The Honors Seminars will focus on five different, but contiguous points: on the self in relation to others (Versions of the Self), on culture, including popular culture, fashion, and art in its various forms (The Art of Culture), on the world of science (mathematics and computer science included) and technology (Science, Technology, and Society), on the examined life (Global Engagement), considering issues of freedom, spirituality, human dignity, and personal responsibility within a global context, and on our own unique literary, historical, artistic, social, environmental, and political position in the Hudson Valley (Hudson River Valley Studies). While the content of each seminar may vary from semester to semester, the focus of the seminar will remain the same.
Description: This course focuses on exploring the various voices, past and present, of different people and their values as it examines the developmental origins and the evolving processes in the construction of the self, whether as an individual or as a member of a group. This seminar may be tailored to focus upon a single discipline in the arts, natural sciences, or social sciences or may bridge several disciplines. Possible titles might include: Creation and Creativity; Don Quixote and his Legacy; Identity Politics in America; The Psychology of the Gifted Child; The Physical Self: Biology, Technology, and Identity.
Description: This course examines the ways in which art (fiction, film, fashion, visual and performance art, etc.) deals with historical and current events and how art has shaped and continues to shape society. This seminar may be tailored to focus upon a single discipline or may bridge several disciplines. Examples of possible course titles include: Politics as Performance: Culture, Scandal, and Spectacle; Art, Community, and the Environment; Fashion for the Ages; Film, Fiction, and Society.
Field Trips: There may be a number of museum, film, or other site visits.
Description: This course deals with the region of the Hudson River Valley. It may examine the history, culture, architecture, literature, art, politics, or economy of this region from pre-Columbian times to the present. This seminar may focus upon a single discipline or may bridge several disciplines. Possible titles might include: Art in the Hudson River Valley, Hudson River Valley Economy, Crime and Punishment in the Hudson River Valley, or Politics of the Hudson River Valley.
Field Trips: There are field trips to important sites of the Hudson River Valley that may be scheduled during the Wednesday Activity Hours from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Course Description: This course focuses on the legal, cultural, ethical, religious, and social, economic, and political frameworks that exist in countries outside of the United States. The purpose of this course is to discuss how these cultural norms impact social and economic conditions in the rest of the world, as well as relationships between the United States and U.S. based institutions and their counterparts. This will be accomplished by developing an understanding of social, political, and cultural forces influencing global decisions; ethical challenges in the global marketplace; and other current issues such as diversity, technology, and concern for the physical environment. We will also discuss changing expectations and responsibilities of organizations with regard to current and potential social and political problems and opportunities.
Description: This course examines the ways in which science (including mathematics) and/or technology have shaped and will continue to shape human societies, and how, in turn, society affects the practice of science and the development of technology. This seminar may be tailored to focus upon a single discipline within the natural sciences, mathematics, or social sciences, or may bridge several disciplines. In the second case, ideally the course would be team-taught, and students would have completed previous college level coursework (or its equivalent) in natural science, math, and social science. Possible titles might include: The Information Revolution and Biology; Conservation, Preservation, and the Land Ethic; Probability and Gambling in 20th Century Society; Energy; and Biomedicine and the Population Explosion.
Field Trips: Field trips may be scheduled, when appropriate, to visit industrial sites.
Course Description: What is the nature of our ethical responsibilities as citizens of particular sovereign societies and as members of the world generally? What would serve as an adequate ethical framework for addressing ethical issues and moral dilemmas? Does a culturally, politically, economically pluralistic world entail that there are no valid universal ethical principles? Does the battle against racist or other bias-based structures and policies suggest that discrimination and/or persecution of any sort may be a permanent feature of the psychology, economy, culture, and society of the so-called modern world? What does the battle against discriminating ideologies and practices indicate about the requirements for an adequate ethical framework? What challenges might global issues such as climate change, the effects of international trade policies on poorer nations, the struggle for the recognition of human rights, and foreign aid present for moral reasoning?
The questions listed above will form the primary concerns of the course. The course will also serve as a seminar on some problems of normative and critical ethics. Specifically, the course will aim to investigate what the battle against exclusionary ideologies and practices suggests as requisites for a sound moral consciousness. Furthermore, we will consider how the increasing movement away from nation-states as the primary basis of concern for enacting policies might influence moral theory and reasoning.
