The University of Florida Honors Program
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These are courses offered through departments across campus. They count as an Honors course and fulfill the normal slot of the regular course.
Genetics, will present a comprehensive coverage of the principles, theory and applications of genetics. Topics include the chemical nature and structure of genetic material, gene expression and regulation, cell division, chromosome number and structure variation, principles of inheritance, molecular genetic techniques, and basic concepts in population and quantitative genetics.
Course summary: Science & Ethics in Daily Life is intended to introduce students to the scientific basis of bioethical issues that are encountered in everyday life. The course will provide students with an understanding of the scientific basis of these issues as they are encountered through popular media in order to develop informed opinions.
- For instance, what are the issues with genetic testing and ‘designer babies’? Do we understand the human genome sufficiently to choose particular genes and traits for the next generation? Should this technology be available to whoever can afford it? Scientific advances now provide the means to modify the genome with a high level of precision so these questions will become more and more relevant.
- Another issue is animal experimentation. Do the many medical advances based on animal experimentation justify such use of animals? What do we understand about animal cognition and how does such information influence our opinion on animal experimentation?
- What about artificial intelligence? Can we go too far with this technology? What does it mean to be human? Can a machine become human?
- Another issue concerns the right to die or the withdrawal of life-saving devices. Do our rights include one to die or do we have a responsibility to survive at all costs? What can we learn from people who have made such decisions? Does our position on this issue also reflect a judgment on the quality of life of disabled persons?
Course objectives and student goals: All students are expected to gain knowledge on the scientific underpinning of bioethical issues that are encountered in daily life. Some of these issues are controversial and, in fact, have been chosen because they are currently being debated in our society. Students may have to reflect on their personal views and their rationale for holding particular opinions. Thus, the class may be personally intense and demanding in a unique way relative to most college courses. Course material will consist of one book, newspaper articles, movies, documentaries and other online material that reflect the contemporary nature of the issues to be discussed. Students will be expected to do all required readings and follow up with additional readings and research to expand their understanding. Class participation is a major part of the class. Each week will feature either a team-based learning module or a group project, such as a presentation, video, blog, or skit. Group projects are an opportunity to be creative and explore your thoughts and opinions on an issue. Team-based learning modules will be used to cover some topics.
This class introduces students to the visual arts from a global perspective and equips them with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage critically with the artistic and cultural landscape of the United States today. In particular, this course helps students master the skills necessary to analyze artworks according to the basic elements and principles of design. The course also introduces students to key artworks from many of the world’s artistic traditions, helping them appreciate some of the common threads that unify creative practices across time and space. By pairing the exploration of artworks from across the globe with some of America’s most important artworks, the class also helps students appreciate the role of the visual arts within the American experience.
This course is designed to activate sketchbook development as an instrument for making creative connections. Investigations into drawing, collage and collecting will stimulate curiosity, inform experiments, and expand creative habits. Students will explore image making, rehearse non-linear notation and seek creative associations from their quantity of evidence. Through learning lessons on the dynamics of drawing, students will discover habits of the mind by enlisting creative practice. Online demonstrations, exercises, readings, quizzes, and self-identified site-specific field trips are required to extend these skills. Students will make mixed media sketchbooks and post online to examine the possibilities for creative sketchbook research—making connections to their developing drawing ability.
General Biology Core: the first of a two-semester sequence that prepares students for advanced biological sciences courses and allied fields. Studies the origin of life systems; of biological molecules and organization of living things at the subcellular, cellular and organismic levels; and of the activities of living forms in obtaining and utilizing energy and materials in growth, maintenance and reproduction. (B)
Prerequisite: Degree-seeking students only.
Attributes: General Education - Biological Science
Available Class Numbers
19928
19930
General Biology Core: the second of a two-semester sequence that prepares students for advanced biological sciences courses and allied fields. Examination in living things of the principles of information storage, transmission and utilization at the cell, organism and population levels; of the mechanisms of evolutionary change in the diversification of living things and their life styles; of population growth and regulation; and of energy flow and biogeochemical cycling in the biosphere. (B)
Prerequisite: BSC 2010 or the equivalent. Degree-seeking students only.
Attributes: General Education - Biological Science
Available Class Numbers
19931
19932
For the Spring 2023 term the Department of Chemistry is offering one honors section of General
Chemistry 2 under the course number CHM2051. To be placed in this section students have to have
existing credit for MAC1147 or higher. Students also have to show superior performance in CHM2045
(General Chemistry 1) or equivalent courses (CHM2095 or CHM2050) as evidenced by a ‘B+’ grade or
higher. If students bring credit for CHM2045 from exam (AP, IB, AICE) they will need instructor
permission to add the course.
The section number is G51H (class #23011). The course meets TR-2+3 for lectures in FLI 50. The
curriculum closely parallels the curriculum of the main CHM2046 courses. However, the instructor is
a research faculty and will place emphasis on modern developments in chemistry as well as
applications to current problems. Specifically, the course contains a module on Atmospheric
Chemistry and one on Nuclear Chemistry.
What is different about these sections:
1. Each section (and its parallel non-honors section) is capped at 45 students for a total of 90
students in the class. The smaller class size compared to CHM2046 will help foster a sense of
community among the students. The instructor:student ratio will therefore be about 3 to 4 times
higher in this section than in the regular CHM2046 sections.
2. Students will not take multiple-choice but rather long-form exams where work has to be shown
which allows for partial credit on problems.
3. The course is taught by a research professor (currently assigned to Dr. Angerhofer) who will use
examples from modern research in chemistry to illustrate the material to be learned. The pace will
be somewhat faster to make space for the extra modules on atmospheric and nuclear chemistry and
guest lectures.
4. Guest lectures will be given by eminent UF faculty who will discuss how chemistry aids them in
their field of study.
5. Lecture meetings will be more interactive (among students and between students and instructor)
than is possible in the large lecture auditoria. Small student-centered study groups and
collaboration on homework between students is strongly encouraged. Students will work in teams on
jeopardy-style games in preparation for their exams.
What do these two sections have in common with the main CHM2046 sections?
1. They provide the same number of credits covering the same material.
2. Students can attend the CLC (Chemistry Learning Center) where General Chemistry TAs have office
hours and will assist all students regardless of their section or class numbers.
3. The common material covered is Thermodynamics, Equili rium, Acid-Base Chemistry,
Electrochemistry, and an Introduction to Organic Chemistry.
23011
Dr. Alexander Angerhofer (Dr. A) is Professor of Chemistry. He received his PhD from the University
of Stuttgart in Stuttgart/Germany in Physics in 1987 and has been a faculty member at UF’s
Department of Chemistry since 1995. He teaches general and physical chemistry at the undergraduate
level as well as advanced physical chemistry and spectroscopy at the graduate level. His research
interests are focused on the understanding of the catalytic mechanisms of metalloenzymes, specifically
oxalate decarboxylase. He employs spectroscopic, analytical, structural, and biophysical/biochemical
tools in his work. He is also interested in the history of the sciences, particularly alchemy and its
transition from a natural philosophy into the modern science of chemistry as well as the history of
chemistry in its efforts to develop solutions to modern environmental problems.
Students will be able to identify events that have negatively affected the coming of democracy in Argentina. Students will recognize human rights violation events in the past and in contemporary conditions. Students will be able to assess a government’s ability to respond to negative historical events and the memories they generate.
Students will read most of 7 books over the course of the semester, about two books per month or about 1 book every two weeks. This will amount to about 100-120 pages of reading every week. Students reading 30 pages per hour should be able to do the reading in 3 ½- 4 hours per week.
Professor Anderson is a scholar of democracy in Latin America and Western Europe. Her research focuses on Latin America. She studies democratization and democratic breakdown or democratic decline. At the undergraduate level she teaches courses on Latin America, human rights, democratization and democratic breakdown and on research methodology. She periodically teaches CPO 2001 which is the Introduction to Comparative Politics. That course covers Britain, France, Germany and several Latin American countries. At the graduate level she teaches courses on Latin America, Western Europe, democracy and research methodology. For further information please see https://polisci.ufl.edu/leslie-anderson/ and http://users.clas.ufl.edu/landerso/
Reduction of force systems, equilibrium of particles and rigid bodies, vector methods and their application to structures and mechanisms.
Prerequisite: PHY 2048
Corequisite: MAC 2313
Training in advanced literacy skills for medical practitioners, including the use of medical databases and the presentation of medical research to professional and lay audiences. Work in teams that are typical of medical practice to learn techniques for effective patient interaction. (C) (WR)
Prerequisite: ENC 1101 or ENC 1102.
Attributes: General Education - Composition, Satisfies 6000 Words of Writing Requirement
First-order ordinary differential equations, theory of linear ordinary differential equations, solution of linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients, the Laplace transform and its application to solving linear ordinary differential equations. (M)
Prerequisite: MAC 2312 or MAC 2512 or MAC 3473 with a minimum grade of C.
Attributes: General Education - Mathematics
Examines how we experience music and how it teaches us about ourselves and our world. Illuminates how music both shapes and is shaped by social, political, national, and cultural forces. Music from around the world demonstrates a variety of musical experiences within historical and contemporary cultural settings. (H and N)
Attributes: General Education - Humanities, General Education - International
First of the enriched sequence for physics majors and others wishing a deeper understanding of mechanics, kinematics, conservation laws, harmonic motion, central forces and special relativity. (P)
Prerequisite: Degree-seeking students only;
Corequisite: MAC 2312 or the equivalent.
Attributes: General Education - Physical Science
Second course of the enriched sequence studying electricity and magnetism, including electrostatics, Gauss's Law, potentials, vector analysis, Laplace's equation, conductors and insulators, circuits, magnetism, Maxwell's equations and E and M fields in matter. (P)
Prerequisite: PHY 2060 or instructor permission;
Corequisite: MAC 2313 or the equivalent.
Attributes: General Education - Physical Science
Basic principles of the Federal Constitution and Civil Rights. Political parties and the electoral process. The structure and machinery of the federal government, including Congress, the president and the judiciary. (S)
Attributes: General Education - Social Science
Under the threat of total destruction, nearly all aspects of Soviet and American life were organized around the Cold War for almost fifty years. How do these “rival” visions and experiences compare? This course examines Soviet and American cultural responses to the Cold War across a wide range of phenomena (literature, film, propaganda) and considers how relations between the U.S. and the USSR were framed as a global ideological contest and examines the legacy of this contest today. Prerequisites: none. General Education Credit: H, N.
This course introduces students to Tolstoy's epic novel of Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century. War and Peace is a profound meditation on the causes of war, the nature of human relationships, and the meaning of history itself. We will read the novel closely, examine its origins in Tolstoy's early writing, and consider the historical, political, and social contexts of the events described: the Napoleonic Wars and Tolstoy’s own turbulent era. Taught entirely in English. Prerequisites: none.
Theory and practice presenting public speeches, determining communication purpose(s) and adapting to organization, evidence, language and other message characteristics for designated audiences.
Intensive language course to develop mastery of grammatical principles, increase vocabulary and enhance writing and composition skills. This course (or SPN 3350 for bilingual speakers) is a prerequisite for most 3000/4000-level Spanish courses.
Prerequisite: SPN 2240; can be taken concurrently with SPN 2240 or SPN 3301. Not open to bilingual speakers of Spanish.
Graphical and numerical descriptive measures. Simple linear regression. Basic probability concepts, random variables, sampling distributions, central limit theorem. Large and small sample confidence intervals and significance tests for parameters associated with a single population and for comparison of two populations. Use of statistical computer software and computer applets to analyze data and explore new concepts. (M)
Attributes: General Education - Mathematics
All Honors students are expected to complete an Honors version of the UF-required Quest 1 course. Quest 1 courses fulfill the UF Quest 1 requirement and 3 credits of the General Education requirement in the Humanities.
Quest 1
Drawing on the disciplines that make up the Humanities, this course investigates the very nature of the human condition. Students examine the ways different people from different societies across time conceptualize the good life, the meaning and value individuals ascribe to the lives that they live or want to live, and the choices, costs, and benefits of the good life.
Available Class Numbers
13020
13077
13023
13098
Explores how stories can help us understand the human condition, investigate the construction of identity, and consider the need to tell our own histories. By looking inward and outward and backward and forward, we will examine how stories influence us and how storytelling provides humans with the means to connect.
Students will examine works of art, music, performing arts, and literature connected to compassion. The lens of the arts, combined with teachings from philosophy, religion, and history, will help students explore the essential question: What is the nature of compassion? Course activities will encourage students to notice the ways in which the arts communicate compassion, compassion is linked to quality of life, and the arts inspire compassionate citizenship.
Beliefs in magic and the supernatural are part of the universal human experience, and have added texture and excitement in human societies, as they have the power to elevate human beings above the mundane, add “magic” to human lives, enhance spirituality, excite the imagination, and provide entertainment and release through rituals shared by communities and social groups. This course explores the impact of beliefs in magic and the supernatural from antiquity to the present.
Our world is saturated with visual imagery. From television to the internet, there are multiple platforms for different types of visual vernacular—drawing, memes, photos, videos, etc. Images also exist in our physical world, from street signs to advertisements and the statements we make through our choice of clothing and our hairstyle. What is the meaning of each of the visuals we choose or encounter? How can we better understand the relationship of image to context? What is the impact of all these visual communications? Who should decide what an image means? The image-maker? A formal interpreter, such as a journalist, a blogger, an art critic? anyone? How do class, race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, age, and history impact our interpretation of images?
In this course, students will investigate some of the ways in which music and spiritual experiences have been interrelated throughout history and around the globe. Through an examination of diverse musical cultures, experiential learning, and individualized projects, we will explore the ways that music continues to promote and enhance some of the most profound human experiences.
Quest 2
These one-credit courses are discussion-oriented, seminar courses centered on a performance or an exhibit.
By listening to the music of musicians from SubSaharan Africa and exploring how musicians use their music and their platform to address concerns in their societies this course will explore the role of the arts and how important they are shaping society and generating connection and community.
This course will end with attending a concert by Benin musician Angelique Kidjo who will perform at the Philips Center on April 18, 2023.
Angelique Kidjo powerpoint- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MvK8io7uCbHNe5z-vJVVg3w49R71JjZD/edit#slide=id.p1
Music, healing, and activism in Sub Saharan Africa - Syllabus
This workshop will guide you through the process of writing and performing stand-up comedy. By studying the work of influential comedians and joke-writing techniques, you will be encouraged to find your own unique comic voice. This course will culminate in a public performance where you will present your polished "tight five."
The lectures, readings, and videos explore the origins of American music through the Mississippi Delta and its movement to Chicago and beyond. The course examines how Delta Blues and its offshoots not only constructed our current music scene but also the social fabric of our culture. Class instruction includes field trips to local blues shows.
These are discussion-oriented, one-credit seminar courses centered on a book.
History + Biography
Homer’s Odyssey is one of the most famous epics in world literature. This course will read the epic through three main lenses. First, it will illuminate the historical context of The Odyssey: its contested authorship, the rhapsodic tradition, and the geography, language, and mythology of ancient Greece. Second, the course will offer an opportunity for close readings of the text, focusing on several of the key themes in the work, including the hero’s journey, moral maturation, divine intervention, hospitality to strangers, and the interplay between justice and mercy. Third, the course will encourage students to consider The Odyssey’s reception history and the imaginative parallels between The Odyssey and our contemporary age, especially film, and even your own life.
Science (Non-Health) + Science Fiction
‘The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler’ by Thomas Hager.
From the back cover of this book: “A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the Haber-Bosch discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster: Mass starvation was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’s scientists to find a solution.
This is the story of the two men who found it: brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, and saved millions of lives.
But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically.
The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of a discovery that changed the way we grow food and the way we make war–and that promises to continue shaping our lives in fundamental and dramatic ways.”
One does not have to be an expert in history or in chemistry to read and appreciate this book. Its author, Thomas Hager, a veteran science and medical writer knows how to tell dramatic stories about world-changing discoveries. His books have earned national recognition, including in 2017 the American Chemical Association's top writing award, the Grady-Stack Medal for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public.
After reading the book students will be familiar with the Haber-Bosch process, what it is, how it was developed, and its effects on world history in the 20th century and beyond. They will also be familiar with the lives of the two main protagonists in the story, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. Moreover, students will understand the implications of ‘fixed nitrogen’ on modern agriculture, industrial chemistry, and our environment.
During the first half of the semester we will read and discuss the book in student-led discussions. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to students’ own research on a topic of their interest related to the book. Each student will have the opportunity to share their insights with the rest of the class in a ~20-minute presentation.
This course counts towards completion of the UF Intersections Scholars in Imagineering and the Technosphere program. Intersections Scholars encourages students to take three classes in three different academic disciplines related to grand-challenge questions facing our world. One of these is: How do technologies influence our lives, then and now? By understanding the development of science and technology over time and space, we learn how to harness these tools to meet social needs in the future. For more information, visit: https://intersections.humanities.ufl.edu/.
In this class, we will cover these facts and some of the most beautiful and surprising arguments from the history of Calculus. These are beyond the scope of regular Calculus classes, but are within the reach of anyone with a good understanding of Calculus II. Sometimes we will provide some historical context as well.
Our book will be the classic book of George F. Simmons, Calculus Gems.
Ideally, students registering for the class should have already completed Calculus II, though in some cases, it is acceptable if the student takes Calculus II in the same semester.
In this course, we'll read "Delicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made us Human", which weaves together information from paleontology, molecular biology, anatomy, cultural history, and more. This books seeks to understand how and why we find certain foods tasty and how that has shaped our biological and cultural histories. During weekly discussions, students will learn about what shapes our perception of flavor and how biologists and anthropologists leverage information from different fields to ask questions about our past.
HeLa cells are one of the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. Even though the utility of this cell line is vast and important, the history behind how the cells were isolated and used is a bioethical conundrum. Science, medicine, and technology have progressed significantly because of the use of HeLa cells and with this progress have come ethical questions. The intent of this course is to focus on the biological, medical, technological, and ethical issues surrounding HeLa cells.
This course is based on the book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan, which presents a review of the use of psychedelic drugs throughout human history, including in religious practices in various cultures and the US countercultural movement of the 1960s. The course will require a mature perspective on drug use. Students can expect to participate in frank discussions around the effects of psychedelic drugs under a variety of conditions. The course does not in any way advocate the casual use of psychedelic or other drugs.
Honors students interested in subjects as far-ranging as spirituality, therapeutic treatments, the history of medicine, brain neurotransmitters, psychiatric illnesses, and consciousness should find something of interest in this course.
The class will be structured around weekly discussion of the book and students will be evaluated based on class participation and two 1200-word papers.
Madagascar is best known in the west for its unique flora and fauna, with over 80% of its wildlife found nowhere else. But this engaging country is also home to 23 million people, comprising 18 distinct ethnic groups, unified by a common language and Malagasy identity. Madagascar - The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in a Lost World introduces the reader to the unique fauna, flora, and cultures of Madagascar through the authors’ travels with researchers in herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians), paleoecology, archaeology and primatology. Not only do readers learn about the biodiversity and cultures of this fascinating “eighth continent”, but they also get a sense for the joy of scholarly exploration and discovery in the natural world, what it is like to be a field-based (rather than laboratory-based) researcher, and the rationale for and continued importance of such work. While describing these discoveries, the author interweaves stories of Malagasy history, the mystery of the peopling of the island, and culture (language, music, religion, written and oratory arts) into the conversation, providing much fodder for discussion. Overall, this book is a celebration of the people, the wildlife, and the culture of Madagascar.
This (Un)Common Read course is perfect for students with an interest in/love for nature, exploration, discovery, and learning about distant lands and cultures. We will read the book Madagascar - The Eighth Continent in its entirety. Prior to some readings, the instructor (or students, if interested) will provide short introductions to the localities, wildlife, people, and customs described in the readings, augmented by photographs (unique species, environment, habitat loss, the local people and cultural activities) from recent trips to Madagascar. One of the unique strengths of the class will be the sharing of first hand experiences and impressions from multiple trips to the country, providing valuable context to the readings.
Although Madagascar is the focus of the course, this class will provide students with an overview of field research, and why it remains important in the modern world of science. Students will be able to view Madagascar as a model for research in areas such as conservation and sustainability, and the importance of culture and the buy-in of the local peoples. Students will be graded on class participation and a presentation on one auxiliary reading. Finally, students will complete a class project –academic paper or poster, or artistically creative work related to the course. The last class meeting (or two, depending on class size) will be used for students to present and discuss these final projects. This is an opportunity for students to get creative with class content and what they have learned.
Madagascar: The Eighth Continent stands alone as a great read, but this course makes an excellent primer for two other classes at UF: ZOO4956: Madagascar – Biodiversity & Conservation in a Developing Country (UF’s study abroad course in Madagascar) and BOT4935/ZOO4926: Global Biodiversity and Culture: Integrating Conservation and Human Well-being (part of UF’s International Scholars Program).
Michele R. Tennant, PhD, MLIS has a great love of the tropics, the desert, and coral reefs. Her favorite wildlife experiences have included hiking the trails of Madagascar to find lemurs and chameleons; walking the streams of Costa Rica searching for glass frogs; seeing her first anaconda in the Ecuadorian Amazon; experiencing the giant tortoises of the Galapagos; swimming with whale sharks off Nosy Sakatia; and snorkeling amongst the corals and sponges of Bonaire and Belize. Dr. Tennant is co-instructor for a number of courses related to Madagascar and other developing countries:
The study abroad course ZOO4956: Madagascar – Biodiversity & Conservation in a Developing Country;
the International Scholars Program course Global Biodiversity and Culture: Integrating Conservation and Human Well-being;
UnCommon Read Thank You, Madagascar: The Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly;
UnCommon Read Madagascar: The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in a Lost World;
UnCommon Read featuring two books by Patricia Wright: High Moon over the Amazon and For the Love of Lemurs.
Dr. Tennant is the interim Senior Director of the libraries’ Academic Research Consulting and Services department (ARCS), and can direct you to expertise for any of your information needs.
Health
Drugs by themselves are neither good or bad – it is ultimately how they are used that will lead humans to label them as such. Oliver Grundmann, PhD, has researched both synthetic and natural drugs with mind-altering effects for over a decade. Those who have been used for hundreds of years as part of traditional medicine and rituals are often mis- or abused in modern society. Others are solely intended to either create a fantastic escape from reality or get the user hooked to cause a substance use disorder. Numerous personal accounts and the scientific literature are a testament to this growing problem of what is commonly called “addiction”. But there is more to it as seen through the eyes of a researcher. Accompany Dr. Grundmann as he discusses the landscape, effects, and impact of drugs on the individual and society.
This honors course will be taught by Dr. Craig Smith. Dr. Smith is a faculty member in the School of Art + Art History at UF and is the Director of Culture for Column Health. Column Health is a healthcare startup based in Boston, Massachusetts treating a patient panel including more than 1000 SUDS patients struggling with opioid addiction. Smith is working with the healthcare system in Massachusetts and has recently hosted the Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as the Governor of the state at clinics run by Column Health and curated by Smith. Smith curates and programs events and collections of art for Column Health. The art is in treatment rooms as well as common areas. In some locations there are galleries attached to the clinics featuring a range of national artists. The art collections are thus integrated into the treatment models at Column Health and they lead the public face of Column Health for the immediate community.
During this course we will read about and discuss the opioid epidemic in the United States.
• What are opioids?
• Why are they omni-present today?
• What is social stigma?
• How do we treat “addiction” and “addicts” in the United States?
• What is Fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?
• Why aren’t we reading Hillbilly Elegy?!
• Why is a healthcare company producing and supporting the arts and culture?!
To help us with these questions, we will read a new book called Dopesick by Beth Macy. Macy is an author and contributor to various news programs and publications. Her new book helps to take on the questions outlined above and to create links between each of our lives and that of a culture of healthcare that deals with mental illness, including addiction, in specific ways mandated on a state-by-state basis. By combining this new book’s critical assessment of opioid production and distribution with Smith’s on-the-ground practical experience within the healthcare industry, this course will allow students to gain and extend their awareness of the ways in which addiction can be treated, the ethics of such treatment, the opportunities for improved, respectful, and innovative changes in the industry that will not only save lives, but may help to change the social stigma applied to addicts and addiction.
This is the second time that I will be teaching this course based on the book “Man and Microbes” by Arno Karlen. This is a wonderful book, and, I feel, a very timely one to read and to base a course on, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes the history of humanity as viewed through the prism of epidemics and pandemics. The book deals with question of how diseases arise, frequently jumping from animals to humans, how they evolve and why. The book also places the disease as a central actor in history. It is a written by an erudite, who is not only a writer but also a scientist. The book is written in a clear and easy language, making it a page-turner, despite sometimes gruesome details that are inevitable considering the subject matter. The book is very affordable and is available from Amazon for $15 new, and numerous used copies are also there for sale for as low as $2. I greatly enjoyed teaching this course in the spring of 2022, and it seems that all 14 students enrolled in the course also enjoyed the experience (based on student evaluations).
With its infamous portrayal of lobotomy and sadistic nurses, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest provided a spotlight – although a bleak one – on psychiatry in popular culture. Its release coincided with the mental health reform movement of deinstitutionalization, which pushed for a radical move away from the very asylums and mental hospitals where McMurphy met his fate. But how much has the world of mental health treatment transformed? This course will explore both the impact of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on views of mental health reform then and now from an interdisciplinary perspective with a foundation in history and psychology. This course will also encourage students to reflect on their own stigma regarding mental health and how fictional portrayals like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest still affect mental illness and its treatment today.
In this class, students will use one book to explore the relationship between disease and ecology in North America, focusing on New Orleans. This class is designed to be discussion based. Discussions will be based on assigned chapters and other related materials, potentially including supplementary readings and other activities. Written assignments and a final project will give the students the opportunity to learn about disease and medicine from a global perspective and make connections between an antebellum society, the colonial Atlantic, and racial ideology.
Society + Culture + Politics
The Book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, written by Michael Pollan, explores the elements humans use to prepare and transform food in various cultures and spaces. The book is broken up into four main sections with each one following the author as he learns a new way of transforming food. There is also a new four-part docuseries out by the same name that will pair with the reading. Students will need a paper copy of the book and access to Netflix for at least a 30-day trial.
We will discuss Circe by Madeline Miller, a retelling of the prominent character in Homer's classic epic, "The Odyssey." Miller expands upon Circe's origin and her battle to claim an identity among gods and mortals. Her story raises questions about power, class and finding one's identity. We will explore how duty and individuality diverge to reveal the difficulties of cultivating one's own future.
Kaylinn is a third-year Public Health major at the University of Florida. She is also pursuing minors in Medical Geography and Classical Studies.
In this course, we will read and discuss the book Creating Capabilities by Martha Nussbaum, which argues in support of a “capabilities approach” to justice and human development that goes beyond a measure of GDP to address the qualitative elements of freedom, equality and dignity.
Dante’s Purgatorio, the second canticle of his grand, activist vision of the afterlife, the Commedia, supplies a timeless guide to the cultivation of virtue, and invites deep insight into medieval thought and society. In this course, we will be travelling through Dante’s Purgatorio by means of close reading and historical contextualization. Each meeting will consist of a 15-minute exposition of a Dantean context, followed by communal discussion and examination of Purgatorio’s text. Assignments will promote original engagement with Dante’s poetry.
Mihow McKenny is an anthropologically-informed historian of culture and the sacred, currently writing a book-length study on texts and contexts of Ramon Llull, the Mallorcan missionary and mystic. I enjoy teaching on political authority and cultural change within European history, and gravitate toward reflection on European multicultural environments (in the western Mediterranean, Italy, and Poland-Lithuania), from the later middle ages to the early modern period.
Yoga, mindfulness, and meditation are practices that have been used for thousands of years. In this course we will explore the importance of these practices as well as the history and science behind them. The course content will include weekly discussions based on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as well as other supplementary material. Students will engage in enriching discussions, each bringing a unique perspective on the topic, and will leave with a broad understanding of how to apply the lessons to everyday life. This course will be cotaught by a faculty member and upper-division Honors student.
Our view of the Middle East is myopic and hyperbolic. Reading the rich, real, and intriguing tales from the volume "The Ottoman World: A Cultural History Reader, 1450-1700," students in this section will transcend beyond the common disciplinary boundaries of gender, history, politics, law, and sociology, and develop an informed, nuanced, and imaginative perspective that will help to understand the Middle East as a diverse and global region as it was by way of navigating through the sources written by killers, slaves, heretics, pimps, priests, and others.
“Ms. Laverne said every day we should ask ourselves, ‘If the worst thing in the world happened, would I help protect someone else? Would I let myself be a harbor for someone who needs it? Then she said, ‘I want each of you to say to each other: I will harbor you.’ I will harbor you.” This excerpt from Harbor Me, one of multi-award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson’s newest releases, speaks to the authentic journey that unfolds between a few improbable middle school students. Though initially distrusting and unfamiliar with one another, these students come to navigate challenging life circumstances together, becoming brave enough to share stories and develop a safe space among each other.
Though written with middle grade readers in mind, the authentic themes and character development that readers experience throughout the story applies to learners of all ages. As humans who experience myriad feelings and fears, this story seeks to reveal the importance of seeking for ourselves and, equally as (if not more) important, offering for others - a harbor. We often think of the word harbor as a noun: a place of shelter, a refuge, or haven. Perhaps less frequently we refer to it in the active sense: protecting, nurturing, holding onto, fostering, or encouraging. A critical dive into the text Harbor Me will allow students to reflect on the metaphor of “harboring others” or “being harbored” and discuss the presence of, necessity for, or perhaps even the absence of this in their own lives. In addition to a critical and dialogic analysis of the text, students will make associations to poetry and other modes of communication as a means for self-expression. Finally, Honors students will extend their learning by collaborating with a local middle school class that is also engaged in reading Harbor Me as an anchor text for one of their assigned literature units.
The instructor, Michelle Commeret, is a former English Language Arts (ELA) teacher and current UF Literacy Education Ph.D. student. She seeks to engage students in using literature to think through and beyond their own realities, to study the implications of multimodal storytelling, and to utilize young adult literature as a means for eliciting more complex text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections.
Maps have played a central role in human societies since the beginning of time. As you will learn in this course, maps are not neutral representations of reality but powerful tools of communication. Maps exert an enormous amount of influence on a society’s political structure, economic system, and imagination of the larger world. Maps are often used to highlight spatial data in informative ways or to help people get from work to the nearest bar. They are also used on a daily basis to track and kill people, to ostracize whole segments of society (i.e., redlining), and to forcefully rip apart ethnic groups. Using Mark Monmonier's How to Lie with Maps as our guide, we will be studying maps and analyzing their myriad roles in society. Through weekly discussions and a case study presentation, students will explore how maps work, what they are, who decides what goes on them, and how humans interpret them. We will learn how mapmaking has evolved, how the power to make maps has changed over time, and how digital technology is changing what can be done with maps. Finally, students will be introduced to the myriad ways that maps are used to shape society.
Before "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda’s dream project was "In the Heights." From an off-Broadway production to a multimillion-dollar-grossing blockbuster film, "In the Heights" has captured the hearts of countless audiences. This musical is about more than just a barrio in New York; it’s about chosen family, culture, hard work, and, most of all, following your dreams. In this course, we will read "In the Heights: Finding Home" by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Jeremy McCarter. We will have lively, community-building discussions about the themes from this musical, many of which are applicable to college student's daily lives.
This is a discussion-based class in which we will consider a broad range of important and timely questions. What is intellectual freedom? Where does it come from? How is it expanded or diminished and what does it matter? When are ideas and/or speech too dangerous or offensive? When is censorship okay? Who should control and own information
and what are the implications on the greater good? How much privacy and freedom from manipulation do we really have? What is the purpose of higher education? How important is safety in learning? Fundamentally: how do power, technology, money, bias and privilege interact below the surface of these questions and seek to shape what we can experience and know? How have those forces shaped the personal and societal intellectual landscapes we occupy today? The course topics will be introduced and framed through readings and multimedia materials, popular and scholarly, but the focus will be our class dialogues. The class will be a space where we can reconsider our assumptions, think about important topics that some may have never really considered and benefit from the consideration of other people’s perspectives and experiences.
The intention of this course is to invite students to reflect on the complex issue of justice and punishment in
contemporary America. Through the eyes of the author of the book, we will journey from the early days of his
experience at Harvard Law School to the struggles and challenges of running a pro bono law office in the
American South. The overall question posed by the book is this: how is our society implementing justice? The
author offers well-documented and thought-provoking insights into the issues of mass incarceration in the US,
racial bias in prosecutorial practices, and the inability to provide competent counsels for poor inmates. Through
personal stories and real cases, students will encounter actual problems our justice system causes in the life
of incarcerated people, and the seemingly inevitable contradictions that emerge in the attempt to balance
justice and humanity.
Furthermore, the biographical component of the book allows students not to disconnect the general problem
from its human component. In the first pages of the book the author’s grandmother suggests: “You can’t
understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close.” Such closeness,
though at times proving to be painful for the reality it unveils, will surely provide the unparalleled benefit of
asking questions which few in the public arena dare to ask.
Recent events in America have brought racial tensions to the fore. This book helps raise questions, beyond any
political or ideological allegiance, that can better frame our understanding of the present.
There is no book quite like A. B. Yehoshua’s "Mr. Mani" (1989). First of all, it is told backwards. The novel which spans five generations of one family begins in the relatively recent present and proceeds back through the centuries, "ending" in 1799. If that’s not experimental enough, the novel is also written in the form of one-sided conversations, meaning, the reader gets to read only one voice (imagine listening to someone talking on the phone...) and must complete the dialogue in their head.
In this course we will unpack Yehoshua’s innovative, yet challenging novel. We will open the semester by thinking about post-modern art and how the process of writing and reading had changed in the 20th century. We will then delve into the book’s "conversations" and hear about the trials and tribulations of the Mani family through the ages. In our discussions, we will learn about the history and fate of the Jewish people in exile, about Jewish identity, the state of Israel, and the conflict in the Middle East. We will also raise more personal questions about the structure of one’s identity: how do we define and present ourselves in relation to religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, and mainstream culture? How do external forces such as community, family, and prescribed notions of destiny, affect our lives and free will?
This (Un)Common Reads course will mark a one year anniversary of Yehoshua’s passing. The celebrated novelist, essayist and playwright was described by the New York Times as the “Israeli Faulkner.” Students will get to familiarize themselves with Yehoshua's literary inspiration, and his own philosophical reflections about identity and the state through supplemental readings and discussions.
The final assignment for this course will be a creative project inspired by the novel. Students will submit their own written conversations which we will read together and discuss at the end of the semester.
This course will introduce you into one of the best books ever written on the art of living. The Nicomachean Ethics explores what happiness is and how we can achieve it. In that context, the book discusses what virtue is, whether we have free will, the nature and operations of the main virtues (courage, temperance, justice, prudence, wisdom); the nature, types and operations of friendship; the nature of pleasure and its relationship to happiness; contemplative life and, finally, the nature and aims of law.
The work is divided in 10 books. During this course you will read one book [equivalent to a chapter] per week and discuss it in class. Books 3, 5, 8 and 9 will take 2 weeks each. The professor will lead the discussion following the Socratic method. You will try to use this classic work as a way to question your beliefs and presuppositions concerning the meaning of life and the ways to live a good life. Besides, you will have to critically discuss one problem suggested by the reading in a 2,000 words final essay. The last week of the semester will be dedicated to help the students to rightly finish their essay.
Carlos A. Casanova is Senior Visiting Fellow of the Hamilton Center at the University of Florida. He researches and teaches in the areas of classical philosophy, political and moral philosophy, philosophy of Law, metaphysics and philosophical anthropology. He has published 9 books in two languages and more than 50 peer reviewed papers in English and/or Spanish. He has been Fellow at the Jacques Maritain Center of the University of Notre Dame, Researcher for the Chilean National Agency of Research and Development, and has university experience in four countries.
Before joining the University of Florida, professor Casanova was teaching Introduction to Philosophy, Natural Law, Theory and Sources of Law and philosophical seminars at the Law School of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and doing research on Marxism and classical philosophy. He also has taught classical philosophy for many years in Venezuela and Chile.
Nicomachean Ethics - Syllabus - Syllabus
This course explores the nature, roles, operations, and impacts of Non-Governmental Organizations on societies across the globe. The course will provide students with a foundation in understanding NGOs and International NGOs within the geographical, social, political and economic realities under which they operate.
No work of Western literature approaches the ambition, scope, and cultural resonance of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The last true epic poem, Paradise Lost reimagines the foundational myth of Adam and Eve from the Book of Genesis in a narrative that also includes the fall of Lucifer and his rebellious fellow angels, the Creation and destruction of the world, and all cosmological and scientific knowledge as it existed in Milton’s time. Every page of Paradise Lost displays Milton’s dizzying mastery of classical and biblical mythology, but they also show the result of his penetrating investigation into the foundational questions of gender, politics, and religion. While in Paradise Lost Milton sets out to “justify the ways of God to men,” he also famously creates the first sympathetic portrait of the Devil in Western literature, prompting William Blake to declare that Milton was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it.” Milton’s famously idiosyncratic, difficult, and grand poetic style exerted enormous influence on generations of writers after him, as did his pathbreaking decision to write his great epic without rhyme. All this makes Paradise Lost a necessary rite of passage for any student of literature but also a vital resource for anyone grappling with the most basic questions of how to live a worthy human life.
Assignments: The class will be comprised of thirteen 50-minute sessions. We will engage in weekly online posts and in-class discussions. At the end of the semester, students will work alone or with a partner to create a presentation of their choosing.
Evaluation of Grades:
In-class Discussion: 13 meetings, 40% of final grade
Online discussion posts: 6 total, 30% of final grade
Final presentation (Last day of class): 1 project 30% of final grade
Clay Greene received his PhD in English and Renaissance Studies from Yale University and his BA and MA in English from the University of Alabama. He is interested in the connections of religion and politics in seventeenth-century English literature, especially the poetry of John Milton. He is currently completing a book on Milton and the Christian idea of "holy war."
After a trial that lasted 252 days, a jury took less than 4 hours to reach their “not guilty” verdict and acquit Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson of double homicide charges. In this course, students will encounter in-depth coverage and accounts of events that would become known as 'the trial of the century.' Through reading and digesting Jeffrey Toobin’s "The Run of His Life", students will follow the story and history of O.J. Simpson from his arrest for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman to his acquittal in a trial by jury. Each week, students will encounter new actors and events that contributed to the high-stakes, high-profile criminal trial that forced America to confront important questions about race, wealth/privilege, celebrity, and the criminal justice system. In analyzing Toobin’s novel, students will learn about and pragmatically discuss: criminal law/procedure, police action and perception by the public, the role of race and wealth in the criminal justice system, and gender in the workplace, among many other paramount themes. This one-credit, semester-long course will culminate into a final, capstone project that allows students to further investigate one crucial aspect of the trial or the larger criminal justice system that is of burning interest to them.
The original blueprint for realpolitik, The Prince shocked sixteenth-century Europe with its advocacy of ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. For this treatise on statecraft, Machiavelli drew upon his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting traditional values of political theory and recognizing the complicated, transient nature of political life. Concerned not with lofty ideals, but with a regime that would last, this seminal work of modern political thought retains its power to alarm and to instruct.
Tim Parks' modern translation of the original Italian makes this edition of The Prince very accessible and relevant to contemporary readers.
As film adaptations of graphic novels like Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Black Panther, and The Avengers maintain popular culture ubiquity, superhero narratives continue to have prominence in public discourse. But what do historical and contemporary superhero stories reveal about silences and single stories related to identity and society? More than images on pages, superhero graphic novels serve as texts that can open up critical conversations about vital socio-political realities.
This course will utilize Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang (Author) and Gurihiru (Illustrator) as a vehicle for exploring questions such as: How do stories influence our understanding of the world? Who gets to be a superhero? And what identities are centered in superhero narratives? The intersection of identity and society will be discussed further through supplemental superhero narratives such as Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, and Black Panther. Depending on student interests, we’ll also discuss superhero narratives through collaborations with community institutions, such as The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at UF Law and Covey Comic Book Collection in UF’s Special Collections (pending approval). Additionally, this course will function as a potential school university partnership with P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School students who are also reading superhero narratives as a method for investigating inequities and injustices. There will be opportunities for dialogue across groups to facilitate different identities and perspectives on the potential of superhero stories.
Superheroes can do more than save the world. Their stories create opportunities to challenge the status quo by centering experiences, ideas, and concepts that are often marginalized in broader society. Our end goal will be to contemplate how we can call in, challenge, and change socio-political realities through engagement with superhero narratives. No previous knowledge of superheroes or comics is required. This course is particularly important for undergraduates as they navigate how their identity further develops within a diverse campus community and society where they can use their voice as a positive asset for social reform.
Shelby Boehm is a doctoral candidate in the College of Education and a former high school English teacher at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School at the University of Florida. Her research interests include how classrooms are positioned as democratic spaces, using young adult (YA) literature to discuss socio-political issues, and the development of teacher identity. She enjoys baking, reading, and reality TV.
True/False is a class about media literacy: how we make sense of the constant stream of “content” we receive. Our all-access media streams flow to us in a full range of devices from smartphones to laptops to flat screen tvs to billboards. They are a constant flow of information, opinions, emotions, stories, images, and sounds that often feel like an overflow. Infuse these inputs with various ideological perspectives and marketing-savvy nuances, and it becomes too much to take in and make sense of. What we are often left with is a wholesale inability to decipher and process all the information, leaving us “media illiterate”. In short, our media overflow turns worthwhile and complex things into simple commodities for consumption, entertainment, or ideological battleground.
But how are we to consider the imprint any of this makes on our lives? Where is there space to sort truth from error, reality from fiction? And what is at stake in all of this anyway? How might we curate various media streams that are constructive and not merely destructive? Are there ways that our imaginations might craft a better way to navigate and process all that comes our way?
This seminar style course will involve a “slow read” of Neil Postman’s acclaimed book Amusing Ourselves to Death. Alongside Postman’s text, we will consider how the arts come to bear on the topic. Specific focus will be given to creative nonfiction film (a kind of documentary), and in particular the resources of the True/False Film Festival. The class’ structure will include: reading and in-depth conversation. Each week, students will come to class having read and entered a brief blogpost summary of the content for the week. During class, we will discuss the reading in various formats. Periodically, there will be additional assignments in the form of short Film/Creative Review essays.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is one of the most important and interesting political philosophers in the Western tradition. He was the first major thinker in Western history to argue that democracy is the best form of government, indeed the only legitimate form of government—something we tend to take for granted—and his formulation of basic democratic theory remains unparalleled to this day. Along with Hobbes and Locke, he was one of the three great “social contract” theorists of the Enlightenment.
However, he was also the first great critic of Enlightenment philosophy and the kind of society he saw it producing. He characterized the latter as “bourgeois”—a term which would later become indelibly associated with Marx, but which Rousseau was perhaps the first to use in its modern sense. Relatedly, he was a major influence on the French Revolution. (Reportedly, Robespierre slept with a copy of On the Social Contract and would quote from it while sentencing people to public execution by guillotine.) In fact, Rousseau is the grandfather of modern leftism, from classical Marxism to contemporary “wokeism”.
He also wrote the first modern autobiography (Confessions), the most popular novel of the 18th century (Julie, or the New Heloise), and some very successful operas. His cultural influence can be discerned today in phenomena as disparate as ethical veganism, on the one hand, and “paleo” and “carnivore” diets, on the other. Social constructionism, critiques of modernity and progress, and “get back to nature” movements all owe much to Rousseau, whether they realize it or not.
In this reading- and discussion-based course, we will focus on Rousseau’s theory of democracy and his political philosophy more generally, as presented in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Discourse on Inequality, and On the Social Contract. Our text for this course will be the excellent volume titled The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacque Rousseau: The Two Discourses and the Social Contract, translated and edited by John T. Scott (University of Chicago Press, 2012).
Allen Porter is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. Before joining the Hamilton Center, he was a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the James Madison Program in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. He holds a B.A. in German from Princeton University, a M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University. His primary research interests include bioethics, phenomenology, and political philosophy.
Business + Economics
What do dating apps and economics have in common? Apparently, a lot more than it seems. Paul Oyer’s Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned From Online Dating shows how we can apply various topics in economics – search, signaling, adverse selection, cheap talk, statistical discrimination, thick markets, and network externalities – to the use of dating apps.
The goal of this course is to examine the applications of these topics with a more modern perspective, given the normalized use of dating and hookup apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Grindr, and others. With any luck, this course may increase students’ awareness of those relevant economic principles the next time they go to swipe right or left.
Final grades in this class will be determined by in-class participation, weekly discussion posts, and an end of semester project. The instructors also hope to schedule a virtual Q&A with the author, Dr. Oyer, where students will have the opportunity to ask, and have answered, thought-provoking questions about the text.
Other
In this course, we will read graphic novels from a range of genres (fantasy, horror, memoir, historic, among others) and for a range of audiences (children, young adult, and adult). We will discuss how to read them, how to understand them, how to analyze and critique them, and where they fit in the scholarship of literature and literacy. Together, we will add to the scholarship of graphic novels through discussion, research, and writing.
Dubbed “The World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game,” Dungeons and Dragons has been inspiring people all over the world to explore the limits of their imagination ever since its release almost 50 years ago. This course will analyze the most recent fifth-edition Dungeons and Dragons as a tool for navigating themes, dilemmas, and worlds that are impossible to experience outside of a game. Students will gain a foundational knowledge of the game’s rules, learn how to create compelling characters, encounters, and stories, and will have the opportunity play through several game modules as hands-on practice for these concepts. No prior experience necessary!
Journal 29, by Dimitris Chassapakis, is a collection of original, escape-room-like puzzles centered around the mysterious disappearance of a team of excavators working on a confidential project. The book requires readers to submit solutions online in order to receive “keys” that they need to solve some subsequent puzzles. Students in this course will engage with the book through frequent collaborative puzzle-solving. They will also discuss elements of good puzzles, the importance of diversity on puzzle-solving teams, the role of a storyline in puzzle-based games, and the ways in which puzzle-solving and logic connect to careers in a wide range of disciplines. Additionally, students will use their experiences with the puzzles in Journal 29 to create their own themed puzzle book game as a class.
Emily is a fourth-year Computer Engineering major. She has interests in FPGAs, machine learning, and natural language processing, as well as in math and linguistics. In her free time, she's a part of the UF Fencing Club and she enjoys doing codes, ciphers, and other puzzles for fun.
Maddie is a fourth-year mathematics major minoring in secondary mathematics education through the UF Teach program. She hopes to become a middle school mathematics teacher when she graduates. She is a trumpet player in the Gator Marching Band and enjoys playing piano and writing stories in her free time.
These courses are interdisciplinary in nature and often team-taught.
Although we may not realize it, the law permeates our everyday lives in tangible and significant ways. The same premise holds true with regards to works of literature. Although the work itself is fictitious, there still exists within it some social construct of law and order, even if it radically departs from our conceptual understanding of the same. In other words, a literary work can possess significant legal issues even when the author fails to create and appropriate a single lawyer, judge, or police officer as a character in the entire story.
This course will look at potential legal issues in certain literary texts–texts that are not ostensibly about the law but that nevertheless do involve legal issues. The focus of the course will entail analyzing these legal issues, researching positions on them, and writing persuasive legal briefs in support of these positions. Students will perform mock trials, evidentiary hearings, and depositions both during and at the end of each unit and present the arguments made in their legal briefs before a live jury. Texts for the class include: Miss Julie (August Strindberg), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson), “A Mother” (from Dubliners, James Joyce), Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton), A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen), and Dirty Work (Larry Brown).
The Honors Spirituality and Health course is intended for all students, particularly those engaged in pre-medical, pre-counseling, pre-health, or pre-law majors, who are interested in exploring the interface of spirituality and the health sciences. Interest in the intersection of spirituality and health is rapidly growing in our society, as we seek meaning and purpose in our lives and a more holistic approach to our wellness and our health challenges. Course topics will include stress reduction through non-judgmental living in the present moment (mindfulness); mind-body relationships; links between religion/spirituality and health; brain-based drug addiction and the spiritually based 12-step program; scientific evaluation of the impact of prayer on our health; spiritual approaches to our lives; lessons on living from those who are dying; and stories that heal. This student-centered discussion course is, at its heart, a semester-long dialogue about how various aspects of spirituality impact our health at the level of body, mind, and spirit.
Dr. Lou Ritz (lritz@ufl.edu) is on the faculty of the Department of Neuroscience in the McKnight Brain Institute, the director of the UF Center for Spirituality and Health (www.spiritualityandhealth.ufl.edu) and a former course director for Clinical Neuroscience which is taken by second year medical students. Dr. Ritz is a member of the College of Medicine Society of Teaching Scholars and was selected by Honors students as the 2018 Honors Professor of the Year.
These courses are aimed at developing skills that will help students over their career.
Using various forums, technology provides a convenient method for people to communicate with each other locally and worldwide. This course will analyze the impact of digital tools and social networks on interpersonal communication, and present information to help students effectively communicate in a digital world, improve communication skills, and expand their professional network.
Signature Seminars offer opportunities to work with UF's top faculty in their research areas of interest.
Regenerative medicine creates an opportunity to lessen pathological processes, repair injured or congenitally defective tissues and organs for patients with conditions that are incompletely addressed. Academic Centers and Private sectors are trying to address these issues by exploring several complementary approaches, including tissue rejuvenation, tissue or organ replacement, rescue and repair, with the ultimate goal to improve patient health. This course is one of a two-course Program (courses can be taken in any sequence) that is focused on evaluating a complex multistage process of conveying innovative ideas that originate in the academic laboratory to regular clinical use. Each week a different faculty member from the University of Florida, or a visiting lecturer from a national regulatory agency as well as various industrial partners, with specific expertise in the field, will give a lecture on topics critical to the regulation, development, financing, and implementation of regenerative medicine technologies. Students enrolled in the 2-credit class will also be required to review appropriate literature prior to each lecture and expected to actively participate in an interactive discussion during class.
The one credit option of the course is the LECTURE PORTION OF THE CLASS ONLY. Students registered for the one credit option will have the opportunity to attend guest lecturer presentations for the first hour of the class.
One Credit
Bench to Market Regenerative Medicine - Syllabus
Office Hours: Please email Dr. Traktuev to schedule Zoom meeting as needed
Regenerative Medicine - Two credits
Regenerative medicine creates an opportunity to lessen pathological processes, repair injured or congenitally defective tissues and organs for patients with conditions that are incompletely addressed. Academic Centers and Private sectors are trying to address these issues by exploring several complementary approaches, including tissue rejuvenation, tissue or organ replacement, rescue and repair, with the ultimate goal to improve patient health. This course is one of a two-course Program (courses can be taken in any sequence) that is focused on evaluating a complex multistage process of conveying innovative ideas that originate in the academic laboratory to regular clinical use. Each week a different faculty member from the University of Florida, or a visiting lecturer from a national regulatory agency as well as various industrial partners, with specific expertise in the field, will give a lecture on topics critical to the regulation, development, financing, and implementation of regenerative medicine technologies. Students enrolled in the 2-credit class will also be required to review appropriate literature prior to each lecture and expected to actively participate in an interactive discussion during class.
The two-credit option includes BOTH THE LECTURE PORTION AND THE DISCUSSION PORTION. Students registered for the two-credit option will have the opportunity to attend guest lecturer presentation for the first hour. This will be followed by an hour long “round table discussion” with the guest speaker in which students can ask any questions that pertain to the field. Students enrolled in the 2-credit class will also be required to review appropriate literature prior to each lecture and actively participate in an interactive discussion during class.
Two Credits
Office Hours: Please email Dr. Traktuev to schedule Zoom meeting as needed
Uncommon classrooms are courses designed around unusual topics with cities, places, and natural landscapes serving as experimental classrooms.
These courses are application-based. Students that are selected to participate will be registered for a 1-credit course and are responsible for tuition (financial aid may apply). Details about additional fees associate with each course are provided in the description. Students are required to provide their own transportation to and from the location of the course.
Wentworth Travel Scholarships are available to support costs, up to $500. Students that provide proof of financial need as part of the application may be eligible for additional funding.
Community can be a fickle term and concept, largely because the idea is amorphous and the edges can be blurred or fuzzy. Still, most people have an idea of what community is and isn’t based on their own experiences with in-group and out-group dynamics. In this remarkable tour of the city, students will examine how identity-based communities change over time to expand, or constrict, their definitions of membership based on historical and contemporary events. We will use the case of the LGBTQ+ community and its subcommunities as our starting point—with the understanding that other groups based on gender, race, class, and more also intersect with our focal point. This class will culminate in a final paper that asks students to reflect on how they understand community (trans)formation from personal and academic standpoints.
The course will take place in San Francisco during spring break – March 13th-16th. Cost is estimated to be $1,480 including double-occupancy hotel room, classroom space, a city tour, museum and show tickets, transportation during class activities, and a class dinner. Students are expected to arrive by Sunday, March 12 and depart after March 16. All good-standing Honors students that participate in the course are eligible to receive a $500 Wentworth Travel Scholarship to help support the cost of the trip. Airfare to/from San Francisco, most meals, and any additional attractions/entertainment are not included.
Instructor: Dr. TehQuin Forbes
Class #: 29519
Dates: 3/13/23-3/16/23
Location: San Francisco
Grading: 25% - Reflection Paper | 25% - Discussion | 50% - Participation in Planned Activities
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