Fall 2016 HNRS Courses

Natural disturbances shape our world, causing disruption to our lives, while simultaneously benefiting ecosystem composition and structure. Anthropogenic disturbances produce beneficial outcomes for society, but may cause loss of biodiversity, altered disturbance regimes, and increased vulnerability to subsequent stress. Nature and humans are constantly influencing each other and recognizing this... Read More...

One hundred years ago, in 1914, the nations of Europe went to war in a conflict that destroyed their civilization. From prosperity and cultural and intellectual vitality in 1900, through the horrors of trench warfare and poison gas, to devastation and a peace settlement that left Germany bitter and resentful,... Read More...

The Cold War is the most significant historical event for the second half of the twentieth century.

This course will examine a variety of historical styles of explanation, including memoirs, archival documents, interpretive essays, on-line sources, and various forms of visual propaganda, including feature films and television news film.
A... Read More...

This course will explore contestation and conflict in the construction of Arab and Jewish identities in the modern Middle East using creative work in Arabic and Hebrew (in English translation).

“Who should I vote for? Who stands for what? What do their TV spots mean? How would they govern? Why should I even care?”

If you’ve asked any or all of these questions, this course is for you. “See How They Run” will explore the 2016 presidential elections on different levels and from... Read More...

In this class you'll spend the semester reporting and writing a single story about the Baton Rouge community. You might be backstage at a theater, on the ground in a wildlife preserve, or exploring the cosmos with LSU astronomers. You get to immerse yourself in the stories of the people... Read More...

This course is designed to approach the issue of art and its role in the commercial market place from a variety of perspectives. It is divided into two parts. Part I will retrace the origins of the various "players" in the modern art market setting (dealers, auction houses, collectors, museums,... Read More...

Examine the realm of the image-makers, where the pen becomes a camera and the camera, a pen. In this course, we'll write about films and make films about poems. 

We'll explore what it means to live a world made of images. By learning the tools of the poet and the... Read More...

This course will examine German historical and cultural roots in the state of Louisiana from the 19th Century to present day. We will concentrate on the early arrival of German settlers, the historically German geographic areas of Louisiana, the influence of German customs on Louisiana culture, shared traditions between both... Read More...

How can music interpret Shakespeare’s words? How does contemporary culture affect both the music and the way in which audiences interpret those words? How do these works resonate with audiences differently today? The Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) worshiped Shakespeare’s plays and wrote three operas based on them: Macbeth, Otello... Read More...

We will look at some classics in – or critical of – the social contract tradition in political thought: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Engels, Nietzsche, Rawls, Nozick, Pateman, and Mills. As the social contract claims that life in states is superior to life in non-state societies (that is, in the... Read More...

Why do governments violate human rights? What impacts do repressive acts (such as torture, disappearances, surveillance, and genocide) have on society? And what can be done to improve human rights across the globe?

In this course, we will explore issues related to the development of international human rights standards. We will attend... Read More...

This is the first class in a four semester sequence designed to enable you to write an upper division honors thesis in psychology. You must take this course in order to do an honors thesis in psychology. The course covers the methods used in psychological research, teaches you critical thinking... Read More...

The ideas that animate our national Constitution have their roots in, inter alia: classical ideas regarding the purposes and structure of government; medieval ideas of sovereignty and liberty; common law ideas of the rule of law and the respective roles of parliament and king; enlightenment ideas regarding natural law and... Read More...