Spring 2007 Seminars
Back
Please check this list and the Class Schedule frequently, as additions and corrections to meeting times/days may occur.
History and Literature of Baseball - AMH 3930H/LIT 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM-8:50PM Crepeau/Astro
This course is an in-depth examination of the importance of baseball as "America's national pastime" now and over the course of the past century through readings of novels, short stories, works of non-fiction, poetry and film by some of America's most accomplished writers and film makers. Inferentially, we will also examine the role of sport more generally in our society and explore the reasons why it is so important a part of the lives of so many Americans.
Buddhism, Crime, and Justice - CCJ 3930H/PHI 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM Mahan/Compson
The goal of this class is to introduce basic Buddhist concepts related to crime and to apply them to actual systems of justice in the U.S. and in Buddhist regimes. This course aims to bring a Buddhist philosophical perspective to the study of crime and justice and to examine the operation of restorative practices in criminal justice systems. Students will examine actual systems of justice in Buddhist regimes, and will thus gain research tools for the comparative study of justice systems.
Interactive Performance I - DIG3930H
(may count as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar, check with Advising)
TR 1:30-2:45 Wirth, J.
Techniques of interactive acting, with emphasis on interpersonal awareness and audience facilitation.
Honors Video Gaming 360 - DIG 3930H/ENC 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 1:30-4:20 McDaniel/Telep
Focuses on the history, design, and cultural impact of video games. Students will spend approximately one half of the course learning about game production techniques and building a comprehensive game design document for an original video game of their own design. In addition, they will present on gaming topics both individually and in groups. Access to a gaming platform is required.
Gender and Education in Cross-Cultural Perspective – EDF 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
F 10:30AM – 1:20PM Biraimah/Deets
This is a course about the historical, social, political causes and outcomes of education around the world and within the United States with specific attention to gender as a cultural category. Gender is actively created and enacted through informal as well as formal educational practices. In order to examine gender as a broad socially constructed category, research about education in varying world cultures will be read and discussed. Before we move into the territory dealing with the similarities and differences amongst boys and amongst girls and then the similarities and differences between those categories, we will first examine the notion of gender itself, critiquing its typical heterosexist implications in U.S. discourse, and the range of expressions and understandings possible within and beyond cultures.
American Film Comedy: Against the Grain – FIL 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM – 8:50PM COMM 148
R 7:00PM – 8:50PM BHC 131 Boyar
Most comedy is, in some sense, subversive; it attempts a sly critique of social, political, sexual and/or aesthetic forms and forces. In this course, we will look at eight American film comedies from eight decades, including the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera" (1935) Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959), Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" (1970). Using relevant selections from two anthologies, "Roger Ebert's Book of Film" and "For Keeps" by Pauline Kael, plus a range of other supplemental readings, we will consider each film in its cultural, historical and artistic contexts, with an eye to exploring its subversive impulse and comic power. Classroom discussions, lectures and guest speakers will be included in our approach. As part of their grades, students will be expected to write five 2-3 page papers plus a final 7-10 page paper and to deliver a 5-10 minute oral presentation about that final paper. Classroom participation will also contribute to the final grade, and students will be required, on occasion, to view new films in theaters in preparation for discussions.
Fiction to Film: Exploring the Forms - FIL3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
J. Boyar W 6:00-8:50 BHC129
This course offers an introduction to the key elements of two creative forms: fiction and film. The primary focus is films based on works of fiction. Through lectures, reading, viewing, and discussing, students will consider films as texts, comparing and analyzing the two forms in terms of the following elements: Narrative structure or plot, Characterization, Point of view, Setting, Use of time (or pacing), Tone (or style), Imagery and Theme. By considering the common ground as well as the disparities inherent in these art forms, the hope is to stimulate creative insights into both the fiction and the films.
Caribbean Women Writers – FOL 3930H/LIT 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM – 4:15PM Leticee/Meehan
This course offers a comparative overview of Caribbean women's writing from the early nineteenth century to the present day. During the past decade or so, there has been a dramatic increase in the study of Caribbean writing, culture, history, and politics in the United States, yet Caribbean women writers remain somewhat marginal to the emerging scholarship on the region. Also, publications and curricula in U.S.-based Caribbean studies place a heavy emphasis on writers from English-language countries, leaving work by Caribbean women writers in Spanish, French, Dutch, and various Creole languages somewhat in the shadows. Our approach will be to expose students to major authors, periods, and genres in the field of Caribbean women's writing, looking at texts from the different language areas in the region, and providing solid background information on Caribbean history, politics, and non-literary culture (such as oral folktales, arts, cuisine, etc.) As they develop a basis in Caribbean women's literary history, students will generate comparative insights by considering thematic issues such as the search for identity in Caribbean women and the preservation/transmission of culture, experiences of migration and exile in Caribbean women's writing globally. Assignments (detailed below) include a mix of individual and collaborative projects, as well as personal and critical writing.
Queer Theory – HUM 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 9:00AM – 10:15AM Schippert
What is queer theory? What does it do? Is queer theory only for queers? What makes a theory queer? Queer theory is one of the most influential intellectual developments in academic scholarship emerging in the last decade of the 20th century and continuing to spark debates in literature, art, history, philosophy, religion, other humanities and beyond. Challenging what is 'natural' or 'normal' in various realms of culture and scholarship, queer theoretical approaches are continuing to provoke conflict and challenge in academic scholarship and beyond.
Texts and War – INR 4932H/LIT 4932H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
MWF 12:30PM – 1:20PM Jungblut/Angley
In this course students engage with texts (imaginative, narrative, visual, audio, historical, political, journalistic, and propagandistic) that represent multiple perspectives and experiences intersecting war. By experiencing these texts, students encounter seemingly paradoxical themes such as vision and destruction, glorification and devastation, good and evil, and determinism and free will. The texts - along with the class discussions, reaction/reflection papers, and semester projects - encourage students to think about the relevance of war to our lives. Under the supervision of the instructors, students choose to work either individually or collaboratively on projects that come from ideas presented in the "texts" and in the class discussions.
Understanding Modern Italy through Opera, Literature, and Film– ITT 3930H/ MUS 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM – 4:20PM Ferri/Macklem
This course investigates the connections between Italian opera, literature, and film as they illuminate historical and cultural meaning. Each unit will investigate several operas, films, and literary works through case studies. Italian cultural movements of the nineteenth- and twentieth- centuries-Romanism, Verismo, Decadence, Fascism, and Neorealism, will be studied from the complementary, but distinctive, perspectives of music and literature. The course will ask students to develop their interpretative abilities and question meaning as they find their own interpretations of influential art works. As a class, we will consider how the different mediums of opera, literature, and film address the reader/viewer/listener in different ways.
How to Predict Tomorrow's Weather - MAS3930H / MAP3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
Dr. Pensky / Dr. Choudhury M6:00-8:50
It is Fall again and again we are all glued to the TV screens terrified of another hurricane forming in the Gulf. Or, we make plans to spend a day at the beach and it is raining cats and dogs. Or... You can continue this list indefinitely. No matter where we live and what we do, we all are dependent on weather. This course considers various issues in weather forecasting. Weather forecasting starts with two major components: construction of the model for the atmosphere and carrying out observations, hence this requires a balanced understanding of statistics, applied mathematics and geophysical systems. In this course we shall introduce topics gradually, explaining how weather prediction is carried out in the real world.
Homeland Security - PAD 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM – 8:50PM Kapucu
This course will examine the key policy and management issues concerning homeland security, through review of the most current literature on homeland security and individual case studies. It will examine the historical development of homeland security in the US, the applicable national policies and institutions, and the constitutional and civil rights implications of this program. The course will help understanding of homeland security by examining how terrorism has spurred sharp changes in US strategy, policy and governmental design, and how those changes should continue over the near and longer term. Because States and localities bear much of the burden for defeating terrorism at home, the course will intensively examine the policy and organizational design issues confronting future homeland security leaders at those levels of government as well. This course in homeland security will help students to explore the new boundaries and nature of the 21st century homeland security mission by examining the threats, the actors - national, state, local, and private, and the organizational structures and resources required to defend the homeland against natural and manmade threats.
Introduction to Cognitive Sciences – PHI 3930H/PSY 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 10:30AM – 11:45AM Fiore/Sims
The goal of this course is to expose UCF Honors students to the exciting interdisciplinary field of Cognitive Sciences - an area of inquiry that helps us to understand how we perceive and interact within a complex world. Cognitive Science is a relatively recent scientific discipline emerging from the interaction of psychology, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Cognitive Science draws upon a variety of theories and methods from these differing disciplines to explore how we store, recall, and utilize information. The overarching objective is to explore differing approaches to the study and conceptualization of cognition and how the cognitive sciences come to understand phenomena through a multidisciplinary research approach.
Memory and Testimony - PHI 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 5:30PM - 8:30PM Park
*Taught at UCF Cocoa campus*
In this course, we will examine the topic of memory from an interdisciplinary perspective combining the reading of memoirs with explanations, interpretations, and critical analyses of memory and testimony issuing from working writers, cognitive and clinical psychology, philosophy, feminist theory, critical theory, and cultural studies. Our focus here will be on personal or long-term memory, although questions concerning short-term memory may be raised insofar as these are relevant to the construction of long-term memory. In addition, we'll examine the relationship between memory and testimony through readings of memoirs (creative nonfiction) and memorials as a mode of testimony about (or "witnessing" of and to) the past and its connection to our present and our future.
Honors Psychology of Religion - PSY 3930H/REL 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00-8:50 Lavooy/DiBernardo
The psychological study of religion is a meaningful area of psychology. It is relevant to the understanding of people in that it addresses an important facet of life (90% of Americans profess a belief in God). It offers a rich source of material for the study of attitudes, coping, altruism and many other behavioral phenomena. The psychology of religion reminds us that psychology's roots are in philosophy and the link between psychology and religion helps psychology maintain its historical connection with philosophy.
Ethical Issues in Nanotechnology, Genetics and Information Technology Research
PHI 3930H/SCE 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 6:00PM – 8:50PM Jones/Sweeney
This seminar will introduce students to societal implications, emerging ethical issues and philosophical questions associated with current developments in nanotechnology, genetics and information technology research. Although no formal academic prerequisites are needed, students enrolling in the seminar class must demonstrate healthy scientific curiosity and an interest in science-related social,economic, political, philosophical, and ethical issues. A high school understanding of fundamental scientific concepts/principles will be assumed (e.g. Newtonian mechanics in physics; cell theory in biology; atomic theory in chemistry). The primary goal of the seminar is to provide students with a sound knowledge base of current developments in these three rapidly developing areas of science research, and also to provide a forum in which such developments may be studied and analyzed in various social, political, philosophical and ethical contexts.
Philosophy of Language - PHI 4932H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM - 4:15 PM Cash
This is an interdisciplinary course that integrates concepts and approaches from the discipline of education into an examination of the nature of language from a philosophical perspective. We explore the questions of what it is to learn a language, to know a language and to share a language, and questions regarding the relationships between language, reality, cognition, and culture. Students will examine both philosophical literature and empirical research that support competing views of the relationships between language, reality, cognition and culture.
Introduction to Women’s Studies - WST3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 6:00 - 8:50PM Logan
Using interdisciplinary methods, this course considers women’s position in historical and contemporary societies around the world. In its focus on women and interdisciplinary approach, WST 3015H provides a perspective often ignored in traditional academic settings and scholarship. Readings analyze from women-centered and feminist perspectives how knowledge about women has circulated and how patriarchal institutions have impacted women’s roles and lives. This Honors seminar will focus on women and gender in a transnational context. We will pay particular attention to the ways that people, ideas, goods, money, and media images cross national boundaries and how globalization, histories of colonialism and racism intersect with the study of women and gender.
Music and the Brain - MUS3930H/MCB3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
MW 4:30 - 5:45PM Yonetani/Sugaya
Music has been used to control emotion and mood. Music therapy has been used to release stress and produce calm, meditative states. Music is also known to reduce the level of pain experienced by terminal cancer patients and the symptoms of depression. Recent evidence supports the assertion that listening to music helps improve cognitive and motor deficits in patients with brain injury or disease. Rats repeatedly exposed to complex music [Mozart Sonata (k. 448)], completed a maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than rats assigned to other music groups [minimalist music (a Philip Glass composition), white noise or silence] [Rauscher et al., 1998]. These results suggest that exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats, and similar conclusions have been drawn from studies performed with humans. The existence of neurophysiological mechanisms for the effects of music on learning, memory, emotion and mood are well accepted. For example, canaries stop singing every autumn when a population of brain cells responsible for song-generation dies. Over the winter, a whole new population of neurons grows back and in the spring, the canaries learn their songs all over again. Also, current research indicates mechanism of atypical antidepressants function increase stem cell population in the brain. Taken together with studies of music-induced neural plasticity, this fact indicates that music may increase neurogenesis in the brain. This class will explore the impact of sound and music on brain function including mood, emotion, pain, cognition, and memory using an interdisciplinary approach. The cutting-edge knowledge in neuroscience will be applied to basic analysis of music structure and music impact.
History and Literature of Baseball - AMH 3930H/LIT 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM-8:50PM Crepeau/Astro
This course is an in-depth examination of the importance of baseball as "America's national pastime" now and over the course of the past century through readings of novels, short stories, works of non-fiction, poetry and film by some of America's most accomplished writers and film makers. Inferentially, we will also examine the role of sport more generally in our society and explore the reasons why it is so important a part of the lives of so many Americans.
Buddhism, Crime, and Justice - CCJ 3930H/PHI 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM Mahan/Compson
The goal of this class is to introduce basic Buddhist concepts related to crime and to apply them to actual systems of justice in the U.S. and in Buddhist regimes. This course aims to bring a Buddhist philosophical perspective to the study of crime and justice and to examine the operation of restorative practices in criminal justice systems. Students will examine actual systems of justice in Buddhist regimes, and will thus gain research tools for the comparative study of justice systems.
Interactive Performance I - DIG3930H
(may count as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar, check with Advising)
TR 1:30-2:45 Wirth, J.
Techniques of interactive acting, with emphasis on interpersonal awareness and audience facilitation.
Honors Video Gaming 360 - DIG 3930H/ENC 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 1:30-4:20 McDaniel/Telep
Focuses on the history, design, and cultural impact of video games. Students will spend approximately one half of the course learning about game production techniques and building a comprehensive game design document for an original video game of their own design. In addition, they will present on gaming topics both individually and in groups. Access to a gaming platform is required.
Gender and Education in Cross-Cultural Perspective – EDF 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
F 10:30AM – 1:20PM Biraimah/Deets
This is a course about the historical, social, political causes and outcomes of education around the world and within the United States with specific attention to gender as a cultural category. Gender is actively created and enacted through informal as well as formal educational practices. In order to examine gender as a broad socially constructed category, research about education in varying world cultures will be read and discussed. Before we move into the territory dealing with the similarities and differences amongst boys and amongst girls and then the similarities and differences between those categories, we will first examine the notion of gender itself, critiquing its typical heterosexist implications in U.S. discourse, and the range of expressions and understandings possible within and beyond cultures.
American Film Comedy: Against the Grain – FIL 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM – 8:50PM COMM 148
R 7:00PM – 8:50PM BHC 131 Boyar
Most comedy is, in some sense, subversive; it attempts a sly critique of social, political, sexual and/or aesthetic forms and forces. In this course, we will look at eight American film comedies from eight decades, including the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera" (1935) Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959), Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" (1970). Using relevant selections from two anthologies, "Roger Ebert's Book of Film" and "For Keeps" by Pauline Kael, plus a range of other supplemental readings, we will consider each film in its cultural, historical and artistic contexts, with an eye to exploring its subversive impulse and comic power. Classroom discussions, lectures and guest speakers will be included in our approach. As part of their grades, students will be expected to write five 2-3 page papers plus a final 7-10 page paper and to deliver a 5-10 minute oral presentation about that final paper. Classroom participation will also contribute to the final grade, and students will be required, on occasion, to view new films in theaters in preparation for discussions.
Fiction to Film: Exploring the Forms - FIL3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
J. Boyar W 6:00-8:50 BHC129
This course offers an introduction to the key elements of two creative forms: fiction and film. The primary focus is films based on works of fiction. Through lectures, reading, viewing, and discussing, students will consider films as texts, comparing and analyzing the two forms in terms of the following elements: Narrative structure or plot, Characterization, Point of view, Setting, Use of time (or pacing), Tone (or style), Imagery and Theme. By considering the common ground as well as the disparities inherent in these art forms, the hope is to stimulate creative insights into both the fiction and the films.
Caribbean Women Writers – FOL 3930H/LIT 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM – 4:15PM Leticee/Meehan
This course offers a comparative overview of Caribbean women's writing from the early nineteenth century to the present day. During the past decade or so, there has been a dramatic increase in the study of Caribbean writing, culture, history, and politics in the United States, yet Caribbean women writers remain somewhat marginal to the emerging scholarship on the region. Also, publications and curricula in U.S.-based Caribbean studies place a heavy emphasis on writers from English-language countries, leaving work by Caribbean women writers in Spanish, French, Dutch, and various Creole languages somewhat in the shadows. Our approach will be to expose students to major authors, periods, and genres in the field of Caribbean women's writing, looking at texts from the different language areas in the region, and providing solid background information on Caribbean history, politics, and non-literary culture (such as oral folktales, arts, cuisine, etc.) As they develop a basis in Caribbean women's literary history, students will generate comparative insights by considering thematic issues such as the search for identity in Caribbean women and the preservation/transmission of culture, experiences of migration and exile in Caribbean women's writing globally. Assignments (detailed below) include a mix of individual and collaborative projects, as well as personal and critical writing.
Queer Theory – HUM 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 9:00AM – 10:15AM Schippert
What is queer theory? What does it do? Is queer theory only for queers? What makes a theory queer? Queer theory is one of the most influential intellectual developments in academic scholarship emerging in the last decade of the 20th century and continuing to spark debates in literature, art, history, philosophy, religion, other humanities and beyond. Challenging what is 'natural' or 'normal' in various realms of culture and scholarship, queer theoretical approaches are continuing to provoke conflict and challenge in academic scholarship and beyond.
Texts and War – INR 4932H/LIT 4932H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
MWF 12:30PM – 1:20PM Jungblut/Angley
In this course students engage with texts (imaginative, narrative, visual, audio, historical, political, journalistic, and propagandistic) that represent multiple perspectives and experiences intersecting war. By experiencing these texts, students encounter seemingly paradoxical themes such as vision and destruction, glorification and devastation, good and evil, and determinism and free will. The texts - along with the class discussions, reaction/reflection papers, and semester projects - encourage students to think about the relevance of war to our lives. Under the supervision of the instructors, students choose to work either individually or collaboratively on projects that come from ideas presented in the "texts" and in the class discussions.
Understanding Modern Italy through Opera, Literature, and Film– ITT 3930H/ MUS 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM – 4:20PM Ferri/Macklem
This course investigates the connections between Italian opera, literature, and film as they illuminate historical and cultural meaning. Each unit will investigate several operas, films, and literary works through case studies. Italian cultural movements of the nineteenth- and twentieth- centuries-Romanism, Verismo, Decadence, Fascism, and Neorealism, will be studied from the complementary, but distinctive, perspectives of music and literature. The course will ask students to develop their interpretative abilities and question meaning as they find their own interpretations of influential art works. As a class, we will consider how the different mediums of opera, literature, and film address the reader/viewer/listener in different ways.
How to Predict Tomorrow's Weather - MAS3930H / MAP3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
Dr. Pensky / Dr. Choudhury M6:00-8:50
It is Fall again and again we are all glued to the TV screens terrified of another hurricane forming in the Gulf. Or, we make plans to spend a day at the beach and it is raining cats and dogs. Or... You can continue this list indefinitely. No matter where we live and what we do, we all are dependent on weather. This course considers various issues in weather forecasting. Weather forecasting starts with two major components: construction of the model for the atmosphere and carrying out observations, hence this requires a balanced understanding of statistics, applied mathematics and geophysical systems. In this course we shall introduce topics gradually, explaining how weather prediction is carried out in the real world.
Homeland Security - PAD 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00PM – 8:50PM Kapucu
This course will examine the key policy and management issues concerning homeland security, through review of the most current literature on homeland security and individual case studies. It will examine the historical development of homeland security in the US, the applicable national policies and institutions, and the constitutional and civil rights implications of this program. The course will help understanding of homeland security by examining how terrorism has spurred sharp changes in US strategy, policy and governmental design, and how those changes should continue over the near and longer term. Because States and localities bear much of the burden for defeating terrorism at home, the course will intensively examine the policy and organizational design issues confronting future homeland security leaders at those levels of government as well. This course in homeland security will help students to explore the new boundaries and nature of the 21st century homeland security mission by examining the threats, the actors - national, state, local, and private, and the organizational structures and resources required to defend the homeland against natural and manmade threats.
Introduction to Cognitive Sciences – PHI 3930H/PSY 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 10:30AM – 11:45AM Fiore/Sims
The goal of this course is to expose UCF Honors students to the exciting interdisciplinary field of Cognitive Sciences - an area of inquiry that helps us to understand how we perceive and interact within a complex world. Cognitive Science is a relatively recent scientific discipline emerging from the interaction of psychology, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Cognitive Science draws upon a variety of theories and methods from these differing disciplines to explore how we store, recall, and utilize information. The overarching objective is to explore differing approaches to the study and conceptualization of cognition and how the cognitive sciences come to understand phenomena through a multidisciplinary research approach.
Memory and Testimony - PHI 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 5:30PM - 8:30PM Park
*Taught at UCF Cocoa campus*
In this course, we will examine the topic of memory from an interdisciplinary perspective combining the reading of memoirs with explanations, interpretations, and critical analyses of memory and testimony issuing from working writers, cognitive and clinical psychology, philosophy, feminist theory, critical theory, and cultural studies. Our focus here will be on personal or long-term memory, although questions concerning short-term memory may be raised insofar as these are relevant to the construction of long-term memory. In addition, we'll examine the relationship between memory and testimony through readings of memoirs (creative nonfiction) and memorials as a mode of testimony about (or "witnessing" of and to) the past and its connection to our present and our future.
Honors Psychology of Religion - PSY 3930H/REL 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
T 6:00-8:50 Lavooy/DiBernardo
The psychological study of religion is a meaningful area of psychology. It is relevant to the understanding of people in that it addresses an important facet of life (90% of Americans profess a belief in God). It offers a rich source of material for the study of attitudes, coping, altruism and many other behavioral phenomena. The psychology of religion reminds us that psychology's roots are in philosophy and the link between psychology and religion helps psychology maintain its historical connection with philosophy.
Ethical Issues in Nanotechnology, Genetics and Information Technology Research
PHI 3930H/SCE 3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 6:00PM – 8:50PM Jones/Sweeney
This seminar will introduce students to societal implications, emerging ethical issues and philosophical questions associated with current developments in nanotechnology, genetics and information technology research. Although no formal academic prerequisites are needed, students enrolling in the seminar class must demonstrate healthy scientific curiosity and an interest in science-related social,economic, political, philosophical, and ethical issues. A high school understanding of fundamental scientific concepts/principles will be assumed (e.g. Newtonian mechanics in physics; cell theory in biology; atomic theory in chemistry). The primary goal of the seminar is to provide students with a sound knowledge base of current developments in these three rapidly developing areas of science research, and also to provide a forum in which such developments may be studied and analyzed in various social, political, philosophical and ethical contexts.
Philosophy of Language - PHI 4932H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 3:00PM - 4:15 PM Cash
This is an interdisciplinary course that integrates concepts and approaches from the discipline of education into an examination of the nature of language from a philosophical perspective. We explore the questions of what it is to learn a language, to know a language and to share a language, and questions regarding the relationships between language, reality, cognition, and culture. Students will examine both philosophical literature and empirical research that support competing views of the relationships between language, reality, cognition and culture.
Introduction to Women’s Studies - WST3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
M 6:00 - 8:50PM Logan
Using interdisciplinary methods, this course considers women’s position in historical and contemporary societies around the world. In its focus on women and interdisciplinary approach, WST 3015H provides a perspective often ignored in traditional academic settings and scholarship. Readings analyze from women-centered and feminist perspectives how knowledge about women has circulated and how patriarchal institutions have impacted women’s roles and lives. This Honors seminar will focus on women and gender in a transnational context. We will pay particular attention to the ways that people, ideas, goods, money, and media images cross national boundaries and how globalization, histories of colonialism and racism intersect with the study of women and gender.
Music and the Brain - MUS3930H/MCB3930H
(counts as Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
MW 4:30 - 5:45PM Yonetani/Sugaya
Music has been used to control emotion and mood. Music therapy has been used to release stress and produce calm, meditative states. Music is also known to reduce the level of pain experienced by terminal cancer patients and the symptoms of depression. Recent evidence supports the assertion that listening to music helps improve cognitive and motor deficits in patients with brain injury or disease. Rats repeatedly exposed to complex music [Mozart Sonata (k. 448)], completed a maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than rats assigned to other music groups [minimalist music (a Philip Glass composition), white noise or silence] [Rauscher et al., 1998]. These results suggest that exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats, and similar conclusions have been drawn from studies performed with humans. The existence of neurophysiological mechanisms for the effects of music on learning, memory, emotion and mood are well accepted. For example, canaries stop singing every autumn when a population of brain cells responsible for song-generation dies. Over the winter, a whole new population of neurons grows back and in the spring, the canaries learn their songs all over again. Also, current research indicates mechanism of atypical antidepressants function increase stem cell population in the brain. Taken together with studies of music-induced neural plasticity, this fact indicates that music may increase neurogenesis in the brain. This class will explore the impact of sound and music on brain function including mood, emotion, pain, cognition, and memory using an interdisciplinary approach. The cutting-edge knowledge in neuroscience will be applied to basic analysis of music structure and music impact.
20th Century Social Movements and their Impact on Florida - AMH3930H/SYP3930H
(counts as an Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar)
TR 1:30 - 2:45PM Chapin/Downing
Impact of Civil Rights, Women's rights, environmental factors, and other 20th century social movements in Florida.
Processes and Ideas in Art — ART3833C
VAB 212 8:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Instructor: Kevin Haran, Assistant Professor, Art Department
Drawing inspiration from major contemporary artists and art historical sources, students will create a series of small original sculptures in this studio class. This work will result from research on a given idea or subject, followed by preliminary drawings or 3-D studies and final design. The sculptural forms will be based on the idea of a Relief or Stage Set; the Box / Container; the Human Figure; Nature / Animal; and a maquette (model) for an imagined Memorial. Creativity, personal vision and effective use of materials and technique will be emphasized. Media used will be based on the experience of the student. (Suggested materials are paper, cardboard / foam board, wood and clay.)
PR: Consent of Instructor or Honors
Phone: 407.823.2076
Fax: 407.823.6583
Fax: 407.823.6583
The Burnett Honors College
P.O. Box 161800
Orlando, Fl. 32816-1800
P.O. Box 161800
Orlando, Fl. 32816-1800