Honors Program

Honors classes at Columbia College Chicago are open to all students who have a 3.5 GPA or higher, and as long as all prerequisites are met.

Honors Course Characteristics

• Academic and Intellectual Challenges: Honors courses provide engaging and academically challenging opportunities for all students. Classes are committed to inclusive academic excellence.
• Interrogation of Power and Privilege: Honors courses provide spaces where students can question how factors including race, class, gender, disability, and ethnicity influence culture and knowledge.
• Independent Learning: Honors courses provide opportunities for students to further develop their own areas of interest through independent and self-directed projects.
• Smaller Class Sizes: Honors courses provide robust mentorship from faculty instructors and, in many cases, more involvement with faculty members' scholarly and creative interests.
• Scholarly Communities: Honors courses provide academic and professional development through an expectation of collaboration, research, and interdisciplinary work.

The Honors Course Characteristics were developed by Honors Program faculty to describe what students may expect from their Honors courses. These characteristics are based upon the experiences of faculty who teach Honors classes, survey results that record faculty and student input, and the College's explicit commitment to providing all students a more equitable and inclusive educational experience. 

For questions about Honors classes, contact honors@colum.edu. 

Fall 2026 Honors Classes

• ARTH 105H - Introduction to Visual Culture: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Mondays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Onur Ozturk)

  In this course, students will refine their skills of seeing, discussing, and writing about visual culture. Structured according to methodologies for visual analysis rather than chronology or artistic style, the course introduces students to critical approaches that can be applied to a wide range of images, objects and spaces. Through assignments that emphasize writing, research and presentation skills, students will explore a broad range of perspectives on visual literacy.

• BIOL 235H - Evolution of Sex: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)
  Wednesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Michelle Rafacz)
  
  Understanding the nature of sex and its relationship to evolution is important in biology. This class will cover sex and sexual selection across the animal and plant kingdoms. We will discuss the nature of science and the influences of culture on science, specifically the role of feminism on our understanding of female choice. Monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, homosexuality and other types of sexual and asexual relationships will be explored in an evolutionary context through primary literature.
• CCCX 113H - Curiosity in the City: Monsters, Marvels and Museums: Honors (Columbia Experience credit)
  Wednesdays 3:30-6:20 p.m. (Professor Crom Saunders)
  
  

  Freak shows, serial killers, medical oddities, and flesh-eating beetles - welcome to the weirder side of Chicago. This course dives into the city’s long love affair with the marvelous and macabre, blending philosophy, science, and history to explore the lines between curiosity, wonder, and knowledge. We’ll trace Chicago’s transformation from sideshow spectacle to scientific authority, using monsters, marvels, and museums as case studies. Along the way, you’ll question what counts as “natural,” rethink the human/inhuman divide, and uncover hidden urban oddities. For your final project you’ll build your own curiosity cabinet - part art piece, part intellectual adventure. 

• CCCX 199H – Big Chicago: Honors (Columbia Experience credit)

  Led by top scholars and practitioners in their fields, these first semester courses connect students to the city of Chicago and encourage reflection on those experiences with a cohort of student peers. Students investigate aspects of Columbia College Chicago's diverse urban and cultural setting. Courses introduce students to different learning environments, issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and deeper ways of engaging the urban contexts and communities of Chicago. This course offers multiple topics sections. 

  Section 01 - Wild in Chicago: Honors
  Mondays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Robin Whatley) 

  How do we notice and consider animals in the city? Pigeons, rats, dogs, cats…. and also red foxes, bobcats, flying squirrels, North American beavers, river otters, little brown bats, peregrine falcons, spiny softshell turtles, leopard frogs, blue spotted salamandars, American eels, deertoe mussels, dark fishing spiders, common green darner dragonflies, monarch butterflies, rusty patched bumblebees…are just a small sampling of the non-human animals navigating life in Chicago environments. Where do these animals live and how do we co-exist in urban environments? The parks, neighborhoods, air, soil, rivers, lake, and even skyscrapers, bridges, train tracks, and sidewalk cracks are homes to the city’s animals. We’ll explore animal and plant habitats on walking tours and site visits around and beyond the Columbia campus, and investigate how development and planning decisions can impact the biodiversity of natural environments over time. We will create a field guide documenting and analyzing our observations and perspectives on nature, recording how, when, and where to find wildlife in the city, and we'll reflect on the meaning, importance, and creative inspiration that nature and animals can contribute to our own urban lives.

  Section 02 - Free Expression and the Arts: Honors
  Wednesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Suzanne McBride) 

  Artistic freedom is a fundamental democratic right. Creative expression, ranging from literature and music to theatre and art, is often at the heart of political resistance and change. The right to express oneself is uniquely protected by the U.S. Constitution. This course will explore what it means to be an artist, performer and/or creator in society today and how that has changed over time. Students will explore the role the Chicago art and media communities have played in free expression. Students will consider what authority government has to dictate what we may or may not see, read, hear and watch; and they will reflect on how their work in the creative arts will be impacted. 

  Section 03 - Celebration as Urban Culture: Honors
  Wednesdays 3:30-6:20 p.m. (Professor Gabriela Diaz de Sabates) 

  Parties, parades, festivals, and other joyful events allow communities to give visible form to values, ideas, identities, and connectedness. Chicago is home to many communities, which we will learn about this semester through their celebrations. In addition to learning about Chicago's Chinese New Year, St. Patrick's Day, Bud Billiken, and Pride parades, you will have opportunities in this class to experience Chicago's Annual Native American Powwow and Pilsen’s Día de los Muertos processions and ofrendas, which make Native American and Mexican identities and cultural values visible. You will also have an opportunity to participate in  Chicago's 11th Annual Arts in the Dark Halloween parade, which takes place on Saturday, October 18, from 6-8 p.m., celebrating creativity as a central value and showcasing an identity that unites Columbia's community of creatives. As a class, we will also help plan the rocking after-party Columbia hosts following the celebration. 

  Section 04 - City of Neighborhoods: Honors
  Thursdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Steven H. Corey) 

  Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. Hundreds of neighborhoods. Some are distinct, even infamous, such as Lincoln Park, Wrigleyville, Pilsen, Bronzeville, and Hyde Park, others obscure or unknown to outsiders such as Mayfair and Hegewisch.  In this course, we will visit (in class field trips or small teams) select neighborhoods and cultural landmarks in the Chicago metropolitan area to explore and experience the various ways that people interact with where they live and work. We will be exposed to a host of local characteristics, social issues, and public amenities, such as the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Public Library. We will also explore nonprofit and community-based organizations dedicated to remembering, preserving, and improving the unique heritage and ways of life in various corners of the city.   

• COLL 480H – Undergraduate Research Mentorship: Honors

  The Undergraduate Research Mentorship connects talented students interested in conducing academic research with faculty.  This course, available to students from across the College, gives students the opportunity to share the intellectual excitement of inquiry into new questions, the solving of scholarly and creative problems, and the creation of knowledge with faculty mentors.  Students learn research and scholarly techniques as they assist faculty practitioners in their academic and integrative disciplines, gaining valuable experience in pursuit of professional fields or higher academic degrees.

  Prior to the project semester, the supervising faculty and student must submit a joint proposal outlining the project. 
For more information, contact honors@colum.edu.

  
Requirements: Permission Required (DP) and 3.5 or Higher GPA (35GP) and Junior Standing or Above (JR)

• COMM 200H – Gender & Race in the Media: Honors (Communication credit)

  Tuesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Michelle Yates) 

  In this class, we examine the centrality of race and gender to media production, representation, and reception. Through engaging discussions, interactive activities, and thought-provoking assignments, we’ll learn to critically analyze a wide range of media, including movies, TV shows, video games, social media, photography, music, ads, and more. Together, we’ll look closely at how media reflect, reinforce, and challenge racial and gender identities, ideologies, and inequalities. This course will help you become a more thoughtful, informed, and creative media consumer and creator.  

• EASC 110H – The Science of Global Change: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)

  Wednesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Instructor Gerald Adams) 

  This course examines the idea of global environmental change and the mechanisms by which global change occurs. We will use an approach combining Earth history with modern Earth processes (Earth systems) to understand changes in the physical environment like plate movement and climate change, and changes in the biological environment like evolution and extinction. We will analyze some of the relationships between physical and biological changes on Earth (physical mechanisms for extinction, biological inputs to climate change, and others). Students will be challenged to use their knowledge to better inform public awareness of global change, and public policy on global change issues.  

• ENGL 111H - Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors (Communication credit)

  Section 01: Mondays/Wednesdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Ken Daley)
  Section 02: Mondays/Wednesdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Doug Reichert Powell)
  Section 03: Mondays/Wednesdays 2:00-3:20 p.m. (Instructor Brian Mornar)
  Section 04: Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:00-10:20 a.m. (Instructor TBD)
  Section 05: Tuesdays/Thursdays 10:30-11:50 a.m. (Instructor Joseph Fedorko) 
  Section 06: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Brendan Riley) 

  Foundations of 21st-Century Writing introduces students to key concepts in multimodal writing that enable students to approach a variety of writing tasks in college, in their creative professions, and in their lives as citizens. In Foundations of 21st-Century Writing, students use the key concepts to analyze the work of others and compose texts of their own. Students will analyze and compose non-fiction in a variety of genres, media, platforms, and technologies.

• ENGL 112H – 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines: Honors (Communication credit)

  Section 01: Mondays/Wednesdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Jeanne Petrolle)
  Section 02: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Hilary Sarat-St. Peter)
  Section 03: Tuesdays/Thursdays 2:00-3:20 p.m. (Instructor Joseph Fedorko)

  21^st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines teaches students to leverage key concepts in writing to develop and sustain an in-depth personal and intellectual inquiry into a subject of their choosing. The course unfolds in a series of assignments designed to help students identify and explore the norms and expectations in the discipline of their choice, to pursue a continually deepening creative research process that yields a complex, ambitious project in which the student contributes to an ongoing conversation in that discipline. Focusing on methodology, rather than specific course theme, students learn to generate worthwhile questions, collect primary data, locate secondary resources, leverage AI technologies ethically and effectively, identify appropriate media forms to compose with, and contribute original insights in their chosen creative discipline. 

  Prerequisites: ENGL 111 Foundations of 21st-Century Writing or ENGL 111H Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors

• HIST 270H - Black Artistry and the Archive: Honors (Historical and Cultural Understanding credit)

  Tuesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Robert Hanserd)

  Why do we remember certain artists and forget the names of others? What is the relationship between who we remember and how the past is preserved? How do we understand the importance of preservation from the perspectives of an artist, an archivist, and a researcher? With a focus on African American art, this course will address these questions by discussing the connections between history, creativity, and the archive (broadly defined).

• LITR 101H - Introduction to Literature: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Tuesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Ken Daley)

  Course introduces students to genres of fiction, drama, and poetry. By studying important works by writers of culturally diverse backgrounds, students gain experience in reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about literature. Course establishes connections between literature and other areas of arts and communications.  

• LITR 284H - Literature and Popular Culture: Honors: Poetry and Song (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Wednesdays 3:30-6:20 p.m. (Professor Ken Daley)

  Are you curious about how stories shape the world we live in? Come explore the fascinating dynamics between literature and other cultural objects – from games, music, and memes to film, illustration, comics, fan fiction, and popular franchises. Through discussion and creative analysis, you’ll develop your own ideas about the ways that literature and popular culture help us think through questions about identity, representation, community, ethics, and power. Different sections of the course may focus on different aspects of popular culture.  

   

• PSYC 215H - Emotions: Honors (Historical and Cultural Understanding credit)

  Thursdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Rojhat Avsar)

  The emotions play a significant role in our inner lives. Sometimes the emotions act in concert with our cognitive decision-making, and sometimes they crash over our rational thinking like uncontrollable storms. Emotions influence and fuel our behavior, values, art, and other aspects of culture. Yet, systematic study of emotions is quite recent. In this course we will examine Western psychology and philosophy of emotions.

   

• SCIE 155H - Science of Musical Instruments: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)
  Tuesdays 1:00-4:50 p.m. (Instructor David Dolak)
  
  Students study the scientific principles by which sound is generated in common acoustic musical instruments and discover the mathematical foundation of musical scales. This course explores mechanical oscillation, frequency, wavelength, and the harmonic series. Students investigate the complex timbre of musical instruments through hands-on laboratory experiments using wave and spectrum analysis, and develop scales using sound-generation software. For a final project, students construct a functional instrument and perform an original musical composition.
• SOSC 101H - Introduction to Popular Culture: Honors (Historical and Cultural Understanding credit)
  Tuesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Doug Reichert Powell)
  
  

  In this class, we explore what popular culture is, why it matters, and how it reflects and influences society. We’ll look at a variety of cultural forms, rituals, objects, and texts—from food, fashion, and festivals to television shows, toys and technology. You’ll learn how to think critically about the cultural messages we encounter every day and develop tools to analyze them through readings, discussions, and creative projects. Whether you're a pop culture fan or a curious skeptic, as we make familiar things strange, this course will help you see the everyday world in new ways.  

Spring 2026 Honors Classes

• ARTH 105H - Introduction to Visual Culture: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Mondays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Onur Ozturk)

  In this course, students will refine their skills of seeing, discussing, and writing about visual culture. Structured according to methodologies for visual analysis rather than chronology or artistic style, the course introduces students to critical approaches that can be applied to a wide range of images, objects, and spaces. Through assignments that emphasize writing, research, and presentation skills, students will explore a broad range of perspectives on visual literacy.

• BIOL 215H -Genetics: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)

  Mondays/Wednesdays 10:30-11:50 a.m. (Professor Julie Minbiole)

  This course is a survey of the fundamentals of genetics and their application to contemporary issues with hands-on, inquiry-based activities. Major topics include DNA structure and replication, the chromosomal basis of inheritance, mutation, gene expression and epigenetics, and utilization of model organisms and genetic technology. Special topics may include ethical issues in genetics, human development and reproductive technologies, stem cell research, DNA fingerprinting, genetic basis of disease, and use of model organisms in genetic research.

• BIOL 235H - Evolution of Sex: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)
  Section 01: Tuesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Michelle Rafacz)
  Section 02: Thursdays 9:00-11:50 a.m.(Professor Michelle Rafacz)

  
  Understanding the nature of sex and its relationship to evolution is important in biology. This class will cover sex and sexual selection across the animal and plant kingdoms. We will discuss the nature of science and the influences of culture on science, specifically the role of feminism on our understanding of female choice. Monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, homosexuality and other types of sexual and asexual relationships will be explored in an evolutionary context through primary literature.

• COLL 480H - Undergraduate Research Mentorship: Honors
  The Undergraduate Research Mentorship connects talented students interested in conducing academic research with faculty. This course, available to students from across the College, gives students the opportunity to share the intellectual excitement of inquiry into new questions, the solving of scholarly and creative problems, and the creation of knowledge with faculty mentors. Students learn research and scholarly techniques as they assist faculty practitioners in their academic and integrative disciplines, gaining valuable experience in pursuit of professional fields or higher academic degrees.
  
  Prior to the project semester, the supervising faculty and student must submit a joint proposal outlining the project. 
For more information, contact honors@colum.edu.
  
  
Requirements: Permission Required (DP) and 3.5 or Higher GPA (35GP) and Junior Standing or Above (JR)
• ENGL 112H - 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines: Honors (Communication credit)
  Section 01: Tuesdays/Thursdays 10:30-11:50 a.m. (Professor Ken Daley)
  Section 02: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30-1:50 p.m. (Professor Ken Daley)
  

  
  
  21^st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines teaches students to leverage key concepts in writing to develop and sustain an in-depth personal and intellectual inquiry into a subject of their choosing. The course unfolds in a series of assignments designed to help students identify and explore the norms and expectations in the discipline of their choice, to pursue a continually deepening creative research process that yields a complex, ambitious project in which the student contributes to an ongoing conversation in that discipline. Focusing on methodology, rather than specific course theme, students learn to generate worthwhile questions, collect primary data, locate secondary resources, leverage AI technologies ethically and effectively, identify appropriate media forms to compose with, and contribute original insights in their chosen creative discipline.
  
  Prerequisites: ENGL 111 Foundations of 21st-Century Writing or ENGL 111H Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors

• ENGL 246H - Reviewing the Arts: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Mondays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Lloyd Sachs)

  Students write confident and well-researched reviews of visual, performing, and media arts, reviews that can broaden the role of the arts in our daily lives. Students generate content for their reviews by visiting cultural and artistic institutions, attending performances, and / or viewing recordings. They examine selected expert reviews and theoretical perspectives; and they compose and revise their work through a combination of weekly in-class workshops, discussion, and take-home assignments.
  
  
  Prerequisites: ENGL 111 Foundations of 21st-Century Writing or ENGL 111H Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors or ENGL 112 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines or ENGL 112H 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines: Honors

• HIST 262H - History of the American City: Honors (Historical and Cultural Understanding credit)
  Wednesdays 12:30-3:20 p.m. (Professor Nick McCormick)
  
  Course examines the history of the development of the U.S. as an urban nation. It analyzes the rise and decline of various urban systems that developed over the course of American history. Students investigate the social, economic, political, technological, and demographic trends that have shaped the modern American city.
• LITR 101H - Introduction to Literature: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Wednesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Madhurima Chakraborty)

  Course introduces students to genres of fiction, drama, and poetry. By studying important works by writers of culturally diverse backgrounds, students gain experience in reading, analyzing, interpreting, and writing about literature. Course establishes connections between literature and other areas of arts and communications.

  Prerequisites: ENGL 111 Foundations of 21st-Century Writing or ENGL 111H Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors or ENGL 112 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines or ENGL 112H 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines: Honors

• LITR 268H - Literature on Film: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Tuesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Brendan Riley)
  
  

  Class concerns the relationship between written and filmed versions of a story, novel, or play. Course explores how character development, plot, narrative, symbols, and language are translated from text to film. To facilitate analysis, students acquire a basic vocabulary for discussing literature and film. Instructors may focus on a particular theme, such as the love story, fantasy, or mythology. Works studied have been as diverse as The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
  
  Prerequisites: ENGL 111 Foundations of 21st-Century Writing or ENGL 111H Foundations of 21st-Century Writing: Honors or ENGL 112 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines or ENGL 112H 21st-Century Writing in Creative Disciplines: Honors

• MEDI 201H - Culture, Race and Media: Honors (Aesthetic and Creative Expression credit)

  Wednesdays 9:00-11:50 a.m. (Professor Rich King)
  
  Course enables students to analyze subtle and subliminal messages about culture, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, class, and ability as presented to us through the media. The media–television, film, and print–has a pervasive influence upon how we view the world. Through open discussions of differences, research, and stimulating readings, we will learn who we are and why we view things the way we do. Expected outcomes include new insights into media influence and our responsibility as media makers, a research project, and self-examination of personal cultural and racial identity.

   

• SCIE 155H - Science of Musical Instruments: Honors (Scientific Discovery credit)
  Tuesdays 1:00-4:50 p.m. (Professor David Dolak)
  
  Students study the scientific principles by which sound is generated in common acoustic musical instruments and discover the mathematical foundation of musical scales. This course explores mechanical oscillation, frequency, wavelength, and the harmonic series. Students investigate the complex timbre of musical instruments through hands-on laboratory experiments using wave and spectrum analysis, and develop scales using sound-generation software. For a final project, students construct a functional instrument and perform an original musical composition. This is an Honors course and students need a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher to register.