What Students Say...

"The professors here are amazing. They will do everything that they can to help students learn the material. There is a friendly, relaxed relationship between students and professors that I really appreciate. I like being recognized individually instead of just being another student in the class. Our Honors classes are for enrichment, and so they focus on subjects that are not always covered in the required classes. Because of this, I have actually played with slime and watched clips from the Austin Powers movies during honors classes."
- McKenzie Clemons,
Sophomore

Honors Seminars: Fall, 2008

A Great Characters Seminar:
A lot of the people we carry around in our heads and our hearts are people we’ve only met in literature. Even though they’re not “real,” they’re often the people we think of when we wonder how to handle a situation, or when we consider the human qualities we value, or when we are scared in the dark in the middle of the night. In a sense, other characters are how we know who we are.  So what makes a character memorable? Who are the enduring characters in our literatures and our lives?  How do writers take words and make someone as clear and real to us as the person next door? In this reading and writing class, we’ll explore some great characters from literature, children’s literature and genre fiction. Possible texts:  Dracula, The Trumpet of the Swan, Anna Karenina, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Tempest, Harry Potter, even romance novels and detective fiction. We’ll also develop characters of our own, practicing techniques we learn from Tolstoy, Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, and E.B. White.

“Mirror, Mirror”:
Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder or do some things appeal to all humans? People have found beauty in diverse phenomena-the human form, Fibonacci series, nature, and art-and beauty ideals vary from culture to culture. Yet, all humans want (need?) beauty in their lives. We will investigate practices such as body decoration, fashion, and art in order to compare cultural conceptions of beauty. The value of beauty is also an issue. Navajo wisdom, for instance, held that to walk in beauty was the greatest good fortune, while Dada artists, facing the atrocities of World War II proclaimed that people did not deserve beauty. Students will be asked to present one cultural practice and analyze what it tells us about the role of beauty in human life. Our exploration of these topics will take place through videos, virtual tours, readings, slides, and field trips in search of beauty.

Happiness:
The Declaration of Independence states that each person has a basic right to the pursuit of  happiness.  But it is in one thing to exercise this right; it is another for the pursuit to be successful.  Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have recently become very interested in the nature of happiness and the reasons why people succeed or fail in attaining it.

The seminar will have both a scholarly and a personal component.  On the scholarly side, we will discuss some of the most interesting ideas and recent research findings concerning happiness.  Questions addressed will include, for instance, how much difference such things as age, health, wealth, work, luck, pleasure, love, temperament, status, and community make to whether people are happy. On the personal side, each of us will seek to better understand what kind of happiness we seek and what might help us to secure it.  As well as keeping reflective journals, we will conduct experiments in savoring, mindfulness, novel pleasures, gratitude, selflessness, service, and experiencing unforgettable moments of intellectual joy.

The World According to "The Far Side":
One of the most fascinating aspects of Gary Larson's comic "The Far Side" is that he does a masterful job of delving into human nature.   Larson also uses “The Far Side” as a humorous medium to illustrate history and scientific fields ranging from biology and chemistry to physics and math.  In this seminar we will perform a historical, scientific, psychological, and sociological analysis of our world using "The Far Side."  We will not only delve into human culture; we will also analyze the behavior of other organisms using "The Far Side."

Chaos Under Control:
Life is often complicated, sometimes exceedingly so. Much of our everyday experience is unexpected, apparently whimsical, seemingly beyond our control. How is it that some aspects of our experience are regular, predictable, tamable, while others appear to be the outcome of some cosmic game of chance? Is the universe a crazy patchwork of phenomena, some understandable, some beyond explanation? In the process of answering these questions we will construct a variety of fractals (including a fractal tree), define fractal dimension, study various forms of chaos and growth, and finally enter into the depths of the Mandelbrot set. If there is time we will also look at cellular automata, sometimes known as the game of life. All of this using just high school mathematics!

Science and Psychology of Harry Potter:
Attention Muggles!  By order of Educational Decree #101, it is hereby announced that a seminar shall be given at Alfred University on the "Science and Psychology of Harry Potter."   While a fantasy series may not seem like a valid starting point for studying science,  J.K. Rowling was meticulous enough in her world-building that we can investigate how her world works. Rowling's world also provides a window into the psyche. We will expect you to be familiar with all 7 novels before the class starts, and will read two additional books, "The Science of Harry  Potter" and "The Psychology of Harry Potter."

We will consider the aerodynamics of Quidditch, time travel and time turners, traveling with Portkeys and Floo Powder, the Natural History of Magical Creatures, teenage angst, friendships, psychological defense mechanisms, wisdom, and all sorts of psycho-isms.

The Story of Jazz - From Sinners to Sophisticates:
This seminar will examine the origins of Jazz, why and how is was created, the directions it has taken .  We will discuss the history of jazz from its origins in New Orleans, to Chicago, New York and beyond.  We will consider social reactions to the music and artists by listening to a variety of jazz styles, viewing documentaries, and through historical readings. Such artists as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Bix Beiderbecke, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Oscar Peterson will be considered.

Curious about what’s been offered in the past, and might be again?
See full descriptions of previous courses >>>