Fall 2022 Courses - Honors College - Virginia Commonwealth University

Honors Fall 2022 Courses

Disclaimer - This is an initial list and more information and course options are forthcoming

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Honors 398 topic courses (3 credit hours)

Intercultural Communication
CRN 43724 | 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. | M, W, F| Blended- asynchronous instruction | Shira Schiecken

This course will increase students’ intercultural competence by providing them with a set of cognitive tools to be used in their personal, academic, and professional lives. Throughout the semester, we will examine the concept and impact of culture and how cultural frameworks influence our daily and professional communication. Topics will focus on cultural self-awareness; understanding of cultural contexts, worldviews and perspectives; verbal and nonverbal communication, as well as, challenges to intercultural communication.

Drivers of Global Change
CRN 43696| Online Asynchronous | Brian Toibin

Global challenges are accelerating the demand for sustainable change in every aspect of our lives. This course provides a framework for understanding the major drivers and prioritizing critical strategies to address them.

Bringing Out The Best in Self
CRN 44024| 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. | T,R | In Person | Christy Tyndall
In this course, we will explore the notion of self and the psychological, cultural, social, and biological foundations of identity with emphasis on the period of emerging adulthood in which identity formation is a key developmental activity. Through the lenses of social and educational psychology, students will also learn about theories of motivation including achievement goal theory, self-determination theory, expectancy value theory, and self-efficacy and how to optimize personal motivational strategies.

Legal and Ethical Implications of Social Media
CRN 43969| 11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. | T | Hybrid-Asynchronous | Cheryl Black
The course looks at the intersection of traditional legal concepts, such as contract law, intellectual property law and privacy with the emergency technology of social media platforms. The course explores the impact of social media platforms on these legal topics and the role ethics plays or should play in this growing digital landscape. Basic legal principles and concepts will be introduced to provide context for students who have not taken a legal foundational course.

A Survey of World Pandemics
CRN 43862| 4 p.m. - 6:40 p.m. | T | In Person | Christopher Brooks

From early documented history, viruses have been a part of the human experience. Celebrated examples include the Justinian Plague (541 CE) throughout the Mediterranean; Leprosy in 11th century Europe; The Black Death Bubonic Plague) 14th century Europe; the Columbian Exchange in 1492 (Western Hemisphere); The Great Plague of London (1665); First Cholera Pandemic (1817); Fiji Measles Pandemic (1875); Russian Flu (1889); Spanish Flu (1918); Asian Flu (1957); HIV/AIDS (1981); SARS (2003); H1N1 (2009); Ebola (1976); Zika (2015); and most recently COVID-19 (2019). In each of these outbreaks, populations have been forced to respond to these deadly health emergencies. In this course we will survey outbreaks throughout history and then focus on three zoonotic viruses (i.e. pathogens that jumped from a non-human). We will also consider how social sciences, like anthropology, have played a role in how people process, understand, and respond to such health emergencies.

Television and the Ideal Woman
CRN 43697 | 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. | T/R | In Person | Faye Prichard

Network television as we know it today, largely began in the 1940’s. Since that time, may kinds of programming have come and gone. Arguably, the most enduring genre has been the situation comedy. Honors 398, as its title suggests, explores. During the early days, the ideal woman was often a stay-at-home mom who baked cookies, vacuumed in pearls, and oversaw the lives of her family. But even in those early sitcom days there were other kinds of women who stole the spotlight. There were working women, women who spoke up, and even dead women. Honors 398 will explore the influences that created the social picture of the ideal woman, as well as how these television icons shaped the way that Americans saw each other. We will also explore how television ideals continue to shape our values around women and their roles. How did we get from Donna Reed to Rachel Green? Let’s find out.

Contemporary Issues in Higher Education
CRN 44343 | W | 7 p.m. - 9:40 p.m. | In Person | Ben Plache

This course explores the challenges and issues facing higher education today. Topics discussed include the history of higher education, projected demographic changes, state policy, higher education costs, private and public institutions, and confronting racism and sexism in the academy.

High Performance Leadership
CRN 44386 | M | 5 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. | In Person | Thomas Connolly

This course focuses on building and leading high performing teams. Students will learn and review modern leadership theory and practical application. The course will walk students through common pitfalls of leading teams, how to overcome these obstacles, and how to work efficiently as a team. The course will also require students to reflect upon themselves as leaders in a diverse community.

Nutrition ‘Intel’
CRN 44403 | Online Asynchronous | Instructor TBA

In this course, students will examine the latest Intelligence (Intel) as it relates to nutrition as a multi-disciplinary field involving biochemistry, mathematics, psychology, sociology, history and anthropology. Students will be able to tailor their learning outcomes to align to their chosen discipline. Topics in this course will touch on the microbiome, nutrigenomics, deconstructing the numbers on a food label, behavioral eating (fat cell theory & set point theory of metabolism), food deserts/food swamps, significant achievements in food science, and diets patterned after our ancestral hunter-gathers.

Honors 399 modules (1.5 credit hours)

In his seminal 1925 essay, “Enter the New Negro,” author Alain Locke asserted that “the pulse of the Negro world has begun to beat in Harlem.” In the same year, The New York Times Herald publicized “what might be termed a Negro Renaissance.” Originally referred to as “The New Negro Arts Movement,” this vibrant period of Black intellectual, cultural, and artistic achievement and recognition soon came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. At its height in the 1920s and 1930s, the influence and impact of this movement extends far beyond these decades.

Focusing on key works by visual artists including Aaron Douglas, Lois Mailou Jones, James van der Zee, and Jacob Lawrence, and writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, this five-week interdisciplinary course examines the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the Harlem Renaissance, its importance to the Civil Rights Movement, and its ongoing relevance to issues of Black identity, systemic racism, and the role of art in the struggle for social justice that figure so prominently in our national discourse today.

In this course, the students examine the traditional to the contemporary causes of criminal behavior. Students will explore how childhood development and exposure to violence leads to delinquent behavior and the introduction to the criminal justice system. Upon introduction to the course, the students will become acquainted with the criminal court process, alternative sentencing, and incarceration. In addition, students will research challenges women who have been incarcerated experience, the role of therapeutic programs that address criminogenic factors and promote a reduction in criminal behavior thus a positive change in behaviors.

The discovery and development of antipsychotic drugs begins in the 1800s with the development of chemical dyes in clothing industries. This lead to the development of some of the earliest therapeutic drugs (e.g. methylene blue). In the 1930s, a French Pharmaceutical company (Rhône-Poulenc) developed the first line of phenothiazine antihistamines, which lead to the development of the phenothiazine, 4560 RP in 1951. This drug was chlorpromazine, better known as Thorazine in the United States. The first documented treatment of a psychotic patient with chlorpromazine was on January 19, 1952 at the Val‐de‐Grâce Military Hospital in Paris. This patient was treated for 20 days. Then he was discharged and was ready “to resume normal life” (Hamon, Paraire, & Velluz 1952). This was the first chapter in the story of how psychotherapeutic drugs were developed for the treatment of schizophrenia and for other mental disorders, such as depression. This also was the birth of Psychopharmacology. We will explore this history and the role of serendipity in the discovery and development of these drugs.

Reuse, Recycle, Recreate
CRN 44383 | Online - Asynchronous | 8/23 - 9/20 | Chelsea Lee
Drop Deadline: 8/24

Experiential learning fine arts courses approved for CHS majors only (effective 2021-2022 Undergraduate Bulletin).
General education course approved for CHS majors only (prior to 2021)

Create one of a kind artworks out of everyday objects. Get outside the classroom to source reusable and recyclable materials to create sculptural artworks. We’ll get inspiration with visits to the ICA, and local galleries, and begin to see the things around you in a different way.

This class will play a Reacting to the Past roleplaying game that focuses on the social movements that converged in Greenwich Village in 1913. This will take students to the beginning of the modern era when urbanization, industrialization, and massive waves of immigration were transforming the U.S. way of life. As the game begins, suffragists are taking to the streets demanding a constitutional amendment for the vote, organized Labor has turned to the strike to demand living wages and better conditions, and African-Americans, suffering from the worst working conditions, disenfranchisement, and social segregation, debate how to support their community through education and protest, thereby challenging their continuing marginalization in both the South and the North. In this class, students will play the roles of historical characters from this period and get to determine how “could” have turned out.

Honors Variant courses (3 credit hours)

WRLD 230 (750) HON: Intro to World Cinema
CRN 43033 | T | 4 p.m. - 6:40 p.m. | Online Synchronous | Bernardo Piciche

WRLD 230 (751) HON: Intro to World Cinema
CRN 43029| W | 4 p.m. - 6:40 p.m. | Online Synchronous | Bernardo Piciche

An overview of the main theoretical frameworks, critical concepts and debates devoted to non-Hollywood world cinemas, with special emphasis on the rethinking of national cinema and the problematizing of identity in an increasingly transnational era. Broad interdisciplinary readings in film theory, film history and cultural studies will be supplemented by case studies of particular cinemas and filmmakers, so as to convey an appreciation of the main international movements in the history of cinema.

ANTH 200 (701) HNR: Intro to African Societies
CRN 43116 | Online Asynchronous | Christopher Brooks

This course introduces the student to the African continent, its peoples and cultures. It covers such general characteristics as the physical and geographical features, climate, topography, traditional economies, languages, religions, social systems and other cultural features that are traditional to its people.

APPM 355 (701): Honors Orchestra
CRN 43487 | MWF | 1:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. | In Person

Semester course; 3 laboratory hours. 1 credit. May be repeated for a total of 8 credits. Open to music majors or by permission; audition required. Provides an opportunity to rehearse and perform works from the symphonic repertoire while improving ensemble skills.

ENGL 313 (701): Honors Popular Culture Studies: Race & Identity in American Music
CRN 41277| M, W | 2 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. | Hybrid-Synchronous | Mary Caton Lingold

ENGL 200 is a prerequisite for this course.

This course is ideal for music lovers, history buffs, and those interested in identity and race. We will listen to a range of musical genres, watch documentary film, read cultural criticism, and learn a lot about the history of American musical life.

ENGL 337 (701) Honors Victorian Poetry
CRN 43065 | MWF | 1 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. | In Person | Nicholas Frankel

ENGL 200 is a prerequisite for this course.
A survey of the poetry of Victorian Britain, usually including Tennyson, the Brownings, Arnold and the pre-Raphaelites.

ENGL 391 (750) HONR: Topics: Sustainable Environments
CRN: 44351 | T | 4 p.m. - 6:40 p.m. | In Person | Cristina Stanciu

This course will focus on the theme of sustainable/unsustainable environments in Native American fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and film. We will consider the impacts of colonialism and settler colonialism on Indigenous North American social and physical environments and the ways traditional forms of cultural, spiritual, and ecological knowledge provide alternatives to Western systems of thought. Possible authors include: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, Winona LaDuke, Cheri Dimaline, and others.

HIST 391 (701) HON: Global History of Animals
CRN 44488| T/R | 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. | Online Synchronous | Rocio Gomez

This course examines the interactions between humans and non-human animals. It examines the role of other animals in human culture, economy, religion, thought, food, and politics. The course begins with an examination of early human-animal relations in the Pleistocene period and continues through agricultural development, further domestication, and ends with the current state of that relationship. The course is broad and inclusive and will take examples from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America. Films and experiential learning options will be provided as well.

IDDS 200 (751) Honors: Disability History and Culture
CRN 44558 | M | 4 p.m. - 6:40 p.m. | Online Asynchronous | Tosha Yingling

This course provides an interdisciplinary exploration of disability within American society and internationally throughout history. It examines how disability studies, as a field of study, views disability as a social, political, historical and cultural phenomenon. The class examines cultural attitudes about disability and how they influence policies that are designed to address disability.

Please contact Jared Johnson (jajohnson4@vcu.edu) to request a course override if needed.

HONR 494 Capstone (4 credit hours) Two Sections Offered

Eligibility: Only available to take during students' graduating semester
This course will examine community engagement, including theories of citizenship, human rights, social movements, civic leadership, social justice, civil discourse, and social capital strategies. Through the use of case studies and field observations gained from neighborhood visits in RVA, students will be able to use an interdisciplinary lens to analyze and apply principles and practices of community engagement. Lastly, while engaging in this capstone course, students will connect the nine priority areas established by the Capital Region Collaborative. These pillars – Education, Job Creation, Workforce Preparation, Social Stability, Healthy Community, Coordinated Transportation, James River, Quality Place, and Demographics – serve as a framework for community engagement. Those areas of interest are particularly relevant, having been established by the greater Richmond region through lengthy engagement with the Collaborative.

Honors Sections

Honors sections of the following standard VCU courses will be offered. Please see the VCU Bulletin for course descriptions.

Biology 300
Biology 310
Business 325
Chemistry 101
Chemistry 301 lab
Economics 210
Economics 461 (Fed Challenge)
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate 311
Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies 201
Management 310
Marketing 301
Mathematics 201
Philosophy 201