Honors College 391AH - Honors Discovery Seminars

This seminar is a required course for Commonwealth Honors College students where students participate in a topical seminar-style course designed by its instructor. While the subject matter of each section is different, advanced knowledge of the topic is not required. While the subject matter of each section is different, the requirements for each section are the same. Individual titles and descriptions of HONORS 391AH sections can be found on the Commonwealth Honors College website.

Open to Senior, Junior, and Sophomore Commonwealth College students only. The pressures of climate change, natural and anthropogenic disasters, and unstable demographic shifts have begun to shape cities and towns across the globe, and in compelling ways. In these places--- at sites of conflict, or post-crisis environments, or areas of extreme resource scarcity--- design adaptation stands out as an indicator of resilience, spatial agency and creative problem solving. This course highlights case studies from adaptive sites in an effort to better understand the design responses of individuals and communities to their challenging environments, and to consider how this design thinking might open up new possibilities for the future of the design disciplines. Students will be expected to research one assigned example of design adaptation, and then present findings to the class. This course helps to hone basic research, writing and presentation skills, in preparation for the honor?s thesis.