Spring 2016 HNRS Courses

Natural disturbances shape our world, causing disruption to our lives, while simultaneously benefiting ecosystem composition and structure. Anthropogenic disturbances produce beneficial outcomes for society, but may cause loss of biodiversity, altered disturbance regimes, and increased vulnerability to subsequent stress. Nature and humans are constantly influencing each other and recognizing this connection helps us identify our... Read More...

The sky is part of our environment.  This course will investigate the many ways at which ordinary people as well as famous characters interact with the sky, from ancient times, and even a little into the future.  This is not your usual history-of-science class giving the linear development to modern... Read More...

During the 20th Century the British fought two world wars, lost an empire, and developed a welfare state. From Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair, their Prime Ministers have played a prominent role in world affairs. Join us for a tour of British history during the past century.... Read More...

This seminar is intended to introduce able students to selected major events in the history of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, as well as the Holocaust—the eradication of European Jewry. Students will be introduced to a variety of styles of historical explanation—memoirs, polemics, novels, and works of analysis by professional historians. The... Read More...

This course is the gateway course for the LASAL Scholars Program. At its conclusion, students should have a basic understanding of the root causes of poverty in Louisiana; a basic understanding of the daily challenges that Louisiana children and families face who live in poverty; and a basic understanding of... Read More...

Does CEO character determine company strategy or is the strategy determined by the fit between company resources and the environment? Is it both? In what proportions? We will investigate the determintive role of character in the strategy of 20th Century U.S. corporations. What does character account for? Are the strategies of... Read More...

Under what political conditions did feminism emerge in Muslim societies? What are the issues involved in feminist debates on Islam today? Are there ways in which we can accommodate practice of religion and cultural diversity with equal opportunity and freedom for both men and women? This course will allow students... Read More...

This course will look at art produced during the period of the French Revolution, ca. 1775-1825, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It will retrace how neoclassical subject matter developed by Jacques-Louis David and his students became increasingly politicized during the 1780s, and how it provided potent visual allegories during Robespierre’s rule... Read More...

Enjoy the many varieties of murder—political, personal, serial—in a dozen of the greatest films by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, “the Shakespeare of cinema,” and the undisputed Master of Suspense. We will do close readings of such masterpieces as The 39 Steps, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Psycho, and we’ll see... Read More...

The course is designed to focus on the question of the interrelation between philosophy and art. In effect, we will be looking for philosophers in the history of art and artists in the history of philosophy. The artistic works at issue will range from Greek sculpture and architecture, through Medieval... Read More...

Fiction, poetry, music, art, drama.

Virginia Woolf; Willa Cather; George Bernard Shaw; T.S. Eliot; Igor Stravinsky; Rupert Brooke; Wilfred Owen

Creative artists respond to the Great War

Through lectures, readings, and discussion, this course will explore how contrasting and contested memories of the Civil War emerged—among whites in the North, whites in the South, and African Americans. It will then explore manifestations of those memories in various novels and movies as well as in movements and public... Read More...

What is a novel? An opera? A film? This class will look at the cultural construction of “genre” across three centuries, tracking changes and continuities in an iconic story of illicit passion, punishment, and finally tragic redemption (in the wilds of Louisiana!), as it is transformed from narrative prose to... Read More...

Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Persuasion Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette Exploring the authors’ uses of setting as indicators of moral character Considering the novels as commentaries on the “spirit of the age” For more information, contact Dr. Arms dlamoni@lsu.edu.

This course will examine German historical and cultural roots in the state of Louisiana from the 19th Century to present day. We will concentrate on the early arrival of German settlers, the historically German geographic areas of Louisiana, the influence of German customs on Louisiana culture, shared traditions between both... Read More...

Though eBooks, free digital downloads, and .pdf copies make the materiality of the book seem secondary to generic concerns, artistic inspiration, and authorial intent, books’ value always has been linked to their physical form: born of the press and circulating through the hands of readers eager for contact with the... Read More...

FEATURING: Justice Benjamin Cardozo, and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes DESIGNED FOR: Honors College Students Who Intend to Enter Law School And so LSU has its first Honors College offering in Law: “The Constitution and American Civilization,” featuring Holmes and Cardozo, and aimed at LSU’s brightest aspirants for law school and... Read More...

Course objectives: 3D imaging and animation is a dynamic, multidisciplinary field with applications in basic and applied sciences. This course is geared for advanced students in biological sciences and medical illustration, but any student is welcome as the course is of general interest. The course will be a combination of... Read More...