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The Department of English has moved from Hellems and Denison to Muenzinger . The main office is in Muenzinger D110.

• English Honors Program

In coordination with the Arts and Sciences Honors Program, the English Department offers qualified students the opportunity to intensify their course of study by writing and defending an honors thesis in an attempt to graduate with Latin honors:  cum laude ,  magna   cum laude  or  summa cum laude .   

English majors may apply to pursue English Departmental Honors (detailed below) or General Honors (visit the  Arts & Sciences Honors Program website  for details).

There are two internal application deadlines if you wish to apply to pursue an Honors thesis in AY 2023-24: Monday, April 1, 2024 and Thursday, August 1 2024 .  Those who are planning to graduate in Fall '24  must apply by the April deadline.  If you are graduating in spring '25, you may apply by August 1, but the department strongly encourages students to meet the April deadline, so that you may spend the summer consulting with your advisor and preparing to write the honors thesis.  Please find the application form for Honors and additional links below.

Completed application materials  (signed application form, writing sample and complete Degree Audit)  must be compiled and sent electronically to  [email protected] .

The Fall 2024 Thesis Registration form can be found here .

Spring 2025 Honors thesis deadlines for those defending in Spring 2025 can be found here .

Additional Information

For more information on English Departmental Honors, eligibility requirements, and application instructions, please refer to these documents:

• English Honors Requirements, Deadlines and Guidelines
• English Honors Application for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 thesis defenses

​ For further information, contact Undergraduate Student Services:

[email protected] 303-492-6434

Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society Alpha Iota Sigma Chapter, University of Colorado Boulder

Sigma Tau Delta is an active honor society which has served the English discipline for over 75 years. With over 750 chapters in large and small, public and private colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe, it is by far the largest–and most active–honors organization in the field.

Our central purpose is to confer distinction upon outstanding students of the English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies. Sigma Tau Delta also recognizes the accomplishments of professional writers who have contributed to the fields of language and literature.

Requirements for Membership

• Minimum of 2 college courses in English completed (excluding freshman English)
• 3 semesters of college course work completed (45 hours)
• Overall GPA of 3.0
• English GPA of 3.0 (excluding freshman English)

A one-time fee of $45.00 which includes:

• lifetime membership in Sigma Tau Delta
• admittance to chapter meetings and events
• scholarship, internship, assistanship, award, and grant opportunities
• bi-yearly editions of  The Rectangle  literary journal
• opportunities to be published in  The Rectangle
• newsletters
• opportunities for writing awards

For more information on the society, see  Sigma Tau Delta website.  To apply (cost is $40), fill out this application —  Sigma Tau Delta Application  — and send a copy to Rachael Deagman, English Department, Hellems 101 UCB 226, Boulder CO 80309.

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Honors Program

Our Honors Program offers the opportunity to pursue advanced study in English literature, professional and technical writing, or creative writing, to work in independent studies and small classes with English Department faculty, and to learn from and with a small peer group of students.

Honors Courses

The English Honors Program consists of twelve units (four courses): two sections of an exclusive honors seminar (496A Honors section) and two independent studies (498H), normally taken in the fall and spring of the senior year, during which the student writes a thesis. The courses can also fulfill requirements for the major and for the Honors College (if applicable). Many English Honors students are double majors, or plan a semester abroad during their junior or senior year; the requirements for the English Honors Program can usually be successfully coordinated with these individual needs. The thesis can be counted for Honors College credit (Honors College students who are also English Honors only have to write a single thesis for both programs).

Honors Seminars

The Honors seminars are exclusive and challenging small topical seminars that will provide not only advanced study in a topic of the faculty member’s research specialty, but also advanced training in the critical reading, argumentative writing, and research discipline necessary to pursue independent thesis research. Since English Honors cohorts usually comprise English, Professional and Technical Writing (PTW), and Creative Writing majors, the seminar faculty are encouraged to incorporate some creative assignments into the coursework. English Honors students must take two designated English Honors seminars, and one is offered every semester.

Honors Thesis

The honors thesis is a substantial and original piece of critical or creative work that forms the signal achievement and culmination of the student’s undergraduate career. Students may apply to write a creative thesis, a thesis in English literature, a thesis in professional and technical writing, or some combination of the three.

The English Lit or PTW thesis is a long essay modeled after published scholarship in the discipline of English or PTW and written under the advisement of a member of the English faculty. It should advance an original and well-researched argument that participates in existing scholarly debates about a topic of the student’s choosing. Critical theses may be of any length, but customarily they are 25 to 50 pages.

The  creative  thesis is a substantial piece of creative writing in one of three genres—fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—written under the advisement of a member of the creative writing faculty. Note : Students wishing to write a creative thesis are strongly encouraged to apply for English Honors. Due to great demand and limited faculty availability, students accepted into the English Honors program will be prioritized for thesis advising.

English Honors Thesis Independent Study Form

Creative Writing Thesis Advising Guide for Faculty

Application Process and Requirements

Any student may apply for English Honors, regardless of their major or their college. Transfer students are eligible to apply. Students in the Honors College must apply as other students for admission to English Honors, and admitted students are not required to join the Honors College. Since the English Honors program usually takes three semesters to complete, it is best to apply before the final three semesters of a student’s undergraduate career. Students with only a single semester left in their undergraduate study will most likely not be admitted.  Applications are only accepted in mid- to late October, and decisions are made in early November.

Students who miss the application deadline but are able to turn in all materials before the committee meets to review, usually within 1-2 weeks of the application deadline, may be considered but will not be prioritized. After the committee reviews and makes decisions, no further applications for that year will be considered.

Honors College Note: Honors College students who are only applying for a creative writing thesis (not English Honors) may turn in applications after the application deadline. These will be considered on a rolling basis but will not be prioritized for Creative Writing faculty advising.

Applicants should submit a completed application form, which includes a writing sample, a personal statement, and the names of two faculty members who will serve as references. 

Faculty references will be contacted by the department directly. Faculty references do not have to be members of UA faculty, but should have instructed the student at some point (transfer students may list as references faculty from prior institutions). Students may find it beneficial to ask faculty members for permission to list them as references prior to doing so.

Full instructions and information about submitting application materials can be found on the   English Honors and Thesis Application Form 2023 .

If you have any questions on this process, please contact Program Coordinator, Sharonne Meyerson ( [email protected] ) with questions about the application process, or the Honors Program faculty coordinator, Dennis Wise ( [email protected] ), with questions about the program curriculum and coursework.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between english honors and the honors college i’m an honors college student, does that mean that i can take the english honors seminars.

The difference is that students, whether Honors College or not, must apply to the English department to be admitted into English Honors. English Honors is free, but is restricted to just the small cohort that is admitted each year. If you are an Honors College student, but have not been accepted to English Honors, you may not take English Honors seminars.

But then, why is there an “Honors College” section of the English Honors 496A? Is that open to Honors College students generally?

No. The honors 496A classes are split into two co-convened sections for enrollment purposes so that Honors College students who are also English Honors students may receive honors credit in their college. Because Honors College students cannot receive Honors College credit for any class that is open to non-Honors College students, we must split the class enrollment into a non-Honors and an Honors section. But both sections are restricted to English Honors students only, and both sections meet at the same time and in the same classroom—they are effectively the same class. Since all English Honors classes are enrolled by department consent, we will enroll you into the appropriate section.

I’m already an Honors College student, why should I apply for English Honors? I already have to write a thesis for the Honors College.

Many of the English Honors students who were also Honors College students have reported that the English Honors program was the most intellectually stimulating aspect of their undergraduate careers. You only have to write one thesis to satisfy both Honors College and English Honors requirements. And, if you’re a creative writing major, being accepted into the English Honors program prioritizes your application, per Creative Writing faculty policy, to write a creative writing thesis under creative writing faculty advisement.

I’m a transfer student, can I apply? Whom can I use for faculty references?

Yes, transfer students are eligible to apply. You can use instructors from your former institution or current faculty for your faculty references.

I’m an Honors College Creative Writing student and want to write a thesis with a faculty member. I don’t want to take the seminars and don’t want to graduate with English Honors. Does this mean that I can't receive advising from Creative Writing faculty?

No. Honors College students who want to write a creative thesis with CW faculty but do not want to fulfill the other requirements of English Honors may apply for a Creative Writing faculty advisor using the same application form. There is a checkbox on the form through which to indicate that preference.

I’ve missed the deadline for the application, does this mean I’m shut out of English Honors and/or a Creative Writing faculty thesis advisor?

Depends. If you have missed the English Honors deadline by only a few days or a few weeks, contact the English Undergraduate Office. If the committee has not met yet to make decisions, it is possible to turn in your application late. After the decisions are made, no more applications will be accepted for review. If you are applying only for a Creative Writing faculty thesis advisor and not for English Honors, then you may turn in your application late. Late applications in these cases will be considered on a rolling basis but will not be prioritized.

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English Honors Program

The honors program is open to qualified seniors and involves special study and the writing of a substantial paper.  One initiates an honors project with a faculty adviser . Usually, students choose to pursue a topic or area in which they have become interested as a result of their regular course work or previous independent study.

Honors students are expected to participate in the program during their entire senior year and to enroll in English 490, Seminar in Literary Interpretation (fall semester). In the spring semester, honors students may enroll for up to 8 hours of English 495: Honors Thesis.

Awarding of Honors

Upon completion of all honors work, each participant receives a letter grade as well as a designation of Highest Honors, High Honors, Honors, or No Honors. The awarding of honors and the degree of honors attained is based upon a consideration of the quality of the student's honors project, performance as an English major, and overall academic record.

If you are interested and believe you are qualified, you should consult during your junior year with your adviser or with one of your instructors about the possibility of participating in the honors program.

Juniors with a 3.7 cumulative average in English and in their college record as a whole are automatically eligible for the honors program. Other students may be eligible upon the recommendation of a member of the departmental faculty and with the approval of the departmental and college honors committees.

In the spring, eligible juniors should submit a written proposal for their honors project; the project must have the approval of a faculty member who has agreed to direct the project. The departmental honors committee must review the proposal and the student's academic record before a student can be admitted to the program.

Honors Program Requirements

• Enroll in Seminar in Literary Interpretation (English 490) during fall semester, senior year
• Write an honors paper
• Take a final oral examination

The student's committee for the paper and the oral examination is made up of the faculty director of the project, a second departmental reader, and a faculty member from outside the department. The committee, chaired by the project director, makes the final determination of honors.

Students pursuing a joint degree must fulfill the honors requirements of one of the two departments involved. For the Joint Major in History and English, there must be at least one faculty member from each department on the final committee.

The College has launched the brand new Catalog. With this launch, the Honors Program direct link has changed. The content on the honors site has not changed but you will notice a fresh new look!

Please find the new link below:

http://catalog.college.emory.edu/community/honors-program.html

Undergraduate

Honors program application.

WRITING AN HONORS THESIS IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Updated January 2022

Honors English students, following Schreyer Honors College requirements, compose a thesis of significant scholarly research or creative writing. The thesis is completed in close consultation with a thesis supervisor during the semester before the student’s graduation semester, while the student is enrolled in English 494H.

In the graduation semester, students polish and submit their theses for approval by the thesis supervisor and the honors advisor and then submit them to Schreyer Honors College. Dates of final submission vary; please consult your honors advisor and the Schreyer website .

An Honors Thesis in English

An English honors thesis in scholarly research and interpretation should be an ambitious, well-researched, in-depth study focused on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the thesis supervisor.

An English honors thesis in creative writing should be a sophisticated and well-crafted creative project written in consultation with the thesis supervisor, a project that demonstrates the student’s increasing proficiency of their chosen creative genre(s).

The Critical/Literary Studies Thesis

A critical / literary studies thesis might arise from a range of possibilities: a course paper you would like to extend; an interest you were unable to pursue in class; a connection between two classes that you’ve made on your own; an author, set of works, or theme you want to explore in greater depth; a critical question that has been puzzling you; a body of literature that you want to contextualize; a topic relevant to post-graduate plans (e.g., law school, graduate school, marketing career, writing career, and so forth). Consider also your skill sets, your workload and experiences, and the timeline for completion. The questions you’re asking should be open to productive analysis, questions worth asking.

The topic should challenge you, so that you’re neither summarizing nor skimming the surface of the primary and secondary work under consideration. Chapters within the thesis should build upon each other and connect to an overarching theme or argument. The thesis should be as clear and concise as possible. Make sure the argument is structured, with each chapter and each paragraph having a clear role to play in the development of the argument.

Because the thesis is a scholarly product, it will demonstrate good research skills and effective use of secondary readings. It will also be grammatically correct. Your work will be entering existing critical conversations with other scholarship, so your research should be sufficiently completed prior to your finalizing the thesis plan. Your work should have properly formatted notes and bibliography, whether in Chicago, MLA, or APA style.

Note length stipulations: Honors theses in critical / literary studies may be as short as 8,000 words but no longer than 15,000 words. If the thesis is shorter or longer than these advised limits, explain your thinking and decision-making in the introduction of your thesis.

The Creative Thesis

The creative thesis will be an innovative, stylistically sophisticated work, attentive to language and voice. The work should develop a sustained narrative or theme. Most students who write creative theses produce a collection of short stories or personal essays, a novella, a memoir, a research-based piece of creative nonfiction or a collection of poems. It is very, very difficult to write a novel in one semester, so unless you already have a novel underway, writing a novel is probably not a realistic thesis project. Creative works should be unified (by theme, by topic, or in some other way).

Students should already have taken a 200-level creative writing workshop in the chosen genre(s) and a 300- or 400-level workshop in this same genre(s). (You can be signed up to take the 400-level workshop in 494H semester.) Ideally, students will have studied creative writing with the faculty member who will serve as supervisor, but note that this is a suggestion and not a requirement. Schedule an initial meeting with your prospective thesis supervisor to discuss your plans for the execution of your creative work.

Note this requirement! Creative works will offer an introductory reflective essay (five to eight pages) outlining the project’s aims and placing the project into the context of the style and/or themes of work by other authors. The introductory reflection should address how your creative project complements or challenges work done by others. It should 1) explain the goals of the project and 2) place it into the context of relevant creative or critical texts. Any works referred to in this essay should be documented using Chicago, MLA, of APA style.

Note length stipulations: Honors theses in creative writing may be as short as 8,000 words but no longer than 15,000 words. If the thesis is shorter or longer than these advised limits, explain your thinking and decision-making in the introductory reflective essay. 

The Thesis Supervisor

Schreyer Honors College requires thesis proposals to be submitted in early April of the year before graduation. For this reason, you must have a thesis supervisor by March, so that you can draft your proposal under the supervisor’s direction.

The first step in finding a thesis supervisor is having a meeting with your honors advisor in order to talk through your thesis interests. When identifying a thesis supervisor, consider professors with whom you have a good rapport; professors whose creative or scholarly interests seem like they might dovetail with your own; professors willing to oversee experimental work. You do not need an exact match with any given professor’s work or interests. For instance, a professor’s methodology might fit yours, even if the focus of their research differs.

Before approaching a potential thesis supervisor, meet with your honors advisor to confirm that this would be an appropriate fit for you. After meeting with your honors advisor, you will be making an appointment to meet with the potential thesis supervisor. During that meeting, you will offer some plans with concrete ideas. Be open-minded. Be prepared to listen to alternatives. Discuss the professor’s willingness to supervise the thesis. (Sometimes faculty are already committed to other projects.) If a faculty member cannot agree to supervise, use the opportunity to ask for further suggestions about your topic and a potentially appropriate supervisor, then check back in with your honors advisor.

Crafting the Thesis Proposal

For students graduating in the spring semester of any given year, thesis proposals are due in early April of the prior year. As with other deadlines, the Schreyer Honors College will prompt you to complete the thesis proposal form on the SRS site. Start planning the thesis as soon as a supervisor has been identified. Look at other proposals and at completed theses for good models. Read one or two award-winning theses to get a sense of the scope and depth of a successful thesis: < https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/search/ >.

Critical / literary studies thesis proposals will articulate the questions being asked, identify the primary and secondary materials to be used, and hypothesize about a general argument to be made. You might not have specified your conclusions yet, but a well formulated set of questions is key.

Creative thesis proposals will identify the genre(s) of writing, identify the writing method and approach, and situate the work within the critical context of that genre.

Both kinds of theses require, at the proposal stage, a bibliography (in standard documentation format) of sources consulted. This will reveal how your project is in conversation with other relevant work.

Once you have drafted the thesis proposal, consult with your proposed thesis supervisor and your honors advisor, allowing them sufficient time to offer suggestions. Do not submit a proposal without getting the approval of your thesis supervisor and honors advisor! Expect to get feedback on your plans. Give your thesis supervisor and your honors advisor time to respond to your proposal draft, because it’s complicated to make changes once you submit the form for them to sign off on.

Planning the Project

One semester prior to the ENGL 494 semester, consult with your thesis supervisor to develop a reading list to be completed before you start writing. For theses written in the fall (for May graduation), this will be summer reading; for theses written in the spring (for December graduation), this reading will have to be compacted over the holiday break.

For critical / literary studies theses, read in both primary (the literature, films, authors, or evidence you are analyzing) and secondary materials (articles and books about your topic).

For creative theses , read primary texts in your chosen genre, along with such secondary sources as reviews of these works and articles and books about writing and the writer’s life.

Finding primary materials. The primary materials you’re using should extend beyond what you’ve done in classwork, but do not take on too much. In the end, the quality of the analysis matters much more than pages generated. If you can sustain an analysis of a single novel for fifty pages, offer a thorough account of the secondary criticism on that novel and make a real contribution to that criticism. Note, however, that a twenty-five page plot summary of a single novel is not worthy of honors in English.

Finding secondary materials. Look for important secondary studies offering fresh and provocative approaches to your topic or genre as well as studies that articulate the relationship between your topic and general literary history.

Library and internet databases will assist your work . Library databases of both primary and secondary writings can assist your background research. Think flexibly about useful keywords for searching databases. Also, consider using the resources found in the notes of scholars whose work you have discovered. Using other scholars’ resources will assist your work in identifying pertinent additional primary and secondary sources. If two or three very current articles cite the same older work, you have probably found a foundational critical study.

Look into possible grants to assist your work. Schreyer Research Grants, Erickson Grants, and Liberal Arts Enrichment Grants are available. Consult with the Schreyer Honors College about summer research funding, research travel funding, and other ways to support ambitious research projects. Erickson grants and Liberal Arts Enrichment Grants are available to rising seniors who will incur expenses for their research. If you are a Paterno Fellow, ask the fellows assistant if grants might be available to assist your work. Also consult this link: https://la.psu.edu/beyond-the-classroom/research/

Preliminary Research/Writing and the 494H Semester

During the semester and/or break before the 494H semester, set a rigorous schedule for reading and note-taking. Of course, you will continue to read while you are writing during that semester. But concentrate now on getting the foundation for what you want to say.

Work on developing connections and ideas across your readings. Take the time to take notes! As you continue reading, you might find that your ideas and goals change. That’s a success! Be aware that if your original idea isn’t going anywhere, you need to keep pushing to find a new idea. If your sources aren’t helping you develop new ideas, find new sources.

Try putting findings or notes or creative materials into a preliminary outline of your thesis chapters, so that you can construct a fuller outline before you formally start writing during the 494H semester. Writing is a form of thinking, so start writing and see where your ideas go. Drafting helps refine both ideas and purpose.

Keep in contact with your thesis supervisor. You can use email for this, or zoom, if your professor prefers. Let your supervisor know about how your reading is going and any new ideas you have.

Strategies for success in the 494H semester

Remember you are getting three honors course credits for ENGL 494, so treat this time commitment seriously! Three credits total 135 hours, so use your time wisely. Incorporate time into your schedule for the multiple drafts of each section.

Set aside time each week for your thesis preparation and writing.

Plan to meet with your thesis supervisor on a regular basis (every other week is typical) throughout the semester. Set up a schedule and keep to it. Remember that the thesis supervisor has agreed to help you with your work, so respect your supervisor’s time. Don’t miss meetings or have nothing to show. Set deadlines for the submission of each chapter with your thesis supervisor.

Be responsible: Aim to allow your supervisor two weeks to read and respond to your written work. Be in regular communication with your thesis supervisor. Also, don’t make your thesis supervisor or the honors advisors track you down. Arrive at meetings promptly. If the honors advisor or thesis supervisor drops you a line by email, answer it promptly. Even if – especially if – you fall behind, stay in communication with thesis supervisor and with the honors advisor.

Remember that advice is given to you to help you improve. Listen to your thesis supervisor’s advice and suggestions. If your honors advisor, your second reader, offers suggestions, listen to these suggestions, too! Follow the advice or else respond in a mature and informed way. If you disagree with suggestions offered you, or if you wish to go in another direction, initiate a fruitful dialogue with your supervisor or honors advisor about the project. Let your supervisor and honors advisor know that you are listening.

The Graded Thesis Draft Submitted During the 494H Semester

A complete draft of your thesis is due at the end of the 494H semester.

The thesis supervisor evaluates your consistent progress toward completion, your regular communication about your work, and your effort to acknowledge and use the supervisor’s feedback. Your supervisor is the one who determines your grade, even though the honors advisors are the professors of record for the 494H course. Remember that the grade for 494H evaluates your draft, not the final thesis.

The grade for 494H evaluates the student in the following areas: 1) consistent progress in thesis planning, research, and writing; 2) regular communication with the thesis supervisor through the 494H semester; 3) attention, in revision, to the supervisor’s advice. Thesis supervisors will take into account any additional expectations particular to a thesis topic, the ambition and originality of the developing project, and, in the case of critical / literary theses, the student’s growing skills in employing secondary sources in original ways.

Revision and Submission of Thesis

The final thesis is due according to the Schreyer Honors College’s deadline, near the middle of the student’s final semester. The Schreyer Honors College’s deadlines are firm. The first Schreyer deadline is for formatting approval. Students are responsible for making sure to follow the most up-to-date formatting and submission guidelines on the Schreyer website. See the guidelines: shc.psu.edu/academic/thesis/formatting.cfm

At the time the thesis is submitted to Schreyer for format approval, submit the final draft to your thesis supervisor and honors advisor. The honors advisor might require revisions concerning the clarity of presentation to non-specialist readers, grammar and usage errors, and so forth. You must have the approval of your supervisor and your honors advisor for your thesis to be approved by Schreyer, so be sure to take seriously the feedback offered at this point.

The second Schreyer deadline is for final submission, at which point your thesis supervisor and your honors advisor must approve your thesis. Follow the Schreyer guidelines for submitting the final version of your thesis and getting the digital signatures of approval from your thesis supervisor and your honors advisor.

For questions, please contact the English Honors Co-Advisors, Professors Claire Colebrook and Carla Mulford .

What are you looking for?

Suggested search, honors program, about the honors program.

The English Honors Program is open to students in English literature and in creative writing. The program provides a unique opportunity to pursue in depth a critical project of your own design. If you are thinking about applying to graduate school or professional school (such as law school) you will find the program especially rewarding. The Honors Thesis is a critical research project and typically runs upwards of 40 pages. Upon successful completion of a critical Senior Honors Thesis your USC transcript will record departmental honors.

• Minimum USC GPA of 3.0
• Minimum English GPA of 3.5
• Completion of introductory English sequence (200-level)
• Completion of at least two USC upper-division ENGL courses
• Be enrolled in, or have completed with a grade of at least A-,  ENGL 491 (for English) or  ENGL 492  (for NARS)
• Prior to the application period, begin thinking about your desired thesis topic.
• Submit your Honors application in the fall (usually in October or early November — an Undergraduate Studies Coordinator will reach out with the precise deadline each year). While once a two-step application, students now submit their project proposal and potential readers’ names at the same time as the other materials.
• If accepted, you will be granted D-clearance to enroll in  ENGL 496  for the following Spring semester during Fall registration.

Steps to being admitted to the Honors Program:

1. ENGL 491 “Senior Seminar in Literary Studies” or ENGL 492 “Narrative Studies Capstone Seminar”

Enroll no later than fall semester. Enrollment is restricted to twelve students. For ENGL 491, multiple sections are always offered in fall; each will be taught by a research professor focusing on a special topic. For ENGL 492, 1-2 sections are always offered in fall (depending on need); through this seminar, students are supported during the process of completing their NARS capstone project.

These fall semester seminars are open to all seniors of the appropriate major, but required for students applying to the Honors Program due to the application prerequisite. You must earn a grade of at least 3.7 (A-) in ENGL 491 or 492 to proceed into ENGL 496 (see below).

2. HONORS APPLICATION

Typically due in October or early November. Materials are submitted via the Google form provided to students via email prior to the application deadline. List your English or NARS major courses, instructors, and grades (we may wish to speak with your instructors). Attach your current STARS Report, along with a substantial writing sample that shows your research and writing skills to best advantage.

3. PROJECT PROPOSAL

Project proposals are now submitted at the same time as all other application materials. Students submit a 2-3 page proposal for review by the Undergraduate Studies Committee. In your proposal you will describe what you would like to do for your Honors Thesis, and identify several English faculty with whom you have discussed your ideas and who might supervise your independent research. You have all summer before the fall semester begins to think about what interests you, and you should start discussing your ideas as early as possible with your professors.

4. ENGL 496 “SENIOR HONORS THESIS”

If admitted to the program, and if you complete ENGL 491 or 492 with a minimum grade of 3.7 (A-), you will be granted D-clearance to enroll in ENGL 496 “Senior Honors Thesis” for the following Spring semester. In this intensive seminar you will meet with other Honors Thesis students and be supported by our Director of Undergraduate Studies during the process of completing your thesis. You will work independently, but under the direct supervision of two professors who will guide you based on their expertise in your topic. Your completed thesis will be graded by a jury of professors from the Department of English, and you must receive a minimum grade of 3.3 (B+) on your thesis to receive Honors, and finish with an overall GPA of 3.5.

Previous Thesis Presentations

If you want to see what current Honors Thesis students are doing, you are invited to attend the public presentations they will be making in the Spring semester. Drop by, engage in stimulating conversation, and see if this program is right for you. You are welcome to attend even if you are just curious about the Honors Program for a later year.

For additional information, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies, whose information is available  here .

Thursday, April 29, 2021 12:00pm – 4:00pm Public (Zoom) presentation of Honors theses

• 12:00,  Jonathan Chang Thesis: “ Quod Me Nutrit Me Destruit : Food, Community, and the Inversion of Nourishment in Early Modern English Witch Drama” Readers: Rebecca Lemon and Thea Tomaini
• 12:30,  Hunter Wilkinson Thesis: “‘Our Small Forever’: Law, Justice and Voice in Louise Erdrich’s Coming of Age Novel,  The Round House ” Readers: David Treuer
• 1:00,  Ryan Fawwaz Thesis: “Girl of the Gilded West: Topophilia and Self-Reflexivity in Joan Didion’s Revised Frontier” Readers: William Handley and David Ulin
• 1:30,  Ryan Nhu Thesis: “The Work of Want: Interracial Desire and Contemporary Literature, 1962-2020” Readers: Viet Thanh Nguyen and Maggie Nelson
• 2:00,  Lucy Kenig-Ziesler Thesis: “Womanly Wiles: An analysis of violent women in Victorian literature and society” Readers: Erika Wright and Hilary Schor
• 2:30,  Sophie Hammond Thesis: “‘Their Own, Sometimes Subversive, Purposes’:  Tipping the Velvet ,  The Persian Boy , and the Possibilities of Historical Fiction” Readers: Hilary Schor and William Thalmann
• 3:00,  Valerie Burgess Thesis: “Exploitation of Feminine Labor: How mid-twentieth century working class women writings engage and critique  The Feminine Mystique ” Readers: Rick Berg and Brighde Mullins
• 3:30,  Katrina Coglitore Thesis: “Beyond ‘Little Brown Brothers’: Tracing Inherited Trauma Across Generations of Filipino Americans” Readers: Thomas Gustafson and Adrian De Leon

For further project details, please read our  Spring 2021 Honors Invitations .

Thursday, April 16, 2020 12:30pm – 4:00pm Public (Zoom) presentation of Honors theses

• 12:30,  Jane Clark Thesis: “Ovidian Heroines Dismantling the Virgilian State in Early Modern Drama”
• 1:00,  Kanak Kapur Thesis: “Death Becomes Her: Melancholia, Secrets and Substitution in the Governess Narrative”
• 1:30,  Danielle Collins Thesis: “Rewriting Fate: Turn of the Century Black Female Authors and The Fight Against a Racialized, Gendered Destiny”
• 2:00,  Jason Collins Thesis: “Between Rational and Fanciful: Religion and Spirituality in the Late Victorian Bildungsroman”
• 2:30,  Megan Ritchie Thesis: “A Castle and a Con: Strawberry Hill and the Complexities of Authorship and Ownership”
• 3:00,  Michael Neely Thesis: “A More Perfect Union? Liberty Versus Equality in American Construction and Reconstruction”
• 3:30,  Lorea Mendiguren Thesis: “Fictions of Female Autonomy & Culpability in Romantic Literature of the Middle Ages”

For further project details, please read our  Spring 2020 Honors Invitations .

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 10:00am – 1:00pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 10:00,  Anika Narayanan Thesis: “Bingeworthy: Temporality, Realism, and Consumer Immersion in Serialized Fiction” Readers: Brighde Mullins and Susan Segal
• 10:45,  Madeleine Dile Thesis: “Magic and the Perception of Humanity in Early Modern English Drama” Readers:
• 11:30,  Annamaria Sauer Thesis: “Narrative and Extremity” Readers:
• 12:15,  Katherine Coley Thesis: “From a State of Mutual Exclusion: Non-Native Women Writers and Representations of the Native American ‘Other’” Readers:

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 1:30pm – 3:45pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 1:30,  John Broderick Thesis: “The Short Story: By Knockout” Readers: Elda María Román and Dana Johnson
• 2:15,  Marilyn Crowley Thesis: “Off the ‘Beat’en Path: Diane di Prima and Hettie Jones” Readers: Molly Bendall and David St. John
• 1:30,  Marina Zoukova Thesis: “Women’s Insanity Romanticized: An Exploration into the Portrayals and Implications of Insanity in Women in Gothic Literature in the late Nineteenth-Century” Readers: Margaret Russett and Tania Modleski

Wednesday, April 5, 2017 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 12:00pm – 4:30pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 12:00,  Amy Hutto Thesis: “Lost Voices, Found Images: Intersections of Poetry and Photography in Stories of Marginalized Groups” Readers: Alice Gambrell and Molly Bendall
• 12:45,  Kevin Volkl Thesis: “The Crisis of Man in the Americas, 1933-1973” Readers: David Treuer, Anthony Kemp and Sharon Lloyd
• 1:30,  Allison Smith Thesis: “The News from Nowhere: William Morris’s Icelandic Landscapes” Readers: Margaret Russett and Devin Griffiths
• 2:15,  Constance Chan Thesis: “Rejecting Utopia: Representation of the Body in Chinese American Poetry” Readers: Viet Thanh Nguyen and David St. John
• 3:00,  Arianna Allen Thesis: “His War, Her Pen” Readers: Thomas Gustafson and Richard Berg
• 4:00,  Kathryn Kelly Thesis: “The Inevitability and Impossibility of Return: An Exploration into the Relationship Between Trauma and Literature in the American South and Central Europe” Readers: Viet Thanh Nguyen and David Treuer

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:30pm – 5:00pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 2:30,  Luke Nunnelly Thesis: “Donne’s Doors: The  Songs and Sonnets  and the Subtleties of Huxley’s Mind” Readers: Rebecca Lemon and Joseph Dane
• 3:15,  Georgia Soares Thesis: “To See is to Feel: Feminist Symbols of Perception in Woolf and Lispector” Readers: Elda María Román and Beatrice Bennett
• 4:00,  Micaela Rodgers Thesis: “An Anxious Ireland: An Analysis of the Gothic through the Female Role in Sheridan Le Fanu’s  The Purcell Papers ” Readers: Tania Modleski and Ross Scimeca

Thursday, April 17, 2015 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 4:00pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 2:00,  Eric Wendorf Thesis: “On the Side of the Flies: The Artists and the Fascist Crowd in Nathanael West” Readers: Professors John Rowe and William Handley
• 2:30,  Sara Newman Thesis: “Searching for Sylvia” Readers: Professors David St. John and Christopher Freeman
• 3:00,  Carrie Moore Thesis: “’Where There Is A Woman There Is Magic’: Unconventional Black Women’s Histories in  Sassafress, Cypress & Some Sing, Some Cry ” Readers: Professors Michelle Gordon and Dana Johnson
• 3:30,  Nandini Ruparel Thesis: “The Ghosts of Our Pasts: The Creation and Dissolution of Identities in the South Asian Diaspora through  Jasmine, The Namesake, and The Inheritance of Loss ” Readers: Professors Viet Nguyen and Karen Tongson

Thursday, April 9, 2015 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 4:00pm

• 2:00,  Sara Worth Thesis: “’Can it be reversed?’: Thomas Pynchon, California, and the American Betrayal” Readers: Professors John Rowe and William Handley
• 2:30,  Orli Robin Thesis: “Liberating Spirit and  Spirituality:  An Aesthetic of Redemption in Jean Toomer’s  Cane ” Readers: Professors Susan McCabe and Richard Berg
• 3:00,  Kelly Belter Thesis: “A Family Affair: Magical Realism and Narratives of Multigenerational Trauma” Readers: Professors Aimee Bender and Richard Berg
• 3:30,  Sasha Pearce Thesis: “’Crude Conception’: Milton, The War in Heaven, and the Origin of Evil” Readers: Professor Lawrence Green and Ross Scimeca

Thursday, April 10, 2014 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 4:00pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 2:00,  Alyra Lennox Thesis: “A Great Mosaic-Like Whole: Intertextuality in Milton and Milosz” Readers: Professor Percival Everett and Julianne Werlin
• 2:30,  Gerri Gonzalez Thesis: “Thinking Time: Temporality and the Moment in the Victorian Serial Novel” Readers: Professors Kate Flint and Ross Scimeca
• 3:00,  Whitney Tolar Thesis: “The Burden of Memory and its Role in Storytelling: the Paradox between Representation and Reality though the Memoirs about the Vietnam War” Readers: Professors Rick Berg and Tim Gustafson
• 3:30,  Ryan Kindel Thesis: “City Animals” Readers: Professors Michael Du Plessis and David Treuer

Thursday, April 17, 2014 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 4:00pm

• 2:00,  Peter Figliulo Thesis: “From the Mountain to the Cradle: Existential Fiction and World War” Readers: Professors Percival Everett and David Treuer
• 2:30,  Betty Fang Thesis: “The Perks of Being the Wallpaper: The Phenomenology of Carceral Spaces in Literary Sites of Heterotopia” Readers: Professors Tania Modleski and Susan McCabe
• 3:00,  Michelle Khazaryan Thesis: “Paved Roads: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of First-Generation Bildungsromans and their Relationship to the Canonization Process” Readers: Professors Elda Maria Román and Karen Tongson
• 3:30,  Christopher Bautista Thesis: “More than a Moor: The Role of Double Consciousness in Othello” Readers: Professors Bruce Smith and Emily Anderson

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 5:00pm Public presentation of Honors theses

• 2:00,  Stephanie Ashley Thesis: “The Daughter’s View: A look at the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin through Mary Shelley’s fictions” Readers: Professors Margaret Russett and Kate Flint
• 2:30,  Oriah Amit Thesis: “Putting Women on the Map: Rewriting Kerouac’s mythological road” Readers: Professors Thomas Gustafson and Richard Berg
• 3:00,  Alyssa Arreguin Thesis: “Becoming One of the Joneses: John Fante’s characterization of an Italian American identity” Readers: Professors Thomas Gustafson and Dana Gioia
• 3:30,  Dana Horowitz Thesis: “An Ocean Between Us: Navigating hierarchies of identity in Caribbean literature” Readers: Professors John Carlos Rowe and Richard Berg
• 4:00,  Melinda Guilford Thesis: “Through the Eyes of Zora Neale Hurston: How fiction reflects, represents, and re-imagines social thought” Readers: Professor Michelle Gordon and Alice Gambrell
• 4:30,  Stephanie Nicolard Thesis: ” William Wordsworth’s Revolutionary Imagination in the Prelude” Readers: Professor Margaret Russett and Devin Griffiths

Thursday, April 5, 2012 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 5:00pm, for ENGL 496 Public presentation of Honors theses

• 2:00,  Daniel Rios Thesis: “from Eden to Babel: Los Angeles Fiction and the Transnational Dialogics of Ethnicity” Readers: Professors Thomas Gustafson and William Handley
• 2:30,  Alysha Owen Thesis: “If the Glove Fits: The Martial versus the Marital Hand and the Importance of Hand Imagery in Shakespeare” Readers: Professors Emily Anderson and Rebecca Lemon
• 3:00,  Julia Cooperman Thesis: “Vigilant Virgins and Matron Martyrs: Literary Representations of the Chaperone in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction” Readers: Professors Kate Flint and James Kincaid
• 3:30,  Aishlin Cortell Thesis: “Beastly Women and Womanly Beasts: Animals, Lesbians and the Modern Subject in Djuna Barnes and Tanizaki Junichiro” Readers: Professors Joseph Boone and Akira Lippit
• 4:00,  Jace Brittain Thesis: “The Rest is Shweigen: German Romantic Translations of Hamlet” Readers: Professor David Lloyd and Dr. Ross Scimeca

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Taper Hall of Humanities 420

• 2:00,  Cordelia Arterian Thesis: “The Male Fantasy: Authorship as superiority in 16th-century England”
• 2:30,  John Graff Thesis: “An Absolute is Reached: F. H. Bradley’s final problem as reconciled in  To the Lighthouse “
• 3:00,  Alexandra Kretowicz Thesis: “‘Don’t Dream It, Be It’: The paradoxical tendency of countercultures to reflect the structure of mainstream culture”
• 3:30,  Victor Luo Thesis: “The Metafictive Dialogues of Identity in Libraries and Books: A reading of Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘The Library of Babel’ and ‘The Book of Sand’, and Haruki Murakami’s  Kafka on the Shore ” Creative Project : “Dragonfly Used Books and the Eternal Springtime”
• 4:00,  Caitlin Coyne Thesis: “The Modern Political and Social Implications of Christa Wolf’s  Cassandra ” Creative Project : “India Marone”

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Taper Hall of Humanities 420

• 2:00,  Kelly Baron Thesis: “Staring Intently Inward: Sexuality and self-awareness in David Foster Wallace’s  Brief Interviews With Hideous Men ” Creative Project : “Whenever You’re Ready”
• 2:30,  Yu Sara Kanematsu Thesis: “Farce, Fools and  Doctor Faustus : Pushing societal boundaries through Marlowe’s comic tragedy”
• 3:00,  Tanvi Mirani Thesis: “South Asian immigrants and the Domestic Sphere: The Establishment of an American Identity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s works”
• 3:30,  Lauren Perez Thesis: “Horrifying Hungers: Domestic space, consumption and women in horror fiction” Creative Project : “The Resurrectionist’s Gallery”
• 4:00,  Cara Dickason Thesis: “Peculiar Women, Manly Men, and the Construction of Gendered Identity in  Angels in America “
• 4:30,  Colin Dwyer Thesis: “The Beholder of the Eye: Nonsense and naming in  Alice in Wonderland ” Creative Project : The Sneeze that Fell Apart

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 5:00pm

• 2:00,  Alex Jestin Taylor Thesis: “Visions of Honesty: Kerouac’s Authentic American Myth” Readers: Professors Boyle and Gustafson
• 2:30,  Emiko Suzuki Thesis: “‘its not despair until time its not even time until it was’: Temporality and Experience in the Decay of the Postwar American South in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury” Readers: Professors Gordon and Eggenschwiler
• 3:00,  Thomas Schaeffer Nelson Creative Project : “This” Thesis: “Whatever You Called It: The Fetus as Destabilizer in 20th-Century Literature of Abortion” Readers: Professors Bender and Johnson
• 3:30,  Sarah Vita Thesis: “Solving the Mystery of the Mysterious: Unearthing Philosophy and Identity in Detective Fiction and Thrillers” Readers: Professors Kincaid and Du Plessis
• 4:00,  Steven Philp Creative Project : “Whisper Room” Thesis: “’Woof’: Chasing the Contemporary Bear” Readers: Professors Bender and Roman

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Taper Hall of Humanities 420 2:00pm – 5:00 pm

• 2:00,  Ashwin Kannan Creative Project : “Silver Tongues and Slippery truths: The voice of the delusive character” Thesis: “Unstable Irony, Display and Play: Rethinking satiric norms in John Kennedy Toole’s  A Confederacy of Dunces Readers: Professors Everett and Kincaid
• 2:30,  Kate Gong Thesis: “Big God Howled Like a Hot Wind: the Effects of Globalization in  The God of Small Things and  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Readers: Professors Nguyen and McKnight
• 3:00,  Kevin Kim Creative Project : “The American Scream” Thesis: “A riot by any other name is still a riot” Readers: Professors Nguyen and Iwamura
• 3:30,  Andrei Malikov Thesis: “Unsettling Laughter and Martin McDonagh’s Post-Colonial Ireland” Readers: Professors Lloyd and Roman
• 4:00,  Janet Thielke Creative Project : “Call You By Name” Thesis: “The Short Bus and the Soul Train: Physical and Spiritual ‘Freaks’ in the Works of Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor” Readers: Professors Wiggins and Handley

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The Honors Program

The English Honors Program provides majors with the opportunity to develop a substantial scholarly inquiry in close consultation with a faculty member. Selected students will explore cutting-edge research, workshop their drafts with fellow thesis writers, and present their scholarship to the Department. The final product is a 25-30 page thesis.

The deadline for applications to the 2024–25 Honors Program is March 20, 2024.

If you are accepted into the program, you will take the Honors seminar (ENGL 4097) in the Fall of your senior year. The class is primarily a writing workshop. You will read each other's work, sharing advice and intellectual support as you master the elements of critical writing.

Honors students usually continue working on the thesis in the Spring under the guidance of their faculty director. They may enroll in an English independent study (ENGL 4098). Both English 4097 and English 4098 may count toward the required 13 courses for the major — both as elective seminars.

Completing the program is the only way to earn "Honors" in English upon graduation. To merit this distinction, theses must receive the enthusiastic approval of both the Faculty Director and the Director of the Honors Program. In cases where these two readers disagree, the Undergraduate Executive Committee will make the final determination.

Students wishing to write a creative thesis should consult the Creative Writing Program website at  www.writing.upenn.edu  for deadlines and information, or contact  Julia Bloch .

Applying to the program

Juniors majoring in English are eligible to apply. We recommend that applicants have at least a 3.6 GPA in the major.  

Timeline, Junior Year

• November-February: Discuss possible topics with your English advisor, the current director of the Honors program and/or the Undergraduate Chair. You must also speak with the faculty member whom you would like to direct the thesis.
• Janurary-March: find a faculty director willing to advise your thesis, preferably a member of the standing faculty. Non-standing faculty may direct theses, but graduate students and recent PhDs may not. Check with the Undergraduate Chair if you have questions about your potential advisor. As a rule, the faculty director must be willing and available to advise for the duration of the development and completion of the thesis (summer preceding your senior year, and senior year).

Click here to access the Honors Application form

Applications for the 2024–2025 Honors Program are due March 20, 2024 , at noon. Applications should include a completed application form and the following materials:

• A statement of 500 words describing your project, the questions you're interested in exploring, and the research you'd like to conduct. You must have a faculty director and an arresting, viable thesis proposal.
• A writing sample, accompanied by a short description.
• A list of your completed English courses with grades received. 
• Most important : a short letter of support from your faculty director. This letter can be emailed to the Undergraduate Chair.

Completed applications should be submitted electronically as attachments to Loretta M. Witham Turner at [email protected] .

Applications will be reviewed by the Undergraduate Executive Committee. You will be notified by mid-May. As you register for the fall semester of your senior year, you should block out the time of the Honors Seminar (ENGL 4097) on your roster. If you plan to apply for research support , you should do so as soon as possible.

Upon Admission

Upon admission to the Honors Program, you should meet with the Honors Director (for 2024–25, Professor Chi-ming Yang; [email protected] ) and your faculty director to develop a research plan. It's a good idea to do as much of your research as possible that summer before your senior year.

Timeline, Senior year

• Summer: Research your project as planned.
• Fall: Take ENGL 4097 and begin drafting your thesis. You may register for ENGL 4098 in the Spring if necessary.
• January-February: You will conduct crucial research and compose the bulk of your thesis, making sure to meet with your faculty director.
• Mid-February: You will turn in a full draft of your thesis to your faculty director and to the Honors director.
• Early-March: The final draft of your thesis is due to your faculty director, Honors director, and Undergraduate Chair. You may also submit your draft for Best Thesis Prize .
• Mid-March: Final decisions on the Honors distinction will be made. At the Graduating Seniors Party, Honors distinctions, including the Best Thesis Prize , will be awarded.
• Early April: The Honors Symposium will take place where you will present your work to the departmental community.

Note that students not admitted may still write theses as an independent study. You will need to find a faculty member willing to direct your project. You should fill out the independent study form (obtainable from Loretta M. Witham Turner) to be enrolled in ENGL 0999. You should title your course "Senior Thesis," but you may ask to have a more specific title added later. Please note that a non-Honors thesis can only be one semester long, and only receive one credit.

Home > Arts and Sciences > English > ENGLISHHONORS

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

Honors theses from 2023 2023.

A Journal of Those Times , Alexander Wolff

A World Half Created: The Imaginative Power of Sound in the Poetry of William Wordsworth , Trinity Myers

Beyond a Partnership Ethic: Evolutions of Ecofeminism in the Post-Apocalyptic Landscapes of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy and Jean Hegland's Into the Forest , Catherine Lashley

“Deforesting the ‘Princely Trunk:’ Deforestation and Invasion in Shakespeare’s Plays” , Sarah Richman

Goodbye, You: Stories of Loss and Life , Marissa Ho

Haunted Panes and Psychic Casements: Windows in Wuthering Heights and Villette , Mariana Kornreich

I Do: Historicizing Marriage and Courtship in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816) and Their Screen Adaptations , Olivia Little

Linda Brent’s Condition(s) in "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl": Medical, Physical, Emotional, and Authorial , Allyson Lowe

"My daughter, flee temptation!" "O, do go, dear mother!": Gender, Race, and Body Politics in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , Harper McCall

Pastries and Plots: Food Rhetoric and Gender Struggles in Shakespeare’s Plays , Juliet Nierle

Thrice They Ring , Natalie Berner

Uncivilized Lullaby: Poems , Yalda Al-Ani

Visualizing the Liminal: Confrontations with Female Passivity in Edith Wharton's Gothic Short Stories , Mikeila Whitney

well/good , Azraf Khan

Honors Theses from 2022 2022

Afro-Diasporic (Dis)Illusionment: Perceptions of the American Dream in Americanah and Behold the Dreamers , Sabrien Abdelrahman

Ambitious Boys and Girls: Childhood Failure and Gender Norms in Little Women and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , Ceci Hughes

"But a Contraband is a Free Man:" Civil War Literature and the Figure of the "Contraband" , Mary A. Kardos

'Carcern' and 'Wordcræft': Enclosure, Connection and Gender in Cynewulf's "Juliana" and "Elene" , Katherine Grotewiel

Feelings of Fallenness: Affect and Gender in Victorian Fallen Woman Novels , Kate Kowalski

Framing the Female Narrative: Male Audiences and Women's Storytelling Within Two Brontë Novels , Sammy Murphy

'Geomorlic' or 'Eorlic?' Uncovering Early English Emotional Communities in "The Wanderer," "Deor," and "The Wife’s Lament" , Hunter Phillips

Remystifying the Modern World: Magical Realism and the Reappropriation of the Christian Imaginary in Beloved and The Master and Margarita , William Brake

Honors Theses from 2021 2021

Flipping the Castle: Evolution of Gothic Spaces in the Domestic Sphere , Kate Lucas

“Garden-Magic”: Conceptions of Nature in Edith Wharton’s Fiction , Jonathan Malks

Laurence Sterne: A Different Way of Approaching the Notion of Life in the Early Novel , Robert Metaxatos

mo(u)rning person , Kate Dragonetti

Purple Magpie Terrace: A Story of His and Hers , Zheng Yu

The Humorous Tradition in Arthurian Grail Literature , Benjamin Woessner

Whole and Hybrid: Resisting Essentialism in The Satanic Verses and The Impressionist , Louise Strange

With Inviolable Voice, We Melt into Each Other with Phrases: The Construction and Deconstruction of Heteroglossia in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Virginia Woolf's The Waves , Alexa Kelly

Honors Theses from 2020 2020

Blue Cathedral , Jessica Urgo

Charlotte Brontë's Victorian Women: A Psychological Analysis in Light of Jungian Theory , Virginia Elam

Confronting Toxicity from the Beehive: Ecofeminist Alternatives to Capitalism , Bianca Bowman

Emergency Contact , Sophia Shealy

Inherited Reproduction of Violence and Trauma in 1990’s Literary Immigrant Families: An Exploration of Lucy; Breath, Eyes, Memory; and Drown , Kelsey Vita

J.G. Ballard and the Anthropocene , Noah Terrell

Resurrecting the Women of The Waste Land , Angela Rose Granados West

Speaker into Specimen: The Representation of Dialect in Victorian Fiction , Hunter Hall

Tell Me What You Really Think (A Novel) , Marriya Schwarz

The Commodification of Helen: Tracing the Phallic Economy of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida , Quinn Arnone

The Homoerotic Architectures of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Samuel McIntyre

The Sun Sets on Chinchontepec: (Re)productions of Salvadoran Memory , Aida Campos

“You Only Have Time to Explode’”: Nathanael West’s Novels, Mass Media, and Illusory Dreams , Edward Millman

Honors Theses from 2019 2019

An Incongruous Present: Identifying the Absurd Aesthetic in William Faulkner’s "Requiem for a Nun" (1951) , Blake Hani

A Portrait of Women’s Property: An Analysis of Married Women’s Property Rights in The Portrait of a Lady, The Spoils of Poynton and Howards End , Kelsey Llewellyn

Billy's Burg: Investigating Colonial and Capitalist Constructions through Poetry , Ryan Onders

Creative Currencies: Circulation and Sovereignty in The Alchemist, Urania, and The Blazing World , Jacqueline Keshner

Haunted Housewives: Shirley Jackson’s Domestic Gothic , Caroline Kessler

(In)Human Anatomies: Constructions of Whiteness and Otherness in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft , Katherine Avery

'I walk pure before God!': Narrative Structure and Reimagined Negotiations in the Victorian Female Bildungsroman , Devon Boyers

Mine , Brooke Stephenson

Recovering Affiliates: Reclassifying Emily Dickinson's Variant Poems , Anna McAnnally

Sensational Investigations: Social decay and reform in the Victorian sensation novel , Colleen Wilson

The Sacred Touch of Hallowed Hands: Tracing the Holy through the Haptic in George Eliot’s Early Work , Katharine Isabel Williams

"This Great Theatre of Nature": Henry Fielding and the Ancient Comic Stage , Stephen Ryan

Thoughtful Books and Thoughtful Lives: Androgyny and Gender Dynamics in the Works of Sherwood Anderson , Rick Stevenson

Wordsworth's British Empire: Property, Liberty, and the Slave Question , Anna Wingfield

Honors Theses from 2018 2018

Education in the Novels of Thomas Hardy , Jiayue Jiang

"Glimmerings, Hints, and Secret Amazements": William Blake, Walt Whitman, and the Spiritual Incantations of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" , Elijah Levine

"O God Within My Breast": The Religion of Emily Brontë , Christina Danberg

“Reader, I Did Not Marry Him:” Marriage Proposals, Choice, and Female Desire in the Victorian Era , Elizabeth Rose Flood

Resistance and Women's Solidarity in The Handmaid's Tale, from 1985 to 2017 , Dana S. Florczak

Stripping the Paint: Uncovering the Self-Made Man in The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Great Gatsby , Emma Elena Johnson

The Forgotten Beauty of the Feminine: Elena Guro’s The Little Camels of the Sky, Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, and the Holy Grail of the “Woman’s Sentence” , Bailey Orr

Transparent Sketches: A Field Journal of Silence , Annabel McSpadden

Virginia Woolf and the 'Objective' Camera: The Relationship Between Text and Image in Three Guineas and Orlando , Meilan Solly

Winter's Bane: Part One , Jessica Molz

Honors Theses from 2017 2017

Aphra Behn, One of Churchill’s Top Girls?: Assessing Caryl Churchill’s Lack of Deference to Behn’s Legacy , Hayley A. Hahn

Defining Ambiguous: Lesbianism and the Vampire in “Christabel” and Carmilla , Holly E. Reynolds

"If there be such space:" Haunted Landscapes and Crises of Sonhood in Cormac McCarthy's Westerns , Kayla M. Armstrong

Love on a Blighted Star: Nature and Female Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy , Emily M. Armstrong

Patients, Prose, and Poetry: The Medical and Literary World of William Carlos Williams , Sarah Heins

Rites: Poems , Lydia G. Brown

Scattered Prizes: Colonial Fantasies and the Material Body in the English Renaissance Blazon , Aidan J. Selmer

The Northern Novel of Manners: Wuthering Heights & The Invention of a Genre , Cameron I. Menchel

The Subversion of Wagnerian Gender Dynamics in James Joyce’s Ulysses , Sophia S. Farion

Working the Garden: Women and Religion in Apocalyptic Fiction , Sarah C. Collier

Honors Theses from 2016 2016

Catharsis , Shannon Callahan

“Insane for the destination:” Disrupting the Teleological Impulses of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel and Adrienne Rich’s Diving into the Wreck , Noah Christopher Brooksher

Our Lady (a novel in progress) , Molly Earner

Renegotiating the Apocalypse: Mary Shelley’s "The Last Man" , Kathryn Joan Darling

Telling the Stories that Can't Be Told: Translating War in Hemingway, Vonnegut, and O'Brien , Emily A. Nye

The Ludic Life of Things: Explorations in the Vitality of the Ludic Object in Contemporary Narratives , Eamonn deLacy

The Revolutionary New Woman: Renegotiating her Social Contract through Sex , Nicole Walsh

Honors Theses from 2015 2015

“A Constant Unfolding of Far-Resonate Action”: George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Spinoza, and the Ethics of Power , Zachary J. Hardy

"A product of her body as well as soul": Narrative fullness and the feminine body in the work of Julia Ward Howe , Sarah J. Schuster

Bouts of Brain Fever: Female Rebellion and the Dubiety of Illness in Victorian Fiction , Stephanie R. Mason

Deconstructing Terror: The Political Theatre of Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, and Martin Crimp , Beatrice Loayza

Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides and Zuzak's The Book Thief: Impossible Narration in Millennial Fiction , Maria Dougherty

Girls without Faces & Other Stories , Molly E. Greer

He Do the Police in Different Voices: the Influence of Detection Fiction in T. S. Eliot's Works , Claire Weaver

"How Do I Know What I Think Till I See What I Say?" William James's and Carl Jung's Ideas on the Unconscious Mind As Applied to Stegner , Diana J. Floegel

Open wounds, shrunk...but wounds still: Mental Illness in the Life and Literature of F. Scott Fitzgerald , Leah C. Bailey

Portraits of Strangers , Dana Lotito

The Pendragon Cycle: Celtic Christianity in the Arthurian Legend through Bards, Prophets, and Historians , Rebecca L. Heine

Thrown Into America: Existentialism in the New World , William Toler Marsh

Honors Theses from 2014 2014

"A Density of Meaning": Literary Representations of the British Museum, 1818-1929 , Rory E. Sullivan

“All Persons Living and Dead Are Purely Coincidental:” Unity, Dissolution, and the Humanist Wampeter of Kurt Vonnegut’s Universe , Danielle M. Clarke

A Love Story, a Tragedy, or Both , Hannah Boes

A New Wessex: The Influence on Shakespeare on Genre in the Novels of Thomas Hardy , Catherine G. Strycharz

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45 catalog results, online 1. an ecology of quotation and quotability: discourse in annie dillard's pilgrim at tinker creek [2023].

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Online 2. Body, Name, Voice: Chanel Miller’s Self-Reclamation after Sexual Assault Through Literary Choices in Know My Name [2023]

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Online 3. Allegations: The Proto-Public Sphere and the Figure of the Female Accused (1550-1640) [2022]

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• August 9, 2022; May 12, 2022

Online 4. Enfleshing Science: Narrating Slavery’s Archive in the History of Science and Medicine through African-American Literature [2022]

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Online 9. "What does it mean to be both Indian and, like, American?" Representation in Contemporary South Asian American Young Adult Literature [2022]

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Online 11. Literary Embodiment: Representations of Disability in Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" [2021]

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Online 13. Intimacy at the Point of Rupture: Mourning, Memory and Mediation in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric [2020]

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Online 14. "Pain has an element of blank:" Interpretations of and Judgments on Female Illness in the Nineteenth-Century British Gothic [2020]

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Online 15. The Author's Second Coming [2020]

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Online 17. Fundamental Fractures: Children and Gendered Difference in Hisaye Yamamoto’s Seventeen Syllables [2019]

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Online 19. Poetry as Decreation: Impersonality and Grace in T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil [2019]

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Online 20. The Age of Girls: History and Testimony in Emma Cline's The Girls [2019]

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Requirements for Departmental Honors in Literature

For students majoring in english literature, english with a british literary history concentration, or english with a women’s literature concentration.

Students interested in seeking Departmental Honors in English should consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies in English, normally before the end of the junior year. 

To enter the program a student must have achieved by the end of the junior year a 3.5 average in English courses and a 3.3 average overall. In addition to fulfilling the requirements for the English Literature Major, the candidate for Departmental Honors must: 

• Take at least three literature courses at the 400-level or higher in fulfilling requirement 2 of the major in English Literature, English with a British Literary History Concentration, or English with a Women’s Literature Concentration.
• Complete a six credit Senior Thesis. This thesis is a documented essay of about 10,000 words on a literary subject. The student undertaking a Senior Thesis normally registers in ENG 497, Senior Thesis I, for the first semester of the project, and in ENG 498, Senior Thesis II, for the second semester.
• The student must receive a grade of B or higher in both courses in order to qualify for honors . Note: Taking ENG 497 and ENG 498 extends the requirements for the English major to 36 credits (12 classes) instead of 30 credits (10 classes).
• While taking ENG 497 and ENG 498, participate in any workshops offered by the English Department for students engaged in independent research projects. 
• Receive for the thesis a recommendation for honors by the director of the Senior Thesis and by one other faculty reader from the Department of English. 
• Achieve a GPA in the major of at least 3.5, and an overall GPA of at least 3.3.

Requirements for Departmental Honors in Creative Writing

For students majoring in english with a creative writing concentration.

Students interested in seeking Departmental Honors in Creative Writing should consult the Director of Creative Writing, normally before the end of the junior year.

To enter the program a student must have achieved by the end of the junior year a 3.5 GPA in English courses (including courses in creative writing) and a 3.3 GPA  overall. In addition to meeting the requirements for the Creative Writing Concentration, the candidate for Departmental Honors must:

• Take at least three literature courses at the 400-level or higher in fulfilling requirement 4 of the Creative Writing Concentration.
• Complete a six-credit Senior Creative Writing Project. The student undertaking this project normally registers for ENG 497, Senior Thesis I, for the first semester of the project, and ENG 498, Senior Thesis II, for the second semester. The student must receive a grade of B or higher in both courses in order to qualify for honors. Note: Taking ENG 497 and ENG 498 extends the requirements for the English major to 36 credits (12 classes) instead of 30 credits (10 classes)
• Receive for the thesis a recommendation for honors by the director of the Senior Creative Writing Project and by one other faculty reader designated by the Director of Creative Writing.

Thinking of Writing a Senior Honors Thesis in Literature or Creative Writing?

If so, see the Director of Undergraduate Studies (if majoring in literature) or the Director of Creative Writing (if majoring in creative writing) before the end of your junior year. Do not sign up for independent study or for senior thesis without the approval of the faculty member who will be supervising your work.

The Honors Thesis: Some Advice for Students 

An honors thesis is the product of a two-semester project undertaken by students who meet the requirements listed for departmental honors. Students writing honors theses register for ENG 497 in the first semester of their senior year and 498 in their final semester. These credits are in addition to the 10 courses required for the major, making the major 12 courses for students who complete an honors thesis. The first semester is ordinarily devoted to directed reading and research, the second to writing the thesis. Occasionally, a student may receive permission to complete the project in one semester, but that is the exception.

Getting Started and ENG 497

Students interested in writing an honors thesis should begin the undertaking in the second semester of their junior year. If you are a second-semester junior, your first responsibility is to identify an author or authors or some theme or topic that interests you. You should then do some preliminary thinking and research so that you will have an idea about the direction you want to take in your thesis. At this point you will need to seek a faculty advisor for your thesis. Normally the faculty member should be someone who works in a field of study or genre relevant to your topic or project. It’s also a good idea to think about which faculty member you would like to work with, and which faculty member knows your work and might agree to supervise you in a year-long independent project. You may also discuss this with the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Director of Creative Writing. If the professor whom you approach agrees to direct your project, then the two of you should formulate a mutually agreeable plan for the semester. Then, you should ask your faculty advisor to email the Director of Undergraduate Studies confirming that they have agreed to advise you. At that point, the Director of Undergraduate Studies will give you more instructions about how to register for ENG 497. 

The Thesis and ENG 498

In the second semester of your senior year, you register for ENG 498. This is the semester in which you write your thesis; therefore, you and your faculty advisor should agree on a timetable for completing the thesis during the semester. You also need to ask a second faculty member in the Department to be a reader on your thesis committee during this semester.

Here are some general ground rules for the thesis: 

• The thesis is a critical essay of about 10,000 words and should contain the appropriate scholarly apparatus;
• The thesis director and a second professor in the English Department will serve as the readers of the thesis.
• The final version of the thesis must be submitted to the English Department at least two weeks before the last day of classes in the second semester of your senior year. 

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Honors Program Guide

Introduction.

Opportunities for Independent Critical and Scholarly Work 

Completing the English major with honors allows students to do independent study on a topic they choose, to work closely with a faculty advisor, and to write a researched critical paper of about 50 pages. Students almost always find the Honors Program an incalculably satisfying project and a memorable achievement. Here and elsewhere, many graduate school applicants submit part of their honors thesis as a sample of their critical, scholarly work and their future promise as scholars. Students preparing for other career paths also write theses in their senior year.

When combined with the opportunity to study one-on-one with a scholar in a field of particular interest, to get a real taste of the pleasures of advanced work, to discuss work with other honors students, work on the honors thesis places students in an intellectual community, the memories of which they may well carry into future work and into other intellectual and professional endeavors.

Successfully completing an honors thesis requires sustained interest, ability, diligence, and enthusiasm—all qualities in large supply among Cornell English Majors.

Admission to the Honors Program

How to apply.

• Calculate your GPA for courses that qualify for the English major. A minimum English GPA of 3.7 is required to be eligible for the Honors Program.
• Confer with the Director of Honors and receive preliminary acceptance to the Honors Program. The Director of Honors is listed on the faculty page . 
• Complete the online  Honors Program Application . The Director of Honors will record their approval of your application with the department.
• Ask an English professor to be your honors thesis advisor and obtain email confirmation that they have agreed. Send your thesis advisor’s confirmation as an attachment (or have them email directly) to the Director of Honors and the Undergraduate Program Coordinator ( Aurora Ricardo, [email protected] ).

Requirements and Courses

The Honors Program is a three-course commitment in which students must complete:

ENGL 4910 (Pre-1800) or ENGL 4920 (Post-1800): Honors Seminar The purpose of the Honors Seminar is to acquaint students with methods of study and research to help them write their thesis.

• The seminar requires a substantial essay that incorporates evidence and critical material effectively, and develops an argument. Students need not take an Honors Seminar that applies directly to the subject of their honors thesis work.
• Plan to take the Honors Seminar in your junior year. If you plan to study abroad one semester of the junior year, you should take the Honors Seminar in the semester you are studying at Cornell. If you are spending the academic year abroad, you will need to take the Honors Seminar either in the first semester of your senior year—keeping in mind that you will also be enrolled in ENGL 4930 Honors Essay Tutorial I—or as a sophomore, with permission of the instructor.

ENGL 4930 (Fall) and ENGL 4940 (Spring): Honors Essay Tutorial I & II Students work one-on-one with their thesis advisor, meeting regularly on a mutually agreed upon schedule between the professor and the student. Students will also attend larger meetings of all honors candidates held by the Director of Honors.

• These semesters must be consecutive during the senior year . The Honors Essay Tutorial is a full-year independent study course taken for a letter grade (S/U grades are not an option for Honors Tutorials I and II).
• To enroll in your thesis advisor’s section of ENGL 4930/4940, you must have their approval and the Director of Honors' approval of your application on record with the department. 

While applying to the program and writing a thesis is not a guarantee that you will be awarded honors in English, most of our candidates who complete an honors thesis have been successful.

Stages of the Program

The semester-by-semester schedule below should give interested students an idea of the usual way honors candidates move through the program. Other patterns are possible, though. Some students know at the time they declare the English major that they wish to pursue honors, while others may discover later in their English studies a riveting interest they desire to pursue in-depth, and only then consider writing an honors thesis.

Early planning usually makes it easier to fulfill the Honors Program’s three-course commitment (Honors Seminar, Honors Essay Tutorial I, Honors Essay Tutorial II). But any English major with a strong record in literary studies and curiosity about a topic is welcome to talk to the Director of Honors, at any stage, about the possibility of becoming a candidate for English honors.

Sophomore year

• If you have a strong record, apply to the Honors Program in your second semester. Occasionally, students with especially strong motivation or a defined thesis plan whose major GPA is somewhat lower than the minimum will apply. The Director of Honors will then review their junior-year English grades to assess their eligibility to continue in the program.

Junior year

• Complete ENGL 4910/4920, the Honors Seminar. 
• Start to identify your thesis topic. 
• Confirm your thesis advisor. 
• Pre-enroll in your thesis advisor's section of ENGL 4930: Honors Essay Tutorial I.
• Ask for some suggestions for preparatory reading. Spend some time in the summer months reading primary texts and thinking about your topic, approach, and argument. If possible, be in occasional email contact with your advisor.

Senior year

First semester.

• As soon as your first semester senior year begins, consult with your thesis advisor about your topic, discuss requirements and procedures, and set up a schedule for regular meetings. If you did not pre-­enroll for ENGL 4930 you will need to do so.
• Peruse past submissions in the honors thesis archive .  
• a short prospectus or essay proposal
• a bibliography of available and relevant secondary or conceptual work on your topic
• an annotated bibliography of the work you wish to use, critique, and apply to your research
• about 20–30 pages of writing

Second Semester

• While enrolled in ENGL 4940, you will write the final draft of your honors thesis. Your advisor should read a few drafts of the final version, drafts which you should be submitting and revising under your advisor’s engaged supervision.
• Allow yourself the last two weeks to edit and proofread your thesis. Do not complicate your own project by trying to do too much at the last minute and not allowing time for the refinement of ideas and execution.
• Submit your thesis by the deadline in mid-April (or early November for those graduating in January).
• Enjoy the remainder of your final semester and graduate with Distinction in English!

Developing a Thesis Topic

Look over the papers you have written in your English courses. Some of the most successful honors theses have come out of coursework—including work completed for the Honors Seminar—that sparked curiosity and made a student want to go further and revisit and revise previous work.

Identify your interests; think about work you have done well in the past and about what work you would enjoy pursuing.

Brainstorm freely, dream, identify your intellectual interests and passions.  

Ask yourself: What project will nurture and sustain my interest for two semesters of independent study?  These suggestions should help you identify your topic for the honors thesis and should help you think about the advisor with whom you would enjoy working.

Honors Thesis Advisor

When choosing your honors thesis advisor, speak to faculty members who would be suitable for your project, keeping in mind that your thesis advisor should be in residence both semesters. The thesis advisor does not have to be the major advisor. You can consult the Director of Honors about appropriate advisors.

Most working relationships between honors candidates and their thesis advisors go well, and the learning is genial, exciting, and mutual. Many students recall their tutorial as a highlight of their Cornell experience, and professors, too, typically enjoy working with intellectually engaged students on a developing thesis. But if you realize that the shape your topic is taking calls on a different kind of expertise from the one represented by your thesis advisor, it is possible to change your advisors. Consult the Director of Honors for advice.

Thesis Grade and Honors Designation

Honors thesis grade.

The thesis writing process is determined in two parts:

• The entire course (Honors Essay Tutorial I in the Fall and Honors Essay Tutorial II in the Spring) will give you 8 credits. Your work for each semester will be graded by your thesis advisor.
• The completed honors thesis is read and assessed by two readers. One reader is the thesis advisor. The other is often a faculty member whose academic interests correspond to your topic. Readers write a report and assign a letter grade to the thesis. You will receive both your advisor's and second reader's reports.

Honors Level Designation

The Honors Committee, selected by the department Chair, assists the Director of Honors in determining the level of honors (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors). They average the English GPA and the two thesis grades for each honors candidate and rank them. The Honors Committee assesses the theses as a whole. They may also consider the student’s performance in the English major and the student’s overall transcript.

Effective Spring 2026: Any level of honors in English will translate to a degree of Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in English. The English honors designation is not equivalent to Latin honors levels.

Honors Thesis Format

• Approximately 50 pages of text (not including endnotes and bibliography), double-spaced, 12-point type.
• Use either the MLA or Chicago manuals of style for footnotes or endnotes, quotations, internal citations, bibliographical entries, etc. Handbooks are accessible online as well as in printed form which can be purchased or used in libraries. 
• There are no predetermined formats for the title page, dedication page, or table of contents.

Honors Thesis Archive

Copies of past theses are available to view in the English office (250 GSH, M-F 9AM-4PM). The previous year’s submissions are kept for one year. Winners of the M.H. Abrams Thesis Prize are kept for five years. Theses cannot be removed from the office.

Students explore the archive in order to see how previous theses were formatted and titled, or to see a sampling of past topics.

Humanities Scholars Program

The departmental honors thesis may be used as Conference Presentation for the Humanities Scholars Program  (HSP). Students present their projects at the annual Humanities Scholars Conference in May.

HSP is an undergraduate program of the Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences that fosters independent, interdisciplinary undergraduate research in the humanities, and provides a supportive community, through a series of curated courses, structured mentorship, special programming, and research opportunities and funding. The program is housed in the historic Andrew Dickson White House on central campus.

Department of English

The honors program.

• Undergraduate Studies

The Honors Program is for students who have been highly successful in their English concentration coursework and would like the opportunity to pursue an in-depth research project.

Requirements

Students may pursue honors in either the English or Nonfiction Writing tracks. The course requirements for the Honors Program are the same as those for the regular concentration, with the following additions:

• At least three upper-level seminars or comparable small courses in which students have the opportunity to do independent research, take significant responsibility for discussion, and do extensive scholarly and critical writing. Students are encouraged to include at least one graduate seminar in their program. 
• During the senior year, honors candidates must complete two additional thesis writing courses beyond the ten courses required by the regular concentration:

English Honors Courses

• ENGL 1991: Senior Thesis Seminar in English
• ENGL 1992: Senior Honors Thesis in English

Nonfiction Honors Courses

• ENGL 1993: Senior Honors Seminar in Nonfiction Writing
• ENGL 1994:Senior Honors Seminar in Nonfiction Writing
• Honors candidates must continue to receive more As than Bs in courses taken as part of the concentration.  Courses completed with a grade of C will not count toward an Honors concentration. A student who receives such a grade and wishes to continue in the program must complete a comparable course with a grade higher than C.

The Honors Thesis

The Honors thesis is an extended essay, usually between 50-80 pages, written under the supervision of a faculty advisor and second reader. (Where appropriate, the advisor or the reader, but not both, may be in another department.) The thesis may be an interdisciplinary or creative project, but it is usually an essay on a scholarly or critical problem dealing with works of literature in English. The specific topic and approach of the thesis are worked out between the student and the thesis advisor, with assistance from the student's second reader. This process should begin in the latter part of the student's junior year.

A good way to get an idea of what sorts of projects are possible is to visit the English department page on the Brown Digital Repository  site, which stores theses from previous years, or to meet with the Honors Director.

A prospectus describing the project and endorsed by the faculty advisor must be submitted to the Honors Director at the beginning of the senior year. A full list of dates and deadlines for each of our honors programs can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions section below. 

Eligibility

Admission to the English Honors Program depends on evidence of ability and promise in the study of literature. To be eligible for admission, students must have received more As than Bs (and no Cs or below) in concentration courses completed. Students must complete an application; supply a brief writing sample, and request two letters of recommendation from English faculty with whom they have taken courses. If necessary, letters may come from faculty in related departments. Letters from teaching assistants may only serve as supporting recommendations. Candidates must also submit a one-page project proposal signed by the faculty member who has agreed to serve as the thesis advisor. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Interested students should apply during the spring semester of their junior year. Applications open in January and close in April.

Yes!  December or mid-year graduates who wish to apply to honors have two options, but the first is highly encouraged:  

In their 5th semester (Spring), students apply to the honors program along with the other juniors. Accepted students will be incorporated into the regular honors cohort and must meet the same deadlines: i.e. they must complete their theses at the same time as the other honors students (though for mid-years this will be at the end of their 7th semester). They register for ENGL 1991 English Honors Seminar in the Fall, and ENGL 1992 Senior Honors Thesis in the Spring.

In the 7th semester (the Spring of their final year), students take an independent study with their thesis advisor, under whose direction they will begin to research and write their theses. This course must be taken S/NC. Mid-year graduates should consult with the Honors Director for information about deadlines.

The Honors Committee evaluates the applications and informs students by letter about the decisions during the first week of pre-registration.

Your thesis should be written according to MLA guidelines including title page, footnotes or endnotes, and bibliography. Margins should be one and a half inches on the left, and one inch on the right, top, and bottom of the page. Page numbers should be centered and placed three-fourths of an inch below the top edge of the paper. 

A sample title page and permission page can be found here and must be included in your final draft. Be sure to sign the second page where indicated.

Please submit your final thesis as a PDF to your advisor, second reader, and Honors Director. 

Friday, September 22

Revised and signed PDF prospectus is due via Google form. The advisor and second reader must e-sign prospectuses.

November 7-14

Register for ENGL 1992 (Senior Honors Thesis) for Semester II. Professor Khalip will issue registration overrides via the CAB.

Wednesday, December 13

Minimum of 25-30 PDF pages due via Google form.

Friday, March 1

Student ASK concentration plans must be updated and advisor-approved to reflect courses counted toward concentration.

Tuesday, March 5

A full draft of thesis in PDF format is due via Google form.

Tuesday, April 9

The final thesis is due in PDF format via Google form. BDR submission is optional.

Late theses cannot be accepted for honors after the deadline ; students who hand in theses after the deadline but before the end of the term will receive a grade for the thesis course, but they will not be eligible for departmental honors.

Register for ENGL 1992 (Senior Honors Thesis) for Semester II. Professor Egan will issue registration overrides via the CAB.

Friday, October 20

Application submission deadline. The application cycle opens in May and closes in October.

Friday, January 26

Revised and signed PDF prospectus is due in person to honors directors Jim Egan and Jacques Khalip. Must be signed by advisor and second reader.

Friday, May 3

Minimum of 25-30 Word or PDF pages due to advisor, second reader, and program directors with APC cc'd.

Friday, October 11

FULL DRAFT of PDF copy thesis is due to advisor, second reader, and program directors with APC cc'd.

Friday, November 15

Final PDF copy of thesis is due to advisor, second reader, program directors with APC cc'd. BDR submission is optional.

Late theses cannot be accepted after the deadline . Students who hand in a thesis after the deadline but before the end of the term will receive a grade for their thesis course but will not be eligible for departmenal honors.**

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English Honors Program

The English Honors Program is open to applicants who have shown exceptional ability in English. English Honors is designed to expand and intensify the academic experiences of advanced English majors through completion of a three-quarter, cohort-based program. The program builds a community of  undergraduate scholars within the English Department, providing them with opportunities to work closely with UW professors in independent study and research, and with special events such as lectures and receptions.

• This Year's Honors Faculty and Topics
• Previous Years' Faculty and Topics
• Admission s

Advising and Administration

Requirements and satisfactory progress.

• ENGL 496: Major Conference for Honors (Honors Thesis)
• Past honors graduates and thesis projects

The Value of English Honors

Other honors.

• Undergraduate Research, Symposia, Conferences,

2024 - 2025 Honors Program

Laura Chrisman

Douglas Ishii

Colette Moore

Alys Weinbaum                     

Fall seminars  

Marxist American Culture: Writing, Art, and Political Activism, Prof. Laura Chrisman

The 1930s saw an explosion of cultural production by artists associated with revolutionary social movements. This course looks at a  cross-section of that work, considering a range of innovative fiction, poetry, journalism, theory, and multimodal (textual/visual) materials. It involves close reading, archival research, and a willingness to interrogate the anti-communist assumptions that became entrenched in American political and academic life during the Cold War and continue into the 21st century. The course materials foreground the contributions of Black, Jewish, and women artists, and considers the at times conflicted and at times symbiotic relationship of modernist experimentation and social realism, the interplay of class, race, and gender, and the shifting meanings of 'the people' and 'the folk'. Primary texts may include works by Hugo Gellert, Margaret Walker, Muriel Rukeyser, Langston Hughes, Mike Gold, Richard Wright, Meridel Le Sueur,  and Clifford Odets.

Fulfills Historical Depth or Power and Difference distribution area.

  Race, Gender, and U.S. Pop Music after 1965, Prof. Douglas Ishii

This Honors seminar will interpret and theorize a form of everyday culture: popular music.  Its centrality to collective memory suggests its power to shape cultural imaginaries, yet its ubiquity belies its power to reflect and refract dominant ideologies.  It is by now a truism that the history of U.S. pop music is a history of race.  This seminar engages difference after the 1965 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Immigration and Nationality Act, when sanctioned racism supposedly ended, through an intersectional analysis of pop genres to query histories of the present.  Genre, as theorists of race, gender, and sexuality have illustrated, is not a value-neutral description, but is a system of classification that ties taxonomies of art to the taxonomies of people.  We will ask: How do genres, despite music’s celebration as universal or transcendent, reveal contexts and tensions that linger in the act of listening?  How do genre categories set expectations of what (and whom) we’re hearing as a result of institutions, industries, and social systems?  How have artists, critics, and scholars addressed these prescriptive and limiting understanding of genres?

Taking specific genres as flashpoints, we will survey a range of scholarship, journalism, essays, interviews, albums, and music videos using cultural studies as a method toward unraveling how cultural power has been naturalized through constructions of difference.  We will apply theoretical frameworks from across the study of language, literature, and culture to which you have likely been exposed, such as cultural materialism, Black feminism, new historicism, queer theory, and postcolonial thought.  We will think about how writing about music engages multiple publics through multiple genres, as well as the relevance of cultural and literary studies toward that end.  Assessments will apply the methodological concerns of this seminar, with the intention of practicing skills toward preparing for the Honors thesis.

Fulfills Power and Difference or Genre, Method, and Language distribution areas. 

Winter Seminars 

Literary Texts and Vernacular English, Prof. Colette Moore

Literary texts are a unique resource for representing spoken varieties of English. In a practice that goes back as far as Chaucer's Reeve's Tale, authors have written poetry and fiction that uses spelling and grammar to recreate features of spoken language that diverge from "standard" written English: called dialect literature, dialect poetry, or nation language (a term offered by the Caribbean poet Kamau Brathwaite). Literary writing, therefore, can be a form of resistance; one that celebrates and promotes local and community-based kinds of English.

This course explores Anglophone literary works that depict global and local varieties of English in their use of language. The choice of language in literary works reflects the cultural legacy of power relationships: whose English gets centered in standardizing practices and whose English gets marginalized; by extension, the question of whose English is being represented and how it is depicted is critical to literary interpretation. We will encounter the cultural environments that frame language choice as a stylistic strategy, charting broad concerns such as nationhood, coloniality/decoloniality, diaspora, race, community, language contact, memory, and identity.

Dialect literature is not always approachable, as Debbie Taylor writes in The Guardian, "Reading work in dialect demands a commitment on the part of the reader, which is as much political as it is artistic. It requires us to stray off the beaten track of received pronunciation and mainstream literature, with its complete words and nicely structured sentences, and into [a] rough and ready linguistic world." But such choices can be engaging and entertaining as well; these works are powerful and fun to read. Authors and poets might include Edmund Spenser, Robert Burns, Mark Twain, Louise Bennett-Coverley, George Washington Harris, Tom Leonard, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mutabaruka, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Junot Díaz, Amitav Ghosh. We will also look at some discussions of the place of vernacular literature in Kamau Brathwaite, William Wordsworth, Gloria Anzaldúa, Thomas Macaulay and others.

This class will satisfy the English major requirement for historical depth, pre-1945 or the genre, method, and language requirement. 

Dystopia and the Question of History, Prof. Alys Weinbaum

This honors seminar hones in on dystopian fiction, one of today’s most popular genres (think The Handmaid’s Tale or The Hunger Games).  It examines how dystopic representations (both mainstream and less well known) can be read as critiques of current social and political formations, national and global cultures, capitalist processes, and dominant ideas about gender, race, sexuality and class—that is, the collection of ideas that comprise the hegemonic, or “natural” order of things.  “The question of history” in the course title is not really a single question, but rather a series of interrelated questions about how the past is invoked in dystopian fiction, how this fiction engages (and perhaps theorizes?) the complex unfolding of history, and how real dystopian pasts (those that have actually been experienced by some) are recirculated, morphed, and critically examined in and through fictional representations.  Of special concern will be the treatment of Atlantic slavery, settler colonialism, climate disaster, the holocaust of World War II and the modern ascent of fascism.  How are these histories brought into dystopian texts and to what end?  How are they disaggregated and/or constellated and to what end?  Throughout the quarter we will treat a range of theoretical and critical writings that will help us to explore the conventions of the genre, debates about the narration of history, and those about the depiction of collective trauma. While dystopian representations can be bleak, some Marxist critics have argued that they are also illuminating and inspiring insofar as they catalyze unique forms of critical thinking about our present moment of reading.  Indeed, some have argued that dystopian fictions contribute to changes in consciousness, and, ideally, to social transformation—an argument we will weigh carefully as we read. Overall, we will attempt to stay afloat in our bleak present by locating the utopian impulses that lie within dystopian fictions and/or in our collective analysis of them.

Fulfills Genre, Method, and Language or Power and Difference distribution area. 

2023-24 Honors Faculty

Janelle Rodriques

Jesse Oak Taylor

Jeffrey Knight

Frances McCue

2023-24 Honors Topic: Literature & Extraction

This year’s theme explores literature’s entanglements with the concept of ‘extraction,’ understood in multiple senses: the extraction of materials from the earth; the extraction of meaning in poetry, prose, and drama; and extraction in the sense of lineage or kinship. We will explore the idea that literary art is at once extractive and resistant to extractivism: after all, while literature draws upon material resources, it does not exhaust them. We will also think about how meaning is “extracted” from a text, what is gained or lost when we select certain features over others, and how ideas, words, and cultural artifacts are repurposed in different contexts. These courses will showcase how literary reading both participates in and resists the extractive logic of capitalism and empire, and how it opens into questions of kinship and relation, heritage and tradition, offering a chance to think about literature as at once extracted from the world and a means of imagining new worlds into being.

Brief seminar descriptions below:

Sun, Sand, Sea and Sex? Critiquing Literary Tourism in the Peri-Disaster Caribbean

In this seminar, we will read fiction and criticism that both construct and deconstruct the modern Caribbean as a site of pleasure and paradise. We will explore the contingency of leisure on labour, and the relations between the tourist encounter and that of ‘explorer,’ ‘coloniser’ and ‘native.’

Novel Ecologies: Fiction in an Age of Extraction

Victorian Britain was the first fossil fueled society, a pivotal threshold in Earth’s history that we now recognize to be the dawn of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In this course, we will explore the way this epochal shift in both ideas and the Earth system registers in fiction. While storytelling is among the oldest of human art forms, the novel rose to prominence in the midst of the social and ecological transformation of the planet wrought by empire and industrialization. Our discussions will plumb the geohistorical imaginary of Victorian fiction, while also asking what it means to read these novels now , as we attempt to sever the connection to fossil fuels and imagine new worlds into being in the midst of climate emergency and ecosystem collapse. Readings will include Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone  (1868), Bram Stoker's  Dracula  (1897), Joseph Conrad's  Nostromo  (1902), and R. F. Kuang's Babel: An Arcane History  (2022), alongside supplemental material in ecocriticism and the energy humanities. This course fulfills the Department’s Historical Depth requirement (pre-1945).

Loving and Hating (in) Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is at once Shakespeare’s most modern play and his most problematic one. Ostensibly it’s a comedy about risk and reward (i.e., love) in the nascent economic system of global capitalism. But from its very first words, the play gives us something else entirely—something dark and unsettling, a drama of mental illness, proscribed sexuality, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, sham justice, and forced assimilation. By the end, the play seems ambivalent about itself, at best. We are ambivalent about it too, as we should be. This is an honors course in slow, intensive reading. Our objective will be to take a single text as an entry point not only to Shakespeare’s world—and to a pivotal moment in Shakespeare’s career, presaging the turn to tragedy—but also to broader questions about literary and cultural history: most centrally, what should we do with artworks from the past that convey painful or offensive ideas? After we read and watch the play once or twice, we will proceed through project-based units on Shakespeare’s sources and archetypes, the historical context, and the play’s stage and reception history. Readings will include excerpted primary works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and secondary works by modern critics and theorists. Evaluation will be based on seminar participation, short presentations, and an essay. Credit for this course can apply toward the “Historical Depth” (pre-1700) distribution area in the English major. The course is designed to be welcoming and intellectually productive not just for lovers of Shakespeare but for haters of him too.

Documentary Poetics and Other Craft Assemblages in Verse

Frances McCue This course will bring us to poems assembled from bits of journalism, witness statements and other artifacts so that we can explore how these extractions create poetic worlds. We will also look at “telestitching” and other methods that poets use to create poems that honor legacies and question responses to  environmental and historical events. We will create our own poetic assemblages and write short papers about the work of other writers.

Francis McCue

2022-23 Honors Topic

Honors 2022-2023: Imagined Worlds/Possible Worlds

In this course sequence, the ‘speculative’ frames our consideration of imagined and possible worlds. As a framework, the speculative supports numerous concerns, including the production and evolution of narrative genres, such as Arthurian romance, utopian and dystopian fiction, Afrofuturism, and science fiction. Yet, it also supports inquiries about speculative aspects of narratives and objects that represent the real world as we know it. Further still, it frames a variety of critical approaches to reading and interpreting texts, thinking about historical pasts and potential futures. To speculate about what is possible, or to imagine modes of social existence and realities that are not (yet) our own, requires an account of what constitutes the “real,” knowable world. Thus, as part of our collective task, we will examine the underlying presumptions that determine how “worlds” (both imaginary ones and geopolitical realities) and “time” (the past, present, and future) are entangled with each other, and with particular ways of knowing. By engaging with a wide range of textual forms and genres, we will explore what the cultural imagination reveals about visions of social justice, along with the collective desires and aspirations that arise at any given historical moment. With a speculative framework for analyzing culture, we will be attuned to both dominant and nascent expressions of world-building projects, along with what—in another time and place—reality could be.

Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges’s course, “Speculative Worlds,” focuses on the possibilities and limitations of imagined worlds. As we read, view, and immerse ourselves in a range of textual forms—including novels, film, games, and XR narratives—we will explore how texts build imagined worlds, how we position or resist positioning ourselves within imagined worlds, and how we create our own imagined worlds. We will also investigate the contexts shaping speculative worlds, asking how imagined worlds intersect with historical and current realities, showing us institutions, modes of existence, and social structures we have yet to experience. In doing so, we will also consider the limitations of imagined worlds, asking whose speculative worlds receive broad distribution and what different audiences seek—and perhaps do not find—in speculative worlds.

Habiba Ibrahim’ s course, “Imagining Being and Time,” explores how African-American and Black diasporic literary and cultural forms navigate modern conditions for being human by revisiting the historical past and speculating about potential futures. By engaging with a variety of genres and forms, the course tracks the problem of “being” through enslavement, colonialism, and nationalism, while it focuses on where alternative modes of life emerge in the Black literary and cultural imagination.      

Gillian Harkins’s course “Uncommon Senses” will explore changing concepts of common sense, asking how specific approaches to sense-making and sensation, as well as embodiment and imagination, shape what is perceived as possible or real.  Using a range of literary and visual texts, we will ask whose sense, where, and when is considered “common” (more than an isolated experience) and what different experiential commons might be.  This exploration will review Cultural Studies approaches to capitalism, colonialism and imperialism as well as race, gender, sexuality, and embodiment. 

Kate Norako’s Course, “Premodern Worldbuilding” investigates the ways in which medieval English writers conjured aspirational worlds across a variety of genres and textual forms: from mappae mundi and travel narratives, to Arthurian romance, to allegorical prose and verse (e.g. Christine de Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies and Langland’s Piers Plowman ). Central to our work will be discerning the implications of these acts of imagination: who and what is included/excluded? To what extent does medieval English worldbuilding require not only creation but erasure? And what aspects of this premodern worldbuilding persist in our present?

2022-23 Honors Faculty

Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges

Habiba Ibrahim

Kate Norako

2021-22 Honors Topic

Literary Genres and Social Transformation

English Honors Sequence 2021-2022

Artistic genres both reflect and create social transformation.  For instance, literary scholars and historians agree that the modern novel developed in response to a number of social, political and economic factors resulting in the wider spread of literacy and ideas about individualism, and that, by turn, it altered subsequent reading practices and conceptions of selfhood. This dynamic between reflecting a changing society and creating social change will be equally obvious of other genres and subgenres: of television sitcoms, of slam poetry, of newspaper editorials, of presidential inaugural addresses (which may of course be further subdivided by political party), and so forth.  Genres themselves may include cultural transformations, as we see in examples of the narrative essay or the lyric poem as they are re-made by Claudia Rankine and Zaina Alsous.  But genres can also be challenged by cultural transformation, revealing the limits of modes of representation that embed specific cultural values in the form itself.

This honors sequence will introduce students to a wide variety of texts and theories to explore how social transformation gets registered and created by literary genres.  In order to help create intellectual continuity for students, the AQ courses taught by Professors Kaup and Liu will feature Herman Melville's novella *Benito Cereno* (1855), and the WQ courses taught by Professors Chrisman and LaPorte will include Eve Ewing's new book of poems, *1919* (2019).

Professor Kaup’s “The Novel and the Sea” (AQ 21) examines fiction set on waterways and maritime spaces from Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) to Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide (2004). It shows how the literary representation of aquatic worlds shaped--and is shaped by--social phenomena such as transnational exploration and adventure, colonialism and slavery, and globalization and climate change.  Professor Liu’s “Genre and Social Transformation” (AQ 21) will look at various genres of fiction (like graphic novels, novels, short stories), nonfiction (like podcasts, creative nonfiction, personal narrative, inaugural addresses), and performance (like standup comedy) to think through how genre makes possible, as well as disciplines, cultural transformations in perception of race, gender, and sexuality. To honor the creative spark at the heart of all genre production, students will have the opportunity to practice thinking, writing, and creating in different genres.  Professor Chrisman's "Imagining the Past: Black Historical Fictions" engages with the genre of the historical novel, which has long held an important place in global Black literary production. The course will consider fiction by African and Black diasporic writers that adapts and experiments with the genre, in order to probe the experience of empire, enslavement, resistance, migration, and nation-building. Professor LaPorte's "Genre and Social Transformation in Historical Literature" will look at fiction, poetry, and non-fiction from the nineteenth and early twentieth century to think about the ways that literature influenced and created our ideas about human rights.  

2021-22 Honors Faculty

Monika Kaup

Charles LaPorte

Michelle Liu

2020-21 Honors Topic

Stories In and Out of Place

English Honors Theme 2020-2021

Stories move. They take on lives of their own, and acquire meanings their authors couldn’t have imagined in distant times and places. Stories also stay put, they help root communities in place across centuries. They orient travellers in unfamiliar lands; they connect us to distant places and people we may never meet face to face. They are carried on the breath, on the stage, through undersea cables and across pages and screens. As readers, listeners, and storytellers, the stories we encounter, remember, interpret and pass on inform our perception of the world around us, the futures we imagine into being and the pasts we consider worthy of commemoration.

The courses linked under this theme think about storytelling as both in place and out of place, not only in terms of how stories themselves and the media through which they are conveyed alter, but also the routes through which stories travel and the roots that hold them in place. They ask why certain stories belong to/in certain places and what happens when they are dis- or re-placed. They explore how stories create places and places create stories, whether in storied landscapes or virtual worlds.

2020-21 Honors Faculty

Alys Weinbaum

Juliet Shields

2019-20 Honors Topic

The Honors courses in 2019-2020 will take as their shared thematic focus what might be loosely described as the crisis of progressive time.  In many ways, the modern epoch has been defined by the idea of humanity collectively building a future that improves on the past, in a forward trajectory that tends toward reason, equity, productivity, and technological innovation.  From its inception, this narrative of human progress has collided with competing conceptions of time, many of them forged in the political, economic, and environmental violence that the will-to-progress itself unleashes.  After all, the very insistence on progress generates the idea of backwardness, of peoples and places that must be forcibly subjected to the (supposedly) civilization-building programs of others.   But the idea of progress is perhaps never more in crisis than in our own historical moment, where human misery seems ascendant rather than declining, as qualify of life and of prospects decays across most regions of the globe, and where climate change beckons an existential crisis already underway.

The courses in this sequence are variously concerned with alternative temporalities – alternate ways of thinking our histories, inhabiting our present, and conceiving our futures.  They will consider how old and new emergencies impel and inform new modes of attention to history;  they will highlight narrative forms that refuse the compression of the present into a seemingly singular (or coherent) time;  they will encompass narratives of extinction but also of post-apocalyptic worlds in which radically different forms of human survival and sociality might emerge.

2019-20 Honors Faculty

Jeff Knight

Mark Patterson

2018-19 Honors Topics

Honors 2018-19: Poesis as Place The term poesis describes the process of making.  Derived from Ancient Greek, poesis names cultural or aesthetic activity that brings something into existence.  This Honors sequence explores how poesis relates to place, in particular how various forms, media, and practices of cultural work create place as experience, environment, and territory.  Each course will ask how poetry, novels, performances, or visual texts create a sense of place ranging across the personal and the political.   Our focus will remain on the ways complex political, aesthetic, and epistemological issues are transacted through a poesis of place, or even poesis as place, to see how the contemporary world emerges from longer genealogies of cultural making. In keeping with this historical overview, several of our courses will disclose how a sense of place which seems objective, settled and inert can mutate dramatically over time in response to alternative styles of map-making, shifting political and social agendas, changes in aesthetics, and how these may compete with—and even seek to repress—various kinds of counter-memory. In totality, this quartet of courses reach back into the settler colonial origins of the U.S. and modernist U.K. nostalgia for a rural past through the diverse poetic and narrative experiments associated with late modernism and colonialism from the 1960s onward. 

In “Haunted Landscapes: Sense of Place in Nineteenth-Century America,” Bob Abrams will examine sense of place in nineteenth-century U.S. literature and culture, including a look backward at the precariousness of sense of place at the troubled origins of British colonial America, initial collisions between white colonial and native tribal spatial imaginaries, and other ways in which sense of place remains unsettled throughout nineteenth-century American writing, cartography and painting . In her course “The ‘Shrinking Island’: Changing Responses to Place in 20th Century British Fiction,” Sydney Kaplan will turn to the sense of place created in early twentieth century British fiction, taking up such issues as nostalgia for ‘olde England’ amidst the realities of industrialization and its effect on the landscape, regionalism, and the dominance of the city. In “Triggering Town: The Poetics of Place in a Globalized World,” Frances McCue will engage the concept of the ‘trigging town,’ poet Richard Hugo’s name for places as method to help poets begin new poems, in order to consider shifting conditions of locality and globalization in post-1960s poems of North Cascadia. And in “Neverland: U.S. Empire and the Poesis of Displacement,” Gillian Harkins will explore post-1968 narrative forms generated in or about the United States, asking how experimental narratives about neo-colonial and imperial imaginaries of place-making transform the fictions of nationalized space. 

2018-19 Honors Faculty

Robert Abrams

Gillian Harkins

Sydney Kaplan

2017-18 Honors Faculty and Topics

Humanism and its Discontents

This honors sequence focuses on “Humanism and its Discontents.” Each seminar will explore the cultural production and political struggles that surround the category of “the human" and its many exclusions. All seminars will include engagement with theoretical and literary critical texts that offer ways of situating literature and other forms of cultural production in relation to changing historical and social conditions.  Depending upon each seminar’s historical foci, course materials will reach back into the nineteenth century and forward into the twenty-first. Topics will include settler colonialism, racial slavery, genocide, imperialism, capitalism, sex/gender hierarchies, ecology, and regimes of sexual and bodily normalization. 

Each seminar will be reading and writing intensive and will result in the production of a final research paper or related research based project.  The honors course sequence seeks to provide students with the following skills, important to successful work in advanced literary and cultural studies:

*Ability to close read primary texts––literary, visual, and theoretical

*Ability to enter into constructive and confident discussion about course materials with one’s peers

*Ability to close read critical and philosophical texts and place them into conversation with each other

*Ability to close read cultural, political, literary, visual, and theoretical texts as primary sources that are in conversation across genres and idioms of expression

*Ability to summarize a text’s main claims and evaluate them critically

*Ability to formulate a distinct critical perspective of one’s own

*Ability to situate one’s own ideas and readings within larger critical and political conversations

*Ability to formulate in writing one’s intuitions and emergent ideas

*Ability to produce a coherent and complex argument in writing based on evidence and research

2017-18 Honors Faculty

Stephanie Clare

2016-17 Honors Faculty and Topics

Topic: "Identities and Modernities"

For hundreds of years, anglophone literature has regularly and self-consciously reflected on its own "modernity."   From the start, however, the relationship between identity and the modern has been vexed.  What exactly does our "modernity" distinguish itself from: the traditional, the pre-industrial, the bucolic, the ancient, the religious, the medieval, the Utopian, the "primitive"?  Such questions might show us the difficulty, even the speciousness, of such distinctions.  Further, our conceptions of identity are framed via notions of "the modern," even when those notions are plural and global.  We might say that the modern is a heuristic that enables certain literary discourses to take shape, the sine qua non of our literary and cultural endeavors.

The four honors courses in this sequence aspire to introduce students to different ways of conceiving of the intersection of identity and the modern.  Our hope is that the courses will prove individually fruitful and dovetail with one another in productive ways.

2016-17 Honors Faculty

Kate Cummings

Louis Chude Sokei

2015-16 Honors Faculty and Topics

Topic: "Adaptations"

Adaptation derives from the Latin adaptare , “to fit.” Adaptations enable a thing, person, organism, or idea to fit new or changing circumstances. In biological terms, adaptation refers to the process by which individual mutations enable organisms to fit better into their ecosystem, giving them a comparative advantage and thus ultimately leading to the ongoing evolution of species. Adaptation also occurs at the level of the individual, as we alter our behaviors, tastes, and expectations to fit the world around us. Adaptation also refers to the way that different cultures modify ideas, objects, and practices to fit their own, ever-changing, needs. New technologies arise by repurposing existing tools, or combining them in new ways that in turn create new possibilities that demand new innovations.

In literary terms, authors adapt their own experiences of the world into their work. They also adapt the work of others, playing with genre expectations, established storylines, familiar devices, and even familiar characters. No work of literature--for that matter, no cultural practice or species--is entirely new and original. Instead, all literature arises at least in part out of a process of adapting what has come before into new forms, new contexts, new meanings, and new purposes. Even individual works may be said to adapt, as they take on new meanings when read in context different from those in which they were written, while we speak explicitly of “adapting” books for the stage or the screen.

This year’s English Honors courses will explore the theme of “adaptation” as broadly construed in literary studies. Different courses will trace adaptations of form, of genre, or of specific works across diverse times periods and contexts. In the process, we will discuss the implications of considering adaptation as a process at once aesthetic, ecological, political, and cultural that enables us to think about the persistence and efficacy of literary and cultural practice, and the ways in which different periods, authors, nations, and traditions relate to one another.

2015-16 Honors Faculty

2014-15 honors faculty and topics.

"Form and Politics of Narrative"

How can narrative form and voice tell a story hidden behind the more apparent story? To what extent does the style of a genre have a particular politics? Do forms of narrative themselves have a history? What about narratives that break the boundaries of readers' expectations? How might form and politics affect the making of personal narratives? This year the four courses in our honors sequence will take up such questions with a focus on the form and politics of narrative in literature, film, and popular culture. We will cover a wide range of texts, both written and visual, in historical periods from the eighteenth century to the present.

The honors sequence will work to provide students with the following skills, important to successful work in literary and cultural study:

• close or careful reading of primary textual evidence;
• close or careful reading of critical academic prose;
• ability to summarize the main claims of an academic essay;
• ability to assess and respond to the main claims of an academic essay;
• ability to situate oneself in a critical conversation;
• ability to formulate a distinct critical perspective;
• ability to create a logically coherent and complex thesis;
• ability to develop a coherent and sustained argument to support that thesis.

2014-15 Honors Faculty

Carolyn Allen

Eva Cherniavsky

Gary Handwerk

Thomas Lockwood

2013-14 Honors Faculty and Topics

"Literature and Politics "

This Honors sequence focuses on “literature and politics.” Each seminar will explore the relationship between cultural production and political struggle, with a specific focus on the role of literature. All honors seminars will include theoretical and literary critical texts that offer ways of situating literature in relation to changing historical and social conditions. Course materials will reach back into the nineteenth century and forward into the twenty-first. Topics include settler colonialism, slavery, genocide, imperialism, capitalism, sex/gender hierarchies, and regimes of sexual and bodily normalization. Each seminar will be writing intensive and will result in the production of a final research paper. The honors sequence will work to provide students with the following skills, important to successful work in literary and cultural study:

2013-2014 Honors Faculty

Katherine Cummings

Chandan Reddy

Previous years' faculty and topics:

2012-2013: "Cultural Forms and Social Change" (Faculty: Gillian Harkins, Kate Cummings, Charles LaPorte, Juliet Shields, Caroline Simpson)

2011-2012: "Narratives of Time and Space: Memory, Dislocation and Emotion" (Faculty: Carolyn Allen, Sydney Kaplan, Monika Kaup, Mark Patterson)

2010-2011: "Technologies of Textual Representation" (Faculty: Tom Foster, Laurie George, Tom Lockwood, Miceál Vaughan)

2009-2010: "Aesthetics and Politics" (Faculty: Gillian Harkins, Laura Chrisman, Eva Cherniavsky, Alys Weinbaum)

2008-2009: "History and Imagination" (Faculty: Herbert Blau, Sydney Kaplan, Tom Lockwood, Michelle Liu)

2007-2008: "Reading Genres of (Post)Modernity" (Faculty: Carolyn Allen, Tom Foster, Charles LaPorte, Nikolai Popov)

2006-2007: "The Object(s) of Literature" (Faculty: Sydney Kaplan, Mark Patterson, Shawn Wong, Laura Chrisman)

2005-2006: "Aesthetics and Politics" (Faculty: Alys Weinbaum, Mark Patterson, Chandan Reddy, Zahid Chaudhary)

For further details on prior year honors seminars, see the Department's quarterly course descriptions .

Application to the English Honors Cohort is competitive. Applications are accepted annually after winter quarter grades have been posted.  Submit your honors application as a single PDF by 4pm Monday, April 22, 2024.

This application will be for academic year 2024-25. Space is limited. Meeting minimum eligibility requirements, or being a member of the College Honors Program , does not guarantee admission. Selection takes place through the competitive admission process, which includes the application form and a personal statement.

Students usually enter English Honors when they have Junior standing, with an average of 115-135 credits earned.  A cohort of approximately 30 students will be admitted during spring quarter, and must complete the program in residence over autumn, winter, and spring quarters of the following academic year.

To be eligible for English Honors, all students must be declared English majors who apply in spring quarter for the following Autumn's English Honors cohort, and must have:

• completed at least two quarters at the UW
• completed at least 15 credits of UW English courses at the 200-level or above
• completed ENGL 302, or be planning to complete it in Spring or Summer quarter, before beginning the Honors program in the Autumn
• a minimum UW cumulative GPA of 3.3
• a minimum UW English GPA of 3.7 (in courses at the 200-level and above) Students who fail to meet this GPA requirement but who feel that there are mitigating circumstances, such as having taken a group of exceptionally difficult courses or having undergone a period of personal difficulty resulting in a lowered GPA, may petition the department Director of Undergraduate Programs for special consideration.
• at least three remaining quarters in residence at the UW: students in the Honors Program must take English honors courses on campus in Autumn, Winter, and Spring.
• what do you hope to gain by participating in the English Honors Program?
• please describe a good learning experience you have had while pursuing the English major and discuss how it informed your decision to apply to Honors

View/print the honors application

All new English Honors students are encouraged to meet and consult with the English Department faculty and staff members who administer the Honors Program:

Professor Stephanie Clare, Director of Undergraduate Programs and English Honors Padelford A-419;  [email protected]

Stephanie Clare receives applications, maintain academic progress files for Honors students, issue add codes and provide supplemental registration assistance and academic planning.  They are available to discuss intellectual topics, scholarly activities, and academic interests and plans with students. They also make decisions regarding student requests for exceptions to Honors policies and procedures, and reviews applications for readmission after dismissal.

Read an article about the English Honors Program featured on the University Honors website.

Students who successfully complete both the College Honors and the English Honors programs will be graduated With College Honors in English .  Students successfully completing the English Department Honors program only will be graduated With Honors in English .  These Honors are posted to the UW transcript.  To graduate With Honors in English , students must complete all required English Honors courses and maintain a minimum UW cumulative GPA of 3.3 and UW English GPA of 3.7.

WARNING : Students who have not completed all Honors requirements by their scheduled graduation date must request that the graduation date be postponed if he or she still desires to graduate with Honors. Once the degree is posted, no changes can be made to the transcript, and Honors will be forfeited.

English Honors course work consists of two honors seminars (ENGL 494), one taken in Autumn and one in Winter, followed by the writing of an honors thesis in the Spring (ENGL 496).

A total of four honors seminars are offered each year, two in Autumn and two in Winter, taught by a total of four faculty members. The four seminars are linked by a theme of question, to be decided on by the participating faculty. Examples of the broadest themes or questions include" "Literature of Empire"; "Textual Studies"; "Literature and Other Arts"; "What is Modernity?"; "What is Literary History?"

Two of the four honors faculty will elect to be available in the Spring to oversee the approximately 40 honors essays. (Students may also choose to work with other professors as well, either because of an existing mentoring relationship, or because of scholarly expertise. Students completing the creative writing pathway may also choose to do a creative project under the direction of an appropriate faculty member.) There will be a meeting time and room scheduled for the thesis course(s), though the supervising faculty are free to organize the course as they would like.

Honors course work may not be “doubled up,” nor may the courses be taken out of sequence, though Honors coursework may overlap with English major requirements where appropriate.

An add code for the following course in the Honors sequence will not be issued if there is an incomplete grade or failing grade on the student’s record for the previous Honors course.  For example, if an “I” appears for ENGL 494 in Autumn Quarter, an add code for ENGL 494 for the upcoming Winter Quarter will not be issued until the incomplete grade is resolved.  This may result in being shut out of a desired seminar or being dismissed from the program if the incomplete converts to a 0.0.  If at any time after admission a student’s grades fall below these minimum standards, he or she will be dismissed from the program.  Students who have been dropped for unsatisfactory scholarship may reapply for admission at a later date if minimum GPA requirements are attained.  All second applications must be accompanied by a letter of petition and two letters of recommendation from English faculty.

Registration

Registration for English Honors courses is by add code only.  Add codes may be obtained Suman Chhabra ( [email protected] ). Add codes for honors courses are generally issued on a first-come, first-served basis on the first day of regular senior registration. Every quarter, honors students will receive email instructions on how to attain add codes.

Applying Honors Courses to English Major Requirements

Honors courses may be applied to major requirements in a number of ways. Any Honors course may be used to satisfy English major elective requirements, although this works most efficiently for students following the major with an emphasis in literature.  Any Honors Seminar, if defined appropriately , may be used to satisfy any requirement in the English major.  For example, if the topic of one of your Senior Seminars is “Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group,” it is very likely that it satisfies a History of Language and Literature core requirement.  ENGL 496 will not fulfill the 400 level creative writing electives, but 496 could (depending on the topic) apply to historical breadth or power and difference for an honors creative writing major.  For approval of Honors courses for specific requirements, consult with a HAS adviser in PDL A-2-B.

Honors students will use ENGL 496 Major Conference for Honors as their 400-level senior capstone course.

ENGL 496:  Major Conference for Honors

The Major Conference for Honors requires a thesis project, a substantive essay, usually 20-30 pages, but sometimes longer.  Broadly speaking, the thesis is a complex piece of research-based  literary analysis, criticism, theory, or other critical work related to English.  Although most people choose literary topics, students are also welcome to do thesis work in English language study (linguistics), rhetoric and composition, cultural studies, film studies, and other emerging areas of the discipline.  The Honors thesis should aspire to the level of a good graduate term paper.  To approach this level of competence, it should have the following characteristics:

• A clear, significant thesis that is fully developed, coherent, and free from major flaws in reasoning.
• Arguments based on textual evidence and grounded in attentive close reading.
• An engagement in the “critical conversation” that takes the essay beyond a competent close reading.  Authoritative use of secondary sources that does not use the arguments of others in place of original thought or amount to nothing but a review of the criticism.
• A clear and consistent critical perspective that reflects an awareness of theoretical concerns.
• Effective organization that demonstrates purposefulness, a logical progression of thought, and rhetorical skill.
• Lucid, masterful, and engaging prose style.
• Freedom from stylistic missteps and mechanical errors.
• Correct documentation utilizing either MLA Handbook or Chicago Manual of Style.

Faculty Supervision and Registration for ENGL 496

Two of the four faculty who teach Honors Seminars during the year will be available to supervise the honors theses. A regular meeting time and room will be scheduled for the thesis course to meet. There are some occasions when working with another English faculty member makes sense. For example, if a student wishes to complete a thesis project in medieval studies, and already has a strong mentoring relationship with Professor Remley, and he has agreed to work with that student independently, that student must provide a written intellectual justification to The Director of Undergraduate Programs. If the DUS approves the proposal, the student will be asked to submit an approval form with Professor Remely's signature. The student will work with Professor Remley on the content of the thesis, but WILL STILL BE REQUIRED TO REGISTER FOR AND ATTEND ONE OF THE SECTIONS OF ENGL 496, Major Conference for Honors. ENGL 496 is designed to cover critical aspects of the research process. The proposal, abstract, outline, annotated bibliography, etc. It is also designed to provide Honors students with an audience of their peers for developing their research, providing students with an opportunity to workshop their research with their peers.

Before deciding to embark on English Honors, many students want to know what benefits the program confers.  Naturally, successful completion of departmental honors means receiving an impressive additional credential.  Particularly for students applying to graduate or professional school, graduating With Honors in English puts another attractive line on the curriculum vitae.  However, this should not be the sole motivation for entering the Honors program, nor is it the most significant benefit.

Building community: The Honors Program is a means for students to build community within one of the largest and most diverse departments in the College of Arts and Sciences .  Honors students inevitably share the common characteristics of active intellectual engagement, curiosity and a willingness to explore new topics and perspectives, and a strong belief in the intrinsic value of scholarship in our discipline. One of the goals of Honors is learning how to work effectively within a community of scholars, how to engage in a critical conversation with one's peers, how to negotiate a multiplicity of perspectives and intelligently stake out intellectual commitments. Honors should provide a more intimate "home" within the larger, vaguer framework of our rather ungainly major. By bringing 40 students together into a cohort and giving them multiple opportunities to meet and work together and with the 4-person faculty team, we hope that a strong sense of community will emerge.

Program coherence: The Honors program provides a coherent and cumulative program of study for students by focusing them on a defined area of inquiry or debate. Because the content and concerns of the honors courses are coordinated, students should build a strong sense of a topic or issue. By the end of the year, students should have a firm understanding of what it means to carry on a sustained conversation, to push the lines of inquiry to a new kind of depth and sophistication, and to appreciate questions from a multiplicity of critical perspectives. The topic of the Honors program in any given year will be defined in broad enough terms that every student will find an appealing point of entry rather than feeling as if they're being forced to study a narrow subject.

Graduate School preparation: Although Honors can be of great value to any English major, the program is particularly beneficial to prospective graduate students.  The advanced skills described above are precisely those needed by applicants to graduate and professional school.  Honors also puts students in an ideal position to fulfill the requirements of a successful graduate school application.  Strong letters of recommendation are sometimes difficult for UW students to get, even if they are intellectually gifted, because their professors simply don’t know them well enough.  Two quarters of seminar work and a term of intensive independent study means that faculty members get a very clear, detailed picture of their students’ abilities and accomplishments.  This can translate into the effective letters of recommendation.  Most graduate programs in English also require a critical writing sample, an essay of 12-20 pages, that is an extremely important part of the application.  The Honors Program provides ample opportunities for producing essays suitable for use as a critical writing sample. 

Students hoping to complete graduate degrees in English sometimes ask if it is “necessary” to do English Honors to be competitive.   The answer to this question is:  No.  Many eligible students have compelling reasons for choosing not to participate in the program.  Talent reveals itself in numerous ways to graduate admissions committees.   The absence of Honors course work on the transcript will not damage the prospects of a student with a clear record of academic excellence.

English Honors students are frequently eligible for other categories of  honors at the UW.  However, one type of honor does not necessarily imply the others.  It is important to distinguish English Honors from

University Honors

High scholarship recognition, baccalaureate honors, phi beta kappa, sigma tau delta.

University Honors is an umbrella term to designate all UW Honors programs. For a thorough explanation of the three different tracks in Honors-- Interdisciplinary Honors (core curriculum), Departmental Honors, and College Honors (combination of Interdisciplinary and Departmental Honors), please go to the University of Washington Honors Program web page,

The Honors Curriculum: Options and Requirements.

The following forms of recognition are awarded to first baccalaureate degree, matriculated students in residence.  Undergraduate students in all colleges of the University are eligible regardless of membership in the Honors Program.

Quarterly Dean’s List :  A high scholarship notation is made on the transcript of each undergraduate student who attains a quarterly GPA of at least 3.50 for 12 UW graded credits.  “Dean’s List” is entered on the line below the quarter’s courses on the transcript and a congratulatory letter is sent from the dean of the student’s home school or college.

Annual Dean’s List : The following undergraduates receive yearly high scholarship recognition in the form of a certificate:

• Undergraduates who have attended three quarters of the academic year (Summer through Spring) and who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher in at least 12 graded credits in each of the three quarters.
• Undergraduates who have attended the University for four quarters of the school year (Summer through Spring) with a 3.50 or higher GPA in 12 or more graded credits in each of three quarters, and a cumulative GPA of 3.50 for the four quarters combined.

Such students are recognized by the notation “Annual Dean’s List” following the last quarter’s grades for the year, and by a certificate of recognition from the dean of the student’s home school or college.

View UW English majors on the Annual Dean's List .

Baccalaureate honors ( summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude )  are awarded at graduation based on GPA and other factors (see the Registrar's Office website for criteria).  The University’s Faculty Council on Academic Standards Honors Subcommittee determines annually the proportions of the graduating class to receive baccalaureate honors.  GPAs are then determined by the Committee and the Registrar's Office to yield the specified proportions within each undergraduate college.  University minimum GPAs are specified for each baccalaureate honors level, and college GPA minima must at least equal annually stipulated University minima. (The Registrar's Office maintains the most recent GPA requirements .)

Freshman Medal.  Annually, the sophomore having the most distinguished academic record for the first year of his or her program receives the freshman medal.  The notation "Freshman Medalist" is made on the transcript.  Selection is based primarily on GPA, but the rigor and quality of the student's program are also considered. Only students who have earned 36 or more graded credits in residence at the UW will be considered for this honor.

Sophomore and Junior Medals. Annually, the junior having the most distinguished academic record for the first two years of his or her program receives the sophomore medal .  The senior having the most distinguished academic record for the first three years of his or her program receives the junior medal .  The notation "Sophomore Medalist" or "Junior Medalist" is made on the transcript.  Selection is based primarily on GPA, but the rigor and quality of the student's program are also considered.  Only students who have earned 40 or more graded credits in residence at the UW will be considered for these honors.

President's Medal. The President's Medal, which is conferred at commencement, recognizes the graduating senior who has the most distinguished academic record.  Only students who have earned at least 90 credits at the UW may be considered.  The notation "President's Medalist" is made on the transcript, under the name of the degree awarded.

Phi Beta Kappa is a national honorary organization whose purpose is to recognize and honor students with excellent undergraduate academic records.  Requirements for election are established by each local chapter .  The requirements are meant to ensure that members have had a quality liberal education; at the UW students in all colleges are welcomed if they meet these standards.

Election:  Students do not apply to Phi Beta Kappa.  Instead, the Registrar’s Office provides the UW chapter with the transcripts of all students who meet the credit and GPA requirements.  The chapter then determines whether the general education and upper-division breadth requirements are met.  If so, the student is mailed an offer of election.

Here is a list of recent UW English majors invited to join Phi Beta Kappa .

Golden Key National Honor Society

Golden Key is a national interdisciplinary academic honors organization whose purpose is to recognize and encourage scholastic achievement in all undergraduate fields of study.  Golden Key seeks to bring together undergraduates, college faculty, and administrators in developing and maintaining high standards of education and in promoting voluntary service to school and community.

Election:  Students are normally invited into Golden Key each Fall quarter on the basis of meeting credit and class rank criteria.  At other times, students who have subsequently become eligible may contact the UW Golden Key chapter office for information.

Members of the UW chapter of Sigma Tau Delta , an international English honor society, note that the society's purpose is to "confer distinction upon students of the English language and literature, while also providing an opportunity to create a sense of community in the department."

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Undergraduate Programs English Departmental Honors Program

Ug programs honors program, departmental honors program.

The Department of English Honors Program is designed for English and American Literature and Culture majors interested in pursuing the extra challenges and rewards of the honors curriculum–a course of study that culminates in a substantial critical paper or creative project, the honors thesis. The program allows honors candidates to work individually with faculty members who are experts in the student’s field of interest. It is a particularly appropriate choice for those interested in graduate study in English.

The program is open to departmental majors with a 3.25 overall GPA and a major GPA of 3.5. Students with a lower GPA may petition for admission to the program, but the GPAs must be achieved by the time of graduation in order to qualify for departmental honors. Completion of at least one Critical Theory course (English 120-128) no later than the winter quarter in which the student applies for the departmental Honors Program is mandatory.

All Honors Program students must take the English 191H Honors Seminar in the spring quarter of their junior year. During the following two quarters, students research and write a thesis under the direction of a faculty member (as English 198A and 198B). An optional workshop (English 190H) is also offered in fall quarter, concurrently with 198A, to students seeking supplementary assistance in the early stages of drafting and revising the thesis. After the thesis is completed, the faculty advisor and a faculty reader review the thesis and award it highest honors, honors, or no honors.

Students interested in completing a Creative Writing honors project must complete two workshops in the same genre prior to or concurrent with enrollment in English 191H. The workshops must fall into the category of poetry (136A/B) or prose (137A/B,) and the second workshop must be an Advanced workshop (136B or 137B.)

Interested students should apply for the Honors Program in January of their junior year. The English Undergraduate Advising Office administers the application. Students who meet all of the admissions criteria (see above) will be automatically placed into their Spring 191H seminars; students who do not meet the admissions criteria will receive follow-up communication once their applications have been reviewed. All applicants can expect to hear from the undergraduate advising office or the Director of Departmental Honors by late March.

For more information on the program, please contact the Director of Departmental Honors, Professor Sarah Kareem .

Students who have already been admitted into the English Departmental Honors Program and who have completed the mandatory 191H seminar in spring quarter are reminded that they are responsible for enrolling in English 198A and 198B in the appropriate quarters. For 2024-25 instructions, please consult: Honors Program Instructions 24-25 .

Students who are submitting an honors thesis in completion of English 198B, please fill out and submit a copy of this ERR release form with the PDF copy of your honors thesis to the three recipients designated in your thesis submission instructions.

Honors Theses

What this handout is about.

Writing a senior honors thesis, or any major research essay, can seem daunting at first. A thesis requires a reflective, multi-stage writing process. This handout will walk you through those stages. It is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences, since their theses tend to involve more writing than projects in the hard sciences. Yet all thesis writers may find the organizational strategies helpful.

Introduction

What is an honors thesis.

That depends quite a bit on your field of study. However, all honors theses have at least two things in common:

• They are based on students’ original research.
• They take the form of a written manuscript, which presents the findings of that research. In the humanities, theses average 50-75 pages in length and consist of two or more chapters. In the social sciences, the manuscript may be shorter, depending on whether the project involves more quantitative than qualitative research. In the hard sciences, the manuscript may be shorter still, often taking the form of a sophisticated laboratory report.

Who can write an honors thesis?

In general, students who are at the end of their junior year, have an overall 3.2 GPA, and meet their departmental requirements can write a senior thesis. For information about your eligibility, contact:

• UNC Honors Program
• Your departmental administrators of undergraduate studies/honors

Why write an honors thesis?

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity This is the most compelling reason to write a thesis. Whether it’s the short stories of Flannery O’Connor or the challenges of urban poverty, you’ve studied topics in college that really piqued your interest. Now’s your chance to follow your passions, explore further, and contribute some original ideas and research in your field.

Develop transferable skills Whether you choose to stay in your field of study or not, the process of developing and crafting a feasible research project will hone skills that will serve you well in almost any future job. After all, most jobs require some form of problem solving and oral and written communication. Writing an honors thesis requires that you:

• ask smart questions
• acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers
• navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues
• develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops
• master the art of time management
• hone your argumentation skills
• organize a lengthy piece of writing
• polish your oral communication skills by presenting and defending your project to faculty and peers

Work closely with faculty mentors At large research universities like Carolina, you’ve likely taken classes where you barely got to know your instructor. Writing a thesis offers the opportunity to work one-on-one with a with faculty adviser. Such mentors can enrich your intellectual development and later serve as invaluable references for graduate school and employment.

Open windows into future professions An honors thesis will give you a taste of what it’s like to do research in your field. Even if you’re a sociology major, you may not really know what it’s like to be a sociologist. Writing a sociology thesis would open a window into that world. It also might help you decide whether to pursue that field in graduate school or in your future career.

How do you write an honors thesis?

Get an idea of what’s expected.

It’s a good idea to review some of the honors theses other students have submitted to get a sense of what an honors thesis might look like and what kinds of things might be appropriate topics. Look for examples from the previous year in the Carolina Digital Repository. You may also be able to find past theses collected in your major department or at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Pay special attention to theses written by students who share your major.

Choose a topic

Ideally, you should start thinking about topics early in your junior year, so you can begin your research and writing quickly during your senior year. (Many departments require that you submit a proposal for an honors thesis project during the spring of your junior year.)

How should you choose a topic?

• Read widely in the fields that interest you. Make a habit of browsing professional journals to survey the “hot” areas of research and to familiarize yourself with your field’s stylistic conventions. (You’ll find the most recent issues of the major professional journals in the periodicals reading room on the first floor of Davis Library).
• Set up appointments to talk with faculty in your field. This is a good idea, since you’ll eventually need to select an advisor and a second reader. Faculty also can help you start narrowing down potential topics.
• Look at honors theses from the past. The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library holds UNC honors theses. To get a sense of the typical scope of a thesis, take a look at a sampling from your field.

What makes a good topic?

• It’s fascinating. Above all, choose something that grips your imagination. If you don’t, the chances are good that you’ll struggle to finish.
• It’s doable. Even if a topic interests you, it won’t work out unless you have access to the materials you need to research it. Also be sure that your topic is narrow enough. Let’s take an example: Say you’re interested in the efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s a big topic that probably can’t be adequately covered in a single thesis. You need to find a case study within that larger topic. For example, maybe you’re particularly interested in the states that did not ratify the ERA. Of those states, perhaps you’ll select North Carolina, since you’ll have ready access to local research materials. And maybe you want to focus primarily on the ERA’s opponents. Beyond that, maybe you’re particularly interested in female opponents of the ERA. Now you’ve got a much more manageable topic: Women in North Carolina Who Opposed the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It contains a question. There’s a big difference between having a topic and having a guiding research question. Taking the above topic, perhaps your main question is: Why did some women in North Carolina oppose the ERA? You will, of course, generate other questions: Who were the most outspoken opponents? White women? Middle-class women? How did they oppose the ERA? Public protests? Legislative petitions? etc. etc. Yet it’s good to start with a guiding question that will focus your research.

Goal-setting and time management

The senior year is an exceptionally busy time for college students. In addition to the usual load of courses and jobs, seniors have the daunting task of applying for jobs and/or graduate school. These demands are angst producing and time consuming If that scenario sounds familiar, don’t panic! Do start strategizing about how to make a time for your thesis. You may need to take a lighter course load or eliminate extracurricular activities. Even if the thesis is the only thing on your plate, you still need to make a systematic schedule for yourself. Most departments require that you take a class that guides you through the honors project, so deadlines likely will be set for you. Still, you should set your own goals for meeting those deadlines. Here are a few suggestions for goal setting and time management:

Start early. Keep in mind that many departments will require that you turn in your thesis sometime in early April, so don’t count on having the entire spring semester to finish your work. Ideally, you’ll start the research process the semester or summer before your senior year so that the writing process can begin early in the fall. Some goal-setting will be done for you if you are taking a required class that guides you through the honors project. But any substantive research project requires a clear timetable.

Set clear goals in making a timetable. Find out the final deadline for turning in your project to your department. Working backwards from that deadline, figure out how much time you can allow for the various stages of production.

Here is a sample timetable. Use it, however, with two caveats in mind:

• The timetable for your thesis might look very different depending on your departmental requirements.
• You may not wish to proceed through these stages in a linear fashion. You may want to revise chapter one before you write chapter two. Or you might want to write your introduction last, not first. This sample is designed simply to help you start thinking about how to customize your own schedule.

Sample timetable

Avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. Once you’ve set goals for yourself, stick to them! For some tips on how to do this, see our handout on procrastination .

Consistent production

It’s a good idea to try to squeeze in a bit of thesis work every day—even if it’s just fifteen minutes of journaling or brainstorming about your topic. Or maybe you’ll spend that fifteen minutes taking notes on a book. The important thing is to accomplish a bit of active production (i.e., putting words on paper) for your thesis every day. That way, you develop good writing habits that will help you keep your project moving forward.

Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself

Since most of you will be taking a required thesis seminar, you will have deadlines. Yet you might want to form a writing group or enlist a peer reader, some person or people who can help you stick to your goals. Moreover, if your advisor encourages you to work mostly independently, don’t be afraid to ask them to set up periodic meetings at which you’ll turn in installments of your project.

Brainstorming and freewriting

One of the biggest challenges of a lengthy writing project is keeping the creative juices flowing. Here’s where freewriting can help. Try keeping a small notebook handy where you jot down stray ideas that pop into your head. Or schedule time to freewrite. You may find that such exercises “free” you up to articulate your argument and generate new ideas. Here are some questions to stimulate freewriting.

Questions for basic brainstorming at the beginning of your project:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• Why do I care about this topic?
• Why is this topic important to people other than myself
• What more do I want to learn about this topic?
• What is the main question that I am trying to answer?
• Where can I look for additional information?
• Who is my audience and how can I reach them?
• How will my work inform my larger field of study?
• What’s the main goal of my research project?

Questions for reflection throughout your project:

• What’s my main argument? How has it changed since I began the project?
• What’s the most important evidence that I have in support of my “big point”?
• What questions do my sources not answer?
• How does my case study inform or challenge my field writ large?
• Does my project reinforce or contradict noted scholars in my field? How?
• What is the most surprising finding of my research?
• What is the most frustrating part of this project?
• What is the most rewarding part of this project?
• What will be my work’s most important contribution?

Research and note-taking

In conducting research, you will need to find both primary sources (“firsthand” sources that come directly from the period/events/people you are studying) and secondary sources (“secondhand” sources that are filtered through the interpretations of experts in your field.) The nature of your research will vary tremendously, depending on what field you’re in. For some general suggestions on finding sources, consult the UNC Libraries tutorials . Whatever the exact nature of the research you’re conducting, you’ll be taking lots of notes and should reflect critically on how you do that. Too often it’s assumed that the research phase of a project involves very little substantive writing (i.e., writing that involves thinking). We sit down with our research materials and plunder them for basic facts and useful quotations. That mechanical type of information-recording is important. But a more thoughtful type of writing and analytical thinking is also essential at this stage. Some general guidelines for note-taking:

First of all, develop a research system. There are lots of ways to take and organize your notes. Whether you choose to use note cards, computer databases, or notebooks, follow two cardinal rules:

• Make careful distinctions between direct quotations and your paraphrasing! This is critical if you want to be sure to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. For more on this, see our handout on plagiarism .
• Record full citations for each source. Don’t get lazy here! It will be far more difficult to find the proper citation later than to write it down now.

Keeping those rules in mind, here’s a template for the types of information that your note cards/legal pad sheets/computer files should include for each of your sources:

Abbreviated subject heading: Include two or three words to remind you of what this sources is about (this shorthand categorization is essential for the later sorting of your sources).

Complete bibliographic citation:

• author, title, publisher, copyright date, and page numbers for published works
• box and folder numbers and document descriptions for archival sources
• complete web page title, author, address, and date accessed for online sources

Notes on facts, quotations, and arguments: Depending on the type of source you’re using, the content of your notes will vary. If, for example, you’re using US Census data, then you’ll mainly be writing down statistics and numbers. If you’re looking at someone else’s diary, you might jot down a number of quotations that illustrate the subject’s feelings and perspectives. If you’re looking at a secondary source, you’ll want to make note not just of factual information provided by the author but also of their key arguments.

Your interpretation of the source: This is the most important part of note-taking. Don’t just record facts. Go ahead and take a stab at interpreting them. As historians Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff insist, “A note is a thought.” So what do these thoughts entail? Ask yourself questions about the context and significance of each source.

Interpreting the context of a source:

• Who wrote/created the source?
• When, and under what circumstances, was it written/created?
• Why was it written/created? What was the agenda behind the source?
• How was it written/created?
• If using a secondary source: How does it speak to other scholarship in the field?

Interpreting the significance of a source:

• How does this source answer (or complicate) my guiding research questions?
• Does it pose new questions for my project? What are they?
• Does it challenge my fundamental argument? If so, how?
• Given the source’s context, how reliable is it?

You don’t need to answer all of these questions for each source, but you should set a goal of engaging in at least one or two sentences of thoughtful, interpretative writing for each source. If you do so, you’ll make much easier the next task that awaits you: drafting.

The dread of drafting

Why do we often dread drafting? We dread drafting because it requires synthesis, one of the more difficult forms of thinking and interpretation. If you’ve been free-writing and taking thoughtful notes during the research phase of your project, then the drafting should be far less painful. Here are some tips on how to get started:

Sort your “evidence” or research into analytical categories:

• Some people file note cards into categories.
• The technologically-oriented among us take notes using computer database programs that have built-in sorting mechanisms.
• Others cut and paste evidence into detailed outlines on their computer.
• Still others stack books, notes, and photocopies into topically-arranged piles.There is not a single right way, but this step—in some form or fashion—is essential!

If you’ve been forcing yourself to put subject headings on your notes as you go along, you’ll have generated a number of important analytical categories. Now, you need to refine those categories and sort your evidence. Everyone has a different “sorting style.”

Formulate working arguments for your entire thesis and individual chapters. Once you’ve sorted your evidence, you need to spend some time thinking about your project’s “big picture.” You need to be able to answer two questions in specific terms:

• What is the overall argument of my thesis?
• What are the sub-arguments of each chapter and how do they relate to my main argument?

Keep in mind that “working arguments” may change after you start writing. But a senior thesis is big and potentially unwieldy. If you leave this business of argument to chance, you may end up with a tangle of ideas. See our handout on arguments and handout on thesis statements for some general advice on formulating arguments.

Divide your thesis into manageable chunks. The surest road to frustration at this stage is getting obsessed with the big picture. What? Didn’t we just say that you needed to focus on the big picture? Yes, by all means, yes. You do need to focus on the big picture in order to get a conceptual handle on your project, but you also need to break your thesis down into manageable chunks of writing. For example, take a small stack of note cards and flesh them out on paper. Or write through one point on a chapter outline. Those small bits of prose will add up quickly.

Just start! Even if it’s not at the beginning. Are you having trouble writing those first few pages of your chapter? Sometimes the introduction is the toughest place to start. You should have a rough idea of your overall argument before you begin writing one of the main chapters, but you might find it easier to start writing in the middle of a chapter of somewhere other than word one. Grab hold where you evidence is strongest and your ideas are clearest.

Keep up the momentum! Assuming the first draft won’t be your last draft, try to get your thoughts on paper without spending too much time fussing over minor stylistic concerns. At the drafting stage, it’s all about getting those ideas on paper. Once that task is done, you can turn your attention to revising.

Peter Elbow, in Writing With Power, suggests that writing is difficult because it requires two conflicting tasks: creating and criticizing. While these two tasks are intimately intertwined, the drafting stage focuses on creating, while revising requires criticizing. If you leave your revising to the last minute, then you’ve left out a crucial stage of the writing process. See our handout for some general tips on revising . The challenges of revising an honors thesis may include:

Juggling feedback from multiple readers

A senior thesis may mark the first time that you have had to juggle feedback from a wide range of readers:

• your adviser
• a second (and sometimes third) faculty reader
• the professor and students in your honors thesis seminar

You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this advice. Keep in mind that some advice is better than others. You will probably want to take most seriously the advice of your adviser since they carry the most weight in giving your project a stamp of approval. But sometimes your adviser may give you more advice than you can digest. If so, don’t be afraid to approach them—in a polite and cooperative spirit, of course—and ask for some help in prioritizing that advice. See our handout for some tips on getting and receiving feedback .

Refining your argument

It’s especially easy in writing a lengthy work to lose sight of your main ideas. So spend some time after you’ve drafted to go back and clarify your overall argument and the individual chapter arguments and make sure they match the evidence you present.

Organizing and reorganizing

Again, in writing a 50-75 page thesis, things can get jumbled. You may find it particularly helpful to make a “reverse outline” of each of your chapters. That will help you to see the big sections in your work and move things around so there’s a logical flow of ideas. See our handout on  organization  for more organizational suggestions and tips on making a reverse outline

Plugging in holes in your evidence

It’s unlikely that you anticipated everything you needed to look up before you drafted your thesis. Save some time at the revising stage to plug in the holes in your research. Make sure that you have both primary and secondary evidence to support and contextualize your main ideas.

Saving time for the small stuff

Even though your argument, evidence, and organization are most important, leave plenty of time to polish your prose. At this point, you’ve spent a very long time on your thesis. Don’t let minor blemishes (misspellings and incorrect grammar) distract your readers!

Formatting and final touches

You’re almost done! You’ve researched, drafted, and revised your thesis; now you need to take care of those pesky little formatting matters. An honors thesis should replicate—on a smaller scale—the appearance of a dissertation or master’s thesis. So, you need to include the “trappings” of a formal piece of academic work. For specific questions on formatting matters, check with your department to see if it has a style guide that you should use. For general formatting guidelines, consult the Graduate School’s Guide to Dissertations and Theses . Keeping in mind the caveat that you should always check with your department first about its stylistic guidelines, here’s a brief overview of the final “finishing touches” that you’ll need to put on your honors thesis:

• Honors Thesis
• Name of Department
• University of North Carolina
• These parts of the thesis will vary in format depending on whether your discipline uses MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago (also known in its shortened version as Turabian) style. Whichever style you’re using, stick to the rules and be consistent. It might be helpful to buy an appropriate style guide. Or consult the UNC LibrariesYear Citations/footnotes and works cited/reference pages  citation tutorial
• In addition, in the bottom left corner, you need to leave space for your adviser and faculty readers to sign their names. For example:

Approved by: _____________________

Adviser: Prof. Jane Doe

• This is not a required component of an honors thesis. However, if you want to thank particular librarians, archivists, interviewees, and advisers, here’s the place to do it. You should include an acknowledgments page if you received a grant from the university or an outside agency that supported your research. It’s a good idea to acknowledge folks who helped you with a major project, but do not feel the need to go overboard with copious and flowery expressions of gratitude. You can—and should—always write additional thank-you notes to people who gave you assistance.
• Formatted much like the table of contents.
• You’ll need to save this until the end, because it needs to reflect your final pagination. Once you’ve made all changes to the body of the thesis, then type up your table of contents with the titles of each section aligned on the left and the page numbers on which those sections begin flush right.
• Each page of your thesis needs a number, although not all page numbers are displayed. All pages that precede the first page of the main text (i.e., your introduction or chapter one) are numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages thereafter use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).
• Your text should be double spaced (except, in some cases, long excerpts of quoted material), in a 12 point font and a standard font style (e.g., Times New Roman). An honors thesis isn’t the place to experiment with funky fonts—they won’t enhance your work, they’ll only distract your readers.
• In general, leave a one-inch inch margin on all sides. However, for the copy of your thesis that will be bound by the library, you need to leave a 1.25-inch margin on the left.

How do I defend my honors thesis?

Graciously, enthusiastically, and confidently. The term defense is scary and misleading—it conjures up images of a military exercise or an athletic maneuver. An academic defense ideally shouldn’t be a combative scene but a congenial conversation about the work’s merits and weaknesses. That said, the defense probably won’t be like the average conversation that you have with your friends. You’ll be the center of attention. And you may get some challenging questions. Thus, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing yourself. First of all, you’ll want to prepare 5-10 minutes of opening comments. Here’s a good time to preempt some criticisms by frankly acknowledging what you think your work’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are. Then you may be asked some typical questions:

• What is the main argument of your thesis?
• How does it fit in with the work of Ms. Famous Scholar?
• Have you read the work of Mr. Important Author?

NOTE: Don’t get too flustered if you haven’t! Most scholars have their favorite authors and books and may bring one or more of them up, even if the person or book is only tangentially related to the topic at hand. Should you get this question, answer honestly and simply jot down the title or the author’s name for future reference. No one expects you to have read everything that’s out there.

• Why did you choose this particular case study to explore your topic?
• If you were to expand this project in graduate school, how would you do so?

Should you get some biting criticism of your work, try not to get defensive. Yes, this is a defense, but you’ll probably only fan the flames if you lose your cool. Keep in mind that all academic work has flaws or weaknesses, and you can be sure that your professors have received criticisms of their own work. It’s part of the academic enterprise. Accept criticism graciously and learn from it. If you receive criticism that is unfair, stand up for yourself confidently, but in a good spirit. Above all, try to have fun! A defense is a rare opportunity to have eminent scholars in your field focus on YOU and your ideas and work. And the defense marks the end of a long and arduous journey. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments!

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Atchity, Kenneth. 1986. A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision Through Revision . New York: W.W. Norton.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. 2014. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing , 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Lamott, Anne. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . New York: Pantheon.

Lasch, Christopher. 2002. Plain Style: A Guide to Written English. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Senior Honors Thesis

English majors may apply to write a Senior Honors Thesis, which is a two-semester critical or creative project involving an advanced level of work in an area that students have already studied as part of their major. The thesis is guided by a faculty advisor and a second reader, both of whom should be full-time members in the English Department. The application process is different for critical and creative writing projects, so read below for specific instructions. Once the proposal is approved by the English Department, students register for ENG 0199A (Fall) and ENG 0199B (Spring), both 4 credit courses that also include a required year-long senior thesis workshop.

Please note that students cannot register for the Fall honors thesis course until a proposal has been approved by the English Department. Potential thesis writers should begin the proposal submission process early in the Spring semester of their junior year.

Qualifications

By Tufts policy, application to write a thesis is limited to students whose names have appeared on the Dean’s List at least twice before their senior year. Transfer students should have appeared on the Dean’s List at least once at Tufts. See “thesis types” for additional creative writing thesis prerequisites.  

Thesis Types

• Critical Writing:   The critical writing thesis is a substantial piece of work (generally between 35 and 60 double spaced pages) that demonstrates the student’s ability to develop and sustain a coherent and comprehensive critical argument. Students are expected to have done prior course work or other research in the proposed field, to demonstrate their ability to sustain an extended independent project, and to present a detailed and seriously thought-out proposal. Questions of organization, format, and length are determined in consultation with the faculty thesis advisor.
• Creative Writing:   The creative writing thesis can be either a unified set of works of varying lengths (poems, short stories, creative nonfiction essays, etc.) or a single creative work (minimum 80 double spaced pages). Students must have taken at least two courses in the relevant genre, one of them at the advanced level, if applicable, which means fiction writers must have taken Writing Fiction: Advanced-ENG 0013 (and received a grade of A or A-) and poets must have taken Writing Poetry: Advanced-ENG 0016 (and received a grade of A or A-).  

Thesis Advisors

Thesis advisors and second readers must be full-time faculty in the English Department   and are usually (though not always) professors with whom the student has already completed coursework in the area to be covered in the honors thesis.  See the current list of full-time faculty members . 

• Critical Writing: Students interested in doing a critical thesis are expected to confer with potential thesis advisor(s) about their projects well in advance,  normally by the start of the Spring term of their junior year . Once a faculty member has agreed to serve as thesis advisor, the student consults with them in developing a proposal to be submitted for approval to the Department by the last day of classes during the Spring term of their junior year.  
• Creative Writing: Students interested in doing a creative writing thesis are required to submit a proposal and writing sample to the English Department Office [[email protected]]  by April 1 st of their junior year, as described below and consolidated in this handout .  A committee of faculty will review the applications and select proposals to go forward to submit to the Department for official approval. Students will be informed of the results by mid-April and at this stage will also be matched with a thesis advisor, who will work with them to refine their proposal before submitting to the Department by  the last day of classes during the Spring term of their junior year . 

Once the proposal (both critical and creative) is approved by the Department, the student will have permission to register for ENG 0199A.  At the start of Fall semester, they will determine a writing and meeting schedule and identify a second reader in consultation with the thesis advisor (if they have not already done so). The second reader should also be a full-time faculty member of the English Department except under extraordinary circumstances, in which case approval of the Department Chair should be sought as early in the Fall semester as possible.  

Written Proposal

After consulting with the potential advisor (or, for creative projects, the Director of Creative Writing), students who intend to undertake an honors thesis are expected to produce a written proposal during the Spring term of their junior year to submit for final approval by the English Department by the last day of classes of Spring term. 

• Critical Thesis Proposal:   The proposal for a critical writing thesis should be two to three pages (double spaced). It should present an overview of the topic, outline the specific questions to be explored, discuss the method of investigation or analysis, and describe the organization of the thesis by section or chapter. It should also include a short preliminary bibliography of works (both primary and secondary) that the thesis will engage.

Creative Thesis Proposal:   Though it is understood that creative projects will evolve during the writing process, the proposal for a creative thesis should act as a point of entry for the writing to be done. In one to two pages (double spaced), it should set out the genre/sub-genres the project will undertake (e.g. novella, story collection, poetry collection, memoir, long-form journalism, hybrid, etc.) and provide a sense of the project, including, when relevant, the premise, driving questions/themes, structures/forms, plot/characters, and influences. It should also name 1 or 2 preferred thesis advisors from the  full-time English Department faculty .  

In addition, along with the proposal, students should submit a writing sample in their intended genre, as follows: for poetry, 3-5 poems; for fiction/creative non-fiction/journalism/hybrid, 5-10 pages (double spaced).

Required Thesis Workshop

All students doing senior honors theses are required to attend the Senior Thesis Workshop that accompanies registration for the Senior Honors Thesis. There will be 3-4 meetings of the Workshop scheduled and facilitated by the English Department Senior Honors Thesis Coordinator each term, including a Thesis Presentation event that will be held in April before the annual English Major Celebration .

Senior Honors Thesis Registration

The senior honors thesis is a year-long course for which students need permission to register for the Fall semester. Once the thesis proposal has been approved by the English Department in May, students will be able to register for ENG 0199A for Fall and ENG 0199B for Spring by selecting the faculty member who is serving as the thesis advisor from the drop down list available on SIS. In addition, students must submit the following two forms:

• In consultation with your faculty advisor, complete and submit a signed " Senior Honors Thesis Form " to the English Department Office [[email protected]] within a week of receiving notification that the project has been approved. Students are encouraged to keep a copy of this form.
• Complete the online  Senior Honors Thesis Candidate Declaration Form .

Course Credits

• A Senior Honors Thesis counts for a total of two 4-credit courses, one for each semester registered.
• One course of a Senior Honors Thesis may count as one of the five elective courses required for the English Major. The second course of a Senior Honors Thesis is additional to the ten courses required for the English Major.

Thesis Defense

The Senior Honors Thesis culminates in a thesis defense conversation, which is an hour-long discussion and critique of the thesis work with the thesis advisor and second reader. After the defense, the two faculty readers determine a letter grade and the level of honors to be awarded.

Students are expected to hand in final versions of their theses  at least two weeks before their defense date.  The defense usually takes place at the end of the Spring term, or at the latest by the last day of reading period. 

Archiving Manuscripts

After the defense and after making any necessary corrections, students should submit a final, corrected copy of their completed senior honors thesis to the Digital Collection and Archives (DCA) at Tufts either in digital form or as a hard copy.  Deposit Form for the Tufts Digital Library . Students are encouraged to provide a printed copy of their thesis to the English Department. 

Fulfilling Major Requirements

One course of the Senior Honors Thesis can count as one among the five elective courses required for the ten course English Major. The second course of the Senior Honors Thesis is additional to the ten course English Major, making a total of eleven courses for those students doing the Senior Honors Thesis. Students can complete the other requirements for the English Major while working on their Senior Honors Thesis.

Further Information and Writing Support

Students are highly encouraged to visit the following websites for extensive support in planning and writing their senior honors thesis:  StAAR Center  and  Tisch Library .

Sample Honors Proposals and Theses

Sample honors proposals.

The following represent a sampling of outstanding English honors project proposals.

Disrupting Stereotypes: A Usability Report on Inclusive Design for Invisible Disabilities, including ADHD and Anxiety (PDF)

Author: Abby Wing Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Janine Solberg, English Department Published: Spring 2023

Sir Lancelot Portrayed in Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur , Chretien de Troyes's Lancelot du Lac and T.H. White's The Once and Future King (PDF)

Author: Taylor Wise Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Jenny Adams, English Department Published: Expected Spring 2017

Jane Austen’s Male Characters Through A Feminist Critical Lens (PDF)

Author: Anastasia Armstrong Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Heidi Holder and Suzanne Daly, English Department Published: Expected Spring 2017

Sample Honors Theses

The following represent a sampling of outstanding English honors thesis projects.

Author: Abby Wing Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Janine Solberg, English Department Published 2023

Abstract: In the Spring 2023 semester, I recruited students and faculty members with disabilities to test the usability of UMass Amherst financial aid web pages. The purpose of my testing was to learn more about the accessibility needs of people with disabilities. I conducted six remote usability tests with participants using Zoom. Each participant completed five tasks and shared their responses to a series of open-ended questions at the end of each test. These tasks involved finding information related to the cost of attending UMass Amherst for prospective students (i.e., total cost of attendance, net cost of attendance, housing costs, dining costs, and scholarships). Afterward, I generated inclusive personas that reflected the diverse characteristics of the participants. These personas, which are further discussed in the conclusion, offer insights into the accessibility needs of students with disabilities.

What I found: while participants are able to complete all tasks, they wished that information was more consolidated for greater navigability. Most of the time participants spent completing tasks involved trying to locate the appropriate pages to complete the tasks. Participants also wished that there was a stronger information hierarchy on cost pages for improved readability.

“This Is Hardly the Happy Ending I Was Expecting”: NIER ’s Rejection of the Heteronormative in Fairy Tales (PDF)

Author: Emily Cerri Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Caroline Yang and TreaAndrea Russworm, English Department Published 2019

Abstract: Despite the perception they are just entertainment, video games have the potential to present criticisms on aspects of culture such as race, gender, and sexuality. Games such as Gone Home and The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories subvert stereotypes of gender and sexuality or highlight the struggles of sexually marginalized groups in a heteronormative society. However, games often miss the opportunity to subvert expectations or represent racially marginalized communities. The game NIER both creates and overlooks critiques of this lack of attention through its use of the fairy tale genre. NIER ’s destabilization of binaries and refusal to conform to gender roles and performance present a critique of heteronormativity and the gender binary of the fairy tale canon. And yet, NIER also misses the opportunity to fully present criticisms on the topics of race, gender, and sexuality. The game’s presentation of race is especially lacking, particularly through its tacit assumption of whiteness as the “unmarked” race. Though attempts to it dismantle some stereotypical racial imagery, it shuts out the possibility of nonwhite people persisting through the apocalypse. Furthermore, while its portrayal of nonheteronormative characters destabilizes the stereotypes of these characters in other media, censorship and pandering to the male gaze ultimately hinder the representation of these marginalized characters. That is, the localization explicitly alters characters’ identities in favor of heteronormativity and the game uses clothing and camera angles to hypersexualize the female protagonist. Its use of fairy tales, which are typically European tales, sometimes highlights their normalized gender and sexual stereotypes and expectations and sometimes subvert them. In other cases, it misses the opportunity to destabilize these notions and instead maintains the status quo. In such ways, NIER also fails to completely queer the fairy tale canon even as it tries to subvert the genre. Nonetheless, while NIER falls short of being a queer critique, it provides the opening for the critical player to do so.

Using Genre Theory to Understand the Way Opinion Journalism is Changing in Today’s Digital World (PDF)

Author: Tess Halpern Thesis Type: Independent Thesis Approved By: Donna LeCourt and Janine Solberg, English Department Published 2019

Abstract: As an editor of opinion journalism during my college years, I have always struggled to not only articulate but also determine which texts constitute opinion journalism and which are simply opinion. As opinions become more ubiquitous with the rise of the digital era, and as they can now be published on platforms like blogs, podcasts, and social media with no regulation or editorial review, this distinction has become even harder to make. Unfortunately, the blurring of the line between opinion journalism and opinion has happened at the precise moment that the legitimacy of journalism has also begun to be questioned more than ever before in my lifetime. The purpose of this research was to definitively draw that line, separating opinion journalism from opinion. To do this, I first determined the genre norms of opinion journalism by studying the texts, the writers, and the publications that define the genre. Following, I then determined where the genre set of opinion journalism ends by studying articles written for non-reputable, digital-only platforms, and platforms that were self-publishing or otherwise had minimal editing and regulation processes. A total of 63 articles from The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal , The Washington Post , The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Odyssey Online , and personal blogs were analyzed for this research. The results of this study allowed me to track the transformation that opinion journalism, and journalism in general, is currently undergoing. Additionally, it clarified the distinction between opinion journalism and ordinary opinion, allowing me to better understand the genre and the texts that are excluded from that genre.

"You Can Be Useful to Us in a Hundred Different Ways”: A Study of Stage and Screen Adaptations of Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby (PDF)

Author: Emma Piscia Thesis/Project Type: Independent Honors Thesis Approved By: Heidi Holder and Suzanne Daly, Department Of English Published 2016

Abstract: Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby has been adapted since 1839, when it was still in the midst of its initial serialized publication. It has since been adapted into plays, films, and television miniseries over 250 times, and the number continues to grow. This thesis investigates the history of Nickleby as adapted for stage and screen from 1838 to the present. While there has been much scholarly consideration of adapted Dickens, there has been little in the way of examination of any particular work across periods and genres; Nickleby, with its varied history on stage and screen, certainly merits such critical examination. Works discussed here range from Edward Stirling’s early farce Nicholas Nickleby: or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall (1838), through David Edgar’s marathon stage adaptation The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Royal Shakespeare Company 1980), to David Innes Edwards’s and Joy Wilkinson’s The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby (a 2012 miniseries). This thesis explores the cultural uses and revisions of Dickens’s text. Key topics of discussion include the highly varied representation of the orphan Smike; the portrayal of physical, sexual, and financial violence; and the sociopolitical and economic themes of the novel that allow it to resonate with contemporary audiences down through the centuries. Using reviews, historical context, literary and film criticism, performance history, and gender theory, this thesis endeavors to explain the persistence of an early Victorian novel in popular culture.

Eye on Research (PDF)

Author: Alexandra Foley Thesis/Project Type: Capstone Thesis Approved By: David Toomey and Janine Solberg, Department Of English Published 2012

Abstract: A collection of the newest discoveries and breaking edge research taking place on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. Here is a list of some of the research published in this thesis: a new synthetic material called “Geckskin” which mimics the adhesion power of Gecko feet developed in Polymer Science department; UBot, a robot designed by UMass’s Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics, can learn by interacting with its environment; Gregory Tew, of the Polymer Science department, has found a way to look inside their previously impenetrable membranes of T cells; and Dr. Caitlyn Shea Butler of the Environmental Engineering department has designed a “Microbial Fuel Cell Latrine” that purifies human waste and produces electricity at the same time.

“How could the body politic be made to work in the absence of its head?”: Beheadings, Gender, and Power In Malory’s Morte Darthur (PDF)

Author: Kerry Ditson Thesis/Project Type: Independent Honors Thesis Approved by: Jen Adams, English Department and Sonja Drimmer, Art History Program Published: 2015

Abstract: The Wars of the Roses were without a doubt one of the most transformative and traumatic events of medieval England. This bloody conflict called into question commonly accepted notions of nobility, masculinity, kingship, governance, and violence. The deposition of Richard II in 1399 set into motion aftershocks that would be felt half a century later, as the notion of divinely anointed kingship was called into question—in a world where kings could be gotten rid of, who had the right to rule? The answer came down, in many ways, to one issue: blood.

Closets and Transylvanian Castles: Vampires and Queerness in the Nineteenth-Century Literature and Beyond (PDF)

Author: Maxwell Heath Thesis/Project Type: Independent Honors Thesis Approved by Heidi Holder and Jenny Spencer of the Department of English Published 2015

Abstract: My thesis examines how vampires have been used in literature to depict queer people and explore issues of queerness. Focusing primarily on the nineteenth century with a brief foray into the twentieth, I analyze seven key texts, both well known and relatively obscure, from John Polidori’s groundbreaking “The Vampyre” (1819) to G.S. Viereck’s The House of the Vampire (1907). This wide range is significant: previous work in the field has tended toward individual studies. I track how the depictions of vampirism and queerness evolved over time, focusing especially on the tropes of disorientation of space and narrative structure, complex patterning of relationships between characters, and conflict between humans and vampires for control of narrative. To this end ideas drawn from theorists such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick have been deployed in my analysis. I have discovered that from the first there is a degree of sympathy for queerness which is often occluded by gothic tropes. While the vampires themselves only begin to shift from villains towards more ambiguous figures at the end of the nineteenth century, their victims are often figured as queer and portrayed sympathetically. This suggests that vampires have been used as a way to mask queerness in metaphor so that it could be explored and discussed during a time when any explicit examination was forbidden.

Transplanted (PDF)

Author: Michael Sirois Thesis/Project Type: Independent Honors Thesis Approved by John Hennessy, Department of English Published May 2015

Abstract: My honors thesis project is a manuscript consisting of twenty-four poems. This collection of poetry reflects my transition from a working-class upbringing to completing my degree at the university. The many years I spent working in agriculture influence my poetry significantly, so natural settings and elements serve as a prism for my themes of work, the working-class, and the family. The introduction to my thesis project is included to show the departures from my literary influences.

For more information, see  499Y Honors Research (Part I) or  499T/P Honors Research (Part II) .

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The Department of English Honors Program is designed for English and American Literature and Culture majors interested in pursuing the extra challenges and rewards of the honors curriculum--a course of study that culminates in a substantial critical paper, the honors thesis. After the thesis is completed, the faculty advisor and a faculty reader review the thesis and award it highest honors, honors, or no honors.

A Space for those Memories: The Cultural Memoirs of Eavan Boland and Doireann Ní Ghríofa

• King, Katherine
• Advisor(s): Kareem, Sarah

This thesis argues that the memoirs Object Lessons (1995) by Eavan Boland and A Ghost in the Throat (2020) by Doireann Ní Ghríofa epitomize how the memoir genre may record cultural memory as well as personal memory. Irish poets Boland and Ní Ghríofa highlight the ways in which the past permeates the present in depicting the repetitions and resonances between the lives of cultural predecessors, specifically the Irish women that came before them, and their own. They identify with these women on the basis of shared gender and national identity and construct attachments to these women through sparse or general historical records, oral storytelling, and personal writing and bolster them through fictionalization informed by their own experiences as Irish women writers. Boland and Ní Ghríofa predicate these relationships on the long-lasting, often traumatic reckoning between Irish conceptions of gender and nation. The relationship between these poets and their cultural ancestors is one grounded in postmemory, an understanding of cultural trauma as an inheritable, affective knowledge, passed through storytelling, that can be felt nearly as deeply as one’s own memories. Both of these memoirs probe the convergences and conflicts between women, literature, and history in Ireland, and, as Boland and Ní Ghríofa reach back into the past to make sense of their present moment, each sketches the Irish woman as uniquely positioned to reshape visions of the past by writing of the lived experience of themselves and their forebears.

A War of Roses: An Examination of Tudor Mythography in Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy of History and George R.R. Martin’s, A Song of Ice and Fire Series

• Conley, Kathleen
• Advisor(s): Chism, Christine

The matter of how much George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series drew from William Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy of History is a debate among critics and academic scholars. George R.R. Martin defends the darkness of his work with the claim of historical accuracy, particularly concerning the Wars of the Roses. What becomes overlooked is the influence of William Shakespeare’s Henry VI (Parts I, II, and III) and Richard III in the perception of the Wars of the Roses. A few critics accuse Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy of History of diminishing historical complexities to promote what is known as the Tudor myth. The Tudor myth is a form of realist mythography that takes historical figures and makes evil of them by painting them as larger than humans. They achieve this by generating discourses on supernatural creatures. The Tudor chroniclers then attach these discourses to historical figures like Richard III and Margaret of Anjou. Thus, academics often accuse Martin’s, A Song of Ice and Fire series of promoting a form of historical mythography. My thesis examines this reductionist framing of William Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin, specifically regarding Richard III and Margaret of Anjou and their parallels to Tyrion and Cersei Lannister. Despite the Tudor influence, Shakespeare and George R.R. Martin demonstrate how families and dynasties become forums for creating power. The construction of these powerful systematic forums ends up breaking people. My thesis will look at some of these characters who end up on the sidelines rife with anger due to the stark ethical schema of evil forced upon them.

Lividity in Pink

• Galloway, Rosemary
• Advisor(s): Snelson, Daniel

My thesis project is a video game.

• 2 supplemental PDFs
• 2 supplemental ZIPs

Sadomasochism in Jane Eyre : A Psychological Exchange of Power

• Bhasin, Khushi
• Advisor(s): Stephan, Megan

At first glance, the concept of a sadomasochistic relationship seems to be relatively modern as its presence often co-exists with the practice of BDSM (Bondage, Discipline/Domination, Sadism/Submission, Masochism) in the 21st century. However, as this thesis argues, the nineteenth-century roots of the term demonstrate that the practice of sadomasochism is not only apparent in Victorian fiction but central to its discussions of power. By examining Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre , this thesis will explore the ways in which different characters in the novel gesture towards performing sadism, masochism, and sadomasochism in their relationships. The analysis of these practices will take place through a psychological lens, thus reflecting on how sadomasochism occurs in Jane Eyre as a psychological exchange of power instead of a sexual one. Furthermore, by looking at different institutions in Jane’s life, including Gateshead, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall, Moor House, and Ferndean Manor, I will investigate how they helped her come to terms with suffering, find pleasure in pain, and develop sadomasochistic desires.

• Kim, Ashley G
• Advisor(s): Wilson, Reed

Evergreen is a collection of poems about many things: mothers, Korean women, tragic love, and trees, both evergreen and not. It traces a line through the women, real and imagined, who have shaped my family, and whom I deeply desire to know, because their lives have led me to where I am now. May these voices of dancers, musicians, court ladies, and others be a way to remember my ancestors, and more deeply and fully know myself.

(Re)Creation

• Wong, Jessica
• Advisor(s): Simpson, Mona

In this autofiction novella, a young Chinese and Korean-American girl goes to college with a strong protestant Christian background. Hoping to take more ownership of her faith, she joins Genesis Church, a hip Asian-American church in Los Angeles during her freshman year. She quickly makes friends, finding the community and sense of belonging that she’s always searched for and enters her first relationship with a Chinese-American student involved in the college ministry’s leadership. As this seemingly perfect Christian relationship progresses, her religious boyfriend pressures her sexually, while also blaming her for not preventing this “sin.” After painful experiences a therapist later defines as rapes, she finally leaves her boyfriend. The novella opens after she’s left the relationship; she goes to the church’s pastor and his wife, but their support is flimsy and non-committal. She seeks comfort from her family as well, but her parents are judgmental about her lapsed virginity. Her roommate, a non-believer, becomes her main source of support. The novella follows her recovery and her attempts to integrate the ideas she inherited from her upbringing about virginity, femininity, and Christianity, with the person she’s now becoming.

Danielle is a novella that explores the intense connection between a high school senior, Juno, and her teacher, Danielle Ohara, at a competitive Silicon Valley high school. Though their relationship remains an unconsummated friendship, their intimacy sends waves through their lives and the lives of those around them. Juno begins her senior year as an unknown nerd, but through her relationship with Danielle she gains admirers, popularity, and a profound connection unlike any she’s experienced before. Danielle’s identity as a lesbian also raises new questions of sexuality for Juno. However, the two are torn apart when other perspectives—a student who voices her disapproval of teacher-student friendships in the school newspaper, and another teacher who has a sexual relationship with his former student—force them to confront the appearance and impact of their dynamic. This novella takes place in 2018, after the MeToo movement had shone a light on the problematic nature of unequal power dynamics in sexual relationships. In this era, teacher-student relationships were widely viewed as problematic, even when the age of consent was not an issue; however, the boundaries of unconsummated relationships were and are still being negotiated. In top high schools where parents pay high tuition or property taxes to give their children an elite education, academic pressure often pushes vulnerable students to their teachers for comfort and validation. Danielle explores the boundaries of what is and is not appropriate at one of these high schools through Juno’s experiences with Danielle in her senior year.

The Bildungsroman Transformed Magic, Memories, and the Unpredictable Movements of Growth in Young Adult Speculative Fiction

• Justad, Miró
• Advisor(s): Lee, Summer K

This thesis reconsiders the classic Bildungsroman coming-of-age narrative by looking at contemporary Young Adult speculative novels Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. Unlike the White male protagonist which the classic Bildungsroman centers around, these novels feature young women of color who, discover within a speculative genre, that they have magical capabilities. This thesis traces various directions of growth that complicate the idea of “growing up” by looking for moments that expose the characters as looking backwards within their memories, moving through time and space in unanticipated ways aided by magic, accessing a multitude of “selves” within, and making negotiations between their interior and exterior world. This paper will suggest that instead of following a linear coming-of-age trajectory, growth emerges in the texts as entangled, spontaneous, unpredictable, and inscrutable. In this case, the Bildungsroman provides a narrative structure to talk back to, or look around. I argue that these movements are made by a fragmented collection of “selves” that the protagonists embody, granting them an elusive quality, making their identities hard to categorize. The Bildungsroman classically follows a White heterosexual male character as they leave the shelter of home and integrate into society. My thesis intentionally shifts away from this model by reconsidering this narrative when it is applied to marginalized subjects and intervened by the presence of magic. In the end, my thesis argues that these protagonists evade static endings when we reconfigure the Bildungsroman as spontaneous, relational, and never ending, granting the characters potential and agency rather than assigning them a specific role in society. Here, I evade linearity in my own writing by discussing opinions within the footnotes and bringing poetry into each section to willfully undermine a voice of scholarly authority. Inspired by feminist writers who infuse their work with vulnerability and embodied approaches to the text, I delve into lived-experiences to express the fact that like these protagonists, my own personhood has stakes in how we reconfigure the Bildungsroman .

“I’ve Never Heard Silence Quite this Loud”: The Complexity of Taylor Swift’s Neutral Star Text

• Morrissey, Kayleigh
• Advisor(s): McHugh, Kathleen

Taylor Swift has secured her place as one of the most dominant stars in pop music by maintaining a diverse fanbase. I argue that she has achieved this diversity by constructing a neutral star image that is widely palatable and refrains from repelling certain demographics. Numerous things help form a star image, and Swift has particularly cultivated a neutral image across her music, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts, Netflix specials and documentary, interviews, and her apparent refusal to feud with other celebrities. This cultivated neutrality results in Swift’s star image being more complex and contradictory than her peers in pop music. Traditionally, people would not think of neutrality and complexity as interrelated. The Oxford English Dictionary defines neutrality as “an intermediate state or condition, not clearly one thing or another; a neutral position, middle ground,” and complex as “consisting of or comprehending various parts united or connected together; formed by combination of different elements; composite, compound. Said of things, ideas, etc.” Yet, Swift’s neutrality ironically makes her star image particularly multifaceted. These techniques contribute to Swift’s pop presence as an anomaly: unlike her peers, Swift’s neutral persona has allowed fans across the political spectrum to embrace her. I will look at her alt-right fandom and her young, queer fandom to compare and contrast their attraction to her. In this thesis, I will explore the sociopolitical complexity of star texts and the increased ambiguity that Swift’s strategies of neutrality have brought to her star image.

“Between Gloom and Laughter”: Female Longing, Unhappiness, and Structures of Absence in the Works of Virginia Woolf

• Roche, Allyson
• Advisor(s): Hornby, Louise

This thesis begins by asking: How does Virginia Woolf contend with the positionality of the ignored woman within literary narratives, structures, and histories? What about the yearning, unhappy women that reside on the plot's edges of Woolf’s fiction, who find themselves displaced and suspended – by their own longing– from the narratives in which they reside? In a series of readings of Jacob’s Room , her first experimental novel but still one of her most undertheorized, I argue that while Woolf’s work uncovers this absence, she refuses to patch up its damage on literary history by merely filling it, or relocating these disappearing women back into our line of sight. Instead, she asks what limitless structure might arise from the discomfort of a woman’s heaving sobs. By laying out the truncated desires of the forgotten women who disappear from the novel almost as soon as they’re introduced, I demonstrate the narrative potential Woolf locates in the absence found by female characters who vacillate between abandoning their unfulfilling position in the marriage plot and untethering their desire from narrative altogether. What results is an examination of what is unwritten and how women absent themselves from a fixed narrative and time through reading and sleeping. Finally, through tears and laughter, I propose an argument that finds both the productivity and loss offered by disappearance and absence. Ending with “A Woman’s College from Outside,” a chapter cut from Jacob’s Room and published as an independent short story, I argue that Woolf’s reproduction of the very thing she critiques about literature, that is, this disappearance, becomes the site of queer possibility.

College of Arts & Sciences

Thesis Topics

You are invited to pursue any topic that falls under the English department’s purview, and the Honors Committee will assume that you will pursue it with scholarly rigor, intellectual seriousness, and artistic integrity. You should follow your own interests and commitments in defining your project, though you should avail yourself of the advice of those faculty members whose expertise will help you focus your ideas and give them depth. Again, we welcome critical, creative, interdisciplinary, mixed genre, and hybrid creative/critical projects. Most successful applicants have derived their projects from interests developed during their time as English majors at Georgetown. During the actual writing of the thesis, of course, you will work closely with a faculty mentor.

Here is a partial list of the kinds of literary and interdisciplinary topics that Honors students have pursued over the past few years:

• Polyphony in the novels of Cormac McCarthy
• Women in post-Stonewall gay male literature
• Madness and skepticism in Hamlet and Don Quixote
• Dialogism in Toni Morrison and Christa Woolf
• The Booker Prize as post-colonial phenomenon
• Jazz in the Harlem Renaissance
• The scientific revolution and 18th-century narratives
• Irvine Welsh and dialect writing
• Sound and structure in scripts
• Identity and memory in Maxine Hong Kingston
• Influence of the internet on writing
• The written legacy of oral narratives in Amerindian culture
• Medieval women troubadours
• African-American women writers and their Biblical heritage
• Adult-child discourse in real-life conversation and classic children’s literature
• The role of bible-making in the works of Blake, Wordsworth, and Hardy
• Morality plays in the Middle Ages and the twentieth century

In addition, Honors students have written short story collections, memoirs, and collections of poetry. Students have also written hybrid creative/critical projects, such as a critique of postcolonial memoir within a postcolonial memoir. Those students who propose creative projects should have developed their skills through taking courses with the Georgetown English Department creative writing faculty or through participation in campus and professional journals and other creative venues.

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S24 honors thesis production a dream play.

Spring 2024 Senior Honors Thesis Production

A DREAM PLAY 

by August Strindberg, adapted Caryl Churchill

Directed by David Charles Katz '24

Scenic Design by Jemely Robles '24

Lighting Design by Yifei Liu '26

Costume Design by Aryma Moore '25

Performances May 4 @ 7pm and May 5 @ 3pm!

Check back soon for more details!

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If faces appear distorted, you could have this condition, posted on march 22, 2024 by amy olson.

Research presents a unique case of a patient with prosopometamorphopsia.

Imagine if every time you saw a face, it appeared distorted. For those who have a very rare condition known as prosopometamorphopsia, which causes facial features to appear distorted, that is reality.

As the website on what is known as PMO explains, “‘Prosopo’ comes from the Greek word for face ‘prosopon’ while ‘metamorphopsia’ refers to perceptual distortions.” The distortions can affect the shape, size, color, and position of facial features, and PMO can last for days, weeks, or even years.

A new Dartmouth study published in the “Clinical Pictures” section of The Lancet reports on a unique case of a patient with PMO. The research is among the first to provide realistic visualizations of how a patient experienced facial distortions.

The patient, a 58-year-old male with PMO, sees faces without any distortions when viewed on a screen and on paper but sees distorted faces that appear “demonic” when viewed in-person. The case is especially rare because he does not see distortions of faces across all contexts.

For the study, the researchers took a photograph of a person’s face. Then, they showed the patient the photograph on a computer screen while he looked at the real face of the same person. The researchers obtained real-time feedback from the patient on how the face on the screen and the real face in front of him differed, as they modified the photograph using computer software to match the distortions perceived by the patient.

Through the process, we were able to visualize the patient’s real-time perception of the face distortions.

“In other studies of the condition, patients with PMO are unable to assess how accurately a visualization of their distortions represents what they see because the visualization itself also depicts a face, so the patients will perceive distortions on it too,” says lead author Antônio Mello , Guarini, a PhD student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences .

In contrast, this patient doesn’t see distortions on a screen. This means that the researchers were able to modify the face in the photograph, and the patient could accurately compare how similar his perception of the real face was to the manipulated photograph. “Through the process, we were able to visualize the patient’s real-time perception of the face distortions,” says Mello.

In their research with other PMO cases, the co-authors state that some of their PMO participants have seen health professionals who wanted to help, but diagnosed them with another health condition, not PMO.

“We’ve heard from multiple people with PMO that they have been diagnosed by psychiatrists as having schizophrenia and put on anti-psychotics, when their condition is a problem with the visual system,” says senior author Brad Duchaine , a professor of psychological and brain sciences and principal investigator of the Social Perception Lab at Dartmouth.

“And it’s not uncommon for people who have PMO to not tell others about their problem with face perception because they fear others will think the distortions are a sign of a psychiatric disorder,” says Duchaine. “It’s a problem that people often don’t understand.”

Through their paper, the researchers hope to increase public awareness of what PMO is .

Daniel Stehr at Dartmouth and Professor of Neurology Krzysztof Bujarski at the Geisel School of Medicine also contributed to the study.

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