Honors classes are taught by expert professors and complemented by activities such as attendance at performing arts organizations and visits to other cultural institutions and sites of particular interest.
There are 14 required classes designed specifically for the Honors Program. Other requirements include:
This course introduces students to college writing and selectively surveys diverse literatures before 1700 CE. Students read works from the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods of Western literature, along with works from non-Western cultural tradition. They also reflect critically on the historical constructions of race, ethnicity, and gender.
This course introduces students to literary analysis and selectively surveys diverse literatures after 1700 CE. Students read works by a diverse company of modern authors, writing in a variety of national and geographic traditions. They also deepen their reflections of the historical constructions of race, ethnicity, and gender.
This course provides an introduction to the discipline of history through a survey and comparison of early societies and cultures. It explores the foundations and diverse contexts for the historical, literary, and philosophical achievements distinctive to those periods.
Continuing the introduction and survey provided in the first semester, this course delves extensively into the nature of the “modern” world, including global trade systems and empires, experiences of and response to colonialism, major wars and other conflicts, ideologies, revolutions, and emerging technological and environmental challenges. Students will also conduct a major historical research project.
This course provides an introduction to philosophy through the study of ancient and medieval philosophical traditions that broadly explore the question of what it means to live a good life. While it focuses on the ancient Greek conception of the human person and their relation to the gods, the political community, and the natural world, it further considers how these themes, among others, are taken up in ancient Eastern thought, medieval Christian and/or Islamic thought, and/or more contemporary texts.
This course further develops the introduction to philosophy begun in HON 131 through the study of diverse philosophical traditions that both reflect and critique the modern emphasis on the individual and its legacy in contemporary life. It focuses on philosophical analyses of the distinctive human powers and vulnerabilities brought about by the scientific, economic, and political transformations that shaped the modern world.
This course invites students to reflect on their spiritual and religious experience as they examine some of the fundamental components of traditional religion – myth, symbol, moral code, ritual, and community. The course also considers the impact of faith on culture as well as culture’s impact on religious practice. The course may explore multiple methods to study religion, including philosophy of religion, phenomenological, historical, or other methods.