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Honors Guidelines

  1. Students who have a GPA of 3.4 or higher in the major and who wish to work for Honors will enroll in a 399, Independent Study and 398, the Senior Research Seminar.
  2. The prospective Honors student will present a thesis proposal and identify a faculty member who is a specialist in the student's area of interest to serve as faculty advisor.
  3. Students will work independently in consultation with their faculty advisor, who is expected to be available on a regular basis for meetings during which the intellectual project, its research plan, and its implementation in writing are discussed and critiqued. The students will also meet periodically with the Research Seminar instructor, who supervises the student's progress.
  4. The thesis should be 35-50 pages long. It will be judged on the basis of the quality and the originality of the research undertaken; the persuasiveness of the arguments presented; the overall organization and presentation of the material; and the contribution to the field of study.
  5. The student will turn in the final version to the individual faculty advisor in April. The advisor will evaluate and grade the thesis. The student will then submit three copies of the thesis to the Gender Studies Honors Committee.
  6. The thesis will be read and evaluated by the faculty advisor, by the Senior Research Seminar instructor, and by at least one other faculty member unconnected with the student's project and chosen by the Honors committee.
  7. If students work on a team project, the individual contribution of the student to the research question, the project design, the execution, and the final presentation must be clearly specified in order to be evaluated by the faculty advisor and by the other evaluators.
  8. In its deliberations the Honors committee will take a separate and recorded vote on whether to recommend Honors for each student.
  9. Honors will be recommended for those students who receive an "A" grade on the thesis from the faculty advisor, with the approbation of the other evaluators; and who have the requisite grade point average (a minimum of 3.4 in the major).
  10. Students who are not granted Honors will receive credit for the two quarters of work done providing the quality of the work warrants it.