Capstone

By the end of their senior year, students will take an Honors Capstone course. The Honors Capstone can be taken either semester and does not need to be taken at the same time as the Senior Thesis

The Honors Capstone is separate from the Honors Senior Thesis and is a 1-credit, pass/no pass course. It invites students to re-engage with core questions and issues related to the Honors Program curriculum, reflecting on their learning in relation to enduring questions and challenges of our world.

As the capstone only meets a few times, you must attend each meeting. Please check your availability on all meeting dates carefully prior to enrolling in a capstone, and be sure to keep each time reserved. If your availability changes, you will need to switch to a different capstone. If you have any questions, please speak with a Program Manager.

Nature Appreciation

Professor Thiago Moreira

HONR 4199:13 - 1 Credit

CRN: 33949

F 10:00AM - 1:00PM

This section will meet on September 5, 12, 19 & 26.

Course Description: “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. —Khalil Gibran”

To live in a modern city in the 21st century is not easy. We are always busy with our schedules. Things to do, places to be… We are surrounded by all comforts and amenities a modern city has to offer. So much that we can be entirely consumed by modern technology and forget that there is a whole world out there…. In this course, I propose we step out of our busy modern urban life and stop to smell the flowers (literally, if you so wish…). We will visit some places where we can experience and experience some of the beauties nature has to offer to us. We will use our time to visit some places that hold some of the biodiversity of life, but also try to appreciate nature in our daily urban surroundings. This course has a great deal of moving around the city, so we have a more extended time band to cover the trip time.

Is Love Really Such a Good Thing?

Professor Mark Ralkowski

HONR 4199:14 - 1 Credit

CRN: 37706

R 4:00PM - 6:00PM

This course will meet on September 4, 11, 18 & 25.

Course Description: “I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member. That’s the key joke in my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women” (Woody Allen, Annie Hall). We will begin and end this little seminar by asking whether this joke tells us anything important about love. Our discussions will not be aimed at any final answers about the nature of love. How could they be? Our only goal will be to think freely, with the help of great literature and film, about love’s aspirations and desires, its special kind of knowledge, its profound risks, and its unusual powers. We will read one little novel (a light read, but full of insight rooted in psychoanalysis and philosophy), a book on “the female search for love” by bell hooks, and a short book on the Buddhist art of loving by Thich Nhat Hanh. Our experience will be organized around four serious conversations, and there will be a dinner at the end, which we will enjoy while discussing a beautiful movie. Please come prepared to read carefully and talk a lot!

Humor

Professor Mark Ralkowski

HONR 4199:15 - 1 Credit

CRN: 37707

F 10:00AM - 12:00PM

This course will meet on October 17, 24, 31 & November 7.

Course Description: TBD