The URI Honors Program offers dynamic, interdisciplinary courses taught by award-winning, cutting-edge faculty. Additionally, URI’s faculty have organized the Honors Colloquium for over 50 years.
Interested in Teaching an Honors Course?
Have you have ever thought you would like to teach for Honors or chair an Honors Colloquium? All full-time URI faculty are invited to submit proposals for Honors courses to be taught in either Fall 2024 or Spring 2025. Courses may be proposed for one semester or both and at all course levels. Course proposals can either be for an honors section of an existing course or for an original course designed specifically for the Honors Program.
Why teach Honors?
Teaching in the Honors Program gives you the opportunity to experiment with new interdisciplinary courses and to enjoy Honors teaching conditions:
- teach small seminar-style classes between 15 and 20 students
- meet highly motivated students
- experiment with new course designs
- participate in an interdisciplinary community of faculty interested in teaching excellence and active learning.
All enrollment numbers for honors courses are credited to the faculty member’s home department. Teaching in the University Honors Program offers your department:
- an opportunity to showcase and recruit for your major among excellent students;
- an occasion to try course designs that may later become a permanent offering in your department;
- guidelines for honors course proposals
Interested in Proposing an Honors Colloquium?
The Honors Colloquium is a wonderful opportunity to engage the University and public with your area of research and intellectual concern.
The Honors Program and Visiting Scholars Committee invites interested faculty and faculty teams to submit proposals for the URI Honors Colloquium each fall. The Honors Colloquium is the premiere intellectual lecture series in Rhode Island and serves as a showcase for the University. The Colloquium is a university-wide educational forum with a substantial public following and audience that offers presentations and discussions of emerging lively, challenging intellectual issues. Each fall, the Honors Colloquium combines a topical series of speakers and events with a 200-level honors course. Participation in a Honors Colloquium is a completion requirement for the Honors Program, and in the last few years the average class size has been 50-70 students.
Substantial financial support is in place for a speaker budget, summer recontracting, and course replacement. In addition, financial liaisons for additional support have been established over past recent years with the various colleges, research centers, and academic programs on campus. Colloquium coordinators are also encouraged to seek external support.
Sponsor an Honors Project
The faculty sponsor is key to the success of the Honors Project. The Honors Project is an independent study. The faculty sponsor will help shape and refine a student’s topic, give advice and guidance as they proceed, set up a schedule of times to meet with student to discuss progress, and evaluate and grade final work. Even when a project is interdisciplinary, it is wise for students to select one professor to serve as the primary sponsor. Professors from the same or different departments may serve as additional advisors or consultants for students as needed and if they are willing, but one professor needs to be responsible for they final evaluation and grade.