Honors Courses

Fall - Daytime Courses 

Honors English: Composition and Literature I
Expository and argumentative writing is the focus of this course. Students read and discuss prose essays which present significant issues and respond to them in scholarly form and language. Research and its proper documentation are included in this process.
3 credits; Professor Mira Sakrajda

Honors English: Composition and Literature II
Composition and Literature II introduces students to literary genres (short story, poetry, drama, novel). This course will present masterpieces in each of these forms which students will read, discuss and write about in their journals and in critical essays. Research will be required.
3 credits; Professor Richard Rodriguez

Honors English: Holocaust Studies
This course studies the Holocaust in particular and racism in general. It examines a number of major questions such as, "How could a `cultured' people, the nation of Beethoven, commit such barbaric crimes?" Special attention is given to the roles of silence, complicity, and personal responsibility. Students will complete a three-part project in which they investigate an aspect of the Holocaust. Guest speakers and films will complement the material.
3 credits;   Professor Michael Bobkoff  

Honors English/Communications: Speech Communication
An in-depth exploration of issues and topics in communication. Students will learn techniques and styles of oral communication and utilize these throughout the course to share research in special topics such as listening, intercultural communication, communication between genders, and the power of language to shape our perceptions of the world around us. Students will work in groups as well as individually, and will investigate and experience communication in a variety of contexts. Oral presentations requiring extensive planning and preparation and a research paper are required.
3 credits;   Professor Linda Kalfayan  

Honors Social Science: Macroeconomics 
This course is designed to introduce students to both the basic principles used in economic theory and to the institutional details of the organization of economic systems in the United States and other countries. In addition, the course helps students understand the ways in which different economies are linked and the effects of economic interactions within and between countries. The contents of the course range from demand and supply analysis to monetary and fiscal policies, with special emphasis on international economic issues. Various contemporary macroeconomic policy issues are also analyzed. The course also develops a conceptual framework to help students independently analyze their issues. Prerequisite: ENG 101.
3 credits;   Prof. Farhad Ameen  

Honors Behavioral Science: Theories of Personality
This course will focus on the individual. It will explore the factors which contribute to making each person unique. It will also explore how consistent personality is over time and across situations. The following theories will be covered: The Psychoanalytic Approach, The Biological Approach, The Trait Approach, The Humanistic Approach, The Social Learning Approach, and The Cognitive Approach.
3 credits;   Professor Laurie Corey

Honors Social Science: 20^th Century US History
This course presents a history of the United States from the Spanish-American War to the present; the development and impact of big business; the Progressive Era and World Wart I; the return to normalcy and the Depression; recovery and the New Deal; World War II and its aftermath; the Cold War; Korea; Civil Rights; the Kennedy Administration.  It is designed to provide a background in United States social, economic and diplomatic developments in the 20^th century.
3 credits;  Prof. John Flynn  

Honors Humanities: Philosophy of Art
This course deals with two central questions: What is art? And what makes aesthetic judgments possible?  These two questions will be addressed by looking at what some of the most influential Western philosophers have said about art and aesthetics.  The thinkers we will look at are Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Ficino, Shaftesbury, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Croce, Dewey, and Heidegger.  Particular attention will be given to how philosophical issues in art have been intimately connected to philosophical visions of the cosmos, god, politics, science, and arts.  Such connections will be investigated both through theory and through the critique of famous works of arts in various mediums.
3 credits;     Prof. Dwight Goodyear

Honors Math: The Nature of Mathematics
The emphasis of this course in to improve problem-solving skills and extend students’ understanding of the nature of mathematics beyond algebra.  The Topics include: Problem-solving, number theory, secret codes, the Golden rectangle, symmetry, the concept of infinity, topology, chaos, fractals, the uses and abuses of statistics, Uncertainty, and decision making.  This course is appropriate for liberal arts students entering fields of study that are not mathematically-oriented. 
4 credits;  Prof. Jodi Cotton  

Honors English: Great Books
This course offers students the opportunity to read and to engage in intensive study and discussion of classic literary texts-works of enduring influence that stand among the sources of our intellectual tradition and have shaped the development of Western culture. The authors from which these great works will be chosen will include but not be limited to Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere, Voltaire, Goethe, Shelley, Austen, Flaubert, Dostoevski, Tolstoi, Joyce, Woolf, Camus, Ellison.
3 credits;  Professor Frank Madden

Fall - Evening  Courses  

Honors Social Science: International Law and Organizations
This course is an introduction to international law, exploring the theories behind international law, the concept of the national state and the formation of world organizations in the twentieth century. It covers such topics as human rights, the environment, refugees, terrorism, war crimes and multinational corporations from an historical as well as legal perspective. Emphasis will be placed on international problem solving and the issues of peacekeeping and dispute resolution. The student will learn legal terminology, case analysis and briefing. Prerequisite History/ Political Science.
3 credits;  Professor Anne D'Orazio  

Honors English: American Dream  - Online
This course examines the American Dream in its many facets and transformations over this nation’s history. Central to these various contested versions of the Dream are different visions of America itself: as a "city on a hill," bountiful Eden or as forbidding wilderness; as endless frontier, "home town" community, or urban industrial powerhouse; as mecca for immigrants and level playing field, or as exclusionary and oppressive world superpower. Our goal is to identify what the American Dream has meant in the past, and what (if anything) it means today.
3 credits; Online Course; Professor Jim Werner

Honors Behavioral Science: General Psychology
As a foundation for all behavioral science courses, this course provides the student with an understanding of how psychologists view the world and apply scientific method to the study of behavior. The discipline of psychology is characterized by controversy and change, but has always been committed to objective inquiry to extend our knowledge of the complexity of behavior. Each student designs and carries out a personal research project in order to learn and experience the problems and pitfalls of doing behavioral research. Research methodology, biological foundations of behavior, learning, memory, perception, motivation and personality are topics of study.
3 credits;   Professor Paul Siegel   

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