Featured Courses

POLS 2998W-008: (Political Issues) The Politics of War Memory and Memorialization (Conversion Opportunity)

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Instructor: Christine Sylvester

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010, 1011, or 2011.

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

This course considers processes whereby major wars are remembered and memorialized in the USA and elsewhere.  The question addressed throughout is whose version of a war is remembered and memorialized and whose is ignored, disputed, or assigned less legitimacy in the politics of national memorialization? Cases revolve around the atom bombing of Hiroshima, the rape of women in Berlin by Russian troops at the end of World War II, the destruction of ancient artifacts in recent Syrian and Iraq wars, the politics of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and of Confederate statues today, and how/whose war is curated in related museum exhibitions, war cemeteries, and war novels. Geared for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, the course entails student presentations, in-class written analyses, and a culminating paper. Previous courses in international relations or issues of public memory helpful.

DMD 3998-012 (Variable Topics): Visual Representations of Armenian Memory

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Instructor: Catherine Masud

Fridays 10:10 AM – 3:20 PM (with lunch break). Email catherine.masud@uconn.edu or stacy.webb@uconn.edu for permission number.

Seeking talented students who are: Film Editors, Motion Graphics Animators, Graphic Designers, Historians, Writers.

In this course, students will develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the ways in which audio-visual media can be used to recreate memory of lost communities. Students will produce a collaborative documentary film project that integrates primary archival materials with their own student-generated graphics, animations, and sound treatments. The film and supporting presentation materials will premiere at a conference near the end of the term. In addition, students will develop individual creative projects that enable them to reflect on the intersection of history and personal memory.

The collaborative film project will tell the multi-dimensional story of Armenian history and culture that was lost due to ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Armenian Holocaust (1915-19) resulted in the systematic extermination of the majority of the Armenian Christian population within the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent expulsion of survivors from Turkey. The historical circumstances surrounding this period are still controversial today. For more information, visit houshamadyan.org.

This course will be taught by award-winning filmmaker, Catherine Masud, who has a passion for national memory and oral history narratives. This unique course offers students the chance to develop their professional skills under the guidance of a master filmmaker and expert historians. This course is also an opportunity for students with an interest in history and human rights to engage in a compelling, historical narrative which is still relevant and deserving of understanding today.

ENGL/AFRA 3213W-001: 18th & 19th Century African American Literature

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Instructor: Shawn Salvant

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher. Sophomore Honors students should email Prof. Salvant for a permission number.

This course provides a survey of eighteenth and nineteenth-century African American literature. We will examine early African American literature, reading work by authors such as James Gronniosaw and Phillis Wheatley with emphasis on their transatlantic production, religious themes, and contributions to the development of the African American vernacular tradition. We will study the African American oral and rhetorical traditions as exemplified in anti-slavery speeches and essays by Sojourner Truth, David Walker, Frederick Douglass and others. In a unit on the slave narrative, we’ll discuss the literary and political dimensions of this genre so influential to the development of 20th and 21st Century African American literature. We’ll conclude by examining early African American novels and novels of the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era by such figures as Charles Chesnutt. Students will become familiar with the development of African American literary history and the recurring themes of the period as well as the literary and cultural significance of each text and author. We will also track the forces shaping this period of African American literature—historical and political movements (slavery, emancipation, reconstruction), modes of expression and production (literacy and orality, authentication), and literary forms (imagery, symbolism, narrative, genre, style). Primary texts will be supplemented by scholarly secondary readings. Final grade will be based on quizzes, discussion question assignments, midterm exam, participation, 1-2 short essays, final paper and/or a final exam.

(CA 4)

ENGL 2413-001: The Graphic Novel

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Instructor: Katharine Capshaw

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 

This course explores the history and theory of the graphic novel.  We will explore a variety of approaches to the genre, from superhero narratives to graphic memoir, from manga to contemporary experimental texts.  While no single course can offer a comprehensive summation of such a vast and various body of work, our class will address the field’s major generic threads. We will also develop an understanding of the ‘grammar’ involved in reading a panel, page, and entire comics sequence. Alongside the narratives we will read secondary sources that explore aesthetic and theoretical debates within the field.  One of our objectives is to support each other as we engage the critical discourse around comics and graphic novels: we will share sources and insights and offer constructive feedback as we work together to produce informed and incisive term papers.

(CA 1)

ENGL 1701-002: Creative Writing I

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Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011

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 Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Marilyn Nelson, 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.

ENGL 1701-003: Creative Writing I

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Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011

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 Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Marilyn Nelson, 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.

Biomedical Entrepreneurship

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BME 6086-020 / BADM 5894-011 / MGMT 5895-012
Biomedical Entrepreneurship Course

Graduate courses act as Honors courses, with Honors credit awarded for a grade of B- or higher. 

This Biomedical Entrepreneurship course is designed to train future life science entrepreneurs, and focuses on entrepreneurship in the medical device and biopharmaceutical space.  It is based on the premise that entrepreneurship is a critical mechanism to bring new technologies to market that will benefit society.  Moreover, entrepreneurship is particularly critical in the medical device industry, where product life cycles are typically very short and a firm’s innovativeness dictates competitive advantage. Biopharmaceutical startups face particular challenges given long development cycles.

Teams will be coached by industry experts who address fundamental topics in biomedical entrepreneurship.  Students will gain experience that will help them be entrepreneurs in startups or with established firms.  Projects will be presented to external experts and teams will be considered for subsequent awards/funding.

This course is designed for graduate students or very advanced undergraduates.  It represents a multi-disciplinary effort between the Schools of Engineering, Business, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Liberal Arts and Sciences and will be co-taught by expert faculty from these schools.  Interdisciplinary teams will tackle real clinical needs to offer technical solutions and business models that might enable future commercialization.

The course is cross-listed in the Schools of Engineering (BME 6086-020) and Business (BADM 5894-011 and MGMT 5895-012).  The course will be held Wednesdays, 3:00-6:00 p.m. at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI) space in downtown Hartford (100 Constitution Plaza) – a central location for students in Storrs, Hartford, and Farmington.

Apply for a permission number on the CCEI website.

BADM 5894: InsurTech Venturing

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Graduate courses act as Honors courses, with Honors credit awarded for a grade of B- or higher. 

This brand new course is designed to grow the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in the InsurTech space. Students will be provided with training specific to the needs of a rapidly changing insurance industry, as well as opportunities to assist both startups and established companies test and implement new technologies that will fuel growth through innovation. This course is open to all graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in all schools/colleges.

Course Overview:

  • Increase the understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation within the InsurTech space.
  • Compare and contrast insurance and InsurTech models.
  • Evaluate how InsurTech companies are being supported and financed to develop and test their business models.
  • Understanding of next generation cybersecurity exposures with InsurTech, including legal, regulatory, compliance and other insurance related issues.
  • Assess case studies and hear from industry experts on the support and disruption of the industry.

The InsurTech Initiative is provided through a grant from CTNext and coordinated by the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UConn and the University of Hartford.

Apply for a permission number on the CCEI website.

SOCI 6805: Readings in Human Rights

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SOCI 6805: Advanced Topics in Political Sociology
Readings in Human Rights

Instructor: Bandana Purkayastha

Graduate courses act as Honors courses, with Honors credit awarded for a grade of B- or higher. 

This course will offer a critical sociological perspective on human rights, with a specific emphasis on power, inequalities and people’s struggles to claim and access political, civil, economic, social and cultural human rights. We will pay attention to multiple actors–states, corporations, INGOs, NGOs, and activists–that are involved in shaping the terrain of human rights. Moving away from the dominant emphasis on scholarly work produced in the Global North, we will pay significant attention to the scholarship from the Global South. While I will add one or two other topics as/if these emerge as significant issues over the next few months, the current readings emphasize the following overlapping themes: violence (including routinized violence against minority groups, women and sexual minorities), local and global racisms, displacements and new tools of governance (focusing on migration and migrants, including those in camps and detention centers), control over and access to land and water resources (situating these discussions within larger questions related to environment, climate change and rights to science), cultural rights in an era of populism (including a focus on religions), and, questions of economic rights (including what is included and excluded under Sustainable Development Goals, and questions of human dignity in an era of precarity).

Students will develop a country-focused portfolio on a selected topic or develop a publishable quality paper on human rights.

Contact Dr. Purkayastha for a permission number to enroll.

ECON 2445: Economic Foundations of Gender Inequality

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(Also offered for HRTS majors or minors as HRTS 3445.) 

Instructor: Nishith Prakash

The course is set up around a series of major policy questions central to the gender equality agenda and girls and woman’s human rights, and linked to the post 2015 international development debates. For example, gender gaps in education, employment, political representation, and domestic violence are pressing global human rights concerns and matters of national social development. We will also explore to what extent behavioral and psychological factors explain these differences.