Honors Minors

Students in the Honors College have the option of completing an honors minor. The honors minor can be completed through one of three pathways within Radford's REAL General Education program. All credits in an honors minor count toward completing either Honors College curricular track. Students who complete an honors minor without completing an Honors College curricular track have their work recognized on their transcript, but not on the diploma.

Honors Minor Overview

"The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” 

All three honors minors are united by the common goal of understanding the tension between ideas within and across disciplines. Such tension can arise from a variety of sources, including theoretical disagreement within a field, methodological differences across fields, or paradoxes that emerge from the underlying nature of a phenomenon. It is this tension of ideas that propels scholarly work and allows students to attain a nuanced perspective on the world.

Students who complete an honors minor typically begin with honors PHIL 115 (Wicked Problems), which examines the necessity of multi-layered solutions to complex problems. Students then take at least three REAL-designated honors courses approved for the particular coverage area (R, E, or A). Finally, students in all minors will bookend their experience with a section of HNRS 310 (Advanced Honors Seminar), which is designed to be an interdisciplinary special topics course.  

Each honors minor incorporates a depth of learning through a specific theme and an annual event. The theme of each honors minor emerges from one of the three Honors College core values: curiosity for the Reasoning minor, authenticity for the Expression minor, and community for the Analysis minor. 

General Structure

  • 15-18 total credits
    • 3 credits honors PHIL 115 
    • 9-12 credits in honors courses approved in the particular REAL area (R, E, or A)
    • 3 credits in HNRS 310
  • Minimum GPA of 3.0 in honors minor coursework
  • Students can earn only one honors minor
  • Minor can count toward either honors curricular track

Honors Minor in Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning (R): The River as Exploration

Building on the Honors College core value of curiosity, this minor incorporates a central theme of science and quantitative reasoning as forms of exploration. That is, learning about the world through scientific and quantitative reasoning requires that new hypotheses and data form a tension with existing theory and beliefs. Radford University’s location on the New River serves as a concrete example of a quantifiable aspect of the natural world that can be studied through the lens of disciplines like statistics, geology, physics, chemistry, biology, and geography.  The Honors College hosts an annual event connected to exploration or the New River.

  • 3 credits in honors PHIL 115 (Wicked Problems)
  • 9-12 credits in any R-designated honors course (e.g., GEOL 104, GEOG 140, STAT 200)
  • 3 credits in HNRS 310 (Advanced Honors Seminar)

Honors Minor in Humanistic and Artistic Expression (E): Humanity in the Wilderness

The Honors College core value of authenticity posits a border between expressions of one’s “real” self and the community of which it is a part. The tension between a true self and a societally-constructed self shifts over time and context, with social forces affecting opportunities to know and express the self. This minor investigates the tensions inherent in authenticity through the metaphor of wilderness. On one hand, the wilderness can represent unpredictable environments that test the limitations of human frailty, adaptation, and resilience. Alternatively, the wilderness metaphor can represent the space beyond the frontier of social constraint, where the “true” forces of the natural world – and the self – find expression. Students completing this minor will be prepared to reflect on the tension surrounding authentic expression through such lenses as history,  communication, literature, poetry, philosophy, and theatre. The Honors College hosts an annual event connected to authenticity or the wilderness. 

  • 3 credits in honors PHIL 115 (Wicked Problems)
  • 9 credits in any E-designated honors course (e.g., HIST 102, ENGL 200, THEA 100)
  • 3 credits in HNRS 310 (Advanced Honors Seminar)

Honors Minor in Cultural and Behavioral Analysis (A): Intersections and Crossroads

Converging with the Honors College core value of community, this minor investigates the theme of pathways: crossroads and intersections with the potential to align and divide people. Human aspects of the Appalachian region – economics, politics, culture – provide concrete examples of how individuals can join together for mutual benefit or divide into competing coalitions. Students completing this minor will be prepared to reflect on the tension between individual freedom and collective responsibility through such disciplines as anthropology, economics, art history, political science, sociology, and psychology.  The Honors College hosts an annual event connected to community engagement or Appalachia.

  • 3 credits in honors PHIL 115 (Wicked Problems)
  • 9 credits in any A-designated honors course (e.g., ART 215, SOCY 121, ECON 105)
  • 3 credits in HNRS 310 (Advanced Honors Seminar)