Honors Courses:

ANT 121 People and Cultures of the World/Honors
CHE 119 General Chemistry/ Honors & Majors
CHE 139 General Chemistry Lab/Honors
ECN 109 Introduction to Economics/Honors
ETS 151 Interpretation of Poetry/Honors
ETS 153 Interpretation of Fiction/Honors FULL
FIA 106 Arts and Ideas II /Honors
FIA 200 Impressionism/Postimpressionism/Honors
ITA 102  Italian II/Honors
LIT 300 Postmodern Reading/Honors
LIT 226 Dostoevsky and Tolstoy/Honors FULL
MAX 123 Critical Issues for the U.S./Honors FULL
MAX 132 Global Community/Honors FULL
NEU 211 Introduction to Neuroscience/Honors
PAF 101 Introduction To Analysis Of Public Policy/Honors
PHI 209 Introduction to Moral Philosophy/Honors
PSC 129 American National Government and Politics/Honors
PSY 209 Foundations Of Human Behavior/Honors FULL
PSY 315 Drugs and HumanBehavior/ Honors
SPA 201 Spanish III / Honors
WRT 209 Writing Studio 2 / Honors (Sect. M240/ 33816, Sect. M260/ 33817 FULL)
WSP 200 History of Women's Suffrage Movements/Honors

 Last updated January 8, 2003, 10:00 a.m.

HONORS COURSES:

ANT 121 People and Cultures of the World/Honors
3 credits
Lecture M001: TTh 1:00-2:20, Gifford Aud in HBC, 31960
Honors discussion section M014: TTh 2:30-3:30, 304C Bowne, 40720
Professor Susan Wadley

This course examines three cultures (a small 'tribal' group from Africa, the Beng; rural India; and urban Cairo) in some detail, as well as issues of globalization. Our consideration of each culture focuses on kinship and social structure, religion, gender roles, and economic survival. We are also concerned throughout with globalization, and focus specifically on this process in the final weeks of the course.

Chemistry 119 is a general chemistry course intended for honors students or students who expect to major in chemistry or a related discipline and for students with a strong background in science. Topics included this semester are physical aspects of chemistry. We will discuss in detail the differences between the different states of matter, gases, liquids and solids, talk about various aspects of equilibria, understand the speed of a chemical reaction when we discuss chemical kinetics, and end the semester with a short insight into descriptive chemistry, when we discuss the chemistry of the s and p block elements and look at some aspects of transition metal chemistry. Many aspects of the material discussed in CHE106/109 will be the basis for this course. This class should be taken together with a laboratory class, Chemistry 139, a one credit course.

CHE 139, taught concurrently with CHE 422/622, is a laboratory course accompanying the lecture, CHE 119. This course is an introduction into chemical laboratory techniques. Groups consisting of CHE 139 and CHE 422/622 (Advanced Inorganic Chemistry) students will be conducting original research. Activities will include a literature search, writing a research proposal, conducting the proposed research, and summarizing the results in a paper and a research presentation. Techniques will encompass modern synthetic methods (inert gas techniques), and a variety of analytical and physical methods typically not available to General Chemistry students such as IR, NMR, UV-Vis, X-ray crystallography.

This course has as its goal the understanding of the rudiments of economic theory and its application to public policy problems. As an introduction to the economic way of thinking and the tools of applied economics, this course applies the scientific method to the analysis of the question: How do individuals, firms and society, via government, make choices in the face of scarcity? The course develops a model of production, distribution and consumption in a modern society based on exchange through markets. It moves to an investigation of the economic rationale for government and public policy. The course reveals the workings of a market-oriented economy and illuminates economic policy debates in such areas as telecommunication, health care, inequality, discrimination, trade policy and education. There are no course prerequisites.

Reading poetry can be both a pleasure and a challenge. I hope this course will make the pleasure and the challenge seem less like opposites and more like partners as we stretch our capabilities as readers by calling forth ever more complex modes of interpretive response to a variety of poems. Becoming more attentive, discerning, productive readers is a form of power-the power to help make the meanings that constitute our culture.

Toward this end, we will work with Michael Meyer's book Poetry: An Introduction (3rd edition, 2001), which contains clear explanations of important technical features of poetry while also offering a wide range of poems to read-some of them by well-established earlier poets, others by poets more recent and less well known. Three American poets-Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes-are represented by more extensive selections; later in the semester we will spend some time on each of these.

Assignments will include frequent informal in-class writing, preparation of a poem to read aloud in class, a poetry journal, and several short interpretive papers, including a final (and somewhat longer) paper on Dickinson, Frost, or Hughes. Regular attendance and informal participation will figure significantly in your final grade.

ETS 153 Interpretation of Fiction: Literary Blues/Honors
3 credits
Section M002: TTh 2:30-3:50, 101 HL, 32520
Professor Arthur Flowers

The Blues as Music, Magic and Metaphor. The blues sensibility and the griotic tradition in African American literature and thought. Perceiving themselves as heirs to two literary traditions, the Western written and African oral traditions, many African American writers have experimented with blues-based characters and narrative forms in an attempt to develop a distinctively African American narrative language. This course will be an exploration of literary blues through the works of African American authors including Gayle Jones, Ishmael Reed, Jeffrey Renard Allen, Gloria Naylor, August Wilson and Colson Whitehead. The instructor has some information pertinent to the course available at: http://www.rootwork.com/mr3literaryblues.htm

FIA 106 is a survey of key concepts and works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe from the Baroque period through the twentieth century, and in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Emphasis is on art as a reflection of its historical context as well as aesthetic object. Works of music and literature that parallel major developments in art may be briefly considered. Course requirements include three tests, a short paper, and occasional short homework/discussion assignments. There will be at least one excursion on or near campus. Students need not have taken FIA 105.

Study the work of some of the world's best-loved artists-Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others-throughout the semester and in the museums of Paris and London during spring break. Not only are these artists well known, whose works have been selling for record- breaking prices, they are also critically important in the evolution of modern art.

The course will cover major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists and styles from the Salon des Réfusés and the beginnings of modernism to Cézanne's death in 1906, with some reference to the late work of longer-lived artists. The roots of Impressionism will be briefly considered. Somewhat greater emphasis will be placed on the Post-Impressionists as the immediate precursors to every early twentieth-century movement and to subsequent developments in this century.

The first half of the course up to spring break will consist of lectures on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, periods which have in recent decades undergone considerable reassessment in art historical criticism. Class discussion will consider some of the current issues. The high point of the semester will of course be the nine days spent during spring break traveling and studying the actual works in London and Paris. During the period after our return until the end of the semester, small student groups will further research selected topics in relation to specific artists and themes. Each group will present its findings to the class.

Admittance is by application, due October 21, 2002.

This is a continuing proficiency-based course which develops communicative abilities in speaking, listening, reading, and writiing in culturally authentic contexts.  Activities are conducted in Italian.  Prereq:  ITA 101 or admission by placement testing.

LIT 226 Dostoevsky and Tolstoy/Honors
3 credits
Lec M002: TTh 7:00-8:20 pm, 35752, 308 Hinds
Instructor: Patricia Burak

"The truth. I care a great deal." Tolstoy's last words set the tone for the depth and breadth of study in this honors section. Two of the greatest writers in the world provide material for critical thinking, analysis and increased understanding of life's greatest questions. Dostoevsky asked, "What is it man fears most?" In this weekly seminar, we will study this question, among others: man's search for the meaning of life, the essence of truth in life and the significance of suffering. Readings include those in the regular syllabus of LIT 226 plus several other works of both authors. Reviews of film (video) versions of Anna Karenina, War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov further supplement discussion and inspire term paper themes. This will present challenging material for students of literature who are interested in the philosophical, sociological, spiritual, historical and psychological dimensions of man's existence as portrayed in great works of literature.

We will explore some of the more experimental (or state-of-the-art) written texts (and some related multimedia texts) of the last seventy-five years, a period which saw the decline of modernism and the rise of post-modernism. We will read some significant texts of this exploratory writing, in order to survey the landscape. Such writing includes various types of meta-fiction, aleatoric, algorhythmic and computer-generated texts, pictorial poetry, cut-ups, proto-hypertexts, hypertexts and interactive fiction, and texts that contain the history of their own creation. Typical post-modern themes to be encountered include text as world and world as text, the blurring of fact and fiction, the elimination of boundaries among texts, the mixing of popular and high culture, conspiracy theory and paranoid reading, secrets, labyrinths and chaos theory (including texts that contain secrets or are labyrinthine or chaotic), the death of the author and the primacy of the reader, the reader as author, the influence of technology on human evolution, depersonalization and multi-personalization, other worlds, parallel worlds, eternal return, the end of time or the non-existence of time, apocalypse, and literature as music (such as theme and variations, fugue, counterpoint), etc.

We will also read criticism to help us appreciate this challenging writing. We will seek to understand the authors' intentions and achievements and will experience and try to cope with the demands these texts place on us as readers. A major objective will be to evaluate these works of art, appreciating them for their inherent worth as objects of language and for the contribution they make to our efforts to comprehend the complex and rapidly changing world in which we live. While the focus is on experimental texts written during a particular period in history, our fundamental goal is to gain a better understanding of the nature, practice, and value of reading in general.

The survey will begin with surrealism and dadaism and end with current work in hypertext, potential literature, post-cyberpunk, video games and virtual reality. Authors may include, among others, James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Raymond Queneau, Frances Ponge, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, William S. Burroughs, John Barth, Philip K. Dick, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Coover, Milorad Pavic, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Stuart Moulthroup. Some of the critics and theorists to be read are Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, George Landow, Brian McHalen, and Ted Nelson.

Even though this course carries a 300-level number, it is intended to be accessible to Honors first-year students.

The course considers significant, contemporary issues in American politics and policy from an interdisciplinary perspective. Although our focus is current, the context for our consideration will be the timeless, enduring questions confronted by all societies and nations: what is fair, what is effective, and how do we navigate inevitable trade-offs between competing values? The issues we examine concern citizenship and the political process, the economy, education, and the distribution and uses of our national resources. We will employ specific cases within these broad areas, and our readings will be based on these cases, in addition to more general overviews. More information is available at: http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/max123/maxindex.htm

MAX 123 is a required course for the Policy Studies major. MAX 123 and MAX 132 may be counted toward the Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum divisional requirement in the Social Sciences. These courses may be taken in sequence (either course may be taken first), or with other courses as listed in the Core Guidebook under Interdepartmental Sequences in the Social Sciences. Both courses also meet the Writing Intensive and Critical Reflections requirements.

MAX 132 Global Community/Honors
3 credits
Lec M001: W 9:35-10:30, Max Aud, 33165
Professor James Newman
Sec M012: MW 11:45-12:40, 101 HL, 33169 FULL
Professor Tod Rutherford

The course is designed to help you become informed about globalization and its consequences. Four units make up the course. The first begins with a general look at globalization and how it seems to be reshaping our world. We then examine the free trade notion that is so much at the center of disputes surrounding globalization. The second unit is concerned with globalization's impacts on everyday life, as represented by the workplace, domestic arrangements, and consumption habits. In the third unit we'll look at three case studies to see how globalization has generated responses that favor both wider political unity and disunity. The final unit is devoted to globalization and protest movements -- why it's spawned them and how they in turn use it to their advantage.

MAX 132 is a required course for the International Relations major. MAX 123 and MAX 132 may be counted toward the Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum divisional requirement in the Social Sciences. These courses may be taken in sequence (either course may be taken first), or with other courses as listed in the Core Guidebook under Interdepartmental Sequences in the Social Sciences. Both courses also meet the Writing Intensive and Critical Reflections requirements. More information is available at http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/max132.

This course will explore foundations of neurobiology beginning with cellular neurobiology, moving on to integrative systems and ending with higher brain functions. Emphasis will be on understanding of nervous system operation through lectures, discussion and demonstrations. We will explore such questions as: Can dogs see color? Is there a cure for jet lag? Can computers replace brains? What causes a migraine headache? Why are more men color blind than women? Can you view the inside of the human brain as it works? Do cats see better than you do? Why does a bird change its song? Is your eye like a camera? Prerequisite: high school biology and chemistry.

This course will focus on techniques widely used by government, business, and public communications to evaluate public policy as well as their application to a problem area selected from research activities of Syracuse faculty in social sciences and professional schools. The Honors section will identify problems on campus and in the community and apply the skills in the course to ameliorate those problems. They will complete the written work required for the non-honors portion of the course. Work in the Honors section will include participation in the weekly meeting to develop projects and meet with outside speakers and hands-on projects outside of class to practice the skills developed in the course.

Most people want to do what is right. Much of the time it is easy to tell what that is. But sometimes it is hard. It might help, when facing tough ethical choices, to understand what the difference is between right and wrong in general. That, however, turns out to be very controversial. Is it right to lie to protect a friend's feelings, to assist a dying person who needs a transplant, to take sexual advantage of a woman who consents only because she is drunk? Can we learn anything about what makes right acts right that will help us deal with such specific problems? This course will examine such matters, reading both classical and contemporary texts, and moving back and forth between general theoretic issues and specific moral problems. There will be a midterm examination and a final examination, some quizzes, and several short essays. There will be sessions twice a week, including discussions in which participation is required. This course is the honors equivalent of PHI 191.

This course introduces students to American politics and governance by examining the foundational principles, institutional structures, political processes, and policymaking patterns of the American system. We will evaluate the extent to which American political institutions and contemporary political processes foster or impede the efficiency and justice of political outcomes. Students will individually review and discuss in class exemplary research works that examine American politics. This course is the honors equivalent of PSC 121. In fact, the lecture portion of this course will meet with the lecture for PSC 121.

Readings will include Thomas Dye, Politics in America, and two additional volumes selected by each student with the approval of the instructor.

This course fulfills the introductory requirements for all additional coursework in psychology. It is designed to give the student a comprehensive overview of the field of psychology, and will cover some of the following topics: history of psychology, the human nervous system, learning and conditioning, emotion and motivation, developmental psychology, social psychology, perception, personality, and diagnosis and treatment of behavior disorders. Course will include discussion and field-based observation.

This course is about drugs that affect behavior. Everything about those drugs--their history, mechanisms of action, their effects on the nervous system, their uses and abuses, their objective and subjective effects, their short- and long-term effects, and their side effects--is covered. These drugs include chemicals like alcohol, sedatives, minor and major tranquilizers, stimulants, narcotic analgesics, and hallucinogens. The honors discussion group participates in individualized topical research projects.

This is an intermediate level class that reinforces intermediate level skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking while moving students towards the Advanced level of proficiency. All essential language structures are reviewed and recycled. Authentic texts, both literary and informational, and sophisticated cultural materials serve as the context. Class activities are communicative and interactive and conducted in Spanish. Video and multi-media computer work are an integral part of this course.

WRT 209 Writing Studio 2/Honors
3 credits
Sec M060: MWF 11:45-12:40, 306A Bowne, 33814
Sec M080: MWF 12:50-1:45, 306A Bowne, 33815
Sec M240: TTh 11:30-12:50, 306A Bowne, 33816 FULL
Sec M260: TTh 1:00-2:20, 306A Bowne, 33817 FULL
Sec M300: TTh 4:00-5:20, AG 210, 36715

This course looks at the ways in which writing is rhetorical, and teaches students to use rhetoric as a writing tool. Students consider writing contextually, for particular audiences and purposes. Because Studio 2 deepens and expands the focus on college writing to various disciplines -- and even professional or cultural discourse communities outside the university -- the writing practices and interpretive skills gained in this course extend into spheres beyond the writing classroom.

In the area where the woman's rights movement had its origin, we'll trace the history of its development.  Field trips, videos, primary source readings and research, historical performance and story-telling/lecture will be the vehicles for our pursuit.  One focus will be on tracing friendship and work networks among Central New York women and men: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Samuel J. May, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gerrit Smith, Elizabeth Smith Miller, James Caleb Jackson, Harriet Tubman (and others) with an attention to seeing how the interaction of these reformers shaped the movement. Another focus will be exploring the reality of the movement taking form in the land of the Haudenosaunee, the six nations of  the Iroquois confederacy where women live with far greater status and authority. The legacy of radical reform in this region will provide context. Finally, we'll look for the passion of the movement. What inspired these women and their male allies to stand up to the dictates of church and state alike in their demand that the world be transformed; where did they get their courage? This course will include a visit to the Women's Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls.