Student News

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

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[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)

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[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.

HRTS 5390: Economic Rights

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[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Shareen Hertel

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

This graduate seminar will explore the conceptual bases, measurement, and policy applications of economic rights, drawing on a range of literature across disciplines and grounded in empirical methods spanning qualitative and quantitative approaches. Organized around a series of classic and contemporary scholarly readings spanning multiple disciplines along with contemporary policy documents, the course engages grad students in developing a semester-long independent research paper which is in turn presented during a final in-class conference.

Contact Prof. Hertel for permission to enroll in this course.

PSYC graduate courses: Perception, Action, & Cognition

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

The Perception, Action, Cognition (PAC) program within Psychological Sciences is happy to have qualified Honors students join their graduate courses. If you are interested in one of these courses, please contact the instructor(s).

PSYC 5171: Special Topics in Cognitive Science

There will be four sections offered in Spring 2023:

PSYC 5516: Event Cognition

Instructor: Gerry Altmann

PSYC 5570-003: Language and Literacy in Under-Resourced Populations

Instructor: Kenneth Pugh

SOCI 3453: Women and Health (Conversion Opportunity)

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[UConn Stamford]

Instructor: Ingrid Semaan

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

This course begins with the premise that health outcomes are embedded in inequalities that are located at the intersections of gender/race/class/sexuality. We will look at research that focuses on three additional themes: a critique of the biomedical model, a critique of the profit motive in health care, and a critique of the emphasis on pharmaceuticals and technology in medical fields. We will focus on several specific areas of health including reproductive health, mental health, eating “disorders,” and body size. We will explore these topics through films, reading assignments, and class discussions.

POLS/WGSS 2807: Women and the Law

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[UConn Storrs]

What is the status of women under the law in the United States today? How have women’s rights advocates sought political, legal, and social change over the past 300 years? What strategies have their opponents used to prevent significant change? This course starts by examining the legal and social status of women during the years before the formation of the Republic. We will examine the role of women as society extolled the virtues of Republican Motherhood, took steps toward abolishing slavery, faced wars at home and abroad, and debated citizenship and voting rights. By the end of the semester we will reach the present day, where women have greater recognition under the law but inequalities remain. We will examine significant challenges rights advocates faced (and continue to face) advancing and maintaining those rights. We explore theories of leadership, political agenda setting, judicial decision making, and backlash. Students will explore those theories by engaging with a variety of primary sources, including music, advertisements, documents, and artifacts.

POLS/WGSS 2807: Women and the Law

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[UConn Storrs]

What is the status of women under the law in the United States today? How have women’s rights advocates sought political, legal, and social change over the past 300 years? What strategies have their opponents used to prevent significant change? This course starts by examining the legal and social status of women during the years before the formation of the Republic. We will examine the role of women as society extolled the virtues of Republican Motherhood, took steps toward abolishing slavery, faced wars at home and abroad, and debated citizenship and voting rights. By the end of the semester we will reach the present day, where women have greater recognition under the law but inequalities remain. We will examine significant challenges rights advocates faced (and continue to face) advancing and maintaining those rights. We explore theories of leadership, political agenda setting, judicial decision making, and backlash. Students will explore those theories by engaging with a variety of primary sources, including music, advertisements, documents, and artifacts.

HDFS 5240: Aging: Personality and Social Interaction

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[All campuses]

Instructor: Laura Donorfio

This course will be offered in person at UConn Storrs and remotely via WebEx for students at other campuses.
Graduate courses act as Honors credit, as long as you earn a grade of B- or higher.

This course provides an examination of personality and social psychological approaches to the aging process. With respect to personality, we will look at how aging experts have conceptualized and studied the “interior life” of older adults, especially examining how personality and a sense of self in later life are both related to and different from those aspects earlier in life. At the level of social interaction, the objectives of the course are to provide an understanding of the relationships older adults have across the lifespan and how these shape their “interior life.” Throughout the semester, we will examine how the growth of the aging population worldwide has changed what it means to be an older adult today, particularly what impact it has had, and will continue to have, on the social psychological aspects of individuals as they age across the lifespan. Attention will be given to key developments related to ageism, technological advancements in healthcare, changing family structures, and the impact on policy.

SOCI 2275: Social Well-Being

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[UConn Storrs]

Well-being is an essential feature of life. It has various dimensions including happiness, life satisfaction, and purpose. It is also a socially-embedded process. This class examines individual and group constructs closely related to well-being. They include self-control, gratitude, altruism, social relationships, social media, money, and more. It explores how these constructs relate to well-being. At the end of the semester, students will have a rich understanding of what increases well-being in our society. They will also have practical strategies for increasing their own sense of well-being.

MATH 1020Q: Problem Solving (Conversion Opportunity)

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[UConn Stamford and Distance Learning All Campuses, May Term]

Instructor: Dr. Richard Watnick

Prerequisites: Not open for credit to students who have passed any math course other than MATH 1010, 1011, 1020, 1030, 1040, 1050, 1060 or 1070. 

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

Cognitive psychologists identified general strategies employed by successful problem solvers in various settings, not just quantitative settings. We identify and employ these general strategies. We use a quantitative setting most of the time, but we do not concentrate on learning any specific new math content. We begin the lifelong process of effectively responding to new challenges.

Section Z22 / distance learning / Tu Th 6pm to 9 pm
Section Z23 / in-person on the Stamford campus / Tu The 6pm to 9pm
Videos and notes available on HuskyCT allow us to meet fewer hours than otherwise required.

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