Spring 2027 Courses

• Course: AGR3303
• Class Number: 16592
• Instructor: Kara Riggs

• Course: AGR4212
• Class Number: 17136
• Instructor: Chris Wilson

• Course: ALS4914
• Class Number: 26626
• Instructor: Dina Liebowitz

In this course, students will develop an appreciation of and the ability to think critically about culture and be provided with the tools to understand, analyze, and discuss works of visual art and material culture, including works from the western canon and other cultural traditions.

• Course: ARH2000
• Class Number: 16855
• Instructor: TBA

• Course: CHM2051
• Class Number: 26528
• Instructor: TBA

• Course: CHM2051
• Class Number: 17614
• Instructor: Alexander Angerhofer

• Course: ENC3459
• Class Number: 18614
• Instructor: TBA

This course will provide more depth on topics introduced in Beekeeping I including beekeeping styles, colony stressors and yearly management. This course will also explore issues affecting the beekeeping industry including integrated pest management, pests/diseases, African bees, commercial pollination, queen production, bee removals and pesticides will be discussed. ENY 4573, Beekeeping I, is a prerequisite for this course.

• Course: ENY4574
• Class Number: 19478
• Instructor: Cameron Jack

• Course: MAP2302
• Class Number: 18475
• Instructor: TBA

In this course, students will survey the history of classical music from antiquity to the modern period, focusing on Western music. The curriculum may also integrate a variety of popular and global styles where appropriate.

MUL 2010 is designed to examine music and its role in culture: how it both shapes and is shaped by social, political, national, and cultural forces. Examples from Western art music, popular music, and world music will be used to demonstrate music’s inextricable link to life in both historical and contemporary settings. No prior or concurrent courses are required for enrollment in MUL 2010, nor is any prior musical training or experience. However, it is strongly recommended that you have taken ENC 1101 or 1102, as your writing will be held to college-level standards. 

This course is designed to enhance the student's understanding of music from a technical, aesthetic, historical, and sociological perspective. To accomplish these goals, the course will concentrate on: 

• The development of an attentive style of listening.
• The introduction and systematic study of the building blocks of music.
• Enhancing awareness of the main musical styles of selected Western and non-Western cultures.
• Application of critical thinking skills to musical constructs to better understand human creativity and problem solving.
  

   
• Course: MUL2010
• Class Number: 25706
• Instructor: Lauren Hodges

PHY 2060 (Enriched Physics with Calculus 1) is the first course in the honors physics sequence for majors and others seeking a deeper understanding of the subject. Covering classical mechanics and special relativity—kinematics, dynamics, Newton's laws, conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum, gravitation, oscillations, waves, and relativity—the course treats these foundational topics at a faster pace and greater conceptual depth than the standard calculus-based sequence. Taught in a small-class format with hand-graded exams that reward clear reasoning and award partial credit, PHY 2060 emphasizes conceptual understanding and the ability to tackle challenging, unfamiliar problems. Students will strengthen their quantitative problem-solving skills while learning to reason about the physical world through the lens of the scientific method.

• Course: PHY2060
• Class Number: 15482
• Instructor: Mark Meisel

• Course: PHY2061
• Class Number: 15494
• Instructor: Philip Chang

• Course: PHY3063
• Class Number: 22379
• Instructor: Ivan Furic

The underlying theme of this class is democracy. We will discuss various conceptions of democracy, and how to assess various aspects of the political system using those concepts. We will also read and discuss possible reforms to the current structures of American politics.  By the end of the course, students should be able to critically evaluate claims about the U.S. political system using empirical evidence.

In this course, students will investigate how the national government is structured and how the American constitutional republic operates. It covers the philosophical and historical foundations of American government, including but not limited to the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution (the original text and all its amendments), and the Federalist Papers. The course examines the branches of government and the government’s laws, policies, and programs. It also examines the ways in which citizens participate in their government and ways their government responds to citizens.

• Course: POS2041
• Class Number: 15396
• Instructor: Michael Martinez

The multidisciplinary course examines the Jewish experience from Biblical origins to modern times, with particular focus on how Judaism fits into the American religious landscape, Jewish holidays, and the influence of Jews and Judaism on American culture. No prior understanding of Jews and Judaism required.

• Course: REL2600
• Class Number: 26486
• Instructor: Rachel Gordan

• Course: SPC2608
• Class Number: 22640
• Instructor: TBA

• Course: SPN3300
• Class Number: 15699
• Instructor: TBA

This course will explore the history of agricultural innovations while examining their social, political, economic, and environmental consequences within the context of the global food system. Through analysis of how eating evolved, we will formulate ideas on how global food systems will change and function in the future.

• Course: PLS2030
• Class Number: 23144
• Instructor: Rosalie Koenig

• Course: STA2090
• Class Number: 22328
• Instructor: Elizabeth Johnson

The course you've been "waiting" for! WOULDN'T YOU LIKE to enroll before your LUCK RUNS OUT?

This course sails through Epic: The Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, a modern retelling of Homer's Odyssey. Across the nine sagas, students will listen, annotate lyrics, make art, and discuss themes related to how LEGENDARY ODYSSEUS made his way home to Ithaca.

No prior knowledge of the GOD GAMES of Greek mythology, musical theatre, or art is required but rather only curiosity and a desire to dig into the musical. Ready for THE CHALLENGE?

Joseph Uong is with Data Management Analyst at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 26767
• Day/Period: W/9
• Instructor: Joseph Uong

Cape Verde came to international attention during the 2026 World Cup competition, firstly through making it into other cup competition, and then through the outstanding performance of the nation's 40 year old goalie and the story involved with bringing his mother to the games to watch him play. Prior to these games, few perhaps had ever heard off this small nation, which is considered an African nation and is inhabited by people whose identities derive from African cultures and partly from European nations- primarily Portugal, the former colonial ruler. Through reading Cape Verdean literature- especially the novel "The Last Will and Testament of Señor da Silva Araujo by Germano Almeida, and exploring its music- including attending a concert at the Phillips Center- the class will explore how this unified culture developed and how cultural understandings are expressed.

Nina Stoyan-Rosenzweig created the archives for the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries and Director of Medical Humanities at the College of Medicine. She teaches medical humanities including narrative medicine, literature and medicine, the use of arts in developing observational skills, reflective writing and nature writing with a focus on history of medicine, and has taught bioethics in the College of Medicine since 2002. She is involved with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism Honor Society’s efforts to promote humanism in medicine, serving on the Advisory Council, and several committees . At UF she also teaches in the Center for African Studies- having co-developed a course on the arts and health in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has served on the CAS Advisory Council. She teaches Uncommon Read courses in the UF Honors College, including a one credit course on Harry Potter and Medicine Humanities and Clinical Practice course for undergraduates. Ms. Stoyan-Rosenzweig’s research interests include environmental history, the history of the human-animal relationship, and the history of science and medicine, especially eugenics, and medicinal herbs. She co-developed the Medical Humanities Pathway for the UF College of Medicine.

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 26672
• Day/Period: M/5
• Instructor: Nina Stoyan-Rosenzweig

Maybe you’ve sung “I Won’t Back Down” at the Swamp, have been to Heartwood for a concert, or attended Fest, but do you really know the music history of Gainesville, Florida? Through this course, students will be introduced to the artists who’ve at some point called Gainesville - or a surrounding town - their home, such as Bo Diddley, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stephen Stills, Minnie Riperton, Sister Hazel, and Driveaway. A range of genres, from rock to soul to indie pop will be explored. Students will assume the role of music journalists, reviewing albums and playlists each week. As a class, we’ll discuss themes found within the lyrics and explore what made Gainesville such a fertile land for producing musical talent. Students will be encouraged to explore Gainesville, visiting historical sites and venues. Through this course, students will be introduced to library and archival research, exploring the collections of the George A. Smathers Libraries for artifacts and ephemera documenting the rich music history of this southern town. 

Hannah Whitaker is the Women’s and Gender Studies Librarian and Research Services Coordinator at the George A. Smathers Libraries. Prior to working at the UF Libraries she was a Library of Congress fellow at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. Hannah grew up in Gainesville and cares deeply about the music history of this special place. When she’s not being a librarian, Hannah can be found running around Gainesville, listening to vinyl records with her cat, Hemingway, or reading mysteries. 

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 23279
• Day/Period: R/8
• Instructor: Hannah Whitaker

A fascinating story of the origins of Delta blues, the diaspora to Chicago and north, the transitions to rock, and the people keeping blues alive. Some of this course will be attending live blues show in town. 

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 19147
• Day/Period: T/5
• Instructor: Edmund Kellerman

Ever wondered how science fiction fans connected before social media? In this course, you'll explore the fascinating history of science fiction fandom through fanzines, the fan-created magazines that helped build communities, share stories, and spark imaginations. Through readings, discussions, and hands-on activities, you'll discover how fans became creators. Then it's your turn: design and publish your own science fiction fanzine inspired by a favorite book or series, or create an original science fiction story and bring it to life through the art of zine-making.

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 26696
• Day/Period: T/6
• Instructor: Robin Fowler
• Instructor: Angie Price

Over eight episodes of HBO's True Detective, two men drive through the gothic bayous and industrial graveyards of Louisiana looking for a killer and find, instead, something far more horrific. We will watch all of it in class and discuss the intellectual tradition and its contemporary articulations that the television show presents as its thesis. This includes the philosophical and cosmic pessimism of Schopenhauer, Cioran, Benatar, Lovecraft, Bataille, Ligotti, Thacker, and, of course, Nietzsche. These thinkers will be presented in light lectures, and no additional reading will be required.

And because nothing escapes its historical moment, we will study the vessel and the form of television media. True Detective represents prestige television at its 2014 apex and is a perfect artifact to understand the anthology form the series helped canonize, the weekly serialized gap into which viewers poured their paranoid exegesis. Fan theories will be discussed and critiqued. Developing your own will be key to doing well in class. Episodic serialization in True Detective turns into a dark revelation for the viewer, and through that recursiveness, we become the detectives just as much as the ones on screen. Underneath the philosophic register, political questions rot patiently. What sustains institutions everyone knows are corrupt? How does ritual violence hide in daylight? What can the search for justice do to the people who believe they are its instrument?

Students will develop skills in close visual and narrative analysis, learn about television as a distinct art form, and learn how to engage critically with art such as television.

As Detective Rust Cohle demands: even though it seems darkness is always winning, register anyway.

Timothy Stolz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science and studies political theory. Using the approaches of post-structuralism and psychoanalytic theory he studies contemporary American politics.

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 26770
• Day/Period: T/11
• Instructor: Timothy Stolz

Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550-1568) is generally considered the first true work of art history and remains one of the most widely read older texts in the discipline. It is simultaneously prized and controversial. This course offers a close reading of the Lives both as a primary historical document and as the foundational text that influenced categories that art historians still rely on including the idea of a "Renaissance," the narrative arc from Giotto to Michelangelo, and the artist as biographical subject. We'll read selected lives, discuss Vasari's biases, and attempt to answer how this gossipy, biased, and factually shaky work became an indispensable bedrock. This is a discussion-based seminar, and full participation depends on keeping up with the reading before each session.

Carol Demas is a senior lecturer in mathematics with a background in numerical methods of differential equations and a work history that includes IBM-Houston and NASA-KSC. She developed and taught the honors quest 1 course, "Mathematics in the Arts of Renaissance Italy." Her love of the arts stems from her mother, a coloratura-lyric soprano who studied voice in Florence.

• Course: IDH2952
• Class Number: 26664
• Day/Period: T/3
• Instructor: Carol Demas

‘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 ~10-minute presentation. 

Professor Alexander Angerhofer (Dr. A) received his PhD in physics from the University of Stuttgart in Stuttgart/Germany in 1987 and has served as 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. He also teaches a Quest-1 class about the ‘Secrets of Alchemy.’ His research interests are focused on the understanding of the catalytic mechanisms of metalloenzymes such as for example 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 the development and solution of modern environmental problems.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: #21244
• Day/Period: W/7
• Instructor: Alexander Angerhofer

As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding, this Honors seminar explores not only the life of Alexander Hamilton but also the ways Americans remember, reinterpret, and reinvent their past. Using Ron Chernow's bestselling biography Alexander Hamilton alongside popular media, students will examine the relationship between historical scholarship and popular memory.

The course follows Hamilton's journey from the Caribbean to the center of the American founding, exploring his role in the American Revolution, the creation of the Constitution, the development of the nation's financial system, and the emergence of political parties. At the same time, students will investigate how historical figures become cultural icons and how each generation reshapes the past to address contemporary questions and concerns.

Through discussion, students will consider larger questions about history itself. What responsibilities do historians and artists have when representing the past? Where does interpretation end and mythmaking begin? Why do some historical figures remain central to national memory while others fade from public attention?

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26665
• Day/Period: T/4
• Instructor: Matthew Strickland

As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding, this Honors seminar explores the life and legacy of George Washington through Ron Chernow's award-winning biography Washington: A Life. More than a Revolutionary War general or the nation's first president, Washington played a central role in shaping the political institutions, leadership traditions, and civic culture of the early United States. Through discussion of Chernow's biography, students will examine Washington's rise from a young Virginia surveyor to commander of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and first President of the United States. Students will explore questions that remain relevant today: What makes an effective leader? How should power be exercised and restrained? How does a nation build trust in its institutions? What responsibilities accompany public service? The course also examines the complexities of Washington's life, including his military leadership, political judgment, relationship with slavery, religious beliefs, and evolving public reputation. Through discussions, students will engage with one of the most influential figures in American history while considering the challenges of leadership.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26700
• Day/Period: T/5
• Instructor: Matthew Strickland

An insider’s take on the royal house that shaped modern Egypt and its path to independence: its origins, rise to power, dynastic challenges, political and social impact, lifestyle and interactions. Framed between Muhammad Ali’s meteoric rise to power during the Napoleonic wars and the revolution that overthrew his house in the wake of British decolonization, it captures a clearly defined period of dynastic development, expansion and demise. Prince Hassan Aziz Hassan chose to live in Egypt after most of his family went into exile, and observed the radical changes in post-revolutionary Egypt until his death at the turn of the 21st century. His narrative offers a unique perspective on the transitions that defined the modern Middle East, how they were remembered, and the meaning and interpretations that members of the new elites that emerged in the last Ottoman century may have chosen to attach to these developments.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26993
• Day/Period: R/5
• Instructor: Yehoshua Ecker

What would you do if telling the truth could cost you everything? Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon follows a former revolutionary who is imprisoned by the political system he once helped create. As he faces interrogation and trial, he is forced to question his beliefs, his past choices, and the meaning of truth itself.

In this discussion-based UnCommon Read seminar, we will explore the novel's questions about truth, loyalty, power, conscience, and personal responsibility. Why do people stay loyal to ideas that turn against them? Can a person remain true to their beliefs under pressure? What happens when there are no easy moral choices? Brief historical sources will help us understand the world behind the novel and connect Koestler's story to the experiences of people living under twentieth-century authoritarian systems.

No background in history or literature is required, only curiosity and a willingness to discuss difficult questions from different perspectives.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26776
• Day/Period: T/7
• Instructor: Edit Nagy

“Who lives, who dies, who tells her story?” In this course, we trace Eliza Hamilton’s life as we let her tell her story. Through excerpts from historical novels such as My Dear Hamilton and I, Eliza Hamilton to Tilar J. Mazzeo’s biography of Eliza, alongside the Broadway songs that have defined her life until now, we will reject the narrative that Eliza was “helpless.” Beyond being a wife and a widow, Eliza shaped life in the colonies through her own, distinct personhood. Her perspective offers a vital lens on a period of time when women were too often written out of our history. By the end of this course, students will see how Eliza’s voice - both sung and written - reframes history through loss, endurance, and the revolutionary act of telling her own story.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26286
• Day/Period: W/5
• Instructor: Jake Truscott
• Peer Instructor: Aurora Lai
• Peer Instructor: Madalena Meeker

Why are we called the Gators? What is Century Tower’s purpose? What are the oldest buildings on campus? How did UF begin? The University of Florida has a long, storied history that begs to be explored. In this course, we will do a deep dive into materials held in the University Archives to explore how these materials tell the story of UF, including those silent, undocumented stories that were excluded from the narrative. We will explore how these materials create the story of community and identity for the students at UF. You will be able to discuss your own story here at UF, and think of ways to share your story for the future. How will your experiences today be reflected in UF’s future? What kinds of stories will be told and how will they be told? How can we fill in the gaps in the archival record to ensure all aspects of a story are told? These are some of the many questions we will explore in this course. The course will include short reflections, discussion posts, and a final project. No previous archives experience or knowledge is necessary, and this course is open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the history of UF. 

Sarah Coates, CA, is the University Archivist at the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. As University Archivist, she saves, secures, and shares the story and history of the University of Florida. To achieve this goal, her work includes acquiring and processing records of enduring historical and administrative value from institutional units, faculty, staff, students, and campus organizations at UF. She has worked at the University of Florida’s University Archives since 2018, becoming University Archivist in 2022. Prior to coming to UF, she worked at Oklahoma State University’s Special Collections and University Archives and taught freshman composition at several universities in Ohio and Oklahoma. She received her Master’s in Library and Information Studies from the University of Oklahoma and her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English Literature from Wright State University in Dayton, OH. She is also a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 21229
• Day/Period: W/3
• Instructor: Sarah Coates

As the Earth endures its sixth, but first anthropogenically-instigated, mass extinction, it can be easy to grow hopeless about the prospects for our surrounding biodiversity. Renowned Harvard ecology professor and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author E. O. Wilson’s non-fiction The Future of Life will provide the framework for this discussion-based class focusing on Earth’s biodiversity, the challenges it faces, and how we might advocate to stop its destruction. Nearly twenty-five years after its initial publication, The Future of Life remains highly topical in its discussion of Earth’s dwindling biodiversity and what we might do to preserve it. With accompanying brief readings to update our understanding of the data and class visits to on-campus sites of natural beauty, we’ll examine our relationship with Earth’s vast diversity of living things, focusing on why we should remain ultimately hopeful in the fight for ecological conservation.

Maggie is a member of the academic advising faculty in CLAS and works with students of all CLAS majors in the Academic Advising Center, focusing on transfer students and the transition to UF from other colleges and universities. She is a proud double Gator, with a Bachelor of Science in Entomology and Nematology from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and a Master of Education in Secondary Science Education from the UF ProTeach Program. While a student at UF, Maggie was a member of the Honors College and active in Alpha Zeta, the National Agricultural Honor Fraternity. Prior to working in the AAC, she taught advanced (AICE and AP) Biology and Environmental Management at Gainesville High School for thirteen years. A former teacher of the year and passionate science educator, she still enjoys providing non-traditional educational opportunities through workshops, nature and bird walks, and other Alachua Audubon programming. In her spare time, she is an enthusiastic bird watcher and hiker, and as a 30+ year resident of Gainesville an eager explorer of our swamps and forests alike. Maggie is excited to bring her passion for ecology, wildlife conservation, and appreciating biodiversity to the Honors College at UF with her course this term.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26717
• Day/Period: W/9
• Instructor: Maggie Paxson

As part of the recent series of pocket-sized “Little Books of Nature,” Princeton University Press published “The Little Book of Fungi” by a mycologist Britt Bunyard. The book is short, accessible, inexpensive, and beautifully illustrated. It is full of fascinating facts about the kingdom of Fungi, which, it is estimated, contains over 2 million different species. The largest organism on this planet is an individual specimen of the honey fungus, whose mycelial mat covers 2,384 acres in Oregon’s Blue Mountains. Nowhere on Earth can you go that fungi do not dominate or at the very least colonize. And yet most people know little about them. We will have a chance to learn about the origin, nature and diversity of fungi, and find out how they partition habitats. From fungi as pathogens to unusual phenomena, such as bioluminescence, the book delves into various aspects of biology of these fascinating organisms, which can look like plants, but physiologically are closer to animals. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26716
• Day/Period: W/7
• Instructor: Andrei Sourakov

The Next Hundred Years is a short (300 pages) collection of short stories (don’t like one? No worries, go on to the next) set in a plausible world (ours), spanning the years 2030-2129. There will be war, disease, and poverty. There will be AI and robotics. And there will be advances in the human condition. Look back to 1930. Or 1830. One hundred years is a long time, and many things will happen. Most good, some not so good.

Students will explore the relevance, plausibility, implications, and ethics of each story. Stories touch on science, medicine, economics, faith, justice, governance, family, resilience, history, technology, and more. You can find the book everywhere and its reviews on Amazon.

The instructor, Dr. Michael Conlon, is a fifty-year veteran of UF — graduate school, teacher, health science researcher, and university leader. Parent, donor, and Gator football fan. Dr. Conlon serves as president-elect of the Retired Faculty of the University of Florida.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26844
• Day/Period: M/4
• Instructor: Michael Conlon

Do you keep a pet? Do you shudder at the sight of creepy crawly creatures? Do you eat T-bone steaks, chicken wings, or cheese? Lots of us do lots of these things every day, and they are just some examples of humanity’s complicated relationship with animals. This course will examine these relationships in several different contexts. Using the second edition of Hal Herzog’s Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals, we’ll discuss dogs, cats, mice, gamecocks, cows, and many other animals that play important roles in our lives.

Through weekly Socratic discussions, occasional short reflection essays, and a case study presentation, we will explore the human-animal relationship from environmental, ethical, social, and psychological perspectives. By the end of the class, we’ll confront the central question to the competing and conflicting relationships most people have with animals: are we all hypocrites with how we view and use different species? 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26702
• Day/Period: M/7
• Instructor: Ryan Good

Sea turtles are among the most magnificent megafauna we encounter in the ocean. The story of these iconic creatures is one of survival and resilience, especially in today’s world. In this course we will cover the book The Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina, which explores the plight of sea turtles and how human intervention has impacted both positively and negatively these animals and their ecosystems. During weekly discussions (from book readings and invited speakers) students will learn not only about sea turtles but also about the scientific, political, and cultural challenges encountered while conducting marine conservation around the world. This will provide students with a better understanding of current issues faced in the marine environment and help them reflect on what the ocean means to them and what steps they can take to make a positive impact on the marine environment. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: (1) Appreciate sea turtles and other endangered marine species, (2) describe the impact of human activities on marine life, (3) understand how scientific, cultural, and political issues affect the conservation and management actions carried out in the marine environment, and (4) recognize steps they can take to make a positive impact on the ocean.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26719
• Day/Period: T/7
• Instructor: Mariela Pajuelo

We will read Elizabeth F.S. Roberts’s In Praise of Addiction or How We Can Learn to Love Dependency in a Damaged World and Angela Garcia’s The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City’s Anexos. Problematizing the Euro-American perspective on addiction that is often clinically driven and rooted in social exclusion, poverty, and homelessness, these books will illuminate the social, psychological, and political aspects of addiction and recovery in an environment imbued with violence. Care and violence are not inextricable here; rather, coercion, control, connection, and confinement become forms of care. Some of the topics of discussion will include questioning the trope of the damaged, marginalized, individualized, and independent addict; lived experiences of addiction; the role of the US War on Drugs; and complexities of caregiving in an increasingly globalized world.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26715
• Day/Period: W/4
• Instructor: Sugandh Gupta

This course is based on the book "The Emotional Life of the Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect The Way You Think, Feel, and Liv e- and How You Can Change Them" by Richard Davidson, Ph.D. Dr. Davidson is one of the foremost Neuropsychologists in the world. This is a student-centered discussion class that will appeal to students interested in medicine, psychology, emotions, brain structures and functions, health including mental health, brain connections, neuroplasticity, and meditation. Dr. Ritz is on the faculty of the Department of Neuroscience in the College of Medicine. Dr. Ritz is the former Director of Clinical Neuroscience, taken by second year medical students. Dr. Ritz is the Director of the UF center for Spirituality and Health and was selected by the honors students as the 2018 Honors Professor of the Year. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 21096
• Day/Period: W/10
• Instructor: Louis Ritz

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman explores the tragic clash between Hmong cultural beliefs and Western medicine through the story of a young girl with epilepsy and her family’s struggles with the American healthcare system.  The class will explore approaches to healthcare, focusing on working with patients from differing worldviews.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26663
• Day/Period: T/8
• Instructor: Gregg Henderschiedt

This course is based on Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence and related articles and academic studies. The texts present 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 800-word papers.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 18327
• Day/Period: W/9
• Instructor: Regan Garner
• Instructor: Louis Ritz

A good review requires the art of attention: attention to detail, to details that matter, attention to outcomes and impacts, all set within a frame that contextualizes the assessment. John Green, famous for A Fault in our Stars and Everything is Tuberculosis (along with Curiosity Stream), reviews life itself, framed by the idea that we are living in the Anthropocene, an age defined by human impacts. We will read The Anthropocene Reviewed, discuss what is or should be reviewable, what the lens of reviewing affords and limits, and contribute our own reviews.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26724
• Day/Period: M/4
• Instructor: Mickey Schafer

Can love be a vice? Can vengeance be a virtue? Who gets to decide? In this one-credit Honors seminar, we’ll read Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Justice, following a young prince whose arranged marriage tests both his heart and the future of his homeland. Torn between a heady, forbidden relationship with the heir to the throne and a politically vital marriage to another, he becomes the hinge on which two peoples’ futures turn. One side imagines a bright path of mutual growth and shared customs; the other sees a dark path of loss, mistrust, and fading traditions. Together, we will explore lust and love, vengeance and justice, not only as private emotions but as forces that reshape communities, asking when resistance looks like “justice,” when it looks like “violence,” and who has the power to name the difference. Students should expect frank discussions of faith, intimacy, and cultural change as we learn to look into both the bright mirror and the dark.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number:26777
• Day/Period: W/6
• Instructor: Dustin Hall

In an age of algorithms, metrics, and constant tracking, data increasingly shape how we understand ourselves and our world. But what can data actually reveal about a human life? In Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, two designers transformed ordinary observations into intricate visual correspondences, revealing how acts of attention can generate both data and insight into the self. Thus, this seminar explores the intersection of data visualization, observation, storytelling, and self-knowledge. Students will examine innovative methods for representing complex information, collect and visualize data from their own experiences, and consider broader questions about identity, perception, and meaning. As we move between quantitative and qualitative ways of knowing, we will ask what counts as data, what remains beyond measurement, and how visual representations shape our understanding of reality.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26755
• Day/Period: T/3
• Instructor: Angela Brown

In this discussion-heavy course, we will read Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead as a starting point for exploring contemporary issues through the lens of literature. We will examine the novel's themes, characters, and social context while considering larger questions about resilience, community, and the forces that shape individual lives. We will experience what a novel can reveal about the world that statistics, news headlines and policy reports cannot convey. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26650
• Day/Period: W/4
• Instructor: Meredith Beaupre

Book 5 of Nicomachean Ethics. Is there any action that is intrinsically evil? What about genocide? Is it evil only when committed by a defeated army? This course will introduce you into the corner stone of all classical conceptions of natural right and justice and therefore provide you with tools that are necessary to answer that question. In book 5 of the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle explores what justice and the just are and the different meanings they can take, lays the foundations for all future conceptions of republican order and also for the understanding of the nature and functions of money and currency. More importantly, Aristotle distinguishes between what is just by convention and what is naturally just. This short text is the fountain source of Western, Jewish and Muslim natural right traditions. It is surprisingly short (around 20 pages) but rich and dense. We will read it slowly in class and extract all its meaning, setting it in discussion with alternative conceptions, such as those of Locke, Marx and Nietzsche. 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 justice and the just and concerning the existence or inexistence of natural right. The evaluation will be based on a final essay following the technique of the Oxford tutorials. The last weeks of the semester will be dedicated to help the students to rightly conceive the problem and write the essay. We will have relaxed, instructive and fun sessions of reading, discussing, thinking and solving a philosophical problem, the existence or inexistence of natural right.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26666
• Day/Period: W/7
• Instructor: Carlos Casanova

In this course, we will dive into Marie Lu’s dystopian novel "Legend", examining how the Republic’s fractured society reflects enduring questions about power, inequality, and resistance. Told through the dual perspectives of June, the privileged prodigy of the Republic, and Day, the most wanted criminal from the city’s slums, the novel highlights stark divisions of class and opportunity while also revealing unexpected solidarities. Together, their perspectives allow us to explore themes of government propaganda, surveillance, loyalty, and the ethics of rebellion. Centering our work on "Legend" while drawing brief connections to other dystopian literature, we will consider how contrasting voices expose the mechanics of oppression and the possibilities of justice. Students will engage in close reading, political inquiry, and dialogue to better understand how dystopian stories help us reimagine the societies we live in today.

Patricia is an Assistant University Librarian at the University of Florida and the liaison to Political Science, and the Bob Graham Center for Public Policy. She holds an MLIS from the University of Tennessee and a BA in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine. Patricia is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at UF, with a focus on languages and literacy. Her research interests include civic literacy, and the influence of the media on political information.

Maggie Wu is a junior majoring in Statistics with plans to pursue a career in healthcare. Her interests include understanding the patterns that influence our world and the perspectives that shape how we see it. As an avid reader, she is drawn to dystopian literature for the way it holds a mirror to society, allowing us to question systems of power, inequality, and the beliefs we often take for granted. Through thoughtful discussion, she hopes to explore how engaging with diverse perspectives can deepen our understanding of complex issues and encourage us to form more critical and nuanced views of the world around us.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26878
• Day/Period: T/9
• Instructor: Patricia Takacs
• Peer Instructor: Maggie Wu

Why have so many philosophers and writers insisted that walking helps them think? And why, despite their shared belief in walking as a practice of thought, do they describe its importance so differently? Centered on Frédéric Gros’s book A Philosophy of Walking, this seminar explores walking as a practice of thought, concentration, freedom, solitude, conversation, and political action. Students will connect philosophical readings with “thinking-in-motion” exercises in Gainesville’s neighborhoods, parks, trails, and public spaces. Along the way, we will consider how social and environmental factors may mediate our experience of walking and influence what we notice, imagine, and think. Through a field notebook and the curation of a walking route inspired by course readings, students will learn to think on their feet while cultivating greater curiosity and attention.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26848
• Day/Period: W/3
• Instructor: Glen Billesbach

In 1979 Rupert Holmes birthed a sensational work of art "Escape" also known as 'The Piña Colada Song'. For the youth that are reading this description and perhaps do not have their finger on the pulse, I know you know the song. It took American culture by storm! Featured in over 40 TV shows and movies, this song is nuanced, touching, and comedic. Well, 44 years later, Rupert Holmes does it again! In 2023 he busted out with his only book to date, Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide. When I tell you this book has it all, chaos, fulfillment, romance, depravity, intrigue, greed, all the human conditions described perfectly for the readers' enjoyment, I am not embellishing. Now before you go on and google the synopsis, humor me for a moment, close your eyes, DON'T GOOGLE IT, and just trust me when I tell you that this book will change your life! As my last effort in convincing you of the merit of this book and subsequently of choosing my course: I am a very entertaining instructor (so they say) and will give you my all during our guided discussions so that we may squeeze as much juice (social commentary, self-reflexivity, critical thinking, and moral dilemmas) as we possibly can out of this juicy, succulent book.

I received my bachelor's in environmental and agricultural sciences at Florida Internation University, my masters in Latin American studies at University of South Florida and am currently pursuing my PhD in cultural Anthropology at UF. I am interested in the ethnobotany of the Caribbean, including how this knowledge is transferred between elders and youth. I am primarily interested in plants as food and medicine but also enjoy learning about tools and aesthetic uses of plants. I am focusing my dissertation research in the Dominican Republic in attempts to identify the overlaps and differences amongst Haitian and Dominican plant use.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26726
• Day/Period: R/8
• Instructor: Barbara Herrera 

"Who are you, and what are you doing here? These questions may sound simple, but they open into the deepest uncertainties of life. In a world marked by division and distraction, it's easy to avoid asking them, or to cling to quick answers that leave us unsatisfied. Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life by Agnes Callard challenges us to take those questions seriously, and to live more philosophically in our everyday choices.

This one-credit Uncommon Reads course invites students to put philosophy into practice. Together, we will explore Callard’s idea of “untimely questions,” the fundamental issues of purpose, value, and identity that tend to arrive too late, and consider how confronting them can reshape our lives. Through weekly readings, conversations, and reflections, we will practice Socrates’ method of “persuade or be persuaded,” learning how open-minded dialogue can cut through polarization and open new possibilities for connection.

What does it mean to live an examined life in today’s world? How can embracing uncertainty become a strength? And what happens when we try to bridge divides by asking “why” rather than retreating into certainty? This course aims to show that philosophy is not a distant academic exercise, but a tool for living more intentionally, more honestly, and more fully. The course is ideal for students who enjoy big questions, spirited discussion, and reflecting on how timeless ideas apply to modern challenges.

Lucy Pellenbarg is a senior at the University of Florida majoring in Public Health with a focus on medical anthropology. Her academic and professional experiences range from finance and biotechnology to engineering, as well as clinical and global health research, reflecting a curiosity-driven path shaped by exploration across disciplines. Guided by Mary Oliver’s question, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life,” Pellenbarg turned to Open Socrates to help her ask difficult questions about purpose, identity, and meaning. As a peer instructor, she is passionate about fostering thoughtful dialogue and helping others reflect on their values, challenge assumptions, and discover their sense of purpose.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26648
• Day/Period: R/6
• Instructor: Michael O'Malley
• Peer Instructor: Lucy Pellenbarg

What sparks a revolution? Why do people risk everything for freedom and justice? Inspired by Les Misérables, Sky Without Stars transports readers to a futuristic world marked by inequality, oppression, and revolution. This course uses the novel as a lens to examine questions of justice, privilege, leadership, and social change. Students will engage in discussions connecting literature with revolution, justice, inequality, power, and resistance, history, ethics, and contemporary issues while exploring why stories of revolution continue to resonate across cultures and generations.

Patty Takacs studies how information literacy can foster critical thinking and strengthen political discourse. As an assistant university librarian and liaison to the Political Science department and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, she supports students and faculty in navigating complex information landscapes. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26285
• Day/Period: M/4
• Instructor: Patricia Takacs

The Anthropocene is full of mess, but what happens when we decide to engage the complexities of our time and stay with the trouble? In her 2016 book, "Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene," ecofeminist scholar Donna Haraway frames the "Chthulucene" or a time when human and nonhuman lives are interwoven with complexity. In this class, we will engage with Haraway's ideas through her book and discuss how we might reimagine our collective future with Earth and biodiversity.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26667
• Day/Period: R/3
• Instructor: Vaughn Shirey

True/False is a class about media literacy: how we make sense of the constant stream of “content” we receive. Entertainment and media streams of all kinds are among the chief industries of our society. All forms of public discourse somehow get reduced to that which will tantalize and, ultimately, that which will sell. 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”.

At the same time, seemingly, we have more reliable ways to communicate, better forms of diverse media for thought-provoking ideas, and access to cultural riches like the arts that are refreshingly at our fingertips. 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. Although it was originally published in 1985 when television was our primary form of media intake, Postman’s work has remained a steady point of reflection serving as a cultural pause button to stop and think about our engagement with media. With recent technological, cultural, and political developments, Postman’s ideas continue to offer much for consideration of our ongoing situation.

Todd Best is a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where he works as an Academic Advisor and teaches humanities courses. A long-time instructor of Uncommon Read courses, he has taught on issues ranging several areas of the humanities and social sciences, including on the topics of media literacy, higher education, ecological literature, the self, and the common good. He received a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Florida, focusing on religious pluralism and educational philosophy.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26768
• Day/Period: R/9
• Instructor: Todd Best

Success in Business and Life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff entertainingly combines the theory behind various tactical games with their practicality in real life scenarios. The authors stress how every interaction, no matter how insignificant, can be won or lost through calculated decision making. Engaging examples of game theory in action are presented in a wide range of fields including sports, elections, test taking, and even the gameshow Survivor.

Now for the fun part: utilizing the strategies discussed in the book in a competitive classroom environment! Each class will begin with a discussion of the corresponding week’s reading. Then, the class will be presented with a game theory scenario which will challenge everyone’s cooperative and critical thinking abilities. Competitive spirits will be fostered, as points will be awarded based on individual performances each week. Whoever has the most points by the end of the semester will win a small prize!

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26655
• Day/Period: T/9
• Instructor: John Streese
• Peer Instructor: Ben Shapiro

Bildungsroman is the German translation for what is often called “coming-of-age” in English. These tales are relatable to a wide swath of readers because of their universal themes: disruption, loss, exposure, growth, heartbreak, maturation, and so on. In this course, we’ll read three different coming-of-age titles all set during Europe in the summer. In class, we’ll discuss our thoughts on the novels, comparing them to each other and our own individual experiences, highlighting similarities and differences between ourselves and the protagonists as well as the role that place and setting play. The course’s primary assignments will be reflective in nature and include a letter to one’s younger or older self and a mapping of your own hero’s journey.

This course is the academic component of a Recreational Sports trip to Germany scheduled for June 19-27, 2027, where the class will participate in a bike tour of several cities and town. Students are expected to commit to both the UnCommon Reads course and the RecSports trip and will need to pay a $500 deposit by 01/13/2027. Students may also apply to the Honors Program’s Wentworth Fund to help pay for this trip.

Book titles:

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Discontent by Beatriz Serrano

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26653
• Day/Period: T/8
• Instructor: TehQuin Forbes

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to one of the greatest classics of the 19th-century – Fedor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866), as well as to examine the Russian and West European social institutions and culture of the 19th century that formed the background to the novel. Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky’s most famous novel that he wrote after his 10-year-long exile in Siberia (prison camp + compulsory military service). Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is arguably one of the most influential writers on a par with Sophocles, Dante and Shakespeare. He succeeded in creating unique fictional worlds inhabited by his inimitable characters who are just as relatable to us nowadays as they were relatable to Nietzsche, Freud, Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Bakhtin, and Nabokov earlier. Dostoevsky’s major accomplishment in Crime and Punishment is not so much to emphasize that one shouldn’t kill other people for whatever reason as to show that perfect crimes/perfect plans never go according to their initial scenarios. Thus, Raskolnikov plans to kill one person but ends up killing three people. C&P is not a story about romantic outcasts, it is a “realist novel of ideas.” We know up front that the book’s central character is the murderer – what is more interesting, though, is that Raskolnikov himself does not fully know why he committed his crime, why he acted as he did. Dostoevsky gradually unveils the complex ideas that have taken possession of his character. Whereas utopian fiction tells the story of a hero who discovers that the world is much simpler than he supposed, the realist novel of ideas tells the opposite story. The key plot of the realist novel of ideas is the gradual discovery and appreciation of life’s complexity. Raskolnikov meets a variety of people (each is worthy of a separate discussion) and is saved by the young Sonya who falls in love with him, despite him being a criminal. Dostoevsky (having spent many years in the company of convicts) literally gives his characters a second chance which is more than many people are given these days. Join us in reading this great work of literature about humans’ failures and the power of love and redemption.

The main emphasis will be on what is called “close reading” of the novel. For example, we will examine how Raskolnikov makes up his mind to kill an old woman in Part I. The class will be a combination of lectures and discussion. Grading is based on weekly assignments and participation in discussions; and two response papers. No final exam.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26788
• Day/Period: M/9
• Instructor: Galina Rylkova

Described as a “devastating tale” and “the definitive novel of the war in Ukraine,” Serhiy Zhadan’s 2017 The Orphanage describes the thirty-five-year-old Ukrainian language teacher Pasha’s increasingly desperate struggle to rescue his nephew Sasha from an orphanage in occupied territory when hostile soldiers invade a neighboring city. How have ordinary Ukrainians experienced the Russo-Ukrainian War and its disruption of their world? More broadly, how do writers meaningfully capture the lived reality of war? What is the role of literature in documenting and understanding national trauma on an epic scale? These are some of the questions we will consider in this course as we read Zhadan’s novel, along with selected diary entries from 2022-present by the historian and writer Olena Styazhkina and some examples of contemporary war-related poetry (Luba Yakimchuk and others). We will examine how Ukrainian culture has responded to the ongoing assault against it as well as the central place of literature in giving voice to recent Ukrainian experience.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26687
• Day/Period: M/6
• Instructor: Ingrid Kleespies

A world war, a corporate-like hierarchy of devils, a middle-aged man oblivious to his demonic temptation, and a God labeled "The Enemy": British author C.S. Lewis's classic spiritual satire, The Screwtape Letters, was a brilliantly written, thought-provoking, and unique piece of literature when it was released in serial form in 1941. Are its themes and message still relevant in our pluralistic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious society? Join this lively discussion of some of life's deepest questions through analysis of this groundbreaking work of religions fiction. Is there such a thing as evil? If so, what is its nature? Are demons real or imaginary? What interaction do people have with the spiritual realm, if one exists? What is temptation and how does it operate in the minds and hearts of humans?

Open to students of all beliefs and backgrounds with an eye toward moral inquiry and character growth, this course will probe the nature of evil through a close reading of The Screwtape Letters and related texts. Bring your thoughts, your questions, your open mind, your desire to be positively impacted, and your commitment to grow as bright lights in a world that often seems dark.

Kevin is an Academic Advisor in UF's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. A proud UF grad, he is a veteran educator and cross-cultural connector with over 25 years of experience serving in public and non-profit educational institutions. Kevin holds master's degrees in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Religion. His MA Religion thesis analyzed J.R.R. Tolkien's and C.S. Lewis's view of myth and history. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26725
• Day/Period: M/8
• Instructor: Kevin Kelsey

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. But choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." 

This famous passage from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, about the fig tree, captures the paralyzing weight of choice, expectation, and identity on women in the 1950s and 1960s. In this course, we will use The Bell Jar, Plath's most well-known novel, as our anchor text, as we explore how Plath represented the tensions of mental illness, gender roles, and ambition in mid 20th century America. Along the way, we will also spend time with Plath's poetry and her Letters Home to better contextualize her work, and offer different registers of her voice, in confessional, lyrical, and personal writings.

By reading Plath across genres, we will debate the conflicts she raises between conformity and individuality, and consider how her struggles with identity, voice, and ambition continue to resonate in our world today.

Assignments will focus on engagement and reflection, with weekly discussions and short responses. By semester's end, students will have "unsealed" The Bell Jar to uncover the literary, cultural, and personal forces that shaped Plath's voice.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26654
• Day/Period: T/8
• Instructor: Sean Trainor
• Peer Instructor: Eden Thomas
• Peer Instructor: Dominic Kaps-Trumbull

“If it’s free, you’re the product.” is a phrase often touted by those with privacy concerns on the vast amount of data collected in our society. Importance of Ethics in the Advancing the Data Culture is a course that will ask questions about that data collection - by whom? For whom? About whom? Who benefits? A myriad of supplemental readings will be used to spark conversation on the current state of data science and ethics. In particular, we will critically analyze: the role of bias in data collection, use, and dissemination and how that applies to machine-learning systems, what is the culture in the data profession around ethics, how can we use data and data collection to advance society, such as in healthcare, and the effect of today’s economic framework around data and its collection.

At the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. Explain the ethical considerations involved in projects related to technology and data.
2.  Critically analyze arguments related to ethics in data collection, use, and dissemination.
3.  Discuss the role of ethics of data as it relates to current events or data trends.
4.  Identify strategies for including ethical considerations in designing projects. 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26787
• Day/Period: R/7
• Instructor: Natya Hans

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a profound exploration of the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world, blending Indigenous wisdom with scientific knowledge. In this class you'll have the chance to reflect critically on key themes: Reciprocity in nature, environmental stewardship, and cultural identity and heritage; we will have open dialogues on these topics, provide opportunities for student-lead discussion, and participate in local environmental projects.

Join us in exploring Kimmerer’s blend of Indigenous wisdom, ecological insights, and personal stories while reflecting on our own values, beliefs, and relationship with the natural world around us!

Racheal (she/her) is an academic advisor for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and teaches a few courses at UF throughout the year. She is a member of the Shasta and Tututni Bands of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and grew up on her Tribal reservation in Oregon. As a first-generation college student, Racheal graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Western Oregon University, and an M.S. in Human Development and Family Sciences from Oregon State University. Racheal’s favorite part of teaching is sharing her interests while getting to know students on a deeper level. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring Florida with her family, traveling, journaling, and all things nature! 

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26668
• Day/Period: T/5
• Instructor: Racheal Croucher

Nobody can read this book. Six hundred years ago, someone wrote more than 200 pages in a strange alphabet that does not match any language on Earth, then filled the margins with plants that do not exist, bathing figures drifting through tangles of pipes, and maps of stars no one can name. It ended up in the library of an emperor obsessed with alchemy and magic, passed through the hands of priests, collectors, and treasure-hunters, and finally took its name from the book dealer who bought it in 1912. Everyone who has tried to crack it has failed: codebreakers from both World Wars, famous linguists, amateur sleuths, and lately the same kind of AI that powers ChatGPT.

So what is it? A secret language? A code? A fake cooked up to get rich? An alchemist’s recipe book? A medical text? A cult object? The diary of someone losing their mind? Nobody knows — and that is the point of the class. Our “book” is one we cannot actually read.

Each week, we will look closely at a few pages of the Voynich Manuscript and use them as a doorway into a different way of understanding the world: codes and encryption, linguistics, medieval history, botany, astronomy and astrology, alchemy and religion, art history, manuscript studies, chemistry and forgery detection, psychology and perception, artificial intelligence, and the scientific method. Students will try their own decoding experiments, investigate famous “solutions” that turned out to be wrong, and build a case for what they think the manuscript is — or what they most want it to be, and whether the evidence can survive that desire. Underneath the mystery is the real question: when every field sees something different, how do we figure out what is true? 

Nicolas Gauthier is an Assistant Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His research combines archaeology, human ecology, geography, and artificial intelligence to study how people and environments have interacted over long timescales.

• Course: IDH2930
• Class Number: 26790
• Day/Period: R/6
• Instructor: Nicolas Gauthier

Beyond the end of writing, our probes and transmissions will transit the stars. The symbolic rhetorics of our messages at once indicate the significance of communicative priorities and serve to mark by absence what could have been different. In other words, our messages must prioritize content to such a degree that what is not sent could also be significant. What if we could send new versions? On the Pioneer probes, we sent plaques etched with signs. On the Voyager probes, we sent golden records with sights and sounds. Thus, as technology progresses, our messages develop in sophistication. What would we send in the age of artificial intelligence? By interpreting messages we have already sent, analyzing their formation and genre, reading their history, and recreating them, we will come to fully appreciate the elements of scientific semiosis to prepare for the course project: crafting content for an AI interface.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 21154
• Day/Period: M/6
• Instructor: Zea Miller

The body, in health and in illness, has inspired writers for millennia, including a handful of notable physician-writers. We'll read essays and poems and some journalistic articles about medicine. Students will also write about their own experiences in the body--either their own, or as witness to others. The course will likely appeal to pre-meds and pre-health professionals of all types, but it is open to everyone with interest and curiosity about the body and a love of words.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26782
• Day/Period: W/5
• Instructor: Kristine Crane

What does the future look like to you? How will we be reading and writing two decades from now? As we march from Web 2.0 into the dawn of 3.0, self-publishing, or publishing in general, has evolved along the multiple waves of technology. From physical to social media, from Substack writers to AI bots, it has gone through serious metamorphosis. However, something remained constant in the advent of uncertainties: human ingenuity. Grounded in that belief, this class invites students to meditate on the possibilities of our future via the medium of zines.

There is something stubbornly human about zines. They are quirky, self-published pamphlets that have been circulating in small circles of underground and alternative cultures for nearly a century. As amateur as they can be, zines carry some of the most earnest, sometimes most urgent, voices from both individuals and collectives within local communities. In this class, students will explore the history and evolving aesthetics of zines before turning that lens toward the future: experimenting with form, genre, and media to create zines of their own that imagine what it would be like to create in the world ahead. At the end of the semester, students may also choose to display their works at local cafes, bookstores, and via UF.Zine social media accounts. 

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26784
• Day/Period: W/4
• Instructor: Yukai Chen

AI is radically redefining the nature of scientific inquiry — for better and for worse. This course reviews this development from the perspective of more than a dozen PhD-level researchers at the University of Florida, who urgently came together to develop a Guide to AI in Science that will serve as the foundational text for the course. Each week examines a different component of the modern-day research workflow: project management, literature review, idea development, data collection, analysis, writing, and dissemination. We review, discuss, and debate these developments both from the perspective of an AI zealot and an AI critic — all with the goal of developing balanced perspectives on a rapidly-evolving and complex development. The course culminates in a personal AI Philosophy Statement, wherein students articulate the principles that will guide their use of AI in their studies and future work. By the end of the course, students will be prepared to weigh AI's scientific promise against its limits with the clarity, skepticism, and confidence of a working researcher.

Dr. Nicholas Coles is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida and the director of the Social Science Collaboratory: a research group that specializes in building and studying large-scale collaborations in science, technology, and society. His work has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals like Nature, Nature Human Behaviour, Science, and PNAS — receiving coverage from outlets like NPR, Science Magazine, Forbes, FiveThirtyEight, the Guardian, and Nature News. These contributions have been recognized via several awards, including: the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research, the CORES Open Science Innovator Award, the APS Rising Star award, and the SAGE Early Career Trajectory Award.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26754
• Day/Period: W/7
• Instructor: Nicholas A. Coles

How should we navigate a future increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, robotics, immersive technologies, and intelligent systems? Human-Centered Innovation in an Age of AI invites students to explore the big questions emerging at the intersection of technology and society: What should remain uniquely human? Can we trust intelligent machines? Who benefits from innovation? What responsibilities do innovators have to society? 

Each week, students will engage with a curated conversation featuring a leading researcher, entrepreneur, innovator, or industry leader working at the forefront of technological change. Students will come to class prepared with a short reflection, and class time will be devoted to an interactive roundtable discussion—often joined by a guest expert from the field—to challenge assumptions, compare perspectives, and explore the implications of emerging technologies.

No technical background is required. Students from all majors are encouraged to bring their own perspectives to conversations spanning AI, healthcare, robotics, entrepreneurship, immersive technologies, sustainability, and the future of work. Rather than simply asking what technology can do, this course asks what it should do—and how we can shape innovation toward a more human-centered future.

Alexandre Gomes de Siqueira is an Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from Clemson University, an MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas, and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. His work explores human-centered technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence, immersive technologies, virtual humans, and human-computer interaction. His research and teaching examine how emerging technologies can be designed and applied to improve healthcare, education, well-being, and the ways people interact with intelligent systems.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26786
• Day/Period: F/2
• Instructor: Alexandre Gomes de Siqueira

What if the risks you take, how you compete for status and romantic partners, and the moral lines you draw were shaped by the world you grew up in? Life history theory is a powerful framework from evolutionary biology and anthropology proposing that humans calibrate their psychology and behavior to match the demands and opportunities of their environments. Harsh, threatening, and unpredictable childhood environments produce different strategies for cooperation, goal pursuit, and moral reasoning than safe, predictable ones. This master class uses life history theory as a framework for understanding how people develop across the lifespan and how we make decisions that shape our relationships, health, and long-term goals. Students will engage with active research programs and learn to evaluate a framework that has drawn both enthusiastic adoption and sharp criticism across psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of how their implicit motivations may align -- or conflict -- with their explicit life goals.

Dr. José Martínez is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida, where he leads the Motivated Social Behavior (MSB) lab. His research integrates perspectives from social psychology, developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral economics to understand how people navigate social hierarchies (why some people pursue status through dominance while others earn it through prestige) and how early childhood environments shape adult motivation, decision-making and moral reasoning. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journal outlets such as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality, Evolution and Human Behavior, and Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26927
• Day/Period: M/3
• Instructor: José Martínez

Honoring the Ocean is a 1-credit interdisciplinary course that takes place in the virtual classroom and at sea. Students selected for this Honors Signature Experience will engage in discussions about the ocean through a humanistic lens, working with fellow Honors students and faculty from and across the state of Florida. The course culminates with an overnight trip aboard a Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO)Research Vessel departing from St. Petersburg, FL. Interested students must apply for this course by the October 18th deadline; a link to the application will be shared via the Honors on Wednesday email.  All majors and disciplines are encouraged to apply. Honors students selected for the course will be registered by the Honors Program.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 20212
• Instructor: Deborah Amberson
• Instructor: Gabriele Belletti

Students will learn the basics of communication skills in the health professions.  Students will apply the concepts taught in class by practicing with small groups.  Although patient communication is emphasized, the course will also cover communication with staff at all levels.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 23272
• Day/Period: T/7
• Instructor: Gregg Henderschiedt

Dr. Lundy is a Professor and Certified Enneagram Coach. The Enneagram is a personality typology that outlines nine core personality types, each defined by a central motivation, set of fears, and behavioral patterns. Rather than placing individuals in rigid categories, the Enneagram offers a dynamic framework for understanding personal growth, emotional intelligence, and relational behavior. Each type has a distinct worldview and strategy for navigating life, along with specific strengths and growth opportunities. This course aims to help honors students understand the Enneagram as a personal and professional developmental tool. This course will encourage self-awareness and introspection, helping students understand why they respond to stress, success, or interpersonal conflict in particular ways. Each student will learn about their own Enneagram type, and we will spend time as a group learning about each other’s styles as a sort of laboratory for understanding people around us.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26718
• Day/Period: M/6
• Instructor: Lisa Lundy

In today's rapidly evolving digital and AI-driven information landscape, the ability to find, evaluate, and effectively use information is an essential professional skill. This seminar equips participants with practical strategies for identifying trustworthy information, recognizing misinformation and disinformation, and developing news consumption habits. This course aims to look at a variety of news sources, information, and types of news (old school, new school, print, online etc) with a new method of consumption each week. It will challenge you to strengthen your critical thinking skills, and you will gain practical tools for making informed decisions in an increasingly complex information environment.

Patty Takacs studies how information literacy can foster civic literacy and strengthen trust in political discourse. As an assistant university librarian and liaison to the Political Science department and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, she supports students and faculty in navigating complex information landscapes. 

April Hines is the Journalism and Mass Communications Librarian for the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. Her research areas include information literacy instruction for journalists, library marketing and outreach, and social media engagement. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from UF, and an MLIS from the University of South Florida. She has presented and published on such topics as academic librarians and personal branding as well as marketing research and instruction services for libraries.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 23269
• Day/Period: M/4
• Instructor: Patricia Takacs
• Instructor: April Hines

STEM Professional Preparation: Academic, Industry, and Career Readiness is a one-credit course designed to help STEM students prepare for future academic, industry, and professional opportunities. This course is especially useful for students who are thinking about internships, research opportunities, graduate or professional school, industry careers, or other paths where STEM training is valuable.

Students will learn how to present their experience, skills, research, coursework, and goals in a clear and professional way. The course will guide students through important parts of professional preparation, including resumes, CVs, cover letters, personal statements, research statements, professional profiles, interviews, elevator pitches, and communicating with mentors or potential employers.

By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of different career paths in STEM and will leave with practical materials, feedback, and more confidence to take the next step toward their academic or professional goals.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26723
• Day/Period: M/7
• Instructor: Chamila Gamage

In today’s healthcare environment, marked by uncertainty and burnout, health professionals must draw on emotional intelligence and empathy to effectively support patients, community members, stakeholders, and fellow healthcare workers. This course provides students with opportunities to develop and strengthen these skills through reflective practice, case study analysis, live lectures, and interactive in-class activities.

2 credit course

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26773
• Day/Period: R/6-7
• Instructor: Shahzadhi Nyakhar

Curious about what undergraduate research is available and why it should be a part of your college experience? Not sure where to start? This course introduces students to the world of undergraduate research and the opportunities it can unlock. Undergraduate Research happens in all colleges for students in all majors. Explore what research looks like across disciplines, how research is conducted, how to find research at UF, and lastly, how to be successful.

Dr. Anne Donnelly holds a B.A. in Biology from Ohio Wesleyan, an MBA in Finance from Georgia State, and a Ph.D. in Education and Curriculum, from the University of Florida. She has over 30 years of professional experience in undergraduate research, including her current position as Director of the UF Center for Undergraduate Research (CUR). As the founding Director of this center, which celebrated 15 years in 2025, she has developed a one-stop-shop for students of all disciplines who are interested in undergraduate research. CUR began in 2010 to serve students from all departments. Since 2010, 1087 faculty representing 162 departments in 16 colleges have mentored UR students. In recognition of her efforts encouraging and supporting students from diverse backgrounds, in 2015 she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama at a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House. In 2023, UF CUR received the national Council of Undergraduate Research Award for Undergraduate Research Achievement.

Olivia Tyler M.Ed. serves as the Assistant Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research (CUR) overseeing the programs and activities that empower undergraduate students to engage in meaningful research. She is committed to creating and supporting programs that help students build the skills and confidence they need to succeed in research and beyond. Olivia is a proud triple gator with a long history in CUR. She received her bachelor’s in history and business administration as well as a master’s in education from UF. As an undergraduate student, she worked as a student assistant in the center and later became the student manager of the Emerging Scholars Program. Her work in the office, and as an undergraduate researcher in history, inspired her to pursue a PhD in Higher Education Administration and Policy, with a focus on experiential learning, especially undergraduate research. Driven by a passion for improving the undergraduate experience, Olivia seeks to make meaningful contributions to the field of higher education, particularly in fostering research opportunities and supporting student success! 

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 26701
• Day/Period: W/3
• Instructor: Anne Donnelly
• Instructor: Olivia Tyler

Using various forums, technology provides a mostly convenient, practical, and beneficial 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.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 18447
• Day/Period: R/8
• Instructor: Renita Renee Clark

Are you applying to med school? This course is focused on supporting students who are applying for the upcoming cycle. Only students applying in this upcoming cycle are eligible to take this course.

If you want to take the course, please complete this short google form. Course enrollment is limited to 25 students. You must be signed into your UF G Suite account to access the form.

• Course: IDH3931
• Class Number: 19857
• Day/Period: W/3
• Instructor: Meredith Beaupre