University Honors Courses
University Honors students can complete their UH course enrollment one of two ways:
- Complete one UH course per year.
- Complete two UH courses in either the first or second (sophomore) years. If a student chooses this option, they can combine the remaining two UH courses in any way that works; however, it is not an option to complete two courses a second time.
In summary, students must take at least one class their first and second year. Below is an outline that displays five UH course completion options:
Year in School | Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 | Option 4 | Option 5 |
First | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Second | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Third | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Fourth | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Spring 2025
HON 3595, Sec. 550, Experiments in Medieval Information Technologies (4 credits)
Class #67657
TuTh 1:00--2:50pm, UH Classroom, KAML 119
Dr. Krista Sue-lo Twu
LE: Humanities
How do changing technologies change information? This class offers an experimental approach to learning about the material history of reading and writing during the Medieval and Early Modern eras. Project-based curriculum includes experimental, creative, and collaborative work. Students apply theories regarding editing and presenting texts through hands-on work with different historical writing technologies.
HON 1003: Sec. 550: From Beethoven to the Beatles (3 credits)
Class #67645
MWF, 9 - 9:50 am
Dr. Tom Wegren
LE: Fine Arts
Beethoven to the Beatles develops basic musicianship, enhances artistic expressive awareness, provides historical and cross-cultural contexts, and encourages creative and analytical thinking through written expression. World-music perspectives are presented with live piano performances. Music can only be really alive when there are listeners who are really aware. Learning how to listen to and what to listen for in music is vital to artistic growth. Aaron Copland, the Dean of American Composers, said: “To listen intently, to listen consciously, to listen with one’s whole intelligence is the least we can do in furtherance of an art that is one of the glories of mankind.
HON 3312, Sec. 550, Special Topic: Global Infectious Disease (3 credits)
M,W,F 11-11:50 am, UH Classroom
LE: Global Perspectives
Dr. John Dahl
Prior to the discovery of antibiotics in the first half of the 20th century, infectious diseases regularly killed huge numbers of human beings, and epidemics have routinely altered historical events in communities and whole societies. In the past several decades, improvements in public health and availability of effective drugs have greatly reduced human morbidity and mortality. However, the threats of drug-resistance and new emerging infectious diseases pose increasing challenges to global health. In this course we will examine microbiology, epidemiology, health management, and social impacts of several major infectious diseases from historical and global perspectives. Infections will include influenza, HIV/AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, and syphilis as well as others. Necessary biological background will be provided where appropriate, e.g. the anatomy/physiology of the human respiratory, digestive, circulatory, integumentary, and immune systems. We will also look at antibiotic discovery and the molecular actions of antibiotics and explanations for why antibiotic resistance occurs.
HON 3307, Sec 550, Natural Sciences in Our Daily Life (3 credits)
MWF 2-2:50pm, UH Classroom
Dr. Ahmed A. Heikal
LE: Natural Science and Sustainability
This interdisciplinary, systems-thinking, student-driven course will engage the students in active learning towards discovering the role of natural sciences in our daily life, from social, to environmental, and to sustainability. The students will learn about the scientific method and
its applications in scientific research laboratories, survey-based research in social and medical fields, and even in theirs daily life experiences as educated, aware citizens. The students will be engaged in discussing contemporary scientific issues that affect their life at home, at work, on the road, food, health, environment, natural resources, and sustainability. Topics may include beauty products, energy (food, conventional and renewable sources), plastics, health care, and environment. The underlying foundational knowledge in related scientific field across many disciplines will be discussed while providing the students with many opportunities for active learning, teamwork, and communications skills as well as critical thinking.
WRIT 3180, Sec 550: UH Advanced Writing
Class# 46383
T & Th 9:30 - 10:45, UH Classroom KAML 119
Rebecca Boyle, MFA
**Senior and Junior UH students will have priority access, then sophomores and first-year students who are interested if they have completed 60 credits and seats remain.
Develops research, critical thinking, and collaborative writing strategies as well as rhetorical skills to draft documents in multiple genres for multiple audiences. This includes professional correspondence and reports, research proposals, literature reviews, oral presentations, and related documents for the honors project as well as the production and publication of Aisthesis, UH's own interdisciplinary honors journal. If you want to take this course, email Joelle McGovern ([email protected]) to process your request.
Fall 2024
BIOL 2001, Section 550 - Our Food: Science and Production (3 credits)
Class # 30839
Natural Sciences | Sustainability
MWF 9 - 9:50 am
Dr. Paul Bates
This course will examine 3 large aspects of the food we eat: food science, human nutrition, and agricultural production methods. We will look at the main components of food, and how manipulation of food molecules creates different flavors, textures, and structures. We will then focus on the relative nutritional value of different foods and their effects on the human body, including illnesses related to poor nutrition. Finally, we will explore modern agricultural practices and discuss ways to enhance stability and sustainability in our food supply.
HON 3303, Section 550 – The World of Surfing (4 credits)
Class# 10728
Global Perspectives
Tu Th – 9:15 am – 10:45 am - UH Classroom
Dr. Scott Laderman
Surfing is one of the world's most popular cultural phenomena. While the number of actual surfers is relatively small – probably between five and ten million people – the sport's reach has historically extended far beyond the limited community of wave riders, influencing everything from fashion and music to film, photography, tourism, and marketing. This class will explore how a pastime commonly associated with mindless pleasure has in fact been implicated in some of the major global developments of the last two-hundred years, such as empire-building and the "civilizing mission" in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Hawai'i, modernization and economic development in the so-called Third World, the growth of international tourism following the Second World War, political mass movements and the antiapartheid struggle, American foreign relations and Cold War cultural diplomacy, and the surf industry and corporate globalization. The course also has an experiential component; to develop an appreciation for the subject and for why millions of people have planned their lives around the sport, you will learn to surf.
HON 3495 Section 550, Community Immersion and Entrepreneurship (3 credits)
Class #10709
WF 9:15-10:45 am - UH Classroom
Social Science
Dr. Aparna Katre
This is a seminar course and it involves once a week (Wednesday) off-campus meetings in downtown Duluth and engagement in situ with community partners. The course is designed to facilitate long-term collaborations between the University and the Twin Ports community to respond entrepreneurially to community issues. It provides a framework for thoughtful, sustained engagement where responses to community issues are developed organically, collaboratively, and with grassroots participation. Supported by theories for social change, such as systems thinking, intersectionality and entrepreneurship, students immerse themselves in projects to strengthen the community. The emphasis is on building a sound grasp of the topics by connecting them to community issues and entrepreneurial activities.
PSY 4821, Section 550, Cognitive Neuroscience (3 credits)
Class #32139
Social Sciences
MWF 11 - 11:50 am
Dr. Rebecca Gilbertson
Overview of cognitive neuroscience including neuroanatomy, the neural basis of mental functions, cognitive neuroscience methods, application to psychopathology, development, social cognition, and addiction. Credit for PSY 4821 will not be granted if credit is already received for PSY 5821; no grad credit. pre-req: minimum 60 credits or instructor consent.
TH 4801, Section 550, Theatre History: Comedy (3 credits)
Class #33753
Humanities
MW 1:15 - 2:30 pm, UH Classroom
Dr. Jenna Soleo-Shanks
What makes us laugh? Why is humor essential to human society? How does comic forms relate to comic function? In this class we will examine comedy as a genre of theatre history, from Ancient Greek satire to contemporary stand-up comedy, to understand how the comic conventions, inventions, aesthetics, and content of each distinct performance tradition responded to and impacted its community. We will consider the science of laughter, comic formulas, liveness, power, and dissent as it applies to comic creators, their creations, and their audiences. Required materials will include plays and other performance texts, performance theory, videos and attendance at live performances.