Program Information

Honors Students follow the Honors curriculum presented here rather than the University Studies Program Requirements presented elsewhere in the bulletin. Honors Students are still responsible for all other applicable requirements as defined by their academic programs of study (e.g., college and major specific requirements). Non-honors students must complete 37 -- 41 credit hours for University Studies, and the 29 credit hours described below replace those 37 -- 41 hours. The Millikin Honors Program is "instead of" not in addition to." Honors students take ownership of their general education experience and select from a variety of topic-oriented courses.

Honors Students must complete the following courses (29 credits)

• HN183. Honors University Seminar (3 credits)
• ​HN150. Honors Writing Studio I (3 credits)
• ​HN151. Honors Writing Studio II (3 credits)
• Three of the following (9 credits total):
  • HN202. Creative Arts Honors Seminar (3 credits)
  • HN203. Humanities Honors Seminar (3 credits)
  • HN204. Natural Science Honors Seminar (3 credits)
  • HN206. Social Science Honors Seminar (3 credits)
  • HN207. Mathematics Honors Seminar (3 credits)
• HN300. Honors Interdisciplinary Colloquium (3 credits)
  Students may meet this requirement by taking an additional HN350 course.
• HN350. Honors Global Interdisciplinary Colloquium (3 credits)
  Students studying abroad for Millikin credit may articulate an IN350 eligible course with either HN300 or HN350 (but not both) to fulfill this requirement.
• IN490. Honors Independent Study (4 credits) May be articulated with a course or set of courses in another academic department (e.g., research hours in the natural sciences or an internship) via an Honors Program Capstone Contract.
• HN400. Honors Symposium (1 credit)
• HN300. Honors Interdisciplinary Colloquium (3 credits)

Honors Capstone Project

The Honors Capstone Project provides Honors Students with an opportunity to pursue artistic achievement, traditional or interdisciplinary research, or service-learning and community-based projects. The Honors Capstone could be an enrichment or extension of an academic project, creative activity, or practical experience in which the student is already engaged through her major area of study. It could also be a fully distinct project of the student’s choosing. To qualify as an Honors Capstone Project, a project must be judged to be of Honors-level work by the Honors Director and the Student’s Honors Project Advisor.

Transfer students who participated in the honors program at their most recent former institution of higher education are invited to petition the Honors Director for admission into Millikin University’s Honors Program. Students transferring from two-year institutions with which Millikin has a formal Honors Program articulation agreement are automatically invited to join the Honors Program. Honors coursework will be transferred as determined by the Honors Director and the University Registrar. Students who have earned an Associates of Arts or an Associate of Sciences and successfully completed their 2 year institution’s honors program will be regarded as having met all 100 and 200 level honors program requirements.

Why should a student transfer into the Millikin Honors Program?

As a transfer student, joining the Honors Program gives you the opportunity to continue your honors experience at Millikin. Our Honors Community is strong, supportive and vibrant. Transferring into the Honors Program, allows you to plug yourself directly into a community of intellectually curious and academically engaged students, students like you. The Honors Program also affords you an opportunity to complete remaining general education courses and meet a variety of other graduation requirements in an Honors environment. Transfer Honors students share all of the benefits enjoyed by all Millikin Honors Students.

Exclusive and engaging Honors Courses that:

• Are flexible and student driven
• Cover a wide variety of topics taught by Honors Faculty
• Feature innovative and experimental pedagogy
• Fulfill all University Studies requirements
• Opportunities for individualized & self-motivated scholarship or creative projects.
• Interaction with campus leaders among students, faculty, and administrators
• Service and outreach activities which enrich and serve the Honors, Millikin, and larger community.
• Access to a dedicated Honors Student Lounge.
• First-Year and Sophomore residential Honors Communities
• Early Registration for courses.
• Ability to register for up to 21 credits per term at normal, full-time tuition rate.

Honors Program Requirements

• HN300. Honors Interdisciplinary Colloquium (3 credits)
  Students may meet this requirement by taking an additional HN350 course.
• HN350. Honors Global Interdisciplinary Colloquium (3 credits)
  Students studying abroad for Millikin credit may articulate an IN350 eligible course with either HN300 or HN350 (but not both) to fulfill this requirement.
• IN490. Honors Independent Study (4 credits)  May be articulated with a course or set of courses in another academic department (e.g., research hours in the natural sciences or an internship) via an Honors Program Capstone Contract.
• HN400. Honors Symposium (1 credit)

Honors Capstone Project: The Honors Capstone project provides Honors Students with an opportunity to pursue artistic  achievement, traditional or interdisciplinary research, or service-learning and community-based projects. The Honors Capstone could be an enrichment or extension of an academic project, creative activity, or practical experience in which the student is already engaged through her major area of study. It could also be a fully distinct project of the student’s choosing. To qualify as an Honors Capstone Project, a project must be judged to be of Honors-level work by the Honors Director and the Student’s Honors Project Advisor.

* Honors students who did not complete the honors program at their previous institution may need to complete additional Millikin Honors Program courses. See the Millikin University Bulletin and contact the Honors Director, Dr. Michael Hartsock for further information.

Below is a sample of honors courses that were previously offered at Millikin:

Previous Honors Courses

Global Haiku Traditions
Dr. Randy Brooks
This course examines the origins and spread of Japanese poetics from Japan around the world, with a special focus on the adaptation of haiku into other cultures and languages. This course explores the role of haiku as a social literary art—both the art of reading and art of writing haiku emphasize the importance of shared collaborative aesthetic experiences (shared acts of the imagination). There is a very active global haiku community of writers, editors, scholars and associations celebrating participation in this literary art. We will study the history of haiku and related poetics in Japan, and then examine the contemporary internalization of haiku in various cultures. Students complete both an analytical study of a contemporary haiku poet or issue in the haiku community as well as various creative projects connecting haiku to other arts.

Stress and Disease
Dr. Travis Wilcoxen
Understanding the health and physiology of humans can be greatly improved by studying nonhuman animals. Humans have retained many ancestral physiological traits, such as stress responses, that are beneficial to many other animals, but are somewhat useless, or even harmful, to us. Further, as human populations continue to grow and encroach on populations of wild animals, diseases that are often found in other animals occasionally jump into human populations. In this course, students will gain an understanding of the interrelatedness of stress and disease of humans and other animals through the reading of primary sources and nonfiction works with scientific topics. This course also includes hands-on laboratory activities.

It Came From Memphis
Dr. Dave Burdick
It Came from Memphis is an examination of the origins of Rock and Roll artistry and how this artistry was developed and commercialized through recording technology. Artistry can best be understood through a larger examination of social/historical context and the very nature of artistic creation. So, even though this is not really a history course, there is a strong component of historical study with the intent being to place artistry and recording technology – coupled with the music entrepreneurs whose vision provided the means for artists to attain commercial success in time, and thus understand sequences of events and influences that have led us to where we are today regarding Rock and Roll music. It Came from Memphis includes a field trip to Memphis over the first weekend of Fall break so that we may “walk in the footsteps of history”.

International Trade and Economic Development
Dr. Najiba Benabess
This course is composed of two parts. In the first part, we examine why nations trade, what they trade, and whether trade is beneficial for a country. We cover the comparative advantage theory, which explains international trade with the differences in labor productivity and resource endowments. International labor capital movements and foreign outsourcing will be also discussed. The second part focuses on the relationship between international trade and economic development. We discuss how international trade affects economic growth, income inequality, and poverty reduction in the trading countries. We will also study the trade policies such as tariff and nontariff instruments and their impact on welfare under different market structures. In particular, we evaluate the effectiveness of trade policies in developing countries in promoting economic development. The evolution of regional free trade agreements and the new world trading system under the WTO will be reviewed and discussed.

Horror in Film and Fiction: Daring the Nightmare
Prof. Judi Crowe
This course explores the genre of horror in fiction and film, its historical, social, political, and cultural underpinnings, and what is at stake in the genre as a whole in terms of issues of religion, psychology, science, ethics, gender, race, and culture. We will examine and discuss a variety of scholarly, historical, literary, and pop culture sources as well as view films representative of various subgenres (monster, psychological, etc.) of horror. Core texts by Stephen King and our reading packet offer diverse grounding of a topic that continues to disturb, sometimes disgust, yet ever intrigues us. Indeed, as King points out, we do so like to dare the nightmare……..

Sex, Lies, and the Brothers Grimm: The Real Fairy Tales
Dr. Anne Matthews
We know fairy tales mostly through Disney versions—Beauty and the Beast, in particular, has enjoyed multiple iterations and interpretations. But if we go back to the original stories (or as close as we can get in origination and translation), we quickly find that the once familiar tales are actually quite strange: more raw, more complex, more challenging and disturbing. Still, the old tales have much to tell us about love, sex, marriage, family, childhood, society, violence, abandonment, and perhaps most important of all, transformations from one way of being into another. In short, the storytellers had the same questions we have: who are we? What is my relationship to others? Why should I care about my community? Where am I going? These are only some opening questions—no doubt we will think of others as we read and talk and write about these weird works of the human imagination.

Psych for a Popular Audience
Dr. Melissa Scircle
Psychology for a Popular Audience will investigate the science of psychology through reading books written about psychology for a mass audience, watching TED talks, listening to podcasts, reading news articles, and - yes - reading the original research articles. We will explore what makes science writing different from scientific writing, how scientists can effectively communicate their research findings to non-scientists and discover how psychological research goes beyond the laboratory to make a broader impact on the world. Plan to read, watch, listen, discuss, write…and maybe even give your own TED talk.

Monsters, Exiles & Others
Dr. Anne Matthews
Of all the definitions of “monster”—abnormal, grotesque, repulsive, among others—I like the Latin one best. From the word “monere”—to monitor, to warn—and from the word “monstrum”—a divine omen, a portent, a sign—the monster emerges as an observer, as well as a messenger. What does the monster see? What news has she come to give us? What warning must we heed? In our reading, which will include Beowulf, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Island of Dr Moreau, and one or two other narratives, we will attend to the monsters’ tales, taking in their knowledge and discerning what they are asking us to do.

Creating the Documentary: Telling the Story of a Lifetime
Dr. Ngozi Onuora
This 3 credit hour course allows student scholars to research and create an 8 to 10 minute documentary about a national, historical, or social issue for which they are passionate and want to bring to the consciousness of the campus and the greater (local) community. Working in teams of 35 people (depending on class size), students will take on key roles as part of a film crew while engaging in critical thinking, reading, writing, research, and creative problem-solving to plan the content of the documentary and the execution of filming/editing/producing the final movie to tell a story they have always wanted to tell. To prepare for the process of creating a quality documentary, scholars will watch and critique several documentaries throughout the first half of the semester; learn about copyright laws and fair use policies; address ethical issues in documentary storytelling; learn ways documentaries can address historical, social, cultural, and political issues; practice effective use of video recording devices; and, experiment with editing footage using video editing software such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, etc. (depending on available software), among other preparatory learning activities. The culminating event will be Millikin University’s fifth Blue Docs Rock documentary film festival. Film crews will advertise and generate a publicity campaign to garner support for the premiere of their documentaries. Finally, students may be encouraged to submit their documentaries to appropriate film festivals or online venues to experience entering a film contest.