Ethics & Soft Skills for STEM and Business Careers 

This seminar will explore a variety of topics in ethics and soft skills, equipping students for success in STEM fields and business. Research indicates that developing these skills and ethical values early on enhances the marketability and career success of young individuals. The lectures, presentations, and workshops have been crafted drawing from selected chapters of key texts to support this objective. 

Ethical Use of AI

This 1-hour online honors seminar will explore the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education and the workforce. As AI capabilities advance, ethical questions about their appropriate use in teaching, learning, research, and professional domains are raised. We will examine and debate key ethical issues surrounding AI, including privacy, bias, transparency, accountability, and the impact on human labor. Emphasis will be placed on critical thinking, moral reasoning, and formulating guidelines for the ethical development and deployment of AI across academia and the workforce. By the end of this seminar, students will be able to articulate the major ethical concerns around AI, analyze differing viewpoints, and propose principled frameworks to uphold human values.    

Law & Orders:  Justice and Injustice Across the World 

This course investigates concepts and practices of law, justice, and injustice across the world. Students learn about and critique different approaches to legal systems, as well as concepts of justice, norms, punishment, and rehabilitation. Students engage with ethnographic cases studies - ranging from non-Western religious communities to totalitarian and socialist systems, that explain how different types of societies configure power, maintain order, and react to violation of law . Students also learn about cultural movements and transcultural legal concepts such as human rights that attempt to reform the legal systems.  

HNRS 4364-02

Leadership Theories in Contemporary Films 

Throughout human history, leadership theories, principles, styles, and practices have been reflected and shared through vivid, relevant, and engaging storytelling. Contemporary films are an excellent medium for sharing experiences, lessons, and virtues highly valued in society. This course seeks to facilitate the analysis of leadership styles as applied through contemporary films. Students will explore new experiences, viewpoints, concepts, and lifestyles often different from their own and apply leadership concepts as they relate to the selected class films. Topics will include leadership ethical dilemmas, personal conflict, organizational conflict, crisis management, influence, motivations, and communication, among other issues. 

HNRS 4364-03

National Model UN 

The Mystery of Light

This course will be focused on the concept of light and its significance in the Universe. Light is a delocalized wave phenomenon which allows people to see the world around us, to enjoy the rainbow on the sky and IMAX movies, and to use wireless technology. But light is a particle phenomenon when we look to the energy production using solar cells or using a laser tool. Thus, light has a dual characteristic: wave and particle, like a coin with two faces. Recent scientific discoveries indicated that light can be used for teleportation and quantum entanglement (which means transmission of information without a physical contact and correlation of events at distances larger than those connected through the speed of light in free space). All this sounds as magic, but it is scientifically true. It is the physics of light that created quantum mechanics, Einstein’s theory of relativity and helps to build the ambitious architecture of quantum technologies, such as quantum computers. This course will discuss the scientific reason why light is a fundamental concept and so impactful in science and technology, today. The philosophic understanding of what light actually represents will be also thoroughly discussed.  

What Creates a Personality?

Understanding what determines an individual person's fully formed personality as an adult is important for a more comprehensive understanding of the human condition. Is personality a product of nature vs nurture? In other words, is a person born with their personality or is it formed and developed over time according to their early childhood experiences? Perhaps, it is a combination of factors such as nature, nurture, and even subsequent life events and/or extenuating circumstances. This course will explore basic theories of personality and how individual personalities develop as an attempt to answer some of these questions.  

Penology: Topics in the History of Crime and Punishment

This course is intended to provide students with a survey of selected areas and issues in comparative penology. We begin with a historical review of the origins of punishments and then proceed to an examination of the current thinking regarding modern forms of punishment. Using a comparative historical approach, the goal in this course is to illustrate the similarities and differences in punishment responses over time and place. Moreover, the course will attempt to draw lessons from the history of penology relevant to the likely future of penology. 

Physiological Stress of Auto Racing

Ever wonder how many Gs a driver experiences in the 24 hours of Lemans and how that affects the body? This course will cover topics such as exposure to high g-forces, thermoregulation, and muscle tension with regard to influence on physiological stress on the race car driver. We will explore a variety of categories of racing including stock car and open wheel racing.