Honors Guidelines

The Honors Project in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

In the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, the successful honors project uses gender and, as appropriate, related categories of analysis; employs feminist theory; is interdisciplinary; and is based on systematic reading, research, questioning, and reflection. The project can emerge from questions raised in a course, in an independent study project, or through a non-academic experience. The project will culminate in a substantial paper or creative presentation and a colloquium presentation. The writing of an honors thesis does not automatically lead to the granting of honors. Honors will be conferred by the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program Committee when the final project demonstrates a significant degree of original research and/or theoretical creativity. 

Eligibility

Permission to apply for an honors project in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies is reserved for students with distinguished academic records in the program. Students who wish to pursue an honors project should consult with the director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program and with the faculty member who might become the main advisor for the project. This should be done prior to the semester in which the project begins in order to ensure faculty availability. Students considering honors should expect to do preliminary research in the summer preceding their senior year at Bowdoin. 

Procedures and Deadlines

Proposal Submission and Review

By the end of the second week of classes in the initial semester of the proposed project, the honors candidate should present to the director and to the faculty advisor a two- to three-page written description of the proposed project.

The director, potential faculty advisors, and members of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program Committee (GSWSPC) review the project proposals and determine which students will be encouraged to pursue honors projects. The number of honors projects in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies in any given year is limited, and project proposals will be judged competitively. It is expected that honors projects in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies will number between 75 and 100 pages.

The proposal must include a description of and rationale for the specific focus as well as the problem or question the work will consider; a description of the methodological and theoretical approaches the student expects to employ; and a discussion of how the proposed project fits in with existing scholarship. The proposal must have as an addendum a preliminary, annotated bibliography.

Committee Composition

The project will be supervised by a committee of two faculty members, including a principal advisor and a second reader. The principal reader will, in most cases, be a GSWS core faculty member or an affiliate. The second reader is chosen by the principal advisor in consultation with the student and the director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program. During the two semesters that a student is working on an honors project, the director is available for consultation with the student and with the individual faculty members directing honors projects. Faculty supervising an honors project need to be kept informed of deadlines by the director and must communicate with the director about how the project is progressing. In this respect, the director will have the same role in the project as that of a department chair.

Fall Deadlines

By December 15, the student will submit the first chapter and a draft of the second, with plans for the remainder of the project. Students should expect to receive feedback and spend the winter break working on their projects. The committee will, after reading this preliminary work, determine if the student will continue with the project as an honors project during the second semester.

Spring Deadlines

In order to allow time for a thorough critique, a complete draft of the project is due immediately after spring break. The main advisor and second reader return the draft with written comments within two weeks so that the student can begin working on revisions and can have sufficient time to complete the project by the end of April.

Colloquium and Final Draft

Students will present the final draft of the project in a program colloquium in early May. In an open forum, with members of the GSWSPC and majors and minors in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies in the audience, the student will present a fifteen-minute colloquium on her or his findings and conclusions, including the evolution of the student’s thinking about the project as it was carried out. This colloquium is followed by questions posed by the audience. The project advisor may suggest some final changes as a result of discussion at the colloquium, and the program’s decision about conferring honors may be influenced by this colloquium.   

Honors Designation

The final recommendation of the student’s advisor, second reader, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program Committee determines whether program honors are to be awarded. The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program does not distinguish levels of departmental honors. The grade for the two semesters of independent study is determined by the student’s principal advisor in consultation with the second reader.

Note on Deadlines

Students must meet all deadlines for submitted work. Failure to meet deadlines, except when the committee grants a short extension, may disqualify the project as an honors project.

Submission to Hawthorne-Longfellow Library

Theses should be typed in conformity with official college instructions and delivered to the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. Follow all of the library requirements found at http://libguides.bowdoin.edu/honors.

Recent Honors Theses

Sadie Lo-Gerfo Olsen '19 "We are your wives, sisters, daughters, mothers and friends": United States' Women's Stories from the Public to the Archive

Elena Gleed, ’18   Gendered Subjectivity in Refugee Resettlement Processes: From Somalia to Lewiston, ME

Tessa Westfall ’18   Seize the Memes: Community, Personal Expression, and Everyday Feminist Politics Through Instagram Memes