Honors Program
(413) 662-5381
www.mcla.edu/honr
Co-Director: Victoria Papa, Ph.D. (sabbatical Fall 2026)
Email: Victoria.Papa@mcla.edu
Co-Director: Mohamad Junaid, Ph.D.
Email: Mohamad.Junaid@mcla.edu
Fall 2026 Acting Co-Director: Elizabeth Hartung, Ph.D.
Email: E.Hartung@mcla.edu
Program Overview
The honors program presents the opportunity for highly motivated students to enrich their academic studies with challenging interdisciplinary courses, independent research, and intensive intellectual engagement with their peers. Open to students in any academic major, those who complete the program earn the distinction of All College Honors upon graduation.
Honors Courses
AMGT 330H Honors: Grants & Fundraising3 cr
Introduces the techniques in grant research and technical and contextual writing skills for grants in the arts. Examines government and private sources of art funding and fundraising techniques for arts and culture organizations.
Prerequisite: AMGT 130
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
AMGT 345H Honors: Community Arts Education3 cr
Explores the work of artist educators in and out of school contexts; develops skills to identify learning objectives for their work; documents educational work; increases the potency of marketing and descriptive material.
Prerequisite: AMGT 130
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
ANTH 130H Honors: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology3 cr
Introduces students to the basic concepts, theories, and methodologies of sociocultural anthropology. Creates an awareness of the wide spectrum of cultural variation throughout the world. Demonstrates that through the study of anthropology, we may not only gain an understanding of "exotic" cultures, but also of our own sociocultural experience.
Attributes: Cross-Cultural and Social Justice (CCSJ), Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
ANTH 375H Honors: Religion and Ritual3 cr
Introduces students to concepts and methods that anthropology employs to understand the phenomenon of religion as a complex social and experiential phenomenon. Approaches religion as deeply enmeshed within the broader cultural systems as well as a contested category for classifying varied systems of belief and ritual.
Prerequisite: ANTH 130 or ANTH 130H or ANTH 240 or HIST 104 or PHIL 100 or PHIL 300 or SOCI 100 or junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
BADM 440H Honors: Advanced Leadership3 cr
Examines various topics in leadership studies, both current and historical. Emphasis will be placed on exploring and developing the student's personal leadership philosophy, style, and approach. Possible topics could include operational, strategic, and ethical considerations within today's dynamic social, corporate, and non-profit environment. Additional research component will be required of students taking this course for honors credit.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
BIOL 327H Honors: Plants and Society3 cr
Introduces students to the interactions between people and plants in cultures throughout the world. Topics to be discussed include the current and historical use of plants as food, fiber, fuel and medicine.
Prerequisite: Sophomore status
Attributes: Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR)
BIOL 332H Honors: Bryology and Lichenology4 cr
Provides skills in identification and knowledge of taxonomy, biology and ecology of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) and macrolichens, with focus on the taxa found in northeastern North America. Students will gain experience identifying these groups using hand-lenses and microscopes, dissections, and chemical testing, and will learn techniques for preparing a personal reference collection and specimens for museum-vouchered collections. Required laboratory; lab mostly outdoors.
Corequisite: BIOL 332LH
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
BIOL 361H Honors: Advanced Biochemistry3 cr
Studies the chemical dynamics in living systems. Topics include enzymes mechanisms, metabolism and its regulation, and energy production and utilization.
Prerequisite: BIOL 360
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
CCAP 307H Sex & Violence3 cr
Invites students to identify a topic of their choice at the intersections of sex and violence, and spend the course engaged in an extensive process of research and writing on this topic, culminating in an article-length manuscript and presentation. Students will engage in a rigorous, iterative process of peer review. Readings will be advanced, technical, and often related to provocative topics. The course is designed to be preparatory for graduate study in the humanities and social sciences.
Prerequisite: Completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements, junior status
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP), Honors Program (HONR), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WMST)
EDUC 307H Honors: Queer Childhoods3 cr
Explores queer theory in discussion with popular and scholarly ideas about childhood and development. We examine the lived experiences of intersectional queer children and families in a US context, with a particular focus on educational encounters. We also look more broadly at queer theories of development, and lean into children’s and adolescent literature by and about LGBTQ+ individuals and communities as a legitimate source for understanding queer childhoods.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 151H Honors: Fundamentals of Literary Studies I: Reading and Imagination3 cr
Introduces students to the imaginative potentials of reading as a practice that transforms our understanding of the world. Students will learn the fundamental skills associated with the study of literature across multiple genres and from various cultural traditions, with attention paid to how the close reading of a text informs the creative act of interpretation.
Attributes: Core Creative Arts (CCA), Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 153H Honors: Introduction to Visual Culture3 cr
Explores how our encounters with images profoundly impact our experiences of the world. Through an examination of diverse modes of visual expression, this course introduces students to key concepts of visual culture, including the social dynamics of representation, power structures of looking, and phenomena of spectacle.
Attributes: Core Creative Arts (CCA), Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 341H Honors: Hybrid Poetics3 cr
Investigates a range of experimental literary texts that cross, blur, or recombine different modes and genres of writing, in order to invent new forms of expression. Students explore the porous borders between poetry and prose, the creative and the critical, the visual and the verbal, the oral and the written, the factual and the imaginative. In their own writing, students are invited to move between two types of writing, creative and analytical, that are ordinarily kept separate.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 368H Honors: The Age of Milton3 cr
Explores the works of John Milton in relation to the major intellectual and social currents of early modernity. Discussions and lectures focus on analyzing the literary, philosophical, and religious attitudes of the period, as well as their uncanny afterlives in the present. Readings include Lycidas, Areopagitica, and Paradise Lost.
Prerequisite: ENGL 152
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 372H Honors: Arts of Medieval and Renaissance Britain3 cr
Explores medieval and Renaissance British literature, history and culture. The course includes a spring break travel component. During travel students contextualize literature with the cultural heritage experienced via visual arts architecture, music, theatre, dance, fashion, food, and landscapes and cityscapes of Britain. There are additional fees associated with the travel portion of this course that the student will be responsible for.
Prerequisite: ENGL 152, instructor approval
Attributes: Additional Fees Apply (FEE), Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 393H Honors: Faulkner and the Global South3 cr
Explores the reciprocal resonances between the writing of white southern modernist, William Faulkner, and the diverse literatures coming out of the Global South. Examines the ways in which Global South writers use experimental poetics to continue Faulkner's project and tell the stories of colonialism from the neocolonial present.
Prerequisite: ENGL 152
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
ENGL 405H Honors: Creativity and Survival3 cr
Explores how creative pursuits can offer life-affirming counternarratives of recognition and resiliency. Students will study a range of 20th- and 21st- century art in literary, visual, and performative realms while examining the role of experimental art-making in the representation of systematic forms of trauma. Includes intersecting critical lenses - trauma studies, queer theory, critical race studies, and visual culture - as well as immersive, high-impact learning experiences.
Prerequisite: ENGL 152, junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WMST)
ENVI 150H Honors: Introduction to Environmental Systems4 cr
Provides an interdisciplinary foundation in the physical, chemical and biological principles of environmental science in order to explore earth's terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric systems. Historical case studies illustrate political and ethical dimensions of environmental issues. Lab exercises familiarize you with the forest and freshwater environments of the northeast and how the scientific method is used to analyze and understand the relation between humans and the natural environment.
Corequisite: ENVI 150LH
Attributes: Core Science & Tech w/lab (CSTL), Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR)
ENVI 340H Honors: Environmental Law3 cr
Studies the development of American consciousness toward the environment throughout our nation's history, emphasizing the political, economic and social forces at work in the consequent creation of United States environmental law. This law will then be considered in detail through the examination of federal, state and local environmental protection legislation, regulations and related court decisions.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR)
HIST 125H Honors: World Regional Geography3 cr
Introduces theories, terms and past and contemporary topics in human geography, including how cultures are born and change, how groups of people organize themselves and their activities both spatially and politically, how patterns of activities emerge and change across time and space, and how we interact with our environments. Students in this course will explore demographic, economic, and social trends and issues across the globe in their geographic and historical context.
Attributes: Core Human Heritage (CHH), Honors Program (HONR)
HLTH 150H Honors: Introduction to Public and Community Health3 cr
Explores two key questions: “What is the agenda of public health?” and “Is health a right or a privilege?” Through discussions and activities, students will examine the biological, political, and sociological factors shaping health in the U.S. The course emphasizes understanding public health as a system and its interdisciplinary links to other fields. Critical thinking and analysis of major public health issues will be a central focus throughout the semester.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
HLTH 200H Honors: Health Promotion and Planning3 cr
Introduces the principles of health promotion and strategies to improve individual and community well-being. Examine health determinants, behavior theories, program planning, and promotion through education and policy. Topics include nutrition, mental health, substance abuse, and chronic disease prevention. Focuses on building practical skills through discussions, case studies, and projects, applying health promotion strategies to diverse, real-world settings.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
HLTH 210H Honors: Human Growth and Development3 cr
Explores the life cycle from conception to death. Biological, sociological, and psychological perspectives will be examined and applied to everyday situations and social issues.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
HLTH 310H Honors: Environmental Health3 cr
Provides a multidisciplinary understanding of the science, practice, laws and policy of environmental health sciences, addressing why risk of disease is modulated by the environment. Topics include types and sources of environmental contaminants, exposure assessment, types of microenvironments, human behavior and time-location-activity patterns, toxicology, the risk assessment paradigm, basics of environmental and occupational epidemiology, and communicating about environmental health sciences.
Prerequisite: Any Science and Technology course, junior status
Attributes: Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR)
HLTH 350H Honors: Health Communication3 cr
Examines how communication affects and is intertwined with issues of health, medicine and ethics. Communication will be discussed on a personal, intimate level in the way patients and caregivers interact in the examination and hospital room; at the organizational level, in the way policies and community relations affect how health care is provided and how people feel about providers; and in media campaigns that seek to educate people about health.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
HONR 100 The Nature of Human Nature3 cr
Explores the problematic notion of human nature employing the open-ended question-asking and interdisciplinary discussion which characterizes the Honors Program. The course ranges widely over philosophical, psychological, literary and anthropological texts, as well as works of art, which propose competing definitions for human nature. Students are asked first to understand and then to criticize each perspective in turn and finally to formulate their own understanding of human nature.
Attributes: Core Human Heritage (CHH), Honors Program (HONR)
HONR 102 Topics in Honors3 cr
Explores designated intellectual topics employing the open-ended and interdisciplinary research and discussion methods which characterize the Honors Program. Provides an opportunity for critical examination at the honors level in various domains.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Unlimited Credits
HONR 201 Special Topics in Honors3 cr
Undertakes a concentrated study of an interdisciplinary subject to be determined by the honors director in consultation with the Honors Advisory Board.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Unlimited Credits
HONR 210 Introduction to the Honors Program1 cr
Reading texts chosen by faculty and former students to inspire interdisciplinary research in the Commonwealth Honors Program. Introduces students to Honors faculty. Course lasts seven weeks. This course will be graded on a pass/fail basis.
Prerequisite: Membership in Honors Program
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
HONR 301 Special Topics in Honors3 cr
Undertakes a concentrated study of an interdisciplinary subject to be determined by the honors director in consultation with the Honors Advisory Board.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Unlimited Credits
HONR 401 Special Topics in Honors3 cr
Undertakes a concentrated study of an interdisciplinary subject to be determined by the honors director in consultation with the Honors Advisory Board.
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Unlimited Credits
HONR 500 Independent Study in Honors1-12 cr
Open to juniors and seniors who desire to read widely in a given area or to study a specific topic in depth. Written reports and frequent conferences with the advisor are required.
Prerequisite: Department approval
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Maximum of 12 credits
HONR 550 Commonwealth Scholar Thesis Research4 cr
Independent research, writing, and editing of a Commonwealth Scholar thesis under the direction of a faculty sponsor and the director(s) of the honors program. Program of study and related disciplinary methodology to be approved in the semester before senior year, and culminating in a public presentation and defense of the thesis. This course is repeatable for a maximum of 8 credits.
Prerequisite: Honors program director approval
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Maximum of 8 credits
IDST 150H Honors: Introduction to Cross-Cultural and Social Justice3 cr
Opens up a perspective on cultural diversity in local and global contexts. Takes an interdisciplinary approach to consider how historically shaped intersections of race, class, gender, and ethnicity inform the contemporary and post experiences of individuals and groups in society. Considers social justice and (in)equality by studying themes such as racism; classism; migration; globalization and labor rights; human trafficking; Islamophobia; and environmental justice.
Attributes: Core Human Heritage (CHH), Honors Program (HONR)
IDST 251H Honors: City Life - Introduction to Global Urban Studies3 cr
Draws on examples from cities around the world to introduce students to the study of urban places, lives, and identities. Students will apply interdisciplinary perspectives in global urban studies to explore themes such as the origins of cities, colonial urbanism, the emergence of world cities, everyday urban life, inequality and informality, urban challenges, youth activism, and the representation of cities in literature and film.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
IDST 252H Honors: Introduction to Critical Ethnic Studies3 cr
Applies interdisciplinary critical race and ethnic studies approaches to investigate how society is culturally and institutionally constituted by ideas like race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation.
Attributes: Core Human Heritage (CHH), Honors Program (HONR)
IDST 321H Honors: Human Trafficking3 cr
Familiarizes students with methods in interdisciplinary and global studies. In an increasingly interconnected world, human trafficking and forced labor constitute a significant global issue. Students will learn to apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods to analyze the multidimensionality of human trafficking into sexual exploitation, forced labor, and organ trade, and will explore possible approaches and solutions to these issues.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
IDST 361H Honors: Madness and Society3 cr
Studies how understandings of mental health and illness are inextricably linked to society, culture, space, and time. Draws on theories, concepts, and insights from history, sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, and media studies to study topics such as the history of mental illness; the influence of gender and social class on mental well-being; mental illness across cultures; and media representations of mental illness.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
MATH 232H Honors: Introduction to Statistics3 cr
Examines descriptive statistics, probability, discrete and continuous random variables, sampling theory, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing from inferential statistics. Includes the binomial distribution, normal distribution, and t-distribution.
Attributes: Quantitative Reasoning (CMA), Honors Program (HONR)
MATH 340H Honors: Graph Theory3 cr
Investigates definitions and examples of graphs, graph isomorphism, paths and circuits, connectivity, trees, planar graphs, Euler's formula, graph coloring, four and five color theorems and applications.
Prerequisite: MATH 240
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
PHCH 150H Honors: Introduction to Public and Community Health3 cr
Explores two key questions: “What is the agenda of public health?” and “Is health a right or a privilege?” Through discussions and activities, students will examine the biological, political, and sociological factors shaping health in the U.S. The course emphasizes understanding public health as a system and its interdisciplinary links to other fields. Critical thinking and analysis of major public health issues will be a central focus throughout the semester.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WMST)
PHCH 200H Honors: Health Promotion and Planning3 cr
Introduces the principles of health promotion and strategies to improve individual and community well-being. Examine health determinants, behavior theories, program planning, and promotion through education and policy. Topics include nutrition, mental health, substance abuse, and chronic disease prevention. Focuses on building practical skills through discussions, case studies, and projects, applying health promotion strategies to diverse, real-world settings.
Attributes: Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
PHCH 310H Honors: Environmental Health3 cr
Provides a multidisciplinary understanding of the science, practice, laws and policy of environmental health sciences, addressing why risk of disease is modulated by the environment. Topics include types and sources of environmental contaminants, exposure assessment, types of microenvironments, human behavior and time-location-activity patterns, toxicology, the risk assessment paradigm, basics of environmental and occupational epidemiology, and communicating about environmental health sciences.
Prerequisite: Any Science and Technology course, junior status
Attributes: Environmental Studies (ENVI), Honors Program (HONR)
PHCH 350H Honors: Health Communication3 cr
Examines how communication affects and is intertwined with issues of health, medicine and ethics. Communication will be discussed on a personal, intimate level in the way patients and caregivers interact in the examination and hospital room; at the organizational level, in the way policies and community relations affect how health care is provided and how people feel about providers; and in media campaigns that seek to educate people about health.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
PHIL 120H Honors: Art and Philosophy3 cr
Adopts a philosophical approach to the experience, understanding and critical assessment of the products and processes of the creative arts. Our inquiries will center on two traditional questions of aesthetic theory. What is art? What is art's special value? This course will be more theoretical than hands-on, though direct, continued experience in the various creative arts will be encouraged and figure prominently in most discussions and assignments.
Attributes: Core Creative Arts (CCA), Honors Program (HONR)
PHIL 200H Honors: Logic and Critical Reasoning3 cr
Examines and applies principles of cogent, sound or critical reasoning and writing, leading to a deeper understanding of language and of the use of logical argumentation. Considers, in the context of real-life arguments and claims (in the rhetoric of philosophy, history, and other disciplines) formal and informal principles of clear and systematic thinking and writing.
Attributes: Core Human Heritage (CHH), Honors Program (HONR)
PHIL 375H Honors: Ethics and Animals3 cr
Explores the potentially morally significant relationships between humans and various kinds of non-human animals. Explores moral propositions that we, as a society, subscribe to, to see whether they have unacknowledged implications for non-humans.
Prerequisite: Junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
PHIL 500 Directed Independent Study1-3 cr
Open to juniors and seniors who wish to read in a given area or to study a topic in depth. Written reports and frequent conferences with the advisor are required.
Prerequisite: 100-level PHIL course, 200-level PHIL course, junior status, department approval
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Maximum of 12 credits
PHYS 401H Honors: Advanced Physics Laboratory I3 cr
Studies laboratory techniques to supplement senior physics courses or work on special projects with departmental approval. Use of current computer technology is integral.
Prerequisite: PHYS 251
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
PHYS 402H Honors: Advanced Physics Laboratory II3 cr
Continues Physics 401. Students complete an independent experimental research project, including designing apparatus, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting results in a professional setting. Emphasis is placed on scientific communication, research documentation, and iterative problem-solving. Use of current computer technology is integral.
Prerequisite: PHYS 401H with a minimum grade of C
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
POSC 302H Honors: Campaigns and Elections:3 cr
Focuses on theories surrounding American campaigns and elections for presidential and congressional elections. In this course, we will analyze how the structures of the American political system have changed over time and how/why candidates run, win, and lose office. Further, we will explore the role American voters play in the political process and how their attitudes, opinions, and ideologies influence candidate choice and voting behavior.
Prerequisite: POSC 210 or junior status
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
Repeatable: Maximum of 6 credits
PSYC 208H Honors: Applied Developmental Psychology3 cr
Examines developmental theory and research from an applied perspective. Physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional development from early childhood through adolescence will be covered with an emphasis on application.
Prerequisite: PSYC 100 or any Self and Society course
Attributes: Honors Program (HONR)
SOCI 201H Honors: Social Problems3 cr
Studies problems and disorganization in modern industrial society such as: poverty, racism, sexism, environmental pollution, militarism, and family issues.
Attributes: Cross-Cultural and Social Justice (CCSJ), Core Self & Society (CSS), Honors Program (HONR)
SOCI 470H Honors: The Posthuman Child3 cr
Different iterations of posthumanity are examined to gain understanding of how child and youth posthumans relate to new, altered, or unaccepting societies and worlds. Drawing on posthuman and childhood studies theories, posthuman children and youth are contextualized by their positions as or relationships to various entities including aliens, animals, spirits, robots, vampires, witches, and clones.
Prerequisite: SOCI 100, junior status
Attributes: Child & Family Studies Minor (C&FS), Honors Program (HONR), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WMST)
SOCI 475H Honors: Children's Geographies3 cr
Studies how the importance of space, place, location, and time in the lived realities of children and youth contextualizes the environments they occupy. Children's and youth's constructions of and interactions with definitions of carework, home, family, neighborhood, emotions, bodies, nature, friendship, animals, and school are examined on the local and global scale.
Prerequisite: SOCI 100, junior status
Attributes: Child & Family Studies Minor (C&FS), Honors Program (HONR), Women Gender Sexuality Studies (WMST)