Honors Program Curriculum

Mind-Expanding Classes—Different, Not More

The Honors Program is meant to enrich your college experience rather than piling on extra work. To that end, we have designed a curriculum that allows you exemptions from certain core classes in exchange for completing levels of Honors coursework.

You also have flexibility in fulfilling upper lever Honors requirements—Honors electives, study abroad, writing a departmental honors paper or honors thesis—all of these qualify for Honors credit.

Honors classes are enhanced by field trips, guest speakers and a variety of hands-on activities and special projects. In keeping with the collaborative nature of the program, students meet as a group to decide on the topics of their senior seminars and suggest faculty they would like to teach them.

Curriculum

HON102-01 Movie Magic: Science in the Cinema; TTH 11:25AM-12:50PM

Instructor: Dr. Steven Clark

Prerequisite: FYS 101H. 

Action heroes, car races, explosions, and truths that are more unbelievable than fiction– science is everywhere in the movies. Sometimes it is right; other times, they couldn’t be further from the truth. In this course, we will explore how science is portrayed in cinema from the special effects to the characters, how these portrayals influence our perception of the world, and at times, poke fun at some of the most blatant errors. Come learn whether it is “Science Fact” or just “Movie Magic,” and yes, some of your homework will be to watch movies! 

HON102-02 The Human Mind; TTH 11:25am-12:50pm

Instructor: Dr. Sangeeta Gupta

Prerequisite: FYS 101H. 

Welcome to "The Human Mind," an honors seminar class that explores the complex intersection of topics such as neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and art. Through a combination of discussions, debates, readings, critical thinking activities, and field trips, you will gain an understanding of and an appreciation for the mysteries and complexities of the mind. In this class, we will be using Paul Bloom’s compelling book, “The Story of the Human Mind” as a starting point, but YOU will determine the course's trajectory and shape the connections that we draw, ensuring that the topics we explore resonate with your own curiosity and passions. Ultimately, your interests will guide us through the fascinating landscape of the human mind. And you will hopefully leave with more questions than answers, igniting your curiosity and driving your pursuit of knowledge.

HON102-03: Thinking about Thinking; MW 11:30am-12:55pm

Instructor: Dr. Jen Krishnaswamy

Prerequisite: FYS 101H. 

Have you ever wondered how your brain makes meaning of the complexity and wonder of the world around you? This honors seminar class is designed to help you answer this question by giving you a basic understanding of neurobiology through a combination of lectures, discussions, and activities. Topics include the senses, muscular responses, cognition, neurodegenerative diseases, and the neurobiological aspects of language. We will explore neurobiology from the scale of components of the individual cell, to the majestic and mysterious organ now contemplating itself.

HON102-04 Nature and Culture of Trees; TTH 11:25AM-12:50PM

Instructor: Dr. Scott Pincikowski

Prerequisite: FYS 101H. 

Trees and culture go hand in hand. Trees have helped shaped human society and culture, and humans have shaped trees and forests, often in a negative way through overharvesting and deforestation. This course explores this relationship, focusing on the nature and culture of trees. Students will examine the ecology and nature of trees, the communities they build, and explore and analyze trees and forests in the cultural imagination by looking at different examples in art, literature, and film, and in history and society, by looking at the fundamental role trees and forests play in the development of human communities and values. Students will become “tree literate” by the end of the class, finding what trees in nature and culture ultimately say about ourselves when we make the effort to understand them.

HON202-01: Ethics of Service Learning; TTR 11:25AM-12:50PM

Instructors: Dr. Kristen Tzoc and Dr. Amy Kilpatrick

Prerequisite: HON 201

In this course, students engage in service learning by identifying and volunteering at an organization that seeks to improve a social or humanitarian condition at the local, state, regional, national, or international level; reflecting on the volunteer experience; and completing course assignments tied to the influence of values on policies and practices of their host organizations. Ultimately, this course provides students an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills of complex social issues while using ethical decision-making and values to benefit their community.

HON316 Perspectives on Global Health; TTH 9:50am-11:15am

Instructor: Dr. Mark Chee

Prerequisites: Completion of the Scientific Thought and Philosophical Inquiry areas of the Core. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the Honors Program or with permission of the instructor.

This course examines basic advances in genetics, reproductive medicine and in combating infectious diseases and explores their ethical implications, particularly for non-Western cultures. Students use a case study approach to consider topics like genetics, epidemics, euthanasia and reproductive technology from a global, non-Western perspective.

HON397K: Decoding RomComs; MW 11:30am-12:55pm

Instructor: Dr. Marisel Torres-Crespo

Prerequisite: Sophomore, junior or senior standing in the Honors Program, or permission of the instructor

This course will explore the evolution of romantic comedy films from the 1950s to the present day, focusing on how cultural beliefs about gender roles, race, marriage, and sexuality have changed over time. We'll watch a variety of romantic comedies from each decade, read articles related to the topic, and discuss how they reflect and challenge societal norms and expectations.

HON470-01: Earthing/Unearthing; TTH 3:35pm-5:00pm

Instructor: Dr. Robert Casas

Prerequisites: senior status or permission of Honors co-directors. May not be repeated

This course examines different cultural representations of the concept of earthing and unearthing, bridging the Iberian context with the US, combining cultural and memory studies, as well as archaeology and archival work.

As Robert Pogue Harrison helps us realize, the etymology of the word Humanity comes from humus and our connection with the earth and soil. As Homo Sapiens, we bury and honor our dead, connecting the legacy of our ancestors to the unborn. However, humans not only earth their deceased; we also try to bury harmful aspects of ourselves and our societies.

Our need for earthing is only matched by the drive to dig in the past, bringing back-to-surface aspects of it: from the ruins of glorious former times to unpunished crimes (like war atrocities or political corruption) or the memories of our departed loved ones. Throughout the course, you will be engaged with a variety of cultural artifacts, including novels, short stories, movies, documentaries, operas, and sites of memory. These artifacts will provide a rich and diverse lens to explore the course's themes.

Cross-listed with SPAN 470, counts for both Spanish and Honors

HON 470-02: Earthlings; TTR 11:25PM-12:50PM

Instructor: Dr. Shannon Kundey

Prerequisite: senior standing or permission of Honors co-directors. May not be repeated

Earthlings,an interdisciplinary course, explores the interconnectedness of life, focusing on the relationships among humans, animals, and the environment. Students will embark on a journey of discovery, making choices about which species, behaviors, and cognitive traits to study. Through a "Create Your Own Adventure" format, students will navigate real and hypothetical psychological scenarios that span Earth and beyond, analyzing what it means to be a thinking, feeling, and social creature in a variety of environments to critically reflect on what it means to be an "earthling".

Students take two seminar classes, FYS 101H in the fall semester and HON 102 in the spring. In addition, most students start their language requirement in the first semester, depending on placement. Check with your advisor and the Honors directors for recommendations.

FYS101H

The fall Honors First-Year Seminar (August-December) is team-taught by professors from different disciplines. Students will acquire skills in critical thinking, writing, and speaking as well as general skills for success in college and in their future.

FALL 2024 topics

Click the titles below to learn more about each topic. Honors students may choose the topic that interests them most. History & the City and Arts & the City are team-taught, as are Local Lore and Legends and The Art of Wandering, so students will get to experience two related topics with two different professors. Your "home" professor will also be your academic adviser until you declare your major.

History & The City with Dr. Mallory Huard, History
Arts & The City with Dr. Noel Verzosa, Music
Local Lore and Legends with Dr. Lisa Marcus, French and Gender Studies
The Art of Wandering with Dr. Kimberly Morse Jones, Art History

Recent field trips for the Honors fall seminar have included:

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Zipline and obstacle course outing at Tree Trekkers in Frederick
Walking tour of the Tidal Basin monuments, Washington D.C.
Escape room adventures at ClueIQ in Frederick
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C.

HON102

In the spring semester (January-May), students may choose one of four different sections of HON102. Each class focuses on a topic that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the sciences and technology in relation to society.

Some recent topics:

Movie Magic: Science in Film
Thinking about Thinking
Plagues and Peoples
Sustainable Diets

Recent field trips for the spring have included:

U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C.
National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Md.
Lunch at a local farm-to-table restaurant, The Orchard, in downtown Frederick
The National Zoo, Washington, D.C.
Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Md.
Collaborative work with local farms for sustainable diets class

Students take two seminar classes, Hon 201 in the fall semester and Hon 202 in the spring. In addition, most students finish their language requirement (through the 202 level) in the second semester of their second year, depending on placement. Check with your advisor and the Honors directors for recommendations.

HON201

Students can choose from a menu of classes that focus on global issues and differing cultural perspectives for HON 201, the fall seminar. They will be encouraged to imagine the world from many points of view and challenged to examine how they think about and interact with the global community.

Sample classes:

Global Climate Change
LGBTQ+ Global Perspectives
Global Inequity
Politics and Ethics

Class field trips for HON 201 have included:

Symposium on January 6th, Washington D.C.
Frederick County landfill
Crime Museum, Washington D.C.

HON202

Students will work closely with a faculty advisor of their choice for the spring semester practicum. Each student chooses a social or intellectual problem to address, writes a research paper and works at an off-campus site, gaining experience and connections that may also lead to paid employment or help determine a future career. The broad, overarching theme of this class is social justice, but the sites students at which students have chosen to volunteer are many and varied.

Recent practicum sites have included:

Heartly House
Frederick Health Hospital
Housing Authority of Frederick
Delaplaine Visual Arts Center
Frederick Rescue Mission
I Believe in Me
Civil War Medicine Museum
Halfway African American Cemetery
Monocacy National Battlefield

Sample research papers:

“Power Shifting and Getting in Gear: The Youth Movement Toward a Sustainable Future” Site: Energy Action Coalition
“19th Century Health Care” Site: National Museum of Civil War Medicine
“Environmental Justice Through the Eyes of the Deep Ecologist” Site: Catoctin Zoo
“Slavery and Social Injustice”
“Acid Victims: A Spotlight on Social Injustices Faced by Women in South Asian Countries” Site: Frederick Memorial Hospital

Students choose upper-level honors electives from a wide array of options, many of which are based on student requests. Students may also elect to study abroad; sites chosen by Honors students include France, Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Israel, Korea and New Zealand. Study abroad counts as one honors elective. Students who successfully complete a departmental honors paper also receive credit for one honors elective.

Sample Honors electives:

Impact of Social Media on Society
Censorship in America
Revisioning Motherhood in Modern Western Culture
The Chesapeake Bay
Food and Culture
American Landscapes: Environmental Literature in the US
Exploring Utopia

Class field trips for upper-level electives have included:

Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.
Maryland State Police Computer Forensics Lab, Columbia, Md.
Special Beginnings Birthing Center, Arnold, Md.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The senior seminar is a high point of the honors program, when students reflect on their experience in the Honors Program. Students choose a topic of broad interest and select a faculty member to teach the course. Sample seminar classes:

Beauty and Culture
Impact of Social Media on Society
Philosophy of Love and Sex
Why Us? The Success and Failure of Humanity

The Honors Program welcomes qualified transfer students. More information about the requirements for transfer students can be found in the Hood College Catalog. Requirements differ depending on the level of involvement a student had with Honors at their prior institution. Transfer students work closely with the Honors co-directors to identify which requirements of the Honors Program apply to them.

Transfer students may satisfy the Honors global language requirement in one of the following ways:

Demonstrate proficiency in a global language through the 202-level (by coursework or placement exam)
Successfully complete any two global language courses
Complete one global language course and one approved culture course:
Complete one global language course and one of the following:
ANTH 302 Cultural Anthropology
ECON 304 International Political Economy
ECON 317 Economics of Development
GER 301 Berlin in the 20th Century
GLBS 301 Human Migrations: Refugees and IDPs
GLBS 345 Global Persp/Women, Power & Politics
HIST 347 The Indigenous World
HIST 356/357 Global Empires I/II
HON/PHIL 316 Perspectives in Global Health
MEST 300 Cultures of the Middle East
NUR 300 Global Learning Exp/Healthcare & Nursing

The Honors Program welcomes qualified early college students who have completed an AA, or equivalent, during their high school years. Students with 30 or more credits from International Baccalaureate (IB) programs may also qualify, with director approval.

Early college students must take the First Year Seminar in their first semester at Hood. Their progression through the Honors Program is as follows:

FYS 101H First Year Seminar Honors
HON 202 in spring semester first year
2 300-level Honors electives (or substitute study abroad or departmental honors)
1 Hon 470

They are considered transfer students for the purpose of Honors Program language requirements, which means they may satisfy the global language requirement in one of the following ways:

Demonstrate proficiency in a global language through the 202-level (by coursework or placement exam)
Successfully complete any two global language courses
Complete one global language course and one approved culture course:
Complete one global language course and one of the following:
ANTH 302 Cultural Anthropology
ECON 304 International Political Economy
ECON 317 Economics of Development
GER 301 Berlin in the 20th Century
GLBS 301 Human Migrations: Refugees and IDPs
GLBS 345 Global Persp/Women, Power & Politics
HIST 347 The Indigenous World
HIST 356/357 Global Empires I/II
HON/PHIL 316 Perspectives in Global Health
MEST 300 Cultures of the Middle East
NUR 300 Global Learning Exp/Healthcare & Nursing