Jordan spent a year writing an analytical thesis on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which Jordan calls a “psychosexual gothic romance novel” in the introduction of her thesis. She also talks to Avis about the surprising amount of time she spent learning about British estate taxes while studying this novel.
Reed community members can read Jordan’s thesis, “Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca: The Poetics, Places, and Gender Politics of the Lesbian Gothic” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Joray tells us about the joy of digging into academic papers in their fall semester, and the fun of using the software in the linguistics lab to analyze the trove of interviews they were working with. There was also a kitten.
We’d also like to welcome Avis Corea ’27 to the team. Avis is our new student producer on the podcast, and this is the first episode she’s produced for us. Welcome, Avis!
Reed community members can read Joray’s thesis, “Linguistic Erasure Hertz; a post-binary discussion of F0 performance in read speech,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Montreal tells us about their study on the use of a particular phonetic feature of American English by a handful of genderfluid students at Reed, and also about how they became interested in linguistics.
Reed community members can read Montreal’s thesis, “/s/tylizing the /s/elf: A First Look into the Concurrent Fluidity of Gender and Language,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Anjali spoke with Albert about her year studying the epic tale of the Ramayana and related texts that examine the story through both gender and caste.
Reed community members can read Anjali’s thesis, “The Power of The Novel: Recognizing The Subaltern in The Ramayana,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Amelie and Demeter talk about Demeter’s thesis on nationalism, gender, and culture in Kazakhstan.
Reed community members can read Demeter’s thesis, “Blossoming from the Steppe: Nationalism and Culture in Urban Kazakhstan,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Gabri’s thesis focused on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and a response novel written two hundred years later by Jeanette Winterson called FranKISStein. We also get to hear a bit about one of Gabri’s favorite classes at Reed and why you might want to throw a blanket over your desk sometimes.
Reed community members can read Gabri’s thesis, ““What is your substance, whereof are you made?”: Gender, Sex, Bodies, and Love in Frankenstein and FranKISStein,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Lauren and Amelie talk about Lauren’s thesis on intersections between queerness and the wilderness in postwar war America.
Lauren also created a Spotify playlist to go along with her thesis work. Here’s the playlist link if you’d like to check it out.
Reed community members can read Lauren’s thesis, “Out on the Trail: Queer Representations of Wilderness, Morality, and Fantasy, 1950-1979,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Dashiell’s thesis exploration of sexual politics in Argentina in the 70s and 80s begins by examining a publication called Somos, an underground magazine published by what was likely the first lgbt political organization in Latin America. Dashiell also talks about what it was like to graduate Reed as a “spring/fall senior” (students who graduate in the fall instead of in the spring as most Reed students do).
Reed community members can read Dashiell’s thesis, “From Somos to Prosa plebeya: A Discussion of Sexual Politics in Argentina,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Frank interviewed a recent MALS grad, Libby O’Neil ’19, about her master’s thesis, “‘A Voice and Nothing More’: Technological Embodiment and the Artificial Female Voice.” Libby is a graduate of Reed’s only graduate degree program, the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, often referred to as the MALS degree. Libby used Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant as a primary text for part of her thesis, and used Alexa, in part, to examine some ways we use technology in our daily lives.
Learn more about Reed’s MALS program.
Reed community members can read Libby’s thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive.
Frank and Saga discuss Saga’s thesis, “Our Beds Are Islands: Creating Queer Intimacy Through Physical Theatre In The Age Of Streaming Media”, which included a theatre performance in the fall.
If you’d like to hear more from Saga, check out this TEDx event from January 2020 (referenced on the podcast).
Reed community members can read Saga’s thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive.