Through readings, presentations, discussions, mentoring and experiential learning, this colloquium is designed to provide an overview of Ignatian education and the mission of Jesuit universities, an introduction to social justice with an emphasis on the challenges facing New Orleans, and an understanding of the “habits of mind” consistent with successful completion of a Jesuit Honors program, including participation in the intellectual and spiritual life of the university, engaging with the community, embracing diversity, and being people for and with others.
This course is required in the first semester of study for students entering the program in their first year. Students who transfer into the program may, with the permission of the Honors director, be exempt from this requirement.
Honors Thesis fulfills the thesis requirement for the University Honors Program. In this course, students work closely with the Honors Director and a faculty thesis advisor to complete their original work. Completion and public presentation of the work are required to pass the course and to complete the Honors Program.
All Honors students must complete an original work of undergraduate research, thesis, or senior project and the project’s associated research and revisions process. Students in departments that offer an equivelant course may satisfy the thesis requirement for the University Honors Program with the departmental course. Students completing a departmental thesis should not register for Honors Thesis unless they are plan to complete an additional thesis through the University Honors Program.
Departments across campus offer courses in the University Honors Program each semester. The subject or topic of the course and the number of the course indicates which UHP requirement is fulfilled. The descriptions that follow here are general. Specific descriptions of the current offerings, as well as archived course descriptions, can be found on the Course Descriptions page of the University Honors Program website.
This seminar will introduce students to the nomenclature, processes and skills of humanities scholarship, including close analysis of primary texts, documents and ephemera of material culture; information literacy, including locating, identifying and evaluating research resources; the ability to discuss important cultural themes (specified in the course topic) comparatively, across historical and/or global or transnational trajectories. Over the course of the semester, students will learn to develop and present both in writing and orally increasingly sophisticated, well-articulated arguments regarding the themes and materials of the course, supported by evidence and based in their analysis of primary and secondary sources.
This is part of the Honors core requirements. Students who transfer into the program are also required to take this course, but, depending on the specific topic,may use it to satisfy one of the honors disciplinary requirements.
The Honors Ethics course is a variable topic course that will conform to the criteria for ethics established in the Common Curriculum in the context of an Honors seminar. As such, the course will address all three over-arching learning outcomes of the Honors curriculum: critical thinking, effective communication, and Ignatian values.
Honors students are required to fulfill their Ethics requirement in Honors, unless a particular non-Honors ethics course is required for their majors.
A number of general Honors seminars are offered over a variety of topics across the curriculum. General Honors seminars comprise the majority of each semester's offerings as well as the majority of credit hours required of students in the University Honors Program. All Honors seminars will contribute to cura personalis - education of the whole person - by addressing the three over-arching Honors learning outcomes: critical thinking, effective communication, and Ignatian values.
Through community engaged research, this interdisciplinary social science seminar focuses on a significant social justice issue (for example, gun violence or homelessness) to explore the root causes of both this issue and injustice in general, to develop quantitative and qualitative research skills, and to consider the role of research in advocacy and social change.
This course is required in the Honors Core Curriculum. It should be taken in the second or third year.