[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.

[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.

[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.

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Clarissa Ceglio

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.

To paraphrase James Baldwin, nothing can be changed until it is faced. This is certainly true of the inequities that have historically shaped digital media technologies, content, fields, and careers. This class interrogates how racism, sexism, classism, ageism, and other forms of oppression are perpetuated through digital media works, practices, and industries. We will, as the chief learning activity of this class, meet and talk with contemporary practitioners who are challenging and changing the status quo. For six of our class sessions, we will meet virtually and sometimes in-person with industry professionals, artists, and media scholars from film, game, design, cultural and other sectors so that we can learn how issues of equity manifest in their work, creative processes, and professions. Because these practitioners are also part of DMD’s Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2023 Speaker Series, students will also have the opportunity to participate as hosts in the series, learn how to professionalize their on-camera presence, and gain skill in preparing and moderating live Q&A sessions. Interactions with our guests will be supplemented by readings, in-class film screenings, and engagements with other media works. Over the course of the semester, we will reflect on how our own areas of practice can support greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in digital media and design.

To see what we do, you can access the Spring 2022 and 2021 installments of the Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design series here: https://dmd.uconn.edu/major/diverse-perspectives/

Permission number required. Contact: clarissa.ceglio@uconn.edu

University Honors Laureate: This Variable Topics course will count toward the Arts & Humanities category and will also meet the Diversity & Multiculturalism requirement.

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: David J. Goldhamer

Prerequisite: BIOL 1107.
Recommended preparation: MCB 2400 (Human Genetics), MCB 2410 (Genetics), MCB 2210 (Cell Biology), or equivalents.

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

MCB 3219 emphasizes molecular, cellular, and genetic mechanisms that regulate animal embryonic development. At a fundamental level, animal development across species is remarkably similar. It is these similarities in gene regulatory networks, signaling mechanisms and cellular processes that will be emphasized. Yet, variations (sometimes enormous) on fundamental themes will also be highlighted to give a sense of the richness and diversity by which embryos of different species accomplish the monumental task of creating the next generation.

By emphasizing both classical and modern experimental approaches, you will gain an appreciation for the process of discovery and a conceptual framework by which to understand and approach the study of development, as well as other disciplines. Knowledge gained from the study of embryonic development is increasingly being applied in a clinical setting in the rapidly growing field of regenerative medicine. Thus, the practical value of understanding how embryos develop is enormous, and the relationship between embryology and clinical application will be a theme that runs throughout the course.

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Karen Menuz

Prerequisites: PNB 2274 or 3251 or instructor consent; open to juniors or higher.

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

This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of sensory physiology. Special attention is paid to the receptors, cells, and physiology in peripheral sensory organs. The course covers senses that are familiar to humans, such as olfaction, taste, vision, touch, and hearing, and those that we lack such as magnetoreception, electroreception, and infrared detection. A comparative approach will be taken, highlighting the common principles and key differences in select sensory systems in vertebrates, invertebrates, and other organisms.

The Honors conversion for this course will involve researching one of the “atypical” senses, such as electroreception, and delivering an oral presentation to the class.

Each of these courses carry the pre-requisite of first-year writing (ENGL 1007, 1010, 1011, or 2011).

ENGL 1103-Z82: Renaissance and Modern Western Literature

[UConn Stamford]

Instructor: Frederick Roden

What is the “modern”? Do we date that period to the “Renaissance” (literally the re-birth, of ancient “classical” learning), now called the “Early Modern period,” to the “renaissance of the twelfth century,” or to Modernity in art, music, and literature (the dawn of the 20th century)? In this course on literary history organized chronologically, we will examine representative texts of western literature (European and American, and their diasporas) to pose this question in doing the work of cultural studies. What constructed the “modern” world, and modern sensibilities/subjectivities of the individual? We will pay close attention to identities: gender, sexuality, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, ableness and otherness, to name a few. Even as we read “canonical” writers at the center of western civilization, we will also interrogate margins.

Class time will focus on group discussion of the material studied for the given day. Each meeting will begin with a timed quiz that you will submit by the instructor’s deadline to “warm up.” You will develop two formal papers plus a brief response essay to an art, music, or drama field trip (substitution possible as necessary). You will write an in-class, cumulative final essay exam that will allow open-book and notebook access. We will read from an anthology of literature as our primary source. You must obtain a hard copy of the required course text in the given edition and have it available for reference during class time for page consultation, to follow discussion, and to maintain class participation. Any Center for Students with Disabilities accommodations must be documented and will impact course requirements accordingly.

The Honors section of this course will meet simultaneously with the standard version, whose description is above. In addition, Honors students will take part in six seminar meetings (one hour each) with the instructor at a mutually convenient time, to be determined. Honors students will read additional works of history and criticism and will deliver presentations on them in the seminar. Essays developed from this material may substitute for regular course papers.

CA 1.

ENGL 2701-004: Creative Writing I

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Sean Forbes

Finding Your Artistic Voice Through Creative Writing Prompts

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. The first half of the course will be dedicated to writing narrative poetry and for the second half we will focus on short and long form fiction stories. We will look at exemplary works of poetry and fiction from writers like David Dominguez, Allison Joseph, Richard Blanco, and fiction stories from One Story and One Teen Story, print literary journals that publish only one story per month. 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 in class writing prose sketches.