We recommend that students do advanced planning for entering the Honors Program in the form of earlier independent studies or research projects, research designs, reviews of the literature in advanced courses, or data gathering during study away where appropriate and possible. Macalester College defines an Honors Project as a year-long independent research project. Thus, students should expect to do considerable work on their project during the summer months between the junior and senior year. This includes, but is not limited to reading broadly on the topic, improving methodological skills, staying in contact with one or more faculty members, preparing a final draft of the research proposal, and receiving directions and encouragement from the Honors Coordinator.
The Department encourages qualified students to consider this unique research opportunity, noting that rigorous academic preparation is required and that successful projects demand a substantial intellectual and time commitment. The Honors Program is open to all qualified students, though it is particularly well suited for students who intend to go to graduate school.
The Honors Program provides an experience quite distinct from the normal capstone, Senior Research Seminar. While students in the Research Seminar are expected to complete a piece of disciplined scholarly work, an Honors Project is held to higher standards of scholarly quality and represents a much more substantial effort and final product.
Honors Projects
Some of our students’ honors projects are available to read on Digital Commons.
- Eric Blom ’10 (South Bend, Ind.), “The Emergence of Newer Social Movements in Argentina: The Necessity of Ideological Change for Transgressive Direct Action”
- Frederico Burlon ’10, Think Outside the Cell: Are Binding Detention Standards the Most Effective Strategy to Prevent Abuses of Detained Illegal Aliens?
- Amanda Janoo ’10 (South Strafford, Vt.), “In Rebellion against the Market Society: Self-Regulating Market Discourse, the International Trade Regime and Labor Market Organization”
- Jamie Moore ’10 (Gresham, Ore.), “Managing Mayhem: Challenges to the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance by the UN and EU” Pål Robson ’10 (Rykkinn, Norway), “Political Process and Policy Moderation: Explaining Institutional Durability in the Norwegian Oil Sector”
- David Seitz ’10 (Wauwatosa, Wis.), “Rondo Matters: The Politics of Injury, Representation and Neoliberalization on Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Central Corridor”
- Thuto Seabe Thipe, A Rock Strikes Back: Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Development of the South African Constitution
- Piera von Glahn ’10 (San Rafael, Calif.), “Farmer, Farm Animal and Farm Animal Rights: Re-envisioning the U.S. Farm Animal Rights Movement”