In this Honors thesis seminar, participants will collaboratively study selected landmark Supreme Court cases that have had major impacts upon the experience of race and family in the United States. Cases studied involve such issues as racial segregation, interracial and same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, and child welfare. Our focus will be upon the social, cultural, and political contexts of these cases rather than on the Supreme Court as an institution or on legal reasoning per se, though at times we will also closely read majority and dissenting opinions.

This senior honors thesis course looks at current and past legal structures that have marginalized certain groups in the U.S. - including American Indians, immigrants, African Americans, and the poor - while perpetuating inequality. It also looks at how state and federal laws have been used over the centuries to perpetuate inequalities while addressing the potential to legislate equality and social justice. From the time Europeans first arrived on this continent, there was competition for resources and control. First the colonies, then the U.S.

Randomness and uncertainty exist in our daily lives, as well as in every scientific investigation. Our intuition is often wrong when assessing uncertain situations, leading us to make wrong decisions. The goal of this honors thesis seminar and the projects is to better understand randomness and uncertainty and develop tools to make better decisions under uncertain situations, either by humans or AI. In the first semester, the instructor will cover fundamental and relevant concepts from probability, decision theory, psychology, and machine learning.

This two-semester, 8-credit honors thesis/project course focuses on two of the most intractable structural issues confronting contemporary American society: immigration and mass incarceration. This course will place these two issues in historical context through a variety of academic, journalistic and autobiographical texts and documentaries, which will allow students to see how the contemporary phenomena of immigration and mass incarceration have common ideological underpinnings and common historical roots.

Students will learn about the psychological and historical forces that have shaped house and home in the United States. Dominant norms evolved that other nations and cultures must variously mimic, alter or resist.

Globalization will serve as the cornerstone of our study in this two-semester seminar as students undertake their honors thesis. By globalization I mean the increasingly integrated nature of our world's economy, culture and consciousness. Some of the main issues of globalization the course will explore are: strengthening borders against outsiders (refugees, immigrants); increasing borderlessness of technology, which reaches into all corners of the globe and the relationship between globalization and the distribution of income across countries.

Students registering for this Honors Practicum must complete a contract with their honors sponsor. Appropriate forms and more information are available at the Bloom Honors Advising Center - 201 Commonwealth Honors College.

This is a stand-alone independent study designed by the student and faculty sponsor that involves frequent interaction between instructor and student. Qualitative and quantitative enrichment must be evident on the proposed contract before consent is given to undertake the study. Registration should be done during pre-registration and completed by the end of the add-drop period.

This seminar encourages returning ISP seniors to reflect on their experiences abroad. It explores a number of cross-cultural issues in light of the seminar's collective experience. Cultural relativism and the challenges of cross-cultural ethical judgment; the construction of personal and national identities; the understanding and portrayal of people from cultures other than one's own; and the promises and problems of globalization are some of the issues considered. Each student completes a final project based on his or her overseas experience that forms the core of the seminar.

Students registering for this Honors Practicum must complete a contract with their honors sponsor. Appropriate forms and more information are available at the Bloom Honors Advising Center - 201 Commonwealth Honors College.