DEPARTMENT HONORS

Questions about Honors in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures should be directed to the current Chair of the Honors Committee. Please write the RLL Administrative Assistant, Sherri Condon, at scondon@wesleyan.edu to find out who the current RLL Chair of Honors is. The department Honors Committee is made up of the designated Chair of the Committee and department faculty tutors, who coordinate with the Honors program contact person in the Registrar’s Office (currently, Amanda Daddona). Consult university-wide Honors policies The Honors Program.

 

1. The Awarding of Honors 

The department does not require completion of Wesleyan General Education expectations for department Honors. After receiving the recommendations of the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee in consultation with faculty tutors and department colleagues, the Department may award Credit, Honors, or High Honors in Romance Languages & Literatures to majors who have completed one of the following projects:

1. A thesis with a grade of Credit, Honors, or High Honors. A thesis is a two-semester project, normally 70-100 pages in length, involving substantial research and writing. Students writing a thesis will enroll in FREN, ITAL, or SPAN 409 in the fall and 410 in the spring. A thesis must be finished and submitted by the university’s mid-April deadline. Check the current Wesleyan academic calendar for the exact date in your final semester since it will change slightly from year to year. 
2. An essay with a grade of Credit or Honors. An essay is a one-semester project of research and writing, normally 35-50 pages in length. Students wishing to present an essay for Honors must enroll in FREN, ITAL, or SPAN 403 in the fall and complete the project before the beginning of the second semester.
3. A two-semester project with a grade of Credit, Honors, or High Honors (for examples see the overview of capstone projects in section V below). The RLL Honors Committee must judge this project to require initiative, sustained intellectual effort, rigor, and creativity equivalent to that required by a thesis.  Students wishing to present a two-semester project for Honors will enroll in FREN, ITAL, or SPAN 409 in the fall and 410 in the spring. 
4. A one-semester project with a grade of Credit or Honors (for examples see the overview of capstone projects in section V below). The RLL Honors Committee must judge this project to require initiative, sustained intellectual effort, rigor, and creativity equivalent to that required by an Honors essay.  Students wishing to present a one-semester project for Honors must enroll in FREN, ITAL, or SPAN 403 in the fall and complete the project before the beginning of the second semester.

Please note: Students presenting an essay or one-semester project will not be eligible for High Honors. 

 

1. Application for Admission into the Departmental Honors Program 

Students wishing to be considered for departmental Honors in Romance Languages & Literatures in their senior year (whether thesis, essay, or equivalent project as outlined above) must:

1. Have a minimum grade point average of 92 in courses taken for one of the department's majors both on campus and abroad, through the end of the spring semester of the student’s junior year.
2. Submit the complete application materials (see list below) to the Chair of the Romance Languages & Literatures Honors Committee at least 72 hours before the end of Drop/Add in the fall semester of their senior year. A faculty member (whether in RLL or in another department: see the subsection on double majors below) must agree to serve as the tutor for the project before the student submits his/her application. The department strongly recommends students line up and begin working with a faculty advisor on the thesis, essay or Honors capstone project proposal in the spring term of the junior year or the summer leading up to the senior year.
3. In their application students should establish that they can complete all major courses and other requirements by the end of the senior year, documenting that fact by sharing their academic history and current registration plans.
4. Students should establish in their application proposals (see the next section) that the Honors project bears primarily on areas of the world that use the Romance languages taught in the department (French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish) and deals in the range of subfields and topics that members of our department feel qualified to evaluate as potential readers. You can establish the latter by reviewing the kinds of courses we have taught in the past couple of years.  

 

Application proposals should include:



1. A two-page, double-spaced description of the topic, including a clear working hypothesis with one or two well-focused research questions, a brief overview of the scope of the project, and a summary of the student's preparation for the project (previous coursework, research, experience);

2. An explanation of the likely scholarly value of the proposed work for the field(s) under consideration should be included in the description outlined in #1, understood as how the Honors project might shed new light on the proposed subject;
3. 3. A brief annotated bibliography with at least 5-6 sources. Please consult the library website to become familiar with the format and purpose of an annotated bibliography;
4. A copy of the student’s academic transcript;
5. The tutor’s written endorsement in the form of an email sent to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee by the date the proposal is due. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure the tutor follows through with the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee.

     We strongly encourage students to work with their Honors project tutor on this proposal well before the beginning of the senior year.

 

Petitions for exceptions:

1. In exceptional circumstances, a student may petition to be accepted in the RLL Honors program with a GPA slightly below the expected average of 92. Such a petition should be sent to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee by the end of the first week of the senior year. The Chair, in consultation with the pertinent section, faculty tutor, and Chair of the department, will decide whether to make an exception to the GPA requirement.
2. A student may petition to write an essay or complete a project in the spring semester. Such a petition needs to be submitted to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee no later than 1 December. The petition must include all the documents required of a regular application and present any work done in preparation for the essay/project. If the petition is approved, the student will need to enroll in FREN, ITAL or SPAN 404 in the spring.
3. Students who plan to graduate in the fall term should consult at least two semesters in advance with the RLL Chair to determine submission dates, required tutorials, and Workshop participation.

 

Double majors and consideration for Honors in more than one department:

RLL does not require that a thesis or essay tutor be designated from our department in the case of double majors who meet the gpa requirement, have established they will be able to meet all major requirements by the end of their senior year, and propose a project that is close enough to what we teach in the section that our faculty will be able to evaluate it as readers (see item II.4 above). In line with the university’s recommendations about Honors submissions in two departments, we ask students in this situation to sign up for a tutorial with an RLL designation in either of the two terms (fall or spring) in which they will be writing the thesis. The tutor need not be from our department even though the tutorial is cross-listed with us. The one-semester Honors essay need not be cross-listed with us if the tutor is in another department and the essay is being submitted to both departments for Honors. If the essay is only being submitted to our department for Honors, even though the tutor is in another department, the Honors tutorial should be cross-listed as an RLL tutorial (409 in the fall, 410 in the spring). According to the University’s guidelines: :

"If you are pursuing Honors in more than one department, you will enroll in the subject area of one of the departments that you are writing for. You can enroll in one subject for 409 and the other for 410 or in only one subject for both 409 & 410. You should discuss this with both major departments before making a selection. You will be able to indicate that you are pursuing Honors in more than one department on the electronic tutorial form."

If a student works with a faculty advisor in another department for both terms, that advisor will appear as the official thesis tutor in both semesters even though one of the tutorials will be a cross-listed RLL course for registration purposes. It is up to students to choose whether 409 (the fall term) or 410 (the spring term) is in RLL or the thesis advisor’s department. As explained below, we do require full-year Honors students to take part in two department Workshops over the course of the academic year (see the next subsection for an explanation of the Workshop). An essay or one-semester Honors students is required to take part in the fall-term Workshop. .

 

III.  Expectations and Requirements for Progress during the Senior Year

We strongly encourage students interested in the RLL Honors program begin work on their projects in the spring of their junior year. Although each tutor may organize his/her own tutoring independently in consultation with you, you should expect to meet with your advisor regularly (at least once every other week), work out an outline of the project with a schedule for the submission of chapters early in the fall term of the senior year, and plan to complete half of the writing by the end of the fall term. 

All thesis students, regardless of the home department of their tutor, must participate in two department-wide events: The Fall RLL Honors Workshop, usually scheduled in the first half of November, and the Spring RLL Honors Workshop, usually scheduled in mid- to late February. Essay students must participate in the Fall RLL Workshop. The fall-term Workshop is a valuable opportunity to test ideas and get valuable feedback from faculty members and students across all three department sections when students can actually use the suggestions to develop and, if necessary, reorient their projects. It's also a chance to learn about other thesis projects in the department. The second Workshop, in the spring term, is designed as an opportunity for students to present their findings at a more advanced stage. 

 

Students who begin one-semester projects and decide in the course of their work that they would like to transform them into two-semester projects may do so if their tutor and the RLL Honors Committee concur. Requests to transform a one-semester project into a two-semester project should be submitted to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee no later than the end of the first week following the Thanksgiving recess. 

At any time during the year, should the tutor inform the RLL Honors Committee that the proposed work is unlikely to be completed, or if the expectations of quality and scope are unlikely to be fulfilled, the student will be given the option of transforming the project into a one-semester Honors project or of withdrawing from the Honors program and completing the work as a standard tutorial. 

In the event of a conflict between a student and his/her tutor’s recommendation to withdraw from RLL Honors, the tutor should inform the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee, who will consult with the appropriate section to determine whether the thesis or essay should be considered for RLL Honors or submitted for consideration in a conventional tutorial.

 

1. Deadlines

RLL’s deadline for the submission of an Honors essay or one-semester project is February 15.  Students should submit their work to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee by 4pm that day. Students are required to upload their essays in mid-April, per university guidelines (see the link to university-wide information about Honors at the top).

 

1. The Evaluation of the Project 

A completed thesis or thesis-level project will be evaluated by two faculty members chosen by the tutor in consultation with the student. One will normally be a faculty member other than the tutor from the section in which the student is majoring. The other will normally be from another section or from another department. An essay or essay-level project will be evaluated by one faculty member of the RLL department. Faculty tutors should, after consulting with the student, reach out directly to preferred faculty readers and confirm their availability. In the case of double-major submissions for consideration by two departments, this will usually involve determining who the confirmed reader will be for the student’s other major. Once confirmed, tutors should report the names of both faculty readers for each student writing a thesis (or the single faculty reader for a one-semester project) to the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee. The three possible Honors designations are Credit, Honors, or High Honors.

 

1. Overview of Senior-Year Capstone Experiences

Majors in Romance Languages & Literatures are not required to participate in a senior capstone experience. Nevertheless, the department encourages all seniors to reflect on, and take stock of their development in, their respective majors.

Any of the projects outlined in the list below, and others like them, could serve as a senior capstone experience:

• A senior thesis or essay or another equivalent senior Honors project if it meets with the approval of the RLL Honors Committee.
• A senior (group) tutorial.
• Organizing and participating in a student forum devoted to an aspect of Romance cultures. 
• Organizing and participating in a play in a Romance language.
• Serving as a TA or CA in a language course.
• Creating an orientation program or information and support network for study abroad in Romance language settings.
• Teaching a Romance language in a school.
• Teaching English to Romance-language speaking immigrants.
• Serving as an interpreter in a legal setting.
• A community service initiative where a Romance language is used.  Volunteering, for example, at a soup kitchen or food pantry where there is an opportunity to interact with native speakers of a Romance language.
• Organizing a Romance-language film or speakers’ series or other event(s) to promote awareness of Romance-language cultures across the university.
• Creating and maintaining a Romance Languages & Literatures majors web page.

Projects need not be undertaken for credit and group projects are strongly encouraged. There is no deadline for the sort of reflection and self-evaluation that the department hopes all majors will engage in. However, those majors involved in senior capstone experiences are invited to give a presentation to faculty and other majors before March 30 of their senior year. If you wish a senior capstone project to be considered for Honors it must meet the same standards for scale and quality of work that a thesis or essay does according to the criteria spelled out above and will need to be approved in advance by the Honors Committee.

 

If you have further questions or need additional information, please contact the Chair of the RLL Honors Committee.