About the Honors Arts and Letters Bachelor’s Program
The Bachelor of Arts in Honors Arts and Letters (HAL) degree is designed for capable, curious students who are pursuing a broad and challenging course of study that will prepare them for a variety of careers and a lifetime of active citizenship. Most university graduates change careers several times during their lives. Therefore, this degree emphasizes “portable skills” such as critical thinking and problem solving that equip students with career flexibility. HAL also provides knowledge and skills that qualify students for admission to graduate and professional programs such as law and medical schools. Students who seek a career in health professions can complete their science requirements while pursuing the HAL major.
The HAL major emphasizes a broad, humanistic approach to understanding the world. Students pursuing a HAL major must be admitted to the Honors College. HAL students are required to complete an undergraduate thesis, and they graduate “with Highest Honors from the Honors College.” Students in HAL must complete one of the following 15-hour concentrations: Pre-Law, Health and the Humanities, or Open Concentration. Students in the Open Concentration may propose a program of study that fits their personal interests (subject to approval from the HAL advisory committee). For further information about HAL see honors.ttu.edu.
HAL majors are strongly encouraged to include a study abroad experience as part of their education and are required to take a foreign language through the first semester of the third year (3000 level) as preparation for study in a foreign country. Study abroad may be at one of the Texas Tech University overseas campuses or anywhere else in the world where it can be arranged. Most students will study abroad during the spring semester of their junior year, but students in the Health and the Humanities concentration may opt to study abroad in the summer to avoid interrupting the sequence of required science courses.
Communication Literacy Plan. The Honors Arts and Letters (HAL) major provides a solid foundation of humanities-based coursework. This coursework emphasizes holistic communication skills which include oral and written mastery emanating from close reading of primary and secondary texts, critical analysis, preparation of oral and written arguments, receiving criticism, and re-writing. Communication Literacy coursework for the Honors Arts and Letters major includes ENGL 2391 , HONS 3305 , HONS 4302 , HONS 3300 , and HONS 4300 and an upper-level foreign language course taught in the student’s selected language.
Contact: Prof. Kurt Caswell, 201A McClellan Hall, kurt.caswell@ttu.edu, 806.742.1828
Recommended Sample Curriculum
The B.A. in Honors Arts and Letters (HAL) is designed to allow students to exercise creativity in crafting a flexible course of study rooted firmly in the humanities while permitting space for five to 10 unspecified concentration courses of the student’s own choosing. Concentration classes must be writing intensive and have thesis-related, upper-level hours approved by the HAL advisor. The degree requires 120 credit hours, 30 of which must be upper level. Minors are not required for the HAL degree but are optional and should be chosen in consultation with the HAL advisor.
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