WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES

Thesis Guidelines and Schedule

2009—2010

 

Overview

 

As a Bates student majoring in an interdisciplinary program, your thesis will immerse you in methodologies drawn from multiple fields of study.  The following guidelines are designed to help you navigate this often-confusing process, and we urge you to read them thoroughly.  You are also encouraged to consult early and often with the Program chair and/or relevant Program faculty for further assistance.

 

In order to produce a successful thesis, you must begin the prescribed process during the semester prior to your initial enrollment in WGST 457 or WGST 458.  Please refer to the specific work schedule printed below.  It is designed to ensure that you consult with the Program Chair, secure a thesis advisor, and choose a reasonable topic before the semester in which you plan to write.  Such advance planning will enable you to polish your thesis proposal before submitting it to the Women and Gender Studies (WGS) Program Committee at the beginning of the semester in which you plan to write. 

 

A strong proposal will reflect all the criteria set forth in these guidelines (discussed in detail below).  It clearly identifies your research topic and indicates the relevance of your research to other scholarly literature in Women and Gender Studies.  A proposal considered “accepted” must have been submitted and reviewed by the WGS Program Committee before the end of the “add” period of the semester in which you write your thesis (or, in the case of a full year project, begin to write).  Early and frequent consultation with your advisor is the best route to a successful and rewarding thesis experience. 

  

Schedule and Deadlines

FALL 2009 one-semester theses or FALL - WINTER 2009-2010 two-semester theses

 

Spring 2009                 Conceive topic and begin to develop research question. Consult with Women and Gender Studies Program Chair. Choose thesis advisor.

 

Short Term                  Work on preliminary research and development of thesis proposal with advisor.

 

September 18, 2009    Deadline for fall and two-semester thesis proposals.  Submit your carefully revised and edited thesis proposal to the WGS Academic Administrative Assistant in Pettengill Hall (Room 253) by 12:00pm. 

                                    Note: the Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet must be signed by your advisor.

 

December 11, 2009     Fall semester thesis deadline.

  

Schedule and Deadlines (continued)

WINTER 2010 one-semester theses

 

September 2009          Conceive topic and begin to develop research question.  Consult with Women and Gender Studies Program Chair.  Choose thesis advisor.

 

Fall 2009                     Work on preliminary research and develop thesis proposal in consultation with advisor.

 

January 15, 2010         Deadline for winter semester thesis proposals.  Submit your carefully revised and edited thesis proposal to the WGS Academic Administrative Assistant by 12:00pm. 

                                    Note: the Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet must be signed by your advisor.

 

April 9, 2010               Winter semester thesis deadline.

  

We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of timeliness in the preparation of all documents.  Should problems with timeliness prove to be an issue with any particular student, the Committee and the advisor together may reduce the final grade for WGST 457 or WGST 458. Due to the Registrar’s scheduling of the drop/add period and mandatory grade submission, all deadlines are firm.

  

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING A WGS PROPOSAL and THESIS

  

Women and Gender Studies theses use gender as a category of analysis. 

This criterion is indispensable.  Your research and analysis must be informed by an understanding of how gender shapes human experience (labor practices, for example).  Familiarize yourself with the scholarly literature on gender relevant to your specific field of interest, and pay close attention to how that scholarship marshals relational analyses of gender.  In other words, simply writing about “women” does not qualify a thesis as using gender as a category of analysis. 

 

Women and Gender Studies theses approach people as social agents whose gendered identities and experiences are shaped by race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, sexuality, (dis)ability, and national power.  Gender identity and gendered experience must be considered in terms of their intersection with the other particularities of people's lives.  For example, research about the work experience of college-aged white women cannot be generalized as the experience of all women.  Research that focuses on a particular group must consider the impact of that group’s specific social location (racial, sexual, socioeconomic, national, occupational, etc.).  Where research is confined to the experience of one group of women, it is imperative that you, as investigator, understand and communicate the boundaries within which your findings apply. 

 

Women and Gender Studies theses are interdisciplinary in methodology. Given that our curriculum is interdepartmental, and our majors take most of their courses in “traditional” disciplines, what exactly do we expect of you in the way of an interdisciplinary thesis?  Your thesis should show your awareness of the contributions (and/or critiques) of other relevant fields to knowledge of your subject. We expect that you will use your training in Women and Gender Studies to enlarge or transform the perspective that a traditional discipline might bring to bear on a problem.  It is also possible to use one of the traditional disciplines to expand upon or recast the perspective(s) that Women and Gender Studies might use to analyze a problem.  The methodology section of your thesis should as detailed as possible; it may help to draw on notes and reference material from INDS250 (“Methods and Modes of Inquiry”).  Note: all students planning research involving human subjects or participants must submit their work to the Bates College Institutional Review Board.  For more information please consult the IRB website: http://abacus.bates.edu/acad/depts/psychology/irb/index.html 

  

Preparation

 

You may choose an advisor from any member of the faculty who is familiar with the study of gender in the relevant scholarly field(s); the advisor does not have to be a current member of the WGS Program Committee. Your advisor will help guide the development of your thesis, set a schedule for completion of the work, and determine an appropriate citation format.  Your thesis advisor will also evaluate your efforts and grade your final project.

 

It is imperative that you work with your advisor to develop your topic and proposal.  To facilitate this process, we suggest preparing a typed Topic Statement that identifies the subject of your investigation and a preliminary Research Question.  (In the case of a literary or artistic project, this statement might take the form of a brief outline.)  Early in the process, your question is likely to be tentative and may change as you become more familiar with scholarship in the field.  Also prepare an Annotated Bibliography, consisting of careful summaries of four to six scholarly reference works, books, articles, and/or primary documents pertinent to your specific topic.  Be sure to provide full bibliographic citations for each source, and to indicate the relevance of each work to your project.  Your advisor can then better offer suggestions for next steps.

  

Content of a Women And Gender Studies Thesis Proposal

 

A strong proposal identifies the value of the project as a Women and Gender Studies thesis, reflects the program’s three key guidelines for research in the field (above), and provides a “road­ map” for your research and writing.  Proposals for one-semester theses should be roughly four to six pages in length, excluding notes and bibliographies.  What follows are specific instructions regarding content of a thesis proposal.  Please attend carefully to each of them.

 

The thesis proposal should include:

 

• 1.                  A clear statement of the problem proposed for study and the specific research question(s) to be addressed.

 

• 2.                  Discussion of relevant scholarly literatures. The proposal should demonstrate clearly that germane scholarship has been reviewed (by inclusion of major disagreements or outstanding questions in the literature, and/or how your questions fit into the existing literature).

 

• 3.                  Detailed discussion of the methodology, which both explains the suitability of your methods to your research problem and articulates your understanding of the complexities of the methods to be employed. 

 

• 4.                  Description of the materials to be used in the research (e.g., texts, documents, empirical data, interviews and interview subjects, etc.), as well as the locations and/or availability of these materials. Include a rough timetable for research (and budget, if applying for research funds).

  

Women and Gender Studies Thesis Writers' Group

 

The Program Committee recognizes the myriad challenges of producing an effective interdisciplinary thesis.  To help you address some of these challenges, the Program Committee holds regular discussion meetings for thesis writers to gather together and share concerns.  In these meetings, facilitated by Program faculty, thesis writers discuss the content and process of their work, providing constructive feedback to one another in the form of questions, comments, and suggestions.  They bring work-in-progress in the form of questions, outlines, or chapter drafts, and share recommendations for source collection, content organization, writing process, and prose style.  Previous thesis writers have responded positively to these working meetings, confirming the Program Committee’s belief that they help majors to develop and maintain the Women and Gender Studies focus of their work.  Attendance is mandatory.

Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet