FAVORITE HONORS COURSES
E
ACH YEAR THE Judy Genshaft Honors College offers a wide array of exciting and unique courses that bring together students from every academic major on all three USF campuses. Rather than being harder versions of courses taught within the major, our Honors courses take an interdisciplinary approach to topics that align with faculty interest and research areas. These courses, which can change each semester, encourage students to consider topics from a variety of perspectives and cultivate interests beyond their own discipline.
Dr. Andrea Vianello Anthropology Department Favorite Course to Teach: IDH 4200 Health and History
We asked Honors students and faculty members to describe their favorite honors course, and here is what they said:
Haley Mariner Biomedical Engineering, Tampa campus Lutz, Florida Favorite Course to Take: IDH 4200 Women in the Middle East Instructor: Dr. Nazek Jawad, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies; Global Citizens Project
“In this course, we learned about influential women from different Middle Eastern backgrounds throughout history. At a time in the world where people might view Middle Eastern women narrowly, I learned of women writers, Olympic athletes, musicians, architects, poets, judges, entrepreneurs, and literal princesses! This class demonstrates the importance of garnering a global perspective, teaching us to treat everyone with dignity and respect and to seek first to understand, that we may learn to live harmoniously in this great big world and develop fulfilling relationships along the way.” 28 UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
“We explore a series of examples from past civilizations and cultures across the world to foster debates about public health and health care in today’s America. True to its multidisciplinary origins, it focuses on scientific evidence to present the co-evolution of pathogens and humans, as well as the impact that epidemics have had on societies. The course offers insight into cutting edge research on evolutionary genomics and bioarchaeology, which allows students to understand the present by learning from the past. Students have been able to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic as an historical event that will shape the future, and they have discovered that they are not alone: it all happened before. The level of engagement from students has been exceptional, with students presenting at the USF undergraduate research conference, and publishing in the USF undergraduate journal, Thrive.”
Priya Singh-Collins Psychology, Tampa campus Riverview, Florida Favorite Course to Take: IDH 3400 Masculinities Instructor: Dr. Holly Donahue Singh, Judy Genshaft Honors College
“Dr. Singh gave us the incredible opportunity to not only read, listen to, and watch diverse content throughout the
semester, but to interact with content chosen by ourselves and our peers to implement our knowledge into scenarios more akin to our own experiences and generation. We were always encouraged to discuss the material with each other and question everything, as well as given the freedom to begin our own discussions about masculinities using a medium our generation is familiar with — a podcast. This connection between masculinities in history and within our own present-day interactions gave us a unique point of view as we explored at a depth which many people may overlook and considered every corner of the concept.”
Dr. Karim Hanna Morsani College of Medicine Favorite Course to Teach: IDH 2930 Bystander Interventions
“This course started because one of our Morsani medical students (who is helping administer the course) found herself at the scene of a car accident late at night, and realized that despite her medical training, she did not know how to handle it. We sought to use this experience for learning by encouraging medical students to teach lessons on how to handle overdoses, car wrecks, strokes, drownings, and more, all with deep dives into the ethics of getting involved. The classes always end with ethical discussions, and often involves handson training. The students wrap up the semester with an opportunity to teach
