Honors/ Independent Study

Many students in Slavic Studies do independent studies or write honors theses during their four years at the College.

Writing an honors thesis and conducting an individual study are challenging and rewarding ways for students to tailor their education to their interests.

Croatian, Czech, and Polish are offered on an individual study basis, and students studying these languages must be highly motivated and disciplined in order to achieve high proficiency levels in these languages.

Students studying Russian may add an additional course credit to courses taught in English to discuss and read supplementary texts in Russian under the FLAC program; they may also pursue independent studies on the topics of their choice.

Students who choose to write honors theses in Slavic Studies often draw on research conducted abroad during study away or through international internships. Topics of recent honors theses in the Department include the sex-trafficking trade in Russia, women in the Russian Orthodox Church,  and a linguistic analysis of tombstone carvings.

The author of the above-mentioned thesis, Susana Hancock, was a 2007 finalist for the Ames Prize, the prestigious College award for the best honors thesis, for "Gravestone Carvings: A Venerated Medium of the Intellectual and Spiritual Life of Seventeenth-Century New England."

Students interested in writing an honors thesis or doing an independent study should contact the faculty member with whom they would like to work as early as possible in order to ensure a successful project with sufficient planning time. Students may also contact Andrea Lanoux, Chair of Slavic Studies, with questions.

Last Modified: Friday, October 19, 2007 15:14