Honors Courses

New honors courses are developed each year.  Those currently available include the following:

Honors students can also explore a wide variety of additional topics through independent study and enrichment of standard college courses.

COM 132 Composition and Literature:  Texts and Contexts - This course involves students in guided exploration of literature through the understanding and application of various critical theories.  Invited to read, discuss, analyze, interpret, research, and write about fiction, poetry, and drama from the perspective of a number of theoretical approaches, students will develop the ability to recognize assumptions underlying certain literary theories, understand their aims and implications, and apply their methods of analysis to literature.  Students will also practice a variety of researching and writing strategies that evolve from the various theoretical perspectives.  (This is an honors section of the College's Composition and Literature course).
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COM 122 English Composition - The honors section of English Composition assumes a strong foundation in writing skills, including developing and organizing a focused piece of writing using current conventions of academic discourse.  Therefore, the major emphasis of the course will be an in-depth exploration of the theme "Living in Diversity" using those skills and producing a collaborative, unified body of work rather than isolated individual essays.  In a workshop format, the class will work as a community of writers to define and solve writing problems.  Discussions, readings, interviews, primary research, and extensive writing will result in a culminating final product and presentation that will incorporate the work of the entire term.
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ENV 131 The Environment - This course surveys ecological principles and mankind's impact on the environment.  Principles of sustainability are stressed.  The honors section of this course will examine the Schuylkill River and its watershed.  Topics will include:  the ecology of the region's forests, river ecology, and dynamics, Indian impact on local ecology, ecological impact of human economic activities during the colonial, canal period, industrial revolution, and 20th century.  Current environmental problems in the watershed, such as population, transportation, growth management, and water quality issues will be discussed.  Course activities will include group projects and classroom presentations by students, field trips, and guest speakers on environmental problems in our local watershed.
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HUM 276 Ethics - This course will involve students in analysis and evaluation of primary texts of numerous ethical theories, western and eastern, ancient through contemporary.  It will also enable students to identify the assumptions and implications of these theories when applied in decision-making of an ethical nature.  Students will conduct research using various kinds of primary and secondary print sources, interviews, electronic media, and fieldwork.  They will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge of moral theory and methodology by planning, executing, and evaluating projects on certain ethical issues in interdisciplinary fields such as health care, government, counseling, business, journalism, and academics.  Ultimately this course will lead students to a deeper understanding of the ethical assumptions and implications involved in their own decision-making processes as well as those of other individuals, social institutions, and cultures.
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Ethnographic Research

COM 152 Fundamentals of Speech - The honors section of Fundamentals of Speech moves beyond emphasizing strategies for and practice in delivering the basic informative and persuasive speeches of the non-honors section. In this course students also examine styles of oral argumentation and gain experience in supporting an issue through research and logic as well as in answering and counter-opposing evidence to a position. Students practice their skills in individual speeches and in team presentations. Moreover, students lead class discussion as well as give feedback to classmates. Videotapes of students' performances provide opportunities for self-evaluation.
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ANT/PSY/HIS 255 Interpreting Lives:  Rites of Passage, Personal History, and the Life Cycle - This interdisciplinary course considers the stages of life and their cross-cultural variation, including the rites of passage that mark transitions throughout the human life cycle.  Further, the course examines how people construct and reaffirm their lives through the process of personal narrative.  Students will be taught life history interview methods and guided to do independent research with an individual "tradition bearer."  Such life history research facilitates the coming to voice of women and minority people who are often ignored in standard historical writing.

HUM 280 Introduction to Navajo Studies - This course will engage students in discovery of Navajo philosophy, life ways, traditions, healing practices, history, and art.  Students will be challenged in the analysis of information derived from primary texts and from personal interviews with individuals from the Navajo nation.  In the analysis process, students will identify fact from fiction in the readings for the course.  Classes will involve students in the discussion of Native American lifestyle in contrast to the lifestyle of the Eastern United States.  Students will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of Navajo economic issues and the role of government in the current treatment of native Americans as well as to debate issues of contemporary concern to the Navajo.
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ANT 200 Intercultural Communication - This course examines how human beings communicate and, often, miscommunicate interculturally.  It considers the ways such communication occurs not only through speech but also through gestures, posture, dress, facial expression, distancing, use of time, and spatial organization.  It further explores the nature of ethnography and the relationship between language and culture.
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BUS 240 International Business - This course will examine economic theory and apply financial and management techniques from a global perspective. This will include attention being given to cultural differences and ethical and environmental concerns.

HUM 281 Leadership Development Studies - This course provides a forum to explore the concept of leadership and to develop and improve leadership skills.  The course incorporates readings from the humanities, experiential exercises, films, and contemporary readings on leadership.
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ANT 250 Magic, Myth, and Ritual:  The Anthropology of Religion - This course examines theories proposed to explain the origin, persistence, and function of super naturalistic ideology and ritual in both non-Western and Western societies.  Topics explored include mythology, animism, manna, magic, divination, witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts, spirits, trances, sacred shrines, shamans, priests, gods, cannibalism, animal and human sacrifice, food and other taboos, talking in tongues, rites of passage, rites of solidarity, near death experiences, belief in the afterlife or in reincarnation, revitalization movements, millennial fears, cults, the use of hallucinogenic drugs, and the social, cultural, and political consequences of religious differences.
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SOC 131 Sociology - Basic theory, methodology, and knowledge from the field of sociology are the subjects of this course. Concepts such as group, role, norm, status, stratification, social control and deviance are discussed. Utilizing various cultures at various times as examples, the understanding of social change is promoted.
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