Honors Program Course Descriptions

English 101 Composition I (IAI # C1 900) 
[General Education/Communications requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 a.m.- 12:20 p.m.
Prof. Vincent Bruckert: vbruckert@ccc.edu
This class provides students with an introduction to the expectations and techniques of college writing, and it will use Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to discuss how we can develop successful strategies for learning and writing. The key distinction between this course plan and Prof. Bruckert’s typical use of the text for English 101 is in the focus beyond the text, including our College’s Common Text and the secondary resources that inform deep readers on Gladwell’s insights and research for his book. These sources can also help us determine the validity and limits of Gladwell’s arguments. Students will be expected to post their work before peer review sessions to Brightspace and review each other’s work before the assigned class so that all students can peer edit together as a class.

Literature 115 Great Books Seminar (IAI#: H3 907)
[General Education/Humanities requirement & Great Books course]
Topic: Moral Corruption
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
This course is an honors introduction to the Great Books. In this class, we will study the theme of moral corruption in literature. This theme can be traced throughout many works, and we will concentrate on several, including Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. (We will also touch on the Bible, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale.” Students in the course will examine this literature from multiple perspectives, deeply and critically investigating social, philosophical, cultural, historical, religious, rhetorical, and generic contexts through critical investigations of the literature. The integration and discussion of these various contexts will allow students to understand the course in the broader perspectives of various disciplines in the arts and sciences. Students will be required to perform close reading of primary texts in preparation for participating in weekly student presentations, student teaching, and shared inquiry, round-table discussions. Also, each week students will be required to research literary works and topics and to produce short essays in preparation for lessons and discussion, and they will produce a minimum of 15-20 pages of research-based argument, including a single, 2500 to 3000-word research paper. All students are required to be fully engaged each class period and to demonstrate well-informed, independent thought. This course counts toward both an Honors certificate and a Great Books certificate.

Political Science 204 International Relations (IAI#: S5 904) 
[General Education/Social Science requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Prof. Merry Mayer: mmayer2@ccc.edu
This course is an honors introduction to international relations, which involves the study of how states interact through treaties, trade, and belligerent actions leading up to and including war. We will examine the many dangers the world faces: terrorism, climate change, disinformation, cyber-attacks, pandemics, refugee flows, human rights issues, civil wars, and, of course, traditional wars like that between Russia and Ukraine, which can affect us whether through a refugee crisis or higher prices at the grocery store. We will also look in-depth at the United Nations and its role in global politics. Students will look critically at the various international governing structures and consider possible alternatives. This honors class will include a diplomacy simulation, a guest speaker, and a research project.

ARCHIVED – SPRING 2023 HONORS COURSES

Literature 115 Great Books Seminar (IAI#: H3 907) 
Topic: Tricksters and Fools of British Literature
[General Education/Humanities requirement & Great Books course]
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
This course is an honors introduction to the Great Books. In this course, students will encounter some of the memorable tricksters and fools of British Literature, both the good and the evil, the contemptuous and the hilarious. We will meet the clever, foul-mouth Miller, the feminist prototype Wife of Bath and the immoral, blatantly sinful Pardoner (Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales); encounter several of Shakespeare’s playful, deceitful, and foolish characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello; and much more. This course will help to enrich your skills as a student, notably in the areas of reading, writing, and critical thinking. Through weekly research of literary works and relevant topics, you will also use close reading of primary texts to participate in stimulating round-table discussions and presentations. Students will be required to perform close reading of primary texts in preparation for participating in weekly student presentations, student teaching, and shared inquiry, round-table discussions. Also, each week students will be required to research literary works and topics and to produce short essays in preparation for lessons and discussion, and they will produce a minimum of twenty pages of research-based argument, including a single, 2500 to 3000-word research paper. All students are required to be fully engaged each class period and to demonstrate well-informed, independent thought.

English 102 Composition II (IAI#: C1 901 R)
Topic: Slavic Literature in the Late 20th Century: Becoming Postmodern
[General Education/Communications requirement & Global Studies course]
Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:20 p.m.
Prof. Natasha Todorovich: ntodorovich@ccc.edu
This course promotes the core principles of research and advanced scholarship while allowing students to hone argumentative writing skills. The theme for this course is "Slavic Literature in the Late 20th Century: Becoming Postmodern." With this in mind, the course examines the topics of identity, existence, and the culture of fate in Slavic literature of the late 20th century, the time of significant geopolitical shifts when the Slavic nations underwent drastic social, political, economic, and ideological transformations. Through intensive reading, writing, analysis, and research, this course will challenge creative and critical thinkers to contextualize ideas and to synthesize literature, history, and philosophy while examining works of some prominent 20th century Czech, Russian, Polish, and Yugoslavian authors.

ARCHIVED – FALL 2022 HONORS COURSES

Political Science 204 International Relations (IAI#: S5 904) 
[General Education/Social Science Requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Prof. Mayer: mmayer2@ccc.edu
The world is interconnected in ways that will impact our lives. Since 2020, there has been the Covid pandemic. Beginning in 2016, the world has been dealing with a pandemic of misinformation on social media, crossing borders and stoking anger within countries. Terrorism, the warming of the planet, drug smuggling, human trafficking, civil wars, and, of course, traditional wars like that between Russia and Ukraine will affect us—whether it is through a refugee crisis or higher prices at the grocery store. 
In this course we will examine these issues and who decides what happens. Countries exist in a world of few rules, where the bigger powers usually get to decide outcomes. Power in all its forms—military, economic and cultural—will be the focus of this course as well. We will consider the various international relations theories, trade, cyber security, geopolitics and diplomacy. Since international relations often deal with life and death issues, we will consider whether moral questions should be used in decision making on the international level, and, if so, what the truly moral response is. This honors class will include a diplomacy simulation, a guest speaker, and a service project.

English 101 Composition I (IAI#: C1 900)
[General Education/Communications requirement]
Tuesday and Thursday 8:00-9:20 a.m.
Prof. Vincent Bruckert: vbruckert@ccc.edu
This class provides students with an introduction to the expectations and techniques of college writing, and it will use Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to discuss how we can develop successful strategies for learning and writing. The key distinction between this course plan and Prof. Bruckert’s typical use of the text for English 101 is in the focus beyond the text, including our College’s Common Text and the secondary resources that inform deep readers on Gladwell’s insights and research for his book. These sources can also help us determine the validity and limits of Gladwell’s arguments. Students will be expected to post their work before peer review sessions to Brightspace and review each other’s work before the assigned class so that all students can peer edit together as a class.

Literature 115 Honors: Introduction to Great Books of the World (IAI#: H3 907) 
[Humanities/General Education requirement & Great Books course]
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:50 am
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
In this course, students will encounter some of the memorable tricksters and fools of British Literature, both the good and the evil, the contemptuous and the hilarious. We will meet the clever, foul-mouth Miller, the feminist prototype Wife of Bath and the immoral, blatantly sinful Pardoner (Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales); encounter several of Shakespeare’s playful, deceitful, and foolish characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello; and much more. This course will help to enrich your skills as a student, notably in the areas of reading, writing, and critical thinking. Through weekly research of literary works and relevant topics, you will also use close reading of primary texts to participate in stimulating round-table discussions and presentations

ARCHIVED – SPRING 2022 HONORS COURSES

Political Science 204 International Relations (IAI#: S5 904) 
[General Education/Social Science Requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Prof. Mayer: mmayer2@ccc.edu
Countries exist in a world of few rules, where the bigger powers get to decide outcomes. Power in all its forms—military, economic and cultural—will be the focus of this course. Whether the future holds war, closed borders, huge refugee migrations, environmental degradation or another pandemic, is a matter of decision-making done on a global scale. International Relations is by nature an interdisciplinary field, covering, among others, game theory, geopolitics, cyber security, and trade. In this honors course, students will work on an undergraduate research project with the U.S. Dept. of State as part of Diplomacy Lab. We will work under the guidance of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines, examining the issue of misinformation on social media in that country. We will consider several fake news case studies, what has been done to combat them, and what the U.S. or international bodies such as the United Nations can do to combat this threat to democracies around the world.

ARCHIVED FALL – 2021 HONORS COURSES 

English 101 Composition I (IAI#: C1 900)
[General Education/Communications requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 8:00-9:20 a.m.
Prof. Vincent Bruckert: vbruckert@ccc.edu
This class provides students with an introduction to the expectations and techniques of college writing, and it will use Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to discuss how we can develop successful strategies for learning and writing. The key distinction between this course plan and Prof. Bruckert’s typical use of the text for English 101 is in the focus beyond the text, including our College’s Common Text and the secondary resources that inform deep readers on Gladwell’s insights and research for his book. These sources can also help us determine the validity and limits of Gladwell’s arguments. Students will be expected to post their work before peer review sessions to Brightspace and review each other’s work before the assigned class so that all students can peer edit together as a class.

Literature 115 Introduction to Great Books of the World (IAI#: H3 907) 
[General Education/Humanities requirement & Great Books course]
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
This course is an honors introduction to the Great Books. Students in the course will examine literature from multiple perspectives, allowing students to more deeply investigate social, philosophical, cultural, historical, religious, rhetorical, and generic contexts through critical investigations of the literature. The integration and discussion of these various contexts will allow students to understand the course in the broader perspectives of various disciplines in the arts and sciences. Students will be required to perform close reading of primary texts in preparation for participating in weekly student presentations, student teaching, and shared inquiry, round-table discussions. Also, each week students will be required to research literary works and topics and to produce short essays in preparation for lessons and discussion, and they will produce a minimum of twenty pages of research-based argument, including a single, 2500 to 3000-word research paper. All students are required to be fully engaged each class period and to demonstrate well-informed, independent thought.

ARCHIVED – SPRING 2021 HONORS COURSES

English 102SA Composition II (IAI#: C1 901 R)
[General Education/Communications requirement]
Topic: Virtual? Reality, Augmented Reality, and Atmospheric Media
Saturday 8:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
Prof. Mark Brand: mbrand3@ccc.edu
In this class, we will explore stories and scholarship about cutting-edge media forms: virtual reality, augmented reality, and atmospheric media. We will begin with stories from the cyberpunk era that longed for immersion in—or perhaps escape to—imaginary spaces (virtual reality) and the isolated yet-hyper-connected world that these authors both promised and cautioned against. We will examine our contemporary preoccupation with artificial objects and companions that join us in our real physical spaces (augmented reality), and lastly we will look at our seemingly-endless fascination with telepresences both human and artificial, and their mediation through increasingly invisible technologies (so-called “atmospheric” media) that suffuse our everyday lives. This class will be grounded in the use of research to articulate our findings in the form of conventional thesis-driven research papers as well as digital projects of our own.

Literature 211 HON9 Shakespeare (IAI#: H3 905)
[General Education/Humanities requirement & Great Books course]
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
During this time of crisis, students in Honors Shakespeare will trace how personal, social and political crises are often necessary for progress. Through examination of the texts, as well as film adaptations, students will pair tragedies with comedies written around the same time: Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), Hamlet and Twelfth Night (c. 1600), and Othello and Measure for Measure (c. 1604). By examining the similarities and differences in the genres of tragedy and comedy, we will consider how these plays complement each other in their approach to personal, social, and political conflict and resolution. Also, students in the course will examine literature from multiple perspectives, allowing students to more deeply investigate social, philosophical, cultural, historical, religious, rhetorical, and generic contexts through critical investigations of the literature. The integration and discussion of these various contexts will allow students to understand the course in the broader perspectives of various disciplines in the arts and sciences. Students will be required to perform close reading of primary texts in preparation for participating in weekly student presentations, student teaching, and shared inquiry, round-table discussions. Also, each week students will be required to research literary works and topics and to produce short essays in preparation for lessons and discussion, and they will produce a minimum of twenty pages of research-based argument, including a single, 2500 to 3000-word research paper. All students are required to be fully engaged each class period and to demonstrate well-informed, independent thought.

Political Science 204 International Relations (IAI#: S5 904) 
[General Education/Social Science requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Prof. Mayer: mmayer2@ccc.edu
Countries exist in a world of few rules, where the bigger powers get to decide outcomes. Power in all its forms—military, economic and cultural—will be the focus of this course. Whether the future holds war, closed borders, huge refugee migrations, environmental degradation or pandemics, is a matter of decision-making done on a global scale. International Relations is by nature an interdisciplinary field, covering, among others, game theory, geopolitics, environmental politics and trade. In this honors course, students will have the chance to visit with a foreign consulate in the city and hear directly from their nationals. Students will also work together with talented peers to develop a body of research on a region or issue that will form the basis for a professional quality undergraduate thesis paper.

ARCHIVED – FALL 2020 HONORS COURSES 

English 101 Composition I (IAI#: C1 900)
[General Education/Communications requirement]
Monday & Wednesday 8:00-9:20 a.m.
Prof. Vincent Bruckert:vbruckert@ccc.edu
This class provides students with an introduction to the expectations and techniques of college writing, and it will use Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to discuss how we can develop successful strategies for learning and writing. The key distinction between this course plan and Prof. Bruckert’s typical use of the text for English 101 is in the focus beyond the text, including our College’s Common Text and the secondary resources that inform deep readers on Gladwell’s insights and research for his book. These sources can also help us determine the validity and limits of Gladwell’s arguments. Students will be expected to post their work before peer review sessions to Brightspace and review each other’s work before the assigned class so that all students can peer edit together as a class.

Literature 118 Great Books Seminar (IAI#: H3 907)
[General Education/Humanities requirement & Great Books course]
Topic: Tricksters and Fools of British Literature
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Prof. Michael Petersen: mpetersen@ccc.edu
In this honors literature course, students will encounter some of the memorable tricksters and fools of British Literature, both the good and the evil, the contemptuous and the hilarious. We will meet the clever, foul-mouth Miller, the feminist prototype Wife of Bath and the immoral, blatantly sinful Pardoner (Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales); encounter several of Shakespeare’s playful, deceitful, and foolish characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and Othello; marvel at the smooth-talking lovers in the poetry of John Donne and his contemporaries; smile at the foolish vanity of Jonathon Swift’s characters (Gulliver’s Travels); and much more. This course will help to enrich your skills as a student, notably in the areas of reading, writing, and critical thinking. Through weekly research of literary works and relevant topics, you will also use close reading of primary texts to participate in stimulating round-table discussions and presentations.