About Honors Seminars

Small in size and centered around critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and reflective discussion, seminars are an opportunity for Honors students to learn from distinguished faculty, including how to meet and manage the rigorous academic demands of our world-class university.

Earn 3-4 Honors Experiences Credits
  • Engineering and Architecture students will take their school’s UB Seminar (3 credits) and then complete a special, 1 credit Honors Seminar (HON214) their first semester, for a total of 4 Honors Experience credits.
  • All other students will take the Honors Seminar for 3 Honors Experience credits.
  • Please see the Honors Experiences page to learn more.

Wide-Ranging Topics

Each fall, the Honors College selects a group of UB Seminars to be taught exclusively to Honors scholars. The topics covered by these seminars are as diverse as UB’s faculty. In recent years, topics have included:

  • A World of Stone
  • Age of Crisis and Resilience
  • Beethoven and the Economics of Genius
  • Biology in the News
  • Critical Thinking, Individuality & Power
  • Fashion in the Modern World
  • Health: You, Me or We?
  • Issues in US Foreign Policy
  • Justice
  • Literature and/of Human Rights
  • Multilingualism and Language Contact
  • Myths of King Arthur
  • Pandemics & the Humanities
  • Physics of Music
  • The Ancient World in the Movies
  • The New Comers: The Caribbean American Immigrants
  • The Transition to Adulthood
  • Valuing Diversity
  • When We Fight We Win: Activism & Paths to Social Justice
  • Why Have Wealth?

Engineering and Architecture Students

Students in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and School of Architecture and Planning take their UB Seminars in their home schools, respectively. In order to not miss out on an Honors-only seminar, Honors scholars in these schools will take a special one-credit seminar (HON214). Recent topics have included:

  • Adventures in 3D Printing: Creativity Meets Technology to Shape a Better World
  • Building Your Personal Brand
  • Climate-Savvy Buildings
  • Critical Policy Analysis in Education
  • Freedom of Speech and Expression in US Supreme Court Decisions
  • Genetics in the Modern World
  • Leadership Communication
  • Materials Design for Innovation
  • Math and Medications: The Foundations for Safe Patient Care
  • The Creative (Design) City
  • The Neurobiology of Feeding and Obesity
  • What’s the Use of Privacy?

For More Information

University Honors College

106 Capen Hall

Phone: 716-645-3020; Fax: 716-645-3368

Email: honors@buffalo.edu