Reed College
Reed College

History–Literature

Application to the Major, Qual and Thesis

As noted in the Requirements, early consultation with a member of the History and Literature committee is important for a student considering this major in order to determine whether the student qualifies for the major and to allow time to plan a program.

To be admitted to the History-Literature program, a student will need to petition in the spring of their sophomore year. The petition must be submitted no later than April 1st of the sophomore year, for Fall/Spring graduates, and November 15 for Spring/Fall graduates. The petition should inform the History and Literature Committee of the following:

  • What are your proposed areas(s) of focus?
  • Why are these suited to the interdisciplinary major rather than to one department?
  • What potential topics might you write about in your thesis?
  • How does your coursework support your major and potential thesis topics, as described?

Students in the History-Literature program can take the qualifying examination in either semester of junior year. The dates for the qual will be announced at the beginning of each semester. When possible, they will coincide with the schedule of the qualifying examinations in History or in the literature department of the student’s junior seminar. The examination requires students to write an essay analyzing a scholarly article selected by the History-Literature committee that incorporates both literary and historical material. Detailed instructions for the qualifying exam.

For the senior thesis, each student will be assigned an advisor from either the History Department or a department in the Division of Literature and Languages. Students who have a historian as an advisor will be assigned a literary scholar as their first reader; those who have a literary scholar as their advisor will be assigned a historian as their first reader. Thesising seniors in the History-Literature program are expected to meet several internal deadlines within the program; a schedule and detailed requirements will be distributed at the beginning of each semester.