Honors Program Courses
FALL 2015
*Non-Honors students with a 3.5 GPA are invited to email aubreylord@weber.edu for a departmental override to register for an Honors course.
Note: Click on the Course Title to access a course syllabus. Click on the Course Number to see posters designed to promote these classes. Visit the WSU Course Catalog for a list of Honors classes. Content will be added as it becomes available.
| Course Number | Course Title | CRN | Description | Time | Day | Room | Instructor(s) |
| H ENGL 1010 |
Writing as a Weapon: An Introduction to Writing through the Lens of Social Justice | 22283 | 9:30-10:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Sarah Vause | |
| HNRS HU1110 | The Construction of Knowledge | 21551 | This course examines how knowledge is produced, what it is used for, and what it means. Specifically, it looks to compare different forms of knowledge, their bases and purposes. In our society – even within our own university – we separate and distinguish different ways of making sense of the world. Thus, English departments remain separate from departments of physics; an art studio is across campus from a mathematics building. Although such distinctions might seem obvious, if we think of all different disciplines as representing the learning of some set of ideas and/or skills, the obvious distinction can become more blurred. In this course, you will consider where the edges between different ways of knowing exist, and even where the boundaries of knowledge itself must be. We will look specifically at science, literature, and culture systems to understand how each of these produces unique understandings, how they interact with one another, and how they contrast. | 9:00-10:15 | TR | LI 227 | Christy Call & Sue Harley |
| HNRS HU1110 | The Construction of Knowledge | 21909 | This course examines how knowledge is produced, what it is used for, and what it means. Specifically, it looks to compare different forms of knowledge, their bases and purposes. In our society – even within our own university – we separate and distinguish different ways of making sense of the world. Thus, English departments remain separate from departments of physics; an art studio is across campus from a mathematics building. Although such distinctions might seem obvious, if we think of all different disciplines as representing the learning of some set of ideas and/or skills, the obvious distinction can become more blurred. In this course, you will consider where the edges between different ways of knowing exist, and even where the boundaries of knowledge itself must be. We will look specifically at science, literature, and culture systems to understand how each of these produces unique understandings, how they interact with one another, and how they contrast. | 9:00-10:15 | TR | LL 230 | Carl Porter & Adam Johnston |
| HNRS PS1500 | Why Bad Things Happen to Good People | 21913 | 11:30-12:20 | MWF | LI 227 | Stacy Palan |
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| HNRS LS1510 | Omnivore’s Dilemma | 21918 | 12:30-3:00 | W | LI 227 | Michele Skopec |
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| HNRS CA1530 | The Dancing Body on Film | 21920 | Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels! Learn the history and behind-the-scenes mechanics of the dancing body on film. This course will cover artists in film and dance, from around the world, who came together to generate new modes of creating work to entertain, educate and inspire. | 12:00-1:15 | TR | LI 227 | Amanda Sowerby & Joanne Lawrence |
| HNRS SS1520 | Microbes Rule the World: The Effects of Disease on History | 21112 | 1:30-2:45 | M (Hybrid class) |
LI 227 | Gene Sessions & Craig Oberg | |
| HNRS HU1540 | Before I Die | 21943 | What do you want to do before you die? Inspired by Candy Chang’s public art project turned worldwide phenomenon, this class will engage with and respond to the community through public prompts and creative responses. Students will develop independent portfolios of artwork and writing inspired by the “honest mess of longing, pain, joy insecurity, gratitude fear, and wonder” expressed by Ogdenites. | 2:30-5:15 | T | KA 306 | Janine Joseph & Molly Morin |
| HNRS HU2010 | The Good Life | 21945 | Take ten seconds to imagine where you want to be in ten years. Perhaps you see yourself surrounded by a loving family, or firmly established in your career, or standing proudly atop Everest. You imagine yourself happy. Take another ten seconds. Have you ever thought seriously about why you want to be wherever you want to be? On what grounds did you decide? What is the good life, anyway? Join us this semester as we investigate philosophical conceptions of the good life from ancient times to the present day. | 10:30-11:45 | TR | LI 227 | Mary Beth Willard |
| HNRS SS2120B | The Meaning of Life | 21949 | Why am I here? Is life a test, an illusion, a battle, a game, a giant cosmic mistake? Is there even a point to any of this? Explore with us the wonderful variety of answers given by the greatest minds of the last 600 years of western history. We’ll spend the semester reading the words of some of the most influential thinkers (Galileo, Descartes, Emerson, Marx, Sartre, the Monty Python boys...), charting their answers to humanity’s biggest question. We’ll put the great thinkers in their historical context to see the amazing confluence of personalities, events, and ideas that came together to form the intellectual tradition we’ve inherited. | 12:00-1:15 | TR | SS 219 | Marc & Katie Nelson |
| HNRS HU/DV2130A | Analogs of God | 21952 | Religious traditions depend upon rituals and behaviors that invite understanding of the infinite or ineffable, through proportionate extrapolations of the “good” that we see and experience in the world. In this class we will explore how imperfect people can come to an understanding, or get some sense of a perfect God. The way I propose they come to that understanding is by seeing an analog of perfection. Not a reproduction, but a sense of perfection. We are imperfect; our faculties are limited, but we can experience love or beauty. Even imperfectly, in a transcendent way, we can imagine what perfection can be. The class will consider the notion of transcendent analogy and its relationship to Twentieth Century philosophical traditions like Humanism, Existentialism and Nihilism. Using texts from Christianity and Islam, we will look at how people who have this experience can come to know who or what God is. |
1:30-2:45 | TR | LI 227 | Ryan Thomas |
| HNRS 3900 |
Qualitative Research | 21954 | This class teaches you how to use qualitative research tools in a project of your choosing that you will then submit for publication. The course will provide you with a valuable grounding and understanding in how to use qualitative research effectively. | 12:30-1:20 | MWF | SS 121 | Barrett Bonella & Corina Segovia-Tadehara |
| HNRS 4990 | Honors Senior Project | 21959 | TBA | TBA | LIB225 | Judy Elsley |