This course will explore techniques for approaching and developing your writing from a practice perspective. You will learn techniques for generating and delivering polished and thoughtful work. We will focus on the importance of point of view, context, individual experience, bias, and clarity of language and grammar. Writing exercises will be both creative and academic and will reflect the interests and areas of study of course participants. There will also be a movement component (yoga, stretching, warm ups) that we will incorporate into our writing. We will work as a class to help each student access and refine their unique voice.
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Honors Seminar: Government and Ethics
The title of this course is government and ethics, not ethics in government. However important laws and rules about ethics are (and they are very important), when ethical consideration only focus on things like financial conflicts of interest it is insufficient for what most of us understand by good government. For instance good government must, at a minimum, be effective in addition to being well intentioned and ‘clean’. In this course we will explore what we understand by good government.
Continue reading "Honors Seminar: Government and Ethics"Losses of Addiction in Literature and Life
Interdisciplinary study of literary and scholarly representations of addiction. Focus on effects of addiction on persons suffering from addiction, their loved ones, helping professionals, and communities. Treatment of addiction as a biopsychosocial phenomenon culminating in traumatic losses. Process-oriented writing culminating in portfolio.
Continue reading "Losses of Addiction in Literature and Life"Honors Seminar: Transcend Nationalism?
This course explores four current European crises: an unstable Euro, migration, Brexit, and the Trump presidency. Are they harbingers of a new age of nationalism or inspiration for a deepening of European integration? We will use scholarship from history, political science, economics, and migration studies to seek our answers.
Continue reading "Honors Seminar: Transcend Nationalism?"Compassionate Activism
The Grand Challenge course will center on diversity, representation, and inclusion through a lens of compassionate activism. We will primarily study the work of contemporary activists and models for civic and civil engagement, and intersectionality as critical piece of allyship. (C3) (B4)
Continue reading "Compassionate Activism"Honors Seminar: Popular Music Criticism
In this class, students will learn to critique popular music from a culture perspective. This requires examining critical theories and case studies concerning music genres, audiences, and industries. Students will apply this material by producing a range of original criticism focused on a particular music scene.
Continue reading "Honors Seminar: Popular Music Criticism"Compassionate Activism
The Grand Challenge course will center on diversity, representation, and inclusion through a lens of compassionate activism. We will primarily study the work of contemporary activists and models for civic and civil engagement, and intersectionality as critical piece of allyship. (C3) (B4)
Continue reading "Compassionate Activism"Competitive College Conundrum: Promoting URI in the 21st Century
Over the past decade the college admission industry has changed significantly and is now a fast-paced high-stakes game. In this project-based course students will learn about national trends in higher education, ethical changes in the college admission profession, use/abuse of social media in the field, and impactful communication practices for iGen students. Students will work in teams throughout the semester with deliverable projects that may be used by the University. Ideal for creative thinkers, strong writers, social media wizzes, innovative multi-media creators, and passionate Rhody Rams. Open to all majors in the honors program.
Continue reading "Competitive College Conundrum: Promoting URI in the 21st Century"Honors Colloquium: Trekonomics: Life and Economics in a Post-Scarcity World
How do people make decisions when their every material want can be met with a push of a button? How does society organize itself in a post-scarcity world? What are the incentives for people to work hard and contribute if they donÛªt get paid? Would this world be a utopia or a dystopia? These are some of the questions we are going to ask and try to answer in this class as we imagine a world, as in Star Trek, in which food and objects are available at the push of a button and the society no longer uses money (with the occasional exception of gold-pressed latinum). We will explore whether or not we think we are headed in a direction that would lead to this post-scarcity world and what would be the steps along the way. We will read both fiction and non-fiction from authors who have imagined this type of future and explore the firms and people outside the classroom who may give us clues as to how we get there from here.
Continue reading "Honors Colloquium: Trekonomics: Life and Economics in a Post-Scarcity World"Honors Colloquium: Climate Change and Your Future
What are the most critical threats to your future as defined by the generally accepted line in the sand of 2050 and global mean temperature of the 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius stabilization? What will climate change mean in global environmental change? We will discuss species extinction, food deserts, projected extremes in weather patterns, the impact of world population, and other concerning projectionsÛÓmany of which we are already seeing. The first portion of the class will focus on developing a common vocabulary and scientific understanding of climate change with class discussion and exercises augmented by guest speakers, films, and readings. We will then switch to the promise of technology and an exponentially evolving application of carbontech, AI, city design, the management of human and species migration, new methods to address scarcity of food and water, policy and technology of coastal management, and the potential for positive change and an optimistic future. Guest speakers, films and reading will augment this portion of the class as well. The final project will be student-designed and embrace optimistic potential as well as political, economic, and social change essential to accomplishing that vision.
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