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Honors Opportunities at DU

Course Offerings 2012-13

Honors Courses Spring 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):

HIST 1530-1(CRN 4325): American History since 1865,William Philpott, MW 4:00-5:50, location TBA
Course Description:
From the devastation left by slavery and Civil War, to the dizzying changes brought by globalization in our own time, this course will sweep through the last 150 years of the American experience. We will wrestle with questions like: How did the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, two world wars and the Cold War change America, and ordinary Americans’ everyday lives, and what legacies did such events leave for our own day? How have Americans defined and divided themselves—by race, gender, class, or otherwise—and how have such categories shifted over time? Where did we get our political parties and ideologies? Our work habits and habits of play? Our ideas about “big business,” “big government,” “American exceptionalism,” or the “American dream”? Through it all, we will explore how historians make sense of U.S. history, and how we can make it relevant to our own times and our own lives.

PHIL 2260-1 (CRN 3128): Perception and Reality, Naomi Reshotko, MW 12:00-1:50, 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): 

PPOL 1910-1 (CRN 2638): Hard Choices in Public Policy, Richard Lamm, TR 10:00-11:50, Sturm 491
Course Description:
Hard Choices in Public Policy looks at many of the major public policy dilemmas facing the United States. More than any time in our countries history, problems and solutions involve public policy. The retirement of the Baby Boomers, a financial crisis that includes both a housing crash and a credit crunch, and a public that demands "change." And, no matter what your party affiliation, it’s difficult not to recognize the many public policy issues that need fresh eyes and a new generation’s input.   These issues will heavily impact your future. We will study and debate issues such as Affirmative Action, health care, immigration, the criminal justice system, the economy, and entitlement reform, just to name a few. There will be a special emphasis on student input and debate.

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

BIOL 1272-1 (CRN 2537):  “Living in the Microbial World III," instructor TBA, TR 12:00-1:30, location TBA
Course Description:
This course introduces essential biological concepts to students in a unique way by highlighting human’s partnership with microorganisms. Student’s will question the idea that humans are individual organisms, as there are 10 times more microbes in and on humans than their own cells; and as they learn the ways in which cells reproduce, obtain energy, economize the use of that energy and survive not by a live and let live attitude but rather by a live and help live attitude. The three general themes for the three different quarters follows: Fall – What are microorganisms, comparison of different cell types, flow of energy into and out of a cell, dependency of humans on microbes. Winter – A look into some of the major disease-causing microorganisms and how they affect not only an individual but the entire human population and the world they live in. Spring – Four and a half billion years of evolution, in this chapter we challenging the view of the evolutionary ladder and who is on top, cellular genetics and the process of evolution and adaptation.

Labs for "Living in the Microbial World III":

CRN 2538 - BIOL 1272-2: TBA, W 2:00-4:50, Olin 125
CRN 4427 - BIOL 1272-3, TBA, W 2:00-4:50, Olin 145
CRN 2539 - BIOL 1272-4, TBA, R 2:00-4:50, Olin 125

GEOG 1266-1 (CRN 2560): "Global Environmental Change and Sustainability III," Don Sullivan, 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 III":      

CRN 2561 — GEOG 1266-2: Don Sullivan, R 12:00-1:50, Boettcher West 16
CRN 2562 — GEOG 1266-3: Don Sullivan, R 2:00-3:50, Boettcher West 16
CRN 22563 —- GEOG 1266-4: Don Sullivan, R 10:00-11:50, 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)
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 4279 (CRN 2436):  Life and Death, Candace Upton, MW 10:00-11:50, location TBA
Course Description:
This course is a study of several ethical issues related to the life, death, and value of human beings.   For example, is the Catholic Church hypocritical in light of its current legal defense against a wrongful death lawsuit, which claims that a 7-month-old fetus is not a person? Are there any morally defensible reasons why parents having difficulty reproducing should prefer “their own” children via ivf, rather than adopting (especially in light of the devastating but, largely unknown, social consequences of ivf)? Presumably, it is morally permissible for me to hand a paraplegic person a pencil which they cannot physically access and, thereby, extend their agency. Why is it not equally morally permissible for me to inject them with a lethal medication (presuming this is their desire), thereby extending their agency? Is there any morally relevant difference between bringing about death and allowing a person to die? The aim of the course is to enable students to identify logically or factually faulty routes that others have taken en route to answering these questions and, instead, identify more fruitful paths of ethical argumentation. To achieve this goal, we will study relevant findings from scholars in philosophy, legal studies, economics, psychology, and sociology.

ASEM 2540-1 (CRN 4435): Culture, Media, and Power, Rod Buxton, MW 4:00-5:50, MC 117
Course Description:
Often, films, television programs (both entertainment and informational), print journalism and advertising are viewed as having the inherent power to shape the individual’s values and beliefs about one’s identity as well as that of others. The cultural studies' perspective of this course takes the position that the power to shape values about identity is not solely the providence of cultural texts, but stems from the complex intersection of media institutions, various social groups and the interpretive process. This class will explore how various forms of textual, interpretive, social and economic power come to bear on the production of different kinds of cultural media texts and the range of possible meanings about identity available within them. By the end of the course, students should be able to critically analyze the links between various media texts and messages and the definition of their self-identity, as well as that of others.

Honors Seminars

HNRS 2400-1 (CRN 2014): From Norms to Normalization: Germany since 1990, Wilfried Wilms, W 2:00-3:50, location TBA
Course Description:
For roughly two decades, Germany, a once divided nation in the heart of Europe held responsible for two World Wars, has been re-united. Forty years of division between West- and East Germany--a division exacerbated by their respective geopolitical roles in the Cold War--left their mark on what many intellectuals considered a ‘cultural nation’ in spite of their political separation. Our class will examine the pains and gains of twenty years of unity. We will analyze various political, historical, but mostly cultural developments (& debates) that have accompanied and, at times, questioned this unification.

HNRS 2400-5 (CRN 4867): Environmental Challenges and Creative Sustainability, Don Sullivan, W 4:00-5:50, location TBA
Course Description:
This class will develop a project for presentation at the first annual regional Honors student symposium.  The task is to respond in some creative way to the following prompt:  “Environmental challenges can be defined in a variety of ways and might be local or global, simple or complex, well-studied or obscure. Select one that you think has been unrecognized, overlooked, or inadequately explored and develop a sophisticated position for addressing it or communicating its importance.”  The class will work together to address this challenge in a creative, interdisciplinary way, and then present their work to Honors students and faculty from across Colorado and Wyoming. This will be a really fun challenge that will provide credit and could result in your bringing home the trophy! 

HNRS 2400-3 (CRN 2323): Engaging the Bard: DU Students and the DPS Shakespeare Festival, Shawn Alfrey, R 3:00-5:00, Mary Reed 1 and off site at Carson Elementary School, 5420 East First Avenue
Course Description:
This course will focus on the Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival, which takes place this year on Friday, April 26 on the grounds of the Denver Center for Performing Arts.  It will involve work with elementary students as well as readings in literature and pedagogical theory and cultural studies.  The trajectory will involve preparation for and participation in the Festival as well as reflection and analysis on their purpose and value.  Course work will include readings in Shakespeare, work with the elementary students, papers, and class discussion.  Class will meet at Carson Elementary School (on the corner of Grape Street and 1st Avenue, 5420 East First Avenue). Students working in Winter Quarter will be in charge of the audition process and will help students develop their knowledge of the play, and learn theatre, Elizabethan history, and their characters, and begin the blocking.  The Spring Quarter students will help the kids bring it home, including participating on the day of the Festival.

HNRS 3991 (CRN 1979), 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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