Featured Courses

PSYC 5270-003: Special Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

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

Controversies in Neuroscience and Biopsychology

Instructor: R. Holly Fitch

Prof. Fitch welcomes Honors students with at least junior standing and some biology and psychology background. This course is particularly well suited for students with majors in PSYC, PNB, Cognitive Science, or related fields. Contact Dr. Fitch for a permission number. The class is limited to 20 students, so interested students should contact her as soon as possible. 

This course will address a series of “hot” topics of current interest in the field, including: the importance of sex/gender/hormones in individualized medical care; the rapid evolution of neural implant technology; the status of genetic engineering in complex behavioral conditions like autism (both embryonic and adult gene engineering); and other “hot” topics —  to include some topics of the students choosing. Last year’s topics included teens in contact sports and CTE, vaccinations and autism, and others.

The class format involves a meeting for one hour each week for in person discussion, a recorded/remote one-hour lecture each week, and online student presentations. The grade for the class will derive from seminar participation and several oral presentations over the course of the semester.

HDFS 5255: Living with Chronic or Life-threatening Illness (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: Keith Bellizzi

Chronic and/or life-threatening illness from diagnosis through long term management. Psychological, interpersonal, family, and ethical aspects of the chronic illness experience across the life span, in contexts for culture and health policy.

HDFS 5340: Prevention, Intervention, and Public Policy (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: Lisa Eaton

Survey course of the theory, practice and science of primary prevention of human problems. Prevention concepts and case studies are presented. Students give analysis and critique of course content and develop personal and professional perspectives on prevention practice and possible social policy initiatives.

HDFS 5342: Parenting, Parenthood, and Family Science Interventions (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: Beth Russell

Parents’ roles, identities, and behavior and the dynamics of parenthood across the lifespan. Interpersonal, familial, and societal roles of parents and the interventions that support individual parent and family well-being outcomes are presented.

CHEM 2444: Organic Chemistry (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Nicholas Leadbeater

Prerequisite: CHEM 2443 (Honors or non-Honors)

The material in Honors CHEM 2444 is much like that in the non-Honors sections of CHEM 2444, but it will go into more detail on various topics. It is also taught differently, with class periods dedicated to discussion and practice problems. Additional support is available from a graduate teaching assistant and undergraduate peer mentors.

CHEM 1148Q: Honors General Chemistry II (Storrs)

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Douglas Adamson

Prerequisite: CHEM 1147Q. If you took CHEM 1127Q or 1137Q and would like to enroll in CHEM 1148Q, email Prof. Adamson for permission.

This Honors version of CHEM 1128Q will complete the general chemistry sequence for any science major and for pre-med/pre-dent requirements.

CHEM 1148Q has a smaller lecture section than CHEM 1128Q. and it requires more personal initiative in the laboratory assignments. It also uses some calculus, compared to the algebra used in CHEM 1128Q.

CA 3-Lab, Q
TOI-6L, Q

BIOL 1107: Principles of Biology I (Storrs)

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[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.

One section of Honors BIOL 1107 will be offered in Spring 2026. 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

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

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[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)

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[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.