Call for Course Proposals

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Last Updated: Jul 10, 2025, 06:32 PM

The University Honors Program invites SIUC faculty to propose courses for our Fall 25-Spring 2026 UHON 351 seminars. Honors students take these UHON seminars to fulfil their University Core requirements. The goal is to introduce students to the foundations of intellectual enquiry in a comprehensive research university within the seminar-style model of collaborative learning. Seminars are dialogic. Faculty and students engage in debate and discussion grounded in texts and materials that the class is considering. 

We encourage experimental and interdisciplinary approaches that integrate theory and practice, the university and the community, and foster habits of critical thinking. These foundational courses are not surveys in specific disciplines. Rather, the objective is to engage students in exploring the big questions embedded in discipline/s, approaches or methods, and to deepen and broaden their ability to untangle major problems that confront us. 

In developing your course proposal, please consider: How does the course introduce students, especially non-majors, to the significance of your field or study? How does your method of analysis and research help examine how knowledge shapes our world and is shaped by it? How does your pedagogy engage students in experimenting with and communicating concepts such that they make deeper connections with each other and faculty? How does your subject help students feel some sense of control over their lives? 

All SIUC faculty are encouraged to apply. 

  • You may submit individually or in pairs.
  • Please submit your proposal using this Course Proposal Form.

Remuneration:  

  • Faculty incentive, i.e., $5000 in salary, if taught in addition to regular teaching duties
  • College Signature Course, taught on-load by the faculty member (no remuneration to College or faculty)

Why Become an Honors Faculty Fellow

Why Teach a UHON seminar?

  • Do you want to experiment, create, and collaborate in a teaching-research environment geared to asking big questions?
  • Are you interested in impacting general education in a changing world?
  • Do you enjoy interactive environments where students are prepared and eager to participate?
  • Would you welcome a small class of only 15 students?
  • All FTE credit goes to the home department of the faculty member.

Creating the Honors Environment

  • UHON faculty model lifelong practice of research-practice based learning. 
  • UHON courses are not designed as introductory surveys of a particular discipline. Rather, they introduce students to how particular disciplines approach enduring and pressing questions that are embedded in every discipline
  • When appropriate, courses may be writing intensive; integrate studies and creative practice.
  • Students are expected to fully participate in class, and should be given the opportunity to do so.

Characteristics of an Honors Seminar

  • Small enough for close attention to individual student learning. University Honors Program seminars (UHON 351) that satisfy University Core Curriculum requirements are capped at 15.
  • Chosen by a panel of their peers, all UHON seminars are taught by faculty who are leaders in their research and practice
  • Innovative in teaching and learning. Each UHON seminar is a memorable experience for both students and faculty in an engaged community of learning. Like graduate seminars, UHON courses offer sustained discussion, group projects, multi-media classrooms, Service learning, Problem-based Learning and/or independent research and creative activities.
  • Comprised of truly exceptional students. Eager to learn, well prepared, and broadly curious, UHON students generally motivate each other to assume much of the responsibility for the course themselves.
  • Original in content and focus. UHON courses push disciplinary boundaries and some are organized in a cluster around a specific theme each year.   Each course can fulfill more than one area in the Core Curriculum.

Course Proposals are vetted by the Honors Advisory Council, comprised of faculty from all the Colleges.  Current members are:

  • Stacey McKinney   Health & Human Sciences            
  • Mehdi Ashayeri  Arts and Media                                 
  • John Farrish   Business and Analytics                        
  • Kelly Bender   Agricultural, life, and Physical Sciences
  • Allison Hammer   Liberal Arts
  • Jeb Asirvatham Agribusiness, Director, University Core Curriculum
  • Bobbi Knapp   Health & Human Sciences
  • Shaikh S. Ahmed   Engineering, Computing, Technology, and Mathematics