Legal Institutions and Social Change: From Latin America to the United States by Way of Europe
LLAS 3998-001; SOCI 3998-001

Instructor: Ángel Oquendo

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Oquendo welcomes Honors students of any major and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

This course has as its foci the history of interdependency between legal institutions and social change, as well as the multiple bodies of law emergent in particular historical contexts. It deals, at a law-school level, with constitutional law, as well as with specific areas of private law, such as civil law, civil procedure, and business law, and considers how, since early Rome, legal institutions further social change. It first introduces the civil law tradition, as well as legal history, comparing the Latin American experience with that of the United States and Europe. The discussion, which maintains this comparative aim
throughout, then moves on to constitutional law: to the notion of constitutionalism, to basic principles, to the vindication of rights, and to second and third generation entitlements. Thereafter the emphasis shifts to civil law—i.e., civil codes, interpretation, combating codified sexism, and civil remedies—and to civil procedure—specifically to the attainment of legitimacy through procedure, to procedural guaranties, and to collective actions. The class closes with an exploration of corporate law. Students will become fully conversant with the principal legal concepts used by lawyers in the regions traversed.

Professor Oquendo is a George J. and Helen M. England Professor of Law at UConn School of Law. He has lectured and published extensively in five languages and is an authority worldwide on comparative law and international litigation. He graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Instructor: Jeffrey Dudas

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011

Professor Dudas has opened his graduate seminar on “Law and Social Change” to Honors undergraduates by cross-listing it with POLS 2998W-002. Email Prof. Dudas with any questions.

Instructor: Shaun Dougherty

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Dougherty welcomes Honors students of all levels and majors. 

This new course is an in-depth survey of educational policy and reform movements from the last century with applications in contemporary policy. It originated out of Prof. Dougherty’s UNIV 1784 section and will allow for greater depth of discussion than is possible in the one-credit version.

This course has been cancelled for Fall 2017.

Instructor: Joseph Madaus

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. Madaus welcomes Honors students of all levels and majors and encourages Honors conversions. If you do not have sophomore standing or the PSYC 1100 prerequisite, email honors@uconn.edu for a permission number.

Introduces students to special education in American schools, including the variety of ways services are provided, the types of professionals working within special education, characteristics of different learners, and current issues in special education. It will be a 2000 level course next year, and as such is really designed for freshmen and sophomores who might have an interest in education.

 

This course has been cancelled for Fall 2017.

Instructor: Kathleen Feldman

The laboratory portion of the course will meet once a week for 3 hours and focus on developing basic laboratory skills (including but not limited to, developing aseptic technique, culturing, and differentiation of bacteria). Additionally, students will work on a semester-long research project that they design and carryout. Students will also meet weekly for a 75-minute period to discuss and analyze current publications in microbiology research, as well as laboratory methodology and results related to their research projects performed in the lab. Students will write a final research paper based on their findings and will give an oral presentation of their project at the end of the semester.

CHEM 2441 or 2443 is a required pre- or co-requisite. BIOL 1107 is a recommended prerequisite.

Instructor: Chris Simon

There’s not just one future, there are Alternative Futures.

Focusing on current events… Interactions of humans and the environment, shifting baselines, tradeoffs, problem-solving, climate change, population growth, biodiversity, restoration, alternative energy, throwaway society, risk assessment, brave
new world, alternative futures.

Suitable for all majors and all class levels.

Instructor: Clifford Roth

When you attend class, talk with your roommate, watch television, or surf the Internet, you face decisions about what to believe.  Should you accept a newspaper editor’s claim that the pharmaceutical industry has too much power to set drug prices?  Should you agree with a website’s conclusion that stem cell research has the potential to cure Muscular Dystrophy?  Should you be persuaded by your roommate’s claim that a particular herbal tea can prevent you from getting the common cold?  The answers to these questions depend on the quality of the arguments provided in each case.

In this course, you will learn how to identify, evaluate, and construct arguments.  Your readings, written assignments, and oral presentations will focus on contemporary issues in the healthcare field.  We will examine arguments as they appear in a range of topics, including such questions as: Should euthanasia be legal? Is the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) a success or could Congress make improvements?  Is the administration of vaccines a public health issue or one of personal choice?

(CA 1)

Instructor: Clare Costley King’oo

Prerequisite: English 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

This course, designed with Honors students in mind, delves into the major writers and literary traditions of England from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth century (or, roughly, from Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Wyatt to John Donne and John Milton). Our principal aim will be to familiarize ourselves with the most popular genres of the time, including autobiography, martyrology, lyric verse, epic poetry, prose fiction, and drama. We will also investigate how the literature of the period interacted with contemporary social, cultural, and economic upheavals—such as the arrival of the printing press, the development of Humanist thought, the growth of capitalist enterprise, the exploration and conquest of the new world, the expansion of the enclosure movement, and the often-violent religious conflicts of the Reformation. Our discoveries will be the focus of our own rigorous writing practices, as we work on improving our argumentative and stylistic skills through a range of reports and essays (with revisions). Lively participation in class discussions will be expected and warmly encouraged. Students who have already completed an early English literature course (British Literature I, Medieval English Literature, or Shakespeare, for example) will be particularly well prepared for this class.

Instructor: Sarah Winter

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

This course will provide an introduction to the history and performance of drama. We will study major plays and changing theatrical conventions from classical Greek drama to the present. Requirements: a 5-7 page paper and an 8-10 page paper; a small group presentation; and a final exam.

Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800

The Speaker: The Eye of the Poem and the Short Story

According to Frances Mayes, “the poet ‘finds’ the right speaker and the right listener, usually by trying out several approaches.” In this introduction to creative writing class we will examine the different approaches that a writer can take when trying to establish a speaker in a poem or short story. We will look at exemplary works of poetry and fiction from writers like Robert Hayden, Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Blanco, and Justin Torres. Students will produce a final portfolio of their original work. Class participation is an essential component to this largely workshop-based course along with weekly writing prompts such as writing in iambic pentameter and challenging prose sketches.