LAH Thesis and Research Courses

LAH 368T Honors Tutorial Course I and LAH 369T Honors Tutorial Course II comprise a two-semester honors thesis sequence offered through Liberal Arts Honors. Most students write a thesis as part of a departmental honors program, which typically earns them special honors in their major on their transcripts. Students interested in writing an honors thesis that doesn't fit well with their major discipline or who need the flexibility of an honors sequence that can be started in any semester may wish to pursue an LAH thesis.

Our thesis is not accompanied by a class, so it is entirely up to the student and thesis supervisor to create the structure of the two semesters. We strongly recommend that students use the suggested deadlines and the writing and research checklist in our honors thesis manual to create a written plan with their thesis supervisor. This step ensures that both students and faculty share the same expectations for the process.

We recommend that all students writing a thesis review our thesis page and download the thesis manual from it before and during the writing process.

Similar to the thesis courses, LAH offers credit for research under LAH 358Q Supervised Research. The research can be original student research or participation in a faculty member's own research. This is separate from credit received for URAP participation or other research, like Project SEED, which comes with credit from other units. Students should expect to spend a minimum of 8-12 hours per week on their research, though exact grading expectations will be left up to the student and instructor to agree on.

Registration for LAH 358Q, 368T, and 369T

Students need to secure a faculty supervisor and speak with an LAH advisor prior to requesting access to the courses. Which comes first depends on the student. Some students have a faculty member in mind and need to discuss the mechanics of the course with an advisor. Other students know they might want to do research or write a thesis but need help fleshing out their ideas with an advisor before seeking out a faculty member. Once a student has found a faculty member and spoken with an advisor, they can get a link to the portal for submitting a coursework proposal.