‘Fighting the same fight’: Broadening Global Voices in HONR 101  

HONR 101 Western Traditions – Antiquity to the Middle Ages — both a foundation and introduction to Loyola’s Interdisciplinary Honors Program — is currently undergoing significant curricular changes to diversify content and foster inclusivity. 

The changes reflect concerns over how the course intentionally excludes non-Western voices. The changes were prompted by the efforts of faculty and the Honors Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Coalition. Students and professors rethought how to teach a course with more emphasis on global voices and better serve students. 

“The entire academic field of the humanities has been working toward this direction,” Director of the Honors Program Virginia Strain said. “And the Honors BIPOC Coalition, the e-board and students, have been instrumental in helping the program make the case.” 

President of the Honors BIPOC Coalition Amelie Malone has been optimistic about the changes to the Honors program in recent years. On a recent visit to the present-day Honors 101 lecture, Malone was pleasantly surprised by the strides toward diversification.

“I had an audible ‘Wow, oh my goodness,’” Malone, now a fourth-year, said. “There’s people [in the lecture hall] who look like me — there’s BIPOC people. That was so limited back then. I was really in awe of seeing how the work [Honors BIPOC Coalition (HBC)] does really matters and creates an impactful change.”

In Malone’s HONR 101 class, she said she could “count on [her] hand how many Black students there were.” For the majority of the Honors Program’s history, the student population was almost exclusively white and male, according to Malone. It was this exclusion and lack of representation that led Malone to join the students leading the change.

“I, along with the HBC, saw the lack of diversity in the curricula — peers and faculty also wanted to make a change,” Malone said. “I joined [Honors BIPOC] because I admire the mission of this organisation advocating for changes. I feel that students should have the right to take up space in every facet of education, and should be provided with a diverse, equitable, and holistic experience.” 

“HONR 100 and 101: Ideas in the World” was born to address these concerns. These new courses, currently being reviewed by the university for approval, reimagines a curriculum that extends beyond the scope of what has been taught in the past. 

Strain said Loyola’s current year-long HONR 101/102 sequence is a product of 20th century pedagogy which primarily examines what have traditionally been considered “monumental” works of Western literature. This model, made famous by institutions such as the University of Chicago, took the value of these texts as inherent while looking over the value of ideas and works outside of the “Western canon.”

“This old curriculum was created under a paradigm in which we thought of European, and then Western tradition, including America, as being a superior civilization,” Strain said. “That it sets models and precedents for the rest of the world.” 

The new curriculum’s title and language are intentionally vague to create space for lecturers and professors to adapt the curriculum to their needs, according to Strain.

“We want the teaching team not to try and fit itself into a pre-made box or a pre-made syllabus,” Strain said. “But to come up with their own ideas about how texts, cultures, periods and voices connect.”  

The course description for the proposed new curriculum still honors the survey nature of the course in its exploration of religion, the arts, literature and philosophy — all of which both courses offer a waiver for. To satisfy the requirements for waivers in such diverse fields and then apply them to such diverse cultures, interdisciplinary themes are chosen. These topics, spanning continents and timelines, inform course material and focus. 

“One idea for a yearlong course is human migration,” Strain said. “Within a course on human migration, unit one might be nomads, which would include indigenous people and writings, as well as Eastern, the Global South, and quote-unquote ‘Western’ texts.”  

By recentering the course around a global theme instead of a particular region or cultural sphere — as the West is typically defined — the course not only broadens its horizons but focuses on real-world trends, exploring how historical events impact the modern world students inhabit today. 

“The final unit in this hypothetical course is on trade routes, with a special case study on the Silk Road and the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Strain said. “That would be the first semester, moving chronologically and looking at the subject of migration from different perspectives in each unit.”  

Although the current descriptions are only hypothetical, they suggest a new model of thinking to bring the Honors Program out of its outdated 20th century origins. The curricular proposal would reframe what is taught in a more comprehensive, 21st century understanding of the world and students’ place in it, according to Strain. 

“I think it’s really good, especially in honors, to analyze a whole bunch of texts, not just from one specific area,” honors first-year Rylee Irwin said. “Just getting exposure to all kinds of different writings that can bring different perspectives and views into not only literature of that time, but into the world as of now.”

On advocating for curricular changes — the very impetus behind the developments in the Honors curriculum — Strain offered encouragement to students who see room for improvement in what and how the university teaches. 

“Don’t assume that your professors or the administration is working against you,” Strain said. “Sometimes we’re here fighting the same fight. And when you bring student support and energy to the table, it helps all of us reach our goals.”