Spring 2022 HNRS Courses

Broad patterns of biodiversity (biomes), from rainforests to deserts to tundra, are products of geography, climate, and evolutionary history. These properties affect each biome’s history of human exploitation and their threats in the 21st century. We will explore Earth’s biomes and their threats, focusing on North America and the New... Read More...

What is science? What do scientists do? Why does so much of science seem controversial these days? How much of your behavior is in your genes? (And what exactly is a gene?) Are there really genes for infidelity? aggression? novelty seeking? How do we choose our mates? Do human genes continue to... Read More...

This course will guide participants from an understanding of the evolutionary and cultural history of the human species and its effects on the ecology of this Earth to a deeper understanding of the ecological effects and ethical dimensions of human actions.

The course will discuss (1) physical and ecological characteristics... Read More...

Understanding the complexities surrounding the human/nature relationship provides us with a necessary framework to co-exist in an ever-changing world. How we experience nature and the environment, however, differs among and between communities. In this course, we will collaborate with peers from Scott Community College in Iowa and San Jose State... Read More...

This course will explore many of the social, cultural, political, and economic ideas that dominated early to mid-19th century England through an examination of two of England’s most revered authors, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. While popular discourse often portrays both women as sheltered from the harsh realities of their societies,... Read More...

The post-World War II period witnessed widespread anti-colonial agitations and calls for the end of European colonial rule in African societies. After a century of European imperial dominance, the decolonization of Africa became one of the turning points in the history of the post-war world. The struggle for political liberty... Read More...

C.S. Lewis is one of the most widely read authors of the 20th century. Millions have read his children’s novels The Chronicles of Narnia, and his popular theological books, yet much of Lewis’ thought remains unappreciated. Why did C.S. Lewis say a theocracy was the worst form of government? Why... Read More...

This course will attempt to answer the question Bob Dole asked in his eulogy: why was Richard Nixon the most enduring political figure of the twentieth century? Exploring Nixon’s life and career, including the infamous Watergate scandal, we will investigate Nixon’s role as a foreign policy architect and a domestic... Read More...

The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to the surveillance states of Germany during the National Socialist period as well as during the years of former East Germany. Students will more closely examine the concept of these “Big Brother” societies as they are portrayed in the films... Read More...

NOTE: This course is reserved for students participating the LASAL Scholars Program.

The State of Louisiana is a foundation course for LASAL Scholars; it provides an introduction to the greatest challenges facing our state. Students will study the root causes of poverty in Louisiana, and the daily challenges that children who live in poverty... Read More...

Homelessness in the United States is a significant social problem, but there are ways we can understand the issue more deeply, and there are approaches that have worked and are working to get individuals and families into permanent housing. In this course, we will explore experiences and public perceptions of... Read More...

From its inception, the Zionist movement, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine and did so, had a rocky relationship with Judaism. At the same time, the Palestinian national movement, which arose in tandem with Zionism, wrestled with the question of whether or not the national cause was... Read More...

Religious leaders and movements have been at the heart of social and cultural change for millennia and around the globe. How did they do it, and what would it mean for you to take the ideas and principles of transformative efforts to make your own impact on the world?

This course will... Read More...

This seminar is designed to familiarize students with the white power movement. This highly topical course aims to expose students to the history on white supremacy in the United States and trace the evolution and adaptations of the far-right. The emphasis in this course is to critically evaluate what we... Read More...

In 2019, more than 6 million Americans were under some form of correctional control. What explains this massive shift? How do our political institutions affect the nature and character of coercive institutions?

This class engages with innovative political science research to address these questions and more. At the end of... Read More...

COVID-19 has reminded us of the questions we wrestle with in the care of our health. Does care belong to us, is it bequeathed to us or something we borrow for a bit, only to be taken away? This isn’t anything new or novel, African Americans and other marginalized communities... Read More...

Matters of crime and punishment are deeply entrenched in US culture and national identity. This course explores the cultural dimensions of crime and incarceration in the United States by understanding public discourse on these matters through the critical analysis of popular culture. We will pay special attention to historical and... Read More...

Are you curious about how religion has been affected by the cultural movements of feminism, queer theory, race studies, and atheism? While many assume these contemporary movements are antithetical to Christianity, there has also been a vibrant paradigm shift over the past fifty years and many Christian thinkers have taken... Read More...

NOTE: Enrollment priority will be given to Mass Communication majors.

This seminar course introduces students to mass communication scholarship on the topic of privacy and social media. It draws on a combination of readings, discussions, and writing assignments designed to familiarize students with important theories, concepts, frameworks, and case law... Read More...

This colloquium gives students an opportunity to explore in-depth the life and work of Pablo Picasso, arguably the most important visual artist of the twentieth century. We will study Picasso in the broader framework of the evolution of modern art and relate key events in his... Read More...

This course explores the artistic traditions associated with the Buddhist faith from its origin in India to a global religion. Spanning from the beginning of Buddhism until the present, the course will examine representations of Buddhism in a variety of media from Asia to the United States. With emphases on... Read More...

This course is an introduction to contemporary global cinema covering the films of internationally recognized filmmakers from a diverse range of countries. We will examine the aesthetic, cultural, and political aspects of the films; their cinematic techniques and major genres; their distinctive national cinemas; and the composition of their film audiences.... Read More...

Tap into the power of spontaneous creativity with a philosophy you can use in every aspect of your life. Discover why doctors, lawyers, and the most successful companies in the world are doing improv training. Learn where improv came from and where it is going. Explore a type of teamwork that reinforces individuality... Read More...

This course examines the interrelationship of architecture, planning, and the ever-changing American landscape. It looks at the ways in which architecture may respond to the political, social, and philosophical implications of diverse ecological perspectives and uncovers the part architecture plays in environmental preservation and degradation. The discussion-based seminar takes as... Read More...

In New Orleans, in Richmond, and across the South, Confederate monuments have recently come down; most still stand. As Americans debate the monuments’ fate, they wrestle with the meaning of the American Civil War, its public memory. Through lectures, readings, movies, and discussion, this course will explore how, after the... Read More...

This course examines some of the numerous ways in which Jesus has been portrayed or conceived from ancient times to the present. We consider not only the question of who Jesus was, but also the question of why he has been portrayed in so many different ways.

We first examine “the... Read More...

Students will study the entirety of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), a work of great scope that aims to provide a complete picture of the reality of the cosmos and of human virtues and vices. One of the great masterpieces of world literature, Dante’s poem is a compendium of... Read More...

This course embraces a wide-ranging discussion that focuses on ancient and modern myths and their association with philosophy. Inspired by the essentially “magic” and playful qualities of mythology in general, the present course aspires to expand on everlasting themes by viewing them through a philosophical lens. Myths are understood here... Read More...

The Enlightenment reinvented the intellectual landscape of Europe, displacing the authority of sacred texts in favor of a modern epistemology based on empirical assessment of both culture and nature. Progressive eighteenth-century French authors demonstrated severe shortcomings of beliefs and practices that were increasingly seen to be at odds with the observable reality... Read More...

Ghostly visitors, creepy houses, mythical monsters—there’s nothing Americans love more than a good fright! But the Gothic tradition in America isn’t just about maximum chills; it’s also an expression of our deepest cultural fears and anxieties, our repressed desire and guilt —the messy, complicated emotions lurking at the heart of... Read More...

How can we understand recent and future technological developments that promise to change the very nature of what it means to be human? The entities created by Artificial Intelligence may be compared and contrasted with the ways that humans have conceptualized unseen but often influential entities such as gods and... Read More...

We are increasingly living in a faster and smaller world. Globalization has radically changed our daily life for better or worse. Understand the nature of this gigantic transformation of social structures and cultural zones.

Through lectures and discussions, we will consider answers to key questions such as:

• What is... Read More...

  Fulfills General Education:

  English Composition

  Social Sciences

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... Read More...

This course is an introduction to the political system of the modern state of Israel. After a review of the history of the Zionist movement and the foundation of the state of Israel, the course will focus on the social, economic, and demographic evolution of the country since 1948. These... Read More...

In this course, we will read and study key texts that are foundational to European or Western Civilization, including Homer’s Iliad; Herodotus’ Histories; Lyric, Tragic, and Comic Poetry; Plato’s Apology of Socrates and Symposium; and Vergil’s Aeneid.

In this course, we will read and study key texts that are foundational to European or Western Civilization, including Homer’s Iliad; Herodotus’ Histories; Lyric, Tragic, and Comic Poetry; Plato’s Apology of Socrates and Symposium; and Vergil’s Aeneid.

HNRS 2406 is an interdisciplinary course that explores European conceptions of the individual and the world during the eventful period between the Renaissance and the French Revolution. Readings include More’s Utopia, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Shakepeare’s The Tempest,  Voltaire’s “Zadig,” and Beumarchais’ “The Marriage of Figaro.”

Cells function with large networks of interacting molecules. A quantitative approach to molecular cell biology allows traditional interaction diagrams to be extended to mechanistic mathematical models. These models are able to serve as working hypotheses to understand and predict the behavior of complex cellular functions. This course seeks to understand molecular cell biology... Read More...