[UConn Storrs]

Are “Emily” and “Greg” more employable than “Lakisha” and “Jamal”? Did the election of Obama mean the end of racism? Do White Supremacists have inter-racial friendships? How do we count multiracial people on the US Census? How can one provide empirically-based solutions to the problems of racial inequality, racial discrimination, and systemic racism? What kind of sociological concepts can help us interpret what data we collect and analyze? How does field of sociology intersect with, in ways that both align with and depart from, other fields, such as biology, economics, history, genomics, or political science? This honors course will answer these questions and more by providing a rigorous and interdisciplinary introduction, rather than individual disciplines in isolation, to the scholarship on race and ethnicity. This interdisciplinary focus will be bounded within the context of North America, with a focus on the attainment, application, and production of knowledge related to ethnicity and race.

The course will be a hybrid of lecture and discussion, with regular writing exercises, and culminating in each student’s independent research project.

[UConn Storrs]

Not open to students who have passed ERTH 1010, 1050, 1051, or 1070.

Welcome to the Honors Core version of introductory geoscience! The main goal is for you to learn how Earth works, what its history has been, and how you can put this knowledge to good use to reframe environmental thinking, mitigate natural hazards, and obtain the resources we need. Climate change, ecological collapse, human inequality, and planetary futures look very different when seen through an earthly lens.

The main pedagogy emphasizes hybrid learning via pre-class readings & explorations followed by in-class demonstrations, student presentations, and breakout sessions. Each week you will link beautiful specimens from UConn’s Stone Pavilion to a unique campus place and to an American region. Your final creative project will be shared during a student symposium. There are no exams.

By the end of this course, you will: Comprehend the Earth as a grand holistic system; Realize that your world occupies a thin membrane created from above and below; Appreciate the emergence of America’s scenic and cultural diversity in deep time, and; Realize that geoscience is a rigorous, environmental STEM career with excellent job prospects.

General Education information ERTH 1055 is a CA 3 (TOI-6) non-laboratory course. Adding the geoscience laboratory (ERTH 1052) to it fulfills your CA 3-Laboratory requirement.

[UConn Storrs]

This 4-credit interdisciplinary Honors course examines the life and work experiences of migrant workers. Weekly sessions will combine short lectures and discussions of assigned readings; the course will offer guest lectures by university faculty and by practitioners in the field, and will visit 2 farms. The emphasis is on migrant workers—mostly Spanish-speaking from the Caribbean and Latin America—in the United States, with a significant focus on migrant workers in Connecticut. This seminar is introductory. We assume that most, if not all, of you are generally unfamiliar with much of the basic literature pertaining to migrant life and labor. The course is thus intended to provide a very broad and eclectic perspective on the world of migrant labor and experiences.

This seminar combines classroom and service learning as fundamental and equally valued elements of each student’s experience. Service learning involves the student in on-site study and work with a variety of organizations in Connecticut that assist the state’s migrant community. Students’ SL placement will depend on transportation: They may choose any placement if they have their own car; if not, they may choose a CO volunteer experience or a placement along the Hartford busline 913. Either way, students will travel on a weekly basis to organizations and to farms throughout the area; consequently, you will need to arrange your schedule to accommodate approximately 3 hours of work per week, plus travel time. The organizations may include: Hispanic Health Council (migrant health research); Hartford Public Library (ESOL and citizenship instruction); CT Students for a Dream (undocumented student advocacy); Collegiate Health Service Corps; CO tutoring programs for migrant children; Windham Hospital; and Immigration Advocacy and Support Center (legal advocacy).

Permission number A permission number is required. Please email honors@uconn.edu and include (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) your registration “pick time”; (4) the course number and section; (5) the class number from Student Admin; (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the class you selected; (7) why you are interested in taking the class and (8) your commitment to approximately 3 hours of service work, plus travel time, per week.

Ask your Orientation advisor for a permission number for this class.

[UConn Storrs]

This course introduces students to genetics and genetic technologies. Various forms of popular culture—news clips, movies, books, and art—are used to provide a framework for the syllabus and to introduce students to different genetics and technology topics. A textbook introduces the scientific material, which is discussed in the context of the interpretation of science in modern society. Students study the scientific principles of genetics and genetic technology as well as the impact these topics have had on our culture, attitudes towards science, domestic and foreign policy, medical practice, and law.

Note This class is defined in the catalog as open to freshmen and sophomores in the Honors Program. If you are an Honors student who will have 54 or more credits when this course is offered, you may request help registering by emailing honors@uconn.edu and including (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) your registration “pick time”; (4) the course number and section (MCB 1405-001D or MCB 1405-002D); (5) the class number from Student Admin; and (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.

*If 54 or more AP and/or transfer credits have already been posted to your UConn transcript, your Orientation advisor may need to override you into this course.

[UConn Storrs]

The purpose of this course is to provide underclassmen and non-science majors with an opportunity to undertake real-world scientific research in a fun, supportive, and immersive environment. As part of the Small World Initiative, you will join with college students around the globe to crowdsource antibiotic drug discovery. Your guided independent research projects will involve taking soil samples, isolating bacteria within them, and testing them for antibiotic activity, and there is the opportunity for further pursuit of any promising findings. We have access to the database generated by students at other Small World sites, allowing us to explore issues of biodiversity, effective use of large data sets in the sciences, and the effectiveness of crowdsourcing for scientific research. At the end of the semester, your results will join that database.

As part of the Honors Core, UConn’s Small World course adds an interdisciplinary emphasis on the social aspects of disease: its definition, what it means to be “diseased,” how those definitions have changed over time, and the pivotal role of antibiotics in the evolution of those definitions. We will use both fiction and non-fiction in this exploration, and we will end up in the modern era to consider antibiotic-resistant microorganisms and the ethical, philosophical, and policy issues we may face if antibiotics cease to be effective in treating many common diseases.

[UConn Storrs]

As thinking beings, we have rich inner lives. And we have unfettered access to these inner lives. Whatever we might imagine at any given moment, we know (without fail) that this is what we are currently imagining. It would be absurd for someone else to correct us. To respond to a sincere claim like “I am imagining a house on a meadow” with “No you are not” would be facetious. We have this kind of unfettered access to many of our internal and bodily states. When someone thinks they are in pain, are hungry, tired, or wanting something, it would be absurd to correct them (except in very particular circumstances). One has similarly unfettered access to some parts of one’s identity, like one’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious beliefs.

There are, hence, a great many things about ourselves that we know about us better than anyone else. But, by contrast, there are a great many things about ourselves that are very difficult for us to know and that other people might know better. These include our habits, implicit assumptions or prejudices, and character traits. It might take someone else to point out one of our habits for us to realize we have it, or a supervised exercise to uncover our biases. Indeed, we might think of ourselves as good, virtuous people until someone else points out our failings. In such cases, it is far from absurd for someone to correct our beliefs about ourselves.

We will examine the tension between the kind of self-knowledge for which our self-perception is our best guide and the kind of self-knowledge for which we might be best served by perceiving ourselves through others. What is the ‘inner sense’ that gives us unfettered access to imagination, sensation, desire, and identity? And what it is about habit, prejudice and character that hides them from this sense?

Trouble registering? This class has a catalog-level pre-requisite of one 1100-level PHIL course. We can override this pre-requisite. If you are an Honors student, you may register by emailing honors@uconn.edu and including (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) your registration “pick time”; (4) the course number and section (PHIL 2410-001); (5) the class number from Student Admin; and (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.

This class has a pre-requisite of one 1100-level PHIL course. If you do not have this, ask your Orientation advisor to waive the requirement.

[UConn Storrs]

Privacy is one of the most important concepts of our time, yet it is also one of the most puzzling. As technology makes information more accessible; academics, activists, policymakers, and citizens struggle to define (and redefine) the meaning of privacy. By providing a thematic overview of the topic of privacy from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, this course prepares Honors students for critical engagement with the many and diverse public policy, legal, and ethical debates that surround privacy.

The course focus will provide students with the opportunity to participate in weekly seminar discussions regarding the impact of technology on the ways in which privacy is conceptualized, valued, enacted, and protected.

Topics of analysis include, but are not limited to:

• The history of privacy
• Cultural variations of privacy
• Philosophical definitions of privacy and debates about the moral/ethical status of privacy
• Legal/constitutional interpretations of the right to privacy
• The impact of technology on the meaning of privacy

[UConn Storrs]

Requires ENGL 1007, 1010, 1011, or 2011.

This is a course on the complex relationship between oil and politics. It seeks to develop students’ research, thinking, and writing skills about the role of oil in the international political system as well as in domestic politics.

Today, oil undeniably affects all aspects of our lives, but who really controls oil resources and what does that mean for national and international distribution of political power? How has the contest over oil resources affected the relations among nations as well as the economic, political, social, and environmental development of oil-rich countries? What are the alternatives to oil and what needs to be done to reduce dependency on it? We address these questions as well as analyze and compare individual cases of how oil shapes the way we think about the world.

The course is conducted in a discussion format, although occasionally there are lectures. We also rely on several documentaries to generate discussion. Finally, at the end of the semester, we have formal debates on some of the most controversial topics that we cover in class, such as the necessity of more oil drilling in the U.S.; the oil motives behind diplomacy and foreign policy; the responsibility of oil companies versus governments; and the effectiveness and feasibility of oil alternatives. We invite the university community to watch and participate in our debates.

[UConn Storrs]

Requires ENGL 1007, 1010, or 1011.

This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the federal appellate process through a Moot Court simulation. Moot Court is an experiential learning tool that teaches students to craft and present legal arguments both orally and in writing at the appellate court level. While the course prepares students for participation in tournaments hosted by the American Moot Court Association (AMCA), participation in these tournaments is not required for enrollment in the course. It is also important to note that team participation is subject to the availability of spots allocated to each educational institution at the regional level. All students in this course have the option to submit their written appellate briefs to the AMCA Brief Writing Competition.

As a writing-intensive (“W”) course, students will draft, revise, and resubmit several writing assignments throughout the semester. The final projects for this course include drafting appellate briefs for both the petitioner and respondent in the assigned hypothetical case, as well as delivering oral arguments on their behalf. By the end of the course, students will have strengthened their legal reasoning and writing skills, developed their persuasive abilities, and gained experience collaborating as teams for resolving critical legal issues in today’s society. Previous hypothetical cases include prisoners’ rights, the rights of undocumented citizens, and religious freedoms.

[UConn Storrs – Online synchronous]

This course will introduce students to societies from a global perspective. The course will focus on the political, economic, social and cultural processes that shape contemporary societies and will help students understand the links between their personal experiences and the transnational social relationships in which they are embedded. We will examine topics such as globalization, human rights and its limits; violence against women; migration patterns including forced migration and trafficking; technology-driven transformation of societies, including AI; climate change, sustainability, and environment justice activism. Students will learn to think critically about the causes and consequences of social inequalities and the social construction of human life across the globe. This class promotes active learning; students will engage in debates and discussions, design a part of their own evaluation, and learn from scholars in other parts of the world.

Sources for course materials and topical coverage include sociology; environmental studies; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; decolonial studies, and human rights.

[UConn Stamford]

This class will critically examine how social constructions of gender, race, class, sexuality, and disability shape science, medicine, and technology. We will consider the complex relationships between constructions of nature, science, objectivity, and the body to highlight how culture influences the theory and practice of different sciences, medical research, and technologies.

Some of the questions we will explore include:
How does science and technology influence everyday life? How are gender, race, sexuality and nation woven through the historical development of Western sciences? How has feminist science studies intervened or critiqued the construction of science, medicine and technology? Is there such a thing as a neutral or gender-free science? Is there such a thing as a feminist science?

We will focus particularly on the culture of science and power of scientific discourse. We will look specifically at how science is used to make claims about social differences, as well as examine the some social implications of medical technologies for women, e.g. how current medical technologies create novel, and even moral, demands and dilemmas for women. No scientific background or experience is required; only a willingness to critically examine both science and ourselves.

Note WGSS 2105 is coded at the catalog level as open to sophomores or higher. If you are an Honors student who will have fewer than 24 credits when this course is offered, you may register by emailing honors@uconn.edu and including (1) your name; (2) your 7-digit Student Admin number; (3) your registration “pick time”; (4) the course number and section; (5) the class number from Student Admin; and (6) confirmation that there are seats available in the course.