Honors Course Schedule Spring 2026

Honors Great Ideas of World Civilizations

This course is considered the Honors Program "capstone course” (but can be taken at any point in your Honors journey). It is required to be an Honors Program Graduate. In the Great Ideas course, students will read and discuss texts from a variety of disciplines, covering a variety of eras and cultures, to examine how these ideas shape our thinking and our world today. (The course counts toward the Humanities Gen-Ed requirement. You can sign up for either the HUM or HST sections- they are the same class, just cross-listed.)

Courses Counting Toward Humanities Gen Ed

HUM 105 HN1 (CRN: 61100) / HST 105 HN1 (CRN: 63369)

MW 12:30-1:45pm

Professors J. Garcia and D. Richmond

This section of Honors Great Ideas is guided by the idea that we learn best when we learn from one another. So, our course is designed to make sure that the voices you hear the least in any given class are the voices of the instructors. In preparation for each class, we will all read a short piece (usually about 15 - 20 pages). Our classes will then be discussions of these readings, working to understand and critique them and consider their relevance to our world today. We will examine historically important and contemporary readings that deal with issues ranging from the pursuit of racial, gender, and economic equality to debates over the nature of science.

“Living Sustainable Lives” Learning Community (counts toward Humanities and Physical Sciences Gen Eds)

CHM 103 HLB (The Chemistry Connection) (CRN: 66530)

PHI 115 HLB (Ethics) (CRN: 66608)

MW 11-12:15 (lecture), M 12:30-3:15pm (lab), W 2:00 - 3:15pm (blended)

Professors J. Garcia and J. Ellefson

This course focuses on the chemistry and ethics surrounding issues of sustainability in our world and everyday lives. We will examine issues such as climate change, as well as water and land use. We will also look at various ways to think about our obligations to the planet and how to balance those with our other ethical concerns.

You must register for both of these classes at the same time.

Courses Counting toward the Communication Gen-Ed Requirement

ENG 102 HN1

TR 12:30-1:45pm Professor A. Tomasian (CRN: 61844)

In this course, we will be honing writing skills to prepare for advanced academic work while exploring powerful, sometimes troubling literature. How does it feel to be at the end of a particular period and on the precipice of a new world order, one absent of leadership, faith, or even water? How do we process the past while surviving in new conditions? What happens when we lose the rule of law or a solid definition of a leader? This course will cross over 1000 years of literature, considering moments of disruption and change. Texts may include Beowulf, Richard II, excerpts from Paradise Lost, and Octavia Butler’s dystopian novel The Parable of the Sower. Our readings will include an epic poem depicting an end to tribal life, a play depicting the beginning of the War of the Roses (inspiration for Game of Thrones), a text beloved in discontented, colonial America, and a dystopian novel about what happens when California runs out of water! Along the way, we will be considering historical and cultural contexts ranging from the letters of Queen Elizabeth I to South Park.

SPE101 HN1

MW 11am - 12:15pm Professor M. Bilos (CRN: 63170)

In Honors Speech, we will be exploring communication strategies and presenting multiple speeches. You will get experience practicing, preparing, and presenting in front of your peers as well as honing your digital skills. This face-to-face, 16-week course will walk you through the basics of persuasive and informative speaking, debate, and impromptu using the framework of social justice and implementing a volunteer project.

SPE101 HN1

MW 11am - 12:15pm Professor M. Bilos (CRN: 63170)

Courses Counting toward the Humanities General Education Requirement

HUM 105 HN1 (CRN: 61100) / HST 105 HN1 (CRN: 63369) – see descriptions above.

HUM 105 HS2 (CRN: 63434) / HST 105 HS2 (CRN: 63371) – see descriptions above.

LIT 115 HN1 (Intro to Fiction) (CRN: 67573)

TR 2-3:15pm

Professor M. McKinley

In Honors LIT 115, we will explore a wide variety of fictional texts from the 20th and 21st century, focusing on the diverse perspectives and styles that define modern and contemporary American Literature. As we do so, we’ll work to connect these texts to our own lives and the world around us, emphasizing the ongoing relevance of literary study, and will end the course by collaborating to create a website that effectively shares out some of the most fascinating, weird, instructive, and resonant details about the works we cover.

PHI 115-HLB (Ethics) - Learning Community - (blended)

W 9:30-10:45am

This course is part of a Learning Community. You must also register for Honors CHEM 103 at the same time. The Ethics section of this Learning Community is blended, with meeting times on Wednesdays, and the Chemistry section is fully in person. See above for more info.

Courses Counting toward the Social Sciences General Education Requirement

ECO 212 HB1 (Macroeconomics) (CRN: 62212)

T 2-3:15pm (blended)

Professor M. Raza

This Blended Honors Course of Macroeconomics has two components. (1) Subject matter chapters are provided fully online, and (2) Research based term-paper focusing on current economic issues, mainly on the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the global economy. While the course subject matter is fully supported by rich electronic study materials, the students work evaluation will be based on the completion of online homework assignments. The in-person meetings will focus on helping students work through the research paper component of the course.

SOC 101 (Intro to Sociology) (CRN: 63001)

TR 11am -12:15 pm

Professor M. Edwards

In our time together, we will engage in an analysis of the structure and dynamics of human society. We will explore theoretical and empirical work to observe and analyze social norms, groups, intergroup relations, social change, social stratification, and institutions. This course will dive into questions of social organization, social change, and social justice through an exploration of the intersection of food systems and systemic racism; we will do so with a focus on outcomes–and the link between hope, the sociological imagination, and activism–related to the climate crisis and Covid pandemic. Emerging from sociological analyses of our complex interdependence is a push for compassion and solidarity; as such, the policies of the class will reflect this larger sociological--and feminist--ethos of care.

Courses Counting toward the Math General Education Requirement

Courses Counting toward the Life Sciences (w/ lab) Gen Ed Requirement

BIO 116 HB1 (Fundamentals of Molecular Biology) (CRN: 66518)

T 3:30-6pm (lab) (blended)

Professor B. Statler

BIO116 covers higher levels of biological organization from the organism to the ecosystem. Topics include organismal diversity (bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, plants, and animals), history of life on earth, micro- and macroevolution, how species interact and rely on one another, and how organisms and the global climate influence one another. Honors students will additionally learn how to find reputable, scientifically supported sources on the internet and use those sources to support one lab report and one video-based presentation on an approved topic of choice that is related to climate change.

Courses Counting toward the Physical Sciences (w/ lab) Gen Ed Requirement

PHY 201 (General Physics I - Mechanics) (CRN: 62074)

MW 9-11:50am

Professor R. Graessle

Physics I dives into the beauty and challenge of mechanics—motion, energy, rotation, fluids and more—while also exploring physics as a living, human practice. Who gets to do physics, and how do culture and context influence discovery? Alongside problem-solving and lab work, we’ll study how ideas in physics evolved and imagine what physics could look like in the future. Perfect for curious minds in engineering, physics, chemistry, or math who want to think critically as well as quantitatively.