The Honors Curriculum

Core Course, "Studies"

First Year
In the first year, students examine a series of historical periods important in the development of our contemporary worldview. We begin in the Fall by looking at the emergence of what has been called “the culture of measurement,” or the beginning of the natural sciences—the growth and development in the seventeenth century of a new, experimental way of looking at the world. We consider both what elements of the older worldview this new way of looking replaced, and which ones it re-used in significantly reshaped form. In the Winter quarter, we consider how that new perspective on the natural world is transferred in the eighteenth century to critical questions about the social world. In the Spring, we extend this analysis into the development of positivist philosophy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the formation of critiques of that philosophy.

Patryk Babiracki took his baccalaureate degree in 2002 in Russian; his thesis was a case study of Glasnost' and Historical Canon Formation. During his UHP career, he completed an internship at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He says "The more I think about my studies in the honors college, the more I appreciate what it has done to me. The quality of the classes, the generosity of the professors, the brilliant consistency of approach, all of this really helped me develop as an individual and a thinker, challenged me intellectually, and inspired me to pursue a career as a scholar.... I now try to give the same experience to my students, though I doubt I succeed...." He is currently Lecturer in History at University College, Dublin.

Second Year
In the first two quarters of the sophomore year, students inspect the “deep past” – the classical and medieval periods – out of which arose (and which was seriously challenged by) the project of experimental science examined in the freshman year. In the Spring quarter, the students then split for the final course of the core sequence into two tracks: one for the liberal arts and the other for students in technical and pre-professional fields. The liberal arts course focuses on disciplinarity and the evolving professional options within the humanities. The technical/professional course examines post-Enlightenment curricular reform, the stabilization of the disciplines, and the development of the modern professions as the foundation out of which has emerged our contemporary knowledge society and its “creative class.” Over the course of the second year, students will carry out an extended research-focused writing project that is meant as the formal rehearsal of skills and techniques needed for the baccalaureate thesis.

Upper-Division Coursework

During the junior and senior years, honors college students will participate in their required upper-division seminars, the colloquia (visit the Courses page to find information on typical seminar offerings.) These seminars will further develop one or another aspect of intellectual matter examined in the core course; they will also allow students to further polish their tools of analysis, argument, and contextualization in preparation for the thesis in the senior year.

The last part of a student’s work in the honors college is the baccalaureate thesis. It bears emphasizing that this is a serious project, and one that represents the valuable opportunity for the student to work closely with senior faculty; it should not be undertaken frivolously. The process has two parts: a thesis seminar (offered each quarter except summer) during which you will compose a prospectus, and the credit for the thesis proper (almost invariably taken the following quarter after the thesis seminar.) The prospectus must be an indication that the student is already aware of the main contours of the thesis project, and it is not to be written as pure speculation. Instead, it should reflect substantial consideration and reflection already undertaken by the student; it will of course demonstrate attention to the expository and analytical tools accumulated in the honors college’s core curriculum.

"My experience as an undergraduate in the University Honors Program has had a significant influence on the course of my graduate studies and subsequent professional career. The analytical challenges inherent in the Honors college curriculum helped to prepare me for graduate work in the fields of History and Business and have paved the way for success in my professional endeavors. As a student in the Honors Program I was also afforded the unique opportunity to spend an academic term at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., where I served as a research assistant for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In sum, I found the University Honors experience to be both challenging and rewarding and would recommend it to anyone considering graduate work." - Aaron Lisle, UHP Alumnus BA in History, 2004

The internship experience in Washington, D.C. is one of the unique aspects of the Honors Program at Portland State University. Generally, participating students spend one academic quarter of their junior year living in the group-housing accommodation provided by the Program and working at an internship appropriate to their academic major.

Co-Curricular Experience: The Washington, D.C., Internships

Participation in the honors college’s prestigious Washington Internship Project is a privilege, not a right. While it is certainly our intention, as faculty in this program, to try to make the opportunity available to as many students as possible, not all students can participate. Among other factors determining selection for this project the faculty will consider quality of work done in the honors core (and here thoughtful and enthusiastic participation will be key), quality of work done in the major, and the benefit to the University as a whole of the student being chosen as a representative of our community. Many students will participate in the Internship Project; this is regularly done in the student’s junior year (although in some rare cases students may be invited to take part earlier), so that there is ample opportunity for students returning from Washington to serve—as invariably they have—as valuable sources of information for their colleagues.