and culture of the Jewish people. Special attention will be given to Jewish civilization as it is portrayed in the literature of the Jews. No prior knowledge of Hebrew or Jewish culture is required.

This course fulfills General Education requirements in Content Areas I (Arts and Humanities) and IV (Diversity and Multiculturalism). One of the main goals is to enable students to develop a keen understanding of who the Jews are and an appreciation of the diverse cultures and traditions that comprise Jewish civilization. The emergence of Judaic ideas and their influence on Christianity and western civilization will be especially emphasized. The so-called “Judeo-Christian” tradition is broken down so that students understand the values and ideas that both Judaism and Christianity share as well as their distinctiveness. Students get a taste of how the earliest, ancient rabbis thought and how they succeeded in transforming a biblical religion into Judaism as we know it. Along the way, you will be challenged to think “talmudicly/midrashicly,” a critical form of analysis that may very well enable you to appreciate literary traditions belonging to other peoples and cultures in an entirely different light.

HRTS/SOCI 3835: Refugees and Humanitarianism

This class explores the social and political challenges of living as a refugee and working in humanitarian settings, with a focus on refugee camps and the institutional development of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. How did we come to use refugee camps as the primary means to administer sanctuary in certain parts of the world? What are the consequences of this? The last part of class will explore alternative approaches to refuge. Refugees and Humanitarianism is meant to provoke passionate concern for the real world consequences of refugee aid and measured social scientific thinking about how to respond to the challenges of humanitarian crisis in our “second-best world.”

POLS 3023: Politics & Literature

There has long been a close relationship between politics in the United States and popular literature. Some books, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle, have shaped public policy; others, like All the King’s Men and The Last Hurrah, have used fiction to describe the political game; still others, like Philip Roth’s American Pastoral and Henry Adams’ Democracy, have examined the relationship between the individual and the political community.

This course explores American politics through the lens of political fiction. Generally reading one novel per week, we will discuss the historical, economic and social context within which the work was written, define its audience, examine its impact, and discuss parallels between the time the work appeared and our own era. Students will write several short papers dealing with these themes, but the primary emphasis in class will be on discussion and dialogue on the topics at hand.

Note POLS 3023 is coded at the catalog level as “open to juniors or higher,” but first- and second-year Honors students without junior standing are invited to take this course. If you will have fewer than 54 earned credits by Spring 2016, please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) the class number (12141); (4) the course number and section (POLS 3023-001); and (5) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.

SLHS 3295: Special Topics: Introduction to Communication Disorders: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Brain to Behavior

This course will link the behavioral presentation of communication disorders to an understanding of the neural architecture supporting speech, language, and hearing abilities. This course will consider communication disorders from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing together an understanding of speech and language processing from the domains of psychology, linguistics, neurobiology, and clinical fields. The course will cover numerous communication disorders including developmental disorders (i.e., autism, dyslexia) and acquired disorders (i.e., aphasia, hearing impairment). For each disorder, an interdisciplinary description of etiology, function, and rehabilitation will be addressed. In addition, the course will cover common imaging tools including EEG methods (e.g., ERP, ABR) and fMRI. Students will be instructed on the basic neuroanatomical methods of these tools as well as strengths and limitations of each one. The course will highlight multicultural aspects of speech, language, and hearing disorders including multicultural aspects of Deaf culture. The course will consider the broad implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Note SLHS 3295 is a “variable credits” course. Please ensure that you register for 3 credits.

Note SLHS 3295 is coded at the catalog level as “open to juniors or higher,” but first- and second-year Honors students without junior standing are invited to take this course. If you will have fewer than 54 earned credits by Spring 2016, please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) the class number (14974); (4) the course number and section (SLHS 3295-001); and (5) confirmation that there are seats available in the class.

SOCI 1701-001: Society in Global Perspective

This course will introduce students to the sociological perspective on society in global perspective. The course will focus on the economic, social and cultural processes that shape the contemporary societies and help students understand the links between their personal experiences and larger social forces by focusing on the transnational social relationships in which they are embedded. Students will learn to think critically about of the causes and consequences of social inequalities and the social construction of human life across the globe.

This class will include active learning, peer mentoring, debates on controversial topics, and engagement (via Skype and blogs) with scholars and students in other parts of the world to help students develop global sociological imaginations. Sources for course materials and topical coverage include sociology; environmental studies; political science; economics; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; and human rights.

SOCI 3823: Sociology of Law: Global and Comparative Perspectives

The course will examine the relationship between law and social change. We will examine the impact of Western Law on Third World countries, the ways in which legal strategies can and have challenged inequality based on class, race, sex, religion and sexuality, and the impact of international human rights treaties. Students will become knowledgeable about different types of legal systems and will learn to analyze the ways in which the law contends with issues of difference and inequality. Students will also be able to analyze the interrelationships between the law, social structure, and the ways in which nations are linked globally.

In this course, students examine:

• Theoretical perspectives and empirical studies relating the type of law found in a society to its social structure
• How the law figures into fundamental social change
• Anthropological studies of dispute processing in societies that are structured primarily on the basis of kinship
• What impact the introduction of Western Law into Third World countries has had on economic growth, democratic political development, and human rights protections
• Cross-national influences on law in the post-colonial world
• The ways in which legal strategies can and have challenged inequality based on class, race, sex, religion, and sexuality
• The critiques and limits of legal approaches to social change
• What is the impact of international human rights treaties on the legal systems of different countries?
• To what extent are international treaty obligations relevant in domestic court proceedings?
• What is the relationship between social movements and the law?

Note SOCI 3823 is coded at the catalog level as “open to juniors or higher” but other students may contact Prof. Bernstein for a permission number. In your email, confirm that you are a member of the Honors Program, provide your PeopleSoft number, and very briefly explain your interest in taking the course.

WGSS 2105: Gender and Science

This section of Gender and Science will take a fundamentally historical and historicizing approach to questions related to the subject. The first third of the course will be devoted to philosophical questions about science: What is reality (metaphysics)? What and how do we know (epistemology)? How have those questions been answered from the ancients to the modern world? Next, we will survey the history of concepts of gender, from ancient mythological explanations to ancient proto-scientific models to early-modern and modern concepts. Finally, the course will focus its attention on modern case studies: gendered research subjects, gendered researchers, HIV/AIDS research, nursing research, female health, male health, archeology, the “gay gene,” and transgender/cisgender people. Students will write a concept analysis paper, a seminar presentation paper, and a final poster presentation.

Note WGSS 2105 is coded at the catalog level as “open to sophomores or higher,” but first-year Honors students without sophomore standing are invited to take this course. If you will have fewer than 24 earned credits by Spring 2016, please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) the class number (11478); (4) the course number and section (WGSS 2105-001); and (5) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.