Policies relating to ANTR4095, Research Essay (“Thesis”) for the Anthropology Department, Laurentian University.

Justification:

This policy aims to make the thesis course more consistent with thesis courses offered by other departments in the university and to decrease the variation in requirements and evaluation of the thesis course within the department.

Policy:

1.      The enrolment of students in ANTR4095 is to be overseen by a co-ordinator. The department will decide who fills the position of co-ordinator. The co-ordinator reports to the department chair.

2.      All thesis students will be supervised by a committee consisting of at least two professors in the department of anthropology. One member may serve as a primary supervisor. Such professors will be part of the full time teaching faculty complement; i.e., tenured, tenure-stream or full-time contract faculty (sabbatical replacements). In normal circumstances, they will be full members of the department of anthropology. In exceptional circumstances, full time teaching faculty in other departments may serve on the committee, but in these cases the student must provide a letter explaining the circumstances. The co-ordinator will consider such cases and make a recommendation to the chair. A third professor from outside the department may serve as a reader.

3.      Students who wish to enrol in the thesis course may only do so after having received permission from the chair. The student shall present to the co-ordinator the attached thesis approval form with the relevant sections completed. The co-ordinator will make a recommendation based on the student

a)      obtained a grade of 70% or greater in ANTR3026 and an overall average of 70% in all courses.

b)      received written agreement from both potential supervisors of their willingness to sit on a supervisory committee  (see form) ; and

c)      the viability of the proposed thesis topic.

4.      Evaluation of the thesis shall be determined by the committee members. It is strongly recommended that a similar system is adopted for all students.

Evaluation will include the following components, but may include other elements:

a)      An oral presentation open to all members of the department and students in anthropology.

b)      Presentation of a single authored document that is normally between 10,000 and 25,000 words in length. It is recommended that this document include original research.

All theses will be subject to final corrections by the student before the grades are submitted for the course. One member of the thesis committee will be responsible for ensuring that corrections have been made. Theses will be kept on file in the department of anthropology.

5.      Committee members are responsible for ensuring that students have submitted their proposed research to examination by the university research ethics board.

6.      Committee members will be jointly responsible for determination of the final grade of the student. This decision may be arrived at through individual evaluations and averaging of the marks, or through joint discussion and grading of the work. The committee will report the method of determination of the final grade to the co-ordinator at the beginning of term.

7.      It is strongly recommended that the evaluation of the thesis is broken down into a number of components, including the oral defence, so that the student’s grade is not entirely dependent on the final product. 

8.      The co-ordinator will submit the grades.

9.      The appended Research Essay Approval Form should be submitted to the co-ordinator by June 15. The co-ordinator will endeavour to evaluate forms and make recommendations by June 30.

10.   Students should submit a first draft of the thesis by January 15.

This section to be filled out by the student:

Name: ___________________________________________________________

Mark obtained in ANTR3026:__________________________________________

Overall Cumulative Grade Average for all Laurentian courses to date _________

Proposed thesis topic:________________________________________________

Does this topic involve research with living human subjects:_________________

Does this topic involve research with human tissue:________________________

Name of first proposed committee member:______________________________

This section to be filled out by the first committee member after all of the above information has been completed:

I am aware of the student’s proposed topic and of the makeup of the committee and I agree to serve on this committee.

This section to be filled out by the second committee member after all of the above information has been completed:

I am aware of the student’s proposed topic and of the makeup of the committee and I agree to serve on this committee.

Recommendation of the co-ordinator:

Decision of the chair:

Signature of the chair:_______________________________ Date: __________________________