University of Washington Honors Program

Congratulations to the 25 Honors students who were recognized for the 2024 Husky 100 award!

Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 undergraduate and graduate students across all majors and campuses who are making the most of their Husky experience. We are delighted to share this news and recognize the students who are making the University a better place with their work.

Learn more about the Husky 100 at this link: https://www.washington.edu/husky100/

We're fundraising to support moments of connection. Connection between ideas, people, moments and subjects that demonstrate the full range of human experience. That's UW Honors. Celebrate Honors Huskies with a gift today!

https://givingday.uw.edu/o/university-of-washington/i/husky-giving-day-2024/s/Honors

Honors Huskies, we are scheming about your bright futures. Stay gold.

Hey, Honors Huskies. We are talking about you and having a picnic.

Last month marked a new year and a new quarter. It also marked an uptick in social opportunities and creative in-class engagements. Check out the latest post on our website to see Honors in pictures for January 2023 and find out how you can submit YOUR photos for our upcoming posts! https://honors.uw.edu/news/2023/honors-in-pictures-the-best-of-january-2023/

APPLY NOW | This program is a 3-week immersive program examining social entrepreneurship in population health in India. The program will foster an exploration of concepts related to population health, specifically learning that health and well-being is impacted by multiple overlapping and intersecting factors that include poverty, education, governance, racism, the environment, and many more. Through it all, students will explore how social innovation/entrepreneurship can have a positive societal impact by addressing the social determinants of health.

APPLY NOW | Using the city of Rome and 2000 years of performance traditions, literature, painting, and architecture, this interactive, inter-disciplinary humanities course considers a single site: Rome, and how Rome fashioned and re-fashioned its own charismatic image of imperial and cultural power first as the heart of the Roman Empire, then as the capital of Christiandom, later as a city of Papal Princes, the epicenter of high culture on any European tour, and finally Mussolini’s restoration of Empire. How Rome created its unique, charismatic position in European history is largely a product of its own self-promotion. Rome the city invented Rome the idea, and those acts of invention can be read as a powerful performance of civic identity. Combining tours of the city’s own treasury of art and architecture with readings about its past, we explore Rome as the center of power and culture across the ages. To study the city, we stand at the sites of power, feet in the present, the past at our reach.

APPLY NOW | This program is based in Copenhagen and addresses the interplay of public art and activism, as well as their roles in making visible the history of colonialism and colonized identities in Denmark, past and present. Students will gain a grounding in Danish history, cultures, and national narratives to explore how public art installations such as I AM QUEEN MARY (currently virtual) have consciously brought together artists, cultural heritage institutions, government, and communities to engage in the complex process of social justice activism through public art.

APPLY NOW | What can art teach us about colonialism, political violence, and human rights? This summer program makes the case that art is a powerful way to understand the world and change it! Directed by anthropologist María Elena García (CHID) and political scientist José Antonio Lucero (JSIS/CHID), this CHID/Honors program offers students an interdisciplinary examination of the intersections of art, culture, Indigeneity and politics in contemporary Peru. Examining the ways in which artists, activists, and the state have used culture as a terrain for political struggle, students will have the opportunity to explore how art can provide tools for understanding the workings of colonialism, political violence, and community resilience. Through a mix of lectures, small-group activities, and a public art project (no artistic experience required!!), students will learn with Peruvian scholars, artists, human rights activists in the cities of Lima and Ayacucho, Peru.

APPLY NOW | This program will be held in collaboration with faculty and professionals from several Dutch academic, research, and cultural organizations, including DANS (Data Archiving and Network Services), the Dutch national eHumanities platform, the Vrije Universiteit, the Delft Public Library (DOK), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It will be based in Amsterdam, the political and cultural capital of the Netherlands;. It will provide us with a set of outstanding case study in how libraries, museums, and information services engage with diverse populations both in their everyday functioning and in their attempts at creating innovative programs and resources.

APPLY NOW | This interdisciplinary study abroad program in Tokyo and Okinawa explores the complex and evolving web of narratives surrounding Japanese national identity and social memory. Although Japan is often described as an ethnically homogeneous country, its national identity was formed through centuries of migration, political consolidation and, in some cases, forced assimilation. These legacies were further complicated by the experience of World War II, which led to a further questioning of Japanese identity and new forms of trauma that exacerbated existing inequalities. Traces of this history are visible both in Tokyo, the center of the Japanese political world, and in Okinawa, a political periphery where residents have borne the burden of hosting US bases to support their country’s national security. This study abroad program explores these dynamics and more from a variety of perspectives, including history, politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, media studies, race, gender, culture, literature and art.

APPLY NOW | For much of our recorded history the Mediterranean Sea functioned to unite the lands that surrounded it. People, cultures, and empires in southern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa crossed this sea continuously in many directions; interacted with, borrowed from, and strengthened each other. In this program, we explore the causes and consequences of these movements across the Mediterranean. Through readings, discussions, films, guest lecturers, and field trips students will learn about the diverse types of migration present in Italy today and in history (refugees, asylum seekers, and labor migrants from all over the world). Immigrant integration and multiculturalism, with particular attention to art and architecture and ethnic, national, gender, and religious differences, will be discussed, as will increasing efforts to control migration into Italy and the EU.

Rome! Japan! The Netherlands! India! Denmark! Peru! Where do you want to explore with Honors in 2023? Studying abroad with Honors is more than just visiting another country; it's engaging in global citizenship through interdisciplinary immersion. Check out the link above to learn more about our exciting programs and join our upcoming information sessions!

LaShawnDa Pittman, American Ethnic Studies and Sociology professor, is excited to think together as our newest Hanauer appointee! Pittman's research centers socially marginalized women and those living with poor health resources/outcomes. Next quarter, students will get to interrogate notions of “Western Civilization" in her class and discuss what matters to them at upcoming salon talks. Head to tinyurl.com/hanauerarticle to learn more about Pittman and her connection with Honors.

Apply to join the honors peer mentoring program as a mentor or mentee! Link to apply: https://forms.gle/DvMZugTFfwujrLyUA

With nearly 200 people in our in-person audience and over 300 views on our livestream, our 2022 Global Challenges event was a success! We had passionate speakers from diverse backgrounds discuss the power and politics of place and care, along with our first ever student moderator and student Q&A coordinator. If you couldn't join us or want to relive the night, head to tinyurl.com/gcia22 to view the recording.
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From left to right: Stephanie Smallwood, Megan Ybarra, Martine Pierre-Louis, Shannon Hong, Brandon Wu, and LaShawnDa Pittman

This year, we are excited that students have become of part our tiny team and fill vital staff roles here in Honors. Learn more about them in our latest article: tinyurl.com/studentstaffers

One year after its launch, the Honors Peer Mentoring Program (HPMP) has over 80 mentors and mentees in its Fall 2022 Cohort! At tonight’s Opening Ceremony, students got to connect with each other, meet the HPMP committee, and learn more about the expectations for the program.

If you are interested in getting involved, we encourage you to join the Winter 2022 Cohort! In the meantime, check out their webpage to learn more: https://honors.uw.edu/community/student-leaders/peer-mentors/

Congratulations to our 2022 Honors graduates and we wish our director Vicky Lawson the best for her retirement 💜💛 Thank you to all the staff and student volunteers who made our first in-person graduation event since 2019 a special one!

Hear from Nuria, a third-year College Honors student studying Computer Science, about her experience as one of the Recruitment Coordinators for the Honors Peer Mentoring Program! Apply to join next year's committee at tinyurl.com/hpmpcommittee by TONIGHT.

Hear from Shannon, a third-year College Honors student studying Neuroscience, about her experience as the Director of the Honors Peer Mentoring Program! Apply to join next year's committee at tinyurl.com/hpmpcommittee by this Friday.

We had a blast welcoming our incoming Honors class during last week's new admit celebration! We loved getting to know everyone and are so happy to welcome such an awesome group of people into our Honors community.

A special shout out to our winning trivia teams - Team Maria (virtual) and Team Weezer (in-person)!

We're really looking forward to bringing these rock stars together and sharing their perspectives with YOU! Hope you'll join us.