Sequence offerings rotate somewhat from year to year. See below for current descriptions of 16 sequences we are offering in the 2025-2026 academic year.

Please note: Students choose one sequence for the entire year. In Fall, you register for HNR 151 and HNR 152. In Winter, you register for HNR 153 and HNR 154. All sequences count for 6 credits per semester, which means they meet for 6 hours per week during both Fall and Winter semesters. A full-time student schedule is 15 credits per semester, so you'll also take roughly 9 credits (2 or 3 courses) per semester beyond the sequence for the first year. 

More information about the faculty can be found here, or by clicking on their name in the sequence course description. 

If you have any questions please contact the Meijer Honors College office at 616-331-3219 or honors@gvsu.edu.

Coeli Fitzpatrick,  Majd Al-Mallah

Fall: HNR 151 01 Monday & Wednesday 12:00-1:15 p.m. and HNR 152 01 Monday & Wednesday 1:30-2:45  p.m. HON 219

Winter: HNR 153 01 Monday & Wednesday 12:00-1:15 p.m. and HNR 154 01 Monday & Wednesday 1:30-2:45 p.m. HON 219

The course starts with the premise that the way we understand the Middle East has been shaped by many political, ideological, and cultural forces, giving us AN image of the region that is often reduced to the “Bombers, Billionaires & Belly-Dancers” stereotypes. These stereotypes serve to flatten our understanding rather than inform us, and result in news headlines that are sensational, constructed by images of violence, oppression, and exoticism. This sequence will look “beyond the headlines” to see both how we got these representations of the Middle East, and how we can learn to think about them and beyond them. In this process, we endeavor to answer several questions: How did these stereotypes come about? How do we engage with the region to reach a deeper and more nuanced understanding? How do authors, films directors, artists, and singers from the Middle East portray the region and its complexity? What is the impact of those with and without power in shaping the region and images associated with it?  How does power inform our understanding of the region? How have women gained, lost, and struggled for power over time? Who decides how people are represented, and who resists the ways that this is done? In answering these questions, we will consider people’s agency, especially in the light of the colonial legacy in the Middle East and how it has impacted countries even after the end of direct colonial domination. We will interrogate the intersections of media, culture, and politics in literature, film, essays, podcasts, “mainstream media” and social media. This is a course that encourages deep learning and conversations between students in groups and with the class as a whole. It is an interdisciplinary course, so it isn’t “just” a history course, or a literature course, or a philosophy course, or a media studies course, though it is informed by these and other disciplines. We love building community and we do so through a variety of ways that include a fieldtrip to the Arab and Muslim American Museum in Dearborn, class  discussions, active learning, and sometimes delicious food!

Charles Pazdernik, David Crane, Charles Ham

Fall: HNR 151 02 Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 1:00-1:50 p.m. and HNR 152 02 Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 2:00-2:50 p.m. HON 220

Winter: HNR 153 02 Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 1:00-1:50 p.m. and HNR 154 02 Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 2:00-2:50 p.m. HON 220

Ancient Greece and Rome are among the world's most exciting, important, and influential civilizations. Taught by researchers into various aspects of classical antiquity from Homer to the fall of the Roman Empire and beyond, the course asks participants to cooperate actively and enthusiastically in exploring mythology, history, art and archaeology, literature, and philosophy. Interactive learning experiences, including immersive role-playing games, complement spirited class discussions and careful attention to close reading, effective writing, and critical thinking. No prior knowledge is necessary (all texts are in translation).

Ellen Adams, David Eick

Fall: HNR 151 03 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 152 03 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. HON 218

Winter: HNR 153 03 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 154 03 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. HON 218

By exploring moments of change, this course will provide you with knowledge of history, culture, and the big ideas that shape—and divide—our world. Novels, works of art, music, and film serve as vehicles for examining challenges to conventional ways of thinking, both past and present.

We will also engage in interactive role-playing games designed to foster deep learning and skill development. As a student, you will portray a character within a specific historical flashpoint, collaborating closely with your classmates. Through this experience, you will enhance your creative problem-solving, collaboration, information literacy, empathy, and persuasion skills—essential for success in both college and life. By immersing ourselves in different historical contexts, we will explore how history could have unfolded differently and gain a deeper understanding of the processes behind difficult decision-making.

Grace Coolidge, Elizabeth Gansen, Gabriela Pozzi

Fall: HNR 151 04 Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m. and HNR 152 04 Tuesday & Thursday 2:30-3:45 p.m., HON 220

Winter: HNR 153 04 Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m. and HNR 154 Tuesday & Thursday 2:30-3:45 p.m., HON 220

While this course covers all of European history and culture, we put a special emphasis on Spain. Spain occupied a unique historical and geographical position as the cultural crossroad of East and West, where the three “peoples of the book” (Christians, Jews and Muslims) coexisted in complex patterns of harmony and tension. The Spanish empire dominated the early modern world, and Spain was home to a rich cultural Renaissance. By contrast, twentieth-century Spain survived a brutal civil war and the longest-running Fascist dictatorship in European history to become a thriving modern democracy. We explore the twists and turns of Spanish history and compare and contrast Spain to the rest of Europe, learning about its uniqueness as well as about the common ties that bind it to the mainland.

The sequence covers Spanish and European history and culture from the medieval period to the present day European union.  We learn how to cure love-sickness, follow a gender non-conforming nun in her adventures across Spain and the new world, meet the famous witch Celestina, and wrestle with the Frankenstein monster. In the 19th century the class uses a six-week simulation in which students play the parts of workers and factory owners caught up in the Industrial Revolution, making choices and living with the consequences in this fast-changing culture. We explore the tragic, disillusioned poetry of World War One, the impact of the Holocaust, and the slow rebuilding of a traumatized Europe into today’s European Union. The class puts special emphasis on learning to write historical and literary essays and to handle a college-level reading load, skills that will benefit students in any discipline they pursue. 

Meghan Cai, Jeremy Robinson, Yan Liang, Jason Herlands

Fall: HNR 151 05 Monday & Wednesday 3:00-4:15 p.m. and HNR 152 05 Monday & Wednesday 4:30-5:45 p.m. HON 218

Winter: HNR 153 05 Monday & Wednesday 3:00-4:15 p.m. and HNR 154 05 Monday & Wednesday 4:30-5:45 p.m. HON 218

This four-course, two-semester sequence explores the circulation of peoples, culture, and ideas throughout East Asia, from ancient connections between the regions of China, Korea, and Japan to contemporary interactions in a globalized world. The classes adopt a truly interdisciplinary approach, including both the “high culture” of history, literature, philosophy, and art; as well as the “lived culture” of food, family, school, and work. Rather than taking a chronological approach, the course explores common themes through which we can see the culture of the past informing the worldviews of the present.

Each semester, two courses are team-taught by specialists in Chinese and Japanese Culture: Meghan Cai and Jeremy Robinson in the fall, and Yan Liang and Jason Herlands in the winter. All classes feature readings in primary and secondary sources, full-class discussion, individual and group projects, student presentations, and written essays. Classes will also include group excursions to museums, restaurants, and marketplaces, exploring the many ways in which “East Asian culture” circulates in our own midwestern American communities.

Jason Crouthamel, Steven Nathaniel

Fall: HNR 151 06 Monday & Wednesday 3:00-4:15 p.m. and HNR 152 06 Monday & Wednesday 4:30-5:45 p.m., HON 219

Winter: HNR 153 06 Monday & Wednesday 3:00-4:15 p.m. and HNR 154 06 Monday & Wednesday 4:30-5:45 p.m., HON 219

In this course, we examine ways of preserving memory from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, with special attention to the traumatic effects of the two world wars and the Holocaust. We approach this topic through a broad understanding of memory that stretches beyond the psyche to various forms of recording particular to literature, film, music, written narratives and their attendant technologies. Students will engage these media as a way of contemplating the lives of individuals contending with traumas such as “shell shock,” but also to interrogate the social institutions that structured their experiences. These investigations lead us to focus on war and genocide, while situating these events in longer histories of the Enlightenment, Industrialization, Science, Medicine, and Psychology. We will study official attempts to build “collective” memories, but also the more “hidden” ways in which individuals struggle to describe the psychological, emotional, and spiritual impact of mass trauma. This means that our students contemplate the records that endure to our digital present, but they also learn to dignify the gaps in these records whose history cannot be restored.

Ryan Lafferty, Paul Lane

Fall: HNR 151 07 Wednesday 3:00-5:50 p.m. and HNR 152 07 Wednesday 6:00-8:50 p.m. HON 148

Winter: HNR 153 07 Wednesday 3:00-5:50 p.m. and HNR 154 07 Wednesday 6:00-8:50 p.m. HON 148

Design Thinking for Social Product Innovation is a unique experience where two crazy guys in ties lead students through the year as they learn everything there is to know about the design thinking process. Throughout this course, students gain exposure to the world and adapt new perspectives through collaborative problem solving. Inside the classroom, students can expect a nonconventional form of education where the professors foster an active and engaging environment. This incorporation of six hours’ worth of exciting field trips, cultural cuisine, and connecting with classmates allows for a community to be formed. From exploring Art Prize in downtown Grand Rapids to building stick houses for lego people, each week brings a new set of experiences. This course challenges the students' way of thinking and involves ongoing effort and dedication. DTSPI develops a mosaic of real-world skills such as self-confidence, communicating, researching, and much more.

Coeli Fitzpatrick, Krista Benson

Fall: HNR 151 08 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. and HNR 152 08 Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m., HON 219

Winter: HNR 153 08 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m. and HNR 154 08 Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:15 p.m., HON 219

This sequence offers an interdisciplinary, reading/discussion-based exploration of the complex interplay between health, bodies, and society. The course draws from fields such as philosophy, public health, sociology, gender studies, critical theory, and medical ethics. Students delve into ways in which health/illness, sanity/insanity are invoked as bodies are surveilled, regulated, registered, and incarcerated within various social, cultural, and political contexts. Through readings, multimedia materials, and lots of discussion, students analyze historical and contemporary practices that shape perceptions and experiences of health, illness, and embodiment.

In the first semester, we look mainly at two topics: the institution and disability. Our questions regarding the institution focus on how institutions function as places of control over bodies, whether those institutions are carceral, colonial, or care-oriented. For example, how have bodies in prisons, mental institutions, and nursing homes been counted, classified, and controlled by state and medical authorities? How did the state allow prisoners to be used in medical experiments? How does sanity and insanity come to be regulated by the state? What happened in mental institutions in the past, and why, given a history of abuse, are some people calling for the return of the mental asylum? How has political dissent been pathologized? Using a public health perspective, we also look at ability/disability and its definition and certification. We’ll think about stigma, the disability rights movement(s), the promise of technology, and the ethical questions of using genetic medicine.

In the second semester, we continue to ask questions about how the state’s understanding of ideology results in the exploitation of bodies. We focus specifically on neoliberalism and race to examine how neoliberal conceptions of health led to a certain conception of health in the United States and abroad. We learn about medical discrimination and activism in the United States and in a global health context. We look at the concept of medicalization (defining and treating social problems or human condition as medical problems) and the pathologizing of dissent and politically marginal positions. We will also explore abolitionist politics and theories of change in politics, social systems, and social support networks. Students also have an opportunity to explore their own interest in topics of embodiment that aren’t covered formally.

Leifa Mayers, Rachel Fox

Fall: HNR 151 10 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 152 10 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m., HON 214

Winter: HNR 153 10 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 154 10 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 p.m., HON 214

How are you, and all of us, viewed by various technologies and in various contexts? How do science and technology shape our interactions with the media and within educational, economic, and health care settings? In this sequence, we will develop skills for thinking critically about how U.S. institutions use technological tools to generate information about who we are, how we behave, and what we need based on race, gender, ability, and other categories of difference. During fall semester, we will focus on the media and finance, including topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet search engines, and Big Tech. In the winter semester, we will focus on health care and social services, including topics such as genetic testing, public health surveillance, and security systems. Throughout the year, we will use hands-on activities, personal experiences, and scholarly texts to inform our understanding of how technology mediates both our everyday lives and the opportunities of different groups of people living in the U.S.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Dori Danko, Gabriele Gottlieb

Fall: HNR 151 11 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m., HON 220

Winter: HNR 153 11 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m., HON 220

Students will learn and explore the diverse aspects of capitalism from its origins through modern times. The varied aspects of capitalism will be discussed including but not limited to mercantilism, merchant capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, the rise of big business, and globalization. In addition, students will dive into and discover topics such as labor mobilization, the rise of capitalist institutions, boom and bust cycles, and competition vs. regulation approaches from a variety of perspectives both financial and historical.

POWER AND FREEDOM

Dawn Rutecki, Ramya Swayamprakash

Fall: HNR 151 12 Monday & Wednesday 12:00-1:15 p.m. and HNR 152 12 Monday & Wednesday 1:30-2:45 p.m. HHLC 109A

Winter: HNR 153 12 Monday & Wednesday 12:00-1:15 p.m. and HNR 154 12 Monday & Wednesday 1:30-2:45 p.m. HHLC 109A

Calling attention to the anticolonial Jamaican musician Bob Marley’s declaration in his song —"If you know, if you know your history/ Then you would know where you're coming from”— this interdisciplinary, globally-focused sequence brings together the history of colonization, its economic and social consequences, and the activist agendas seeking to weave together theory and practice to dismantle colonizing power structures in the interest of freedom and liberation. In Fall, we begin with key shifts occurring from the 15th through the mid-19th centuries, and thus examine economic, political, social, cultural, and religious changes that shaped how we experience the world today. Comparing practices coming from Europe, the European colonies, and the newly independent United States and studying their impact on targeted peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, this sequence also emphasizes the modes of their resistance and survivance. 

Continuing in Winter, we highlight the global shifts of physical, political, and intellectual sovereignty made by formerly colonized peoples, nations, countries, and communities. But is colonialism really a thing of the past? Is colonialism’s famous trinity of “God, Gold, and Gun” dead now? We explore these central questions in examining both colonial and decolonizing practices on a global scale in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, while focusing on such sites as land, labor, language, and the body as the key sites of colonial domination as well as anticolonial rebellion, resistance, and even revolution. In this course, we will read, discuss, and write about the artistic, political, and scholarly work—and watch films and listen to music—that contextualize concrete experiences of colonization and decolonization.

Tara Hefferan,  David Coffey

Fall: HNR 151 13 Tuesday & Thursday 8:30-9:45 a.m. and HNR 152 13 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. HHLC 109A

Winter: HNR 153 Tuesday & Thursday 8:30-9:45 a.m. and HNR 154 13 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. HHLC 109A

This sequence focuses on the global and local significance of sport. Using a variety of lenses—historical, contemporary, statistical, and social justice-oriented—and adopting a comparative cross-cultural perspective, the sequence aims to both demystify and critically examine the role of sport in our lives. Drawing from a mix of scholarly and popular source materials, the sequence will explore the major themes and concerns connected with the sporting universe, including the diverse ways that sport both shapes and is shaped by other aspects of culture. Broadly, three main frames will structure our investigation: 1. An examination of the ancient and contemporary conditions giving rise to and influencing engagement with sport; 2. Investigation of sporting participation; 3. Exploration of sporting spectatorship and fandom.

Using West Michigan as an extension of the classroom, the sequence will engage directly with the local sports scene by partnering with schools, clubs, or organizations. These partnerships will give students immersive and hands-on experiences in focused research.

Maria Cimitile, Thomas Pentecost

Fall: HNR 151 14 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 152 14 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 a.m. HON 220

Winter: HNR 153 14 Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 154 14 Tuesday & Thursday 11:30-12:45 a.m. HON 220

This sequence explores how humans come to claim knowledge about the world and about how they make meaning from that knowledge. We will look at how scientific and philosophical knowledge is produced, how scientific consensus is obtained, and knowledge becomes communicated through standard works of science, philosophy, and the humanities. This communication is often contested, and results in questions about policies and identity. We will read some hard science, some deep philosophy, some beautiful literature and poetry, and some political fights, as we investigate and appreciate how humans have articulated their ongoing efforts to understand, describe, and change the world. 

Christine Stephens-Krieger, Dan Cope

Fall: HNR 151 15 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and HNR 152 15 Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m., HON 148

Winter: HNR 153 15 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and HNR 154 15 Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m., HON 148

Students will study historical examples of activism manifest in the art and poetry produced by counter/subculture groups (e.g. surrealism and cubism, Greenwich Village Beatniks, British punk music scene, Grand Rapids' Twilight Tribe, the Iranian Women's Anthem, etc.). Students will also engage in the history of activist poetry in Grand Rapids and West Michigan and connect it with current social-justice oriented art movements. Students will learn how the devaluation of the humanities functions as an oppressive and controlling measure on activism and free speech. Through exploration and dialogue, the professors and students will build a foundation of understanding art-based activism of the past, how advocacy can promote a culture, and explore our own arts and poetry as a means of free speech and becoming more fully human.

Elizabeth Gansen, Anne Caillaud, Sigrid Danielson

Fall: HNR 151 16 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and HNR 152 16 Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m. HON 214

Winter: HNR 153 16 Monday & Wednesday 9:00-10:15 a.m. and HNR 154 16 Monday & Wednesday 10:30-11:45 a.m. HON 214

In October 2020, shortly before the United States’ presidential election, the New York Times posted a quiz: “Can you tell a ‘Trump’ Fridge from a ‘Biden’ Fridge?” Players were challenged to accurately identify a person’s political views based on a very particular criterion: the food they ate. While the validity of such a quiz is questionable, nevertheless it is undeniable that food reveals something intrinsic about our identity. It tells others who we are, where we are from, and what we do with our lives. In this freshman honors sequence, students will explore the topic of food from diverse disciplinary perspectives and through various mediums, including film, literature, and art. Focusing initially on Latin American and French food culture as points of departure, we will examine the impact of histories of colonization and migration on food production and habits, the politics of food and waste, and cultural expectations surrounding the making and eating of food. We will also examine global trends in nutrition and food and their consequences for country-specific or regional gastronomy, such as what constitutes a ‘healthy’ diet as well as the growing popularity of plant-based diets. We will try our hand at making some recipes from French and Hispanic culinary traditions and take several food-related excursions. Class will be discussion-based and use several Reacting to the Past (RTTP) games that put on display the central debates and tensions that define our current relationship to food. 

Jeremiah Cataldo, Max Counter

Fall: HNR 151 18 Monday & Wednesday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 152 18 Monday & Wednesday 11:30-12:45 p.m., HON 218

Winter: HNR 153 18 Monday & Wednesday 10:00-11:15 a.m. and HNR 154 18 Monday & Wednesday 11:30-12:45 p.m., HON 218

• Drawing from disciplines such as religious studies, human geography, political science, sociology, and philosophy, this sequence explores how humans define themselves in relation to borders, each other, and the world in which they live. Through guided discussions and critical readings on these topics, this sequence will explore important perspectives about how we live and shape our beliefs.

• During the first semester, this sequence will explore the mesmerizing and the mundane of humanity in empires, the "new worlds" of North America and Latin America, conflicts in the Middle East, and more, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives to understand how historic processes shaped current global borders. During the second semester, we explore contemporary human rights perspectives on borders in light of an increasingly globalized and internet-connected world. Who has the right to cross borders? How are borders changing? How do cultural representations in art, such as cartoons, reinforce identity? How do religions? What will we, as human beings, become?  This sequence will investigate those questions and more.