Honors in Classics

Departmental Honors in Classics

The Department of Classics at UCSB allows and encourages qualified students to pursue undergraduate honors in Classics.  Students admitted to the honors program in Classics will write an honors thesis during their senior year, supervised by a member of the faculty.  Successful completion of the program will be recognized by the award of Distinction in the Major at graduation.  Students in the departmental Honors Program receive graduate student borrowing privileges at the Library.

An Honors thesis for distinction in Classics:

  • Is a substantial piece of critical writing that advances a sustained argument
  • Shows the student’s ability to conduct research with primary and secondary sources
  • Is usually at least 25 pages in length (excluding appendices and bibliography)
  • Is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in Classics

 

Candidates for the Honors Program in Classics should petition the department chair at the end of their junior year.  Candidates must:

 

  • Must have been in residence for one year (three quarters) as a Classics major by the time of graduation
  • Have a grade-point average in the major of 3.6 or better
  • Obtain the consent of two faculty members, one to serve ad advisor and one as second reader

 

Students in the Honors Program should expect to begin work in the Fall Quarter, although full-time study and course credit occupy Winter and Spring Quarters:

 

  • Fall: work with faculty advisor and second reader to develop a suitable topic, and to identify sources and bibliography
  • Winter: enroll in Classics 195A, Senior Honors Thesis in Classics, to research and write the thesis in consultation with faculty advisor and second reader
  • Spring: enroll in Classics 195B, Senior Honors Thesis in Classics, to complete the Honors Thesis

 

The faculty advisor and second reader will determine whether Honors should be awarded.

 

RECENT HONORS THESES:

 

Katie Tardio – “The Transformation of Isis from Egyptian Goddess to Roman Deity”

Cullen Monger – “Form and Function in Thucydides’ Melian Dialog”

Marissa Flora – “Women in Archaic Greek Literature”

Alexa Fragosa – “The Origins of Athenian Democracy”

Sara Jones – “Preliminary Report of Hellenistic Pottery from Priniatikos, Pyrgos, Crete”
Tamara Serrao-Leiva, “The Athenian Kinship System”
Alexandra Wong, “Hesiodic Antecedents: A Study of Indo-European and Near Eastern Sources of the Theogony

Alex Kennedy – “Future Community Versus Present Self: Intertextuality and Heroism in Aeneid 6”

Michael D’hondt – “The Historical Reliability of Oral tradition in the Homeric epics”

James Wilson – “Cretan warfare in the Archaic Period”

Kerry Ellis – “Climbers and Shapers: Social Identity in Two Pompeian Mansions”

Christopher King – “Hungry for Power: Feasting and Politics in early Iron Age Crete”

Daniel Oh – “Power Word God: Playing with Divine Names”

Jane Rieder – Swords and Plowshares: Didactic techniques in Homer and Hesiod”

Richard Blair – “The Ritual of Live Inhumation in the roman Cattle Market”

Sherri Ashe – “Problems in Herodotean Veracity”