HONR:1000 | Introduction to Honors

1 s.h.

Spring and Fall Semester

Instructor: Madison Kramer

Course Description: All incoming first-year, new transfer, and new current students are required to take HONR:1000 Introduction to Honors during their first semester of the program. Introduction to Honors students will be required to attend a welcome event to meet peers and navigate through the honors space, complete a set of reflections, attend an honors advisement appointment with a peer mentor, and attend a few honors and campus events. The course is online and asynchronous.

The course will have a high enrollment, and we need help from current students to serve as teaching assistants. We look for 2nd-4th year honors students.

Duties for TAs: TAs will assist the professional staff members and promote student growth and self-discovery through their role. This includes:

  • Attend instruction team meetings.
  • Respond to short reflection assignments in a timely and meaningful way.
  • Answer student questions as they arise.
  • Host office hours (1 hour per week).

Benefits of the TA Experience: 

  • Gain leadership experience.
  • Learn how to give constructive written feedback to students.
  • Hone written and verbal communication skills.
  • Build stronger relationships with Honors Program professional staff.
  • Meet other honors students.
  • Earn experiential learning credit.

Recruitment takes place in the spring and fall. 

HONR:2992 Classic Cult Cinema

3 s.h.

Fall Semester

Instructor: Dr. Emily Hill 

Course Description: Have you ever wondered why certain films reach “cult” status and others do not? What makes us want to go to repeated midnight showings of the same film and even dress up like the characters? What is a cult classic and who are the great masters of these films? And most importantly, how do these films add social and political commentary about the culture around them? We will explore these questions throughout the semester by watching, discussing, and reading about what puts the “cult” into cult cinema. 

Learning Objectives 
This course is a Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts General Education course. Students develop the analytic, expressive, and imaginative abilities needed to understand and/or create a cult classic film. This course emphasizes cult film analysis and will give students ample experience applying one or more methods of research and critical inquiry.

After completing the course: 

  • Students will recognize constituent parts of a cult film and the processes of artistic production.
  • Students will recognize how aesthetic and critical meanings are attached to cult film and understand ways quality can be evaluated.
  • Students will relate cult film to the broader human context (e.g. historical, social, ethnic, economic, geographic) in which it is created, including, for example, how a cult film is linked to the artist’s culture and identity.

Duties for TAs: The TAs will assist the instructor and promote student growth and self-discovery through peer mentoring. This includes:

  • Attend all class periods throughout the semester (except for instances when you are ill or going out of town for school-sanctioned activities).
  • Read and provide thoughtful and timely feedback on student reading reflections and papers.
  • Read/review class materials and participate in class discussion with the students.  
  • Participate classroom activities with the students and model good participation.
  • Help generate conversation in small/large groups.
  • Attend a weekly meeting with Dr. Hill to class plan (this will be arranged according to your schedules).

Dr. Hill will contact students who took the class before to apply to be TAs. Recruitment takes place in the spring. 

HONR:1350 | Honors Seminar for Presidential Scholars

1.s.h.

Fall Semester

Instructor: Candice Wuehle

Description: Designed to help students know themselves and one another better through participation in activities, events, readings, discussions, and other structured experiences. Requirements: Presidential Scholarship award received when admitted to the University of Iowa and current Presidential Scholar status.

  • Must be former PSP or HP Fellow.
  • Respond to short weekly reflections.
  • Mentor small groups of students.
  • Participate in and occasionally lead discussion.
  • 1 s.h. of experiential learning credit.

HONR:2991 | Honors Students and Wellness

3 s.h.

Spring Semester

Instructor: Dr. Emily Hill 

Course Description: In this course, honors students will learn about how their high ability and wellness interact with one another. There will be a focus on mental health, touching on various areas such as impostor syndrome, existential depression, and the intersectionality of giftedness, mental health, gender, and race. Additionally, honors students will learn about holistic wellness (physical, nutritional, emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual, financial, and environmental) and what strengths and challenges high ability individuals may encounter beyond their college careers.

The learning objectives for this course are:

  • Develop a greater understanding of high ability, wellness, and mental health.
  • Discover personalized approaches to maintaining a healthy lifestyle as a college student.
  • Develop a sense of community and trust with other honors students.

Duties for TAs: 

The TAs will assist the instructor and promote student growth and self-discovery through peer mentoring. This includes:

Attend all class periods throughout the semester (except for instances when you are ill or going out of town for school-sanctioned activities).

  • Share your experiences as a student in this course. Share your experience with finding a healthy balance during your college career (to the extent you feel comfortable).
  • Read and provide thoughtful and timely feedback on student reading reflections.
  • Read/review class materials and participate in class discussion with the students. 
  • Participate classroom activities with the students and model good participation.
  • Help generate conversation in small/large groups.
  • Lead a lesson with your fellow TA.
  • Attend a weekly meeting with Dr. Hill to class plan (this will be arranged according to your schedules).

Dr. Hill will contact students who took the class before to apply to be TAs. Recruitment takes place in the fall. 

HONR:2990 | Meaning, Motivation, and Experiential Learning

2 s.h. 

Fall and Spring Semesters

Instructor: Candice Wuehle 

Description: Provides Honors Program students an introduction to experiential learning and how to complete the program’s experiential learning requirement. Topics include what experiential learning is, how it promotes student development, and self-reflection. Students will learn about experiential learning opportunities and details on the Honors Program experiential learning process.

  • Respond to short weekly reflections and a narrative-reflection project.
  • Answer student questions and occasionally participate in group discussion.
  • This course is online and asynchronous so TA can determine their own hours.
  • 2 s.h. of experiential learning credit.

HONR:2994 | Poetics (Taylor's Version)

3 s.h.

Fall Semester

Instructor: Candice Wuehle

Description: “I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words,” Taylor Swift sings in her Grammy Award winning album, 1989. This course will explore just how Swift has “put it into words” through an examination of poetic techniques (such as perfect rhyme) and common motifs (snakes) in the singer-songwriter’s catalogue. In addition to discussing innocence, heartbreak, revenge, time, nostalgia, betrayal, self-invention, and anti-heroism, we will also consider Swift’s authorial vision as she traverses poetic modes from her early confessional era to her more self-referential later works. We will consider how fan and critical reception have shaped Swift’s eighteen-year trajectory to analyze the evolution of her writing through various theoretical frameworks. A variety of texts by and about Swift will be used, including her documentary films Miss Americana and The Long Pond Sessions; Swift’s self-directed music videos; Swift’s album liner notes; comparative analysis of Taylor’s Versions with original recordings as well as Ryan Adam’s cover of 1989; podcasts such as The Daily and Code Switch; and various academic and popular articles concerned with Swift’s cultural impact. We will additionally analyze and experience Swift’s fandom through embodied practices such as the creation of friendship bracelets. Assignments will include close readings of Swift’s songs and two analytic essays. Are you ready for it?

  • Respond to mid-term and final essays.
  • Preference given to students who have taken a course focusing on poetry as an undergraduate.
  • Opportunity to plan a lesson.
  • Participate in and occasionally lead discussion.
  • Help organize the end of semester "Swiftposium," a conference/celebration that all Honors students will be invited to.
  • 3 s.h. of experiential learning credit.