Comprehensive Requirement

In their senior year, students majoring in Critical Theory and Social Justice are required to complete a comprehensive project concerning a topic of the student's own particular interest. Students will complete their comps during CTSJ 490: Senior Seminar in the fall semester of their senior year. Each student is directed to consult with at least one CTSJ professor in addition to the professor teaching the senior seminar. The final version of the comprehensive project is due on the last day of the fall semester. A typical project culminates in a 20- to 25-page paper. The department is open to critical projects of comparable length that employ other media from students formally trained in those media. All CTSJ faculty review the comps in January and provide ratings to students. There are three grades: "Pass with Distinction," "Pass," and "No Pass." A comprehensive project earns the grade "Pass with Distinction" if all department faculty agree that it is of the quality publishable in the CTSJ Journal or another journal in the fields embraced by Critical Theory & Social Justice. In the case of "Pass," students may work on their project to improve it to the level of "Pass with Distinction." In the case of "No Pass," the student works with faculty and the senior comps professor to complete the project to departmental satisfaction.