DRAFT - PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR UVM & COLLEGE DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS MET BY THESE HCOL CLASSES
HCOL 186 A – SU:Geographies of Life and Death – Prof. Harlan Morehouse, Department of Geography
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Social Sciences
GSB: Social Sciences Core
CALS: Social Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
Major/Minor: counts as elective in Geography major or minor
This course takes a critical geographical approach to examine relations between life and death. The course centers on two key questions: Why is it so hard to organize for better social and environmental futures? And, what can be done about this? This course begins with a thorough examination of how death is routinely politicized and operationalized. Following this, the course sets out to examine its counterpart: Life. It explores strategies that pivot from cruelty toward affirmative and effective enactments of collective care –– ones that recognize kinship and commonality as crucial foundations for the future of life.
HCOL 186 B – How We learn: Brain, Mind, Education – Prof. Sean Hurley, Department of Education
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Elective credit only
GSB: Social Science Core
CALS: Consult academic advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
This course will explore what it means to think, learn, know, and understand, and the cognitive structures and processes involved with those activities. Much of the content will pertain to learning as it occurs in formal learning environments (i.e., classrooms) because much of the research has taken place in those contexts with the goal of improving classroom instruction, but this course will extend what has been learned in classroom settings to learning in other contexts. We will also learn about the techniques used to study thinking and learning, both traditional and novel, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches.
HCOL 186 C – Crafting Point of View – Prof. Jenny Grosvenor, Department of English
Honors College Distribution
CAS: CAS elective credit
GSB: Humanities Core
CALS: Humanities
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
Think about it. Point of view shapes everything—in life and, more so,
in writing. This opening sentence demonstrates its power: that direct-address, invisible “you” as
in Nike’s legendary slogan, “Just do it.”
In this course, through immersion and imitation, you will examine how writers make
rhetorical choices and utilize point of view to craft short stories, novels, essays, memoirs, poems, and media messages. As both reader and writer, you will study: how point of view impacts voice; how it relates to audience and purpose; and how authors shift points of view, zoom in or out, oftentimes from the “I” in order to reckon with traumatic life experiences—their characters’ and their own.
Through literary and rhetorical analyses, as well as drafting and revising original works,
you will experience wait, what? moments in the probing and coming to appreciate the
transformative power and mastery—see the magic, the point—in manipulating point of view.
You will research craft to answer the driving question, how did that writer do that?
As a student of craft, you will take a ‘scientific’ approach to syntax, dissecting sentences,
and scrutinizing diction. You will debate pros and cons, contemplating omniscient versus
limited, direct address versus inclusion, singular versus multiple “I”s. You will question: Does
this work? How? Why? Or why not? Through experimentation in first-, second-, and third person treatments, you’ll expand perceptions of the discipline—and art—of writing.
Most essential to this course, to writing—and life itself: Trust the process.
HCOL 186 D – Viruses – Good News after all! - Professor Markus Thali, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Non-Lab Natural Science
GSB: elective credit
CALS: Physical and Life Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
Metagenomic analyses have established that viruses are the most abundant and diverse biological entities. Further, the sequencing of the human genome revealed that viruses and virus-like entities, together with evolutionarily related mobile genetic elements make up more than half of it. These findings lead to a paradigm change: rather than being primarily perceived as pathogens, we now appreciate that viruses are essential constituents of the biosphere. They are rooted in the pre-cellular world, have coevolved with cell-based biological entities, and such continuous coexistence of cell-based organisms and viruses (and similar mobile genetic entities) has profoundly affected the evolution of presumably all cellular life forms.
Notwithstanding the current COVID-19 crisis and past and future more severe viral outbreaks, this course will thus focus on how securing sustainability of the human society and the biosphere requires an in-depth understanding of virus-host coexistence. Following a highly interactive approach (with group work, class discussions, etc), we will investigate why and how, rather than through inventions of ever novel and costly antiviral strategies (drugs, medical treatments, pesticides, etc), health and viability at all levels, from individual organisms to complete ecosystems, are likely best supported by preventing disequilibrium and by promoting homeostasis.
HCOL 186 F – D2: On the Margins: Inclusion vs. Exclusion of Minorities in Italian Culture – Prof. Paolo Pucci, Romance Languages & Cultures
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Literature
GSB: Social Sciences or Humanities
CALS: Social Sciences or Humanites & Fine Arts
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
In this class, we study social marginality through the lenses of diverse cultural groups, prostitutes, LGBTQIA, and the religious other. The filmic and literary materials feature works by members of these groups as well as representatives of mainstream society. Among other issues, the course addresses the consequences deriving from acceptance into dominant culture for individual and group identity. Starting with the depiction of these various contemporary realities, we later compare the representations of life as a prostitute, a non-Christian, and homosexual sex partners in different historical periods, 20th and 21st centuries vs. 13th through the 16th centuries.
HCOL 186 G – Culture in Exile: Berlin/NY/LA - Natalie Neuert, Department of Music and Dance
CAS: Fine Arts or Humanities
GSB: Humanities
CALS: Humanities
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult CESS advisor
Major/Minor Requirements:
Counts towards Jewish Studies Minor "100-level or above”
1920’s Berlin saw an incredible cultural renaissance in theater, music, literature, film, architecture, and design. This historical period, known as the Weimar Republic, came crashing down with Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933. The daring, subversive, political, progressive artists of the period, many of whom were Jewish, began an exodus West: to New York, and onward to Hollywood. This course will examine the American flowering of these artists, and their work in exile. We will read two of the seminal chroniclers of the period, Stefan Zweig and Christopher Isherwood, study the work of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, composer Alban Berg, and examine the films of artists such as Ernst Lubitsch, Michael Curtiz, Billy Wilder, Max Ophuls, Erik von Stroheim, and Fritz Lang. The course will also focus on contemporary work which is clearly connected to the Weimar ethos: The films of Wes Anderson, underground cabaret artists such as Taylor Mac, choreographers Bob Fosse and Pina Bausch, the television work of Jill Soloway (Transparent), David Bowie, and more.
HCOL 186 H – SU: One Health – Prof. John Barlow, Department of Animal Sciences
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Non-Lab Natural Science
GSB: Social Science
CALS: Physical & Life Science or Social Science
CEMS: Engineering Students - Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/CSIS/DS students check with your advisor and department chair
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with academic advisor
The One Health concept recognizes the interconnections of human, animal, plant and environmental health. This course introduces students to major areas of One Health, zoonotic and vector-borne disease, ecosystem change, pollution, comparative medicine, and animal-human interactions and the intersection of these topics. One Health is a transdisciplinary endeavor and students from all disciplines are encouraged to join this course. While “health” is the core of the One Health concept, societies need input from all disciplines to address global One Health challenges. One Health competencies extend beyond health and biomedical disciplines, and transdisciplinary teams include practitioners and from agriculture, business and public administration, computer and mathematical sciences, ecology and environmental sciences, humanities and arts, and social sciences.
HCOL 186 I – Free Speech & Expression – Prof. E. Thomas Sullivan, Department of Political Sciences
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Social Sciences
GSB: Social Sciences
CALS: Social Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
Major/Minor: counts as elective in Political Science major or minor (Category A - American)
This is a seminar on Free Speech and Expression under the US Constitution's First Amendment. The seminar will focus on first principles, foundational and normative values, doctrine, counter theories of broader speech protection or less protection, and current debates. The seminar will utilize a proactive, interactive teaching style that will engage students in discussion, dialogue, and debates.
The seminar seeks to promote better understanding, and therefore better discussion, of the ideas that underlie our protection of free expression. It attempts to help readers better comprehend why free speech issues that presently confront us are uniquely complex. And, it sheds light on the factors that make debates over free speech so intractable and to offer educational tools that might help us improve our discourse around this fascinating and critically important topic.
HCOL 186 J - Women and Fairy Tales in European Tradition - Prof. Cristina Mazzoni, Romance Languages & Cultures
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Literature
GSB: Humanities Core
CALS: Humanities
CEMS: Engineering Students - Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/CSIS/DS students check with your advisor and department chair
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Elective – Consult with Academic Advisor for further clarification
CESS: Consult CESS advisor for General Education Requirement Approval
Major/Minor Requirements:
This course counts toward the European Studies major and minor in the "European Culture and Thought" category
Course counts toward GSWS major or minor
The course explores the role of women in traditional European fairy tales, both as characters and, to a lesser extent, as authors. We will read fairy tales dating from the sixteenth throwh the twenty-first centuries, and hailing from Italy, France, Germany, and England; we will also view and discuss the film adaptations of some of the stories. Students will become familiar with some of the classics of 'fairy tale analysis, including the structuralist work of Vladimir Propp and the psychoanalytic interpretation of Marie Louise von Franz. Readings will be in English and films will have English subtitles. Evaluation will be based on class participation, three short essays, a midterm, and a final exam. "Women and Fairy Tales in the European Tradition" fulfills category B of the Italian Studies Major and Minor (significant Italian content).
HCOL 186 K - D1 (In)equality in P-16 American Education – Prof. Tracy Ballysingh, Leadership & Dev. Science
HCOL 186 M – D2: Islam & Human Rights – Prof. Boğaç Ergene, Department of History
HCOL 186 N - Perspectives on Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Prof. Erik Monsen, Grossman School of Business
HCOL 186 O – A Prosperous Way Down – Prof. Jon Erickson, Sustainability Science & Policy
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Social Sciences
GSB: Consult academic advisor
CALS: Social Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
Systems ecologists Howard and Elisabeth Odum set out a challenge to human society over two decades ago to orchestrate a global economic contraction that would improve the well-being of humanity. A Prosperous Way Down (Univ. Press of Colorado, 2001) inspired a generation of scholars and practitioners searching for strategies to “live better with less”. Today, fields such as ecological economics, degrowth economics, and sustainability science have embraced this challenge, calling on far reaching cultural, political, and economic change to address growing climate instability, species extinction, and socio-economic inequality
This honors seminar will review the history and challenge of designing a sustainable and just economy. We’ll begin by reviewing the orthodox paradigm of economic growth, contrasted with heterodox approaches that prioritize resilience, equity, and sustainability. A section of intensive reading, reflection, and discussion will culminate in a persuasive essay assignment making the case for a new economy. We’ll then explore principles of systems thinking and develop dynamic systems modeling skills applied to a study of the Vermont economy. The class will culminate in a project to estimate and communicate the next iteration of the Vermont Genuine Progress Indicator, an alternative set of macroeconomic indicators instituted into law to guide state economic policy.
HCOL 186 P – China and the West – Prof. Erik Esselstrom, Department of History
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Humanities; Non-European
GSB: Consult academic advisor
CALS: Social Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
This seminar will explore the historical relationship between China and the ‘Western’ world (Europe and North America) from the beginning of European exploration in East Asia during the 16th century until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Our aim will be to examine and critically assess Western perceptions of the Chinese world from a deep historical perspective as a tool for better understanding tension and conflict in relations between China and the West today. Students will engage in classroom discussions of common readings (primary sources and secondary works) and develop individual projects resulting in a final research paper and seminar presentation.
HCOL 186 R – Native American Literature - Prof. James T. Williamson, Department of English
Honors College Distribution
CAS: Literature
GSB: Consult academic advisor
CALS: Consult academic advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; Math/Stat/CS/DS students consult with your advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult academic advisor
In this seminar we will be reading works of fiction—four novels and some short stories—by and about Native Americans or American Indians, two autobiographical sequences, some stories derived from oral tradition, and a few essays. The fiction and autobiography range in publication from 1829 to 2018, and were written in English; the stories derived from oral sources (adapted or translated) originated in Native languages, with roots in pre-Columbian tradition. We will also view three films. Two, “After the Mayflower” and “Wounded Knee,” are segments of the fairly recent five part PBS documentary We Shall Remain. The third, Smoke Signals, is adapted by Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie from the latter’s short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
An important note: "American Indian" (or "Native American") literature is itself multi-ethnic/multi-cultural. There is really no such thing as "the" American Indian (or Native American) culture, in the singular. When Chris- topher Columbus touched down in the Caribbean half a millennium ago, there were over 500 different languages spoken in what is now the United States and Canada. Some of these (Abenaki, Chippewa/Ojibwa, Micmac, and Pequot, for example, are part of what has been dubbed the Algonquin language group) are closely akin to each other, as, say, the romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese) are closely akin. Others are drastically different: I have been told that the differences between Abenaki and the Iroquois languages of what is now upstate New York are greater than those between English and Chinese. Over two hundred of these languages still have speakers. Language=Culture.