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The final project will be a capstone assignment that is interdisciplinary and integrates themes, content, and methods from the student’s course of study. The project may engage theoretical issues, be an application thereof, and/or be a piece of original research. In consultation with the director of the program the student will assemble a committee of three (3) LA Studies faculty (if possible) who are interested in the student’s project.

This faculty exam committee must be set up by the end of the second semester in the program. One member of the committee will need to be defined as chair of the committee. It is the responsibility of the student to get the faculty’s agreement to be chair. Each student will develop a minimum five page (approximately 1,500 words) double spaced research proposal and a sophisticated bibliography of sources that must be defended and approved by the guidance committee by the end of the second semester in the program. The length of the proposal may vary according to the field of the chair of the committee and what that discipline requires. The proposal must include the following: purpose of the project, its significance, its relationship to the program of study, the methodology(ies) to be used, and the presentation format.

The final project text of 25 to 50 pages must be submitted and approved by the guidance committee by the seventh week of the final semester of the program. Textual citations and bibliography will conform to the standards of the MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style as appropriate. The project will then be presented and defended in a public format following the guidelines for a thesis defense.

With permission from the faculty project chair, the student may enroll for up to four hours of INST 6940 per semester (under your chair member) with no more than a total of 8 project/capstone hours may count toward graduation requirements. Grades of PR will be submitted until the project is completed; normally, a grade of CR will be given, but the committee does have the option of awarding a letter grade.

Upon review, the faculty committee will make one of the following decisions:

1. Unconditional pass
2. Conditional pass (revisions or additional work required)
3. Fail

Required Forms

1. Professional Project Proposal
2. Professional Project Evaluation