This seminar introduces University Scholars to the guiding liberal arts question of the SPU Honors curriculum: “what does it mean to be human?," using the interdisciplinary lenses of culture and social systems. It fosters critical thinking and integrative learning by examining how knowledge is constructed through a specific focus on cultural encounters in the past and present. The course models the honors program's pedagogy of faithful academic scholarship through its commitment to intellectual hospitality, inclusion and embrace, and “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Autumn.

This Honors Core course continues the liberal arts investigation of what it means to be human in the context of philosophy and moral reasoning. It investigates how knowledge is constructed -- and by whom -- and begins foundational work in the intellectual frameworks and practices of a scholar. The central aim is to develop good, productive, critical thinking and reasoning skills sufficient for navigating some of life’s most pressing and seemingly intractable problems. Aristotle declared the human person a “rational animal.” One might conceive of this as a crash course on how to think/reason well. And the course continues to model the honors program's pedagogy of faithful academic scholarship through its commitment to intellectual hospitality, inclusion and embrace, and “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Winter, Spring.

This course asks the question "what does it mean to be human?" through investigating the relationship between visual representation and western history and culture. It explores the moral, psychological, and political uses of visual representation across time, and considers how the creation and dissemination of visual imagery can be pursued ethically and with excellence. Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Spring, Winter.

This course examines the relationship between western science, faith, and theology in the context of the guiding honors question: “what does it mean to be human?” It models how faithful academic scholarship can be both rigorous and intellectually hospitable, continuing the integrative and interdisciplinary liberal arts learning of the honors program as a whole. Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Autumn, Winter.

An advanced course in the roles and purposes of academic knowledge. Students will investigate information creation within the disciplines and how information gains value, developing an understanding of how authority is both constructed and contextual. They will also learn, through studying and creating high-level academic writing, that research is a form of inquiry and that academic scholarship is a conversation. Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Autumn, Spring, Winter.

Honors Advanced Studies classes will vary in topic, as approved by the Honors Curriculum Committee. Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director to apply for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Autumn, Spring, Winter.

The Honors Research Capstone course provides an opportunity for University Scholars to study, read, write, and reflect on their honors liberal arts education in the context of their faith commitments and their disciplinary research project, and to do the work to prepare their presentation for the annual Honors Research Symposium, required for honors graduation. Open to Honors students only. Typically offered: Spring.

Opportunity for independent study, with approval of the Honors Director. Open to Honors students only. Typically offered: Occasionally.

Honors Special Topics courses will be offered on an occasional basis, varying in content and delivery. Interested non-Honors students can contact the Honors Director for registration on a space-available basis. Typically offered: Occasionally.