Like a Bates student majoring within an interdisciplinary program, your thesis will immerse you in methodologies attracted from multiple areas of study. The next guidelines are made to assist you to navigate this frequently-confusing process, so we urge you to definitely read them completely. You’re also asked to consult early and frequently using the Program chair and/or relevant Program faculty for more assistance.

To be able to create a effective thesis, you have to begin the prescribed process throughout the semester just before your initial enrollment in WGST 457 or WGST 458. Please make reference to the particular time-table printed below. It’s designed to actually talk to this program Chair, secure a thesis consultant, and select an acceptable subject prior to the semester that you intend to write. Such advance planning will allow you to shine your thesis proposal before submitting it towards the Ladies and Gender Studies (WGS) Program Committee at the outset of the semester that you intend to write.

A powerful proposal will reflect all of the criteria established during these guidelines (discussed at length below). It clearly identifies your quest subject and signifies the relevance of the research with other scholarly literature in females and Gender Studies. An offer considered “accepted” should have been posted and reviewed through the WGS Program Committee prior to the finish from the “add” duration of the semester that you write your thesis (or, within the situation of the twelve month project, start to write). Early and frequent consultation together with your consultant is the greatest path to a effective and rewarding thesis experience.

Schedule and Deadlines

FALL One-Semester Theses or FALL &#8211 WINTER Two-Semester Theses

• Winter Semester Preceding Thesis. Conceive subject and start to build up research question. Talk to Ladies and Gender Studies major consultant. Choose thesis consultant.
• Temporary Preceding Thesis. Focus on preliminary development and research of thesis proposal with thesis consultant.
• Second Friday from the Fall Thesis Semester. Deadline for fall and 2-semester thesis proposals. Submit your carefully revised and edited thesis proposal towards the WGS Academic Administrative Assistant in Pettengill Hall (Room 253) by NOON. Note: the Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet should be signed from your consultant.
• Friday, Last Day’s Classes, Fall Semester. Fall semester thesis deadline.

WINTER One-Semester Theses

• September Preceding Thesis. Conceive subject and start to build up research question. Talk to Ladies and Gender Studies major consultant. Choose thesis consultant.
• Fall Semester Preceding Thesis. Focus on research and develop thesis proposal in consultation with consultant.
• First Friday from the Winter Thesis Semester. Deadline for winter semester thesis proposals. Submit your carefully revised and edited thesis proposal towards the WGS Academic Administrative Assistant by NOON. Note: the Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet should be signed from your consultant.
• Last Day’s Classes, Winter Semester. Winter semester thesis deadline.

We can’t highlight strongly enough the significance of timeliness within the preparation of thesis materials. Should issues with timeliness end up being a problem with any particular student, the Committee and also the consultant together may lessen the final grade for WGST 457 or WGST 458.Because of the Registrar’s scheduling from the drop/add period and mandatory grade submission, all deadlines are firm.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING A WGS PROPOSAL and THESIS

You might approach any person in the school who knows study regarding gender within the relevant scholarly field(s) about counseling your thesis the consultant doesn’t have to become a current person in the WGS Program Committee. Your consultant can help guide the introduction of your thesis, set an agenda to finish from the work, and see a suitable citation format. A WGS thesis requires participation inside a collaborative process using the thesis consultant. Thesis writing is really a challenging process. Students are anticipated to satisfy regularly using the consultant, to supply and discuss drafts, to help keep appointments, and also to meed agreed-upon deadlines. Students should reflect critically around the comments they receive using their consultant, and really should demonstrate initiative and independence throughout the project. Your thesis consultant may also evaluate your time and efforts and grade one last project. Approach, process, and thesis product each one is key elements within the grading of thesis.

It’s vital that you use your consultant to build up your subject and proposal. To facilitate this method, we recommend preparing a typed Subject Statement that identifies the topic of your analysis along with a research Question. (Within the situation of the literary or artistic project, this statement usually takes the type of a short description.) Early along the way, your question will probably be tentative and could change as you grow more acquainted with scholarship within the field. Also prepare an Annotated Bibliography, composed of careful summaries of 4 to 6 scholarly reference works, books, articles, and/or primary documents pertinent for your specific subject. Make sure to provide full bibliographic citations for every source, and also to indicate the relevance of every try to any project. Your consultant may then better offer recommendations for next steps.

Writing the Proposal

A powerful proposal identifies the need for the work like a Ladies and Gender Studies thesis, reflects the program’s three core guidelines for research within the field (below), and offers a “road map” for the research and writing. Proposals for just one-semester theses ought to be roughly 4 to 6 pages long, excluding notes and bibliographies. Proposals for 2-semester theses ought to be between six and ten pages long, excluding notes and bibliographies. Below are specific instructions regarding content of the thesis proposal. Please attend carefully to all of them.

The thesis proposal will include:

• A obvious statement from the problem suggested for study and also the specific research question(s) to become addressed.

• Discussion of relevant scholarly literatures. The proposal should demonstrate clearly that germane scholarship continues to be reviewed (by inclusion of major disagreements or outstanding questions within the literature, and/or the way your questions squeeze into the present literature).

• Detailed discussion from the methodology, which both explains the appropriateness of the techniques to your quest problem and articulates knowing about it from the complexities from the methods to be used.

• Description from the materials for use within the research (e.g. texts, documents, empirical data, interviews and interview subjects, etc.), along with the locations and/or accessibility to this stuff. Incorporate a rough timetable for research (and budget, if trying to get research funds).

The proposal must reflect your grasp from the following core styles:

Ladies and Gender Studies theses use gender like a group of analysis .
This qualifying criterion is indispensable. Your quest and analysis should be informed by an awareness of methods gender shapes human experience (labor practices, for instance). Simply covering “women” doesn’t qualify a thesis as using gender like a group of analysis.

Ladies and Gender Studies theses approach people as social agents whose gendered identities and encounters are formed by race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, sexuality, (dis)ability, and national power.
Gender identity and gendered experience should be considered when it comes to their intersection using the other particularities of individuals’s lives. For instance, research concerning the experience of school-aged white-colored women can’t be generalized as the expertise of all ladies. Research that concentrates on a specific group must think about the impact of this group’s specific social location (racial, sexual, socioeconomic, national, work-related, etc.). Where scientific studies are limited to the expertise of one number of women, it’s vital that you, as investigator, understand and communicate the limitations within which your findings apply.

Ladies and Gender Studies theses are interdisciplinary in methodology .
Considering that our majors take many of their courses in “traditional” disciplines, just what will we expect individuals when it comes to an interdisciplinary thesis? We predict that you’ll make use of your learning Ladies and Gender Studies to enlarge or transform the perspective that the traditional discipline might provide bear on the problem. It’s also easy to use among the traditional disciplines to grow upon or recast the perspective(s) that ladies and Gender Studies would use to evaluate an issue. The methodology portion of your thesis should as detailed as you possibly can assistance to attract on notes and reference material from INDS250 (“Methods and Modes of Inquiry”).

Note: a lot of students planning research involving human subjects or participants must submit the work they do towards the Bates College Institutional Review Board unless of course their research plan meets the factors for exemption outlined around the Bates IRB website. abacus.bates.edu/acad/depts/psychology/irb/index.html

Honors Theses

Receipt of Honors in females and Gender Studies is really a special distinction restricted to individuals students who’ve completed a thesis project with certain distinguishing characteristics featuring. A student must demonstrate an advanced of self-motivation, independence, and continuous engagement within the project within the entire two semesters, and also the thesis project ought to be exemplary in the design, methodological rigor, and creativeness. The thesis and dental examination should use scholarship in the area of ladies and gender studies to succeed our knowledge of an essential subject. The ultimate thesis must get the necessary background, theory and/or methodology for that project and also the thesis will include an intensive discussion and citation of relevant, printed literature. Students must exhibit idea of the debates associated with their subject and effectively articulate how the work they do plays a role in the scholarly conversation. Approach, process, thesis product, and dental examination each one is key elements inside a decision of whether or not to award Honors. The dental examination panel people, who may talk to the consultant, have final authority for knowing if the student has satisfactorily met the factors for receipt of Honors.

Each academic program at Bates maintains its very own procedures and policies for figuring out students’ candidacy for honors within the major. In Females and Gender Studies, students seeking to try to get honors candidacy must clearly indicate this intention after consultation using their major consultant within the semester prior to starting the thesis. Students should also have preliminary support in those days using their planned thesis consultant. Students have the effect of submitting the finished WGS Honors Thesis Intention Form towards the Program Chair by noon on the Friday from the last day’s classes during the cold months term from the junior year. (December graduates must submit the Honors Thesis Intention Form through the second Friday from the fall semester just before their final year ).

Students may also indicate the intention to pursue honors when submitting an offer for any two-semester thesis proposal through the September deadline in the above list.

The School Program Committee studies the proposal posted with honors candidacy in your mind, and returns a proper letter of review towards the student applicant. That letter of review will either:

• reject the proposal for honors consideration
• supply the student using the chance to revise and resubmit the proposal for honors consideration
• preliminarily accept the proposal for honors consideration, pending approval of two chapters posted towards the committee within the first semester
• or preliminarily accept the proposal, pending approval from the student’s consultant in The month of january.

Student should pay attention towards the letters of review supplied by this program Committee while preparing the work. Students should have made considerable progress around the thesis within the fall semester to become submit for honors in The month of january. The thesis consultant, in consultation using the Program Committee, has the legal right to withdraw a student in the Honors program anytime before the submission deadline for that written thesis.

Students seeking to try to get honors in 2 majors must follow the honors procedures and policies of both WGS and yet another department or program. More information about College-wide honors guidelines might be available at world wide web.bates.edu/honors-program.xml. Further questions regarding honors candidacy and also the honors process in females and Gender Studies might be forwarded to this program Chair.

Ladies and Gender Studies Thesis Authors’ Group

This Program Committee recognizes the myriad challenges of manufacturing a highly effective interdisciplinary thesis. That will help you address a few of these challenges, this program Committee holds regular discussion conferences for thesis authors to collect together and share concerns. During these conferences, facilitated by Program faculty, thesis authors discuss the information and procedure for the work they do, supplying constructive feedback to each other by means of questions, comments, and suggestions. They convey work-in-progress by means of questions, outlines, or chapter drafts, and share strategies for source collection, content organization, writing process, and prose style. Previous thesis authors have responded positively to those working conferences, confirming this program Committee’s thought that they assist majors to build up and keep the ladies and Gender Studies focus of the work. Attendance is required.