Honors Seminars 2024-2025
*Seminars will be added throughout the year so check back often.
Fall 2024
Cal Poly Counseling and Psychological Services
Whether they are serious or casual, romantic or platonic, with colleagues or family or roommates, relationships can be defined in many ways. In the Relationships 101 seminar we will focus on the many aspects of nurturing healthy relationships. We will explore effective communication, relational self-awareness, identification of needs and boundaries, consideration of various cultural experiences and intersecting identities, and how to navigate conflict; all while building community.
Organic molecules are all around us. From pharmaceuticals to pheromones to polymers to petroleum products, we encounter them daily. We will take a broad look at the diverse functions of organic compounds. In this seminar we will explore a variety of questions that organic chemistry can answer, such as: How does soap work? What clever ways do flowers attract bees for pollination? How many components give Skittles their color? How are polymers made? How do we identify substances at the scene of a crime? No prior knowledge of chemistry is required. Occasional laboratory activities (such as making nylon or isolating plant components, etc.) and/or demos will be included.
This honors seminar explores select literary and cultural works from “America’s tropics”—island territories in the Pacific and Asia that have been, or continue to be, colonial possessions of the United States. Drawing from the fields of Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander studies scholarship, this course will examine how seemingly unrelated places such as Hawai‘i, Guam, the Philippines, and others can be connected through the shared circumstances of U.S. empire. Some of the central questions that we will ask in this seminar include the following: How does the analytic of U.S. empire challenge ideas of American exceptionalism? How can the examination of literary and cultural texts offer new ways of “seeing” American culture and politics? While this course pays special attention to cultural productions—which include works of art, literature, film, and music—we will also read scholarly sources to inform our reading practices.
Honors Seminars in Previous Years
