Thinking of doing a BA Thesis in Sociology?
For most of your academic career, you have primarily been a consumer of knowledge. Now, you have the opportunity to become a producer of knowledge by undertaking a year-long research project of your own design. While this can be a daunting task, you won’t be alone—as a class, we will work together to tackle the tasks associated with doing original research: designing a methodologically rigorous project, engaging with theory, collecting and analyzing data, and effectively communicating your research findings. By the end of this course, you will emerge with a BA thesis you can be proud of—and a deeper understanding of how sociologists do research that has the power to shape people’s understandings of the world.
This page covers some basic information about the process of completing a BA thesis in sociology. Questions can be addressed to Undergraduate Program Coordinator Tessa Huttenlocher (firstname.lastname@example.org), who serves as the preceptor for the BA thesis process.
The BA seminar, SOCI 29998, is a year-long course meant to support students as they design, execute, and write about their research. This course meets for an hour and a half most weeks from Spring Quarter of a student’s third year through Winter Quarter of their fourth year.
Completing the BA seminar and submitting a BA thesis is not required for the sociology major, but it is one of the requirements for earning Honors.
The BA seminar does not count as a sociology elective. However, we encourage students to take advantage of SOCI 29997 (Readings and Research in Sociology) to get elective credit for work done in support of their thesis.
Dropping SOCI 29998 mid-year is administratively difficult, but a student may qualify for a grade of “P” if they complete one quarter’s worth of work.
Ideally, students interested in pursuing the BA project should have fulfilled their Methods and Logic requirements by Winter quarter of their third year, as these courses provide in-depth information on research design and methods of data collection and analysis that are not covered in the BA seminar.
Students will need to secure a faculty member to serve as their BA thesis advisor by the end of Spring Quarter of their third year. Ideally, this advisor will be a faculty member in the Department of Sociology, or a faculty member affiliated with the Department of Sociology. However, exceptions can be made with the permission of your preceptor in cases where another faculty advisor will better serve your project.
The BA thesis typically takes the form of a 30- to 40-page paper based on a student’s own original research. It contains an introduction, a review of relevant literature, a data and methods section, a findings section, and a conclusion. More information will be distributed in SOCI 29998.
Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of summer break to collect data. Research funding is available (see below).
The Department of Sociology awards several small grants of around $750-$1000 to students conducting BA research during the summer months between their third and fourth years. An application will be made available to students in the BA seminar during Spring Quarter. The Director of Undergraduate Studies and Undergraduate Program Coordinator will review the applications and determine which ones merit funding. Please note that there are other sources of research funding available through the College and elsewhere. Students should check out the College Center for Research and Fellowships for additional funding opportunities.
Students completing a BA thesis in Sociology are required to submit their research plans to UChicago’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB), the administrative body responsible for overseeing research ethics. You will learn how to navigate the IRB during the BA Seminar.
The BA Symposium is a celebratory event that occurs every Spring, where BA thesis writers get to share their research with friends, family, faculty, and fellow students.
A list of previous BA theses can be found here.
Undergraduate sociology majors enrolled in the four-year combined BA/MA program typically write an MA thesis in their fourth year. They cannot also write a BA thesis. The reasoning is as follows: To preserve the integrity of the BA and MA programs, the BA and MA theses must be distinct intellectual products. It is very difficult, and, in any case, ill-advised, to pursue two separate research projects in the same year. Thus, we ask students to choose: pursue the BA thesis for honors in the major, or the MA thesis for an MA degree. Note that the BA Seminar is attached to the BA Project and cannot be taken by students writing MA theses.
Students enrolled in a five-year BA/MA program (such as MACSS and CMES) may, if they so choose, write a BA thesis in their fourth year and then an MA thesis in their fifth. But again, the two theses should represent distinct research projects. While the two projects may be related, the MA thesis cannot be a duplication of BA work.
Students must complete all BA/MA requirements, including the MA thesis, by June in order to graduate by August.
Students are permitted to submit a single BA thesis to fulfil the thesis requirements of Sociology and another major. However, we remind students that they must be active participants in Sociology’s BA seminar (SOCI 29998) to meet the requirements for Honors in Sociology.
The Department will hold an information session about the BA seminar process Winter Quarter. Make sure you are subscribed to our undergraduate listserv email@example.com to receive information about this and other events.