Honors Seminars
Upper class students are required to take an Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar as part of their six-course requirement. Students may choose to take more than one seminar. These 4-credit seminars are designed to expose students - primarily sophomores and middlers - to a variety of topics through an interdisciplinary format.These seminars may be either team or individually taught. Recent seminars range from Eating and the Environment to Espionage. Most of these courses fulfill NU CORE Level Two requirements. Honors students must complete one HNR seminar to receive Honors Course Distinction.
Spring 2010
HONR 3340
Topics in Contemporary Issues: A Diversity Perspective
"Being 'Crazy' in America: History, Policy and Popular Culture"
Instructor:Maureen Kelleher, Director, Honors Program, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
CRN: TBA, Section TBA, Monday 5-8pm
Engineering: Social/Cultural Elective
Criminal Justice: Social Science Requirement or Non-CJ Open Elective
Course Description:
The social history of mental illness in the United States and the manner in which this health issue is portrayed cements a perspective of 'being crazy' that is often linked to tensions between normality and social deviance. This course will track this tension by focusing on three broad themes. First, the course will situate the historical response to mental illness by tracking the emergence of the asylum movement in the United States through to present day mental health interventions. Second, this course will explore how the category of 'metal illness' is socially constructed and will address how gender, age, and social class among other variables affect perceptions of who is mentally ill, why they are ill, and how we should respond to this 'illness.' Finally, this course will assess how cultural forms such as contemporary film, fiction and memoirs have helped to shape our perceptions of mental illness and influenced our contemporary public policy response. This course targets students interested in social history, social problems, and social policy issues viewed through a popular culture lens.
HONR 3320
Topics in Research and Inquiry: Focus on Analysis
"A History of Espionage"
CRN TBA, Section TBA, Wednesday 5-8pm
Instructor: Jeffrey Burds, Associate Professor Department of History
Engineering: Historical Elective
Criminal Justice: Social Science Requirement or Non-CJ Open Elective
Course Description:
Commonly referred to as the world’s “second oldest profession,” espionage is an intrinsic part of the relationships between communities, institutions, states. Drawing from a wide variety of published and unpublished primary and secondary sources, supplemented by modern theoretical and social science perspectives, literature, and films this course explores the history of espionage through a series of case studies: from ancient Rome; the Reformation; the French Revolution; the American Civil War; World War I; the Russian Revolution; World War II; the Chinese Revolution; the Cold War; and the post-Cold War era. Students will create a framework for understanding the alternative roles of espionage in wartime and peacetime, as well as the standard methods for establishing and running agent networks in hostile conditions. They will apply these lessons in their own semester research projects on some aspect of the history of espionage.
HONR3341
Topics in Contemporary Issues: An Historical, Ethical or Aesthetic Perspective
"Contemporary Issues in Health Care"
CRN TBA, Section TBA
Instructor: Lorna Hayward, Associate Professor. Department of Physical Therapy, Bouve College of Health Profession
Engineering: Social/Cultural Elective
Criminal Justice: Non-CJ Open Elective
Course Description:
The course will examine modern health care issues at the individual, local, national, and global levels. Students will develop an understanding of U.S. health care issues in an historical context. Students will also develop an understanding of health care issues abroad in both developed and underdeveloped nations. Students will examine health decisions from multiple perspectives including: historical, political, ethical, financial, technological, and epidemiological.
HONR3342
Topics in Contemporary Issues: Focus on Analysis
"Alternative Medicine: Medical, Cultural, and Historical Phenomenon"
CRN: TBA
Instructor: Euguene Bernstein, Pharmaceutical Sciences - Bouve College of Health Sciences
Course Description:
Alternative medicine is a complex phenomenon, with significant medical, historical, social and cultural implications. Alternative medicine includes such interventions as acupuncture, herbalism and massage therapy among others. Many alternative medical interventions developed at a particular historical time. For example, some interventions used today like acupuncture, have been used for thousands of years in China and became more known worldwide after President Richard Nixon visited there in the 1970s.
Many methods of alternative medicine are based on the concept of vitalism. Vitalism argues that "vital forces" are ultimately responsible for the operation of biological systems. However, modern science does not recognize the existence of a "vital force."
This course will provide a critical framework for an assessment of the role of alternative medicine both historically and its contemporary role where it often works alongside Western medical interventions. Interest in such strategies emerges in a wide range of settings including popular culture. For example, Eli Stone, a recent television series, combined acupuncture with modern brain surgery strategies to help the hero deal with serious medical issues.
In this course, students will track the role that alternative medicine has played, situating it within various historical times and cultures, and assessing it as a health intervention through a wide-range discussion of alternative medical methods.