The Honors College invites participation by regular faculty from all colleges and disciplines. Honors courses are typically small, seminar format classes of fewer than 20 students that allow richer exploration of focused topics, and emphasize research and active learning. Faculty interested in offering Honors courses should have a strong record of excellence in teaching and an interest in working closely with and mentoring undergraduate students. All Honors College teaching assignments must be negotiated with the faculty member’s home department. Opportunities for Honors teaching include Honors 1000, the freshman honors seminar; Honors 3260, the upper-level interdisciplinary honors seminar; honors-only sections of core courses; Honors Dimension and Honors Reading courses; honors add-on courses; and the Honors Thesis. Each of these is explained in more detail below. Faculty with questions about specific Honors teaching opportunities are encouraged to contact the Honors College at 404-413-5574, or at honors@gsu.edu.
All incoming freshman honors students are required to take Honors 1000, the Freshman Seminar. This 1-hour pass/fail course, offered fall semester only, is designed to provide first-semester students with an orientation to high-level academic work, exposure to a current topic and basic research in the faculty member’s area of expertise, as well as an opportunity to work with a regular faculty member at the beginning of their college career. Classes are limited to 15 or fewer students. Faculty teach Honors 1000 in addition to their regular teaching assignment, and receive a $1,500 stipend for professional development. Approximately 18-20 sections of Honors 1000 are offered each fall; proposals are due early in the spring semester. For a copy of the proposal form, click here [PDF], and for a list of current Honors 1000 classes, click here [PDF].
Honors-only sections of lower division courses that fulfill core curriculum requirements are offered each semester. These sections are typically limited to 19 or fewer students, offering students an alternative to large lecture sections, and offering faculty members an opportunity to develop innovative and alternative curricula for basic courses. Departments are compensated $4,000 for each honors-only core course they offer, in order to help offset the cost of the smaller course. Faculty interested in developing an honors-only core course should consult their department chair and the Honors College. To see which core classes are honors only, check GoSolar here, click the Schedule of Classes link, select the semester and then select Honors as the subject.
In order to graduate with Advanced or Research Honors, students need to take two Honors Colloquia, Honors 3260, a 3-hour upper-level interdisciplinary seminar. These courses, also limited to fewer than 20 students, emphasize critical inquiry into a topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, original research, and discussion. Students from any and all majors may be represented in the class, so specialized knowledge of a discipline cannot be required. Faculty teach these courses in place of one of their regular courses, and departments are reimbursed $5,000. Proposals for Honors 3260 are accepted at any time for a future semester. Typically, there are three or four different colloquia each semester. There is no proposal form; interested faculty should consult the Dean of the Honors College, and review recent Honors 3260 descriptions here [PDF].
Any upper level course with sufficient demand may have an Honors add-on component, in which a certain number of seats (typically five) are reserved for Honors students. In order to earn Honors credit, the students need to complete alternate assignments at the instructor’s discretion, and are expected to meet with him/her during the semester to discuss course material in more depth. As with all Honors course work, add-on courses should differ in kind and not merely degree with respect to work required. That is, Honors students may have other assignments in addition to the regular course requirements; these should not merely be more work but rather encourage the students to explore the subject in more detail or from a different perspective—e.g. primary sources, field work, original research.
An Honors Dimension course is similar to an Honors add-on course (see above), except that it is for a single student who wishes to get Honors credit for the course, and it requires a written proposal approved by the instructor [DOC] detailing the additional/alternate requirements for the course. Many departments also have an Honors Reading 3690 independent study course for students who wish to explore a subject on their own in more depth and/or to prepare for an Honors thesis.
Students who wish to write an Honors thesis work together with a faculty advisor to select a topic and plan a program of research and writing that typically extends over two semesters. They register for Honors (or department prefix) 4870 (research) and 4880 (writing), each for 3 credit hours. Typically, Honors theses grow out of students’ upper–level course work or research experience. They must have a proposal [doc] approved by the faculty advisor, department chair, and Director of the Honors College. There are also guidelines for faculty advisors [doc] and guidelines for students [doc].
The Honors College provides faculty stipends for occasional Maymester or summer study abroad courses that fulfill upper-level Honors credit for the interdisciplinary colloquium (Honors 3260) or other upper-level Honors credit, and the College can also crosslist with other study abroad courses for Honors credit. Faculty interested in proposing a summer study-abroad Honors course should contact the Dean of the College.