Eligibility
Candidates for honors must be History of Art majors maintaining an average of A- in departmental courses, and B+ in other College of Arts & Sciences courses. Students should also have taken at least one course in which they wrote a research paper, and have completed the Art H 400 by the second semester of their junior year.

Procedure
By the beginning of the spring semester of the junior year, majors apply for departmental honors work through the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The student then must obtain thesis topic approval from the departmental faculty member who will supervise the research and writing. The student is encouraged to choose a thesis advisor already familiar (through course work, independent study) with her or his particular interests and approach. The thesis advisor--distinct from the academic advisor-and the student together define the thesis direction and consultation schedule.

Registration
Honors Work in the Department of the History of Art is a two-semester program (Art H498 and Art H499) during the senior year.

In addition, students are strongly advised to enroll in Honors Research (Art H 497) during the second semester of the junior year. This is an optional, two-credit research course supervised by the thesis advisor, for a letter grade. This course enables students to start research on the thesis early, and thereby have a suitable draft ready to submit with graduate school applications by the end of the fall semester of senior year. By the end of this course the student produces a detailed outline and bibliography for the thesis, which must be approved by the thesis advisor in order for the student to progress to Honors Work (Art H 498)

Students who do not elect to take Art H 497 are encouraged to start research on the thesis during the summer between the junior and senior years, and be ready to submit a detailed outline and bibliography to the thesis advisor by September 30 of the senior year.

In the fall semester of the senior year, all honors students enroll in Art H 498, intended for writing the first draft of the thesis under the advisor’s supervision. Upon satisfactory completion of this course, the student enrolls for Art H 499 in the spring semester, in order to revise and rewrite the thesis under the advisor's supervision.

When the thesis is completed, the advisor assigns a letter grade and eight credits for the two-semester course Art H 498 & Art H 499.

Note: Students may not collapse into one term the two-term experience represented by Art H 498 and 499. Nor may students use Art H 497, Art H 498, or Art H 499 to fulfill 400-level seminar requirements.

Calendar (Academic Year 2007-8)

Friday, September 28
Student submits thesis outline and bibliography to thesis advisor.

Friday, November 30
Student submits first draft of thesis to thesis advisor.

Monday, March 3
Student submits second draft to thesis advisor.

Monday, April 7
Student submits third draft of thesis to History of Art Department office, Goldwin Smith GM08. Both thesis advisor and second faculty reviewer read the thesis.

Monday, May 5
Student submits final, bound thesis in duplicate to the Department of the History of Art. This copy should incorporate all revisions recommended by the thesis advisor and second reader.

The awarding of honors is not automatic. The thesis advisor and the second reader together determine whether or not to approve the final version of the thesis for honors. If they approve it, they also assign the appropriate honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude). The Chairperson of the Department of the History of Art conveys the decision to the student. In all cases, the student receives a grade for Art H 498 and Art H 499, and course credit. The department retains one copy of the thesis and returns the other copy to the student.