Choosing to Write a Senior Thesis
Each year seniors must decide whether to write a senior thesis. It is, of course, a major undertaking. A year-long course (History 99), it requires intensive research in primary sources and culminates in a major piece of writing (usually on the order of 75 to 100 pages). It is a significant investment of time and energy; it ordinarily attracts only a small percentage of graduating seniors.
However it certainly does make sense for some, especially highly motivated and self-starting students. Here are some of the reasons why you might wish to consider doing a senior thesis:
1. It provides an essential experience for those planning to
do graduate work, especially in history. A senior thesis means
"doing" history, not just learning it; it helps you
to discover how the historian conducts research and transforms
that raw information into a coherent story and analysis.
2. You can explore, in great depth, a subject that is of great
interest to you, but only tangentially (if at all) broached
in the general curriculum.
3. If your research requires the use of non-English sources,
you can improve your reading skills to the level expected in
graduate work.
4. The thesis is of course a major writing experience: with
the help of your advisor, you will learn how to structure a
large piece of writing and, in the process of writing, have
an opportunity to refine your style and to internalize the conventions
and mechanics of academic prose.
If you are interested, you should seek out a thesis advisor (ordinarily someone in the geographic or chronological speciality of interest to you), go through the mechanics of formal registration, and begin designing a strategy to choose an important, feasible topic. Normally, you should complete most of your research by the beginning of the second semester, and then use February and March to write and revise. The thesis must follow the conventions described in a guide sheet available from the History Department. The final thesis is due in April (a specific date set by the department, normally after the second spring vacation); the thesis is then discussed at a formal defense (attended by the advisor, another member of the History Department, and one reader from outside).
What kind of topics are appropriate? It should, of course, be a subject in which you have a particular interest; it should also be one for which there exists a substantial and accessible base of primary documentation. While you probably have some idea of the topic that interests you, the advisor can help you link that interest to a set of primary sources (whether printed or archival), most of which are available on campus or at least in the Boston area.
To give you some sense of the kinds of theses written recently, here is a list of the students and their topics from the past three years:
2005
Dana Fetner, "Religion, Politics, and Progression in Protestant Sermons of Revolutionary New England."
Justin Gelfand, "A Revolution Behind Bars South Africa's Fight for Freedom at Robben Island."
Julia Glazer, "Two Million Souls in the Name of 'Democracy': U.S. Involvement in the Cambodian Genocide."
Deborah Hamer, "Do With Your Sevants as You Would Have Your Master Do With You: Master Servant Relations."
Tobias Harris, "Meiji Japan's Pursuit of Power, 1868-1910."
Aaron Jaffe, "Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt and Cartesian Linguistics: A Critique of Chomsky's History of Linguistic Thought."
Rachel Kamerman, "Rabbis, Soldiers and Merchants: Men of the Franks, Touro-Hayes and Gratz Family and their Roles in the American Revolution and the Early Republic."
Jonathan Koplow, "From Formation to Unification: The Development of the Early Anglo-Saxon States."
Kara Lord, "Conviction and Conformism: The Camp Physicians of the Third Reich and Their Human Experiments."
Andrew Simpson, "A Tragedy Recalled: The Warsaw Uprising in the American Press, 1944-2004."
Elliott Veloso, "The United States and the Philippines During the Spanish American War of 1898: Foreign Policy, Perception, and the Origins of the Philippine American War (1899-1902)."
Borjan Zic, "Liberalism at War: The New Republic's Foreign Policy in World War One and World War Two."
2006
Simon Brown, "Foul Ball: Race and Sports in Boston."
Guillaume Buell, "The Marquis de Lafayette and the Virginia Campaigns of 1781 That Culminated in the Battle of Yorktown."
Moran Eisenbaum, "The Emperior's New Religion."
Elyssa Geschwind, "Family and Politics in Tudor England."
Rachael Goldstein, "The Chechen Wars--A Critical Analysis of Russian Press Reports."
Alex Goone, "The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople: Shame, Blame and Casualty."
Gilad Goren, "The Roots of Kvutza: Exploring the Formation of the Degania Kibbutz Model, 1904-23."
Samuel Greenblatt, "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work:" Legal and Social Activism in Depression Era Harlem."
Michael Hofrichter, "The Escalation of an Occupation: Boston 1768-1770."
Allyson Levine, "What a Way to Make a Livin': An Analysis and Comparison of EEOC v. Sears and Dukes v. Wal-Mart."
Paul Messenger, "The Causes of the Fourth Crusade: The Byzantine Perspective."
Gary Padula, "de Grasse, We are Here" American Battleships of the Grand Fleet."
Glenn Prives, "The Pressure Is On: Explaining the Supreme Court Decisions on the New Deal in 1937."
Samantha Sagui, "Richard Coeur de Lion: Finding the Man in the Myth."
2007
Charlotte Benham, "The Nepali Maoist Movement: Constructing a People's War"
Frederick Daley, "Nuclear Bluff: The Role and Effectiveness of Nuclear Weapons in Containing the Soviet Union from 1945-1962"
Gina Dierkes, "Tensions in the American Civil War Military and Political PRison Systems: Humanity, Justice, and Necessity"
Janine Evans, "Erotic Morbidity and the Female Dichotomy in 19th Century British Thought and Culture"
Joshua Frankel, "The Trials by Fire of Medical Research"
Julia Gordon, "Illusory Independence: An Analysis of the Evolution of Pre-marital Relations within the Working Class with Respect to Female Autonomy"
Leah Goudsmit, "The Mafia, An Allied Force in Sicility During W W II:? Revisiting Historical Evidence, Political Context and Public Perception"
Harold Grossman, "Historians of the Gothic War (AD 535-552)"
Hadassah Holmes, "Regulationism or Abolitionism? The Struggle to Control Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century France"
James Kahler, "Originality and Inspiration: The Roots of T.E. Lawrence's Military Success"
Philip Keisman, "Applying the British Model to the German Road: German Exceptionality and the Sonderweg in British Scholarship"
Rebecca Reiman, "An 'Amreican' Education: Cultural Conotext and Public Schools"
Mark Samburg, "The Revolution of Veterans' Educational Assistance: The Miraculous Coalition and the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944"
Michael Soffer, "From Armbands to 'Bong Hits': Students' Rights to Free Expression and the Supreme Court's Debate Over How to Instill Democracy in Public School Children"
Caryn Steiger, "Extra, Extra: The Press in Great Britain in 1939"
Peter Vigneron, "Guardians of American Power: The Emergence of a Neoconservative Foreign Policy, 1973-1980"