Requirements and Responsibilities of the Honors Candidate

By accepting admission to the honors program in History, students agree not only to complete their own research and writing in a timely manner but also to participate actively in the intellectual life of the program.

Early in the fall semester, honors candidates will be required to attend a lunch meeting with the History faculty. Candidates will be expected to make brief presentations of their thesis topics and, it is hoped, to engage in constructive dialogue with faculty members and each other. The purpose of this meeting is to help students refine their ideas, to encourage discussion across sub-disciplinary boundaries, to introduce the honors candidates to one another, and to review the expectations and requirements of the honors program.

Honors candidates will also be expected to attend a second meeting during fall semester reading period. At this meeting, candidates will present brief reports on the progress of their research, circulate working outlines of the chapters they propose to write, and share ideas about each other's projects.

Honors candidates will be required to submit a substantial piece of writing to their History Department adviser on the first day of spring semester classes. Ordinarily this will be an early draft of the first chapter. The purpose of this submission is to evaluate the candidate's progress and to provide her with constructive feedback at a critical point in the research and writing process. At the discretion of the adviser, a second reader from the History Department may be involved in the evaluation. Candidates whose progress is judged insufficient will be directed not to continue with the thesis.

During February and March, honors candidates will be invited to share their work-in-progress with one another and with department faculty at a series of occasional colloquia. You will not be required to share your work, but many writers find it helpful to get feedback as they begin to look toward the process of revising the thesis. You will be required to attend these meetings, to read the work of those who are presenting, and to offer your own comments and constructive suggestions.

Honors candidates will be expected to complete a draft of the entire thesis no later than the last Friday before spring break. This will leave ample time for final revisions before the honors thesis is due in mid-April.

History Department