|
|
|
|
|
THE HONORS THESIS 2012
|
(A full list of completed 2012 Honors theses can be found here.)
During the senior year students write an Honors thesis or complete an equivalent Honors project. The precise form of the Honors Thesis will vary depending on the student’s major field. (Students in the School of Business have the option of undertaking a special honors project; see the School of Business undergraduate handbook for specific details.) To be eligible to write an honors thesis, a student must have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher, and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the major or majors for which the thesis is to be written.
(Click here for a list of honors thesis FAQs.)
Note that students typically will not be allowed to register for the honors thesis in their third year of undergraduate study, regardless of whether or not they have sufficient credit hours to qualify for “senior standing.” Exceptions to this rule may be granted by way of a petition to the Director of the Honors Program in cases where students can demonstrate sufficient academic training, or some other compelling academic rationale, for undertaking the thesis project in the third year. Each petition must be accompanied by a letter of support from a faculty member who has agreed to direct the honors thesis.
As the culminating achievement of the scholar’s undergraduate career, this thesis or project involves substantial independent research and study under the direction of a professor in the scholar’s major department. The honors thesis should demonstrate the student’s capacity for quality research and should give evidence of mastery of the material in a field. Topics should be framed in terms of a question to be asked, a problem to be explored, or a hypothesis to be tested. The thesis should show comprehensive awareness of what scholars or relevant experts are saying and have said about a subject.
Topics for honors theses generally develop out of ongoing relationships with faculty mentors. Students normally begin preliminary exploration of the thesis topic in discussion with one or more potential faculty advisors during the spring of the junior year. Students in the humanities, in particular, are encouraged to take the Honors Thesis Boot Camp course during the spring of the junior year to facilitate this process. Please note that if you intend to write a thesis in the laboratory sciences, you must develop a relationship with a faculty member in whose lab you intend to do your research, and normally begin working in the lab during the junior year, if not earlier. Also note that if you intend to write a thesis in the performing or visual arts that it is expected that the thesis will also contain a significant written component.
All honors theses must be two semester projects.
A student’s Honors Thesis committee consists of three faculty members: a 1st reader/director, a 2nd reader, and a 3rd reader. The 1st and 2nd readers should come from the student’s major department. The 3rd reader, who represents the Honors Program, must come from outside the major department. Readers for Honors Theses must normally be full-time faculty rather than adjuncts or visitors, although exceptions may be made by the Director in particular circumstances. Students must sign up for their thesis in the home department each of the two semesters necessary for completion. All students must defend their thesis before their committees in an oral defense. The final copy of the thesis is due in the Honors Program office around ten days before Commencement.
A student who wishes to write a thesis for honors in two majors must have a 1st reader from one of the major departments, a 2nd reader from the second major department, and a 3rd reader from neither major department. The student registers for the Honors Thesis in one major department in the first semester, and the second major department in the second semester.
While the Thesis Committees have the responsibility of judging whether the student’s work meets the standards and expectations of the particular major or majors, the Honors Program also exercises oversight over the thesis project, in particular through a series of required forms:
- Thesis Prospectus, due at the beginning of the fall semester.
- First Progress Report, due around the middle of the fall semester.
- Second Progress Report, due in late January.
- Honors Thesis Oral Defense report, due after successful completion of the oral defense
A schedule of specific dates and deadlines is distributed each year, and is posted below.
|
2011 Thesis Bootcamp Syllabus
  Click here to download
|
2013 Honors Thesis Prospectus
Due in the Honors Program Office September 9, 2013
Click here to download
|
First Progress Report Form
Due in the Honors Program Office November 11, 2013
Click here to download
|
Honors Thesis Guidelines 2013-2014
For students graduating May 2014
Click here to download
|
Honors Thesis Schedule 2012-2013
For students graduating May 2013
Click here to download
|
Honors Thesis Schedule 2013-2014
For students graduating May 2014
Click here to download
|
Honors Thesis Style Guide
Thesis style guide with sample title pages and abstracts
Click here to download
|
Second Progress Form
Due in the Honors Program Office January 22, 2014
Click here to download
|
Spring-Fall 2013 Thesis Schedule
For students planning to graduate December 2013
Click here to download
|
| |
SELECTED THESES 2012
School of Liberal Arts |
Milton’s Foggy Solution to Mercantile Labor and Pollution in Paradise Lost
Leah Askarinam (English)
|
Monopolis: A One –Act Playscript and Production
Hope Barnard (English and Theatre)
|
Falling to Recover
Rachel Clark (Dance and Gender and Sexuality Studies)
|
The Libro de Buen Amor and the Canterbury Tales: A Comparative Study
Teresa Clifton (English and Spanish)
|
Pinochet, Penguins and Kiss-Ins: Education Policy and Student Mobilization in Chile
Melissa Cotignola (Political Science)
|
Stronger Communities, Stronger Businesses: Social Factors Influencing the Hispanic Business Boom in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Robert Dean (Latin American Studies)
|
An Algorithmic Approach to Melodic Harmonization
Nathaniel Eiseman (Music and Mathematics)
|
Medieval Interpretations of the Image of Narcissus in the Illuminated Manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose
Katharine Fischman (Art History and French)
|
Image V Reality: An Illumination on Holocaust Portrayal and its Implications
Kayla Green (Jewish Studies)
|
The Salvation and Ruin of Society: Victorian Prostitution, Rehabilitation and Containment 1840-1880
Julie Johnson (History)
|
Directing Beautiful Bodies
Maebetty Kirby (Theatre)
|
Stories to Pass On: Memory and Motherhood in Southern American Literature
Emily Kolf (Gender and Sexuality Studies and English)
|
Renewable Energy Support Schemes and their Applications in Louisiana
Jackson Lester (Economics and Environmental Studies)
|
Intersections of Understandings: Immigration Tensions in France and Italy
Andrea Lloyd (French and Italian)
|
The Perfection of Man in Emerson’s Essays: Second Series
Kelly Martin (Philosophy)
|
Effects of Multiple Past Population Bottlenecks When Inferring Population History
Laura Matthews (Anthropolgy and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
|
Why they Mentor Youth: An Examination of Culture and Spirituality in Mentoring
Kevin Mitchell (Sociology)
|
Religion and Reason in the Treatment of Diseases in Classical Antiquity
Michelle Nguyen (Classical Studies and Religious Studies)
|
Understanding the Role of Buffers in African American Adolescent Achievement in New Orleans
Marlanea Peabody (African and African Diaspora Studies and Public Health)
|
Colonialism, Tradition and the Culture of Education in Ghanaian Schools
Samantha Sahl (Anthropology)
|
New Orleans as a Space, New Orleans as a Place: How Tax Incentives Funded Films Representing New Orleans
Shara Scottland (Communication)
|
Economic Valuation of Marine Biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico
Stephanie Stefanski (Economics and Political Economy)
|
Environmental NGO’s and Civil Society in China
Jillian Taylor (Asian Studies and Political Science)
|
Divergent State Tax Structures: Historical Developments in Louisiana and Texas,
Matthew Turner (History and Political Economy)
|
Citizen Journalism in the Post-Network Age: Is User Generated Content Hero or Menace?
Alexandra Vitali (Communication)
|
Building the Future and Past Today: The Contributions of East German Historians to the Political Legitimation of the DDR
Lance Waters (Germanic and Slavic Studies and Political Science)
|
Human Development and the Importance of Nonacademic Skills in Early Childhood Education
Laura White (Political Economy)
|
School of Science and Engineering |
Quantification of Glycoprotein Iba Mediated Platelet Adhesion Under Inflammatory Conditions
Theodore Brown (Biomedical Engineering)
|
Seasonal Impacts Influencing Denitifrication in Wetlands: A Look at the Davis Pond Diversion
Emily Cardarelli (Earth and Environmental Science)
|
Heeding Medical Advice
Dhruv Gupta (Psychology)
|
Calculation of Structural Phase Diagrams in Binary Alloys
Andrew Hamilton (Engineering Physics and Math)
|
The Role of Cortiscosterone in Accute Stress-Mediated Molecular Changes in the Hippocampus
Erin Harris (Neuroscience)
|
Regulation of Dendritic Protein Translation by the NMDA Receptor GLUN2B Subunit
Richard Held (Cell and Molecular Biology and Neuroscience)
|
Novel Models to Study Hallucinogenic Drug Action: Behavioral and Physiological Effects of Psilocybin and Phencyclidine on Adult Zebrafish
Evan Kyzar (Neuroscience)
|
Properties and Applications of Involutions Under the Bruhat Order
Jordan Martin (Mathematics)
|
Surface Modified Hard Carbon Spherules as a Versatile Solution to an Array of Scientific Challenges
Beau Pritchett (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering)
|
The Effect of Thalidomide on Digit Tip Regeneration of Adult Mice
Shyam Sathyamoorthi (Cell and Molecular Biology)
|
How Attention Impacts Adaptation to Delayed Auditory Feedback
Yingjia Wan (Psychology and Political Economy)
|
|
