Departmental Honors

Department of Spanish & Portuguese Requirements:

Undergraduates contemplating honors work should consult their advisors. A declaration of intent form must be submitted to the department. The department notifies students of acceptance to candidacy. At graduation, the student must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.5 in Spanish. Six hours in SPAN 496 Honors in Spanish generally are required, which may be fulfilled in a variety of ways as described here: each 3-hour SPAN 496 course will include a major research paper. While enrolled in SPAN 496, the student completes two courses, one in Peninsular literature and the other in Spanish American literature, from the following options:

1. Graduate courses at the 700 level
2. Upper-division literature courses at the 500 level, including SPAN 540, SPAN 550, and SPAN 560 (only available to students who have already completed the 500-level capstone course)
3. An independent study course (may only be taken once for SPAN 496 credit)

The student attends two courses for SPAN 496 credit and writes two honors papers under the supervision of one or more faculty members. A committee of three faculty members evaluates these papers, and the student makes an oral summary of their content.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences requirements: 

1. Candidates must declare the intention to work for departmental honors with the appropriate departmental honors coordinator no later than the time of enrollment for the final undergraduate semester. The Departmental Honors Intent Form is available online (.pdf). Copies of the intent form should be returned to College Student Academic Services.
2. At the end of the final undergraduate semester, the candidate must have achieved an overall grade point average of at least 3.25 and a grade-point average of at least 3.5 in the major.  Both overall and major grade-point averages include work done at other institutions as well as at KU. No minimum grade-point average is required to declare candidacy for graduation with departmental honors unless specified by the department.
3. Each candidate’s departmental honors work must include independent research or an acceptable alternative project.  The results of research are presented in a form appropriate to the requirements of the major department.  Equivalents to the independent research component are established by approved departmental honors programs.  In courses meeting the independent research requirement, the candidate must earn a grade of B or higher.  Successful completion of all departmental honors requirements must be certified to the departmental honors coordinator by a panel composed of at least three members of the College faculty who have read the report of the independent research and heard the oral presentation, where required.

If you would like to discuss honors or have questions about the process, contact the departmental honors coordinator, Sean Gullickson.