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Jewish Studies Program

Honors

JEWISH STUDIES (JWST) HONORS PROGRAM

The Honors Program in Jewish Studies is intended to provide JWST majors of superior academic record an opportunity for sustained, advanced work on an independent research project under the supervision of appropriate JWST faculty. Honors projects will be done in addition to the credits required for the JWST major.

Honors work will cover the two semesters of the student's senior year. The following guidelines assume a normal sequence for (May) graduation. Those who plan to graduate in December or who are planning to be off campus for any part of their junior or senior years should consult with their JWST advisor and Chair of the JWST Program.

CRITERIA FOR ADMISSIONS TO THE HONORS PROGRAM IN JWST:

Students may be invited by the Program or individual JWST faculty to apply to the Honors program or may apply on their own initiative. Academic requirements for consideration for admission Honors normally include the following by the end of the
fifth semester:
1. Minimum GPA of 3.25
2. Minimum JWST GPA of 3.3

By the end of the sixth semester:
1. The student must have taken at least one JWST course at the 300-level and fulfilled all 100-level JWST requirements. No more than two other (200-level) required JWST courses may be unfulfilled at the time that Honors project would commence.
2. The student must obtain recommendation by the JWST faculty memberappropriate to the proposed project and/or with close knowledge of the student's JWST academic record and ability. This recommendation is apart from and in addition to evaluation of the proposed Honors project, though both may come from the same faculty member, and should be submitted to the Chair of the program. Every JWST Honors proposal must have an appropriate faculty sponsor who is available for supervising the project and has agreed to do so, should the project be approved.
3. The Student must contact a proposed JWST faculty Honors sponsor about the project and with that sponsor, work on a thesis proposal, which must be completed and submitted to the proposed project sponsor or the Chair of the JWST Program by April 15.

THE JWST HONORS PROPOSAL:
An Honors proposal must be 7-10 typed, double-spaced pages and include:
-- A title
-- A statement and justification of the topic: its significance and the aspect of the student's proposed work that is original;
-- An initial bibliography and description of primary and secondary sources. Honors theses must heavily rely on primary sources, which may be in translation, if this is approved by the proposed project sponsor. There must be a statement of location and access to sources.
-- A statement of the student's qualifications for doing the project, citing prior course work/ research; language proficiency;
-- Name of the proposed faculty sponsor at Oberlin, whose prior agreement to serve as sponsor has been obtained. Normally, the faculty sponsor will hold appointment or teach cross-listed courses in JWST. A case for exception may be argued (e.g., for a project in literature, art, music, film). In such an event, the student and the proposal must still obtain approval from the JWST Program for admission to JWST Honors and, assuming admission, a member of JWST faculty must be the project's second sponsor, with equal voice with the first sponsor in judging the overall quality and grade of the work, and sole voice in judging its JWST relevance. The student should spend several weeks drafting and revising this proposal with her/ his projected sponsor before submitting it.

SUBMISSION OF THE PROPOSAL:
The Honors proposal, with a statement of endorsement from its proposed JWST faculty sponsor, is to be submitted to the Chair of the Program by April 15 of the student's sixth semester. Late submissions may be considered at the discretion of the Program. If the proposal is complete and other criteria, listed above are met, the Chair of the Program will submit the proposal to JWST faculty or faculty teaching courses cross-listed with JWST (Abe Socher, Shulamit Magnus, Cynthia Chapman) for approval. If approved, the full JWST Committee will be informed and any comments its members wish to make will be considered. At either of the above stages, the student may be asked to revise, clarify, or elaborate on the proposal.

ADMISSION TO THE JWST HONORS PROGRAM:
Admission to JWST Honors depends on the strength of the proposal and on JWST faculty and Committee assessment of the student's prospects for successful completion, based on previous course work and grades in JWST, and GPA. Application for admission does not guarantee acceptance into the Program. If admitted to the Honors program, the student may elect either 3 or 4 credits per semester for Honors work, registering for JWST 500 and 502.

EVALUATION OF WORK:
A minimum grade of B+, as determined by the project sponsor, is expected for any project to be awarded Honors credit. A student may be terminated from the Honors program by the collective action of the JWST Committee or at the initiative of the project sponsor. In this case, registration for Honors will be changed to private reading and credit and a grade awarded in that registration category, based on the sponsor's evaluation of the quantity and quality of the work completed. Admission to the Honors program does not guarantee that Honors will be awarded.

COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT AND AWARDING OF A GRADE AND OF HONORS:
A completed project (thesis) should not exceed 60 typed, double-spaced pages, including notes, bibliography, and appendices, but excluding illustrations, maps, facsimiles, etc. It should not be less than 40 pages. The thesis must be typed, double-spaced, on single sides unlined paper, in readable font (12) and format (one inch margins), and be consecutively paginated. It must contain a title page that also lists the student's name and says:

Oberlin College
Program in Jewish Studies
Honors Thesis in Jewish Studies
Date of submission
Name of Advisor/s
Names of additional readers (participating in the oral presentation)
A signed Honor Code declaration.

The thesis should have a Table of Contents, with names of subdivisions/sections listed. Sections within the body of the thesis must be demarcated by capitalization; underlining; or bold face type. Students may use either foot or end notes. There must be a Bibliography listing all primary and secondary sources used. Students must indicate which approved transliteration guide (e.g., Encyclopaedia Judaica, YIVO), they have used, and when translations are their own. The thesis must be submitted in hard copy though it may, additionally, be conveyed electronically, as the sponsor instructs. The thesis must adhere throughout to standard scholarly citation and and bibliographical conventions, such as those of the Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA, as specified by the project sponsor.

The student will submit hard copies of the thesis to the sponsor/s and each of any additional readers, plus two additional copies, submitted to the JWST Program office, by April 15 prior to May graduation. It is the responsibility of the student to make and deliver all copies by the deadline. By mid-March, the thesis sponsor will arrange an oral presentation and question and answer discussion of approximately one hour before a committee composed of the JWST project sponsor, other JWST faculty, and/or1-2 additional faculty who have research and/or teaching experience relevant to the student's project and who each will get the floor for 15-20 minutes, with primary attention given to the student's responses. The oral presentation session will begin with the student making a statement of ca. 10 minutes about the topic and its significance, what has been learned, and major scholarly conclusions. The student will be asked for input on composition of this committee and on whether it will be open to the public, which is normally to be the case.

At the conclusion of this oral presentation, the student will leave and the oral committee will deliberate the grade to be awarded; whether Honors is to be awarded, and if so, level of Honors, with the JWST sponsor's voice determinative. In the event of disagreement in the oral committee or between two project sponsors, the Chair of JWST, assuming s/he is not the project sponsor, will mediate. If the Chair is the project sponsor or agreement is not reached through the Chair's efforts, the Chair will forward the case to the JWST Program Committee for decision by majority vote, in which vote, the Chair and the project sponsor will participate. The project sponsor will decide whether to grant a grade or a deferred grade for the first semester of Honors. In case of a deferred grade, the grade will be assigned at the completion of the project. The Program will forward its recommendation about the level of Honors to be awarded to the College Honors Committee, which makes the final determination about this.

DEPOSITING THE THESIS:
It is the student's responsibility to submit a typographically correct, bound copy of the thesis to the Chair of the Program for deposit in the Program's archives and for ascertaining and fulfilling any requirements for such deposit to the Oberlin College Library.

SSM 4/2006