Departmental Honors Program

Majors who meet the requirements for College Honors and who maintain an overall grade point average of 3.65 and an average of 3.65 in the major are eligible to apply for admission to the Honors Program in Anthropology during their junior year. Students interested in applying to the Honors Program must first secure the support a faculty supervisor from within the department who agrees to work closely with the student in developing their honors project and who will mentor the student's progress through the Honors Program. This faculty member will serve as the primary reader of the student's honors thesis. Students in consultation with their faculty supervisor also choose a second member from the Department of Anthropology or from a relevant, related department, to serve as a second reader/commentator on the Honors Thesis. To apply for admission to the Honors Program, the student and their faculty supervisor need to complete and turn in to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUGS) a completed copy of the Honors Research Agreement by the end of the 1st week of classes during the Fall semester of the student's senior year, and preferably by the middle of the Spring semester of the junior year.

Honors Program candidates are expected to complete a total of 40 points (typically ten 4-unit classes) of anthropology course work, i.e., four points more than normally required for the major. Beginning with the 2008-2009 academic year, the departmental Honors Program consists of, at minimum, a 12-point (three course) experience. First, all students doing honors must undertake a two-term capstone research project, under the supervision of a faculty advisor. This project should include sustained original research and should culminate in the production of an Honors Thesis. Additionally, honors candidate must take at least one Special Seminar in Anthropology (V14.0800 or V14.0801, for students pursuing honors research in sociocultural or linguistic anthropology) or a graduate course (for students focusing on archaeological or biological anthropology for their honors research).

To support their capstone research experience, Honors Program students must complete the Department's two-semester research/thesis writing sequence, typically in the senior year. In the Fall semester, all honors candidates from across departmental sub-fields will enroll in Honors Research I (V14.0950) in which research methods will be taught and individualized to fit the student's topic – e.g., assembling a bibliography; constructing hypotheses; using secondary, primary and occasionally original sources to generate data; and analyzing data. In the Spring semester, all thesis writers will enroll in Honors Research II (V14.0951) to share their evolving theses with the group. In both semesters, it is the responsibility of the thesis writer to consult regularly with their faculty supervisor.

A draft of the Honors Thesis must be completed by three weeks prior to the end of the semester in which the student graduates in order to give the two thesis readers sufficient time to comment on the thesis so revisions can be made. The final draft of the thesis must be turned in to the Department by the last day of the semester. The scope and length of an Honor's Thesis will vary by sub-field, but will typically be 40 to 60 double-spaced pages in length. Honors candidates are strongly encouraged to formally present posters/papers at the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference and within the department.

Students with double majors in discrete, unrelated disciplines must complete Honors Programs in each major for which they seek honors. Students with double majors in interdisciplinary or related fields may, if the two departments concur, convene a joint honors committee to establish an interdisciplinary research program of coursework that culminates in a single thesis. In the case of joint majors, faculty supervisors and DUGSs from both relevant departments must work out an agreement on the requirements for honors and on the supervision and evaluation of students' theses or projects.