Featured Courses

UNIV 3784-Z81: Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar

[UConn Stamford]

Instructor: Richard Watnick

Honors students are able to enroll without a permission number. Non-Honors students will need to request a permission number by emailing Professor Watnick

This seminar has multiple faculty session leaders from different departments. There will be a guest session leader for approximately 10 of the weekly meetings, and the other meetings are for open discussion. The topic of the course for Fall 2021 was Ideas and Actions and for fall 2020 it was Resilience. Resilience (fall 2020 topic) may be repeated in fall 2022. Students can repeat this course with change of topic. See sample session guests and topics below. Professor Watnick organizes the course and attends all meetings. Each session leader, still to be identified for fall 2022, assigns reading material ahead of time and then presents before opening up discussion.

Fall 2020 Sample sessions (Topic: Resilience): 

  • Jerome Sehulster, Professor of Psychology, The concept of Resilience in the field of psychology
  • Susan Herbst, President Emeritus and Professor of Political Science, American Political Institutions:  How Resilient Are They in 2020?
  • Shanelle Jones, Honors Student, University Scholar, Day of Pride Scholar, POLS & Human Rights, Untold Stories of the African Diaspora: The Lived Experiences of Black Caribbean Immigrants in the U.S
  • Mark Boyer, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Geography, Adapting to Climate Change 
  • Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, Resilience in litigation and negotiation
  • Jeff Schlosser, National Supply Chain Lead Partner, Strategy and Transactions, Ernst & Young LLP and Kelly Stals, Senior Manager, Operating Model Effectiveness, in Ernst & Young’s International Tax and Transaction Services Group “Supply Chain Resilience – Responses to Disrupted Supply Chains in the COVID-19 Era”
  • Joel Blatt, Professor of History, Fred Roden, Professor of English and special guest Roland Tec, On the work of Nechama Tec, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, The Resilience of Polish partisans during the Holocaust
  • Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Professor of History, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity 
  • Vicki Knoblauch, Professor of Economics, Analyzing responses to the pandemic through game theory
  • Gregory Pierrot, Associate Professor of English, The Haitian Revolution: a global, artistic, and cultural legacy 
  • Fred Roden, Professor of English, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning

Fall 2021 Sample Sessions (Topic: Ideas and Actions): 

  • Jerome Sehulster, Professor of Psychology, Autobiographical memory 
  • Spencer Ross, Assistant Professor of Marketing UMass-Lowell, Sustainable Marketing 
  • Mark Strauss, UConn Digital Data Initiative, TIP Digital and from Wave Aerospace
  • Joel Blatt, Associate Professor of History, Thoughts and Actions of Carlo and Nello Rosselli and the Relevance to Us 
  • Mark Boyer, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Executive Director, International Studies Association, The Climate Adaptation Imperative
  • Charles Robins, Managing Director of Fairmont Partners, Start-ups/emerging technology, Building a unicorn: How to reverse the rainbow 
  • Mark Rolfe, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation
  • Fred Roden, Professor of English, Letters of Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss 
  • Annamaria Csizmadia, Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Sciences, Racial Microaggressions 

50% of your grade is based on the open discussion in class and on HuskyCT. The other 50% of your grade consists of a term paper or project on a topic in your major or a topic covered in class.

 

ANSC 5618: Probiotics and Prebiotics

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

Instructor: Mary Anne Amalaradjou

Recommended preparation: MCB 2610 (can be taken concurrently) or equivalent background in microbiology.

Interested to learn more about probiotics/prebiotics and how they are good for your health?

This course will provide an overview on probiotics, prebiotics and the microbiome, their biology health benefits and applications in human and animal health Commercially available probiotic and prebiotic supplements and functional foods will also be discussed.

Note: ANSC 5618 is cross-listed with ANSC 3318. Enroll in the graduate course in order to earn Honors credit.

MCB 3421: Introduction to Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics (Conversion Opportunity)

Instructor: Johann Peter Gogarten

Recommended preparation: At least one 2000 level course in MCB.  

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Gogarten welcomes Honors students of all majors. For an Honors conversion, students compile and analyze a sequence dataset of their choice in parallel to the lectures and computer lab exercises. This will include databank searches, multiple sequence alignment, and phylogenetic reconstruction.

Evolution of biomolecules and application to molecular data analysis and the design of new molecules. Topics include selfish genes, molecular innovations, data bank searches, alignment of sequence and 3-D protein structures. Course includes lectures, discussions and computer lab exercises.

MATH 3094: Mathematics & Politics: Voting, Fair Division, and Conflict

Instructor: Myron Minn-Thu-Aye

Prerequisites: MATH 2710 and instructor consent.

This course applies mathematics to shed light on problems in the realm of politics, both domestic and international. We begin with a study of voting systems, including both electoral and legislative processes. By formalizing notions of fairness, we will work towards theorems that will inform just how fair we expect elections to be. Our discussion of fair division will revolve around the problem of distributing seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the fifty states. We will explore various apportionment paradoxes (e.g. how could an increase in the total number of seats lead to a reduction in the number of seats assigned to a particular state?) through history anddetermine whether these are avoidable in the future. The development of methods to measure the political power of voting blocs and coalitions will inform our analysis of the apportionment problem and lead us to investigate political conflict via game theory.

ANTH 3098-002: Anthropology of Jews and Jewishness (Conversion Option)

Instructor: Sarah Willen

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

What does it mean to be Jewish …
… in Cuba? … in Ethiopia? … in Turkey?
… if you’re an atheist? … LGBTQ? … a convert?

These are some of the questions we will explore in this course, which will tap into the rich anthropological scholarship on Jewish life and Jewish communities around the world.

No prior knowledge of Judaism is required. Prior coursework in anthropology or sociology is helpful but not required. Question? sarah.willen@uconn.edu

Pending approval, this course may count toward the major or minor in Judaic Studies and/or as an ethnographic course toward the major in Anthropology.

ANTH 3098-50: Anthropology and the Writer’s Craft (Conversion Option)

Instructor: Sarah Willen

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

In this seminar, we will dive deeply into classic and cutting-­‐edge anthropological writing – and try our own hand at various genres of writing, in workshop format. Together we will engage critically with the texts we read and reflect on the following questions:
• How, why, and for whom do anthropologists and other social scientists write?
• What genres and writing styles are available to anthropologists, and how do they differ?
• What distinguishes strong – and weak – writing?
• How can deep engagement as readers, and a serious commitment to the revision process, help us become better writers?

The seminar is geared primarily toward advanced undergraduates who want to explore the range of contemporary forms of writing – and become better and more effective writers themselves. Prior coursework in Anthropology is helpful but not necessary. Writing activities will include ethnographic sketches, book reviews, peer review of colleagues’ writing, and blog posts / op-­‐eds for public audiences.

Questions? sarah.willen@uconn.edu.

HIST 3559: History of Childhood in the United States, 1620-Present

Recommended preparation: HIST 1501 or 1502 or 2100.

This course will examine the history of childhood in the United States from the colonial era to the present. It will consider both the actual experience of children and the changing ways in which adults have understood this phase of life. Readings will include eyewitness accounts, memoirs, and fiction, in addition to scholarly studies. Students will be expected to produce a research paper on a subject of their choosing, focusing on childhood before 1970.

SOCI graduate classes Spring 2020

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

The Sociology department invites Honors students to consider the following graduate courses. For a permission number to enroll in any of them, email the instructor.

SOCI 5203: Quantitative Research I

Instructor: Jeremy Pais

This is an introductory social statistics course for graduate students. The topics covered in this course form the foundation of modern quantitative social research. The primary goal of the course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of statistical reasoning and to the role of statistical methods in social research. Topics include linear regression, hypothesis testing and model selection; regression diagnostics; non-linearity and functional form; mediation and moderation effects; path analysis; and factor analysis.

University Honors Laureate: STEM

SOCI 5231: Qualitative Research I

Instructor: Nancy Naples

This course will emphasize the relationship between epistemology, methodology and method begun in the fall semester. We will also discuss contemporary debates in qualitative methodology and critical perspectives on qualitative methodology including feminist, queer, Third World, indigenous, and postcolonial approaches to social research. We will also explore the design and application of different methods including interviewing, the case method, institutional ethnography, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, content analysis, policy analysis, mixed methods. The readings for the course are designed to assist you in locating your own work within the larger sociological tradition.

The class will include an intensive workshop in use of NVivo for data analysis and conducting research using various media including online and newspaper sources led by Kate Ragon (UConn ABD).

University Honors Laureate: SS

SOCI 5515: Sociology of Immigration

Instructor: Bandana Purkayastha

Do you want to learn about immigration as a terrain of struggle, shaped by forces of inclusion and exclusion? We will use a decolonized approach to the sociological study of immigration by focusing on scholarship from the global South and North. We will focus on internal and international migration, examine migration “by choice” and forced migration (including human trafficking), and examine the racialized/gendered/class/sexualized structures that shape policies and practices towards migrants. We will examine 20th century concepts such as assimilation but we will emphasize 21st century discussions such as changing governance of migrants (including detention) migrant and refugee activism and resistance amidst questions of their human security within national and transnational contexts. The cases will be drawn from the US, selected Asian, European, South and Central American, and African countries.

University Honors Laureate: SS, D&M

SOCI 5601: Gender and Sexualities

Instructor: Mary Bernstein

This course explores the social organization, construction, and politics of sexualities with a particular focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (lgbtq) experiences and the intersection of sexualities, gender, race, age, and class. We look at how institutions, identities, and discourses interact with, are regulated by, and produce sexual meanings. We examine the ways in which sexuality and desire are constituted through the state and the political economy as well as the ways in which sexuality serves as an axis of domination. Other topics include sexuality and immigration, sex work, transnational sexuality, sexuality and masculinity, and adolescent sexuality.

University Honors Laureate: SS, D&M

SOCI 5895-002: (Special Topics) Genders and Globalizations

Instructor: Manisha Desai

“Women’s Rights are Human Rights and Human Rights are Women’s Rights,” entered the global human rights discourse at the Second UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 as a critique of the gendered nature of Human Rights discourse and practice. In this seminar we will study the history of women’s mobilizing around the world that led to this articulation; how it has or has not influenced human rights theories and practices; how the gendered critique might perpetuate other inequalities even as it challenges gendered ones; and what it has meant for global gender justice specifically and social justice more generally.

University Honors Laureate: SS, D&M

HRTS 3298-003/DMD 3998-003: Social Documentary in Theory and Practice

Instructor: Catherine Masud

This is a special opportunity to learn from an internationally award-winning filmmaker. 

This course aims to open students’ eyes to the tremendous power and possibility of the documentary form as a vehicle of social discourse and change. The first half of this course will examine the documentary from a historical, ethical, and aesthetic perspective, providing a theoretical grounding for students with a special interest in documentaries that address social and political themes. Some of the topics to be addressed include the evolution of the documentary genre, the modes and models of documentary, the rhetorical, narrative, and poetic documentary ‘voice’, and the question of ‘social impact’. Major milestones of the non-fiction genre will be studied along with lesser-known short form documentaries that illustrate specific aspects of technique, style, and content. The second half of the course will provide students with a practical framework for discovering their own documentary voice. Students will be guided through the process of pre-production, shooting and editing as they create their own short form documentaries on a social issue of their choice.

University Honors Laureate: This Variable Topics course will count toward the Arts & Humanities category.

MATH Honors classes Spring 2020

As of 10/18/19, Honors MATH courses were not correctly listed in Student Admin. These are the courses you can expect for Spring 2020:

Campus Course number Title Section Times
Storrs 1132Q Calculus II 059D MoWe 3:35PM – 4:25PM;
TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM
1132Q Calculus II 060D MoWe 4:40PM – 5:30PM;
TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM
2110Q Multivariable Calculus 149D TuTh 9:30AM – 10:20AM;
MoWeFr 1:25PM – 2:15PM
2142Q Advanced Calculus II 001 MoWeFr 2:30PM – 3:40PM
2144Q Advanced Calculus IV 001 MoWeFr 10:10AM – 11:20AM
2210Q Applied Linear Algebra 013 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM
2410Q Elem Differential Equations 020 TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM
3094 Undergraduate Seminar:
Fourier Analysis and Applications
001 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM
3160 Probability 008 TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM
Stamford 1132Q Calculus II Z84 MoWe 9:20AM – 11:00AM