Wright State University | College of Liberal Arts | Sociology & Anthropology Make a Gift

• Home
• Welcome: Chair's Comments
• Departmental News
• Honors Program
• ABS Criminal Justice
• Faculty and Staff

Sociology

• Sociology Overview
• Degree Requirements
• Sociology Club

Anthropology

• Anthropology Overview
• Degree Requirements
• Field School
• Anthropology Society

Honors Program - Sociology and Anthropology

Overview

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, desiring to recognize those majors who have attained superior achievement, has instituted a program allowing a student to graduate with honors in either Sociology or Anthropology. The Department identifies superior achievement when students maintain a high standard of excellence throughout their coursework and when a departmental honors project is initiated and executed. The Department believes that students will receive maximum benefit from their undergraduate work when they have the opportunity to set and realize goals in the areas of research and analysis.

Eligibility

Students must maintain a 3.0 grade point average overall and a 3.5 average within sociology or Anthropology throughout their undergraduate course of study. Admission into the Departmental Honors Program must be attained at least two semesters before the date of a student’s graduation.

A student should have normally completed the bulk of the required coursework in Sociology or Anthropology, and may not begin work on the Honors project prior his/her junior year.

Committees

The student selects one faculty member of professorial rank to serve as his/her Honors program advisor. This faculty member will guide the student’s progress during the course of the development of the project proposal and the execution of the project.

Honors proposals are also evaluated by two other sociology/anthropology faculty members. After a proposal is approved, an Honors Committee is formed, composed of these sociologists/anthropologists. Outside members may be selected by the student in consultation with the advisor. The function of the Honors Committee is to evaluate the completed Honors project.

Honors Project

Students meeting basic requirements may apply for entry into the Honors program by submitting a written proposal detailing an Honors project no later than the last semester in which they have junior standing. Action on the proposal will be taken during the semester when the proposal is received. Honors proposals will be developed under the guidance of the student’s Honors advisor.

The project may last one or two semesters (the length of time to be specified in the project proposal), with Sociology elective credit secured under SOC 4080 or Anthropology elective credit secured under ATH 4900 at the rate of 3 hours of credit per semester.

An Honors project may be the result of original research or may be based on secondary sources. Due to the wide-ranging nature of the disciplines it is impossible to specify parameters within which the subject matter and methodologies of a Departmental Honors Project would expectably fall; the appropriateness of a project will be determined by the student’s Honors advisor and the committee evaluating the submitted proposal.

While completion of the departmental honors project is the only requirement of the Sociology/Anthropology Honors program, it is strongly recommended that eligible students also participate in the University Honors program.

Evaluation

The student’s Honors Committee will review the completed project and vote to pass or not to pass. A student will receive Departmental Honors if (s)he is passed by a unanimous vote of the committee. A student passed by the Honors Committee will receive a grade of A or B from his/her Honors advisor. Students passing and graded A go on Departmental record as having passed with high honors.

If a majority of the Honors Committee votes not to pass a student, the student will receive a grade of C or below for all work done in SOC 4080 or ATH 4900.

Withdrawal

A student may leave the program at any time without prejudicing his or her status as a Sociology or Anthropology major. The Honors advisor may also ask the student to leave the program, if the advisor believes that insufficient progress toward completion is being made, also without prejudicing the student’s status as an Anthropology or Sociology major. Elective credit will be given for semester work completed, and graded by the Honors advisor.