The Thesis

A thesis is a sustained analysis (normally 70 to 100 pages) of a carefully focused topic or problem.  It must ask and treat a question of import in the culture, engaging with both primary and secondary sources.  The thesis will be written in accurate French or Italian, will respect consistent conventions of citations style, and will be presented as a public oral presentation and as a paper presented to the faculty.  Bound copies of the thesis will be submitted to the Department, the faculty advisor, and the library.

All theses submitted by Dartmouth students are considered for the annual Jonathan B. Rintels Prize, which is awarded "for the best honors thesis in the Arts and Humanities" for the graduating class.  The 2014 Johnathan B. Rintels Thesis Prize was awarded to Kathleen S. Chung '14, for her bilingual Spanish and French thesis, directed by Professors Keith L. Walker, Department of French and Italian, and Israel Reyes, Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Other past recipients of the Rintels Prize have included Madeline Sims '12 for her thesis "Christine De Pizan: Reshaping the Past with her Pen" and Emily Kane '10 for her thesis "Unveiled Stories: Desire, Representation and Resistance in Feminist Counter-Cinema."  All theses are available in the library.