Honors Requirements

Honors program in anthropology

The Anthropology Department strongly supports students with a demonstrated record of excellence who wish to pursue a departmental honors project in their senior year. The department encourages students to pursue interest in any field of anthropology for which the department and college have adequate sources of material and expertise.

Students should begin planning for the honors as early as possible in their studies in order to meet the requirements for the program and to begin preliminary work as soon as practical. Please speak with your advisor or the department chair if you are interested in submitting an application.

The following are the general requirements for honors in anthropology:

I. Grades: The department currently requires a 3.3 GPA for the Honors program.

II. Courses

A. Honors students must complete all the regular requirements for the anthropology program degree.

B. Before starting the honors project, the student should have at least six courses in anthropology including the introductory course and one methods course.

C. Before finishing the honors project, the student should have completed nine courses in anthropology of which not more than one course (four credits) is an independent research course. These courses should include:

1. at least one senior-level theory course.

2. the Capstone Seminar. Honor’s students participate fully in the senior capstone seminar, and the honors thesis meets the requirements of the senior capstone paper.

3. any courses that the anthropology faculty deems appropriate for the student’s particular project. These may include courses outside the department in addition to the nine required courses for the major.

4. An honors student must enroll in an Honors independent (ANTH 641–644) under the supervision of their honors adviser during the Fall of their senior year.

III. Application Procedure and Timetable:

A. April 15 of the Junior Year:

The applicant should submit a three to five page proposal to the anthropology faculty containing the following information:

1. Statement of the project topic or thesis

2. Methods and overview of the research

a. the type of research to be done,
(e.g., ethnographic, library, archival, etc.)

b. of where it is to be done,
(e.g., on campus, in an Andean village, at Oxford University, etc.)

c. summary of how much has already been done.

3. Explanation of the importance of the project and how it fits into the student’s education

4. Timetable for the research and write-up

5. Selection of a primary faculty advisor and other advisors (on or off campus) who may be utilized. The final decision on this matter rests with the faculty.

6. A Bibliography of at least  15 sources pertaining to the topic.

B. September 15 of the Senior Year:

One page progress report to the faculty.
Two to three page bibliography

C. January 15 of the Senior Year:

Five to ten page overview and summary of the paper to be submitted to the faculty.  This will be considered by the faculty with a response from the faculty terminating the project or giving permission to continue the project.

D. March 1 of the Senior Year

A complete final draft must be submitted to your honors advisor.

E. April 1 of the Senior Year

Copies of the full paper should be submitted to each faculty member. The full presentation of the paper and hearing before the departmental faculty should be scheduled sometime during the following week.

F. May of the Senior Year

Award of Honors

IV. Final Honors Product

The final product will usually consist of a paper of professional quality of approximately 70-100 pages (or double the typical Capstone paper). This paper may be based upon original research such as ethnographic data, archaeological work, a study abroad project, or a comparative study of information related to a topic in several societies. It may also be an original library project related to anthropological theory, analyzing a particular problem or issue, or some other topic of relevance to anthropology.

In addition to the presentation of the project before the faculty, the student will be asked to make a public presentation to fellow students in the department, usually in the context of the Senior Seminar. In special cases when the department has the appropriate faculty, products that complement the written paper may be considered as a part of the final project, such as a film or museum exhibit.

The student will work with one primary faculty sponsor of the honors project, but the awarding of the honors must be done by a consensus vote of the three members of the student’s committee.

Proposals for honors and all other required communications pertaining to the thesis, as well as the draft for defense, should be submitted to the department coordinator, who will distribute them to members of the department.