Skip to main content

Honors in Art History

Majors in the Department of Art who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 or higher, and who wish to undertake a special program of independent research resulting in an Honors Thesis, should apply for admission to the Honors Program in Art History.

The Honors Thesis, once approved by the candidate’s Honors Committee, qualifies the student to graduate “with honors” or “with highest honors.”

Procedures for Honors Enrollment

1. The applicant must meet with the Departmental Honors Advisor during the Fall semester of the Junior year. The Departmental Honors Advisor will clarify details of eligibility and program requirements. At this time, with the advice and assistance of the Departmental Honors Advisor, a prospective Project Supervisor and prospective committee members may be approached, to help the applicant formulate a research project.

2. The deadline for applying for Honors candidacy for academic year 2024-2025 is Monday, March 4, 2024. Applicants must submit a research prospectus with a preliminary bibliography to the DUS for the Art History Program. The Undergraduate Committee for the Art History Program will review the prospectus and vote to approve or reject the proposed project and will inform applicants of their decision within two weeks.

3. No later than Monday, March 25, 2024, candidates accepted to Honors in Art History will identify their Project Supervisor and two other committee members.  The applicant must have the same Project Supervisor throughout both semesters of the entire project. Students admitted to Departmental Honors must secure their Project Supervisor’s and committee members’ participation in March of their Junior year. A copy of the Art History Honors Announcement 2024-2025 must be provided to each member of the committee. 

4. The applicant must register for ARTH 691H (offered in the Fall of the Senior year) and ARTH 692H (offered in the Spring).  December graduates will reverse the order of the semesters in which they take 681H and 692H. Students taking ARTH 691H will earn a grade of “SP.”  At the conclusion of the program, those taking ARTH 692H will receive a letter grade, and the prior “SP” grade in ARTH 691H will also be converted to a letter grade.

Procedures for Completing Honors in Art History

1. Once the Undergraduate Committee has approved the proposed Senior Honors Thesis project and a student and his/her faculty supervisor have determined the specifics of the senior honors thesis research semester, the student should begin the registration process for ARTH 691H/Honors in Art History via the Online Course Management (OLCM) system. Please note: Independent Study Online Learning Contract Instructions have been kindly provided by the Office of Undergraduate Curricula.  At this stage, the following details will need to be specified in the contract, as per the university regulations here cited:

  • The contract should stipulate the number of hours per week of work expected from the student; the number of required meetings between the instructor and student during the term; reading and writing assignments and due dates for them; assessment information specifying how the final grade will be determined; and a brief work plan.

Once registered for 691H, the student must submit signed copies of the Art History Permission to Form Committee 2024-2025 to the Departmental Honors Advisor and the Student Services Assistant.  The deadline for submission of the signed Permission to Form a Thesis Committee document is the last day of classes in the Spring semester.

2. In ARTH 691H, the honors candidate will:  1) do specialized reading in a chosen field of research; 2) formulate a specific project; and 3) complete the research on this project and begin writing the thesis.  In consultation with the Project Supervisor, the student will prepare an official prospectus by mid-semester (3-4 pages, with an attached bibliography), defining as specifically as possible the project being undertaken.  Copies of this document go to all members of the student’s committee.  The committee will evaluate the prospectus, keeping in mind such things as the methods, bibliography, and structure proposed for the final paper. Taking any criticism into account, the student will prepare a final draft of the proposal for submission to the committee.  The approved version of the proposal, signed by all members of the committee, will be filed with the Honors Advisor no later than December 3 (April 30 for December graduates).

3. In ARTH 692H, the honors candidate will finish writing, and defend orally an interpretative essay of a length appropriate to the scope of the project.

4. For the deadlines for the oral defense of the thesis, please consult the document titled Senior Honors Thesis on the Honors Carolina website for the current academic year. Honors candidates will submit a complete draft of the thesis to their committee by the end of the second week of March (the week preceding Fall Break for December graduates), but not later than two weeks before the scheduled oral examination on the project.  The last date available for an oral defense is the last weekday of March. The candidate’s entire committee must participate in the oral defense.

5. For the thesis, style and format should follow those recommended in one of the standard style manuals: the MLA style sheet or (preferably) the University of Chicago Manual of Style.  The style should be consistent with good research in the particular subject area and approved by the student’s Project Supervisor.

6. The oral defense will be completed not later than three weekdays before the deadline set by the Honors Carolina Office for Departmental Honors recommendations. Immediately following the oral defense, the Project Supervisor must inform the Departmental Student Services Assistant of the Honors recommendation (Honors, High Honors, or No Honors). The Project Supervisor will also submit the appropriate letter grades for ARTH 691H and 692H in Connect Carolina when the Registrar’s Office releases grade rosters at the end of the term in which the oral defense takes place.

7. Occasionally a student will elect to withdraw from the Honors program. There are also rare instances in which the student’s essay falls below the specified standards for the thesis, and “no honors” is voted by the committee. In these cases, ARTH 691H and/or 692H will count as ordinary Directed Readings courses (ART 396).

8. Following the oral defense and the completion of any changes required by the committee, the candidate must submit the Honors thesis to the Carolina Digital Repository by the last day of classes. Candidates should refer to the instructions for electronic submission in the Honors Carolina Senior Honors Thesis Guidelines for Academic Units, Faculty Advisors, and Students.

9. Each Honors thesis student is expected to present a paper in the annual Honors Symposium, held at the end of their final year.