Honors First Year Inquiry Series

Fall 2013

HONR 1102 – Enhancing Honors

Mon, Tues, or Thurs / 4:35pm – 5:40pm
CRN: Multiple CRNs

Prof. Maureen Kelleher
Honors Program Director

Enhancing Honors is a team taught course required for all first-year Honors students. The one credit course is designed to help students prepare for their campus Honors year and create a sense of community within the first-year Honors experience. During the semester, students will explore the goals of the University Honors Program: taking part in a Living Learning Community, learning through an Interdisciplinary Perspective, establishing a Research Focus, participating in Experiential Learning, experiencing Global Awareness, and contributing to Civic Engagement. Upper-class students in Honors will be class mentors.

HONR 1200-01 – Comparative Study of Cultures
Topic: Disputers of the Dao: Religion and Philosophy in Ancient China

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Comparative Cultures
Tues, Fri / 3:25pm – 5:05pm (Seq. G)
CRN: 16773

Prof. Jung Lee
Philosophy & Religion

This course examines the ethos and worldview of early Chinese intellectual traditions in their historical contexts. From the oracle bone divinations of the Shang Dynasty to the philosophical and religious traditions of Confucianism, Mohism, Yangism, Daoism, and Legalism, this course aims to introduce students to the enduring ideas and concepts that have had a lasting influence on Chinese culture, state, and family. In addition to the study of relevant primary texts, the course will also ask comparative questions on the nature of Chinese thought and its possible affinities to the West.

HONR 1205-01 – Inquiries in Social Science
Topic: Voices of Development: How One Person Changed the World for the Poorest of the Poor

Honors Thematic: Social Development
NU Core: Social Science
Mon, Wed, Thurs / 9:15am – 10:20am (Seq. 2)
CRN: 16774

Prof. Dennis Shaughnessy
Entrepreneurship and Innovation

This course focuses on the idea that extraordinary individuals who are passionate and committed can change the world for the disadvantaged and most vulnerable members of society. The focus would be on five leaders in four different sectors of development: Extreme Poverty – Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner, founder of Grameen Bank; Health – Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health; Literacy – John Wood, founder of Room to Read and former Microsoft executive; Environment – Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize winner, founder of Green Belt Movement; and, Education – Geoffrey Canada, founder, Harlem Children’s Zone.

We will examine the development areas of poverty, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and urban decay, from the perspective of leaders committed to making profound and sustainable change. We will use business principles along with principles from other disciplines (economics, public policy, sociology) to build analytical frameworks. The core of the class is based on readings and building discussions around the embedded topics. Each leader and related book covers a region of the world and a particular development area. Each topic contains a rich amount of learning material in the development and leadership arenas.

For assignments, students will write book reviews, and a larger essay that compares and contrasts each of these development leaders from a variety of perspectives including impact, sustainability, and personal characteristics. We will also do some self-assessment work. Each student will also be responsible for leading certain discussions, and making short presentations with a small group.

Each student will also be responsible for leading certain discussions, and making short presentations with a small group.

Students in this seminar will be given the opportunity to invest up to $10,000 in a leading social enterprise addressing global poverty through sustainable business.

HONR 1205-02 – Inquiries in Social Science
Topic: The North of Ireland: Conflict, Reconciliation, and the Ongoing Quest for Peace

Honors Thematic: Conflict and Peace Building
NU Core: Social Science
Mon, Wed / 2:50pm – 4:30pm (Seq. B)
CRN: 16775

Michael Patrick MacDonald
Honors Program Writer-in-Residence

Just as the civil rights movement of 40 years ago was part of something huge happening all over the world, so the repression that came upon us was the same as is suffered by ordinary people everywhere who dare to stand up against injustice. Sharpeville. Grozny. Tiananmen Square. Darfur. Fallujah. Gaza. Let our truth stand as their truth too.–Tony Doherty (son of slain Civil Rights marcher on Bloody Sunday)

This course will examine the ongoing quest for a “peace with justice” in the north of Ireland.

We will look at the history of violence in this particular locale — in its various forms, whether paramilitary or state violence; physical or economic violence; the violence of discrimination; or, more recently, youth “anti social” violence – with an eye on the implications this particular conflict and the ongoing peace process may have for other places of conflict (globally, or even locally, e.g. youth gang violence and quests for peace with justice on Boston’s streets). How is the conflict in the north of Ireland related to the history of struggle in South Africa? How were Civil Rights activists in The North influenced by the American Civil Rights movement? How might the ongoing peace process provide lessons for Israel/Palestine? How might the developments in American urban youth work to prevent violence and promote access and opportunity provide lessons to “post-conflict” cities like Belfast, which have seen a new type of conflict manifesting among its young people in the form of what is called “anti social behavior?”

We will discuss all of this, while reading memoir, histories, poetry, and articles, as well as watching films about the conflict in the North of Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement, and the subsequent ongoing peace process.

HONR 1206-01 – Inquiries in Science and Technology
Topic: Earth as an Active Planet

Honors Thematic: Science, Technology and Human Values
NU Core: Science and Technology
Mon, Wed / 2:50pm – 4:30pm (Seq. B)
CRN: 16776

Prof. Malcolm Hill
Marine & Environmental Sciences

In this course, we will conduct a systematic study of the earth as a planet; examine geologic processes that modify the earth’s surface and interior; and consider how people who study problems in this area of science pose questions, make observations and use data to determine “truth” in explaining past and current processes. Plate tectonics theory is used as an overarching paradigm for interpreting large-scale patterns of geologic processes. Examples from modern environments (Iceland’s interplay between volcanism and glaciation) as well as evidence that can be gleaned from ancient rocks will inform our study.

HONR 1206-02 – Inquiries in Science and Technology
Topic: New Strategies in the Fight Against Cancer

Honors Thematic: Science, Technology and Human Values
NU Core: Science and Technology
Tues, Fri / 9:50am – 11:30am (Seq. D)
CRN: 16777

Prof. Lee Makowski
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Chemistry & Chemical Biology

The emergence of nanotechnology, advanced biomedical imaging, and genomics has led to development of a host of new techniques with great promise for improving diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This course will review what cancer is and why it remains such a difficult clinical challenge; outline existing therapeutic strategies and their shortcomings; and explain how new technologies are being designed to deliver greatly improved treatments in the future. This is not a course on current clinical practice. It is a course on fundamental challenges and biomedical invention.

HONR 1208-01 – Inquiries in Arts
Topic: What Makes Music Work

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Arts
Mon, Wed, Thurs / 1:35pm – 2:40pm (Seq. 4)
CRN: 16778

Prof. Dennis Miller
Music

This course explores the essential elements that are found in music of all styles and eras and examines works from cultures around the world. Rather than approach the study of music from a historical approach, it will look at each of the six components – melody, rhythm, harmony, sonority, texture, and form – that underlie music of all types. Through intensive in-class and outside listening, students will learn how to assess the role played by each of these elements and how best to describe the traits they are hearing.

HONR 1209-01 – Inquiries in Humanities
Topic: Markets, Governments, and Economic Justice

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Humanities
Mon, Wed, Thurs / 1:35pm – 2:40pm (Seq. 4)
CRN: 16779

Prof. Stephen Nathanson
Philosophy & Religion

Many of today’s heated political debates in the United States concern the role of government in the economy. Should we have a pure market system in which people have only those economic resources they earn? Or should governments guarantee resources like jobs, income, or services like health care? Which of these systems achieves economic justice? This course introduces the philosophy of economic justice by focusing on three systems: libertarian capitalism, state socialism, and the welfare state. It examines how each of these systems addresses the requirements of economic justice: promoting human well-being, giving people what they deserve, and promoting liberty. We will explore major theorists in these areas including Marx, Nozick, and Rawls and try to understand the fundamental qualities of economic justice, the tension between freedom and equality, and the implications of the vast disparities in wealth that exist both globally and within particular societies. The course aims to achieve an understanding both what economic justice is and whether it is a utopian ideal or a practical possibility.

HONR 1209-02 – Inquiries in Humanities
Topic: Bedrooms and Battlefields: Sex, Gender, and Ethnicity in the Old Testament

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Humanities
Mon, Thurs / 11:45am – 1:25pm (Seq. A)
CRN: 16780

Prof. Lori Lefkovitz
Philosophy & Religion

We will read stories from Hebrew Scripture in English translation, beginning with the Garden of Eden through the Book of Ruth, asking how these foundational narratives establish the categories that have come to define our humanity today. We will look at how the Bible’s patterns of representation construct sexual and ethnic identities and naturalize ideas about such contemporary social institutions as “the family.” The course will analyze the Bible’s bedrooms and battlefields, repeated stories of identity masquerade, and metaphors of fluids and voices. We will read the Bible as a collection of stories that sets in motion one trajectory of the Western narrative tradition, and we will interrogate some of the basic assumptions of that tradition.

HONR 1209-03 – Inquiries in Humanities
Topic: The Islamic Veil: Islam, Gender, and the Politics of Dress

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Humanities
Tues, Fri / 1:35pm – 3:15pm (Seq. F)
CRN: 16781

Prof. Elizabeth Bucar
Philosophy & Religion

This course explores why the Islamic veil today is so “pregnant with meanings” and how this impacts the lives of not only Muslim women who cover, but also of those who do not. Specifically we will be concerned with explaining the various things wearing a veil “can do,” that is, its political, social, economic, and moral power. In the course we will explore how colonialism, nationalism, and Islamic movements have affected the Islamic veil. We will raise questions about whether veiling affects educational and employment opportunities for Muslim women. We will begin to understand that the veil can be both a symbol of cultural identity and a fashion statement. As a result, we will have a better understanding of the basic gendered categories central to Islamic thought and practice, major themes in the role of gender in Islam, and the distinctive gendered religious practices that are part of Islamic public practice. Our work will be framed by the comparative interpretation of Islamic religious literary texts in light of their historical contexts and distinguishing differences over time in different social and cultural contexts. Our goal will include an appraisal of Islam as a cultural system in its temporal and geographic contexts and a critical appreciative understanding of culture, religion, and people who may be different from ourselves.

Spring 2013

HONR 1205-02 – Inquiries in Social Science
Topic: Securing Peace in Times of Terror

Honors Thematic: Conflict and Peace Building
NU Core: Social Science
Seq D
Tues, Fri / 9:50am – 11:30am
CRN: 36326

Prof. Nicholas Daniloff
School of Journalism

After 70 years of the Cold War, the world now faces both sudden, unpredictable threats and the relentless nature of foreign wars. The first type of threat – shoe bombers, car bombers, airplane bombers – is by its nature unexpected terror. Why have these threats developed? And how can we begin to address some of the policy and security concerns that emerge around these unpredictable threats?

The second type of threat is inexplicably linked to America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the larger issues of a “war on terror”, the more complex nature of relationships between allies, the responsibility to the innocents in these wars, and the long-term implications of the traumatic aftermath of battle both in terms of personal lives and national policy. Has this American intervention generated unrepentant anger and revenge in the Muslim world? What is the outlook for the future?

In this course we will examine the origin of these threats both outside and inside the United States and consider how to address them. The approach will include formal lectures, class discussions, and appropriate videos and other visuals. I will draw on my own experience as a foreign correspondent with field experience in Washington, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia.

HONR 1206-01 – Inquiries in Science and Technology
Topic: The Impact of Environmental Cycles: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

Honors Thematic: Science, Technology, and Human Values
NU Core: Science and Technology
Seq 4
Mon, Wed, Thur / 1:35pm – 2:40pm
CRN: 36429

Prof. Malcolm Hill
Chair, Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences

Environmental quality can range from the seasonal air quality of your home to the planet-wide effects of changing CO2 levels in the oceans. Environmental quality can impact on how easily an asthmatic can breathe, whether the acidification of the oceans will cause them to continue to lose their coral, or whether we will no longer need snow shovels and heavy coats during New England winters because of global warming.

This course will take an interdisciplinary perspective to focus on relatively simple cause-and-effect systems. For example, we will assess how the impact of a volcanic eruption that pumps ash and sulfur oxides into the upper atmosphere causes a particular change in average temperature for a year or two afterwards. We will also explore more complex systems. In that case, we might assess matter and energy cycles and their impact on different parts of the near-surface environment – such as the role that wetlands play in creating natural “sinks” (or holding chambers) for reactive nitrogen which runs off from farmland treated by pesticides; or the way that in boreal forests, the availability of organic nitrogen impacts on the growth of shrubs, grass and trees.

Finally, this course will prompt us to look more closely at the ways that we can expand on our understanding of the science behind the processes that impact and influence environmental quality. Understanding this science will influence how we view environmental policy formulation – ranging from efforts to restrict automobile carbon emissions, concerns with deep well drilling in the oceans, or deforestation caused by logging.

HONR 1208-02 – Inquiries in Arts
Topic: Making a Musical: Analysis, Craft, and Creation

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Arts
Seq A
Mon, Thur / 11:45am – 1:25pm
CRN: 36328

Prof. Allen Feinstein
Department of Music

How are great musicals constructed? What tools does one need to build a musical? In an historical context this course will explore these questions, focusing on how effective lyrics are built, how songs function in musicals, and how book writers, lyricists, and composers adapt works from other media to the musical theater stage. Throughout the semester students will transform analytical techniques and discoveries into creative strategies, building short musicals in collaborative teams. Students need not be musicians to participate in this class. Aspiring actors, composers, lyricists, authors of all styles, technical theater artists and designers, and all those with a curiosity about the history of musicals and how musicals are made are strongly encouraged to enroll.

HONR 1209-01 – Inquiries in Humanities
Topic: Human Rights: Ideas, Institutions, and Laws

Honors Thematic: Social Development; Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Humanities
Seq F
Tues, Fri / 1:35pm – 3:15pm
CRN: 36329

Prof. Serena Parekh McGushin
Department of Philosophy and Religion

This class is an introduction to human rights taught from an interdisciplinary perspective. The class will begin by looking at some philosophical questions around human rights – what are human rights? Where do they come from? We will then look at human rights mechanisms such the United Nations, various human rights declarations, and systems of transitional justice such as the International Criminal Court. We will conclude by discussing contemporary human rights issues such as genocide, women’s rights, refugees, and torture.

HONR 1209-02 – Inquiries in Humanities
Topic: Bedrooms and Battlefields: Sex, Gender, and Ethnicity in the Old Testament

Honors Thematic: Inquiry, Advocacy and the Social World
NU Core: Humanities
Seq 3
Mon, Wed, Thur / 10:30am – 11:35am
CRN: 36331

Prof. Lori Lefkovitz
Department of English