college senior thesis

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The senior thesis is typically the most challenging writing project undertaken by undergraduate students. The writing guides below aim to introduce students both to the specific methods and conventions of writing original research in their area of concentration and to effective writing process.

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Senior Thesis

The Honors College senior thesis is a remarkable opportunity unlike any other at the University of South Carolina. Although the thesis is a requirement for graduation from the South Carolina Honors College, we encourage you to consider it an opportunity to express the quality of your intellectual development and draw your undergraduate learning experiences together. 

What Is the Senior Thesis?

The senior thesis is designed to be the culminating experience of a student’s career at South Carolina Honors College. It is a chance for students to ask and answer meaningful questions about the natural world, social or political systems, history and culture, artistic expression, the creative process, or the application of knowledge to specific challenges. Students are free to choose their thesis topics and may elect to write a thesis or complete a project outside their majors. Students who must complete a thesis or capstone project related to their major course of study (e.g., students in the College of Engineering and Computing) will submit this project for their Honors thesis. 

Students can opt to complete either a research-based or project-based thesis:

Research Thesis

A traditional research thesis is an extended original project designed to answer a question of interest to the student. Some common research aims might include interpreting and comparing primary texts; constructing and testing models that reflect theories of human behavior, social or political systems, or the natural world; making human action, symbols and communication intelligible at the individual and collective levels; exploring how social meanings are constructed; and evaluating current practices and suggesting more effective ones (see Lipson’s How to Write a BA Thesis , 2018).

A project-based thesis might be a creative endeavor, such as original artwork, performance, novella or volume of poetry. Alternatively, students might pursue an applied project, such as developing a business plan, an app, informational pieces for a community organization, a podcast series or a video game, among others.

Benefits of Completing a Senior Thesis

Whether students complete a research-based thesis or a creative or applied project, we believe engaging in this type of work helps students develop an array of skills, many of which are highly valued by employers. These skills include creative and critical thinking, analysis and interpretation, complex problem solving, written communication, effective use of information and the ability to integrate and apply knowledge across contexts.

Examples of Recent Thesis Projects

Challenge the conventional. create the exceptional. no limits..

The Senior Thesis

From the outset of their time at Princeton, students are encouraged and challenged to develop their scholarly interests and to evolve as independent thinkers.

The culmination of this process is the senior thesis, which provides a unique opportunity for students to pursue original research and scholarship in a field of their choosing. At Princeton, every senior writes a thesis or, in the case of some engineering departments, undertakes a substantial independent project.

Integral to the senior thesis process is the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty member who guides the development of the project. Thesis writers and advisers agree that the most valuable outcome of the senior thesis is the chance for students to enhance skills that are the foundation of future success, including creativity, intellectual engagement, mental discipline and the ability to meet new challenges.

Many students develop projects from ideas sparked in the classes they’ve taken; others fashion their topics on the basis of long-standing personal passions. Most thesis writers encounter the intellectual twists and turns of any good research project, where the questions emerge as they proceed, often taking them in unexpected directions.

Planning for the senior thesis starts in earnest in the junior year, when students complete a significant research project known as the junior paper. Students who plan ahead can make good use of the University's considerable resources, such as receiving University funds to do research in the United States or abroad. Other students use summer internships as a launching pad for their thesis. For some science and engineering projects, students stay on campus the summer before their senior year to get a head start on lab work.

Writing a thesis encourages the self-confidence and high ambitions that come from mastering a difficult challenge. It fosters the development of specific skills and habits of mind that augur well for future success. No wonder generations of graduates look back on the senior thesis as the most valuable academic component of their Princeton experience.

Navigating Colombia’s Magdalena River, One Story At A Time

For his senior thesis, Jordan Salama, a Spanish and Portuguese major, produced a nonfiction book of travel writing about the people and places along Colombia’s main river, the Magdalena.

Embracing the Classics to Inform Policymaking for Public Education

For her senior thesis, Emma Treadwayconsiders how the basic tenets of Stoicism — a school of philosophy that dates from 300 BCE — can teach students to engage empathetically with the world and address inequities in the classroom.

Creating A Faster, Cheaper and Greener Chemical Reaction

One way to make drugs more affordable is to make them cheaper to produce. For her senior thesis research, Cassidy Humphreys, a chemistry major with a passion for medicine, took on the challenge of taking a century-old formula at the core of many modern medications — and improving it.

The Humanity of Improvisational Dance

Esin Yunusoglu investigated how humans move together and exist in a space — both on the dance floor and in real life — for the choreography she created as her senior thesis in dance, advised by Professor of Dance Susan Marshall.

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Doing a senior thesis is an exciting enterprise. It’s often the first time students are engaging in truly original research and trying to develop a significant contribution to a field of inquiry. But as joyful as an independent research process can be, you don’t have to go it alone. It’s important to have support as you navigate such a large endeavor, and the ARC is here to offer one of those layers of support.

Whether or not to write a senior thesis is just the first in a long line of questions thesis writers need to consider. In addition to questions about the topic and scope of your thesis, there are questions about timing, schedule, and support. For example, if you are collecting data, when should data collection start and when should it be completed? What kind of schedule will you write on? How will you work with your adviser? Do you want to meet with your adviser about your progress once a month? Once a week? What other resources can you turn to for information, feedback, and support?

Even though there is a lot to think about and a lot to do, doing a thesis really can be an enjoyable experience! Keep reminding yourself why you chose this topic and why you care about it.

Tips for Tackling Big Projects:

Break the process down into manageable chunks.

• When you’re approaching a big project, it can seem overwhelming to look at the whole thing at once, so it’s essential to identify the smaller steps that will move you towards the completed project.
• Your adviser is best suited to help you break down the thesis process with field-specific advice.
• If you need to refine the breakdown further so it makes sense for you, schedule an appointment with an  Academic Coach . An academic coach can help you think through the steps in a way that works for you.

Schedule brief writing sessions at regular times.

• Pre-determine the time, place, and duration.
• Keep it short (15 to 60 minutes).
• Have a clear and reasonable goal for each writing session.
• Make it a regular event (every day, every other day, MWF).
• time is not wasted deciding to write if it’s already in your calendar;
• keeping sessions short reduces the competition from other tasks that are not getting done;
• having an achievable goal for each session provides a sense of accomplishment (a reward for your work);
• writing regularly can turn into a productive habit.

Create accountability structures.

• In addition to having a clear goal for each writing session, it's important to have clear goals for each week and to find someone to communicate these goals to, such as your adviser, a “thesis buddy,” your roommate, etc. Communicating your goals and progress to someone else creates a useful sense of accountability.
• If your adviser is not the person you are communicating your progress to on a weekly basis, then request to set up a structure with your adviser that requires you to check in at less frequent but regular intervals.
• Commit to attending Accountability Hours  at the ARC on the same day every week. Making that commitment will add both social support and structure to your week. Use the ARC Scheduler to register for Accountability Hours.
• Set up an accountability group in your department or with thesis writers from different departments.

Create feedback structures.

• It’s important to have a means for getting consistent feedback on your work and to get that feedback early. Work on large projects often lacks the feeling of completeness, so don’t wait for a whole section (and certainly not the whole thesis) to feel “done” before you get feedback on it!
• Your thesis adviser is typically the person best positioned to give you feedback on your research and writing, so communicate with your adviser about how and how often you would like to get feedback.
• If your adviser isn’t able to give you feedback with the frequency you’d like, then fill in the gaps by creating a thesis writing group or exploring if there is already a writing group in your department or lab.
• The Harvard College Writing Center is a great resource for thesis feedback. Writing Center Senior Thesis Tutors can provide feedback on the structure, argument, and clarity of your writing and help with mapping out your writing plan. Visit the Writing Center website to schedule an appointment with a thesis tutor .

Accept that there will be some anxious moments.

• To reduce this source of anxiety, try keeping a separate document where you jot down ideas on how your research questions or central argument might be clarifying or changing as you research and write. Doing this will enable you to stay focused on the section you are working on and to stop worrying about forgetting the new ideas that are emerging.
• You might feel anxious when you realize that you need to update your argument in response to the evidence you have gathered or the new thinking your writing has unleashed. Know that that is OK. Research and writing are iterative processes – new ideas and new ways of thinking are what makes progress possible.
• Breaking down big projects into manageable chunks and mapping out a schedule for working through each chunk is one way to reduce this source of anxiety. It’s reassuring to know you are working towards the end even if you cannot quite see how it will turn out.
• It may be that your thesis or dissertation never truly feels “done” to you, but that’s okay. Academic inquiry is an ongoing endeavor.

Focus on what works for you.

• Just because your roommate wrote 10 pages in a day doesn’t mean that’s the right pace or strategy for you.
• If you are having trouble figuring out what works for you, use the  ARC Scheduler  to make an appointment with an  Academic Coach , who can help you come up with daily, weekly, and semester-long plans.

Use your resources.

• There’s a lot of the thesis writing process that has to be done independently, but there are also a lot of free resources at Harvard to help you do the work.
• If you’re having trouble finding a source, email your question or set up a research consult via Ask a Librarian .
• If you’re looking for additional feedback or help with any aspect of writing, contact the Harvard College Writing Center . The Writing Center has Senior Thesis Tutors who will read drafts of your thesis (more typically, parts of your thesis) in advance and meet with you individually to talk about structure, argument, clear writing, and mapping out your writing plan.
• If you need help with breaking down your project or setting up a schedule for the week, the semester, or until the deadline, use the  ARC Scheduler  to make an appointment with an  Academic Coach .
• If you would like an accountability structure for social support and to keep yourself on track, come to Accountability Hours at the ARC.

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What Is a Senior Thesis?

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A senior thesis is a large, independent research project that students take on during their senior year of high school or college to fulfill their graduation requirement. It is the culminating work of their studies at a particular institution, and it represents their ability to conduct research and write effectively. For some students, a senior thesis is a requirement for graduating with honors.

Students typically work closely with an advisor and choose a question or topic to explore before carrying out an extensive research plan.

Style Manuals and the Paper's Organization

The structure of your research paper will depend, in part, on the style manual that is required by your instructor. Different disciplines, such as history, science, or education, have different rules to abide by when it comes to research paper construction, organization, and modes of citation. The styles for different types of assignment include:

Modern Language Association (MLA): The disciplines that tend to prefer the MLA style guide include literature, arts, and the humanities, such as linguistics, religion, and philosophy. To follow this style, you will use parenthetical citations to indicate your sources and a works cited page to show the list of books and articles you consulted.

American Psychological Association (APA): The APA style manual tends to be used in psychology, education, and some of the social sciences. This type of report may require the following:

• Introduction

Chicago style: "The Chicago Manual of Style" is used in most college-level history courses as well as professional publications that contain scholarly articles. Chicago style may call for endnotes or footnotes corresponding to a bibliography page at the back or the author-date style of in-text citation, which uses parenthetical citations and a references page at the end.

Turabian style: Turabian is a student version of Chicago style. It requires some of the same formatting techniques as Chicago, but it includes special rules for writing college-level papers, such as book reports. A Turabian research paper may call for endnotes or footnotes and a bibliography.

Science style: Science instructors may require students to use a format that is similar to the structure used in publishing papers in scientific journals. The elements you would include in this sort of paper include:

• List of materials and methods used
• Results of your methods and experiments
• Acknowledgments

American Medical Association (AMA): The AMA style book might be required for students in medical or premedical degree programs in college. Parts of an AMA research paper might include:

• Proper headings and lists
• Tables and figures
• In-text citations
• Reference list

Choose Your Topic Carefully

Starting off with a bad, difficult, or narrow topic likely won't lead to a positive result. Don't choose a question or statement that's so broad that it's overwhelming and could comprise a lifetime of research or a topic that's so narrow you'll struggle to compose 10 pages. Consider a topic that has a lot of recent research so you won't struggle to put your hands on current or adequate sources.

Select a topic that interests you. Putting in long hours on a subject that bores you will be arduous—and ripe for procrastination. If a professor recommends an area of interest, make sure it excites you.

Also, consider expanding a paper you've already written; you'll hit the ground running because you've already done some research and know the topic. Last, consult with your advisor before finalizing your topic. You don't want to put in a lot of hours on a subject that is rejected by your instructor.

Organize Your Time

Plan to spend half of your time researching and the other half writing. Often, students spend too much time researching and then find themselves in a crunch, madly writing in the final hours. Give yourself goals to reach along certain "signposts," such as the number of hours you want to have invested each week or by a certain date or how much you want to have completed in those same timeframes.

Organize Your Research

Compose your works cited or bibliography entries as you work on your paper. This is especially important if your style manual requires you to use access dates for any online sources that you review or requires page numbers be included in the citations. You don't want to end up at the very end of the project and not know what day you looked at a particular website or have to search through a hard-copy book looking for a quote that you included in the paper. Save PDFs of online sites, too, as you wouldn't want to need to look back at something and not be able to get online or find that the article has been removed since you read it.

Choose an Advisor You Trust

This may be your first opportunity to work with direct supervision. Choose an advisor who's familiar with the field, and ideally select someone you like and whose classes you've already taken. That way you'll have a rapport from the start. 

Consult Your Instructor

Remember that your instructor is the final authority on the details and requirements of your paper. Read through all instructions, and have a conversation with your instructor at the start of the project to determine his or her preferences and requirements. Have a cheat sheet or checklist of this information; don't expect yourself to remember all year every question you asked or instruction you were given. 

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Senior Thesis

The faculty believes that a Bates senior is well-educated and well-prepared to undertake a significant research, service, performance, or studio project in the final year of study in their major. At Bates, this capstone experience most often takes the form of a senior thesis.

The traditional senior thesis involves one or two semesters of original research and writing, culminating in a substantial paper on a research topic of the student’s design. Such an effort requires that the student possess an excellent understanding of the subject area, its theoretical underpinnings, and its research methodology.

Specific Information

Specific information on the work required of seniors in the major fields is detailed in the introductory paragraphs to the department’s and program’s courses and units of instruction in the College Catalog .

The student must also be able to think critically and comprehensively about the topic, and must be able to advance a well-formulated argument. Conducting a senior thesis not only draws on a student’s past academic experience, it also requires considerable independent thinking and creativity, self-discipline, and effective time management.

In recent years, an average of 88 percent of seniors complete a thesis, and 12 percent engage in a capstone seminar or similar project. About 15 percent of seniors do both.

Students who have two majors may complete two distinct theses, one for each major. Or, they may complete a single two-semester interdisciplinary thesis to complete the requirements for both fields of the double major.

The Thesis Adviser

The student is guided in this process by the thesis adviser. Many departments and programs bring thesis students together in seminar courses or colloquia in which they meet regularly to discuss current literature, research methodologies, and their own progress. Several departments and programs require students to deliver formal presentations of their thesis work.

Capstone Examples

Some departments and programs offer or require thesis work that includes theatrical or musical performance, video production, curriculum development, or studio art work and exhibition. Qualified students may occasionally undertake a joint thesis in which two students collaborate on one project.

In some departments a senior may culminate his or her career at Bates with an alternative project. In psychology, for example, a major may undertake a long-term service-learning project as an alternative to a thesis. Portfolios or comprehensive examinations are available as thesis alternatives in several major fields.

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Senior Thesis Projects

Senior theses are independent research projects that students complete in close collaboration with a faculty mentor.  Students who complete a senior thesis project select their own research topic, meaning that they have the opportunity to find answers to the research questions they find most compelling.

Who can complete a senior thesis?

Any student in the department may elect to complete a senior thesis project, provided that they have a Psychology faculty mentor who agrees to supervise their work.  Students with GPAs that are 3.0 and above may be invited to apply to complete a Dietrich Senior Honors Thesis in the second semester of their junior year ( Learn more about the Dietrich Honors Thesis ). 

Students who do not meet this GPA requirement can still complete a departmental thesis.

What does a senior thesis project entail?

Senior thesis projects vary depending on the student’s research interests, but they always involve the direct application of the skills that students learn in their Research Methods courses.  To complete their project, students typically:

• Conduct a literature search in which they review and synthesize previously published research on their chosen topic
• Generate a hypothesis
• Collect and design experimental stimuli
• Collect data (often including recruiting and testing participants)
• Analyze data
• Write an APA-style research paper describing their hypotheses, methods, and findings

Many students who complete a senior thesis also present their work at Meeting of the Minds , a university-wide research symposium held each May on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus.

How long does a senior thesis take to complete?

Students typically spend one academic year (two separate semesters) planning, conducting, analyzing, and writing up the results of their research projects.  Students typically apply in the spring semester of their junior year and begin work on their projects in the fall semester of their senior year.

What kinds of projects do students complete?

Students often work on thesis projects that complement the research that their faculty advisor is currently conducting.  Learn more about faculty research .

Below are some of the senior thesis projects of recent graduates.

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Senior thesis.

The Senior Thesis is your final general education requirement and the capstone of your undergraduate career. It is a serious exercise in the organization and presentation of written material related to your major. You select a topic for your thesis in consultation with your faculty reader(s). If you are pursuing honors in your major, consult the appropriate department chair for any special requirements or guidelines related to honors.

Getting Started on your Thesis Project

To learn about all of the administrative requirements for registration, production, submission, and upload of your thesis, along with information about resources to assist with each step of the process. Please review the Senior Thesis FAQ .

• Senior Thesis Topic Form  – You must submit a topic form in order to register for thesis.
• Senior Thesis Syllabus 2023-2024
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• Senior Thesis Topic Exception Request Form – Use this form to request permission to write a thesis outside your major.
• Claremont Colleges Library Research Guides – Helpful guides curated by subject librarians to assist you with your research.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB)  – Information for students engaging in research involving human subjects.
• Keck Science Thesis Information – Science majors follow the Keck Science Department guidelines for the entire science thesis project. *

* Science majors must complete a science thesis (Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Analysis, Neuroscience, or Physics 188L and 190L; or Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Analysis, Neuroscience, or Physics 191). All two-semester science theses include labs and lab fees. Science majors make all thesis arrangements through the Keck Science Department and must register for the appropriate course.

Writing and Formatting Guidelines

Formatting and style expectations depend on the discipline in which you’re writing. Check with your reader to settle on a style guide and stick with it throughout your entire project. Be sure to visit The Center for Writing and Public Discourse (CWPD) for help with everything from developing your thesis topic to final formatting.

Students wishing to view previously submitted theses for formatting ideas and examples can visit the online repository at Scholarship@Claremont and browse or search for any CMC thesis. Searching for “Best Senior Thesis” (including the quotation marks) will pull up the highest quality theses.

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• CWPD Online Resources – Look here for style guides, documentation guides, and other useful tools.
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• Sample Title Page – Your title page should look like this.
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Submitting your Completed Thesis

Submit to Scholarship@Claremont .

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Submitting your Thesis to Scholarship@Claremont

CMC maintains its senior thesis collection in the Claremont Colleges Library’s online scholarly repository, Scholarship@Claremont . Students will submit electronic versions of their Senior Theses to Scholarship@Claremont . The upload is a mandatory part of the senior thesis process for all CMC students, including science majors and students with off-campus majors. Students requesting an exemption will have their thesis removed from the Library's repository. CMC will retain a copy of the thesis in the student's records.

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• Uploading Theses & Dissertations to Scholarship@Claremont – Library resources related to uploading your senior thesis to Scholarship@Claremont.
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• Exemption Request  – Use this form to request an embargo (delay before your uploaded thesis is available to others) or an upload exemption.

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Search the site, search suggestions, picking a senior thesis topic.

A few weeks ago, I submitted my senior thesis at Harvard.

Titled “More than Missing: Analyzing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Policy Trajectories in the United States and Canada, 2015-2019,” my thesis sought to compare and contrast two national governmental responses to the pattern of Missing and Murdered and Indigenous Women (MMIW), a violent and puzzling phenomenon that adversely affects Native American, First Nations, and other Indigenous women similarly in both nations. I study a joint concentration of Government and the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS), so my thesis sought to join those two disciplines together.

Me with my completed thesis!

Every spring, seniors take pictures at Widener library with their completed theses to celebrate their hard work. Ashley Hamilton

However, when I began my first year of college four years ago, I had no idea that I wanted to write a thesis, let alone know I wanted to study a joint concentration in two departments that I had never taken a class in. In fact, when I applied to Harvard, I thought I was going to study Chemistry (and maybe even French). While I ended up pursuing neither of those fields in college, my four years at Harvard allowed me to explore and interact with fields I didn’t have the chance to in high school, and now leading me to be well-versed in feminist, Indigenous, and political theories.

At Harvard, you don’t declare your concentration (or major) until your sophomore year, and you are free to change it at any point during your Harvard career (with the appropriate advising , of course). In fact, I didn’t declare my joint concentration until the fall of my junior year, over two years after I arrived to campus. For all joint concentrations, a senior thesis is required to complete our degrees (and is meant to join the two concentrations together), so I started thinking about what I wanted to write about as soon as I started thinking about pursuing the joint concentration.

I knew that I wanted to write about an Indigenous-centered topic; I am Indigenous and throughout my studies I’ve always felt Indigenous people did not have a large enough presence in academia generally. I chose to write specifically on the pattern of MMIW, as though a lot of research exists that seeks to explain the pattern and provide history and background from a policy perspective, little work has been done to explain MMIW policies. Thus, I sought to not only marry my two disciplines but also produce knowledge on something I felt was understudied.

Two Friends, Two Completed Theses!

Here's a photo of me with my best friend, who really helped me through the entire thesis process. Ashley Hamilton

With the help of my thesis advisers (two incredible and brilliant scholars), my friends, and the limitations of existing research, I was able to narrow my focus into an answerable research question, which ended up with my completed thesis. Writing a thesis was one of the hardest and most time-consuming tasks I’ve ever completed as a student at Harvard, but it also was one of the most rewarding and enriching. While you spend most of your college career reading and writing about other scholars' works, the senior thesis is a rare opportunity for you to be the researcher and expert on a subject that you get to choose. Thus, picking a thesis topic, is the first stop on a student’s journey from a student pursuing knowledge to a teacher producing knowledge.

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Senior Thesis Information and Help

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation and beginning your senior thesis work! Honors theses are archived in the Union College Institutional Repository. Learn more about the process of submitting your completed honors thesis, the forms you and your advisor will need to provide, and how to determine access to your thesis through our information below.

Quick links

Permission & submission form.

The official Union College honors thesis copyright & permission form.

Frequently asked questions from both students and advisors.

Institutional Repository

View over 2,500 past senior theses papers online.

Library Process for Publishing Honors Theses:

General instructions.

Regulations from the Dean of Studies on format, title page, abstract and more.

View instructions

Department Honors Requirements

Requirements from the College catalog.

View requirements

Nomination Form

(from Academic Affairs)

View nomination form

Format Specifications and Guidelines

Sample Title Page and Abstract [PDF]

View Specifications

• You must complete this permission form as well as select the matching access level when submitting your thesis.
• Once you submit the permission form, you will be emailed a special link that will take you to continue to submit your thesis online.
• Advisors: you will receive an email notifying you when an advisee has completed the online permission form with instructions on how to complete your approval and sign off on the student's access choice.

Fill out permission forM & Submit Thesis

Choosing an Access Option

If you wish to opt out from publishing your honors thesis, please note that you must still submit it here .

See how to choose an access option

Submission Instructions

Instructions for submitting your Thesis to the Institutional Repository.

See instructions

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Information for Advisors and Administrative Assistants

Nomination for departmental honors, from Academic Affairs.

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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES MAJOR

Senior thesis examples.

Graduating seniors in Biological Sciences have the option of submitting a senior thesis for consideration for Honors and Research Prizes .  Below are some examples of particularly outstanding theses from recent years (pdf):

Sledd Thesis

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Senior Thesis

  environmental studies senior thesis  .

Pursuing a thesis in ES enables a student to examine a set of questions that they discover working closely with an ES faculty advisor during the course of an academic year. It provides the opportunity to develop a specialized set of analytical skills in order to make a significant research contribution to environmental studies. In addition to the thesis, the products of this inquiry often include presentations at Ruhlman conferences, national professional society meetings, and in some disciplines, may result in submission of a peer-reviewed manuscript.  

If you are interested in pursuing a thesis, we encourage you to read through the informaiton below and speak to a member of the ES Advisory Faculty early in the process.  Any member of the ES Advisory Faculty would be happy to talk with you!

You can see examples of successful ES thesis proposals here and final ES theses here .

The steps to a thesis are as follows:

• Discuss your interest with an ES Advisory Faculty member
• Submit a pre-proposal by 3/25/24 at 5pm. Follow instructions below.
• Discuss feedback on your pre-proposal with your advisor.
• If your pre-proposal moves forward, a full proposal is due by 4/28/2024 at 5pm.
• Approval of ES theses will be made in May 2024.

Goals of the Pre-proposal

The pre-proposal is a way for you to demonstrate your curiosity and passion for the topic and approach that will sustain your thesis.  A pre-proposal is a way to put boundaries on the topic you are interested in researching. It explains the initial questions you wish to explore and the means and tools you will use to answer them.  The ES Faculty will discuss the proposals and reach out to you (likely through your identified advisor) to discuss next steps.  If your proposal moves forward, a full thesis proposals are due by April 28, 2024  

Pre-proposal questions.  Please copy and paste these questions to a new document and answer each one.  Submit the Google Doc to Jay Turner (the current chair).  

• Working title (i.e., a place-holder title for now)
• 150-word statement of problem space and initial questions being researched. Think of this as the trailer to your full thesis proposal. Make every sentence count.
• Which ES Advisory Faculty member(s) have you consulted with about this pre-proposal?
• General lines of inquiry/methodology (e.g. what sorts of sources will be consulted? Is lab and/or field work required? What types of analyses will you do?) (< 200 words)
• 3-5 key references. A thesis builds on the existing scholarly literature. Please provide 3-5 references that demonstrate the preliminary research you’ve conducted and reflect the body of scholarship you wish to contribute to. Note, these should not be the first 3-5 references that you find; the sample references you submit should reflect the work you’ve already undertaken to scope out your topic and the scholarship relevant to it.  You may include 1 to 2 sentences (no more) about each source explaining its relevance.
• How do your experiences in ES at Wellesley and beyond inform your proposal?  Do you see it building on specific courses, research experiences, and/or study abroad experiences?(< 200 words)

By the end of the semester, the entire ES Advisory Faculty determines if the proposed plan of study is feasible and gives preliminary approval to start the honors thesis process.

Once approved, students should indicate who the primary advisor is and list additional potential committee members who would be helpful for the thesis process. The composition of the thesis committee will be determined by the ES advisory faculty in consultations with the thesis student.

The honors committee must include the following:

• at least three and no more than four people
• at least two people from the ES Advisory Faculty (including a primary advisor who is a member of the ES Advisory Faculty)

There are two options for pursuing a thesis: ES 355/365 will be for senior theses and ES 360/370 will be for senior honors theses. In both cases, a thesis is a chance to pursue in-depth research for a sustained project, involving careful project design and research, over the course of the entire senior year. In all cases, thesis work is in addition to the 10-course requirement for the ES major.

The following schedule must be observed. Updated guidelines can be found on the  Registrar's website .

Spring Semester, Sophomore Year:  Students planning to study abroad should discuss their interest in honors with potential advisors during their sophomore year, and submit their application in April of their junior year abroad as explained below.

Spring Semester, Junior Year:  Early in the spring semester of their junior year the potential honors thesis student will meet with a potential advisor to explore topics, determine scope, and to begin to think about forming a three to four person honors thesis committee that would support the area of study. Students and their advisor should also discuss the possibility of summer funding options (described below) as these applications typically have February deadlines. 

Summer Before Senior Year: Students will begin research for their proposed project. This research should directly contribute to the development of the expanded proposal as explained below.

Students are encouraged to apply for on or off campus fellowships to support their summer research. On campus applications for the summer research programs in Social Science and the Science center can be found at:

http://www.wellesley.edu/provost/students/summerresearch http://www.wellesley.edu/sciencecenter/students/opportunities/summer

Fall Semester, Senior Year: Students will submit an expanded proposal to their committee before the first day of classes. This 7-10-page, double-spaced proposal should reflect the student’s summer research and include a detailed timeline .

During the first two weeks of the student's senior year (during add/drop period) the student will meet with the thesis committee to discuss the revised proposal and evaluate the status of the project. The ES Program Coordinator will help to schedule the meeting time and location with the student’s committee. If the committee decides that progress is satisfactory, students may enroll in ES 355/360. ES 360 students will fill out the Honors form at the Dean’s office.

Normally at the conclusion of the ES 355/360 a grade of TBG (to be graded) will be assigned. The final grade for the combined 360/370 process is assigned at the completion of the thesis.

Spring Semester, Senior Year: During the first week of the second semester, students will meet with their thesis committee and give a formal presentation and update on the progress of their project. At this point, the committee will decide if the student may advance to ES 365/370. A list of approved ES 365/370 students will be sent to the registrar and the office will register them. This is considered the halfway point of the thesis. If students are not able to continue with the thesis, the fall ES 355/360 is transformed into an ES 350 Independent Study course. Students choosing not to continue with the thesis can decide (in conjunction with their advisors) whether they want to continue on with Independent Study.

Students will submit a complete draft of their thesis to their committee in early to mid April, with a specific date to be determined by their primary advisor. After this draft is submitted, students will consult with their committee to schedule the one-hour thesis oral exam during reading period. Students, in consultation with their advisor, should also arrange for a Committee on Curriculum and Academic Policyvisitor to attend the defense.  Follow the link to more information about the  Procedure for Selecting Honors Visitors .

During the spring semester, students are expected to give a public presentation of their thesis research to the Wellesley Community. This 15-20 minute presentation and question & answer period will be for a general audience of ES students and faculty, and will take place over lunch.

Students will submit a final draft of their thesis in late April of their senior year, as scheduled by the Registrar's Office.  The electronic repository will distribute copies of the thesis to the honors examining committee, including the honors visitor. If honors is conferred, the Registrar's copy of the thesis becomes the property of the College Archives. There are no extensions permitted for handing in theses.

During reading period, students will complete the pre-arranged oral exam/defense of thesis. In Environmental Studies, this will be a hybrid of the public presentation, and a more formal discussion (the defense component). The examination should be approximately one hour in length. The oral examination committee is composed of the honors advisor, the department chair/program director (or a designated representative), a third faculty member from the department/program, and a non-voting representative of the Committee on Curriculum and Academic Policy.

After the defense the committee and the student will determine the date when the final thesis with essential revisions is to be handed in. Submission of the revised thesis usually occurs within 10 days of the defense, and no later than commencement. If revisions to the thesis are suggested or required at the conclusion of the oral examination, the student is responsible for submitting the corrected copy of the thesis to the Office of the Registrar prior to graduation.

Honors Thesis Structure and Format

We expect that the thesis will follow one of two broad strategies. 1) Students may choose to complete a thesis that is broadly interdisciplinary, or 2) students may decide to have a focused thesis that includes an interdisciplinary component, which is broadly related to the thesis topic, but is not a separate entity supplementary to the thesis.

The thesis must include an executive summary that is accessible to the entire Environmental Studies community. The length of the executive summary should be approximately 2-4 pages, single-spaced. In general, this piece should be a concise presentation of the project and its relevance to environmental studies. The ES Advisory Faculty will provide examples of acceptable executive summaries.

There is no single, preferred stylistic format for the honors thesis. All archived copies of the thesis should, however, include a standard title page. See Sample Title Page . The candidate should consult her honors advisor about the acceptable forms for footnotes, bibliography, and other issues of form appropriate to the field. One often-consulted reference is Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations.

Electronic Copies

The Registrar's Office now requires all theses to be submitted electronically. Visit the registrar's office site for guidelines on the submission process. 

Financial Assistance

Limited funds are available to support student research with Wellesley College faculty members. Students seeking a research grant should submit an application form. These forms are available in the Office of the Dean of the College or on the Web.

Library Policy for Thesis Students

Study carrels are available at the Science Center, Art, Music Libraries (and Clapp after renovations) for thesis students. Request a thesis carrel.

Organismal Biology & Ecology

Senior thesis.

Any senior OBE major may elect to undertake a senior thesis. A senior OBE major who completes a high quality senior thesis, presents it orally at OBE Day, and has a high grade point average will receive Graduation with Distinction. This honor will be recorded on the student's official transcript and noted on the commencement program at graduation. If a student meets the senior thesis and presentation requirements, but does not have a high enough GPA, s/he will not receive Graduation with Distinction, but the successful completion of the senior thesis requirements will become part of the student's official transcript under BE499 Senior Thesis.

CHECKLIST to graduate with distinction in Organismal Biology and Ecology

• Complete an OBE senior thesis with a grade of A- or above and
• From the courses taken for the OBE major, achieve a GPA of at least 3.7 for the 10 courses with the highest grades. If a student does not have seven or more grade track courses, e.g. is a transfer student or a student taking the MBL Semester in Ecosystem Science, a faculty member may nominate the student for consideration for distinction by a departmental vote.

The option of undertaking a senior thesis must be initiated by the student and approved by an OBE Department faculty member (primary research advisor), who will supervise the student's research and senior thesis. In addition, another faculty member (who may be in another CC department if the area of research falls under the other faculty member's area of expertise) must agree to act as a secondary advisor. The primary and secondary research advisors comprise the thesis committee. The thesis committee will establish the format and requirements of the research and thesis, read and suggest revisions in the thesis, and determine whether the thesis is of sufficient quality to qualify for Graduation With Distinction. Ideally, the decision to write a senior thesis should be made in the fall of the junior year so that the spring may be devoted to a survey of the literature and planning for the research. The research itself should begin by the following summer. Work on the writing of the research must begin by the fall of the senior year. The senior thesis is based on original research done by the student. A literature review, although a necessary part of a senior thesis, is not in itself considered to be a thesis.

OFF-CAMPUS RESEARCH

Off-campus research projects done in such programs as the Oak Ridge Semester, the ACM Tropical Field Research Program in Costa Rica, research at another institution, or other approved research experience at a laboratory or field station may be used for the research on which a senior thesis is based. Students should be aware, however, that sometimes research supervision in these programs is not very good, and that they could end their off-campus program without having obtained suitable data for a senior thesis. A student should approach a CC OBE faculty member about being the student's primary research advisor before the student undertakes the off-campus research . When the student returns to CC after finishing the off-campus research, the primary thesis advisor will determine whether the results of the student's off-campus research project is worthy of a senior thesis. Students are additionally cautioned that the actual writing of the senior thesis based on off-campus research must be done by working closely with the CC OBE Department faculty member who has agreed to be the student's primary research advisor . In this case the primary thesis advisor supervises the data analysis and writing of the thesis, rather than supervising the actual research.

REGISTRATION FOR SENIOR THESIS

Students undertaking a senior thesis must return a completed form (on OBE website) entitled, Registration for Senior Thesis , by the end of block 2 of the senior year , to the coordinator of the Senior Thesis/Distinction program. Students must arrange for a thesis committee consisting of a primary research advisor, who must be an OBE Department faculty member, and a secondary advisor, who may be in another academic department. An oral presentation advisor, normally the primary research advisor, is also necessary. These advisors must sign the registration form before it is turned in to the Senior Thesis/Distinction coordinator.

ENROLLING IN BE499 SENIOR THESIS

By the end of block 2, students planning to do a senior thesis should be enrolled in BE499 Senior Thesis through the Registrar's Office. Enrolling in BE499 and completing the OBE Department's requirements for a senior thesis will provide an official record of the senior thesis on the student's transcript. There is an option of enrolling in BE499 as a regular block course, or enrolling in BE499 as a FULL YEAR extended format course. Students may enroll in one extended format course per semester for ½ CC unit at no extra tuition cost (in the case of BE499 students therefore must enroll for both semesters, thus obtaining a whole unit of credit). The instructor for BE499 should be the primary thesis advisor.

ORAL PRESENTATION OF THESIS

In addition to the written senior thesis, a student must make a high quality oral presentation of the thesis research and results. Ordinarily, this presentation will be at the annual spring OBE Day. The presentation is prepared under the supervision of at least one OBE faculty member who is also part of the thesis committee. Normally the oral presentation advisor is also the primary research advisor for the senior thesis, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. The student's oral presentation advisor will help the student fit the presentation into the time available at OBE Day, make suggestions about organization and the preparation of slides, and help set the level of the talk appropriate for the CC audience. The talk must be a well-planned, rehearsed, understandable, and professional presentation of scholarly work. Students who do off-campus research as a basis for their senior thesis are cautioned that they must work closely with their CC presentation advisor to prepare their talk, even if they have orally presented the results previously as part of their off-campus research experience. This will help ensure that the presentation will meet the OBE Department's standards of quality.

The student must inform the faculty coordinator of OBE Day of his or her intention to give an oral presentation at OBE Day and must submit an abstract of the presentation for the OBE Day program. The OBE Day coordinator will send instructions for the abstract via campus mail or e-mail to all those students who have submitted a form declaring their intention to write a senior thesis (see section on Registration for Senior Thesis); however, it is the student's responsibility to check his/her Worner box and e-mail regularly and make certain that his/her abstract is submitted in a timely manner.

Note: Any student may request to present research based on independent study (such as for BE309/409) at the OBE Department's annual OBE Day. Because of time limitations for oral presentations of students attempting to qualify for Graduation with Distinction, however, other student presentations at OBE Day will usually be in the form of a poster. The coordinator of OBE Day will make the final decision about the format of research presentations at OBE Day.

Students attempting to graduate with distinction in December must discuss their situation with their advisor and the Department Chair to arrange for fulfilling the oral presentation requirement outside of OBE Day.

TURNING IN THE FINAL COPY OF THE SENIOR THESIS

By the first Friday of Block 8, a final, clean, and professional-looking original of the thesis, signed by the thesis committee (on a title page as shown in Appendix II of this handbook) must be turned in to the OBE office. By signing, the thesis advisors have judged that the written thesis meets the standards of quality necessary for Graduation With Distinction.

The thesis must also be submitted to the library, which only accepts electronic copies. The student should use their last name and tiger number to log in to the following website: http://discovery.coloradocollege.edu/etd/ . After logging in, they will be prompted with instructions on how to complete the submission.

For a detailed overview of the thesis submission process, covering everything from how to get departmental and personal bound copies to submitting a thesis electronically, see http://coloradocollege.libguides.com/content.php?pid=345211 .

Guide to CaltechTHESIS

• Caltech Theses
• Deadlines and Letters of Completion
• Submission Information
• Grad Office Regulations and Required Forms
• Templates and Formatting Information
• Thesis Updates and Corrections
• CaltechDATA for Supplementary Material
• Thesis Embargo Policies and Forms
• Copyright Considerations
• Publishers' Policies on Publications in Theses
• Printing & Binding

Depositing Current Senior Theses

Requirements for advisors, instructions for depositing your senior thesis.

• 3MT: Caltech's Three Minute Thesis Competition This link opens in a new window

Author Services and Thesis Librarian

Library Staff

There is currently no Institute requirement for senior theses to be deposited into CaltechTHESIS.  However, individual students or faculty may want to do so.  The database is fully capable of handling them.   Please check out other pages in this Libguide for related information that could apply to adding a senior thesis.

If you have any questions, please contact the Library !

• No.  There isn't one specifically for senior theses.  However you are are welcome to use one of the Word or LaTeX templates created for PhD theses, and to modify it as needed for your purposes.
• Yes.  Check out CaltechTHESIS senior thesis records .  Not every thesis record has viewable files, however, so check out a few records.
• Yes. The Library will need an email from the advisor approving the deposit and release of the thesis.  This can be sent to [email protected] .
• Yes.  We do allow temporary restricted access or full embargoes for thesis files if the advisor recommends it.  The easiest way to do that is for the advisor to fill out the PhD thesis embargo form of their choice , adding a note in the form indicating that it’s for a senior thesis, and for how long they would like the restriction or embargo to last.  The form does not need to go through the same approval process as for PhD theses, but its use makes it easier for the advisor to fill out all the necessary information for the Library.

Advisors must approve the deposit of a senior thesis into CaltechTHESIS.  A simple email of approval sent to the Library is enough to satisfy this requirement.

Instructions on uploading your senior thesis to CaltechTHESIS

• ​​ Log in to CaltechTHESIS with your IMSS credentials.
• Starred metadata fields are required.
• In the Description screen, your Defense Date can be the date you turned in the final copy of your senior thesis.
• If you do not have a committee, add "None" to the first Family Name and Given Name fields in the Committee area.
• In the Division/Option screen, if you have a double major or minor, you can choose multiple entries in the list by hitting the CTRL key in PCs, or the equivalent in other computers.
• Once uploaded, click on Show Options next to each file entry.
• In Content, choose the appropriate option from the pull-down menu.
• If you are uploading multiple files, briefly describe the contents of the file(s)s in the Description field for each entry.
• If your original thesis includes multiple files, zip them together and deposit the zip file.  This is true for both TeX and Word, as well as other generating software.  Choose the Content option "Archival Material", and add "Source files" to the Description field.
• Briefly describe the contents of the file(s)s in the Description field for each entry (Click "Show Options" to see the field).
• You can add the links in the "Related URLs" field in the Description screen.
• If you decide to add them to CaltechTHESIS, upload them as zipped files if they are extremely large (>100 Mb - use your judgment).
• Deposit your record for review and approval by the Library.
• << Previous: Printing & Binding
• Next: 3MT: Caltech's Three Minute Thesis Competition >>
• Last Updated: Apr 8, 2024 3:23 PM
• URL: https://library.caltech.edu/theses

News and Events

Senior's thesis investigates how ai can help secure interviews.

Rebecca Stoia ’24 saw herself facing a problem many graduates encounter when exiting college: searching for a job. Stoia combined her economics and data science majors to work on a thesis project that utilizes AI to help applications stand out.

Her thesis project addresses a major concern of jobseekers with no network connections who find themselves applying to hundreds of positions with no way to stand out from other applicants.

Programming in Python, Stoia has written script that scrapes job advertisements off LinkedIn. Her script identifies key words within the job posting, which she uses to tailor a resume with ChatGPT and Google Bard. This helps the resume stand out through the software many hiring managers use to process and filter applications.

“Essentially, since I’m in my last year of undergrad, I have been applying for a lot of jobs,” Stoia said. “I have interviewed for a few and got rejected from all of them. I was wondering if there was a way I could analyze how to improve my resume and create a more automated application process.”

Stoia sent out over 500 applications, some with the baseline unaltered resume, some using resumes tailored by ChatGPT, and some with resumes tailored with Google Bard. She then tracked which applications received a call back.

“I found that if a candidate tailors a resume with ChatGPT, they see a 14 percent increase in callbacks,” Stoia said. “With Google Bard, I saw a bit over 15 percent increased probability for an interview.”

Stoia’s script automates this process to help applicants apply to more jobs with resumes tailored to each job posting.

Her thesis was recognized for excellence at this year’s Midwest Economics Association conference. She was awarded the top undergraduate prize at the keynote lecture. She plans to make her code open source and accessible. 

“I really am so grateful for the flexibility I was given at Lake Forest College,” she said. “I have genuinely learned so much. I’ve had such an exponential growth. The advisors and mentors and professors supported me so much along the journey, especially Professor [Robert] Lemke who advised my paper and connected me with a network to help me get a job.”

As it turns out, Stoia was able to leverage her Forester network to land a job upon graduating this May. She will be a quantitative analyst for an asset management firm, and she looks forward to continuing to investigate the intersections between finance and technology.

Related links

• Data Science

• myState on Mississippi State University
• Directory on Mississippi State University
• Alumni & Friends

CHANNEL 26: Graphic Design Senior Thesis Exhibition

April 17, 2024

Cullis Wade Depot Art Gallery, Visual Arts Center Gallery

Visit msstate.design for exhibition details.

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i come into existence, only to fall apart: A Senior Thesis Exhibition by Vanessa Ayala '24 (CCS Art)

ミ★ 𝘪 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 ★彡

Vanessa Ayala 's '24 (CCS Art) senior thesis exhibition, “i come into existence, only to fall apart” is on display from April 8th to 11th , 2024 in the CCS Gallery at UCSB. Ayala specializes in world-building that traverses the liminal thresholds of their identity as a Queer Latinx raised in a traditional Catholic household. The exhibition explores the artist’s role as a nepantlera, forming new realities of abundance and an identity free from trauma and the marks of institutional violence. Let it all burn down; there is hope in starting anew. 

Join us in the CCS gallery  today, Tuesday, April 9th at 5:30pm  for an  artist-led tour. Light refreshments

for more information, visit  vanessaayala.info

THE MANY SINS OF MOSCOW�S NEW ST. ANDREWS COLLEGE

by Nick Gier

For a full accreditation report on NSA see this link .  For articles on the Wilson Saga click this link .

        In April 2000, I gave a talk to the students and faculty of New St. Andrews College (NSA), a small Calvinist college established in Moscow in 1994.  At that time I congratulated Douglas Wilson, founder of the college, on the success of both NSA and his K-12 Logos School.  Wilson appeared to enjoy a story I told about him as a student in the philosophy department, and it got a good laugh from the audience. I also announced that I was prepared to help NSA students with their senior theses.  In the previous year I had spent about 60 hours helping a bright NSA student with a thesis on Buddhism.

    In December 2002, I invited NSA faculty and students to the regional meeting of the American Academy of Religion.  It was held in Moscow in May 2003, and 40 percent of the papers were presented by faculty from conservative Christian colleges.  NSA president Roy Atwood defended their absence by saying that they �had better things to do.�

    Wilson wrote an article �Why Evangelical Colleges Are Not� in Chronicles (September, 1998), the journal of the far right Rockford Institute. The hostility displayed against reputable evangelical colleges in this article not only shows blatant disrespect for these fine schools, but it manifests shameful disregard for the entire academic enterprise.

    In a letter to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News on May 23, 2003, Atwood wrote that his college was an accredited institution. At a legal hearing before the Latah County Commissioners in April 2003, the NSA attorney also testified that NSA was accredited. The problem, however, is that NSA did not receive its accreditation until November 29, 2005.

    In October, 2003, the community learned of the existence of Wilson�s booklet on slavery in the Antebellum South in which he stated that �there has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world" (p. 24). It was later discovered that 20 percent of this text was lifted from another book. When two UI history professors wrote a paper criticizing Wilson, his reaction was to write Governor Kempthorne and request that the professors be disciplined.

    Only recently did I learn that NSA faculty celebrated April Fools of 1999 by stealing letterhead from the UI provost�s office to distribute an announcement of visiting feminist scholars who would give their presentations topless. There is nothing wrong with a good joke, but one usually tries to avoid criminal activity in pulling stunts such as this.    Recently Wilson defended this action in his blog: �By the time you receive this, our local police will probably have forgotten all about it, so a little bragging is now safe. . . . [My son-in-law], . . . encouraged by some winks and nudges from me, . . . made up a flyer which announced a topless and proud lecture series by topless feminist scholars.� 

An important academic virtue is �collegiality,� which consists of respect for, and cooperation with, all members of the academic community.  I believe that we can conclude from NSA�s actions that it has not been a very good academic citizen. The supreme irony is that 9 of the15 NSA faculty have, or are expecting, 13 UI degrees.

The following are some more disturbing NSA facts:

Only 27 percent of the college�s faculty have PhDs. NSA has the resources to hire PhDs, but evidently chooses not to do so. Their less than prestigious accrediting agency requires that only one third of the faculty have the doctorate.

Two of the college�s senior fellows, presumably equivalent to full professors, do not have PhDs. Generally, a PhD is required at the lowest rank of assistant professor.

Although full resumes are not available on NSA�s website, it appears that a majority of the faculty�s published books are from Canon Press, Wilson�s own creation and the publisher of the infamous slavery booklet.

Of special concern is the fact that Wilson�s brother, his son, and his son-in-law are on the college�s faculty.

 Steve Wilkins and George Grant are regular speakers at Wilson�s annual conferences in Moscow. Grant has a mail order doctorate and Wilkins is a conservative Calvinist minister from Louisiana. Wilkins is a founding director of the League of the South, which has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Confederate flag used to hang in Wilson�s office and Logos School displayed it at its social functions.

When a Moscow journalist interviewed Wilson, Grant, and Wilkins in February, 2004, they each proudly affirmed their belief that only propertied males should vote.  Always the jokester, Wilson said that democracy was just like two coyotes and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

There are well qualified students at NSA and some competent faculty, just as there are good, decent people who attend Wilson�s 800-member Christ Church.  One can usually spot these people because they frequently speak of Wilson�s goal of achieving �truth, goodness, and beauty.� These fine folks need to be reminded that their leaders have not always told the truth, that condoning slavery is not good, and that calling for the execution of homosexuals is just plain ugly.

The Findley Lecture with Devika Singh 4/15/2024

"A Transnational History of Art in India"

4:45 PM on Monday April 15th, 2024 Goldwin Smith Hall G22

The lecture will take Devika Singh’s recent book International Departures: Art in India after Independence as a starting point to discuss transnational readings of art in India. Described as a major contribution to a new, transnational history of art, this captivating and richly illustrated account presents together for the first time the work of Indian 
and foreign artists active in India after independence in 1947. It engages with the many creators, critics and patrons of the postwar Indian art worlds and opens up new ways of thinking about Indian art, closely examining artworks and analysing how they were received in India and abroad. Featuring a wealth of rare and previously unpublished images, this provocative book explores how artists in India participated in global modernism during a crucial period of decolonization and nation building.  

Devika Singh is Senior Lecturer in Curating at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She was previously Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she was in charge of South Asian art and part of the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational. She curated exhibitions and collection displays at the CSMVS, Mumbai, the Dhaka Art Summit, the Dubai Design District, Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge, UK) and Tate Modern. Her writing has appeared widely in exhibition catalogues, art reviews such as frieze, Art Press and MARG and in the journals Art History , Modern Asian Studies , the Journal of Art Historiography and Third Text . Her book International Departures: Art in India after Independence (Reaktion Books) was released in early 2024 in the United States.

Pulse of Art History with Kimberli Gant 4/22/2024

History of Art Senior Honors Thesis Symposium

Summer Experience Grant applications now open

Visual Culture Colloquium with Christina Maranci 4/9/2024

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Film and video arts senior films hit the big screen

April 9, 2024

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Lycoming College is pleased to present the Film and Video Arts Department Senior Film Screening at the Community Art Center, 220 W 4 th St. Williamsport, Pa., on April 18, beginning promptly at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Theater seating is free and open to the public. Tickets are not necessary.

Two graduating film and video arts seniors, Achilles Wice and Nonni Human, will screen their thesis films which include narrative and documentary genres. Students decide on the genre and content of their films under the guidance of their thesis professor, Leah Bedrosian Peterson. They write, cast actors, scout locations, film, edit, and produce their films over the course of the academic year.

This year’s screening will open with “Sneak”, a short narrative film made in the fall semester’s narrative filmmaking class directed by Mayumi Hamada and written by Wice. “The two narrative films being screened are well written and beautify filmed, and the documentary film is not only cinematically stunning but features four members of the Williamsport community including Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter,” said Leah Bedrosian Peterson, professor of film and video arts and chair of the department at Lycoming College.

The film and video arts seniors are proud to share their work with the community on the big screen at the Community Arts Center. “This year we are screening two very strong films being presented by our film and video arts senior class. They’ve worked for the better part of a year on the writing and production of their work and are thrilled to present it to the Williamsport community,” said Bedrosian Peterson. “We are also excited to open the evening with a film made in our narrative filmmaking course which highlights how well our students work together. This screening is a way for us to share our students’ work in such a way that best highlights their talents and accomplishments.”

The film and video arts department at Lycoming offers a major in film and video arts and minors in film and video arts, screenwriting, and film studies. Courses cover development and production techniques for a variety of film genres such as narrative, documentary, experimental film, video installation, and stop motion animation. The film and video arts curriculum at Lycoming College teaches the theory, writing, technical skills, and grammar of visual language necessary to work with the moving image.

The films slated for screening include:

“Sneak” by Mayumi Hamada (Tokyo, Japan)

Two basketball players discover that their coach is dealing performance enhancing drugs to the members on his team. One of the players is the coach’s daughter and she must come to terms with what this means for the future of her relationship with her father and her team.

“Heirlooms” by Achilles Wice (Newark, Del.)

A short film that follows Lillian, an isolated elderly woman, and her unhealthy fixation on her late husband. Her routine is disrupted when Harper, her granddaughter, comes to live with her. Lillian must choose between a relationship with Harper or living her hauntingly isolated life forever.

“Gems” by Nonni Human (Philadelphia, Pa.)

An experimental documentary film about four people who share their reflection of themselves, and perspectives of a higher power that helped shape their identity today.

To support the arts at Lycoming College, please visit https://www.lycoming.edu/givenow to make a gift.

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