Departmental Honors

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What are Departmental Honors Programs?

Honors College students can participate in Departmental and College honors programs, in addition to their living-learning programs. Departmental honors programs typically involve working closely with a faculty mentor on an independent research or scholarly project culminating in a thesis. There is a minimum GPA requirement, upper level course requirements and an Honors thesis project. Departmental honors programs are a powerful way for students to experience innovative research and discovery in their field of interest. Admission to departmental honors programs varies by college/department. Students should contact the departmental honors program for more information.

Benefits of Departmental Honors:

Students admitted to a departmental or college honors program on campus are considered members of the Honors College, whether or not they were Honors students when they entered UMD. All Honors College students have access to H-version courses offered by academic departments across campus. Students are eligible to participate in all Honors College level activities and organizations. Please check the Honors College news and calendar for upcoming events, including Honors’ famous ice cream socials! Note that individual LLP events are generally only open to students in that community.

Departmental Honors contacts

Communication
Dr. Leah Waks: leahwaks@umd.edu

Computer Science
Dr. Dave Levin: dml@cs.umd.edu
Dr. Leilani Battle: leilani@cs.umd.edu

Criminology & Criminal Justice
Dr. Bianca Bersani: bbersani@umd.edu

Economics
Dr. Nuno Limao: limao@umd.edu

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ms. Kathryn Weiland: Kweiland@umd.edu
Dr. Donald Yeung: Yeung@umd.edu

Engineering
Dr. Wesley Lawson: Lawson@umd.edu

English
Dr. Julius Fleming: flemingj@umd.edu

Entomology
Dr. Karin Burghardt: kburghar@umd.edu

Environmental Science and Policy
Dr. Mark Carroll: mcarroll@umd.edu

Family Science
Ms. Kendyl Oliver: koliver3@umd.edu

French
Dr. Hannah Wegmann: hwegmann@umd.edu

Geology
Dr. John Merck: jmerck@umd.edu

Germanic Studies
Dr. Josh Alvizu: jalvizu@umd.edu

Government & Politics
Dr. John McCauley: mccauley@umd.edu

Hearing & Speech Sciences
Dr. Matthew Goupell: goupell@umd.edu

History
Dr. Clare Lyons: clyons@umd.edu

Kinesiology
Dr. Tim Kiemel: kiemel@umd.edu@umd.edu

Linguistics
Dr. Tonia Bleam: tbleam@umd.edu@umd.edu

Mathematics
Dr. Larry Washington: lcw@umd.edu@umd.edu

Neuroscience
Dr. Nikolas Francis: cortex@umd.edu

Physics
Dr. Bill Dorland: bdorland@umd.edu
Tom Woycheck-Gleason: tgleason@umd.edu

Psychology
Dr. Mike Dougherty: mdougher@umd.edu@umd.edu

Sociology
Dr. Linda Moghadam: moghadam@umd.edu

Spanish & Portuguese
Dr. Ryan Long: rlong12@umd.edu

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Dr. Neda Atanasoki: natanaso@umd.edu
Gwen Warman: gwarman@umd.edu

Honors Research Grants

Departmental or college honors program students may apply for a one-time, need-based honors research grant of $500 to help support research for an individual senior thesis or travel to a professional conference related to the thesis. Selection of recipients is based on academic merit, quality of supporting materials and financial need. Learn more about Honors research grants.

Honors Option Courses

Students in department or college Honors programs have the option to develop an Honors Option (H-Option) course if they are unable to take a Departmental Honors course required to complete the Honors degree. An H-Option student enrolls in a non-Honors course and creates an Honors-quality addendum to the syllabus. Students need permission from their Honors program advisor and the Honors College for the Honors Option course. Learn more about Honors Option courses.