Turning Study Abroad into a Senior Honors Thesis

The following tips are from students, faculty members and advisers.

Before departure

Think about issues that interest you that you'd like to start researching abroad. Try to formulate your research interests and look for a question/problem/issue that study abroad might allow you to explore. For example, past students have researched:

  • The urban experience of Mapuche Indians in Santiago, Chile
  • The racial conscience of Afro-Brazilian college students in Rio de Janeiro
  • The environmental movement in Germany
  • Chinese immigrants in Mexico
  • The media construction of Yasir Arafat as Israel’s negotiating partner.

Seek out help from faculty and graduate students on campus. Various people/offices can help you form networking strategies (the Study Abroad Office, the Office of Fellowships, Undergraduate Advising, your faculty adviser, etc.). Your professors here may even know professors where you are going.

Talk to your adviser in your major department to find out whether you need to get approval from the Northwestern Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is responsible for reviewing research plans involving human subjects. Make sure to talk to your adviser well in advance of leaving, because if you do need to submit a research proposal to the IRB the process can be drawn out.

Even if your department does not require that you have your research proposal reviewed by the IRB, read over the IRB materials to get a sense of the types of ethical issues involved in conducting research. These issues will inevitably arise in your research process, and you should have a plan for dealing with them in a responsible manner.

Do some research on the topic(s) that interest you before you go.
As a Northwestern student, you have convenient and fast access to electronic databases and libraries here -- access that you may not have abroad. Make use of these resources now so that you can hit the ground running once you're abroad.

For helpful links and suggestions:

  • See the NU Library page: Using Electronic Resources for Study Abroad Research
  • Consider scheduling a one-hour Research Consultation with a reference librarian, who will teach you how to do research on your current topic of interest.
  • Make sure to learn how to use electronic resources from abroad, if you will have Web access.
  • Planning to do research in Latin America? Check out LANIC, the University of Texas database on Latin America, which has wonderful connections and information about all of Latin America and the Caribbean, with links to Web sites from those countries.

Consider enrolling in the anthropology course, Attending to Culture.
This course is specifically designed to help students who will study abroad prepare to analyze their experiences, personally and academically. For more information, see Take a Pre-Departure Course.

Make connections with resources and groups. You may want to find out if there are groups in the Chicago area that could connect you with groups where you’ll be studying.

Also, consider doing comparative or cross- cultural research, for example, focusing on a global issue that effects people in the Chicago area and people where you’ll be studying (e.g., the repercussions of free trade, counter-cultural trends, etc.). Another possibility would be to study two branches of the same organization -one here and one abroad. This organization could be:

  • A nonprofit, like Amnesty International;
  • A religious organization (churches, for example, often have connections with churches overseas);
  • A corporation.

Research fellowship opportunities for doing research abroad.
Use the Office of Fellowships and "Research Opportunities for Undergraduates at Northwestern."

While abroad

Talk with local people and try to engage in meaningful conversations.

  • Even if you're not conducting official interviews for an independent study project, what you learn from these conversations may come in handy later when you return to campus. Interviews provide great opportunities for meeting locals, making friends, and getting hooked into the community.
  • Hang out in places where you can hear people talking to each other or where you might be able to start conversations with others, like markets, cafes, bus/train stations, etc. What you learn about daily life will inspire you to question further.

Collect materials that won't be available to you back in Evanston, e.g., foreign language materials, local publications, etc.

Do a lot of observing, and keep a detailed journal of fieldnotes.
This will help you identify themes that you don't just notice through single observations. Good resources for learning how to write thorough fieldnotes include:

  • Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods (3rd Ed.), Patton, M.Q.
  • Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, by Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw.
  • Writing Across Culture: An Introduction to Study Abroad and the Writing Process, by Kenneth Wagner and Tony Magistrale.

For all considering using information for a project paper, make sure to write down the contact information of people you meet (names, addresses, titles, emails, areas of interest, etc.).

For tips on keeping a good journal, see Documenting your Time Abroad.

Visit museum and cultural and historical sites.
Allow these visits to inform your understanding of the people you meet and the experiences you share with them. How is their experience, as well as your own, connected to and framed within the context of local history and culture?

Remember: No matter how much planning you do before you go abroad, not everything will proceed as planned.
 Be flexible! If your plans go awry, look for unexpected opportunities that come as a result. Serendipity works...

Other Resources

  • For information on getting credit for independent study/research projects abroad, see Getting Credit for Independent Study/Research Projects Abroad.
  • WCAS students or other students interested in receiving WCAS credit for an ISP abroad should contact the WCAS Office of Undergraduate Advising at (847) 491-7560.