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Honors Program in History

The Honors Program in the Department of History is intended to provide a small number of highly qualified and motivated history majors with intellectual enrichment, rigorous training, and recognition for unusual achievement, leading to graduation from NC State with Honors in History. The formal requirements of the program are listed below. Additionally, the History Department invites participating students to attend faculty seminars and other academic and social events, to meet visiting scholars, and to make their own contributions to the intellectual vitality of the University.

The Honors Seminars

For most students, the first contact with the Honors Program in History comes with an invitation to participate in the Honors Seminars. These non-graded, non-credit seminars are conducted by various members of the History Department, and occasionally by visiting scholars. In these sessions, (usually three evening meetings each semester), students and faculty gather informally to discuss a common reading. The assignments are chosen so as to represent the very wide range of topics and approaches that historical inquiry encompasses---from established classics to some of the most recent and controversial works.

Attendance at the Honors Seminars for at least two semesters is required of all students graduating with Honors, but all interested students whose Grade Point Averages (GPAs) would qualify them to participate in Honors course work are invited to attend.

The Department of History will, unless future financial constraints make it impossible, purchase the required books for those students (up to a maximum of twelve participants) who agree during the Spring preregistration period to attend the Honors Seminars in the following academic year.

Honors Courses

Students may enter the formal course work of the Honors Program (usually in the Junior year) if they have (1) an accumulated Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least 3.0 overall, and (2) a GPA in history of at least 3.3 with a minimum of 9 hours completed. Students accepted into the Honors Program are expected to maintain these minimum GPAs. As a part of successfully completing the Honors Program, students must achieve an overall GPA of at least 3.25.

The general requirements for a major in history are 36 hours in the major field. All history graduates must have successfully completed at least one semester of History 491: Seminar in History. Within this framework, the Honors student must take the following specific courses:

  1. History 498H: Independent Study in History (Honors) (3 credit hours):

    This course is taken with the advice and consent of a member of the History faculty chosen by the student. History 498H is a directed readings course covering the literature of a broad historiographies field, from which the student should ultimately draw a more specialized topic for an Honors Thesis. Both written and oral assignments based on the assigned reading may be made at the instructor's discretion. Additional training in bibliographic and research techniques may be included in HI 498H should the student and/or the instructor believe this advisable.

    History 498H should culminate in the selection of a topic for the Honors Thesis that is acceptable to both the student and the instructor. Under ordinary circumstances, the instructor directing the student's HI 498H readings course will also direct that student's Honors Thesis. Students may take this and all other Honors courses with scholars outside the regular faculty of the Department of History only with the concurrent approval of the Director of the Honors Program, the Curriculum Committee, and the Head of the History Department. (If a student should decide upon completing the assigned work in History 498H not to write an Honors Thesis, or if the student is unable to formulate a suitable topic, the instructor should assign a grade based on the quality of the work done for the course. The student is not obligated to write a thesis by virtue of having taken HI 498H.)

    Under exceptional circumstances, normally when only two semesters remain before graduation, a student who wishes to enter the honors program may substitute any 400-level history class in place of 498H for the first semester of the program. This substitution may be granted with the consent of the instructor of the 400- level history class and the director of the honors program. This class will thus be renamed HI 498H on the student's transcript. As with HI 498H, it is assumed that  the student will have chosen a topic for the honors thesis by the end of this course and will therefore take the following two courses (HI 495H and HI 496H) in their normal sequence.

  2. History 495H: Honors Research in History I (2 credit hours):

    In this course (usually in the Senior year), the student begins writing an Honors Thesis — the final and most rigorous requirement in the Honors Program. In History 495H the student should build upon the research begun in HI 498H to achieve a thorough familiarity with the relevant secondary literature and available primary sources. By the end of this semester, the student should produce a preliminary draft of the thesis. The Thesis Director will award an appropriate grade in HI 495H (2 credit hours) for this preliminary work; if the results of HI 495H are satisfactory to both the student and the Thesis Director, the student will continue in HI 496H to revise and complete the thesis. If for any reason, a student elects upon finishing HI 495H not to pursue the Honors Thesis to completion, he/she will receive credit only for 2 hours in HI 495H, and must make up with other upper-level history courses the additional four hours needed for graduation.

  3. History 496H: Honors Research in History II (4 credit hours):

    The Honors Thesis is completed and the final revisions are made. The completed thesis (usually 30-60 double-spaced pages in length) should be submitted at least a month before the end of classes in the semester for which the grade for HI 496H is to be given. The work will be read by the Thesis Director and two other faculty members, at least one of whom should be a member of the Honors Committee. If the thesis is deemed acceptable, the student will then take part in an oral discussion of approximately one hour, during which he/she will have the opportunity to discuss the work and its implications with all three of the readers, and to receive suggestions for improving the final, polished version of the Honors Thesis. One copy of this finished version shall be retained in the permanent collection of the History Department. (The grade for HI 496H will be determined by the Thesis Director.)

    Note: Completion of a thesis does not necessarily guarantee graduating with Honors in History.The Honors Committee, after consultation with the readers of the thesis, will  make the final judgment on that distinction based on the quality of the thesis, the maintenance of the required Grade Point Averages, and the completion of all other requirements for graduation with Honors in History. Students graduating with Honors in History will be appropriately recognized at Commencement and will receive a certificate of achievement from the Department of History as well as the "Honors" designation on their permanent University record.

 

The Honors Committee

The Honors committee consists of an Honors Program Director (appointed by the Department Head) and the regular faculty advisors to history majors.

In addition to the shared duties of reading theses and participating in oral examinations, the Honors Program Director is responsible for: the organization and staffing of the Honors Seminar; the supervision and coordination of the activities of the students and faculty participating in the Program; and the certification of all students designated as graduating with Honors in History.

Honors Program Director