Requirements

Requirements for the Honors Program

  1. Complete at least one year of residence in an Honors living-learning community, preferably the first year with its attached Connections 195 Seminar, "The Liberal Arts, The Mystery of Consciousness, and the Future of Knowledge."
  2. Research, write, and publicly present a thesis, normally in the student’s major.
  3. Complete the five-course interdisciplinary minor in "Consciousness, Creativity, and Meaning":
    1. Gateway course: HON 211 (normally taken spring semester, first year)
    2. Capstone course: HON 401 (normally taken spring semester, senior year)
    3. Three Elective courses: A minimum of three elective courses usually taken during the sophomore and junior years. Elective courses introduce students to revolutions in human understanding as seen in various world religions, philosophical traditions, and scientific discoveries in disciplines such as cognitive neuroscience, quantum physics, and the emerging field of psychedelic studies. Elective courses also expose students to the distinctive ability of the arts to invoke modes of understanding and experience that defy conceptual definitions and categories. These courses change by semester and are drawn from a range of Puget Sound programs and departments, including but not limited to Art and Art History, English, Humanities, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Politics and Government, Psychology, and Religion, Spirituality, and Society.
  4. Students must complete a minimum of one course in Honors each Academic Year to remain in the program.

Once admitted to the Honors program, a student continues so long as they maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 in all university work and a minimum GPA of 2.5 in the Honors minor, or until they resign from the program. The Honors faculty annually reviews the performance of Honors students to determine their continuance in the program. Dismissed students may apply for readmission upon evidence of satisfactory academic improvement.

Elective Courses

  • ARTH 275 Studies in Western Art I: Ancient through Medieval Art
  • ARTH 370 Buddhist Art
  • ASIA 310 Death and Desire in Pre-modern Japanese Literature
  • CONN 303 Art-Science: Inquiry into the Intersection of Art, Science, and Technology
  • CONN 344 Magic and Religion
  • CONN 357 Exploring Animal Minds
  • CONN 365 The Science & Practice of Mindfulness
  • CONN 393 The Cognitive Foundations of Morality and Religion
  • ENGL 232 Romanticism, Consciousness, and the Psychedelic Renaissance
  • ENGL 238 Afrofuturism
  • ENGL 362 Native American Literature
  • HUM 202 The Psychedelic Renaissance
  • PG 347 Comparative Political Ideologies
  • PHIL 230 Philosophy of Mind
  • PHIL 312 Latin American and Latinx Philosophy