2021 Honors FYS

All students who are admitted into the Honors Program as first-year students are expected to take an Honors FYS. The only exception made is for Bonner Scholars. In this case, students should enroll in the designated FYS for the Bonner Scholars.

The Honors FYS includes an additional fourth hour that is scheduled on Wednesday afternoons. Students also participate in an off-campus outing, which may be scheduled on a Saturday of the fall semester.

Please choose three of the following Honors FYS and place them in your First Semester Worksheet. One of these choices will be assigned as your FYS.

Learn more about the Honors Program

Class	Name/Description	Instructor	Civic Responsibility
163-H1	Speculative Fiction and the Future of Gender This course will explore the role of gender in science fiction and other speculative works primarily by women and non-binary people. By examining novels, films, emotion pictures, and other forms of media, we will challenge the normalization of gender binaries and reconsider the possibilities of women’s lives in the distant future, alternative past, and different dimensions. How does a world without a concept of gender function differently than ours? How do authors imagine worlds that are exclusively female? What kinds of powers do women in speculative narratives use to challenge oppressive power structures? Over the course of the semester, we will apply a variety of theoretical lenses including Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and Afrofuturism to examine how imagined realities reflect our contemporary understandings and changing concepts around gender and identity. We will engage in a variety of creative writing techniques such as re-mix, fan-fiction, and reader’s theater to respond to the work of authors like Octavia Butler, Ursula K. le Guin, Janelle Monáe, Rivers Solomon, and Louise Erdrich. Course #: FYS 163-H1 Professors: Peel, Anne Day/s & Time/s: MR 2-3:20 PM	Peel, Anne	Gender
162-H1	An Era of Opportunity and Crisis: The 1960s We will study culture and politics in the 1960s, with particular attention to the music that was part of the charged cultural-political landscape. Following an introductory overview of the ‘60s, we will explore the decade through intersecting, complementary concerns: the rise and evolution of youth culture; of the Civil Rights Movement, including demands for racial, gender, and sexual equality; of global relations between East and West; and of the Vietnam War. Musically, the soundtrack to the ‘60s witnessed great diversity and complexity in terms of genre, style, and performance; in this seminar, we will experience rock, rhythm and blues, soul, folk, pop, avant garde “classical,” acoustic, electronic, and psychedelic musics. Course #: FYS 162-H1 Professors: Heisler, Wayne & Venturo, David Day/s & Time/s: TF 2-3:20 PM	Heisler, Wayne & Venturo, David	Race & Ethnicity
162-H2	Racism, Crime & Prisons in US History In this course, students explore the ways in which historical racism shapes perceptions of crime, particularly racist stereotypes about Black crime and the myth (or assumption) of white innocence, racist fictions that drive the mass imprisonment of people of color in the U.S. today. We begin with an examination of racist beliefs about crime and racist punishment practices in the slavery era then the post-slavery (post-Civil War era), the Jim Crow period, and end with the 1970s to present (the New Jim Crow era or "War on Drugs" era). Throughout the course, students confront the reality that white supremacy, white privilege, and the racist terrorizing of communities of color (through state agencies like the police) are not phenomena of the past, but institutionalized in the present. In so doing, students are empowered to think critically and creatively about ways to eradicate the social injustices that maintain the racist systemic legal oppression of people of color in the U.S. Course #: FYS 162-H2 Professors: Francis, Leigh-Anne Day/s & Time/s: MR 12:30-1:50 PM	Francis, Leigh-Anne	Race & Ethnicity
164-H1	FSP Honors: Morality, God, and Free Will This seminar is about what it means to be human. Most people believe that there are moral rights and wrongs and a God (or gods) who cares about how about how well or badly they behave. They also see themselves as selves: conscious agents who are continuous in time and have the capacities (“free will”) necessary to choose between alternative possibilities and take responsibility for their actions. Yet few things are more difficult to substantiate than beliefs about morality, God, and free will. Course #: FYS 164-H1 Professors: Kamber, Richard Day/s & Time/s: MR 12:30-1:50 PM	Kamber, Richard	Global
164-H2	FSP Honors: Morality, God, and Free Will This seminar is about what it means to be human. Most people believe that there are moral rights and wrongs and a God (or gods) who cares about how about how well or badly they behave. They also see themselves as selves: conscious agents who are continuous in time and have the capacities (“free will”) necessary to choose between alternative possibilities and take responsibility for their actions. Yet few things are more difficult to substantiate than beliefs about morality, God, and free will. Course #: FYS 164-H2 Professors: Kamber, Richard Day/s & Time/s: MR 2-3:20 PM	Kamber, Richard	Global
164-H3	The History of Disease Throughout history, humans have been burdened with countless infectious diseases. Some of these, due to their lethality or their insidious spread, have become legendary. In this course, students examine the societal impact of, and science's response to, history's most significant diseases, including plague, influenza (particular attention to the 1918 Pandemic), tuberculosis, smallpox, polio, cholera, malaria, syphilis, HIV/AIDS and Ebola. 2019 is not without its share of epidemics. We will explore the extent of measles around the world and the second worst epidemic of Ebola that is currently occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through reading, writing, and class discussions, students explore the effects of each disease on two levels: the biological (microbiology, pharmacology, and immunology) and the societal (epidemiology and sociology). How does disease impact other areas including art and music? Students attempt to understand the biology of each disease while also learning its historical framework. The ethics of infectious disease monitoring and control, including quarantines, mandatory health department notification, and the use of experimental drugs, will also be the subject of classroom discussions. Current events relating to disease that crop up during this semester will be brought into the classroom on a weekly basis. How did COVID-19 imapct the world? Course #: FYS 164-H3 Professors: King, Rita Mary Day/s & Time/s: MW 5:30-6;50 PM	King, Rita Mary	Global
161-H1	Introduction to Celtic Civilization This course introduces the civilization of the pre-Christian Celts, especially through texts preserved in the Irish literary tradition and through external sources. The goal is to develop an understanding of the values and ethics of this society, as well as an understanding of how the social structures related to these goals. Studies will focus on the heroic sagas of Ireland, scholarly works on early Irish social structure, and the survival of Celtic values in modern societies. Course #: FYS 161-H1 Professors: Ochs, Michele Day/s & Time/s: MR 11-12:20 PM	Ochs, Michael
162-H3	Incarceration Nation This course will explore literature by and about prisoners from 600 AD to the present. Interdisciplinary in nature, this seminar weaves together the studies of gender, criminology, psychology, sociology, history and culture. We will read provocative, groundbreaking texts written by one of the most neglected, silenced, but all-too-critical sectors of our population, the incarcerated. Course #: FYS 162-H3 Professors: Tarter, Michele Day/s & Time/s: TF 9:30-10:50 PM	Tarter, Michele	Race & Ethnicity
164-H4	Global Political Novels “Making up stories is an inherently political act,” the Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid has commented. Among the many forms of narrative, the novel is especially suited to conveying political values, ideas, and conflict. This seminar focuses on how writers around the world have used the novel to think about global and national politics. Students will read a wide variety of novels (graphic, detective, dystopian, autobiographical, magical realist) in exploring how writers have imagined power, government, and citizenship in such places as China, Iran, the Soviet Union, Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Reading and writing assignments will prepare students for college-level work in all majors. Course #: FYS 164-H4 Professors: Black, David Day/s & Time/s: MR 12:30-1:50 PM	Blake, David	Global
164-H5	Global Political Novels “Making up stories is an inherently political act,” the Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid has commented. Among the many forms of narrative, the novel is especially suited to conveying political values, ideas, and conflict. This seminar focuses on how writers around the world have used the novel to think about global and national politics. Students will read a wide variety of novels (graphic, detective, dystopian, autobiographical, magical realist) in exploring how writers have imagined power, government, and citizenship in such places as China, Iran, the Soviet Union, Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Reading and writing assignments will prepare students for college-level work in all majors. Course #: FYS 164-H5 Professors: Black, David Day/s & Time/s: MR 2-3:20 PM	Blake, David	Global
164-H6	Women Writing the Past This course offers a study of fiction, film, and autobiography by women of color whose work demonstrates the “presence of the past” in late 20th-century life. We will read a sampling of works by US authors for the specific ways in which they construct and reconstruct the past through literature. As we read each text, we will interrogate the myths and legends that have come to be known as “history” and look at the methods, artifacts, and sources each author uses to acquaint readers with imaginative alternatives to “official records” of the past. We will also study the lesser known personal histories of the authors’ lives as well as the personal lives of the lesser-known historical figures “remembered” by the authors. Course #: FYS 164-H6 Professors: Ortiz-Vilarelle, Lisa Day/s & Time/s: MR 11-12:20 PM	Ortiz-Vilarelle, Lisa	Global