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The Honors Program


The Honors Program at Denison

THE HONORS PROGRAM AT DENISON exemplifies the commitment of the college to exceptional intellectual work by its faculty and students.

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Honors seminars are small and are often held outside at Gilpatrick House, home of the Denison Honors Program.

Central to the program's mission is a rich array of seminars that are intended to challenge the intellectual aspirations and expectations of highly motivated and talented students. Many courses feature multiple intellectual and/or disciplinary perspectives. Experimental topics and course designs foster a sense of intellectual intimacy and a shared delight in exploring a topic in unusual depth. The courses are likely to include a significant research component and/or artistic endeavor. Classes are kept small, usually no more than 16 students.


Seminars are offered across all four divisions of the college and at both the introductory and more advanced levels. Each semester, several honors seminars are directed solely toward highly talented first-year students. Entering students with outstanding secondary school records are invited to participate in the Honors Program immediately in the fall semester of their first year, but students may enter the program at any point in their Denison career when their cumulative GPA exceeds 3.4 (3.6 beginning with Class of 2010).

The program sponsors symposia, cultural activities and extracurricular events that promote intellectual and artistic excellence and complement the seminar offerings. Additionally, honors students can take advantage of the many scholarly opportunities open to all high-achieving students at Denison.

The Director of the Honors Program and faculty advisers work closely with participants as they make their seminar selections over the course of their four years at Denison.

The Denison University Honors Program is a member of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA).

Student research

If they wish, students may also graduate in the Honors Program by maintaining a GPA above 3.4 (3.6 beginning with Class of 2010), taking at least four honors seminars, and completing a senior honors research project. Examples of recent honors projects show the diversity of such research:

Who are our administrators?

Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Sociology/Anthropology Kent Maynard joined the faculty at Denison in 1981. He earned a B.A. at the University of Redlands and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research and writing focus on Protestantism in Ecuador, the economic and cultural position of the middle classes in U.S. society, ethnographic poetry, and the history of indigenous medicine in the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa.

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Director of Fellowships Joan Krone holds the Benjamin Barney Distinguished Professorship in Mathematics and Computer Science. She joined the faculty at Denison in 1990. She earned a B.S. at West Liberty State College, a M.S. in mathematics and a M.S. in computer science and her Ph.D, degrees at Ohio State University. Her research interests include applications of formal methods to Software Engineering, program verification, and theory of programminglanguage design.

Assistant to the Director of the Honors Program Cookie Sunkle came to Denison in 1988. She earned a B.A. at Ohio Wesleyan University. In addition to her administrative duties, Sunkle oversees the mentor program for first-year honors students and assists with under- and postgraduate applications for prestigious fellowships.

In addition, professors from many academic disciplines offer classes each semester within the Honors Program.

For more information about the program and curriculum, go to:

The Honors Department

or contact:

Kent Maynard
The Honors Center
Gilpatrick House, P.O. Box 810
Denison University
Granville, Ohio 43023

Phone:  (740) 587-6573
Fax:  (740) 587-5688
E-mail:   maynard@denison.edu

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