Fall 2019 Honors Courses


ABE 199 CHP: Water in a Global Environment, Prasanta Kalita, Ph.D.

55376  |  4:00 – 5:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  204 AESB  |  3 Hours

“Water in a Global Environment” proposes to enhance students’ understanding and appreciation of the impact water has globally, including various cultures around the world. Students will be encouraged to step outside their traditional thinking and become knowledgeable about how water availability and quality affect the day to day lives of people. Without water, or suitable water, cultural infrastructure is destined to fail. Water is arguably the most precious resource in the world, and the fact that it is non-renewable provides additional value that students will become well-versed in. Water quality and its impact on global environment will be explicitly covered. Students develop in-depth analyses of case studies, which will examine the historical and current water-related issues and the solutions utilized to tackle the issues in various parts of the world (i.e., Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, South America, USA). This course’s goal is to not only educate students on one of the most important and critical areas of concern in the world today, but to motivate them to use enhanced knowledge to make an impact both locally and globally.

*This course has been approved by all colleges for general education credit for Physical Sciences and Non-Western.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Prasanta Kalita is a professor of the soil and water resources engineering program in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and serves as the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of ACES. His research focuses on water management and water quality, hydrology, erosion and sediment control, and global food security. Professor Kalita is an Elected Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Indian Society for Agricultural Engineers (ISAE).


ARCH 199 DAH: Daylighting, Architecture & Health, Mohamed Boubekri, Ph.D.

70257  |  11:00 a.m – 12:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  205 ARCH  |  3 Hours

This is a lab/discussion type of course where students will learn about the basic principles of the use of natural light (daylighting) and how daylight impacts visual comfort and building occupants’ health and well-being. We will use the building occupants as the primary focus in this course in terms of success or failure of an architectural design solution. To do so, the course will be based on a series of lectures, round table discussions led by students focusing on dg strategies, and how daylight informs health and well- being of building users. Topics to be discussed are light and circadian rhythm, sleep disorders, vitamin D, and daylighting and human performance. Another portion of the course is lab-based in which students will design a small building (e.g. small office, small town library, etc.) with a sub-focus on daylighting computer and scale model simulation.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.*

Instructor: Mohamed Boubekri earned his Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University in 1990. His work focuses on sustainable architecture and the intersection of the built environment and human health. Through numerous publications (two recently published books), he explores the impact of the lack of daylight inside buildings on people’s health, behavior and overall well-being. More generally, his work also examines the relationship between architectural design, sustainable technologies and building energy/environmental performance.


ART 103 CH: Experimental Materials in Painting, Glen Davies, M.F.A.

65057  |  9:30 – 11:20 a.m.  |  TR  |  330 Art and Design Building  |  3 Hours

In this course we will explore the use of materials, both traditional and unconventional, as a way of increasing the scope of our visual language. Just as the manipulation of paint and the exploration of its many properties helps to reveal something about ourselves and the world, combined materials, found objects and collaged sculptural forms provide another essential arena to examine. The choices we make in combining materials forces us to examine the many aspects of content and metaphor.

*This course satisfies the general education requirements for Humanities – Literature and the Arts.*

**This course is now full. Contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist.**

Instructor: Glen Davies attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was influenced by the homegrown pop genre “imagism.” This helped set the stage for his recurring art themes: spiritual conflict, grotesque figural fantasies and complex psycho-dramas. After spending time traveling with circuses and carnivals, Davies worked as a billboard artist and sign painter before opening a mural painting business. After completing a BFA at Drake University and an MFA in painting from the University of Illinois, Davies has divided his time between studio pursuits and a variety of alternative employments, including circus/carnival show painter, sideshow banner artist, professional muralist, curator, and educator. Visiting artist and lecture duties have taken Davies to numerous colleges, universities and museums. His works reside in many public and private collections including Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, Krannert Art Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As guest curator for the Krannert Art Museum, Davies helped organize Palace of Wonders: Sideshow Banners of the Circus and Carnival, Cosmic Consciousness: The Works of Robert Bannister, and Stranger in Paradise: The Works of Rev. Howard Finster.


ARTD 209 JGA: Chado: The Way of Tea, Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud, M.F.A.

54029  |  1:00 – 3:40 p.m.  |  W  |  Japan House  |  3 Hours

The types of arts introduced in this class are Chado: the Way of Tea, Kado: the Way of Flower, Shodo: the Way of Calligraphy, The Sodo: the Way of Kimono, Kado: the Way of Poetry, and Jindo: the Way of Human beings. As I have listed, many of the Japanese traditional arts have “do,” as their suffix. “Do” is translated as “Tao” in Chinese. In Japanese, it is translated into “the path” and connotes that it is an infinite, unlimited path, yet it is the constant goal of spiritual yearning and striving. Thus, it should be noted that traditional Japanese arts place the emphasis on spiritual attainment more so than technical attainment, and require actual practice or direct experience to gain insight. Therefore, in this class, students are not only required to read textbooks and other materials, but also have hands-on experiences with various time-honored Japanese arts. My hope is that students will learn the importance of rigid discipline and basic principles; and, thus, eventually, they will be able to apply those principles to their own specialized fields and life.

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Cultural Studies: Non-Western.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

**An additional materials fee of $50.00 is required for this course.

Instructor: Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud is an associate professor and the Director of Japan House. She participated in the graphic design program for 13 years. She has been studying the Urasenke Way of Tea since 1990 under various teachers. She has earned the Wakindate level as an intermediate student in the Urasenke Foundation and has been teaching university courses for Japan House for the past 7 years.

On March 31, 2004, she received the Commendation in Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the United States-Japan Relationship from Foreign Minister of Japan, Jyunko Kawaguchi. On June 3, 2004, she also received a “Certificate of Thanks” from Sen’ei Ikenobo, 45th Generation Headmaster of the Ikenobo Ikebana School. Both awards recognized her contribution to promote and strengthen the ties of friendship and goodwill between the U.S. and Japan. She also received the University of Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2003; The Broadrick-Allen Award for Excellence in Honors Teaching, 2003, an award presented annually by the Campus Honors Program; and The “Senior 100” Faculty Award, presented by the University of Illinois Alumni Association.


ASTR 199 CHP: Telescopes and Astrophotography, Leslie Looney

55223  |  8:30 – 9:50 p.m.  |  TR  |  124 Observatory  |  3 Hours


Have you ever wondered how astronomers take beautiful images of the night sky? In this course, we will used different telescopes at the Observatory to learn how astronomers use telescopes, as well as use modern CCD cameras attached to the telescopes to take beautiful but scientifically meaningful images. During this process, we will discuss the tradeoffs of CCD cameras and various filters, how they can be combined and displayed, and how the images are used to learn about the night sky. In addition, we will also take spectra of stars and planets to find out why a spectrum is worth a 100 images. The course will not assume any astronomy background, so we will learn it as we go. However, the course will be highly dependent on weather.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Leslie is a professor of Astronomy. With an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering and Physics, he has worked as a system engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle’s digital processing system (i.e., computers, interfaces, and software)– launching shuttles. Afterwards in 1998, he obtained a Ph.D. in astrophysics. Leslie’s main research topic is the early stages of star formation. In particular, he studies the circumstellar disk surrounding young protostars; these disks are thought to be the natal environment of planets. He’s discovered many new worlds and new stars. As protostars form in dense clouds of gas and dust, Leslie uses some of the world’s most sensitive telescopes operating from infrared to millimeter wavelengths.


CHP 395B: Climate Change, Law and Health, Warren Lavey, J.D.

31625  |  10:30 – 11:50 a.m.  |  TR  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

This course addresses the greatest challenge facing all life around the globe. The focus is on the impacts of climate change, mitigation efforts, and adaptation actions. We will highlight human health threats, and study the design and effectiveness of related policies, laws, regulations, plans, and programs.

Climate change is causing substantial damages to multiple interconnected systems, including the environment, ecosystems, geological features, economies, societies, physical infrastructure, and human health. The adverse impacts on human health encompass mortality in extreme weather events, food and water scarcity, as well as increases in respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, infectious, and mental illnesses. Students will use the perspectives of law and health to analyze the policy responses to climate change by international, national, and local governments as well as private entities.

With over 60 years of combined experiences in practicing law, public policy and medicine, the instructors will tackle a wide range of multi-disciplinary case studies to train students in this critical field. Students will develop knowledge, analytical skills, and advocacy experiences which are necessary in healthcare and law as well as diverse professions and policy fields.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.

**This is an upper level interdisciplinary course. Freshmen are restricted from taking this class**

Instructor: Warren Lavey teaches environmental law, policy and public health. He served in the federal government, was a partner in a global law firm, and works with government agencies and nonprofit organizations on environmental projects.


CHP 395C: Journalists in Popular Culture, Matthew Ehrlich, Ph.D.

55838  |  2:00 – 3:20 p.m.  |  MW  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

Why should we care about the image of the journalist in popular culture? The main reasons are simple: First, journalism is supposed to provide us with the stories and information that we need to govern ourselves. Second, journalists have long been familiar characters in popular culture, and those characters are likely to shape people’s impressions of the news media at least as much if not more than the actual press does. Third, popular culture is a powerful tool for thinking about what journalism is and should be. This class will examine depictions of journalists in movies, TV shows, and other media over the past century – depictions that are at once repellent and romantic, villainous and heroic—and it will consider their implications for the news media, the public, and democracy. It is intended as a provocative and entertaining way of generating insight into not only journalism, but also ourselves.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.*

Instructor: Matthew Ehrlich is Professor Emeritus of Journalism. He has won the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Illinois. He also has appeared on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students 38 different semesters. Professor Ehrlich’s books include Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture and Journalism in the Movies. His latest book project is Kansas City vs. Oakland: How Two Cities and Their Sports Teams Fought to Be Big League. Professor Ehrlich has served as Interim Director of the Institute of Communications Research at the U of I. Before becoming a professor, he worked for several years as a public radio journalist, including at Illinois Public Media.


CHP 396C: Gender Communication, Grace Giorgio, Ph.D.

40536  |  2:00 – 3:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

This course investigates how gender and sexuality are communicated. Language, our statements as well as our demeanors, both explains and defines us. It sends covert as well as overt messages about us and our culture. In a complicated and not generally symmetrical fashion, our gender and sexuality inform our language and our language informs our gender and sexuality. This course focuses on the ways in which we discuss and enact – the ways in which we verbally and physically speak – gender and sexuality. This course interrogates social and cultural notions of gender and sexuality, and examines the way in which language serves to both reinforce and challenge these notions.

Course objectives:

Develop a fundamental understanding of how gender and language interface in contemporary social and political contexts; analyze and critique how gendered language shapes individual subjectivity in social, cultural, and political spheres; increase skillfulness in analysis, theory, and praxis; apply qualitative research methods to the study of gendered communication.

*This course has been approved by all colleges for general education credit for Social Sciences and Advanced Comp credit.*

Instructor: Grace Giorgio has been teaching in the Department of Communication since she arrived on campus as a graduate student in 1995. In 2001, she began teaching fulltime for the University, developing and teaching courses in popular media, gender communication, public policy and sustainability, and the geography of culture. Dr. Giorgio began teaching for Campus Honors in the fall of 2012, launching a course on place making, Communicating Public Policy: Our Cities/Ourselves (CMN 220). She also taught Gender Communication for CHP in the fall of 2015. In 2013, Dr. Giorgio received the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Teaching Award. In the fall of 2015, she received two Provost Office grants to develop and launch Writing Fundamentals, an online, interactive grammar program for Illinois writing courses. In concert with engineering faculty, Dr. Giorgio received a Strategic Innovations Instructional Program grant to support Engineering students with public speaking. Her research interests include an experimental use of qualitative research methods to investigate the intersection of self, culture, and the public sphere.

Dr. Giorgio also directs Oral and Written Communication (CMN 111/112) and manages her department’s teaching internship. She teaches CMN 375, Popular Media and Culture, a large lecture course as well as Public Policy and Gender and Women’s Studies classes. She serves on undergraduate distinction projects, oversees independent studies and internships. Her film production background has helped her guide students with making public projects such as videos, podcasts, and performance installations.


THIS COURSE HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR FALL 2019

CWL 395 RR: Invisible Cities, Robert Rushing, Ph.D.

51304  |  11:00 – 12:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  441 Altgeld  |  3 Hours

Italo Calvino’s 1972 experimental novel Invisible Cities consists entirely of two kinds of text: (1) dialogues between the 13th century Venetian traveler Marco Polo, and Kublai Khan, the emperor of China; and (2) Polo’s descriptions of the cities in the Khan’s empire, descriptions that are fantastic, surreal, or even flatly impossible. Since its publication, its attracted legions of fans, scholarly commentaries and — the topic of this class — artists and activists who have found its lessons inspirational for their own work. From a Pulitzer-nominated opera, to studies of Twitter usage in Manhattan, from a documentary film about the global African diaspora to an art installation about the sounds of Baltimore, Calvino’s novel has become an indispensable way of thinking about modern urban life. We will return to the novel three times in this course, treating it as a work of literary philosophy, as an artistic manifesto, and as a work about real communities; student will in turn write an essay, create (and share) a work of art, and execute a “political” project (the “polis” of “political” is the Greek word for city) in which they show and describe an “invisible city” — a real community concealed within the official city. Students will present and workshop with the class all three projects, incorporating the feedback of both instructor and students for a final submission of all the materials at the end of the semester.

*This course has been approved by all colleges for general education credit for Humanities & the Arts.*

Instructor: Robert A. Rushing is Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian at the University of Illinois, where he holds affiliate appointments with Media and Cinema Studies and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. Professor Rushing’s research interests include film and television studies; critical theory; popular culture; comparative studies and genre. Calvino is the reason he learned Italian and went to graduate school, and he has continued to write about and teach Calvino since his arrival at Illinois in 2001. He is the author of Resisting Arrest: Detective Fiction and Popular Culture (Other Press, 2007), Descended from Hercules: Biopolitics and the Muscled Male Body on Screen (Indiana University Press, 2016; winner of the American Association for Italian Studies’ best film/media book prize) and co-editor of Mad Men, Mad World: Sex, Politics, Style and the 1960s (Duke University Press, 2013). Professor Rushing chaired the campus Gen Ed board in 2015–16, was named one of 20 “master Gen Ed instructors” on campus by Marc Micale for his University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar project (2013), and won both the LAS and the campus-level awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2018.


ECON 102 CHP: Microeconomic Principles, Martin Perry, Ph.D.

63021  |  11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.  |  MW  |  111 DKH  |  3 Hours

This course focuses on the fundamental concepts and analysis of microeconomics, including supply and demand, the price mechanism, costs and revenues, theories of the firm, market structures, factor and resource markets, market failure and the impact of government in promoting economic efficiency. The course examines economic decision-making by individuals and firms and encourages students to apply microeconomic tools to current economic policy problems and issues such as pollution, rent controls, farm subsidies and welfare policies.

Upon completion of the course, a student will:

  1. Have a strong foundation in the theory and concepts of microeconomics
  2. Make connections between real world and academic economics
  3. Understand the relationship between conceptual and pragmatic applications of economics to the economic behavior of the “representative” individual, product, firm, market, price, etc.
  4. Learn how to apply the tools of microtheory to policy problems and issues such as global warming, pollution, health care, and government subsidies.

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Social Sciences.*

Instructor: Martin Perry is the Department Head and Professor of Economics. Dr. Perry specializes in the antitrust analysis of mergers and vertical restraints. Before joining the University of Illinois in 2011, Dr. Perry served as Professor of Economics at Rutgers University in New Jersey since 1989. In addition, Dr. Perry held positions in research groups at Bell Telephone Laboratories and Bell Communications Research; has visited the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania; and is a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Economic Analysis in Spain. During 2004, Dr. Perry served as the Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission. In that position, he worked on the investigation of the merger between Cingular Wireless and AWE Wireless. Dr. Perry has consulted for federal and state agencies on mergers in various industrial product markets and the casino gaming market in Atlantic City. Dr. Perry has also consulted on private antitrust cases involving aftermarket pricing, exclusive dealing, price discrimination and casino gaming.


ENGL 199 CHP: The Art of Revenge: Why We Get Aesthetic Pleasure from Anger and Retribution, Jim Hansen, Ph.D.

40419  |  10:00 – 10:50 a.m.  |  MWF  |  EB 125  |  3 Hours

Both popular-culture and so-called high art agree on at least one thing: vengeance sells. Revenge tragedies provide us with some of our most fascinating, compulsively watchable, and endlessly reimagined stories. To put it simply, our culture loves revenge. For some reason, we adore watching an injustice occur and then seeing an intricate, carefully conceived, and heinously violent plan unfold that works to reestablish justice on a retributive basis. We don’t always ask why we like the things that we like, though. In fact, we often avoid delving into such questions because they reveal to us that our pleasures often seem woefully uncivilized and wholly unethical. This course will be dedicated to exploring precisely the reasons that lie behind our enjoyment of those tales of violent revenge. In a sense, every great revenge saga revolves around an avenger who seeks to restore justice in a way that not only reestablishes order, but also produces a sense of visual, social, and ethical symmetry. Hence, every great avenger, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Tarantino’s Beatrix Kiddo, becomes an artist, a character who seeks to bring order to chaos, a master-planner who thrives on balance and proportion. As the artist orchestrates a grand design for revenge, we take pleasure in watching.

*This course has been approved for Humanities and the Arts, and Western & Comparative Cultures general education credit.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: James Hansen won the Humanities Council Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Illinois, and he has regularly been on the University-wide list of “Teachers Ranked as Excellent” by their students. Over the years, his teaching has spanned a good deal of the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and has investigated a range of literary theoretical approaches. In additions to classes such as “Beckett’s Late Theatre” and “The Gothic Tradition from Radcliffe to Gaiman,” which relate directly to his research, James also taught undergraduate courses on conspiracy theory films and fiction, on the history of the graphic novel, and on filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher Nolan.


FAA 110 F: Exploring Arts and Creativity, J.W. Morrissette, M.F.A, M.A. & Brad Mehrtens, M.S.

63087  |  10:30-11:50 a.m.  |  R  |  110 IGPA  |  3 Hours

High and street art, tradition and experimentation, the familiar and unfamiliar, international and American creativity provide this course’s foundation. Students will attend performances and exhibitions, interact with artists, and examine core issues associated with the creative process in our increasingly complex global society. Faculty from the arts, sciences, humanities, and other domains will lead students through visual arts, music, dance, and theatre experiences at Krannert Center and Krannert Art Museum to spark investigation and dialogue.

The class meets twice per week: once a week for discussions, and a second time to attend performances and/or exhibitions at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and/or Krannert Art Museum. Event dates will vary. Admission to all events will be provided without charge to students enrolled in the course.

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Literature and the Arts.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Bradley Mehrtens is an Instructor and Advisor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. He earned his bachelor’s in biology from Truman State University, and his master’s in microbiology from Illinois. His research interests include educational pedagogy, course design, and assessment. His advising interests include transitions for freshmen and transfer students, preparing for professional or graduate programs, understanding the undergraduate research experience, and acknowledging and addressing academic or personal issues. As for hobbies, he enjoys acting, theatre, movies, music, and sports.

Instructor: J. W. Morrissette is the Assistant Head in the Department of Theatre. He has served in the Department of Theatre for 21 years. He has also served as the chair of the BFA Theatre Studies Program, as well as the assistant program coordinator for Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre. He earned his BFA in Acting at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and both his MFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History at the University of Illinois. J.W. has taught and directed for the past 17 years with the summer Theatre Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts, has directed and taught at Parkland College, and teaches acting, directing, and Introduction to Theatre Arts at Illinois. He has been integral in developing components for the online course offerings in the department, as well as supervising all senior theatre studies thesis projects.


HIST 252B/JS 252B: Holocaust, Peter Fritzsche, Ph.D.

56012/71727  |  12:30 – 1:50 p.m.  |  MW  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

The purpose of this course is to provide students from all backgrounds with an introduction to the global refugee crisis, the confrontation with genocide, and the events and memories of the Holocaust. The course will arc from the present back to the early twentieth-century past and return to the present. We will examine the reports of perpetrators, bystanders, victims, and novelists; the role of anti-Semitism and anti-Islam; the interaction of war and genocide; the relationships between “crisis” and state policy; and the general debate about refugees.

The heart of the seminar is the discussion of the texts from novels to journalism to philosophical reflections; students will also prepare “mini-presentations” on a diversity of discrete topics to supplement the week’s reading; and finally students will write three short reflective essays drawn on three of the readings so that every student writes both on the past and the present and on fiction and non-fiction.

*This course is now full. Contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist.*

**This course satisfies the general education requirement for Humanities & the Arts and Cultural Studies-Western.**

Instructor: Peter Fritzsche has taught History at the University of Illinois for nearly thirty years. He has received Guggenheim, Humboldt, and NEH fellowships, has written seven books in German and European history including Life and Death in the Third Reich, Germans into Nazis, Reading Berlin 1900, Nietzsche and the Death of God, and Stranded in the Present, and, most recently, An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler. Fritzsche has served as chair of the Department of History and has been recognized for his excellence in teaching, including regular inclusion on the “Incomplete List of Excellent Teachers.” He taught several courses for CHP in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including an ACDIS-sponsored course with Jeremiah Sullivan on “the United States as a Superpower” and a CHP course on the “Temptations of Fascism.” In more recent years, he has taught honors courses on the Holocaust (fall 2007 and fall 2010) and on World War I (spring 2013, spring 2014, and fall 2015) as well as the wars in Iraq (fall 2016). His pedagogy emphasizes the close analysis of key texts through discussion and debate and the creation of defensible interpretations of human behavior through writing and rewriting and an empathetic understanding of narrative, documentary, and argumentative strategies. His ultimate aim is give students confidence in speaking about the world and ultimately in judging it.


KIN 340 SP1: Sociology & Psychology of Physical Activity, Steven Petruzzello, Ph.D.

64961  |  1:00 – 2:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  130 Freer  |  3 Hours

Social and Psychological Aspects of Physical Activity is designed to acquaint you with how psychological and social processes and constraints influence human action in physical activity environments. The course will utilize both lecture and laboratory/discussion formats, with ample opportunity for interaction and discussion between professor and students and among yourselves. There may be occasional guest lectures. You, as the student, should feel free (and are strongly encouraged) to ask questions, take alternate viewpoints, present supportive arguments for statements, and generally make yourself a presence in the class. This cannot be emphasized enough. Keeping your insights and ideas to yourself will deprive us all of potentially illuminating, interesting, and useful information.

I believe in the following statement by Socrates: “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” From you I expect: (a) commitment to excellence, that is, I don’t want you to overlook other important aspects of your life, but I do expect you to do work, spend the time, and do the reading and writing (and thus, thinking) necessary to be successful in this course; (b) self-motivation; and (c) initiative and critical thought. If you leave my classroom and have acquired a stronger ability to think, I will have done my job.

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Advanced Composition.***This course is now full. Contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist.**

Instructor: Steven Petruzzello is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health. He received his Ph.D. in Exercise Science, Psychology of Exercise and Sport from Arizona State University in 1991. He began his career at UIUC in 1991 and has served as the Associate Head for Graduate Studies, Department of Kinesiology & Community Health since 2011. He has also been a Research Scientist for the Illinois Fire Service Institute since 2005. Professor Petruzzello’s research focuses on determining the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of exercise in improving affect/emotion. The second line of research examines the physiological and psychological aspects of firefighting. Professor Petruzzello has been awarded the College of Applied Health Sciences Undergraduate Teaching Faculty Award, the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and has consistently been named to the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students.”


LER 199 IR: Immigration and Race: Evolution of Legal Equality, Michael H. LeRoy, Ph.D.

70463  |  3:30 – 5:50 p.m.  |  T  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

Throughout U.S. history, whites have erected legal barriers to racial equality in the workplace. This course examines public policies, drawn from the U.S. Constitution, laws, court rulings, executive orders and related policy directives that have led to inequality in work. Our weekly readings will examine these topics:

  1. Constitutional debates, admission of free and slave states, and related court rulings that maintained and enhanced slavery as well as inferior legal status for free blacks.
  2. Public policy debates over “compassionate” repatriation of blacks to Liberia, and the presumption that whites and blacks are inherently incapable of working side-by- side.
  3. Court rulings declaring that slaves and peons are property or of such inferior legal status as to deny those individuals basic human rights of liberty and equality; and protests, revolts, and other organized resistance by slaves and people of color.
  4. Radical Republicans, Reconstruction, and the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.
  5. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan, white terrorism, quasi-slavery, and sharecropping; and passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act.
  6. Chinese immigration and “Yellow Fever”; and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
  7. Legal dismantling of the Ku Klux Klan Act and emergence of Jim Crow.
  8. Japanese and pan-Asian immigration restrictions; the National Origins Formula.
  9. Labor unions and the reborn KKK: The segregated workplace.
  10. The Two Faces of FDR: Japanese Internment and Executive Order 8802 (ordering integration of U.S. industrial plants).
  11. Legislating racial equality in the workplace, 1964-2016: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
  12. White Supremacy and Nativism in the Age of Trump.

*This course is being petitioned for the general education requirement for Non-Western/U.S. Minority Cultures.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Professor Michael LeRoy has published extensively on antitrust in professional sports, immigration, race, and employment policy (in particular, the “gig economy”), strikes and lockouts, voluntary and mandatory arbitration, employee involvement teams, and labor law implications stemming from national emergencies. Professor LeRoy has testified before the full U.S. Senate Committee on labor and human resources; consulted at the request of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in connection with the Taft-Hartley labor dispute involving Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union; and served as an advisor to the President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service.


LING 240B: Language in Human History, Hans Henrich Hock, Ph.D.

40360  |  12:30 – 1:50 p.m.  |  TR  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

Whose past is it? The uses and misuses of linguistics, prehistory, genetics/genomics, and archaeology in national and group self-definition and in the exclusion of others. We will focus especially on the Aryan issue in four contexts: (1) Nazi ideology and the “Aryan Myth”, (2) neo-fascist movements in Russia, (3) current ideological movements in South Asia, and (4) ideological interpretations of the Tarim Mummies of Xinjiang. In the course of evaluating these issues, we will discuss the question of scientific methodology and the responsibility of historians, linguists, geneticists, and archaeologists to address misuses or deliberate misinterpretations of their results by nationalist and racist ideological movements.

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Historical & Philosophical Perspectives.*

Instructor: Hans Henrich Hock is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Sanskrit, University of Illinois. He has taught and done work in Indo-European comparative and historical linguistics with major focus on Sanskrit, as well as on language and ideology. Major publications include Principles in Historical Linguistics (1986, 1991), Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship (co-author with Brian D. Joseph, 1996, 2nd ed. 2009), Studies in Sanskrit Syntax (ed., 1991), An Early Upanishadic Reader (2007), The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia (ed. with Elena Bashir, 2016). Honors include recognition as Vidyasagara by Mandakini at the 10th World Sanskrit Conference in Bangalore (1997), election as Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (Class of 2013), and the Sukumar Sen Memorial Gold Medal for work in historical and comparative linguistics (Asiatic Society, Kolkata, India, 2015).


MATH 199 CHP: Mathematics in Sports, Games, and Gambling, A.J. Hildebrand, Ph.D.

47745  |  4:00 – 5:20 p.m.  |  TR  |  243 Altgeld  |  3 Hours

This course explores some of the mathematical and analytical approaches to sports and related fields made popular in books such as Moneyball and Freakonomics and the FiveThirtyEight website. Topics will be chosen based on interests and background of the audience. Past editions of the course (offered under the title “Probability and the Real World”) have touched on topics ranging from ranking sports teams and predicting game outcomes, home advantage and referee bias in sports, to topics in game theory, the mathematics of poker, and optimal strategies in gambling and investment. The course has no formal prerequisites; the necessary mathematical and statistical background will be developed in the course as needed. Grading will be based on participation, written assignments, and student projects.

*This course has been approved by all colleges for general education credit for Quantitative Reasoning I.*

**This scourse is now full. Contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist.**

Instructor: A.J. Hildebrand is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Illinois. His research interests are in the areas of number theory, probability, combinatorics, and analysis. In his more than three decades at Illinois, Dr. Hildebrand has taught at all levels on subjects ranging from calculus to probability, actuarial statistics, number theory, and mathematical writing. In 2011 he received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Outside the classroom, he is involved in running the math contest program at Illinois, mentoring students in undergraduate research, and directing a summer undergraduate research program in mathematics.


PHIL 103 CHP: Logic and Reasoning, Jonathan Livengood, Ph.D.

71951  |  11:00 – 11:50 p.m.  |  MWF  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

In this course, we will be concerned with understanding the goodness (or badness) of various kinds of argument. The course will be divided into four units: Zeroth-Order (Sentential) Logic, First-Order (Predicate) Logic, Set Theory and Probability Theory, and Causal and Statistical Reasoning. By the end of the course, students should be able to distinguish valid and invalid deductive arguments, construct truth tables for well-formed formulas in propositional logic, construct simple proofs in a natural deduction framework, apply Bayes’ Theorem to simple probability problems, distinguish between conditioning and intervening, and much more!

*This course satisfies the general education requirement for Historical & Philosophical Perspectives and Quantitative Reasoning II.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Jonathan Livengood is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research is motivated by his interest in scientific method — an interest he’s had since reading C.S. Peirce’s Illustrations of the Logic of Science as an undergraduate. For those who want to read the Illustrations as they originally appeared, Google Books has you covered: The Fixation of Belief, How to Make Our Ideas Clear, The Doctrine of Chances, The Probability of Induction, The Order of Nature, and Deduction, Induction, and Hypothesis. Currently, Professor Livengood is working on several problems under the umbrella of causal reasoning. Some of his research concerns the psychology and semantics of causal reasoning, the normative questions about causal inference from data, and the role and legitimacy of causal reasoning in science.

SOCW 199: Doing Good for Society through the Non-Profit Sector, Ben Lough, Ph.D.


54085  |  9:00 – 10:15 a.m.  |  TR  |  136 Wohlers  |  3 Hours

Do you want to change the world? Are you passionate about addressing homelessness, sexual violence, or environmental problems? Do you volunteer or make donations to charities? Want to create new solutions to social problems? Much of this happens in the nonprofit sector, yet most people know little about it. The nonprofit sector, also called the non-governmental or voluntary sector, employs around 10% of the US workforce and covers nearly 9% of all wages and salaries in the US economy. Nonprofit organizations meet needs not covered by business or government, provide many important resources that help people in need, and greatly enrich our lives through the arts. This course provides a general overview of the benefits and challenges of this critical sector.

*This course has been approved by all colleges for general education credit for Social & Behavioral Sciences.*

**This course is now full. Please contact Anne Price to be added to the waitlist**

Instructor: Professor Lough earned his BS in Sociology, his MSW from Brigham Young University, and his PhD from the Brown School at Washington University. Dr. Lough has extensive international research and practice experience, having worked as a Senior Researcher and Resident Consultant to the United Nations in Germany, a Foreign Expert in the People’s Republic of China, an independent consultant to the Department of Human and Social Services of American Samoa, and program evaluator for the Foundation for International and Community Assistance in Armenia and the Republic of Georgia. In addition to considerable research and teaching experience, Dr. Lough also worked as a clinical social worker.


HUM 395A: Wilderness in American Culture, Robert Morrissey, Ph.D.

67677  |  3:30 – 4:50 p.m.  |  MW  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

Explores the wilderness as a concept and a material reality in American culture and history. Examines film, literature, law and policy to understand how the concept of wilderness has figured into how Americans have made sense of their place in nature. A critical examination of both wild lands themselves, and the meanings Americans have attached to them, over time.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.*

Instructor: Robert Morrissey is the Mellon Faculty Fellow in Environmental Humanities at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, where he leads an interdisciplinary team in programming, research, and curriculum development. Dr. Morrissey specializes in the history of early America and the Atlantic world, American frontier and borderlands history, ethno history, and environmental history. His first book tells the story of French colonists and Native peoples of the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes in the 17th and 18th centuries. The book is entitled, “Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in the Colonial Illinois Country.” Dr. Morrissey’s next project is entitled “The Illinois and the Edge Effect: People, Environment, and Power in the Tallgrass Prairie Borderlands.” It is a study of the relationship between people and non-human nature in one of North America’s most distinctive ecological and social frontiers from 1200 to 1850. An article from this project entitled “Climate, Ecology, and History in North America’s Tallgrass Prairie Borderlands” is forthcoming in the journal Past & Present.

Outside of his work as a professor, Dr. Morrissey is chapter advisor for the Evans Scholar House at Illinois. He also helps to organize the Society of Colonial Wars’ Colonial America Lecture Series at the Newberry Library in Chicago.


HUM 395B: Politics of Nature, Leah Aronowski, Ph.D.

70239  |  9:00 – 10:20 a.m.  |  TR  |  212 Honors House  |  3 Hours

How is nature socially produced? How is it mobilized politically? This course considers the political life of “nature” in all its varied manifestations—a resource to be exploited, a heritage to be protected, an object to be governed, and a source of life and livelihood, among others. We will consider texts and other forms of media that focus on: the role of the natural world in processes of settler-colonialism, the relationship between science, nature, and empire, the environmental dimensions of the history of international development, strategies of indigenous rights movements, the birth of the environmental NGO, and the environmental legacies of warfare. The course draws on literature from fields that include the history of science, science and technology studies, political ecology, environmental anthropology, and postcolonial studies.

*This course is not being petitioned for general education credit this term.*

Instructor: Leah Aronowsky received a PhD in History of Science from Harvard University, where her teaching was recognized with a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching. She is currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Humanities with the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) here on campus. Her research examines the historical interactions between environmental knowledge and environmental politics. Her writing has appeared in such journals as Environmental History, Environmental Humanities, and Endeavour, and she is currently writing a book about the history of the biosphere concept in the postwar United States.


***PLEASE NOTE: Courses petitioned for General Education credit by Campus Honors Program will appear on student records around the middle of term. This will not appear at the time of registration.***

+++ Please note that campus policy restricts students from using more than 12 credits of “199” courses towards your credits for graduation. CHP allows the use of all of this type of courses towards our program requirements. You are not restricted from taking as many “199” courses as you would like just beware of this graduation credit limit.+++