The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Honors Program offers a challenging alternative

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1 The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Honors Program offers a challenging alternative to the Liberal Studies Program for well-prepared, serious students majoring in any discipline within the College. Like the Liberal Studies Program, the Honors Program seeks to widen students perspectives beyond their academic majors and foster critical thinking, self-reflection, and an examination of values. In addition, the Honors Program works to foster active, participatory learning; promote interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies; encourage students to develop facility in a second language beyond the minimum LAS requirements; develop the skills necessary for pursuing independent research; help students see themselves as members of larger communities in which they can be leaders; and assist interested students in thinking about and preparing for post-graduate education. In order to meet these goals, the program offers small classes organized in a seminar format and taught by faculty committed to realizing the program s goals; emphasizes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives in all core courses; advances students skills in writing and research, reading and analysis through carefully structured exercises; requires experiential learning and intensive language training; encourages self-directed learning through thirdyear courses which require extensive research, and the fourth-year seminar or thesis; offers lecture and film series, study abroad programs, field trips, and opportunities for public service; and provides information and counseling regarding admission to graduate schools and applications for fellowships. Students are invited to join the Honors Program at the beginning of their first year at DePaul. Invitations are issued on the basis of a student s written application, high school record, entrance examination scores, and personal interview. In some cases, DePaul students and transfer students may be considered for the Honors Program through the first quarter of their sophomore year. To graduate from the Honors Program, students must have attained a 3.2 grade point average by the last quarter of their senior year. REQUIREMENTS Like the Liberal Studies Program, the Honors Program consists of twenty courses representing 80 quarter hours. These include a ten-course core, a three-course science sequence, a three-course modern language sequence beyond the College requirement, a Junior seminar, two approved Junior-level courses, and one open 300-level elective. In general, AP and IB credit will count as general elective credit for Honors Students. Please see the Honors Website for further information. The Honors Program core consists of the following courses: HON 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 201, 202, 203, 204, 350 or 351. To promote interdisciplinary learning, the following core courses should be taken concurrently whenever possible: HON 101: World Literature HON 102: Individual and Community in the Pre-Modern World should be followed immediately by HON 103: Tradition and Modernity Since HON 104: Religious Worlds and Worldviews HON 105: Philosophical Inquiry 189

2 HON 202: Art, Artist and Audience I should be followed immediately by HON 203: Art, Artist and Audience II. Science: Honors students majoring in areas other than Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physics or Environmental Science must take at least one lab course, and one quantitative course as part of this three-course science requirement. In addition, honors students who do not place into calculus or who will not take calculus as part of their program, must complete Quantitative Reasoning (Interdisciplinary Studies 120) before completing the science requirements. Mathematics majors may not take one of the Mathematics sequences to satisfy this requirement. Honors students majoring in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physics or Environmental Sciences satisfy the science requirement by taking Interdisciplinary Sciences 220, 221, 222. Modern Language: Students must complete one year of modern-language study in addition to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences requirement. Placement will be based on placement test results or Modern Language Department consultation. Students who have taken two years of a language in high school but do not place out of the beginning level of the language may not count the beginning level of that same language at DePaul towards the Honors Program requirement. Students may, instead, begin a new language at DePaul, which will count towards the Honors Program requirement. Honors students majoring in a modern language must complete a year of study in a second language. Junior Approved Courses: Students select two courses from an approved list of offerings to fulfill this requirement. Junior Seminars and Electives: Students take one HON 300: Junior Seminar. Students also have one free elective, which may be satisfied by taking any 300-level course in the College. (Discover Chicago must count as this elective.) Junior Year Requirements for Science Majors: Science majors are required to take one 300-level seminar as described above, and one Honors Program Approved Course. Science majors who have taken Discover Chicago take one 300-level seminar. Senior thesis: Students have the option of doing a senior thesis in lieu of HON 350: Senior Seminar: Lifelong Learning or Hon 351: Senior Seminar: Altruism and Activis. Students who choose to do a thesis must have their project approved at least one term prior to executing the project. To gain approval for a senior thesis, students must first contact the director or associate director for pre-approval, complete an application, including a project proposal, signed by two advisors from different disciplines. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the program, the thesis should attempt to move outside boundaries normally associated with one particular discipline. While the final product must be a substantial piece of work building on the student s accumulated knowledge and new research, specific requirements for each thesis will depend on the nature of the project. See the director or associate director for an application. Foreign Study: The Foreign Study Program of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers many programs for either one or two quarters. Such an experience is particularly appropriate for students in the Honors Program and, though not required, is strongly recommended. Honors students interested in Foreign Study should plan this for their junior year and should 190

3 make certain that they have fulfilled appropriate modern language requirements before that point in their undergraduate careers. MODEL CURRICULA Whenever possible, we strongly encourage students to take as many of their 100-level Honors Program courses during their first year. These students should follow Model Honors Program Curriculum I. However, students whose schedules permit only one Honors Course at a time may delay some of their courses until their second year. These students should follow Model Honors Program Curriculum II. Keep in mind that these model curricula are offered as guides, not as strict instructions. Most courses are offered during two quarters; moreover, some students may decide to postpone their science courses to the junior year or their Junior seminar until their senior year. If you have questions, see the program director. Finally, note that these models reflect only Honors Program requirements. Additional courses are designated by. For help in planning the rest of their programs, students should consult their major field advisors. MODEL HONORS PROGRAM CURRICULUM I FIRST YEAR (8 Honors courses over the year) HON 101 and HON 104 HON 102 HON 103 and HON 105 or or or HON 102 HON 103 and HON 105 HON 101 and HON 104 Language I Language II Language III () () SECOND YEAR (7 Honors courses over the year) 200-level HON course 200-level HON course 200-level HON course Science I Science II Science III 200-level HON course 200-level HON course 200-level HON course or or or THIRD YEAR (3 Honors courses over the year) Jr. seminar Jr. approved course HON elective FOURTH YEAR (2 Honors courses over the year) Junior approved course HON 350 or thesis MODEL HONORS PROGRAM CURRICULUM II FIRST YEAR (3 Honors courses over the year) HON 102 HON 103 HON

4 SECOND YEAR (7 Honors courses over the year) HON 201 HON 105 HON 204 and HON 104 Language I Language II Language III THIRD YEAR (6 Honors courses over the year) HON 202 HON 203 HON elective IDS 220 (science majors) IDS 221 (science majors) IDS 222 (science majors) or Science I or Science II or Science III FOURTH YEAR (4 Honors courses over the year) HON Jr. seminar HON 350 thesis HON Jr. Approved Course HON Jr. Approved Course COURSES Honors Program courses are open only to students who have been admitted to the Honors Program. Each course carries 4 quarter hours of credit. HON 100 RHETORIC AND CRITICAL INQUIRY An intensive writing course in a workshop format. This class will lead students through a sequence of writing assignments which require them to take positions and persuade audiences about issues of public concern. Students will work in writing groups and practice revising their work. They will study issues of form and style as part of the consideration of how to create effective public discourse. This course is an elective. HON 101 WORLD LITERATURE The focus of this course is the way writers use language to construct their worlds. Men and women from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa not only write about different life experiences but construct their narratives out of different cultural myths. Not only the content of their works, but the forms in which they write reveal ways of perceiving, constructing, and thinking about their worlds. Writing assignments might include a reading journal, role-playing exercises, and/or short essays comparing pertinent aspects of the readings. Recent topics include: "Language and Difference," and "Journey of the Self." HON 102 INDIVIDUAL & COMMUNITY IN THE PRE-MODERN WORLD This course examines the world view of the peoples making up traditional West Asian, South Asian, East Asian, African, Amerindian, and European societies to 1500 A.D. Students will be exposed to a variety of traditional value systems and cosmologies with emphasis on the comparative approach. Primary texts will be studied to illustrate these systems. Several short papers involving limited research will be required. Recent topics include: "Ghengiz Khan and his Successors." 192

5 HON 103 ENDURING THEMES IN HUMAN HISTORY SINCE 1500 This course deals with the expansion of Europe and the resulting cultural conflicts. Students will be encouraged to enroll with the same instructor as they had for "Individual and Community in the Pre-Modern World" so that they can focus on the impact of Europe and modernity on the same civilizations they studied the previous term. Recent topics include: "History as Personal Narrative," and "World Revolution: A Different View." PREREQUISITE(S): HON 102. HON 104 RELIGIOUS WORLDS AND WORLD VIEWS This course focuses upon the collective construction of cultural reality. It examines people's confrontation with the sacred as a formative instrument in this process. Throughout the course the overriding concern is with the meaning and function of culture as a system or world that we inhabit as fish inhabit water. This world with its distinctive concepts of ultimacy, time, space, cosmos, and life passages is created and enacted through myths, narratives, and ritual performances. Writing exercises develop analytical skills, the ability to compare and to apply theoretical explanations and interpretations to the process of constructing cultural reality. All sections of the course will involve a field experience in which students enter the world of a community which is not part of the student's own experience. Recent topics include: "Expression in Imagery," and "Language and the Creation of Meaning." HON 105 PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY This course is an introduction to philosophy and its methods of inquiry insofar as they have to do with questions of knowledge, truth, right and wrong action, and personal and social identity. Specific topics dealt with in this course will also seek to address how these more general themes of knowledge, action, and human identity relate to how such questions are posed in the modern period, how one thinks critically about such questions and attempts to respond to them, and what it means to inquire about the human condition in a rational manner. Readings will be drawn from both primary philosophical texts and relevant material from other disciplines e.g. history, literature, political thought. All students will be expected to learn to analyze, discuss, and write philosophically about such materials. Recent topics include: "Philosophy and Its Issues." HON 201 STATES, MARKETS AND SOCIETIES This is a course about power. The course material explores various theories about how power is distributed and the way this distribution shapes the modern world. The course offers a careful blend of history and social theory, calling each to illuminate the other. It concentrates on the emergence, development, and future of the international capitalist system. A critical appraisal of this system is emphasized, and students are called upon to evaluate alternatives to it. Readings and discussion move back and forth between the presentation of relatively abstract models and the close evaluation of concrete case materials. Writing for the course may include take-home exams and medium-length papers that ask students to reflect on the readings (required and recommended) and discussions from class. 193

6 HON 202 ART, ARTIST AND AUDIENCE I This two-quarter sequence provides instruction in art, literature and music as examples of the relationships among art, artist and audience. Throughout the two quarters, the class investigates assumptions about what art is, what roles the makers play in society, and what the audience contributes to the process. The first quarter focuses on art for eight weeks and literature for the last two weeks. In addition to introducing students to principles, elements, and criticism in these fields, this course requires students to learn firsthand about the artistic process by participating in an art studio "lab" for three hours each week during the first eight weeks of the quarter. HON 203 ART, ARTIST AND AUDIENCE II (Continuation of 202) This course continues the discussion of these three aspects of the creative process by continuing to focus on literature for the first two weeks of the term and then focusing on music for the final eight weeks. HON 204 URBAN EPERIENCE This course explores the urban experience, as imagined and as lived. It begins with a discussion of the evolution of cities as physical constructs and social communities. Chicago may provide a case study of trends in city planning and urban design, the historical evolution of social class and ethnic tensions as well as social movements, and the development of urban political institutions. This course satisfies the multi-cultural component of the Liberal Studies Program. Writing exercises may include analyses of film and textual representations of cities. HON 300 JUNIOR SEMINAR Offered each quarter, the topics of the junior seminar vary. Each offering, however, builds upon concepts introduced in a previous core course and involves a research project. Recent offerings include: "Beyond Dualities," "Language and the Politics of Terror," "Translation and Interpretation," and "Mathematics in Art, and Caribbean Literature and Culture." HON 350 LIFELONG LERNING This course provides a capstone to the Honors Program. All Senior Seminars foster preparation for life-long learning. HON 351 ALTRUISM AND ACTIVISM This course provides a capstone to the Honors Program. This senior seminar brings students into the community as they develop skills for lifelong learning. This course also fulfills the experiential learning requirement. HON 395 SENIOR THESIS Students may elect to do a senior thesis rather than take 350 or 351. Once their project is approved, they may sign up for course credit under this number. Students wishing to do an Honors Program Thesis must submit an application signed by two faculty directors and a two-page project description to the Honors Program Director by the eighth week of the quarter prior to that in which the project will be done. 194