Honors Seminars

Plays by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) continue to excite modern audiences in their romantic drama, political intrigue, and tragic violence. This Honors seminar focuses on ethical complexities built into the humor and the suffering represented within selected.

Taught by Timothy Crowley, Ph.D., Department of English

This seminar focuses on the deployment of music for populist revolts, feminist critiques, and political and social change. Music has been used for such purposes throughout history, in innumerable cultural contexts. This course will employ a comparative framework drawing from music from the African diaspora and East Asia, including intersections between the two. There are seats for both honors and Master of Music students in this course. Students are required to develop individual research projects on relevant subjects, and to present these at a conference (open to the public) at the end of the semester.

Taught by Taylor Atkins, Ph.D., Department of History

This course will consider the effects of social media across people’s life span and across diverse population. The past, current, and future perspectives of the role of social media to benefit and/or harm one’s health will be discussed, and students will have the opportunity to apply what they learn to individual physical and mental health.

Taught by Anitha Saravanan, Ph.D., College of Nursing

Counterstories offer opportunities to create new perspectives and dismantle old stereotypes. The role of digital media has gained prominence as a medium for constructing and circulating counterstories by those who have been disempowered through traditional publication and media outlets. This course will examine multimedia counterstories from a number of disciplinary perspectives and use those exemplars to support the construction of your own multimedia counterstories. Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, MAAD City (2012) will serve as the central text and connect several multimedia counterstories to examine issues of history, power, storytelling, critical media literacies, and digital storytelling.

Taught by Michael Manderino, Ph.D. and Joseph Flynn, Ph.D., Department of Curriculum & Instruction

This course provides various lenses – including business, law, and popular culture – through which to consider the impact of various corporate sectors on American society and culture, especially the automobile industry, securities and finance, and entrepreneurialism. This course culminates in a required pro bono project that will aid underserved members of our community. There are seats for both honors and law students in this course.

Taught by Telia Williams, J.D., College of Law

Religion, ethnicity, and culture are pivotal forces in political life. This course will investigate these important facets of political life and how they help explain and analyze policy debates including those around gender and minority rights.

Taught by Kikue Hamayatsou, Ph.D., Department of Political Science