Honors Courses

Course Description: These courses make up the John Martinson Honors College (JMHC) First-Year Experience. They are a set of specialty courses all honors students take during the first eight (8) weeks of their arrival at Purdue, and again in the first eight (8) weeks of the spring semester of their first year. FYE courses are designed to introduce students to college-level honors education. In the JMHC, this means preparing you with a “world-ready” education based in learning across difference and across different disciplines of knowledge. 

These courses use innovative pedagogical techniques and engaged learning practices to develop students’ critical thinking ability, interdisciplinary awareness, collaborative skills, and global awareness. The intentional course design is to build interdisciplinary community and to develop both independent and lateral learning practices.

This course is for new beginners to Purdue and the Honors College only.

3 sections 

This course meets the university's core requirement for Written Communication and Information Literacy. 

Section Instructor(s): 

Kathryn Dilworth, Honors College (In Person)

Deanna McCormick, Honors College (Sync Online Section)

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 meets the university's core requirement for Human Behavioral and Social Sciences. 

Instructor(s): 

Deanna Tomasin McCormick, Honors College

Credit Hours: 2 

Course Description: “Exploring Place” is an examination of the cultural, social, 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 the place in which the student is located. This study will be attentive to the social, cultural, political, economic, and other forces that have shaped this place historically and today, while also focusing on community life and the relationships between residents, institutions, organizations, and others. Exploring Place offers students the opportunity to better understand the people and places around them, expand their worldviews, and increase their self-awareness as they engage within these spaces and understand their place in them. 

This course meets synchronously online.

Instructor(s):   

Nathan Swanson, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 2 
 
Course Description: In this course, students from Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) and the University of Padova (Padova, Italy) will collaborate virtually in interdisciplinary teams to identify solutions to a major global challenge. During the first eight weeks of the course, students will prepare for the Solutions Lab through training in intercultural competencies and increasing their knowledge of Italy. Mid-way through the semester, students will begin to meet with their peers at Padova. After a week of virtual introductions, students will receive first priority to participate in a low-cost study away program to Italy during Spring Break to meet their Padova counterparts in-person and explore both student life and the semester topic in Italy. They will then return home to continue the virtual class experience. During these initial weeks of the Solutions Lab, students at both universities will learn about the semester’s topic from a range of disciplinary perspectives through guest lectures, assigned readings, and class discussions. Working in interdisciplinary, cross-cultural teams, students will then spend the remainder of the semester researching, developing, and packaging their solutions, before presenting them publicly during the final class meeting. In addition to increasing knowledge of the topic and improving teamwork skills, students in this course will advance in intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes through their international collaborative experience.

Learn More and Apply: https://www.studyabroad.purdue.edu/programs/flyer.cfm?flyer=1788

This course meets synchronously online.

Instructor(s):   

Leighton Buntain, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 2 
 
Course Description: In this course, students from Purdue University, National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan), and National Taiwan University will collaborate virtually in interdisciplinary, multinational teams to identify solutions to a major global challenge. Our global challenge will be Preparing the Global Economy for the Next Pandemic, with a special focus on Taiwanese and U.S. economic networks. The course includes a range of disciplinary perspectives through guest lectures, assigned readings, and class discussions to build the foundations for the team-based project. Teams will spend several weeks of the course focused on researching, developing, and packaging their solutions, before presenting them publicly at the end of the term. In addition to increasing knowledge of the topic and improving teamwork skills, students in this course will advance in intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes through their international collaborative experience.

Instructor(s):  

Shaunta Scroggins 

Credits Hours: 2 

Course Description: This Independent Study course is intended for JMHC students who have been awarded the Lead Forward Fellowship Grant. The course provides Lead Forward Fellows a space to receive further instruction on social impact leadership, to share their experience with enacting social impact projects, and to support each other's success and learning. Depending on availability, students who are undertaking social impact projects but are not Lead Forward Fellows may also enroll in the course, per approval from the course instructor.

Enrollment in Lead Forward Fellowship I is a prerequisite for participation in this course.

Instructor(s):  

Shaunta Scroggins, Honors College  

Credits Hours: 2 

Course Description: 

This Independent Study course is intended for JMHC students who have been awarded the Lead Forward Fellowship Grant. The course provides Lead Forward Fellows a space to receive further instruction on social impact leadership, to share their experience with enacting social impact projects, and to support each other's success and learning. Depending on availability, students who are undertaking social impact projects but are not Lead Forward Fellows may also enroll in the course, per approval from the course instructor.

Enrollment in Lead Forward Fellowship III is a prerequisite for participation in this course.

This course meets asynchronously online. 

Instructor(s): 

Shaunta Scroggins, Honors College

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, Honors College  

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: Ready to make a real difference in the world? This course provides students with the practical knowledge and community leadership skills they need to launch their own social impact initiative. Students will have ample opportunities to explore the causes or social issues that matter to them, while also participating in workshops on essential social impact practices like vision setting, asset and stakeholder mapping, coalition building, grant writing, and much more. Many of the workshops will be facilitated by experts at Purdue and from Greater Lafayette, which will allow students to cultivate their leadership network and discover how others approach social impact. Students interested in applying for the Lead Forward Fellowship Grant are strongly encouraged to take this course.

This course meets asynchronously online. 

Instructor(s):  

Kathryn Dilworth, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: This course will cover the history and motivation behind philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, the US Nonprofit Sector as well as the role of ethics in private action taken for the public good. Students will also learn the fundamentals of nonprofit leadership and fundraising.  

Instructor(s): 

Temitope Adeoye, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course offers students hands-on research experience in participatory, community-engaged, and/or citizen-powered research projects. Through a collaborative research process, students will learn how to develop trusting relationships, effectively communicate with various audiences, and ensure research is relevant to communities. Students will engage in a faculty-led research project to address challenges spanning disciplines and to improve lives. No prior research experience is required.

This course meets during Spring Break, March 17-22, 2025 

Instructor(s): 

J. Peter Moore, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: This five-day course offers students a hands-on introduction to the Honors College Print Bay, a fully equipped center for the experiential study of letterpress printing. This vintage method, once the dominant form of industrial printing, has over the past several decades experienced a dramatic revival. At a time when the campus is overwhelmed with posters and flyers that all look the same—with the usual fonts, preset templates and stock images—letterpress introduces into the visual landscape an unmistakably warm and vibrant alternative. A synthesis of art and machine, letterpress is an analog process that allows the user to physically compose layouts, and work within a completely unique set of visual constraints. The resulting prints testify to the beauty of irregularity, the joy of a meditative tactile practice, and the benefits of collaboration. By the end of our course, students will receive instruction in the following skills: grid layout, typesetting, form lock-up, make-ready, press operation, plate etching, press maintenance, and all relevant safety precautions. While no previous experience is necessary, students with an interest visual design, mechanical technology and/or creative expression are encouraged to enroll.

Enrollment in Print Bay Immersive I is not a prerequisite nor requirement for participation in this course.

This course meets during Spring Break, March 14-16, 2025

Instructor(s):  

Katie Jarriel, Honors College  

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description :  Are you passionate about designing video games for a better world? Together with a team, you will create a video game from scratch that translates meaningful, community-centered research for a broad audience. This two-part course consists of an asynchronous module and an intensive game jam experience that begins in the evening of Friday, March 14 and continues through the evening of Sunday, March 16. To enroll in this course, you must submit an application before your course request is approved. Priority will be given to JMHC students in good standing who have not yet proposed a Scholarly Project.

This Spring Break portion requires in-person participation.

Apply Here

This course meets during Spring Break, March 17-22, 2025

Instructor(s): 

Richard Rand, Professor Emeritus, Department of Theater and Dance

Credit Hours: 2

Course Description: The word "vocation" comes from the Latin vocare "to call." There are different voices calling out to us, telling us what it is we should do and be, but what is our life’s true calling? The word "education" comes from the verb educe, which means “to draw forth from within,” but what is it we're supposed to draw forth? To fulfill our educational mission as students and teachers, we need to listen for what is authentic and meaningful - within us and outside of us - and let those two voices lead us in the direction of our greater purpose.

Prompts and partnering exercises give students opportunities to share their values, world views, histories, and philosophies of life. Classroom exercises include self-portraits, collaging and/or choreographing defining experiences, creating sociograms, an essence analysis of self, sharing stories about meaningful artifacts, and "embodying" friends and family members who tell us about you.

This course meets asynchronously online. 

Instructor(s):

Muiris MacGiollabhui

Credits Hours: 1

Course Description: In this course you will learn fundamental skills and concepts that will prepare you for peer mentorship in the classroom. You will understand foundational ideas about leadership, including the leadership competency language used by the Honors Mentor Program, and you will assess your current skills and set goals for your development. You will complete training in belonging, inclusion, and allyship (BIA) that will help you develop self-awareness of how your personal identity shapes your approach to leadership, as well as gaining practical skills in facilitating tough conversations in a group setting. Finally, you will have to opportunity to develop positive relationships with the team of fellow mentors with whom you will collaborate during the fall semester.

 This course is restricted to students who applied and were selected as an honors mentor for the fall 2025 semester.

Instructor(s): 

Adam Watkins, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: This course will boldly go where no course has gone before, providing students the chance to explore strange new ideas about space and time. Want to write a sequel to Interstellar or your own episode of Star Trek? Want to see how our idea of spacetime has evolved in response to religion, philosophy, and physics? Want to hear Purdue scientists talk about science fiction that matters to them? To study spacetime requires that we engage a variety of perspectives from the past and present. In that sense, Spacetime! is deeply historical and philosophical in its approach. The course also takes an active interest in creative processes behind scientific thought. Students will explore how arts and symbolic thought have played significant roles in scientific discoveries, including Einstein’s. Students will also practice creative modes of inquiry firsthand, as course projects will be based in creative writing practices. [Note: projects will be assessed on critical and creative thinking, not artistic quality.]

Instructor(s): 

Jason Ware, Honors College 

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 meets the university core requirement for Science, Technology and Society.

Instructor(s):  

Kristin Bellisario, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: In this STS section, "Nature-Based Solutions," we delve into the role of nature-based solutions in wildlife conservation, with a special focus on sonic biodiversity, remote sensing, and innovative engineering approaches. Students will explore how natural processes and ecosystems can be harnessed to address conservation challenges and enhance biodiversity. The course includes a mix of lectures, case studies, hands-on projects, and fieldwork.

This course meets the university core requirement for Science, Technology and Society.

Instructor(s):  

Katie Jarriel, Honors College

Credit Hours: 3 
 
Course Description:

In this STS section, "World Building," you will work with a small team to design an imaginary world using the perspectives of multiple scholarly disciplines to build every detail. Your world-building will focus on the intersection of society and technology, understanding the ways in which technology is embedded within social contexts. This course is founded on the principle of decentering, a strategy in which you embody another’s perspective, and in so doing, throw into contrast the social, cultural, and environmental forces that shape your own understanding of the world. While this course is about building imaginary worlds, it is also about challenging the assumptions of your lived experience in this world to better empathize with its inhabitants. Class days will alternate between small group discussion and creative groupwork assignments. For the final project, your team will develop a roleplaying game and guide your classmates as they explore your world’s challenges, cultural norms, and ways of life.

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

Instructor(s):  

Ashima Krishna, Honors College 

Credit Hours: 3 
 
Course Description: Students will be a part of an interdisciplinary team in a semester-long exploration of the physical, social, and cultural geographies of US diplomatic facilities located within World Heritage Sites (WHS). Student teams will explore the interconnectedness of the historic, built, and natural environments and the human interventions and interactions that occur within them. In this workshop-based hands-on course, students will develop a variety of mapping, presentation, analytical, and team building skills. Beyond traditional classroom texts and tools, students will learn to employ cutting-edge visualization techniques through VisionPort, an immersive pedagogical tool housed in the John Martinson Honors College. The course will culminate in a collaborative project report that will be presented to the Honors College community at the end of the semester and create a publicly accessible StoryMap like this. 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.

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

Instructor(s): 

Elizabeth Brite, Honors College

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: At the turn of the new millennium, Nobel Prize Laureate Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stormer proposed that we had entered a new geologic epoch - the Anthropocene – a time when humans had become the dominant force on planet Earth. Anthropocene means “the human age,” and it is a concept that has become widely popular in scientific communities as a way to denote the extreme impacts humans are now having on the climate, the environment, and virtually all living things on Earth. Despite its popularity, however, the Anthropocene remains a hypothetical and hotly debated idea. The International Committee on Stratigraphy has yet to recognize it as a true geologic epoch (one that can be empirically observed in the layers of the Earth) and arguments persist over exactly when it may have begun, or the ways that the concept may mask the inequalities of environmental harm. At its heart, the Anthropocene asks us to reconsider the role of humanity on planet Earth and drives us towards agendas focused on planetary change. In this course, we will explore the philosophical and scientific discourses of the Anthropocene and the concept’s implications for our present and future. Students will engage in developing their own positionality in relation to emerging knowledge on planetary change through a group project to bring prominent scholars of the Anthropocene to campus. In doing so, in this course, students will explore the entangled relations between humanity and the environment from multiple social contexts and time periods.

Instructor(s): 

Sharonda Woodford

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: Housing is an issue that affects all individuals in society because people have firsthand experience with housing daily.  However, individual experiences are different depending on race, socioeconomic status, sex, location, etc.  As such, this course focuses on the experience of racial minorities and their historical encounter with redlining, and the present-day implication and consequences of redlining in America.

Instructor(s): 

Nadine Dolby, Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description:

This interdisciplinary course will draw from the fields of cultural anthropology, sociology, animal science, veterinary science, human medicine, cognitive ethology, anthrozoology, family studies, psychology, environmental studies, and other disciplines to examine the history of human‐animal relationships, the nature of the human‐animal bond, the concepts of animal welfare and animal rights, and the changing role of different species and types of animals (companion, farm, and wild) in cross‐cultural perspectives.

Instructor(s):  

David Nelson, Center for Instructional Excellence 

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: This course explores the rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence. Learners will explore popular and scholarly resources on the technical, practical and ethical ramifications of GenAI, with particular emphasis on how they may impact learning and daily lives of Purdue students. This is not a machine learning, coding, philosophy or writing class. Rather, it is a chance for a community of learners to create individual and shared understandings of LLMs and GenAI and possible positive and negative consequences for their use. Course resources come from a variety of disciplines, and there is no pre-requisite course or program of study necessary for success. You will receive access to premium accounts at Poe.com, a clearinghouse for AI tools. You will take an active role in co-creating the knowledge of this course, including leading class discussions with their peers, creating course learning outcomes, and sharing their interactions with various AI technologies.

Instructor(s):  

Dwaine Jengelley, Honors College

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: Sport is much more than a pastime. It is also a force and a forum, which governments, interest groups, and individuals use to advance political causes or make statements for change. Take, for example, the 1994 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, when Nelson Mandela, the recently elected president of South Africa, used this sporting event as an opportunity for nation building. The raised fists of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 summer Olympics were a statement against racist policies in the United States, and the international stage gave these athletes a global audience to see/hear their message. Many scholars describe China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics and Brazil's hosting of the World Cup in 2014 as debutant balls for these rising global powers. In this course, we will examine the relationship of politics and sports. Through a case study approach, students will analyze how sporting events and sports overall serve various actors' political agendas.

In completing all aspects of this course, students fulfill the requirements for an Honors College Scholarly Project as well as the Science, Technology, and Society core.

Instructor(s):  

Lindsay Weinberg, Honors College

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: In this course, students will study interdisciplinary approaches to technology ethics for responding to today’s pressing technological dilemmas in a range of contexts, from healthcare, mass incarceration, and airport security, to social media, smart cities, and space travel. Students will grapple with how historical and present-day inequalities, institutional environments, decision-making cultures, and regulatory systems impact the technological design process and distribution of technology’s risks and rewards in society. We will ask ourselves whose values and assumptions about the world get baked into technological designs; how technologies shape, and are actively shaped by, distributions of power in society; and how we might consider questions of fairness, equity, and justice when it comes to the work we do in the world.

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):  

Deanna McCormick, Honors College

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):  

J. Peter Moore, Honors College

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description: Whoever said you can’t judge a book by its cover, likely never got the chance to design one. This course offers students the rare opportunity of transforming a manuscript by an esteemed author into a published volume that will be marketed and distributed by an established literary press. Students will be trained in both the design and production side of publishing. They will learn the fundamentals of book design and typography as well as the practical skills of using software to create compelling layouts and covers. They will also develop skills in using the letterpress equipment in the Honors College PrintBay to print the book in a limited edition of 250 copies. In the end, students will be able to see the fruits of their labor circulate among the literary public, from retailers and libraries to reviewers and reading groups. Along the way, students will analyze traditions of relevant creative practice and respond to the ethical implications of their project. No previous experience necessary.

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):  

Daniel Guberman, Center for Instructional Excellence

Credit Hours: 3 

Course Description:

Grades have become one of the central features of American (if not global) higher education. They help to determine who has access to what educational opportunities both entering and during higher education programs (scholarships, research or study abroad opportunities, and even majors and disciplines). In many cases, college grades then become key factors in finding or securing a position after graduation, whether it is an internship, a job, or a graduate school program. However, grades are problematic. It is not clear what they measure. Grades can be a source of stress and anxiety. Grades can magnify inequalities inherent in society. Grades can undermine effective learning through halting intellectual risk taking and peer-to-peer collaboration. Increasing recognition of the problems inherent in many grading systems has led to new ways of thinking about grades, their roles in higher education, and their future.

In this course, we will explore grades and grading together, completing Honors College scholarly projects by immersing ourselves in “research thinking” related to grades. As students you will carefully reflect on your own relationship with grades. You will explore how students, faculty, and administrators across Purdue understand, value, and use grades. You will engage with scholarly literature about alternative practices. Drawing on this research and exploration, you will complete your scholarly project to have an impact beyond our classroom. This can include, but is not limited to, presenting findings through scholarly avenues to further society’s understanding of grades (presentation, paper, etc.), developing resources to be used by students and/or faculty to enhance teaching and learning at Purdue, or advocating for changes in policies and practices at Purdue.

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):  

Robert X. Browning, Department of Political Science

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description: In this course, students use the C‐SPAN Video Library to answer research questions on public debate on innovation, environmental sustainability, defense, democratic institutions, and other issues.  The Archives contain over 275,000 hours of digital video that captures the real-time workings of American democracy. Students will use the videos from the collection to understand and illustrate the statements and debates that influence policy outcomes for their topic of interest.