In general, most independent work in Art & Archaeology begins with the selection of an object or objects or a theme on which to focus. In all cases except for the fall JIW, the student then develops an original interpretation of this material—one that does not already exist in the scholarly or critical literature and that employs modes of reasoning or methods that reflect original thinking—based on examination of the object of inquiry, review of the secondary literature, archival research, primary documents, and examination of other relevant or useful literature from other fields. A student’s particular course of research will be determined by the nature of his or her topic, thus the preceding list represents just some of the types of sources on which a student will draw in conducting his or her research, formulating his or her argument, and writing his or her paper or thesis.
Undergrad Forms and Files contains several important documents for you to view as PDF or download to use as guides including but not limited to the following:
The Independent Work Guide assists in the process of formulating your paper.
The Department Style Guide will assist you in formatting your work, including the structure of citations.
The Thesis Template should be downloaded and used from the beginning of writing your paper to aid in proper formatting. Your thesis must be written in Word from the beginning. Transferring it from another program like Pages will result in style and format issues, particularly with footnotes and section breaks.
All relevant files are on the Undergrad Forms and Files page.
Senior Thesis Schedule
- September 23: Senior thesis topic and brief abstract (approx. ½ page) due to adviser.
- September 26–30: Meeting with adviser.
- November 4: Senior thesis outline and annotated bibliography due to adviser.
- November 7–11: Adviser meeting: discuss outline, remaining research plans, writing plan.
- November 18: Advisers submit Senior Thesis Progress Report to the Dep Rep.
- December reading period: Meet with advisor to review timeline
- January: Meet with Julie Angarone to discuss formatting, i.e. page numbering, table of contents, image captioning
- February:Spend the month editing and completing the footnotes, bibliography, and illustrations for your thesis
- March 24: Main text of thesis completed in draft form.
- April 28: One unbound copy of the thesis secured by a folder or a binder clip is due in the Department office by 3:00 pm. Electronic copy due to thesis central
- May 10–11: Comprehensive Examinations