Consider pursuing an independent study or honors project in a topic that interests you.
Independent Study
Art history majors and minors may pursue independent projects for regular course credit. Working with a faculty member, students have designed courses of study that allow them to read widely in an area not covered in the current curriculum or to pursue a topic from their formal coursework in greater depth. Students who complete an independent study may have the opportunity to present their findings at the end of the academic year.
Students interested in pursuing an independent study should set up a meeting with the professor who you would like to advise your project. Come prepared to the meeting with a sense of the kind of project you would like to pursue and what motivates you to pursue this work, including (as applicable) a preliminary outline of goals, research questions, methodology, reading list, timeline, and interim and final work products.
As a department, our capacity to advise independent studies is limited. Because the extent of an advisor’s participation in each independent study should be substantial, under normal circumstances, an advisor may sponsor no more than one independent study per semester. Other factors further limit the availability of faculty to advise projects. For these reasons, not all students who are interested in pursuing an independent study will be able to do so.
An independent study is expected to meet the demands of a one-credit course as described in the Bowdoin Course Catalogue: “In accordance with federal regulations, Bowdoin courses that count for one credit typically meet for fifteen-week semesters and three hours a week, with the expectation that a minimum of nine additional hours a week will be spent in lab, discussion group, film viewing, or preparatory work.”
During Registration, students should register for a full slate of classes. If you are approved to pursue an independent study, you may drop one of your classes and replace it with the independent study.
Application Process
Submit a written proposal to the department. Your proposal should include:
A 400-word description of your project, including (as applicable): research questions (what are you going to study?), methodology (how are you going to study it?), interim and final work products (what are you planning to write/do/create this semester?), and any relevant coursework you have already completed. In addition, please indicate which faculty member you are hoping to work with.
If applicable, attach a preliminary reading list and timeline for the semester.
Your unofficial Bowdoin transcript.
Deadline: Submit your application via e-mail to the Art History Academic Department Coordinator by NOON on the first day of your class’s Course Registration on Workday—for example: for a fall semester independent study, the submission needs to occur during the spring semester. Your subject heading should be “Independent Study Application.”
Honors
Who May Apply?
Permission to try for honors in art history is reserved for students with distinguished academic records in the department. To earn honors, a student must produce a substantial paper that reflects serious scholarship and makes an original contribution to knowledge in the field.
Students who seek honors should be working in an area previously studied in a course, and with an art history faculty advisor with whom the student has already worked. The advisor should have a background in the chosen area of study strong enough to oversee the proposed project.
Financial Assistance
Students who may need some financial assistance in completing the honors thesis should make this need known to the faculty member supervising the honors project.
Recent honors theses have included studies of a Renaissance book of hours in the Bowdoin College Special Collections, avant-garde Japanese calligraphy, Berthe Morisot's portraits, Yves Tanguy's late work, and Orozco's murals.
Schedule
Honors projects must be approved by the full art history faculty and carried out according to the following schedule:
On or before the last day of the third week of classes in the fall semester, the student must submit to all art history faculty a formal proposal including:
a written description of the project which specifies both the topic to be addressed and the approach to be used
a preliminary bibliography
the name of an advisor.
Proposals will be reviewed for preliminary approval. Submission of a proposal does not automatically lead to admission to the Honors Program. Students whose proposals are approved may continue to the next stage.
On or before the last day of classes in the fall semester the student must submit to all art history faculty:
an abstract of his/her thesis
a detailed outline of the paper
a draft of a substantive section (or a chapter) of the essay
an annotated bibliography
any other work required by the advisor
After having read and commented on this material, the art history faculty will meet with the student. They will then make a recommendation by the end of the semester as to whether the project should continue into the second semester as a projected Honors Project. Alternatively, the faculty may suggest that the project proceed as an independent study.
A student who fails to meet the fall semester deadlines will no longer be eligible for honors.
An honors student should be prepared to devote considerable time during the entire spring semester to writing and revising the honors paper. The student will be expected to meet a series of firm deadlines (to be determined by the advisor) for the submission of draft sections or chapters throughout the month of February. By the third week in March, the student is required to submit a completed, revised draft of the entire project to the advisor. In April, the student will revise the project a final time.
The deadline for submission of a completed honors thesis is three weeks before the last day of classes in the term in which the student expects to graduate. At that time, the student should make available to the faculty at least two copies of the thesis, each copy fully illustrated. Illustrations may be in the form of photographs or machine-made copies of good quality. The proper form of the thesis is described in a memo from the Office of Student Records and the Library.
Once the honors thesis has been submitted to the department, the student's advisor will schedule a final honors conference, at which the student and members of the faculty will have the opportunity to review the honors project and discuss the thesis.
The writing of an honors thesis does not automatically lead to the granting of honors. An honors designation at Commencement will be based on the department's evaluation of the quality of the honors thesis and on the student's overall performance in courses in art history. Art history awards only one level of honors for successful projects.
