Fall 2020 Advanced Studies Courses

All Honors College students are required to complete at least one Honors Advanced Studies course. Advanced Studies courses count towards the 25 HONS credit requirement, and students may take additional Advanced Studies courses as an Honors elective. Advanced Studies courses do NOT count towards the College’s General Education requirements.

***The prerequisite(s) for ALL Honors Advanced Studies courses are as follows: At least one Honors Foundation course and at least one Honors Colloquium course.

HONS 293 Honors Organic Chemistry (Professor Michael Giuliano)
Three credits (lecture), One credit (lab)
This course provides a qualitative introduction to concepts of kinetic and thermodynamic control of the reactions and applications of organic compounds in materials science and biology.

Prerequisite(s): HONS 192 and HONS 192L with a grade of D+ or higher and MATH 120.
Co-requisite(s): HONS 293L, MATH 220 is recommended.

Teaching Format: The majority of class meetings will occur in-person, as able

HONS 390-01 Evidence-Based Medicine (Professor Kate Pfile)
Three credits
This course explores the evolution of medicine from a tradition-based field into one that combines scientific evidence, clinical expertise, and patient needs in the decision-making process. Students enrolled in the course will explore and evaluate approaches to evidence-based medicine (EBM) relevant to the health, wellness, and medical fields. Course content will focus on the application of EBM to prevention, clinical testing, and diagnosis, as well as management and treatment strategies.

Teaching Format: Hybrid approach with in-person class meetings combined with synchronous and asynchronous online content; the course will be structured around a flipped classroom problem-based learning approach, with certain activities the students can do outside of class and some dates that I divide the class and do some hybrid structure based on the day’s activity

HONS 390-02 Honors Molecular Biology (Professor Renaud Geslain)
Three credits
In this course students will study in detail the structures and functions of the most fundamental biomolecules of life, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins and their relevance to the world we live in through the following eight topics organized in eight separate modules: (i) the design, effectiveness, cost and side effects of drugs, (ii) the detection, prevention and treatment of pathogenic diseases, (iii) the future of agriculture, farming and the environment in general (especially the impact of modern genome editing and synthetic biology), (iv) policymaking and bioethics (the cloning of primates for research, the engineering of human-animal hybrids, the pros and cons of enhanced pathogen research, and the potential and limits of DNA forensics), (v) gene and stem cell therapies (available treatments, future prospects and controversies), (vi) the biology of cancers (established and emerging hallmarks of cancer cells, diagnoses and personalized treatments), (vii) the biology of senescent cells (zombie cells, senolytics and autophagy), and (viii) evolution of hominins and techniques in molecular biology (ancient DNA, paleogenomics, paleoproteomics and landmark discoveries in molecular biology).

Prerequisite(s): BIOL 111/BIOL 111L or HONS 151/HONS 151L, BIOL 112/BIOL 112L or HONS 152/HONS 152L, BIOL 211/BIOL 211D and BIOL 305; one year of chemistry. CHEM 232 or HONS 293 can be substituted for BIOL 211 and BIOL 305.
Co-requisite(s) or Prerequisite(s): MATH 250 or equivalent course in statistics or permission of instructor.
**Because this class has course-specific prerequisites, interested students should contact plasmatinc@cofc.edu or Ganawayb@cofc.edu in order to be enrolled.

Teaching Format: The majority of class meetings will occur in-person, as able

HONS 390-03 Polluted Information and You (Professor Ryan Milner)
Three credits
The internet is polluted. It’s overrun with coordinated deception, reactionary conspiracy theories, and bigoted harassment. The result is nothing less than a network crisis, as the most divisive tendencies evident throughout US history are amplified by new voices and the new technologies propelling them. In response to this crisis, Polluted Information and You explores ethical best practices, challenging students to help clean up the mess we’re in now and minimize our pollution going forward.

Teaching Format: Hybrid approach with both in-person class meetings and synchronous online class meetings, at the discretion of the instructor

HONS 390-04 Jews in the Medieval Christian Imagination (Professor Brooke Permenter)
Three credits
This course examines the ways in which Christians perceived and created “Jews” throughout the Middle Ages. We will examine representations of Jews in medieval texts and images, not simply to outline what Christians thought about Jews, but also to consider what Christian definitions of Judaism tell us about medieval Christians themselves. The course begins with ideas of Jews in the Bible, early Church doctrine and medieval law codes and correspondence. Then, we will explore the main currents of visual representation of Jews and their position in medieval society. Finally, we will consider how the Jewish-Christian dynamic and its tendency to mold real Jews into a fantastic “other” contributed to the harsh treatments and expulsions of Jews from England, France, Italy, Germany, Northern Europe, and Spain in the High and Late Middle Ages.

Teaching Format: Online with online scheduled meetings (online content with online synchronous meetings)

*course offerings and teaching formats subject to change; students should refer to the course syllabus for more details about each course’s teaching format