Featured Courses

ENGL 2701-002: Creative Writing I

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007, 1010, 1011, or 2011

Finding Your Artistic Voice Through Creative Writing Prompts

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 narrative poem or short story. The first half of the course will be dedicated to writing narrative poetry and for the second half we will focus on short and long form fiction stories. We will look at exemplary works of poetry and fiction from writers like David Dominguez, Allison Joseph, Richard Blanco, and fiction stories from One Story and One Teen Story, print literary journals that publish only one story per month. 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 in class writing prose sketches.

UNIV 3995-002: The Science & Practice of Finding Life Purpose

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Bradley Wright

Research finds that people who have a clear sense of life purpose are happier, more satisfied, are healthier, have deeper relationships, and do better at work. They even live longer! This one-credit Honors exploration of finding purpose throughout life will consist of seven weeks in class and seven weeks of guided experiential learning.

For more about the UConn Life Purpose Lab, visit https://lifepurpose.lab.uconn.edu/. If you have questions about the course, email Prof. Wright at bradley.wright@uconn.edu.

DMD 3998-001: Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media and Design (Conversion Opportunity)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Ceglio welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students. Recommended pre-requisites waived for Honors students.

To paraphrase James Baldwin, nothing can be changed until it is faced. This is certainly true of the inequities that have historically shaped digital media technologies, content, fields, and careers. This class interrogates how racism, sexism, classism, ageism, and other forms of oppression are perpetuated through digital media works, practices, and industries. We will, as the chief learning activity of this class, meet and talk with contemporary practitioners who are challenging and changing the status quo. For six of our class sessions, we will meet virtually and sometimes in-person with industry professionals, artists, and media scholars from film, game, design, cultural and other sectors so that we can learn how issues of equity manifest in their work, creative processes, and professions. Because these practitioners are also part of DMD’s Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2024 Speaker Series, students will also have the opportunity to participate as hosts in the series, learn how to professionalize their on-camera presence, and gain skill in preparing and moderating live Q&A sessions. Interactions with our guests will be supplemented by readings, in-class film screenings, and engagements with other media works. Over the course of the semester, we will reflect on how our own areas of practice can support greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in digital media and design. (To see what we do, you can access the past installments of the Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design series here: https://dmd.uconn.edu/major/diverse-perspectives/)

For more information, or to receive a permission number, email Prof. Ceglio (clarissa.ceglio@uconn.edu).

DMD 3620/HIST 3104: Collaborating with Cultural Organizations II: Practice (Conversion Opportunity)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Ceglio welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students. Recommended pre-requisites waived for Honors students.

Museums, archives, and other cultural organizations are spaces of digital media experimentation as they seek new ways to communicate ideas, make collections accessible, inspire learning, connect people, and build community. In this class we will undertake a project in partnership with a cultural organization. This will provide immersion in issues of contemporary practice while building collaborative competency in design thinking approaches.

For more information, or to receive a permission number, email Prof. Ceglio (clarissa.ceglio@uconn.edu).

DMD 3610/HIST 3103: Collaborating with Cultural Organizations I: Methods (Conversion Opportunity)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Ceglio welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students. Alternatively, Honors students may enroll in the cross-listed graduate section (DMD 5998-010), which will entail additional advanced work. 

Museums, archives, and other nonprofit cultural organizations are mission-driven institutions with complex, sometimes fraught, histories. Today, many such organizations seek to explore new ways to communicate ideas, make collections accessible, inspire learning, connect people, and build community. In addition to learning about the histories, structures, and functions of mission-driven cultural organizations, we will explore methods of collaborating meaningfully and effectively with them and their communities. This will include consideration of the ways in which digital media, from apps to virtual reality (VR), are being used to critically engage publics in questions about the past, present, and future. We will explore, too, the histories and responsibilities of cultural organization with regard to social justice, activism, and inclusivity.
This learning will be applied to research and creation of a podcast series for the Benton Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition Seeing Climate Change.

For more information, or to receive a permission number, email Prof. Ceglio.

DMD 3610/HIST 3103: Collaborating with Cultural Organizations I: Methods (Conversion Opportunity)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

Open to sophomores or higher.

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Ceglio welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students. Alternatively, Honors students may enroll in the cross-listed graduate section (DMD 5998-010), which will entail additional advanced work. 

Museums, archives, and other nonprofit cultural organizations are mission-driven institutions with complex, sometimes fraught, histories. Today, many such organizations seek to explore new ways to communicate ideas, make collections accessible, inspire learning, connect people, and build community. In addition to learning about the histories, structures, and functions of mission-driven cultural organizations, we will explore methods of collaborating meaningfully and effectively with them and their communities. This will include consideration of the ways in which digital media, from apps to virtual reality (VR), are being used to critically engage publics in questions about the past, present, and future. We will explore, too, the histories and responsibilities of cultural organization with regard to social justice, activism, and inclusivity.

For more information, email Prof. Ceglio.

Healthcare Innovation graduate courses

[UConn Storrs]

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

Honors students are invited to take one or more courses in Healthcare Innovation on a space-available basis. Courses must be taken in sequence:

  • NURS 5111: Healthcare Innovation Theory and Application (Fall 2023)
  • NURS 5112: Healthcare Opportunities for System Level Solutions
  • NURS 5113: Developing & Leading a Sustainable Culture of Healthcare Innovation (Fall 2023)
  • NURS 5114: Healthcare Innovation Development (Fall 2023)

Contact Dr. Tiffany Kelley to discuss your interest in and fitness for these courses. The sequence is not recommended for first-year students.

ENGL courses, Fall 2023

[UConn Storrs]

Please view the Fall 2023 English Course Descriptions for more details about any of these courses. All require first-year writing (ENGL 1007/1010/1011) as a prerequisite.

Honors courses

ENGL 1101W: Classical and Medieval Western Literature
CA 1, W

ENGL 2408W: Modern Drama
CA 1

ENGL 2701: Creative Writing

Other courses of interest

The following ENGL courses are not Honors courses. However, advisors feel that they may be particularly interesting to Honors students.

ENGL 2001: Introduction to Grant Proposal Writing

ENGL 3267W: Race and the Scientific Imagination
CA 1, CA 4

ENGL 3621: Literature and Other Disciplines
Law and Literature

 

SOCI 2995-001: The Science & Practice of Finding Life Purpose


[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Bradley Wright

Research finds that people who have a clear sense of life purpose are happier, more satisfied, are healthier, have deeper relationships, and do better at work. They even live longer! This one-credit Honors exploration of finding purpose throughout life will consist of seven weeks in class and seven weeks of guided experiential learning.

For more about the UConn Life Purpose Lab, visit https://lifepurpose.lab.uconn.edu/. If you have questions about the course, email Prof. Wright at bradley.wright@uconn.edu.

PSYC 3770-003: (Special Topics) Racism and Anti-Racism in Psychological Science (Conversion Opportunity)

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Felicia Pratto

PSYC 3770 has a catalog-level pre-requisite of PSYC 2700, which Prof. Pratto is waiving. If you do not have credit for PSYC 2700, email Prof. Pratto for a permission number.

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

In this new course, we will review what kinds of racist and anti-racist ideologies were prevalent in the US across its history and examine ways that scientific psychology relied on or refuted those ideologies. Students will read original research articles and history and present a project considering these topics today. 

University Honors Laureate: This Special Topics course will count toward the Social Sciences category and will also meet the Diversity & Multiculturalism requirement.