Instructor: Nora Madjar

This is a course about developing creativity-relevant skills and applying them directly in the context of nano-enabled technologies. The purpose of this course is to increase students’ ability to understand and implement creativity and innovation, and to help them come up with new ideas about products, processes or solutions using nano-enabled technologies. Specific applications will emphasize bio/medicine and energy.

Students will be given complex and/or loosely defined open-ended problems. Students will be challenged to think critically about possible new applications of the given nano-enabled technology or new solutions to global challenges that use the same technology in different ways. Students will have a first-hand encounter with all stages of the creative process, through thinking about big societal problems that require solutions, generating alternative ideas related to nano-enabled technologies, evaluating their potential impact and developing an actionable plan for managing the development and implementation of the idea into an innovative solution.

The objectives of the course are:

1. to help students develop frameworks and tools to improve individual, team, and organizational creativity
2. to help students apply creative thinking methods and concepts to diagnose and solve problems or pursue opportunities for improvement and innovation
3. to teach students how to evaluate the potential and impact of ideas and solutions and compare alternatives in a socially and environmentally responsible way
4.  to develop students’ team management skills  as well as ability to lead for creativity and innovation.

Business students: Register for MGMT 4895-001. This course will count as an approved elective for MGMT students with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and as a business elective for all other Business majors.
Engineering students: Register for BADM 4895-001. You may be able to count this course toward engineering program requirements. Contact Professor Leslie Shor for details.
All other students: Register for BADM 4895-001 and speak to your advisor about whether this course can apply toward degree requirements and/or your Honors plan of study. It will automatically apply toward your Honors participation requirement.

Two Honors courses will be offered in linguistics during Fall 2014. These descriptions are from previous Honors offerings of the courses, so some details may change.

LING 1010-025: Language and Mind

This course is an introduction to the scientific study of human language. Two fundamental questions will drive the discussion in the course – what exactly do we “know” when we know our native language, and how exactly did we come to know it? After an introduction to these questions, as they are relevant to both spoken and sign languages, we will explore linguistic theory, by introducing the tools that are required for linguistic analysis of sound patterns (phonology), word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), sentence meaning (truth-conditional semantics), and meaning in context (pragmatics). The linguistic theory will also be applied in discussions of language acquisition. Throughout discussion of these various topics, students will be asked to examine and reflect upon the question of what language can tell us about the human mind. (CA 1)

LING 2010Q-004: The Science of Linguistics

An introduction to the methods and major findings of linguistic research as applied to the sound systems of languages and the structure and meaning of words and sentences. Topics may include morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, variation, pragmatics, and language acquisition. (CA3, Q)

Instructor: Molly Land

This course will survey the theory and practice of international human rights law. We will examine the historical foundations of international human rights law; the primary international and regional human rights instruments; and the domestic, regional, and international forums that human rights advocates use to increase respect for international human rights. The course will also address the roles, activities, and obligations of corporations and non-governmental organizations; mechanisms and strategies of human rights enforcement; and selected current issues in the field, such as the right to health, international criminal law, trade, national security, self-determination, and women’s human rights.

Two Honors sections of PHIL 1101 will be offered in Fall 2014.

PHIL 1101-001 (Donald Baxter)

The purposes of Philosophy 1101 H are:

1. to introduce students to some of the great thinkers and great issues of western philosophy.
2. to train students in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and clear, persuasive speaking and writing.
3. to promote reason and civil discourse in debates with others.

The course emphasizes that the sort of discussion taught in philosophy classes is an essential way of inquiring into matters of value, and so is important for coming to wise decisions on the personal, political, moral, religious, social, etc. issues faced by everyone in their lives. Topics include God and Religion, Mind, Self, Freedom, Morality, and Ethical Problems. The textbook will be John Cottingham, ed. Western Philosophy: An Anthology, 2nd Edition. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in class discussion, which will takes issues beyond the elementary exposition of non-honors sections.

PHIL 1101-002 (Mitchell Green)

Philosophy is the replacement of intellectual habit with intellectual discipline.  One who knows how to philosophize is in possession not so much of a body of knowledge as a skill, namely, the skill to think critically and circumspectly about issues that science alone is unable to settle but that nevertheless daily confront anyone who purports to live an examined life.  In that spirit, this course is intended as a general and non-technical introduction to the main traditional problems of metaphysics, ethics, and the theory of knowledge as they are to be found in the writings of historical figures (such as Plato, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Hume, and John Stuart Mill) and contemporary authors.  Among our questions will be:  Can we be rationally justified in believing in the existence of a divine being?  How can the will be free in a world governed by physical law?  Is the rightness or wrongness of an act a matter of the conventions of the society in which that act is performed or can morality transcend social norms?  Is there a difference in principle between knowledge as it is conveyed by science and beliefs or opinions that we might form in other ways, for instance on the basis of intuition?  Is the mind so related to the body that it could survive the latter’s death or are “mind” and “brain” two ways of referring to the same thing?  This course is intended for those making a first approach to the subject, either to gain an idea of its scope or in order to lay a foundation for further study.

Prerequisites:  None.
Requirements: Two papers, a midterm examination, a final examination, and active participation in discussion.

Introduction to Environmental Studies views the fundamentals of environmental thought from many perspectives in the humanities (art, literature, history, philosophy, etc.) and social sciences (economics, politics, social justice, anthropology, etc.). From our conceptions of nature to how resources are valued to environmental justice, and much more, this class covers the foundational ideas that guide how individuals and societies deal with the environment. In the honors section, you will engage with the material in a practical way through a service learning project at a community garden in Willimantic. (Bus transportation is available.) You will learn about the importance of volunteerism in environmental action, the diverse community that supports the garden, and take on a project to improve the garden in some way. Past projects have ranged from hands-on (organic pest prevention, setting up better composting, planning drip irrigation) to administrative (publicity, helping at the farmer’s market, grant writing). These activities will be accompanied by associated materials and a reflection piece at the end of the semester. The honors section service learning projects proved to be enjoyable, educational, and some students continued as volunteers and interns with the garden.

Instructor: Sebastian Wogenstein

This course examines philosophical discourse on human rights from the Enlightenment to the present as well as literature and other art forms related to human rights. Literature and the arts have early evoked and discussed the idea of natural and universal rights while communicating experiences of the violation of human dignity. Such works provide the basis for a discussion of ethical dilemmas and provide insight into the complex history of the struggle for human rights. Using various media, we will analyze theoretical and legal documents, documentary sources, literature and films related to Germany’s colonial history, the women’s rights movement, the Holocaust, human rights in divided Germany and current debates on citizenship, multiculturalism and political asylum. While the course introduces students to the history of human rights from the Enlightenment to the present in Germany, it also aims at raising the students’ awareness of related issues in their own lives.

Instructor: Glenn Stanley

An introduction to popular music and diversity in America: jazz, blues, Top-40 pop, rock, hip-hop and other genres. Musicians and their music studied in the context of twentieth-century and contemporary American society, emphasizing issues of race, gender, class, and resistance. No prior musical training or knowledge required.

In the honors section students will have the opportunity to lead a discussion of one of the reading assignments from the primary-source materials text and present and discuss “My Favorite Pop-Song.” Honors students will also have an enhanced writing assignment on a topic of their choosing.

Instructor: Roger Travis

Origin, nature, and function of myth in the literature and art of Greece and Rome and the re-interpretation of classical myth in modern art forms. Taught in English. The honors section of CAMS 1103 will feature the opportunity to engage in a unique activity only for honors students, which will greatly enhance your learning in classical mythology. You will have the chance to discuss the honors project, which is a collaborative interpretive paper on the cultural treatment of one of the most important Greek myths, the story of the House of Atreus, in a small online discussion group with Professor Travis and the rest of the honors section, with whom you are collaborating on the paper. (You will be graded on your contribution, and not on the group’s final product, so you will be evaluated only on your own work.)

ENGL 1701-002: Creative Writing I

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010, 1011, or 2011
Instructor: Sean Forbes

This workshop will introduce methods of writing poetry and prose. The first half of the course will focus on poetry, and the second half will focus on fiction. Students will have the chance to produce and revise work, to hone critical reading skills, to learn the tools with which they can critique the work of others, and to become careful editors of their own work. Students will be expected to read and write on a daily basis. Active participation is mandatory.

ENGL 2401-007: Poetry

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010, 1011, or 2011
Instructor: Jonathan Hufstader

How to read, hear, see, understand, enjoy, interpret, think about, talk about, and write about poems. Come prepared to do all these things actively in class. Two papers, midterm, final.