The following criteria will be considered for registration for all Honors Seminars:

  1. Seniors will be given priority to register for Honors seminars.
  2. We will consider the student’s progress towards the completion of their Honors Baccalaureate (i.e. number of Honors credits taken, second language fulfillment status, and a cumulative GPA of 3.5 and above).
  3. The seminar is advantageous towards the student’s field/s of study and/or future career plans.

SPECIAL NOTE: Please call or email our office to indicate your seminar preferences. We recommend selecting at least two to three seminars that interest you to ensure seminar placement.

Fall 2025 Honors Seminars

Endure

HONR 494-002 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:   T/R 4:10 – 6:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Professor Kim Pribanic, Honors College 

Course Description:

Endure is a seminar that invites understanding of human resilience. Through stories of trial, students will come to appreciate the challenges we face, regardless of whether they are brought on by choice or by circumstance. Through analysis of scientific literature, students will learn about the effects of physical, mental, and emotional stress, and begin to identify common responses and means of coping. Finally, through contemplation, discussion and teaching, students will develop the strength and willingness to face difficult subjects and find ways toeffectively communicate with others.

The seminar will begin with investigation of the endurance challenges that people undergo bychoice, including various sports and certain schools of meditation. We will delve into the physiology of endurance and learn how physiological stress can affect the mind, and we will explore the motivations and coping techniques that are often used in these settings. We will then move on to look at situations in which the challenges are imposed by circumstance, or by other people.  Our subjects will include soldiers and prisoners of war, inmates of concentration camps and refugees, as well as the homeless, the mentally ill, and people affected by chronic or terminal illness.  As before, we will use narrative to appreciate these experiences, but we will also look at scientific literature to derive an understanding of the mental, physical, and emotional changes wrought by these predicaments. Using this information, students will work to identify a subject that is of particular interest to them and begin to formulate their final project.

Kim is an exercise physiologist whose primary interest lies in understanding human capabilities. She is a past officer of The Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments, (a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal published by Purdue University Press). She is a Founding Member of the Fascia Research Society and holds active memberships in the Physiological Society (UK), the American Physiological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  

Kim is also a self-described “desert tortoise.”  She began running trails in the mid 1990’s as a means of stress relief and was soon convinced by a friend to compete in the Los Angeles Triathlon to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That commitment required that she overcome 15 years of fear of open water, and the emotion she experienced after completing the open-ocean swim forever changed the way she has approached life. She has since competed in (but not always completed) numerous trail and road races, including the Skyline to the Sea Marathon, Beartooth Run (10k at 10,000+ feet), Mount Baldy Run-to-the-Top, Bruny Island Ultra, Bangtail Divide, Old Gabe, Gobi March, and her penultimate race, the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon.  She is proud to say that she completed the Kalahari event in just the way she wanted to, feeling strong, joyful, and utterly gobsmacked by the wonders of nature and the people she experienced it with. 

Death Becomes Us: The Mystery of Mortality and the Need for Meaning

HONR 400-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  W/F  9:00 – 10:50 am
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Dr. Thomas P. Donovan, Honors College

Course Description

This seminar seeks to critically explore the role of mortality awareness in the creation of cultural meaning systems. We will explore how our beliefs and values provide a crucial antidote in the face of mortality and against feelings of insignificance and meaninglessness, while also contributing to creating "made-up minds" in the face of uncertainty. We will also explore how challenges to our systems of belief often inspire defensive and aggressive responses to this perceived mortal threat and the implications for our present global reality. This course will examine how humans across cultures manage the enormity of our awareness of finitude and the efforts to give meaning to our temporary existence.

Thomas Patrick Donovan has been teaching graduate and undergraduate students since 2004, and has served as a Faculty Fellow in the Honors College at Montana State University since 2011. He holds a doctorate in Psychology and is particularly interested in the existential questions regarding living a meaningful life that inform the human condition the world over. 

Our Nuclear Age:  A Seminar on the Promise and Perils of Nuclear Energy

HONR 494CS-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  M/W 10:00 - 11:50 am
Place:  NAH 325
Instructor:  Professor Amanda Rutherford, Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering 

Course Description

With the growing urgency of climate change, nuclear energy is once again in the spotlight as a reliable, carbon-free power source. The U.S. is witnessing a resurgence of nuclear projects, from the newly approved TerraPower reactor in Wyoming to the recent expansion of the Vogtle power plant in Georgia. Meanwhile, fusion energy remains perpetually “just a few years away” but continues to advance.

If nuclear power is so promising, why has its adoption been slow? Why have some governments embraced it while others have abandoned it? In this interdisciplinary seminar, we’ll explore these questions and more. We’ll cover the fundamentals of nuclear science, its applications in power generation, medicine, and defense, and the complex history that has shaped public perception. We’ll also examine major nuclear accidents—Chernobyl, Fukushima, and beyond—along with the challenges of nuclear waste storage.

Join us for a deep dive into the future of nuclear energy, its potential to combat climate change, and the risks that come with it.

Mandy Rutherford (BSCE-MSU, MS Engineering Mechanics, VPISU) is a member of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering faculty and an active faculty member in the Honors College.  Prior to her employment at MSU she worked for 7 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a research engineer and became intensely interested in all things nuclear.

Creation of Fictional Worlds

HONR 405-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  T/R  12:10 – 2:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Professor Kent Davis, Honors College

Course Description:

This seminar explores the production and consumption of meaning and value through an essential process in humannarrative: constructing the "world" in which characters live out their stories. In a diverse array of forms ranging from canonicalclassics to contemporary films and graphic novels, makers have woven original political systems, natural environments, cultures, andeven alternative biologies into their work to produce meaning and value for audiences specific to their own experience and culturalmoment. Continuing in their footsteps, this course will focus on:
 
• identifying core thematic facets of a work of speculative fiction and interpreting them for a general audience.

• evaluating cultural, ethical, and even physical assumptions constructing "the rules of the world" in these works, and also the world inwhich we live.

• assessing a diverse array of worldbuilding processes, and synthesizing that assessment into a working theory of narrative design.

• deploying that working theory to construct a viable world building artifact of one's own.

• communicating a clear presentation of the process used to create the artifact, and defending it.
 
This class proposesto enhance students' ability to identify logical and emotional patterns in works of art—the assigned texts on the syllabus and thestudent-provided texts—distill those patterns into a working theory of what the student finds compelling, and then deploy that theoryto construct an original setting for a fictional "world."
 
Each student will investigate the core concepts and values of a speculative fiction work of their choosing, evaluating close reading,critical response, and the peer-driven response of the seminar to eventually synthesize a conclusion. This conclusion needs to beclearly written and orally examined. Students will also exercise these investigative tools in their exploration of both the syllabustexts and the texts provided by their classmates. Students will then shift the focus to translating the meanings and values theyhave discovered intertextually into a fictional setting of their own devising. Students will be asked to identify the core concepts andpatterns they are attempting to deliver and then to synthesize those concepts into a cohesive whole. This project needs to be clearlydelivered in the form of a ten-minute oral presentation.
 
The goal of the course is to provide an enriched understanding of the creation of fictional settings, not just as a tool of art, but as abridge to understanding the complex, constructed social patterns and narratives in which we live on a daily basis. Application of thisprocess—moving from internal contemplation to external nuanced, value-based communication—will be essential for any studentconsidering work where they will need to empower and translate complex, discipline-specific concepts to other humans.

Kent Davis holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego and a BA in Dramatic Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Davis is the author of the A Riddle in Ruby trilogy - three speculative fiction novels for young readers, published by HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books. Davis has over thirty years of professional experience as an award-winning actor, director, and playwright at regional theater venues like La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum | Center Theater Group, Odyssey Theater Ensemble, the Vancouver International Fringe, and the Bedlam Theater in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the former Artistic Director of the Equinox Theater Company. He is an Assistant Teaching Professor at MSU in the Honors College and the School of Film and Photography.

Wolves in Yellowstone: A Social, Scientific and Photographic Journey

HONR 408IN-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites: HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  T/R  9:00 – 10:50 am
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Dr. John Winnie, Department of Ecology

Course Description

In this seminar, we will explore society's historic and current attitudes towards wolves framed in the context of wolf reintroduction in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Further, we will evaluate wolves' role as ecosystem engineers by examining how they influence prey population dynamics and behavior, and in turn look at how changes in prey may be influencing plant communities. Students are expected to read, understand, synthesize and discuss content and concepts from the social and life sciences, and use this knowledge to inform opinions and positions they express verbally and in writing. In addition, over the course of the semester, students will develop natural history photography skills through a combination of in-class instruction, independent assignments, and 2-3 field trips to Yellowstone National Park and surrounding lands. Students will use their photos to illustrate the ecological effects of wolf reintroduction, and related conservation issues and controversies, in seminar presentations and their final papers.

John Winnie Jr., PhD, is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Ecology Department here at MSU. He started doing wolf and elk research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 2000, publishing regularly on topics ranging from animal behavior to the influences predators have on prey population dynamics, to trophic cascades. Dr. Winnie is also an avid natural history photographer whose work has been widely published.

The Art and Science of Medicine

HONR 411RS-01 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  M/W 1:10 – 3:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Professor Don Demetriades, Department of History and Philosophy and University Honors

Course Description

Designed for students from all academic disciplines, this seminar will focus on just how broadly and profoundly contemporary medicine touches all of our lives. It will examine the underlying principles of medicine through the lens of literature, science, art and related fields. The why of suffering and disease, the how of healing, and the role both patient and physician play in individual health will be explored. Medical professionals will be invited to visit the seminar.

Professor Demetriades is the past coordinator of the humanities curriculum for the Inteflex Program (Integrated Pre-med/Med Program) at the University of Michigan. He currently serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor for the MSU Honors College (nine years) and the History and Philosophy Dept. (fifteen years). He holds a BA in Philosophy and Classics (Michigan), an MA in Philosophy (Michigan), and was a Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy (Michigan). He is also a veteran of thirty-six marathons and twenty ultra-marathons.

Property & Reciprocity:  'Ownership' Through Indigenous and Western Lenses

HONR 494RH-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  T/R  2:10 – 4:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Associate Professor Kristin Ruppel, Native American Studies

Course Description

What if everything you’ve been taught about property and ownership is incomplete? This seminar challenges you to reconsider these fundamental concepts by examining them through lenses beyond the traditional Western perspective. In Western thought, property is often treated as a fungible object, something that can be separated from relationships and reduced to monetary value. However, this course invites you to explore ownership from diverse viewpoints—specifically Indigenous frameworks alongside Western economic principles. We will critically examine Indigenous notions of collective governance and personhood, contrasting them with Western ideas like the "tragedy of the commons." The course also integrates ecological insights, revealing surprising areas of agreement between Western and Indigenous worldviews on collective responsibility and cooperation among non-human entities. By combining economic, legal, philosophical, and ecological perspectives, we will unpack how these notions evolved and explore the potential for reimagining property in a more interconnected, sustainable way. Prepare to challenge your assumptions and engage with complex, interdisciplinary ideas about ownership and the commons.

A faculty member in MSU Native American Studies since 2004, Kristin Ruppel serves as the Department’s faculty graduate coordinator and chair of NAS Online through which she has spearheaded the development of the Department’s two graduate certificates including an online program in Indigenous Food Systems launched in spring 2025. She also serves as chair of the Department’s accreditation efforts with the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC), and is a board member and research partner with the Blackfeet non-profit Piikani Lodge Health Institute based in Browning, Montana.

 

Spring 2026 Honors Seminars

Death Becomes Us: The Mystery of Mortality and the Need for Meaning

HONR 400-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  T/R  10:00 – 11:50 am
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Dr. Thomas P. Donovan, Honors College 

Course Description:

Does it matter that we are the only creatures we know of who are aware of their own mortality? Does this awareness shape our beliefs and therefore our behaviors? Does consciousness of our eventual finitude impel us to create culture, symbolic meaning systems, and immortality schemas in order that we may compensate for and manage our fears? Is it possible that fear of death figures profoundly into human conflict, racial and ethnic tensions, the so-called “battle of the sexes” and contemporary “culture wars”? Might death anxiety undergird both our greatest triumphs and our most heartbreaking tragedies? As mythologist Joseph Campbell explains, the first function of myth in cultures across the planet is reconciliation of our awareness of mortality by anchoring human existence in meaningful belief systems as the crucial antidote against an insignificant life and meaningless death. To delve into these complex questions, our inquiry will necessarily involve an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing the fields of philosophy, theology, psychology, history, mythology, literature, sociology, and science.

Thomas Patrick Donovan has been teaching graduate and undergraduate students since 2004, and has served as a Faculty Fellow in the Honors College at Montana State University since 2011. He holds a doctorate in Psychology and is particularly interested in the existential questions regarding living a meaningful life that inform the human condition the world over.   

Design Thinking for Our Community

HONR 494-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  M/W 12:10 – 2:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructors:  Professor Amanda Rutherford, Industrial and Management Systems Engineering 

Course Description:

In this upper division seminar course, we explore the process of design thinking in our multidisciplinary class through solving real world problems in our community. We will be applying the design thinking process to complex problems facing our MSU community and beyond. Examples of past projects are widely varied ranging from re-designing Move-In day on campus (see http://www.montana.edu/news/16319/honors-college-students-design-plan-to-improve-move-in-day) to assisting community non-profits like GVLT and HRDC.  While the course is open to all honors students, we are especially seeking those students in humanities, basic science, arts and architecture and business majors. No more than 50% of its students will be from any given college.

Prior to beginning her 15+ year teaching career at MSU, Mandy was a R&D engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she worked in the areas of structural dynamics and damage identification.  At MSU, she has been the curriculum lead for EGEN 310, Multidisciplinary Engineering Design for the last 17 years and was a co-founder of the Bill Wurst Makerspace.  She has taught multiple offerings for the Honors College, including T&C, Our Nuclear Age, and Design Thinking for Our Community.  She’s also proud to be an alumnus of the growing group of Goldwater Scholars! 

Critical Perspectives in Leadership

HONR 406-001 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  M/W  5:10 – 7:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Professor Richard Broome, Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship

Course Description:

Leadership issues permeate every aspect of our lives. The purpose of this course is to encourage students to develop and exercise critical thinking skills concerning the different issues impacting leadership in the 21st century.

Student will explore such topics as:

-- Historical and contemporary theories of leadership

-- The explosion of technological advances in the 21st century, which are having a significant impact on leaders

-- Crisis leadership

-- Recent societal changes that impact leaders

-- The impact of the 24X7 news cycle on leaders

-- New definitions of power within a cyber world

-- The impact of evolving values and ethics on leadership decision-making

-- Increasing corporate social responsibility and leadership

-- The looming leadership takeover by the millennial generation and generation Z

-- Operational leadership skills in the 21st century VUCA environment (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous)

This is a highly interactive class with an emphasis on class participation and student involvement.  The various topical areas identified in the course schedule will be addressed through a combination of short lecture, then a longer discussion of assigned readings, exercises, presentations, group activities and analyses of case studies.  The underlying assumption, which guides the teaching of this course, is that students learn best when actively engaged in their learning and exposed to a variety of perspectives. A course outline is attached; however, the instructor will provide weekly agendas, which will include specific assignments, typically via in class announcements and D2L.

Professor Broome has several years of significant leadership experience. He is a faculty member in both the College of Business and the Honors College where he currently teaches courses about leadership and entrepreneurship. He is also appointed to the faculty of The George Washington University where he helped create the curriculum and now teaches the leadership courses for a B.S. degree in Leadership for Global Disaster Response designed only for military members of the U.S. Special Operations Command (Navy Seals, Army Special Forces). For almost nineteen years he held leadership positions at the NASDAQ stock market, Computer Sciences Corporation and Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to this, Professor Broome spent twenty-seven years in the U.S. Army, entering as a private and retiring as a full Colonel. Professor Broome was asked by two Presidents of the United States to serve on the White House staff at the National Security Council, where he was a member of the crisis management leadership team at the NSC. He has a B.S. degree in Psychology from Utah State University, an M.S. degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, and an M.S. degree in Computer Information Systems from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. He currently serves on the board of the MSU Leadership Institute, the editorial board of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and is a former board member of HAVEN, a shelter for women who are victims of domestic violence. He is the author of three novels.  

 

Understanding Shakespeare from Folio to Performance  

HONR 407IA-001 (4 credits)  
Prerequisites:   HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301  
Time:    M/W 10:00 – 11:50 am  
Place:   NAH 337 
Instructor:  Professor Kent Davis  

Course Description:   

This seminar will focus on the works of William Shakespeare through an academic and literary lens, but also through performance. Led by Kent Davis, a classically trained actor and director with over twenty years of experience at venues ranging from La Jolla Playhouse to the Mark Taper Forum to the Edinburgh Fringe, this seminar will analyze the works of Shakespeare from multiple facets including dramaturgical analysis, analysis from the actor’s perspective, verse work and choices of interpretation, and directorial interpretation of the plays. The goal: a holistic understanding of Shakespeare from page all the way to its ultimate expression, the stage.  

Kent Davis holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego and a BA in Dramatic Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Davis is the author of the A Riddle in Ruby trilogy - three speculative fiction novels for young readers, published by HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books. Davis has over thirty years of professional experience as an award-winning actor, director, and playwright at regional theater venues like La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum | Center Theater Group, Odyssey Theater Ensemble, the Vancouver International Fringe, and the Bedlam Theater in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the former Artistic Director of the Equinox Theater Company. He is an Assistant Teaching Professor at MSU in the Honors College and the School of Film and Photography. 

The Art and Science of Medicine

HONR 411RS-01 4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:  T/R  1:10 – 3:00 pm
Place:   NAH Room 337
Instructor:  Professor Don Demetriades, Department of History and Philosophy and Honors College

Course Description:

Designed for students from all academic disciplines, this seminar will focus on just how broadly and profoundly contemporary medicine touches all of our lives.  It will examine the underlying principles of medicine through the lens of literature, science, art and related fields.  The why of suffering and disease, the how of healing, and the role both patient and physician play in individual health will be explored.  Medical professionals will be invited to visit the seminar.

Professor Demetriades is the past coordinator of the humanities curriculum for the Inteflex Program (Integrated Pre-med/Med Program) at the University of Michigan.  He currently serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor for the MSU Honors College (nine years) and the History and Philosophy Dept. (fifteen years). He holds a BA in Philosophy and Classics (Michigan), an MA in Philosophy (Michigan), and was a Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy (Michigan).  He is also a veteran of thirty-six marathons and twenty ultra-marathons.

Endure

HONR 494-002 (4 credits)
Prerequisites:  HONR 201 & HONR 202, or HONR 301
Time:   T/R 3:10 – 5:00 pm
Place:  NAH 337
Instructor:  Professor Kim Pribanic, Honors College 

Course Description:

Endure is a seminar that invites understanding of human resilience. Through stories of trial, students will come to appreciate the challenges we face, regardless of whether they are brought on by choice or by circumstance. Through analysis of scientific literature, students will learn about the effects of physical, mental, and emotional stress, and begin to identify common responses and means of coping. Finally, through contemplation, discussion and teaching, students will develop the strength and willingness to face difficult subjects and find ways toeffectively communicate with others.

The seminar will begin with investigation of the endurance challenges that people undergo bychoice, including various sports and certain schools of meditation. We will delve into the physiology of endurance and learn how physiological stress can affect the mind, and we will explore the motivations and coping techniques that are often used in these settings. We will then move on to look at situations in which the challenges are imposed by circumstance, or by other people.  Our subjects will include soldiers and prisoners of war, inmates of concentration camps and refugees, as well as the homeless, the mentally ill, and people affected by chronic or terminal illness.  As before, we will use narrative to appreciate these experiences, but we will also look at scientific literature to derive an understanding of the mental, physical, and emotional changes wrought by these predicaments. Using this information, students will work to identify a subject that is of particular interest to them and begin to formulate their final project.

Kim is an exercise physiologist whose primary interest lies in understanding human capabilities. She is a past officer of The Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments, (a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal published by Purdue University Press). She is a Founding Member of the Fascia Research Society and holds active memberships in the Physiological Society (UK), the American Physiological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  

Kim is also a self-described “desert tortoise.”  She began running trails in the mid 1990’s as a means of stress relief and was soon convinced by a friend to compete in the Los Angeles Triathlon to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That commitment required that she overcome 15 years of fear of open water, and the emotion she experienced after completing the open-ocean swim forever changed the way she has approached life. She has since competed in (but not always completed) numerous trail and road races, including the Skyline to the Sea Marathon, Beartooth Run (10k at 10,000+ feet), Mount Baldy Run-to-the-Top, Bruny Island Ultra, Bangtail Divide, Old Gabe, Gobi March, and her penultimate race, the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon.  She is proud to say that she completed the Kalahari event in just the way she wanted to, feeling strong, joyful, and utterly gobsmacked by the wonders of nature and the people she experienced it with.