Stanley Kubrick said in an interview for Full Metal Jacket that "truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five line summary," but here's to trying. Stanley Kubrick, director of such notable films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and the aforementioned Full Metal Jacket, among others, was an inveterate reader who practically could not make a film until he was an expert on the subjects he was dealing with. As such, this course takes a similarly broad approach, drawing on theoretical works from philosophy, psychology, social criticism and others, to study the one true subject Kubrick was eternally a student of–human nature. Is there such a thing, and what features define it? Like Danny Torrance in The Shining, students draw on knowledge from the past, present and, though they can't "shine," from potential futures, to work their way through the labyrinthian mystery that is the human race.



Course Objectives:

Students will develop a greater understanding of the thematic preoccupations and concerns developed throughout the course of Stanley Kubrick’s illustrious career, and will derive philosophical and personal importance from these themes throughout Kubrick’s films. By the end of the semester, we hope to arrive at a cohesive understanding of Kubrick’s worldview and conception of human nature and the insights that his aesthetic can provide us in our present time. We will do so through discussions and readings and a consistent focus on cinematic form and technique. Through this process, we will hopefully reinvigorate our analytical skills, attention to detail, imagination and creativity, and see the world with new eyes!



What’s Cool About the Course:

This course fits particularly well in Honors because Kubrick’s films defy easy explanation and categorization. In fact, many of his films implicate the audience and their reactions to the films as part of their themes, forcing viewers to be self aware and critical participants. These aspects will hopefully inspire Honors students to become more reflective about visuals and stories, two aspects of modern life with which we are constantly bombarded. Being self critical, reflective and attentive are all key to being an Honors student, and this course hopefully illustrates that these qualities can be cultivated while watching movies, an experience we typically take for granted.

Course Description:

From the Mississippi Delta to Memphis to Chicago then to London and back, The Blues are a potent means of communication, a powerful and persuasive connection. They are a language. Through them, artists and their audiences found a distinct voice that could share and engage emotion, meaning, time, place, resistance, change and identity. Students listen to and examine the communicative power of The Blues, and the Blues ‘language’, that is: what they say, who says it, who hears it, what they hear, and how meaning is created and taken. Students will listen to Blues alongside a wide range of readings, including Wittgenstein’s Language Games, Bakhtin on dialogism and the carnivalesque, Foucault on power in everyday language, James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students will even read a little (very little) Faulkner.

Student Learning Outcomes:

We read and examine and listen and watch selected texts/music and then we question, discuss, analyze, synthesize and argue about them and class lecture content. So clearly a student learning outcome is not just to collect and archive data. At the end of the course, students will be far more able to understand and assess Blues music and Blues characters and recognize and place them within a narrative of Blues as cultural, social, personal, historical and political expression. Students will be better able to recognize the various ways language functions in culture. Students will also be able to approach other cultural, art and political products with a theoretical understanding of how to examine them beyond a one-dimensional assessment.

What’s Cool About the Course:

This is a course about Blues but not about Blues. It’s about language, and how it can empower us but also limit us. It’s about how we use it. The music we play is loud, and the discussions that are at the heart of this class are also usually loud. I ask students to hear and think Blues, then wander into intellectual places they have, by choice or inclination, often not visited and worked in, and consider where Blues has delivered them and what they can do there.

Course Description:

“An entertainer makes you laugh…but an artist makes you understand.” —Kevin Hart



Art is a process of exploration, externalized. Human beings are inherently artistic. Therefore, any human activity can be expressed artfully. Our goal is, simply put: to become aware of this phenomenon and learn to practice it in all aspects of our lives. This course is much more about how to think about art (including music, of course), than what to think about it. It is much more about questioning observations rather than looking for concrete answers, as our world is one of impermanence, and we cause ourselves much suffering when we crystalize our views. We’re looking to increase our aspirations, inspiration, and forward momentum, and to diminish static expectations. We do this by increasing our skills of observation and learning to ask better questions, since questions are ultimately intriguing and productive. Learn to ask good questions, engage with awe, and be satisfied with incomplete answers since life is a verb, not a noun.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science.” — Albert Einstein

Student Learning Outcomes:

Quite simply, in AFLS we learn to live mindfully and with the willingness to be open and honest in all aspects of our lives. Art and music afford us a unique and powerful opportunity to practice these skills.

“The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenalin but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”

— Glenn Gould

This course is a practice. We’re really just learning to practice better…alone and in community.

"Enlightenment, peace, and joy will not be granted by someone else.

The well is within us,

And if we dig deeply in the present moment,

the water will spring forth.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

What's Cool About the Course:

What’s old is also always new in the present moment. We read. We listen. We look. We journal. We practice mindfulness. We ponder. We wonder. We ask questions. We discuss. We sit in silence. We walk with purpose. We experience art…of all types. We investigate the essence of human life in both the past, the present, and our imagined future. And we play. We like to call all this, simply, serious fun.

Twisted locs, braids, bantu knots, cornrows and wigs are but some of the many aesthetic practices introduced globally by Africana people. Historically, African hairstyles were coded and complex, and one’s hair conveyed significant personal information, including a person’s marital status, wealth, rank, age, religion and ethnic identity. This course traces the origins of African hair from the continent, where it stood as a marker of culture and prestige, to the Americas, where black hair has often been derided and devalued in a society where European notions of beauty are the societal standard. Students will explore the contemporary social construction of “Black Hair” and the manner in which hairstyles often signify, resist and conform to societal norms.

Student Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course students should be able to

• Describe the ancient African origins of and practices in Black hair care and some of the individuals and institutions that have influenced the Black American hair industry.
• Demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts and theories (i.e. world view, culture, power, race, gender, stereotype, lookism, cultural hegemony, agency, protest & resistance, African-Consciousness, Womanism etc.) and describe their utility in discussing the politics of black hair.
• Explain how class, gender, religion and other attributes might intersect with identity, cultural dependency and self-concept to influence personal hair care regiments and hairstyle choices.
• Name and discuss some Black hairstyles (“naturals,” permed, braided, dreaded, weaves, extensions, Afros, twists, knots, etc.) and their social and political meaning(s) and challenges.

Change the life of a child and change yours in the process. Students enrolled in this course join Honors College students over the years who have expanded their own knowledge of the world and been exposed to issues and segments of education they have not experienced all while making a difference in the Tuscaloosa community and the lives of local school children. Students learn what education looks like from the viewpoint of an educator and all that it entails…the issues, the rewards, and why they should care about the state of education in their community and state. Each section of this course offers hands-on work with students through participation in BRIGHT or Reading Allies.

What’s Cool About the Course:

This is a service-learning field experience course. The service-learning experience is a learning vehicle for Honors students to be exposed to and learn about educational issues within multiple segments of our surrounding communities. UA students work with students in local elementary, middle or high schools for 8-12 hours during the semester in a variety of educational settings and subject areas. Honors students receive training during class time on the specific work to be done in the service-learning experience, on how to work with school-aged children and how to be an effective mentor.