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Our Departmental Honors Advisor is
Prof. Amber Brian  457 PH  335-2231
(Dates mentioned here correspond to the 2007-08 academic year.)

Graduating with Distinction: All students with a g.p.a. of at least 3.33 overall are eligible for honors.  You need not take any honors courses in order to graduate with distinction.  The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences awards degrees “with highest distinction” to students in the highest 2 percent of the graduating class, “with high distinction” to students in the next highest 3 percent, and “with distinction” to the next highest 5 percent. Ranking is based on students’ grade point average for all college-level study undertaken before the final registration.  To be eligible for graduation with distinction, students must complete a minimum of 60 s.h. in residence in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, of which at least 45 s.h. must have been completed before the student’s final registration.

Honors Courses:  To be eligible to graduate with Honors in Spanish, you must take at least one Spanish honors course or a Spanish course with honors designation.  The department offers a few honors courses each semester, namely, honors sections of 35:103 Writing in Spanish, 35:110 Readings in Spanish Literature and Culture, and 35:111 Readings in Spanish American Literature and Culture.  You can arrange to take any other course with Honors Designation at the discretion of the instructor.  You and the instructor must agree on an additional project, such as a paper or outside reading that would help enrich the course.  You also must file the appropriate form with the Honors Program by Fri, Sept. 28, 2007 for fall (spring dates will be posted soon).  The form is available on-line (http://www.uiowa.edu/~honors/forms/pdf/honors_designation.pdf) or from the Honors Program secretary (420 BHC).  At the end of the semester, remind the professor to sign the original agreement form, attesting that you have completed the agreed-upon work.  In order for this course to count as an honors course, you must receive a grade of B or higher.

Graduating with Honors in Spanish:  In order to be eligible for honors in Spanish, you must have an overall g.p.a. of 3.33, as well as a 3.5 g.p.a. in Spanish.  Graduation with honors in Spanish requires 3 s.h. in 035:198 Honors:  Research and Thesis, plus another 3 s.h. course chosen in consultation with the department honors advisor.  This additional course may be an honors course or a course taken with honors designation, as explained above.  These 6 s.h. count toward the total 36 s.h. required for the Spanish major; 035:198 also counts toward the three courses between 35:170 and 35:199 requirement.  In this course you will write an honors thesis in Spanish and defend it orally to a faculty committee in a meeting conducted in Spanish.  Usually students write and defend their honors thesis during their last semester as an undergraduate.  In addition, during your final semester of enrollment, you must file the “Application for Graduation with Honors” form (420 BHC) by Tues, 5:00pm on Oct. 16, 2007 (available on line, http://www.uiowa.edu/~honors/forms/pdf/honors_graduation_application.pdf).

Honors theses tend to be research essays (approximately 40 pp. long) on a topic of the student’s choice, related to your course of study in Spanish.  Ideally, the honors thesis will be based upon a research essay you wrote in a Spanish course at the 35:170 and above level or in a Spanish course taken with honors designation.  Students must choose a Spanish professor to direct the thesis and enroll in 35:198 with that professor.  The exact nature of the thesis (theme, methodology, length, etc.) will be determined by the student and the thesis director.  You must also contact and maintain communication with an additional two Spanish professors, who serve as members of your thesis committee (chosen in consultation with the thesis director).  You must defend your thesis and file it (one copy with the departmental Honors advisor and one with the Honors Program, 420 BHC) no later than the Wednesday of finals week during your semester of graduation (i.e., Dec. 19, 2007).

go to Writing the Honors Thesis