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Honors Thesis Program

Please refer to the ORC for general, College-wide requirements for admission to the Honors Program. In any of the five types of major offered by the Department of French and Italian, a student who wishes to write an honors thesis must give evidence of exceptional ability and interest in the major field by having a GPA of 3.5 or better. 

Overview

Honors Thesis

The thesis topic and the individual faculty advisor for the thesis must be determined during the student's junior year, with a one-page thesis proposal due to both the advisor and the department chair, Andrea Tarnowski, by June 1st.

Honors Thesis in French - Students in their senior year writing an honors thesis in French will take FREN 87 in the fall, FREN 78 (the Senior Major Seminar) in the winter, and FREN 89 in the spring.  FREN 87 and FREN 89 are courses specifically and entirely devoted to thesis work.  All three courses (FREN 87, FREN 78, and FREN 89) count toward the honors major.  The honors thesis in French, French Studies, or Romance Studies with a principal concentration in French must be written in French.

Honors Thesis in Italian - Students in their senior year writing an honors thesis in Italian will take ITAL 88 in the fall and ITAL 89 in the winter, or, alternatively, ITAL 88 in the winter and ITAL 89 in the spring.  Both ITAL 88 and ITAL 89 count toward the honors major.  The honors thesis in Italian, Italian Studies or Romance Studies with a principal concentration in Italian must be written in Italian.

Upon student submission of a thesis, department faculty will determine whether the student will graduate without honors in the major, with an Honors designation, or with a designation of High Honors.