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Honors

Writing an honors thesis is an excellent way to cap one’s major in Anthropology. The process offers students the chance to carry out original research on a topic they are passionate about. Our thesis writers work closely with a faculty advisor and committee members to develop their project. The department provides excellent support, offering a specific seminar during the fall (ANTH 691H) and a corresponding independent study (ANTH 692), that together walk students through the essential steps of research design and writing. For our students, writing a honors thesis continues to prove a pivotal experience–at once a capstone to their studies at UNC and an achievement to carry with them into their lives and careers beyond.

To pursue an honors degree and an honors thesis project, you MUST satisfy certain requirements.  These include:

  • * Maintain a minimum Grade Point Average of 3.3 from the spring semester of the junior year through the entirety of the senior year*  Secure a faculty advisor who is an anthropologist at UNC.

    *  Successfully complete the ANTH 691H and 692H sequence

    *  Receive approval from UNC’s Office for Human Research Ethics prior to the start of research, for all project involving human subjects

Process

1) Students considering an honor thesis should first contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Honors Thesis Seminar Instructor, during their junior year (or earlier).

2) Eligible students next should secure an advisor prior to enrolling in ANTH 691H for the fall semester of their senior year. Typically, one’s advisor is a professor they have worked with in classes, or faculty with shares interests.

3) In the fall Honors Thesis Seminar, ANTH 691H, students develop their research design and begin to write their thesis.

4) In the spring, students complete an independent study, ANTH 692H, with their advisor, focusing on writing the thesis. Students also form their committee, by adding two additional faculty members.

5) To complete the process, students ‘defend’ (i.e. present and discuss) their thesis to their committee, before submitting it to the university to receive the Honors distinction.

* Further information on the Honors Thesis Program at UNC may be viewed at:

http://honorscarolina.unc.edu/current-students/honors-thesis-and-undergraduate-research/honors-thesis/

If you will meet the minimum requirement of a Grade Point Average of 3.3 at the end of your junior year, you should begin planning your honors thesis project at that moment.  Because it is expected that you will have a thesis advisor by the time you enroll in ANTH 691H, your first priority should be choosing your faculty advisor as well as a general topic on which to research and write.  Your advisor must be an anthropologist who teaches at UNC.  If you are unsure as to which faculty member in the Anthropology Department might best help you, you should review the list of faculty and their expertise on our department website and also consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Once you have a particular faculty member in mind as a potential and good candidate to serve as your thesis advisor, you should visit him or her with a draft of your proposal in hand, and ask if he or she is able to sponsor you.  If the response is “no” (the faculty member may be on leave the coming year, overburdened with other responsibilities, or unable to commit the time that you and your project merit), then consult again with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and choose another possible faculty advisor.  If the response is “yes”, then the subsequent process largely is up to you and your thesis advisor.  The following is only to give you a general sense of the options and protocols of an honors thesis.

You may find it difficult to choose or settle upon a topic for research and writing. Students eager and qualified to pursue an honors thesis often begin with the question: “What can I possibly research or write about!?”  Investigate possible subject areas and topics in several ways.  A particularly memorable course, for instance, might be a source of ideas to explore further; you may have a class paper that could be expanded in depth, or a provocative topic or intellectual issue that remains of interest.

You might approach a favorite professor and ask if, in addition to serving as your honors advisor, he or she has research materials in need of analysis.  If you had the opportunity to attend a field school during the summer between your junior and senior years, the subject area and topic of your study could be further researched.  These approaches to choosing a topic for research and writing often result in the most satisfying honors experience because you continue to work with your own experiences and materials as well as with ideas and subject areas of interest to you.  But, be advised that, however personal, successful honors projects always are based on topics, problems, and methodologies finalized in consultation with your faculty advisor.

Before embarking on research involving any living people (‘human subjects’), to make certain that people who choose to participate in your study are protected, you must complete all procedures required by the Office for Human Research Ethics (OHRE).  This will involve successfully completing the CITI online course about research ethics as well as submitting a research proposal for approval, first with the Anthropology Department’s Pre-Institutional Review Board (Pre-IRB) committee and then with the Behavioral Institutional Review Board (Behavioral IRB).  Forms and instructions are available online here.  This is not a complicated procedure, but it does take time.  If your research will involve ‘human subjects,’ you should begin to seek approval at least a month before you plan to begin your research.  Before submitting your proposal, you should consult with your advisor, the chair of the Anthropology Department, and the IRB.

Additionally, you may apply for funds to support the activities (travel, equipment; books and related materials, etc.) necessary to carry out your research project.  Funds are available from the Honors College Undergraduate Research Award Program as well as the Center for Global Initiatives, if your research concerns a non-U.S. topic.  There may be other funding sources available on campus such as the Office of Undergraduate Research, and you can consult with the DUS and your advisor about such possibilities.

Honors in Anthropology requires that you register for and pass Anthropology 691H and 692H.  For graduation in the spring semester, students must enroll first in ANTH 691H and then in 692H during the spring semester in which they plan to graduate.  Students graduating in the fall must enroll in 692H first in the spring and then take 692H in the same fall semester in which they intend to graduate.  Making sure that you are enrolled in the course by the appropriate fall or spring add deadline set by the Registrar’s Office is imperative as late enrollment is approved only under specific extenuating circumstances.  ANTH 691H and ANTH 692H are controlled-enrollment seminar courses and only students holding a 3.3 GPA are permitted to enroll in them (it is also important to keep in mind that you must also maintain a 3.3 GPA throughout your senior year to stay in the honors program). Please note that students must complete a study contract with his/her thesis advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies prior to enrolling in ANTH 691H and 692H. This contract will take time to prepare and should be started during early registration for the semester the student plans to enroll in ANTH 691H or 692H. Also note that enrollment in ANTH 691H or 692H must be completed no later than the first week of classes of that semester. After the first week of classes has ended, students will not be allowed to enroll in ANTH 691H or 692H.

Anthropology 691H typically is devoted to narrowing and organizing your topic and methodology and to your carrying out basic research and analysis/interpretation.  This course usually culminates with finalizing a thesis outline agreed upon by you and your advisor.  Anthropology 692H covers the formal writing and production (supplemental illustrations, etc.) of your thesis.  You will receive a grade of “S” (satisfactory progress) in Anth 691H.  The “S” grade for ANTH 691H then will be converted to a permanent letter grade, and a letter grade assigned for ANTH 692H, upon successful defense of your thesis.

Throughout the year you probably will have regular (e.g., bi-weekly) meetings with your advisor, although details vary by professor.  Discussion during these meetings most likely will move from defining a feasible problem (early fall) to effective writing of your investigation (mid-spring).

Early in the spring semester, and in consultation with your advisor, you will select an additional two faculty members who will advise you on the written aspect of your project and serve as members of the committee to which you will present a formal oral “defense” of your thesis.  You should plan on having a preliminary draft of your honors thesis completed and distributed to these three faculty members by mid-March (keeping to this deadline also means that your thesis will be eligible to be reviewed for the Honigmann Award, an award presented to the student in UNC’s Anthropology Department who has completed the best undergraduate honors project in that discipline.)  It is advisable that you meet with each faculty member of your committee in a timely manner, in order to receive their suggestions for any changes to your written thesis in time to submit to them a revised draft well-before the formal defense.

“Defense” (or the milder, “oral exam”) is a bit of a misnomer. By the time you and your faculty advisor have spent a year with your project, with at least one round of critique and revision with your committee, your formal defense of your thesis project probably will be a bit more refined than the military connotations of the term ‘defense.’  Seated before your faculty advisor and two committee faculty, you most likely will be asked to begin your presentation by giving a succinct summary of your problem, research methods, and findings.  Faculty then might seek some insight into the background of your project.  They may have questions about your execution of the research (why you chose a particular approach or methodology over another, for instance).  They may have stylistic issues concerning the manner in which you chose to write your thesis.  They may want to explore what you might choose to do next with the subject, had you time and research funding to pursue it further. In general, these ‘defenses’ are congenial and informative occasions, intellectually fun for faculty and for the student as well, as soon as nervousness subsides.  The timing of the defense is up to you and your committee, but the date of the formal defense ought to allow for any further changes, printing and preparation of figures or illustrations (with the usual computer glitches, etc.) and comfortably meet key deadlines set by the Honors College (it is critical that you know deadline dates, always set by the Honors College).

Your faculty committee then will decide if you are to be awarded your degree with Honors.  In rare cases, they may also recommend the designation “Highest Honors.”  “Highest Honors” remains reserved for projects in which the thesis truly is exceptional (by honors thesis standards) and often follows on an unusually distinguished record of student undergraduate performance.

You must register your thesis with the Honors College, via the on-line Honors College Database Archive for Senior Honors Projects.  You must present two unbound copies of your thesis to the department/Director of Undergraduate Studies, along with a letter from your advisor stating the results of the defense, by two weeks before the beginning of the examination period for the semester in which your defense is held (this schedule can be adapted to suit students who take the 691H-692H sequence on a Spring-Fall schedule).  One copy will be retained by the department.  One copy will be bound by and archived in the North Carolina Collection of Wilson Library.  Please adhere to the thesis formatting instructions of the UNC Honors Program.