Honors in Art History

If you have completed at least 60 credits and at least 12 credits in ARTH courses, you are eligible to develop a topic with a faculty supervisor and to work toward departmental honors at graduation.

Requirements to earn such honors:

1. Talk to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in ARTH, letting him/her know that you want to be in the program.

2. Among the seven 300/400-level ARTH courses, take Methods of Art History (ARTH 496).

3. At least one of the seven 300/400-level ARTH courses taken to satisfy the major requirements must be a colloquium (ARTH 488).

4. Write an honors thesis. Usually completed in your final two semesters, the thesis generally requires a semester of research (ARTH 498) and a semester of writing and revision (ARTH 499). (These courses may also count toward your seven required 300/400-level ARTH courses.) Before registering for these courses, you must gain the support of a faculty supervisor. Note the following steps toward signing up for the thesis courses:

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. In the semester before you begin, 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. The faculty supervisor must be a regular member of the ARTH department faculty. Adjunct faculty members do not supervise departmental honors.

c. Once a faculty member has agreed to supervise your work, obtain from the Graduate Program Coordinator or the Director of Undergraduate Studies in ARTH an electronic permit to register for the course, with the section number of your faculty supervisor. You will need to do this for each of the two semesters.

d. Bear in mind that each of the two courses in the thesis sequence (ARTH 498 and ARTH 499) carries 3 credits and will therefore require 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 that you plan to graduate with departmental honors. This will help to ensure that your achievement is noted at commencement.