Changes to English Honors Program
Dear English majors:
A number of you have inquired about the deadline for applications to the English Honors program. I just wanted to give you all a quick update about the program, which is currently undergoing a period of reconstruction.
Because the deadline for applications in previous years was the October of juniors’ fall semester, English Honors-worthy students who declared their major only in the spring semester of their junior year were necessarily excluded from the applicant pool. As a result, we have decided to push the deadline for honors applications back to the March of the spring semester.
Postponing the deadline to March has a number of other consequences for the program, the most important of which is the cancellation of the junior honors seminar, taught previously in spring semesters. Students admitted to the English Honors program will now sign up for the senior seminar (a thesis preparation course) that is run in the fall; the following spring, they will register for a special independent study course, in which they will write their theses.
In place of the junior seminar, the English department will now offer a series of three evening workshops in the spring semester on undergraduate research. All students who wish to apply for the English Honors program are expected to attend the three workshops, which can be taken as a 1-credit course. Students studying abroad in the spring semester of their junior year are exempted from this requirement.
The evening workshop series will include discussions of
* New Directions in English Studies, featuring English department faculty;
* Library Skills and Resources, featuring Gelman staff, Library of Congress staff, and faculty from the Folger Shakespeare Library;
* How to Write a Thesis, featuring current English Honors students.
Dates and times for each of these workshops will be announced early in the spring.
An email will be sent out to all English juniors in January, inviting applications for the English Honors program; this email will also include the updated application form. And yes, applications can be submitted by students studying abroad in the spring semester.
If you have any questions about the new English Honors program, please contact me.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Gil Harris
Professor of English
Director of Undergraduate Studies
