Departmental Honors

If you have completed at least 12 credits in Art History and Archaeology courses and if you have an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher (in all course work, not just ARTH courses) you are qualified to work toward departmental honors at graduation. Such honors will be noted on your official transcript.

Requirements to earn such honors:

Talk to your advisor, letting him/her know that you want to be in the program. S/he will be able to give you an information sheet about honors and answer many of your questions.

Among your seven 300/400-level ARTH courses required for the major, take at least one colloquium (normally ARTH 488 or 489).

Among those same seven 300/400-level ARTH courses, also take Methods of Art History (ARTH 496).

In addition to the regular requirements for the major, write an Honors Thesis (ARTH 499), normally in the year when you will graduate. Before registering for this course you must identify and gain the support of a faculty supervisor. The faculty supervisor must be a regular member of the ARTH department faculty. Adjunct faculty members do not supervise honors theses.

a. Think about the research you would like to do for your thesis. Identify the subject/period that you would like to work on.


b. Talk about your idea with an ARTH faculty member whose interest and teaching area coincide with the work you would like to do. Ideally, this should be someone with whom you have studied before.


c. Once a faculty member has agreed to supervise your work, obtain from the Administrative Assistant (Deborah Down) or the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Jason Kuo) an electronic permit to register for ARTH 499, with the section number of your faculty supervisor.


d. Register for the course.


e. Work out with your faculty supervisor exactly what you will be expected to do for thesis credit. Bear in mind that the course normally carries 3 credits, and so should involve the amount of work you would normally do for any 3-credit course.

When enrolling in your final semester before graduation, be sure to notify the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Jason Kuo) that you plan to graduate with departmental honors. This will help to ensure that your achievement is noted at commencement and on your transcript.