HONORS IN INTERNATIONAL AND AREA STUDIES
International Studies majors who wish to graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill with honors or highest honors must complete a senior honors thesis. Rising senior International and Area Studies majors with a minimum cumulative 3.2 GPA are eligible (see eligibility note below). Students undertaking an honors thesis must enroll their senior year in a year-long seminar. Students who successfully complete a senior honors thesis will have the designation "honors" or "highest honors" printed beside their names in the Commencement bulletin and recorded on their diplomas and transcripts
An information session for 2010-2011 prospective honors students will be held Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 at 11 am on the 4th floor of the FedEx Global Education Center.
Students planning to submit a prospectus for admission to
the honors seminar are encouraged, but not required, to attend. Before
attending the info session, please review the information posted below:
Applying to the Honors Seminar
Honors Project Research Funding
The Honors Thesis and Time Commitment
The Honors Seminar
Important Note Regarding Eligibility
Further Information
APPLYING TO THE HONORS SEMINAR
The first task for a prospective honors student is to identify a thesis
topic. Students are encouraged to consider integrating a study abroad
into honors work, as it provides an excellent opportunity for research
that can be used for an honors thesis.
Once a topic has been chosen, the next step is to identify a thesis advisor.
Any member of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty is eligible to serve as a thesis
advisor, as are retired faculty and post-doctoral fellows. Graduate students
cannot serve as advisors. While the thesis advisor may come from any department
at UNC, the advisor's area of expertise should be consistent with the
topic of the student's thesis. The Center for Global Initiatives maintains
a searchable
database of faculty with international expertise.
Once a topic and advisor have been identified, the prospective honors
student must submit a 2-3 page prospectus in the spring of the junior
year. The prospectus should outline the student's project and indicate
the name of a faculty member who has agreed to serve as thesis advisor.
For students planning to write theses during academic year 2009-10,
the deadline for submission of the prospectus is Monday, March 22nd, 2010.
Professor Christopher Nelson, who will be teaching the Honors seminar
during the 2009-10 academic year, will evaluate the substance, feasibility,
and clarity of the project outline in order to determine admission into
the INTS honors program.
In writing the prospectus, you should include the following:
- A brief description of the general theme or topic about which you are interested in writing. Please indicate both a geographical/country focus, as well as a substantive one. It will be worth thinking about what question you are trying to answer or puzzle you are trying to solve.
- A brief discussion of the genesis of your interest in the topic: Was it a course you took? A study abroad experience? Some combination?
- If possible, a brief discussion of what kinds of sources you intend to rely upon and whether you want to interview people relevant to the subject matter.
- Identify two faculty members (including your thesis advisor) whom you know work on issues related to your thesis topic. If you have not already taken courses with a professor whose expertise meshes with your area of interest, keep in mind that all departments maintain websites that include lists of faculty members and their research interests.
The prospectus must be typed, double spaced, in 11 or 12 point font. It
should be submitted electronically to Christiana
Hilkey.
HONORS PROJECT RESEARCH FUNDING
The Honors Office
offers financial awards to support senior honors thesis research. There
are two funding cycles per year, with proposal deadlines in September
and March. The March funding cycle makes funding awards to students whose
projects are sufficiently well-planned that they could begin work over
the summer before their senior year. Award funds may be used to support
any legitimate cost directly connected to the undertaking of the honors
project. Students must meet the honors minimum cumulative GPA requirement
of 3.2 to apply for an award. Projects with an international dimension
may qualify for a supplemental award of up to $500 from the Center for
Global Initiatives. Students must apply through the Curriculum in International
and Area Studies; please contact Christiana
Hilkey for more information. The deadline for the spring 2010
funding cycle is March 19, 2010 at 4:00 pm.
Funding is also available through the Office
of Undergraduate Research, and the Center
for Global Initiatives offers awards to students conducting international
research projects.
THE HONORS THESIS AND TIME COMMITMENT
An honors thesis is a substantial piece of original research; in other
words, students are engaged in creating their own academic scholarship.
The intent of the thesis is to pose and answer a unique research question,
or to shed new light on a topic that has previously received scholarly
attention. Writing an honors thesis is a substantial time commitment.
Many students begin their projects the summer before their senior year
so that they can spend the school year focusing on the writing. Most theses
run 60-100+ pages and cite 20-50+ sources, so on top of the writing, there
is a substantial amount of background research that goes into the thesis.
The thesis process may also involve travel, interviews, or other data
collection and analysis, depending on a student's topic and methodology.
Therefore, writing an honors thesis is something students need to be 100%
committed to doing. It also requires excellent time management skills
and discipline, as it is a very self-directed process. Prospective honors
students are encouraged to look at theses from past years to get an idea
of what the final product encompasses. Past theses are housed in the suite
of the Curriculum in International and Area Studies and are also available
at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Abstracts of recent
theses are available via the Honors Program's archive. Each year, the
Douglas Eyre Prize is awarded to the author of the best International
Studies thesis. Click here to read the 2009 winning thesis, "Moving
Sustainability out of the Workplace? The Case of San Pedro Garza Garcia,
N.L., Mexico” By Rachel Escobar.
THE HONORS SEMINAR
The year-long honors seminar is composed of two 3-credit courses: INTS
691H (taken in the fall) and INTS 692H (taken in the spring). Students
receive three hours of major credit (as either a theme or area course)
for INTS 692H. INTS 691H only counts as elective credit. The seminar meets
more frequently in the first semester than the second. The seminar director
expects each student to produce a rough draft of about two-thirds of the
thesis in the first semester. The second semester will be devoted to finishing
the rough draft, rewriting, and finalizing the thesis, as well as preparing
for the oral defense of the thesis. The oral defense must be completed
by early April for May graduates; the exact deadline will be provided
to students enrolled in the seminar. The defense will take place before
the student's honors committee, composed of his or her advisor and a second
reader. The committee will determine whether the student should receive
highest honors, honors, or course credit only.
IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING
ELIGIBILITY
Students who wish to write a senior honors thesis must have
a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. Students with GPAs below
this standard but for whom it is mathematically possible to achieve a
3.2 by the end of the first semester of the honors seminar may be allowed
to provisionally enroll in INTS 691H. These students must petition the
Assistant Dean for Honors, Dr.
Ritchie Kendall, for permission to enroll in the seminar. If a student's
cumulative GPA drops below 3.2 or if a provisional student fails to meet
the 3.2 standard at the close of the semester in which INTS 691H is taken,
that student will not be allowed to enroll in INTS 692H and will not be
eligible to graduate with honors. This is a university-wide rule, and
there are no exceptions. Such students will receive course credit for
the work completed, and may be allowed to continue their projects as independent
study, with the approval of the CIAS Director of Undergraduate Studies.
FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information, contact Professor
Jonathan Weiler, Director of
Undergraduate Studies.