Columbia SPPO

Departmental Honors and Prizes

Departmental Honors

Majors interested in competing for departmental honors should take the Senior Seminar in the fall of their senior year. At the conclusion of the fall semester, the faculty will invite a small number of majors to compete for honors based on the quality of the research paper produced in the Senior Seminar and on their academic record in the department. In order to be considered for departmental honors, a student must maintain a GPA of at least 3.6 in major courses. An invitation to pursue the honors track is not a guarantee that honors will be awarded. Please keep in mind that, according to Columbia College rules, no more than 10% of the majors graduating in a department or program may be awarded departmental honors.

Students who accept the invitation to pursue the honors track will enroll in an independent study course in the spring (Spanish W3997) and will undertake a research project with a faculty member during their last semester at Columbia. Students must identify a faculty member who is willing to supervise their project and who will assign the final grade for the course. The independent study course taken in the spring will count toward the number of courses required to fulfill the major. Students may develop further and expand the paper produced in the Senior Seminar or a paper produced for another course, or undertake a new project in consultation with the faculty sponsor.

The honors project should be a research paper that addresses a substantive topic arrived at in consultation with the adviser. It should advance a significant argument and be informed by a well-articulated theoretical framework. It should be approximately 30-35 pages in length, include a bibliography, and be written in Spanish or Portuguese. Students who base their thesis on a previously written paper will be required to expand their text accordingly. Please consult also the formatting specifications for the senior thesis.

Departmental honors will be granted to those students whose work is deemed deserving by a committee of faculty members that will be constituted for that purpose by the DUS. The thesis should be turned in as hard copy to the DUS, who will forward it to the members of the faculty committee that will adjudicate on honors.

For the 2007-08 academic year, the due date for the senior thesis is April 11, 2008.

Prizes

The faculty also awards two prizes every year:

  • Susan Huntington Vernon Prize: Established in 1941 by a member of the noted family of New York Hispanophiles, it is given to the Columbia College senior major who has demonstrated excellence in the study of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American languages and cultures.
  • Dr. Antonio G. Mier Prize: Awarded for excellence in Hispanic Studies to a major degree candidate in the School of General Studies at Columbia University.