General honors (GH) classes

Previously Offered general honors (GH) classes

General Honors (GH) courses are the heart of the University Honors Program curriculum and feature small class sizes, dedicated faculty members, interdisciplinary perspectives, active learning and an exciting array of topics. These classes can be accessed by searching under University Honors in the catalog. The following is an example of a General Honors (GH) course that has been offered in the past. This course may or may not be offered again.

GH201: Introduction to the Great Works: Utopia the Quest. Dystopia the Price.

course description

This seminar will examine humankind’s efforts to produce ideal societies—those with maximum liberty or order or happiness or equality—and how such efforts may come at a high price—imprisonment of the body and mind or anarchy or oppression or eugenics.  Over the course of the semester, you will discuss classical works, historical documents, manifestos, films, novels, and an assortment of literary works.  You will interrogate the concepts central to utopian and dystopian societies via two papers and a presentation.  You will also be responsible for facilitating discussions on one of the four required novels.  This class will be highly interactive and reading and writing intensive.

Novels:

1984

Brave New World

The Giver

The Handmaids Tale

 Excerpts, poems, and short stories (sample):

“The Lottery”

 “The Ones that Walk Away from Omelas”

Excerpts from A Wrinkle in Time

Excerpts from Fahrenheit 451

Excerpts from Herland (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

Excerpts from Wicked

Classical Works /Historical Documents/ and Manifestos (sample):

A Vindication of the Rights of Men (Thomas Jefferson)

A Vindication of the Rights of Women (Mary Wollstonecraft)

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Sentiments

Mein Kampf (Adolph Hitler)

“The Allegory of the Cave” (Plato)

The Communist Manifesto  (Karl Marx)

The Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes)

The Prince (Machiavelli)

The Republic (Plato)

The Turner Diaries

The U.S. Patriot Act

Transcripts from the McCarthy hearings

Two Treatises of Government (John Locke)

Women, Morality, and Birth Control (Margaret Sanger)

Films (sample)

A Clockwork Orange

The Children of Men

V for Vendetta

Instructor: Dr. Linda Maule