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Senior Honors Thesis

Each year, a select group of undergraduate students enroll in the History Senior Honors Thesis program that culminates in the writing of a substantial, original, and polished piece of historical research. If you plan to go to graduate school in history, attend law school, work in public history, or if you simply cannot get enough of historical research and writing, this is the program for you.

At the beginning of the spring semester, the department invites the application of rising seniors who have an overall academic average of 3.3 or better, an average of 3.4 or better in history courses, and will have successfully completed at least one Undergraduate Seminar in HIST 398. For the Spring 2024 application, click here. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8th.

The basic structure for the senior honors program is provided by HIST 691H and 692H, an intensive, two-semester research and writing seminar conducted by the department’s honors director. In addition to weekly seminar meetings, each honors candidate holds regular meetings with an honors adviser, a faculty member with knowledge of the given field.

Click here to see the posters and abstracts of some of the excellent work done by past Senior Honors Thesis students.

At the end of the spring semester, the honors prize committee makes the final determinations for Highest Honors and awards the Frank Ryan Prize to the best essay of the year. Awards are normally announced at a year-ending honors lunch celebrating the achievements of the department’s distinguished undergraduates.

Funding in support of research may be available through Honors Carolina and the Department of History’s Boyatt and Kusa awards.

Questions about the History Senior Honors Thesis should be directed to the current program director, Brett Whalen.


554A Pauli Murray Hall*
102 Emerson Dr., CB #3195
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195

*Though the History Department uses the name Pauli Murray Hall for our building, on official maps you will find it as Hamilton Hall. Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton’s intellectually dishonest historical and archival work promoted white supremacy. In contrast, Pauli Murray marshaled unassailable evidence and analysis in the service of racial and gender equality. In July 2020, all of the departments housed in the building agreed to adopt the name Pauli Murray Hall in place of Hamilton Hall. An official request with the Chancellor is pending. For more information, please see here.
phone: 919.962.2115
fax: 919.962.1403
email: history@unc.edu
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