Supervising a Thesis
Below you will find condensed excerpts from our Thesis Supervisor Handbook. You may reach out to Chris Rominger, Director of Undergraduate Studies, for this document and more details.
If you and your student are ready to commit to thesis supervision, you (the supervisor) must fill out and submit this Thesis Supervisor Form (normally due mid-April of the junior year).
Who Can Supervise a Thesis?
Only Harvard faculty, doctoral students (3rd year or beyond), and other university affiliates may be eligible to supervise a Social Studies thesis. Thesis supervisors must be on campus (or “in residence”) for the two semesters of thesis supervision. Some graduate students or visiting scholars may have restrictions that prevent them from supervising theses. Contact Katie Greene (kgreene@fas.harvard.edu) if you have any questions about eligibility or compensation; more details will be made available when you fill out the Thesis Supervisor Form.
What is Expected of You as Thesis Supervisor
We expect all senior thesis supervisors to meet regularly with their students. While the timing and length of meetings vary, most supervisors meet with their students at least once every two weeks throughout the academic year. Some of these meetings (especially during school breaks) may be held remotely, but most students need and prefer to meet in person, especially at the outset and towards the end of the thesis process. Thesis supervisors must be in residence for the two semesters of thesis supervision; those away from campus on leave, sabbatical, etc. are not eligible to supervise theses.
Thesis supervisors are expected to provide regular feedback on student work. Some supervisors find it helpful to have their students send them written work, email summaries, or other material in advance of each meeting. Many supervisors will help students establish a work plan and set due dates for completing major milestones along the way. We expect supervisors to help direct their students towards locating and analyzing appropriate secondary and primary research and to discuss texts, interviews, and observations. And at a minimum, supervisors are expected to read and provide substantial comments on a draft of each chapter of the thesis plus a draft of the entire thesis.
Thesis supervisors in Social Studies do not grade their student’s work, except to give them a grade of satisfactory “SAT” or unsatisfactory “UNSAT” for Social Studies 99 in the first semester of the thesis. You will not grade your own student’s final thesis. However, you may be asked to grade other students’ theses and to participate in their oral exams, depending on your status at the university.
What Supervisors Can Expect from Students
A thesis supervisor can expect their student to come to scheduled meetings on time, to do the agreed-upon research, to prepare summaries, outlines, and other materials at scheduled times in advance of meetings, and to prepare chapter drafts by agreed-upon dates or to make arrangements for extensions. Many supervisors are more flexible about deadlines than they would be in another classroom situation, but you should be prepared to set some firm limits when necessary. We encourage you to communicate your style and expectations with students throughout.
You are encouraged to raise any concerns with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Chris Rominger, who is happy to meet and strategize with you and/or your student.
What You Can Expect from Social Studies
Social Studies staff and faculty provide a robust suite of support to students throughout the thesis process, so rest assured you are not the only person guiding your supervisee.
We also provide training meetings (required for new supervisors) and detailed handbooks for all supervisors.
Key Dates/Timeline for the Thesis
- Mid-April of the junior year: Thesis Prospectus and Supervisor Form due
- Summer before senior year: research, data collection, field work begins (especially important if travel is required)
- Fall of senior year: finish data collection and begin writing; one complete chapter is due to supervisor by end of fall classes
- January-February of senior year: intensive writing and revising
- Early March of senior year: final version of thesis due
- April: oral defenses and final exams conducted
General Parameters of a Thesis
Social Studies senior theses should range between 20,000-30,000 words in length (approximately 80-120 pages, printed double-spaced using the standard 12-point font). Notes, appendices, etc. do NOT count towards this limit, although textual appendices do.
Most Social Studies theses include an introduction, one (or two) contextual chapters, two (or three) substantive chapters presenting the primary research findings, and a conclusion. The average length for a Social Studies senior thesis is 100 pages.
Because Social Studies is an interdisciplinary concentration, students can choose from a variety of questions, approaches, and methods in developing their senior thesis topic. Some students write senior theses that cross disciplinary boundaries, employing methods and approaches used in more than one discipline. Other students write theses that are aligned squarely with one discipline but are influenced by the student’s interdisciplinary focus field.
In Social Studies, we expect that students will exhibit methodological self-awareness: that is, some understanding of a range of potential approaches to a specific topic and research question, along with potential benefits and limitations associated with various approaches. In particular, students are expected to demonstrate an understanding of the specific methodological issues underpinning their thesis question and to justify the methodological approach(es) they use.
Social Studies students are expected to define and address a particular thesis question. Students often start out with an interest in a broad topic and may not understand that a thesis does more than simply explore that topic in a way that a textbook or narrative literature review might. A good question is answerable using available data and/or theoretical content within the limited time available for writing the thesis. Projects can take a normative or empirical approach, but most commonly, students choose to write theses that employ empirical data collection.
Since graders can be drawn from a wide range of topical specialties and disciplinary backgrounds, students need to make sure that their projects—and the ideas justifying their projects—are accessible to a generally intelligent reader as well as a specialist audience.