Students will be admitted into the Honors Program at the end of the spring semester of their Junior year. The timing is approximate and is based on credits accrued. Prior completion of the Capstone Seminar in Art History (082:491 or 492) and Approaches in Art History (403) is recommended, but not mandatory. A 3.5 average in Art History classes and a 3.0 GPA overall are both required for admission to the program, but students who have a strong desire to write a thesis should contact the undergraduate program director for guidance.
Honors students take two semesters of Honors in Art History (082:497 and 082:498, a total of six credits) in which they complete a major research paper. STUDENTS MUST SIGN UP FOR 082:497 IN THE FALL AND 082:498 IN THE SPRING. You must get permission from the undergraduate program director and a special permission number to enroll.
The work of the two semesters is as follows:
1. Each semester's official class (082:497 and 498) carries 3 credits. A 3-credit commitment involves roughly the same effort as a regular 3-credit course, approximately 9 hours per week. You must take both the fall class and the spring class.
2. During the fall semester of the Senior year, students will conduct research on their honors thesis in consultation with individual advisers. At the same time, they must attend a Non-Credit Bearing Thesis-Writing Workshop (guided by a graduate student) on how to manage the process of completing a long paper. This workshop will guide students through the stages of research and writing. This seminar will be scheduled after the start of the fall semester. It does not carry any credit.
3. A rough draft of the whole paper will be due around February 1. The remainder of the spring semester will be spent completing the writing of the honors theses in consultation with individual advisers. Toward the end of the Spring semester, usually in mid-April, students will present their papers at a public honors symposium.
4. Participation and performance in the Thesis-Writing Workshop will count toward the student's final grade, but the adviser makes the final decision regarding the grade. Each honors paper will be read and evaluated by two faculty members -- the supervising professor and a second reader-- who together will recommend students for the appropriate level of honors. The deadline for submitting the level of honors to SAS usually falls around April 12.
A typical honors paper will be 8,750 words to 10,000 words in length. To come up with the word count, you may count the footnotes, citations, and bibliography. The thesis must include proper citations and illustrations. It is best to keep track of the length of the document by using the word count, but, to give a general idea, a thesis in art history will usually be 35-40 pages long, single-sided, double-spaced, 12 point font, not counting the pages that contain the illustrations. This length is assuming each page is approximately 250 words.
