| Contents: | |
| I. Letter from Faculty Coordinator | |
| II. Honors Application | |
| III. Honors Eligibility | |
| IV. Evaluation Form | |
| V. Application Coversheet | |
| VI. Fellows' Publication (Slideshow) | |
| Download all documents: | |
| Zip of MS Word files | |
| Zip of Acrobat files | |
| Letter from the Faculty Coordinator |
We limit our pool of applicants to sophomores and juniors in Humanities and some Social Science departments, to aid group cohesion. Fellows also have the opportunity to hear special guest speakers, partake in workshops, and compile and edit their own research journal, Slideshow. The selection process is identical to that of the Mellon Mays Program: Students can be nominated by Undergraduate Honors directors of various departments and programs, by a faculty member, or they can choose to nominate themselves. They are required to fill out an application, write accompanying essays about their research and intellectual interests, get faculty recommendations, and submit to an interview by the same selection committee that chooses the Mellon Fellows. Junior applicants for the Undergraduate Honors Fellowship must be enrolled in their departments' Honors program or have the intent to enroll in their departments' Honors program for their senior year. Sophomore applicants must be giving serious consideration to pursuing a course of study that would lead to writing an Honors thesis in their department. This coming year, five juniors and five sophomores will be chosen. The Honors Fellows will meet jointly with the Mellon Fellows fifty percent of the time. We see this program as a way of encouraging our best students in the Humanities and Social Sciences to consider graduate study as an option. Students will have the opportunity to form a community with the Mellon fellows, get extra support for research, and have a chance to associate more closely with a faculty member in developing their project. This program fulfills the university's commitment to having undergraduates do more serious and sustained research and, indeed, provides a more diverse learning environment for all involved. We hope you will consider application to The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program . If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me (glearly@artsci.wustl.edu) or Dean Mary Laurita, the program's administrative coordinator (mlaurita@artsci.wustl.edu). The application deadline is Friday, January 20, 2006. Sincerely, Gerald Early
|
||||
You
have been nominated to apply to The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship
Program. Modeled after the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
Program, the Honors Fellowship is meant to encourage exceptionally
promising students to pursue independent research by writing an
Honors Thesis. Fellows develop a strong working relationship with
a faculty mentor and, through required attendance at the weekly
seminar, a sense of community with one another. During the seminar,
Fellows from various disciplines, under the guidance of a faculty
member and a graduate student assistant, present for rigorous scrutiny
their research projects as these projects develop from stage to
stage, from draft to draft. The Fellows' faculty mentors work closely
with Fellows in developing and critiquing their projects. The mentors
usually attend the seminar when their Fellow is presenting. The
program is designed to give the students a sense of the life of
the mind and the life of a graduate student. The Honors Fellows
Program was launched in the Fall of 2002.| The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program Application | |||||||||||||||||
About the Fellowship Program:
To the applicant: 1. In a two-to-three page essay, articulate and discuss your most pressing intellectual interest. Include in your essay a discussion of a person, class, book, theory, or experience that had a significant effect on the way you think about this area of interest. Briefly discuss how participation in The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program might help you to develop this interest. 2. In a maximum of one page, outline a research project that might come out of the intellectual interest discussed in your essay, or provide a brief outline of your intended honors project. Be as specific as you can. 3. In a one-to-two page essay, explain why you are interested in becoming an Undergraduate Honors fellow. Please submit your essays and project outline, along with the rest of the application materials to the College of Arts & Sciences, 205 South Brookings, c/o Kirsten Slaughter, Administrative Assistant, Undergraduate Honors Fellowship program. Application Due: 5:00pm, Friday, January 20, 2006 For further information contact: Dean
Mary Laurita, Administrative Coordinator, at 935-8667 or mlaurita@artsci.wustl.edu.
|
|||||||||||||||||
Ten
of the University's most promising and talented undergraduate scholars,
five completing their sophomore year and five completing their junior
year, will be chosen by a selection committee as Undergraduate Honors
fellows. These fellows must enter the program with the intent to
complete an honors project in their major department. They participate
in the Undergraduate Honors program for a period of one or two years,
beginning in summer 2006. Each student works with a faculty mentor
whose job is to introduce the student to the world of academic research
and the life of the mind, and who will serve as the student's project
advisor. Students come together for a weekly seminar, led by a Washington
University faculty member, to present and discuss their research
and related topics. Each year, the fellows participate in some kind
of academic endeavor, such editing the Undergraduate Honors Program
journal, Slideshow. They also interact on a regular basis
with the Mellon Mays Undergraduate fellows. The overall goals of
the program are: to show students what the life of the mind and
academic research are all about; to excite them about the possibilities
of entering into such a world; to entice them by showing both the
fulfillment and the rewards of a professional academic career; to
give them the tools they will need to be successful in that career;
and to lead them to the successful completion of their honors projects.| The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program Eligibility | |||||||||||||||||
Major fields of study: American Culture Studies, Anthropology, Area Studies, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, Dance, Drama, Education, English, Film and Media Studies, Foreign Languages, History, Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities, Linguistics, Music, Philosophy, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (culture track), Political Science, Religious Studies, Social Thought and Analysis, and Women and Gender Studies. Sophomores majoring in one of the eligible fields and who are potential candidates for doing Honors work in their major field may apply. Juniors (for application in spring 2006 only) majoring
in one of the eligible fields, who are currently enrolled in, or
intend to enroll in, their *Note: Juniors who will be studying abroad during
the spring 2006 semester are still encouraged to apply. Fellowship Terms: Each Fellow receives a stipend of $3,000 during the summer (2006 and 2007) and $1,600 for each academic year of the program. These funds are meant to support student research needs. Additional funds may be available for other research
expenses. Fellows must apply for these funds in writing with the
approval of their mentors, with detailed budget and explanation
of the necessity of the request. Requests for additional funding
are granted in whole or in part on the basis of how necessary additional
funds are for the successful completion of student's research. Program Activities: To provide greater awareness of what it means to be an academic, each Undergraduate Honors Fellow will work closely with a faculty mentor. The student and mentor will work together to plan a mutually agreeable research project.
Other activities include a Program Orientation (date TBA), workshops on applying to and attending graduate school, and compiling and editing the student research journal, Slideshow. Summer Research: Each Fellow will participate in summer research tailored to the individual student, in consultation with the faculty mentor, and will report monthly to the faculty coordinator and mentor. This reporting often occurs via email as many fellows and mentors do not spend the summer on the Washington University campus. The summer research agenda is set, at least preliminarily, during the Program Orientation in May. The first summer is spent in developing the student's own research project, with supervision by the faculty mentor. The second summer might include some kind of travel for the purpose of further study in support of the academic-year experience. Significant research towards the Honors thesis is expected during the summer prior to the senior year. For further information contact: Gerald Early Mary Laurita Kirsten Smith
|
|||||||||||||||||
department's
Honors program, and who are seriously considering applying to a
PhD program in the humanities or social sciences may apply.
During
the academic year, each student will regularly report on the research
project to the group of Fellows. Most of the reporting will take
place during the weekly three-credit seminar taught by a Washington
University faculty member. These meetings will last the entire academic
year and will focus not only on the fellows' research, but on topics
central to the humanities and social sciences. | The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program Evaluation Form | |||||||||||||||||||||||
___ I agree that this evaluation is to remain confidential; I waive my right to see it. ___ I may wish to see this evaluation at some later point; I do
not waive my right to see it.
About the Fellowship Program: To the evaluator: Signature_____________________________________ Date________________ E-mail____________________ Name________________________________________ Title__________________________________________ Please attach your evaluation to this form and send it to: Kirsten Slaughter, Administrative Assistant
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program Application Cover Sheet | |||||||||||||||||||||
Academic Major(s)___________________________________ Academic Minor(s)___________________________________ I am currently a _____ sophomore _____ junior E-Mail_____________________________________ Most reliable phone number _____________________________________________ Please include the following with your application:
1.________________________ e-mail___________________ 2.________________________ e-mail___________________ *Note: Honors fellows are allowed to study abroad for a period of one semester. The semester of travel must be approved by the faculty coordinator. Likewise, Honors fellows who are varsity athletes must discuss their season travel schedules with the academic coordinator at the beginning of the appropriate term. Please write the name of the faculty member you would like to have as your Honors Thesis mentor: _______________________________ e-mail______________________________ Please submit applications to the College of Arts & Sciences, 205 South Brookings, c/o Kirsten Slaughter, Administrative Assistant, Undergraduate Honors Fellowship program by 5:00pm, Friday, January 20, 2006. For further information, contact Dean Mary Laurita, Administrative Coordinator, at 935-8667 or mlaurita@artsci.wustl.edu.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Slideshow |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Center for the Humanities at Washington University was established in the fall of 2002. Included in its mission was explicit instruction to reach out to undergraduate students, an unusual, though, in the end, fitting but challenging, directive for a Humanities Center, largely untried, and perhaps even disdained, if the activities and goals of most humanities centers around the country are any indication. Few humanities centers engage undergraduates, most feeling that their universities provide enough services and activities for them. The centers are largely the province of faculty and graduate students. As expressly denominated a center, a non-academic bureaucratic unit at this university that does not possess either a teaching faculty or a curriculum, we cannot offer courses. Centers are not meant to compete with departments and programs, which offer courses and design majors, but to complement them in some way. This set-up is probably true at most other universities as well and may be one reason why most centers don't bother with undergraduates, thinking that, outside of courses, there is little to attract them to what humanities centers normally do. One way that this Center's advisory board thought that we could engage students is through encouraging and supporting independent research for a select number of students who majored in any of the humanities disciplines. Faculty did not often find undergraduates students very helpful as research assistants but thought that as faculty they might be helpful in guiding undergraduates in the student's own research project. What most of us had in mind as a model was the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship Program, established at Washington University back in the early 1990s and, while open to all students, meant particularly to encourage members of underrepresented minorities to consider pursuing the Ph.D. and becoming university teachers. This two-year program, which accepted a small number of its applicants at the end of their sophomore year, paired the student with a mentor and guided the student through a long-term research project through the structure of weekly seminars devoted to the discussion and analysis of their research. The Mellon students are also provided with a summer stipend and support during the academic year to facilitate their research, permitting them even to travel to archives and attend conferences. The Mellon students also produce annually a journal of their work. The main difference between the Mellon and the Honors Program launched jointly by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Center for the Humanities is the length of the enrollment. Honors students are selected at the end of their junior year and must be writing an Honors thesis for their major. The rest is the same: a weekly seminar analyzing in depth each student's work, financial support for independent research, and emphasis on the importance of the faculty mentor. Students are selected for this program through consultation with the Honors directors of the various humanities department and programs. Other faculty may nominate students as well and, of course, students may self-nominate. The application process is virtually identical to the Mellon Program. And, like the Mellons, the Honors Fellows also produce a journal of their work, Slideshow. The work featured here is what was produced in seminar by the students. It is an independent essay, polished and meant to stand alone, extracted from their Honors thesis. For many of them, this effort to produce a free-standing essay from their thesis, meant to read by non-specialists, is an especial and for some an even daunting challenge. But if they are to consider becoming college professors and high-level researchers, they must come to understand this exercise as a necessary and useful skill. Redacting, editing, revising, recasting, reshaping, re-contextualizing are all writing and thinking skills that college professors who publish must have in order to get the most mileage out of their research. Professors must master many different forms of presentation of their work and this is one of the goals of the Honors Fellows Program: to teach undergraduate students how this is done. Make no mistake; while the students themselves are in charge of producing this publication, it is no amateur indulgence. These essays have been vetted by their mentors, corrected by a professional copy editor, and tested over many months in the crucible of the seminar. There is no guarantee that a student's work will be published in the journal. If the work is found to be substandard and if the student fails to meet the deadlines of the various stages of production, the work is not published. The students are tough on each other. This effort means a great deal to them, and they want very much to be taken seriously as contributors of merit to their fields. Moreover, the cost for producing this journal is about the same as it would be for a professional academic journal of the same size. We want the students themselves, the university, and the larger community to know that we at the Center take this work seriously as we take any good work in the humanities by our colleagues seriously. I hope you enjoy reading this journal. If you have any comments about what you have read, we would love to hear from you. Gerald Early Nancy Berg Lorenzo Carcaterra
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© Copyright 2005 CH, Washington University.
All rights reserved.