2026 Fall Courses

Credits: 1
Instructor: Breezy Taggart 
Modality: Traditional/Hybrid
Honors College Attributes: Concurrent Major Core
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): Major Core (HP 2150 is part of a series which also includes HP 2250)
Course Description:
Producing Knowledge: Analysis, Creativity, and Expression is an activity-based course introducing approaches to producing, refining, analyzing, and evaluating knowledge. Course topics are investigated through a combination of readings, lectures, research, and individual and collaborative activities. This course is part of the Producing Knowledge series, along with Interviews, Surveys, and Experiments (ISE); the two courses can be taken in any order.
Through this course you will gain exposure to the terminology, theory, and practice necessary for generating knowledge and insight that impacts academic, professional, and wider public audiences. You will have opportunity to practice the skills necessary for clear communication. You will be encouraged to develop your own personal awareness of and appreciation for different imaginative approaches to research and knowledge production. A culminating application challenge will be undertaken through exploration, experimentation, and refinement.

Credits: 3
Instructor:  Ahmad Nadalizadeh
Modality:  Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Technology, Society, and the Future
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Although the term “Middle East” came into common parlance after World War II, its other iterations were already in circulation in the nineteenth century, designating an imaginary geography which consigned “the East” to the periphery and further solidified the privileged position of Europe. Since the term reflected such European self-universalizing assumptions, it cast its geographic referent as the object of patronizing systems of Eurocentric political representations. In this course, we will turn to various film cultures of the Middle East and will situate its national film traditions within regional and global perspectives. We will investigate how the filmmakers emerging from the region represent their cultures as deeply embedded within a globalized world too replete with unexpected combinations to be discretely divided into the civilizational hierarchies of the West and the East. Taking a critical approach to national cinema studies in a world of increasingly globalized film audiences, we will explore both the influence of world cinema on the film cultures of the Middle East and, in turn, the extent to which the aesthetics of the movies of this region proves integral to our conception of world cinema. Our discussions of films in class will be supplemented by pertinent scholarly analyses in order to complicate any facile understanding of the region, but also to further deepen our awareness of the cultural contexts through which cinema has emerged as an aesthetic form. Drawing on various national traditions, this course will include movies from Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Tyler Fall
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World
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.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Chris Dewey
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy and the Body
Course Description: 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.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Joslyn Cassady
Modality: Synchronous Online 
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: (D) Diversity in the United States
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Health, Policy and the Body
Creativity, Justice, and our World
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.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Paul Taylor
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives, Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: G (Global Awareness)
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: 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.paultaylorydp.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.

Credits: 3
Instructor:  Adrian Molina
Modality:  Online asynchronous
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: “Civic” is a word that now puts a lot of people to sleep...but it shouldn’t. It doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be a lot of fun. The Art of Civic Engagement course explores concepts and strategies around civic education and participation. Is it possible that bringing people together in real space, in real time, is the most important commitment that we can make in the 21st century?

We will ask a lot of questions in this course, because questions open doors. What has led to our epidemic of social isolation, loneliness, and collective anxiety? What are your definitions of collective health and social well-being? What does it mean to live in a civically engaged community?  What role does art play in society? How can art be used to bring people together in new and meaningful ways? How can creativity be used to increase civic engagement?

Credits: 3
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description:
Southwest Studies is a regional studies field. This course is not about the future of Southwest Studies. This course is about placing the Southwest region of the United States in the future, rather than in the past. Thus, you are in Future Southwest Studies. With a wide lens on culture, arts, ecology, music, literature, film, food, social trends and creative movements, this course opens a broad and inviting door to students interested in the future of the Southwest, one of the United States most dynamic and ever-changing regions. 
Course content will go beyond any one particular race or culture. We will begin with historical reflections of the Southwest, and we will move quickly into contemporary social, cultural, artistic and concerned voices of the Southwest. Our explorations will include scholarly and news texts, documentaries, archival footage, podcasts, visual art, music, poetry, and multimedia. Given recent political events, we will also watch developments along the southwest American/Mexican border. We will not do so through an ideological lens, but rather from a perspective of current events and being well-informed citizens. Finally, we will conclude with a fun and festive final, which will give you an opportunity to engage your community in real space, in real time.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Tyler Fall
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World

Course Description: This course ranges across academic disciplines and examines and questions some of the dominant ideas western civilization has produced about religion, skepticism, unbelief, morality, society, and the ideal human life.  We will read authors from antiquity to the present.  They have divergent perspectives:  some are militant atheists; others are deeply religious.  Some are optimistic about human potential and progress; others are starkly pessimistic.  The course readings are drawn from a variety of literary genres -- philosophical treatises, poetry, memoirs, drama, and fiction -- but they all circle back to one fundamental question:  what should we humans do?"

Credits: 3
Instructor: Susan Aronstein and Matt Greenberg
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): Creativity, Justice, & Our World
Course Description: A two-part course evaluating Disney film, television, merchandise, and theme parks as cultural phenomena. In the first part of the course, students view early Disney film, and television to determine how they help construct and re-tell American history and identity. The second part of the course is focused on Disneyland as a persuasive entity, culminating with a trip to the park during which students perform independent research that incorporates a reading of the park through the lens of material and cultural rhetoric.

Credits: 3
Instructor:  Sarah Lass
Modality:  Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
TBA
Course Description: TBA

Credits: 3
Instructor: Ashleigh Pilkerton
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: PN (Physical and Natural World)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Technology Society and the Future
Course Description: Water shapes our world. It carves landscapes, sustains life, fuels conflict, and inspires innovation. This course examines water through multiple lenses—scientific, historical, cultural, and political—to explore its fundamental role in ecosystems, human civilization, and the future of our planet. From the molecular properties that make water unique to the challenges of water scarcity, pollution, and environmental change, students will engage with diverse perspectives on water as both a resource and a right. 
Through readings, discussions, and experiential learning, we will explore humanity’s evolving relationship with water to develop a nuanced understanding of its essential yet fragile presence. We will critically analyze global and local water issues, explore water-related innovations, and develop informed perspectives on managing this essential element in a changing world. Course materials will include scientific research, policy discussions, literature, film, and contemporary case studies. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of water’s complexities and the pressing questions surrounding its future.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Karagh Brummond
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: PN (Physical and Natural World)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy and the Body
Technology Society and the Future
Course Description: Lawyers and courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, are already integrating neuroscience research into their arguments and opinions on cases from criminal to civil litigation. This class will introduce the exciting field of "neurolaw" by covering issues such as neuroscience of criminal culpability, brain-based lie detection, brain death, emotions, decision making, and much more. Along the way we'll discuss how the legal system can and should respond to new insights on topics such as adolescent brain development, addiction, psychopathy, Alzheimer's, effects of combat on soldiers' brains, and concussions from sports injuries. Students will be pushed to determine and develop a sense of how, when, and where neuroscience can and cannot aid in the goals of law. Please note that this course will be approached from a heavy science side providing students with a deep understanding of neuroscience and the application of neuroscience literature in courtrooms. We will be looking closely at topics including the structure and function of the brain, brain monitoring and manipulation techniques, and how essential studies in neuroscience have been used by the legal system. Students will be reflecting on and drawing conclusions about the ethical and legal implications of using neuroscientific data in law through synthesis of neuroscience research.

Credits: 3
Instructor: Ken Sims
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: PN (Physical and Natural World)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
TBA
Course Description: TBA

Credits: 3
Instructor: Christopher Rothfuss
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: G (Global Awareness)
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Health, Policy, and the Body
Technology, Society, and the Future
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: 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.