Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Majors and Minors can join the Honors Research Seminar if they have an overall cumulative grade-point average of 3.4 or better and a 3.6 average or better in WGSS courses at the end of their junior year.
Candidates are required to write an honors thesis of 60-80 pages on a topic related to women's, gender, and sexuality studies, participate in the six-credit, year-long Honors Research Seminar (988:497 and 498), and orally present the completed thesis to the Rutgers community at the end of the year.
THESIS
The thesis, though grounded in a discussion of what other scholars have written about the topic in question, should be based on the student's original research. Students will work with at least two faculty advisors in developing their projects: a primary advisor with expertise in the student's particular field of research and the instructor of the Honors Research Seminar, who will serve as a second advisor.
SEMINAR
The purpose of the Honors Research Seminar is to establish a feminist learning community that will support each student's project. In seminar meetings, students will explore issues in the production of feminist knowledge production as well as read and critique each other’s work.
PRESENTATION
Students will give an oral presentation of their honors thesis before students, faculty, and staff in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, as well as other invited guests, at the end of the spring semester.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
In recent years, students enrolled in Honors Research Seminar have won the first and second prize in the Undergraduate Research Colloquium organized yearly by the New Jersey Women's and Gender Studies Consortium; have received the Henry Rutgers Award for research and various departmental distinctions; have been offered full-time positions in their field before graduation; and have been accepted in prestigious master's degree programs. One student was accepted based solely on her undergraduate work, in a fully-funded Ph.D. program.
For more information, please contact Dr. Ileana Nachescu, the Director of the Honors Program, at