Here are the course descriptions for the 2024-2025 academic year. Jump to Winter 2025.

HNR 350 01 Medical Controversies

Coeli Fitzpatrick

Asynchronously Online

When we think about medical controversies such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama were denied medical treatment of syphilis in the name of science, we might assume that the days of such scandals are past. Yet new scandals and unthinkable controversies in the name of medicine, science, and progress are exposed with alarming regularity. These controversies are very often intertwined with issues of race, culture, social class, and politics. This interdisciplinary seminar uses fiction, memoir, film, podcasts, and essays to explore the sites where medicine, the elevation of science, and real bodies meet. The course will look at topics such as research/experimentation, the “war on drugs” and the opioid epidemic, “the obesity epidemic”, medicalization, risk and stigma, gun-control as a medical issue, and healthcare access. Students will also have the opportunity to use course assignments to explore their own areas of specific interest.   

HNR 201 Live. Learn. Lead.

Section 01: Sherry Johnson TR 2:30-3:45pm HON 148

Section 02: Ellen Adams TR 4:00-5:15pm HON 148

Section 03: Dori Danko MW 1:30-2:45pm HON 148

Section 04: Kirsten Bartels MW 4:30-5:45pm HON 220

Section 05: Rachel Fox TR 1:00-2:15pm HON 148

This course is structured around a series of campus and community lectures, performances, exhibits, or other events. Readings and classroom activities prepare students to experience each event as fully as possible. Group attendance, follow-up discussion, and written reflections help students derive meaning from each experience and place it in larger contexts. The ultimate aim of the course is to equip students to engage in intelligent participation in public dialogues.

HNR 250-01 Rock History

Kurt Ellenberger

MW 10:30-11:45am HON 219

This course will study the history of Rock and the American culture in which it developed. We will also study how Rock, in turn, influenced American and World Culture so profoundly in the 20C. We will learn about Rock from its Blues origins in the 19C in the slave populations of the deep south and its progenitors in the 20C. We will then study the early Rock pioneers (Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley) and the “British Invasion” of the 1960s as we proceed to study the development of the music into its various different styles, including Hard Rock, Art/Progressive Rock, Glam Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, New Wave, and Alternative/Indie Music. This course does not require previous knowledge of music. There will be no discipline specific content in music theory, history, or performance; however, we will introduce a small amount of rudimentary music terminology that will be taught and demonstrated. 

HNR 250-02 Community, Identity, & Wonder

Ellen Adams

TR 2:30-3:45pm HON 218

The Parthenon in Athens, Michelangelo’s David sculpture in Florence, and Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington: what do these artworks, widely varied in form, scale, and location, have in common? All were created for public spaces, intended to edify, beautify, inspire, and/or challenge their communities. Through readings, research, discussion, field research, and a semester-long project, students in this course will delve into the meaning and varieties of art created in and for public spaces. Students will also consider the problem of defining a public or publics in relation to works of art that inhibit spaces that are deemed public or common. What happens, for example, when a work of art that might be seen to properly provoke an elite museum-going audience is seen as offensive when inserted into everyday public spaces? How complicated when that work of art is paid for by public funds? And what kinds of communities are beautified by public art and which communities are left out? After an introduction to the history of public art, the class will cover public apace and the modern world, art and site specificity, contested;/controversial public art, race and ethnicity, memory, and public/private partnerships. 

HNR 251-01 The Healing Power of Plants

Karen Amisi

T 6:00-8:50pm HON 220

From early time, man has recognized that plants have the power to heal and sustain life. Plants remain the first-choice treatment for 80% of the global populations. Consumer interest in the health benefits of medicinal and aromatic plants has increased worldwide. This course uses a research project-based approach to explore the history and diverse uses of medicinal, aromatic, and poisonous plants in various cultures. Students will gain an awareness of how natural chemical compounds derived from plants play a dominant role in the development of drugs to treat human diseases. The future of medicinal plants rests on our ability to invest in researching and documenting the plants and their active ingredients. 

HNR 251 02 The Ethics of Financial Performance

Dori Danko

MW 12:00-1:15pm HON 214

Insider trading, triple bottom line, ESG, crypto currency, AI, market corrections—how do these hot topics impact the financial markets?  Whether it’s the Dow, Nasdaq, or the bond market, the financial markets impact us all.  What is the purpose of investing?  Who invests—and why?  Explore how financial markets help us understand the foundation of business and business ethics today as well as our culture as a whole. What are the competing attitudes toward regulation and business ethics as they relate to our financial markets? Is profit more important than societal values? Do companies value stakeholders more than profits? These issues and conflicts are aspects of our financial markets this course explores. Through readings, discussions, and videos, we will navigate through the quagmire of the financial markets of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Every company’s stock performance tells a story, and we will explore those stories and how they reflect our society’s culture, ethics, regulatory practices, and prospects for the future. 

HNR 251-03 Our Evolving World

Gary Greer

TR 2:30-3:45pm HON 214

This course explores the mechanisms of biological evolution and their application to improve human welfare.  In this course you will learn about: (1) major events in the history of life on earth; (2) the evolutionary processes that have generated organismal and ecological complexity; and (3) how principles of evolution are used to conserve biodiversity and manage and the ecosystems on which we depend, domesticate animals and plants, and improve our own health and lifespan.  You will also apply the lens of biological evolution to understand and contribute to solution of environmental and social issues through student-designed investigations.

HNR 251-04 Hollywood Science

Eric Ramsson

TR 4:00-5:15pm HON 214

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and thought "That doesn't sound right..." as they describe something "science-y"? Through this course, you will learn how the human body normally functions, and then use that information to determine the validity of TV and/or movies through Project-Based Learning. You will learn more about yourself and gain skills to navigate a world of misinformation.

HNR 350-01 Music, Culture, and Aesthetics

Kurt Ellenberger

MW 9:00-10:15am HON 219

This course studies classical music, jazz, and popular music first from an aesthetic viewpoint in which styles and genres are identified and compared. Students learn to identify the major style periods in classical music and jazz through listening and class discussions about what we are hearing in the various different eras. We also engage with music as it intersects with and helps define culture in present-day America (where culturally-diverse genres coexist and cross-pollinate in a surprising manner), and contrast this with similar developments during pivotal historical events since the Enlightenment. We use aesthetics as a means of identifying embedded cultural values that transcend genre, thus illuminating our understanding of music in a broader societal context. This is a class for those who like listening to music and talking about music, and those who enjoy exploring music in its role as a cultural force.

HNR 350-02 Justice Served

Maria Cimitile

MW 11:30-12:45pm HON 218

Do we live in a just society? What has caused social and economic disparities in contemporary society? Why What does the history of the United States reveal about our present democratic society? Are the founding principles of classical liberalism relevant for contemporary society?  The course will explore the political philosophy that has served to undergird democracy in the United States, and weigh how well these ideas have served to create a just society. Students will debate the definition of a just society, explore the ideas of classical liberalism, neoliberalism and social democracies,  and examine current social, political and economic conditions of the 21^st century in the United States. This is a good class for you if you like challenging readings and robust classroom discussions where every student contributes.

HNR 350-03 Leading Others in An Othering World

Faye Richardson-Green

T 6:00-8:50pm HON 218

What do we mean by “othering?” Our worldview shapes the decisions we make for ourselves and others, especially in a leading role.  Although sometimes viewed as divisive, terms such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” (aka DEI) can be meaningful when fully understood despite a seemingly divided and polarized world.  More importantly, those concepts really do matter in the world of work regardless of industry, profession, geography, or culture.

This course will encourage the use of diversity, equity and inclusion lenses while exploring the topics of emotional intelligence, empathic listening, humble inquiry, story-telling as well as historical and personal world views. The goal is to help learners as emerging leaders gain a broader view of their roles when confronted by “othering” to ensure work environments where “belonging” can and should occur. Additionally, these learners better understand their own potential biases and values within their own world views.  This course will be highly participatory.

HNR 350-04 Frontier Histories: Discovering New Histories

Anna-Lisa Cox

W 6:00-8:50pm HON 218

This class will explore some of the newest and most exciting discoveries in the history of this region, while also teaching you to become your own history detective.

As an award-winning historian, my work has led me to create history exhibits at the Smithsonian, travel across the Midwest to interview African American farmers for the Library of Congress Folklife Center, and produce history videos for the National Park Service featuring the comedian Josh Johnson and the Tik Tok star Kahlil Greene. One of my greatest joys, however, is the craft of history -- finding buried facts from the past and making them known. This class will show you how to become your own history detective, first finding out what gaps exist in textbooks and the historical record, and then uncovering buried histories from the early 1800s in the Grand Rapids area, or in a community of your choosing. Your final project will be doing original research -- work that matters -- work with the potential to have a very real impact on the historical narrative as well as on the community you are studying.

HNR 350-05 The Beautiful Game

Tara Hefferan

TR 11:30-12:45pm, LSH 233

Soccer and Society:  Culture, History, & Power in the Beautiful Game

Soccer unites 3.5 billion fans and 250 million players, making it the most popular sport on the planet.  Transcending geographical and political boundaries, religious systems, and language barriers, soccer is more than just a “beautiful game.”  To some, soccer is life itself. 

This course traces soccer’s significance beyond the pitch to explore its impacts on cultures, societies, and everyday lives.  What does soccer reveal about cultural norms, values, and beliefs?  How are international spectacles like the World Cup and Olympics connected to national pride and identity?  What myths, heroes, and rituals get attached to teams and stadiums?  How do race, class, and gender shape and get shaped by the beautiful game?  How is soccer channeled in pursuit of social and political change?  These and other questions will be explored in this interdisciplinary seminar focused on the ways that soccer explains the world.

HNR 351-01 Magnitude

Gary Greer

TR 11:30-12:45pm HON 214

This course explores the principles of scientific inquiry and how they are employed in inquiries regarding size.  Many factors drive increases or decreases in size of most things in our world and the properties of the minute and the colossal differ in essence as well as magnitude.  As a result, highly useful and profound insights emerge from the study of size in the natural sciences, technology, engineering, social sciences, and arts.  After developing a “universal” tool kit of concepts and skills and an exploration of some of its applications in the literature, students will work in small teams to explore questions of personal interest in which size is relevant.

HNR 351-02 Public Health, Disease, and Culture

Azizur Molla

TR 4:00-5:15pm HON 220

Public health teaches us that the practice of what constitutes “health” varies greatly across the globe. Even the meanings of what it means to have health or disease change depending on different social and cultural contexts. Mainstream western medicine has only relatively recently started to pay attention to how different cultures characterize these contexts, and yet attention to different concepts of health and disease is necessary in a diverse and complex world. This class looks at how health and disease is characterized over time and place, highlighting several specific communities. Students will also learn how local public health officials’ practices are used to reduce diseases.”

HNR 201 Live. Learn. Lead.

Section 01: Ellen Adams TR 2:30-3:45pm HON 148

Section 02: Kirsten Bartels MW 4:30-5:45pm HON 220

Section 03: Jeremiah Cataldo MW 1:30-2:45pm HON 148

Section 04: Dori Danko MW 12:00-1:15pm HON 148

This course is structured around a series of campus and community lectures, performances, exhibits, or other events. Readings and classroom activities prepare students to experience each event as fully as possible. Group attendance, follow-up discussion, and written reflections help students derive meaning from each experience and place it in larger contexts. The ultimate aim of the course is to equip students to engage in intelligent participation in public dialogues.

HNR 250-01 Jazzin’ the Culture

Kurt Ellenberger

MW 10:00-11:15am HON 219

This course will study the history of jazz and the American culture in which it developed and also how jazz, in turn, influenced American and World Culture so profoundly in the 20C. We will learn about jazz from its origins in the 19C in the slave populations of the deep south and its subsequent move northward from New Orleans to Kansas City, Chicago, and New York. The important style periods will be studied, including blues and ragtime, Dixieland, swing, cool jazz, bebop, Latin jazz, hard bop, Avant Garde, fusion, European jazz, and contemporary trends. Students will determine their defining characteristics of this music through deep listening and creative engagement with the music and the cultural contexts which influenced its development and whose development was, in turn, influenced by the music. As an Honors 250, this course features some “hands on” creative activities where students will experiment with making their own music using GarageBand. This course does not require previous knowledge of music. There will be no discipline specific content in music theory, history, or performance; however, we will introduce a small amount of very simple music terminology that will be explained and demonstrated.

HNR 250-03 Games and Gaming in the Early Modern World

Elizabeth Gansen

TR 1:00-2:15pm HON 218

Everyone plays games. And games, in turn, shed light on the ways that we conceive the world and our place in it. In this course, we will study games as they appear in early modern art and literature and play games that speak to the historical circumstances of the time. Through readings and discussions, we will seek to illuminate the connection between these amusements, their literary and artistic representation, and the larger historical context. Students will participate in a semester-long project, becoming experts on a specific cultural artifact and the ways that it engages with the questions at the heart of the course.  

HNR 251-01 The Healing Power of Plants

Karen Amisi

M 6:00-8:50pm HON 148

From early time, man has recognized that plants have the power to heal and sustain life. Plants remain the first-choice treatment for 80% of the global populations. Consumer interest in the health benefits of medicinal and aromatic plants has increased worldwide. This course uses a research project-based approach to explore the history and diverse uses of medicinal, aromatic, and poisonous plants in various cultures. Students will gain an awareness of how natural chemical compounds derived from plants play a dominant role in the development of drugs to treat human diseases. The future of medicinal plants rests on our ability to invest in researching and documenting the plants and their active ingredients. 

HNR 251-02 Calling Bull: Skepticism & Data

Lora Bailey

TR 2:30-3:45pm HON 218

Being a good citizen in the information age requires us to be skeptical consumers and proficient communicators of information.  This course will equip students to cultivate a skeptical mindset, become proficient at assessing information in their daily lives, and develop the ability to interpret and communicate quantitative information with clarity.  

HNR 251-03 Human Body in Motion

Bradley Ambrose

MW 1:00-2:50pm HON 214

This interdisciplinary science course is a lab-based problem-based learning (PBL) course for Honors students. The structure and function of human movement are examined from a basic physical perspective, with applications in body composition, biomechanics, and other areas of movement science, in order to develop an appreciation for the human body.  The course also focuses on the nature of science as a human endeavor.  

HNR 350-01 I Love the 80s: Visual Culture in the Age of Reagan, Madonna, and AIDS

Ellen Adams

TR 4:00-5:15pm HON 218

This interdisciplinary course will trace the visual culture of the 1980s from the election of Ronald Reagan to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today’s culture wars over feminism, globalism, multiculturalism, and identity politics originated in battles waged in the eighties over obscenity and morality. For example, how did the rise of crack cocaine begin a wave of massive incarceration among urban African Americans and feature prominently in video and film? In what ways did Jane Fonda’s workout videos shape both positive and negative female body norms at a time when women were moving into the work force in record numbers?  Federal funding for art, a process that until this time went largely unnoticed by the public, was pushed into the mainstream media by members of Congress who gained notoriety by playing on Americans’ fear of queer and feminist bodies. Thus, works such as Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs and Maya Lin’s now iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial provoked outrage, as did the visual culture surrounding the AIDS pandemic, from ACT UP’s furious activist imagery to the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Music and video combined in novel ways in the 80s, especially through the nascent MTV. Our playlist will include the post-punk vanguard (for example, Joy Division, The Cure); heavy metal (Metallica, AC/DC), pop (Madonna, Prince) and early hip hop (NWA, Public Enemy).

HNR 350-02 Claude Lanzmann-Shoah & Beyond

Rob Franciosi

T 6:00-8:50pm HON 220

Four decades after its 1985 premiere, Claude Lanzmann’s monumental Shoah remains the Holocaust film by which all subsequent cinematic efforts are measured. Rejecting the archival footage that is central to most historical documentaries, Lanzmann builds his nine-and-a-half- hour masterpiece around two sites of memory: interviews with surviving victims, perpetrators, and bystanders; visits to the crimes scenes themselves, or what remains of them.

Shoah makes enormous demands on its viewers, reflecting the eleven-year struggle Lanzmann endured in completing it, but watching it can be a profound, even life-changing, experience. Our Thursday night seminar will allow us to encounter Shoah together, with sufficient time to absorb both its length and depth. Besides tracing the film’s history, reception, and achievement, we will consider several shorter documentaries which Lanzmann subsequently produced, as well as the vast trove of Shoah outtakes (270 hours, all available online) from which they were derived. The seminar does not require previous coursework on the Holocaust; in fact, those with a limited knowledge of the history may be the ideal audience for Lanzmann’s film.

HNR 350-03 Leading Others in an Othering World

Faye Richardson-Green, Meijer Endowed Chair

TR 11:30-12:45pm HON 214

What do we mean by "othering"? Our worldview shapes the decisions we make for ourselves and others, especially in a leading role. Although sometimes viewed as divisive, terms such as "diversity", "equity", and "inclusion" (aka DEI) can be meaningful when fully understood despite a seemingly divided and polarized world. More importantly, those concepts really do matter in the world of work regardless of industry, profession, geography, or culture. 

This course will encourage the use of diversity, equity and inclusion lenses while exploring the topics of emotional intelligence, empathic listening, humble inquiry, story-telling as well as historical and personal world views. The goal is to help learners as emerging leaders gain a broader view of their roles when confronted by “othering” to ensure work environments where “belonging” can and should occur. Additionally, these learners better understand their own potential biases and values within their own world views.  This course will be highly participatory.

HNR 350-04 The Masculine Malaise?

Steve Tripp

MW 3:00-4:15pm MAK-A1182

This course examines the historic cultural, economic, social, and political forces that have contributed to what many scholars and pundits describe as a crisis in masculinity, culminating with what sociologist Michael Kimmel has termed “aggrieved entitlement” – the white male sentiment that the privileges they have long enjoyed are their birthright and have been stolen from them from illegitimate groups such as racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, immigrants, feminists, non-Christians, and academics.  The course addresses these questions:

• How have social, cultural, political, and economic factors impacted men over the last sixty to seventy years?  How have these factors affected what it means to be a man?
• Why do so many men feel both entitled and defensive?
• What can men do to adapt constructively to social, economic, and political changes in American life?
• If masculinity needs to be redefined and refashioned, what should it look like?  Beyond the dominant conventions, what alternative masculine styles have developed during the past several decades?
• Finally, is this simply a ‘man problem’ or is there more to it than this?  How should society respond to the challenges posed by masculine malaise? Would an end to gender solve the problem? 

Students will address these questions by taking a deep dive into the history of manhood and masculinities as it has evolved over the last sixty to seventy years. As evidenced by the readings, the course is interdisciplinary in scope, relying upon anthropology, sociology, media studies, history, psychology, gender studies, and literature. 

HNR 350-05 Medical Controversies

Coeli Fitzpatrick

MW 3:00-4:15pm HON 220

When we think about medical controversies such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where African-Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama were denied medical treatment of syphilis in the name of science, we might assume that the days of such scandals are past. Yet new scandals and unthinkable controversies in the name of medicine, science, and progress are exposed with alarming regularity. These controversies are very often intertwined with issues of race, culture, social class, and politics. This interdisciplinary seminar uses fiction, memoir, film, podcasts, and essays to explore the sites where medicine, the elevation of science, and real bodies meet. The course will look at topics such as research/experimentation, the “war on drugs” and the opioid epidemic, “the obesity epidemic”, medicalization, risk and stigma, gun-control as a medical issue, and healthcare access. Students will also have the opportunity to use course assignments to explore their own areas of specific interest.   

HNR 350-06 Social Media and Belief

Jeremiah Cataldo

Asynchronously Online

How has the Internet and social media changed the ways we think and believe? How has it remapped the ways we express our deepest religious, political, emotional, and other beliefs? Are we becoming "transhuman"? This course pursues answers to those questions. By reviewing the formation of belief systems in the past across a range of cultures and by exploring current psychological and sociological research on belief formation, religious and other, it will show why our beliefs will never be the same in the dawning of an increasingly digitized world. Its benefit will be for anyone studying how humans behave and relate, such as those seeking careers in politics, business, religion, advertising, computer science, medicine, and more.

HNR 350-07 Music, Culture, and Aesthetics

Kurt Ellenberger

MW 12:00-1:15pm HON 218

This course studies classical music, jazz and popular music first from an aesthetic viewpoint in which styles and genres are identified and compared. Students learn to identify the major style periods in classical music and jazz through listening and class discussions about what we are hearing in the various different eras. We also engage with music as it intersects with and helps define culture in present-day America (where culturally-diverse genres coexist and cross-pollinate in a surprising manner), and contrast this with similar developments during pivotal historical events since the Enlightenment. We use aesthetics as a means of identifying embedded cultural values that transcend genre, thus illuminating our understanding of music in a broader societal context. This is a class for those who like listening to music and talkbing about music, and those who enjoy exploring music in its role as a cultural force.  

HNR 350-08 Food, Culture, Conscience

John Uglietta

TR 10:00-11:15am MAK-B2124

If we are lucky, most of us eat every day. However, the regularity of our encounters with food may cover up many of the ways that our food practices reflect our personal, religious, scientific, and philosophical beliefs and also our historical and environmental setting.  We will look at a variety of contemporary and historical sources to investigate the ways we eat, prepare, and talk about food.  We will look at recipes, cookbooks, and food reviews to investigate the methods and difficulties of talking about the taste and judgment we exercise in eating and preparing food. We will explore the nature of American cuisine and some of the great variety of food traditions in the US.  Also, we will consider the ethical implications of what we eat – exploring arguments for and against eating animal products and attempts to influence people to eat healthier foods. 

HNR 351-03 Medicine, Health, and Oppression

Rachel Fox

MW 3:00-4:15pm HON 214

We live our lives by medical ideas. As an institution, medicine has a powerful influence on how we think, feel, act, thrive, and suffer. But not everyone experiences this influence equally. This course investigates how medicine and health are intertwined with the oppression of marginalized groups in the US. Specifically, we examine medicine as a site of oppression, medicine as a structure of oppression, and health inequalities as consequences of oppression. 

To enhance students’ data literacy, we will spend time interrogating how quantitative data can be used to naturalize or intensify the oppression of marginalized groups as well as how data can function as important evidence of such oppression.