Are you interested in organizing an Honors Colloquium, URI’s premier lecture series?

Jan. 6, 2026

The URI Honors Program invites interested faculty teams to submit proposals for the Honors Colloquium, AY 2027-28. The Honors Colloquium is the premier intellectual lecture series at URI and has a strong public following. The mission of the Colloquium is to foster campus and community-wide conversation on contemporary issues of national and/or global significance through conversations with distinguished scholars, public figures, and a variety of experts. Colloquium proposals should be widely interdisciplinary in nature and have campus-wide appeal. Proposals should also contain the potential to appeal to campus and community partners for parallel courses, events and educational opportunities. Among the previous colloquia are: 

2025: Education, Behind the Curtains
2024: Democracy in Peril 
2023: Not Business as Usual: Business for the Common Good 
2022: Just Good Food: Creating Equitable, Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems 
2021: Sustaining Our Shores 
2020: Challenging Expectations: Disability in the 21st Century 
2019: Religion in America 
2018: Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action 
2017: Origins: Life, the Universe and Everything 

Funding and administrative support for the Honors Colloquium are robust. There is substantial financial support to bring in distinguished speakers. Additionally, there is funding that can be used by Colloquium coordinators for summer re-contracting or course replacement. The Honors Program helps with all coordination. 

In addition to the public lectures, integral to the URI Colloquium are its affiliated 200-level honors courses. Participation in an Honors Colloquium through a designated Colloquium course is a requirement for students in the Honors Program. The average class size for the Honors Colloquium course is 40 students and we plan to run four sections of the Colloquium course. Colloquium organizers should be prepared to teach two of these four sections, and we will work with organizers to identify other faculty members on campus who can teach two other affiliated sections. Sometimes it happens that a Colloquium subject is broad enough that we can run a constellation of Honors courses around the theme. This situation is desirable because it drives major student engagement with the Colloquium. 

In conceptualizing the Honors Colloquium course, organizers should keep in mind both the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) learning objectives for Honors courses and the new Honors Program learning outcomes for the Colloquium course. The NCHC learning objectives can be found on the following Course Proposal cover sheet that organizers will submit with the Colloquium course syllabus, if the organizers’ Colloquium proposal is selected. The new Honors program learning outcomes for the Colloquium course are rooted in reinforcement of critical inquiry; advanced communication; collaborative engagement and community participation; and creativity and innovative thinking/action. (These program learning outcomes are introduced in the HPR 100-level courses.)

The selection of the proposal to become the Honors Colloquium is made by the Honors Program Curriculum Committee. We reserve the right to also select, out of the proposal submissions, Colloquiua for following years. The proposal should include: 

  • A concept paper of one to two pages that frames the intellectual issue(s) 
  • A list or brief account of potential speakers and special events 
  • A rough estimate of a budget 
  • A brief course description for the 200-level honors class 
  • A 3-page relevant curriculum vitae for the colloquium coordinator(s). 

Please send proposals to Honors Coordinator, Anna Blake (annablake@uri.edu), copying Honors Director, Karen de Bruin (debruin@uri.edu). For any questions or if proposers would like to discuss a potential proposal before submission, please contact Karen de Bruin.

The deadline for proposals is Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.

We look forward to reading your proposal!