HON - Honors

FYS 101H First Year Seminar-Honors Colloquium I

Taught on a variety of topics, these interdisciplinary seminars focus on cultivating student skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, oral presentations and information literacy in a small group setting.

Credits

3.0

Core

Foundation/First-Year Seminar

Offered

Fall Semester

HON 102 Honors Colloquium II

Prerequisite: FYS 101H. A colloquium on a selected topic each year in which students explore one or more specific issues arising from the general theme introduced in the first semester colloquium. Emphasis is on collaborative, as well as independent, learning and examination of works from the humanities, sciences and social sciences.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Spring Semester

HON 201 Honors Colloquium III

Prerequisite: HON 102, or admission to the Honors Program as a sophomore. This course takes a global perspective on the world and asks students to consider topics such as how and why different societies construct institutions, art, literature and regional and cultural identities.

Credits

3.0

Core

Global Perspectives

Offered

Fall Semester

HON 202 Honors Practicum

Prerequisite: HON 201. In this course, students design and participate in a service-learning project that addresses a social or intellectual problem of the student’s choice, includes an experiential and a research component and makes a positive contribution to the local community. Each student makes a culminating presentation of her/his experience and research.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Spring Semester

HON 301 What Good is a Woman? Women in Traditional Societies

Prerequisite: Open to sophomores, juniors or seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructors. An interdisciplinary study of issues of gender in art, religion and society, with emphasis on the major cultural traditions of West and East. The course examines images of women from prehistoric times until about 1500 and considers the way in which these images change from period to period and from culture to culture.

Credits

3.0

Offered

As Needed

HON 301GER Berlin in the 20th Century

Prerequisite: completion of the Literature area of the Core or permission of the instructor. 

The interaction of a “cultural landscape” and literature from the turn of the century to the year 2002 will be studied in works by Alfred Döeblin, Nelly Sachs, Bertolt Brecht, Christa Wolf, Zehra Cirak, etc. Movies will be used to provide a visual background and further topics for discussion.
 

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as GER 301

Offered

Offered As Needed

HON 302CL Classical Mythology

Prerequisite: Fulfillment of Literature section of the Core. 

Study of major works of Greek and Roman literature, their use of history and myth and their influence in the Western world. 
 

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as CL 302

Offered

Offered Spring Even Years

HON 328 STEM and the Environment

Prerequisites: Completion of the Laboratory Course portion of Scientific Thought. Open to sophomores, juniors, or seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. From global climate change to pollution to decreasing biodiversity, our society faces a wide range of environmental issues. This course will look at a range of these issues and what we can do to mitigate these challenges. The course will focus on the role STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines play in understanding and finding solutions to both local and global environmental issues, but it will also incorporate political, legal, ethical, and social dimensions of environmental issues.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Term As Needed

HON 302 Third World Development: Latin America

Prerequisite: Open to sophomores, juniors or seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. An interdisciplinary study of the Third World that uses aspects of literature, culture, politics, biology, demography, history and economics to understand how the world works for most of humankind. The course features field trips, guest speakers and a team approach to investigating problems of the developing world.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as SPAN 302

Offered

As Needed

HON 304 Censorship in America

Prerequisite: Open to sophomores, juniors or seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. This course examines the historical and contemporary aspects of censorship in America, paying particular attention to government and societal attempts to repress speech, press and the arts.

Credits

3.0

Offered

As Needed

HON 307 The Chesapeake Bay: Human Impact on a Natural System

Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in ENSP 210 and ENSP 212 or permission of instructor. Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Honors Program. The natural history of the Chesapeake Bay region will be examined in the context of society’s exploitation of a natural system. Scientific topics will be combined with historical, sociological, and economic perspectives to form a coherent portrait of the interplay between society and the environment.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as ENSP 307

Offered

As Needed

HON 312 Revisioning Motherhood in Modern Western Culture

Prerequisite: Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. An interdisciplinary study of the institution of motherhood and its representations in modern cultural productions of the Western world. Students will examine the myth and reality of mothering by analyzing readings in social, political and psychoanalytical theory as well literary and filmic texts. This course may be used for credit in the women’s studies minor.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as SWAG 312

Offered

Fall Semester (Every 3 Years)

HON 313 Great Political Trials

Prerequisites: Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. This course analyzes great political trials that have reflected the political controversies of their time. Western tradition of law and legal analysis through trials held in the United States, France and England will be examined and contrasted and compared with trials held under socialist, Islamic and indigenous political systems.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as PSCI 313

Offered

(As Needed)

HON 315 Literature of Moral Reflection

Prerequisite: Prerequisites: Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. Through analysis and discussion of works of great literature, students will examine questions concerning human nature and ethical responsibility. Authors may include Tolstoy, Greene, Hurston, Marx, Golding, Camus, Sophocles and C.S. Lewis.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as PHIL 315

Offered

As Needed

HON 316 Perspectives in Global Health

Prerequisites: Completion of the Scientific Thought and Philosophical Inquiry areas of the Core. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the Honors Program or with permission of the instructor. This course examines basic advances in genetics, reproductive medicine and in combating infectious diseases and explores their ethical implications, particularly for non-Western cultures. Students use a case study approach to consider topics like genetics, epidemics, euthanasia and reproductive technology from a global, non-Western perspective.

Credits

3.0

Core

Global Perspectives

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as PHIL 316

Offered

As Needed

HON 318 Theory and Practice in the Arts: The Philosophy of Music

Prerequisites: Completion of the Literary Analysis and the Visual and Performing Arts areas of the core. Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Honors Program or with permission of the instructor. In this class we will survey the writings of philosophers, artists and other figures who attempted to explain why music appeals to us and what the musical experience says about human nature. Readings will be taken from antiquity, the distant past, and the present day. Our goal will be: (1) to study how philosophers have attempted to explain what the musical experience says about human nature; (2) to study what these explanations say about the time periods and cultures from which they came.

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as MUSC 318

Offered

Fall Semester (Odd Years)

HON 322 Law and Cyberspace

Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Honors Program, or with permission of the instructor. Exploration of the legal and technology issues that arise with the emergence and use of digital technologies throughout society. Topics include: relevancy, investigation, prosecution and enforcement and jurisdiction of existing laws in cyberspace, online vices, internet bullying, identity theft cyberterrorism, hacking and digital forensics.

Credits

3.0

Offered

As Needed

HON 329 Biomedical Ethics

Prerequisites: One course from the Scientific Thought section of the Core. This course takes a philosophical and scientific approach to understanding current ethical issues in medicine and covers topics such as abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, genetic testing, informed consent, organ transplantation and experimentation with human subjects.

Credits

3.0

Core

Philosophical Inquiry

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as PHIL 319

Offered

As Needed

HON 335 Teaching Assistantship

Prerequisite: Open to juniors or seniors in the Honors Program, with permission of the instructor and the Honors Director. An opportunity for juniors or seniors in the Honors Program to assist instructors in FYS 101HHON 102 or HON 201 by attending classes, helping to lead discussions and assisting with class-related projects and peer review. May not be repeated or substituted for required courses in the Honors Program. Grading is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Credits

2.0

Offered

Either Semester

HON 364 Exploring Utopia

Prerequisites: Completion of the Literary Analysis requirement, ENGL 222 or ENGL 223 or ENGL 311; or permission of the instructor. A study of utopian thought from Plato's Republic through contemporary science fiction. Texts may include St. Augustine's City of God, The Rule of St. Benedict, Campanella's City of the Sun, More's Utopia, Bellamy's Looking Backward, Gilman's Herland, Huxley's Brave New World, as well as films such as Gattaca and Minority Report. The course will also include a study of experimental utopian communities. (CT)

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as ENGL 364

Offered

Spring Semester (Odd Years)

HON 368 American Landscapes: Environmental Literature in the United States

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. How does the American landscape function in our imagination, our policies, our lives? This reading-intensive course covers a wide range of environmental works: political, scientific, philosophical, autobiographical. Authors include Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Leslie Marmon Silko, Annie Dillard, Gary Snyder, Jack London, and Eddy Harris. (H2, CT)

Credits

3.0

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as ENGL 368

Offered

Fall Semester (Odd Years)

HON 375 Independent Study

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Independent work in a topic selected by the student and faculty adviser. Conferences.

Credits

1.0 - 3.0

Offered

Either Semester

HON 397 Special Topics

An upper-level special topics course offered at the discretion of the department. The content and methods vary with the interest of students and faculty members

Credits

3.0

Offered

As needed

HON 463 International Currents in Modern Fiction

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. Considers recent global fiction that transcends boundaries of nation and language. Raises questions about race, gender, religion, political allegiance, violence, memory, history, and East/West relations. Authors may include Achebe, Gordimer, Salih, Endo, Nabokov, Ishiguro, Ondaatje, Roy, Lahiri, Rushdie, and Coetzee. (H2, CT)

Credits

3.0

Core

Global Perspectives

Cross Listed Courses

Also offered as ENGL 463

Offered

Fall Semester (Even Years)

HON 470 Honors Seminar

Prerequisite: Open to seniors in the Honors Program. May not be repeated. Advanced interdisciplinary study of a topic of interest to senior Honors students and faculty. Class discussion will be supplemented by independent research, collaborative projects, student presentations and guest speakers.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Both Semesters

HON 499A Honors Thesis

Prerequisite: Open to seniors in the Honors Program. As an alternative to a departmental honors thesis, students in Hood’s Honors Program may elect to complete a 6-credit interdisciplinary Honors paper. The interdisciplinary honors paper is a two-semester senior-year program designed for students who wish to pursue intensive research or special projects in close coordination with faculty advisers.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Both Semesters and/or Summer

HON 499B Honors Thesis

Prerequisite: Open to seniors in the Honors Program. As an alternative to a departmental honors thesis, students in Hood’s Honors Program may elect to complete a 6-credit interdisciplinary Honors paper. The interdisciplinary honors paper is a two-semester senior-year program designed for students who wish to pursue intensive research or special projects in close coordination with faculty advisers.

Credits

3.0

Offered

Both Semesters and/or Summer