There are many benefits to completing an Honors Thesis during your undergraduate studies:  

• With the mentorship of a faculty member in Anthropology, you learn to formulate an original research question, develop and implement methods and analytical techniques to address it, and discuss your results in the context of relevant anthropological scholarship.  

• It is a great opportunity to conduct and report independent research beyond the level of a one-semester course. 

• If you are interested in pursuing a graduate degree, this experience helps you evaluate what “doing research” actually means and whether you are really interest in research. 

• You work closely with a faculty member who will get to know you well, making recommendations they may write much more substantive. 

• You receive university recognition for your Honors work in the form of Arts & Sciences Latin Honors. This is one of the most impressive awards a student can receive, and it will distinguish you as an outstanding scholar for life. 

• Undergraduate Honors Theses can be shared publicly through the WashU Scholarly Repository: Washington University in St. Louis Scholarly Repository. Outstanding thesis work may also be published in various formats, such as conferences or peer-reviewed journals. 

Before you decide to declare your interest in the Senior Honors Thesis, keep in mind that doing an honors thesis is academically demanding and requires much time and effort. Planning and executing research that involves multiple participants, significant planning and collaboration, and various institutional components (e.g., securing IRB approval, gaining access to labs and undertaking lab work, etc.) can be not only time consuming but can pose unforeseen challenges. Developing a sound research methodology, learning to craft an extended argument, and even the mechanics of referencing figures and tables, using proper citations, and putting together extensive bibliographies can be more time consuming that you imagined. Occasionally, honors students are unable to complete the thesis in time for the spring deadline. It is advisable to think well ahead and to begin conducting research or to prepare for that research during the junior year prior to registering for the honors program in your senior year. Also, faculty will help you as much as they can, but you will have to work independently more than you may be used to. Finally, the results of your work toward an honors thesis are not known until after applications for graduate programs are due, so that doing an honors thesis may not help with those applications.

If you are interested in pursuing Latin Honors, you will need to identify a professor in the Anthropology Department willing to sponsor your research project and serve as your primary honors advisor for the duration of the project. This may be as early as the sophomore year, but ideally during the junior year. The fall semester of your senior year is late for planning an honors thesis. 

It is important to work on a topic that you are especially interested and in which you have solid academic groundwork (meaning you have completed upper-level coursework, written a paper, or done some preliminary research in class). You will need to discuss your potential topic with your faculty advisor who may expect you to have completed upper-level coursework related to your thesis topic. Consider reviewing past honors thesis available through the WashU Scholarly Repository to get an idea of topics, as well as other aspects of a thesis like format, length and methods.  

The Honors Thesis is evaluated by a three-person examining committee that includes the sponsoring faculty advisor and two readers. Readers are selected by the faculty advisor in consultation with the student and the honors coordinator. At least one of the readers must be an anthropology faculty member (Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, Lecturer). The third member can be faculty from another academic department. The three-members committee evaluates the quality of the thesis and suggests revisions. 

Securing IRB Approval: Any student conducting research with human subjects must obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from the Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) before beginning research. This includes studies in which students plan to conduct formal interviews or even just observe public behavior and speak informally with individuals (without collecting any personal identifiers from subjects). For the purpose of applying for this approval, you must have a good sense of the kinds of research methodologies that will be utilized, the approximate number of research subjects, and how to maintain data confidentiality and reduce the risks to human subjects. Guidelines for the IRB process are available online at | Human Research Protection Office | Washington University in St. Louis (http://hrpohome.wustl.edu). If you received initial human subject research approval for research conducted abroad as part of an SIT program, you must apply to transfer that SIT approval to the WashU IRB when you return to campus. You must obtain this approval before sharing any results of your research. Keep in mind that while some cases obtain IRB approval quickly, it can also take a substantial amount of time and effort to secure IRB approval. It is preferable to complete the IRB process before the fall semester of the senior year.  

Access to Laboratory Facilities: If you plan to do laboratory-based thesis research, you will have to obtain permission for extra access hours to laboratory facilities. You need to discuss this with your advisor or other professors ahead of time. 

Research Methods: Methods will vary with topic and should be discussed with your advisor. Methods classes in the relevant subdiscipline of anthropology will be helpful. 

Academic Integrity: All students must abide by WashU’s academic integrity policies and certify that all of the work they submit is their own: For Students | Office of the Provost | WashU 

Students typically start preparing for their Honors research before their senior year to ensure they can successfully complete their thesis. Here are some steps you can take to make sure you get a good start, although not having done these does not disqualify you from doing an Honors thesis: 

• Complete upper-level courses in thesis-related topics 

• Identify a potential faculty advisor and talk to them about your interests and plans 

• Start conducting pilot research and collecting preliminary data 

• Apply for research funding, especially if you plan to travel for research over the summer. Click here for more information on undergraduate research & funding opportunities at WashU.

By the end of spring semester of their junior year, students submit the Honors Interest Form to the Director of Undergraduate Studies to indicate their intent to complete a senior honors thesis. You will need DUS approval to enroll in ANTHRO 4960 for the fall semester of your senior year. 

Most thesis writers carry out (preliminary) research in the summer before senior year, especially if the thesis involves fieldwork. Thesis projects based on lab analysis or other types of evidence may also require summer work. By the start of the Fall semester, you should be well on your way to analyzing your evidence, not just starting to collect it.  

** Students who plan to graduate in the Fall semester of their Senior Year should consult with the honors coordinator about the accelerated timeline towards thesis completion. 

Thesis writers are enrolled in ANTHRO 4960 Senior Honors Research which meets on Friday mornings. There, you will get to know the cohort of students writing theses, participate in workshops, and gain access to educational resources available to undergraduate researchers. Outside of the course, you are also expected to meet regularly with your faculty advisor and report your progress to the honors coordinator and your peers during weekly meetings. In addition, students  

Students will meet regularly with the honors coordinator as part of ANTHRO 4961 for workshops on how to prepare a research poster and thesis abstract, how to present their research, group writing and peer editing, and progress exercises.  

Most advisors will ask for a near-final draft of the thesis in mid-February in order to read it carefully, suggest revisions, and give the student time to make necessary changes before early March, when the two committee readers will receive their copy. A full draft of the thesis must be received by all committee members by a set deadline, typically just before Spring Break. Shortly thereafter, the committee makes its recommendation to the College of Arts & Sciences on the level of honors to be awarded to the thesis. While the level of honors is contingent on GPA, the quality of the thesis is also a substantial consideration.  

Students are required to supply the honors coordinator with a final digital copy of the thesis (with all changes required by the committee) by the last day of the Spring semester. It is customary to provide the faculty advisor (and often the committee members) with final spiral-bound copies. 

Latin Honors are awarded to students who are receiving the Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts & Sciences. Students may pursue Latin Honors in either their first or their second major; however, Latin Honors are not available through an Arts & Sciences minor. To be eligible, students must  

1. have maintained a 3.65 or better GPA throughout their education at Washington University,  

2.  must have filled out and submitted a Senior Honors Thesis Interest Form to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Anthropology before the beginning of the fall semester of their senior year, 

3. must enroll in ANTHRO 4960 (Thesis Research) in the Fall semester of their senior year, and ANTHRO 4961 (Thesis Writing) in the Spring semester of their senior year (of which only 3 credits can be counted toward the Anthropology major). (Grades for ANTHRO 4960 and 4961 will be determined by honors coordinator and the faculty advisor.) and  

4. satisfactorily complete a research project appropriate to the nature of the discipline. 

For more information about the WashU Arts&Sciences Latin Honors Program, please visit Academic Honors & Awards | Washington University Bulletin.