Students pursuing honors must have a record of all A’s or a final grade of S with distinction in courses they have as S/NC. Typically, the honors thesis is a major research paper of approximately 40 to 80 pages in Spanish, depending on the topic and treatment necessary. Alternatively, a student may, with prior permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, present a film, gallery exhibition, or other appropriate project, together with a paper that clearly demonstrates the academic foundations and relevance of the project.
Students should begin thinking about an honors thesis or project in their third year at Brown. Those who study in Spain or Latin America in the spring of their junior year may want to write to professors they are considering working with, indicating their potential thesis interests. Ideally, students will begin to research topics and prepare a reading list for the thesis during the summer before their senior year.
Thesis Readers
The department expects students to have two readers for their honors thesis or project. Typically, the advisor for the project will be a faculty member in Hispanic Studies; the second reader can be another member of the Hispanic Studies faculty or come from a different department.
Honors Timeline
Students planning to write an honors thesis in Hispanic Studies must submit their application to the honors program by the end of the third week of semester 7. The application will include a brief description of the project and the signature of the intended thesis advisor.
Students admitted to the program will subsequently submit an honors proposal consisting of the title, abstract, and bibliography of their project, along with the name and signatures of their advisor and second reader by October 15 (semester 7). Students will develop at the least a detailed outline and a bibliography for their project during the fall semester and submit it by December 15. Optimally, a substantial portion of the draft for the thesis will also be submitted at that time.
The second semester (semester 8) is devoted to completing the writing or the project. Students will register in HISP 1990, Independent Study. Note that Independent Study courses devoted to writing an honors thesis will count towards the general credit requirement for graduation but will not be counted towards the requirements of the concentration. A full draft of the thesis or project must be submitted to the thesis advisor and second reader by March 10.
The final, complete honors thesis or project must be submitted by April 15. Students should submit one copy to each reader, and two copies (one electronic and one hard copy) to the department.