Freshman-Sophomore Seminars
The Honors Program offers these courses as part of its freshman-sophomore seminar experience. These courses offer three units of credit. See the class schedule for a list of current offerings:
Honors 340
Honors Seminar: Political Campaign Communications
Honors Seminar: Political Campaign Communications
What do pundits, politicians, and the public have in common? The ability to impact political campaign communication. This seminar-style course will introduce students to the effects of political campaign communication on public opinion and election results. Using timely date, students will evaluate news media, debate presidential debates, and analyze campaign messages using qualitative and quantitative approaches. This course is intended for the honors student interested in learning about political communications, rhetorical criticism, and techniques for writing for academic audiences.
Honors 350 - Honors Seminar:
Introduction to Critical Theory
Introduction to Critical Theory
This course investigates questions of interpretation and representation in film, literature, media, and culture. Students examine contemporary critical and cultural theory, then apply these theories in analyzing a variety of texts from the Shakespearean play to the science-fiction horror film. Theories introduced include, but are not limited to, semiotics, psychoanalysis, rhetorical criticism, gender theory, and postmodernism. Students intending to transfer into arts, film, literature, humanities, and cultural studies programs will find this course particularly useful in understanding the critical language of the university.
Honors 352 - Honors Seminar:
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
This seminar studies the work of Alfred Hitchcock from the perspective of the key concepts in film theory. Students will investigate the films and criticism of one of the greatest and strangest directors, the self-styled master of suspense. This seminar takes a close reading of the most significant writings on the director's work. For students interested in film, media, art, literature, and the humanities, the course examines Hitchcock's visual style, thematic concerns, and directorial techniques, and introduces the major critical approaches to cinema studies.
Honors 382 - Honors Seminar: Nature and Culture
This seminar examines multicultural interpretations and use of the environment from the Native American era to modern day within geographic regions as case studies. (This semester the course will examine the Yosemite area.) Interdisciplinary in approach, this course draws upon the natural sciences, humanities, and the social sciences to explain how the physical environment has been interpreted, utilized, and impacted differently by various culture through time. Two field trips are required as part of this seminar.