Honors Engagement in the Major

The goal is two-fold: to deepen our honors majors’ exposure to the professional and scholarly activities of historians and to give you the opportunity to share your original scholarship at the end of your senior year.

During the final two years of study as History Honors majors, students must fulfill these four engagement requirements:

Requirement 1:

Attend one scholarly presentation by an historian and write a 1-2-page response paper to be submitted to the honors advisor, Academic Advisor Heather Parker.

With prior consultation with an honors advisor, this requirement can be fulfilled by:

  • attending a Wednesday Workshop presentation by a history faculty member or visiting historian;
  • attending a major talk by an historian at any UConn campus (e.g. Fusco, Gender and History, Foreign Policy, Maria and Ishier Jacobson Lecture at Stamford);
  • attending a talk by an historian at the UCHI, in Judaic Studies, in MCL, Asian-Asian American Studies, Africana Studies, or any other interdisciplinary center at UConn;
  • attending a virtual/live streamed presentation by an historian at another university or research center.

Requirement 2:

With prior consultation with an honors advisor, the student must do one of the following:

  • attend a second presentation by an historian and write a second 1-2 response paper (as described above);
  • attend a session devoted to history at a professional conference or annual meeting of a    professional society and write a 1-2- page response paper. The meeting may be interdisciplinary (e.g., Law and Society or Northeast Conference on British Studies) so long as the panel is devoted to an historical theme;
  • explore a collection in a digital history archive in any field, from the UConn University Archives and Special Collections to an accessible digital collection held anywhere in the world, and write a 1-2-page presentation on the archive, its notable features, and its organization.
  • serve as a judge in one of the state or regional History Days and write a 1-2 page paper about the experience;
  • present their research at a fall or spring university-wide Frontiers of Undergraduate Research event;
  • attend a meeting of a graduate seminar in history (with the instructor’s advance permission) and write a 1-2-page response paper;
  • complete a history internship

Requirement 3:

Write a one-paragraph abstract of their thesis, to be submitted with the final version of the thesis.

Requirement 4:

Give a brief (10 minute) public presentation on your honors thesis at a dedicated department event toward the end of the second semester of work on the project [format tbd].

Note: The public presentation requirement would of course be modified for students who may need accommodation as laid out for them by CSD.