The Department of History's Honors Program offers students the opportunity to engage in challenging courses, research, and sustained historical writing.<br><br>The program is a total of 6 credit hours. In the fall semester, students enroll in HIST 42100 - Honors Historical Methods. This course introduces students to the tools of the historian's craft. They investigate various interpretative approaches to history and discuss the work of several leading historians, examining how they build their arguments, the sources they use, and their contributions to our knowledge of the past. It is also during this semester that students choose their Thesis topic, their faculty mentor and begin their research.<br><br>In the spring, students register for HIST 42200 - Honors Thesis In Historical Research, which offers them 3 credit hours but is not actually a class. Rather, students work closely with their faculty mentor and write a 45-to-50 page historical essay based on their research. At the end of the spring semester, students provide an oral defense of their thesis and present their work to their families and to the History faculty at the annual History Honors Forum.