Series Courses

Humanities Series

The Humanities Series at the University of Missouri is the College’s longest-running course. Engaging students since 1954, the Humanities Sequence is an interdisciplinary, chronologically-structured series of four honors courses that introduces students to issues at the heart of Western tradition. The series explores works of literature, philosophy, art, religion, and music from Homer to Toni Morrison, Plato to Turing, Praxiteles to Maya Lin, Hildegard of Bingen to Billie Holiday. Weekly guest lectures are followed by small-group sessions in which students share ideas with their professors and other honors students. Each Humanities Series course counts towards fulfilling the Humanities General Education requirements for all Schools and Colleges at the University of Missouri.


Science Series

Science Series courses are designed to introduce students to some of the important big ideas in science. These courses integrate major scientific ideas from biology, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and physics, and explore their importance in today’s world. With exciting lectures, labs, discussions, and small group activities, these two courses have no prerequisites and fulfill the General Education requirement for a lab science course.

This series is designed for non-science majors. Science majors are welcome but should be aware that the course does not count toward their major course requirements.

The courses are designed with these guiding principles:

  • Every student can enjoy science, regardless of his or her background.
  • Science knowledge is always changing and everybody can learn more.
  • Science literacy is imperative to be an informed citizen.
  • Doing science is a fun and creative process!

Behavioral Sciences Series

The Behavioral Sciences Series provides students with an interdisciplinary introduction to the human sciences, and draws on perspectives from anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology. It is composed of four courses, two of them offered each semester.

Like the other Honors College Series courses, the Behavioral Sciences Series is founded on a set of principles including an emphasis on interdisciplinary thinking, writing, and engagement with key texts from a variety of fields. Philosophically, this series aims at enabling both objective and subjective approaches to the subject of human nature, allowing students and faculty to address questions like “How do I make sense of myself?” in one course and “What selective pressures during human evolution shaped our ability to cooperate?” in another. The specific content of each course will differ, depending on the instructor.


Social Sciences Series

The Social Sciences Series offers two courses (“Revolutions” and “Constitutions”) to provide a complete picture of revolutions and constitutions in their historical and political contexts. These courses are taught by historians and political scientists, supplemented by speakers from a range of disciplines, from theater to Black studies. This series is taught in partnership with the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.