Honors Program - Major #5331

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
This course is an enhanced exploration of how anthropologists study and compare human culture. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the diversity of human experience, focusing on a set of central issues: how people around the world make their living (subsistence patterns); how they organize themselves socially, politically and economically; how they communicate; how they relate to each other through marriage, family and kinship ties; what they believe about the world (religion and belief systems); how they express themselves creatively (the arts and expressive culture); how they make distinctions among themselves; how they have shaped and been shaped by the past; and how they navigate culture change and processes of globalization. Ethnographic case studies highlight these similarities and differences, and introduce students to how anthropologists do their work, employ professional anthropological research ethics and apply their perspectives and skills to understand humans around the globe. The Honors section of this course places greater emphasis on various anthropological theories and data-gathering methods, as well as historical and contemporary debates within the discipline of anthropology. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2026 Fall Semester
Historical and cultural eras include:  Paleolithic, Neolithic, Mesopotamia, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, early Islamic, Byzantine, Romaneque and Gothic. The Honors section includes research and writing assignments using primary and secondary source material in addition to oral presentations. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2026 Fall Semester
Historical styles include: Italian and Northern Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, 20th-century avant-garde movements and post-modernism. The Honors section will include research and writing assignments using primary and secondary source material and oral presentations. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
This honors courses provides a research based approach to speaking in small group settings. It emphasizes rhetorical theories, public presentations in small groups, and small group communication theories. It provides students with the foundational knowledge and practice of speech making in a democratic society. This course covers topics like communication apprehension, ethical approaches to communication, developing effective messages in various speaking contexts, problem-solving, conflict management, and leadership in group settings. Students will also develop effective academic research strategies and skills in conducting analyses of peer reviewed articles. The coursework will focus on using these skills to develop and deliver effective informative and persuasive presentations in small groups. (A. CSU, UC)

Effective Term: 2026 Fall Semester
Honors courses will discuss and analyze contemporary economic society in a historical context. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2026 Fall Semester
Honors courses will discuss and analyze the works of historical economic figures. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
Major components include critical reading of diverse voices and writing strategies. Honors sections may include more extensive research with a focus on academic journals, as well as critical thinking that includes in-depth analysis and synthesis of ideas. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
Honors sections may cover additional subject matter, such as more in-depth analytical research and extensive analysis of rhetorical discourse. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2026 Fall Semester
(A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2024 Fall Semester
This is an interdisciplinary approach to biological research integrating scientific writing and scholarly presentation methods. Critical topics and concepts beyond content offered in the biological sciences. (A, CSU, UC approved as variable topics; evaluation completed by individual campuses after admission.)

Effective Term: 2024 Fall Semester
This is an interdisciplinary investigation of human creativity and expression as they intersect across the Humanities. Examination of various topics as manifested in literature, poetry, visual arts, performing arts, music, film and philosophy. Class may involve activities outside of class time. (Honors 1C must be taken concurrently with PHIL 1AH, ENGL 3H, ART 5H or 6H to receive units for the University of California). (A, CSU, UC)

Effective Term: 2024 Fall Semester
This is an interdisciplinary investigation of aspects of economic theory and business systems and their relationship to economic cycles and general business and accounting practices. Global and national economic, business, and accounting theories are applied to the conditions of agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley. (A, CSU, UC)

Effective Term: 2024 Fall Semester
This is an interdisciplinary investigation of a contemporary issue in society, culture, and human behavior. Topics studied and researched in relationship to anthropological and psychological theories. (A, CSU, UC)

Effective Term: 2024 Fall Semester
This is an interdisciplinary investigation of study topic determined by Honors' Faculty. Course content is determined by faculty and may include lectures, seminars, and field trips. (A, CSU)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
This course explores some of the deepest questions about human life. What does it mean to be human? How can God coexist with evil? What is the evidence for God’s existence anyway? Do we have free will or are our thoughts and actions determined by forces outside our control? What is your mind? Is it nothing more than activity in your brain, or is your mind a soul? What is a soul, and are there good reasons to think souls are real? What is knowledge, why is it valuable, and how can you tell when you have it? Can we know anything with certainty, and does that matter? This class will provide an opportunity to explore these and similar questions, in conversation with texts from some of the greatest minds in human history. Honors sections may also focus on an historical overview, or a more in-depth study of a significant branch of philosophy, e.g., philosophy of race, gender, or global issues. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
This course examines the concepts of morality and values, representative ethical theories, and their applications to contemporary moral problems. Ethical theories covered may include the good life, moral relativism, deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and feminist and social justice approaches to ethics. Contemporary moral problems may include abortion, environmental ethics, racial and gender justice, euthanasia/assisted suicide, etc. Honors sections may also involve a more in-depth study of a significant area of ethics or moral philosophy, and will require additional writing. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
This course examines the principles and methods of good reasoning and analytic writing, emphasizing deductive logic (including formal techniques of sentential logic), thesis-driven argumentation, and research strategies. Student will learn how to identify arguments, develop and assess basic deductive and inductive written arguments, common fallacies, and apply each element to various areas of study and real-world situations. Honors sections may also focus on a more in-depth study of a significant branch of philosophy, e.g., philosophy of race, gender, or global issues. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
(A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
The Honors section of this course places a greater emphasis on understanding the human being as an integrated physiological, social, and psychological organism and further enriches that perspective with data and theories from related disciplines. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2026 Spring Semester
This course covers basic concepts, theoretical approaches, and methods of sociology.  This course also includes the analysis and explanation of social structure, culture, socialization, the self and social interaction, group dynamics, institutions, deviance, stratification, social change, social problems, and global dynamics. SOC 1AH places a greater emphasis than SOC 1A on methods of conducting scientific research in the field of sociology. Additional emphasis is placed on contemporary social issues as explored through supplemental readings. (A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)

Effective Term: 2025 Fall Semester
(A, CSU, UC, Cal-GETC)