 Important Dates if you are planning to write a thesis during
academic year 2007-2008
- Toward the end of your junior year you will need to
identify a thesis topic and find a Sociology faculty member
that will be your advisor for two terms.
- A written thesis proposal must be submitted to that
advisor no later than the end of the third week of Fall '07.
- The preliminary draft of the thesis is due no later than
the end of the fifth week of Spring '08.
- Once revisions have been made the final draft of the
thesis is due no later than the end of the eighth week of Spring '08.
The Honors Program in Sociology consists of advanced
independent study under the direction of a faculty supervisor, culminating in
the completion and presentation to the department of an honors thesis. A major
who successfully completes an honors thesis in sociology will also satisfy the
culminating experience in the major. The program is open to any major who
satisfies the minimum college honors requirements, including a 3.0 GPA overall,
has a 3.3 GPA in the major, and has completed all theory and methods
requirements for the major prior to submission of the thesis proposal.
Toward the end of the junior year a prospective honors major should identify
a faculty member in the department who is willing to serve as a thesis advisor
in order to discuss the proposed thesis. Advisors must confirm that they will
be on campus during the two terms in which the student takes Sociology 98,
i.e., sociology honors credits, unless other arrangements are made. A written
thesis proposal must be submitted to the advisor no later than the end of the
third week of the third term or prior to graduation, and preferably earlier.
After the proposal has been approved by the advisor and a copy filed with the
department the student is accepted into the honors program.
All honors majors must take Sociology 98 twice for thesis credit during the
senior year, although exceptions may be permitted. Because only one term of
Sociology 98 counts as one of the seven additional courses numbered 10 or
higher that are required for completion of the major, taking a second term of
Sociology 98 means that Honors students will typically take at least 11 course
credits in sociology. At the end of the first term of Sociology 98 the
student's progress toward the completion of the thesis is evaluated by the
advisor in consultation with the department. If satisfactory progress is not
being made, then the thesis project may be terminated and a grade given for the
first term of thesis credit. (See the departmental handout, "The Sociology
Honors Program," for more detailed information.)
A preliminary draft of the thesis must be turned into the thesis advisor no
later than the end of the fifth week of the second term of Sociology 98, and
preferably earlier. Once revisions have been made, three (3) copies of the
completed thesis (one bound and two unbound) must be turned into the thesis
advisor no later than the end of the eighth week of the second term of
Sociology 98. The thesis will be graded by the thesis advisor and a second
reader appointed by the department. Students receiving a B+ (3.33) or higher on
the thesis will receive honors recognition in the major. High honors may be
awarded by faculty vote for truly exceptional work.
Students interested in participating in the program should obtain the
pamphlet "The Sociology Honors Program" from the Department Office.
What Should a Thesis Proposal Contain?
An honors thesis proposal is a document written by a student in consultation
with his/her honors thesis advisor. It identifies the problem or question that
the student will address in the thesis and explains how the student will go
about investigating it. The proposal is a blue print that guides the thesis
project. It often constitutes a rough version of the first chapter of the
thesis itself. Most proposals contain the following parts.
- Statement of the problem:
This section identifies the specific problem or question that the student will
investigate and briefly explains why it is of sociological interest. This
section often includes a preliminary review of the sociological literature that
explains why the student's research problem or question is important and how it
relates to other sociological work that has been done.
- Hypothesis: The proposal
should identify one or more specific hypotheses that the student will test
empirically. The hypothesis is often derived from literature that has already
been published. The proposal also often identifies key dependent and
independent variables and explains how they will be operationalized.
- Data: The proposal should
identify the data that the student will use in the thesis and where it will
come from. Data may come from a variety of sources and take a variety of forms,
such as archival documents (e.g., government documents, newspapers, memoirs,
etc.) or surveys (e.g., U.S. Census, General Social Survey, etc.). If the
student plans to collect his/her own data, such as through a survey,
experiment, participant observation, interviews, etc., he/she should explain
how the data will be collected. Issues of sampling, case study selection, etc.
should be discussed.
- Analysis: The student
should explain how the data will be analyzed once it is located and/or
collected. It is especially important to outline a research design that
explains the sorts of empirical comparisons that will be involved and how this
will shed light on the student's hypothesis. If quantitative data will be
analyzed, what statistical techniques will likely be involved?
- Human subjects approval:
If the student plans to conduct interviews, administer a survey, or observe
human subjects he/she must obtain approval for the study from Dartmouth's
Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (phone: 646-3053/1598) before
data are collected. This is mandatory Dartmouth College policy.
- Timetable: The student
should establish a timetable for each step of the thesis process. Dates should
be set by which the literature review, development of data collection tools,
data collection, analysis, production of draft chapters and other critical
parts of the thesis project will be completed.
- Thesis outline: An
outline of the thesis should be provided indicating its overall organization,
i.e., a preliminary "Table of Contents."
Past Honors Theses
- 2007 - Eric Cruz: "Disparities in Adolescent Health - The Case of
Adolescent Diabeties"
- 2007 - Ashley Satterfield: "Big Pimpin: Black Masculinity and
the Emergence of the Pimp in Popular Culture"
- 2006 - Lindsay Longe: "An Examination of the Connection Between Charter
School Mission Statements, Student Enrollments, and Educational Outcomes"
- 2006 - Tiffany Davis: "Drop Me off in Harlem: An Analysis of the Changing
Commercial Market in Gentrified Harlem"
- 2006 - Kristina Emeghebo: "The Socialization of Individuals in Interracial
Relationships"
- 2006 - Mary Haile: "Identity Formation among Transracially Adopted
Ethiopian Children"
- 2006 - Scott Abramson: "Globalization and Christian Democracy in Italy and
Germany"
- 2006 - Rebecca Wehrly: "Constructing the Problem of Lead Poisoning:
Competing Views in Manchester, N.H."
- 2005 - Stella Treas: "The Relation of Social Networks and Transaction Costs
to Executives' Employment Decisons"
- 2005 - Victoria Lee: "At the Vanguard of Social Reform: The 1998 Student
Movement in the Democratization of Indonesia"
- 2004 - Jennifer D. Carlson: "Condoned or Condemned? The normalization of
the death penalty in Huntsville, Texas"
- 2004 - Alison C. Kelley: "A Young Heart with an Old Soul": How Incarcerated
Juveniles Construct Age-Identity through Writing about Personal
Relationships"
- 2004 - Johanna R. Thomas: "Completing the Picture: Increasing the
understanding of Black female and Latina juvenile violence"
- 2004 - Arjun S. Ponnambalam: "Divergent Paths of Intrastate Conflicts:
Resolution and Protraction in El Salvador and Colombia"
- 2004 - Njoki E. Gatimu: "Two Nations, One Self: Identity Formation among
Second-Generation Nigerian Adolescents in the New York City Area."
- 2003 - Jennai Williams: "Plantation Misappropriation: Heritage Tourism and
Historical Representations of Six St. Francisville Plantations"
- 2003 - Lindsey G. Payson: "Ethno-tourism on Isla del Sol, Bolivia"
- 2003 - Jillian L. Powers: "Stigma Management of a Deviant Occupation: A
study of rural stripping"
- 2003 - Claribel Vargas: "The Road to Medical School: An Exploration of the
Undergraduate Experience of Underrepresented Minorities"
- 2003 - Olufunmilola A. Adedokun: "American Psycho: The Social Construction
of Mental Health Disorders in American News Media"
- 2003 - Ross Landau: 'The Good of the Game'
- 2003 - Amber Laws: "Fight the Power: An Analysis of Hip-Hop Culture and the
Social Mobilization of African-American Youth"
- 2003 - Jennifer Jaggi: "Managed Care and the Medical Profession: A study of
the attitudes of Medical Students and Residents"
- 2003 - Paola Peacock-Villada: "Bilingual Education in the United States: A
study of its creation and demise in Massachusetts"
- 2003 - Amanda Benjamin-Smith: "The Cream of the Crop: The Black Model
Minority, Cultivating Class Through Educational Attainment"
- 2002 - Christopher Allen: "In Harms Way: J.S. Mill and State Intervention
in Liberty"
- 2002 - Thea Ellis: "Black Bourgeoisie Revisited: A Contemporary Analysis of
the Black Middle Class and the Black Press in he United States"
- 2002 - Benjamin Gebre-Medhin: "The Development of Democracy in Eritrea:
Nation, Revolution & Democratization"
- 2002 - David A. Trouille: "The White Faces of Dartmouth College: A Study of
Racial Identity among White Males"
- 2002 - Maren Winnick: "Evaluating Patient Literacy: A Three Part Study of
Health Literacy in the Health Care Environment"
- 2001 - Randy P. Choiniere: "Crying over Spilt Milk?: Assessing the Plight
of Small Dairy Farmers in the Northeast"
- 2001 - Brianne Rideout: "Policing Racialized and Ethnic Space: Police
Misconduct in an Urban Environment
- 2001 - Christine M. Percheski: "Changing Career Aspirations: Trends among
Women and Men of an Ivy League College from 1972-1999."
- 2001 - Matthew T. Shaffer: "'You Know How We Roll:'" An Exploration of the
Cultural Capital and Adolescent Networking Patterns Among African-American,
Latino, and Caucasian Seniors at Evanston Township High School in Evanston,
Illinois"
- 2001 - Mona Jean-Baptiste: "Unveiling the Black Body: Meaning and
Representations of the Black Woman's Body 1900-1930"
- 2001 - Leah R. Threatte: "Rainbows on the Green: An Analysis of Gender and
Achievement in the African American Community at Dartmouth"
- 2000 - Sarah M. Blanton: "Black-White Biracial Identity Construction: The
Structural, Social, and Personal Forces Affecting the Development of Racialized
Sense of Self"
- 1999 - Karen Yen: "Chinese-American Organization and Mobilization"
- 1998 - Doug Heyman: "The Contemporary Black American Attitude toward
Self-Segregation as a Reflection, Reaction and Resolution to the Social and
Legislative Reality of the American Dream."
- 1998 - Fuchsia Grey: "Controlling Their Bodie's Fate: An Exploratory
Analysis of the Metamorphosis and Continuance of Female Circumcision in Egypt,
Sudan and Kenya."
- 1998 - Shaun Peet: "Behold a Pale Horse: The United States and the
Impoverishment of the Teton Sioux of Pine Ridge."
- 1998 - Erica Ryu: "The Aftermath: Collective Action and Solidarity in the
Korean American Community after the LA Riots."
- 1997 - Chen Yang: "Taiwan's Economic Development Past, Present, and Future:
A case study and a test of development theories."
- 1996 - Gerald E. Martin: "Waging a Christian War: The Flexibility of War
Doctrine Within the Christian Church"
- 1996 - Chandra E. Stanley: "Deconstructing the Myth of the Miracle: Did
Chile's Privatization of Social Services Go Too Far? "
- 1996 - Peter B. Evans: "A Better Chance: Dartmouth's Contribution to the
Civil Rights Movement"
- 1995 - Kimberly Barry: "Salvaging Tomorrow: Generation X and Recycling
Behavior"
- 1995 - Juliet Bouyea: "Black...Not Beautiful: The Commodification of Beauty
and the African-American Woman"
- 1995 - Nadia Bowers: "Volunteerism as a Means for Social Control on the
Axes of Class and Gender"
- 1995 - Gregory Heyman: "Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X: Consistency
with American Political and Social Foundation"
- 1995 - Kristi Kimball: "American Economic Decline and the Rise of Corporate
Conservatism"
- 1995 - Jennifer Sack: "The Ties That Once Bound: The Unraveling of the
Black-Jewish Coalition in the United States"
- 1995 - Jessica Segal: "The Social and Structural Forces That De-Stabilized
Boston's Jewish Community"
- 1995 - Moriah Shilton: "Irish Women: An Examination of the Interplay
Between the Irish Constitution of 1937, the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and
the Socio-Economic Conditions of the Time"
- 1994 - Alicia L. Marti: "Anomie and Eating Disorders"
- 1993 - Rebecca H. Meyercor: "Gender Equity in Teacher-Student Interactions,
and Ethneographic Study"
- 1992 Joy L.K. Dwyer: "Socialized to Abuse: When Violence in the Workplace
Becomes Violence in the Home"
- 1991 - Richard A. Aube, Jr.: "The National Rifle Association: A Preparation
for Battle"
- 1991 - Tara D. Blake: "The Holocaust in Context: Civilization at its
Pinnacle and Abyss...."
- 1991 - Trecia M. Canty: "The Quest for Social Equality: African-Americans
in the Post-Civil Rights Period"
- 1991 - Jennifer S. Clark: "Family Violence: Prevention, Intervention and
Public Policy"
- 1991 - Holly-Anne Coward: "Socio-linguistic Determinants of Social Class in
Modern Britain"
- 1991 - Debra C. VanWinkle: "Health Claims in Advertisements"
- 1990 - Carol Ling: "To Be a Woman and a Physician: A Study of the Social
and Structural Factors Influencing Women Physicians' Specialty and Subspecialty
Choices"
- 1990 - Rebecca L. Solberg: "Agricultural Marketing Relationships in a
Political- Economic Context"
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