Here are the course descriptions for the 2023-24 academic year. Jump to Fall 2023 or Winter 2024.

HNR 350 01 Medical Controversies

Coeli Fitzpatrick

Asynchronously Online

When we think about medical controversies such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama were denied medical treatment of syphilis in the name of science, we might assume that the days of such scandals are past. Yet new scandals and unthinkable controversies in the name of medicine, science, and progress are exposed with alarming regularity. These controversies are very often intertwined with issues of race, culture, social class, and politics. This interdisciplinary seminar uses fiction, memoir, film, podcasts, and essays to explore the sites where medicine, the elevation of science, and real bodies meet. The course will look at topics such as research/experimentation, the “war on drugs” and the opioid epidemic, “the obesity epidemic”, medicalization, risk and stigma, gun-control as a medical issue, and healthcare access. Students will also have the opportunity to use course assignments to explore their own areas of specific interest.   

HNR 201 Live. Learn. Lead.

Section 01: Ellen Adams TR 4:00-5:15p.m. HON 148

Section 02: Peter Wampler TR 1:00-2:15p.m. HON 148

Section 03: Jeremiah Cataldo MW 1:30-2:45p.m. HON 148

This course is structured around a series of campus and community lectures, performances, exhibits, or other events. Readings and classroom activities prepare students to experience each event as fully as possible. Group attendance, follow-up discussion, and written reflections help students derive meaning from each experience and place it in larger contexts. The ultimate aim of the course is to equip students to engage in intelligent participation in public dialogues.

HNR 250 01 The Holocaust and its Legacies

Rob Franciosi

MW 4:30-5:45 p.m., HON 220

The Holocaust is one of the most catastrophic events in world history. The fact that this enormous crime occurred in the modern world, in the heart of a ‘civilized’ society, raises challenging questions about Western institutions, values and thought. As Yehuda Bauer argues, the Holocaust’s historical context is central to understanding it, yet its complex philosophical and psychological implications also require interdisciplinary inquiry, and readings will utilize approaches from other disciplines to uncover the motives of perpetrators and the effects of the trauma inflicted on survivors.  Particularly important to our contemporary society, the Holocaust serves as a warning about the consequences of prejudice and the effects of indifference to discrimination and violence. By analyzing the steps leading to the Holocaust, the event itself, and its present-day legacy, students will be prepared to address its significance for civil rights, democratic values, and respect for a multicultural society. And because this course will use a project-based-learning approach, students will have a chance to apply their growing understanding of the Holocaust to a community-based project on the lives of local survivors.

HNR 250 02 Community, Identity, & Wonder

Ellen Adams

TR 2:30-3:45p.m. HON 218

The Parthenon in Athens, Michelangelo’s David sculpture in Florence, and Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington: what do these artworks, widely varied in form, scale, and location, have in common? All were created for public spaces, intended to edify, beautify, inspire, and/or challenge their communities. Through readings, research, discussion, field research, and a semester-long project, students in this course will delve into the meaning and varieties of art created in and for public spaces. Students will also consider the problem of defining a public or publics in relation to works of art that inhabit spaces that are deemed public or common. What happens, for example, when a work of art that might be seen to properly provoke an elite museum-going audience is seen as offensive when inserted into everyday public spaces? How is this complicated when that work of art is paid for by public funds? And what kinds of communities are beautified by public art and which communities are left out? After an introduction to the history of public art, the class will cover public space and the modern world, art and site specificity, contested/controversial public art, race and ethnicity, memory, and public/private partnerships.

HNR 251 01 The Healing Power of Plants

Karen Amisi

T 6:00-8:50p.m. HON 220

From early time, man has recognized that plants have the power to heal and sustain life. Plants remain the first-choice treatment for 80% of the global population. Consumer interest in the health benefits of medicinal and aromatic plants has increased worldwide. This course uses a research project-based approach to explore the history and diverse uses of medicinal, aromatic, and poisonous plants in various cultures. Students will gain an awareness of how natural chemical compounds derived from plants play a dominant role in the development of drugs to treat human diseases. The future of medicinal plants rests on our ability to invest in researching and documenting the plants and their active ingredients.

HNR 251 02 Our Evolving World

Gary Greer

MW 1:30-2:45p.m. HON 214

This course explores the mechanisms of biological evolution and their application to improve human welfare.  In this course you will learn about: (1) major events in the history of life on earth; (2) the evolutionary processes that have generated organismal and ecological complexity; and (3) how principles of evolution are used to conserve biodiversity and manage and the ecosystems on which we depend, domesticate animals and plants, and improve our own health and lifespan.  You will also apply the lens of biological evolution to understand and contribute to solution of environmental and social issues through student-designed investigations.

HNR 251 03 Inequality By The Numbers

Joel Stillerman

TR 2:30-3:45p.m. HON 214

It is widely recognized that inequalities based on class, race, gender, and sexuality have intensified in recent years.  This course explores cutting edge statistical research on traditionally-recognized and newly discovered forms of inequality.  The course will help students develop skills in understanding, interpreting, and applying statistical data as well as conceptualizing social inequality from distinct perspectives.  Additionally, students will complete a substantial group project focused on a specific form of inequality and policies designed to address it.  They will publicly present their results in either an oral presentation or a poster at the class's completion. The course utilizes interdisciplinary scholarship on inequalities from economics, sociology, public health, demography, urban studies, environmental studies, and gender/sexuality studies. Course topics may include analyses of growing income and wealth inequality; how  educational institutions reproduce and intensify inequalities based on class and race; the effects of employment discrimination based on gender, race, sexual identity and/or physical appearance; unequal access to housing and credit based on race and sexual orientation; unequal health outcomes based on race (e.g. risk of exposure and death from covid, incidence of chronic disease like asthma, lead exposure, and infant mortality); as well as the gender based wage gap and the effects of sexual harassment on health and career outcomes. Students completing the class with have a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of inequality and enhanced skills in quantitative literacy.

HNR 251 04 Hollywood Science

Eric Ramsson

TR 4:00-5:15p.m. HON 214

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and thought "That doesn't sound right..." as they describe something "science-y"? Through this course, you will learn how the human body normally functions, and then use that information to determine the validity of TV and/or movies through Project-Based Learning. You will learn more about yourself and gain skills to navigate a world of misinformation.

HNR 350 01 Textual Tease

Jeremiah Cataldo

Asynchronously Online

We often assume that the Bible speaks clairvoyantly about social and political issues that concern us in our present moments, mostly in the form of “Thou shalt not ...” But what if the Bible is more scandalous in nature? What if it betrays the same struggles with gender, politics, and even religion that we moderns do? What if the Bible likes sex? This course dives into the depths of those issues, exploring what may be the darker side of the biblical texts. It compares authorial intent with modern reception. It analyzes the multidimensionality of sexuality in biblical interpretation. And, it investigates sexuality as an arena in which the building blocks of society are defined and measured. By understanding that, this course will argue, we gain a better understanding of what shapes modern public discourses on gender, sexuality, politics, and even religion.

HNR 350 02 Diving Deep: Moby Dick

Rob Franciosi

MW 1:30-2:45 p.m., HON 218

Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick not only endures as an American classic, but reminds us that certain texts break the bounds of their particular form and become significant in broader cultural terms. Captain Ahab, the white whale, “Call me Ishmael”—all are familiar to millions who have never read a page of Melville’s novel, who sip vanilla lattes at Starbucks unaware that the coffee empire takes its name from the first mate of The Pequod, Ahab’s ship.

In this seminar we will read Moby-Dick, of course, but will also consider its origins, history and subsequent manifestations in film, art, music, popular culture, and politics. We will read fiction inspired by Melville’s work, watch a recent operatic adaptation, and consider the event which first launched the author on his literary hunt, the sinking of the Essex by an eighty-five-foot sperm whale. Students will pursue projects either tracing the ongoing influence of Melville’s story or considering it from the perspectives of their academic disciplines. You may wonder how a 168-year-old novel can be relevant to accounting, psychology, engineering, health or environmental science. Sign up for this semester on the metaphorical seas and find out.

HNR 350 03 Leading Others in An Othering World

Faye Richardson-Green

T 6:00-8:50pm HON 148

What do we mean by “othering?” Our world view shapes the decisions we make for ourselves and others, especially when in a leading role. Although sometimes viewed as divisive, terms such as “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “equity” can be meaningful when fully understood in spite of a seemingly divided and polarized world. More importantly, those concepts really do matter in the world of work, regardless of industry, profession, geography, or culture.

This course will encourage the use of diversity, inclusion and equity lenses while exploring the topics of emotional intelligence, empathic listening, humble inquiry, story-telling, as well as historical and personal world views. This course will be highly participatory.  Students will be expected to engage in classroom discussions, role plays, and self-assessments as well as thoughtful dialog with guest presenters. Students will also be expected to research a significant historical / cultural event that changed the world’s view of an identified “other.”

HNR 350 04 Culture Wars in Education

Barry Kanpol

TR 10:00-11:15a.m. HON 219

CRT, cancel culture, “Don’t Say Gay,” charter schools, 1619 vs. 1776—what’s behind all these hot-button issues in education today? Whether public or private, primary or secondary, college or university, the field of education presents a landscape of endless interpretation. What is the purpose of education? Are school curricula meant to reproduce or challenge the social order? Can they produce an alternative vision to the current cultural climate? Exploring the theoretical foundations of the field of Education inevitably leads us to the culture wars we’re seeing now in communities across the country. Are we a society that values individual accomplishment higher than community engagement? Is one’s educational worth more important than one’s worth as a human being? Are we such a competitive society that finding paths to equality is a hopeless aim? Is democracy even possible when coercion and power are misused? These paradoxes and conflicts are a small part of the culture wars that this course explores. Through foundational readings and several significant films, we will navigate through the murky waters mentioned above that may lead to a counter narrative of HOPEFUL enthusiasm. All our narratives tell a story, as well as mine. Let’s explore how our narratives reside within the culture wars through theoretical and research-based text, media, reflection, and dialogue as we move forward to establish a liberal education response to the current culture wars in education.

HNR 351 01 Magnitude: The Importance of Size to Almost Everything

Gary Greer

TR 11:30a.m.-12:45p.m. HON 214

This course explores the importance of size to inquiries and issues in the natural sciences, technology, engineering, social sciences, and arts.  Properties change with size and as a result, the tiny and the large are not merely small and large versions of one another, rather they differ in their essence.  At the extremes, the very tiny and the very large are inhabit fundamentally different worlds within the world.  Profound and highly-useful insights emerge from the study of size.  After developing a “universal” tool kit of concepts and skills and an exploration of some of its applications in the literature, students will work in small teams to explore questions of personal interest in which size is relevant. Click here to learn more about Professor Greer and this course!

HNR 201 Live. Learn. Lead.

Section 01: Kurt Ellenberger TR 4:00-5:15 p.m. HON 148

Section 02: Ellen Adams TR 1:00-2:15p.m. HON 148

Section 03: Jeremiah Cataldo MW 1:30-2:45p.m. HON 148

Section 04: Leifa Mayers TR 6:00-7:15 p.m. HON 148

This course is structured around a series of campus and community lectures, performances, exhibits, or other events. Readings and classroom activities prepare students to experience each event as fully as possible. Group attendance, follow-up discussion, and written reflections help students derive meaning from each experience and place it in larger contexts. The ultimate aim of the course is to equip students to engage in intelligent participation in public dialogues.

HNR 250 01 Jazzin’ the Culture

Kurt Ellenberger

Asynchronously Online

This course will study the history of jazz and the American culture in which it developed and also how jazz, in turn, influenced American and World Culture so profoundly in the 20C. We will learn about jazz from its origins in the 19C in the slave populations of the deep south and its subsequent move northward from New Orleans to Kansas City, Chicago, and New York. The important style periods will be studied, including blues and ragtime, Dixieland, swing, cool jazz, bebop, Latin jazz, hard bop, Avant Garde, fusion, European jazz, and contemporary trends. Students will determine their defining characteristics of this music through deep listening and creative engagement with the music and the cultural contexts which influenced its development and whose development was, in turn, influenced by the music. As an Honors 250, this course features some “hands on” creative activities where students will experiment with making their own music using GarageBand. This course does not require previous knowledge of music. There will be no discipline specific content in music theory, history, or performance; however, we will introduce a small amount of very simple music terminology that will be explained and demonstrated.

HNR 250 02 Playing with Puppets

Jason Yancey and James Bell

TR 10:00-11:15 a.m., HON 219

Using a variety of creative approaches, students will collaborate to write, build, and perform original plays using puppets. Students’ work will culminate in high-impact public performances on campus and in local schools, libraries, etc. In this way the knowledge gained in the classroom will not only deepen students’ individual abilities and appreciation of dramatic arts but also complete the theatrical experience to engage and serve targeted audiences in our community.

HNR 251 01 The Healing Power of Plants

Karen Amisi

M 6:00-8:50 p.m., HON 148

From early time, man has recognized that plants have the power to heal and sustain life. Plants remain the first-choice treatment for 80% of the global population. Consumer interest in the health benefits of medicinal and aromatic plants has increased worldwide. This course uses a research project-based approach to explore the history and diverse uses of medicinal, aromatic, and poisonous plants in various cultures. Students will gain an awareness of how natural chemical compounds derived from plants play a dominant role in the development of drugs to treat human diseases. The future of medicinal plants rests on our ability to invest in researching and documenting the plants and their active ingredients.

HNR 251 02 Calling Bull: skepticism & data

David Austin

TR 2:30-3:45 p.m., HON 218

Being a good citizen in the information age requires us to be skeptical consumers and proficient communicators of information.  This course will equip students to cultivate a skeptical mindset, become proficient at assessing information in their daily lives, and develop the ability to interpret and communicate quantitative information with clarity.  

HNR 251 03 Human Body in Motion

Bradley Ambrose

MW 1:00-2:50p.m. HON 214

This interdisciplinary science course is a lab-based problem-based learning (PBL) course for Honors students. The structure and function of human movement are examined from a basic physical perspective, with applications in body composition, biomechanics, and other areas of movement science, in order to develop an appreciation for the human body.  The course also focuses on the nature of science as a human endeavor.  

HNR 350 01 Life Writing

Rob Franciosi

TR 4:00-5:15 p.m., HON 218

In an age of constant communication, we are all writers. Not surprisingly, astute entrepreneurs—think Grammarly—have found ways to monetize an awareness that success today often depends as much on what you say, and how well, as on what you do. For those seeking a fast route to better prose, there are dozens of handbooks and guides, services like Grammarly, and even AI software that promises to make writing as easy as ordering that iced latte from the Starbucks drive-up window.

Conducted as a workshop, this course will be built on a different premise—that writing well depends upon knowledge, derived not from a handbook but from an understanding of self, of subject, and of audience. We shall test this assertion in two ways: first, by examining your own experiences, the subject you know better than anyone; and second, by translating your disciplinary interests for an audience that, while not necessarily sharing them, is willing to be engaged by them. By semester’s end you will have produced two substantial pieces of writing, one personal, the other discipline based. These papers will not emerge like Athena, straight from Zeus’s head, but via a process of drafting, peer-editing, and revising. 

HNR 350 02 Food, Culture, Conscience

John Uglietta

TR 10:00-11:15 a.m. MAK B2126

If we are lucky, most of us eat every day. However, the regularity of our encounters with food may cover up many of the ways that our food practices reflect our personal, religious, scientific, and philosophical beliefs and also our historical and environmental setting.  We will look at a variety of contemporary and historical sources to investigate the ways we eat, prepare, and talk about food.  We will look at recipes, cookbooks, and food reviews to investigate the methods and difficulties of talking about the taste and judgment we exercise in eating and preparing food. We will explore the nature of American cuisine and some of the great variety of food traditions in the US.  Also, we will consider the ethical implications of what we eat – exploring arguments for and against eating animal products and attempts to influence people to eat healthier foods. 

HNR 350 03 Leading Others in An Othering World

Faye Richardson-Green, Meijer Endowed Chair

T 6:00-8:50pm EC 310

What do we mean by “othering?” Our world view shapes the decisions we make for ourselves and others, especially when in a leading role. Although sometimes viewed as divisive, terms such as “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “equity” can be meaningful when fully understood in spite of a seemingly divided and polarized world. More importantly, those concepts really do matter in the world of work, regardless of industry, profession, geography, or culture.

This course will encourage the use of diversity, inclusion and equity lenses while exploring the topics of emotional intelligence, empathic listening, humble inquiry, story-telling, as well as historical and personal world views. This course will be highly participatory.  Students will be expected to engage in classroom discussions, role plays, and self-assessments as well as thoughtful dialog with guest presenters. Students will also be expected to research a significant historical / cultural event that changed the world’s view of an identified “other.”

HNR 350 04 Haiti Rediscovered

Peter Wampler

TR 2:30-3:45 p.m., HON 214

Have you ever wondered what Haiti is really like? Can it be boiled down to a negative narrative that is expressed in offensive expletives by former presidents? This course will use a combination of hands-on, online, classroom, and experiential learning activities to explore the past, present, and future of Haiti.  We will view and discuss videos, read fiction and non-fiction books and book excerpts, cook Haitian food together, and hear from Haitians in our community about their families and experiences. We will use the knowledge and perspective we gain to reflect on historic, economic, political, and environmental events that have shaped, and continue to shape Haiti.  We will also explore some of the unique challenges that Haiti faces such as occupation and influence by foreign powers, the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes, hurricanes, economic and civil unrest, and political dysfunction. We will also explore the beauty and culture of Haiti through art, music, and virtual field trips using videos and photos from GVSU study abroad programs to Haiti.

HNR 350 05 Medical Controversies

Coeli Fitzpatrick

TR 1:00-2:15p.m. HON 219

When we think about medical controversies such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama were denied medical treatment of syphilis in the name of science, we might assume that the days of such scandals are past. Yet new scandals and unthinkable controversies in the name of medicine, science, and progress are exposed with alarming regularity. These controversies are very often intertwined with issues of race, culture, social class, and politics. This interdisciplinary seminar uses fiction, memoir, film, podcasts, and essays to explore the sites where medicine, the elevation of science, and real bodies meet. The course will look at topics such as research/experimentation, the “war on drugs” and the opioid epidemic, “the obesity epidemic”, medicalization, risk and stigma, gun-control as a medical issue, and healthcare access. Students will also have the opportunity to use course assignments to explore their own areas of specific interest.   

HNR 350 06 Social Media and Belief

Jeremiah Cataldo

Asynchronously Online

How has the Internet and social media changed the ways we think and believe? How has it remapped the ways we express our deepest religious, political, emotional, and other beliefs? Are we becoming "transhuman"? This course pursues answers to those questions. By reviewing the formation of belief systems in the past across a range of cultures and by exploring current psychological and sociological research on belief formation, religious and other, it will show why our beliefs will never be the same in the dawning of an increasingly digitized world. Its benefit will be for anyone studying how humans behave and relate, such as those seeking careers in politics, business, religion, advertising, computer science, medicine, and more.

HNR 350-07 I love the 80s: Visual Culture in the Age of Reagan, Madonna, and AIDS

Ellen Adams

MW 3:00-4:15 p.m., HON 220

This interdisciplinary course will trace the visual culture of the 1980s from the election of Ronald Reagan to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today’s culture wars over feminism, globalism, multiculturalism, and identity politics originated in battles waged in the eighties over obscenity and morality. For example, how did the rise of crack cocaine begin a wave of massive incarceration among urban African Americans and feature prominently in video and film? In what ways did Jane Fonda’s workout videos shape both positive and negative female body norms at a time when women were moving into the work force in record numbers?  Federal funding for art, a process that until this time went largely unnoticed by the public, was pushed into the mainstream media by members of Congress who gained notoriety by playing on Americans’ fear of queer and feminist bodies. Thus, works such as Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs and Maya Lin’s now iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial provoked outrage, as did the visual culture surrounding the AIDS pandemic, from ACT UP’s furious activist imagery to the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Music and video combined in novel ways in the 80s, especially through the nascent MTV. Our playlist will include the post-punk vanguard (for example, Joy Division, The Cure); heavy metal (Metallica, AC/DC), pop (Madonna, Prince) and early hip hop (NWA, Public Enemy).

HNR 351 01 Why Did I Buy That?: Neuro Science and Behavioral Finance 

Larry Burns

TR 11:30-12:45 p.m. MAK B2126

We’ve all faced having no answer to the question, “why did I do that?” One main goal of the course is to provide students with a broad idea of how the brain, or decision neuroscience, underpins decision-making by way of cognitive errors, such as psychological bias, which, in turn, influences our financial decisions. We will compare how the decisions prescribed by behavioral finance differ from those implied by traditional finance. In this course, we will use insights from behavioral economics, psychology, and other social sciences to guide and develop alternative theories of financial market behavior while evaluating some of the analytical and quantitative methods common to finance. After gaining a foundational understanding of behavioral finance, we will turn to its applications involving social, cognitive, and economic controversies, including the role of uncertainty and risk, one of life’s most enduring decision-making puzzles.