Previously Offered Honors Seminars
2008-2009
HNRS 191.01 - People & the American Landscape
Instructor: Prof. Rebecca Ambers (rambers@sbc.edu)
The United States is a nation richly endowed with natural resources that people have alternately squandered, conserved, and protected. This course examines how the complex relationship between humans and the American landscape has changed over time, focusing on the issues of agriculture and food, wilderness, and urbanization. The development of the environmental movement is also highlighted. May count as an elective toward the majors in environmental science and environmental studies. CRN:10389
HNRS 247.01 - Contemporary International Writers
Instructor: Prof. John Gregory Brown (brown@sbc.edu)
This course will focus on a variety of contemporary international writers, including Zakes Mda, Chimamanda Adichie, and Yiyum Li, all of whom will visit the college for readings and lectures. We will read and discuss the writers' works as well as the particular cultural and political circumstances out of which those works have emerged. CRN: 10420
HNRS 245.01 - Introduction to Game Theory
Instructor: Prof. Gene Gotwalt (egotwalt@sbc.edu)
Game Theory is an analytical approach to the study of strategic interaction. Development of basic theory, including topics such as Nash equilibrium, repeated games, credibility, and mixed strategies is covered in the course. Applications will include markets and competition, auction design, voting, evolution, and bargaining. CRN: 10419
HNRS 252.01 - Culinary Voyages
Instructor: Prof. Alice McLean (amclean@sbc.edu)
From culinary colonialism to gastronomic tourism, Western eating practices are driven by fear of as well as desire for the “Other”. This course will examine the dynamic culinary voyages ranging from 19th-century journeys to the gastronomic tourism that abounds today, paying particular attention to the role emotions (fear, disgust, curiosity, desire) play in these practices. CRN: 10394
HNRS 246.01 - Contemplation and Time
Instructor: Prof. Susan Beers (beers@sbc.edu)
The interaction between the perception of time and contemplative practices (e.g. meditation, centering prayer) will be examined. Questions to be considered include: How is time perceived in contemplative states? How does age influence time perception and contemplation? How do different cultures perceive time, and how might this influence adoption of contemplative practices? May count toward the major in psychology. CRN: 20332
Pre-requisite: Psych 101
HNRS 248.01 - Exile and Creativity
Instructor: Prof. Pamela DeWeese (deweese@sbc.edu)
Exile will be studied as a concept from a variety of perspectives: linguistic, anthropological, cultural, and psychological. Readings will include theoretical essays, autobiography, and fiction, principally from English translations of works from Latin American and Spanish writers of the 20th century. May count as the one literature in translation course for the major in Spanish. CRN: 20331
HNRS 193.01 - Nutritional Challenges of the 21st Century
Instructor: Prof. Bonnie Kestner (kestner@sbc.edu)
We will seek to define "healthy eating," explore the relationship between diet and degenerative disease, and discuss educational, psychological, economic, and socio-cultural obstacles we face in attempting to meet our nutritional needs. Students will discuss and critique various theories on nutrition, research and make oral presentations, and develop personalized nutrition plans based on the readings and other information presented.
HNRS 250.01 - American Music in the 1950s
Instructor: Prof. Jeffrey Ingber (jringber@sbc.edu)
In this seminar we will closely examine the 1950s as a seminal period in American music in terms of both musical innovation and the surprising upheavals that emerged from it in the second half of the 20th century. Topics will include Art music, the appearance of Bebop in jazz, and the birth of Rock and Roll. CRN: 20330
HNRS 254.01 - Taste Matters: Revolutionary Movements in the Contemporary Edible Arts
Instructor: Alice McLean
What prompts the creation of a dish called “Electric Chinese lanterns and liquorice air”? Is it divine inspiration? This course explores cultural ideals and anxieties that drive Western culinary artists, paying particular attention to the Slow Food movement (which reveres sustainably grown, handcrafted foods) and Molecular Gastronomy (characterized by its shocking use of industrial design and scientific innovation). The tensions that arise between “Culinary Luddites” and “Culinary Modernists” articulate ideals and anxieties that characterize contemporary culture and its consuming practices. Defining these ideals and anxieties will enable students to understand the ideology behind professional cooking practices as well as everyday food choices. CRN: 20394
HNRS 308.01 - The Great War
Instructors: Prof. John Ashbrook (jashbrook@sbc.edu) & Prof. Spencer Bakich (sbakich@sbc.edu)
World War I is often seen as the traumatic birth of the 20th century, a watershed dividing the "stability" of the pre-war world from the insecurity of the post-war period. The causes, interpretations, and results of the war are still hotly debated in the academic literature. This seminar will examine the war itself and its contested understandings from both a historiographic and theoretical perspective. May count toward the majors in history and international affairs. CRN: 20329
Pre-requisite: any one of the following- GOVT 322, GOVT 332, GOVT 335, GOVT 345, HIST 210, HIST 216, HIST 245, or HIST 264
2006 - 2007
Imagining Egypt in Antiquity
Instructor: Eric Casey MW 2:30 – 3:45
This class will take a twofold approach to ancient Egypt mixing history and myth. We will begin by learning about the history, literature, and culture of Egypt with a focus on the last several hundred years before the Roman conquest. We will then use literary and historical sources to investigate how the Greeks and Romans envisioned Egypt.
More than Meets the Eye
Instructor: Rebecca Massie Lane TTh 2:45 – 4:00
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.
Eating, Sex, Pleasure in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Film
Instructor: Alice McLean MW 2:30 – 3:45
By exploring how embodied pleasures nourish subjectivity and social identity, this course will encourage students to reflect on their own appetites and on what these appetites express about themselves as individuals and their place in society.
On Monsters
Instructor: Cathy Gutierrez MW 2:30 - 3:45
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.
European Women Film Directors
Instructor: Marie-Therese Killiam MW 1:30 - 3:20
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.
Eating Bodies, Consuming Cultures
Instructor: Alice McLean MW 2:30 - 3:45
This course will examine a range of eating practices to illuminate how modes of consumption determine individual and social bodies. It will also examine how identities (individual and cultural) are affirmed, denied, and reconfigured through the act of consumption—both literal and metaphoric. We will work to define the following terms: the civilizing appetite, culinary colonialism, cannibalism, communion, culinary tourism, fast food, Slow Food, and vegetarianism.
2005 - 2006
HNRS 229 - Sovereignty, Globalization, and the Coming Politics
Instructor: Matthew Calarco
HNRS 231- History of the Interior
Instructor: Christian Carr
HNRS 232 - Epic Novel in Contemporary World Literature
Instructor: John Gregory Brown
HNRS 233 - Animal Minds
Instructor: Roberta Sadler
HNRS 234 - Reading and Writing about the Natural World
Instructor: Marcia Robertson
HNRS 235 - Eating Language
Instructor: Alice McLean
HNRS 303 - Advanced Spectroscopy
Instructor: John Beck
2004 - 2005
HNRS 213 - Mathematics of Chaos
Dr. Steve Wassell
HNRS 221 - Subverting the Francoist Order: Spanish Literature in Translation: 1960-1975
Dr. Pamela DeWeese
HNRS 223 - Building Order in a Chaotic World: Medieval Pilgrimage Architecture and Ritual
Dr. Tracy Hamilton
HNRS 225 - Jazz Studies
Dr. Rebecca McNutt
HNRS 227 - Diplomatics: American Cultural Negotiations
Dr.
Martha Elena Rojas
HNRS 230 - Self-Improvement, Self- Control: Narratives of Reform in U.S. Literature
Dr. Martha Elena Rojas
HNRS 224 - From Joan of Arc to Napoleon: France’s Heroes in Art and Literature
Dr. Marie-Therese Killiam
HNRS 226 - Time in Western Civilization
Dr. Lee Piepho
2003 - 2004
HNRS 215- Contemporary International Writers
Prof. John Gregory Brown
HNRS 216 - The Art Market
Prof. Christian Carr
HNRS 121 - Women, Sport and Film: Images and Values
Prof. Jennifer Crispen
HNRS 217 - The Medieval City
Prof. Tracy Chapman Hamilton
HNRS 219 - Faking It: Impostors & Counterfeits in U.S. Literature
Prof. Martha Elena Rojas
HNRS 218 - From Montgomery to Watergate: The Long 60s in America
Prof. Michael Richards
HNRS 222 - At Sea: Ocean Voyages and the Literary Imagination
Prof. Martha Elena Rojas
HNRS 220 – Science and Pseudoscience
Prof. Ellen Rosenshein
HNRS 302 - Women, Law and "Family Values": A Comparative Perspective
Profs. Judith Evans-Grubbs and Lynn Laufenberg
2002 - 2003
HNRS 185 - History of Photography
Prof. Paige Critcher
HNRS 005 - Isn't Love Strange?: Examining Love in Different Cultures
Prof. Deborah Durham
Section I - MW 1:30 - 2:45 (open to 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students)
Section II - TR 9:00 - 10:15 (this section reserved for first year students)
HNRS 183 - Opera as a Reflection of History and Culture
Prof. Allen Huszti
HNRS 169 - The Ebony Column: Classics and the African American Literary Tradition
Prof. Ashley Hairston
HNRS 187 - Visual Memory in the Medieval World
Prof. Tracy Hamilton, Department of Art History
HNRS 214 - Constructing Our Lives: Psychological Accounts of Memory
Prof. Susan Beers
HNRS 186 - Landscape and Memory
Prof. Deborah Durham
HNRS 212 - The Artist's Book
Profs. Laura Pharis and John Morgan
HNRS 188 - Science and Nature Writers
Profs. Jennifer Brice and Linda Fink
HNRS 184 - Rings, Wands and Wonders: Children's and Fantasy Literature in American Popular Culture
Prof. Ashley Hairston
