Honors Seminar Courses

NOTE: Complete undergraduate and graduate catalogs can be found here.

HNRS 229 (3)
Sovereignty, Globalization, and the Coming Politics
The aim of this course is to examine the changes that occur in an era of globalization with respect to space and time. In particular, students will examine the eclipse of old forms of sovereignty and the rise of new forms of global power and resistance in an era of increased globalization. This course may be counted toward the major in philosophy. V5, V

HNRS 231 (3)
The History of the Interior
This course presents the history of the domestic interior from classical antiquity through the Renaissance and into the modern era, covering styles such as Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Reform and Aestheticism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and Modernism. The focus will be an exploration of the ways in which furniture, decorative arts, and interior architecture function as a domestic expression of historical developments. Students will be required to pay a $100 fee toward expenses for a field trip to New York tentatively scheduled for October. IIIW, V6

HNRS 232 (3)
Places Real and Imagined: The Epic Novel in Contemporary World Literature
This course will examine the evocation of time and place in a number of epic 20th-century novels from around the world: Bernardo Atxaga's "Obabakoak," Maryse Conde's "Segu," Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Kazuo Isiguro's "The Unconsoled," and Ben Okri's "The Famished Road." We will consider the literary devices these writers employ in such lengthy narratives as well as the historical, political, and cultural issues that inform these works and the differences, if any, between the real and imaginary settings of these novels. This course may be counted as a 200-level course toward the majors in English and English and creative writing.

HNRS 233 (3)
Animal Minds
A seminar exploring current research in the field of cognitive ethology, looking at perceptual, memory, thought, and emotional pricesses of animals in their ecological context and entertaining questions about animal consciousness and intentionality. Discussion of selected readings from animal cognition, behavioral ecology, congnitive neuroscience, and philosophy of science.

HNRS 234 (3)
Reading and Writing about the Natural World
"Nature Writing" combines both the subjective and objective; it often combines the systematic observation and patterns of explanation associated with the natural sciences and the attention to voice and form associated with literary writing. This course will focus on combining these practices and will introduce students to significant works about the natural world. This course may be counted as a 200-level creative writing course toward the majors in English and English and creative writing. IIIW, V6

HNRS 237 (3)
Imagining Egypt in Antiquity
This class will examine the culture of ancient Egypt and how the Greeks and Romans reacted to this in both history and literature. We will be interested in how these ancient cultures interacted and also how the Greeks and Romans envisioned the place of Egypt in the history of ideas. Topics include Alexander, Cleopatra, and the Great Library at Alexandria. May be counted towards the major in classical studies. V1

HNRS 238 (3)
On Monsters
This course will trace the history of the monster in the West, from Greek chimera to contemporary genetic mutations in laboratories. We will contemplate the monster as cultural products of other societies or peoples, as threats to our well-being, as the products of discovery of new species, and finally as a subset of people in the carnival freak show. V1, V

HNRS 239 (3)
More than Meets the Eye
Using works of art from the Sweet Briar College Anne Gary Pannell Art Gallery permanent collection, students will research and write about original works of art using the forms of descriptive, interpretive, and critical writing. Students will read from documentary, scholarly, and critical sources, and will seek out and view comparable works of art from other museum collections. IIIW, V6

HNRS 240 (3)
European Women Film Directors
This course will examine European women film directors in regards to their specific contribution to the cinematographic genre. We will look at various women's political, social, and emotional agendas, and how their films differ from contemporary male film directors. We will discuss French, British, German, Spanish, and Italian film makers as well as some female emigrants' recent works. No doubt that the theme of the senses will be tackled on a constant basis in this class too. May be counted towards the major in French if all reading and writing for the course is done in French. May be counted towards the minors in film studies and women and gender studies and the modified language requirement. IIIO, V5,V6

HNRS 241 (3)
Eating, Sex, Pleasure in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Film
This course will examine the relationship between the pleasures of eating and sex. A few of the questions we will consider: How does food stimulate erotic desire? How does lust determine how and what we eat? What transforms desire into disgust, pleasure into pain? To answer these questions, we will explore fiction, nonfiction, and film ranging from "Chocolat" to "Tampopo." IIIW, V

HNRS 242 (3)
Eating Bodies, Consuming Cultures
From communion to cannibalism, from excess to denial, how we eat and what we eat speak volumes about cultural ideals as well as anxieties. This course will examine the power of eating practices to reaffirm, deny, and reconfigure individual and social bodies. A few key terms include: the civilizing appetite, culinary colonialism, fast food, slow food, culinary tourism, and vegetarianism. IIIW, V1,V

HNRS 249 (3)
Hispanic Literature
A view of the rich and complex culture of Latinos, Chicanos, Nuyoricanos, and U.S. Hispanics through its 20th-century literature: short story, novel, poetry, autobiography. Hispanic identity is studied as a concept via cultural, historical, and linguistic approaches. Readings are in their original English version. This course can count as the one literature in translation course allowed for the major in Spanish. May be counted towards the minor in Latin American studies.

HNRS 255 (3)
"Proper" Role of Art/Artist
An intensive, interdisciplinary seminar questioning the moral and ethical assumptions placed on art, art making, and the role of the artist in society. Of particular importance will be the moral, political aesthetic, and theoretical principles informing changing definitions of beauty, truth, art, and what it means to be an "artist." Artists will include: Sophocles, Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Kerouac, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Warhol, Joan Didion, David Lynch, Sofia Coppola, and Cindy Sherman. V2

HNRS 256 (3)
African Roots:Am Pop Music
The impact of African culture in the United States is long-standing and far-reaching. We will examine the evolution of American popular music as a unique interaction between African and European musical traditions. Topics will include Cotton Field Hollers, Ragtime, Stride Piano, Jazz, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Jump Blues, and Rock and Roll - from the Civil War through the Motown era. V5, V6

HNRS 258 (3)
Religion and Comedy
We will examine the uses of comedy concerning religion and question whether comedy offers substantive critique of contemporary values and norms. We will read theories of comedy, irony, parody, and jokes and apply them to the comedic material to test whether religious comedy is functioning to subvert or uphold the status quo.

HNRS 260 (3)
The Medieval Book
This course will examine the "book," or manuscript, before the printing press. Surviving in greater number and with less alteration than other media, the packaging of image and word into a single space makes manuscripts especially versatile documents. We will consider religious, secular, literary, historical, scientific, and chronologically and linguistically diverse examples, and topics such as gender, memory, and literacy. May be counted toward the major and minor in art history in Area I. V1, V6

HNRS 295 (3)
Summer Research
Students must be engaged as full-time research assistants on campus for a minimum of eight weeks during the summer. In addition to research duties, the student must complete a culminating paper or project to be mutually conceived by the student and her faculty sponsor. This course is graded P/CR/NC only.

HNRS 299 (3)
Honors Seminar: Special Topics
Topics will vary by semester and will concentrate on interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. Course to be taught by the Honors Fellow and may be repeated when the topic is different. Offered alternate years.

HNRS 303 (3)
Advanced Spectroscopy
This course will provide students with increased knowledge in the area of spectroscopic analyses of organic molecules using 1D and 2D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra, fragmentation patterns of mass spectra, and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Students will also be introduced to the theory of NMR data acquisition and how it pertains to germane experiments.

HNRS 304 (3)
Visual Stimulation: The Pleasure of the Gaze
"Here's looking at you, kid." The seminar explores the male and female response to the visual with a view to understanding the nature of visual attraction, the psychological and physical response to visual stimulation, and the role of proportion and symmetry in the perception of beauty. WARNING: The seminar may include images that might be deemed offensive to some viewers.

HNRS 305 (3)
Visual Reality: The Logic of the Gaze
What is visual reality? How do we see and know things? The seminar examines the sense of sight with a view to understanding the nature of vision, the eye, and the role of knowledge, memory, and imagination in perception. Human-made, sight-specific artifacts ranging from prehistoric times to the present are analyzed in conjunction with an introductory selection of readings.

HNRS 310 (3)
Freud, Then and Now
This course will examine Freudian psychoanalytic theory as well as the appropriations, uses, and critiques of that theory in modern psychological and literary scholarship. We will study key concepts such as the unconscious, repression, dream interpretation, symptomatology, and the death drive; evaluate them according to modern scientific principles; and consider the way the elucidate the meaning of meaning itself.

HNRS 395 (3)
Summer Research
Students must be engaged as full-time research assistants on campus for a minimum of eight weeks during the summer. In addition to research duties, the student must complete a culminating paper or project to be mutually conceived by the student and her faculty sponsor. Ths course is graded P/CR/NC only.

HNRS 399 (3)
Summer Honors Research
Projects are undertaken and completed over eight weeks in the early summer. The student and her faculty sponsor together determine what the student will produce as the culmination of her research project. At the end of the program each student must turn in to the Honors Program and to her faculty sponsor the final product of her research project. The research papers will be published in a special issue of the Honors Journal. This course is graded on a P/CR/NC grading option only.