Honors Program and Lasch Fellowship

Honors Program

The department offers history majors the opportunity to conduct an extensive research project of their own choosing through the Honors Program. Students may use the program as a capstone, to further explore a topic covered in a previous seminar or as a first step towards graduate school. Students who have completed the program take great pride in this culminating experience of their undergraduate career. This is a challenging process and is not meant for all history majors. The program is explicitly designed for students interested in researching and writing original theses (typically, 35-45 pages), which they will revise over the course of the fall and spring of their senior year. It also provides students the opportunity of working closely with a faculty advisor who will help navigate them through the research process.

The proposal process for Honors takes place during the spring semester of junior year. The Undergraduate Studies Committee will evaluate proposals on the basis of scholarly merit, viability and the student’s ability to express ideas clearly. Please note that not all proposals will be accepted. Students whose projects have been approved are encouraged to seek research funds in order to advance their research over the summer between junior and senior year. An informational meeting will take place in late January to further explain the program.

Please see the following attachments for the Honors program and its requirements.

For further information please email the director of undergraduate studies at thomas.fleischman@rochester.edu.

Class of 2024 honors students and papers >

Requirements for Distinction in History

To graduate with distinction in history, students must have a GPA of 3.7 in the major. To receive highest distinction in history, students must have a GPA of 3.8 in the major.

Lasch Fellowship

Lasch Fellows are invited to complete HIST 500: Problems in Historical Analysis, a course designed to introduce graduate students to the history of the historical profession, styles of writing, historical methods, and the functions of history as criticism and as social memory.

This course can be a capstone to your history major and, if you are considering graduate school, will introduce you to professional historical study. Those who successfully complete HIST 500 will be recognized at graduation as Christopher Lasch Fellows in History—named for a distinguished historian and social critic who worked in our department from 1970-1994.