HONORS 1000 - CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The Honors College will accept Honors 1000 course proposals for the 2021-2022 academic year starting in the fall of 2020. Please direct questions to Interim Associate Dean Marise Parent or Interim Dean Sarah Cook. Dr. Cook is currently teaching the book to Presidential Scholars and is available to brainstorm potential approaches.
Proposals are welcome starting now. The deadline to submit your proposal is February 2, 2021, at 5 p.m. (Eastern). Decisions will be released no later than early March 2021.
More Details
This course is intended to expose students to seminar-style learning and to provide incoming Honors students with an opportunity to explore a historical or current question, theme, or concept. This year all seminars will be based on a common book, “Caste, the Origins of Our Discontents”, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Isabel Wilkerson. The objectives and approach should be based on the faculty member’s research interests, but the content must be accessible to incoming freshmen with no special background in the field. Faculty will be expected to come together on two occasions to discuss the text and share ideas for engaging students. Instructors are encouraged to design courses that incorporate university and Honors College events, helping students to cultivate a life of the mind; for example, assignments might be to attend a campus lecture or research workshop and write a reflection essay or iCollege discussion post.
- Honors 1000 seminars (required for first-semester students) meet once a week for 50 minutes, for one hour of elective credit
- Classes are limited to 15 or fewer students, and grading is pass-fail.
- Exams and/or lengthy papers are not appropriate for Honors 1000 unless they have proven successful in past sections.
- Seminar-style learning spaces available in the Honors College for all Honors 1000 sections that have a face-to-face component.
- Funding available for course activities (dependent on available budget).
For the proposal, interested faculty are asked to submit a summary (300 words max) describing how they might approach teaching this book, including learning objectives and pedagogical strategies.
Our goal is for the following outcomes and objectives to be met through our Honors College courses;
- Developing proficient written and oral communication through attention to organization, presentation, and style; use of compelling and credible content, sources; and clear, cohesive, and compelling language and a well-supported, memorable central message.
- Gaining interdisciplinary understanding by synthesizing ideas and experiences and learning to reach conclusions by combining examples from more than one field.
- Developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills by cultivating the mental habit of stating problems and issues clearly; proper sourcing of information and questioning of expert opinions; analyzing personal assumptions, and reaching logical conclusions and solutions.
- Nurturing creativity by pursuing assignments or research in potentially risky, untested ways; integrating divergent or contradictory ideas; extending a novel question, format, or product to create new knowledge; and producing transformative ideas or solutions.
- Cultivating a global perspective through study abroad experiences; seeking insight into personal cultural values; interpreting intercultural experience from more than one viewpoint; and negotiating a shared understanding of differences with openness.
For more information about this book, you are encouraged to read this excerpt in the New York Times or listen to this interview on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Here are additional links to reviews:
- Wall Street Journal
- Foreign Policy
- The Guardian
- LA Review of Books (Link 1) (Link 2)
- The New Yorker
- Washington Post
The Honors Digital Literacy Initiative provides unique resources to faculty who plan to teach Honors courses in the 2019-2020 academic year. These resources offer increased opportunities for students to participate in active learning, engage in new approaches to their disciplines through digital discussion and problem solving, and obtain skills important to academic and professional success. Resources include:
- eText and Course Development Assistance: The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) will provide resources to assist faculty with creating their own eTexts or developing other course materials and ideas.
- Technology-Equipped Academic Spaces: Participants will be eligible to teach in flexible classroom spaces that include technologies such as touch screens and classroom recording.
- An Exceptional Environment for Educational Research and Publication:This initiative provides many opportunities to conduct evidenced-based research into how evolving digital tools affect learning. Help with preparing publications will be available.
Program Participation
Find out how even small changes to how you ask students to demonstrate evidence of learning can have a big impact. Discover more about digital pedagogy and resources for faculty from CETL. Explore classroom projects from the DL initiative at Edge Magazine.