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Spring 2012 Honors Courses
Summer 2012 Honors Courses
Fall 2012 Honors Courses
Course Archive
Study Abroad & Leadership
If you spend a semester abroad on one of Harper College's
Study Abroad trips, you will be exempt from three house of
the minimum of 12 normally required for Honors Program Graduation.
In addition, if you complete any of Harper College's credit
Leadership courses (MGT 205, 206, 207), you may apply these
credits toward Honors Program Graduation status.
Spring 2012
ENG 102 - HL1 & PSY 225 - HL1(Composition II & Theories of Personality), with Professors Andrew Wilson and Charlie Johnston. As you most likely know, English 102 is "phase 2" of Harper's freshman-composition sequence. All English 102 sections ask the students to read and write about literature, and our Honors English 102 section will be linked with an Honors section of Psychology 225. This combined course will be worth six Honors credits, and each enrollee must sign up for both halves: English andPsychology.
English: We'll read some of literature's most renowned works, the "great works." Possible authorsinclude Shakespeare, Melville, Kafka, Faulkner, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, Arthur Miller, and more. We may toy around with the hopelessly outdated notion that literature is "great" when it appeals not merely to our politics but to our consciences: that it is "great," in other words, when it teaches self-improvement, and when it instructs us on how to live more humanely among our fellow men and women. Because this is a linked course, we will be especially interested in how the literature dramatizes the issues (the “theories of personality”) under investigation in the Psychology portion.
Psychology: Many have had begun to question their motives, even their own identity. Likewise, people are often doubtful about their own psychological health. Could it be that we are so suspicious of our psychological well-being, and so mired in the problem of how one creates a satisfying, meaningful life in an age of ever-increasing specialization and complexity, that we are sometimes willing to accept any psychological diagnosis – any “theory of personality” – in a desperate effort to gain a sense of identity? The on-going attempt to pathologize individual personality will thus be explored through various theories and through literature illustrative of each theoretical perspective.
English 102 fulfills a Communications gen.-ed. requirement; Psychology 225 fulfills a Social and Behavioral Sciences gen.-ed requirement. 6 credit hours. Tues./Thurs., 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. (Psy. 225), and then 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. (Eng. 102).
SOC 101 (Introduction to Sociology), with Professor Monica Edwards. Every college student should, at some point, take Sociology 101. We will explore the world through three primary trajectories: the elements of social structure, social inequalities, and social institutions. The approach of the class explores these topics through the lens of popular culture—that is, we will make sense of the social world by critiquing how the social world is projected to us through media (television, internet, and print), through education, and more. Students’ two major pieces of work will include a) a paper with the aim of analyzing the news media using sociological concepts and theories, and b) an observational journal of social behaviors in everyday life. This class will give you the basic principles of what Mills calls “the sociological imagination.” Fulfills Social and Behavioral Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. (This class also fulfills the "World Cultures and Diversity" requirement.) 3 credit hours. Tues./Thurs., 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
SPE 212 (Acting I), with Professor Kevin Long. This is the first-ever time we’ve offered an Honors class in Acting. As you can imagine, we are quite excited. Acting I introduces the basic elements of the actor’s craft, setting a foundation for the acting process. This includes work on releasing tension, developing powers of concentration, promoting spontaneity, exploring a systematic approach to preparing a role for performance, and developing confidence in performance. Because the student is studying a craft, most of the work focuses on application rather than theory. Students are expected to participate on a daily basis in craft-based exercises, an experience which guarantees personal and creative growth and, hopefully, results in a healthy respect for the art of acting. Fulfills Special-Electives gen.-ed. requirement. Tuesdays/Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. (And just in case you’re aiming for an AAS or an AGS degree, this class fulfills the “group 4” Humanities gen.-ed. requirement.)
LIT 115 - HN1(“Big Fat Books”), with Professor Trygve Thoreson. This course will ask students to "immerse" themselves in four "big fat books" by major authors of the Western tradition: George Eliot (Middlemarch), Charles Dickens (Bleak House), Herman Melville (Moby-Dick), and Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man). Students will have roughly one month to read each text, and the class will engage in extensive analysis of the works under consideration. Some important scholarly discussions of these works will also be examined, and we may also include a field trip to the Newberry Library. Students who enroll for this course should enjoy reading enough to embrace the bigness and the fatness of these books. Fulfills Humanities gen.-ed. Requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.
IDS 290(Independent Study/The Challenger) offers students hands-on experience editing The Challenger, the newsletter of the Harper Honors Society. Students will work closely together in doing layout and soliciting, writing, and editing articles for this official publication of the Honors Society. Students must contact Mr. Wilson (847.925.6791/awilson@harpercollege.edu) to develop a contract for this independent study. Fulfills Approved Electives gen. ed. requirement. 3 or 4 credit hours. Limit: 4 students. Time/place to be decided.
CHM 122 - HN1(General Chemistry II), with Professor Tom Dowd. This course follows CHM 121 as the second semester of a general chemistry sequence. A major emphasis of this course will be the study of experimental data and its connection to and development of theory. Students will engage the principles of chemical kinetics, equilibrium, acid-base reactions, electrochemistry, and thermodynamics. The course also introduces topics in organic, nuclear, transition metal, and descriptive chemistry. Laboratory includes experiments related to lecture material. Fulfills Physical and Life Sciences gen.-ed. lab course requirement. 5 credit hours. Mon./Wed., 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. (class); Tues., 3:25 p.m. to 6:05 p.m. (lab); Wed., 2:20 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. (discussion).
SPE 101 - HN1(Speech), with Professor Margaret Bilos, will allow students to discover the power of the spoken word, and students will receive instruction from Harper's award-winning, nationally respected Speech faculty (in this case, Prof. Bilos!). Emphasis will be placed on delivery, organization, research, audience analysis, and argumentation. Significant time will be dedicated to peer analysis of presentations. Students will also be videotaped for self-analysis. Fulfills Communications gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
ANT 101 - HN1(Anthropology), with Professor Helmut Publ. The intent of this course is to introduce the student to the comprehensive discipline of Anthropology and how it applies to our understanding of human behavior through time from the physical, cultural, and archaeological perspectives. Among the topics we will examine are human physical and cultural evolution, the origin of civilization, language, religion, kinship, economic and political organization, culture change, and more. Noteworthy is that students will have access to our very rich and extensive replica fossil hominid collection (one of the best-equipped and most comprehensive collections of any two-year college in the U. S.); this will provide them with a unique, hands-on opportunity to handle, observe, and compare world-wide specimens in an authentic context, whereas non-Harper folks might simply be viewing pictures in books. Core readings will include a textbook in Anthropology supplemented with selected articles on anthropological topics that students will have an opportunity to discuss. The course will also include a variety of films aimed at enhancing the various topics we cover, plus an added bonus of a possible museum field trip. Fulfills Soc./Behav. Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Mon./Wed., 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
AST 101 - HN1(Astronomy), with Professor Bhasker Moorthy. In Honors Astronomy, students try to make the study of the heavens more personal through the use of more observatory sessions, planetarium visits, and special off-campus lectures. In addition, the students become involved in a research project that concentrates on a particular aspect of astronomy and that helps them develop self-confidence in their understanding of science. Finally, the close interaction between the instructor and student helps promote a better awareness of how the study of astronomy can influence our everyday lives. Fulfills Physical Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 4 credit hours. Tues./Thurs., 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
HUM/HST 105 - HN1, night-time(Great Ideas of World Civilization), with Professor Judi Nitsch. This is the Honors Colloquium class. This course is required for all Honors student who wish to acquire Honors Program Graduation status. Students will survey primary sources from various academic disciplines. Core readings might include selections from Plato, Darwin, Confucius, the Qur’an, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Bacon, Machiavelli, Swift, Voltaire (Candide), Marx, Martin Luther King, Jr., Simone de Beauvoir, and Mary Wollstonecraft; these may be supplemented with selections from authors such as Aristotle, William James, Thomas Paine, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Feynman, Mary Shelley, Studs Terkel, bell hooks, and others. Students will select and lead classroom sessions on the readings; students may also have the opportunity to discuss these “great ideas” with Harper professors from across the campus and from many academic disciplines. Fulfills Humanities gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.
HUM/HST 105 - HN2, day-time (Great Ideas of World Civilization), with Professor Brian Cremins. This section of Hum/Hist 105 course will focus its attention on the relationship between mysticism and psychoanalysis. The syllabus includes a broad range of texts, including material from writers and theorists of ancient times to the present. The course will begin with what might appear to be two ideologically opposite texts: Freud's dismissal of his friend Romain Rolland's description of the "oceanic" sensations of meditation and St. Paul's moment of illumination on the road to Damascus. What is the relationship between mystical experience and psychoanalysis? What do recent studies in neurology tell us about the sections of the brain thought to be responsible for mystical or elevated states of being? Students will read and analyze these primary and theoretical texts in order to sharpen their critical thinking and writing skills. Students will also be exposed to materials which might be found in upper-division and graduate courses in the humanities. Mon./Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
The China Trip, with Professor Xilao Li. As many Honors students know, we will be taking roughly seven or eight Honors Program students to Beijing during spring break, 2012, March 23 –March 31. Please contact Mr. Wilson (awilson@harpercollege.edu or 847.925.6791) for further details. Participants will sign up for HUM 115 – HN1, worth 3 Honors credits.
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Summer, 2012
HUM/HST 105 - HN1 (Great Ideas of World Civilizations), with Professor Andrew Wilson. This is the Honors Colloquium class. This course is required for all Honors students who wish to acquire Honors Program Graduation status. Students will survey primary sources from various academic disciplines. Core readings might include selections from Darwin, Machiavelli, Marx, Thoreau, Douglass, Simone de Beauvoir, MLK, Viktor Frankl, Gandhi, John Hersey, Yukio Mishima, Black Elk, Barbara Ehrenreich, and more. Students will select and lead classroom sessions on the readings; students may also have the opportunity to discuss these “great ideas" with Harper professors from across the campus and from many academic disciplines – although it’s a little trickier to get guests to come to a summer-session class. Fulfills Humanities gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Mondays/Wednesdays, 2:00 p.m. to 4:40 p.m. (Please feel free to enroll in either HUM or HST -- one or the other, and it does not matter which you choose.) Place: L-223. (CRN # for HUM 105: 90570. CRN # for HST 105: 90519.)
GEG 111 & 112 – HN1 (Physical Geography), with Mukila Maitha. Fulfills Physical-and-Life-Sciences gen.-ed. lab course requirement. GEG 111 (CRN # 90124) will meet on Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. GEG 112 (the lab portion of the class, CRN # 90126) will meet Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. If you wish, you CAN sign up for GEG 111 and not GEG 112. In other words, you don’t have to take the lab. Most GEG 111 students do also take 112, but it’s not required.
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Fall, 2012
ENG 101 - HN1 (Composition I), with Professor Josh Sunderbruch. In this course students will learn how to craft persuasive arguments using Aristotle’s theories of rhetoric and poetics. The class will use debate and discussion to explore issues that matter today. Reading and writing assignments will focus on arguments about critical and controversial issues. Rather than asking students to absorb or expand on these works, students will be encouraged to contradict and to critically examine statements by figures of authority. Fulfills Communications gen. ed. requirement. Fulfills Communications gen.-ed. requirement. (Prerequisite: see catalog.) 3 credit hours. Mondays/Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
BIO 105 (Heredity, Evolution, and Society), with Professor Katherine Hollis. This first-ever offering of Honors BIO 105 includes an introduction to cellular and molecular biology with a focus on genetics, biotechnology, and evolution. Honors students will investigate cellular processes and how they relate to physical characteristics and inheritance patterns. The genetic and chromosomal basis of disease will be examined, as well as molecular techniques used to identify disease. Current applications of biotechnology and their ethical implications will also be covered, and the course concludes with an exploration of evolution, human lineage(s), and the genetics of race. Fulfills Physical & Life Sciences gen.-ed requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
ECO 212 (Macroeconomics), with Professor Malathy Chandrasekar. Put simply, Macroeconomics tries to teach students a) what the economy is, and b) how the economy functions. As most of us know, the media continually draws our attention (esp. lately) to what is happening to interest rates, unemployment, and “the median income.” But can exposure to television and print-media business reports really provide an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the complex world of economics? In this Honors section, we’ll look carefully at a number of timely questions: “Will the economy suffer another recession soon? Can the US government (with all of its tireless infighting) reduce the budget deficit? Should taxes be raised? Lowered? Does globalization improve or worsen our economic growth?” We’ll begin with an introduction to economics, highlighting the problem of scarcity. Then, we’ll gradually build upon a handful of economic models in an effort to understand, at last, how they apply to the cold realities of Wall Street and Main Street. Fulfills Social-and-Behavioral Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
GEG 103 - HNB (The Developing World), with Professor Veronica Mormino. Honors Geography 103 is a survey of the less-developed regions of the world, the places we hear about in the news almost every day. These regions include East, South, and Southeast Asia, Latin America, North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Students will delve into the geographical nuances of these developing countries and their people. The course will examine each region via case studies, illustrating current geographic themes, concepts, and issues of the day, including population change, environmental degradation, economic development, geopolitical conflict, and cultural perceptions. Students will pay special attention to current events and discuss them in class. They will explore these developing realms by working on projects of interest, such as hunger and poverty in developing countries. The class will also participate in a field trip during the semester to a relevant museum. Students will have the opportunity to try ethnic foods and enjoy exposure to new cultures and music. Finally, the class will participate in various programs and events during Harper's International Week and Geography Awareness Week in November, 2012. Honors GEG 103 will be a fascinating and fun semester for all who enroll! Fulfills Social-and-Behavioral-Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (It's a "blended" class, which basically means that you'll really only be meeting face-to-face [in the classroom] on Thursdays @ 11 a.m. The rest of the contact time is online, via "Blackboard." But . . . it’s still a regular class, worth 3 Honors credits, of course!)
LIT 112 - HL1 & HST 112 - HL1, with Professors Richard Middleton-Kaplan and Leslye Hess. This remarkable class focuses on what Americans knew -- and know -- about the Holocaust, and how that knowledge has come to us through literature, film, and historical documents. We will explore how the Holocaust entered our national consciousness and how our perception of it has been shaped by books and movies. Questions we will consider: Do Americans need to put happy faces and happy endings on all of our stories--even Holocaust stories? If so, does that make us different from Germans, Russians, the French, and others? What do our Holocaust novels, movies, newspaper articles, and histories say about us? About our culture? About our needs and desires? Books and films span the period from right after the war to the present. Selections may include The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler's List, The Pawnbroker, Sophie's Choice, Jakob the Liar, and Defiance. LIT 112 fulfills a Humanities gen.-ed. requirement. (LIT 112 also fulfills the "Interdisciplinary Studies" option under the Humanities umbrella -- a nice bonus.) HST 112 fulfills a Social-and-Behavioral-Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 6 credit hours (3 per class). Mondays/Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (LIT 112), and 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. (HST 112).
PSY 101 - HN1 (Introduction to Psychology), with Professor Charles Johnston, will explore the theme of conformity/compliance as a major source of evil in society and will pay special attention to social psychology and the psychology of women. Fulfills Social-and-Behavioral Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays/Thursdays, 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
CHM 121 - HN1 (General Chemistry), with Professor Andy Kidwell, will offer an innovative, hands-on approach to chemistry instruction by having students apply principles of general chemistry to such contemporary issues as global warming. Fulfills Physical-and-Life-Sciences gen.-ed. lab course requirement. 5 credit hours. Mondays, 11:00 a.m. to 3:50 p.m. (lecture from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.; lab from 1:00 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.); Wednesdays, 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (lecture from 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.; discussion from 1:30 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.).
PSC 101 – HN1 (American Politics and Government), with Professor Bobby Summers. This Honors course is an introduction to American government and the American political system. The course explores the issues of today as well as the challenges that confronted the founding fathers. Students will consider the constitutional foundations of American government, the structure of federalism, as well as the inner workings of the courts, the Congress, and the presidency. By tracking current elections and politics, we will discuss the roles played by political parties, special-interest groups, public opinion, and elections. Finally, we'll examine some of the policy dilemmas confronted by American government today and yesterday, including civil liberties, civil rights, foreign policy, and economic regulation. In addition to the material presented by the instructor, students will select and lead classroom discussions from supplemental historical and contemporary readings. Fulfills Social-and-Behavioral-Sciences gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.
SPE 101 - HN1 (Speech), with Professor Jeff Przybylo, will allow students to discover the power of the spoken word, and students will receive instruction from Harper's award-winning, nationally respected Speech faculty (in this case, Prof. Przybylo!). Emphasis will be placed on delivery, organization, research, audience analysis, and argumentation. Significant time will be dedicated to peer analysis of presentations. Students will also be videotaped for self-analysis. Fulfills Communications gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.
IDS 290 (Independent Study/The Challenger) offers students hands-on experience editing The Challenger, the newsletter of the Harper Honors Society. Students will work closely together in doing layout and soliciting, writing, and editing articles for this official publication of the Honors Society. Though Professor Alicia Tomasian will be the faculty advisor for The Challenger, students must contact Mr. Wilson (847.925.6791/awilson@harpercollege.edu) to develop a contract for this independent study. Fulfills Approved-Electives gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Limit: 4 students. Meeting time(s) to be decided.
HUM/HST 105 - HN1 (Great Ideas of World Civilization), with Professor David Richmond. This is the Honors Colloquium class. This course is required for all Honors students who 1) first enrolled at Harper in or after the fall of 2001, and 2) wish to acquire Honors Program Graduation status. Students will survey primary sources from various academic disciplines. Core readings may include selections from Plato, the Buddha, Bacon, Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Machiavelli, Swift, Voltaire (Candide), Marx, Douglass, and de Beauvoir; these may be supplemented with selections from authors such as Lao Tzu, Confucius, St. Augustine, the Prophet Mohammed, Bede the Venerable, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Students will select and lead classroom sessions on the readings; students will also have the opportunity to discuss these “great ideas” with Harper professors from across the campus and from many academic disciplines. Fulfills Humanities gen.-ed. requirement. 3 credit hours. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
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