Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Sociology

 Brief Description of the Honours Program in Sociology

The Honours Sociology program at Mount Royal is designed to give our exceptional and dedicated students a chance to study sociology in more depth than the regular BA offers. The program gives students the opportunity to learn to engage in sociological research and to write up that research in the form of an honours thesis. The program will also encourage students to engage critically with the work of their peers. Honours students will share their work by presenting it in an Honours Symposium near the completion of their final year. Students who successfully complete the honours program will be well positioned to apply to graduate schools in sociology as most of these programs prefer, or require, an Honours degree.

Application Process
Students will apply for admission into the Honours Sociology program after the successful completion of 20 courses (but not later than the successful completion of 30 courses), including at least five courses in Sociology. To apply to the Sociology Honours Program students are required to complete two application forms. The forms are entitled “Application for Admission to the Honours Program in Sociology” (form A) and “Application to the Admission to the Honours Program Bachelor of Arts”. Students can obtain both of these forms from the Department of Sociology & Anthropology. Students are required to complete form A and submit it to the department by May 15th of the year in which they apply into the program. Honors Admission Form for the faculty of Arts has to be completed and submitted to the Department of Sociology & Anthropology no later than May 15 of the same year. 

Eligibility and Continuation in the Program
In order to be an eligible candidate for the Honours Program students must have a GPA of at least 3.0 in the last 10 courses completed at the time of application, and an average GPA of 3.3 for all the completed Sociology courses. Once accepted into the program, students are required to maintain an average GPA of 3.3 in all Sociology courses. Should a student drop below a GPA average of 3.3, in Sociology courses, that student will revert to the Majors stream for a BA in Sociology.

Status of the Application
The status of the application is based on two fundamental processes. The first phase of the application process is based on the GPA of the student applicant, and the second on finding an appropriate thesis supervisor. At the beginning of the first stage the GPA of the applicants is verified by the student advisor. Once this is done the student advisor informs the applicant with a conditional acceptance into the program. This will be done by the third week of May. After the applicant gets this conditional acceptance information, he/she will need to find an appropriate thesis supervisor who is willing to work on his/her honors thesis based on faculty interest and work load. Applicants will have one week to find an appropriate supervisor for their honours thesis. At the end of this week (end of May) the selected supervisor makes a decision regarding accepting the role of thesis supervisor or not.

Applicants who are unable to find a supervisor at the end of this process (by the first week of June) will unfortunately not be accepted into the program even if they have an exceptionally high GPA.

Specific Sociology Courses Requirements
In addition to the General Graduation Requirements, students in the Sociology Honours Program must take a minimum of 20 Sociology courses, and not more than 24. The following is the list of Sociology courses suggested to be taken according to the year.

a. In year one, students are suggested to complete Introduction to Sociology (SLGY 1101) and the Sociological Imagination (SLGY 1103)

b. In year two, students are suggested to complete Classical Sociological Theory (SLGY 2231), Introduction to Sociological Research Methods (2232), and three additional Sociology courses at the 2000 level.

c. In year three, students are suggested to complete Contemporary Social Theory (SLGY 3333), Quantitative Methods & Statistics (SLGY 3321), Qualitative Research Methods (SLGY 3323), and three additional Sociology courses at the 3000 level.

d. In year four, students are suggested to complete the Honours Thesis I and Honours Thesis II (SLGY 5110, and SLGY 5120) and two additional Sociology courses at the 4000 level. Students can fulfill their remaining Sociology credits from any combination of Sociology courses at the 2000 level or above.

e. By the time students apply into the honours program they should have completed Contemporary Social Theory (SLGY 3333), Quantitative Methods & Statistics (SLGY 3321) and Qualitative Research Methods (SLGY 3323).

The Honours Thesis Courses

Honours students are required to take both honours thesis seminars (SLGY 5110 and 5120). SLGY 5110 is to be taken in the Fall and SLGY 5120 in the Winter semester that the student wants to graduate in. Students in SLGY 5110 begin by defining their research question, compiling their literature reviews and defending their thesis proposal. Students in SLGY 5120 continue their work by analyzing and discussing the sociological significance of their findings and presenting them in the honours thesis.

Honours students cannot take the capstone course

Even though all sociology major students are required to take the capstone course entitled “Intersections in Social Life “, honours students are prohibited from taking this course.

Faculty Supervisors in the Sociology Honours Stream
David Aveline
Shane Gannon
Tim Haney
Beverley Matthews
Tracy Nielsen
Bruce Ravelli
Irene Shankar
Isha Sharma
Don Swenson