Senior Thesis

Senior Thesis (HST 4620) is the capstone senior project for every CPP History major. Over the semester, every student writes a research paper at least 20 pages in length that makes its own interpretative argument based off of primary and secondary sources. We are one of the few History departments in the country with this sort of requirement. It's a big challenge, but your thesis professor (and your thesis cohort) will all help you get through it -- and you will feel an enormous sense of accomplishment once you have completed it! 

Be sure to check out the Department's Primary and Secondary Source Guide for advice on finding sources for thesis!

Sample theses

You can access six very successful theses, submitted between 2002 and 2014 (authors: Brendan Lindsay, Justin Reed, Shannon Nakamoto, Samia Muhareb, Kristine Protacio and Kevin Laurell),  via BroncoScholar at the Cal Poly Pomona Library.

Click here for online access to BroncoScholar's History Department submissions

Additional sample essays:

• Jolie Valentine Matedne, “Advancing the Community: Women, Schools, and Popular Culture in the Public Library Movement,” Department of History, Cal Poly Pomona, 2001. Winner of the Anthony Brundage Senior Thesis Award, 2001-2002. Copyright Jolie Valentine. A revised version was published as Jolie Valentine, “Our Community, Our Library: Women, Schools, and Popular Culture in the Public Library Movement,” Public Library Quarterly 24, no. 4 (2005): 45-79.

• Bryan Musslewhite, “Beet Sugar, Cows, and Bedrooms: The Transformation of Chino from a Rural Community to a Modern Suburb,” Department of History, Cal Poly Pomona, 2005. Winner of the Brundage Senior Thesis Award, 2004-2005. Copyright Bryan Musslewhite.

• Leonardo Covis, “The Radical Next Door: The Los Angeles Catholic Worker during the Cold War,” Department of History, Cal Poly Pomona, 2007. Winner of the Anthony Brundage Senior Thesis Award, 2006-2007. Copyright Leonardo Covis. A revised version with the same title was published in Southern California Quarterly 91, no. 1 (2009): 69-111.