Ted and Shirley Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award
— Award-Winning HSP Course —
Each year, Humanities Seminars Program students select a small group of professors whose teaching rises to the highest level of excellence. Chosen entirely through student evaluations, the Ted and Shirley Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award recognizes faculty who combine deep scholarly expertise with the rare ability to ignite curiosity and sustain lively intellectual discovery in the classroom.
This summer, we are pleased to make our 2024 award-winning seminars available again as recorded courses. These classes capture the energy, insight, and conversation that made them standouts among HSP’s many seminars. If you missed the opportunity to take the course live, this re-release offers a chance to explore an exceptional seminar led by one of the University of Arizona’s most inspiring teachers. For those who have never experienced an HSP course, it is also a perfect way to test the waters. Enrollment provides online access to the complete course experience, including video recordings of each session, the original syllabus, and course readings. The seminar remains exactly as students encountered it during its original presentation—an invitation to join a community of curious learners and follow the ideas wherever they lead.
Course Description
How are astronomers approaching their search for life in the universe? What have we learned from the surge of exoplanets discoveries? How likely is it that Earth does not host the only life in the Universe? In this course we explore the field of astrobiology, an emerging multidisciplinary field. Progress in astrobiology is driven by telescopes on the ground and in space, and by new insights on how biology emerged on Earth and its diversity. The first detection of life beyond Earth might happen in the Solar System or by seeing biology’s alteration of an exoplanet’s atmosphere. A longshot approach is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The topics in this course range from the science of how exoplanets are detected, to the definition of habitability, to the chemistry that supports the argument that the ingredients for life are common in the universe. Astrobiology aims to answer one of the most profound questions we can ask in science: are we alone?
Summer Registration Opens
Monday, March 30, 2026 at 8 AM (AZ Time)
