HONORS CURRICULUM

I. Honors Seminars
II. Honors-Enriched Courses
III. Course development materials for honors (for faculty)

Honors Seminars

The purpose of a liberal education is not only to train students in some specialized branch of knowledge but also to make them aware of the interconnections among different branches of knowledge. Honors students will take five special interdisciplinary honors courses (15 hours) as part of Ferrum College's required general education distribution courses. The faculty have currently approved the following courses. Other courses will be added as the program develops.

Honors 100. Cornerstone Seminar: Perspectives on Leadership

The cornerstone seminar serves as an introduction to liberal arts learning for honors students by examining the topic of leadership. Interdisciplinary in nature and writing intensive in structure, this seminar asks students to wrestle with the question "what does it mean to be a leader?" Students will explore this question from a variety of different perspectives including the history of leadership theory, ethics and leadership, social and psychological dimensions of leaders and followers, critical thinking and skills of leadership. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honor Program Membership)

Honors 206. The Bible and the Arts

An interdisciplinary course that explores how the Bible has functioned as a classic text in western culture. The course will consider the reception history of selected biblical texts as literature, film, drama, the visual arts, and the musical arts. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership or English 102 and permission of the instructors)

Honors 210. Reason and the Individual (Literature and History)

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the English-speaking world in the eighteenth century when individualism and rationalism emerged as dominant paradigms of the transatlantic community. Through in-depth study of some of the leading figures in this emerging world-view, students will come to appreciate more fully their roles as individuals in modern society. Students also learn to apply interdisciplinary methods of scholarship. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership or English 102 and permission of the instructors)

Honors 211. Art, Literature, and Film of the Expressionist Period (Literature and Fine Arts)

This interdisciplinary course will explore the world of expressionist art as produced in Europe and America during the period 1890-1937. The mood of alienation between the avant garde and the middle class is a key feature of the art of this period. Students will have the opportunity to explore the philosophical, cultural, and political background that helped to foster this alienation and led artists to produce the characteristically distorted look of expressionist art.The emphasis in the course will be on analyzing visual art, film, drama, and fiction that the leading expressionists produced. Students will thus be honing their interpretive skills as well as being challenged intellectually to enter into the mindset of another era. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership or English 102 and permission of the instructors)

Honors 213. Media and Violence (Media and Social Sciences; Elective or Writing-Intensive Credit)

An interdisciplinary, team-taught, writing-intensive study of the relationship between media and violence. The emphasis of the course will be on how violence is depicted in news and entertainment media, how media depictions of violence affect society, how social scientists study these effects, and how the problems associated with media and violence might be addressed. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership, grade of "C" or higher in Eng. 102, sophomore status, or permission of instructor.

Honors 220. Freedom (History and Political Science)

A philosophical and historical inquiry into the various concepts and forms of human freedom, and the conditions that make human freedom possible, from prehistory to the present day. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership or English 102 and permission of the instructor)

Honors 225. Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Religion and Science)

This interdisciplinary team-taught seminar is designed to help students become critically informed about some of the ways theistic religion and science are being perceived as relating to one another. Students will explore 1) the history of the religion-science relationship, 2) various contemporary ways of thinking about the relationship between religion and science, 3) current theories of cosmology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology and their implications for theological discourse. (3 hours, 3 credits, prerequisites Honors Program Membership or English 102 and permission of the instructor)

Honors 435. Values and Vocation

This capstone seminar for the Boone Honors students asks students to explore the connections between values and vocation in the context of American culture and work. Students will consider what it means to have a calling. Can their career choices yield personal satisfaction and joy quite apart from whatever money they might earn? What responsibilities do they have towards community in their work? Do their career choices have a positive impact on relationships with God, family or community?

Honors-Enriched Courses

In addition to the general education part of the honors program of study, all honors students will complete a minimum of twelve hours of honors-enriched courses. The point of honors-enriched courses is to extend a topic approach, or project in a regularly taught course so that honors students will understand the complexities of an area of study. These courses address Ferrum College's responsibility to prepare honors students in depth. The college will note the honors designation on the transcripts of all students who complete the additional special, extra, or different honors work. Honors students may choose enriched courses outside their areas of concentrated study so long as students complete a minimum of two honors-enriched courses in the major or minor.

Course Development Materials (for faculty)