The Honors Great Books core is designed to work with every major offered by OBU and will not slow down your progress toward graduation. Enrolling in Honors does not add hours to your degree plan, since it is an alternative to the regular OBU core curriculum.
The Honors Great Books Core (24 credit hours)
Students in our core curriculum participate in small, Socratic seminar courses with their Honors house and attend team-taught lecture courses with their entire Honors cohort. These courses are taken in pairs and are generally taken in the freshman and sophomore years as follows:
Freshman Fall
- HON 1013: Great Books Lecture I: The Ancient World
- HON 113: Great Books Seminar I: The Ancient World
Freshman Spring
- HON 2043: Great Books Lecture II: The Classical World
- HON 2643: Great Books Seminar II: The Classical World
Sophomore Fall
- HON 2543: Great Books Lecture III: Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation
- HON 2643: Great Books Seminar III: Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation
Sophomore Spring
- HON 3013: Great Books Lecture IV: The Modern World
- HON 3113: Great Books Seminar IV: The Modern World
Colloquia
Honors colloquia are small, seminar-style classes on specialized topics. OBU professors offer different colloquia each semester.. Students can enroll in colloquia for 0-1 credit hours, so they add no tuition cost. Colloquia only meet 15 hours across the course of the semester (instead of the regular 45 hours for a 3-credit-hour course). Honors students must complete at least 4 colloquia at some point in their years of study at OBU (but many students take more than 4, simply because colloquia are so enjoyable!) Previous colloquia include The works of G.K. Chesterton; The Seven Capital Vices; The Roaring Twenties; The Myth of The American West; Faith and Science Fiction; The Medieval Roots of The Lord of the Rings; Plagues, Pandemics, and Biowarfare; and Logical Paradoxes.
Honors Capstones
Students who complete the Honors Great Books core and at least four colloquia (and maintain at least a 3.25 GPA) will graduate with College Honors. Student who qualify for College Honors and also complete an Honors Thesis and at least one other of the following capstones will graduate with University Honors. (Students graduating with College Honors may also elect to take any of the following capstones for enrichment.)
- Honors Thesis: A three-semester research project in the student’s major, culminating in a substantial work of scholarship.
- Study Abroad: Typically done through an OBU Honors study abroad course conducted over three to four weeks in the summer in locations such as England, Italy, Greece, and Spain.
- Service Practicum: A significant project of community service (at least 80 hours) planned, proposed, and performed by the student.
- Great Books Reading List: A customized list of 17 additional Great Books not read in the core curriculum. The student must pass an oral exam at the end of his or her reading semester.