A limited number of internships is available for history majors. Contact the department chair for information.

The History Department offers a departmental honors program for exceptionally able and well-motivated senior history majors. Application to the program may come by departmental invitation or may be initiated by students themselves (though only if they have earned a cumulative U of R GPA of 3.45 or better). In either case, written proposals for honors projects must be submitted to the Department for faculty approval and must be submitted no later than the beginning of the fourth week of the first semester of the student’s senior year. Where possible, students should plan out and discuss possible topics for senior projects with members of the Department before the end of the last semester or term of the student’s junior year.

Candidates for honors in history are expected to produce a major research paper and to defend their work before a departmental oral examination committee. The papers submitted must be based on original research; must be at least 50 pages in length; and must adhere to the rules of standard scholarly practice as set forth in Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers. All senior honors projects must be carried out under the guidance of at least one full-time member of the History Department with relevant expertise and must be reviewed at the end of each semester of honors work by a departmental honors project committee to be named by the student’s project advisor in consultation with the departmental chair. Honors candidates are ordinarily expected to enroll for four units of research credit in each of the two semesters of their senior year (History 499: Honors Research Project, which may be taken both semesters, or, where appropriate, History 499 plus any other history course approved by the Department in which significant research is accomplished) and may also be required to enroll for three units of credit during May term if their projects have not been satisfactorily completed by the end of the spring semester. Exceptions to this two (or three) term enrollment rule must be negotiated with the Department.

In carrying out their honors projects, students need to keep in mind the following deadlines and requirements:

1. Beginning of the fourth week of the first semester, senior year: honors proposals due. Proposals should be approximately three to five pages in length and should describe in appropriate detail the topic, the sources, and the approach or perspective the student plans to employ.
   
2. End of the last week of first semester classes: appropriate demonstrations of progress toward final papers due. Appropriate demonstrations of progress are to be submitted for review to the student’s honors project committee and may include annotated bibliographies, bibliographical essays, research papers produced in approved courses, or any other demonstration of accomplishment approved by the student’s advisor and/or committee. Please note that papers, essays, or bibliographies that do not pass muster at the end of the first semester will result in termination of the project and refusal to allow candidates to proceed to the second semester’s work.
   
3. Beginning of the twelfth week of second semester classes or the third week of May term: completed drafts of papers due for submission to honors project committees in preparation for oral examinations. Note that completed drafts of papers need to be handed in well in advance of the end of the second semester (or of May term) so that ample time is available for scheduling oral exams, for supplying corrections or revisions, and for processing paperwork required by the University. Note also that completed drafts must be presented to the student’s committee at least one week before a scheduled exam; that students will only be advanced to the oral exam in cases in which the drafts submitted are favorably reviewed by the student’s committee; and that student performance in the oral exam can have a decisive effect on the success or failure of the project as a whole. Only A or A- quality work on both the paper and on the oral examination will be considered appropriate for the award of honors in history. Work of lesser quality will be awarded units of credit and will receive (as will honors quality work) a written evaluation from the student’s advisor for inclusion in the student’s transcript.