Courses
HNRS-100 The Public Intellectual (3)
In this course, students trace the history and role of the Public Intellectual in America and elsewhere through extensive reading, research, and critical writing. Students produce multi-modal work that addresses, and enhances, the scholarly community that is St. John Fisher College. Our explorations and discussions cross creativity, science, economics, philosophy, and more, because we know that ideas, like the people who share them, are multifaceted and not limited to one category of thought.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-101 Honors Seminar I (1)
Each year the seminar is organized around a broad theme (for example The Seven Deadly Sins, Human Creativity, Freedom). Within this structure, Honors students will be introduced to the Honors principles of interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and intellectual responsibility. Through student-initiated projects, invited faculty, a summer read, and occasional off-campus experiences, students will consider their own role in and effect on our campus (and larger) community.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-150 Indecision (3)
Students in this 2-credit course will immerse themselves in an area of immediate political and social importance. Students will study the issue from a variety of angles, including media, theory, history and statistics. They will then seek practical resolutions which they will implement in our community, whether at Fisher or in the Rochester community. The course will meet either 2 hours a week of for 9 weeks depending on the presiding instructor. A recent topic was the selection of 2016, for which students ran a voter registration drive and presented a policy forum to publicize the stances of each major candidate.
Attributes: YLIB ZEXL ZRES
Pre-requisites: HNRS-100 D-
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-201 Honors Seminar II (1)
This course provides division-specific guidance to Honors students regarding research pathways, and guides them as they explore summer opportunities, internship opportunities, conference and publication opportunities, mentoring and other leadership opportunities, and foreign study programs, in the context of the Honors Program. In this course, students articulate academic and personal goals for the second half of their college experience and reflect upon their progress through the Honors Core.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-214 P4 The Theory of Games (3)
The course will focus on combinatorial games. We?ll figure out what that means together as a class. You, as students, will build a robust theory from scratch, including theories of partizan games, impartial games, nimbers versus numbers, the “mex” function, and basic Sprague-Grundy theory. This will be done via carefully guided exercises, presentations, and rich in-class discussions. And we?ll play a lot of games! Some of them include Nim, Hackenbush, Kayles, White Knight, and Chomp. Using logical reasoning, critical analysis, and working together we?ll be able to explore an idea to the cusp of what is known — and hopefully have some fun while doing it.
Attributes: P4 YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-265 Honors Extension (4)
This course is offered during the spring semester. It has a significant online component during the semester, with the majority of the work falling in two weeks in May, following graduation. During this time, students live and sometimes travel together with an intensive focus on one particular interdisciplinary topic through hands on work, and interaction with the community, and will complete a self-directed project. It will have a different focus each time it is taught. Examples include:. Pigments, Particles, Documenting Natural History; Immigrant/Refugee; Politics; Law and Order in Rochester.
Spring 2020 Topic: Spain and Morocco
Students in this course explore the mutual influences of Moroccan and Islamic culture and southern Spanish culture over the past 500 years, as well as the position and representation of Islam in contemporary Spanish culture, literature, food, and art. In one-hour sessions during the semester, students learn the Arabic alphabet and a basic background of the cultures, history, politics, and other important dimensions of life in these societies. From May 10th – 24th, participants are overseas, with 6 – 8 days in Seville, Spain and an additional 4 days in Morocco. In addition to history, culture, and art, the Morocco portion of the trip involves opportunities to meet and interact with people of the society.The course has a fee that covers participation in all activities, food, hotel, and flight. It is approximately $3,500.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-275 P1 Tpc:Understanding Arts (3)
Creative expressions are found in all times and in all areas of the globe. The arts — music, television, literature, street art, photography, and creative expression in other media — are also embedded within the culture, beliefs, and practices of an intended public audience. This course will explore the historical and political as well as the formal aspects of art, and might focus on any of a number of topics, including cable TV, Caribbean food and music, the impact of chocolate on world cultures, and representations of criminals. A critical aspect of the class will be clear and critical communication, through writing but also through composition within visual and other creative media.
Spring 2020 P1 Topic: Seeing Metaphors
This course examines metaphor as it is represented in selected twentieth century American film and literature. Why are metaphors an essential component of human communication? What is the relationship between art and metaphor? How do writers and filmmakers employ metaphor to effect cultural and social change? The works in question allow us to analyze the conflicts and moral dilemmas confronting the individual in society.
This course teaches students to ask difficult questions regarding selected films and literature, and to propose and develop original interpretations and critical judgments of what they see and experience. Students realize a deeper understanding and appreciation of metaphor. Visual thinking and writing skills are developed through a series of personal observations shared in classroom discussions and recorded in course journals as well as in more reflective responses through Blackboard (online) discussions, formal written critiques/essays, and the final project paper.Spring 2020 P1 Topic: HBO’s America
Attributes: P1 YLIB
This course looks at HBO’s The Wire, one of the most critically acclaimed programs in TV history, and unpacks it as a socially relevant television show. Throughout its five seasons, the series, created by David Simon, depicts how American social institutions (including law enforcement, capitalism, politics, public education, and the mass media) affect the people who are served by them. This seminar examines those elements, HBO’s role in television culture, and contemporary TV issues – which often are ignored in classroom discourses on The Wire – such as serialized storytelling, narrative complexity, and post-network criticism.
Taking advantage of the coincidence that an academic semester’s length mirrors that of one season of the series, this course examines in sequence each episode of The Wire’s first season. An examination of The Wire necessitates an in-depth, semester-long, full-season commitment. Through this inside-out-approach — as opposed to learning through arbitrary clips or a five-season-in-one-semester binge — students analyze the creation and evolution of one season of a popular series the way HBO initially distributed it in 2002, and its influences on American culture since then.
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-280 P2 Tpc:Global Thght/Belief (3)
This course might explore the Contemporary Islamic World or the Ethics of Money or the Good Life. It will lead students to consider and examine one or more religious, philosophical, and/or ethical traditions, as well as the socio-cultural, political, and economic circumstances within which they emerged. Students will gain a better understanding of how these traditions provided needed answers and guidance for individuals in particular times and places, and how those traditions have changed over time to meet the emotional, spiritual, and/or intellectual needs of individuals in various cultural settings.
Fall 2019 Topic: P2 Race,Bias,Action This honors course will provide an in-depth exploration of the theory and practice of learning and living in a diverse and pluralistic society. Students will actively explore the ways socio-cultural practices simultaneously support and marginalize different groups of people. As a foundation for building an understanding of contemporary issues of diversity, students will explore the ways in which language, literacy, culture, and experience influence the construction and deconstruction of knowledge at the societal, institutional, and individual level. Furthermore, we will discuss issues of intentional and inadvertent discrimination as it occurs societally, institutionally, and individually. Such interconnected exploration seeks to problematize our role in the construction and maintenance of a hegemonic `landscape? for learning. Throughout the course students will discuss and interrogate issues related to social justice, with particular emphasis on the investigation of the discourses that create inequity in society. In addition to readings and film, students will be involved in off campus activities and will plan and propose a campus wide action plan to deal with racial inequities on campus.
Attributes: P2 YLIB
Pre-requisites: HNRS-100 D-
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-285 P3 Tpc:Paradigms Behavior (3)
Paradigms of Behavior may be taught by faculty from a variety of fields; however, the course will always focus on a social science analysis of human behavior, and will be deeply engaged with the actions of our community. The course may have a sociocultural emphasis or may be based in data and data analysis. Whether its central topic is Alexander Hamilton, Prisons in New York, the Economics of Charity, or something else, it will be writing intensive, stressing clear and critical communication through a variety of means relevant to the field.
Spring 2020 P3 Topic: Psychology of Leadership This course examines the underlying psychological principles behind being a strong team contributor, a team leader, and a leader. Students learn the principles in these areas and practice them io ways designed to improve teams, leaders, and develop organizations. Some of the principles include group dynamics, improving teamwork, understanding leadership, adult learning principles, and team and organizational development.
Attributes: P3 YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-375 P1 Tpc:Studies in the Arts (3)
Studies in this topics course will explore an area of the imaginative arts (visual, textual, aural) and how it creates empathetic, absorptive critical and provocative responses.Students will deepen their understanding of a sub-area of their own choosing in research and engagement with the community. The specific topic will change each time the course is offered. One semester might focus on community-based graphic arts, representations of criminals in literature or the role of music in film, for example.
Spring 2019 Topic: Archives and Access Working with both physical and online archives, students will engage in archival research, considering both the artifacts found within particular archives (photographs, manuscripts, etc.) and the concept of “the archive” itself as a space that structures cultural knowledge.
Attributes: P1 YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Junior, Senior -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-380 P2 Topic: Systems of Value (3)
This course might explore the Contemporary Islamic World or the Ethics of Money or the Good Life. It will lead students to consider and examine one or more religious, philosophical, and/or ethical traditions, as well as the socio-cultural, political, and economic circumstances within which they emerged. Students will gain a better understanding of how these traditions provided needed answers and guidance for individuals in particular times and places, and how those traditions have changed over time to meet the emotional, spiritual, and/or intellectual needs of individuals in various cultural settings.
Spring 2017 P2 Topic: Brave Conversations Ask good questions. Collaborate. Communicate. These are essential skills in today?s job market. In this class, we practice skills to further your global citizenship. A main challenge today is to work with others in order to effectively solve local or national problems. You will learn effective and responsible leadership, by engaging in courageous conversations about challenging topics. This class examines different models of dialogue, such as political peace-making strategies, social justice conversations, and dialogue-centered teaching methods. Students develop an action plan that addresses a local or campus problem and write a research paper exploring areas of individual curiosity on these topics.
Attributes: P2 YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreHNRS-425 Undergraduate Review (1)
The Review is a journal produced by the Honors Program that publishes the best scholarship written by Fisher’s undergraduate students. Students in this course research possible platforms and budgets, create publicity campaigns to encourage submissions to The Review and later to make the work in the published review visible on and off campus. Students read, evaluate, and edit the essays through a confidential system. The work we do is practical, creative financial, and active, and culminates in the publication of the Review in the spring. Graded S/U.
Attributes: YLIB ZEXL
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-450 Capstone (3)
This course prioritizes synthesis of knowledge obtained in the Core Curriculum and in the students? major area of study, and is organized around a big, cross-cutting topic that is especially well suited to examination through multiple lenses. The course is designed collaboratively by faculty members from the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Physical Sciences, and is taught in three classes simultaneously. All three sections share the same syllabus and the same assignments. Students will bring their own expertise as well as their familiarity with viewing scholarly issues through multiple perspectives, and will collaborate to create and present a solution or clearer understanding of a real world problem. Topics may include Love, Beauty, Mental illness, Conflict/violence/war, God, Poverty, Food, and others. Spring 16 Topic: Sustainability.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-470 Keystone Experience I (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. It can be used as: an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in the major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review; an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major. Requires permission of the Honors Program Director. May be taken for credit up to three times. Graded S/U.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-472 Keystone Experience I (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. Experiences may include, but are not limited to, an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in your major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review); an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-480 Keystone Experience II (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. It can be used as: an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in the major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review); an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an Internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major. May be taken for credit up to three times. Requires the permission of the Honors Program Director.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-482 Keystone Experience II (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. Experiences may include, but are not limited to, an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in your major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review); an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-490 Keystone Experience III (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. It can be used as: an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in the major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review); an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major. May be taken for credit up to three times. Requires the permission of the Honors Program Director.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-491 Internship (1 TO 3)
Internships are off-campus experiential learning activities designed to provide students with opportunities to make connections between the theory and practice of academic study and the practical application of that study in a professional work environment. Internships offer the opportunity to “try out” a career while gaining relevant experience and professional connections. Internships are completed under the guidance of an on-site supervisor and a faculty sponsor, who in combination with the students, create a framework for learning and reflection. An Honors Internship should reflect an opportunity above and beyond a standard internship in the major. Honors internships may be taken for 1-3 credit hours and are graded S/U. Interns generally work 10 to 12 hours per week and complete additional departmental requirements. Professionalism is emphasized in all aspects of this course and its requirements.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-492 Keystone Experience III (1)
This course functions as an Honors enhancement to an experience outside of the Honors curriculum. Experiences may include, but are not limited to, an Honors contract added to a 300-level course in your major; a leadership role in an Honors academic experience (such as The Review); an independent Honors project associated with a semester abroad; an Honors project associated with an internship; researching and preparing a proposal for senior-level scholarship; research performed outside of the requirements of the major.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-496 Independent Study (1 TO 3)
The student’s independent study is under the direction of the Honors Program Director. An opportunity to explore an area not regularly offered in the program. Completion of the Independent Study Authorization form is required.
Attributes: YLIB ZEXL ZRES
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-1299 Research-based Writing (3)
Students extend their writing skills to focus on the elements of a college-level, academic research paper in one of several areas: humanities, social sciences, sciences, quantitative sciences. Emphasis is on finding and exploring a research question of one’s choice, persuasive writing, the inclusion of more than one perspective on an issue, the proper use and documentation of sources, and revision. Honors students in particular use this course to advance their understanding of research in their own areas of interest, research opportunities at Fisher and outside of Fisher, and the role research writing plays in the larger academic world. Students also practice effective oral communication of their research process or findings.
Attributes: RW YLIB ZRES
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman, Sophomore -Attribute: Honors Student, New Core 20-21HNRS-2501 Crime Scene Chemistry (3)
This course focuses on investigative chemistry. Students assume the role of a forensic chemist and become familiar with the chemical tests that are used in the analysis of physical evidence to aid in identification and analysis of fingerprints, glass, inks, fibers, narcotics (drugs), alcohol, and blood. Students conduct an investigation through experiments that are linked to the staged crime scene, testimonial evidence and a set of physical evidence which should lead them to one or another prime suspect. Students assume the role of an expert witness in a court and argue for who they think was the perpetrator by providing evidence and an informative laboratory report as well as an oral presentation on the analysis of the items of physical evidence under study.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2502 Bio Effects Envr Toxins (3)
This class investigates the effects of environmental toxins on the human environment, including but not limited to human development, behavior, immunity, and cognition. Students examine toxins in health care products, fragrances, house cleaning products, and other consumer goods. Students further focus on drinking water and document the process through digital storytelling. Students test and compare levels of current toxins to past data and other regions, as well as investigate sources of pollution and policies and procedures enacted to alleviate and cease contamination.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2503 Theories of Games (3)
This course focuses on combinatorial games. We figure out what that means together as a class. Students build a robust theory from scratch, including theories of partizan games, impartial games, nimbers versus numbers, the “mex” function, and basic Sprague-Grundy theory. This is done via carefully guided exercises, presentations, and rich in-class discussion. And we play a lot of games! Some of them include Nim, Hackenbush, Kayles, White Knight, and Chomp. Using logical reasoning, critical analysis, and working together, we are able to explore an idea to the cusp of what is known – and hopefully have some fun while doing it.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2504 Fungi: Friend or Foe? (3)
Fungi have molded life as we know it. This course investigates fungal influences throughout history, illustrates how they ‘infect’ all aspects of the world around us, and explores the interdisciplinary nature of science. Students with credit for BIOL 116C or HNRS 316 cannot earn credit for HNRS 2504.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2505 Invention & Innovation (3)
A primary goal of this course is to instill the idea that anyone can be an inventor/innovator. To this end, student will learn the history and processes that lead to many of our greatest inventions. Student will also explore the conditions that foster innovation as well as the process by which ideas can be selected and developed into marketable products, creative artifacts, and useful technologies. Interaction with Rochester stakeholders will provide students with the opportunity to identify & frame problems as well as analyze their potential root causes. Finally, students will use what they have learned in class to collaborate on a product, creative artifact or useful technology that will meet a need unfulfilled in the Rochester area.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2506 Science of Happiness (3)
Historically, the field of psychology has placed a great deal of attention on challenges and obstacles. More recently, however, the field has given more attention to the positive side of human nature and the most effective ways to ?pursue the good life.? This course examines scientific research centered on happiness and psychological well-being. Topics include the nature and measurement of happiness, cultural differences in the experience of happiness, the history of positive psychology and well-being during stressful times (e.g., pandemic). We will explore what different disciplines (biology, chemistry, religion, philosophy, etc.) contribute to our understanding of happiness and well-being. We will also have in depth discussions of different strategies for promoting happiness and well-being, such as mindfulness, gratitude, humor, love, emotional intelligence, volunteerism, and the characteristics of successful relationships. Students will write a thorough, empirically based paper, as well as present information to their classmates on a topic related to course material. It is also possible for students to engage in an applied project, developing and sharing positive psychology related materials to community groups
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2507 Storytelling with Data (3)
This course will help students develop skills in communicating data through imagery to reveal the best insights in the most compelling way to varied users. Students will learn to incorporate story telling techniques and methods of structured communication into hands-on analytical work to make their findings memorable, relatable, and lead to action. The course will begin with basic data analytic tools and will include a focus on how to analyze an issue in order to create policies/recommendations that are fair, equitable, and effective.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2508 The Unexpctd Jrny of Phys (3)
The Unexpected Journey of Physics allows students to collaborate with their peers to design and build objects ranging from bridges to catapults to mini-speakers. Students will following an engineering process which allows for prototypes to be built and tested so the results can inform groups on how to redesign for improved performance of their device. During this process students will learn about the physics of their device through a historical lens.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2509 Demystifying Martial Arts (3)
Martial arts like karate, Brazilian jiujitsu, and tai chi are often shrouded in mystery. On the movie screen, they can be dazzlingly displayed. These martial arts have a rich history and tradition, and are grounded in solid science, particularly physics and anatomy. This course will allow anyone ? whether you have experience in a martial art or not ? to learn more about these arts. You will learn some techniques, explore the science behind them, and discuss the ethical implications of employing them for self-defense. We will also explore some of the history of these arts, how they differ from other combat-related training (e.g. military training), and how studying them can have major psychological, emotional, and physical benefits.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2510 Not Your Grandparents High (3)
How do today?s illicit drugs compare with those of our grandparents? Students in this course will investigate the chemistry of illicit drugs including the variability of today’s drugs with those our grandparents had available to them. Investigations will include labwork experience. Additionally, students will examine illicit drug representation in media including film, television, and music.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2511 Crime Scene Science (3)
Students will apply science to the process of law by collecting, examining, evaluating, and interpreting evidence. Through hands-on analysis and dissection of case studies, students will gain a basic understanding of the scientific and analytical approach to determining the value of evidence for criminal investigations.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: HNRS-1299 N D-
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2512 It’s a Bird’s World (3)
This course begins with an overview of avian biology and the interdependence of particular avian families with their ecological home. From that foundation, we turn to the place of ornithology in the historical imagination in music, literature, film, and the visual arts. Students will engage in the bird world with (perhaps) all their senses, and create their own works of art grounded in their new bird?s eye understanding of the world. In addition to biology and the arts, the course is likely to touch on issues of conservation and government policy as well the local environment and native species.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2521 Am Hlthcare: Past to Prsnt (3)
Using a social history model, this course is designed to broaden and then refine through historical analysis, the student’s view and understanding of the forces that shaped the current healthcare system, as well as the enduring issues that continue to be challenging. Various eras throughout American history are examined to provide the contextual background necessary to better understand events of the time. Social class, gender, ethnicity, culture, and race are also addressed. Major events and defining moments in healthcare history are also highlighted, as are individuals and leaders in American healthcare.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2522 Psychology of Leadership (3)
This course examines the underlying psychological principles behind being a strong team contributor, a team leader, and a leader. Students learn the principles in these areas and practice them in ways designed to improve teams, leaders, and develop organizations. Some of the principles include group dynamics, improving teamwork, understanding leadership, adult learning principles, and team and organizational development.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2523 Seeing White:Neo-Nazi Mvts (3)
It may seem paradoxical that a country that has fought against the Nazi occupation of Europe has witnessed so many expressions of white supremacist activism and violence. This courses analyzes the ideology, organization, and actions of neo-nazi movements in the United States. To what extent have these movements gained strength over the past years? Do they share a common ideological foundation? How are they organized and what is their relations to non-US white supremacist groups? How and whom do they recruit? We address these questions through different disciplinary angles (history, political science, sociology, psychology) and using a variety of sources (social media sites, academic studies, guest lectures from former members, experts of hate groups, or undercover police officers).
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2524 Ethics and Democracy (3)
This course explores the ethical issues and challenges underlying successful democracies here and internationally. Students will consider the key threats (including poverty and climate change), and will turn to international efforts to build and sustain democracies through media literacy, sustainability, and other programs and movements. Students will explore the issues directly facing their own communities and learn what is already being done to address those issues.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2525 Public Choice & Interest (3)
Should we be surprised when there is corruption and graft in government? Are legislators and bureaucrats always motivated by the public interest? What is the public interest? This class will provide an overview of Public Choice Theory, a field of study at the intersection of economics and political science. Public Choice uses the tools of economics to study non-market decision making, especially in the areas of social choice and public policy. Students will examine the evolution of Public Choice; will study the works of seminal scholars in the field, like Anthony Downs, James Buchanan, and Kenneth Arrow; and will apply these concepts to new areas.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2526 Sports as Capital Culture (3)
Although we often think of sports as leisurely activities, for the most part they are in fact a form of labor. This course will re-orient our thinking about sport so that we can better understand how it operates an unequivocal site of late Capitalism, though often doing so under the guise of just being a ?game.? As such we will explore issues of disparities and inequities throughout the sports landscape ? from high schools to universities to professional leagues. We will ground these issues in relation to gender and race and ethnicity in terms of opportunities, investments, and compensation, but we will also focus explicitly on wealth inequities and labor exploitation throughout the varying levels of sport. By thinking critically about the sports industry as a whole and reorienting how we view what is happening on the field/the court/the pitch, we will come to question how games are never really just games but are sites of meaning.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2527 The Psychology of Weight (3)
Body weight is a complex topic that receives ample attention in modern society. This course examines scientific research on the psychological processes and outcomes involved with how people think about and manage body weight, as well as reactions to weight-based devaluation. Some topics to be explored include weight culture, body image, dieting, food psychology, physical activity, and weight stigma.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2528 Sustainable Cultures (3)
Students interrogate the socio-cultural habits that have influenced Americans to participate in a largely disposable/short-term usage society, habits which have social, psychological, economic, and environmental consequences. Students also examine other countries’ cultures (e.g. Filipino death customs; the tiny house movement as a global movement; Swedish projects in human composting). Students complete a project in which they produce some artifact (e.g. a project proposal; a plan for their own tiny house; an end-of-life and burial agreement with their families) fundamentally informed by their consideration of social, societal, economic, and bureaucratic/political elements and supporting a contribution toward alleviating one of the problems considered over the course of the semester.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2529 Psychology of Sleep (3)
Although we spend nearly a third of our life sleeping, most of us take this daily alteration in consciousness for granted. In this course we will examine the physiological and behavioral events of sleep. Topics will include circadian rhythms, measurement of sleep, function of sleep, sleep disorders, and healthy sleep practices.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2530 ROC Leadership Legacy (3)
This course will offer students an in-depth examination of the impact that Rochester?s diverse and influential leaders have had on historic local, national, and international events/issues. Through dynamic classroom discussions and activities, students will investigate how these leaders? unique identities were constructed, later defined, and are currently viewed. Using Frederick Douglass and his role in shaping the abolitionist movement as an example, the course will explore and apply the concepts of Social Location, Intersectionality, and Social Identity. Using a range of sources, each student will identify, research, and analyze the identity and impact of a historically influential Rochester leader. As a cohort, the students will evaluate how their selected leaders? legacies are influencing current events, issues, and movements.
Attributes: HONR YLIB ZCIV
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2531 Society & the Environment (3)
The course will examine the dynamic relationship between human societies and the natural world. Social systems and ecosystems are interrelated and are experienced on a range of levels, from the micro, local level to the global, transnational sphere. The core issues of environmental sociology concern the effects of social structures such as different social groups and social networks on the environment. We will focus upon how humans are dependent upon the environmental world yet often human actions can create unintended effects. Under our current economic model of capitalist growth, environmental resources are limited in availability and continual extraction may produce negative consequences. We will examine how social systems may be rearranged to ensure environmental justice and sustainability.
Attributes: HONR YLIB ZCIV
Pre-requisites: HNRS-1299 D-
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2532 Immigration is US (3)
We are a nation born of immigrants and each of our families has a story to tell. In this course, we will explore the various groups of immigrants that came and are still coming to the US searching for hope, future, identity, and achieving the American Dream. Some immigrants adapted to the new world and some struggled as they were not able to let go of who and where they came from. Through texts and films, we will be analyzing themes of identity, gender, poverty, hope, religion, assimilation, acculturation, stereotypes, discrimination, among others. We will also be discussing current event issues including, but not limited to DACA, open borders, and sanctuary cities.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2537 Farm to Fork and Farther (3)
Where does your food come from, what resources are needed to get it to you, and what happens to all that you can?t eat? This course will approach the question of food from many different angles. We will get our fingers in the dirt and make things grow. We will learn slow food, and explore the ideals of locavores. We will work alongside farmers and local artisans, and learn which foods are native to this area. We will investigate food waste and the technical, ethical, and legal facets of composting and food waste diversion. We will consider how food does and does not flow throughout our community, including food deserts, and consider how geography and history affect nutrition options. We will explore how our government (local and national) and community (Fisher) address questions of food insecurity.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2538 Environmental Racism (3)
Environmental Racism is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color. Understanding those hazards relies on science, policy, economics, and the historical development of power structures. Through case studies students will be guided through an exploration of environmental justice/injustice within local, regional and international communities. This course is highly interactive and discussion-based.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2539 Scripture and Politics (3)
This course looks at some of the ways that people use the Bible as a scripture to address contemporary social issues. Specifically, the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) are read in conversation with contemporary sources to look at 1) environmental issues and human responsibilities, 2) issues related to gender and sexuality, and 3) issues of race and ethnicity. Student also consider the historical and cultural contexts in which the five books of Moses were written.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2540 Hamilton Then and Now (3)
In this 2000-level Honors course, we explore the life of Alexander Hamilton and the Broadway musical Hamilton through a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives (i.e. critical theory, critical race theory, feminist theory). We seek to better understand the past, present, and future of American government and politics, and what it means to be an “American citizen.” Specific topics are the creation of American government, the foundations of modern American political parties, taxation, banking, the International/Colonial American slave trade and the abolition movement, Colonial and Revolutionary War history, New York history, and health issues of that time, as well as hip hop and American musical theater.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2541 Buddhist Philosophy (3)
Buddhist philosophy has been developing for almost 2,500 years, and in this time, it has cultivated a strong emphasis on compassion, non-anger, nonviolence, tolerance, forgiveness, and moral responsibility to self, others, community, and nonhuman beings. Through class-based discussions, students learn about the relevance of Buddhist philosophy for their life, the campus community, and civic engagement. The focus then, is not only on understanding the nuances of Buddhist philosophy but how to apply it to everyday challenges beyond the classroom.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2542 The (Mis) Information Age (3)
The contemporary era is characterized by the irony that the more access we have to information, the less we seem to be able to trust it. This manifests itself in declining credibility of major media, increasing influence of partisan media, viral spread of falsehoods and misleading information on social media, and willful ignorance of scientific data on emotionally charged topics. This course examines these and other topics, primarily through a framework of media theory (e.g.propaganda theory and social construction of reality).
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2543 Explr Diversity Thru Media (3)
The nature in which diverse individuals are portrayed in the media affects our socially constructed perceptions. To understand the experiences of marginalized populations, this course introduces students to ways that diverse people are thought about and portrayed. Micro-aggressions, positive and/or negative portrayals of culture, race, gender, and disability in every day media such as motion pictures, television series, newscasts, advertising, websites, and books can increase our awareness, stimulate discussion, and decrease stereotypes. This class includes a photography project.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2544 African American Food Culture (3)
This course explores a wide variety of issues connected to the African American food tradition: its roots in the conditions of slavery, but also its role in the creation of a Southern food culture, the effects of the Great Migration (1916-1970) and of Caribbean immigration, urban “food deserts” and how that has impacted equity and health in contemporary America, the history of food activism, and more. We take special care to place all of this awareness in a Rochester context, considering the history of Rochester’s African-American communities and its urban policies as well as where we are today. Students cook and eat a wide variety of foods, and are introduced to restaurants, shops, chefs, and food activists in Rochester.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2545 How Do We Know? (3)
Working with both physical and online archives, students engage in archival research, considering both the artifacts found within particular archives (photographs, manuscripts, etc.) and the concept of “the archive” itself as a space that structures cultural knowledge.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2546 Race, Bias, Action (3)
This course provides an in-depth explanation of the theory and practice of living and learning in a diverse and pluralistic society. Students actively explore the ways socio-cultural practices simultaneously support and marginalize different groups of people. As a foundation for building an understanding of contemporary issues of diversity, students explore the ways in which language, literacy, culture, and experience influence the construction and deconstruction of knowledge at the societal, institutional, and individual level. Furthermore, we discuss issues of intentional and inadvertent discrimination as it occurs societally, institutionally and individually. Such interconnected exploration seeks to problematize our role in the construction and maintenance of a ‘hegemonic’ landscape for learning. Throughout the course, students discuss and interrogate issues related to social justice, with particular emphasis on the investigation of the discourses that create inequity in society. In addition to readings and films, students are involved in off campus activities and plan and propose a campus wide action plan to deal with racial inequities on campus.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2547 Truth Through Metaphor (3)
This course examines metaphor as it is represented in selected 20th century American film and literature. Why are metaphors an essential component of human communication? What is the relationship between art and metaphor? How do writers and filmmakers employ metaphor to effect cultural and social change? The works in question allow us to analyze the conflicts and moral dilemmas confronting the individual in society. In this class, students ask difficult questions and propose and develop original interpretations and critical judgments of what they see and experience. Visual thinking and writing skills are developed through a series of personal observations shared in classroom discussions and recorded in course journals as well as in more reflective responses through Blackboard (online) discussions, formal written critiques/essays, and the final project paper.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2548 Conflict and Communication (3)
The creative arts have always played a role in political upheavals, giving form to ideas sometimes too new for words. The author Shelley wrote that poets are the “unacknowledged legislators” of a country, and some say that if a person can make the songs of a nation, it does not matter who makes the laws, as the songs sway the people. This class focuses on creative expressions, very much in the context of our own time, that are timely, powerful and meaningful to each student.
Attributes: HONR YLIB ZCIV
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2549 PR and Social Movements (3)
Communication plays a vital role in our day to day lives. But how does the way we communicate impact our society? Students first learn about public relations – what is it? what is it not? – and then examine the role of public relations in social movements and activist causes, taking the women’s suffrage movement as our primary case study. Through independent research, students identify the ways that communication has been used to persuade, motivate, and change attitudes in an effort to advance social movements and activist causes.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2550 Public Viewing (3)
In this course, students explore all aspects of art exhibition from physical and aesthetic decisions such as framing and display spaces to questions of access?Who gets to be heard? Who gets to decide who gets heard? Who is the desired audience??and funding. These issues intersect with policy, urban planning, and school funding, as well as with visual arts. Students will interact with curators and artists in the city of Rochester. Final projects may range from hands-on creativity to creating an exhibit for the Fisher community.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2551 STEAM & Human Experience (3)
The arts are an important expressive element often forgotten in the mania for STEM fields, but scientists are creative people in a full range of ways. Who are the people of the STEM disciplines? We live in a world of their creation but what do we know about them as people? How do they express themselves in ways other than theory development, problem solutions, and invention? What do the artifacts of their expression and the historical record tell us about them as people? We will answer these questions by examining a broad range of literature, art, film, music, and history related to the human experience of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2552 A Resilient Life (3)
Life is filled with challenges, but we always have a choice concerning how to respond to life’s obstacles. This course will reflect on living a good life through the lens of resilience. For ancient thinkers, philosophy helped people to live well, and this is true of the Stoic philosophers who wanted to help people to be more resilient, serene, and courageous in the face of life’s challenges. In addition to exploring Stoic philosophy at the center of this course, we also will engage modern sources focusing on resilience, which Stoic philosophy has inspired. Focusing on resilience and resilience practices, we will discuss insights from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), happiness studies and Positive Psychology, and mindfulness practices; each of these fields overlaps with Stoic philosophy and builds on some of their insights. In the end, the purpose of this class is to provide a philosophical understanding of resilience primarily through Stoicism, an opportunity to intentionally incorporate these practices into your daily life, and an opening for students to cultivate their own philosophy of life that will allow them to be more resilient when life doesn’t go as planned
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2553 Hollywood as Historian (3)
From their very humble beginnings in the penny-arcade kinetoscopes, American movies have served both to express our greatest dreams and accomplishments and document our most important struggles and conflicts. “Like writing history with lightning,” as Woodrow Wilson once put it, American film has not only reflected our history, but at times played a very critical and sometimes unseen role in rewriting it. In this class we will focus on the fascinating ideological role that Hollywood in particular has played in shaping our vision of ourselves as Americans and the ways in which we have thought and think about class, race, gender, sex, sexuality and identity.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2554 Italian American Identity (3)
Between 1870 and 1920 over five million Italians immigrated to the United States. They were mainly men, and about one half returned to Italy. Those who remained, often joined by their families, left an indelible mark on the American cultural, political, artistic, educational and social landscape. This course investigates the fascinating story of Italian immigration to the United States. Our inquiry will be interdisciplinary. We will study historical texts, literature and cinema that address the historical and sociological conditions of 19th Century Italy, the odyssey of immigration to and assimilation in the United States, and life in the ethnic neighborhood. We will also explore the mafia, forms of prejudice, and ways Italians uniquely manifested their social values in labor unions, religion, and education. Upon successfully completing this course, you will have a solid grasp of how Italians, in becoming Americans, contributed to the rich fabric of life in the United States.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2555 Weird Fiction (3)
This course will explore and play with the speculative fiction genre (aka sci fi, folklore, fantasy and everything in between). We will examine everything from novels and short stories, to games and films. Texts may include the following authors (Neil Gaiman, Victor LaValle, Octavia Butler, H.P. Lovecraft, adrienne maree brown), films (Us, Coraline), shows (Black Mirror), podcasts (Welcome to Night Vale) and games (D&D). In this class students will be craft both scholarly and creative work.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2556 Postwar British Hist Thru Film (3)
In this course, students will engage in a cross-disciplinary examination of the ideological, institutional and cultural forces that have shaped the post-WWII United Kingdom. They will examine developments in the political, commercial, cultural, and media realms across the United Kingdom. While the course format is a mixed lecture-discussion, a significant component will be given over to student-led presentations and discussions on pertinent course-related topics. Through a mixture of readings and feature films depicting elements of British life in this period, students will explore the major events of post-WWII British history. The goal is to provide students with a non-U.S. case study of the development of a modern nation-state which has had to tackle a fascinating and complex range of cultural, political, and economic issues over this period. Since the UK is culturally quite close to the United States, a consistent effort will be made to draw parallels and comparisons, where relevant, between both countries.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2557 Grand Strategy Challenge (3)
Through reading and discussion, students will examine and analyze the concept and implementation of grand strategy- how states from the classical period to the present have organized and implemented strategies to achieve their political and economic interests within a dynamic international system of intrastate competition and cooperation. Concepts include why states employ military, economic, and diplomatic resources, what factors shape or determine the types of strategies implemented, and the differences in national strategic policies based on theories of Realism and Idealism.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2558 Staging Resistance (3)
Theater can serve both entertain an audience and act as an agent for societal change. Students will read dramatic works that act as catalysts of change and study performance artists who work towards political goals. Students will also participate each week in improvisational, acting, and movement exercises meant to prepare students for the work of the second part of the class. Following the principles of devised theater, students will write and perform their own short monologues and plays around topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; social justice; or climate politics in a series of performances on and off campus at the end of the semester. The second half of the semester will focus on rehearsals and students should plan on rehearsing outside of class time (in lieu of traditional homework). Students may earn students keystone credit by restaging the show at the Rochester Fringe Festival in the early fall.
Attributes: HONR YLIB ZCIV
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2559 Art, Instrument of War (3)
Pablo Picasso famously said that “Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.” Paintings indeed serve as a powerful tool for political propaganda, reflect the main ideologies, political events and issues of their times, and question dominant societal norms and the injustice and inequalities they create. In this course, students will use some of the basic vocabulary and techniques of painting in order to better understand the political meaning artworks and the intent of their creators, using example ranging from the renaissance period to contemporary art. In doing so, they will examine how artists position themselves vis a vis the most salient issues of the times, ranging from war, immigration, racism, LGBTQ+ rights, or the social and environmental impact of capitalism.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student; Excluding: -Class: FreshmanHNRS-2560 Courageous Conversations (3)
Ask good questions. Collaborate. Communicate. These are essential skills in today’s job market. In this class, we practice skills to further students’ global citizenship. A main challenge today is to work with others in order to effectively solve local or national problems. Students learn effective and responsible leadership by engaging in courageous conversations about challenging topics. This class examines different models of dialogue, such as political peace-making strategies, social justice conversations, and dialogue-centered teaching methods. Students develop an action plan that addresses a local or campus problem and write a research paper exploring areas of individual curiosity on these topics.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2561 Hitchcock Through the Ages (3)
One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Alfred Hitchcock was also one of the most popular. In this course, we will explore the source of this popularity and how, in a career that spanned six decades, Hitchcock created film masterpieces that illuminated key themes in Western culture and whose suspenseful stories and ideas about gender, sex, family, guilt, voyeurism, paranoia, marriage, distrust of authority, and morality spoke to generations of film audiences. Students will explore Hitchcock?s films through several theoretical film frameworks and lenses including feminist film theory, Marxist film theory, psychoanalytic film theory, queer film theory, and auteur film theory. An important outcome of this class will be a four-week Hitchcock film series presented by the students at the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum, which will allow students to extend their classroom knowledge by engaging in meaningful discussions with the community about Hitchcock and his timeless appeal to audiences through the ages.
Attributes: HONR YLIB ZCIV
Pre-requisites: HNRS-1299 D-
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors StudentHNRS-2565 Honors Extension (4)
This course is offered during the spring semester. It has a significant online component during the semester, with the majority of the work falling in two week in May following the graduation ceremony. During this time, students live and sometimes travel together with an intensive focus on one particular interdisciplinary topic through hands on work, interaction with the community, and completion of a self-directed project. The course has a different focus each time it is taught. Examples include: Pigments, Particles, Documenting Natural History; Immigrant/Refugee; Politics; Law and Order in Rochester.
Attributes: HONR YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: Honors Student