Introductory Honors

Hampden-Sydney gives its incoming freshmen a chance to broaden their curriculum by participating in the Introductory Honors program. Four-fifths of the student's coursework in the freshman year is taken in the broader curriculum of the College, and the seminars provide scholars the opportunity to enrich their intellectual interests. The Introductory Honors Seminars, usually team-taught by two professors, have three main goals. Honors Scholars who participate in these seminars will learn:

1. how researchers in various disciplines go about the task of generating, criticizing, and verifying knowledge.
   
   
2. how to relate information and ideas learned in one discipline to those learned in other disciplines.
   
   
3. how to participate meaningfully -- to learn and to contribute to others' learning -- in a seminar setting.
   
   

Past and current seminars include:

2008-2009
Total War James Arieti (Classics) and Roger Barrus (Government and Foreign Affairs)

Reality and Perception Katherine Weese (English) and Dan Weese (Psychology)

Samurai Culture Eric Dinmore (History) and Matthew Dubroff (Fine Arts)

2007-2008
Finding Truth and Fiction in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code McRae (French) and Utzinger (Religion)

Rhetorics of Resistance: Civil Rights Movements and the Language of Reform
Emmons (History) and Rand (Rhetoric)

Exploring the Center of the Earth: The History, Politics, Culture, and Music of Central Europe
Kidd (Fine Arts) and Pontuso (Government and Foreign Affairs)

2006-2007
The Challenge of the Epic Hero
Arieti (Classics) and Barrus (Political Science) 

Empire in Theory and Practice:  A Theoretical and Historical Investigation of Empire
De Luca (Political Science) and Pilkington (History) 

The Nature of Proof
Bryce (Mathematics) and Curt Smith (Political Science)
(Fall 2006 only)

2005-06
Thinking About (Real) Science
Hight(Philosophy)  & Keohane (Physics & Astronomy)

Scientific Revolutions
Sipe (Chemistry) and Blackman(History)

Bikers, Border-Crossers, Street Vendors, and Call Girls: Ethnographic Studies of American Subculture
Deal (Rhetoric) ( Spring 2006 only)

2004-05
Microbes: Their World and Our Society
Professor Anne Lund (Biology)

Social Documentary: Image, Text and Context
Deal (Rhetoric) & Fox (Fine Arts)

2003-2004
Conversions
Emmons (History) & Utzinger (Religion)

The Science and Philosophy of Science Fiction
Bloom (Physics & Astronomy) & Hight (Philosophy)

Morality and Human Nature
Frye (Rhetoric & Humanities) & Werth (Biology)

2002-2003
To Be(lieve) or Not to Be(lieve): Clear Thinking in Science and Life
Dougherty (Biology) & Herdegen (Psychology)

The Rise and Fall of Athens
Arieti (Classics) & Barrus (Political Science)

2001-2002
Machismo: The Role of Culture and What It Means To Be a Man
DeJong (Modern Language) & Lehman (History)

The Shock of the New: Where Ideas Come From and How People React to Them
Deis (Humanities) & Cohen (Mathematics)

The Rise and Fall of Athens
Arieti (Classics) & Barrus (Political Science)

2000-2001
The Civil War in History and Literature
--Cabas (Rhetoric) & Heineman (History)

Science and Public Policy
--Anderson (Chemistry), Marion (Political Science) & Mitias (Economics)

1999-2000
Knowing
--Arieti (Classics) & Werth (Biology)

The Millennia: Prospects for Fear or Hope?
--Laine (History) & Rogers (Religion) & Sipe(Chemistry)

1998-99
Ethics Meets Twenty-First Century Biology
--Lund (Biology) & Thompson (College Chaplain)

The Shock of the New: Where Ideas Come From and How People React to Them
--Cohen (Mathematics) & Deis (Rhetoric and Humanities)

1997-98
Exploration and Discovery
--Heineman (History) & Hingeley (Rhetoric)

Adam and Eve: Sexuality, Society, and the Family
--Colley (Fine Arts) & Rogers (Religion)

1996-97
Order and Chaos
--Sipe (Chemistry) & Townsend (Economics)

Morality and Human Nature
--Werth (Biology) & Frye (Rhetoric and Humanities)

1995-96
Education, Citizenship, and the State
--P. Wilson (Philosophy) & Lane (Political Science)

Science and Society: East and West
--Prazniak (History) & Anderson (Chemistry)

1994-95
Invention and Innovation
--Carilli (Economics) & Porterfield (Chemistry)

The Shock of the New: Where Ideas Come From and How They Are Received
--Deis (Rhetoric and Humanities) and Cohen (Mathematics)

1993-94
Individual and Society
--Arieti (Classics) and Barrus (Political Science)

Four Great Western Civilizations: Fifth Century Athens, Renaissance Florence, Sixteenth Century England, and Seventeenth Century France --Laine (History) & Tucker (Classics)

1992-93
Ethical Issues in Human Biology
--Lund (Biology) & Norment (Religion)

1991-92
Development and Despair in Latin America: Literature, History, Politics and Economics
--Townsend (Economics) & M. Wilson (Spanish)

1990-91
Literacy and Economic Perspectives on Industrialization
--Deis (Humanities), Frye (Humanities), & Holleran (Economics)

1989-90
Problem Solving
--Pelland (Mathematics) & Herdegen (Psychology)

1988-89
Order and Chaos
--Sipe (Chemistry) & Townsend (Economics)

1987-88
Approaching the Future--Causes for Optimism and Pessimism
--Laine (History) & Rogers (Religion)

1986-87
Ancients and Moderns
--Arieti (Classics) & Barrus (Political Science)

1985-86
Knowing and Reality (Epistemology and Ontology)
--Carney (Religion) & Townsend (Economics)