In addition to the usual chaos of their last semester at Hillsdale College, 83 seniors undertook the consuming task of writing a senior thesis this year, a project widely agreed upon to be “ridiculous,” “slightly masochistic,” and very rewarding.
“This thesis has consumed my life,” said senior Laura Wegmann in explanation as to why she was unavailable for comment.
Seventy students are writing theses required for their major or for departmental honors, and 13 students are writing for the honors program, said Registrar Douglas McArthur.
“They’re not too different,” said Associate Professor of History Richard Gamble, the director of the honors program. “The honors program is meant to be more interdisciplinary and requires students to synthesize knowledge across disciplines, to put things back together again and look at the whole.”
“We don’t just cross disciplines. We ignore them altogether,” said honors senior and Collegian design assistant Aaron Mortier, whose thesis on “Visions of the Future of Alaska” ties in history, literature, economics, and virtually everything else that doesn’t directly relate to his math major.
Departmental theses are intended to display the mastery of a particular subject, said senior English major Serena Howe.
“You’re writing the thesis to ‘graduate with honors,” Howe said. “It’s the department recognizing that you are a good scholar, and something that serves as a capstone of your undergraduate career.”
Because of the honors program’s guidelines for topic selection, honors students can tailor their theses to suit their specific academic interests and aptitudes.
In some cases, academic departments will even permit an honors thesis to do double duty as a departmental thesis.
“Each department makes its own judgment,” Gamble said.
Senior Anna Saewert, an art and English major, is using creative writing to create vignettes pulled from her grandparents’ letters written back and forth over the course of World War II.
To illustrate her grandfather’s homecoming, often referred to but never chronicled, she is actually painting a picture of the event, in oils, to be displayed at her senior art show, which she has the same week as her thesis defense.
Senior Sarah Fiore, a history major, is writing about women’s changing roles in the 1920s due to social forces such as science, technology, and contraception. The project was inspired by one of her favorite books, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” current debates over contraception, and her past research into women’s studies.
“There isn’t a lot of material to work with, and what is there is largely written from a feminist standpoint. I like to gather the facts and analyze it all in a historically responsible fashion.”
While her project incorporates science and technology, literature and economy, politics and religion — the thesis originally focused on women’s role in the church after gaining the right to vote — it’s all done largely through her perspective as a historian
“The whole process is really stressful,” said Fiore. “You put in so much work and you want it be beautiful and perfect and it can’t be. The closer you get to the end, the more holes you see.”
Fiore said her careful adherence to Gamble’s suggestion of internal deadlines helped her with time management.
Seniors said managing a project that is entirely self-motivated — especially in departments, such as English, that don’t have any mandated deadlines — is one of the most common difficulties in thesis writing.
“It took me a long time to get excited about this project,” Howe said. “I was just so tired of the subject and so busy…But in the last six weeks, I really got excited about it and began to enjoy working on it.”
Howe’s thesis on Flannery O’Connor’s Eucharistic theology not only provided her with an opportunity to display her academic abilities, but also stoked her passion for research and writing.
“I was trying to figure out if I have the discipline for grad school and if I really love this subject or not,” Howe said. “And I do.”
In attempts to reduce the stress that results from a late start, Gamble is requiring students to begin the process in earnest as juniors.
“I’ve seen good results already,” Gamble said. “It’s not necessarily a ‘change’ though, as it was already in the course catalog. [I’m] just bringing it back.”
