Degree with Honors

Students who wish to be considered for the degree with honors will normally present a thesis or pursue appropriate independent study. This thesis or independent study will offer students an opportunity to work in depth on a topic of their choosing and to apply and develop the techniques and critical methods with which they have become acquainted during their regular course work. It may also include relevant work with members of other departments.

Students who wish to write a thesis should have a minimum GPA of 3.3 and must submit a thesis proposal for departmental approval by the end of their sophomore year. To be awarded the degree with honors in Classics, the student must take a minimum of ten semester courses in the department and demonstrate original or superior ability in studies in the field both in their course work and in their thesis or equivalent independent study.

Recent theses have included:

• Re-creating the heavenly muse: Gregory of Nazianzus’ Poemata arcana, by Paul M. Rogers, 2007. Edan Dekel, advisor.
• Harrison, Hughes, Heaney: three variations on Aeschylus’ Oresteia, by Caitlin M. Hanley, 2007. David Porter, advisor.
• Roman verse satire and its audience, by Elliot Heilman, 2007. Amanda Wilcox, advisor.
• The voyage of the Argonauts: the epic hero’s journey from Homer to Apollonius of Rhodes, by Marcos B. Gouvêa, 2006. Lily Panoussi, advisor.
• Change, resistence, & compromise: tragic and comic models of behavior in Euripides and Aristophanes, by Richard J. Rodriguez, 2005. David Porter, advisor.
• Appian, the rise of Rome, and monarchy: an analysis of the Romaika through the portrayal of Scipio Africanus, by Michael Wolf, 2004. Kerry Christensen, advisor.
• Cicero’s Pro Caelio and the Leges de Vi of Rome in the Late Republic, by Rebecca Kiselewich, 2004. Kerry Christensen, advisor.

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