The Department of History offers an Honors Program leading to the BA in History “with honors in the department.” Participation in the departmental honors program requires that a student maintain a 3.3 cumulative GPA.

The Honors Program requires the student to complete a six hour, individual research sequence (History 4995/4996), normally taken in the senior year, under the direction of a department faculty member. The student’s work focuses on the writing of a satisfactory honors thesis, which must be defended before a faculty examining committee. Successful completion and defense of the honors thesis and a 3.3 cumulative GPA will graduate a history major with “honors in” the department. Below are a few examples of topics that students have chosen to explore in their honors thesis:

• “Legal Fictions: Women’s Rights Law and the English Sensation Novel, 1850-1870”, by Katherine Hobbs, Fall 2015, Advisor: Prof. Ted Koditschek.
• “Origins of Law and Seventeenth Century Colonial Society in the Virginia and Massachusetts Colonies”, Nathaniel Brose, May 2015, Advisor: Prof. Mark Carroll.
• “An Old Era in a New Decade: Women’s Organizations and the Campain for the Equal Rights Amendment in St. Louis, 1972-1980”, Emma McIntyre, Advisor: Prof. Keona Ervin.