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Honors Opportunities at DU

Course Offerings 2013-14

Honors Courses Fall Quarter 2013

The following Honors courses are offered Spring Quarter 2012 to fulfill University common curriculum and Honors Program Requirements.  For students who have already met university Humanities (AHUM/AISC) or Social Science ( SOCS/SISC) requirements, please see the list of pre-approved courses.    There are no preapproved classes for Spring 2013.

Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture (AHUM Foundations):

ENGL 2544-1(CRN 4581): Global Cultural Texts, Eric Gould, MW 2:00-3:50, location TBA
Course Description:
The term “globalization” is used most frequently to refer to the growing economic, cultural, and political interdependency among nations through the international flow of people, goods, information, and capital. This takes place in many ways and with multiple effects, but it is at the cultural level, where personal fulfillment and ethnic identity are challenged and made complex, that the effects of globalization are most dramatic.  Sometimes the “international flow” has been forced on people, as in periods of colonial and imperial expansion.  So we will be reading fiction and seeing films about colonial and post-colonial India and South Africa. At other times, cultures can and do resist invasion and outside influence for a long time, as did Japan till the 20th century when it began to absorb the influence of western modernity early in the century and then the imposition of westernization at the end of the second world war. We will examine some representative work by Japanese authors, along with Japanese film, to discover some of the effects of globalization on Japanese culture.

PHIL 2260-1 (CRN 4216): Perception and Reality, Naomi Reshotko, MW 4:00-5:50, Sturm 258
Course Description:
In this class we will concern ourselves with the theoretical hypothesis that our perceptions match up with, and therefore give us information about, an external and independent reality (what we call “the physical world”). In order to engage this issue, we will look at the philosophical explorations of a number of historical figures in the Western Philosophical Tradition.

Scientific Inquiry:  Society and Culture (SOCS Foundations): 

COMN 1210-2 (CRN 2876): Foundations of Communication, Roy Wood, MW 2:00-3:50, TBA
Course Description:
In Foundations in Communication we explore dialogic/ethical foundations of communication. We go beyond the notion of communication as transmitting ideas from one person’s head to another through the use of language to explore the more foundational view that it is through communication that we constitute and instantiate ourselves and our worlds. We go on, following the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, to ask whether ethics is at the heart of human sociality.

 Scientific Inquiry:  Nature and Physical World (NATS Foundations):

GEOG 1264-1 (CRN 2432): "Global Environmental Change and Sustainability I," Erika Trigoso, MW 12:00-1:30, location TBA
Course Description:
“Global Environmental Change” is a three-quarter honors course that introduces students to the fundamental processes that govern Earth’s changing physical and biological environments. The first quarter explores the dynamic nature of Earth’s atmosphere including processes that affect weather and climate, the role of energy in the atmosphere and the causes and potential implications of global climate change.  The second is devoted to the impacts of global change on the biosphere including topics such as biodiversity, evolution and speciation, and the origins of agriculture.  The third quarter of the sequence focuses on terrestrial landscapes and environments, including changes from plate tectonics to human modifications of Earth’s land surface.

 Labs for "Global Environmental Change and Sustainability I":      

CRN 2433 — GEOG 1264-2: Erika Trigoso, R 10:00-11:50, Boettcher West 16
CRN 2434 — GEOG 1264-3: Erika Trigoso, R 12:00-1:50, Boettcher West 16
CRN 2468 — GEOG 1264-4: Erika Trigoso, R 2:00-3:50, Boettcher West 16

 If accepted for the major or minor sequence in Biology, Chemistry or Physics, AP or IB credit might also satisfy some or all of your honors natural science requirement. Geography majors should take Honors GEOG. Students can also fulfill their Honors natural science requirement by taking full-year sequences starting with the following courses:

BIOL 1010: Concepts in Biology – Physiological Systems, restricted to Biology majors and minors (beginning AY 2012-2013, a two-quarter sequence that begins Winter quarter); or the Biology Individualized Option, which concludes with General Ecology)
CHEM 1010: General Chemistry
PHYS 1111: General Physics 1
PHYS 1211:  University Physics (which begins Winter quarter; correquisite Math 1951) 

Please note:  classes formerly classified as NATS are named according to respective departments and will not count toward Honors credit.  Only the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics sequence numbers listed above can count toward the Honors requirement.

Advanced Seminar (CORE: Writing Intensive):

ASEM 4492-1 (CRN 2665):  Occupied France, Jennifer Pap, MW 2:00-3:50, MRB 1
Course Description:
This course deals with the Occupation of France during World War II.  We will discuss the ideology of the collaborationist Vichy régime, its cultural program and propaganda, the roots of anti-Semitism in France, the Resistance movements, the daily life of the French under German Occupation, and select examples of visual and literary artworks that respond to this moment in French history.  Some of our guiding questions will be: What stories of identity and France were told in Vichy propaganda?  How did the French interact with the Occupying forces?  What were some of the forms that collaboration could take?   What anti-Semitic policies did Vichy enact, and how did public opinion react?  Where does gender identity turn up in propaganda, daily life, and in the Resistance?  What was the Resistance and how was it represented in propaganda, poetry, or film?  How were all these aspects of life remembered in the years after the war, in films or in written memoirs?  

ASEM 2720-1 (CRN 4493): Nazi German:  History, Literature, Culture, Wilfried Wilms, TR 2:00-3:50, TBA
Course Description:
Nazi-Germany: History, Literature, Culture" explores Germany's Nazi-era from two methodologically different yet nonetheless intertwined perspectives. The 'History' component of this course will survey the history of National Socialism, beginning in the last days of the German Empire and World War I, continuing through the Weimar Republic and Third Reich, into the post-World War II era. The 'Literature & Culture' component introduces the students to a series of problems pertaining, broadly speaking, to the interplay of arts and politics surrounding an incipient Nazi-Germany. Between 1933-45 there are endless cultural manifestations (such as literature, film, philosophy, architecture, music, painting, photography, etc.) that comment, both approvingly and critically, on the idea of a National Socialist Germany that has allegedly redeemed the failures of WWI, and – more importantly – successfully restored a uniquely German sense of national identity ('Volksgemeinschaft'). We will focus on themes like 'redemption,' 'temptation,' 'Volksgemeinschaft' (both inside and outside), 'conflict' and 'memory' while analyzing both texts and visuals.

Honors Seminars

HNRS 2400-1 (CRN 1587): Memories of Atrocity, Lydia Gil, W 12:00-1:50, MRB 1
Course Description:
This course explores the representation of violence, repression and disappearance in the post-dictatorship literature of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Students will examine literary testimony in a variety of genres: narrative, poetry, and film, and juridical testimony, specifically from the recent trials in Argentina. We will discuss the role of memory in reconstructing discourses; the juridical and historiographic challenges of testimonial writing; and the consideration of genocide as a social practice. No knowledge of Spanish is required or expected. However, students with a good reading knowledge of Spanish are welcome to read all texts in the original.

HNRS 2400-2 (CRN 1928): The Impact of Technology on Society, Dan Connolly, T 2:00-3:50, MRB 1
Course Description:
Technology itself is generally considered value-neutral. Often how it is used and in what context it is used determines whether or not it is good or bad. Even despite the best of intentions, there are often unintended negative consequences. For example, in many cases, technology has improved quality of life, communications, economic conditions, and products and services available for purchase, but in other cases, it has invaded lives, eroded people’s social skills, adversely impacted cultural values, and blurred cultural identities. Consequently, there are a growing number of wide-ranging concerns regarding the impact of technology on society facing parents, teachers, and future leaders. These include environmental impacts of technology waste, preparedness of the workforce, ethical uses of information, privacy, freedom of speech, use of intellectual property, and more. This DU Honors seminar will explore, discuss, and debate these important issues facing society to raise awareness and identify potential solutions. 

HNRS 3991-0 (CRN 1514), Honors Independent Study. For projects under the guidance of DU faculty that you would like to work on for Honors credit, to be approved by the Honors Program

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