Getting Started
A senior, or honors, thesis provides Gender and Women’s Studies students with the opportunity to conduct an independent research project in collaboration with a faculty member during their last two semesters of college. A senior thesis serves as essential preparation for graduate and professional programs. In addition, developing, organizing, and writing the thesis provides robust training for students as they prepare for careers after graduation.
A senior thesis allows students to pursue their interests outside the boundaries of a specific class. This is the ultimate opportunity to put the approaches and concepts students learn in Gender and Women’s Studies courses to work.
2024-2025 Thesis Writers
Now is the time to think about research topics and talk with faculty about supervising your thesis project next year. Contact the undergraduate advisor at advising@gws.wisc.edu to discuss how to get started.
Submitting a research proposal for 2024-2025
Send your 1-2 page thesis proposal along with a faculty letter of support by Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The GWS Curriculum Committee will review your research plan and provide you with feedback.
Process Steps
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Planning for a senior thesis
Students interested in a thesis project often begin by considering the topics that they have found most captivating in their courses. Students might also develop a thesis topic based on activist work they are already doing in their communities. In this case, the thesis offers the chance to exercise the knowledge they have acquired in the classroom in a community-based context.
Students should have a thesis topic and a faculty member in mind the semester before they start working on the senior thesis. At the end of that semester, the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies requires that students submit a short proposal (1-2 pages) along with a letter of support from the faculty member who has agreed to serve as the thesis advisor.
Remember you can complete a senior thesis project in one of two ways: a senior thesis or a senior honors thesis. The honors option requires a 3.3 minimum GPA in GWS courses and overall plus 2 courses or 6 credits of GWS coursework for honors.
Funding your research
UW-Madison offers students a number of ways to fund their research on campus.
- The L&S Honors Program offers several research scholarships for senior honors thesis projects. Students do not have to be previously affiliated with the L&S Honors program in order to complete a Senior Honors Thesis.
- In addition, the campus-wide Hilldale Fellowship supports students’ projects and the research of their faculty mentors. These are crucial resources if you plan to travel to a regional archive, conduct interviews, or purchase supplies in order to complete your thesis project.
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Identifying a research topic
- Do you have questions that keep bubbling up in your coursework or through your involvement on campus/in the community? Are there ways that you would like to contribute to the fields of gender and sexuality studies? The thesis is your chance to craft your own questions and answers.
- Keep in mind that small (manageable) topics are generally good; they can always be situated in a wider context. You might start with a topic like K-12 sex education in the US. As you develop a reading list, this topic might start to feel big. Through your research and in conversation with your thesis advisor, you might narrow your topic to address changes to the sexuality education curriculum in one school district. Narrowing the scope of your project will likely result in a happier research and writing experience.
Selecting a faculty advisor
- Spend some time browsing the Faculty Directory on the department website. Consider faculty whose research interests are closest to the topic(s) you are exploring.
- It is great if you know a potential thesis advisor through previous coursework, but it is also okay to ask faculty you don’t know if their research matches your interests.
- The next step is to craft a polite email introducing yourself and your topic; consider stopping by office hours to discuss the senior thesis in
- Keep in mind that you will be working closely with your thesis advisor for two semesters. Choose someone with whom you feel comfortable. Many faculty are enthusiastic about supporting students through the senior thesis process, so don’t hesitate to approach them with your questions. If the faculty person you contact will be on leave during the semesters that you will be working on your project, ask them to suggest someone else who would be a good fit for your research project.
Drafting a research proposal
- Before you draft your proposal, have a conversation with your thesis advisor and do some reading about your topic. The proposal does not have to be long (1-2 pages), but it should include your principal research questions and the sources or data you will look to for answers. Don’t stress too much about this part. This is just your first opportunity to put words down on paper.
- The Department of Gender and Women’s Studies’ Curriculum Committee will review your proposal the semester prior to the start of your project. We also ask that you submit a letter of support from your thesis advisor.
- Once your project proposal has been approved, the department will contact you with information about how to enroll in senior thesis credits.
Please send your proposal with a letter of support from your thesis advisor to Lachrista Greco, Undergraduate Advisor, at lachrista.greco@wisc.edu
Enrolling in senior thesis credits
- There are two ways students can pursue a senior thesis in Gender and Women’s Studies. Students can opt for Honors in the Major and enroll in Gen&WS 681 and 682 during the last two semesters of college. Or, students can enroll in Gen&WS 691 and 692 if they decide that they want to complete the thesis project without the additional Honors in the Major requirements. Either path will result in independent research and a completed thesis at the time of graduation.
- Note that students making good progress will earn a P grade for the first semester of their thesis credits. When the senior thesis is complete, they will earn letter grades (A-F) for both semesters.
General Research Tips
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Research in a multidisciplinary setting
- Gender and Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field and senior thesis projects will differ based on disciplinary perspective. Students in GWS might develop a creative project accompanied by an artist’s statement, research a historical topic, or pursue questions in public health.
- Talk with your thesis advisor about the research skills that you bring to your project, such as experience with statistical analysis, database management, historical sources, literary or visual analysis as well as language skills.
- If you plan to work with people as research subjects (for example, you would like to conduct interviews), and you plan to publish your research, you may need approval from UW-Madison’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Discuss the IRB with your faculty advisor early in the first semester.
Get to know campus library resources
- As you are working through your reading list, you might also spend some time browsing the subject databases maintained by the UW-Madison libraries, including the database for Gender/Sexuality/Women’s Studies.
- You can also contact the Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian for help with your research.
Bibliographies
- Your project bibliography will develop out of the initial reading list that you develop in consultation with your thesis advisor.
- Updating and maintaining your bibliography throughout the process helps you better organize your research and writing.
- This document is not necessarily the list appended to the end of your thesis, rather it helps you to situate the work you are doing in relation to other researchers in the
- It can be helpful to organize your bibliography by chronology, theme, and/or type. A typological organization makes the most sense if you are working with a variety of primary
Page length
- Senior theses will range in length depending on the scope of the topic and the discipline in which you are researching. Generally, a senior thesis in Gender and Women’s Studies should be less than 50 pages inclusive of notes and bibliography. You will make decisions about organization and page length that best meet the needs of your project in consultation with your thesis
CRGW Colloquium
Attend the talks organized by the Center for Research on Gender and Women to help you develop your ideas for a topic.
GWS Librarian
Learn about the tools and resources that will expedite the research process.
The Writing Center
Make use of the Writing Center throughout the year. Meet regularly with a tutor to help you stay on track or join a group of other senior thesis writers from across campus.
L&S Honors Program
Explore the options for undergraduate research funding through L&S Honors. If you decide to write an honors thesis, you will submit an easy-to-fill-out form to the L&S Honors program.
Senior Thesis Timelines
Semester 1
- This is the exploratory phase of your research. You will read other people’s work and hone your plans for your data or sources. Your thesis advisor might assign a reading list to help you better understand the research that has already been published about your topic.
- You will also begin to pursue your sources, whether interviews, data sets, historical, or literary sources.
- As you are reading and compiling notes, use handy tools to help you keep your research organized. This is another area where the Campus Libraries can help you! Get the most up to date tips about how to manage your citations and bibliography from the libraries’ online resources.
- In consultation with your thesis advisor, you will develop an outline for the write-up of your project by the end of the first semester.
- Be sure to set up a regular schedule of meetings with your thesis advisor.
Semester 2
- Lots of writing! Check in with your thesis advisor if you need to adjust your writing schedule.
- Save your work in multiple spaces such as UW-Madison hosted Box and/or Google Drive.
- Join a thesis writing group organized by the Writing Center.
- Consider presenting your research at the annual UW System Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium
Taking care of yourself while you work on a thesis project
Keep talking to your thesis advisor and other folks inside (and outside) the department. Discussing your ideas with faculty and peers will demystify the research and writing process and help you identify immediate next steps.
In addition to the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, UW-Madison offers resources and support for senior thesis writers. You can work individually with a Writing Center tutor or join a group of students working on senior theses.
Some folks find it helpful to organize times to write in community rather than facing the task alone. Along the way, keep evaluating what is working for you and what isn’t. When you experience a challenging point in the process, your thesis advisor, other folks in the department, and resources on campus are there to help you. Don’t hesitate to reach out.