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Honors Thesis Project

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese values our students’ excellence in research and scholarship. Advanced students may earn degrees in Spanish with an honors designation, if they satisfy the below requirements:

Requirements

  • 3.6 GPA in Department 300-400 level courses, and 3.3 overall
  • Intent to Write an Honors Thesis Form
  • Approved Project Proposal
  • SPAN 550: Independent Research to culminate in the thesis.
    **We strongly recommend taking SPAN 401

STEPS TO ACHIEVE DEPARTMENTAL HONORS

Intent

Spanish majors wishing to graduate with honors should speak with their advisor and/or the Department Chair to discuss their intent to write an honors thesis by the first week of November. Research completed for the senior seminar or another advanced course will often be the starting point for the project.

Committee

Select three (3) departmental faculty, including the thesis director, to serve as the thesis committee. The honors thesis will be completed in close collaboration with the advisor. Additional committee members may participate if the student is completing interdisciplinary work.

Format

  • May be written in Spanish or English in consultation with committee.
  • Minimum of 30 pages and a maximum of 50 not including apparatus (works cited, acknowledgments, etc.), in 12-point Times New Roman typeface with 1” margins.
  • MLA format, including works cited page.

Schedule

  • November 08: Submit Intent to Write an Honors Thesis form.  Names of committee members will be those you are requesting. Different faculty may be assigned due to area of expertise or workload. 
  • November 29: Submit proposal draft to requested committee members.  Faculty comments will be delivered within five working days. 
  • December 11: Submit final proposal to Department.  Department will approve or reject proposal and the final list of committee members will be decided at last department meeting of the semester. 
  • January 31: Submit outline of thesis to committee members.
  • May 01: Submit full draft to committee members.
  • Final exam week: Oral defense
    **Students interested in pursuing a different calendar should consult as soon as possible with a faculty member

Criteria

Students will graduate with honors if the theses:

  • Articulate and advance a compelling research question/argument.
  • Contextualize and engage germane scholarly fields.
  • Exhibit remarkable methodological sophistication and creativity.
  • Demonstrate judicious selection and focused analysis of texts.
  • Use a clear expository style.

Past Recipients of Honors in Spanish

Alaina C Clemence 2022: "The Transformation of Text"

Huy Anh Nguyen 2022: "La negociación de la(s) identidade(s) nacional(es) en Nihonjin de Oscar Nakasato"

Shasita Paudel 2022: "Conocimiento filosófico en los cuentos de Borges"

Andreea C Rosu 2022: "La comunidad para los trabajadores migratorios mexicanos: La necesidad y las consecuencias de no tenerlo"

Maria Smith 2022: "La representación literaria de las mujeres minoritarias en España contemporánea"

Michael John Borsch 2019:  "El Matrimonio Como Contrato Familiar: El Codigo Civil Chileno y Martin Rivas"

Caitlin Filiato 2019: "Jose de Acosta's Middle Ground: Negotiating the Religious and Economic Motives of the Spanish Conquest in the Sixteenth Century"

Keisy Germosen 2019: "Dictatorship and Trauma in the Dominican Republic"

Anya O. Aboud 2016: "La libertad de la ficción: la reconstrucción de la historia en la literatura escrita sobre la dictadura de Trujillo (1930-1961)"

Wendy L. Gomez 2015: "La 're-presentación' de la voz femenina en los textos testimoniales de la Guerra Civil Salvadoreña"

Kathryn Hughes, 2014: "Racismo y xenophobia: Representaciones de la comunidad asiática en la prensa española"

Julia Coggins, 2013: "El boom latinoamericano y la afirmación de la identidad latinoamericana"

Amanda Jo Wildley, 2013: "Atreverse a proponer: José María Arguedas y el idigenismo antropológico"

Sarah Young, 2013: "Entre el clavel y la espalda, un patriota sin patria: Como el exilio le convirtió a Rafael Alberti en un gran poeta de la Generación del 27 y del siglo XX"

Katherine Leibel, 2012: "Cura te ipsum: La mala ciencia del autodiagnóstico en dos textos del Siglo de Oro"

Vicki Morris, 2011: "Las poetas del siglo XIX: su propio tercer mundo"

Ruth Dicker, 2010: "Jorge Luis Borges: Language, Desdivinization, and Immortality"