Overview
Honors Coordinator: Leslie Tuttle, 3637 Wescoe, 864-9455, ltuttle@ku.edu
Honors in history provides exceptional students the opportunity to work closely with faculty members on a research project. To graduate with departmental honors, a student must complete the requirements for the major in History, including HIST 396, but excluding HIST 696 Seminar. In addition, the student in the honors program is required to take HIST 498 Undergraduate History Honors Seminar and HIST 490 Honors Course in History, which is directed research. Usually HIST 498 is offered in the fall, and the HIST 490 is offered in the spring semester. alternatively, a prospective honors student may take HIST 396 Historical Methods and HIST 696 and, if eligible and by invitation, enroll in HIST 490 to develop the seminar paper into an honors thesis. Prospective honors candidates are encouraged to select a thesis topic and thesis director in their junior year.
The honors seminar has two functions: to assist students in writing of their thesis and to allow them to learn from each other in a small-group setting. The honors coordinator assists students throughout the two semesters.
Please direct initial questions to Nancie Lockwood, the Undergraduate Studies administrator. She can be reached at nancie@ku.edu, or at 864-9436 in 3650D Wescoe.
Eligibility
To enroll in the departmental honors program requires:
- At least a 3.5 grade-point average in history and a 3.25 cumulative grade-point average, which must be maintained throughout the student's final years of enrollment
- Acceptance by a thesis director, a faculty member of the Department of History, before entering the honors program.
- Each student who completes an honors thesis must defend the thesis in an oral examination before three faculty members, known as the thesis committee. The committee will be chaired by the student's thesis director, who will select thesis committee members in consultation with the student and the Honors Coordinator. In most cases the committee will be composed of faculty members of the Department of History.
- A student who wishes his or her committee to include faculty members from outside the Department of History should inform the Honors Coordinator by March 1 so that proper arrangements can be made.
- A copy of the completed thesis will be deposited in the Department of History.
- Petitions for exceptions to these departmental regulations should be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Course Requirements
To graduate with departmental honors, a student must complete the requirements for the major in History, including HIST 396, but excluding HIST 696 Seminar. In addition, the student in the honors program is required to take HIST 498 Undergraduate History Honors Seminar and HIST 490 Honors Course in History, which is directed research. Usually HIST 498 is offered in the fall, and the HIST 490 is offered in the spring semester.
Alternatively, a prospective honors student may take HIST 396 Historical Methods and HIST 696 and, if eligible and by invitation, enroll in HIST 490 to develop the seminar paper into an honors thesis. Prospective honors candidates are encouraged to select a thesis topic and thesis director in their junior year.
General Procedure
- Prospective honors candidates should ideally select a thesis topic and thesis director in their junior year.
- In their senior year, honors students will then register for History 498, the honors seminar. The honors seminar has two functions: to assist students in the writing of their thesis; and to allow them to learn from each other in a small-group setting.
- In the semester after History 498, honors thesis writers will enroll in HIST 490, which is not really a class that meets, but rather a designation for the student's continued individual work on the thesis in collaboration with the faculty advisor. The honors coordinator assists students throughout the two semesters.
- Complete and turn in the thesis to the department at the end of the year.
- Defense: Each student who completes an honors thesis must defend the thesis in an oral examination with three faculty members, known as the thesis committee. The committee will be chaired by the student's thesis director. The committee will be chosen by the thesis director in consultation with the student and the Honors Coordinator.
- In most cases, the committee will be composed of faculty members of the Department of History. A student who wants his or her committee to include faculty members from outside the Department of History should inform his or her thesis director by March 1 so that proper arrangements can be made.
- A copy of the thesis will be deposited in the Department.
Schedule
All students who enter the honors program should be aware that they will be expected to follow the schedule presented to them by the honors coordinator. In particular, the student should be aware of the following deadlines:
- First Week of Class: Thesis Director and topic chosen.
- Early December: Students will be required to turn in a draft of at least one chapter of the thesis.
- Late February: Students will be required to turn in a draft of at least one-half of the thesis.
- Late March: Entire rough drafts due.
- Mid-April: Final copies of theses due. Four copies must be turned in to the Undergraduate Studies Office, 3015 Wescoe.
- Late April/Early May: Thesis defenses. The committee reserves the right to ask the student to make minor corrections on the final copy of the thesis, which will be deposited in the Department for posterity.
Additional Information
Students enrolled in the honors program should always remember that the seminar experience does not replace the student's responsibility to work closely with their thesis director. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of the honors thesis in history is to provide students the opportunity to work with a professor whose expertise covers the area in which the student will write the thesis. All faculty are aware that accepting an honors student is considered part of each faculty member's teaching assignments. As such, the student can expect the faculty member's careful supervision of the thesis.
Questions regarding the Honors Program should be directed to the Undergraduate Office in the History Department.
Contact Nancie Lockwood at 864-9436 or nancie@ku.edu.
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