Step Two: Committee and Application
The thesis committee
Who comprises a thesis committee?
A thesis committee normally consists of two members, a supervisor and a reader, and at least one of these must be a department faculty member. If you are a joint concentrator, you will need one supervisor and one reader from each concentration.
What do committee members do?
Your thesis supervisor supervises the research that you conduct for your thesis. S/he also reads and grades your thesis, participates in your thesis prospectus meeting and your poster defense, files midyear and end-of-year reports for your senior thesis tutorial, and signs off on your midyear report.
Your thesis reader participates in your thesis prospectus meeting and your poster defense, and reads and grades your thesis. On occasion, you might consult with your reader during the year (if s/he has specific expertise you need, if you have modified your thesis project and want to inform your committee). top
Who can be thesis Supervisors?
Your thesis supervisor can be one of several kinds of researchers:
- regular department faculty member (assistant, associate, or full professor)
- department lecturer
- qualified departmental graduate student
- member of our Board of Honors Tutors
- other advanced researcher (with Ph.D. or equivalent), by petition (see application instructions for details)
If your supervisor is a departmental graduate student, non-asterisked member of our Board of Honors Tutors, certain departmental lecturers (email psychology at wjh), or other researcher, you will need a co-supervisor, who must be a department faculty member. Explanations of each category follow.
Department Faculty Members
Department faculty members for 2008-09 are the following:
George Alvarez |
Wendy Mendes |
Mahzarin Banaji |
Jason Mitchell |
Randy Buckner (on leave 2008-9) |
Ken Nakayama (on leave 2008-9) |
Alfonso Caramazza |
Matthew Nock (on leave 2008-9) |
Susan Carey (on leave Spring 2009) |
Steven Pinker |
Daniel Gilbert |
Diego Pizzagalli |
Joshua Greene (on leave Fall 2008) |
Daniel Schacter |
Richard Hackman |
James Sidanius |
Marc Hauser (on leave 2008-9) |
Jesse Snedeker (on leave Fall 2008) |
Christine Hooker |
Elizabeth Spelke |
Jill Hooley |
Daniel Wegner |
Stephen Kosslyn |
John Weisz |
Richard McNally |
Yaoda Xu (on leave Fall 2008) |
New faculty may serve on thesis committees, and faculty on leave do not usually serve on thesis committees. top
Departmental Graduate Students
Qualified department graduate students will have passed their second-year project before you hold your prospectus meeting, have the approval of their own advisor, and be involved in only one other thesis project.
Board of Honors Tutors Members
Members of the Board of Honors Tutors have agreed to consider serving as thesis supervisors or readers for honors concentrators in psychology. You do not need to petition to include these researchers on your thesis committee; if you have a board member who is asterisked on the list as a supervisor, you do not need to have a department faculty co-supervisor. Non-asterisked board members do require a department faculty co-supervisor. top
Other Researchers
These are scholars who have a Ph.D. or equivalent. If you are requesting another researcher, you should submit a petition statement explaining how this person is an appropriate supervisor for your thesis project. You should note the person's title and affiliation in your statement (e.g., Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School), and if the person is not Harvard affiliated, you should include her/his curriculum vitae (resume). top
Who can be thesis Readers?
Your thesis reader is typically a regular department faculty member (assistant, associate, or full professor), but may be a member of the Board of Honors Tutors if your thesis supervisor is a regular faculty member. If you have two supervisors and they are not members of the same lab, your department faculty co-supervisor can also serve as your reader.
Where can I get more information?
Additional information on thesis committees and on other aspects of thesis planning is available from other pages of this web section, the Psychology 985 group meetings, your Concentration Advisor, and psychology at wjh.
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