Honors Course Descriptions

Honors Course Descriptions

Open the link for nformation on the Casco Bay Region Thematic Cluster.

Course Descriptions (listed by USM Core curriculum category – all standard Core prerequisites apply)

 Note: the Honors Program is developing courses to meet all Core categories, including the Diversity, International, and Thematic Cluster requirements.

 College Writing:

HON 100 Thinking and Writing in Honors

This course combines the basic mechanics of a college writing course with the development of skills fundamental to all other work in Honors. The course is recommended for all entering Honors students. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

Entry-Year Experience (EYE):

HON 101 Honors Entry-Year Experience

Each instructor uses a theme listed below to engage students in exploration of significant questions about human culture and the natural world. The course facilitates student transition to college by engaging students in active and collaborative learning that enhances their inclination and ability to view complex issues from multiple perspectives. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

(HON 101-0001) Myth, Monsters, and Metamorphoses 

What does it mean to be human? What is the difference between a human being and an animal, a human being and a god, a human being and the natural world? How does technology challenge our assumptions about what it means to be human? The course approaches answers to these questions from the ancient and modern worlds, including texts recognized as “foundational” or “canonical” in western intellectual tradition but expanding to include modern, post-modern, and non-western perspectives as well. As its title implies, the course interrogates texts of metamorphosis, texts whose characters challenge and in some cases transgress boundaries among the categories proposed. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

(HON 101-0002) Power, Corruption and Foundings in the Ancient World

The American founding is ubiquitous in the politics and popular culture of the United States; public figures routinely cite 18th century arguments in support of their actions, and some political advocates even dress in the costumes of 18th century Americans. The authority provided by the founding shapes our politics, and its meanings are constantly invoked, reinterpreted, and adapted; in this, the American republic is similar to political bodies in antiquity. In this class we will study the powerful influence of foundings and the difficult questions they raise. Does reverence for the founding enable politics, undermine them, or both? By what authority can a people break with the past and create something new? Can a polity change its founding over time? Why are so many founding stories violent, including stories of fratricide, infanticide and regicide? In exploring these questions and others, we will study mythical and historic founding narratives from Classical Greece and early Imperial Rome, as well as reinterpretations of founding narratives from ancient philosophy, tragedy and epic poetry. Grades will be based on three papers, rough drafts, and oral presentations. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr.3

(HON 101-0003) Violence, Wisdom, and Dialogue in an Ancient Context 


Socrates said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Is he right or is ignorance bliss? What kind of life makes us happy? Should we seek power and financial wealth? Does might make right? When viewed within a wider context, we may find that we don’t know what we thought we knew and that finding answers to these and other questions requires us to think in terms of more than one discipline. Therefore, the course introduces ancient texts and context but also the concept of interdisciplinary study. We will read selections from Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

(HON 101-0004) Prophecy, Protest, and Power: Making Meaning with Spiritual Texts 


Close reading and discussion of literature with spiritual content from ancient and modern times—including The Tao te Ching, Buddhist writings, passages from Greek philosophy and The Bible, as well as modern writings by T.S. Eliot, Chinua Achebe, Yeats, Levertov, M.L. King, and Gandhi.  We ask what such texts mean, and how we as readers make meaning through reading as a creative process. We ask how such texts distinguish between physical force and spiritual power, and whether prophecy, as a spiritual orientation expressed by these writers, can be translated in present-day experience into new standards of value and forms of action. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr.3

Cultural Interpretation:

HON 102 Confrontation and Cross-Fertilization among Medieval Cultures  [Also meets Core Diversity requirement]

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the intersections between Judaic, Christian, Muslim, and non-monotheistic religious-based cultures during the Middle Ages. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

HON 202 Progress, Process, or Permanence: All That is Solid Melts into Air

“All that is solid melts into air,” a quote from Karl Marx, is an apt metaphor for this course. It examines concepts of certainty and uncertainty from various nineteenth- and twentieth-century perspectives. Who has the answers? Are there any answers? Can there be such a thing as “progress,” and does our “modern” perspective (whatever it is) give us a unique point of view for addressing these issues? Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

Socio-Cultural Analysis:

Hon103: Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Poverty

In this course students will examine a wide range of texts from classical culture, early American legal and religious sources, as well as from contemporary economic and political theory about poverty--who is affected by it, what its causes are, and why it persists. Students will engage in analysis of the spiritual, political, ethical, and legal aspects of what it means to be poor. Seminars will prepare students to critically assess the historical and social attitudes towards poverty, and will include work with primary historical texts regarding the use of town farms in 19th century southern Maine as a response to chronic poverty. Required service learning at the Parkside Neighborhood Association will serve to familiarize students with contemporary controversies regarding work and poverty, public and private assistance, education and empowerment. Students will demonstrate effective communication skills through frequent writing, a researched essay, and a group presentation. Cr. 3

Quantitative Reasoning:

HON 105 An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Logic and Mathematics

This course is an introduction to logic and mathematics. It is an unusual introduction, since it transforms history, philosophy, social thought, literature, and the arts into paths for understanding logical and mathematical concepts and systems. Therein lies the course’s interdisciplinarity. These concepts and systems will be deployed to solve basic problems in everyday life and in academic research, from formally representing arguments found in scholarly texts to determining the odds of winning a hand in a game of chance to assessing scientific hypotheses. Special emphasis will be placed on developing the skill of detecting logical and statistical fallacies. Finally, the scope and limits of logical and mathematical systems will be studied. Prerequisite: successful completion of the University’s mathematics proficiency requirement and honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

Scientific Exploration:

HON 201 Honors Science Exploration: Interdisciplinary Inquiry in the Sciences of the Human Body

This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to scientific discourses and scientific practices concerning the human body. It combines selected concepts and methods of inquiry from several disciplines, including molecular biology, human genetics, anatomy, biological anthropology, human ecology, and the history of medicine. Students and faculty will critically examine the history of various constitutive practices and scientific representations of the body, including many Western scientific conceptions of the body as these have emerged from the European Renaissance through modernity. An integrated sequence of weekly laboratory/practicum sessions will accompany these seminars, providing students the opportunity to apply various methods of scientific inquiry from disciplines that address the human body. These explorations are synthesized by students in an independent project. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 4

Creative Expression:

HON 207 Illuminated Autobiography

An introduction to two creative processes – the visual and the literary – the course explores the means (shared, specialized, and complementary) by which they communicate thematic content, and the transformation through which subjective discovery becomes accessible form. Students will develop a control of structural elements within and between the two disciplines sufficient to write, illustrate, design, and publish a limited autobiographical narrative. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

Ethical Inquiry, Social Responsibility, and Citizenship:

HON 310 Honors Global Ethical Inquiry   [Also meets Core International requirement]

Each instructor selects a semester-long theme to engage students in critical reflection on their responsibilities for informed decision making and action in their public and private roles. Prerequisite: honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

Capstone (six- to nine-credit thesis experience fulfills the three-credit Core capstone and provides general elective credit):

HON 311 Honors Thesis I: Workshop

To graduate with General University Honors, a student completes a multiple-semester thesis project. In the first-semester workshop, each student develops research skills, shapes a preliminary idea into a formal thesis proposal, and organizes a faculty committee to advise the student in HON 411/412. Course may be taken for credit twice. Prerequisites: three credits of honors coursework, junior standing, and Honors student status; or permission. Cr. 3

HON 411 Honors Thesis II

In the second semester, students independently execute the plan developed in HON 311, under the guidance of the thesis committee. The emphasis is on in depth reading, field work as applicable, and completion of the introductory thesis chapter and literature review. Note: it is possible to complete the thesis in HON 411, without proceeding to HON 412. Prerequisites: HON 311 (B- or higher grade) and Honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

HON 412 Honors Thesis III

In the third and final semester, still working with their thesis committee, students write their remaining chapters; submit a completed draft; substantially revise that work based on feedback; and present their work in an oral, public defense. Prerequisites: HON 411 and Honors student status (or permission). Cr. 3

General Electives:

HON 321 Honors Directed Research

This optional course allows an Honors student with interests in a particular subject area to research that area under the direction of a faculty supervisor. The research may be carried out in any subject area. Prerequisites: honors student status and permission. Cr. 1-3

HON 331 Honors Directed Study

This optional course allows an Honors student to design a reading course in collaboration with a faculty supervisor. It is of particular value to students with self-designed majors who may need to supplement existing courses with additional material. Prerequisites: honors student status and permission. Cr. 1-3

Open the link for information on the Casco Bay Region Thematic Cluster.