Honours in Spanish and Latin American Studies
The School Honours website also contains important information about Honours.
- Overview of the program
- Prerequisites
- List of Honours units
- Guidelines: thesis
- Assessment
- Honours prize
Overview of the program
The Hispanic program encourages students to undertake Honours as the culmination of their undergraduate studies.
The research areas that we supervise include: Peninsular and Spanish-American Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies.
Our longstanding research experience will allow students to acquire knowledge and develop skills that will enable them to successfully complete their Honours degree. The research skills acquired during this fourth year provide the bases for postgraduate studies in our Program.
Prerequisites
Students are admitted to Honours at fourth-year level if they achieve distinction grades to the value of 24 points at third-year, or 18 points at third-year and 6 points at second-year.
All intending honours students are strongly advised to take more than the minimum number of units required for admission to honours. It is in your own interest to do so, since this will increase your linguistic proficiency and broaden your knowledge of Hispanic culture.
The fourth-year honours course consists of SPN4100 Honours thesis (24 points) plus 24 points of fourth-year subjects chosen from the following subjects and in consultation with the honours coordinator:
- Thesis SPN4000(A) and SPN4000(B) (24 points)
- Units Units to the value of 24 points
List of Honours units
- SPN4990 * Language study abroad program, 12 points
- SPN4930 Special reading course, 12 points
- SPN4650 Latin American Studies in Culture and Power, 12 points
- SPN4580 Research in Spanish Linguistics, 12 points
- SPN4250 Twentieth-Century Spanish American Literature, 12 points
* Honours students may spend one semester of their honours year at a Spanish-speaking university
Guidelines: thesis
Before enrolling, students need to consult with Dr. Marisa Cordella, the Spanish and Latin American Studies Honours co-ordinator, with regard to their area of interest. Students will be assigned a supervisor who, as a specialist in a given area, will help the student to develop his/her research skills and complete his/her research project.
Students are asked to:
(a) Identify their
area of research interest and discuss it with their supervisor.
Once the research topic has been agreed to by the supervisor,
students are asked to:
(b) Conduct a search of the available literature in the field and write a literature review (draft version) in the area identifying the theories that have been used to understand the issue and distinguishing those areas that have not been fully explored.
(c) Write a research
plan based upon the following questions: What do I want to do? Why?
What it is known already in the field? What contribution could my
study bring to the field? Which methodology will I use? Why? What
is my time frame?
Once the research plan has been discussed
with and agreed to by the supervisor the students will be asked to:
(d) Proceed with their research by following a detailed plan outlining monthly tasks. Students will have fortnightly appointments with their supervisors and will be asked to submit regular draft copies of their research. It is expected that the first full draft of the thesis will be ready four/six weeks before the due date. The date may vary depending on each individual student. Please check with your supervisor.
The due date for the submission of final coursework and the thesis is the last day of the final semester of the honours program, whether first or second semester.
Assessment
Students will receive a mark for every subject that they have completed as part of their Honours year as well as a mark for the Honours thesis. The final mark will be the combined average.
Honours prize
The Spanish and Latin American Studies program awards the Honours Prize (valued at $300) each year to the student who gets the best overall mark (conditions apply).