Program Brochure

If you are looking forward to intellectual excitement in your undergraduate education and an examination of the great ideas that have shaped our culture, you will be interested in the Honors Program. This is an interdisciplinary program open to invited freshmen and sophomores who wish to undertake intensive study of the intellectual foundations of Western culture, the challenges to that culture, and the topics that continue to pique the imagination of men and women interested in the history of ideas. If you are admitted to the program, you will work with other highly motivated students in courses and seminars that average 15 to 20 students in size, and you will be engaged with them in a serious program that requires substantial reading, writing, and discussion. Students in the Honors Program choose any major they wish, but can approach that major with a strong intellectual base that prepares them well for graduate and professional schools as well as postgraduate employment.

Beyond the Classroom

Education takes place both inside and outside the classroom. Every semester, the Honors Program sponsors several intellectually oriented events, and Honors students freely choose to participate in them if their time and schedule permit. These events are presented with variety to appeal to different interests. Broadway plays, guided museum tours, operas, on-campus speakers, an author-led discussion of a faculty member's latest novel, and colloquia that address themes such as "Is Value-Free Science Possible?" and "The Social Construction of Sexuality" are just a few of our recent offerings. Without fail, Honors events conclude with a meal shared by all participants, Honors Program's treat!

Faculty

Faculty who teach in the Honors Program are among Fairfield's best professors and are drawn from all the undergraduate departments and schools of the University. The Honors Program is administered by College of Arts and Sciences faculty Dr. John Thiel (director), professor of religious studies, and Dr. Susan Rakowitz (associate director), assistant professor of psychology, with the help of a faculty advisory board.

Course Of Study

Honors students are exempted from certain requirements of the general education core curriculum. These exemptions enable them to complete the following seven-course Honors sequence:

First Year: The Western Tradition

In the first year of the Honors Program, students complete two courses that explore the Western intellectual heritage.

• Ideas That Shaped the West - A team-taught seminar course that examines selected ideas or themes from Western intellectual history, focusing on developments in philosophy, society, science, and the arts.
• Minds and Bodies - A team-taught seminar course that examines conceptions of humanity, and its social reflections in Western culture.

Second Year: Beyond the Western Paradigm

In the second year of the Honors Program, students examine alternatives to the configuration of knowledge, art, power, and justice in the classical, majority culture of the West either by considering critical voices traditionally marginalized in that culture or by investigating the assumptions of a non-Western culture. Students also complete a second course, an Honors Seminar in one of the traditional disciplines, that seeks to cultivate the skills of critical thinking, cogent argumentation, and effective writing.

Either:

• Challenges to the Western Tradition - Critiques of the Western intellectual tradition from other viewpoints, such as feminist and postcolonial interpretation, or
• Non-Western Culture - Intensive study of a non-Western culture, its vision of reality, and its perception of the West, and
• Honors Seminar

Third Year: Interdisciplinary Inquiry

The third year of the Honors Program stresses the value of interdisciplinary approaches to scholarly inquiry by investigating a wide-ranging theme from the perspective of at least two disciplines. It also provides an opportunity for students to pursue their general education in an Honors seminar in one of the traditional disciplines.

• Interdisciplinary Inquiry - This team-taught course examines a particular theme, such as progress and its critics, genius and creativity, or the city in the American imagination, from the interdisciplinary perspectives of the professors and the students.
• Honors Seminar

Senior Honors Project

Senior Honors students complete a sophisticated research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. The project carries three credits earned in the discipline in which the research is conducted, typically the student's major, and these credits are counted toward the completion of Honors requirements.

Students who complete the Honors Program in good standing have their achievement noted on their final transcripts. Those who complete the program with an average of B+ in Honors courses receive the designation "University Honors Program Completed with Distinction." Those who complete the program with an A average in Honors courses receive the designation "University Honors Program Completed with High Distinction."

Who Should Apply to the Honors Program?

Are you a student who takes responsibility for your own education? Do you seek out professors who encourage you to think for yourself? Do you enjoy debate with classmates about ideas and their applications? Are you curious about lots of things? Are you open to the constructive criticism of your ideas and written work? If so, the Honors Program at Fairfield has much to offer you.

The Honors Program is designed for students who are passionate about learning and who are willing to take a critical look at their own core beliefs and presuppositions. Students entering the Honors Program should be prepared to participate in lively discussions based on close readings of texts from across the disciplines. The reading and writing assignments in Honors courses challenge students, and encourage them to make connections between disparate ideas and approaches to knowledge.

Fulbright Track in Honors

The Honors Program offers an alternative ordering of courses to support Honors students who apply for the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. This "Fulbright track" in the Honors curriculum allows Fulbright applicants to complete their Senior Honors Projects in their junior year so that this research can provide a foundation for their Fulbright applications. Honors students who are interested in the Fulbright track should speak to the Honors Program Director.

Course Exemptions

The student who completes the Honors Program is exempted from 21 credits in the core curriculum.

Honors students are exempted from the English core (3 courses, 9 credits).

Honors students may choose their remaining exemptions from among six areas or disciplines in the core curriculum. Honors students may exempt themselves from no more than one course in each of the four following areas or disciplines: Natural Science, History, Social/Behavioral Science, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Visual and Performing Arts (4 courses, 12 credits). (Note that students in the School of Business would not be exempt from a Social/Behavioral Science course because their major requires that they complete EC 11 and EC 12.)

If students have already taken EN 11 and EN 12 at Fairfield by the time they enter the Honors Program, they are exempt from the third English course, along with no more than one course in each of the following areas or disciplines: Natural Science, History, Social/Behavioral Science, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Visual and Performing Arts.

The student's second year of Honors course work will satisfy either the U.S. diversity requirement (HR 200) or the world diversity requirement (HR 201), depending on the course the student completes.

Profiles

John Jorgensen

"I like to think in different ways and the Honors Program gives me that opportunity. There's a multi-disciplinary approach to everything we do, which brings subjects together in new ways. It's exciting to be in classes where the worldview is never narrow. The variety of interests among students and professors also adds to the energy of the program. Students from many different majors choose the Honors Program because it works for any major."

Katie Sprovieri

"My advisor told me that if I really liked participating in class discussions, the Honors Program was for me. The Program also allows students to complete curricular requirements in an unusual way by studying with committed students in small classes and often in classes team-taught by professors from different fields. Every semester the Program sponsors several events outside the classroom, ranging from Broadway plays to musical performances, to discussions of popular culture. If you like taking part in classroom discussion and want a different educational experience, I would definitely recommend Fairfield's Honors Program."

For further information about the Honors Program at Fairfield University, please contact:

Dr. John Thiel, program director
(203) 254-4000 ext. 2130
jthiel@mail.fairfield.edu

Dr. Susan Rakowitz, associate director
(203) 254-4000 ext. 2469
srakowitz@mail.fairfield.edu