Honors Program

History Honors is a selective, three-semester sequence of individual undergraduate research, guided by faculty mentors and pursued within honors seminars. Over three semesters, honors candidates propose, research, and write a baccalaureate thesis that contributes to an existing scholarly literature in the author’s field. Since its formation in 1985, 98 history majors have successfully defended the undergraduate thesis in History, 50 of them earning High Honors in History. Through seminars and independent study, honors students learn to become historians, and acquire the advanced research skills required for success across a broad range of occupations.

Course of Study

• The program begins in the junior spring. In the Junior Honors Seminar (History 297), honors students study research methodology. They develop, and submit as a final paper, a research proposal that details the project’s thesis, the secondary literature to which it will contribute, and the published and unpublished primary sources that make research feasible.
• In the senior year, each honors student works with a faculty mentor whose scholarly specialization most closely approximates the research focus of the thesis. All honors students participate together in a two-semester Senior Honors Seminar (History 298a-b). Supervised by the Director of History Honors, this seminar is a central component of the program. During the academic year, honors students exchange, read, critique, and rethink drafts of each other’s manuscripts. In total, each student produces three drafts of the thesis during the senior year: a first draft in late November; a second draft in mid-March; and a final draft in April.
• Each honors student completes an oral examination at the end of the spring senior semester. The oral defense of the thesis takes place during the spring examination period before a three-person faculty committee. It is composed of the thesis supervisor, the program director, and a third reader, who may come from outside the History Department.

Requirements for Admission

Application to the Honors Program is made in the fall of junior year. Successful applicants must be history majors. They should have attained a minimum overall GPA of 3.0. A brief letter of reference from a History Department faculty member who knows the student’s academic work should accompany the application.

If you would like to browse the Jean Alexander Heard Library for some examples of our Honors Theses please link here: http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/67

CONGRATULATIONS 2009 SENIOR HONORS STUDENTS! Eleven students have passed their senior honors defenses and have been awarded Honors or High Honors. Well done! Below is a list of the students, their thesis title and the Professors who advised, taught and guided them.

History Honors Theses 2009 Results

Christine Victoria Brown, “The Satanic Verses and the debate over Great Britain’s blasphemy laws: How a fictional novel caused a Western society to re-evaluate its identity,” (Grunwald, Cohen, Rogaski), Awarded Honors.

Stacy Catherine Clark, “‘Prevention of Pestilence: The Increased Effectiveness of Cholera Prophylaxis in Great Britain and the United States, 1848-1866,” (Tuchman, Epstein, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

Catalin Gheorghe Cristoloveanu, “Lucian Blaga in Romania’s Communist World:  The Notion of a Middle Ground,” (Wcislo, Grunwald, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

Hayley Renee Curry, “Resistance and Runaways: The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act’s Impact on Nashville and Middle Tennessee,” (Blackett, Usner, Rogaski), Awarded Honors.

Melanie Carol Erb, “The Rhetoric of Reform: Metaphors of Disease in John Howard’s The State of the Prisons,” (Epstein, Tuchman, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors, 2008 and recipient of the Dewey Grantham Award for best honors thesis.

Jonathan Lees Feldman, “The Israel Lobby?: The Influence of American Jewish Groups on the Carter Administration’s Middle Eastern Policy,” (Schwartz, Fergus, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

John David Furlow, “Pilgrims in the Atlantic World: Atlantic influences and the New Plymouth colony’s commercial impact on New England,” (Molineux, Usner, Rogaski), Awarded Honors.

Matthew Frederick Mahla, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, White Protestant Christianity and the Fate of the Nation,” (Carlton, Blackett, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

Geoffrey Edward Miller, “Kicking Old Habits: How the World Cup Memories of Argentina’s 1978 National Team are Crossing Cultural Divides and Scoring in the Field of Reconciliation,” (Eakin, Wright-Rios, Rogaski), Awarded Honors.

Kenneth Trent Mosier, “Intrigue in Cumberland: New Perspectives on the Spanish Intrigues and the U.S. Expansion,” (Usner, Schwartz, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

Corinne Virginia Snow, “Message of the Meuse-Argonne Monuments,” (Grunwald, Igo, Rogaski), Awarded High Honors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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