Honors Colloquium

The Honors First-Year Experience

The two-semester sequence of Honors Colloquium prepares you to be a college-level thinker and a versatile communicator. Structured around relevant, interdisciplinary themes—"Dreams and Reality” in the Fall and  “Being Human” in the Spring—these classes ask foundational questions that are guaranteed to get your head spinning. For example, we ask: How do we know we are experiencing a shared reality? What is the value of unreal experiences, like dreams, fiction, and make-believe? What does it mean to be human, particularly in an age of technological revolution?

Our goal is not to settle on just one answer to these tough questions, but instead to use such thought-provoking topics to hone your ability to think critically, analyze arguments, and collaborate with peers. 

Colloquium is structured around small, discussion-based classes that are taught by award-winning faculty with a wide range of expertise. In your own section, you will get to find your own voice as you grapple with readings as varied as The Republic by the ancient philosopher Plato, Reality is Not What it Seems by physicist Carlo Rovelli, and the recent bestseller Crying in H-Mart by the musician and writer Michelle Zauner. In addition to such intimate discussions, Colloquium also includes regular Scholar Series sessions, where the whole 150+ cohort of Colloquium students gathers to hear from world-renowned researchers drawn from across campus. 

Three students sitting in chairs looking up towards a screen in the UW Planetarium.

Grappling with Complexity through a classroom Community

Colloquium serves as the gateway course to the college experience broadly and also to all that the Honors College has to offer. We host movie nights to foster community and also offer assignment-specific workshops to help you build college-level writing and communication skills. We collaborate with the Theatre and Dance department, the UW Art Museum, the campus planetarium and many other resources on campus to offer a truly one-of-a-kind experience to our incoming students.

 

"As Honors students, we possess an innate curiosity and desire for discovery. We understand and appreciate that there are many ways to approach a subject or problem. Interacting with our world from as many angles as possible is important to us. We don't just want more answers, we want more questions..."

-Liam Leslie

Honors Alum, BA in Secondary Education, BA in English with minors in Honors, Professional Writing, and Creative Writing

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Learning through big questions

First-year students in the Honors College develop foundational skills and knowledge in interdisciplinary inquiry through the Colloquium series, building the intellectual foundation that prepares students for upper-division coursework in their major and across the Honors College experience through posing questions that tackle complex ideas.

Colloquium I: Dreams and Reality

What are my dreams?

How do my dreams shape the life I live?

Does reality support my dreams, oppose them, or exist somewhere in between?

What is reality?

Is reality an objective truth, a set of rules, or something I can change?

How do different fields, from physics to philosophy to film, understand dreams and reality?

Colloquium II: Being Human

Who am I?

Who are we together?

How do I relate to the environment, and what ethical responsibilities does that relationship bring?

How might technology reshape what it means to be human?

How do different disciplines, including ethics, science, art, philosophy, and more, help me explore these questions?

 
 

Supporting your success in Colloquium

The Honors College Colloquium series is designed to develop your agility in interdisciplinary thinking and provide exposure to multiple disciplines and perspectives. The courses foster community and create a supportive cohort of peers. To ensure all students can fully engage, we provide first-year students with the required Colloquium textbooks and encourage peer mentorship through Honors SOAR. Small class sizes promote meaningful connections between faculty and students, while guest experts and scholars bring intellectually challenging and complex topics to life. The Honors College provides specialized support for Colloquium students in and out of the classroom during the the first year through a virtual hub of resources. 

Connect with a Colloquium Professor

$10000
Total funds committed annually towards Colloquium textbooks for first-year students, as we provide books like "Einstein's Dreams" and "Reality Is Not What It Seems" free of charge to each student.
16:1
Faculty to student ratio in Colloquium classrooms is kept low to foster rich discussions and one-on-one interaction.
10
The average number of experts invited each year to speak to Colloquium students on topics ranging from black holes to the sensory experiences of animals in the Colloquium Scholar Series.