Fall 2022 Course Offerings

Belmont Global Honors

Signature Courses

HON 1110: Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar (3 hours): 

Honors 1110: Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar
An Honorable Life

What does it mean to live a good life? What does it mean to be good, to do good, to embrace and interrogate the nature of goodness? In this class, which was tailor-made for students new to the Honors Program, we will consider happiness, virtue, ambition, wisdom, struggle, doubt, and dreams from philosophical, theological, literary, political, historical, and scientific perspectives. We will become an Honors community together as we interrogate these issues and questions.

Foundations Courses

HON 1130: Honors Oral Communication Seminar (3 hours):

Dr. Mary VaughnHON 1130: Honors Oral Communication Seminar
Communicating for Impact
Dr. Joel Hester or Dr. Mary Vaughn

Honors introduction to the fundamentals of speech communication including how to research, organize, prepare and deliver effective oral presentations in a one-to-many communication setting. Key Belmont goals are that students become excellent thinkers, writers and speakers. In HON 1130, students exercise these skills through both written and oral communication. Students will practice communicating for impact by crafting thoughtful messages that matter to the audience, by demonstrating mastery of subject matter and by delivering polished presentations designed to achieve a clearly stated purpose (e.g. to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to motivate or inspire, etc.).

 

HON 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar (3 hours):  (CHOOSE ONLY ONE COURSE OFFERED)

Dr. Pete KurylaHonors 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar
Imagining the Metropolis: American Cities in Culture and History
Dr. Pete Kuryla

In this course we'll think about the ways people imagined the American city from the dawn of last century to the present day, especially in books, photographs, and film. We'll consider how cities were and are: 1) meeting spaces for diverse people and cultures across time; 2) places where dark, disturbing, or dystopian ideas of society have lived; or 3) imaginaries where people think about the future or about utopias. After considering a few cities in historical context, we'll take a close look at our own city of Nashville, considering where it is now, and imagining what it might be in the future.

Dr. Shelby LongardHonors 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar
Whose American Dream?
Dr. Shelby Longard

This interdisciplinary social sciences course examines constructions of social significance and their structural implications. Who matters in American society and how do our shared cultural understandings limit social access for some while granting it in excess to others? We will examine historical examples of institutionalized mistreatment of aggrieved social classes and minority groups, as well as explore modern day social movements as they challenge this status quo.

 

Dr. Mona Ivey-SotoHonors 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar
Stress, Trauma and Resilience
Dr. Mona Ivey-Soto

The Neuroscience of Early Adversity: Exploring the roots of trauma, toxic stress & resilience
This research based course will explore the bio-behavioral roots of early childhood adversity by understanding the role of brain architecture and neuroscience processes. We will identify how trauma and toxic stress impacts the developing brain, the body and in turn our behavior and emotions throughout the lifespan. Utilizing a multidisciplinary perspective, we’ll explore theorists and scholars from Psychology, Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Education who postulate knowledge to help us understand the impact of trauma and toxic stress and how professionals in the healthcare, mental health and education fields can help to mitigate these effects. We will also tie in issues of racial justice as we explore race based traumatic stress and the complex impact of racial trauma on communities of color.

Mary Ellen PethelHonors 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar
The Human Story, A Documentary Project
Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel
This course will collaborate with MDS 4130 to discover, examine, document, and preserve elements of the human story. These stories will be digitally recorded and archived and used to write, edit, and produce a short documentary film. The Media Studies class is composed of advanced students in film and motion pictures, and Honors students will work on content creation as part of the documentary crew. The HON 1140 class will also learn skills related to archival research and methods as located within the field of Digital Humanities (DH). The HON 1140 will collaborate and coordinate with MDS 4139 through asynchronous communication channels as well as scheduled regular meetings. HON 1140 will assist in conducting, documenting, and archiving pre-interviews and interviews. In addition, HON1140 students will serve as content editors as MDS4139 produces, films, and edits the documentary. All archival source material and documentation will be transferred to the Belmont University Special Collections.

Honors 1140: Honors Social Science Seminar
Economics, War & Society
Dr. Leif Torkelsen

This course will encourage students to explore the complex interaction of economics, business and military power on different societies throughout time. In modern times, armed conflict has often been considered an aberration – one that otherwise interrupts the normal course of human affairs. However, using economics as the primary mode of analysis, this course will explore to what extent business, war, and society exist in a more symbiotic relationship. Considering case studies from around the globe, students in this course will gain a greater understanding of one of the most powerful and dangerous dynamics in world history.

HON 1150: Honors Wellness Seminar (3 hours): 

Dr. Nick Bacon

Honors 1150: Honors Wellness Seminar
Daily Practices: A Guide for Healthy and Holistic Living
Dr. Nick Bacon or Dr. Erin Feser

This course will focus on living in a way that integrates daily practices of well-being from multiple dimensions of wellness. We will learn to identify the interrelated dimensions of wellness in ourselves and our communities, recognize disparities among populations, modify environments to enhance behaviors, and evaluate local and global practices of well being. In addition, we will learn to lead others in a way that reflects daily healthy choices.

HON 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar (3 hours): (CHOOSE ONLY ONE COURSE OFFERED)

Dr. Amy Hodges HamiltonHonors 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar
Writing, Community and Leadership
Dr. Amy Hodges Hamilton

Writing, Community, and Leadership is an interdisciplinary writing seminar where students will “jump hurdles, leap fences, and penetrate walls” in order to explore a range of communities and their place within them—from their individual communities to Nashville communities like Rest Stop Ministries, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, At-Risk Youth Centers, and Morningside Assisted Living, as well as global communities like the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE).  We will also study our place and displacement within communities and consider how stories can make us stronger and more effective leaders in our professional lives.

Stewart LewisHonors 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar
Coming of Age: Then and Now
Professor Stewart Lewis

This writing-intensive course will draw from non-fictional narratives, young adult fiction, music, and films that explore the theme of coming of age within the last century to present day. What does it mean to come of age? How does the meaning differ based on gender, culture, and/or era? How do we document this human experience? In addition to studying critical theory, students will give voice to their own narratives on the subject, in the form of personal essays, literary journalism, story treatments, and poetry.

Dr. Susan FinchHonors 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar
The Art of Writing Suspense: Literary Thrillers
Dr. Susan Finch

The best literary thrillers rely on characters to move the story forward, digging into the psychological motivations that propel plot. How does this technique work with unreliable or even unlikeable narrators? Do these deep desires change with the gender or race or ethnicity of the narrator? What keeps us turning the page? In this class, we will examine the role of character as a device to move the plot forward, discover what makes us love or hate a character despite their actions, and in the end, we will question what drives us most deeply as humans. We will write a series of critical and creative assignments, culminating in a final project (a complete short story or the early chapters of a novel) that asks you to demonstrate what you’ve learned.

Dr. Jayme Yeo

Honors 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar
Imagining Unity: Literature and Justice
Dr. Jayme Yeo

This course surveys the relationship between literature and justice, broadly conceived. Literature is often at the center of political movements. It has been censored, burned, and banned. It has also inspired activism and catalyzed change. In a less tangible way, literature also opens spaces of justice through giving us a communal imagination and vocabulary: empathy with and visibility for marginalized others, common reading experiences, founding myths of communal identity, and metaphors for communal organization. This course investigates the ways that literature supports or is involved in justice in its many forms. Texts will range through multiple histories and genres. Think: Shakespeare alongside Toni Morrison. We will also sample from philosophy (Hannah Arendt and Martha Nussbaum), drama, poetry, and memoir. In addition to traditional essays, assignments will include opportunities to imagine or be involved in community reading/literacy projects. 

Dr. Ronnie LittlejohnHonors 2120: Honors Humanities Seminar
Developing Cultural Intelligence: Encountering Asian Cultures
Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Asian Studies

A serious problem which faces global society is the extreme pluralism of viewpoints and opinions available on virtually every significant human concern and rooted in human produced cultural differences. Since culture is a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, which acts rather like a template, shaping behavior and consciousness from generation to generation, the fact of cultural pluralism may either pose a threat or hold the key to the promise of globalization and common understanding in a flourishing community. A great deal depends on the means and application of cultural intelligence by the parties involved. This course offers students the opportunity to have wide ranging experiences in the beliefs and practices of Asian and American cultures and develop their own cultural intelligence along well-established and proven techniques for such skill and personal development. As a ground-level assumption, the design of the course does not assume prior familiarity with Asian cultures. Accordingly, ours is not merely a theoretical undertaking, but one that is urgently practical because it is designed to strengthen and enhance one of the most indispensable skills established as necessary for creating flourishing communities.

HON 2130: Honors Fine Arts Seminar (3 hours):

Dr. Judy BullingtonHonors 2130: Honors Fine ArtsSeminar
Ecologies of Art
Dr. Judy Bullington

This seminar is an interdisciplinary study of contemporary and historical works of art where various ‘ecologies’ of human relations to nature are a primary concern. Plant humanities--an emerging field of scholarship that explores the cultural histories of plants and their influence on human societies—is used to examine the artistic and consumer ethos of gardening, ornamental art, botany, and colonialism. We will investigate the vegetal world of plant hunters, merchants who traded in plant-based goods, portraiture of people with plants, images from the history of medicine, indigenous traditions, the ordering of nature through cultivation, and the visual culture of climate change, as well as how plants are used symbolically in contemporary art as ‘agents’ of meaning.

HON 3340: Scientific Inquiry Seminar (4 hours): 

Honors 3340: Scientific Inquiry Seminar
The Psychology of Pandemics
Dr. Wayne Barnard

This fall, HON Scientific Inquiry Seminar 3340.01, will focus on "The Psychology of Pandemics", quite a timely study. We will use Steven Taylor’s book with the same title, published in 2019 by Cambridge Scholar’s Press. Interestingly, this work was completed before our current pandemic (COVID-19). As a foundation for our seminar class, we will then dig deeper into research over the past 2+ years—2020 to 2022 relative to the psychological implications of our current reality. 

The description from Cambridge Scholar’s Press will give you an idea of what we will be researching, and the relevance of this class to our present common experience.

"Pandemics are large-scale epidemics that spread throughout the world. Virologists predict that the next pandemic could occur in the coming years, probably from some form of influenza, with potentially devastating consequences. Vaccinations, if available, and behavioral methods are vital for stemming the spread of infection. However, remarkably little attention has been devoted to the psychological factors that influence the spread of pandemic infection and the associated emotional distress and social disruption. Psychological factors are important for many reasons. They play a role in nonadherence to vaccination and hygiene programs, and play an important role in how people cope with the threat of infection and associated losses. Psychological factors are important for understanding and managing societal problems associated with pandemics, such as the spreading of excessive fear, stigmatization, and xenophobia that occur when people are threatened with infection. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the psychology of pandemics. It describes the psychological reactions to pandemics, including maladaptive behaviors, emotions, and defensive reactions, and reviews the psychological vulnerability factors that contribute to the spreading of disease and distress. It also considers empirically supported methods for addressing these problems, and outlines the implications for public health planning."

HON 3510: Project Planning and Preparation

Dr. Jimmy DavisHonors 3510: Project Planning and Preparation
Humans and the Natural World
Dr. Jimmy Davis

For me, no subject of study is more filled with wonder and joy than the natural world and our place, as humans, in the order of life on our planet. I feel this way in spite of the fact that our species seems, at times, committed to desecrating the world that gives us life. And I’m not alone in my interest in this subject since at least 10 of the 17 UN Sustainability Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) deal directly with how humans relate to the natural world. In this Honors Project collaborative we will think broadly about how humans interact with the natural world and fashion our understanding into a concrete plan of action.  

Dr. Sarah BlomeleyHonors 3510: Project Planning and Preparation
Burning Problems
Dr. Sarah Blomeley

In a recent viral essay titled, “If You Can’t Take It Anymore, There’s a Reason,” pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber put her finger on the angst inherent in twenty-first century life: “The world is on fire literally and metaphorically. But…I only have so much water in my bucket to help with the fires.” In this course, we will use Bolz-Weber’s metaphor as a framework, asking ourselves which fires we feel called to help with, what’s in our buckets, and how collective “firefighting” is more effective than going it alone. During the first half of the semester we will focus on collaboration, discernment, creative thinking, and topic exploration; during the second half we will work together to pinpoint a specific “fire” and develop a plan to fight it.

Mary Ellen PethelHonors 3510: Project Planning and Preparation
Seeking Shalom
Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel

The objective for this course will be to study best practices and create individual and/or small group projects focused on large urban refugee resettlement centers in the U.S., and in particular--Nashville. Food/ESL provision may be the front door into the world of our immigrant neighbors, but as strangers in a strange land, they often lack a voice, access, knowledge of, or connection to the resources that would bring Shalom. Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare.

Students will study, design, plan, and deliver projects dedicated to building paths and bridges that allow each other access to the things that we need to live in Shalom. Understanding and recommending collaborations with other organizations to create accessible solutions will be critical.  Conversations with religious, non-profit, public/private civic organizations to consider innovative ways to step forward to meet more holistic community needs will also be important to investigating systemic changes and solutions.

Dr. Annette SissonHonors 3510: Project Planning and Preparation
Social Implications of Literacy and Education
Dr. Annette Sisson

Victor Hugo tells us, “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” I have devoted my life to reading and writing, and I believe deeply in their power to ignite the human imagination, cultivate hope, and change the world. This section of HON 3510 will focus on the effects of literacy and education, the most significant of which is equality. Other issues specified in the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals that relate to literacy and education are poverty relief, gender equality, decent work and economic opportunity, good health and well-being, and equality within and among nations. Students in this section of “Honors Project Prep and Planning” will read and participate in wide-ranging conversation about these issues, research and develop a particular focus, and plan a meaningful project (or related set of projects) that address the issue(s) they identify.

Dr. Heather FinchHonors 3510: Project Planning and Preparation
Honest Yet Hopeful
Dr. Heather Finch

Honesty and hopefulness can be an uneasy, uncomfortable, overwhelming balance to maintain when confronting humanity's greatest concerns. We will learn from some people who have taken on major projects like human rights, racial justice, and enhanced technology to see how honesty and hope impact their work and the role of honesty and hope in your own projects. We will consider the meanings of dishonesty, nihilism, optimism, faith, and hopefulness. We will ask and attempt to answer questions:

What does honesty cost?

What is the price of dishonesty?

Is ignoring the truth worth it?

How does the truth overwhelm us?

How does the truth impact our hope in the present and future?

This exploration will give you the opportunity to consider problems you are passionate about and use what you learn to inspire and propel you forward during the planning and preparation phase of your project.