History Honors
The Honors Program in History allows undergraduates to develop critical thinking along with historical research and writing skills in a rigorous and collaborative environment that guarantees personal attention.
The History Honors program is a four-semester sequence, the culmination of which is the writing of a senior thesis—a significant research paper prepared under the close supervision of a faculty mentor. There are two phases to the program. In the junior year, members of the honors cohort take two courses that focus on historical interpretation, historiography, and writing. In the senior year, each student enrolls in two supervised, independent studies—with occasional group meetings—to research and write the thesis.
Courses Required
Junior Year
Fall Semester HIST 395 Honors Colloquium, I. (3 credits)
Spring Semester HIST 396 Honors Colloquium, II. (3 credits)
Senior Year
HIST 499 Independent Study (1-3 Credits)
Restriction: Permission of Department of History Honors Director.
Repeatable to: 6 credits.
Honors Thesis
Writing an Honors Thesis is the culmination of the four-semester course sequence of History Honors. Each student must identify a faculty mentor who specializes in the subject area of the thesis topic. Students and mentors work closely together in the conduct of research and the process of writing. Honors students produce a major paper of 50 to 100 pages in length on the order of an MA thesis. In the spring semester of the senior year, the Honors Thesis is defended by the student in consultation with the faculty mentor and Honors Director.
Student research is presented to peers and others who are interested in an Honors Showcase. The Hoosier Clio Award for Best History Honors Thesis, which conveys a cash prize and the distinction of "High Honors in History", is awarded to the best overall thesis written by the cohort in a given year. The award is presented at the Showcase and noted in the Commencement program.
Honors Seminars
Junior Year
In the junior year students enroll in HIST 395 & 396. HIST 395 is an introduction to general problems in the writing of history and to a range of historical approaches (political history, cultural history, women’s history, legal history, the history of gender, post-colonial studies, etc.).
HIST 395 devotes equal attention to the critical reading of sources and to discussions of historical methodology. How do historians make sense of the past? How do they reconstruct events, change, experiences, mentalities? Which historical subjects and questions matter?
Enrollment is limited to the Honors cohort members (generally 10-14 students) and the atmosphere is that of a mini-graduate seminar. There is a fairly heavy reading load, and participants are expected to critically engage the course materials, both in seminar and in their written assignments.
Then comes HIST 396 in the spring semester. Here students continue to address these questions by focusing on one historical topic, defined thematically and/or geographically and approached from a variety of perspectives. The topic (and instructor) change each year. In HIST 396 students are also encouraged to settle on a general area for their thesis and to seek out a faculty mentor who will supervise them during the senior year.
Senior Year
In the senior year, students register for HIST 499 in both semesters. The cohort continues to meet as a group on occasion to discuss the research and writing process and to compare work-in-progress. But the emphasis is on independent work, completed under supervision of a faculty mentor and in consultation with the Honors Director. By balancing group meetings, advising, and independent work, the program assures that we have few "dropouts" during the senior year—and that no one is left to write a senior thesis at the last moment. Rather, students receive constant encouragement, critical feedback and supervision at every stage of the research and writing process. Cohort members who complete all of the program requirements graduate with honors at the Department of History commencement.
How to Apply
Any History Major may apply for admission to the History Honors Program. Students should watch their email in February for announcements that applications for the Honors Program are being accepted. Applications are usually accepted in late February and early March. Admissions decisions are usually made by the end of March.
Students generally apply in February/March of their sophomore year. To apply, students must submit an unofficial transcript from UMD or the community college from which they are transferring; a writing sample, which is often a HIST 208 paper but can be a paper from any course at all; and a couple of paragraphs explaining why they want to participate in the History Honors Program.
Contact Dr. Robyn Muncy, Director of the History Honors Program for more information.