Contact Us

The Honors College

Guthrie House

1200 Ivinson St.

Laramie, WY 82070

Phone: 307-766-4110

Fax: 307-766-4298

Email: honors@uwyo.edu

Fall 2022 Honors College Courses

Registration Guidelines

Meeting times, locations, CRNs, specific section numbers, are all listed in WyoRecords under the “Look Up Classes” search function.

Pre-Requisites: All Honors Upper-Division Classes (3000 and 4000 level) require students to have completed their COM 1 and COM 2 requirements.

Main campus Honors College fall courses will open to non-Honors College after the early enrollment period. Non-Honors College students wishing to register for these courses need to have at least a 3.25 cumulative UW GPA and will need to request an override from the Honors College. Students should email Cass Tolman at ctolman2@uwyo.edu to make this request. Online Honors classes are open to all students.

*Please note that Honors College FYS courses are open to all UW students with no override necessary.

Advising

Please reach out to the Honors Advising Team for more information and guidance when registering.

Course Modalities

Traditional – This means that the class is scheduled to be in-person and students will meet face-to-face.
Asynchronous Online – This means that the course will be completely online, without any scheduled meeting dates or times.
Synchronous Online – This means that the course will be completely online, but there will be a synchronous requirement, meaning students will have specific day/times scheduled for Zoom sessions.

Fall 2022 Course Descriptions

HP 1020: Honors Colloquium I
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 1
USP attributes: (COM1) Communication 1
A&S attributes: none
HP 1020 is the first course in the Colloquium sequence.
The first-year Colloquium is a required two-semester sequence of courses that takes the complex topic of Dreams and Reality and explores it with readings based in the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences. The courses builds 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. 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.

HP 1101: FYS: A Walk Across the World: Popular Film, International Inquiry, and Problem-based Learning
Instructor:Lori Howe
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: none
USP attributes: (FYS) First-Year Seminar
A&S attributes: none
Science depends on thoughtful collection, analysis, and interpretation of quality data. If not handled responsibly and transparently, data can yield bull$#!% science. Our primary goal will be to learn to identify bull$#!% in our scientific environment, namely in the publication, reporting, interpretation, and application. During this course, we will seek out, define, and quantify the amount of scientific bull$#!% (relative to non-bull$#!%) in an attempt to understand if the rate of accumulating bull$#!% is causing irreversible damage to science. We will work to investigate the nature of mistakes, obfuscations, and other types of bull$#!% in science and its reporting. We will explore topics such as publication bias, meta-analyses and multiple working hypotheses, statistical traps, data blinding, as well as the increased focus on Big Data and data visualizations that impact how people view the scientific process. We will engage with scientific articles, topic reviews, and popular press articles and spend much time thinking about the data that surround us (e.g. social interactions, movement patterns of students and other animals, instructor behavior, eating habits) to understand what data are. Students will design and execute original research on data bull$#!% and present this work as a conference-style poster. Students will be exposed to data processing (to gain an understanding of basic data informatics, i.e. what it means to collect and organize data. Students will gain an appreciation for formal scientific research as well as an understanding of how scientific research careers develop.

HP 1101: FYS: Calling BullS#!% In a Science-Driven World
Instructor: Patrick Kelley
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: none
USP attributes: (FYS) First-Year Seminar
A&S attributes: none
Science depends on thoughtful collection, analysis, and interpretation of quality data. If not handled responsibly and transparently, data can yield bull$#!% science. Our primary goal will be to learn to identify bull$#!% in our scientific environment, namely in the publication, reporting, interpretation, and application. During this course, we will seek out, define, and quantify the amount of scientific bull$#!% (relative to non-bull$#!%) in an attempt to understand if the rate of accumulating bull$#!% is causing irreversible damage to science. We will work to investigate the nature of mistakes, obfuscations, and other types of bull$#!% in science and its reporting. We will explore topics such as publication bias, meta-analyses and multiple working hypotheses, statistical traps, data blinding, as well as the increased focus on Big Data and data visualizations that impact how people view the scientific process. We will engage with scientific articles, topic reviews, and popular press articles and spend much time thinking about the data that surround us (e.g. social interactions, movement patterns of students and other animals, instructor behavior, eating habits) to understand what data are. Students will design and execute original research on data bull$#!% and present this work as a conference-style poster. Students will be exposed to data processing (to gain an understanding of basic data informatics, i.e. what it means to collect and organize data. Students will gain an appreciation for formal scientific research as well as an understanding of how scientific research careers develop.

HP 1101: FYS: The Purpose of the University
Instructor: Martha McCaughey
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: none
USP attributes: (FYS) First-Year Seminar
A&S attributes: none

Vigorous debates about universities are taking place today, from concerns about cancel culture, indoctrination, (self-)censorship, and free expression to government, corporate, activist, and religious groups steering what we teach and learn. In this course we’ll examine and debate big questions such as: What is the relationship between the university and democracy? Should scholars be pursuing truth, social justice, or both? Are college students over-regulated or under-regulated? Should universities offer students career preparation, life preparation, or both? and Why are principles like free expression, academic freedom, and tenure important? Through a series of creative assignments and a library research project, you’ll have the opportunity to dive into some of these questions and, in the process, solidify your own plans for being at the university.

HP 3151: Chinese Medicine and Models of Healthcare
Instructor: Chris Dewey
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Non-Western. Note: Students who have already completed their Honors Non-Western requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
On offer here is a class that examines Traditional Chinese Medicine as an integral component of contemporary models of health care. Students will learn from a practicing Chinese Medicine clinician about evidence-based practice, the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine, its modalities including acupuncture, how it is used to treat disease, and the diagnostic tools we use in a clinical setting. Students will also participate in a typical client intake and observe a full acupuncture treatment. Together we will examine what it means to use Chinese Medicine in service of the consumer’s journey to wellness. The nuanced and abstruse lexicon used by practitioners in any branch of health care, combined with the ways in which Eastern and Western care paradigms differ from each other, can be confusing and alienating to both practitioners and consumers alike. The course will help to dispel the confusion and division that can exist between seemingly different models of health care and demonstrate the value of integrated medicine to health, healing and wellness.

HP 3151: Empire Writes Back
Instructor: Connor Novotny
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Non-Western. Note: Students who have already completed their Honors Non-Western requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: (G) Global

This course is an introduction to postcolonial literature and studies with the focus on African writers who have written during the “postcolonial time” or about the “postcolonial period” in Africa and from the African diaspora. Through literature, we will examine questions such as- what does the term “post-colonialism” mean? When does the postcolonial begin? What are the theoretical and political implications of using such an umbrella term to designate the ensemble of writings by those subjects whose identities and histories have been shaped by the colonial encounter?

The course will deal with writing by peoples formerly colonized by Britain and other European powers, France, Portugal, Belgium, the Dutch and Spain as we read texts from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and more. The course’s approach is primarily literary and theoretical within an historical context as necessary. We will use these texts to ask questions about historical constructions of race, the intersections of language and power, the development of national identity and more and we will examine the techniques, literary themes, styles and genres—that the postcolonial writers use to “write back” and transform the Western canon.

HP 3151: Eastern Thought and American Culture
Instructor: Tyler Fall
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Non-Western, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
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 3151: Love and Sex in the Global Economy
Instructor: Joslyn Cassady
Modality: Synchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Honors Non-Western. Note: Students who have already completed their Honors Non-Western requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Extreme poverty cripples the lives of over 700 million people in the world today. Despite the prosperity that has emerged with the rise of global capitalism, there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor. How are people supporting themselves and their families in this shifting global economy? This course examines the labor and survival strategies specifically involving sex, intimacy, caretaking, and love. We will cross the globe and study international networks including sex trafficking, transnational mothering, sex work and more. Throughout the course, we will privilege hearing and reading first-hand accounts from the workers themselves in the popular press, books, documentary films and art. In the end, I hope you will agree that this course offers a vital, heartbreaking, and pressing look into the commodification of the body in the twenty-first century.

HP 3151: Climate Change and Colonialism
Instructor: Matt Henry
Modality: Traditional
Honors College attributes: Honors Non-Western. Note: Students who have already completed their Honors Non-Western requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: G (Global Awareness)

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.

HP 3151: Wyoming Walkabout
Instructor: Paul Taylor
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Non-Western, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: G (Global Awareness)

A unique experiential exposure to the "world's oldest living culture." Students will explore Australia's 50,000-year-old Aboriginal culture lead by educator/artist Paul Taylor. www.paultaylor.ws Mentored by elder Yidumduma Bill Harney, senior custodian of the Wardaman culture, students will be guided by video material collected over 15 years by Paul's Yubulyawan Dreaming Project. www.ydproject.com Students will study the 10 video chapters on this site and be participants in this continuing research. We will explore what it is to be indigenous, participate in ritual, song, dance and painting. We will learn the Wardaman Creation Story, applying this wisdom to our landscape and personal lives. We will have field trips to the UW Planetarium, our local Casper Aquifer and an American Indian sacred site. We will apply storytelling in class; make, play and decorate a didgeridoo. We will work together on a class mural, teaching to “Care for Country”, celebrating our land, our personal "Walkabouts", our own life journeys.

HP 3152: Race and Consumer Culture
Instructor: Eric Krszjzaniek
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP Attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S Attributes: None
Race in a Consumer Culture The “marketplace” is held up as the pinnacle of equal opportunity in Western culture. The almost sacred space where the individual is judged on the merits of their offerings, and they succeed or fail because of their own efforts or errors. It’s a great thought—so great, in fact, that we use the marketplace as that value-neutral playing field for almost everything in our society today. Policies ranging from education to healthcare to social programs (and so much more!) are judged of their worthiness by how they perform in the fabled marketplace. All while we pretend that race doesn’t influence these successes or failures. However, what if the marketplace is not the value-neutral institution so many exalt it to be? The marketplace, after all, is comprised of actors and identities that are governed by rules (written and unwritten), and these factors can greatly impact individuals’ ability to succeed when we use the marketplace as the proving grounds of the individual. Yes, we may think we are not influenced by history, or we may have our own experiences that justify our belief in equity and fairness, but, as James Baldwin said, “history is literally present in all that we do.” In this discussion-based course, we’re going to complicate the idea that markets and marketing are the great equalizers we are taught to believe they are. From glimpses into the past, we’ll see how the influence of race and racism have carried over to the present, and we’ll even attempt to understand what the future may hold. Through readings, videos, guest lectures, activities, and our own desire to co-create knowledge, we will use this course to develop a deeper understanding of the role of race in marketing and markets, as well as how markets and marketing influence how we understand and see race.

HP 3152: Anger
Instructor: Kate Hartmann
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP Attributes: none
A&S Attributes: none

This course is a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary investigation into the powerful emotion of anger, as well as its role in our social, ethical, and psychological lives. Anger has long held an ambivalent position in the collective consciousness—some thinkers (such as Buddhists and Stoics) have argued that anger is always counterproductive and morally corrupting, while others (Aristotle, Martin Luther King Jr.) have argued that anger is the proper reaction to injustice, and is necessary to motivate people to action. The course will explore the ways various thinkers from across time and place have approached the topic of anger. We will read Buddhist thinkers such as Shantideva and Buddhaghosa, Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca, social reformers such as Frederick Douglass, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and contemporary philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum, Amia Srinivasan, and Peter Strawson. We will also supplement this primarily philosophical exploration with recent psychological and neuroscientific research on anger, as well as artistic representations of anger.

HP 3152: Modes: Mass Media and Collective Consciousness
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none
This course explores the most central and critical issues of our times: Humanity, Technology, and Sustainability. In this course, the student is the main "Text," meaning that each student will engage in contemplative education practices. Students will examine their own lives in relationship to technology, mass media, social media, and how the cyborg-ification of our lives affects our physical, mental, and motional health, as well as our relationships with other humans.

Additionally, this is a topics course that may explore any of the following: the development of collective consciousness; historical uses of propaganda; functions of mass media; the functions of corporate media vs independent media; how mass media affects public opinion; journalism and ethical considerations; pop culture's relationship to American values and standards; the nature of news coverage and news filters; access to media and social justice concerns; functions of art and entertainment; critiques of mass media and pop culture; alternative forms of media; futurist perspectives on human consciousness; ecological and environmental concerns; and real-time developments in technology.

HP 3153: Writing Animals
Instructor: Kate Northrup
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none

Our worlds are not the only worlds. We live with and beside the non-human animals: pronghorn, Swainson’s hawks, lap dogs, mountain lions straying through town, pine beetles, Mourning Cloaks, drowned kittens, nighthawks overhead, raccoons in the kitchen, Mountain Whitefish. How do we sound these worlds? And why? To what ends? Writers have long looked to and imagined the non-human, but how do we do that? How do we write (and think) that which we name but may not be able to fully know? In this course we will consider (through class discussion of assigned readings, independent research, writing exercises and semester-long creative writing projects) ways of thinking / representing non-human animals and our relationships with them. In this course, we will approach and mind those relationships.

We will be considering a range of creative work: stories, poems, essays, short videos, dramatic monologues, paintings, photographs. Of each creative piece we will discuss the questions that we read as driving the piece, and the questions the piece raises for us. It’s not possible for me to know our questions now, ahead of time, but some possible questions, or rather, some of my own questions: How do we look at non-human animals? How are we looked at? How do non-human animal and human animal lives intersect? What boundaries have been erected historically and why, to what end? How are our lives shaped by non-human animals? How are non-human animals lives shaped? What responsibilities do humans have? What causes for joy, what concerns?

HP 4151: Ethics in the Environmental Apocalypse
Instructor: Tom Grant
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: (PN) Physical and Natural World
A&S attributes: none

This course is about humanity’s relationship to the world we live in. It is about the choices we make as individuals and a society, and how these affect land, water, and all species of life. It is about the immense power of Homo sapiens to change the earth and our paralysis and powerlessness to determine an ethical and sustainable relationship with nature. It is about how humans dominate all aspects of planet Earth and what this means for all other species of life. Ethics in the Environmental Apocalypse is about what it means for us to make decisions that impact the totality of existence on planet Earth.

Our discussions will start with environmental topics and ethics issues from the early 20^th Century and quickly expand into contemporary issues through the lens of social and environmental justice. We’ll learn about the science of climate change, toxic pollution, wildfires and drought, animal rights and species extinctions, and sustainable food production. We’ll read sections of classics, like Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Jared Diamond’s Collapse, and J.E. Lovelock’s Gaia, while also diving into popular press representations of current science, such as John Greene’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. This course is for anyone who is interested in the relationship between humans and nature. All readings are appropriate for students from any major or educational background and students will be encouraged and supported to bring their opinions, ideas, and concerns to our discussions.

This course is not about right or wrong. It is about how our decisions decide the fate of life on planet Earth.

HP 4151: Future Southwest Studies
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none

Cultural Studies is for everyone. With a wide lens on culture, arts, music, literature, film, food, social trends and political movements, this course opens a broad and inviting door to students interested in the future of the Southwest.

The coursework naturally roots itself in Latina/o/x Studies themes. The writings of Gloria Anzaldúa will serve as foundational texts that explore race, gender, cultural identity, bilingualism, indigeneity, mestizaje (mixed identity) and spirituality from an integrated perspective, with a focus on radical imaginings of the future. Building on this history, we will survey contemporary social, cultural, artistic and critical voices of the Southwest. What does their innovation, their work, and their movements tell us about what is now, what is new, and what is next for the Southwest? We will conclude with a look at grassroots creative and social movements that are taking on issues of immigrants’ rights, indigenous land rights, GLBTQ rights, water rights, climate change, and gentrification of Southwest cities and towns.

HP 4151: Diplomacy and Negotiation
Instructor: Christopher Rothfuss
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: G (Global Awareness)

This course will focus on the development and practical application of diplomacy and negotiation skills, with extensive use of real-world role-playing scenarios. Students will learn negotiation theory and techniques, and will be able to apply them through simulated bilateral and multilateral negotiation exercises. Students will also learn how to operate in a diplomatic setting and as part of a delegation. This course is primarily experiential and should prove to be stimulating and exciting for the participants.

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.