Next year, Honors students will have the opportunity to re-examine their world in new, interdisciplinary ways with courses taught by the Honors College’s fifth cohort of faculty fellows.
This year’s Honors College Faculty Fellows will teach courses that will allow students to make new connections and look beyond the common narrative. Themes for this year’s courses include the history of systemic racism in U.S. property rights, impacts of the extraction of fossil fuels on our socio-political realities, how and why music has been seen as “dangerous” throughout history and why historic places matter in our civic and cultural life today.
“I am thrilled with the variety of disciplines and colleges represented in this year's cohort. Each one of these courses will cover a unique topic that will expand our students’ knowledge and teach them to understand ideas in different ways,” said Damien Clement, assistant dean of the Honors College, who oversees the Honors Faculty Fellows program.
The Honors College Faculty Fellows program encourages faculty to create innovative courses that provide students with opportunities for hands-on learning, exploring connection to diverse ideas and issues of inclusion and representation across identity and experience. Fellows chosen for this competitive program drive students to examine how they can relate their academic work to communities and real-world impacts. The Honors College Faculty Fellows program gives faculty the opportunity to design new Honors College courses that also allow students to fulfill General Education Foundations course requirements.
The courses will be offered during fall and spring semester in the 2021-22 academic year.
The fellows and their courses are:
John Craynon, Mining Engineering, Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
“Materials for the Future” will charge students with examining the challenges of meeting today’s needs for raw materials and energy while also taking into account geopolitical issues and growing concerns of global climate change. Students will hear from experts in a variety of fields and gain an understanding of how data and knowledge from science, engineering, economics, social sciences and other disciplines can be used together in decision making. How do we balance our societal needs for these materials with the impact attaining them has on our quality of life? What are the ecological, economic, political and social costs to acquiring these materials and energy?
Stefanie Hines, Energy Land Management, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
“The Road to Inequality” will examine the history of systemic racism in land ownership and property rights in the United States, from conflicts between early settlers and Native Americans to today. Re-examining long-held ideas about the American dream, housing, land rights and racial discrimination, students will conduct their own hands-on research through historical records, policy and data. State-of-the-art software and interactions with community members and local politicians will help bring to life the landscape of inequity and factors that created the massive divide in land ownership that continues today.
Renée K. Nicholson, Multi- and Interdisciplinary Studies, Eberly College of Arts & Sciences, Humanities Center
Ann Pancake, Humanities Center
Michael Walsh, Marketing, John Chambers College of Business and Economics
“Arthurdale, WV Matters” teaches students how to connect with historical sites and the non-profit organizations and people who run them. Combining business and marketing with public humanities, students will develop skills in promoting and preserving sites of cultural and historical importance. Focusing on Arthurdale, students in this team-taught course will explore Arthurdale’s history from the New Deal to the present day, examine problematic aspects of the site related to class and race, interact with Arthurdale craftspeople, learn about issues facing Appalachia and rural communities, and gain the tools to help sustain sites of significance. Students will also reflect on heritage, traditions and history and their relevance to civic and cultural life today.
Devin Smart, History, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
“Extractive Capitalism” will use the concept of extractivism to investigate the changing relationship between the economy and the natural world since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Extractivism refers to the ways that modern economies drive the mass extraction of natural resources, and students will study the political, socio-economic and environmental consequences of this process. Specifically, the course will examine fossil fuels and the worlds they have created, starting with how coal formed the basis of post-1800 industrial societies. Then, students will move to the petroleum age, considering how this new form of energy transformed the world. Along the way, students will learn about other extractive industries, as well as global inequalities shaped by colonialism, decolonization and the role of power in the world economy. The course concludes with a focus on extractivism and more recent globalization, and their connection to climate change.
Jennifer Walker, Music, College of Creative Arts
In “Dangerous Music,” students will explore the ways music and danger have become intertwined and, in some cases, inseparable. Focusing on select themes throughout history, this course will draw on studies in fields of political science, religious history, gender studies, sociology and music. Dangerous music can be found throughout historical periods, musical styles and global cultures. It has at points been seen as a seductive peril, a threat against society and culture, and even been used as an instrument of punishment and torture. Students will ask how “dangerous” music is perceived in terms of gender, sexuality, race and politics. Who has considered music to be dangerous and why? How in history has music been seen as a threat to established norms? What are our responsibilities as consumers? Students will create micro-podcasts exploring the themes of the course throughout the semester.
Amy Welsh, Wildlife and Fisheries Resources, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
In the Honors add-on to “Principles of Conservation Ecology,” students will delve deeply into current issues of biodiversity and conservation with hands-on activities and discussions, developing management strategies and policy ideas. They will engage with current news related to the field, developing important skills in communicating and sharing their knowledge with the public. Working together, students will impact the community by developing and implementing a conservation community service project.
“The Honors Faculty Fellows program continues to attract innovative instructors with an eye towards experimentation. This year’s fellows will provide our students a rich learning experience that epitomizes what the Honors experience is all about,” said Ken Blemings, dean of the Honors College.
The Honors College offers an enhanced undergraduate experience for students at West Virginia University by building a curious community of scholars who enrich their education in the classroom and beyond.
For more information, contact Damien Clement, assistant dean, at Damien.Clement@mail.wvu.edu.