Honors Program introduces new gen ed courses

Olivier Morand has studied and taught economics for much of the past two decades, but he also has a longstanding interest in the environment.

So when University officials last year issued a call for faculty to create interdisciplinary general education courses for honors students - using nature as its theme - he leaped at the opportunity.

"There are a number of tie-ins between the economy and the environment, probably most obviously in the impact of production and consumption on the environment," he says.

"To produce goods, we need resources. And those resources have to be managed."

In response to the call for proposals, Morand, an associate professor of economics, drew up an outline for a course that would introduce honors students to those themes.

The course was one of several chosen for what Honors Program officials hope will become a smorgasbord of honors general education core courses large enough to allow all honors students the opportunity to include at least one such course in their undergraduate curriculum.

Three, including Morand's, are being offered this year, and at least two others are in development to be offered next year.

"The idea is to help students who may have had some exposure to economics in high school to approach the topic through a new lens. To repeat courses would be pretty routine for them, so this broadens the scope," says Jennifer Lease Butts, associate director of the Honors Program.

"Discussing and reading about how economics and nature interact is more interesting and engaging because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course."

Another of the courses, "Walden: A History," incorporates not two but three disciplines: it will be taught by a historian, a geologist, and a landscape artist.

"It's really a model American Studies course," says Robert Gross, the historian, who holds the Draper Chair of Early American History.

"We have a physical scientist, a social/cultural historian, and an artist - it incorporates the arts, humanities, and sciences."

Gross met Robert Thorson, the geologist, when the two were members of a task force that was convened shortly after Lynne Goodstein became director of the Honors Program to discuss ways to improve the program.

The artist, Janet Pritchard, an assistant professor of art and art history, met Thorson through their mutual research interests.