This course fulfills the university core requirement for Written Communication (FLO 1) and Information Literacy (FLO 2).

Section Instructor(s):

• Vanesa Canete Jurado
• Muiris MacGiollabhui (meets asynchronously online)
• Kathryn Dilworth (meets asynchronously online)

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course is a writing-intensive course in which students learn how to find, evaluate, and use credible information, how to express themselves well in a variety of different written genres, and how to write for different audiences.

This course meets asynchronously online.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Human Cultures: Behavioral and Social Sciences (FLO 8).

Instructor(s):

• Nathan Swanson

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: Exploring Place is an examination of the cultural, social, technological, and historical dynamics that influence communities and relationships of a site. Blending independent study and distance learning, in this experiential learning course, the student and the instructor work together to design an individualized, in-depth study of where the student is located. In this section, your study will be attentive to the interactions we have with technology and how these interactions and technology have shaped this place over time. We will also focus on community life and the relationships between residents, institutions, organizations, and others in this place. Exploring Place allows students to better understand the people, places, and technology around them, expand their worldviews, and increase their self-awareness as they engage within these spaces and understand their place.

This course meets during the second 8-weeks, March 8 – April 30, 2027.

This course meets asynchronously online.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Human Behavioral and Social Sciences (FLO 8).

Instructor(s):

• Suren Petrosyan

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: In “Music or Noise”, your study will be attentive to the interactions we have with sounds and how these sounds (for e.g., loud and soft, pleasant and abrasive, animal and insects sounds, and silence) shape place. We will also experience the sounds around us and explore their meaning to different members of the community in this place. This course allows students to better understand the people and the environment around them, expand their knowledge of discourses on music and sound, and increase their self-awareness as they engage within these spaces and understand their place.

This asynchronous study abroad companion course is limited to students who are enrolled in the Global Logistics in Panama Study Abroad program.

Instructor(s):

• Felisa Higgins

Credit Hours: 1

Course Description: This course introduces students to Panama’s role as a major global logistics hub. Students will examine how the country’s geography, history, culture, and infrastructure shape international trade, geopolitics, and global supply chains. Asynchronous coursework and required predeparture meetings will prepare students for site visits, professional engagement, and cultural experiences in Panama. Following the immersion, each student will create an individual reflective media narrative synthesizing their academic preparation, in-country experiences, and post-travel reflection to communicate their learning, cultural insights, and professional growth.

This course meets asynchronously online.

Instructor(s):

• Shaunta Scroggins

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Leadership Praxis acts as an asynchronous, curricular companion to a student's extracurricular leadership experience. Students will choose from a menu of course modules, allowing them to tailor the instruction they receive to their leadership context. A portion of the course is designated as a leadership lab, which makes time devoted to the leadership role part of the course. The course helps enhance students' performance in their leadership roles as well as turns those roles into opportunities for learning about leadership best practices and one's own unique leadership style.

Instructor(s):

• Shaunta Scroggins

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course integrates popular narratives and reassuring scripts about leadership, career, and success: find your passion, lead with authenticity, stay positive. In this course, students will examine the less visible realities and challenges of leading well—organizational dysfunction, conflict and disagreement, the limits of individual agency, difficult tradeoffs, and the gap between what leadership promises and what leaders can actually achieve. Students will integrate positivity bias: the pressure to remain optimistic even when optimism obscures problems, forecloses critique, or turns structural failures into individual responsibilities.

Through case studies, critical and reflective readings, structured discussions, and practice, students will develop a more grounded understanding of leadership. What does it mean to lead when there are no easy answers, when positivity obscures real problems, or when speaking up carries consequences? How can leaders communicate with confidence without mistaking certainty for competence, and navigate conflict without treating disagreement as failure? The Difficult Work of Leadership asks students to question inherited assumptions about leadership and develop the judgment, voice, and capacity to lead through complexity rather than around it.

This course meets during the first 8-weeks, January 11 – March 5, 2027.

Instructor:

• Shaunta Scroggins

Credit Hours: 1

Course Description: This course examines communication as a central practice of effective leadership. Students will develop the written, oral, and interpersonal skills necessary to communicate with clarity, confidence, and purpose across a range of professional and organizational contexts. Moving between communication theory and practice, the course considers not only how leaders craft and deliver messages, but also how they listen, read situations, navigate relationships, and make judgments about what—and how—to communicate. The course pays particular attention to the ways communication is shaped by power, position, and organizational context. Through case studies, practical exercises, and interactive simulations, students will learn to adapt their communication to different audiences and circumstances; give and receive constructive feedback; navigate conflict and difficult conversations; manage up and across organizations; and communicate effectively within established structures of authority and protocol.

Particular attention will be paid to the challenges of communicating under pressure, balancing candor with tact, and developing a leadership presence that is both confident and responsive to others. By the end of the course, students will understand effective leadership communication not simply as speaking or writing well, but as the capacity to listen carefully, exercise sound judgment, build trust, and communicate strategically in complex interpersonal and organizational environments.

Instructor(s):

• Yung-Hsiang Lu
• Christopher Brinton

Credit Hours: 1

Course Description: This seminar course brings students into direct conversation with accomplished academic leaders. Professors and recognized researchers will share their personal journeys, professional experiences, and insights into the future of innovation and careers. The course explores the paths that lead to academic excellence. Speakers will discuss their educational backgrounds, key career decisions, research breakthroughs, challenges encountered along the way, and lessons learned from building successful research programs. Students will gain a deeper understanding of how innovation emerges from curiosity, perseverance, collaboration, and commitment to advancing knowledge. In addition to highlighting cutting-edge discoveries and emerging technologies, the seminar emphasizes leadership development, professional growth, and the societal impact of higher education.

Discussions will address topics such as creativity, entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring, ethical responsibilities, and strategies for navigating a rapidly changing global landscape. Through the interaction with accomplished scholars and innovators, students will gain inspiration, practical advice, and a broader perspective on career opportunities. The course is designed to help students envision their own future paths and develop the skills, mindset, and ambition needed to become the next generation of innovators and leaders.

Instructor(s):

• Jason Ware

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Jazz artists “speak to each other in the language of music.” In “Jazz,” we will explore the nature of this artistic conversation with many of its cultural influences, geographical variations, and temporal iterations, and we will interrogate varying facets of the social impact such a conversation facilitates. Furthermore, we will explore the musical language of jazz with its power to make collective performance stronger both within and beyond music. And we will investigate the ways in which this artists' talk became the "talk of the town" and country as a medium through which people could break from dominant cultures. We will make sense of and process our journey by creating our own metaphorical jazz ensemble, featuring the complex and layered textures of our lives as inspiration for the note and lyric. You do not need to be a musician to take this course.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Science, Technology and Society (FLO 5).

Instructor(s):

• Kristen Bellisario

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Silent Spring explores soundscapes, noise, and silence as material, medium, and method of inquiry. Drawing from contemporary acoustic thinkers and experimental forms of listening, the course provides the framework to develop independent research or creative work. Students will engage in experimental investigations that use scientific modes of observation, treating measurement not only as analysis but as a compositional strategy. Through research, discussion, and iterative design, students will translate their investigations into innovative works as installation, interactive system, or other experimental form that explores sound as a phenomenon or expressive medium.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Science, Technology and Society (FLO 5).

Instructor(s):

• Daniel Johnstone

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Digital security is of fundamental importance to our daily lives even though many contemporary cryptographic protocols are threatened by the advent of quantum computing. Moreover, despite frequent discussions in the media regarding data breaches and other digital security-related matters, how cryptography functions is almost entirely unknown to the population at large. This course seeks to remedy this issue by offering a detailed explanation of the fundamentals of mathematical prerequisites which underpin cryptography which is nonetheless accessible to students who need not major in STEM (though STEM students are also welcome). While rigorous mathematical content will be discussed, it will be done so at a gentle pace in a discussion-based format with ample examples and applications.

The course will begin with the logical and mathematical ideas required both to understand the function and implementation of public key cryptography, what (heuristically and rigorously) makes this algorithm “efficient” and “secure”, and how this security is threatened by quantum computing. Additional topics may include discussions of other types of cryptosystems in contemporary use, a deeper discussion of the mathematics of quantum computing, a discussion of “quantum resistant” cryptography, and others.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Science, Technology and Society (FLO 5).

Instructor(s):

• David Nelson

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Study of learning science and metacognition, with sustained application to the student's own coursework. Readings and discussion cover memory, retrieval practice, self-regulated learning, and the accuracy of self-assessment, as well as exploration of large language models and potential impacts on learning. This is not a machine learning class or a coding class; it is a chance for students to turn findings from cognitive science into tools they build and use themselves via an LLM. Students then build reusable AI-based learning tools, apply them across a semester in courses of their choosing, and evaluate the effects on their own learning. There is no prerequisite course or program of study necessary for success. If you are interested in understanding how you learn and building something to show for it, this may be the course for you. The final project produces a documented tool, released for use by other students in the discipline.

This course requires a Claude Pro subscription for four months, at a cost of $20 per month, and regular use of Claude will be required.

This course meets the university core requirement for Human Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Instructor(s):

• Anish Vanaik

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: What is the way out of the climate crisis? This course will examine the different answers that are emerging to this question in popular conversations and in policy circles. Over sixteen weeks, we will try to analyze and understand the motivations and visions behind the solutions being proposed and the key forces that speak for and against them. In doing so, in this course, students will explore the entangled relations between humanity and the environment from multiple social contexts and time periods.

This course meets the university core requirement for Human Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Instructor(s):

• Alex Francis

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Sound surrounds us, like air. And like the air we breathe, the sounds around us can be both healthful and harmful. We are well aware that sounds that hurt our ears can cause hearing damage, but how much is too much? And what about quieter sounds that are nevertheless disturbing? Is the sound from windmills or datacenters harmful, or just annoying? What about traffic noise? Or flying in a plane? How come some people hate the sounds of chewing so much, but others don't care, or even like it? Are there any sounds that everyone hates? Why do I get chills when I listen to certain musical pieces? Is there any truth in the claim that listening to nature sounds is calming? What about ASMR videos? In this course we will develop a basic understanding of acoustics, anatomy, and the psychophysiology of emotions and stress while exploring the many ways that sound can affect our bodies and our minds.

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Humanities (FLO 8).

Instructor(s):

• Suren Petrosyan

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Many things about us are different, and always there are so many things that can divide us such as society, religion, race, ethnicity, age, economics, and geography.

What is the power and magic of music that unites us across cultural, social, ethnic differences? How and why is music considered universal language?

This course fulfills the university core requirement for Humanities (FLO 8).

Instructor(s):

• Brenda Sarmiento Quezada

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: What does it mean to design a learning experience that truly welcomes people across differences in language, culture, age, and background? In this community-engaged Honors seminar, students will explore how language, culture, identity, and belonging shape learning in both formal and informal educational spaces. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives on multilingualism, family and community knowledge, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and human-centered design, students will examine how learning experiences can be created with communities rather than simply for them.

The course will partner with El Rincón Bilingüe, an established community-based bilingual literacy and mathematics initiative offered through local public libraries. Throughout the semester, Honors students will move through iterative cycles of learning, designing, facilitating, observing, and redesigning. Working collaboratively, students will develop multilingual and multimodal story time and learning experiences for children and families, facilitate selected El Rincón sessions, examine how families engage with their designs, and use those observations to revise subsequent experiences.

Importantly, students do not need to speak Spanish to participate. Rather than treating bilingualism as a prerequisite, the course asks all students to consider how people design and communicate across linguistic differences and how multiple modes, including language, images, movement, objects, mathematics, storytelling, and technology, can make learning more accessible and meaningful.

By the end of the semester, students will create a design portfolio documenting the development,

implementation, observation, and revision of a community-based learning experience. The course therefore combines interdisciplinary scholarship with authentic community engagement while asking students to critically examine questions of language, access, power, reciprocity, and belonging.

Students are responsible for their own transportation to the local libraries.

This course meets asynchronously online.

Instructor(s):

• Muiris MacGiollabhui

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This class will introduce students to the concept of “Diaspora.” Over the course of sixteen weeks, students will assess how diasporic movements of people have constructed and inflected our world. Students will also learn critically read, analyze, and synthesize information from scholarly literature and/or traditions of creative practice. Finally, students will complete the class by being able to demonstrate knowledge of disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary skills, methods, and abilities appropriate for their research/creative question. All these skills and learning outcomes will culminate with a research project at the end of the class revolving around the idea of “Diaspora.”

Instructor(s):

• Nadine Dolby

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Take a look around you! Animals are everywhere in our human lives: they share our homes, are on our plates, and surround us every day. In this class, we will consider the differing roles of animals in multiple societies and cultures. Should children hunt cats in New Zealand? Should we use beagles and other animals in lab research? Are pets property or family? In this class, we will discuss these questions (and many more) through an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on fields such as human-animal studies, veterinary science, cognitive ethology, critical animal studies, anthrozoology, family studies, psychology, environmental studies, veterinary and human social work, and other disciplines. We will study the human-animal bond, the differing perspectives on animals in multiple cultures and societies, the concepts of animal welfare and animal rights, and conflicting views and perspectives on companion, farm, and wild animals through readings, discussions, videos, guest speakers, daily activities, multiple written and oral assignments and presentations, and a field-based project.

Instructor(s):

• Benna Haas

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course investigates creativity through cognitive neuroscience and educational psychology, investigating how memory, attention, and associative thinking, and problem-solving behavior emerge from underlying neural mechanisms and dynamic brain network interactions. Students examine how different patterns of brain activity contribute to idea generation and how learning environments can influence these processes.

Additional topics include mental health conditions, heritability, and intelligence, and their implications for creative expression. Throughout the course, students will read and analyze historical cases, connect with experts in neuroscience and creativity, and apply their research skills to designing their own case studies that demonstrate the complex interplay of biological, cognitive, and environmental dimensions of creativity.

Instructor(s):

• Nadine Dolby

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Have you ever been to a coffee shop? Then you have already started to explore a third place! Third places are social spaces that are in-between home and work. Some examples of third places include coffee shops, gyms, libraries, parks, hair salons and barber shops, swimming pools, bars, and places of worship. This class will deepen and expand your understanding of community and communal life through examination of the role of third places, both face-to-face and virtual.

In this course, we will take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on fields such as sociology, business/entrepreneurship, urban studies, psychology, environmental studies, architecture and design, community studies, and anthropology. We will study the defining characteristics of third places and real life examples through readings, videos, multiple written and oral assignments and presentations, and a field-based project. We will examine how third places relieve loneliness and isolation, promote social support, and reduce stress. We will also examine current trends and debates in this research area. This class meets twice a week during the first 8 weeks. During the second 8 weeks, the class will meet once a week (Tuesday), and students will be involved in an extensive, individual field-based project of your choosing.

Instructor(s):

• Richard Price

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: If you are like me, you have had similar conversations...if the apocalypse hit tomorrow, what would my role be? My partner runs, so he'd be our supply runner. I crochet, so I'm on clothing duty. It's a fun thought experiment, until you start asking who doesn't make the list. From zombie outbreaks to climate collapse, apocalyptic narratives captivate us. Our favorite TV shows and movies center around this phenomenon of what a post-apocalyptic world could look like, but they also reveal something uncomfortable about how we value human life. This course asks a deceptively simple question: who gets to survive, and why? Drawing on disability studies, speculative fiction, real disaster history, and cultural criticism, students will examine how survival narratives are built on assumptions about bodies, minds, and human worth. We will also look at what happens when those assumptions are challenged. We will analyze how disabled people have been portrayed in (and largely written out of) apocalyptic imagination, while also interrogating real events, examining where disability and crisis collide. This course is designed for students across any major who are willing to question what they think they know about strength, vulnerability, and what it means to be human at the end of the world. And yes, you will have a much better answer to the question of what you bring to the apocalyptic team.

Instructor(s):

• Elena Benedicto

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Human Language is, in its very nature, different from other communication systems. Frequently we think of it as putting words one after another, but its structure is more than an (invisible) mobile, with words (morphemes!) hanging from and tied together as branches in a tree. That hidden structure is what we will work to uncover in this class.

Instructor(s):

• Olga Dmitrieva

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course explores what it means to know and use more than one language and how this experience changes the way we think and speak. Drawing on linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, speech science, and other fields, we will examine bilingualism from cognitive, neurobiological, social, emotional, and cultural perspectives. A particular focus will be on bilingual speech: how speech sounds develop and interact, why bilingual speakers may sound different from monolingual speakers, and how experience, identity, and linguistic environment influences the way we speak. Topics will include language and cognition, emotion across languages, language switching, language attrition, accent perception, bilingualism in society, and bilingual speech and language technology. No previous background in linguistics or speech science is required. Through accessible readings, discussion, and hands-on analysis of their own speech recordings, students will learn to visualize and measure speech and use their observations to investigate how linguistic experience can shape the way we speak.

This course meets synchronously online for WL students and in person for Indianapolis students.

Instructor(s):

• Esra Tepeli

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: This interdisciplinary seminar explores how leaders make decisions under uncertainty in complex systems such as infrastructure, healthcare, climate policy, technology, and global supply chains. Students will examine how risk is perceived, communicated, modeled, and managed across disciplines. Through case studies, simulations, and reflective discussion, the course investigates resilience, ethical responsibility, stakeholder trade-offs, and long-term strategic thinking in high-stakes environments.

This course meets in person in Indianapolis.

Instructor(s):

• Jonathan Rienstra-Kiracofe

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: The nuclear age is nearly 75 years old. However, many college students have little to no understanding of nuclear weapons or nuclear power. This course will introduce students to the science, history, and geopolitics of the Nuclear Age and enable them to think critically of the ethics surrounding nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Students will study the science of nuclear physics to understand how an atomic bomb works and to understand the science behind different types of nuclear weapons. Students will likewise learn the science of nuclear power generation. Students will study the history of the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, including the politics that influenced their use and proliferation. Finally, students will learn basic philosophy of ethics and apply their own sense of ethics to present arguments for or against the particular use or role that nuclear weapons or power plays in modern society.

This course meets synchronously online.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project. This course is only open to 3rd and 4th year students.

Instructor(s):

• Kathryn Dilworth

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: This course establishes a new pathway for Honors completion through a critical reflection of a student’s engagement with the Undergraduate Research pillar of the college. This course empowers Honors College students to leverage their research, scholarly, and creative experiences in curricular as well as co- and extra-curricular experiences toward completing the scholarly project requirement. The major assignment of the course is a reflective portfolio, which will serve not only as a record and reflection of past experiences, but also will be an opportunity to undertake self-reflection about how your time as an Honors College student has shaped your research thinking and helped prepare you for life beyond the university.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project. *This course is only open to 3rd & 4th year students*

Instructor(s):

• Adam Watkins

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: Designing Teamwork Games provides students with an exciting opportunity to design fun games, explore research on effective teamwork, and enhance their own capacities to lead project teams. Through the course, students will read the most cutting-edge research teambuilding, collaborative problem solving, the psychology of groups, cohesion and belonging, and collective intelligence. They will also participate in fun team games and activities designed to explore different facets of teambuilding and teamwork. For the final project, students will work in groups to design their own team-building game. This course is a great way to hone teamwork, innovation, and systems thinking skills, all of which are essential for professional success.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project. *This course is only open to 3rd & 4th year students*

Instructor(s):

• Kristen Bellisario

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: With increased habitat fragmentation, air travel, and travel corridors, noise is ubiquitous and has an impact on both wildlife and people. In this course, students will design and conduct a research study about noise in the local community and discuss novel ideas to address these issues. The technical component of the course will cover properties of sound, techniques of qualitative and quantitative analyses, and basic R programming. No prior experience with R or computer programming required. Students will learn the fundamentals in this course.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project. *This course is only open to 3rd & 4th year students*

Instructor(s):

• Anish Vanaik

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: In this course, you will use editorial cartoons on a topic we select to formulate a research question, analyze data and present your conclusions to a public audience. This will constitute successful completion of your scholarly project requirement. Editorial cartoons provide a unique window onto the anxieties and elations of contemporary public life. At the start of semester we will select a thematic focus and proceed to build research projects using cartoons within that thematic focus. Course activities will help you learn methods to conduct research with images, understand the process of research, and experience being part of a semester-long research community with your peers.

This course meets synchronously online for WL students and in person for Indianapolis students.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project. *This course is only open to 3rd & 4th year students*

Instructor(s):

• Shu Hu

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: In this research course, students will work directly with modern AI models and train them using high-performance computing resources, including GPUs. Students will explore how these models are built, how they learn from data, and how they can be improved to perform reliably in real-world settings. A central focus of the course is understanding and addressing bias in AI systems. Students will investigate how AI models can produce unfair or unreliable outcomes and will develop practical strategies to improve their accuracy, fairness, and trustworthiness. Throughout the semester, students will complete a full research experience: conducting literature review, designing and implementing methods, running experiments on real datasets, and communicating results through a research paper and presentation. By the end of the course, students will gain practical experience working with advanced AI tools and the skills needed to thoughtfully evaluate and improve AI systems.