2024 J-Term Courses

HP 3050: Film and Social Construction of Race
Credits: 3
Instructor: Dewey Gallegos
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: Film is such an important part of American culture that we invite movies into our homes to spend time with our families by entertaining and educating us. Movies are such an American tradition that they are imbedded in our national identity and a significant number of people have come to consider them a quality family time activity. We watch them and let our guard down while Hollywood thinks for us, and these images become part of us, part of who we are as a community. We watch them when we go out on dates. We watch them while we eat dinner, we laugh and cry with them. They are an important part of our collective consciousness and they are a significant influence on how we view subjects we have little to no personal experience with.

In this class we will work to increase our understanding of how some of the most prolific films in American history have shaped the way the modern movie industry presents ideas about culture, race, and racism. We will unpack the historical significance of these films and have the opportunity to review research to better understand these concepts and discuss their place in American society. We will examine the historical context and the social impact of the overall relationship between films produced in the United States and the populations that consume them.

 

HP 3050: Data Science Deep Dive
Credits: 3
Instructor: Patrick Kelley
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: In this intensive three-week course, students will use their own datasets to dig deeply into important aspects of data processing and analysis. Students will learn best practices for data structuring and storage, how to create reproducible analysis workflows, the basics of data distributions, and how to identify statistical modeling approaches (GLMs, GLMMs, GAMMs) that match their project goals. Collaborative discussion between students will be encouraged as each student works towards a completed analysis. Most of the course will be asynchronous (online lectures and assignments to work through on your own time), but students also will have the option to have face-to-face interactions as they develop their analysis workflows. Data processing and analysis will be conducted using R. Ideally, students will have a previously collected dataset and are Junior/Senior undergraduates working on an Honors Capstone or independent research project.

 

HP 4152: Saffron, Silk, and Broadswords: A Trek Through Great Civilizations
Credits: 3
Instructor: Lori Howe
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Cultures)
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: Through readings, research, films, documentaries, virtual tours of museums and sites, popular sources, and research, students will explore the complex histories of several great human civilizations via such disciplines and foci as food, art, music, architecture, science, mathematics, engineering, medicine, literature, politics, religion, language, gender, agriculture, and many more. In this exploration, students will examine these threads in the ancient world and follow them forward, exploring ways in which the historical intersections of culture, religion, politics, and other topics and phenomena continue to impact our contemporary world. Students will work individually, in pairs, or in groups of three to research and creatively respond to aspects of one civilization, culminating in an artistic or literary project and presentation. Students will also do a deep dive into a specific civilization, offering a presentation on some compelling aspect of that civilization to the class as a course text. Finally, students will work singly or in small groups on the two-part Capstone Assignment, researching a particular civilization or empire and the culture and history of that place, culminating in a multimodal presentation and research paper. The delivery method of this course is asynchronous, with optional synchronous discussion sessions each week for those who want to meet. 

 

HP 4152: Hunting
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ann Stebner Steele
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: Hunting plays a prominent role in the culture and traditions of many people in the American West and across the globe. However, nationally the number of hunters has declined in recent years, and many people believe hunting is unethical. How can we explain these two realities? What makes hunting such a powerful and defining tradition for some while others find it alien or even appalling? Is hunting a viable means for procuring food? Does it offer value, economically or culturally, to our communities? How does the practice of hunting play into questions of sustainability, conservation, and land use?  Together in this class, we will create an open, supportive community that allows us to explore these questions through lenses of personal experiences and various academic disciplines (e.g., philosophy, economics, ecology, rangeland management, anthropology, and narrative writing and storytelling).

 

HP 4154: Music and Identity
Credits: 3
Instructor: Daniel Galbreath
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: D (Diversity)
Course Description: Our world is saturated with sounds; most carry baggage of connotation and meaning. The sounds we associate with ourselves - with our bodies, our activities, our tastes, our histories - and with others shoulder especially heavy connotative burdens. This class will explore the human activity in which those sounds are organized into long-lasting, meaningful cultural artifacts: music. Despite music’s importance in how many of us describe our identity, we seldom take a broader view of its role in the construction of identity.  Contemporary writing about music across genres has expanded beyond “absolute,” analytical ideas, into the lived and social experience of creating and hearing music. The intersection of music and various identities – national, gender, or sexual orientation, for instance – has been become increasingly important. This class will invite students to examine how music and identities interact, while examining the sound of a student’s personal and intellectual identity. Our readings and discussions will be approachable to students of all majors: musicians will appreciate the opportunity to dig into their field from a novel perspective, while nonmusicians will bring their own knowledge and expertise to bear on a ubiquitous part of our human experience.

 

HP 3151: Vietnam and Cambodia: Exploring the Legacies of Conflict
Course Credits:  6 total credits
[Asynchronous Online Pre-Travel Program (HP 4196 for 3 Credits) & Study Abroad Program (HP 3151 for 3 credits).
*No more than three total credits from this study abroad program can be counted towards the nine total upper division credits required for the Honors College Minor.]
Instructor: Nevin Aiken
Modality: Study Abroad program
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Application Deadline: September 30, 2023
Estimated Cost: $3450 (includes all in-country transportation, accommodations, meals, all program related excursions and entry fees. Does not include flights to/from region, UW tuition/fees, UW study abroad fee).
Travel Dates: December 31. 2023 – January 12, 2024
Travel Locations: Vietnam (Saigon, Hanoi) and Cambodia (Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh)
Course Description: 

The Center for International Experiential Learning (CIEL) is an award-winning provider of educational travel that for over a decade has provided students with the opportunity to learn first-hand about conflict-affected regions through immersive on-the-ground experiential learning guided by internationally recognized scholars and local experts that is combined with a carefully designed and rigorous program of pre-travel education. 

Participants from the University of Wyoming and other US universities will travel to Vietnam and Cambodia, delving into the history of the Vietnam War and how it has shaped the country (as well as contemporary US-Vietnam relations) as well as exploring regional legacies of colonialism, the Vietnam/Cambodia war, and the Cambodian Genocide.  This experiential learning program will take students through vibrant cityscapes and tranquil rural terrains, from the historic downtown of Hanoi to the temples of Angkor Wat and the metropolitan areas of Phnom Penh and Saigon. They will engage with historians, local leaders, NGOs, and academic experts, as well as individuals directly impacted by past and current conflicts. Together, they will explore the diverse narratives and personal stories that illuminate regional identity, history, ongoing processes of post-conflict development and reconciliation, and the impact of post-traumatic stress on internal and external relations in these dynamically evolving nations.

Global Perspectives (nonwestern)

HP 4155: Buddhism in Thailand
Course Credits: 3
Instructor: Kate Hartmann
Modality: Study Abroad program
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: (G) Global
Application Deadline: Sept 28, 2023
Estimated Cost: $3900 ($2200 program fee and $1700 airfare), plus incidentals
Travel Dates: Dec 31, 2023 - January 15, 2024
Travel Locations: Bangkok and Chiangmai, Thailand
Course Description:

Some bad news: life is stressful, unpredictable, and full of pain and suffering. It's true now and it was true in the 5th Century BCE when the Buddha lived. Some good news: the Buddha claimed to have discovered a path by which people could escape this pervasive suffering. In the process, he planted the seeds for a religious tradition that has been influential across Asia and, more recently, the modern West. In this course, we will explore the diverse ideals, practices, and traditions of Buddhism while exploring the ways Buddhism is lived and practiced in Thailand. We will explore key ideas from the Buddhist tradition about impermanence, desire, and the nature of the self, and ask how these ideas were taken up and reimagined as Buddhism developed. Learn more about the course in Dr. Hartmann's course video trailer!

2024 Spring Courses

 

HP 2020:  Honors Colloquium II: What does it mean to be human?
REQUIRED FOR ALL FIRST-YEAR HONORS STUDENTS*

*A first-year student is any student who begins at UW with fewer than 30 post high school college credit hours.  Students who earned an associate’s degree while completing their high school degree are still considered first-year students.
Instructor: Various 
Modality: Various
Honors College Attributes: Colloquium 2
USP attributes: (COM2) Communication 2
A&S attributes: none

HP 2020 is the second course in the Colloquium sequence.

The first-year Colloquium is a required two-semester sequence of courses that takes a complex topic – for example, Dreams and Reality – and explores it with readings based in the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences. The courses build community in the Honors College while promoting high levels of academic achievement. In the Colloquium, students push themselves to become stronger critical thinkers. They weigh and consider multiple points of view; they develop thoughtful, well-supported perspectives on important issues of our times; and they defend their ideas in public presentations.

Colloquium is enriched with visits to UW’s Theatre and Dance department, Art Museum, Archives, and Library, and with service projects carried out around Laramie. Expert faculty from various departments give specialized lectures on relevant topics in a discussion section. Distinguished visiting scholars and writers meet with students to discuss their work. In all these ways, Colloquium teaches students to take advantage of the rich resources we are privileged to have at UW.

 

Global Perspectives (nonwestern)

 

HP 3151: History, Philosophy, Methodology and Application of Traditional Asian Martial Arts
Instructor: Chris Dewey
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: The proposed course would offer both a didactic and practical (hands-on) exploration of the Traditional Asian Martial Arts. The course would explore Chinese arts such as Taiji and Qigong, Korean arts such as Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, and Japanese arts including Aikijujutsu, Judo, Ju Jutsu and Karate. Students would be given the opportunity to investigate the historical, philosophical, cultural, political and religious influences that affected the development and evolution of the various martial arts that have been an integral part of Chinese, Korean and Japanese society for more than two millennia. The didactic component of the course would, therefore, take an evolutionary and historical perspective of the martial arts in an effort to demonstrate how the various cultures influenced each other and how the development of the martial arts have progressed to become the world-wide phenomenon that they are today. Additionally, students would be given an opportunity to gain practical experience of the similarities and differences between the various art forms. Students would learn and practice techniques from a variety of martial disciplines as a necessary and integral part of the course structure.

 

HP 3151: Gender and Sexuality in the Cinema of the Middle East 
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ahmad Nadalizadeh
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: If the Middle East has been historically represented as an exotic and mysterious land where sexual taboos are frequently violated and where women fall victim to an exceptionally patriarchal and misogynist culture, the medium of cinema has proven instrumental in drawing the contours of that Orientalist image and in rendering the mysteries of the Middle East, to evoke Edward Said, “plain to and for the West.” Taking seriously the role of the film medium in rendering plain the mysteries of the Middle East, we turn to the cinema cultures of this region to examine the ways in which its films represent or reconfigure hegemonic and heteronormative subjectivities. Alternatively, we consider how these movies help generate, consolidate, and disperse queer desires and subjectivities, thereby subverting the oversimplified image of the Middle East held up to and for the West. We will investigate how the domestic film traditions of the region challenge the predominant gender stereotypes of women through a recognition of multiple feminisms and by representing alternate gender relations bolstered by the various cultural, national, and religious values. Additionally, connecting the local to the global, this course considers how the gendered agencies of the Middle East problematize the hegemony of the Western secular gender politics. Lastly, it will focus on the representations of gendered public and private spaces in films, investigating the complex nexus between form and politics. Drawing on an inclusive selection of films from various traditions in the Middle East, our course discusses movies from Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

 

HP 3151: Eastern Thought and American Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: Tyler Fall
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: This course traces how ideas and philosophies from India, China, and Japan have become a part of American Culture.  We will cover a range of topics, including Transcendentalism, Theosophy, Vedanta, the Beat Generation, the Counterculture, Zen and Guru scandals, and the more recent rise in popularity of yoga and mindfulness meditation.  Among our central questions:  Why has American culture been selectively receptive to Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist ideas?  How does American interest in these ideas reflect the larger social and cultural context of American life?  What happens to these ideas as they are folded into American culture?  What sort of controversies and scandals have these ideas generated?  

 

HP 3154: Modern Japanese Society and Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: Noah Miles
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: (G) Global
Course Description: This course is designed to introduce Japanese society and culture.  The class will take a thematic approach to the study of Japan.  We will integrate history and literature from the Jomon to the Edo periods, covering a diverse range of topics including: language development, the introduction of Buddhism, poetry, classical and modern literature, traditional arts and holidays concluding with the development of popular culture.

 

HP 3156: Inuit Environmental Dilemmas
Credits: 3
Instructor: Joslyn Cassady
Modality: Synchronous Online 
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), , Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: (D) Diversity in the United States
Course Description: The Arctic is experiencing rapid environmental change due largely to human activities in the south. Three of the processes that are creating the most dramatic changes in Arctic ecosystems are climate change, the northern flow of industrial toxins and intensified resource exploration and extraction. This course focuses on how these three processes are affecting the livelihood of roughly 160,000 Inuit living in Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. By focusing on Inuit strategies and engagements, this course will dispel enduring misconceptions of northern peoples as passive victims of outside forces while simultaneously examining the considerable challenges that they face in maintaining control of their lives and land. Ultimately, I hope this course raises awareness about how our own lifestyles are exacerbating environmental injustices and culture change in the Far North.  

 

HP 3157: Climate Change and Colonialism
Credits: 3
Instructor: Matt Henry
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: G (Global)
Course Description: From megadroughts to wildfires, climate change affects us all. But it has been well-documented that the impacts of the climate crisis are disproportionately felt along the lines of race, class, gender, and ethnicity and can be traced to ongoing colonial systems. While colonialism has not been a uniform process, at bottom it has been animated by a desire to access and exploit diverse lands, resources, and peoples, in the process establishing the mechanisms – industrialization and capitalism – driving the climate crisis.

In this class, we will explore how global climate change both emerges from and reinforces historically inequitable power relations. For example, how has European colonialism rendered low-lying regions of South Asia vulnerable to sea level rise? What can we learn from a “first contact” story about American oil prospectors seeking petroleum reserves beneath a Bedouin oasis in 1930s Saudi Arabia? What do we mean when we describe the “cyclical” nature of climate change experienced by Indigenous peoples under North American settler colonialism? How has the grammar of geology been used to justify resource extraction and slave labor? What should we even call this geological epoch: the Anthropocene, the Capitalocene, or the Plantationocene? Turning to diverse disciplinary perspectives, we will consider experiences of climate change and colonialism in South Asia, Latin America, North Africa, Israel/Palestine, North America, and elsewhere.

Upper Division

 

HP 3050: Hydrostories: Water and Culture in the Western U.S.
Credits: 3
Instructor: Matt Henry
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: 
Water is more than a life-sustaining resource; it is a powerful force that shapes societies, ecosystems, and cultures. "Hydrostories: Water and Culture" explores the multifaceted relationship between water and human culture. This course delves into the rich tapestry of narratives, practices, and beliefs associated with water in diverse societies throughout history and across the globe. Students will examine how water, as both a symbol and a tangible element, has influenced the ways we think, create, interact, and live. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper appreciation for the essential role of water in our lives and a broader understanding of the cultural, environmental, and social complexities surrounding this precious resource.

 

HP 3050: A Cultural History of Cancer
Credits: 3
Instructor: Hosanna Krienke
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: Just the word “cancer” strikes fear into the hearts of many of us. In ways big and small, we all have been told that cancer is the worst thing that could ever happen. Cancer is the boogeyman of horror movies; it is the tear-jerker moment of dramas. In the early twentieth century, “cancer” was even a forbidden word in polite circles and many patients were not told the precise disease they carried. Yet despite such cultural baggage, cancer is common. Experts estimate that in the 21st century, up to 1 in 2 people will develop cancer in their lifetimes. This class takes on the history of cancer—drawing on films, advertisements, personal autobiographies, and medical archives—in order to make sense of this paradoxically dire, yet pervasive diagnosis.

 

HP 3050: History of Diseases
Credits: 3
Instructor: Renee Laegreid, Will Laegreid
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: People make history, but seldom under conditions of their own choosing.  In contrast to the optimistic view that history is the inexorable march of progress, there is another perspective: it also has negative or ambivalent drivers such as climate change, zealotry, class and other forms of warfare, and racism, among others.  A seldom-discussed factor is the historical role in human societies of infectious disease in humans, livestock and wildlife.  This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the role several major and some minor diseases played as drivers in history or for social change, progressive and regressive. It is aimed equally at students of history and at science majors.

 

HP 4152: Futurism 001
Credits: 3
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: This course is about the present human condition, human diversity, and the future of humanity.  

Is there any question that we are living in the future?  Is there any doubt we are in times of accelerated change and shifting landscapes?  Whose future is it?  Whose imagination are we living in?  It is a time of mass movements for racial and economic justice, new gender orientations, populism and fascism, anti-fascism and mass protests.  Mixed reality.  Wearable technology.  Virtual headsets.  Artificial intelligence.  Robots.  Cyborgs.  Self driving vehicles and flying cars.  Singularity.  Questions of human survival.  Time travel.  Quantum leaps…  

Futurism 101 places students in the context of present and future times.  Most college classes and the bulk of academia revolves around the distant past or recent history, with select courses focusing on current events.  While it is critical to study history from a multitude of perspectives, young people know intuitively that we are in different times. The social rules, norms, modes, moods, pace, and dialogue have shifted dramatically over the past decade.  Popular media, social media, and social and political movements indicate that further shifts will come in rapid succession.  Students now need to study the future as much as they study the past.  Given the multitude of present and future problems facing the human species, we have never been more in need of imagination, expansions of consciousness, and forward thinking.  

Futurism 001 exposes students to various futurist movements of the past 100 years, with a focus on contemporary perspectives of Women of Color, and the futurist movements of people of color.  Course topics include: futuristic depictions in popular media and alternative media; philosophies of time and space; future cultural, social and political identities; human agency to determine future life on planet earth; and emerging strategies for social change.  

 

HP 4152: Ideation, Innovation, and Invention
Credits: 3
Instructor: Chris Rothfuss
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College attributes: Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: none
Course Description: From Fortune 50 corporations to garage start-ups, open innovation has become a standard practice for overcoming challenges, developing solutions and bringing new products to market.  In this course we will learn and apply various innovation techniques to develop and refine REAL potential solutions to REAL targeted challenges. With sufficient skill, determination and some luck, these solutions may result in products, start-ups, or intellectual property.  This course will be primarily experiential and student interest driven as we work to implement concepts and best practices for innovation. We will research, we will brainstorm, we will prototype, we will refine, and we will repeat. We will benefit from a broad range of backgrounds and interests - all majors are welcome!

 

HP 4154: Art and Culture of Hip Hop
Credits: 3
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: D (Diversity)
Course Description: This course is an inter- and multi-disciplinary course inspired by human culture.  This course explores a culture and form of music that hundreds of millions of people throughout the world identify with.  Hip-Hop was born in the South Bronx, NY in the early 1970s, where African-American, Latino, and immigrant populations were essentially cast off as a result of the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway, white flight into the suburbs, and the politics of abandonment.  Hip-Hop music and culture has now spread throughout the world, and regardless of whether the discussion is about mainstream gangster rap or socially and political conscious Hip-Hop, this emerging field of study has broad, cultural, social, political, and economic implications.  Students will research, explore, discuss and write about American historical music influences, the history and development of hip-hop, the various artistic elements of hip-hop, hip-hop as a culture,  hip-hop journalism, and hip-hop’s influence on American society.  Using hip-hop as an academic tool, students will also explore the following issues: race relations, racism, sexism and misogyny, class struggle, urbanization, pan-ethnicity and ethnic/cultural diasporas, civil rights era activism, post-civil rights Black and Latina/o community leadership, activism through art, globalization, the commodification of art and culture in corporate America, the perpetuation of racism and sexism through mass media, alternative forms of cultural media, the poetics of hip-hop, and communication through musical form.

HP 4976: Independent Study
DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS HONORS-COLLEGE UPPER-DIVISION ELECTIVES
Instructor: Student must identify faculty mentor and receive approval from faculty mentor and the Honors College
Modality: Various
Honors College Attributes: none
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none

Why might you take an Honors independent study?  Register for one if you need the structure to help you complete your senior capstone project, if you need additional upper division elective hours to graduate, if you need additional hours to be a fulltime student in any given semester, or if you have been working with an instructor on a particularly interesting area for which there is no designated course. You can take up to 3 credit hours of an Honors independent study per semester for up to a total of 6 hours overall. 

You don’t need to sign up for an independent study to complete the senior capstone project.  Please note that these hours do not meet any specific requirements towards your degree or your Honors minor. They do not count towards the required Honors upper division electives.