Student News

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

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[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.

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POLS 2803W: Legal Reasoning and Writing

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[UConn Storrs]

Requires ENGL 1007, 1010, or 1011.

This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the federal appellate process through a Moot Court simulation. Moot Court is an experiential learning tool that teaches students to craft and present legal arguments both orally and in writing at the appellate court level. While the course prepares students for participation in tournaments hosted by the American Moot Court Association (AMCA), participation in these tournaments is not required for enrollment in the course. It is also important to note that team participation is subject to the availability of spots allocated to each educational institution at the regional level. All students in this course have the option to submit their written appellate briefs to the AMCA Brief Writing Competition.

As a writing-intensive (“W”) course, students will draft, revise, and resubmit several writing assignments throughout the semester. The final projects for this course include drafting appellate briefs for both the petitioner and respondent in the assigned hypothetical case, as well as delivering oral arguments on their behalf. By the end of the course, students will have strengthened their legal reasoning and writing skills, developed their persuasive abilities, and gained experience collaborating as teams for resolving critical legal issues in today’s society. Previous hypothetical cases include prisoners’ rights, the rights of undocumented citizens, and religious freedoms.

POLS 2073Q: Advanced Quantitative Methods in Political Science (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor:  Lyle Scruggs

Prerequisites: POLS 2072Q or STAT 1000Q or SOCI 3211Q or equivalent.

Want to understand what really drives policy outcomes and political behavior? Want to hone software skills that will help to work in the world of policy analysis and public administration, and prepare yourself for graduate school? This advanced statistics course moves beyond basic polling to uncover the hidden patterns in politics. Using Stata and Excel, you’ll master the quantitative tools that leading social scientists and campaign analysts use to evaluate the outcomes of policies, measure political messaging effects, and analyze voting and social behavior. You’ll work with real research data and collect some of your own to develop valuable skills for careers in politics, policy, journalism, and data science. Learn how numbers truly shape our democracy. Enroll today in POLS 2073Q. To learn more, contact Professor Scruggs in the Department of Political Science (lyle.scruggs@uconn.edu).

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DSDA 1995: (Special Topics) Data Science and Society Using R (Conversion Opportunity; Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Jason Byers

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

Are you interested in data science, learning more about the R programming language, or exploring the new Data Science and Applied Data Analysis majors?  Enroll in DSDA 1995-001 (Data Science and Society using R) for the Spring 2025 semester!  This course is a good fit for students interested in exploring issues of analysis of social data, and is especially appropriate for those who may be considering careers in public administration, public policy, policy analysis, or considering graduate school in social and behavioral sciences. Meets Monday 4:00-6:30pm in SHH308. This course has no prerequisites and no previous experience with programming is required. Professor Byers would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

For more information, contact: Jason Byers at Jason.byers@uconn.edu.

MKTG 6210: Marketing Strategy Research Seminar (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

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

Instructor: Prof. Debanjan Mitra

This course is suitable for Honors students in any major, and may be of particular interest to those students in quantitative fields such as economics, statistics, or computer science. No prior experience in marketing necessary.

MKTG 6210 offers an in-depth exploration of marketing strategy through research, perfect for those interested in advancing their academic and research skills. This seminar helps you critically evaluate the latest research, develop fresh ideas, and contribute to the field of marketing strategy.

The course focuses on analyzing key academic papers, where you’ll present and discuss important findings, limitations, and potential research extensions. No advanced knowledge of econometrics is required—just a strong interest in research and critical thinking.

By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped with a comprehensive understanding of marketing strategy literature and will apply it to your own research proposals.

Email Professor debanjan.mitra@uconn.edu if interested.

HDFS 5442: Latina/o Health Disparities (ONLINE)

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[UConn Storrs – Online synchronous]

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

Instructor: Jolaade Kalinowski

Overview of health and health care issues among Latina/os in the United States with particular focus on health disparities.

Recommended for advanced Honors students with an interest in health equity and/or public health. We will discuss social determinants of health, cultural competency and relevant theoretical frameworks relating to health equity and Latina/o/x health.

PSYC 3701W: Psychology of the Arts (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Blair Johnson

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; PSYC 1100 and 1101, or PSYC 1103; three PSYC credits at 2000- or 3000-level

Psychology of the arts is a vast subject field, with the arts ranging from song to music, to visual arts, film, performance art, written word, and much more. This course is an introduction to the subject, with two strong foci: (1) What happens when people experience art, and (2) how is it that artists produce the art people enjoy? How and why do they do it? How much does the psychology of artistry match that of those who consume their art? The hows and whys will depend on such factors as perceptions, emotions, needs, wants, memories, judgments, and culture, along with all of the systems on which these elements depend. We need to understand what makes art succeed so well that it goes viral, and, in turn, what might make it fail. It criss-crosses numerous sub-disciplines of psychology and sometimes enters other sciences and even the humanities, making it ideal for an honors seminar in writing. As such, the course also emphasizes practical advice in writing scientific essays and in reviewing relevant evidence. It also will sample broadly from diverse research methodologies (e.g., case studies; neural scans; experiments; surveys; meta-analyses).

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ENGL 3240E: American Nature Writing (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Wayne Franklin

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the relation of literature to the natural world from the late colonial era to the present. We will read Henry D. Thoreau and trace his influence among later writers such as John Muir, Mary Austin, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, and Annie Dillard. Students will keep a journal of their own experiences in the natural world. Two quizzes but no exams.

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ECON 1108: Game Theory with Applications to the Natural and Social Sciences

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[UConn Stamford – Distance Learning]

One semester introduction in game theory. Game theory is a modeling tool that is used to understand and predict strategic behavior in a wide variety of settings, including economic, social, political, and biological. For example, an algorithm is used to match medical school students with residency programs across the U.S. and around the world. Medical school students rank hospitals from their most desired to least desired and hospitals rank the students from their most desired to their least desired. Then an algorithm uses these rankings to match students to hospitals. Medical students sometimes behave strategically by altering their rankings in an attempt to obtain a better match.

In this course students will learn that strategic behavior is ubiquitous. For example, we will study games involving predator and prey settings in the natural world, elections, warfare, and auctions ranging from a Christie’s auction of an antique Greek vase to electromagnetic spectrum rights auctions.

Note This course will be offered online, and registration is open to Honors students at any UConn regional campus. If you are a non-Honors student interested in this course and the Honors Program, please email the instructor (vicki.knoblauch@uconn.edu) and Kaitlin Heenehan (kaitlin.heenehan@uconn.edu) to request a permission number.