Honors Variant Courses (3 credit hours)
ENGL 326 - Shakespeare in Context
CRN 41100 | Online Asynchronous | May 22 - June 9, 2023
Prof, Matteo Pangallo
In this course we will study five plays by William Shakespeare, in the four major genres in which he wrote: comedy, tragedy, history, and tragicomedy. Through close attention to Shakespeare’s language and dramaturgy, we will examine how his plays reinforce and challenge cultural and social norms about topics such as power and authority, love and sex, justice and revenge, and race and religion. You will learn about different contextual aspects of Shakespeare’s plays and their study, such as verse, texts, and theaters. Our goal is to develop your mastery of the tools of critical analysis, historical research, and close reading so you may become expert critics and fully enjoy the artistry of Shakespeare’s language, ideas, and narratives. Your main responsibilities will be to share your own insights and interpretive arguments about the plays, paying close, critical attention to style, form, content and history.
ENGL 353 - Women’s Writing
CRN 40973 | Online Asychronous | M-F 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. | June 12 - July 12
Prof. Kate Nash
This course will focus on women’s mental health and illnesses as depicted in narratives and poetry written between 1800 and 1945. Students will learn some common assumptions about women’s mental strengths and weaknesses, presumed connections between mind and body, and common tropes in literature about women’s health. Requirements include daily discussion of readings, a class presentation and short writing assignments.
ENGL 379 - African American Literature
CRN 40387 | Hybrid Flexible | TR 6 p.m. - 8:40 p.m. | May 23 - July 13
Prof. Nicholas Brown
This course will be a survey of African American literature from the eighteenth century through the twentieth century, Harlem Renaissance. A central concept of this course is how African American literature exists and simultaneously functions as both genre and cultural product. Through a historical context, we will discuss the conditions by which African American literature developed from its roots in orality to its incorporation and re-imagining of traditional forms of writing. Engaging with works from 1789 and ending with the early 1930s requires a balance of both the concepts of literary and cultural studies, so when necessary points from either field may be addressed.
ENGL 483 - Text & Context: Race, Law, Literature
CRN 40974 | Hybrid Asynchronous | MW 3:00 - 6:15pm | May 22 - July 12
Prof. L T Oggel
This course will investigate the matter of race during the nineteenth century in America as it was treated in two modes of writing—legal and literary. During this "long nineteenth-century” (1776-1900), as modern America was being formed, the United States moved from slavery through abolition and Reconstruction to post-Reconstruction and "separate but equal" segregation that included Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. Selected federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions will be studied, such as the Declaration of Independence (1776), the U.S. Constitution (1788), the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and three Supreme Court decisions: Dred Scott v San[d]ford (1857), The Civil Rights Cases (1883), and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Alongside legal texts, prominent literary engagements with race-law will also be examined, from Phillis Wheatley’s poems, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Dion Boucicault’s play The Octoroon (1859) and Charles W. Chesnutt’s novel The House Behind the Cedars (1900). Troubling language, images and themes will be treated with respect for everyone. For undergraduates, the course will include a 7-10 page research paper; for graduate students, a 10-13 page research paper. There will be a midterm and a final exam. Daily class discussion will be essential. The course will include optional extra-credit student reports on legal documents and student-led discussions of literary works. Throughout the course, attention will be paid to the differences in the crafting of language in these two language-intensive disciplines. Class will be low-cost.
Honors 398 Topic Courses (3 credit hours)
Nutrition Intel
CRN 40930 | Online - Asynchronous
Prof. Stephen Sowulewski
May 23 - July 13 (8-week session)
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.
Space, Place & Identity
CRN 39703 | Online Synchronous
Prof. April Sopkin
May 22 - June 9 (3-week session) | 9 a.m.- 12 p.m.
We will explore how space, place, and identity contribute to our perceptions of our world and our personal mythos, and how these considerations evolved during the pandemic. The course is split into three units, touching on fiction and nonfiction about one’s hometown or region, travel or exploration, and the changed geography of our lives during COVID-19. Our reading list will include, for example, selections from the 2020 anthology A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South, Jason Diamond’s The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs, among other publications and media. This is a no-cost, discussion-based course with related writing assignments and one informal presentation.
High Performance Leadership
CRN 40929 | Online Asynchronous
Prof. Thomas Connolly
May 22-June 22 (5-week session)
This course focuses on developing high performing leaders. Students will learn modern leadership theory and practical application. The course will explore 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 on themselves as leaders in a diverse community.
Leading Through Change
CRN 40815 | Online Asynchronous
Prof. Sombo Muzata
May 22- July 12 (8-week session)
This course will explore personal and organizational leadership concepts to prepare students for their leadership journey. At a general level, students will learn why leadership matters. Various leadership models will be discussed in detail, including their application. Students will learn about challenges with leading through changing contexts and work on a semester-long project to develop a possible solution to a leadership problem.