Honors Course Descriptions

FFYS 1000 Honors First Year Seminar: Sense and Synderesis, Prof. Catherine Peters

Sense & Synderesis explores the central characters and themes of the novels of Jane Austen through the lens of “virtue ethics.” Austen is noted for her ironic observations of English society in the 18th century, her keen insights into human character and her portrayals of virtue and vice. Consequently, we will read her novels with an aim towards appreciating her depiction and assessment of human character, especially her view of virtue. Our reading of Austen will be guided by a systematic consideration of the four “cardinal” virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude. Austen is often regarded as one of the most popular and beloved novelists of the English language. In this seminar, we intend to realize not only why her novels have exerted literary influence and sparked extensive popular appreciation, but also to appreciate what insights her works offer us today.

FFYS 1000 Honors First Year Seminar: Black Los Angeles, Prof. Jennifer Williams

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the presence and contributions of Africana people in Los Angeles from the founding of the city in 1781 to contemporary social movements. We will approach the course both thematically and chronologically, addressing how Los Angeles is a racialized space and illuminating how the Black community has contributed to the area’s cosmopolitan identity. We will explore the geography, history, and social norms that transformed Black life, and how Black political and cultural contributions are reflected in popular music, film, and television.

FFYS 1000 Honors First Year Seminar: Technological Sublime, Prof. Sue Scheibler

The sublime invites us to, in the words of the poet Pierre Reverdy, “stroll elegantly along the edge of the abyss”; an abyss that, as we stare into it, fills us with wonder, curiosity, delight, terror, joy, and awe. It challenges our sense of self, experience, and perceptions by carrying us out of our “normal” ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving, into the liminal, a place of encounter with the other as well as ourselves that can leave us forever changed. In this course, we will explore the various ways that the sublime presents us with opportunities to be present in an increasingly uncertain world, one that is both terrifying and beautiful in its fragility.

HNRS 1100 Honors Philosophical Inquiry, Prof. Robin Wang

This course is designed to introduce students to the various modes of philosophical inquiry and to the great philosophical questions that are relevant to a humanistic education in the Catholic intellectual tradition. More specifically, the aim of this course is to help students to acquire an understanding of fundamental metaphysical (the study of the nature of what is) and epistemological (the study of the nature and scope of human knowledge) questions in ancient philosophical texts from Greek and Daoist traditions. We will read classic texts such as Plato's dialogues, Epictetus, Lucretius, Daodejing and Zhuangzi and so on. This course will assist students in acquiring the interpretive and evaluative skills necessary for assessing various answers to these fundamental questions, and to encourage them to develop a lifelong habit of philosophical self-reflection. A wider range of the course activities will be selected to promote each of these aims. It includes careful reading of classical texts, a close analysis of these texts and formulations of critical questions from class lectures, research projects, course assignments and self-reflection.

HNRS 1100 Honors Philosophical Inquiry, Prof. Erin Stackle

This course investigates two central questions: ‘What is the nature of reality?’ and ‘How do we know?’ We will ground our investigation in the insight Aristotle articulates in the opening of his Metaphysics: ‘All humans by nature desire to know.’ We will read some of the thinkers that have most influenced our understanding of these questions. We will read, for example, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes. We will also read some more contemporary essays to help contextualize the accounts they are giving us. We will engage in our investigation through careful reading, daily in-class arguments about provocative claims from the reading, and frequent focused writing. These activities should substantially improve the clarity of your thinking, conversing, and writing. By the end of the course, students will be able to intelligently consider questions about: how the senses are involved in knowing, what can impede or facilitate knowing, whether learning new things is possible, how argument with others is essential to knowledge, how the soul and body are related, what happens at death, how to determine what is most real, how to think through disagreement about what is most real, etc.

HNRS 1100 Honors Philosophical Inquiry, Prof. Marcela García Romero

This course aims to introduce you to the joy of doing philosophy, its rewards and its value towards a fulfilled human life. The goal is to develop tools and habits of philosophical inquiry that will serve you throughout your life, no matter which career you choose. We will discuss what philosophy is, how to practice it and, above all, why to engage with it. We will read some of the classic philosophical texts in careful detail together, discuss them and reflect on the connections to our own philosophical inquiries. The course will encourage you to develop a writing habit as a personal tool for self-reflection and thought development. We will also practice giving reasons and evaluating arguments for a position. In the first part of the course, we will consider inquiries related to knowledge and reality (What is knowledge and how do we achieve it? How do we know what is real? How do we know what is good? Why does anything exist?). We will discuss these questions through different examples of philosophical inquiry from a variety of historical periods. In the second part of the course, we will concentrate on the role of philosophy for a fulfilled life (What is the meaning of life? What is happiness? What role do friendship, love, and the search for wisdom play in a fulfilled human life?). We will reflect on the reason why we need to ask these questions and come to a better grasp of their depth and complexity. We will encounter real-life cases of philosophy enabling people to find their path and make a difference in our world.

HNRS 1200 Honors Theological Inquiry, Prof. Amir Hussain

This course takes a comparative approach to theological inquiry, examining fundamental religious questions in relation to two or three religious traditions (one of them being Christianity). The course emphasizes comparative analysis of primary religious sources and focuses on how diverse religious approaches to questions of ultimate concern might be mutually illuminative. The course also includes interactive encounters with practitioners of the religions under consideration. The previous lines are a description of the course as found in the LMU Bulletin. The realities of religious diversity cannot be ignored. Increasingly, people live, work, and pray alongside persons of many religious traditions. It is therefore essential to learn how to negotiate this reality: theologically, ethically, and spiritually. This course will introduce Honors students to the study of comparative theology. The first part of the course will be an introduction to comparative theology through the Christian tradition. The second part of the course will focus on the Muslim tradition, but will also include examples from the Jewish tradition.

HNRS 2000 HNRS Colloquium: Research & Exhibition, Prof. Alex Esposito

This course, required for all second-year students of the University Honors Program, is an orientation to the practice of research and creative activity from a scholarly point of view. It introduces developing scholars and creative people to the methods, habits, assumptions, and culture of pursuing knowledge. This includes 1) the formulation by the student of a problem worthy of in-depth study, 2) the articulation of how that problem can be addressed, and 3) the public exhibition of the student's work. In short, the course introduces students to formal, mentored academic research and creative work.

HNRS 2100 Honors Historical Analysis & Perspectives, Prof. Constance Chen

Global History of Food. Using interdisciplinary methodologies, this course on the Global History of Food will explore the ways in which food has the power to both shape and reflect cultural, socioeconomic, and political realities within a transnational context. During the semester, we will examine topics such as food rituals and notions of civility, colonialism and the globalization of trade, immigrant communities and the development of food culture, gender and the political economy of food, industrial farming and the ethics of agribusiness, fair trade and labor issues, and the construction of national identities through culinary traditions, among others, to delve into the histories and meanings of food within and across cultural communities and geographical boundaries. We will work together to critically analyze a diverse array of primary and secondary documents and sources to gain an in-depth comprehension of the different approaches and methodologies that have been used to study the ideological, cultural, and political roles of food and to evaluate the significance of foodways for issues of race, gender, and class throughout historical time and space across global societies.

HNRS 2100 Honors Historical Analysis & Perspectives, Prof. Damon Willick

Modernism, Modernity, and Modern Art. This course introduces students to the history of Modern Art in relation to the practices of the historical Avant-Garde. Students will become familiar with the discourses of modern visual culture within a broad range of historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts and will examine the integral role of specific artists in the development of modernism and the modern world. The course surveys the art of modern Europe and North America as well as parts of South America, Africa, and Asia from the mid-nineteenth through twentieth centuries with a particular focus on primary source materials and their reception.

HNRS 2200 Honors Nature of Science, Technology, and Math, Prof. Carla Bittel

This honors course examines the history of European and North American societies and cultures through the lens of science and nature. It concentrates on evolving methods of natural inquiry from the 16th century to the present and links the history of nature study to broader social, cultural, economic, and political changes, demonstrating the inseparability of science and social context. It also follows the cross-cultural and trans-oceanic proliferation and exchange of ideas, natural objects, and disease via exploration, colonialism, and imperialism. In the process, it examines nature as a historical locus of knowledge, power, and politics.

HNRS 3000 HNRS Colloq: The Edge of What We Know, Prof. Jeffrey Wilson

This course seeks to introduce you to the boundaries of knowledge and art within the fields of selected LMU professors…and how they crossed them. The course builds upon the prior Honors Colloquia (HNRS 1000 and 2000) and leads directly to the Honors Thesis (HNRS 5000). This colloquia is built around a series of curated public talks from LMU faculty. Each professor will talk about how and why an area captured their curiosity and interest, building on themes of purpose from Intro to Honors. As you did in Research & Exhibition, the speakers will then proceed to talk about how they identified the “edge” of that area and determined a way to move it forward. In so doing, they contributed to their field and took this “edge” further out for future scholars and creatives—something which we hope that you, too, will accomplish with your Honors Thesis.

HNRS 3001 HNRS Colloq: ONIF Fellow, Independent Study, Prof. Cassidy Alvarado

First-year and sophomore students work with the Office of National & International Fellowships (ONIF) to submit a polished fellowship application. The goal is to introduce and encourage Honors students to apply for fellowships early in their academic careers. This 1-unit, independent study course requires preapproval and can replace the HNRS 3000 requirement during junior year. Review the HNRS 3001 course instructions for additional guidance. Contact Dr. Alvarado with any questions: cassidy.alvarado@lmu.edu.

HNRS 3200 Honors Literary Analysis, Prof. Kevin Peters

Literary analysis is a discussion-based course designed to refine students' analytical skills and expand their ability to engage with texts from various genres, periods, and cultures. Literary analysis is not an attempt to define literature but to understand the immersive record of Being expressed by what is called literature. Through close readings, critical analysis, and theoretical applications, students will explore themes, narrative techniques, and the socio-political contexts that shape literature. This course encourages intellectual risk-taking, creative thinking, and the development of a sophisticated analytical framework that students can apply across the humanities and into careers as varied as advertising, intelligence analysis, data mining, politics, publishing, and writing.

HNRS 3200 Honors Literary Analysis, Prof. Alex Neel

One of literature’s powers is to allow us to see beyond our immediate experience. To illustrate the importance of literary analysis within a Jesuit education, John O’Malley uses Ludwig Wittgenstein’s metaphor of “the fly in the bottle”: “What the rhetorical tradition is meant to do is help the fly out of the bottle, that is, help students escape the confines of their experience up to this point, to expand their thinking beyond the comfort zones of the assumptions with which they grew up, to expose them to other cultures and to other modes of thought, to lift them beyond the quotidian. To help them expand the areas in which they can dare to ask questions not only in the areas in which their trade or profession moves but about life itself” (5). The works that we’ll be reading in this class do just that. In this sense, literature has tremendous ethical power; indeed, some critics have argued that literature is the basis for our understanding of human rights. We can sympathize alongside those with whom we have no immediate contact. As such, reading literature is a highly affective experience: good literature moves us, angers us, makes us feel; it sometimes can make us act, or act out. Its function is also aesthetic: it astonishes us, and allows us to wander into new worlds. “The humane letters,” O’Malley continues, “sharpen student’s aesthetic sensibilities, but, more to the point, in their authentic depictions of characters and situations they mirror the ambiguities of our own life experiences and invite reflection upon them”(5). This course introduces students to different ways of interpreting short stories, novels, and plays, including works by Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Cormac McCarthy. We’ll explore the formal and technical aspects of different forms of literature: we’ll discuss point of view, setting, character, plot, tone, and talk about how these aspects of literature affect the meaning and power of particular narratives. In other words, you will learn how to read literature closely and will acquire the technical and critical vocabulary necessary to say what is happening in various genres. Here are some questions we will return to over the course of the semester: How do authors use the resources of literature to engage with the social and political issues of their times? Does fiction help shape history? What kind of perspectives does it offer?

HNRS 4200 Honors Ethics and Justice: Beyond Good and Evil, Prof. Brian Treanor

This iteration of the Honors “Beyond Good and Evil” does not fit neatly into standard academic categories—“philosophy,” “literature,” “history,” and so on. It also defies easy categorization in terms of its topic. We will be thinking about ethics, but without an extended focus on prominent ethical theories like utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. We will be discussing the literature of nature, but not in terms of theory or literary criticism. We will conduct much of our work as an academic seminar; but I hope to keep our thinking close to the actual experience of natural places and to our embodied experience of the world. Perhaps the best way to think of our class is as a humanities-based reflection on the experience of nature and of wildness. Together, we are going to think about nature, human and otherwise, and about wildness; and we are going to think about the presence or absence of both in our own lived experience and in the experience of our contemporaries.