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Concentrators undertaking a thesis are required to enroll in HAA 99A (fall) and B (spring) for course credit. Students in the architecture track pursuing a design thesis should enroll in HAA 92r (fall) and 99B (spring). Joint concentrators will enroll in the 99 course of their primary concentration.
Overseen by the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses, HAA 99A –“The Senior Thesis Seminar” – will meet several times during the fall semester for two-hour sessions devoted to facilitating the preparation and writing of a thesis. These sessions will cover such topics as compiling a bibliography, using archives, the use of key technology and software, and constructing and presenting an effective argument. All concentrators pursuing a written thesis project are required to enroll in this seminar. Joint concentrators enrolled in another department’s thesis seminar, and HAA design thesis students enrolled in HAA 92r, are welcome and encouraged to attend some or all sessions of 99A in addition to their primary thesis preparation course.
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- October: Initial Meeting. Junior concentrators are invited to meet with the Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses for an introduction to the senior thesis writing process.
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- Late January: First Draft. Before the spring semester begins, students submit a full draft of the thesis, with illustrations, to the faculty adviser for comments.
- Late February/Early March: Second Draft. Students are encouraged to submit the near-final draft to their faculty adviser for a final review before formal submission to the Department.
- Week before Spring Break: Final Submission Deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted. On the afternoon of submission, all students are invited to attend the Thesis Reception.
- Late March: Gallery-Style public reception and presentation of Design Thesis projects. All architecture track students that have prepared a design thesis will present their work informally at this event. All HAA thesis writers, as well as faculty and graduate students, are encouraged to attend.
- April: Thesis Review and Honors Recommendation. Senior Honors Theses are read and critiqued by Members of the Faculty in HAA (and the GSD and the Harvard Art Museums, where relevant) at the request of the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses. Department Faculty meet to vote on final honors recommendations, after which thesis writers will receive an email from the Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses notifying them of their thesis grade and recommendation for honors. Students should speak with their Allston Burr Senior Tutor for the anticipated final honors decision of the College.
- Mid-April: Senior Thesis Poster. All senior thesis writers are expected toprepare a digital file for a 24 x 36” poster summarizing the thesis to be exhibited in the HAA Department for the following academic year. A suggested template will be provided and a workshop will be held in late March for assistance with poster preparation. The printing and associated costs are taken care of by the Department. Examples of previous posters can be found here (AY21-22) and here (AY22-23).
Advising
Director of Senior
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Theses
The process of taking honors and producing the thesis in the Department is overseen for all concentrators by the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses, Professor Carrie Lambert-Beatty. The Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses leads the Fall Term thesis-writing seminar (HAA 99A) and directs the meetings for departmental approval once theses have been submitted.
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When submitting their initial proposal in the spring of the junior year, students should include a list of three possible faculty advisers. The Department will then match students with advisers according to student preference and faculty availability. Faculty thesis advisers should generally be full faculty members of the History of Art and Architecture Department, although Harvard museum curators with relevant expertise may also serve as advisers at the discretion of the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses. Students in the architecture track pursuing a design thesis must also secure a second adviser from the faculty of the Graduate School of Design. Joint concentrators will generally select one faculty adviser from each department.
The adviser ought to serve as a critic of synthesized ideas and writings/designs, rather than as a director of the project. The adviser should be chosen with consideration more to compatibility in overseeing the process of the work than to being an expert in the field. If you have trouble identifying an appropriate adviser, please consult with the Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses or Undergraduate Program Coordinator before the spring deadline for the Thesis Proposal.
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Megan Panzano, Program Director of the Harvard Undergraduate Architecture Studies Track, oversees the execution of the two studio courses “HAA 96A – Architecture Studio I: Transformations” and “HAA 96B – Architecture Studio II: Connections”, as well as the senior design-thesis seminar “HAA 92R – Design Speculations.” She is available to consult for general advice on the design-thesis process and in finding a suitable advisor from the GSD. She coordinates the assignment of readers to senior design-thesis projects in consultation with the Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses and Undergraduate Program Coordinator.
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The Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Marcus Mayo, is available to consult at any point regarding general questions about the senior thesis writing process. In conjunction with the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses, they will coordinate the initial meeting of concentrators interested in writing a thesis in the spring term of their junior year. The Undergraduate Program Coordinator collects and distributes thesis proposals, summer funding proposals, advisor assignments, as well as completed theses, grades and reader comments. They hold examples of the written requirements (thesis proposal and prospectus) and of the Pulitzer and Abramson Grant applications which students might wish to consult as paradigms.
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Theses are read and critiqued by faculty members applying a higher standard than expected for work written in courses or tutorials. Faculty do make use of the full range of grades, and students should consider that any honors grade is a distinction of merit. If you have any questions, please contact the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, or the Undergraduate Program Coordinator.
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Each thesis will have two readers chosen by the Department. All readers will be asked to submit written comments and grades, which will be factored equally to produce the final grade of the thesis. Individual grades are not released. When grades and comments are distributed, the readers no longer remain anonymous. There exists a procedure by which a writer may request, via the Director of Senior Thesis AdviserTheses, to speak with a reader provided that they are willing to discuss the work in further detail or expound on the written critique.
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At the end of each term, Fall and Spring, the student's progress in the Senior Tutorial (HAA 99) will be graded SAT or UNSAT. At the end of the Department's Honors Review process, the Director of Senior Thesis Adviser Theses calculates a recommendation for Honors based on the factored grades of the thesis and the student's grades in concentration coursework. This recommendation is presented to the Faculty at their meeting in April for review. A faculty vote is taken and this decision is passed as an honors recommendation to the Registrar of the College. For joint concentrators, the faculty will make recommendations to a student’s primary concentration but will defer the final grading process to them. The decision of Final Honors to be granted on the degree is made by the Registrar based on departmental recommendation and the student’s College-GPA. Students should consult with their Allston Burr Senior Tutor to determine what final honors might be anticipated at Commencement.
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