Honors Program in History
The History Department offers the transformative History Honors Program to select history majors who wish to pursue their intellectual interests in a sustained and independent fashion. History Honors Program students complete advanced coursework and also work closely with a chosen faculty mentor to research, organize, and produce a senior thesis.
The thesis is a major piece of historical research and writing. The work of writing is an excellent accomplishment in its own right and is excellent preparation for future graduate school papers or other research projects. The thesis strengthens applications and resumés, and may even mark the beginning of a later research project on the same topic in graduate school or law school.
The department invites eligible students to apply in the fall semester of their junior year so that they begin the program in the spring of their junior year.
Benefits of the Honors Program
The History Honors Program, particularly the writing of a senior thesis, offers a special opportunity for select history majors to pursue their intellectual interests in a sustained and independent fashion, and working closely with an individual faculty member of one’s choice in researching, organizing, and producing that thesis should be a uniquely enriching academic experience.
The Honors thesis itself will be a major piece of historical research and writing, an accomplishment in its own right as well as excellent preparation for future graduate school papers or other research projects. Completion of the Honors Program will also send a strong signal of achievement to committees granting fellowships and scholarships at the graduate level, and the thesis might mark the beginning of a later research project on the same topic in graduate school or law school.
Requirements
Eleven courses, including:
1 History Workshop: HIST 33000
The "gateway course” for the standard major, the History Workshop must be taken the semester following the major declaration.
2 Honors Seminars: HIST 53001 and HIST 53002
2 Semesters of Honors Thesis Credits: HIST 58003
4 Area Courses
One course from four of the following five areas. One course of the four must contain substantial material on the period before 1500.
African/Asian/Middle Eastern history
Ancient/Medieval European history (to 1500)
Modern European history (after 1500)
United States history
Latin American history
2 Concentration Area Courses
An area of concentration must be chosen by the beginning of the senior year, with the guidance and approval of the major’s departmental advisor. Concentration Areas include – but are certainly not limited to – the following fields:
Geographical |
Thematic |
African history |
Political history |
Asian history |
Women’s history |
Medieval Europe |
Religious history |
Middle-Eastern history |
Intellectual history |
Modern Europe Social history |
History of Science and Technology |
United States |
|
Latin America |
|
Trans-Atlantic history |
|
Borderlands history |
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