Hon 201

Design: Projects for Impact

In this third course in the Honors sequence, you will develop skills in designing research, scholarly, or creative projects and in collaborative work. Engaging with varied content areas in different sections of the course, each drawing on topics related to Human Values and Social Contexts: Environment and Sustainability, you will develop core skills in identifying gaps in research, designing a project, articulating arguments, and recognizing positionality.

Course Learning Outcomes:

Students develop skills in designing research, scholarly projects, or creative practices and working collaboratively under the guidance of faculty from across the university. Topics vary, but will center on the environment, sustainability, and how humans interact with the natural world.

General Education Requirement (GER):

Satisfies Population & Environment GER.

Fall 2026 HON 201 Course Offerings*:

*Courses may be modified or cancelled based on enrollment, staffing, and other factors.

M/W/F- Courses meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

M/W- Courses meet Monday and Wednesday

T/TH- Courses meet Tuesday and Thursday

A historical photograph of a rustic log cabin camp nestled in a dense pine forest, representing early Maine land use and hunting traditions.

Hunting in Maine: Histories of Identity, Conflict, and Land Use

Cristina Arrigoni Martelli

M/W 2:00-3:15 PM

M/W 3:30-4:45 PM

This course offers a historical and critical exploration of hunting in the post-contact landscapes of what is now Maine. This story of change and adaptation unfolded amid deep conflicts—over land use, resource management, and differing visions of what should live on the land. Through these diverse voices, ideas, and material practices, we will examine how people have used and valued game animals and their habitats, and why these stories matter.

A medieval manuscript illumination depicting a stylized green landscape with rolling hills, trees, and water, bordered by an ornate gold and blue frame.

People and Nature in the Atlantic World, 450-1700

Tobias Hrynick

M/W/F 10:00-10:50 AM

M/W/F 11:00-11:50 AM

Contemporary climate change has driven human’s capacity to shape and be shaped by our environment; but we are not the first people to rely on fragile relationships with an ever-changing natural world. From the floods, famines, and diseases which struck Europe in the fourteenth century to the catastrophic effect of Old World diseases on American societies, such relationships have defined our past. This course explores interactions between humans and their environments from late antiquity through the establishment of European colonies in the Americas, exploring how societies were affected by changing environments, and tried to understand those changes, nature, and themselves.

Two small children standing in a field of tall grass, looking toward a large industrial factory with several smokestacks emitting thick plumes of dark smoke into the sky.

Pursuing Environmental Health

Michael Haedicke

M/W 2:00-3:15 PM

Most people want to live, work and play in spaces that are clean, safe, and life-sustaining. Yet, many activities in the modern world – from agriculture to energy to fashion – impact the environment in ways that create risks to human life and well-being. Environmental health is a professional and scientific project that focuses attention on these contradictions and develops strategies to promote cleaner and safer communities. The pursuit of environmental health requires confronting difficult questions. How should we balance our desire for a safe environment with technological innovation and freedom of choice? What should we do when social inequalities result in greater environmental risks for some members of society? How can we make collective decisions about environmental laws and policies, given deep divides in interests, experiences, and beliefs that exist in our diverse society? We will take up these questions (and others) in this course.

A tall, weathered dead tree snag with a large bird's nest perched at the very top against a bright sky.

Wild Care I: Creative-Ecology

Samantha Jones

W (wednesday only) 3:00-5:50 PM

In this course, students will engage in a combination of scholarly and creative research of concepts including, but limited to deep ecology, extraction economics, biodiversity, entanglement, the art of noticing, indeterminacy, and horizontal orientations of growth. We will challenge our assumptions, beginning with certain relevant concepts that we might take for granted like nature, the environment, sustainability, or what it means to be wild, or to care. From these methods, as informed by the vital ecosystems of the Maine forest, soil, and waters, will emerge a new ethico-aesthetic that will serve the students as a springboard for action.

A dark, dense forest with towering trees and a small figure in a red cloak walking along a path into a sunlit opening in the distance.

Preserving Literary Landscapes

Mimi Killinger

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

This HON 201 class will explore a variety of landscapes in literature, like the caves of Plato’s Republic and the Holy Qur’an, the dark woods of Dante’s Inferno, the gardens of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, the rivers of the Tao Te Ching and the Arctic landscape in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through map making, photo journals and other creative research strategies, we will consider ways in which classic literary landscapes may relate to environmental stories and concerns today, perhaps encouraging preservation and inspiring sustainable practices among readers, then and now.

A vintage black-and-white illustration of a woman in an ornate gown standing at a dinner table, gesturing dramatically.

Food Writing and Foodways

Mark Raymond

T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

What and how we eat satisfies more than a basic physiological need. What makes a meal is informed by cultural, social, philosophical, religious, economic, educational, and political factors. Foodways communicate knowledge, and we’ll explore how writing about food can make us more sensitive as scholars (and as eaters) to what our food choices say about ourselves and our place in the world. You’ll create a “menu” for a personal essay describing how a meal can reflect real world problems and solutions. Using creative and scholarly sources you’ll assemble the ingredients of an argument that articulates your place at the table.

Coming Soon

Description Pending

TBD

Description Pending

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