2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Theology and Religious Studies Courses that fill requirements for theology and religious studies majors and minors are designated by the following code:
CT - Christian Thought
ID - Interreligious Dialogue
ST - Sacred Texts
TE - Theological Ethics
WR - World Religions
Note that one course cannot be used to satisfy more than one requirement.
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THRS 2130 - Science and the Church 5 credit hours
Examination of the intersection of the development of science and the Church, in particular, the theological stakes ivolved in the contextual intersection of the development of modern science and the response of the Catholic Church. Exploration of the development of key theological concepts in light of insights and challenges posed by a modern scientific understanding of the natural world. CT
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100; 1400-1440
Terms Typically Offered: W, S
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THRS 2202 - Social Justice and Christian Ethics 5 credit hours
What enables us to speak about, to understand, and to promote social justice and sustainable peace actively in a world of grave suffering and systemic oppression? This is a major ethical question for the contemporary world requiring careful thought. The goal of this course is to empower you to do ethical reflection and analysis regarding the challenge of social justice through an investigation of Christian theological thought as a resource that can help us approach this question. This section of this course will focus on resistance to systemic racism/white supremacy as a specific social justice concern. TE. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100
Terms Typically Offered: F,W,S
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THRS 2203 - Sexual Ethics 5 credit hours
This course will focus on understanding human sexuality as a socially constructed reality that also implies respect for universal human values. Human experiences of sexuality will also serve as a point of departure for exploring Catholic theological questions about God and spirituality. Students will consider the meanings of love and justice as they are relevant to sexuality in the context of diverse cultures and institutions. Special attention will be given to feminist, LGBTQ, and non-Western perspectives. TE. PRM-DEPT.
Registration Restriction(s): Majors and minors only
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100
Terms Typically Offered: Fall
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THRS 2204 - Gender, Race and Eco-Theology 5 credit hours
This course examines how the conversation surrounding the environmental crisis has been shaped by theological understandings of women and their relationship with “nature” and the Sacred. Further, the particular issues faced when addressing the intersectionality of race and gender - such as environmental racism and climate injustice - will be explored. In particular, the course will address how theology has shaped the perception of women globally, and how that perception has manifested itself practically. TE, CT. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100
Terms Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
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THRS 2221 - Spirituality and the Arts: Art Making as a Spiritual Practice 5 credit hours
An exploration of key theological questions connecting spirituality and the arts, within Catholicism and the larger Christian community. This course will consider how the arts may serve as a vehicle for encounter- with God, oneself, and the world. In particular, it will explore the practice of art-making as a way of knowing. Class includes guest speakers and field trips, allowing us to investigate how artistry informs not only individual faith, but inspires social action. CT
Terms Typically Offered: F, W, S
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THRS 2310 - Christian-Buddhist Dialogue 5 credit hours
Comparative study of Christianity and Buddhism emphasizing the unity and diversity in both traditions. Exploration of major Christian theological concepts of the divine Trinity, the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ, revelation and redemption; as compared to the Buddhist teachings of sunyata and nirvana, enlightenment, Buddha-nature, and Zen philosophy. Special attention will be given to new approaches in inter-religious dialogue, such as comparative hermeneutics of scriptures and classics. Attention to Catholic perspectives on interreligious dialogue. WR
Terms Typically Offered: F, S
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THRS 2400 - Methods in Theology and Religious Studies 5 credit hours
It is common in every academic discipline that scholars debate and discuss fundamental questions, such as: What is the subject matter of this discipline?; How does one go about studying it?; What criteria does one use to evaluate the quality of a contribution in the discipline? In this course, questions such as these will be addressed for both theology and religious studies. The course is organized and facilitated by one THRS faculty member, but will be enriched by the presence of several THRS faculty members who will discuss an area of their own teaching and scholarship as a way to illustrate a “method in action”. Required course for THRS majors, open to other students as an elective.
Terms Typically Offered: W
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THRS 2910 - Special Topics 2 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 2960 - Directed Study 2 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 3000 - Introduction to the Hebrew Bible 5 credit hours
This course functions as a survey of the Hebrew Bible, the scripture that is central to Judaism. In other required theology courses, students have the opportunity to engage with the “Old Testament,” the first section of the biblical canon for all forms of Christianity. However, the goal of this particular course is to familiarize students with the existence, content, themes, and ideas of Jewish scripture, which exists independently and is different from Christian scripture. By surveying important texts from each of the three canonical parts of the Hebrew Bible (the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings), students engage with the vast diversity of literature contained in this corpus, the multiple (and even conflicting) theologies represented, the history of the text (both academically and in later Jewish interpretation), and various methods of exegesis. The Bible is remarkably relevant in our social, political, and cultural context, yet the text cannot speak for itself: it lives in the hands of its interpreters. For this and other reasons, it is necessary for informed members of societies shaped (at least in part) by biblical religious traditions to look carefully at the text, to see what it is actually saying, and to learn where and how the text is sometimes inaccessible. ST, WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: F
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THRS 3010 - The Torah 5 credit hours
“She is a tree of life for those who hold fast to her.” According to Jewish liturgy, the Torah is the center of Jewish life. This view is easily supported by the history of Judaism, which includes extensive commentary on the Torah, producing libraries full of interpretive works. In each age, Jewish people have turned back to the Torah to make sense of their experiences. In this class, we will read major portions of the Torah, and engage in ongoing exegesis ( drawing meaning out of the text), learning about the application of various methodologies (historical-critical, literary, theological, and gender-sensitive lenses). ST. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: W
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THRS 3020 - Gender in the Hebrew Bible 5 credit hours
The construction and deconstruction of gender is the methodological focus of this class as we read texts from the Hebrew Bible: what is a “man” or a “woman”?What about LGBTQIP folk? Where do we learn how gender is embodied and enacted? How do we define gender? What are the problems that emerge from such constructions, and how can we deconstruct them? The Bible serves as a profound influence on and reflection of gender norms to this day. As we read, we will discover significant portrayals of masculinity, femininity, sexuality, difference and hegemony, rape culture, and the ways hierarchies are linked to injustice. By reading the text in this light, we can work to understand problems in our own lives, as well as find hope for equity and love. ST. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: W, S
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THRS 3070 - Global Apocalypse! 5 credit hours
Examination of ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions beginning with the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Book of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls, through to the New Testament traditions about Jesus, the letters of Paul, the book of Revelation, and other noncanonical early Christian documents. Explores how end of the world scenarios have challenged and encouraged peoples from ancient to modern times who have felt marginalized and oppressed by powers beyond their control. Drawn from contemporary film and fiction in order to describe the major themes, purposes, and communities that stand behind apocalyptic traditions; and the theological value of apocalyptic for issues of peace and justice in the world today. ST
Terms Typically Offered: W, S
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THRS 3210 - God, Money, and Politics 5 credit hours
A critical examination of the relationship between wealth and power and the Christian tradition; relationship between faith and the social, political, and economic orders; faith and justice; Christian social teachings; Christian responses to issues of poverty, hunger, and injustice. CT
Terms Typically Offered: F
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THRS 3211 - God and Empire 5 credit hours
Is God on our side?” This course will explore how people have sought to claim God’s authority either for specific social and economic structures of domination or to resist those structures. We will explore the contrasting elements of “the religion of empire” and “the religion of creation” as they play out throughout the Bible and into our world today. CT, ST
Terms Typically Offered: F, W
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THRS 3221 - The Holocaust and Christian Faith 5 credit hours
Responding to the question, “Where was God at Auschwitz?” The former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Immanuel Jakobovits, states the most important issue of the Holocaust was, “Where was man? Where was human morality amidst the Nazi regime?” this course explores the religious challenge posed by the Holocaust by exploring the writings of both Jewish and Christian writers and analyzing the shift in understanding regarding the challenging questions about God, evil, freewill and suffering. An understanding of the psycho-spiritual, social process and development that allowed the Holocaust to occur will be explored in order to examine modern genocide and/or at risk for genocide situation around the globe. CT
Terms Typically Offered: W, S
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THRS 3222 - Religion and Sport in a Global Context 5 credit hours
By studying the relationship between religion and sport in its diverse cultural manifestations, students will learn about the relationship between sport and spiritual traditions; sport, religion and empire; and conflict between religious traditions or ethnic groups or races and attempts to attain reconciliation. ID, WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: Spring
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THRS 3230 - Global Bioethics and Religion 5 credit hours
This course equips students with the intellectual tools needed to approach the questions of value most commonly encountered in the provision of health care and in medical research. Students who take this course will gain familiarity with the diverse religious and methodological tools most commonly employed for the purpose of addressing debated bioethical issues. A variety of bioethical topics and cases are given special attention and considered in light of global systems and perspectives. TE. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: W,S
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THRS 3301 - Introduction to Comparative Religion 5 credit hours
This course will not only introduce students to global religious traditions, but will also introduce students to the skills necessary for religious studies as a discipline. For each tradition included in the course, students will learn about sacred texts, hermeneutical traditions, history, ethics, culture, ritual, and demography. We will employ academic disciplines such as historical-critical methodologies, literary criticism, sociological and anthropological methodologies, and cultural criticism. Students will also explore disparate approaches to theology and spirituality. Students will develop skills in the discipline of religious studies; the course content will include examinations of religious communities in multiple global locations (including but not limited to the United States, Europe, India, Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East, and Africa); students will examine the impact of global diversity on the development of religious traditions; students will have the opportunity to explore difference in the realms of theology and spirituality; students will explore religious traditions different from their own; students will discover and examine diversity within individual religious traditions (Ashkenazic vs. Sephardic Judaism; Chinese vs. SE Asian Buddhism; etc.); students will learn about and engage in interreligious dialogue as well as methods for comparative analysis; direct experience of the religious traditions under examination will be facilitated via site visits (according to student schedules); and the examination of religious ethics in each traditions will further students’ understanding of the role of religion in facing global challenges such as environmental degradation, socio-economic injustice, and the subjugation of women. WR
Terms Typically Offered: F, W
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THRS 3309 - A Narrow Bridge: Jewish-Catholic Engagement 5 credit hours
This course traces the long and difficult relationship between the Jewish and Catholic worlds. Beginning with the advent of Christianity, these two global communities usually interacted with strife and violence. The reality is, this hostility was mostly uni-directional: the Church against the Jews. This is a difficult legacy to grapple with today, but it is at the forefront of important work over the last fifty years. No other Christian community has put as much effort into building a bridge to Jews as has the Catholic church. The purpose of this class is, therefore, to develop an understanding of the history of this relationship, to think critically about what inter-community engagement can and should look like, and to wrestle with the process of addressing a painful past for the sake of a better future. ID, WR. PRM-DEPT
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: Winter
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THRS 3310 - Introduction to Judaism 5 credit hours
Mordecai Kaplan (a 20th-century rabbi, thinker, and Jewish innovator), described Judaism as “an evolving religious civilization.” This is a useful phrase, as Judaism has a) evolved and developed over time, and Jewish history has a significant impact on identity, ritual, and self-understanding even today; b) Judaism comprises elements that are arguably “religious”-sacred text, theology, laws, etc; and c) Judaism also comprises elements that are cultural-food, language, music, ethnicity, and worldview. Each of these elements plays an important role in contemporary Judaism, but no single element is required. For example, a person can be Jewish by birth, but also by conversion. A Jewish person can be an atheist. A person can be Jewish without any religious training, without ever having set foot in a synagogue. Hence, “Jewish” is an identifier that is complex and multi-faceted, and it does not compare easily with other “religions.” For this reason, we will pursue our study of Judaism with a historical framework, beginning with the early biblical period, moving into the modem period. Along the way, we will examine Jewish texts, practices, cultures, and beliefs. WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: S
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THRS 3312 - Introduction to the Qur’an 5 credit hours
This course provides an introduction to the Qur’an, considering the Qur’an as a basis for the theological and ethical teachings for Muslims, as well as a source of literary inspiration. We will study the Qur’an in terms of its main features and themes, covering classical interpretive traditions and contemporary academic approaches, as well as the relationship between the content of the Qur’an and many practical and existential elements of Muslim life. ST, WR
Terms Typically Offered: F, W, S
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THRS 3313 - Christian-Muslim Dialogue 5 credit hours
The objective of the course is to study and cultivate the human ability to cross cultural and religious boundaries. Its subject matter is the encounter of two major monotheistic religions: Christianity and Islam. Topics include: comparative themes in the Christian Bible and the Qur’an, the lives and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the prophet Muhammad, as well as contemporary ethical and political issues in these two traditions. Attention to Catholic perspectives on interreligious dialogue. WR
Terms Typically Offered: W, S
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THRS 3320 - Buddhist Thought and Practice 5 credit hours
This course will consider the many ways that Buddhists have defined and engaged with the “Three Jewels” of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teaching) and the Sangha (the Buddhist community). Using this framework, students will examine doctrines, practices, and cultures in different parts of the Buddhist world in a variety of historical periods and reflect upon the many ways people have lived and continue to live as Buddhists. Special focus will be placed on the particular dimensions/diversity of Buddhist thought and practice unique to Theravada in Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. Students will engage in close interpretive readings of a wide range of Buddhist materials including Buddhist sutras (“scriptures”), anthropological studies, autobiographical and biographical works, and modern guides to Buddhist thought and practice written by and for practitioners. WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: F
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THRS 3321 - Socially Engaged Buddhism 5 credit hours
Socially Engaged Buddhism introduces students to the integral relationship between Buddhism and social justice movements. Often misconstrued as an otherworldly practice focused on inward transformation, popular portrayals of Buddhism have neglected the tradition’s vital political, social, and economic dimensions. In this course, students will deconstruct this negative portrayal of the religious tradition through in depth analysis of the ethical dimensions of Buddhist philosophy and practice that support and compel deep engagement in and commitment to transformation for the common good. In so doing, Socially Engaged Buddhism interrogates the relationship between the personal and social manifestations of Buddhist thought and practice and investigates the roles Buddhist thinkers, organizations, and institutions have played in social justice movements. WR
Terms Typically Offered: W
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THRS 3322 - Buddhism and Film 5 credit hours
The relationship between seeing and spiritual maturation are inextricably linked in Buddhist traditions. This course explores the power of religious modes of seeing in the Buddhist imaginary and the significance of vision and visionary cultures in the transmission and reception of the tradition through film. WR
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: Winter, Spring
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THRS 3330 - Buddhism, Gender, and Sexuality 5 credit hours
This course examines how male and female imagery and gender roles are constructed and transformed in various Buddhist traditions - Theravada (Southeast Asia), Mahayana (China, Japan and Korea) and Vajrayana (Tibet). The course explores how women who have traditionally been excluded from full participation in monastic life in various sects of Buddhism, have nonetheless made significant spaces and contributions to the religious tradition. Students will examine how traditional Buddhism may have placed limits on the full participation of women and how, in turn, women throughout history have sought to recreate and revise these teachings in order to develop their own subjectivities as active agents in the Buddhist world. By examining Buddhism in the contemporary world, particularly in Seattle’s Asian American communities, students will be introduced to the multi-ethnic and racial diversity that comprises Seattle. WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: F, W, S
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THRS 3341 - Introduction to Mindfulness 5 credit hours
This course introduces theories and practices of mindfulness meditation from Buddhist traditions. It explores how mindfulness meditation developed historically in the Buddhist tradition as well as its contemporary manifestations in programs such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Class sessions will involve introduction to the Buddhist roots of mindfulness meditation, the development of mindfulness meditation as both a religious ritual in Buddhist sanghas as well as its secularization in contemporary Western psychotherapy. Thus, the course will explore the differences between religious practices of mindfulness and its secularization. Students will therefore be required to engage in a comparative global analysis of Buddhist mindfulness, the benefits and problems with the secularization of mindfulness, and engage in their own study and practice of mindfulness to examine their own beliefs.WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
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THRS 3342 - Yoga: History and Practice 5 credit hours
Walk down any urban street in the U.S. and chances are, you will pass by at least one yoga studio-yoga has become one of the most popular forms of exercise and, at the same time, continues to serve as a spiritual practice. Like many religious practitioners, yoga devotees congregate at secular yoga studios, gyms, and even in the privacy of their own homes and most have some basic understanding of what yoga is all about, but how many understand the over 2000 year-old Indian religious roots and philosophical systems from which yoga emerged? How do contemporary practices of yoga such as Iyengar, Bikram, and Vinyasa, relate to these Indian roots and why should it matter? In this course, we will trace the history of yoga from ancient texts like the Yoga Sutra to modern practices developed by innovators like Bikram, Iyengar, and newer movements such Trauma-Sensitive Yoga and Trauma Informed Yoga for survivors of sexual assault. We will also examine the forms yoga has taken in the contemporary U.S. and the multiple critiques its popularity has inspired such as decolonized yoga, critiques of white supremacy and yoga, intersectional approaches to yoga, and the anti-Indian and anti-Hindu rhetoric associated with yoga. WR. PRM-DEPT.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
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THRS 3410 - Introduction to Sacred Texts 5 credit hours
In this comparative religion course, we will study the sacred texts of world religions (Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). We will not only examine these texts through scholarly, historical-critical lenses, but also through the interpretive lenses of faith traditions. We will ask what makes them sacred, how they function in their religious communities, and how they are interpreted in these communities. Although we will look for commonalities between these sacred texts, we will also appreciate the divergent lenses through and in which they view the world. ST
Terms Typically Offered: W
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THRS 3420 - Introduction to Islam 5 credit hours
This course introduces students to Islam as a historical religion and a lived faith tradition. The course first situates the teachings of Muhammad within the broader confessional traditions of the late Antique Near East. To that end, the course will examine Muhammad’s exposure to and appropriation of Jewish and Christian teachings about monotheism, prophecy, and eschatology. Muhammad’s teaching was encapsulated in the Qur’an, which the course will study as both a historical document and a literary text. The course will examine how the Qur’an and Muhammad’s normative practice (sunna) fostered a political community that later developed into two empires, namely the Umayyads and the ‘Abbasids. The course will also survey early and medieval Islamic cultural and intellectual developments, particularly the formation of Islamic mysticism and the ‘Abbasid translation movement that incorporated ancient sciences, especially Greek philosophy, into the Arab and Persian knowledge base. Understanding the cultural context in which Muslim theology, law, and mysticism developed into distinct discourses will put students in a good position to assess the impact of modernity and European colonialism on these bodies of knowledge. The course will analyze multiple Muslim responses to modernity-from Sunni and Shi’i orthodoxy to progressive Islam-in order to understand seismic shifts of perspective and practice within modern Islam. The course concludes by examining how contemporary Muslims debate the following issues: the authority of scholarly tradition, gender roles, sexual liberation, and the use of violence. WR
Terms Typically Offered: F
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THRS 3430 - Gender and Sexuality in Islam 5 credit hours
This course introduces students to two related bodies of scholarship, namely the study of gender in Islam and the study of sexuality in Islam. While some scholars sharply distinguish between these two fields of study, this course will encourage students to view both gender and sexuality as related dimensions of human embodiment. The course will provide students the opportunity to understand how different disciplinary locations yield multiple perspectives on embodiment in Islam. For example, classical Muslim theologians posited the body as a vehicle for moral perfection. Modern progressive Muslims, on the other hand, consider the body as a vehicle for social change. Scholarship from other disciplines, such as anthropology and literary studies, helps us understand the social and rhetorical construction of the body in Muslim societies. Muslim bodies have also become sites of political contestation in today’s global culture. Many human rights activists, media pundits, and fervent critics claim that misogyny and homophobia are inherent features of Islam. Muslims themselves are divided on these issues; some condemn gender inequalities and sexual repression, while others naturalize gendered hierarchies and heteronormativity. In everyday life, these issues play out in complex ways, as many Muslims consider criticisms of Islamic teachings about gender and sexual behavior as intrusions of Western cultural hegemony. This course will draw on the rich interdisciplinary scholarship on gender and sexuality in Islam to discuss and examine historical, theological, and ethical questions about the body. The course will examine those social institutions in Muslim settings that either reinforce or challenge gender segregation and homosocial forms of intimacy. The course will study myriad local arrangements of the sex-gender system in Muslim contexts, and students will be able to appreciate the analytical purchase of multiple scholarly perspectives and methods, from strategic essentialism to social constructionism. WR
Terms Typically Offered: F, S
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THRS 3910 - Special Topics 2 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 3960 - Directed Study 1 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 4070 - Interpreting the Hebrew Bible 5 credit hours
Intensive study of selected texts in the Hebrew Bible focusing on a specific theme; emphasis on inductive study followed by reading a variety of interpretations; attention to the use made of these texts in various strands of Jewish and Christian traditions. ST
Terms Typically Offered: S
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THRS 4140 - Interpreting the Synoptics 5 credit hours
Discussion of the synoptic problem; use of historical (source, form, redaction criticisms) and literary methods to uncover the unique portraits of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the Gospels as narrative theologies embodying images of self, God, community, and world; critical reflection on interpretative uses of Gospel traditions from diverse perspectives. ST
Terms Typically Offered: S
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THRS 4300 - Major Themes and Thinkers in Christian Theology 5 credit hours
This course explores how selected Christian theologians have approached two or three key themes in Christian systematic theology. Themes may include the doctrine of God, Christology, ecclesiology, theological anthropology, justice, or creation. Students will explore how two or three theologians have approached the selected topics and will analyze the theological choices, influences, and method evident in their work. CT
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100 and 3100
Terms Typically Offered: W
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THRS 4600 - Capstone 5 credit hours
In this Theology and Religious Studies capstone course, students address two essential questions. First, in becoming a whole person and a lifelong learner, what roles do religion and theology play? Second, how do religion and theology contribute to what you know, how you know, and why you know? In order to answer these questions, students will examine their experiences in Core and Theology and Religious Studies courses, evaluating their own academic strengths and weaknesses and crafting their personal sense of purpose and vocation. In this Theology and Religious Studies capstone course, students address two essential questions. First, in becoming a whole person and a lifelong learner, what roles do religion and theology play? Second, how do religion and theology contribute to what you know, how you know, and why you know? In order to answer these questions, students will examine their experiences in Core and Theology and Religious Studies courses, evaluating their own academic strengths and weaknesses and crafting their personal sense of purpose and vocation.
Registration Restriction(s): Senior standing required.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100 and UCOR 3100
Terms Typically Offered: S
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THRS 4770 - Honors Directed Reading 5 credit hours
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THRS 4790 - Honors Thesis Supervision 5 credit hours
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THRS 4910 - Special Topics 2 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 4950 - Internship 1 to 5 credit hours
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THRS 4960 - Independent Study 1 to 5 credit hours
Terms Typically Offered: F, W, S
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THRS 4990 - Directed Research 1 to 5 credit hours
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UCOR 1100 - Academic Writing Seminar 5 credit hours
A seminar-format course designed to develop English college-level academic writing skills in all students to prepare them for both academic and other forms of writing they will encounter in later classes (argumentative writing, reflective writing, etc.). Emphasis on: 1) fundamental writing mechanics, 2) argument construction and use of evidence and 3) rhetorical thinking/flexibility to address various situations, audiences, and genres. Each faculty member selects a theme for their section(s) to focus students’ reading and writing work.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1200 - Quantitative Reasoning 5 credit hours
Courses in quantitative reasoning appropriate to students’ major field. Essential goals include developing basic or more advanced quantitative reasoning skills (including the ability to manipulate expressions), evaluating probabilities, creating and interpreting graphs, using mathematics to solve problems, and making arguments with numbers.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1300 - Creative Expression and Interpretation 5 credit hours
Courses that engage students in both creating and understanding expressive works of art. Courses may represent a variety of arts disciplines, including: visual art, music, drama, creative writing, etc. Essential goals include: develop skills in creative thinking and expression; have direct experience in the process of creating original works of art in some genre; learn to articulate a vision through art and seek to share that vision with others; learn and be able to apply basic artistic techniques and aesthetic principles relevant to the art form; incorporate understanding of social, political, economic, and historical context of artistic movements into creative expression; learn and be able to apply simple principles to evaluate and interpret works of art; study important and relevant works of art and examples of the form of art on which the class is focused; reflect on and analyze the creative process and works of art, orally and in writing. Fees may apply in some sections.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1400 - Inquiry Seminar in the Humanities 5 credit hours
Courses that introduce students to the subjects and methods of inquiry of the humanities by engaging in focused study of one or more particularly important historical or literature-based questions arising from a humanities discipline. These courses introduce students to key concepts, knowledge, and principles of the relevant discipline as they relate to the questions being studied in the individual section. They are not intended to be survey courses or broad introductions to the discipline, but should be content-rich, with the content revolving around and connected to the central questions being studied. Each section incorporates the interpretation of primary texts (prose fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction essays and books, historical documents, works of art, film, digital media, speeches, etc.) in relation to their cultural and historical contexts; explores the relationships between language, narratives, thought, and culture; and examines the ways in which important texts and events relate to each other across time. Essential goals include: Introducing students to an important question in the humanities, the relevant content necessary to study that question, and the ways in which the humanities pursue and generate knowledge; preparing students to read and evaluate primary texts in relationship to their contexts, and the use of those texts and interpretations as evidence to construct theses or arguments. In addition, these courses teach the following skills: academic writing, argument construction/critical thinking, library research, critical reading, and oral presentation.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1600 - Inquiry Seminar in the Social Sciences 5 credit hours
Courses that introduce students to the subjects and methods of inquiry of the social sciences by engaging in focused study of one or more particularly important questions arising from a social science discipline. These courses introduce students to key concepts, knowledge, and principles of the relevant discipline as they relate to the questions being studied in the individual section. They are not intended to be survey courses or broad introductions to the discipline, but should be content-rich, with the content revolving around and connected to the central questions being studied. These courses engage students in studying questions about human behavior and social phenomena arising from a specific discipline in the social sciences. These courses all incorporate the direct study of human behavior or institutions through disciplinary-appropriate means (observation, experimentation, analysis of data, etc.); introduce students to developing hypotheses, research questions, and/or synthesizing qualitative data; and explore how knowledge of key social scientific principles provides explanatory insight into patterns of individual human and social behavior. In addition, these courses teach the following skills: academic writing, argument construction and critical thinking, critical reading, quantitative reasoning, and oral presentations.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1800 - Inquiry Seminar in the Natural Sciences 5 credit hours
Courses that introduce students to the subjects and methods of inquiry of the natural sciences by engaging in focused study of one or more particularly important questions arising from a natural science discipline. These courses introduce students to key concepts, knowledge, and principles of the relevant discipline as they relate to the questions being studied in the individual section. They are not intended to be survey courses or broad introductions to the discipline, but should be content-rich, with the content revolving around and connected to the central questions being studied. These courses engage students in studying questions about the physical/biological universe. All sections incorporate the direct examination of natural phenomena in either laboratory or field settings; use observation to develop and evaluate principles and hypotheses; and explore how knowledge of key scientific principles can be used to understand and interpret observations. UCOR 1200 Quantitative Reasoning is a prerequisite for UCOR 1810 courses. UCOR 1800 does not have any prerequisites.
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 1810 - Inquiry Seminar in the Natural Sciences 5 credit hours
Courses that introduce students to the subjects and methods of inquiry of the natural sciences by engaging in focused study of one or more particularly important questions arising from a natural science discipline. These courses introduce students to key concepts, knowledge, and principles of the relevant discipline as they relate to the questions being studied in the individual section. They are not intended to be survey courses or broad introductions to the discipline, but should be content-rich, with the content revolving around and connected to the central questions being studied. These courses engage students in studying questions about the physical/biological universe. All sections incorporate the direct examination of natural phenomena in either laboratory or field settings; use observation to develop and evaluate principles and hypotheses; and explore how knowledge of key scientific principles can be used to understand and interpret observations.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1200 or MATH 1010 or above courses of 5 credits or placement into MATH 1021 or higher
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 2100 - Theological Explorations 5 credit hours
These courses each include four key elements: An introduction to theology as an academic discipline; an examination of some of the theological beliefs that have shaped Christian understandings of the divine, especially in the Catholic Jesuit theological tradition, and a consideration of their implications for life today; an exploration of a key issue, person, or text that has had a formative role in shaping this theological tradition; and an opportunity for students to reflect on their own spiritual life and become more thoughtful and articulate in expressing their own spiritual values.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 2500 - Philosophy of the Human Person 5 credit hours
This course introduces students to the methods of rigorous philosophical reasoning; introduces students to the philosophical questions, methods, and figures that have played key roles in shaping the Jesuit approach to education and scholarship; and teaches students to critically examine assumptions about reality (especially assumptions about our natures as human beings). Each section explores two or more of the following fundamental philosophical questions: the problem of human knowing, the mind/body problem, the problem of personal identity, the problem of freedom and determinism, and the problem of other persons. This course also aims to develop critical reflective skills to prepare students for more in-depth study in ethics (in the subsequent Ethical Reasoning course), improve critical thinking and writing skills, and enhance students’ appreciation for complexity and ambiguity.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 1100
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 2900 - Ethical Reasoning 5 credit hours
These courses introduce students to major traditions of moral theory and ethical reasoning, engage students in critically examining ethical problems, and challenge students to develop rigorous personal systems of ethical reasoning. The central goals of the course are to develop students’ skills in reasoning about ethical problems and encourage deep, habitual reflection on the ethical dimensions of life. This course requires a major case study analysis of some sort. Individual sections may focus on different ethical arenas or problems.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2500
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 2910 - Ethical Reasoning Business 5 credit hours
These courses introduce students to major traditions of moral theory and ethical reasoning, engage students in critically examining ethical problems, and challenge students to develop rigorous personal systems of ethical reasoning. The central goals of the course are to develop students’ skills in reasoning about ethical problems and encourage deep, habitual reflection on the ethical dimensions of life. This course requires a major case study analysis of some sort. Individual sections may focus on different ethical arenas or problems.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2500
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 2920 - Ethical Reasoning Health Care 5 credit hours
These courses introduce students to major traditions of moral theory and ethical reasoning, engage students in critically examining ethical problems, and challenge students to develop rigorous personal systems of ethical reasoning. The central goals of the course are to develop students’ skills in reasoning about ethical problems and encourage deep, habitual reflection on the ethical dimensions of life. This course requires a major case study analysis of some sort. Individual sections may focus on different ethical arenas or problems.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2500
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 3100 - Religion in a Global Context 5 credit hours
Courses that examine religious traditions, spiritual practices and worldviews in a global context. These courses examine diverse religious traditions with respect to sacred texts, doctrines and beliefs, rituals, ethics, and spiritual practices in a global context. Emphases can include the study of a specific religious tradition, comparison and dialogue between religious traditions, and/or applying theological/spiritual perspectives and methods of analysis to global issues. Courses will include explorations of the relationships between religion, society, culture, history, and aesthetics. These courses assist students in applying theological thinking and spiritual reflection to global issues, help them develop understanding of diversity within and between religious traditions, develop facility in dialoging with persons from various religious and spiritual backgrounds, and teach them to reflect on religious traditions outside of one’s own.
Prerequisite Course(s): UCOR 2100
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 3400 - Humanities and Global Challenges 5 credit hours
Courses that explore important global issues through the lens of a specific discipline in the humanities. Each course focuses on a particular issue/challenge and course content assists students in understanding key disciplinary knowledge and approaches that provide insight into the issue. Students explore ways to productively think about and address the issue. These courses help students increase their understanding of complex global issues, develop knowledge of the humanities as they relate to global issues, explore approaches to and solutions for global issues, develop skills and confidence in applying knowledge to complex issues, and improve writing and research skills. Global Challenges courses include students from a variety of disciplines, promoting interdisciplinary conversation and understanding. This course requires a major paper or project, as well as a reflective assignment where students are asked to synthesize their overall learning as it relates to the global issue being studied. Community-based learning is encouraged but not required.
Prerequisite Course(s): 75 or more credits; UCOR 1400-level
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 3600 - Social Sciences and Global Challenges 5 credit hours
Courses in the social sciences that explore important global issues through the lens of the social sciences. Each course focuses on a particular issue/challenge and course content assists students in understanding key disciplinary knowledge and approaches that provide insight into the issue. Students explore ways to productively think about and address the issue. These courses help students increase their understanding of complex global issues, develop knowledge of a social science as it relates to a global issue, explore approaches to and solutions for global issues, develop skills and confidence in applying know ledge to complex issues, and improve writing and research skills. Global Challenges courses include students from a variety of disciplines, promoting interdisciplinary conversation and understanding. This course requires a major paper or project, as well as some kind of reflective assignment where students are asked to synthesize their overall learning as it relates to the global issue being studied. Community-based learning is encouraged but not required.
Prerequisite Course(s): 75 or more credits; UCOR 1200 or MATH 1010 or above courses of 5 credits; UCOR 1600-level
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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UCOR 3800 - Natural Sciences and Global Challenges 5 credit hours
Courses in the natural sciences that explore important global issues through the lens of a specific discipline in the natural sciences. Each course focuses on a particular issue/challenge and course content assists students in understanding key disciplinary knowledge and approaches that provide insight into the issue. Students explore ways to productively think about and address the issue. These courses help students increase their understanding of complex global issues, develop knowledge of a natural science as it relates to global issues, explore approaches to and solutions for global issues, develop skills and confidence in applying knowledge to complex issues, and improve writing and research skills. Global Challenges courses include students from a variety of disciplines, promoting interdisciplinary conversation and understanding. This course requires a major paper or project, as well as some kind of reflective assignment where students are asked to synthesize their overall learning as it relates to the global issue being studied. Community-based learning and/or field or laboratory research is encouraged but not required.
Prerequisite Course(s): 75 or more credits; UCOR 1200 or MATH 1010 or above courses of 5 credits; UCOR 1800-level, BIOL-1610/1611, BIOL-2200, BIOL-2220, CHEM-1500/1501, PHYS-1050, or PHYS-1210
Terms Typically Offered: RQ, FQ, WQ, SQ
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University Honors Students registering for these courses must have been admitted to the University Honors Program or have written permission from the program director. |
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HONR 1010 - Origins of Philosophy 4 credit hours
With the beginnings of philosophy in Ancient Greece, some of the great questions of culture and the life of the mind presented themselves for the first time. What is human excellence? What can we know? What makes a human life distinctively human? How should we live? In the dialogues of Plato and the treatises of Aristotle, these questions and others are thoroughly examined.
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HONR 1030 - Faith and Reason in Global Perspective 4 credit hours
This course examines Christian, Islamic, and Jewish medieval traditions through the study of their shared critical appropriation of Plato and Aristotle and synthesis of classical philosophy with theology and scripture. Some of the central questions are: What is the relationship between faith and reason and between theology and philosophy? Does God exist? Can the existence of God be proven? What is the nature of sin and evil? What does it mean to be human? Are human beings free? What is the soul? What role does embodiment play in being human? Authors studied include, for example, Augustine, Boethius, Avicenna, Anselm, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Ockham.
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HONR 1110 - Foundations of Eloquence 4 credit hours
Students in this class will study many of the important classical literary works whose forms gave shape to much of the literature written from the Middle Ages to the present time: e.g., epic (Homer and Vergil), tragedy (Euripides and Seneca), comedy (Aristophanes and Plautus), mythological tales (Hesiod and Ovid), satiric poetry (Horace and Juvenal), philosophical essays (Plato, Cicero, and Seneca), literary criticism (Plato, Aristotle, and Horace), and lyric poetry (Sappho, Catullus, etc.). Students will also prepare a research paper on a literary work written during classical times or one written at a later period that was modeled on a classical work.
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HONR 1130 - Between Epic and Romance 4 credit hours
This course uses two of the most common genres in medieval literature-epic and romance-as touchstones for the wide variety of literary texts produced in the period. Medieval writers reworked the classical epic to their own ends and invented the romance genre. Even works that don’t quite fit the conventions of these genres can be read as in conversation with epic or romance expectations. Through the study of these medieval texts we willexplore fascinating questions about love, secular or religious, and marriage and we will analyze medieval notions ofidentity by examining various forms of affiliation on the basis of categories such as gender and sexuality, nation, state, or ethnic group, social status, or religious belief. At the same time, we will also pay close attention to the formal and aesthetic features that are characteristic of medieval literature. Readings may include Anglo-Saxon poetry, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or Christine the Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies, among others.
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HONR 1140 - Literary Innovations 1 4 credit hours
This seminar focuses on innovations in literature from the ancient to the medieval and the Renaissance worlds, 1500 BCE to 1700 CE. It follows the movement of literary genres from oral epic to acted drama, and from written poetry and tales to printed scripts and manuscripts. We will meet innovative writers and their classic creations: for example, from Gilgamesh to the Gita, from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey to Shakespeare’s Hamlet or The Tempest, from Sappho’s Odes to Julian’s Showings, from Chaucer’s Tales to More’s Utopia. Through the study and analysis of these works, theywill learn the rise and fall of genres, the development of literary traditions and communities and their intertextual echoes, allusions, and counter-texts. All of these literary innovations will parallel, challenge, and deepen our understanding of the issues and debates in Greek, Roman, and Christian global history, philosophy, and theology.
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HONR 1150 - Foundational Fictions 4 credit hours
Whether conquering or conquered, different peoples have relied on the creative imagination to construct a sense of themselves as a community in relation to and often at the expense of other groups. In this seminar we will explore how ancient and medieval authors constructed and debated stories about themselves. Starting with classical epics and other poetry, such as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid, or Ovid’s Metamorphosis, we will explore how classical texts both constructed the history and values of Greece and Rome and at the same time raised complex questions about them. We will then explore how medieval authors adapted those histories and values to their own context by, for instance, rewriting the story of Troy and also by imagining their own stories, including the myth of Arthur. We will consider the conquerors, the conquered, and those whose stories were left on the margins or even unmentioned to raise new questions about the relationships between literary expression and identity. Throughout the quarter, students will hone their writing and speaking skills to become more adept participants in the public sphere of the Honors program.
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HONR 1210 - Polis, Republic, and Empires 4 credit hours
In the two millennia defining the ancient Mediterranean World, its people experimented with the rule of the one, the few and the many. Their achievements and failures became the subjects first of myth and then history. This course will first consider the nature of the discipline itself and then will focus on the stories history tells: the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia and the rise and fall of their political institutions. These experiences shaped their world (as ancient writers explain) and anticipated ours (as moderns and we will realize).
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HONR 1220 - From Polis to Subject to Citizen 4 credit hours
This course traces the development of political institutions from the ancient world through the Renaissance. Significant attention is given to issues of religious identity (the position of Jews, Muslims and other religious groups in Christian Europe) and political rights. Debates about representation of various social groups in government decision-making as well as investigations of gender shaped political power will also be examined. The course concludes with a look at Renaissance Humanism and the way it shapes emerging notions of politics, society and rights in the modern world.
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HONR 1230 - The Worlds of Medieval Europe 4 credit hours
Medieval Europe was a complex, diverse, and sophisticated society composed of dozens of ethnicities speaking different languages and practicing at least four religions. Over the course of a millennium, it spanned a wide geography that ranged from Ireland to Russia and from North Africa to Scandinavia. This course begins with the origins and development of societies after the dissolution of the Roman Empire and is both a macroscopic and microscopic study of European society. We work with primary sources -including chronicles, legal documents, manorial accounts, literature, art, personal letters, biography, and autobiography and use theories on power, gender, economics, anthropology, and sociology as interpretive frameworks, The course begins with geography, topography, and archaeology as evidence for land and wealth as the determinants of status. It then studies Europe and its relationship with the neighbors-Vikings, Magyars, Huns, Arabs, Rus, Slavs, Mongols-in the context of political and economic expansion. The course material pivots on two problems. The first is how social hierarchy shaped the legal, economic, political, and personal experience of nobles, townspeople, peasants, women, the poor, and religious minorities. The second is how premodern Christian European societies interacted with Jews and Muslims, both peacefully in terms of trade and intellectual exchange, and violently in persecution and warfare. Throughout, we will keep an eye on how the modern configurations of these problems and issues arise from the medieval context.
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HONR 1240 - Catholicism and Its Global Reach 4 credit hours
Starting with an examination of the rise of the Catholic Church as the dominant institution in post-Roman Europe, this course will explore the central ways the Church defined its identity, spiritually and temporarily, and the ways it dealt with religious heterodoxy. The second half of the course investigates the collapse of Catholic orthodoxy in the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century and how the emergence of the Jesuits shaped the globalization of Catholicism in the early modern world.
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HONR 1450 - Major Debates 4 credit hours
This seminar provides a case study of a major debate or set of major questions that have informed the development of civilization from ancient times through the Renaissance. It asks students to analyze the historical roots of this debate from a disciplinary perspective and examines its long-term effects. The topic for this seminar will change each year, in accordance with the specialty of the professor teaching
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HONR 2010 - Humanities Seminar - Early Modern Philosophy 4 credit hours
The major issues in Western philosophical thought form the 17th through the 18th century: Descartes, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Hume and others.
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HONR 2020 - The Modern Age of Philosophy and Ethics 4 credit hours
The rise of science and the transformation of cultural life heralded a new age of philosophy and ethical reasoning. Beginning in the 17th century, philosophers re-examine topics such as the nature of human knowing, the character of individualism and dimensions of human freedom and responsibility, as well as the importance of history to philosophical discovery. Authors covered range from Descartes, Leibniz, and Hume to Kant, Mill, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
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HONR 2030 - Crises in Contemporary Thought 4 credit hours
If the 18th and 19th Centuries produced some optimism about humanity and its prospects, the 20th and 21st centuries, with theirunprecedented wars, ecological devastation, and global anxieties, led to grave doubts about the Westerncultural heritage. Reading some of this period’s most trenchant thinkers, we will examine some of its most vexing questions. For example: What remains ofreligionandthe belief and trust in God? Is thehumanistic heritage all it is cracked up to be? Does capitalism enhance the quality of life on earth or does it produce misery and ecological devastation? Do we any longer believe in progress and the goodness of life? Do the contemporary global crises provide any new openings for other ways of thinking and living?
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HONR 2040 - Ethics and Moral Philosophy 4 credit hours
This seminar examines the nature of moral responsibility and the practice of moral reasoning.Classic and contemporary authors willguidea philosophicalexamination of foundational ethical questions, such as: Are there moralprinciples thathold true in all times and places? Does the existence of moral responsibilitydepend on a religiousfoundation?Do human beings have a nature, function, or set of capacities that provide a framework for moral responsibility? Is it best to understand moral responsibility asa duty to promotegood states of affairs,to respect individual rights, orto balance and combine the two?To what extent does moral responsibility extend across international borders?Does moral agency belong to individuals, groups, or both? Do human beings have responsibilities not only to existing persons but to future generations, nonhuman animals, ecosystems, and the like? The course will build on students’ earlier readings in virtue ethics (Aristotle) andnatural law theory (Aquinas), and will examine modern ethical theories such as utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill) and duty-based ethics (Kant), as well as critiques and extensionsof classic Western ethics fromauthors of the Global South, feminists,and/or postmodern authors.
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HONR 2110 - Renaissance and Reformation in Literature 4 credit hours
The period we call the Renaissance, or Early Modern Period, was characterized by tremendous religious, social, political, and cultural changes-and the upheavals that attended them. This seminar examines the literary transformations that occurred as writers reshaped traditions in response to their turbulent times. It will address such topics as the influence of Humanism, the impact of the Reformation on notions of interiority, the development of the professional theatre, the rise of professional authorship, and the role of writers in public and private discourse, as well as the rapid changes in literary style, aesthetic preferences, and approaches to self-fashioning that would lead subsequent poets and scholars to see Renaissance works as foreshadowing some of the concerns of modernity. Possible authors may include Montaigne, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Behn, and others.
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HONR 2120 - Revolutions and Revivals in the Long 19th Century 4 credit hours
Beginning with the events surrounding the French Revolution, and concluding with the first World War, artistic and cultural production in the long nineteenth century began to engage and thematize social and political issues of rupture and revival. This course will investigate how visual and literary artists used their various media to intervene in some of the tumultuous questions of their day: the limits of reason, the effects of industrialization, the landscapes of urban expansion, the rise of science and technology, the movements in human rights, and the relationship between aesthetics and social justice.
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HONR 2130 - Representation and Culture in 20th-21st-Century Literature/Art 4 credit hours
Starting roughly with the aftermath of WWI and culminating with the post-9/11 moment, this course examines the literary and artistic responses to technological modernity, historical trauma, and the rise of global capital. We will consider how artists and writers engage crucial forces that structure our world today through a variety of techniques, practices and media. Students will encounter: aestheticfragmentation and Dadaist absurdity; the stream-of-consciousness novel and the Surrealist montage; the “unspeakable” nature of the Holocaust and the status of representation; the rise of consumerism, pop art, and metafiction after WWII; identity, race, and gender in the society of spectacle; postcolonial reassessments of history and the museum; the status of photography, painting, electronic media, and text in an era of terrorism and surveillance.
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HONR 2140 - Literary Innovations 2 4 credit hours
The second “Literary Innovations” seminar tells the story of innovations in literature from the revolutions of the late 18th century to the present. Just as the rise and diminishment of empires (French, British, German, American, Russian, Chinese, etc.) and World Wars I and II produced a variety of social and cultural ruptures during this period, literature also experienced seismic shifts in the revaluing and repurposing of genres, the rise of the novel as a dominant form, the rapid increase and prevalence of experimentation (e.g., free verse, stream-of-consciousness narrative, pastiche, metafiction, etc.), and the promotion of access to literature across the globe. Breaks with long-established literary traditions resulted in new trans-national literary movements (e.g., Romanticism, Modernism, Post-modernism, etc.). The prolific translation and mass distribution of literary works across national boundaries encouraged writers from many cultures to draw upon wider influences than ever before and to find audiences beyond their nations to create new works and make their voices heard. Through an examination of several significant writers, from Wordsworth to Bishop, from Austen to Borges, from Ibsen to Beckett, this seminar delves into the complexities of literary expression in our recent past.
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HONR 2150 - Writers in the Public Sphere 4 credit hours
From the beginnings of recorded history, people have carefully wrought language, in both oral and written forms, for a variety of social purposes. Some, like the bards of Celtic Ireland, or the shamans of various indigenous peoples, or the poet laureates of our more contemporary times, served as official spokespersons for their peoples and sought to memorialize the stories, beliefs, and customs of their times. For others, like Du Fu and the Confucian poets of T’ang Dynasty China, or John Donne and the Inns of Court coterie poets of Early Modern England, writing poems was a way to demonstrate one’s fitness for public office; it allowed prospective employers to gauge one’s wit and rhetorical savvy. Singers, lyricists, and writers of lays and other forms celebrated and challenged the cultural conventions and assumptions of their times. Dramatists from multiple time periods and nations treated the world as a stage onstage and so furthered the public discourse on a variety of subjects, from politics and religion to gender relations and social norms. For still others, like John Milton or the satirists of the 18th century, writing became a way of speaking truths the world may not wish to hear. This seminar introduces several significant voices to illustrate the range of ways writers participated in the public sphere right up to the age of revolutions that began in the late 18th century.
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HONR 2160 - Literatures of Resistance 4 credit hours
Significant shifts in political and economic systems invite resistance in various forms, and yet many who dare to speak truth to power or express “subversive” points of view are silenced and/or persecuted. This course will examine various literatures that were considered subversive, dangerous, or in violation of dominant doctrines of a particular time and place. We will explore the contexts that influenced writers to engage in literary acts of resistance, and we will considerwhy and howwriters subverted prevalent ideologies. Many writers risked their lives to demand that readers see the limitations of a particular worldview andshift perspectives, and we will consider the legacies of writers who dared to challenge dominant ideologies of their time.
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HONR 2180 - Rhetoric for Public Debate 4 credit hours
This seminar develops the essential skills of effective argumentative writing on policy or other significant social issues within the social sphere. It provides a study of the rhetoric of public debate that emphasizes writing for diverse audiences, marshaling evidence for strong persuasion, constructing logical arguments, and appealing to an audience’s sympathies and reason. Consideration also will be given to the genres of public discourse and the development of a flexible prose style that can be adapted to a variety of rhetorical situations and audiences.
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HONR 2210 - Early Modern Culture and Global Expansion 4 credit hours
This course will explore significant and selected developments in European culture and society from the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution. The approach will be one that seeks to discern the interconnections and tensions between the social, cultural, economic, scientific, technological, and political spheres that marked the transformation of Europe from the fifteenth century through the seventeenth century.
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HONR 2220 - History of Revolutions 4 credit hours
The first part of this course will compare the revolutions in England, France and the Atlantic World in the 17th and 18th centuries order to critique theories of revolution that have long dominated the discourse about these events. With this theoretical underpinning this course will then examine case studies of revolutionary responses to industrialization, political underrepresentation and colonialism in the 19th century. This course concludes with an examination of the extent to which the Russian Revolution represents a new model of revolution in the 20th C.
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HONR 2240 - Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World 4 credit hours
Beginning with the theological, social and political unrest that resulted in the religious upheavals known as the Reformation this course will trace how these movements led to the political, cultural and intellectual revolutions of the 17th and 18th Century. In the first part of the course special attention will be given to the early history of the Jesuits and what this history tells us about the global impact of these religious upheavals. The second part of the course will compare revolutions in England, France and the Atlantic World in order to critique theories of revolution that have long dominated the discourse about this era.
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HONR 2250 - Human Rights in the Modern World 4 credit hours
This course will focus on one of the major problems afflicting the modern world - the widespread violation of human rights. The first part will examine the theoretical evolution and general history of the idea of human rights. We will consider the problem of human rights from historical, legal, philosophical, and theological perspectives and explore the nature of different types of human rights - including political rights, socioeconomic rights, women’s rights, indigenous rights, workers’ rights, children’s rights, and immigrant and refugee rights - as well as the relationships among them. The second part will analyze the historical reasons for the abuse and protection of human rights in the 20th C through several case studies. We will consider such themes as underdevelopment, democracy, dictatorship, revolution, genocide, global migrations, and globalization. The third and final part of the seminar focuses on human rights in the contemporary world, giving us the chance to analyze in greater depth the approaches, issues, and themes introduced earlier in the course and offering students the opportunity to pursue directed research on specific topics that are of particular interest to them.
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HONR 2300 - The Rise of Science 4 credit hours
This seminar examines 16th- and 17th-century Scientific Revolution beginning with its roots in medieval Islamic and European scientific inquiry and culminating in the work of Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. It includes laboratory experiments in 17th century physics and laboratory exercises in early astronomical reasoning.
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HONR 2310 - Electricity, Energy, Evolution 4 credit hours
This seminar examines the emergence of modern science in the 19th century and Big Science institutional global impact in the 20th century. It will include the study of animal electricity, natural history, and biological energetics leads to profound advances in understanding of life and the universe through the writings of Faraday, Darwin, Rutherford, and Einstein. Multidisciplinary, the seminar will feature a combination of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science.
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HONR 2350 - From Blaise Pascal to Super Crunchers: The Evolution of Uncertainty 4 credit hours
This class introduces foundational statistical concepts (probability and inference) and traces critical turning points in the development of statistical thinking. Over the past four centuries, statistical methods have spread horizontally across disciplines, while simultaneously growing vertically in their sophistication. Growth in computing power and data collection continue to fuel the spread of statistical thinking to new areas of human endeavor, from astronomy and genetics to art and economics.
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HONR 2360 - Statistics for Policy Analysis 4 credit hours
This course provides an introduction to the statistical methods that help inform decision makers and the public when considering public policy. The emphasis of this class is on application. Students will work with raw data related to the quarter’s theme. Students will also be introduced to computer applications used to generate statistical results. Topics include: descriptive statistics, probability, random variables, estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression.
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HONR 2400 - Major Ethical Debates of the Modern World 4 credit hours
This seminar focuses on key ethical debates influencing public policy issues of the last 50 years. As with the Major Debates from the first year, it asks students to analyze the historical roots of this debate from a disciplinary perspective and examines its long-term effects. The topic for this course will change each year, as will the discipline from which it is approached.
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HONR 2420 - Artistic Innovators 4 credit hours
Like the “Literary Innovations” seminars, this seminar explores major innovators in the arts more broadly, those artistic masters who have greatly impacted the arts through their original work. The primary focus for this course will be on either drama or classical music. How did major dramatists or composers reshape received traditions to create new, innovative work that changed the course of their chosen media? What does the idea of “innovations” mean in the performative arts?
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HONR 2510 - Capitalism and Its Discontents 4 credit hours
This course investigates the major social science themes and perspectives of modernity associated with the Enlightenment tradition-positivism, rationality, economic and political liberalism-through a study of those who celebrated the virtues of this tradition and those who mourned its vices. The study ranges from the mid-17th century to the 20th. Authors covered include such thinkers as Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Mill, Marx, Weber and Gilman.
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HONR 2520 - Modern Selves and Global Society 4 credit hours
This course investigates a 20th/21st-century response to the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and rational autonomy. This response focuses on the rise of a class of questions that relate to ideas of the self, identity and community within society and society’s institutions. Particular attention is paid to the effects of modernization and globalization. Authors covered include such thinkers as Dewey, Du Bois, Freud, Levinas, Mead, Foucault, Nussbaum and Rawls.
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HONR 2530 - 18th- and 19th-Century Social Theory 4 credit hours
The main goal of this course is that you become well acquainted with the intellectual tradition known variously as The Age of Reason/Classical Liberalism/Modernity. This intellectual heritage is the basis of the legal, educational and social institutions in this country. It is not possible to participate intelligently in current discussions about government, economics, the family, crime, “political correctness,” sex, science, religion or any form of social morality without first understanding this intellectual tradition. In this course we will explore these historical discourses and trace the implications to contemporary intellectual debates. The world we live in is framed by this tradition. In order to comprehend and navigate this world successfully, you should develop a critical understanding of these ideas and how they shape your life. Authors studied include such thinkers as Bentham, Comte, Mill, Durkheim, DuBois, Wollstonecraft, and others.
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HONR 2540 - Modern Political Theory 4 credit hours
This seminar, which builds on the discussions of the polis during the first year, provides an introduction to modern political philosophy through an examination of major political theories and developments from the age of absolutist monarchies to contemporary times. Major topics include the sovereign state, social contract theory, constitutional governments, democracy, and socialist thought, as these were developed in the writings of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Toqueville, Mill, Marx, Foucault, and others.
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HONR 2550 - The Evolution of Economics 4 credit hours
John Maynard Keynes wrote, “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.” This course critically investigates the evolution of the dominant ideas that guide the economic aspect of modern society. The study ranges from the mid-17th century to the late 20th century. Authors covered include Turgot, Smith, Ricardo, Pareto, Keynes, Arrow and Sen.
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HONR 2580 - Promoting the Common Good: Crafting Social Policy 4 credit hours
This seminar is a focused study of a prominent question of social concern (inequality, representation, provision of healthcare, environmental degradation) and how society has responded to this concern. The topic as well as the perspective of this class will vary with and reflect the disciplinary background of the faculty member leading the course. Analysis of the particular social issue will be both theoretical and empirical. The explicit aim of this course is to envision a policy response that reflects content of the Society, Policy & Citizenship track within University Honors-a policy that is ethical and politically and economically feasible. The seminar concludes with a capstone project produced in conjunction with the empirical methods and rhetoric courses featured in this quarter.
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HONR 2910 - Special Topics 1 to 5 credit hours
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HONR 2960 - Directed Study 1 to 5 credit hours
Private work by arrangement. Prerequisite: approval of program director.
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