Ask professors in your language and area courses, and your tutorial instructors, for suggestions about possible thesis topics. Explore them in your papers written for tutorial or other courses. Harvard offers several grants to allow students to travel to East Asia in the summer between junior and senior year. By all means apply for these, and consult the EAS office for imformation. As applications are due in March, you need to begin thinking about topics and writing a proposal early in the spring semester, or before.
Students work in individual tutorials with a faculty advisor and a tutor.
Not all students write theses, and the decision to do so or not is important. By all means consult widely, talking to upperclass students in the concentration, tutors, and faculty members. For those who elect this option, the senior honors thesis is an important and rewarding part of their college experience. Humanities concentrators are expected to employ primary language skills in the course of their research.