The History Department at Maryland: Honors Program

The purpose of the Honors Program in History is to allow promising undergraduates to develop historical and historiographical skills, in an atmosphere that guarantees personal attention and that encourages hard work and excellence. The Program is a four-semester sequence, the culmination of which is a senior thesis--a major research paper of 80 pages or more, written under the close supervision of a faculty mentor. There are two phases to the program: in the junior year, students are introduced to the problems of history-writing at a sophisticated level, via two seminars on problems of historiography; in the senior year they recieve two supervised courses in the writing of the major paper.

Junior Year
In the fall semester of the junior year, Honors students in History take History 395. This is an introduction to general problems in the writing of history, and to various types of history writing. Thus, students are exposed to political history, economic history, psycho-history, legal history, religious history, women's history, intellectual history, and the history of intellectuals as a specific group (essentially, social history). In addition, students are exposed to the various methods of historiographical argument: everything from basic differentiation between primary sources and secondary commentary, to use of statistics in a historical setting, and including the use (and abuse) of emphasis. The texts for this course are chosen for their intellectual worth--and their good writing; texts change from year to year, depending on the interests of the instructor. Enrollment is limited to ca. 12 students, and the atmosphere is that of a mini-graduate seminar. There are about 150 pages of reading a week. Students must also write three papers (of ca. 10-20 pp each)--and are greatly encouraged to re-write those papers after receiving the extensive comments of the instructor.

Then comes History 396 (spring semester). Here the focus becomes one historical topic, approached from a variety of perspectives. In the past we have discussed "Colonialism and Resistance;" the perspectives including high politics, local politics, gender relations, the impact of religion, and the use of fiction and film to illuminate conflicts. Once more, there is an emphasis both on absorbing a great amount of reading (ca. 150 pages a week), and on writing as well--three papers (10- 20 pp in length). In addition, during the latter part of History 396, students are intensely encouraged by the instructor to settle on the general area (and, if possible, the specific topic) on which they wish to write their senior thesis, and to seek out a faculty mentor to supervise them during the senior year.

Senior Year
In the senior year, students recieve a writing course each semester. They are closely supervised, both by an instructor in the general supervisory course, and by their faculty mentors. The students--who have now known each other for a full year--meet occasionally to discuss their progress; by the end of the fall semester, they are expected to present at least 20 pages of their paper (the introductory portion)--and then be critiqued by their colleagues. A similar process is followed in the spring semester. The result of all this close supervision is that we have few "dropouts" during the senior year--and no one is left to write a senior thesis at the last moment. Rather, the students receive constant encouragement--and supervision at every stage of the writing.

For more information contact Professor Art Eckstein, TLF Room 2134, Phone 405-4301