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IUB Honors Courses Indiana University Bloomington

HON-H 303 – Faces of War and Freedom

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#23123

LUKASZ SICINSKI

M 6:45-9:15pm

WH 104

CLASS NOTES: COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Culture credit; meets with SLAV-P 363, SLAV-P 563, EURO-W 406, and EURO-W 605

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

 

What does living through a war look like from the perspective of a civilian? How do we respond to circumstances beyond our control, and how do we deal with situations that engender unsolvable moral dilemmas? Is it possible to accurately represent events that defy comprehension? What is the role of culture in times of social and political crises? Can literature and the arts be entirely free from social and political commitment?

These are some of the questions that we will ask in this class. The main goal of this course is to examine literary and artistic strategies of responding to the conditions of foreign occupation, colonization, and genocide. We will discuss the role of culture in times of historical, social, and ideological upheavals, and the capability of culture to both oppose and normalize sociopolitical pressures. Special attention will be given to the existential dimension of war and freedom and to the analysis of various ways literature and the arts represent the perspective of an individual.

The course examines these issues in the context of Polish culture. Course materials include literary texts, films, and reproductions of visual artworks. Knowledge of Polish language and culture is not required.

This is a student-centered course in which active participation is crucial for a productive classroom atmosphere. You will be expected to critically engage with the material and share your ideas with the rest of the class through class discussions, presentations, and collaborative projects. The course is designed to encourage you to explore the material from your own perspective and to engage in your own learning. You will have an opportunity to be creative, to ask provocative questions, and to play with ideas.

HON-H 241 – Quick and Dirty Mental Operations: The Price of Adaptive Cognition

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#15036

LEAH SAVION

TuTh 11:30am-12:45pm

HU 217

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd N&M credit – Natural Science; COLL (CASE) N&M Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

 

Human survival depends on effective gathering of huge amounts of information, adequate processing, fast learning, and controlling the environment to secure predictability and adjustment. Our brain selects what to attend to, categorize and integrate perceptual input, makes inferences, establishes emotional and physical reactions to environmental cues, and activating all other systems (affective, behavioral, and physiological) with staggering speed and efficiency. These cognitive feats are executed extremely quickly and accurately with the help of mental short cuts called “heuristics.”

The concept of cognitive heuristics has caught on fire recently, infiltrating areas such as economics, music, ethics, social behavior, perception, problem solving, legal reasoning, categorization, rationality, mental health, attention and learning, and even some self-help literature. This course presents students with an opportunity to investigate this relatively new and highly useful theoretical construct, from its conceptual analysis to theoretical and pragmatic applications of its models to self-awareness as a cognitive agent.

Course activities include:

  • Micro-thematic papers/tests: in-depth analysis of some aspect of the material covered in the book or in the original papers.
  • Final research paper: with an original thesis or synthesis in philosophy, psychology, or cognitive science, due in the last week of classes.
  • Team project/presentation of researched topic in cognitive science, sociology, philosophy, animal cognition, legal reasoning, economics, or linguistic. Team papers are due, if required, 5 days after class presentation.
  • Educational videos on belief perseverance, scientific frameworks, development, fallibility of eyewitness testimony, and cognitive gender differences.
  • Short Group presentation of the reading material and specific assignments.

HON-H 240 – What Will Happen?

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#20984

WAYNE WINSTON

Th 4:55-7:25pm

HU 217

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

If we have earned anything recently, it is we don’t know what will happen in the future. In the course you will learn through interesting case studies how analytics professionals try and predict the future. We will use Excel, but there are no course prerequisites. I will teach you all the needed Excel in class. Case studies will include

• Modeling the future of the coronavirus pandemic
• What is the future of income inequality?
• How can we fix politics in the US?
• Can I predict the market?
• Can we predict financial crises?
• How does Netflix predict if you will like a show?
• How can we forecast sporting event outcomes?
• Can we predict heart attacks?
• How do Prediction markets forecast the future?
• How did Buzzfeed know the dress would go viral?
• How do hedge funds reduce market risk?
• How can I predict movie sales or TV ratings for a new movie or show?
• How can I predict sales of a new product?
• How do polls go wrong?
• How can I forecast daily customer counts at a restaurant?
• Can I predict if a song will be a hit?
• How can I know if a fund like Madoff’s is a fraud?
• How will analytics be used in future US elections?
• How does Monte Carlo Simulation predict the future?
• How do we evaluate forecasts?

HON-H238 – Politics and the Media

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#40823

JULIA FOX

TuTh 3:15-4:30pm

HU 217

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

This course examines the relationship between media and politics in the United States. We will examine the concepts of objectivity and perceived bias, consider motivations for political information selection, examine the impact of fake news in social media platforms, and analyze political campaign advertisements.

HON-H 238 – Global Intelligence

Posted on by brigphil

Sections offered FALL 2021:

#19964

BRENDA BAILEY-HUGHES

MW 4:55-6:10pm

WEB

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; Service Learning Course

Above class meets 100% Online with a combination of Synchronous and Asynchronous instruction. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

 

Global Intelligence is a service-learning, global classroom course that partners you with the Burmese American Community Association (BACI) where you will mentor resettled refugees going to high school in central Indiana. You will coach them in writing college and scholarship applications. You will meet and learn from refugees and their families who have fled their country because they feared their military government that employed torture and acts of violence on civilians. The experience of our refugee neighbors gives voice to an often unheard minority. The political climate and progress in Myanmar is fraught with  set backs and warrants examination by anyone trying to understand intercultural dynamics. Global Intelligence will bring up questions about living in environments tainted by anti-immigrant sentiments.​Service-learning courses combine learning goals and community service to enhance both your growth and the common good. In the words of the National Service Learning Clearinghouse, service-learning is “a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.”

In the course, you will develop a more global mindset and deeper understanding of the refugee resettlement experience. You will hone your ability to recognize and adapt to cultural signals necessary to effectively interact with people from around the world. Through teaming efforts, self-reflection, and mentoring in a multi-cultural situation, the course takes you into a deep awareness of your own cultural proclivities, teaches you to adapt your communication style and bridge cultural gaps, and provides a hands-on experience of practicing empathy.

HON-H 238 – Witnessing War, Terrorism, and Humanitarian Intervention

Posted on by brigphil

Sections offered FALL 2021:

#18870

STEVE RAYMER

M 11:30am-12:45pm
W 11:30am-12:45pm

HU 217
WEB

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class taught in a Hybrid manner which includes In Person and Online Instruction. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

H238 examines the journalistic, political, and cultural context of conflict and terrorism from the mid-19th century to the present day. Readings, videos, and classroom discussions analyze how conflicts have been reported, censored, or ignored and seek to understand the most effective ways for journalists, broadcasters, bloggers, and authors to prioritize and organize words and images.  Central to the course are the ways women have transformed war reporting.  Students also examine the struggle between a free press and democratic and authoritarian governments—régimes that seek to control information from the battlefield and areas of civil strife. Moreover, the course looks at how the media frame threats of violence and intimidation for political ends as well as the legacy of state-sponsored terrorism in Russia and China. Taught by a veteran journalist and professor who has reported on conflicts from five continents, the course also examines the professional values and ethical choices that confront journalists who report on two of the central issues of the 21st century—war and terrorism.

HON-H 237 – Philosophy of Law

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#42633

GREG CANADA

TR 1:10-2:25pm

BH 215

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Jurisprudence — philosophy of law – investigates the nature of law and its role in society. This course will offer a survey of the fundamental questions in jurisprudence, with particular focus on how judges decide or should decide cases. What makes something a legal rule? Do legal rules and some necessary connection between law and morality? Is judicial decision-making really different from political decision-making? These and other important questions will guide individual research and animate class conversation. Most course readings will be from 20th- and 21st-century writers: legal positivists, natural law theorists, legal realists, and critical theorists. Some attention, however, will be given to key 19th-century legal thinkers John Austin, William Blackstone, and Jeremy Bentham. Some of the reading will be challenging, but no prior experience with law or philosophy will be assumed.

HON-H 237 – Invention and Technology

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Sections offered FALL 2021:

#41052

ANNE PYBURN

TuTh 9:25-10:40am

HU 108

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

 

This is an archaeology class, so it is about ancient inventions and technologies. We will talk about the beginnings of tools that we take for granted today, about how and why they got started, and what their impact was on early cultures and societies where they appeared. We will also talk about how we know about these early technologies, since all of them came before writing (and we will also talk about some of the earliest writing). You will learn about how archaeologists analyze ancient tools to try to get a clear picture of past cultures and you will have the opportunity to try a little analysis for yourself. There will be lectures, fieldtrips (I hope), discussions, a debate, group work, and presentations.

HON-H 237 – Decolonizing Science Fiction

Posted on by brigphil

Sections offered FALL 2021:

#20198

MARCO ARNAUDO

M 1:10-2:25pm
W 1:10-2:25pm

HU 217
WEB

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Above class taught in a Hybrid manner which includes In Person and Online Instruction. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

This class discusses race relations in the US through the lens of science fiction, with particular emphasis on indigenous culture and the black experience. We start by looking at the history of racist policies and ideas in the US, and we see how science fiction worked at times to reinforce such trends, and other times worked to question them and raise awareness about systemic racism. The class includes mainly prose works by authors such as W. E. B. Dubois, H. P. Lovecraft, Octavia Butler, Harry Turtledove, Matt Ruff, and Nnedi Okorafor. We also read comics by Ta-Nehisi Coates and watch the movie Black Panther.

HON-H 234 – Anne Frank and Hitler

Posted on by brigphil

Sections offered FALL 2021:

#15035

ALVIN ROSENFELD

TuTh 3:15-4:30pm

SY 001

CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd A&H credit; COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; meets with JSTU-J 203

Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html

Well known as historical figures, both Hitler and Anne Frank long ago began to take on symbolic dimensions—he as the 20th century’s leading personification of evil, and she as girlhood innocence despoiled by unspeakable anguish and condemned to an early death. In novels, stories, poems, plays, films, and other media, their images have evolved in interesting ways over time and in different cultures. This course aims to encourage students to critically examine these changes and, in so doing, to learn how history is penetrated by the shaping powers of imagination and transfigured into something like a modern mythology. Students in this course will learn how to become critically engaged with a range of literary and other artistic genres and to see how complex a phenomenon the representation of the past can be. Finally, given the two figures we will be focusing on—the first, a major perpetrator of genocidal crimes, the second, the most celebrated and cherished of teenage victims—they will be encouraged to think hard about questions of good and evil.​

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