University Honors Colloquia are designed to give a sense of a residential college experience and to further facilitate intellectual and personal opportunities for students.
A typical colloquium lasts between one and two hours, and the format of each event varies by topic and speaker. All University Honors Colloquia are free and open to the public; some events are intimate, with an audience of thirty or forty, while others have filled auditoriums with over three hundred people.
We invite you to make suggestions for future speakers and topics.
Please check the
event calendar for Colloquia listings.
Previous Guest Speakers : - Karen Knutson, Senator Lisa Murkowski's Chief of Staff
- Daniel Sullivan, Assistant Secretary of State
- Donald Johanson, Paleoanthropologist who discovered Lucy
- T.C. Boyle, PEN/Faulkner award winning author and Professor of English at the University of Southern California
- Arthur I. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at University College London
- Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist and the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission orbiting around Saturn
- Robert Moog, pioneer of electronic music and inventor of the Moog synthesizer
- Robin Bronen, Director of IRS for Catholic Social Services
- Nora Dauenhauer, Tlingit poet, translator and editor
- Mark Hamilton, University of Alaska President
- Dr. N. Scott Momaday, Native American novelist, scholar, poet, and storyteller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
- Frank Murkowski, Governor and United States Senator
- Joseph Ralston, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Europe
- Jack Schmitt, Astronaut and U.S. Senator from New Mexico
- Dr. Vernon Smith, 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics
- Jack Dalton, Yup'ik Storyteller
- Religious Tolerance Panel including: Rabbi Fred Wenger, Omar Sharief, Rev. Bruno Van Parijs, Pastor Dan Bollerud
- Sharon Cissna, Alaska State Representative- House District 22
- John Callas, Science Manager for the Mars Rover Project, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor of Geological Sciences and Research Scientist, Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University
"The Honors College has provided me with lots of help and support. That’s something I was looking for when I came into college. Graduating as a University Honors Scholar is the highest honor, and will give me the competitive edge I am seeking.”
-
Umair Iqbal,
Truman Scholar and University Honors Scholar
