Honors Courses

Four Honors Courses
Each year, students take one course available only to Honors students.

Recently Offered Honors Courses
First-year Honors Colloquium
Honors Sophomore Leadership Seminar
Honors Junior Seminar
Honors Senior Capstone
Honors Components

FIRST-YEAR HONORS COLLOQUIUM

Debating Contemporary Issues and Events
Hon 101: First-Year Honors Colloquium
Professor Athey, Professor Bucci, Professor Drew, Professor LeRoux, Professor Sarikas and
Professor Trantham
Prerequisite: Honors Student Status
This course is meant to engage students in the power and excitement of debate, the complexity of contemporary issues, and interdisciplinary problem-solving. Each instructor builds the class around a theme that allows consideration of a range of issues. Which in the past have included torture and terror; social justice; identity; American languages, cultures and subcultures; use and abuse of science and technology; the prison industry, and more. The courses are designed to develop critical thinking, writing and oral presentation skills and help students understand the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality as powerful analytical tools and social forces. The courses often feature a series of interactive presentations by expert guests, performances by visiting artists, a trip to the theater in Boston, and a seminar session with the College President. The course culminates in creative research and/or artistic projects by students. See what students have said about Honors 101

HONORS SOPHOMORE LEADERSHIP SEMINARS

Heroes & Dreamers: Using the Arts for Justice and Change
Hon 205: Sophomore Leadership Seminar / Professor Lemieux
Prerequisite is Hon 101

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
Martin Luther King

The arts are powerful tools for change. Artists and other creative people have always been socially aware and have often fought for rights, peace, and justice. This course will identify those who have used their creativity as an agent for change through their art. We will look at painters, sculptors, performance artists, installations artists, cartoonists, dancers, musicians, film makers, poets, writers. Students will research subjects of their own interest, and together they participate in a service-learning project that puts their leadership training to work.

Leading by Doing
Hon 205: Sophomore Leadership Seminar / Professor Neil Hatem
Prerequisite is Hon 101
Most often the term “leader” is misunderstood and misused, and this course will study ways to better understand this term and how it applies to each person independently. The best way to learn about leadership is by doing. This class has done this in past semesters by creating a campus-wide campaign to raise awareness and funds for Cystic Fibrosis, or by taking service trips: one to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina relief, and another to Martha’s Vineyard with Habitat for Humanity. We will look for similar experiences this year. We will also look at the strengths and weaknesses of modern and historical leaders.

How to Become Effective in Life
Hon 205: Sophomore Leadership Seminar / Professor Lowenstein
Prerequisite is Hon 101
Leadership is a process of engaging with others and with oneself, and it actually consists of many skills that can be learned. Being a leader (or being an effective person) is also a way of looking at and taking one’s place in an imperfect world. There are many forms of leadership, but the form we will practice, the one we will hone, is called relational leadership, defined in Exploring Leadership as “a relational process of people together attempting to accomplish change or make a difference to benefit the common good” (p. 68). Another quick definition could be personal fire put to the common good. This style of leadership will allow us to become more effective with each other and outside communities. Among many other activities, we will be using our collective talents, knowledge, and skills to interact with and teach another group, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at the Lincoln-Eliot School in West Newton.

Community and the Transforming Self
Hon 205: Sophomore Leadership Seminar / Professor Ostrow
Prerequisite is Hon 101
This course explores the relationship between individual and community, with particular attention to how our perspectives form and change, perhaps dramatically, through contact with others. Readings, community service-learning activities, and topics for discussion and writing will be decided upon collaboratively, within a democratic classroom environment (which thereby serves as a laboratory for the exercise of leadership).

HONORS JUNIOR SEMINARS

Globalization & Human Rights
Honors 305: Junior Seminar / Professor Aieta
Prerequisites are Hon 101, Hon 205
In the 1960s, Western social scientists labeled large sections of the world, Africa, Asia, Latin America, as being ‘Third World’ undergoing ‘modernization.’ In the late 1970s, both terms fell into disrepute to be replaced by new ones, first ‘development,’ then ‘North-South.’ By the 1990s ‘globalization’ was added to the mix. No matter the term, it seems to have been coined initially by ‘outsiders,’ that is people from the West. Results? Generally wherever one looks, one finds exploitation of peoples and resources, as well as overall ignoring of human rights. This seminar will attempt to understand how such a set of circumstances unfolded and what, if anything, may be done to slow down and reverse the results. Fulfills a Moral and Ethical Area of Inquiry.

Charles Darwin and the 21st Century
Honors 305: Junior Seminar / Professor Gerstel
Along with the revolutionary ideas of other major figures such as Freud and Einstein, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution stands as one of the most famous—and misunderstood—concepts in the history of ideas. This course explores the extraordinary influence of Darwin’s theory as both science and culture. We will begin by demystifying some of the basic ideas behind Darwin’s theory of evolution, such as the survival of the fittest and natural selection, and then move on to more recent influences and uses of his theory in arenas outside science, such as literature, history, and psychology. Texts will include excerpts from Darwin’s most famous works, On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, contemporary reviews and articles, essays by modern scholars, literary pieces, and film. An interdisciplinary perspective will help us understand the unique phenomenon of evolution as history, science, and current culture. Fulfills a Moral/Ethical Area of Inquiry.

Culture and Conflict: The Genesis of Genocide
Honors 305: Junior Seminar / Professor Gerardo
This seminar course will study the development of social conflicts that have led to genocide in the 20th century and the present. Topics to be discussed will include but are not limited to, the mass killings that occurred in Armenia, Timor, Rwanda and the Sudan. We will study the fluid nature of cultural identity and how the active, self-ascribed maintenance of ethnic groups and their differences, the distribution of power and the allocation of resources contribute to the development of deadly conflict on a massive scale. Fulfills a Moral/Ethical Area of Inquiry.

HONORS SENIOR CAPSTONE

HON 401: Senior Capstone / Professor Bloom and Professor Dodds
Prerequisite Hon 101, 205, 305 and Senior Status - Meets once a month
This capstone experience offers workshop-style engagement with Honors seniors across all majors. It culminates in a personally designed Electronic portfolio, offering a retrospective of four years of each student’s best work.

HONORS COMPONENTS
Honors “Components” are customized projects, designed by the individual student and his or her professor. They take place in any regular course. Honors students typically take Components during semesters when they are not taking Honors Courses. Components can be negotiated between an honors student and almost any professor for almost any course you would like or are required to take.

Learn more about Components!
See what Honors students have to say about the projects they designed.

Dr. Stephanie Athey Director, Honors Program Director, Mexico Shoulder to Shoulder Associate Professor of English Read our FACULTY BLOG