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Honors Symposium: Home

Fall 2022 Honors Symposium:Home

The Honors College Symposium

The UMass Lowell Honors College Symposium is a non-credit, non-graded, optional way for Honors College students to satisfy H4, H5, or H6 honors course requirements. The symposium consists of three units throughout the semester, one per month. The Symposium requires approximately 8-10 hours of engagement. You can start today if you wish by reading ahead! The Honors College Symposium is classified as an Honors Experiential Learning Opportunity (HELO). *Note if you waived H1 and H2, you CAN NOT use a HELO to cover a Commonwealth Honors requirement. You must have 18 credits of honors coursework to graduate with Commonwealth Honors. Submit the SYMPOSIUM REGISTRATION FORM to register for the Honors Symposium.

Honors Symposium on Repression and Dissent

The Spring 2023 Honors Symposium focuses on the dark side of human political behavior—political repression, including politically motivated imprisonment, torture, murder and disappearance—and the struggle of citizens to bring about change through non-violent and violent demonstrations, general strikes and armed resistance.

Principal Features:

  • Attend all three Friday discussion sessions. Time 3:30 pm-5:30 pm. Two hours in length. Feb 10th, March 24th, and April 14 in the Allen House on south campus.
  • Execute a persuasive commentary

Speakers:

  • Jenifer Whitten-Woodring (Feb 10)Dean Whitten-Woodring will begin with an exploration of the dynamics of contentious politics at the nexus of repression and dissent. Students will engage in a strategic game based on real events and then compare their outcome to that of the actual case.  
  • Tim Crain (March 24): Dr. Timothy M. Crain is an Associate Teaching Professor of Music History in the Department of Music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He emphasizes a collaborative, inclusive, dynamic, and interdisciplinary teaching style, drawing on the most current scholarly methods, the other creative arts, and the use of performance and compositional projects to help shed light on various aspects of music.
  • Ardeth Thawnghmung (April 14)

*see below for more details   

Questions or to sign up, contact: rae_mansfield@uml.edu

Responsibilities of the Honors Students

Each student must:
(1) Sign up for the Symposium by completing and submitting the Honors Experiential Learning Opportunity (HELO) Application.
(2) Read articles from all 3 speakers (See article links below). We want the speaker sessions to be a discussion, so having this background knowledge will help you be able to participate in the discussion and gain a better understanding of the topic.  
(3) Attend, be on time, be fully prepared, and be fully engaged in all three symposium discussion sessions.
(4) Write and record a  final Radio Commentary.  Please create an MP3 file, Title your commentary (a title that gets at what your main argument is), and send it to rae_mansfield@uml.edu.  The Radio Commentary assignment is due no later than April 28th.  

The Radio Commentary is an opportunity for you to share what you thought and make an argument about one (or more) of the topics discussed during the Symposium. Take a look at these Radio Commentary Guidelines. Based on everything you have read and heard, what is your most important takeaway? You heard the speakers make their arguments, now it is your turn to make yours. Think about how you might persuade others--make your case. This is your time to reflect on the last three months and discuss them.

*The Radio Commentary is due by the last day of the semester.  Please submit it to rae_mansfield@uml.edu. 

***PLEASE name the file: FIRSTname_LASTname_SymposiumSemesteryear (Example: Sally_Smith_SymposiumSpring2023).

 

*You will receive a Satisfactory(S) or Unsatisfactory (U) for the course, which will show up on your transcript.   

Note: Failure to fulfill all the above requirements on time will result in the student receiving an Unsatisfactory (U) grade for the Symposium and thereby not receiving credit for the H4, H5, or H6 honors requirement.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please email rae_mansfield@uml.edu.