Honors in History

The Department of History offers the opportunity to pursue independent research at the level of honors to those students who best exemplify the qualities of the historical profession in their previous work. Students must understand that participation in the honors program constitutes a serious commitment of time and intellectual resources on the part of both the student and the faculty advisors. Therefore, it should not be undertaken without careful consideration and planning. After reading the department’s Standards for the Honor Program (see below), students should consult with potential faculty advisors before deciding whether they wish to pursue work in the honors program.

Guidelines for the Honors Proposal

1. Each student contemplating honors work in History should file a letter of intent to the department Chair by 15 March of their Junior year. The letter should consist of a general statement of the student’s proposed topic, the relevant coursework the student has undertaken or is pursuing at that time (either in a 400-level seminar or in a Directed Inquiry), and a statement indicating which faculty member has agreed to serve as the student’s Honors advisor.  
2. The Honors proposal, due on 15 September of the student’s Senior year, should consist of an essay of approximately 3000 words (8-10 pages) describing the topic, the scope of the investigation, and salient issues raised by the existing scholarship. The essay should make clear what is original or creative about the topic or the approach taken. The essay also should include a one or two-paragraph discussion of primary sources which attests to the viability of the project. This discussion should be as detailed as possible in order to demonstrate the student’s understanding of the nature of the work he or she is undertaking and to prove to the members of the department that such work is actually possible. Above all, the Honors proposal should make clear that students are capable of the very best work that the best Rhodes students can accomplish. Proposals should be of the same quality that might gain the student a post-graduate scholarship or admission to a reputable graduate program in history. Finally, the proposal should conform to the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, also known as Turabian.
3. The proposal should include an annotated bibliography listing both primary and secondary sources.
4. Examples of successful proposals in the past are available for consultation at the History Department’s website.

Guidelines for the Honors Project

1. Mentoring is a vital part of the honors project. Consequently, the project should build upon previous coursework, preferably courses taken with the Honors advisor and/or other readers. We recommend that students do a Directed Inquiry with the faculty sponsor the semester before beginning an Honors project in order to explore the issues that interest them and to develop further familiarity with scholarship on the subject. Some students may prefer to build on work they have done during a 400-level seminar with their future Honors advisor. Students are discouraged from attempting an Honors project in a field with which they have little or no familiarity.
2. The project should be centered on primary research, and approached in a creative way.
3. The Honors paper should be approximately 18,000 to 20,000 words (60 pages) in length, and should demonstrate in-depth engagement with the topic.
4. The Honors paper should be written and documented using the latest edition of the .
5. The student should aim to produce a publishable work of historical scholarship.
6. Students will summarize their findings in a public presentation before the members of the History Department and will make the final written version available to all members of the History faculty. Students are also encouraged to present their findings at the annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium (URCAS), held every April. Students are also encouraged to submit their work to historical journals for publication.

Deadlines

History Department Standards for the Honors Program

1. Students must have at least a 3.5 overall GPA and a 3.5 GPA in the History major, in order to qualify for an Honors project, and must maintain these averages for the duration of the project.
2. The Honors Thesis should be comprehensible to the general public as well as satisfying the academic standards of the History Department. Upon completion, the Honors thesis will be bound, catalogued, and available to the public in Burrow Library.
3. The expected length of an Honors thesis is 18,000 to 20,000 words, or approximately 60 pages. An Honors thesis must be original research; in History that means it is based upon primary source research.
4. The Department of History considers honors work to be the very best work that Rhodes students can accomplish. As a minimum, the department expects honors essays to go beyond an essay that would receive a solid A in a 400-level seminar in terms of quality, length, originality, and conceptual sophistication.
5. The student should begin the project in the second semester, Junior year, using either a Directed Inquiry or a 400-level seminar to do preliminary research and define the topic. By March 15 the student should notify the departmental chair of the intention to do an Honors project. During this period, the student must do a literature search to locate primary sources, and a survey of the secondary literature that results in an historiographical essay. The student will submit their proposal to the History Department for approval by September 15.
6. During both semesters of the Senior Year, the student will explore the primary sources they have identified, and write their Honors thesis.
7. Honors thesis work will earn a maximum of 4 credit hours per semester, or a total of 8 hours during the Senior year.
8. The Department of History will appoint committees to supervise honors projects. These committees are normally comprised of three members, one who will serve as chief mentor and first reader. One member may be from outside the department. Members of the committee will be responsible for approving both proposals and final projects. Final versions of proposals and projects will be made available to everyone in the department to read. If concerns arise about the quality of proposals or projects, these shall be addressed to the chair of the department, whose responsibility it will be to address the problem on behalf of the department.
9. The Honors advisor and committee members will guide the student as though guiding a Master’s thesis, setting deadlines for chapter drafts, critiquing chapters, setting deadlines for revisions, and helping the student to meet a high standard of academic scholarship.
10. An oral presentation before the History Department will be required in order to complete the Honors project. The Honors thesis will be made available in final form to department members prior to the oral presentation. The Honors Committee will make a recommendation to members of the department whether to approve the Honors Thesis.
11. If an Honors History student fails to produce an acceptable thesis, or if their overall GPA and/or History GPA falls below 3.5, the student would not complete the Honors program. Instead, the student would receive academic credit for work completed in the form a “Directed Inquiry”. In this event, the Thesis Advisor, in consultation with the History Chair, would determine how many credit hours the student earns for the Directed Inquiry.
12. If a student conceives a project which involves a semester of overseas study, contingencies and logistics will be dealt with at the discretion of the History Chair, in consultation with the Honors advisor and the student.

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