{"id":9258,"date":"2024-05-06T11:58:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T18:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/?p=9258"},"modified":"2024-05-06T12:21:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T19:21:46","slug":"eliza-barstow-navigating-difficult-conversations-in-honors-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/2024\/05\/06\/eliza-barstow-navigating-difficult-conversations-in-honors-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliza Barstow: Navigating ‘Difficult Conversations’ in Honors Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eliza Barstow understands the impact honors courses can have on exposing students to new perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barstow \u2013 a senior instructor in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University and the 2023 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Professor \u2013 began her own journey with honors education during her undergraduate years at the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. She recalls how her favorite honors courses changed her perception of the topics they explored. \u201cI particularly loved an honors class on astronomy,\u201d she notes. \u201cLike many students, I was not enthusiastic about the need to take courses well outside of my area of study; for me, that meant I was not thrilled about science courses.\u201d However, upon taking the class, Barstow overcame her initial skepticism and became engrossed in the subject. \u201cI subsequently took another more advanced astronomy course \u2014 one that involved a significant amount of math \u2014 because I had enjoyed the first one so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another class, on Shakespeare, similarly transformed her perception of a challenging topic. Though Barstow did not initially \u201creally love Shakespeare,\u201d she emerged from the course with a newfound admiration. \u201cI now enjoy Shakespeare quite a bit,\u201d Barstow accounts; in fact, she recently visited a live production of Macbeth, which she highly recommends. \u201cStudents reading this article should know that tickets to Oregon Shakespeare Festival performances are only $25 for students!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Barstow now explores the capacity of honors classes to open students up to new topics as a teacher. Since beginning her career at OSU in 2016, she has developed several honors colloquia courses, including Race, White Supremacy and the State of Oregon and the Handmaid\u2019s Tale and American Religious Diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her newest honors colloquium is called Difficult Conversations. This class aims to equip students with the dialogue skills necessary for bridging divides and seeking common ground amongst individuals with differing views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspiration for Difficult Conversations came from Barstow’s observation of \u201can increase in people\u2019s willingness to exist in social or political bubbles \u2014 writing off folks with different perspectives on political, religious and cultural issues.\u201d She believes in the importance of seeking to rectify this division, \u201cbecause it can hinder the process of finding solutions to problems.\u201d She adds, \u201cOur goal in these conversations is not to \u2018win,\u2019 but rather to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barstow explains, \u201cwhile there may be a certain satisfaction people garner from surrounding themselves with like-minded individuals, problem solving also necessitates working with people who hold diverse viewpoints. Humanity is unlikely to find workable remedies for climate change or work towards resolutions for wars if people do not first practice dialogue.\u201d Students enrolled in Difficult Conversations will practice dialogue skills by pairing up with other students and leading conversations on a topic of their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barstow’s overarching goal for students in this class is that they \u201cfeel more confident talking to folks with different viewpoints.\u201d She also hopes to see them become proactive leaders who teach these skills to others. \u201cMy dream is for the students who take this course to start dialogue groups within their communities, for instance, in libraries, on campuses and in their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Honors College is offering Difficult Conversations as a one-week, in-person Summer Extension Course from June 17 \u2013 21, 2024. It will also be offered during the coming fall term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Register for summer HC classes today, and explore HC Summer Extension and Ecampus course offerings at beav.es\/cgr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shion Britten, Student Writer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eliza Barstow understands the impact honors courses can have on exposing students to new perspectives. Barstow \u2013 a senior instructor in the School of History, Philosophy and Religion at Oregon State University and the 2023 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Professor \u2013 began her own journey with honors education during her undergraduate years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14004,"featured_media":9259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1163399,1048851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-courses-faculty","category-homestories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9261,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9258\/revisions\/9261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}