[UConn Hartford]

Instructor: Qazi Arka Rahman

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

Critical refugee studies is a multidisciplinary field of inquiry that intersects the humanities and the social sciences. It interrogates the multifaceted politics of refugees, refugee events, and refugees’ impacts. Departing from dominant understandings of refugees as simply victims, objects of rescue, problems, and crises, this course reconfigures refugees and refugeeness as fluid political subjects and important sites of knowledge production. It also centers refugees as complex historical actors, whose emergences and trajectories make visible not only processes and legacies of colonization, imperialism, war, militarism, displacement, state violence, and globalization, but also local and transnational attempts at belonging and social, political, and cultural transformations. Focusing on selected events since the second half of the twentieth century and attending to the intersections of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexuality this course is comparative and relational in scope.

[UConn Hartford]

Instructor: Qazi Arka Rahman

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

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to juniors or higher.

This course examines the intersection of Asian American literature and pop culture, focusing on the representation and evolution of the superhero figure. Superheroes feature prominently in popular culture. Although superheroes have always been popular in the realm of comic books and graphic novels, the superhero feature film as a distinct genre did not always exist with the popularity that it has now. The popularity of the Marvel and DC cinematic universe has made superheroes a staple for the American cultural palate. Through the superhero trope, we shall consider several larger questions: why is it necessary to consider popular culture? How does popular culture shape the values of society? Who controls the meaning of popular culture? How can superheroes be divisive? These are some of the questions that this course will try to ponder as it investigates representation of superheroes in graphic novels, films, and American popular culture. Using a wide range of primary sources and scholarly writings, this course will try to look between the lines of the superhero narrative and comprehend the latent meanings of popular stories. We will explore how Asian American creators and characters have influenced and been influenced by the superhero genre, analyzing works across various media including literature, comics, and film. The course will critically engage with themes of identity, race, citizenship, power, and belonging, while considering the broader cultural and political contexts that shape these narratives.

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Nora Madjar

If you are currently a business student, register for MENT 2240. If you are not, register for BADM 2240.

Students improve their creative problem-solving and leadership skills in a way that fosters creativity and innovation in others – integral skills for the constantly changing business world. Engagement in a variety of experiential activities designed to help understand first-hand the situations which are most likely to add creative value when working on complex and/or loosely defined open-ended problems. Topics include the basic features of creativity and innovation processes and practical applications for how to facilitate, manage, and evaluate creative ideas and innovations in a work setting.

Students enrolled in the Honors sections will have an opportunity to work with real business creatives (individuals from creative industries or entrepreneurs) and explore what stimulates and what stifles their creativity and what supports their innovations in real life.

TOI-1.

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

Open to sophomores or higher.

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Ceglio welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students. Alternatively, Honors students may enroll in the cross-listed graduate section (DMD 5998-010), which will entail additional advanced work. 

Museums, archives, and other nonprofit cultural organizations are mission-driven institutions with complex, sometimes fraught, histories. Today, many such organizations seek to explore new ways to communicate ideas, make collections accessible, inspire learning, connect people, and build community. In addition to learning about the histories, structures, and functions of mission-driven cultural organizations, we will explore methods of collaborating meaningfully and effectively with them and their communities. This will include consideration of the ways in which digital media, from apps to virtual reality (VR), are being used to critically engage publics in questions about the past, present, and future. We will explore, too, the histories and responsibilities of cultural organization with regard to social justice, activism, and inclusivity.

For more information, email Prof. Ceglio.

[UConn Storrs]

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

HDFS 5031: Culture, Health, & Human Development Graduate Project Seminar

Instructor: Sara Harkness and guest mentors

A unique opportunity to develop your very own “not-too-large” research project. This interdisciplinary seminar features peer learning and expert guidance for the entire project.

Past CHHD projects have included:

• The role of religion in Egyptian parenting
• Working with diverse families in early interventions
• Black parents’ experiences with the Positive Parenting Program
• Working mothers’ perceptions of attachment in Botswana
• Sleep and activity patterns of American and Dutch infants

HDFS 5101: Infant and Toddler Development

Instructor: Charles Super

What is going on with infants and toddlers? This seminar provides a tour through classic and contemporary theories and reserch on what’s going on and why it matters. Local and global perspectives on normal development and helpful interventions will be included.

HDFS 5248: Adaptation and Development in Adulthood

Instructor: Candidus Nwakasi

Young adulthood through middle-age with particular attention to transition episodes; stability and change in adult personality with attention to familial and other social relationships.

HDFS 5310: Patterns & Dynamics of Family Interaction

Instructor: Kari Adamsons

Readings and research about the family, emphasizing interpersonal processes and communication.

 

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Paul Herrnson

Prerequisites: POLS 1602, and one of POLS 2607, 2622, 3603WQ, 3604, 3606, 3608, 3612, 3613, or 3625/PP 3030, or instructor consent

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

This course gives students opportunities to hone their political skills and begin to build a political network. It differs from other courses that feature discussions of various aspects of campaigning, including strategy; fundraising; polling voter targeting; communications; and mobilization.

In this new course, students will work with members of their campaign organization to compete in a (mock) special election for Congress. Each campaign will formulate a strategy; design fundraising materials and a website; develop a message; create TV, social media, direct mail, and other advertisements; participate in a candidate debate; and carry out other electioneering activities.

Class meetings will feature briefings by candidates, strategists, pollsters, fundraisers, communication experts, and political consultants with expertise in other areas. Class time will be reserved for students to work on their campaigns. Students also will meet with each other outside of class