Spring 2025 Courses

Registration Guidelines

Meeting times, locations, CRNs, specific section numbers, are all listed in WyoRecords under the “Look Up Classes” search function.

Pre-Requisites: All Honors Upper-Division Classes (3000 and 4000 level) require students to have completed their COM 1 and COM 2 requirements.

Main campus Honors College fall courses will open to non-Honors College after the early enrollment period. Non-Honors College students wishing to register for these courses need to have at least a 3.25 cumulative UW GPA and will need to request an override from the Honors College. Students should email Li Teng at to make this request. Online Honors classes are open to all students.

*Please note that Honors College FYS courses are open to all UW students with no override necessary.

Advising

Please reach out to the Honors Advising Team for more information and guidance when registering.

Course Modalities

• Traditional– This means that the class is scheduled to be in-person and students will meet face-to-face.

• Asynchronous Online– This means that the course will be completely online, without any scheduled meeting dates or times.

• Synchronous Online– This means that the course will be completely online, but there will be a synchronous requirement, meaning students will have specific day/times scheduled for Zoom sessions.

2025 J-Term Courses

Global Perspectives (nonwestern)

HP 3151: East Meets West: Art, Religion, and Multiculturalism in Türkiye
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ahmad Nadalizadeh
Modality: Study Abroad
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description:

Located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, Turkey has been the meeting place of various religions, cultures, and art forms, especially those evolving under Islam and Christianity. As one of the few developing countries never colonized, today’s Turkey was the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the contact zone of Turkish, Persianate and Arabic cultures. Today’s Turkey continues to be the site of tectonic political and cultural events, bringing together a wide range of cultural forms and religious monuments, especially in Europe’s most populous city of Istanbul. In addition, Turkish TV dramas are some of the world’s most popular productions, second only to the United States in their global production and distribution. This study abroad course will introduce students to some of the major religious and cultural sites, supplemented by readings on religious traditions, literary works, and films, as well as guest speakers and actors. It will include visiting sites in Istanbul and Konya over the course of 12-14 days.

 

HP 3152: Re-Visioning Story through Native American Narratives
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ann Stebner Steele
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description:

The stories we hear matter – they shape our understanding of history, the world, and ourselves. By listening carefully to the stories of others, we can begin to broaden our perspectives, redefine and expand our thinking, and deepen our empathy for diverse experiences. Too often in America, we hear a single story about Native American people, one that reduces and marginalizes their experiences. The stories we have been given are incomplete, tidied up, simplified. Even as we learn the limitations of the history we’ve been taught, representations of Native people are frequently reduced to stereotypes of dying cultures. Thus, the stories we have are inadequate for representing the history and present-day experiences and knowledge of Native American people. But many Native authors have revised the shape of stories to create containers capable of conveying the complexity and richness of those experiences and that knowledge.

 

HP 3154: Buddhism in Thailand
Course Credits: 3
Instructor: Kate Hartmann
Modality: Study Abroad program
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: (G) Global
Application Deadline: TBA
Estimated Cost: TBA
Travel Dates: TBA
Travel Locations: Bangkok and Chiangmai, Thailand
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): 
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Health, Policy, and the Body
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: Some bad news: life is stressful, unpredictable, and full of pain and suffering. It's true now and it was true in the 5th Century BCE when the Buddha lived. Some good news: the Buddha claimed to have discovered a path by which people could escape this pervasive suffering. In the process, he planted the seeds for a religious tradition that has been influential across Asia and, more recently, the modern West. In this course, we will explore the diverse ideals, practices, and traditions of Buddhism while exploring the ways Buddhism is lived and practiced in Thailand. We will explore key ideas from the Buddhist tradition about impermanence, desire, and the nature of the self, and ask how these ideas were taken up and reimagined as Buddhism developed. Learn more about the course in Dr. Hartmann's course video trailer!

 

Upper Division

 

HP 3050: Calling BullS#!% In a Science-Driven World 
Credits: 3
Instructor: Patrick Kelley
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): 
Technology, Society, and the Future
Course Description:

Science depends on thoughtful collection, analysis, and interpretation of quality data. If not handled responsibly and transparently, data can yield bull$#!% science. Our primary goal will be to learn to identify bull$#!% in our scientific environment, namely in the publication, reporting, interpretation, and application. During this course, we will seek out, define, and quantify the amount of scientific bull$#!% (relative to non-bull$#!%) in an attempt to understand if the rate of accumulating bull$#!% is causing irreversible damage to science. We will work to investigate the nature of mistakes, obfuscations, and other types of bull$#!% in science and its reporting. We will explore topics such as publication bias, meta-analyses and multiple working hypotheses, statistical traps, data blinding, as well as the increased focus on Big Data and data visualizations that impact how people view the scientific process. We will engage with scientific articles, topic reviews, and popular press articles and spend much time thinking about the data that surround us (e.g. social interactions, movement patterns of students and other animals, instructor behavior, eating habits) to understand what data are. Students will design and execute original research on data bull$#!% and present this work as a conference-style poster. Students will be exposed to data processing (to gain an understanding of basic data informatics, i.e. what it means to collect and organize data. Students will gain an appreciation for formal scientific research as well as an understanding of how scientific research careers develop.

HP 4152: Saffron, Silk, and Broadswords: A Trek Through Great Civilizations
Credits: 3
Instructor: Lori Howe
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Cultures)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): 
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Through readings, research, films, documentaries, virtual tours of museums and sites, popular sources, and research, students will explore the complex histories of several great human civilizations via such disciplines and foci as food, art, music, architecture, science, mathematics, engineering, medicine, literature, politics, religion, language, gender, agriculture, and many more. In this exploration, students will examine these threads in the ancient world and follow them forward, exploring ways in which the historical intersections of culture, religion, politics, and other topics and phenomena continue to impact our contemporary world. Students will work individually, in pairs, or in groups of three to research and creatively respond to aspects of one civilization, culminating in an artistic or literary project and presentation. Students will also do a deep dive into a specific civilization, offering a presentation on some compelling aspect of that civilization to the class as a course text. Finally, students will work singly or in small groups on the two-part Capstone Assignment, researching a particular civilization or empire and the culture and history of that place, culminating in a multimodal presentation and research paper. The delivery method of this course is asynchronous, with optional synchronous discussion sessions each week for those who want to meet. 

HP 4154: Music and Identity
Credits: 3
Instructor: Daniel Galbreath
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: H (Human Culture)
A&S attributes: D (Diversity)
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): 
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Our world is saturated with sounds; most carry baggage of connotation and meaning. The sounds we associate with ourselves - with our bodies, our activities, our tastes, our histories - and with others shoulder especially heavy connotative burdens. This class will explore the human activity in which those sounds are organized into long-lasting, meaningful cultural artifacts: music. Despite music’s importance in how many of us describe our identity, we seldom take a broader view of its role in the construction of identity.  Contemporary writing about music across genres has expanded beyond “absolute,” analytical ideas, into the lived and social experience of creating and hearing music. The intersection of music and various identities – national, gender, or sexual orientation, for instance – has been become increasingly important. This class will invite students to examine how music and identities interact, while examining the sound of a student’s personal and intellectual identity. Our readings and discussions will be approachable to students of all majors: musicians will appreciate the opportunity to dig into their field from a novel perspective, while nonmusicians will bring their own knowledge and expertise to bear on a ubiquitous part of our human experience.

 

 

2025 Spring Courses

REQUIRED FOR ALL FIRST-YEAR HONORS STUDENTS*
*A first-year student is any student who begins at UW with fewer than 30 post high school college credit hours. Students who earned an associate’s degree while completing their high school degree are still considered first-year students.

HP 2020:  Honors Colloquium II: Being Human
Credits: 3
Instructor: Various
Modality: Various
Honors College Attributes: Colloquium 2
USP attributes: (COM2) Communication 2
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): Major Core (HP 2020 is the second course in the Colloquium sequence)
Course Description: The first-year Colloquium is a required two-semester sequence of courses that takes the complex topic of “being human” and explores it with readings based in the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences. The courses builds community in the Honors College while promoting high levels of academic achievement. In Colloquium, students push themselves to become stronger critical thinkers. They weigh and consider multiple points of view; they develop thoughtful, well-supported perspectives on important issues of our times; and they defend their ideas in public presentations.

HP 2250: Producing Knowledge: Interviews, Surveys, and Experiments
Credits: 1
Instructors:  Karagh Brummond
Modality:  Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Concurrent Major Core
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s): Major Core (HP 2150 is part of a series which also includes HP 2150)
Course Description: Producing Knowledge: Interviews, Surveys, & Experiments is an activity-based course introducing approaches to producing, refining, analyzing, and evaluating knowledge. Course topics are investigated through a combination of readings, lectures, research, and individual and collaborative activities. This course is part of the Producing Knowledge series, along with Analysis, Creativity, and Expression (ACE); the two courses can be taken in any order.

Through this course you will gain exposure to the terminology, theory, and practice necessary for generating knowledge and insight that impacts academic, professional, and wider public audiences. You will have opportunity to practice the skills necessary for clear communication. You will be encouraged to develop your own personal awareness of and appreciation for different imaginative approaches to research and knowledge production. A culminating application challenge will be undertaken through exploration, experimentation, and refinement.

 

Global Perspectives (nonwestern)

HP 3151: Eastern Thought and American Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: Tyler Fall
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: This course traces how ideas and philosophies from India, China, and Japan have become a part of American Culture.  We will cover a range of topics, including Transcendentalism, Theosophy, Vedanta, the Beat Generation, the Counterculture, Zen and Guru scandals, and the more recent rise in popularity of yoga and mindfulness meditation.  Among our central questions:  Why has American culture been selectively receptive to Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist ideas?  How does American interest in these ideas reflect the larger social and cultural context of American life?  What happens to these ideas as they are folded into American culture?  What sort of controversies and scandals have these ideas generated

 

HP 3151: History, Philosophy, Methodology and Application of Traditional Asian Martial Arts
Credits: 3
Instructor: Chris Dewey
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy, and the Body
Course Description: This course offers a didactic and practical (hands-on) exploration of the Traditional Asian Martial Arts. The course would explore Chinese arts such as Taiji and Qigong, Korean arts such as Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, and Japanese arts including Aikijujutsu, Judo, Ju Jutsu and Karate. Students would be given the opportunity to investigate the historical, philosophical, cultural, political and religious influences that affected the development and evolution of the various martial arts that have been an integral part of Chinese, Korean and Japanese society for more than two millennia. The didactic component of the course would, therefore, take an evolutionary and historical perspective of the martial arts in an effort to demonstrate how the various cultures influenced each other and how the development of the martial arts have progressed to become the world-wide phenomenon that they are today. Additionally, students would be given an opportunity to gain practical experience of the similarities and differences between the various art forms. Students would learn and practice techniques from a variety of martial disciplines as a necessary and integral part of the course structure.

 

HP 3151: Islamic Law
Credits: 3
Instructor:  Hamid Khan
Modality: Synchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy, and the Body
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Though often maligned and misunderstood, Islamic law is one of the world's longest-enduring and most widely subscribed law systems. This course will give students a firm grounding in Islamic law's sources, principles, concepts, and terminology and an in-depth review of its history and role in the contemporary era. Students will gain practical insights into the sources and constructs of this religious-based legal system, including the substantive difference between the Shari’a and Islamic jurisprudence, as well as an in-depth analysis of the Qur'an, the Tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the various legal constructs devised by jurists and eminent scholars, the Islamic schools of law, differences between Shi'i and Sunni Islamic law. The seminar will delve into Islamic law's historical demise and modern resurgence. Finally, students will gain an in-depth understanding of selected aspects of Islamic constitutionalism, Islamic criminal law, and how classical and contemporary Islamic law comports with international human rights law and other contemporary issues.

 

HP 3151: Love and Sex in the Global Economy
Credits: 3
Instructor: Joslyn Cassady
Modality: Synchronous Online 
Honors College Attributes: Honors Global Perspectives (*Nonwestern), Upper-Division Elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy, and the Body
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Extreme poverty cripples the lives of over 700 million people in the world today. Despite the prosperity that has emerged with the rise of global capitalism, there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor. How are people supporting themselves and their families in this shifting global economy? What role does love, in romance, friendship, and kinship, play in people’s decision-making and survival strategies?  What makes people and communities especially vulnerable to coercion, exploitation, and human trafficking? This course highlights the lived experiences of people, in the context of global interconnectedness, with a closer look at sex trafficking in America, organ trafficking in Bangladesh, the surrogacy industry in Ukraine, and transnational mothering in the Philippines. We will be trained to identify potential vulnerabilities in our own communities and learn how to effectively strengthen our community’s response. In the end, I hope you will agree that this course offers a vital look at love and intimacy in our globalized world and invites us to work creatively and collaboratively to make a difference. 

 

HP 3154: Modern Japanese Society and Culture
Credits: 3
Instructor: Noah Miles
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Global Perspectives (*Honors Non-Western), Note: Students who have already completed their Global Perspectives requirement may use this course as an Honors upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: (G) Global
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Creativity, Justice, and our World

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce Japanese society and culture.  The class will take a thematic approach to the study of Japan.  We will integrate history and literature from the Jomon to the Edo periods, covering a diverse range of topics including: language development, the introduction of Buddhism, poetry, classical and modern literature, traditional arts and holidays concluding with the development of popular culture.

 

 

Upper Division

HP 3050: Future Southwest Studies
Credits: 3
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: Cultural Studies is for everyone. With a wide lens on culture, arts, music, literature, film, food, social trends and political movements, this course opens a broad and inviting door to students interested in the future of the Southwest.  

The coursework naturally roots itself in Latina/o/x Studies themes. The writings of Gloria Anzaldúa will serve as foundational texts that explore race, gender, cultural identity, bilingualism, indigeneity, mestizaje (mixed identity) and spirituality from an integrated perspective, with a focus on radical imaginings of the future.  Building on this history, we will survey contemporary social, cultural, artistic and critical voices of the Southwest. What does their innovation, their work, and their movements tell us about what is now, what is new, and what is next for the Southwest? We will conclude with a look at grassroots creative and social movements that are taking on issues of immigrants’ rights, indigenous land rights, GLBTQ rights, water rights, climate change, and gentrification of Southwest cities and towns. 

 

HP 3050: The American Jury
Credits: 3
Instructor: Kayla Burd and Hannah Phalen
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Health, Policy, and the Body
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: 
Students in this course will engage with theories of jury decision making, a discussion of the history of juries, and how political, legal, philosophical, and cultural values have shaped the jury. Students will begin by examining these values within the contemporary American Jury, and then will discuss empirical jury research, including the strengths and weaknesses of the jury demonstrated by research. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and critically evaluate the methods commonly used to examine juror and jury decision making, which will improve their research competency. In the course, students will be asked to review and discuss the image of the jury within popular culture and will write a paper comparing the contemporary American jury to a jury system abroad. In addition, several guest speakers will visit with the class (either in-person or virtually) with backgrounds in psychology, law, and criminal justice. By interacting with the guest speakers, students will learn how people can apply their knowledge of the legal system to societal problems. Through this assignment, students will engage in global perspective-taking and develop an understanding of the ways in which the American legal system differs from legal systems in other countries. In sum, students will learn the history of the jury, theories of jury decision making, and the methods used to investigate jury decisions. 

 

HP 3050: Songwriting for Justice
Credits: 3
Instructor: Tiger Robison
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: 

Music serves several functions for people who are trying to better our world, examples of which include protest anthems, songs to spread awareness of issues, songs as coping mechanisms for those under duress, and cautionary tales. In the proposed course, Songwriting for Justice, students will create and record an original song based on a cause about which they have previous knowledge or they research in this class (e.g., plight of a currently marginalized people, climate change, geopolitical strife). No prior experience with songwriting nor playing instruments is required, the instructor will provide instruments for each student to borrow, and the first third of the course will contain instruction to gain basic functionality on guitar, bass, drum kit, rhyme schemes, and popular musical form.

 

HP 3050: Global Filmmakers: From Alfred Hitchcock to Michael Haneke 
Credits: 3
Instructor: Ahmad Nadalizadeh
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Technology, Society, and the Future
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: 

The word “auteur” (French for author) emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s to ascribe to film directors' idiosyncratic vision a creative role of authorship and critique comparable to the expressive autonomy claimed by literary authors. No longer a mere agent among other agents producing a film, film director as auteur was granted a creative agency whose unique view was expressed in the film.However, auteurism was later on challenged by shifting critical attention to the role of the production conditions, constructivist contexts, and deconstructive intertexts. As we shall see, these alternative theories challenged auteur theory by emphasizing the collective role of various agents in filmmaking, by highlighting the role of the nonhuman elements of genre and language in preconditioning of plots and characters, and by considering films as sites of contradictory expressions which must be determined by the authorial role of spectator rather than director. However, the view of the film director as auteur has thus far survived this critical shift to the spectator, with the director’s name consistently utilized for both commercial and, in particular, art-house cinema. In this course, we will examine these critical debates alongside the films of global auteurs—Alfred Hitchcock, Alain Resnais,Jean Renoir, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Roy Andersson, Elia Suleiman, Robert Bresson, and Michael Haneke—to review the key features of contemporary auteur cinema, but also to explore the ways in which auteur theory reveals the complex relations between aesthetics, politics, and philosophy in film form.

 

HP 4152: Mass Media and Collective Consciousness
Credits: 3
Instructor: Adrian Molina
Modality: Asynchronous Online
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Technology Society and the Future
Creativity, Justice, and our World

Course Description: This course explores the most central and critical issues of our times: Humanity, Technology, and Sustainability.  In this course, the student is the main "Text," meaning that each student will engage in contemplative education practices.  Students will examine their own lives in relationship to technology, mass media, social media, and how the cyborg-ification of our lives affects our physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as our relationships with other humans.  

Additionally, this is a topics course that may explore any of the following: the development of collective consciousness; historical uses of propaganda; functions of mass media; the functions of corporate media vs independent media; how mass media affects public opinion; journalism and ethical considerations; pop culture's relationship to American values and standards; the nature of news coverage and news filters; access to media and social justice concerns; functions of art and entertainment; critiques of mass media and pop culture; alternative forms of media; futurist perspectives on human consciousness; ecological and environmental concerns; and real-time developments in technology.

 

HP 4152: Writing Animals
Credits: 3
Instructor: Kate Northrop
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: (H) Human Culture
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Creativity, Social Justice, and our World

Course Description: Our worlds are not the only worlds. We live with and beside the non-human animals: pronghorn, Swainson’s hawks, lap dogs, mountain lions straying through town, pine beetles, Mourning Cloaks, drowned kittens, nighthawks overhead, raccoons in the kitchen, Mountain Whitefish.  How do we sound these worlds?  And why? To what ends?  Writers have long looked to and imagined the non-human, but how do we do that?  How do we write (and think) that which we name but may not be able to fully know?  In this course we will consider (through class discussion of assigned readings, independent research, writing exercises and semester-long creative writing projects) ways of thinking / representing non-human animals and our relationships with them. In this course, we will approach and mind those relationships.

We will be considering a range of creative work: stories, poems, essays, short videos, dramatic monologues, paintings, photographs.  Of each creative piece we will discuss the questions that we read as driving the piece, and the questions the piece raises for us.  It’s not possible for me to know our questions now, ahead of time, but some possible questions, or rather, some of my own questions:  How do we look at non-human animals?  How are we looked at?  How do non-human animal and human animal lives intersect?  What boundaries have been erected historically and why, to what end?  How are our lives shaped by non-human animals?  How are non-human animals lives shaped?  What responsibilities do humans have?  What causes for joy, what concerns?

 

HP 4153: Wildlife, Ranching and Resource Extraction
Credits: 3
Instructor: Tom Grant
Modality: Traditional 
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: PN (Physical and Natural World)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Environment, Ethics, and Humankind
Technology, Society, and the Future
Course Description: 

Wyoming is the least populated state in the nation yet has the 10th greatest area. Wyoming developed from a past focused on land-based livelihoods (ranching) and the extraction of natural resources, yet the population demographics and economic drivers of the state are changing rapidly. How can a rural state with a fierce independence streak rise to the challenges of the 21st century?

This course will take an interdisciplinary science-based approach to explore the relationships between humans, wildlife, and the economic drivers of Wyoming. From the lens of sustainable and resilient ecosystems and economies, we’ll learn about 1) the current challenges of land-based livelihoods like ranching, 2) the future of communities reliant on oil, gas, and coal extraction, and 3) the management of natural and functioning ecosystems that support healthy wildlife populations, ecosystems, and economies.

 

HP 4153: The Future of Nanotechnology
Credits: 3
Instructor: Chris Rothfuss
Modality: Traditional
Honors College Attributes: Upper-division elective
USP attributes: PN (Physical and Natural World)
A&S attributes: none
Concurrent Major Honors Interdisciplinary Inquiry Concentration Designations(s):
Technology, Society, and the Future
Creativity, Justice, and our World
Course Description: Cancer cures, space elevators, quantum computers and stain resistant ties... nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the control, manipulation and fabrication of matter at the molecular scale – about 1 to 100 nanometers – to take advantage of unique physical phenomena. It is estimated that by the year 2015 nanotechnology will account for over $1 trillion in the global marketplace. The US Government invests $1 billion per year on nanotechnology research and development. Nanotechnology is seen by many as the next great technological revolution. So what does all that mean? What will nanotechnology do for me? How will it influence the world of the future? What research is being done today? This course will take a broad look at the development of nanotechnology; including the history, the science, the applications, the social and political impacts, and its influence on the future. All majors and disciplines are welcome!

 

HP 4976: Independent Study
DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS HONORS-COLLEGE UPPER-DIVISION ELECTIVES
Instructor: Student must identify faculty mentor and receive approval from faculty mentor and the Honors College
Modality: Various
Honors College Attributes: none
USP attributes: none
A&S attributes: none

Why might you take an Honors independent study?  Register for one if you need the structure to help you complete your senior capstone project, if you need additional upper division elective hours to graduate, if you need additional hours to be a fulltime student in any given semester, or if you have been working with an instructor on a particularly interesting area for which there is no designated course. You can take up to 3 credit hours of an Honors independent study per semester for up to a total of 6 hours overall. 

You don’t need to sign up for an independent study to complete the senior capstone project.  Please note that these hours do not meet any specific requirements towards your degree or your Honors minor. They do not count towards the required Honors upper division electives.