Spanish Honors Program
Thinking about writing an Honors thesis?
Hispanic Literatures & Cultures and Hispanic Linguistics are research-based disciplines. We encourage you to conduct research to better understand how we generate knowledge and to acquire research skills. To be successful, it is essential to establish a good working relationship with a faculty member who can direct and guide you.We strongly suggest several steps:
- Actively search for faculty-taught courses in an effort to become acquainted with potential advisors.
- Complete your major-level core courses as early as possible in your curriculum.
- Consider taking upper level Portuguese or Spanish Honors 500 and 600-level courses beyond the minimum program requirement.
- Read sample theses to get a flavor of the scope of the task and the variety of ways that it has been accomplished.
- Seek out research experiences: ask your professors whether you could assist in their own research in some way to become more familiar with the process.
- Consider substituting more advanced courses for one or more of the basic courses to increase your exposure to your field. Again, we recommend that you search for faculty-taught courses at the 500, 600 and 700 level.
- Be open-minded about the specifics of your project. Often students find that they are able to define a thesis that is within or is related to a faculty’s own research agenda, working with a substance and data with which the faculty member is already invested in and familiar with.
- Don’t hesitate to ask individual faculty members for their ideas about possible thesis projects. Talk to the Faculty Honors advisor as well.
- Plan ahead and follow the departmental Honors Program guidelines and deadlines to ensure that you will graduate on time and with distinction
