Fall 2024 Colloquia Courses

Honors colloquia courses are designed to explore an over-arching and thought-provoking focal question that is enduring and significant. They are truly interdisciplinary, which means they feature a wide-ranging integration of ideas, sources, methodologies, and insights from multiple disciplinary traditions. Honors colloquia take place in small group settings that encourage students to develop a rigorous approach to processing information and deepening understanding. Remember that…

  • All Honors College students are required to complete at least two Honors Colloquia courses.
  • Colloquia courses count towards the 22 HONS credit requirement.
  • Students may take additional Colloquia courses as an Honors elective.
  • Unless noted, colloquia courses do not count towards the College’s General Education requirements.
  • The prerequisite(s) for all Honors Colloquia Courses are as follows: Honors College Student, HONS 100, HONS 110, and at least one Honors Foundation course.

Courses Offered (click on each for more info):

HONS 225-01 – Designing Women: Perceptions, Reflections, and Self-Representation of the Western Female
Instructors: Brooke Permenter
MWF 10:00 – 10:50 a.m.

What are the role of religion, the state, and the family in shaping ideas about femininity? What accounts for changes and continuities in female gender roles and the regulation of female bodies? How have categories of womanhood and the imagery associated with them shaped experience and self-perception? This course explores political, religious, intellectual, cultural, and medical influences on the organization and regulation of women and gendered experience from the Classical to the Early Modern periods in Western Europe. It closely examines historic representations of women and of those persons represented as social or culturally different, and identifies and analyzes intersections of gender with other identity categories like race, social status, class, ethnicity, and religion. Topics include theories of gender; premodern medical theories; women’s legal, economic, and social statuses; religious experience and spiritual authority; women’s access to education and intellectual life; artistic, literary, and philosophical representations of women; and authorship, self-representation, and female agency during the pre-modern era.

HONS 226-01/02 – Inventing the West
Instructor: Anthony Gaspar
Section 01: MWF 8:00 – 8:50 a.m.
Section 02: MWF 9:00 – 9:50 a.m.

The aim of this interdisciplinary colloquium is an examination of western civilization - broadly defined – whose impact on later ages has been profound. This course will introduce students to texts, which were generated during the rise of remarkable civilizations and empires from Antiquity, such as Athens and Rome, to the Middle Ages, such as the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World, and the Medieval West.  Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this class's activities, discussions, and readings will challenge students to engage with important historical, literary, philosophical, theological, and artistic works/texts that were foundational for the development of western civilization and their role in shaping and projecting the rise of imperial states. Topics will include the social contract in the city-state, the role of religion in empire, the values of a military aristocracy, and how intellectuals viewed the "other" as a foil for their own civilizations. 

This course counts towards the College’s General Education History requirement.

HONS 230-01 – Perspectives on Human Nature
Instructor: Todd Grantham
MW 2:00 – 3:15 p.m.

Philosophers and social scientists have struggled with the idea of human nature. Is there some distinct “essence” to human kind? Or does the diversity of our species undermine the notion of human nature? Historically, some philosophers conceptualized humans as rational/thinking beings (Homo sapiens), emphasizing that our intellect and morality sets us apart from non-human animals. In contrast, some anthropologists argue that culture is our basic adaptation. And since culture varies so much, perhaps there is no fixed “human nature” beyond our capacity for culture. This course examines how different disciplines have approached the issue of human nature, focusing specifically on philosophy, evolutionary biology, and anthropology. As we explore these competing perspectives, we will ask: Are there any “human universals”? Are any traits truly innate? Are humans unique in our intellect or sense of morality? If we answer these questions in the negative, does that mean we should we abandon the concept of human nature.

HONS 235-01 – The Ecology of War
Instructor: Chris Freeman
MWF 11:00 – 11:50 a.m.

How have human conflicts and wars impacted ecosystems and biodiversity across the globe? This is an enduring question in modern times, especially as increasing human population size drives our species into new regions of the world. Human history has been intimately tied to climate and the environment, but the expansion of humans has also resulted in conflicts and major wars that have had lasting environmental impacts. This interdisciplinary course introduces major events in human history from both a historical and ecological perspective, with the goal of highlighting the complex interplay between human conflict and the environment

HONS 245-01/02 – What is a Nation?
Instructor: Joshua Shanes
Section 01: TR 9:25 – 10:40 a.m.
Section 02: TR 10:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

Nations today seem to be a self-evident reality. Yet nations are in fact modern constructions, perhaps two centuries old (often much younger), that compete with other forms of community and identities for legitimacy and loyalty. Even the basic question, “what is a nation,” brings no uniform answer. Nation-states and nationalism can bond communities and stabilize states and regions, but they are also sources of violent conflict and have facilitated some of the most barbaric acts in human history. This course will explore the origins and development of nations and nationalism and consider what all it means for us today, as Americans at the start of the 21st century. We will raise basic questions about identity, community (membership and boundaries), ethnicity, and the human condition.

HONS 250-01 – Applied Women's Health Research and Advocacy
Instructors: Beth Sundstrom

W 2:00 – 4:45 p.m.

How do the complex intersections of social, cultural, political, legal, environmental, and economic contexts impact women’s lived experience of reproductive decision making? How can illuminating the interaction between intersectional identities and systems of social inequality offer an opportunity to empower women and address health disparities? The purpose of this course is to investigate health issues specific to women and girls through interdisciplinary research collaborations, and communicate research findings and health-related information to empower women and girls in our community, South Carolina, and beyond. This course will incorporate multiple methodologies to better understand women’s health, including reproductive health. Students will conduct praxis-oriented research that bridges the gap between theory and practice, informing the development of community-based public health interventions. This course draws on the robust research and advocacy of the Women’s Health Research Team (WHRT) and its mission to Collaborate. Innovate. Advocate.

HONS 250-01 – Food and Sustainability
Instructor:
Todd LeVasseur
W 3:30 – 6:15 p.m.

In what ways has the human animal, past and present, procured calories, and thus carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, in order to survive and flourish?  Are there ways of doing so that are more sustainable than others, based on social, environmental, and economic metrics?  If so, what metrics would be used to answer this evaluative question, leading to what specific food and agricultural policies and practices?  Taken together, this course will explore these and similar questions, tracing the origins of settled agriculture through the industrial agriculture regimes of today, investigating this history from a holistic and normative perspective of regenerative and sustainable agriculture.  To engage with this history of food an interdisciplinary approach will be used, investigating issues related to animal agriculture, colonialism, corporate control of food, the mechanization of agriculture, genetic engineering, environmental agrarianism, organic and other regenerative agriculture regimes, food apartheid, and other food sustainability issues.  These approaches will assist in the effort to figure out the most sustainable way to procure calories for the human animal, especially in an era of rapid global heating and ongoing human population growth.

 

HONS 260-01/02 – The Ethics of Holocaust Representation
Instructor: Ezra Cappell
Section 01: T 1:00 – 3:45 p.m.
Section 02: T 4:00 – 6:45 p.m.

In this course students will consider the ethical question of how filmmakers, writers, and artists ought to represent the horrors of the Holocaust. Drawing upon the work of survivors, historians, and artists, we will explore the difficult issue of aesthetically representing the Holocaust. In this course, students will analyze historic and aesthetic representations of the Holocaust through a variety of genres, including: documentary evidence, historical texts, philosophical texts, religious texts, survivor testimony, novels, short stories, poems, photographs, films, paintings, and musical compositions. By the conclusion of this course students will be able to make ethically informed evaluations of Holocaust art and they will determine for themselves whether and how artists ought to create art from the ashes of Auschwitz.

HONS 264-01 – Paths of Darkness: Colonialism, War and Memory in the Andes
Instructor: José Chavarry
TR 3:05 – 4:20 p.m.

Through a deep dive into the systemic social, cultural, and political origins and significance of the internal armed conflict in Peru (1980-2000), this course will explore the legacies of internalized colonialism and structural racial disparity in the Andes region, Latin America and beyond. From an interdisciplinary approach (history, political science, anthropology, cultural studies) and by engaging with a variety of primary sources including fiction, memoir, photography and film, we will understand the context and the events of a war between the Maoist guerrilla organization Shining Path and the Peruvian state that affected primarily the country's peasant populations, as well as mechanisms of indigenous resistance such as collective organization and memory making. From the lessons and warnings of the Peruvian case, we will be able to draw connections to other historical and contemporary contexts.

This course counts towards the College's REI Global general education requirement.

HONS 265-01 – Storytelling in the Age of AI
Instructor: Lancie Affonso
TR 10:50 – 12:05 p.m.

For thousands of years, storytelling has been an integral part of our humanity. The human drive for understanding the universe underlies the knowledge-generating, transformational process that is constantly at work in our everyday lives. Even in our “big data” driven digital age, stories continue to appeal to us just as much as they did to our ancient ancestors. Data visualization and storytelling with data changes the way we interact with data, transforming it from a dry collection of statistics to something that can be entertaining, engaging, thought provoking, and even inspirational.

This course counts towards the College's REI US general education requirement.

HONS 265-02/03 – Museums, Memory and Commemoration in Charleston
Instructors: Julia Eichelberger and Joanna Gilmore
Section 01: TR 12:15 – 1:30 p.m.
Section 02: TR 1:40 – 2:55 p.m.

Who owns the past? Museums and public monuments create powerful representations of the past, shaping public memory, identity, and shared visions of the future.  How have Lost Cause narratives impacted the interpretation of our city and surrounding plantation landscapes? How are writers, historians, artists, and activists reshaping public memory in 21st - century Charleston? In Charleston, we are surrounded by structures and landscapes that interpret our Nation’s history, so much of which has transpired beneath our feet.  During this interdisciplinary course, students will examine some of the ways Charleston’s writers, museums, monuments, and events have remembered and commemorated the city’s past. Led by faculty with expertise in museum studies, archaeology, literature, and Southern studies, students will participate in thought-provoking discussions inspired by literary depictions of Charleston’s past as well as site visits, archival research, and students’ own writing. As a final project, students will propose new forms of interpretation that will add texture to Charleston’s historical tapestry.

This course counts towards the College's REI US general education requirement.

*Please note that Fall 2024 course offerings are tentative, and are subject to change