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Current and retired UMass Amherst faculty members and current librarians are invited to apply to teach a one-credit Honors Discovery Seminar in the Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) for Spring 2026. Online applications will be accepted through April 15.

The Honors Discovery Seminar, Honors 391AH, is intended to inspire a love of learning and to help prepare honors students with skills necessary for completion of senior theses and projects and the professional workplace. It is also designed to facilitate contact between CHC students and departmental faculty in a small, seminar-style setting of up to 15 students, and to provide an intellectually stimulating, cross-disciplinary experience for both the faculty and students involved.

Faculty and students meet once a week for 50 minutes and every section is open to honors students of any major. There is no restriction on the field or topic around which the course is centered, but all courses should be accessible to students from all majors and no advanced knowledge of the subject should be required.

Preference will be given to courses that incorporate specific skills into the curriculum that will help prepare students for the Honors Thesis, which is produced as a manuscript or portfolio. These skills include writing in general and may also include writing abstracts and literature reviews, competence in research, definition of a research question, artistic/creative methods, computer literacy in presenting research results, and public speaking.

The seminar, which is an honors college signature course, allows faculty to create short, compelling courses in areas of personal interest to them and to teach courses they have always wanted to teach while helping students hone skills necessary for senior thesis or project work. Examples of courses are available on the Fall 2025 Honors Discovery Course Descriptions website.

Discovery seminar lecturers will receive faculty funds of $2,375 and will have options to either receive compensation or transfer the funds to the faculty retention fund or their department’s general operating fund.

For more information and to apply, visit the CHC website and the CHC PATHS 391H Honors Seminar Lecturer Application Form. For questions, email CHC Senior Assistant Dean Dominick Usher at dusher@umass.edu.