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University of Florida

Summer 2026 Quest 1 Courses

ABOUT UF QUEST

UF Quest invites students to consider why the world is the way it is and what they can do about it. Students examine questions that are difficult to answer and hard to ignore in a world that is swiftly changing and becoming increasingly more complex. What makes life worth living? What makes a society a fair one? How do we manage conflicts? Who are we in relation to other people or to the natural world?

THE UF QUEST 1 REQUIREMENT

UF Quest 1 courses fulfill the UF Quest 1 requirement and/or 3 credits of the General Education requirement in the Humanities (see the  UF Quest Requirement page for more information). Some UF Quest 1 courses may also fulfill either the International (N) requirement and/or count toward the Writing requirement. 

UF QUEST 1 COURSES

Click on the links below to learn more about the individual courses and to access course syllabi, which will be posted at least 3 days before the semester begins. Click the Campus, Honors, or UF Online button to filter by program or type in the search field to look for a particular subject, topic, instructor, etc.

 

Campus Honors UF Online

CAMPUS

  • Instructor: Craig Smith, Art and Art History
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • The Essential Question: How do we make sense of it all? What is the meaning of the visuals we choose or encounter? Are we interpreting them as the maker or sharer intended? What is the relationship of image to context?
  • Instructor: Victoria Pagan, Classics
  • Format: 100 % Classroom
  • The Essential Question: To what extent do representations of gardens in literature and art increase our enjoyment of the gardens we visit in real life?
  • Instructor: Jennifer Coenen, University Writing Program
  • Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous 
  • The Essential Question: Why do stories from the past matter?
  • Instructor: Eric Kligerman, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • The Essential Question: How is political violence represented, conceptualized and memorialized across shifting literary and visual texts? What ethical questions arise in our engagement with representations of traumatic limit events and the experience of horror these events entail?

 

  • Instructor: Christopher Smith, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • The Essential Question: How can pop culture from a foreign culture inform our conversation on what makes a fair and just society and how we can manage conflict?

 

  • Instructor: Belinda Nettles, Landscape Architecture
  • Format: 100% Classroom 
  • The Essential Question: What is nature? How can we incorporate nature into urbanized areas to provide societal benefits and allow people to connect with nature and place in everyday urban life? How can we use this knowledge across multiple professions to improve quality of life and affect positive change in our urban communities?
  • Instructor: Rodrigo Borges, Philosophy
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • The Essential Question: How can we pursue our disagreements with each other in a. way that is both fair and productive?

 

  • Instructor: Florin Curta, History
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • Essential Question: Who are you? Where are you from? 

HONORS

  • Instructor: Florin Curta, History
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • Essential Question: Who are you? Where are you from? 

UF ONLINE

  • Instructor: Jennifer Coenen, University Writing Program
  • Format: 100% Online, Asynchronous 
  • The Essential Question: Why do stories from the past matter?
  • Instructor:  Lynne Clark, English Language Institute
  • Format: 100% Online
  • The Essential Question:
  • Instructor: Christopher Smith, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
  • Format: 100% Classroom
  • The Essential Question: How can pop culture from a foreign culture inform our conversation on what makes a fair and just society and how we can manage conflict?