History Honors Option

The honors track in history affords outstanding history majors the opportunity to propose, carry out, and formally present independent research on a topic of their choosing, under the guidance of a faculty adviser. Students who successfully complete an approved thesis and its associated 14 or 16 credit-hour department honors curriculum will be formally designated History Honors graduates and receive notice of this distinction on their diplomas. Students who wish to pursue the honors in history option must apply to do so after having completed a minimum of 24 credit hours in the major and before they have attained senior standing. The history honors option requires a 3.50 GPA in history prior to admission to the program.

The history honors option requires an undergraduate thesis which students produce in their junior and senior years. Following successful admission to the program, during the junior year the student develops a thesis topic in a reading and conference course (four credits of Hst 405) directed by a faculty member who has agreed to supervise the student’s honors thesis. In the senior year, the first term is devoted to research (four credits of Hst 401), the second term to writing (four credits of Hst 403), and the third to presentation and revision of the thesis (two to four credits of Hst 403).