Course Descriptions

For a full Course Schedule can be found on ACIS.

Course Descriptions for SPRING 2025

Honors Course Descriptions for SPRING 2025

SPRING 2025

Great Issues in Humanities
Climate Change and the Humanities

HSP 135 CRN
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Dr. Elizabeth Barrios-Ramirez

Course Description: This interdisciplinary course has two central goals. The first is to provide a cultural history of the climate change as a byproduct of humanity’s incessant efforts to control the biosphere. We will particularly focus on fossil fuels as the key tool used to “liberate” human societies from material constraints. The second aim of this course involves exploring how a changing global climate pushes us to re-evaluate traditional ideas about what separates culture from nature, the human from the animal, the immediate from the global and long-term. In particular, we will examine the role of writing and the arts in helping us think about, respond to, and prepare for ecological catastrophe, as well as their role in helping us imagine more sustainable ways of life.

The readings include Latin American, U.S. American, and European fiction, continental philosophy, political theory, as well as historical and anthropological texts. We will additionally analyze advertisements, photography, performance art, and film about a range of environmental topics.

**This course counts toward – Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in the Humanities
LAW AND LITERATURE

HSP 131 CRN
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
11:45am – 12:50pm
Vulgamore

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course draws from a wide range of sources including novels, short stories and/or films and theoretical materials to establish the link between law and literature. It also explores such issues as text, legal ideology, storytelling techniques by writers and litigants in a courtroom, marginalization, language, the questions of evidence, etc. Additionally, it seeks to understand writers’ contributions to the indigenous and received traditions in the law through legal narratives that illuminate some aspects of the law or, indeed, raise fundamental questions about those traditions.

Evaluation of the course will be based on attendance, attentive reading of assigned materials prior to class, active participation in class discussions, three critical essays (or the student’s own creative work), and a reasonable length term paper.

** Course counts toward – Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Humanities
Vergangenheitsbewältigung – German Crime Fiction and the Holocaust

HSP 131 CRN
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30 – 11:35am
Dr. Perry Myers

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will provide an overview of the history of the detective genre, broadly defined, as it developed in post-World War II Germany to the present with an emphasis on texts and films, which can be linked to “coming-to-terms-with-the-Nazi-past” (Vergangenheitsbewältigung). The course begins with a very brief exploration of the Nazi era and the parameters for defining evil and determining complicity. With this in mind, we will then read major German detective novels and view films that contend in various ways with the aftermath of the Nazi period and the Holocaust. At the end of the course, we will briefly contrast how the United States has dealt with the aftermath of slavery during the Jim Crow South and close by reading one American murder mystery to help us think comparatively about the prospects of “return” and “repair” of past evils.

** Counts toward – Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis **

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration

Great Issues in Social Science
SOCIAL AND POLICY ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM

HSP 155 CRN
Monday, Wednesday
3:30 – 4:45pm
Eric Dickens

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course explores pressing social and policy concerns facing schools, teachers and students today through a series of in-class debates. Students will debate current issues including banning students from using ChatGPT, censoring books in school libraries, virtual homeschooling, charter schools, standardized testing, and disciplinary action against teachers for their social media posts. Throughout the semester, students will research current issues and present arguments in order to build their critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation skills and gain a nuanced understanding of complex education and societal issues. Specifically in this course you will learn –
1. SWBAT critically explore the social, economic, and political contexts of
education
2. SWBAT understand and reflect on one’s own assumptions and beliefs about
schooling and education
3. SWBAT critically read educational and popular literature to analyze and
understand authors’ arguments
4. SWBAT develop a nuanced understanding of issues from multiple perspectives

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Social Science & Historical**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the Director of Honors before registration.

Great Issues in Social Science
COMPARATIVE PUBLIC POLICIES

HSP 159 CRN
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
1:00 – 2:05pm
Dr. Eliska Schnabel

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course explores policies around the world across different systems and institutions. First, we will discuss the historical, economic, political, and social factors influencing countries’ responses to public policy issues. Then, we will focus on select policy areas, such as economic policies, social policies, immigration, and healthcare, especially in developed democracies worldwide. We will dive deep into these policy areas, engaging with scholarly literature and exploring the topics in fictional and nonfiction movies. We may try to engage with policymakers during a field trip to Lansing, which will help to understand the constraints policymakers face and differences among different levels of government, and we may also visit one or two embassies to gain better insight into policymaking in other countries.

** THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Social Science & Global **

Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Science
MICROBES IN SOCIETY

HSP 126 CRN
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30 – 11:35am
Ola A. Olapade

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Microbes are recognized as arguably the pre-eminent and one of the oldest living cellular entities in the natural world. The documented numerous contributions by microbes have significantly shaped, impacted and transformed various environments and other cellular forms, over billions of years of their co-evolutionary residence within the biosphere. Therefore, the main goal of this course is to have a better appreciation for the presence of various microbial populations within different societies, especially by exploring their contributions towards several human activities in different societies such as to agricultural practices, animal husbandry, biotechnology, disease causation, food production, energy generation, among several others. The class will begin by endeavoring to find the appropriate answer(s) to such a rhetorical question as, “are microbes’ human friends or foes?” As the course progresses, other very important questions including “why is it that all societies are not necessarily influenced and/or transformed the same way or at the same rate, globally? This particular question is very germane to the course, especially to the present-day phenomenal issue as proposed and explained by the “hygiene hypothesis”. Specifically, the course will discuss why there are observed differences in the occurrence and prevalence of some immune-related, hypersensitivity diseases between western developed societies and their poorer, under-developed counterparts globally. Could these observed differences be attributable to variations in exposure rates and levels by human residents to various microbes in these societies? This and many other relevant questions around interactions between microbes and human societies will be pondered upon and discussed during the duration of the course.

** THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Science & Environmental **

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Science
COMMUNITY SCIENCE & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES

HSP 126 CRN
Time: 1:00 – 2:05pm
Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Dr. Joe Lee-Cullin

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course students will investigate citizen science (here meaning nonprofessional participation in science) as it relates to the natural sciences, its capacity to influence policy, and its value in empowering and educating communities. Readings will be branch across multiple scholarly disciplines including Environmental Justice, Environmental Policy, Ethics, Geography, Ecology, and Earth Science.
Students will develop their own citizen science proposal focused on an area of personal interest, take turns leading discussions, and work with a community partner to develop a project to crowdsource important hydrologic data while simultaneously actively learning methods to collect river quality data as nonprofessionals themselves. There will be one local field trip (date presently TBD) in conjunction with our community partner to collect river quality data.

** This course counts for Environmental and Science for Honors **

Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Fine Arts
BOOK ARTS

HSP 172 CRN
Monday Wednesday Friday
2:15 – 5:00pm
Professor Emmeline Solomon

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Designed to teach students the traditional and contemporary craft and conversations around handmade visual books. Students will master a wide variety of historical and contemporary bookbinding techniques through hands-on demonstrations as preparation for their own individual content-driven creations. In addition to the craft of bookbinding itself, and the creation of unique works of art, students will investigate the history and social importance of the bound book and printed word through readings, and discussion.

**This course will count toward – Artistic Creation & Honors Fine Arts

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Science
THE MUSICAL MAGIC OF DISNEY, SPIELBERG and LUCAS: A CRITICAL SURVEY

HSP 172 CRN
Time 10:30 – 11:35am
Days- Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Location – Observatory
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

COURSE DESCRIPTION: One cannot experience a Disney or Spielberg or Lucas film without hearing those legendary tunes that carry us into the magical worlds of these movies. Audiences would not have the same aesthetic connection to these movies were it not for these compositional titans. This honors course will explore, from the analytical lens of Schenkerian and semiotic analysis, some of the greatest music for Disney films as well as the music of John Williams. The Disney music composers brought the same creative and intellectual detail and rigor to their roles in the Disney movie empire as John Williams has done in the Spielberg and Lucas dynasties. This course will discuss multiple film songs and compositional strategies to reflect character, plot, overall thematic context, as well as relevant biographical studies about each composer. Students will study several films to learn to break down impactful musical moments into concrete theoretical phrases, which help to elevate the expressive genre and meaning of each cinematic moment. The final assignment will allow students to creatively and critically present a piece of Disney or Williams music through the carefully dissected lens of narrative and abstract musical analysis, including harmonic, melodic, structural, textural, and orchestral archetypes. Each project will reflect as an additional outcome, the mapping of the musical trope onto the film narrative. A true course of experiential learning, this class will engage students’ imaginations with texts they already identify with, and will teach them to articulate how these stories are enlivened through the genius of the composers.

**This course will count toward – Artistic Creation & Honors Fine Arts
Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Fine Arts
MUSIC & OUR SOCIETY

HSP 172 CRN
Monday & Wednesday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Observatory
Dr. Ji Hyun Kim

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to explore and evaluate various ways music and our society are connected and how musical compositions and performances can influence (and be influenced by) social, political, economic, technological, and other developments in our society. We will practice critical thinking skills and self-expression through planning and creating effective multidisciplinary musical presentations that conveys your own voice about (and/or reactions against) notable events, people, issues, ideals, or changes in today’s society. You will develop an understanding of the fundamental elements and process of composing and performing music through assigned readings, active listening, and in-class discussions and creative activities

**This course will count toward – Artistic Creation & Honors Fine Arts

Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

HONORS THESIS DEVELOPMENT COURSE

HSP 397 CRN
Wednesdays
6-7:00 p.m.
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The thesis development colloquy is a writing workshop open to Prentiss M. Brown seniors, juniors, and sophomores. The workshop prepares students for, and guides them through, the process of researching and writing an undergraduate thesis. Students learn how to identify a research question and situate it in the relevant literature, assemble a thesis committee, and develop a thesis proposal. Students will also develop their library research skills, learn how to responsibly cite sources, create smart writing goals and learn strategies for developing a writing habit. In sum, this course helps students identify and navigate the challenges of thesis writing and learn the tips and tricks that academic writers use to overcome them.

Note: In addition to reaching out to me for individual assistance, our Associate Director, Renee Kreger is a great asset to you for information on thesis deadlines, the thesis registry form and other technical questions about the thesis process.

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FALL 2024

Great Issues in Fine Arts
HEAR THEM ROAR: The Unsung Voices of Women in Country Music and Beyond

HSP 178 CRN 9355
Tuesday – Thursday
10:30am – 12:20pm
Observatory
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

COURSE DESCRIPTION : This class is open to honors students from all academic majors , and will explore the roles of women in country music. The genre of country music has roots in several different cultural frameworks including folk, blues, gospel, rockabilly, Pentecostal, etc. These genres will be explored along with the cultural, socio-political, and historical frameworks which placed women in subjective, oppressive, and repressive roles. The music which emerged by women in the country music field empowers women of all classes and tells their rich stories. Furthermore, the class will also explore current country music trends and how some of the greatest super-stars have used their immense success to create powerful political, social, and cultural change. Critical engagement of women’s issues such as representation of women in musical works, sexualization of body and voice, feminist aesthetics, and the roles of gender in the entertainment industry will focus all class discussions/listening activities. An historical overview of country music and its musical forerunners, combined with the limitations/opportunities for women will give rise to global roles of women in music, as well as current popular/entertainment roles for women in the country music industry will trace the development of the narrative of women’s empowerment and stardom in country music.

There will be a class trip to the Grand Ole’ Opry in Nashville, TN.
NOTE: The trip to Nashville is not mandatory BUT if you do not go you will need to complete a substitute assignment that will be negotiated with Dr. Jensen-Abbott. The trip will be during Fall Break, we will leave campus on Friday, October 11, thru Tuesday, October 15th 2024. You will need to commit to the trip by June 15. 2024 – Renee will contact you for your decision.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Fine Arts & GENDER**
Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.
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Great Issues in Social Science
IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY

HSP 157 CRN 9021
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30 – 11:35am
Dr. Scott Melzer

COURSE DESCRIPTION: How does difference get transformed into inequality? Our interdisciplinary honors seminar examines the connections between group identity and inequality. We will focus in particular on contemporary cases in politics and education, as tied to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, citizenship, caste, and more. Whereas identity has been the province of micro-level researchers, inequality implies a macro-level analysis. Our course will attempt to bridge these two levels of analysis by studying group rather than individual identities. Sociology, political science, psychology, and education are some of the key academic disciplines that will inform our understanding of these issues.
Group identities are cultural constructs rooted in socio-historical processes of belonging and exclusion, power, conflict, stigma, dehumanization, violence, and oppression. Although identities are arbitrary – they are, after all, contested and change over time – their hierarchical ordering make them all too real in people’s everyday lives. Group membership and status affect psychological, emotional, physical, economical, educational, and political wellbeing. We will explore social movements such as BLM, MeToo, and Standing Rock to better understand American identify politics, along with how the racial/ethnic/class cultures and policies of elite U.S. college impact student belonging and exclusion, and how the rigid caste systems in India and Nazi Germany compare to group-based structural inequality in the United States. We will conclude the course asking if inequality is inevitable; that is, can there be difference without oppression?
**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Social Science & Ethnicity**
Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Social Science
JUST MAKE IT PINK: Portrayals of Women in STEM

HSP 158 CRN 9214
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30-11:35
Olin

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will focus on how the portrayal of women and femininity in various forms of American media has impacted the representation of women in STEM fields. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) women, “women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber the number of women majoring in most STEM fields in college.” With the push over the last two decades to deliberately increase representation of women in STEM fields via more representation in books, tv shows and movies and a move towards more STEM-based toys, why haven’t these changes made a major impact?
Students in this course will use a lens drawing upon Critical Feminist Theory to view film, TV shows, magazines, toys, books, etc. to study the representation of girls and women in STEM in the media. For instance, when the media is deliberately showing women scientists and/or mathematicians, how are they being portrayed? What science and math are they actually doing and how does it compare to their male counterparts? Do their portrayals reinforce gender norms within their scientific field or do they challenge them? There is a tendency in STEM toys and children’s books marketed to girls to be essentially the same as their “boy” counterparts, but just in pastel colors, called the “Paint STEM Pink” phenomenon. Students will consider the social construction of gender and the way binary constructions of gender are propelled through media and toys. Students will think critically about what it means for a toy to be interesting or desirable to girls. Do these toys need to be different to appeal to girls? If so, how? And why? Are these toys asking girls to engage in authentic STEM activities?
Are the STEM activities marketed to girls reinforcing or challenging gender stereotypes? Investigating these questions will require students to bring together different perspectives on gender and media analysis.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Social Science & GENDER**

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP135, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration
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Great Issues in Humanities
Vergangenheitsbewältigung: Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past in Literature and Film

HSP 131 CRN 9277
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:45 – 12:50pm
Dr. Perry Myers
Vulgamore 115

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Humanities & Ethnicity**

Great Issues in Humanities
LAW AND LITERATURE

HSP 131 CRN 9278
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30am – 11:35am
Vulgamore

**This course will count toward – Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.
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Great Issues in Science
MAKING MEDICINE: How Science, Politics, and Money Shape the Medical Profession

HSP 124 CRN 9354
Tuesday – Thursday
8:00 – 9:50am
Craig Streu (Chemistry & Biochemistry)

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Medicine is a big business in America. Developments in the science of medicine have played, and continue to play, a central role in geopolitics, global trade treaties, the stock market, and most importantly, our health. This course will explore the world through the lens of pharmaceuticals. How does medicine get discovered, how does it work, how is it sold, how is it regulated, and why should we all care? The course will have a distinct focus on the science behind drugs, but it is impossible to separate the science of drug discovery from the business of medicine and so the course will often and unavoidably diverge into topics of ethics, marketing, politics, and economics. From the quackery of the dark ages, to modern sports doping and the opioid epidemic, this class teaches you to solve problems like a scientist, but asks you to grapple with the complexities of the issues involved as a responsible global citizen.

This course will focus on the role of pharmaceuticals in our healthcare system.

**This course will count toward – Honors Science & Modeling & Analysis

Honors Thesis Development Colloquy

HSP 397 CRN 9356
Wednesdays
6-7:00 p.m.
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott (she, her, hers)
Director, Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program

SPRING 2024

Great Issues in Fine Arts
QUEERING DESIGN

HSP 178 CRN 2450
Tuesday, Thursday
10:30 – 12:20pm
Bobbitt
Ashely Feagin

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Queer Design will cover the history of the queer influence on art, design, and activism. The course is shaped so that students will examine the historical impact of the queer movement as it relates to art, design, and activism, focusing on producing inclusive designs within the studio arts and writing. Through examining what it means to call something “queer,” the course will have weekly readings and discussions that will accompany a review of artists working within the context of the reading topic. Beyond the theoretical realm of the discussions, students will receive instructions on how to use Photoshop, Premier, and Illustrator to create individual works of art. Students will apply the covered theories to projects in art, design, and activism. Project Evaluations / Peer Critiques will happen in a group setting where the presenting student will receive feedback and suggestions on the work submitted.

**THIS COURSE COUNTS FOR: Honors Fine Arts & Gender**

Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Fine Arts:
WOMEN, GENDER, AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE DIASPORA

HSP 178 CRN 2395
Tuesday, Thursday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Dr. Demerdash-Fatemi

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines contemporary artistic practices of artists based in the Middle East and within the diaspora, through the lens of women’s perspectives and gender issues. Taking cues from the late Jamaica-born cultural theorist Stuart Hall—in his argument that cultural identity is fluid, mobile, hybrid, and often plural in nature—this mid-level course examines contemporary visual and literary cultures (e.g. architecture, literature, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and beyond) against the backdrop of migration and cosmopolitanism, created by predominantly women artists who originally hail from, or have roots in, a range of Middle Eastern and North African nations. In addition to the intersections of cultural identity and geopolitics, our queries will focus on artistic production vis-à-vis issues of gender and women’s plural subjectivities.

Identity in the Middle East and North Africa is an inherently complex matter, and it is rendered even more complex with the women artists we will look at this semester. The Middle East and North Africa are plural, diverse regions with incredibly multicultural, multi-religious (e.g. Muslim (Shi’a, Sunni), Jewish, Coptic, Catholic, Druze, Orthodox Christian, Zoroastrian, etc.), multiethnic (e.g. Armenian, Jewish, Berber/Amazigh, Arab, Turkic, Kurdish, Farsi/Persian, etc.), multilingual (e.g. Arabic (a Semitic language) and its various dialects, Hebrew, Amazigh (a Berber language), Farsi (an Indo-European language), Turkish (Ural-Altaic language), Urdu (Indo-Aryan/Indo-European).

**THIS COURSE COUNTS FOR: Honors Fine Arts & Gender**

Note: If you have taken taking a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

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Great Issues in Science
PATTERNS IN NATURE

HSP 123 CRN 2127 / LAB CRN 2128
11:45am – 12:50
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
LAB – Thursday 2:15-5:15pm
Dr. Goldberg

Course Description: Spots, stripes, spirals, symmetries, waves, cracks – patterns abound in the natural world among both living and non-living entities. In this course, students will explore the physical, chemical, and biological basis of pattern formation and the ways in which humans (and other organisms) perceive and respond to them. Students will also examine ways in which humans have historically drawn inspiration from patterns in nature and incorporated them into art, literature, architecture, and design.

**THIS COURSE COUNTS FOR: Honors Science & Scientific Analysis**

Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Science
SEX AND GENDER, NATURE AND NURTURE

HSP 125 CRN 2129
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
1:00 – 2:05pm
Dr. Marc Roy

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will examine how biological factors interact with physical, social, and cultural factors to influence the expression of sex and gender in a variety of animals, including humans. From the earliest possible moments, sometimes even before birth, we identify individuals as females and males. Gender roles and identities are reinforced from birth with the clothes we dress infants in and the toys we give them. But what makes us males and females? Sex and gender are concepts that have been studied from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. Are they the same things? What leads to differences in sex and gender? While some people have argued that biological factors are the primary factors that determine if an individual is female or male, others have argued that these terms are socially constructed and that social and cultural factors are the primary determinants of sex and gender.

Our understanding of sex and gender has changed historically and is understood differently in different cultures. Also in this course, we will examine how these constructs, along with sexual orientation, have changed over time. We will also explore how gender and sexual orientation are understood and expressed in several different cultures and social groups (e.g. religious groups, race, and ethnicity), including those that the students may have encountered in their lives. We will use texts from several disciplines including biology, psychology, and anthropology.

**This course counts for the Honors Science & Gender**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration

Great Issues in Science
Microbes and Society

HSP 126 CRN 2448
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30 -11:35pm
Ola A. Olapade

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Microbes are recognized as arguably the pre-eminent and one of the oldest living cellular entities in the natural world. The documented numerous contributions by microbes have significantly shaped, impacted and transformed various environments and other cellular forms, over billions of years of their co-evolutionary residence within the biosphere. Therefore, the main goal of this course is to have a better appreciation for the presence of various microbial populations within different societies, especially by exploring their contributions towards several human activities in different societies such as to agricultural practices, animal husbandry, biotechnology, disease causation, food production, energy generation, among several others. The class will begin by endeavoring to find the appropriate answer(s) to such a rhetorical question as, “are microbes’ human friends or foes?” As the course progresses, other very important questions including “why is it that all societies are not necessarily influenced and/or transformed the same way or at the same rate, globally? This particular question is very germane to the course, especially to the present-day phenomenal issue as proposed and explained by the “hygiene hypothesis”. Specifically, the course will discuss why there are observed differences in the occurrence and prevalence of some immune-related, hypersensitivity diseases between western developed societies and their poorer, under-developed counterparts globally. Could these observed differences be attributable to variations in exposure rates and levels by human residents to various microbes in these societies? This and many other relevant questions around interactions between microbes and human societies will be pondered upon and discussed during the duration of the course.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Science & Environmental**

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

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Great Issues in Social Science
SOCIAL AND POLICY ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM

HSP 155 CRN 2447
Tuesday, Thursday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Eric Dickens

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Social Science & Historical**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the Director of Honors before registration.

Great Issues in Social Science
The American Civil War in Myth and Memory

HSP 155 CRN 2446
Monday, Wednesday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Instructor: Professor Marcy Sacks

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Less than a century after fighting for independence from Great Britain and establishing a federal republic, Americans turned their firearms on each other in the bloodiest war in the nation’s history. At the end of hostilities, over six hundred thousand soldiers lay dead while approximately four million former slaves enjoyed legal freedom for the first time. Yet even after General Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865, the war continued (and continues) to be fought in American memory. Americans have found many ways to memorialize the Civil War: through monuments, political speeches, flags, and even popular music and film. These various forms of memorialization and the battles over them tell us less about the actual war and more about the kinds of memories that people living after the war wanted to create.

We will spend the first half of this course learning about the war itself and the second half examining how it has lived on long after the conflict officially ended and what those afterlives mean.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Social Science & Historical**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the Director of Honors before registration.

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Great Issues in Humanities
RACE IN MEDIA

HSP 137 CRN
TUESDAY & THURSDAY
2:15 – 4:05pm
Vulgamore
Dr. Krista Quesenberry

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This seminar offers students the opportunity to examine how race, ethnicity, and nationality have been represented in our student-run campus newspaper, The Pleiad. We will work across the disciplinary boundaries of journalism, feminist studies, ethnic studies, and communications, while building digital research portfolios that combine archival research, analysis, argumentation, and reflection. Each student’s individual project will reveal some of the ways that “history’s first draft” has been shaped by student journalists here at Albion College, as well as how student journalists can be a force of positive change.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Humanities & Ethnicity**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the Director of Honors before registration.

Great Issues in Humanities

Don Quixote and the Development of the Modern Novel

HSP 131 CRN 2321
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
9:15 – 10:20
Kalen Oswald

COURSE DESCRIPTION: “The best novel in history: 100 renown
Authors select ‘El Quijote’ in a survey conducted by the Nobel Institute.”

Thus reads the title of a full page article in El País from Wednesday, May 8, 2002. Very few would argue that Miguel de Cervantes’s work El ingenioso

hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha is a masterpiece of world literature. Virtually everybody has heard of Don Quijote and Sancho, and most have seen some representation of their (mis)adventures, be it the Broadway hit “Man of La Mancha,” the more contemporary made for TV movie starring Jon Lithgow, or Mr. Magoo’s Don Quixote. The verb phrase “tilting windmills” and the adjective “quixotic” are found in English dictionaries.

Nevertheless, the fraternity of humankind that has actually read the entire book cover-to-cover is still relatively small. It is about time we make that fellowship a little larger. Reading and analyzing this work—the first great modern novel will be a challenging, but life changing experience.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARDS Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the Director of Honors before registration.

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Thesis Development Course
Mandatory course for all Incoming starting 2023

HSP 397 CRN 2441
Wednesday
6:00pm-7:00pm
Observatory Classroom
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

A workshop open to Honors program 1st years, sophomores and juniors. This course will guide you through the process of finding and developing a thesis topic and assembling a thesis committee. Students also develop their library research and other thesis-related skills. In the semester they enroll in the colloquy, Honors students may take up to 4 3/4 units without additional tuition charge.

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FALL 2023

Great Issues in Science
Microbes and Society

HSP 126 CRN 3428
Tuesday and Thursday
2:15 -4:05pm
Ola A. Olapade

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Science & Environmental**

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Science
PATTERNS IN NATURE

HSP 123 CRN 3403
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1:00-2:05pm
AND A LAB
Thursday 2:15-5:15pm
Dr. Goldberg

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Spots, stripes, spirals, symmetries, waves, cracks – patterns abound in the natural world among both living and non-living entities. In this course, students will explore the physical, chemical, and biological basis of pattern formation and the ways in which humans (and other organisms) perceive and respond to them. Students will also examine ways in which humans have historically drawn inspiration from patterns in nature and incorporated them into art, literature, architecture, and design. Taught in studio format.

**This course will count towards Honors Science & Scientific Analysis

Note: If you have already taken a section of Honors Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

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GREAT ISSUES IN HUMANITIES
LAW AND LITERATURE

HSP 131 CRN 3405
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
1:00pm – 2:05pm
Dr. Emmanuel Yewah

**This course will count toward – Honors Humanities & Textual Analysis

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Humanities, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

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Great Issues in Fine Arts – From the Ballroom to Hell: Vienna 1814-1815
HSP 172 CRN
Tuesday – Thursday 10:30 – 12:20p.m.
Observatory Professor Maureen Balke

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Vienna 1814-1815—Napoleonic war, politics, the Congress of Vienna, censorship, secret police, rapidly changing society; the diversions young people sought to “escape” from unpleasant (or horrific) realities of war.
Such diversions ranged from grand public spectacle (major concerts, opera, the theatre, grand balls, celebrity virtuosos, exotic animals) to the intimate salon and Schubertiade, held in private homes and including poetry, song, and tableaux.
To counter the “Hell” and chaos of war and the battlefield (the dominion of men), the “Ballroom” in particular became the dominion of ladies, including the development of elaborate rituals and games concerning costume, etiquette and dance. In tandem with dramatic and rapid changes in dress from the French aristocratic model to the more free and form-revealing “Josephine” style, new and scandalous dances (such as the Waltz—but not at all the sedate version we know today!) developed. Ballroom “games” for choosing one’s dance partner, including “The Mirror” and “Whips and Reins”, frequently resulted in embarrassment (for those partaking) and great hilarity (for onlookers!). All these activities were a form of “escape” from life’s stresses, within “safe” societal boundaries.
Meanwhile at the Congress of Vienna, called to re-balance power on the continent in order to prevent another Napoleon, the Prince de Ligne summarized the proceedings thus: “You have come at the right moment. If you like fetes and balls you will have enough of them; the Congress does not move forward, it dances.”
We will study the political, social, and musical context in which all these reactions to the times occurred. We will study the Congress of Vienna (with its political, strategic, festive, and amorous complexities), and read the diary of a Napoleonic footsoldier (with eye-witness accounts of horrific battlefield conditions, starvation, privation, infestation, disease and slaughter), and view the A&E production Napoleon: An Epic Life. We will read etiquette and dance manuals from the period, and look at historical costume, etiquette, class structure, and dance through viewing Pride and Prejudice and portions of Amadeus. We will listen to music of Schubert and his contemporaries, and study selected readings about Viennese history and society.
Class members will create individual projects presented at the end of the semester. Projects may involve music, historical information or skits, dance, ballroom games, battlefield strategies, etc. according to students’ interests.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Fine Arts & MAC/Artistic Creation**

You do NOT have to be a dancer, singer, actor, poet, musician, historian, or political scientist in order to contribute to class!

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Fine Arts
Hear Them Roar: The Unsung Voices of Women in Country Music and Beyond

HSP 178 CRN 3407
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30am – 11:20am
Observatory
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

COURSE DESCRIPTION : This class is open to honors students from all academic majors , and will explore the roles of women in country music. The genre of country music has roots in several different cultural frameworks including folk, blues, gospel, rockabilly, Pentecostal, etc. These genres will be explored along with the cultural, socio-political, and historical frameworks which placed women in subjective, oppressive, and repressive roles. The music which emerged by women in the country music field empowers women of all classes and tells their rich stories. Furthermore, the class will also explore current country music trends and how some of the greatest super-stars have used their immense success to create powerful political, social, and cultural change. Critical engagement of women’s issues such as representation of women in musical works, sexualization of body and voice, feminist aesthetics, and the roles of gender in the entertainment industry will focus all class discussions/listening activities. An historical overview of country music and its musical forerunners, combined with the limitations/opportunities for women will give rise to global roles of women in music, as well as current popular/entertainment roles for women in the country music industry will trace the development of the narrative of women’s empowerment and stardom in country music.
There will be a class trip to the Grand Ole’ Opry in Nashville, TN.

NOTE: The trip to Nashville is not mandatory BUT if you do not go you will need to complete a substitute assignment that will be negotiated with Dr. Jensen-Abbott. The trip will be during Fall Break, we will leave campus on Friday, October 13, thru Tuesday, October 17^th. You will need to commit to the trip by June 15. 2023 – Renee will contact you for your decision.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Fine Arts & GENDER**

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP Fine Arts, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration.

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Great Issues in Social Science
U.S. FOREGIN POLICY SINCE 1945

HSP 151 CRN
Tuesday / Thursday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Dr. Midori Yoshii

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course analyzes U.S. foreign policy from 1945 to present through texts. This year we will discuss three main topics: connections between U.S. foreign policy and violence in domestic policing; U.S. influence on worldwide human rights movements; and U.S. wars abroad and their impact on the local women. Students will also write a research paper of their own topic related to American foreign relations since World War II.

Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by Lia Jensen-Abbott, Director of Honors, before registration.

GREAT ISSUES IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
Just Make it Pink: Portrayals of Women in STEM

HSP 158 CRN 5510
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30-11:35
Olin

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will focus on how the portrayal of women and femininity in various forms of American media has impacted the representation of women in STEM fields. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) women, “women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber the number of women majoring in most STEM fields in college.” With the push over the last two decades to deliberately increase representation of women in STEM fields via more representation in books, tv shows and movies and a move towards more STEM-based toys, why haven’t these changes made a major impact?

Students in this course will use a lens drawing upon Critical Feminist Theory to view film, TV shows, magazines, toys, books, etc. to study the representation of girls and women in STEM in the media. For instance, when the media is deliberately showing women scientists and/or mathematicians, how are they being portrayed? What science and math are they actually doing and how does it compare to their male counterparts? Do their portrayals reinforce gender norms within their scientific field or do they challenge them? There is a tendency in STEM toys and children’s books marketed to girls to be essentially the same as their “boy” counterparts, but just in pastel colors, called the “Paint STEM Pink” phenomenon. Students will consider the social construction of gender and the way binary constructions of gender are propelled through media and toys. Students will think critically about what it means for a toy to be interesting or desirable to girls. Do these toys need to be different to appeal to girls? If so, how? And why? Are these toys asking girls to engage in authentic STEM activities?

Are the STEM activities marketed to girls reinforcing or challenging gender stereotypes? Investigating these questions will require students to bring together different perspectives on gender and media analysis.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS TOWARD: Honors Humanities & GENDER**

Note: if you have taken or now are taking a section of HSP135, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration

Great Issues in Social Science
Women in Media

HSP 157 – CRN 5492
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
1:00 p.m. – 2:05 p.m.
Olin Hall
Jasmine LaBine, M.A.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: As access to television and film continues to grow and evolve with the advent of streaming services, most Americans have a seemingly endless array of media content at their fingertips, ready to be consumed on demand. Such media not only reflects cultural ideals of gender and womanhood, but also informs our socialization surrounding gender identity. This course will

examine media’s role in constructing a binary system of gender that has long favored men and oppressed women, as well as how modern media continues to reinforce patriarchal structures through the objectification and dehumanization of women.

To understand media’s role in socialization, one must explore the many channels and genres of media to which our society has access. Emphasis will be placed on film and television, but other areas of media including journalism, comedy, music, advertising, sports, and gaming will be analyzed. Alongside communication theory, historical, sociological, psychological, political, anthropological, and economic factors will be explored. Similarly, to understand the effect that

media has on women, one must approach analysis critically and from a perspective of intersectionality. Discussions of representation will include analyses of race, age, and sexual orientation.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Social Science & Gender**

Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by Lia Jensen-Abbott, Director of Honors, before registration

Great Issues in Social Science
International Fraud and Ethics

HSP 159 CRN 3522
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8:00am-9:05am
Instructor: Dr. Connie O’Brien

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will examine concepts around international business, international and domestic frauds common to this and other countries, and the effect of culture on ethics, fraud, and accounting. It is also designed to contrast the detection and prosecution of fraud in the United States with other countries and the global community. We will examine and the diversity of standards and practices as well as how culture impacts accounting and fraud.

The primary goal of this class is to prepare you to be global citizens by studying and exploring international fraud and ethics.

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Social Science & Global**

Note: If you have taken or now are taking a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission from the, Director of Honors, before registration.

Great Issues in Social Science
IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY

HSP 157 CRN 3007
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:30 – 11:35am
Dr. Scott Melzer

Group identities are cultural constructs rooted in socio-historical processes of belonging and exclusion, power, conflict, stigma, dehumanization, violence, and oppression. Although identities are arbitrary – they are, after all, contested and change over time – their hierarchical ordering make them all too real in people’s everyday lives. Group membership and status affect psychological, emotional, physical, economical, educational, and political wellbeing. We will explore social movements such as BLM, MeToo, and Standing Rock to better understand American identify politics, along with how the racial/ethnic/class cultures and policies of elite U.S. college impact student belonging and exclusion, and how the rigid caste systems in India and Nazi Germany compare to group-based structural inequality in the United States. We will conclude the course asking if inequality is inevitable; that is, can there be difference without oppression?

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Social Science & Ethnicity**

Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration

Great Issues in Social Science
GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN AFRICA

HSP 158 CRN 3527
Monday, Wednesday
2:15 – 4:05pm
Dr. Abigail Meert

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines gender and sexuality in Africa, paying particular attention to the ways in which historical events and actors have shaped contemporary attitudes towards these themes. Through readings, lectures, and films, we will consider the cultural construction of gender in Africa from pre-colonial times to today. We will furthermore learn to contextualize current events regarding gender and sexuality within their respective histories and cultures. In addition to lectures, a portion of class each week will be devoted to group discussions where students will engage with course readings and in-class film clips

**THIS CLASS COUNTS FOR: Honors Social Science & GENDER**

Note: If you have taken a section of Honors Social Science, you may not take this course unless you have written permission by the Director of Honors, before registration

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Thesis Development Course – Mandatory course

HSP 397 CRN 3408
Wednesday
6:00pm-7:00pm
Observatory Classroom
Dr. Lia Jensen-Abbott

A workshop open to Honors program 1st years, sophomores and juniors which guides them through the process of finding and developing a thesis topic and assembling a thesis committee. Students also develop their library research and other thesis-related skills. In the semester they enroll in the colloquy, Honors students may take up to 4 3/4 units without additional tuition charge.

Course Descriptions

Course Descriptions for SPRING 2025

Honors Course Descriptions for SPRING 2025 Toggle Accordion

Honors Course Descriptions for SPRING 2025