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Senior Thesis Honors Program

In the Spring quarter of Junior year, Religious Studies Majors may seek approval from a faculty member, in consultation with the Honors Coordinator, to work on a “thesis” or Honors Research Project (HRP) in their senior year. If permission is granted, the student will become a candidate for graduating from Northwestern University with Honors, and for simultaneous induction into the Theta Alpha Kappa (TAK) National Honors Society for Religious Studies and Theology. The rank of Honors is subject to successful completion of the honors project with review and approval from the Faculty Honors Committee and subsequent approval from WCAS. 

* In years when there are more than 5 senior Honors candidates, the RS department will offer a two-term senior honors research project writing seminar (REL 396, A & B) during fall and winter terms, in which students are guided through the thesis writing process by a designated faculty member, usually the Honors Coordinator. In years when there are fewer than 5 seniors working on an honors project, students may register for an independent study (REL 399) with their faculty advisor to carve out time for research, writing, and to meet regularly with their advisor. Thesis projects are generally due in completed form for submission to the Honors Committee in the 3rd week of April. 

Spring Quarter of Junior Year:

  1. Make an appointment with your prospective thesis faculty advisor, discuss your idea for the honors project, get their feedback, and then ask if they will be willing to work with you and serve as your HRP advisor.
  2. If so, discuss an appropriate methodology with your advisor (i.e., how you are going to go about researching, evaluating, and analyzing your material, presenting your research, etc.).
  3. Decide with your advisor what format your project will take. 
  4. Make a summer research plan with your advisor. What should you be reading? Ask them if you should apply for a summer research grant (archival work, travel, etc.)? If so, ask your advisor to support and approve your grant application to the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (Deadline is March 15th) or to other funding resources through the Office of Undergraduate Fellowships. 

Thesis Format Options:

  1. A 25-30-page (8,000-12,000-words) paper written in the form of an academic journal article that can potentially (if you choose) be submitted for publication when you graduate, or can be used as an academic writing sample for your applications to graduate school. Ask your advisor what academic journal might be most likely to publish a study of the sort you are working on. Then go to the author guidelines web page for that journal and follow their style guide as you write so you need not go back later and “convert” your paper to the journal’s required style before submitting. 
  2. A well-crafted, well-produced podcast series, with a progression of episodes accompanied by written introductions that explore and develop your thesis topic and research over time. A 5-page project paper at the conclusion to report on the process and execution of your project and to report on findings of note.
  3. Our Medill double majors may work on a long-form in-depth feature on a religion story that they can then add to their journalism portfolio. This may take magazine or in-depth video package format. 
  4. Our double majors with Radio, Television, Film (RTF) may propose a well-crafted, well-produced documentary film on their research topic. 
  5. STEM majors such as Computer Science majors or Engineers, let us know what you are designing (A software app? A digital game, etc.?), and we can discuss hybrid possibilities that bring together science and humanities. 

Fall Quarter Senior Year

  1. Formulate a question or problem that can lead appropriately into a research project that identifies a subject of study related to some aspect of religious phenomena (a text, historical event, ritual, performance, object of religious culture, philosophy, sociological trend, intersection of religion with dynamics of politics, law, medicine, media, gender, race, class, sexuality, etc.) through which to explore that question.
  2. Compile a substantial bibliography
  3. Read (and view) your project’s primary and secondary material 
  4. Create a file system for project sections and take notes, coding those notes to the appropriate section, so that you may locate and sort them more easily
  5. Discuss project material and its analysis regularly with a faculty member who will help with organization and framing. Discussion should focus on the relevance of each work to the question or problem at hand. Meet with your advisor throughout the term to discuss research methods and writing strategies.
  6. Draft and revise a thesis statement until your have clear sense of what your are arguing; draft a progressively more specific and more detailed outline of the project (sentence outlines make the rest of writing a snap); draft and revise your introduction to the thesis project; think out your body sections with your advisor
  7. Check with your advisor, as this timeline varies, depending on format. (For instance, podcasters will want to have 1-2 episodes drafted by fall’s end.)

Winter Quarter of Senior Year

  1. This is the term when you write the body sections and conclusion of your journal article, completing a full draft. Or, you produce a complete first cut of your film, produce a complete draft of your podcast series, etc. 
  2. By March 1, a full draft of your project should be submitted to your advisor for comments, edits, and revisions. 
  3. Advisors should return the project to the student with edits by the last week in March at the latest.
  4. Students then have from the end of March to the third week in April to submit a final revised version of their thesis project to the Honors Coordinator for Honors Committee review. 

The department may nominate for WCAS honors those students whose senior theses are of particularly high quality and whose grade point averages within the major are above 3.5.

Have more questions?

Feel free to consult the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Honors Coordinator Professor Sarah Taylor.