First Year
Begin in wonder...
Approach and explore a topic with an awareness of the strengths and limitations of diverse intellectual perspectives.
Fall Semester
CORE-106, Honors section of Complex Problems Seminar (3 credits)
HNRS-150, AU Honors Experiential Learning (1 credit)
Spring Semester
HNRS-151, AU Honors Inquiry Experience (1 credit)
Faculty-led projects intended to help students engage in the process of knowledge-creation and knowledge presentation.
Second Year
Journey in curiosity...
Develop and execute a rigorous scholarly plan for generating knowledge, in dialogue with a variety of traditions of inquiry.
Fall Semester
HNRS-395, Theories of Inquiry
A broad conceptual exploration of different ways of producing and presenting knowledge across fields and disciplines; emphasis is on developing an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and on the formation of research questions in different traditions (3 credits).
Spring Semester
HNRS-398, Honors Challenge Course
Building on skills learned in ToI, students form groups, choose an AU faculty mentor, and tackle a research question of their own design. Students share their research with a larger audience during the Challenge Course Showcase (3 credits).
Third and Fourth Year
Dare to Know...
Students participate in increasingly independent inquiry experiences and contribute to knowledge, creative expression, and meaningful change.
Honors Colloquium
Honors students take 2 Honors Colloquium courses. 3 credits must be either HNRS-400 Advanced Honors Colloquium OR another upper-division Honors offering.
3 credits can be another of the above OR an Honors supplement affixed to an upper-division course on campus or abroad. These courses are most often taken junior and/or senior year (6 credits).
Honors Capstone
Create a capstone in your major or through Honors. Examples: traditional scholarly thesis, creative work, case study, business plan, media project, etc.
CORE-106: Honors Section of Complex Problems
Complex Problems courses are 3-credit seminars where students practice scholarly methods of inquiry to study multi-faceted, real-world problems or enduring questions. First-year Honors students take CP alongside their peers in the program, along with a 1-credit experiential learning lab which offers co-curricular experiences that connect back to course content, creating a bridge between the classroom and the real world.
This course will explore one enduring question: Why and how has hip-hop become equally a tool for revolution and capitalist expansion across the world? As hip-hop has attained the interest of corporate America, it has gone from being vilified by many in the mainstream to a source of expansion for American ideals. As hip-hop began to emerge in other countries, it also began to develop its own country-specific narrative. Across the globe, the effects of hip-hop can be felt from politics and education to pop culture and religion from the Arab Spring to the whitewashing of history books in Japan. This course explores how hip-hop has become a source of revolution and capitalist expansion for some of the world’s most marginalized (and not-so-marginalized) populations.
How can outside agents interested in helping build community through music honor the interests and traditions of those they are trying to help rather than imposing their own cultural biases upon them? In this seminar, students establish a context, then examine real-world models where community-building through music is being employed (both through education and performance) and analyze the effectiveness of these efforts. Students delve into well-intentioned initiatives that have negative effects, explore why that is, identify more successful models, and define why they are more productive. More specifically, students explore musical programs in Kenya, inner city and rural programs within the United States, as well as the art of musicians from around the world. The seminar forms the basis for the singular theme of empowering and transforming people through music using teaching and performance models.
In this course we will investigate the idea of sexual desire and why it occurs. We will begin with the idea that desire is an evolutionary strategy that promotes successful reproduction and see how that lines up with what we learn about the patterns of modern human sexuality. We will explore ideas such as whether there are two sexes, whether patterns of attraction change through one’s life, and whether there is a predictable relationship between desire and sexual activity. Assignments will include using qualitative and quantitative methods to distil information from interviews, dating site profiles and lectures by “experts” as we discover what we know about sexual desire and how we came to know it.
The word decolonization comes from a period in the 20th century when former colonies, many in Africa or the Caribbean, sought to decolonize by gaining their independence from European powers like France and Britain and becoming sovereign nations. But by the early 21st century, the term took on a broader meaning. It now refers to the process of rejecting the economic, social, and cultural effects of colonization that continue to negatively impact Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) throughout the world in multiple ways. Lately, we have seen calls to decolonize nearly everything, from museums, to syllabi, to sexuality, to international aid, to nutrition and diet culture and self-care. This course asks the following questions: How can the concept of decolonization offer us models to understand the ways in which colonialism is still sustained today? And can calls to decolonize help us dismantle an internalized set of ideas that were initiated with projects of imperial quests for power and profit, or has decolonization become just another co-opted buzzword? To answer these questions we will turn to films, novels, essays, and social media and think about how race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, history, and culture all intersect.
Religion can mean different things to different people. While modern secular thought has permeated religious and communal life, traditional understandings of religion are still vibrant while fundamentalist and religion-based nationalisms have surged despite globalization. Wars of culture and power based the different understandings of the interplay between religion, society and state rage in America and throughout the world. What this course aims to explore most intently is how the diverse perceptions of religion have impacted problems of identity, spirituality, democracy, and peace. This course will unpack this set of complex dynamics by drawing from cultural studies, history and current politics. Toward this end the course will examine how religious and secular notions have impacted the integration of new religious communities and state formation or dissolution. What will be unique about this course is the idea that religion can be a source of harmony and peacemaking as it has been a source of division and conflict.
HNRS-395: Theories of Inquiry
Theories of Inquiry helps students grapple with the difficulties of identifying a strong question to inaugurate a process of inquiry, how to refine the question in dialogue with different research traditions, and then how to identify and locate the right material and methods for answering the question. The course is taught by faculty from accross disciplines at AU.
PTJ is Professor of International Studies in the School of International Service, and also former faculty Director of the AU Honors program. He previously taught at Columbia University and New York University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2001. In 2003-4, he served as President of the International Studies Association-Northeast; in 2012-2013, he did so again. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Relations and Development, and is currently Series Editor of the University of Michigan Press' book series Configurations: Critical Studies of World Politics. He was named the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year for the District of Columbia by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Jackson's research interests include culture and agency, international relations theory (particularly the intersection of realism and constructivism), scientific methodology, the role of rhetoric in public life, civilizations in world politics, the sociology of academic knowledge, popular culture and IR, and the formation of subjectivity both in the classroom and in the broader social sphere.
Jackson is also a devoted (some might say “obsessive”) baseball fan, and a self-proclaimed sci-fi geek.
Professor Adcock is a Senior Professorial Lecturer in the department of Global Inquiry in the School of International Service. He has a PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Political Science and a BS in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Professor Adcock has been teaching in the Honros program for several years, and his research passion is the history of the social sciences, as seen through the lens of the politics and sociology of knowledge.
Professor Salois received a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2013. Prior to joining the Department of Performing Arts at AU, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work lies at the intersection of religious and national belonging, popular musicking, and transnational markets. Her research interests include Afro-diasporic popular musics in the Middle East and North Africa, North African popular musics, trans-Saharan musical connections, music and diplomacy, citizenship, labor, and neoliberalism.
Scott Talan, MPA, is an assistant professor of Public Relations & Strategic Communications in the School of Communication. He has honed his expertise in social media and personal branding through his experiences in the fields of TV News, Politics, Nonprofits/NGOs, and Higher Education. Professor Talan has worked at the United Nationa, Harvard University, and the March of Dimes, and has been a writer for ABC News Good Morning America. Before news, he was an elected city council mamber and Mayor of Lafayette, California.
Dr. Wilson-McDonald is a professorial lecturer in the department of Politics, Governance, & Economics in the School of International Service. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida with graduate certificates in European studies and gender studies. Her specializations include comparative politics, public policy & administration, European studies, and gender studies. Dr. Wilson-McDonald's research focuses on the politics of gender in Central Eastern Europe. Specifically, her research examines feminist movements in the region and their discursive strategies. She has been awarded numerous research grants, including a Fulbright Research Grant, Carie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women & Politics, and a Rothman Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities.
HNRS-400: Honors Colloquium
Honors Colloqiua allow both students and professors to engage with interesting topics they may not get to explore in their other courses.
This 15-week course invites students to uncover and share the lesser-known narratives of Washington, D.C. through the medium of documentary filmmaking. Participants will delve into the rich history, culture, and untold stories of the nation’s capital, aiming to shed light on aspects often overlooked by mainstream media. Through a combination of research, practical filmmaking skills, and hands-on projects, students will produce thought-provoking and informative documentaries that highlight the hidden gems of Washington, D.C. Students will be encouraged to explore stories that connect with their majors or areas of studies. There is no expectation of experience on the part of the students. Best practices in filmmaking will be covered in the first 3rd of the course.