Legal Institutions and Social Change: From Latin America to the United States by Way of Europe
POLS 2998-006; LLAS 3998-001; SOCI 3998-001

Instructor: Ángel Oquendo

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Oquendo welcomes Honors students of any major and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

The course deals, at a law-school level, with constitutional law, as well as with specific areas of private law, such as civil law, civil procedure, and business law, and considers how legal institutions further social change. It first introduces the civil law tradition, as well as legal history, comparing the Latin American experience with that of the United States and Europe. The discussion, which maintains this comparative aim throughout, then moves on to constitutional law: to the notion of constitutionalism, to basic principles, to the vindication of rights, and to second and third generation entitlements. Thereafter the focus shifts to civil law—i.e., civil codes, interpretation, combating codified sexism, and civil remedies—and to civil procedure—specifically to the attainment of legitimacy through procedure, to procedural guaranties, and to collective actions. The class closes with an exploration of corporate law. Students will become fully conversant with the principal legal concepts used by lawyers in the regions traversed.

Professor Oquendo is a George J. and Helen M. England Professor of Law at UConn School of Law. He has lectured and published extensively in five languages and is an authority worldwide on comparative law and international litigation. He graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Instructor: Osvaldo Pardo

This course will introduce students to Latin American modern literature by exploring a wide variety of works by writers who expanded and renewed the possibilities of narrative forms and genres such as Jorge Luis Borges, Felisberto Hernández, Clarice Lispector, Álvaro Mutis, and Mario Bellatín. Some of the topics to be discussed include the modernization and internationalization of Latin American literature; critiques to realism; the place of literature in a global age, among others.

The course will be conducted as a seminar, which means that active participation in class discussions is essential. Honors students are expected to meet with instructor regularly to discuss the progress of the final research paper and familiarize themselves with basic research tools in the field of the humanities (bibliographies; databases; digital resources; etc).

A knowledge of Spanish is not required.

(CA 1, CA 4-Int)

One credit, Honors.
Instructors: Jaclyn Chancey and Kaitlin Heenehan

Science is a human endeavor, conducted by people working in communities and being influenced by—and in turn influencing—society as a whole. This makes STEM practice complex and “messy.” Future professionals in STEM fields will need to think critically about problems that require interdisciplinary cooperation, and they must be able to communicate effectively with various audiences inside and outside of STEM.

Come explore this messiness across STEM disciplines in a small seminar format!

• Participate in weekly presentations from faculty and other professionals
• Interview two STEM professionals whose careers interest you
• Connect class topics to current events
• Personalize your learning and plan for future career development

This year’s presenters will include John Bau (Center for Career Development & Engineering); Dr. Lucy Gilson (Management); Dr. Amy Gorin (Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy & Psychological Sciences); Dr. Rowena Grainger (Office of National Scholarships & Fellowships); Dr. Heather Heenehan (NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center); Dean Kazem Kazerounian (Engineering); Dr. Thomas Long (Nursing); Dr. Caroline McGuire (Office of Undergraduate Research); Dr. John Redden (Physiology & Neurobiology); Dr. Margaret Rubega (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology); Dr. Leslie Shor (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering); and Dr. Stephen Stifano (Communication).

Course structure: This class will meet for two hours each Friday. The first hour (2:30 – 3:20) will be devoted to the speaker series and will be open and advertised to all interested students. The second hour (3:35 – 4:25) will consist of additional discussions and small group activities limited to those enrolled in the course.

A permission number is required. Please email kaitlin.heenehan@uconn.edu and include your name and 7-digit Student Admin number.

Instructor: Narasimhan Srinivasan

Prerequisite: MKTG 3101 or BADM 3750

Social entrepreneurship combines the passion of a social mission with the discipline of business, including innovation, creativity, and rugged determination. The social entrepreneur applies practical solutions to social problems. The result may be a new product, new service, or new approach to a social problem. Entrepreneurial skill and energy can be brought to bear on social problems and unmet needs, transforming them into authentic opportunities to create social value. Social entrepreneurs need to understand the similarities of what they do with the orientation and activities of for-profit entrepreneurs. However, they also face unique issues of measuring social benefits, acquiring donated resources, and knowing what “success” means in a nonprofit environment. This course provides you with the latest thinking in social entrepreneurship and gives you hands-on experience in developing a business plan for a social enterprise.

Honors credit is available for this course, and it is jointly offered on the Storrs campus as MKTG 4895-001 (Business Majors)/BADM 4895-002 (Non-Business Majors) for Fall 2016.

Instructor: Paul Herrnson

The outcome of the 2016 congressional elections will not only determine who controls Congress, it also will have an impact on healthcare policy, taxes, immigration reform, international relations, and who sits on the federal courts. This seminar focuses on congressional elections, drawing on examples from the upcoming election cycle.

Congressional elections will be examined from several perspectives, including those of candidates, party officials, interest group leaders, journalists, and scholars. The class will cover the backgrounds of congressional candidates; the decision to run for office; campaign finance, strategy, and communications; and the activities of political parties, interest groups, and the mass media. We also will examine the factors that separate winners from losers, the impact of elections on policymaking, and election reform.

Students who enroll in the course will receive insider perspectives from internationally-recognized political consultants from firms that have been involved in presidential, congressional, and statewide campaigns. These and briefings from other on and off campus experts will provide networking opportunities. Students who excel in the class may be offered an opportunity to work on a research project with the professor.

Requirements: Each student will become an expert on one congressional election and write a few short reports and a longer paper that draws from the reports to provide an overview of their election. Other assignments include a 2-page paper predicting the net change in the number of congressional seats held nationally by each party.  Class participation is required.

POLS 3613 is defined in the catalog as open to juniors and higher. Honors students without junior standing should email Prof. Herrnson for a permission number.

Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

The Speaker: The Eye of the Poem and the Short Story

According to Frances Mayes, “the poet ‘finds’ the right speaker and the right listener, usually by trying out several approaches.” In this introduction to creative writing class we will examine the different approaches that a writer can take when trying to establish a speaker in a poem or short story. We will look at exemplary works of poetry and fiction from writers like Robert Hayden, Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Carson, and Justin Torres. Students will produce a final portfolio of their original work. Class participation is an essential component to this largely workshop-based course along with weekly writing prompts such as writing in iambic pentameter and challenging prose sketches.

Instructor: Albert Fairbanks

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

The Victorian Period (1832-1900) was one of enormous social change. The Industrial Revolution and restructuring of agricultural practices provoked a shift of many workers from the countryside to the cities that sprang up in areas favorable to mining and factories. The culture had to invent ways to cope with resulting labor abuses, zoning, pollution, and public health. The discoveries of geologists, paleontologists, and Charles Darwin brought about a crisis in religion, and the new wealth amassed by the growing middle class transformed traditional class structures and patterns of consumption. The political liberation achieved by the Reform Act of 1832 was only partial, and its failure to enfranchise women along with the stifling new conditions for middle-class women provoked intense discussion of their rightful familial and social role. A backlash against the sensibilities associated with the preceding Romantic period arguably exerted oppressive restraints on manners and especially sexual expression.

We will read literary responses to these issues by several novelists, poets, dramatists, and the public intellectuals that came to be known collectively as “the Victorian sage.” Novelists may include George Eliot, Dickens, and Oscar Wilde; poets Tennyson, Arnold, Robert Browning, and the Rossettis (Dante Gabriel and Christina); and social critics Carlyle and Arnold.

The class will be run as discussions, and the writing assignments will consist of a series of short papers (5-8 pp.) amounting to 15 or 20 pages in total. There will be a midterm and final exam.

Instructor: Jonathan Hufstader

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

How to read, hear, see, understand, enjoy, interpret, think about,talk about, and write about poems. Come prepared to do all these things actively in class. Two papers, midterm, final.

(CA 1).