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Honors students Erin Harmon, Ryan Blackman, and Ashley Cayless invite you to explore the new curriculum! |
University Honors Program Curriculum
To complete the University Honors Program curriculum, students will take 36 Honors credits, distributed as follows:
1. Honors Writing Intensive First-Year Seminar (Honors WIFYS), 3 credits: Honors WIFYS focuses on preparing Honors students to be effective writers in their own disciplines and in the Honors Program. Students will be introduced to the elements of professional discourse in their own discipline so they are prepared to participate in that discourse as undergraduates. Students will research and write an exemplary essay in their discipline and will learn about academic venues for disseminating their research, including undergraduate academic conferences and journals. They will share their disciplinary findings with a wider audience by communicating the results of their research at a public forum.
2. Seven Honors courses in General Education, 21 credits: In addition to Honors WIFYS, the Honors Program offers a variety of other Honors courses in General Education each semester. Most Honors courses correspond to regularly offered General Education courses. For example, HON 122: Honors World History I is equivalent to HIS 105: World History I. Some Honors courses do not correspond to regularly offered General Education courses, yet they can fill General Education requirements. The general education category that Honors courses fulfill are posted on the Honors schedules. Students usually complete most of their Honors courses in General Education during their freshman and sophomore years.
3. Three Honors Seminars, 9 credits: Honors seminars will be interdisciplinary explorations of specific topics designed to demonstrate the interconnectedness of academic disciplines. The small seminars (usually 15-20 students) will focus on discussion of readings and will include individual and/or group research projects. Some seminars, including Honors Business and Society and Honors Introduction to Exceptionalities, meet core requirements for Business and Education majors, respectively, and students may occasionally be able to count other seminars toward the completion of their major requirements. Students will usually complete the interdisciplinary Honors seminars during their junior and senior years. Note: Students who complete undergraduate research or creative projects beyond the Honors capstone requirement may petition to substitute this experience for one or more of their Honors seminars.
4. One Honors capstone project, 3 credits: The University Honors Program’s capstone project will be a major independent research or creative project. Students will usually complete the Honors capstone project during their senior year. Options for completing the capstone include:
- University Honors Colloquium: The University Honors Colloquium will explore a theme, and students will undertake a research project on the theme from the perspective of their discipline. Students will present the results of their research at the University Honors Symposium. The University Honors Colloquium will be offered each fall semester, and it may also be offered as a domestic or international study course during the summer.
- Thesis: Students will register for research or independent study credit and will undertake a research or creative project under the direction of a faculty member.
- Internship with a related research project: Students will register for internship credit, and their faculty supervisor will oversee their research project.
- Student teaching experience with a related research project: Students will register for student teaching credit, and their faculty supervisor will oversee their research project.
Course Offerings: Spring 2009
General Education Courses
HON 100 Introduction to Human Communications
Dr. Sharnine Herbert
Gen. Ed. Category: Required Skills and Competencies
TR 11:00-12:15
This course is designed with two primary goals. First, as an introductory course, Introduction to Human Communication introduces you to the field of human communication and provides you with the background to pursue upper-level courses in Communication. Accordingly, this course focuses on communication contexts, vocabulary, and basic theories of the discipline to provide you with a foundation for advanced study.
In addition to public speaking, we survey important features in the study of all human communication, including language, conflict, climates, culture, and gender, and we locate specific study within the contexts of interpersonal and group communication. Second, as an introduction to a humanistic field of study, this course seeks to provide application of theory in order to further your skills as communicators and abilities as critical thinkers. Consequently, this course focuses on experiential learning in order to demonstrate the purpose and practicality of academic inquiry.
HON 123 Honors World History II (2 sections)
Dr. Christine Senecal
Gen. Ed. Category: Required Skills and Competencies
MWF 10:00-10:50
MWF 11:00-11:50
HON 210 Honors Introduction to Music
Dr. Margaret Lucia
Gen. Ed. Category: B
M 6:30-9:15
HON 249 Honors Introduction to Literature
Dr. Cathy Dibello
Gen. Ed. Category: B
MWF 1:00-1:50
Ever since Adam and Eve’s disobedience led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, literature has featured characters who do not conform to social norms. While some of these characters challenge conventional mores for personal or political reasons, others are simply unable or unwilling to fit into their culture. Focusing on the theme of misfits and rebels, this section of Honors Introduction to Literature will present fiction and drama from a range of cultures. The four works that we will read, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Henrick Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Kenzabura Oe's Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, depict characters at odds with their environments. This student-centered course will emphasize discussion. Other activities include reports, a researched essay, an acting assignment, and a mid-term exam.
HON 108 Honors Astronomy
Dr. Allen Armstrong
Gen. Ed. Category: C
TR 8:00-9:15
HON 279 Honors U.S. Government and Politics
Dr. Sara Grove
Gen. Ed. Category: D
TR 9:30-10:45
McCain or Obama? Barring the emergence of an unforeseen wealthy third party candidate or a national calamity, one of these two men will become the next President of the United States. This course will begin by looking back at the 2008 presidential campaign to examine the impact of young voters as students read Martin Wattenberg’s book Is Voting for Young People?
Then, on January 20, 2009, we will begin following the new administration as it enters its honeymoon period. The first 100 days of the new administration will test the President as he faces uncertainty in the financial markets and challenges to the United States’ status as the leader of nations. Compelling parallels exist between the political and economic climates facing either Obama or McCain and that which Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced when he became President in March 1933. We will examine Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office by reading Anthony Badger’s new book FDR: The First Hundred Days on the topic.
The President’s relationship with Congress presents another set of unknowns. Will the Democrats reach the magic number of 60 seats in the Senate in the November 2008 elections? Will Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives? If McCain is elected President, how will he work with the Democratically controlled legislature? If Obama is elected President, will he be successful in having Congress adopt his agenda for change? Answers to these questions will emerge through our course and through readings of journal articles on the legislative-executive relationship.
Probability distributions suggest that the next President of the United States will have the opportunity to replace at least one member of the United States Supreme Court (Associate Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years old). Any change on the U.S. Supreme Court has the potential to change the direction of the Court’s decisions given its current 5-4 split. How the Court evaluates the constitutionality of issues and how the Court views the Constitution itself will be a topic examined in this course. We will read the latest book by one of America’s leading legal scholars, Laurence Tribe, The Invisible Constitution. We will delve into some of the cases pending before the Court during the 2008-2009 term and make predictions about their eventual outcomes. Students will be active participants in discussion; there will be a simulation in the course as well. Students will write critical essays on the topics discussed in the preceding paragraphs with an eye toward publication of the essays in a variety of outlets.
HON 151 Honors Introduction to Psychology
Dr. Adrian Tomer
Gen. Ed. Category: E
MW 2:00-3:15
A course in introductory psychology has the purpose of providing the student with some of the main ideas and principles of modern psychology. As such we’ll cover the main areas of psychology including methods, biological bases of behavior (the genetic basis and the brain), cognition (thinking and problem solving, memory, intelligence) and the measurement of personality and social psychology (e.g., conformity, obedience). One of the goals of the course is to become familiarized with some of the most influential studies in the history of psychology. A number of studies that changed the landscape of psychology, as well as their theoretical and practical implications, will be presented and discussed in class.
Upper-Division Courses
HON 360 Honors Independent Capstone Project Preparation Seminar, 1 Credit
Dr. Michael Long
M 5:00-6:00
HON 392 Honors Seminar: Heroines and History (2 sections)
Dr. Christine Senecal
Dr. Shari Horner
Gen. Ed. Category: B (Literature)
W 6:30-9:15
Counts as one of the required Honors Seminars. Counts as elective credit for English majors, history majors, and Women's Studies minors. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
Offers an introduction to the study of various famous and infamous women throughout history. Using history, literature, and artwork, students will view these women in light of the historical biases surrounding their legends, the motivation for authors to have considered these women worth discussing, and how later periods have viewed these women. Students will gain an appreciation for the literary and historical sources that discuss these heroines' lives, the historical context which produced these sources, and an understanding of the difficulties of resuscitating "real" historical characters from "invented" ones.
Some possibilities of heroines for consideration include the Old Testament figure Juliana, Dido/Cleopatra (the fictitious literary character was inspired by the last Egyptian Pharaoh), Mary the mother of Jesus, the Byzantine Empress Theodora, the Anglo-Saxon Saint Eugenia, the French medieval literary allegory Silence (not historical, yet will reveal much about Central Medieval European historical trends), and Queen Elizabeth I of England.
HON 394 Honors Seminar: Invention and Innovation
Prof. Jan Ruby
R 1:00-3:45
This seminar counts as one of the required Honors Seminars. Open to Honors sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
Designed to focus student efforts in the process of creativity, design, invention, teamwork, and process analysis. Students from a variety of disciplines will experience hands-on activities in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Each student e-team will develop an original product or concept from which a prototype will be built and if applicable, temporary patent assigned. Skills in developing business and marketing plans, performing patent searches, and producing sophisticated presentations will be studied and practiced. This is a course that will inspire and challenge students to grow, to think, to process, to create, and to bring ideas to fruition.
Upcoming Course Offerings: Fall 2009
General Education Courses
HON 100 Introduction to Human Communications
Gen. Ed. Category: Required Skills and Competencies
HON 106 WIFYS (2 sections)
Gen. Ed. Category: Required Skills and Competencies
HON 122 Honors World History I (2 sections)
Gen. Ed. Category: Required Skills and Competencies
HON 101 Honors Introduction to Theatre
Gen. Ed. Category: B
Dr. Paul Leitner
MWF 12:00-12:50
HON 196 Chemistry in the Modern World
Gen. Ed. Category: C
HON 141 Honors World Geography
Gen. Ed. Category: D
HON 161 Honors Introduction to Sociology
Gen. Ed. Category: E
Upper-Division Courses
HON 396 Honors Colloquium
TBA
HON 497 Honors Strategic Management
TBA
Scheduling Honors Courses
The schedule of Honors courses offered each semester is posted approximately one year in advance. Students are encouraged to plan ahead to avoid enrolling in courses that will be offered as Honors courses in a later semester.
The Honors secretary, Sharon Poe, schedules students into courses before the regular scheduling period begins. To schedule Honors courses, students should contact Sharon Poe at sapoe@ship.edu on the specific dates posted on the Honors website and let her know which Honors courses they would like to schedule. If any courses are oversubscribed, students will be given priority based on the number of credit hours they have earned.
Academic Policies
Academic Probation and Dismissal Policy
Honors students will maintain a 3.25 QPA in their Honors courses and a 3.25 overall QPA. Students who fail to maintain a 3.25 QPA in both their Honors courses and overall will be placed on probation. If after two semesters of being a full-time student on probation they have not achieved a 3.25 QPA in both their Honors courses and overall, they will be dismissed from the Honors Program. Students may appeal their dismissal through the Honors Program Advisory Board.
Satisfactory Progress toward Program Completion Policy
In order to complete the academic requirements of the Honors Program, Honors students should enroll in at least one Honors course each semester. If a student has not completed the program's academic requirements and does not enroll in Honors courses for two consecutive semesters without providing a written explanation that has been approved by the Honors director, the student will be dismissed from the program.