Honors Proposal Submission Form
Anthropology Student Honors Thesis Proposals
An honors project, which culminates in a substantial independent thesis, should not only provide students with an invaluable learning experience, it should also help them to become stronger writers and researchers. We therefore require students to write an honors thesis proposal with support from a faculty advisor both as a means of evaluating their research questions and as an exercise in effective writing and anthropological thinking.
These proposals are distinct from the research proposals that a student develops prior to conducting original research, for the purposes of securing funding (e.g. from the Goodman Fund) and ethics approval from Dartmouth's IRB, the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS). While portions of a student's research proposal may be used in the framing of their honors thesis proposal, the latter should reflect the findings of their research as well as their preliminary analysis and plans for writing up the thesis during the student's senior year.
We have developed the following template for writing a strong honors thesis proposal. These guidelines are based on the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, and the National Science Foundation—three of the most important agencies funding anthropological research.
Proposal length: Proposals should be no longer than 5 single-spaced pages, excluding bibliography and budget. Use 12-pt font. Longer proposals are not necessarily better, and any proposals longer than 5 pages will not be considered. A good proposal is concise and focused.
Proposal deadline: Student proposals should be submitted to the anthropology department administrator via the web form below by Week 7 of the Fall term of a student's senior year; on occasion, this deadline can be extended to Week 1 of the Winter term of a student's senior year, but such a request must be supported by the student's primary advisor and may be reflective of plans to use the Fall-Winter interim period for additional data collection. Applicants will ordinarily have completed, with a minimum grade of A-, an independent research course (ANTH 87) during the Fall term of their senior year with their faculty advisor for the project. Students admitted to the honors program must enroll in ANTH 88 (Anthropology Honors) in addition to the ten courses ordinarily required in the standard major or eleven courses in the case of a modified major. ANTH 88 may be taken only once; most thesis students will enroll in ANTH 88 in the Winter term of their senior year and take an "Ongoing" for this course, completing it in Spring term of their senior year.
Proposal evaluators: The Department expects that students develop their proposals in consultation with a faculty advisor. Thesis proposals are reviewed by all members of the anthropology faculty. Upon review, the proposal may be accepted, rejected, or considered in need of revision and re-review. If the faculty recommends significant changes to make the proposal, they will communicate this feedback to the student and faculty mentor. Revisions and resubmissions should be completed in a timely manner. Resubmissions completed within two weeks will be reconsidered by the faculty in the same term.
Anthropology Student Honors Thesis Proposal Template
Students interested in pursuing Anthropology honors must first find and consult with a faculty advisor in the Department of Anthropology. Having successfully applied for and completed independent research, including with Goodman Fund support, does not necessitate that a student writes a thesis; rather, students should consult closely with their advisor after completion of independent research to first evaluate whether or not the student should pursue developing an honors thesis proposal; propose another "capstone" project, to be completed in one term through an ANTH 87 Independent Research Course; or, at minimum, prepare a formal report and presentation based on this research at the Anthropology Department's annual Goodman Symposium in the Spring term.
Thesis proposals should contain the following parts:
- Abstract (200 words) The abstract should summarize in clear, concise language the main purpose of your research. Consider responding to the prompts "who, what, when, where, why, and how" in relation to your research.
- Introduction and Research Question. This section is meant to orient the reader to your research question and what you learned through the process of conducting the research on which you are now proposing to write a thesis. What issue did you study and why was it worth studying? How does the argument you plan to make in your thesis, with your data, research contribute to anthropological study? The nature of the question may vary according to anthropological subfield (e.g. biological and archaeological questions may be more hypothesis-driven while sociocultural questions may be more open-ended and inductive).
- Background and Anthropological Significance. This might otherwise be called a "literature review." It is the section, you share what you know about your research topic as it relates not only to your preliminary findings but also in relation to what is already known about this and related topics. Why is your research important? In the thesis, what do you hope to contribute to scholarship and, as relevant, applied or public knowledge or practice?
- Methodology. This section describes where, with whom, how, and why you addressed your research question through original (field or lab-based) research. It should include a discussion of who you worked with and what data you gathered. It should also include a coherent rationale for why you chose to use these methods and how this process went. It should include a discussion of any ethical issues or concerns related to your project and how you addressed them. Particularly in cultural anthropology proposals, but in any circumstances in which you worked with living human populations, this section should consider researcher positionality. How did you establish rapport? How did who you are and how you present yourself impact the data you collected? In this section, you should also mention previous preparation through coursework and/or co-curricular activities, local contacts, relevant language spoken (or approaches to working with interpreters), and your preliminary approach to data analysis.
- Outcomes and Draft Table of Contents. This is a chance to further share what you learned, and how you are considering these findings in relation to the thesis writing process. In this section, you should further outline your"thesis" or main argument of the thesis as it relates to your preliminary findings and to draft a table of contents of the thesis itself that reflects this overall argument. You may find it useful to also draft a writing timeline.
- Bibliography. List all sources to which you have referred in your proposal. Do not list sources that you know are relevant to your research but you have not cited directly.
Examples of high-quality proposals
- Zoe Brown: "Built, Felt, Lived: Healing within North American Spaces of Retreat"
- Uyen Dang: "Surviving Futures: Identity, Space, and Absence in Post-Đổi Mới Saigon"
Please use the form below to submit your Honors Thesis Proposal for Independent Study.