English Honors Program
Designed to enrich the experience of the English major for the best and most dedicated students, English Honors comprises a series of courses that fit within the normal course-load limits. The program consists of two honors seminars (English 401 and/or 402) and an independent study (English 501) that culminates in an English Honors thesis. All English Honors seminars meet WR (writing intensive) requirements and can count toward the major.
Students who complete the English Honors requirements receive a milestone on the transcript indicating this special distinction.
Admission
Admission to English Honors requires the following criteria. You should apply if you:
● are an English major with sixty or more credit hours completed
● have a 3.5 English and 3.0 overall GPAs
● have completed one of the following courses: English 301, 302, 413, 414, 415, 416, or 417
● have obtained a recommendation from an English faculty member
The admission application can be found here.
Contact Information
Pleaseaddress any questions about English Honors to:
Dr. Joseph Turner, English Honors Advisor
Email: joseph.turner@louisville.edu
Department of English
318b Bingham Humanities Building
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
Honors Seminars
English Honors seminars are thematically focused, small (maximum of sixteen students), interdisciplinary, and open to honors students only. The seminar format allows students to investigate topics in-depth and to discuss their findings with highly motivated peers. Seminar descriptions for the next academic year coming soon!
Fall 2025: ENGL 401: Animal Studies, with Dr. Glynis Ridley (Tu/Th 2:30-3:45)
What is Animal Studies? In 1975, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation provided a sustained – and highly controversial – engagement with questions about man’s treatment of non-human animals. The book is widely held to be a foundational text for the modern animal rights movement, and it is this movement that many – wrongly – assume to be the sole focus of Animal Studies. Certainly the questions that Singer poses in his book are inescapable in the field, but discussion of bio-ethics and modern agri-business is by no means the entirety of the discipline, which can be considered in relation to subjects as diverse as Art History, Cultural Studies, History, History of Science, Law, Literature, and Philosophy. In the last decade, scholars working in every period of literature have begun to ask questions about the representation of animals. Their role in the medieval bestiary or the fable seems obvious, but even here, the gulf between a particular species and its artistic or literary representation can be a wide one. Indeed, many of the most famous species of the bestiary (such as the dragon or unicorn) have generated their own field of crypto-zoology (the description of - and lore surrounding - animals that do not exist). Given such a vast field, any course must therefore necessarily be selective, not simply in terms of texts, but with regard to the branch of Animal Studies explored.
The course will take as its focus the cultural and legislative context leading to passage of the first animal welfare bill anywhere in the world: Britain’s Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, known simply as Martin’s Act of 1822. We’ll look at the fiction and non-fiction that made passage of this legislation possible, and will contrast this with modern movements to extend rights (or ‘limited personhood’) to a range of non-human animals as we consider the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project.
Reading will include, but not be limited to:
Excerpts from Francis Coventry, The Adventures of Pompey the Little (1751); Dorothy Kilner, The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse (1783); Sarah Trimmer, Fabulous Histories (1786) and Edward Augustus Kendall, Keeper’s Travels (1798). Critical texts will include excerpts from Harriet Ritvo, The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination (1997); Kathryn Shevelow, For the Love of Animals (2008); Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (1975). Circumstances permitting, the course will include a class session spent in Special Collections in the Ekstrom Library, working with Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie (1751-1772) and examining its visual representation of what, to eighteenth-century minds, was a rapidly expanding natural world, replacing the more fanciful creations of the medieval bestiary with field observations. We’ll also consider artistic representations of Robert Bakewell’s manipulation of farm animals’ physiology at New Dishley, and the rise in portraiture including dogs and cats as these animals increasingly moved into middle-class homes as status symbols and companions.
Archives
English Honors Thesis
An independent study course (English 501), covering a topic of the student’s choice, is developed and completed under the direction of an English faculty member who serves as the student’s advisor. The resultant thesis may be submitted for English Honors and/or as an A&S Senior Thesis. The same thesis can satisfy both.
Students who wish to pursue an A&S Senior Thesis should consult with Katherine Rucker (katherine.rucker@louisville.edu) to ensure adherence to A&S guidelines. For students pursuing the A&S Senior Thesis and English Honors, the A&S guidelines supersede those included here.
Independent Study
Students typically take English 501 during the final semester of coursework. Although the bulk of the thesis is generally completed during the final semester, students are encouraged to begin work on the thesis earlier and devote time to it over the final two semesters of coursework.
The Independent Study must include a syllabus constructed by the student with input from the thesis advisor. The syllabus usually includes intended readings and a schedule for composing the thesis.
The English Honors Advisor can supply a sample syllabus. The thesis advisor must upload the syllabus to Blackboard and follow all SACS guidelines.
Thesis Guidelines
English Honors theses are typically between 30-50 total pages and may be creative or critical. Often, the thesis will grow from ideas developed in the student’s coursework in English and English Honors seminars.
Critical theses focus on a set of texts, an interpretive or social problem, or a historical period (among many other possibilities). The thesis should include a critical introduction that outlines the project’s scope and any important theoretical paradigms featured within.
Creative theses are often (but not limited to) a series of linked story stories, a collection of poems, or a section of a novel. Regardless of form, creative theses also have a critical introduction of 5-10 pages that outlines important influences, themes, and interpretative issues.
The thesis should be formatted according to a citation style of the student’s choosing (typically MLA).
The final thesis draft should be distributed to the committee two weeks prior to the defense.
Completing an English Honors thesis is great preparation for graduate school and many students use the thesis as a writing sample for graduate school applications.
English Honors Thesis Committee
The English Honors Thesis committee is composed of three faculty: the advisor, a second reader, and the English Honors Advisor. Students are expected to select and secure an advisor, which should occur by the end of the junior year. The English Honors Advisor can help select an advisor.
Scheduling the Defense
The thesis must be defended two weeks prior to graduation, although students are encouraged to schedule the defense date as early as possible. Defenses will be completed during regular hours in a Fall or Spring semester unless the entire committee has agreed to an alternative.
Students are responsible for scheduling the defense. The English Honors Advisor is happy to help.
Defense Format
The defense can be in-person or virtual (e.g., via MS Teams). It lasts up to an hour. The typical format is a brief presentation by the student (5-10 minutes) followed by roughly thirty minutes of discussion. The committee then asks the student to leave the room so they can decide among three possible outcomes: pass, pass with revision, and fail. “Pass with revision” is the most common decision by far. The student is then invited back into the room to discuss the committee’s decision. In the event of a “pass with revision,” the student and advisor determine a timeline for resubmission. In such an event, the advisor alone makes the final determination (that is, there is not an additional defense and the committee is no longer involved).
After all English Honors requirements are completed successfully (including the defense), the English Honors Advisor will add the English Honors Certificate to the student’s transcript.
Unsuccessful Defenses
In the event of a “fail” decision, the student can undertake revisions for a second defense. The committee will offer guidance on the scope of revisions. The decision resulting from the second defense is final.
Appeals of the initial “fail” decision can be made to the English Honors Advisor in writing within 48 hours of the defense’s conclusion.