Honor Your Teaching

Research Venture Lyceum Design Fellowship

The Auburn University Honors College’s “Honor Your Teaching: Research Venture Lyceum Design Fellowship” is a program to support AU faculty in the creation of “Research Lyceums” that will provide small groups of students with an introductory experience in research or creative endeavor.

What is a Research Lyceum?

The Honors College will offer up to ten “Research Venture Lyceums” for the Spring 2027 semester as sections of the HONR.1087 Lyceum course. Lyceums, named after the gymnasium where the ancient philosopher Aristotle taught, provide a curricular setting for highly interactive forms of learning in the Honors College. As one-credit courses with satisfactory-unsatisfactory grading, they also offer opportunities for students to explore ideas and fields without worry about the impact of intellectual risk-taking on their GPA.

Through the curricular vehicle of the lyceum, AU faculty will supervise up to five students on a semester-long research “venture” or project. The Honors vision for research venture lyceums is that the project and course will be structured so that students can make meaningful contributions even if they are at an early stage of their studies. Proceeding through a pedagogical philosophy of active and collaborative learning, the lyceums will be structured so that students learn by working with each other and their instructor, developing a cohort identity through their shared venture. Ideally, the research lyceums will provide a low-stakes setting for undergraduates to learn first-hand what it is like to do research in the relevant field, and for faculty to mentor undergraduates whom they may want to invite to join more advanced research collaborations. These are guidelines, not firm rules: faculty are free to design research ventures that work best for their departments and fields. Also, while the vision for the research ventures is that students will enroll in them during their first or second year of undergraduate study, faculty may stipulate different requirements for enrollment in their lyceum.

How will the “Honor Your Research Team Design Fellowship” Work?

Over the course the Fall semester of 2026, fellows will design a one-credit research venture lyceum with the assistance of the Honors College academic affairs staff. The course should be offered for the Spring semester of 2027.

Through a series of three sessions, fellows will learn best practices in honors education, engage in discussion of their course ideas, and receive feedback on ways to strengthen their proposed course materials. Fellows are eligible for funding in subsequent summers pending successful application.