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麻豆破解版 Honors Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to be flexible so that students are able to make the most of their time at 麻豆破解版. Honors students can complete the Honors curriculum and still major or minor in any available subject, can double major, study abroad, participate in NCAA athletics, and even pursue early graduation or one of the five-year combined BA/MA programs.

Most importantly, our scaffolded approach allows for increasingly independent exploration and project-based coursework supported by distinguished faculty and staff.

First Year

Begin in wonder 触听Approach and explore a topic with an awareness of the strengths and limitations of diverse intellectual perspectives.

  • CORE-106,听Honors section of听Complex Problems Seminar听(3 credits)听

    • Complex Problems courses are 3-credit seminars where students practice scholarly methods of inquiry to study multi-faceted, real-world problems or enduring questions. First-year Honors students take CP alongside their peers in the program, along with a 1-credit experiential learning lab which offers co-curricular experiences that connect back to course content, creating a bridge between the classroom and the real world

  • HNRS-150,听麻豆破解版 Honors Experiential Learning听(1 credit)

    • 1-credit experiential learning lab which offers co-curricular experiences that connect back to course content, creating a bridge between the classroom and the real world

  • HNRS-151,听麻豆破解版 Honors Inquiry Experience听(1 credit)

    • Faculty-led projects intended to help students engage in the process of knowledge-creation and knowledge presentation.

Second Year

Journey in curiosity 触听Develop and execute a rigorous scholarly plan for generating knowledge, in dialogue with a variety of traditions of inquiry.

  • HNRS-395,听Theories of Inquiry听

    • A broad conceptual exploration of different ways of producing and presenting knowledge across fields and disciplines; emphasis is on developing an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and on the formation of research questions in different traditions (3 credits).听

  • HNRS-398,听Honors Challenge Course

    • Building on skills learned in ToI,听students听form groups, choose an 麻豆破解版 faculty mentor, and tackle a research question of their own design. Students share their research with a larger audience during the Challenge Course Showcase (3 credits).听

Third & Fourth Years

Dare to know | Students participate in increasingly independent inquiry experiences and contribute to knowledge, creative expression, and meaningful change.听

Honors students take 2 Honors Colloquium courses. 3 credits must be either听HNRS-400Advanced Honors Colloquium听OR another upper-division Honors offering. 3 credits can be another of the above OR an Honors supplement affixed to an upper-division course on campus or abroad. These courses are most often taken junior and/or senior year (6 credits).听

Learn More About Honors Colloquium

Create a capstone in your major or through Honors. Examples: traditional scholarly thesis, creative work, case study, business plan, media project, etc.听

Learn More About HNRS-498

Quick Look: Fall 2025 Courses

Fall 2025

  • Decolonizing Knowledge with Professor Green-Simms
  • Electric Music Since Edison with Professor Snider
  • Global Hip-Hop & Resistance with Professor Dibinga
  • Science & Politics of Looking Good with Professor Dehgan
  • The Art of Theft with Professor Helfers
  • HNRS-395-001 with Professor Talan
  • HNRS-395-002 with Professor Middents
  • HNRS-395-003 with Professor Wilson
  • HNRS-395-004, professor TBA!

Fall 2025

Guilty Pleasures with Professor Friedman

麻豆破解版 Honors Course Offerings: Fall 2025

CORE-106: Honors Section of Complex Problems

AnchorComplex Problems courses are 3-credit seminars where students practice scholarly methods of inquiry to study multi-faceted, real-world problems or enduring questions. First-year Honors students take CP alongside their peers in the program, along with a 1-credit experiential learning lab which offers co-curricular experiences that connect back to course content, creating a bridge between the classroom and the real world.

Prof. Nancy Snider

  • CORE-106-001, M/TH 2:30pm - 3:45pm
  • HNRS-150-001, TH 11:20am - 2:10pm

Electric Music Since Edison (3) From early amorphous blobs of computer-generated sounds to the pulsating beats of contemporary hip hop, we are experiencing electronic music in both conscious and unconscious ways. This course explores the impact that electronics have had on music since its beginnings in the late nineteenth century. Using a variety of genres, special attention is given to the advent of sound in film as well as to new language/vocabularies in music, new sounds as the result of newly designed instruments and synthesis techniques, digital vs analogue applications and the computer. The course offers students the unique opportunity to observe, analyze, experiment, and even create music with electronics. Problems concerning the enduring question of invention as progress (or not) and wrestling with finding value in the unfamiliar are at the heart of the course. Determining how these new technologies have shaped listening, musical creativity, responses, expectations and culture, are examined through multiple lenses and disciplines where the intersection of art, science, technology, and society meet at a sometimes surprising but undeniable crossroads.

Prof. Edward Helfers

  • CORE-106-003, M/TH 2:30pm - 3:45pm
  • HNRS-150-003, W, 2:30pm - 5:20pm

The Art of Theft (3) From William Shakespeare to Beyonce, much of what we consider original art depends on borrowed text, recycled images, and familiar melodies. This course considers questions of creative ownership. Drawing from scholarship by ethicists, cultural critics, and legal scholars, students analyze case studies in music, film, literature, and visual art. Working in groups, students trace intellectual property attitudes within a chosen genre or institution (i.e., death metal, Persian poetry, Pixar films). For the final project, after meeting working artists in the Washington, DC area, students compose a creative work that borrows responsibly.听

Prof. Lindsey Green-Simms

  • CORE-106-002, T/F听11:20am - 2:10pm
  • HNRS-150-002, W 11:20am - 2:10pm

The word decolonization comes from a period in the 20th century when former colonies, many in Africa or the Caribbean, sought to decolonize by gaining their independence from European powers like France and Britain and becoming sovereign nations. But by the early 21st century, the term took on a broader meaning. It now refers to the process of rejecting the economic, social, and cultural effects of colonization that continue to negatively impact Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) throughout the world in multiple ways. Lately, we have seen calls to decolonize nearly everything, from museums, to syllabi, to sexuality, to international aid, to nutrition and diet culture and self-care. This course asks the following questions: How can the concept of decolonization offer us models to understand the ways in which colonialism is still sustained today? And can calls to decolonize help us dismantle an internalized set of ideas that were initiated with projects of imperial quests for power and profit, or has decolonization become just another co-opted buzzword? To answer these questions we will turn to films, novels, essays, and social media and think about how race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, history, and culture all intersect.

Prof. Shoaleh Dehghan

  • CORE-106-005, M 11:20am - 2:10pm
  • HNRS-150-005, TH听11:20am - 2:10pm

Science and Politics of Looking Good (3) In this seminar, students discover the fascinating world of cosmetics and personal care products through the lens of chemistry and beyond. The course explores the complex relationship between ethics, economics, and the science of the global cosmetics industry. Students learn basic chemistry to understand the ingredients and formulations behind products like skincare, hair care, and makeup. The seemingly simple task of creating beauty products raises challenging questions about sustainability, health, and consumerism. Students examine how cosmetics intersect with social and political issues, including global regulations, consumer safety, and the rising demand for eco-friendly, 'clean' beauty products. Students acquire the tools to critically analyze the complexities of balancing consumer preferences, corporate responsibility, and sustainability in this dynamic industry.听

Prof. Omekongo Dibinga

  • CORE-106-004, TBA
  • HNRS-150-004, TBA

This course will explore one enduring question: Why and how has hip-hop become equally a tool for revolution and capitalist expansion across the world? As hip-hop has attained the interest of corporate America, it has gone from being vilified by many in the mainstream to a source of expansion for American ideals. As hip-hop began to emerge in other countries, it also began to develop its own country-specific narrative. Across the globe, the effects of hip-hop can be felt from politics and education to pop culture and religion from the Arab Spring to the whitewashing of history books in Japan. This course explores how hip-hop has become a source of revolution and capitalist expansion for some of the world鈥檚 most marginalized (and not-so-marginalized) populations.

HNRS-395: Theories of Inquiry

Theories of Inquiry helps students grapple with the difficulties of identifying a strong question to inaugurate a process of inquiry, how to refine the question in dialogue with different research traditions, and then how to identify and locate the right material and methods for answering the question. The course is taught by faculty from accross disciplines at 麻豆破解版.

HNRS-395-002, M/TH 9:45am - 11:00am
Professor Jeffrey Romero Middents studies and teaches film and world literature at 麻豆破解版 in Washington, DC, specifically focusing on Latin American narratives from the 1960s to the present. His screen-oriented courses cover a wide range of concepts, including national cinemas, genre, the auteur, stardom, film criticism, Netflix, and short films. His book,听Writing National Cinema: Film Journals and Film Culture in Peru听(UPNE, 2009) investigates the historical place of cultural writing within a national discourse by tracing how Peruvian cinema was shaped by local film criticism. Professor Middents has also published essays 鈥 in print and video versions 鈥 on a variety of other topics, including documentary aesthetics in the work of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman, Peruvian director Luis Llosa鈥檚 films made under producer Roger Corman, the theoretical perspective espoused by Kathryn Bigelow鈥檚听Strange Days, the sense of place in contemporary Latin American cinema, movie stardom and 鈥渢he indigenous鈥 in the works of Dolores del Rio and Magaly Solier, the pedagogy of teaching 鈥渨orld cinema,鈥 and the racial complexities of the television show听Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is currently working on a monograph on transnational auteurism and the work of Alfonso Cuar贸n.听
Professor Middents also serves as the Faculty Director for the 麻豆破解版 Honors prograrm.听
HNRS-395-001, M/TH 4:05pm - 5:20pm

Professor Scott Talan, MPA, is an assistant professor of Public Relations & Strategic Communications in the School of Communication. He has honed his expertise in social media and personal branding through his experiences in the fields of TV News, Politics, Nonprofits/NGOs, and Higher Education. Professor Talan has worked at the United Nationa, Harvard University, and the March of Dimes, and has been a writer for ABC News Good Morning America. Before news, he was an elected city council mamber and Mayor of Lafayette, California.

HNRS-395-003, T/F 11:20am - 12:35pm
Dr. Kate Wilson is a Senior Professional Lecturer with the Literature Department within the College of Arts & Sciences.听Dr. Wilson double-majored in music and English at Stanford University and holds an MA in Medieval Studies and PhD in English from The Catholic University of America. Her research interests include medieval literature, 15th century British drama, classical rhetoric, composition theory, and food and eating in the United States. In her spare time, Dr. Wilson plays the viola in the Annandale Strings, goes to Nationals games, and rides horses. She also loves classical music, reading mysteries, and cooking.

HNRS-400: Honors Colloquium

Honors Colloqiua allow both students and professors to engage with interesting topics they may not get to explore in their other courses.听

Prof. Dustin Friedman

HNRS-400-001, M/TH 2:30pm - 3:45pm

Guilty Pleasures (3) This course examines the cultural and personal significance of guilty pleasures to explore the shifting boundaries between high and low culture, art and entertainment, and good and bad taste. Questions explored include why we feel compelled to justify certain aesthetic choices and what labels, including camp, kitsch, or cringe, reveal about cultural hierarchies related to gender, sexuality, race, and class. Drawing on philosophy, sociology, media and cultural studies, literary criticism, and arts journalism, students analyze how taste is shaped by social forces and personal identity. The course engages a range of media in discussion --including music, film, television, literature, and internet culture-- to consider whether lowbrow and highbrow culture can ever overlap and what it means to take pleasure in the 'bad.' Through critical reading, discussion, and writing, students reflect on their own tastes, challenge assumptions about aesthetic judgment, and consider the broader social and historical implications of cultural value. Students are encouraged to interrogate their guilty pleasures, why they love what they love, and whether they should feel guilty about it at all.