Previous Courses

"I joined University Honors to surround myself in a community that cares, with faculty that are invested in me, and for awesome classes and experiences that shaped my undergraduate education."

Katelyn France, UH Class of 2021
Student Pharmacist | University of Minnesota 
College of Pharmacy | Duluth | Class of 2025

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Spring 2024

 

CUE 1001, Sect. 550:  Culture Industry and Creative Economy (3 credits)
Course# 67845 
Tues/Thr 2 - 3:15pm, UH Classroom (KAML 119)
Global Perspectives
Dr. Aparna Katre 

This course is an introduction to the history, development and contemporary scope of the creative economy. In the past, the United States and the global economy heavily relied on industrial production, yet today a distinctive shift to a creative economy based on cultural products has occurred. Arts and crafts, tourism, entertainment, sports, digital mass media, food and beverage products – all these generate an increasing percentage of our overall economic output, and provide a multitude of entrepreneurial opportunities. The course introduced students to the academic discipline of cultural entrepreneurship, which studies how change agents organize cultural, financial, social and human capital to generate income and promote economic growth from cultural activities. Through case studies and contemporary examples, students develop an appreciation of the diversity of material cultures in the United States and around the globe. The course emphasizes critical examination of the impact of commercialization of ethnic, native and global products on the populations that generated them. Community-based project work constitutes 50% of the grade and is the basis to achieve the learning objectives of this course. It provides the platform to learn both the hard and soft skills crucial to operate in the creative economy.

 

FA 1102, Sect. 550: Creating Art, Sec. 550 (3 credits)
Class #47042
MWF 12-12:50 pm, Montague Hall 206
Dr. Justin Rubin 
Fine Arts

No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.

 

HLTH 3341, Sect. 550: UH Encountering Death and Grief: A cross-cultural Journey (3 credits)
Class #65406
Tuesday3:30 - 6:20 pm, Sports & Health Center 207
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. Mitzi Doane

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

 

HON 3305, Sec. 550: UH French Cuisine Exploring French Culture Through Food (3 credits)
MW: 4-6pm, UH Classroom (KAML 119)
Dr. Dana Lindaman
Humanities and Global Perspectives

This course is taught in English and will use food as an entry point into a deeper exploration of French identity, including analysis of important contemporary issues related to gender, class, and sustainability. Students will study the ways in which French society has sought to establish order and symmetry around the table, a focal point of French society, and the many points of creative resistance to that order.

 

PHIL 2021, Sec. 550: Science and Pseudoscience: Thinking about weird things (3 credits)
Class #67721
MWF 9 - 9:50 AM, Bohannon Hall 343
Dr. Robert Schroer
Humanities

A critical introduction to the nature of knowledge and belief by focusing on contemporary issues, such as UFOs, ESP, mysticism, creationism and evolution, and near-death experiences, which explains the differences between rational beliefs and articles of faith and between science and pseudo-science.

 

WRIT 3180, Sec 550: UH Advanced Writing
Class# 46444
T & Th 9:30 - 10:45, Cina Hall 214
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 2023

AMIN 3640, Sect. 550:  21st Century Native Literature: American Indian Writing Published in the New Millennium (3 credits)
Class #13598
Cultural Diversity in the US | Humanities
TuTh 2:00PM - 3:15PM
Dr. Carter Meland

Exploring novels, poetry, memoir, short fiction, essays, and other forms of literary writing composed since the year 2000, this class examines these works for the ways they engage with and extend critical themes of American Indian cultural and political resurgence in the 21st century. 

 

  1. AMIN 3640 requires, as part of the class, the creation of a documentary short film. In support of that work we are collaborating with the Minnesota Media Arts School (MMA) to offer UH students the unique chance to further develop their skills in filmmaking and storytelling. UH students enrolled in AMIN 3640 can CHOOSE to augment that course experience by taking a class (Introduction to Documentary) with the MMA School at the Zeitgeist FREE OF CHARGE. In Intro to Documentary students will learn production, lighting, sound recording, cinematography, writing, and editing skills among many others that can be used in the creation of their final project (and throughout life as video content becomes more and more pervasive).

    The MMA documentary class can also be shaped into an NCE in one of two ways.
     
    • Complete AMIN 3640 and the Documentary class and volunteer at least 10 hours supporting MMA/Zeitgeist initiatives over the course of the year. If you do those three things you will have completed your course and your civic engagement non-course experience.
       
    • Do NOT take AMIN 3640 but complete the Documentary class, create an actual documentary (or documentary short) and volunteer at least five hours supporting MMA/Zeitgeist initiatives over the course of that year. This would count as a creative expression NCE.  

      **If students are interested in taking the Intro to Documentary film class (whether they decide to take AMIN 3640 or not) they must notify Joelle ([email protected]) of their interest via email. Seats will first be apportioned to students enrolled in AMIN 3640. Remaining seats will be assigned on a first come, first served basis to all other UH students until we reach the class max.
  2. AMIN 3640 currently has a prerequisite of 30 credits. If you are under 30 credits you can still take the course. You just have to email Professor Meland ([email protected]) and ask to be added to the roster.

 


ANTH 1602, Sect. 550:  Biological Anthropology and Archaeology (4 credits)
Class# 32794
Social Sciences
MoWe 9 - 10:50am
Dr. Jennifer Jones

Origin and development of extinct and living human forms, primatology, human biological variations, the race concept, evolution, and development of human societies up to the earliest stages of ancient civilizations.   Credit will not be granted if credit has been received for: ANTH 1601


DN 1151, Sect. 550: Modern Dance Technique I (2 credits - Fine Arts)
Class# 12184 
Fine Arts
MWF 1:30-2:40pm
Dr. Rebecca Katz Harwood

Previous dance training or experience is welcomed but not required for this class, just a desire to move and a willingness to try! Modern Dance Technique I is designed to introduce Modern Dance as both a historical form and contemporary practice and intended to develop Modern Dance skills with emphasis on placement, coordination, balance, and musicality.  Concurring with Liberal Education objectives, the course will provide opportunities for creative expression through active participation and presentation of dancing via class exercises and projects.  In addition, students will develop an appreciation for the diverse cultural influences on, and stylistic variety in, Modern Dance as a performance dance form.  The majority of course work is the actual dancing; it will be supported by video viewings, selected readings, and some written reflection work. 


HON 3033, Sect. 550 – The World of Surfing  (4 credits)
Class# 32575
Global Perspectives
Tu Th – 9:15 am – 10:45am
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 #10723
WF 9:15-10:45 am
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.

Spring 2023

FA 1102: Creating Art, Sec. 550, #47275
Dr. Justin Rubin | MWF 12-12:50 pm
Fine Arts

No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.

HON 1003: From Beethoven to the Beatles, Sec. 550, #45724
Dr. Tom Wegren | MWF 10 - 10:50 am
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 3895: The Ethics of Call Out Culture, Sec. 550, #45747   
Dr. Jeanine Weekes Schroer | MWF 9 - 9:50 am
Cultural Diversity in the US

Public shaming is not new, but social media has upped the stakes. People have lost jobs, careers, and even their lives in the aftermath of something as simple as a scolding on Twitter.  This also makes Twitter one of the main destinations for some of the most important discourses of our time: Genuinely diverse communities come together to communicate within and across boundaries about racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.  By reading ethicists, feminists, critical race theorists, and black feminist theorists, and their thinking on the purpose of blame, the importance of public blame, the challenges of shame, the epistemic challenges of structural oppression, the challenges of social media, this course will map an Ethics for the age of the Call-out.  


WRIT 3180: UH Advanced Writing,  Sec. 550, #46599
Rebecca Boyle, MFA : T & Th 11-12:15pm
**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 2022

AST 1050, Sect. 550, Native Skywatchers #32627
Tuesday & Thursday,  3 - 4:15pm
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. James Rock

Our Universal Story usually opens with “Once upon a SpaceTime…” and the very first stuff that would become our bodies today came from the stars and existed long before there was ever a first day on Earth! Is this idea from modern western science or from ancient Indigenous scientists? The answer is: “Yes! Star-Stuff-R-Us…by way of nucleosynthesis, but also according to Dakota Otokahekagapi.”

We have always been both scientists and storytellers who carefully read and told the story as written in Nature. Indigenous ethno- and archaeo-astronomy (IE&AA) looks at the ways in which the motion and cycles of celestial bodies as measured from architectural structures and natural features at sacred places can provide an essential framework for daily and seasonal activities, social and political relationships, and ethical and spiritual beliefs, including a 26,000 year cycle. How can and do we still live the “M”yth now as then? How and why is there “Math in the Myth?”

The answers to these place-based Indigenous science questions will likely lead you to even more questions, ideas and hypotheses. The interdisciplinary nature of ethnoastronomy combines and applies astronomy, cultural astronomy, cultural anthropology, archaeology, history, architecture and even linguistics, dance, music, games, mathematics and technology to investigate and interpret many kinds of evidence. We search and synthesize these fields as we first come to appreciate, then respect and honor the deep wisdom of our Elders and ancestors as it was preserved, passed down and still comes alive within us.

BIOL 2001, Sect. 550, Our Food:  Science, Nutrition and Production #13065
Mon, Wed, Fri,  9 – 9:50 am
Sustainability
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 3398, Sect. 550  Special Topics:  Natural Sciences in Our Daily Life #10691 (3 credits)
MWF  2-2:50pm, LSBE 129 
Natural Science and Sustainability
Dr. Ahemd A. Heikal

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 as well as its social and environmental impacts. The students will be engaged in discussing contemporary scientific issues that affect their life at home, at work, on the road, health, and environment. 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.  

HON 3495 Section 550, Community Immersion and Entrepreneurship #33635 (3 credits)
Thursday, 4 to 6:50 pm
Social Science
Dr. Aparna Katre

This is a seminar course and it involves partially off-campus meetings 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 academic theories about systems thinking, entrepreneurship, and intersectionality for social change, 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.

Spring 2022

FA 1102: Creating Art, Sec. 550, #48897
Dr. Justin Rubin
MWF 12-12:50pm
Fine Arts
No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.

HON 1003: From Beethoven to the Beatles, Sec. 550, #48719
MWF 10am
Dr. Tom Wegren
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 3305: UH French Cuisine Exploring French Culture Through Food, Sec. 550, #67761
MW: 4-6pm
Dr. Dana Lindaman
Humanities and Global Perspectives
This course is taught in English, will use food as an entry point into a deeper exploration of French identity, including analysis of important contemporary issues related to gender, class, and sustainability. Students will study the ways in which French society has sought to establish order and symmetry around the table, a focal point of French society, and the many points of creative resistance to that order.

HON 3895: The Ethics of Call Out Culture, Sec. 550, #68200   
Dr. Jeanine Weekes Schroer
Meeting MWF, 10am
Cultural Diversity in the US
Public shaming is not new, but social media has upped the stakes. People have lost jobs, careers, and even their lives in the aftermath of something as simple as a scolding on Twitter.  This also makes Twitter one of the main destinations for some of the most important discourses of our time: Genuinely diverse communities come together to communicate within and across boundaries about racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.  By reading ethicists, feminists, critical race theorists, and black feminist theorists, and their thinking on the purpose of blame, the importance of public blame, the challenges of shame, the epistemic challenges of structural oppression, the challenges of social media, this course will map an Ethics for the age of the Call-out.  

WRIT 3180: UH Advanced Writing,  Sec. 550, #46538
T & Th 11-1215pm, Chester 204
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 2021

ANTH 1602 - Biological Anthropology and Archaeology
Class# 11717, Section 550
Social Sciences
Dr. Jennifer Jones
Mon & Wed, 1 – 2:50pm

Origin and development of extinct and living human forms, primatology, human biological variations, the race concept, evolution, and development of human societies up to the earliest stages of ancient civilizations.   Credit will not be granted if credit has been received for: ANTH 1601

 

ENGL 1582, Section 550, World Literature
Class # 13995
Global Perspectives and Humanities
T & Th 11am - 12:50pm
Dr. John Schwetman

A sampling of literary works mainly from Middle East, Africa, Far East, and South America


ECH 2025, Sect. 550 – Brain Development Environments and Relationships
Course # 11192
Social Sciences
T 4 - 6:50pm
Dr. Molly Harney 

Students enrolled in this course will spend part of their time engaged in face-to-face class sessions designed to explore topics related to early brain development. Session topics will address how relationships, environments, stress, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and trauma impact the neurosequential development of the human brain. Students will also participate in off-campus activities in partnership with the staff and tenants who work and live in the Steve O’Neil Apartments (SONA). SONA is a long-term supportive housing complex established to support families who have experienced homelessness. Through a partnership with the staff and tenants we will design activities and events intended to address current needs, create engagement, and build relationships. Through participation in face-to-face instruction and community-based interactions students will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the role environments and relationships play in neurosequential development.


HONS 3398, Sect. 550  Special Topics:  Natural Sciences in Our Daily Life (3 credits)
MWF  9-950 am, LSBE 129
Natural Science and Sustainability
Dr. Ahemd A. Heikal

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 as well as its social and environmental impacts. The students will be engaged in discussing contemporary scientific issues that affect their life at home, at work, on the road, health, and environment. 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.  


HONS 3095, Sec. 550,  Special Topic:  Global Infectious Disease  (3 credits)
 T & TH  9:30-10:45am, LSBE 225
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.

 

UNIVERSITY HONORS FIRST YEAR SEMINAR - UST 1000 (choose one) 

UST 100, Sec. 005, Monday, 3-3:50pm:  Class #10712, (1 credit); or  
UST 100, Sec. 064, Wednesday, 3-3:50pm: Class #35224 (1 credit)
Instructor, Joelle McGovern, UH Program Coordinator

University Honors First-Year Seminar course is designed specifically for UH first-year students. It is taught by our UH Program Coordinator. The UH First Year Seminar is tailored to the UH student, shaped by the UH Mission and Vision and focused on the civic engagement portion of the UH non-course experience requirement. This course is required of all incoming UH students. 

The University Honors First Year Seminar does not fulfill your annual UH course requirement; however, it does fulfill your UMD Seminar requirement and gives UH students an opportunity to earn hours towards their UH community service Non-Course Experience requirement. 

Spring 2021

HLTH 3341, Sect. 550: UH Encountering Death and Grief: A cross-cultural Journey
Class #60439
Wed, 3 - 5 pm  (blended set class times)
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. Mitzi Doane

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.
 

HON 3495 - University Honors Special Topics - Labor History’s Lessons (3 credits)
Class #67510
Tu & Th 9:30 am - 1045 am (Blended - set class times)
Social Science
Dr. Jannifer David

This course aims to help students understand the role of labor unions and other societal factors that impact the state of the labor market. Focusing primarily on the role of labor unions, this course will introduce students to the history of labor unions in the US and discuss how the state of today’s labor market is not new and that historical solutions to improving labor conditions may be effective today with modifications for changing industries. These solutions involve a collective effort on the part of workers to hold employers and governments accountable for the working conditions in our society.
 

HON 3595 - University Honors Special Topics - The Metaphysics of Space and Time (3 credits)
Class #67508
MWF 12 - 12:50 pm (remote online set class times)
Humanities
Dr. Robert Schroer

This class will explore a variety of foundational questions about the nature of space and time, including: Is time a human construct? Was there a first moment of time? Is time travel possible? Could there be more than 3 dimensions to space? Although students with an interest in Philosophy or Physics are welcome, a background in neither is necessary for participation.
 

MU 1003, Sect. 550: From Beethoven to the Beatles
Class #63244
M, W, F 1 - 1:50 pm (remote online set class times)
Fine Arts
Dr. Thomas Wegren

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.
 

WRIT 3180, Sect. 550: UH Advanced Writing
Class# 60931
Mo & Wed, 4 - 5:15 pm (remote online set class times)
Dr. David Beard
**This section is open to upper-class UH students who have completed 60 credits. Senior and Junior UH students will have priority access then sophomores and first-year students who are interested may still be able to gain access to the class if they have completed 60 credits.

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.  If you want to take this course, tell your advisor and email Joelle McGovern ([email protected]) to register. The only way to get into this class is to email Joelle McGovern to request permission. First come, first served.   

Fall 2020

AST 1050 - Native Skywatchers: Indigenous Ethno- and ArchaeoAstronomy
Class #28845, Section 550
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. James Rock
Mon & Wed, 3 – 4:15pm

Our Universal Story usually opens with “Once upon a SpaceTime…” and the very first stuff that would become our bodies today came from the stars and existed long before there was ever a first day on Earth! Is this idea from modern western science or from ancient Indigenous scientists? The answer is: “Yes! Star-Stuff-R-Us…by way of nucleosynthesis, but also according to Dakota Otokahekagapi.”

We have always been both scientists and storytellers who carefully read and told the story as written in Nature. Indigenous ethno- and archaeo-astronomy (IE&AA) looks at the ways in which the motion and cycles of celestial bodies as measured from architectural structures and natural features at sacred places can provide an essential framework for daily and seasonal activities, social and political relationships, and ethical and spiritual beliefs, including a 26,000 year cycle. How can and do we still live the “M”yth now as then? How and why is there “Math in the Myth?”

The answers to these place-based Indigenous science questions will likely lead you to even more questions, ideas and hypotheses. The interdisciplinary nature of ethnoastronomy combines and applies astronomy, cultural astronomy, cultural anthropology, archaeology, history, architecture and even linguistics, dance, music, games, mathematics and technology to investigate and interpret many kinds of evidence. We search and synthesize these fields as we first come to appreciate, then respect and honor the deep wisdom of our Elders and ancestors as it was preserved, passed down and still comes alive within us.


CUE 1001, Sect. 550:  Culture Industry and Creative Economy 
Course# 27994
Tu Th 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. 
Global Perspectives
Dr. Aparna Katre 

This course is an introduction to the history, development and contemporary scope of the creative economy. In the past, the United States and the global economy heavily relied on industrial production, yet today a distinctive shift to a creative economy based on cultural products has occurred. Arts and crafts, tourism, entertainment, sports, digital mass media, food and beverage products – all these generate an increasing percentage of our overall economic output, and provide a multitude of entrepreneurial opportunities. The course introduced students to the academic discipline of cultural entrepreneurship, which studies how change agents organize cultural, financial, social and human capital to generate income and promote economic growth from cultural activities. Through case studies and contemporary examples, students develop an appreciation of the diversity of material cultures in the United States and around the globe. The course emphasizes critical examination of the impact of commercialization of ethnic, native and global products on the populations that generated them. Community-based project work constitutes 50% of the grade and is the basis to achieve the learning objectives of this course. It provides the platform to learn both the hard and soft skills crucial to operate in the creative economy.

DN 1151, Sect. 550: Modern Dance Technique I
Class #29718
Tu TH 2 – 3:45pm
Fine Arts
Dr. Rebecca Katz Harwood

Previous dance training or experience is welcomed but not required for this class, just a desire to move and a willingness to try! Modern Dance Technique I is designed to introduce Modern Dance as both a historical form and contemporary practice and intended to develop Modern Dance skills with emphasis on placement, coordination, balance, and musicality.  Concurring with Liberal Education objectives, the course will provide opportunities for creative expression through active participation and presentation of dancing via class exercises and projects.  In addition, students will develop an appreciation for the diverse cultural influences on, and stylistic variety in, Modern Dance as a performance dance form.  The majority of course work is the actual dancing; it will be supported by video viewings, selected readings, and some written reflection work. 

ECH 2025, Sect. 550 – Brain Development Environments and Relationships 
Course # 27582
Social Sciences 
T 4 - 6:50pm
Dr. Molly Harney 

Students enrolled in this course will spend part of their time engaged in face to face class sessions designed to explore topics related to early brain development. Session topics will address how relationships, environments, stress, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and trauma impact the neurosequential development of the human brain. Students will also participate in off campus activities in partnership with the staff and tenants who work and live in the Steve O’Neil Apartments (SONA). SONA is a long-term supportive housing complex established to support families who have experienced homelessness. Through a partnership with the staff and tenants we will design activities and events intended to address current needs, create engagement, and build relationships. Through participation in face to face instruction and community based interactions students will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the role environments and relationships play in neurosequential development.
 

HON 3095, Sect. 550 – Honors Special Topics, The World of Surfing 
Class# 27156
Humanities and Global Perspectives
Tu Th – 9:15 am – 10:45am
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. 

Spring 2020

FA 1102, Sect. 550:  UH Creating Art
Course# 64283
MWF Noon-12:50pm
Fine Arts
Dr. Justin Henry Rubin 

No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.



HLTH 3341, Sect. 550: UH Encountering Death and Grief: A cross-cultural Journey
Class #46138
Tuesday, 3:30 - 6pm
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. Mitzi Doane

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

 

MU 1003, Sect. 550: From Beethoven to the Beatles
Class #64278
M, W, F 1-1:50pm
Fine Arts
Dr. Thomas Wegren

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.

 

WRIT 3180, Sect. 550: UH Advanced Writing
Class# 46626
Tuesday and Thursday, 11 - 12:15pm
Rebecca Boyle, MFA

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

Fall 2019

AMIN 3430: Global Indigenous Studies
Class #33426, Section 550
Global Perspectives
Dr. Joseph Bauerkemper
Th, 4 – 6:30pm

This course fosters a consideration of the planet's indigenous peoples, emphasizing their various and varying cultural, territorial, political, social, legal, aesthetic, economic, and intellectual contributions and claims. Exploring indigenous peoples' relationships with one another, with settler governments, with non-governmental organizations, and with supranational institutions, students in the course will develop a broad understanding of the increasingly global trajectories of indigenous studies.

 

ANTH 1602 - Biological Anthropology and Archaeology
Class# 31457, Section 550
Social Sciences
Dr. Jennifer Jones
Mon & Wed, 1 – 2:50pm

Origin and development of extinct and living human forms, primatology, human biological variations, the race concept, evolution, and development of human societies up to the earliest stages of ancient civilizations.   Credit will not be granted if credit has been received for: ANTH 1601

 

AST 1050 - Native Skywatchers: Indigenous Ethno- and ArchaeoAstronomy
Class #12347, Section 550
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. James Rock
Mon & Wed, 3 – 4:15pm

Our Universal Story usually opens with “Once upon a SpaceTime…” and the very first stuff that would become our bodies today came from the stars and existed long before there was ever a first day on Earth! Is this idea from modern western science or from ancient Indigenous scientists? The answer is: “Yes! Star-Stuff-R-Us…by way of nucleosynthesis, but also according to Dakota Otokahekagapi.”

We have always been both scientists and storytellers who carefully read and told the story as written in Nature. Indigenous ethno- and archaeo-astronomy (IE&AA) looks at the ways in which the motion and cycles of celestial bodies as measured from architectural structures and natural features at sacred places can provide an essential framework for daily and seasonal activities, social and political  relationships, and ethical and spiritual beliefs, including a 26,000 year cycle. How can and do we still live the “M”yth now as then? How and why is there “Math in the Myth?”

The answers to these place-based Indigenous science questions will likely lead you to even more questions, ideas and hypotheses. The interdisciplinary nature of ethnoastronomy combines and applies astronomy, cultural astronomy, cultural anthropology, archaeology, history, architecture and even linguistics, dance, music, games, mathematics and technology to investigate and interpret many kinds of evidence. We search and synthesize these fields as we first come to appreciate, then respect and honor the deep wisdom of our Elders and ancestors as it was preserved, passed down and still comes alive within us.

 

BIOL 2001 - Our Food: Science and Production
Class #33429, Section 550
Natural Sciences
Sustainability
Dr. Paul Bates
Tu & Th 9:30 – 10:45am

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

 

 

ECH 2025 - Educating the Human Brain 
Course # 11130, Section 550
LE Social Sciences 
T 4 - 6:50pm
Dr. Molly Harney 

 

This 16-week seminar series will be offered partially off campus at the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Students enrolled in the University Honors Program will partner with community members who are living in the Steve O’Neil Apartments as a community to explore how biology, relationships, and environments impact early brain development and subsequent long-term health and wellbeing. Current research in the areas of early brain development and the biological underpinnings of emotional and cognitive development will be explored. Developmental impacts from early attachment relationships, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and social policy will also be addressed.

 

HON 3895 - Honors Special Topics: Ethics of Call out Culture
Course #33924, Section 550
Cultural Diversity in the US
Mon, Wed & Fri, 10 – 10:50 am
Dr. Jeanine Weekes Schroer

Public shaming is not new, but social media has upped the stakes. People have lost jobs, careers, and even their lives in the aftermath of something as simple as a scolding on Twitter.  This also makes Twitter one of the main destinations for some of the most important discourses of our time: Genuinely diverse communities come together to communicate within and across boundaries about racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.  By reading ethicists, feminists, critical race theorists, and black feminist theorists, and their thinking on the purpose of blame, the importance of public blame, the challenges of shame, the epistemic challenges of structural oppression, the challenges of social media, this course will map an Ethics for the age of the Call-out.  

Spring 2019

COMM 1511: UH Public Speaking
Class #67289
Monday, Wednesday, 8 - 9:50am 
Oral Communication and Languages
Dr. Elizabeth Nelson

Application of the theoretical bases of rhetoric to the public speaking situation.

 

CUE 1001: Culture Industry and the Creative Economy
Class #67347
Tuesday & Thursday, 2 - 3:15pm
Global Perspectives 
Dr. Patrick Woock

This course is an introduction to the history, development and contemporary scope of the culture industry and creative economy. It examines how culture has become an important element of our global economy, and introduces students to cultural products and services that are an important part of what we consume every day. Moving from an economy that heavily relied on industrial production, a distinctive shift to a creative economy is taking place both in the United States and around the world. This course examines the underlying phenomenon of organizing cultural, financial, social and human capital to generate income through innovative and financially sustainable cultural enterprising thereby promote inclusive economic growth.

The course has both research and applied orientations. Students will conduct in-depth analysis of the past, present and future of a branch of the creative industries and write a research paper individually. The applied component involves competitive group projects where students will take a high-level problem statement pertaining to culture industries and in teams will develop organizational responses that fit with one or more branches of the creative industries. At the end of the semester, a team of judges will evaluate the projects and declare winning team based on a predefined rubric.

The research and applied projects provide a platform to learn both the hard and soft skills necessary to be successful in the creative economy.
For further questions get in touch with Dr. Patrick Woock at [email protected] or Dr. Aparna Katre at [email protected].

 

ENGL 1582, section 550: Introduction to World Literatures
Class #67323
Global Perspectives and Humanities
Monday and Wednesday, 12 - 1:50pm
Dr. John Schwetman

A sampling of literary works mainly from Middle East, Africa, Far East, and South America.

 

HLTH 3341: UH Encountering Death and Grief: A cross-cultural Journey
Class #46168
Wednesday, 3:30 - 6pm
Cultural Diversity in the US
Dr. Mitzi Doane

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

 

HON 3305: French Cuisine Exploring French Culture through Food
Humanities and Global Perspectives
Time and date TBA

This course in taught in English, will use food as an entry point into a deeper exploration of French identity, including analysis of important contemporary issues related to gender, class, and sustainability. Students will study the ways in which French society has sought to establish order and symmetry around the table, a focal point of French society, and the many points of creative resistance to that order.

 

WRIT 3180: UH Advanced Writing
Class# 46679
Tuesday and Thursday, 11 - 12:15pm
Rebecca Boyle, MFA

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

Fall 2018

ECH 2025 (section 550) Educating the Human Brain
Dr. Molly Harney
LE Social Sciences
T & R 11-1150

This 16-week seminar series will be offered partially off campus at the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Students enrolled in the University Honors Program will partner with community members who are living in the Steve O’Neil Apartments as a community to explore how biology, relationships, and environments impact early brain development and subsequent long-term health and wellbeing. Current research in the areas of early brain development and the biological underpinnings of emotional and cognitive development will be explored. Developmental impacts from early attachment relationships, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and social policy will also be addressed.

 

HON 3595 The Metaphysics of Space and Time
Dr. Robert Schroer
LE Humanities
MWF 9 - 9:50 AM

This class will explore a variety of foundational questions about the nature of space and time, including: Is time a human construct? Was there a first moment of time? Is time travel possible? Could there be more than 3 dimensions to space? Although students with an interest in Philosophy or Physics are welcome, a background in neither is necessary for participation.

 

MU 1003 From Beethoven to the Beatles
Dr. Thomas Wegren
LE Fine Arts
M, W, F 1-1:50pm

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.

 

Comm 3535 Intercultural Communication
**this section is open to incoming UH freshmen only

Dr. Ryan Goei
LE Cultural Diversity in the US
T & R, 6-940pm

Intercultural Communication is an extremely popular and rewarding class opportunity for UH students. Intercultural Communication is a very unique class. There are no textbooks. It is an applied class in which students engage with each other, a culturally diverse group of classmates, to learn about individuals and their experience with culture and communication here in the US and around the world. The class is based on the notion that to understand people and culture one must start by getting to know the person. As such the class requirements are almost exclusively relational in nature. You will be engaging in and writing about out-of-class "dates" with classmates from other cultures and will be participating in several class activities and trips (including two all day Saturday trips September 3 & 10) to spend some time together building friendships. In the past these relationship-building class activities have included picnics, canoeing, swimming, camping, roller-skating, competitions, and dining out, amongst others. Students leave this class with an immensely personal understanding of humans and how culture affects their lives and views. They also often leave the class with lifelong friends, friends from various cultures both within the US and around the globe.

Spring 2018

Biological Anthropology and Archaeology (ANTH 1602, Sect. 550)
Dr. Jennifer Jones
Mo & We  2-3:50pm, Cina Hall 214
Social Science
Course #65648

In Biological Anthropology and Archaeology we will explore questions that are at the foundation of what it means to be human via the discipline of anthropology – How have humans developed physically into our modern form? What does it mean that modern humans around the world look different from one another? What does it mean for our health that we now live lives much different than the conditions we evolved under?

  1. The skeletons and artifacts of extinct two-legged human ancestors tell us about the history of our ancestors. How did we develop into the walking, talking, aggressive and altruistic apes of today?
  2. Primate physiology and behavior tells us about our place in the natural world. Learn why this matters.
  3. Humans look different from each other. Learn why anthropology is interested in human biological variation and race.
  4. We’ve changed. Once egalitarian food gatherers, now we go to McDonalds and shop at the grocery store. What might our future look like?

We will read popular science non-fiction, science articles, and watch digital clips and documentaries to immerse you in how science is done and communicated to non-specialist audiences. You will also do a series of active learning exercises including 1) hands-on activities with replica casts of human fossils, skeletal material, and archaeological artifacts, and 2) a role-playing historical reenactment of the Royal Society’s nomination of Charles Darwin for a major scientific honor of his day.

 

Creating Art (FA 1102, Sect. 550)
Dr. Justin Henry Rubin 
MWF Noon-12:50pm, H222
Fine Arts
Coure# 66882

No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.

 

Encountering Death and Grief: A Multicultural Journey (HLTH 3341 Section 550)
H (Mitzi) Doane
Th 3:30-6pm, Cina Hall 214
3 credits
Course #62063

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

 

Global Infectious Diseases (HON 3095 Section 550)
Dr. John Dahl
Tu & Th 8-9:15am, Humanities bldg 484
Course #61464

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.

 

 

Biology of Women (HON 3095 Section 551)
Colleen Belk
W 4-7pm, Montague Hall 206
3 credits
Course #68144
Fulfills Cultural Diversity liberal education requirements

The Biology of Women course will undertake a comprehensive examination of the biology of the human female life cycle with a focus on learning to challenge prevailing stereotypes and double standards that are harmful to both males and females. Topics include: How two different sexes evolved; sex differences in embryonic and pubertal development; sex differences in human skeletal structure, body composition, reproductive anatomy, and physiology. Disordered eating, violence against women as a health issue, premenstrual syndrome, menstruation the female sexual response, pregnancy and birthing, control of fertility and abortion, menopause and aging issues relevant to women.

 

Advanced Writing (WRIT 3180, Sect 550)
Rebecca Boyle 
T & R 11-12:15pm, Darland 16A
Course #62677

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.

Spring 2017

French Cuisine Exploring French Culture Through Food (HONS 3305, Section 550)
Dr. Dana Lindaman
T 6-9:30 pm
Humanities and Global Perspectives
This course in taught in English, will use food as an entry point into a deeper exploration of French identity, including analysis of important contemporary issues related to gender, class, and sustainability. Students will study the ways in which French society has sought to establish order and symmetry around the table, a focal point of French society, and the many points of creative resistance to that order.

 

Introduction to World Literature (ENG 1582)
Dr. John Schwetman
W&F 10 am - 12pm

 

Public Speaking (COMM 1511 Section 550)
Dr. Elizabeth Nelson
M&W 12-1:50

 

Advanced Writing (WRIT 3180, Sect 550)
Rebecca Boyle 
T & R 11-12:15pm
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.

 

From Beethoven to the Beatles (MU 1003, Sect 550)
Dr. Thomas Wegren
T & R  2 - 2:50pm
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.

Fall 2017

Intercultural Communication (COMM 3535 Section 550, #29869)
Dr. Ryan Goei
TuTh 6pm – 9:50pm  **this section is open to incoming UH freshmen only
Cultural Diversity in the US liberal education requirement (old Social Science Category 6 and also the International Perspectives requirement)

Intercultural Communication is an extremely popular and rewarding class opportunity for UH students. Intercultural Communication is a very unique class. There are no textbooks. It is an applied class in which students engage with each other, a culturally diverse group of classmates, to learn about individuals and their experience with culture and communication here in the US and around the world. The class is based on the notion that to understand people and culture one must start by getting to know the person. As such the class requirements are almost exclusively relational in nature. You will be engaging in and writing about out-of-class "dates" with classmates from other cultures and will be participating in several class activities and trips (including two all day Saturday trips September 3 & 10) to spend some time together building friendships. In the past these relationship-building class activities have included picnics, canoeing, swimming, camping, roller-skating, competitions, and dining out, amongst others. Students leave this class with an immensely personal understanding of humans and how culture affects their lives and views. They also often leave the class with lifelong friends, friends from various cultures both within the US and around the globe.

Intercultural Communication fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the United States requirement of UMD's Liberal Education Program requirements. It is a four-credit class that begins the first week of Fall semester, like all others, but lasts only six weeks instead of sixteen. The class is time intensive early but complete before midterm exams are scheduled for most other classes.

 

University Honors Global Issues (SW 1212, Sect 550, #29181)
Dr. Dennis Falk
T & R 2-3:15 pm
Social Science and Global Perspectives

This course focuses on global problems of war, peace, and national security; population, food, and hunger; environmental concerns and global resources; economic and social development; human rights. It examines issues from systems, problem-solving and futurist perspectives in honors seminar format.

 

University Honors Ethnobotany (ANTH 4633, Sect 550, #35755) 
Dr. David Syring 
M & W 2-3:50pm
(Fills Sustainability LE)
Ever reached for a bottle of aspirin when you have a headache? Ever thought about where that tomato (or potato or rice or…) that you are about to eat comes from? Ever drunk a cup of tea or coffee to boost your energy levels? Ever held a wooden oar, spoon, baseball bat or 2X4 in your hands? Ever used the petals of a flower to ask a question (“…loves me, … love me not…”)?

All of these actions demonstrate the roles that plants play in human culture. Human societies have always depended on plants as sources for food, medicines, material goods, symbolic understanding, and more. This course offers you the chance to study the fascinating interrelations between humans and plants, including material, symbolic, ritualistic and other aspects of human-plant interactions. The course combines cultural anthropology and botany to investigate the roles of plants as food, medicine, natural resources and/or gateways to culturally sanctioned religious experiences.

 

The World of Surfing (HON 3095, Sect 550, #28808)
Dr. Scott Laderman
T & Th 9 am - 10:50 am
(Fills Humanities and Global Perspectives LE)

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. The course will thus combine classroom instruction with outdoor education.

Fall 2016

Encountering Death and Grief: A Multicultural Journey (HLTH 3341, Section 550)
Dr. H (Mitzi) Doane
W 3:30-6pm
Cultural Diversity liberal education requirement (does not fulfill a category in the old lib ed system but students can petition for lib ed credit through their advising office)

This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

Intercultural Communication (COMM 3535 Section 550, Course # 29657**)
Dr. Ryan Goei
TuTh 6pm – 9:50pm
Cultural Diversity in the US liberal education requirement (old Social Science Category 6 and also the International Perspectives requirement)

**this section is open to incoming UH freshmen only

Intercultural Communication is an extremely popular and rewarding class opportunity for UH students. Intercultural Communication is a very unique class. There are no textbooks. It is an applied class in which students engage with each other, a culturally diverse group of classmates, to learn about individuals and their experience with culture and communication here in the US and around the world. The class is based on the notion that to understand people and culture one must start by getting to know the person. As such the class requirements are almost exclusively relational in nature. You will be engaging in and writing about out-of-class "dates" with classmates from other cultures and will be participating in several class activities and trips (including two all day Saturday trips September 3 & 10) to spend some time together building friendships. In the past these relationship-building class activities have included picnics, canoeing, swimming, camping, roller-skating, competitions, and dining out, amongst others. Students leave this class with an immensely personal understanding of humans and how culture affects their lives and views. They also often leave the class with lifelong friends, friends from various cultures both within the US and around the globe.

Intercultural Communication fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the United States requirement of UMD's Liberal Education Program requirements. It is a four-credit class that begins the first week of Fall semester, like all others, but lasts only six weeks instead of sixteen. The class is time intensive early but complete before midterm exams are scheduled for most other classes.

University Honors Global Issues (SW 1212, Sect 550)
Dr. Dennis Falk
T & R 3:30-4:45 pm
Social Science and Global Perspectives

This course focuses on global problems of war, peace, and national security; population, food, and hunger; environmental concerns and global resources; economic and social development; human rights. It examines issues from systems, problem solving , and futurist perspectives in honors seminar format.

Women and Film (WS 3400, Sect. 550)
Dr. Tineke Ritmeester
Wed 5-7:50pm
Global Perspectives

This course is designed to help students see their own movie-going and movie-making practices as part of a larger conversation about what films mean and how they work on us and for us. In this course, students will use video production skills to explain key ideas in feminist filmmaking as well as view and critique a variety of films made by, for, and about women.

Spring 2016

From Beethoven to the Beatles (MU 1003, Sect 550)
Dr. Thomas Wegren
MWF 11-11:50am, ChPk 208 
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.

Biological Anthropology and Archaeology (ANTH 1602, Sect. 550)
Dr. Jennifer Jones
T R 2-4pm, 39 SPCH
Social Science

In Biological Anthropology and Archaelogy we will explore questions that are at the foundation of what it means to be human via the discipline of anthropology – How have humans developed physically into our modern form? What does it mean that modern humans around the world look different from one another? What does it mean for our health that we now live lives much different than the conditions we evolved under?

  1. The skeletons and artifacts of extinct two-legged human ancestors tell us about the history of our ancestors. How did we develop into the walking, talking, aggressive and altruistic apes of today?
  2. Primate physiology and behavior tells us about our place in the natural world. Learn why this matters.
  3. Humans look different from each other. Learn why anthropology is interested in human biological variation and race.
  4. We’ve changed. Once egalitarian food gatherers, now we go to McDonalds and shop at the grocery store. What might our future look like?

We will read popular science non-fiction, science articles, and watch digital clips and documentaries to immerse you in how science is done and communicated to non-specialist audiences. You will also do a series of active learning exercises including 1) hands-on activities with replica casts of human fossils, skeletal material, and archaeological artifacts, and 2) a role playing historical reenactment of the Royal Society’s nomination of Charles Darwin for a major scientific honor of his day.

Creating Art (FA 1102, Sect. 550)
Dr. Justin Henry Rubin 
MWF 2-2:50pm, H222
Fine Arts

No textbooks, only hands-on interactive learning. What do we do? We make films when you've never made one before, create an illuminated manuscript, study paintings of recluses and hold lively discussions on how and why people never stop making interesting things from every era and perspective.

Course # 29657

Fall 2015

University Honors Ethnobotany (ANTH 4633, Sect 550) 
Dr. David Syring 
M & W 2-3:40pm
(Fills Sustainability LE)
Ever reached for a bottle of aspirin when you have a headache? Ever thought about where that tomato (or potato or rice or…) that you are about to eat comes from? Ever drunk a cup of tea or coffee to boost your energy levels? Ever held a wooden oar, spoon, baseball bat or 2X4 in your hands? Ever used the petals of a flower to ask a question (“…loves me, … love me not…”)?

All of these actions demonstrate the roles that plants play in human culture. Human societies have always depended on plants as sources for food, medicines, material goods, symbolic understanding, and more. This course offers you the chance to study the fascinating interrelations between humans and plants, including material, symbolic, ritualistic and other aspects of human-plant interactions. The course combines cultural anthropology and botany to investigate the roles of plants as food, medicine, natural resources and/or gateways to culturally sanctioned religious experiences.

University Honors Global Issues (SW 1212, Sect 550) 
Dr. Dennis Falk 
T & R 3:30-4:45 pm 
(Fills Social Science and Global Perspectives LE)
This course focuses on global problems of war, peace, and national security; population, food, and hunger; environmental concerns and global resources; economic and social development; human rights. It examines issues from systems, problem solving, and futurist perspectives in honors seminar format.

University Honors Contemporary Mathematics (MATH 1024, Sect 550) 
Dr. Carmen Latterel 
M W & F 9-9:50am 
(Fills Logic and Quantitative Reasoning LE)
Mathematics is both a powerful tool and a beautiful liberal education topic in and of itself. Yet, many people’s view of mathematics is one of a dry, boring, numeric subject. This course aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the uses, richness, and power of mathematics. We will explore graph theory, scheduling, linear programming, statistical sampling and inference, coding information, decision making, voting theory, game theory, geometric growth, symmetry, patterns, interest rates, and other topics. Our exploration will include discussion, writing, reporting, researching, projects, and other techniques usually reserved for non-mathematics classes. We will use technological tools to replace tedious operations, and learn instead how mathematics can enrich YOUR life.

University Honors Advanced Writing (WRIT 3180, Sect 550)
Dr. Liz Wright 
T & R 8 - 9:15am
(Fills Advanced Writing Requirement)
Nervous about writing your UH capstone project? The course will allow University Honors students the opportunity to learn collaboratively in an interdisciplinary setting as they work on the capstone scholarship projects and write and edit an on-line journal. Students will explore the requirements of various academic journals, determine the criteria for their journal, revise their own Capstone Project text in various drafts, peer review their colleagues’ writing, recruit other peer reviewers, solicit a call for papers, formally communicate with these additional peer reviewers and other relevant parties, determine the content of the journal, and design the layout of the journal, In so doing, students will have a holistic experience, seeing the evolution of writing from its nascent stages to publication. This course is designed to fulfill the Advanced Writing requirement which almost every major on campus maintains.

Spring 2015

Biology of Women (HON 3095 Section 550)
Colleen Belk
W 3-5:50pm
3 credits
Fulfills Natural Sciences and Cultural Diversity liberal education requirements* (old category 5)
The Biology of Women course will undertake a comprehensive examination of the biology of the human female life cycle with a focus on learning to challenge prevailing stereotypes and double standards that are harmful to both males and females. Topics include: How two different sexes evolved; sex differences in embryonic and pubertal development; sex differences in human skeletal structure, body composition, reproductive anatomy and physiology. Disordered eating, violence against women as a health issue, premenstrual syndrome, menstruation the female sexual response, pregnancy and birthing, control of fertility and abortion, menopause and aging issues relevant to women. 

Community and Journalism (JOUR 2400 Section 550)
John Hatcher
TuTh 3:30-4:45pm
3 credits
Fulfills Global Perspectives liberal education requirement (does not fulfill a category in the old lib ed system but students can petition for lib ed credit through their advising office)
What is a community? What is journalism? How are globalization and technology changing what we think we know about these concepts? What is the relationship between community and journalism? What role should the journalist play in a community setting? What new questions can be gleaned through the study of journalism in one community?

Honors students in this class will spend the semester studying the dynamic relationship that exists between communities and journalism in case studies from around the world. The final step in this process will be for the students to identify a community that does not have a strong journalism/storytelling network and to propose their own startup, entrepreneurial journalism project that would serve this community. Students will be encouraged to seek out historically marginalized communities for these presentations. The students will then present their startup proposals in poster sessions in a session that will be open to the community.

Encountering Death and Grief: A Multicultural Journey (HLTH 3341 Section 550)
H (Mitzi) Doane
M 3:30-6pm
3 credits
Fulfills Cultural Diversity liberal education requirement (does not fulfill a category in the old lib ed system but students can petition for lib ed credit through their advising office)
This class incorporates field trips and guest speakers who come from different cultures, religions or death experiences (such as loss due to suicide, murder, accident). Students have an opportunity to explore death via reading and discussion including such topics as capital punishment, the right to die, war. The class is not a lecture, it is a seminar where there is a free give and take.

Philosophy and Rhetoric (COMM 3610 Section 550)
David Gore
TuTh 2-3:15pm
3 credits
Fulfills Humanities liberal education requirement (does not fulfill a category in the old lib ed system but students can petition for lib ed credit through their advising office)
We all face the challenge of how to talk effectively about the things that matter most to us. Just as it is not easy to know what we think about any given topic, we all struggle to articulate our thoughts in a way that can secure the agreement of our hearers. This course is an intellectual adventure exploring the relationship between philosophy, literally the love of wisdom, and rhetoric, literally the task of capable discussion. Each time we meet we will speak of what we have read, attempt to come to grips with our own awareness of this complex and messy world, and seek to plot out the values that we share in common. Along the way, we shall endeavor to sharpen the equipment necessary for living a good life, a life dedicated at once to learning and practicing what we learn.

*Note that due to database constraints, although this course will count toward Cultural Diversity and Natural Sciences requirements, this will not show up on your APAS until the course has been completed.

Fall 2014

Intercultural Communication (COMM 3535 Section 550**)
Ryan Goei 
Course # 29657
TuTh 6pm – 9:40pm
4 credits 
Fulfills Cultural Diversity in the US liberal education requirement (old Social Science Category 6 and also the International Perspectives requirement)

**this section is open to incoming UH freshmen only

Intercultural Communication is an extremely popular and rewarding class opportunity for UH students. Intercultural Communication is a very unique class. There are no textbooks. It is an applied class in which students engage with each other, a culturally diverse group of classmates, to learn about individuals and their experience with culture and communication here in the US and around the world. The class is based on the notion that to understand people and culture one must start by getting to know the person. As such the class requirements are almost exclusively relational in nature. You will be engaging in and writing about out-of-class “dates” with classmates from other cultures and will be participating in several class activities and trips (including two all day Saturday trips) to spend some time together building friendships. In the past these relationship-building class activities have included picnics, canoeing, swimming, camping, roller-skating, competitions, and dining out, amongst others. Students leave this class with an immensely personal understanding of humans and how culture affects their lives and views. They also often leave the class with lifelong friends, friends from various cultures both within the US and around the globe.

Intercultural Communication fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the United States requirement of UMD’s Liberal Education Program requirements. It is a four-credit class that begins the first week of Fall semester, like all others, but lasts only six weeks instead of sixteen. The class is time intensive early but complete before midterm exams are scheduled for most other classes.

 

Special Topics: Psychology of Drinking and Alcohol Misuse (HON 3095 Section 550)
Scott Carlson
Course # 34804
MWF 11-11:50 
3 credits
Fulfills Social Science liberal education category (students using the pre-2012 liberal education program will need to consult with Dr. Carlson and petition CEHSP for lib ed credit)

Alcohol use is common in North America and alcohol misuse is a major social, psychiatric, and public health problem in the United States. This course provides both an overview of psychological perspectives on the causes of drinking and alcoholism and an introduction to major theories within the broader discipline of psychology. Students will be exposed to general concepts and perspectives in major sub-disciplines within psychology and these will then be applied specifically to the study of alcohol use and problems. An emphasis is placed on how psychologists empirically approach answering questions through quantitative research. Students will be mentored in the writing of relevant types of proposals needed in the conduct of research in this field.

 

Special Topics: The World of Surfing (HON 3095 Section 551)
Scott Laderman 
Course # 34805
TuTh  9:15-10:55am
4 credits
Fulfills both Humanities and Global Perspectives liberal education categories 
(students using the pre-2012 liberal education program will need to consult with Dr. Laderman and petition CEHSP for lib ed credit)

The World of Surfing will combine the classroom study of the history of surfing with pool- and Lake Superior-based instruction on how to surf.  Surfing is of course a major cultural phenomenon, having spawned numerous movies, television programs, novels, works of visual art, video games, bands, and lines of clothing.  The course will examine the basis for this popularity, tracing the sport's modern evolution from nineteenth-century Hawai'i through its global ubiquity in the twenty-first century.  Along the way, we will explore surfing's intersection with some of the major developments of the last two hundred years: empire-building and the "civilizing mission," economic and cultural modernization, the growth of international tourism, the political upheavals of the Cold War era, and corporate globalization.  In addition to this classroom content, we will spend time in the UMD pool, where students will learn and develop surfing skills, which they will ultimately put to use during a surfing outing on Lake Superior.

The City in Film (CST3095)
Kathryn Milun
Course # 32751
TuTh 10 - 11:50am 
4 credits

Currently under review for lib ed approval. Will likely fulfill one or more lib ed categories. It is under consideration as Liberal Education offering in categories II.  Knowledge Domains (Social Sciences  and Fine Arts) and III.  Key Topics (Global Perspectives and Sustainability).  If it achieves these designations in the Fall of 2014, the instructor will work with CLA advising to see whether the 2014 Honors students can receive appropriate Lib Ed credit.   

“The City in Film” is an ambitious, interdisciplinary course that offers, through a cross-cultural array of feature films, a unique, story-based way to learn about the history of the modern city, its global extension outside of its Euro-American beginnings, the social and environmental issues triggered by industrialized urban form, and the artistic and popular responses to such urban modernity.  The course has a production dimension so that students will learn to be not only social analysts but also artistic producers.  Throughout the course, students will learn to connect the social content of what films say about modern urban life with the artistic rhetoric of how films speak.  As producers of their own three-minute short film on Duluth—a collaborative, peer-reviewed production process that will be built into the course from the beginning--students will learn to view filmic content as both social analysts and creative storytellers.  The students will host a “Local City Shorts” mini-film festival at the end of the semester to showcase their productions.  In this course, students will learn to bring social analysis into the process of visual storytelling so that, in the end, they become more adept at telling others what it feels like to live within large social structures that, as historically created forms, are neither inevitable nor inert. In short, by becoming city filmmakers themselves, students are encouraged to think as analysts and problem-solvers creatively facing the challenges of the large scale built environment they have inherited.

Global Issues (SW 1212 Section 001)
Dennis Falk
Course # 31761
TuTh 3:30-4:45pm
3 credits
Fulfills Social Science and Global Perspective liberal education category (old category 8—Contemporary Social Issues and Analysis)

Focus on global problems of war, peace, and national security; population, food, and hunger; environmental concerns and global resources; economic and social development; human rights. Examination of issues from systems, problem solving, and futurist perspectives in honors seminar format.