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The Honors Program

The Honors program in the Department of American Civilization is designed for students who want to write a senior paper in order to explore a topic in depth; engage in original research; work closely with a particular faculty member; and receive their BA with Honors in American Civilization. The Department sees the senior thesis as a capstone experience which allows students to use many of the skills and concepts they've learned at Brown in conceiving and carrying out a substantial research project. The Department recommends that prospective thesis writers contract with a faculty member to do a directed reading during the second semester of the junior year in order to define a topic and research question and complete a thesis prospectus. In each semester of the Senior year, students register for a thesis writing course (AMCV1970) under the supervision of their advisor and prepare a sixty to one hundred page thesis which they submit to the department in April. Generally, about ten percent of the concentrators choose to do Honors and the quality of the work has been as high as the subjects have been varied.
Concentrators considering writing an honors thesis should consult with the Concentration Advisor Honors early in the second semester of their junior year. Admission to the Honors candidacy requires:

1. An academic record providing evidence of the student’s ability to do Honors work. The minimum acceptable record will be a GPA of 3.5 within the concentration.
2. Two Faculty Recommendation Forms recommending attesting to the student’s ability to do Honors work have been submitted. These forms should be given to two faculty members with whom the student has taken a class in which a major paper was required.
3. A completed Honors Application Form which must be signed by both the prospective honors candidate and a Brown Faculty member who has agreed to be his/her Thesis Advisor.
4. A five page Thesis Prospectus plus primary and secondary bibliographies.