BIOL 1107: Principles of Biology I (Storrs)

October 3, 2025

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Thomas Abbott

Introductory biology course covering topics from both molecular & cell biology and physiology & neurobiology. Intended for students who will continue into higher level science courses.

The Honors version is designed for students who will be conducting research in biology, so it is more interdisciplinary (basic chemistry) and inquiry-based, and the lab will expose students to a wider range of topics and techniques. To help prepare you for your first research position, the Honors version makes greater use of primary literature and includes more of the tools used in MCB/PNB research labs.

CA 3-Lab
TOI 6-L

POLS 3025: Political Theory and Popular Music

October 2, 2025

[UConn Storrs]

The use of music for political ends has a long history, but the relationship between popular songs and political institutions, ideas, and movements has become more prevalent in the 20th and 21st centuries. In this course, you will explore influential political theories from the modern era and the relationships of those theories to musical genres such as hip-hop, pop, punk, reggae, folk, and rock. You and your classmates will also conduct original research examining the connections between the lyrics of popular songs and ideas about the state of nature, classical liberalism, feminism, racial equality, communism, anarchism, and conservatism. This interdisciplinary course draws upon normative political theory, empirical political science, psychology, communications, musicology, ethnomusicology, masculinity studies, and public ethics.

AAAS 2020: Introduction to Critical Muslim Studies

[UConn Hartford]

What does it mean to “see” Muslims in the world today? What happens when we study Islam and Muslims not from a Western-centric lens, but from the perspectives of diaspora, lived experience, and decolonial critique? How do we recognize and challenge anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia? How do gender, sexuality, and youth culture shape Muslim identities? How do colonial histories, global power structures, and contemporary politics shape how Muslims are represented and how they represent themselves? Let’s find out together!

This course introduces Critical Muslim Studies as an interdisciplinary field that explores Muslim lives in local and global contexts – with emphasis on local Connecticut communities. Students will examine orientalism, anti-Muslim racism, Islamophobia, and the politics of identity through lenses of gender, sexuality, and youth culture. Through readings, discussion, and creative assignments—including an op-ed, short presentation, and zine—students will gain tools to analyze power, representation, and resistance in the making of Muslim futures.

Note: Honors students will be able to enroll directly. Students not in Honors* can request a permission number by emailing honors@uconn.edu and including (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) your registration “pick time”; (4) the course number and section; (5) the class number from Student Admin; and (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.

*All students taking this course will follow the Honors Core syllabus and will receive Honors credit if they earn a B- or above in the course, regardless of whether or not they are in the Honors Program. Questions about the course content or structure should be directed to Professor Rahman via email:  qazi_arka.rahman@uconn.edu

Taylor Ford, LMSW

September 29, 2025

Taylor Ford is a Connecticut native with a passion for addressing mental health and practicing intentional self-care. She is a graduate of UConn’s School of Social Work and obtained her licensure with the State of Connecticut. She aspires to help create safe spaces for people to explore their own mental health as well as non-traditional ways to heal.

Having worked in the Children’s Behavioral Health system for just shy of a decade, she focused primarily on family and youth engagement, skill and leadership development, training and providing internship supervision to social work students interested in the field. Her work has been presented in CT high school classrooms and System of Care conferences nationally. While still valuing children’s behavioral health, she has since pivoted into working primarily in both the Higher Education in Prison world and providing individual therapeutic support by working in a private practice.

Taylor has traveled as a subject matter expert and now an executive member of the Jamii Sisterhood to encourage prison education programs working with Project Freedom to incorporate mental health in wellness into their program infrastructure. As the Director of Mental Health Education at Second Chance Educational Alliance, Inc., she has created three courses that bring psychoeducation directly to maximum security students. As she is creating her place in the HEP field, Taylor continues to create and encourage opportunities for students, educators and program staff to challenge and expand the way they think about mental health in and outside of their classrooms.

Return to 2025 John and Valerie Rowe Scholars Lecture

AAAS 2010: Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies (Conversion opportunity; Hartford)

August 8, 2025

[UConn Hartford]

Instructor: Qazi Arka Rahman

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Rahman welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

Critical refugee studies is a multidisciplinary field of inquiry that intersects the humanities and the social sciences. It interrogates the multifaceted politics of refugees, refugee events, and refugees’ impacts. Departing from dominant understandings of refugees as simply victims, objects of rescue, problems, and crises, this course reconfigures refugees and refugeeness as fluid political subjects and important sites of knowledge production. It also centers refugees as complex historical actors, whose emergences and trajectories make visible not only processes and legacies of colonization, imperialism, war, militarism, displacement, state violence, and globalization, but also local and transnational attempts at belonging and social, political, and cultural transformations. Focusing on selected events since the second half of the twentieth century and attending to the intersections of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexuality this course is comparative and relational in scope.

AAAS 3212: Asian American Literature (On Superhero) (Conversion Opportunity; Hartford)

[UConn Hartford]

Instructor: Qazi Arka Rahman

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Rahman welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to juniors or higher.

This course examines the intersection of Asian American literature and pop culture, focusing on the representation and evolution of the superhero figure. Superheroes feature prominently in popular culture. Although superheroes have always been popular in the realm of comic books and graphic novels, the superhero feature film as a distinct genre did not always exist with the popularity that it has now. The popularity of the Marvel and DC cinematic universe has made superheroes a staple for the American cultural palate. Through the superhero trope, we shall consider several larger questions: why is it necessary to consider popular culture? How does popular culture shape the values of society? Who controls the meaning of popular culture? How can superheroes be divisive? These are some of the questions that this course will try to ponder as it investigates representation of superheroes in graphic novels, films, and American popular culture. Using a wide range of primary sources and scholarly writings, this course will try to look between the lines of the superhero narrative and comprehend the latent meanings of popular stories. We will explore how Asian American creators and characters have influenced and been influenced by the superhero genre, analyzing works across various media including literature, comics, and film. The course will critically engage with themes of identity, race, citizenship, power, and belonging, while considering the broader cultural and political contexts that shape these narratives.

POLS 3675: Practicum in Campaigns and Elections (Conversion opportunity; Storrs)

May 8, 2025

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Paul Herrnson

Prerequisites: POLS 1602, and one of POLS 2607, 2622, 3603WQ, 3604, 3606, 3608, 3612, 3613, or 3625/PP 3030, or instructor consent. Prof. Herrnson encourages students who do not meet the prerequistes to email him for a permission number.

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Herrnson welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

This course provides students with an opportunity to learn about election campaigns and develop the hands-on experience needed to successfully participate in them. Lectures and briefings from politicians, political consultants, and other experts provide academic insights and practical knowledge about contemporary elections. Teams of students will participate in a simulated election in which they will develop and execute a campaign plan. The teams will present various aspects of their campaign, including their message, voter targeting strategy, fundraising plan, website, TV ads, streaming video, and get-out-the-vote efforts.

POLS 3675: Practicum in Campaigns and Elections (Conversion opportunity; Storrs)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Paul Herrnson

Prerequisites: POLS 1602, and one of POLS 2607, 2622, 3603WQ, 3604, 3606, 3608, 3612, 3613, or 3625/PP 3030, or instructor consent

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Herrnson welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

This course gives students opportunities to hone their political skills and begin to build a political network. It differs from other courses that feature discussions of various aspects of campaigning, including strategy; fundraising; polling voter targeting; communications; and mobilization.

In this new course, students will work with members of their campaign organization to compete in a (mock) special election for Congress. Each campaign will formulate a strategy; design fundraising materials and a website; develop a message; create TV, social media, direct mail, and other advertisements; participate in a candidate debate; and carry out other electioneering activities.

Class meetings will feature briefings by candidates, strategists, pollsters, fundraisers, communication experts, and political consultants with expertise in other areas. Class time will be reserved for students to work on their campaigns. Students also will meet with each other outside of class

HDFS graduate courses (Storrs)

[UConn Storrs]

Graduate courses act as Honors credit, as long as you earn a grade of B- or higher

HDFS 5031: Culture, Health, & Human Development Graduate Project Seminar

Instructor: Sara Harkness and guest mentors

A unique opportunity to develop your very own “not-too-large” research project. This interdisciplinary seminar features peer learning and expert guidance for the entire project.

Past CHHD projects have included:

  • The role of religion in Egyptian parenting
  • Working with diverse families in early interventions
  • Black parents’ experiences with the Positive Parenting Program
  • Working mothers’ perceptions of attachment in Botswana
  • Sleep and activity patterns of American and Dutch infants

HDFS 5101: Infant and Toddler Development

Instructor: Charles Super

What is going on with infants and toddlers? This seminar provides a tour through classic and contemporary theories and reserch on what’s going on and why it matters. Local and global perspectives on normal development and helpful interventions will be included.

HDFS 5248: Adaptation and Development in Adulthood

Instructor: Candidus Nwakasi

Young adulthood through middle-age with particular attention to transition episodes; stability and change in adult personality with attention to familial and other social relationships.

HDFS 5310: Patterns & Dynamics of Family Interaction

Instructor: Kari Adamsons

Readings and research about the family, emphasizing interpersonal processes and communication.

 

BADM/MENT 2240: Mastering Creativity and Innovation (Storrs)

March 21, 2025

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Nora Madjar

If you are currently a business student, register for MENT 2240. If you are not, register for BADM 2240.

Students improve their creative problem-solving and leadership skills in a way that fosters creativity and innovation in others – integral skills for the constantly changing business world. Engagement in a variety of experiential activities designed to help understand first-hand the situations which are most likely to add creative value when working on complex and/or loosely defined open-ended problems. Topics include the basic features of creativity and innovation processes and practical applications for how to facilitate, manage, and evaluate creative ideas and innovations in a work setting.

Students enrolled in the Honors sections will have an opportunity to work with real business creatives (individuals from creative industries or entrepreneurs) and explore what stimulates and what stifles their creativity and what supports their innovations in real life.

TOI-1.