Junior Project and Senior Thesis

Through the Junior Project students have the opportunity to spend the greater part of one academic year reading the works of a single author of their choosing from within their major discipline. Juniors also consider key critical works about these authors and their writings. Near the end of the spring semester, each junior joins three members of the faculty in a thirty-minute conversation about the works of his or her chosen author.

During their final year at the college, seniors have the opportunity to write a thesis and introduce the fruit of their study to their peers and members of the faculty through a sustained presentation and discussion of their work. This opportunity is open to students who wish to graduate with honors as well as to students who have not participated in the Honors Program.

Below is list of sample theses from recent years:

Seniors who elect not to write a thesis will complete a Senior Portfolio.  In this project, the student  meets with his or her major tutor to develop and articulate a substantial, perennial question from within the student’s major discipline and to select a primary text and supporting texts that the student will consult in formulating a response (or responses) to this question.  These then become the basis for an extended consideration of a perennial question that finds its ultimate form in a dialogic journal.