Past Theses
The following thesis titles (with committee chairs in parentheses) should provide a sense of the range of research projects undertaken by our recent MA, MFA, combined MFA/MA, and interdisciplinary PhD students.
Master of Arts
Emma Corby: "Slack in Education: A Voice Platform for Quiet Students" (Stanley)
Master of Fine Arts
Jane Jacob: "Apples and Honey" (Torres)
Cade Yongue: "Homeostasis and Other Plays" (Holt)
Courtney Skaggs: "Lost and Found Futures" (Farmer)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
KJ Janeshek: "Line Your Pocket with Stones" (MFA, Johnson); "'Love Doesn't Cancel Colonialism': Lesbians, Land, and Settler Colonialism" (MA, Coffman)
Aaron Salzman: "The Prince of Labrador" (MFA, Farmer); "Societal Structure, Family, and Masculinity in the Bildungsroman: An Analysis of The Great Santini and Portnoy's Complaint" (MA, Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
Heather Ezell: "What Grows" (Farmer)
Alison Miller: "Artifacts of Belief" (Brightwell)
Keely O'Connell: "Maybe the Same Wolf: Essays" (Farmer)
Mackenzie Williamson: "Memories from Stagebarn Crystal Cave" (Farmer)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
Michael Kay: "The First Finale: Five Stories and a Novella" (MFA, Holt); "The Linguistic Dreamstate: Freud, Lacan, and Intertextuality in Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable" (MA, Coffman)
Master of Arts
Nicole Emanuel: "The Politics of Penguin Pleasure: Why Animal Sexualities Matter to Humans" (Schell)
Master of Fine Arts
Sean Enfield: "Holy American Burnout" (Farmer)
Greg Hindy: "The All-Night MFA Feces Incident: A Photo-graphic 'Novel' (Bark!)" (Farmer)
Daniel Lyew: "Anfechtung" (Johnson)
Rebecca Wood: "Even in Arcadia: Stories" (Farmer)
Master of Arts
Claire-Elise Baalke: "If Women Were Dragons: A Study of the Conquest of Women and Dragons in Ragnar's Saga, The Volsunga Sagas, and The Nibelungenlied" (Harney)
Meryem Udden: "Playacting Happiness: Tragicomedy in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford" (Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
David Aubuchon: "Miserri" (Farmer)
Adrianne Blackwood: "Hearing Colors" (Brightwell)
Regan Campbell: "The Deadly Affairs of John Figaro Newton" (Farmer)
Venus Fultz: "Vestige" (Soos)
Ryan Shek: "There are No Hurricanes in Michigan" (Farmer)
Tiffany Thomas: "Shakemap" (Johnson)
Master of Arts
Casie Cameron: "Voices from the Margins: Seriality in the Introductory Writing Classroom" (Stanley)
Master of Fine Arts
Alex Alfaro: "Recreation" (Johnson)
Heather Aruffo: "The Maiden's Firestorm" (Soos)
Brandi Jo Nyberg: "Floating: Ruminations from the Open-Air Abyss" (Farmer)
Zoë Wise: "Dance, Dance, Dance: Stories" (Soos)
Andrew Luft: "She lives in Ohio" (Kamerling)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
Brianna Frentzko: "Selections from: Nature's Womb & Perhaps Her Grave" (MFA, Brightwell); "Mythic Women Reborn: Djebar’s Scheherazade & Atwood’s Penelope" (MA, Harney)
Master of Arts
Kerstin Aloia: "S.O.S. Eisberg versus S.O.S. Iceberg Two Nations' Visualizations of Arctic Lanscapes" (Schell)
Master of Fine Arts
Alex Alfaro: "Recreation" (Johnson)
Kendalyn Mckisick: "Skin-Tongue" (Johnson)
Jason Namey: "Plastic Alaska" (Brightwell)
Sarah Small: "Leaving Centralia and Other Stories" (Brightwell)
Master of Arts
Summer Dorr: "The Perimeters of Familial Affection: Examples with the Metamorphosis, The Sooterkin, and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (Carr)
Elle Fournier: "Control/Contrôle: Comparing Discourses of Power and Rebellion in Hair Care Products" (Stanley)
Tara Knight: "Displacing Phallogocentrism: Fragmented Subjects & Transgendered Bodies" (Coffman)
Tia Tidwell: "Settler Colonial Belonging and Indigenous Erasure in Snow Child and The Raven's Gift" (Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
Micah Allen: "Selections from "The New Color" (Brightwell)
Jennifer Hoppough: "A Reason For Being: A Memoir" (Farmer)
August Johnson: "Bitter" (Hill)
Quintin Overton: "Investigations of the Funhouse" (Hill)
Whittier Strong: "Twin Citizen: A Memoir" (Farmer)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
Kori Hensell: "Astray" (MFA, Hill); "In a Word:" Poetry, Place, and Prophetic Mode of C. D. Wright" (MA, Coffman)
Megan Mericle: "Sparks Across the Gap: Essays" (MFA, Farmer); "The Malleability of Disciplinary Identity" (MA, Stanley)
Master of Arts
Sharon Johnson: "Book Clubs in the ESL Classroom: A Microinteractional Anylysis of Literacy Development in Adult ESL Students" (Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
Lisa Balvanz: "The Music of Water" (Farmer)
Jaclyn Bergamino: "Surface Tension: Circus Performers, Hurricanes, and the Scars of Sexual Trauma" (Farmer)
Master of Arts
Quinn Elizabeth Dreasler: "Tiny Robots in Our Pockets: A Critical Exploration of Podcasts" (Coffman)
Grace Annelyse McCarthy: "The Evolution of the Patient Woman: Examining Patient Griselda as a Source for William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale" (Reilly)
Master of Fine Arts
Megan Bush: "Porcelain Curtains" (Farmer)
Eric'Alain Parker: "Wolvendael" (Kamerling)
Natalie Taylor: "River of Fear" (Farmer)
Heather Warren: "Short Jabs" (Burleson)
Caitlin Woolley: "The Hound at the End of the Road" (Farmer)
Jonnell Liebl: "We Are Almost Talking" (Burleson)
Kathryn Michael: "Later That Night: Three Studies in Horror" (Kamerling)
Derek M. Hinckley: "What We Teach" (Farmer)
Master of Arts
Victoria Avery: "Connecting Places: Writing ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ and With Portal" (Stanley)
Danny Dyer: "Sacred Trauma: Language and Recovery in Ingmar Bergman's Trilogy of Faith" (Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
Charles Frost: "The Ministry of Love" (Farmer)
Gwen S. "Wendy" Uzzell: "The Story of E. Lyman Graves: A Dispassionate Exploration of a Hard Luck Harry Who Also Happened to Be My Grandpa" (Farmer)
Eric Notaro: "New Places to Burn: Stories" (Farmer)
Jennifer Popa: "The Lost Boys of the Shirley Marie" (Farmer)
Caitlin Scarano: "The White Dog Years" (Burleson)
Master of Arts
Emily Klotz: "The Meeting of Worlds: Postcolonialism and the Game-Worlds of Myst" (Heyne)
Heather Ann Stewart: "James Hogg, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Romantic Anachronism" (Edson)
Master of Fine Arts
Christopher Moran: "Sylph: A collection of poems on mythology, story, and transformation" (Burleson)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
Zackary Medlin: "A Familiar & Favorite Terror" (MFA, Burleson); "Home Sweet (Sint)home: Diagnosing Modernity from Symptom to Sinthome" (MA, Coffman)
Sally Rafson: "A Gun of One's Own: Musings of a Misogynist-loving Feminist" (Farmer)
Master of Arts
Jennifer Hoppough: "Author First, Asian American Second: How a Literary Shift in Asian American Literature is Contributing to a New Wave of Authors" (Carr)
Master of Fine Arts
Ryan Ragan: "As Far as the Light Will Carry" (Burleson)
Mollie Murray: "Metanoia" (Crouse)
Jenni Moody: "This Apocalypse Won't Last Long Enough" (Brightwell)
Christopher Lee Miles: "Squid Song" (Burleson)
Cody Kucker: "Let Planes Be Stars and Brambles Beasts" (Burleson)
Aaron Bauer: "Reasons You Trust a Giant" (Burleson)
Jody Marie Hassel: "To the Root" (Kamerling)
John L. Messick: "Refrigerators at the End of the Road" (Farmer)
Sarah Jane Holsteen: "What Home I Have" (Farmer)
Christie Hinrichs: "A Giant of Its Kind" (Farmer)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
Chris D. Malmberg: "The Moon was for Witches" (MFA, Crouse); "Complicating Swinburne's Heroines" (MA, Carr)
Master of Arts
Ryan Fleharty: "One Large Steppe for Russian Authorship: Gogol's Troika of Settings" (Carr)
Robert Byers: "Animal Companionship in the Middle English Ywain and Gawain: (Grossweiner)
Master of Fine Arts
Elizabeth Sharrock: "Her Firewater" (Thomas)
Edward Kim: "And Other Myths" (Burleson)
Patrick Barney: "In Memory of Days and Nights" (Farmer)
Master of Fine Arts / Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature
John Edward Fletcher: "Remedy" (Carr)
Hans Burger: A Vast Tapestry of Madness" (MFA, Crouse); "Counterhistory in the Literature of Juarez" (MA, Grossweiner)
Interdisciplinary Ph.D.
Nathaniel Mohatt: "Shudder: Poems and Essay on Cancer, Care, and Healing" (Burleson)
Sarah Doetschaman: "Margaret Keenan Harrais: A Biography in Four Voices" (Carr)
Master of Arts
Robert Byers: "Animals, Identity, and Companionship in Middle English Literature" (Grossweiner)
Robert Brown: "American Indian Stories: A Guide to the Development of Zikala-Sa's Sioux Identity" (Ruppert)
Nan Lallish: "'Malice Domestic': Exploring the Host/Guest Relationship in Macbeth and King Lear" (Box)
Jacob Pinkston: "Post-Colonial Side Effects: Perceptions of Doctors and Medicine in 20th Century Irish Literature" (Coffman)
Julie W. Ruth: "Never Happy and Honest at the Same Time"; History, Duality, and Impossible Choices in Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated (Carr)
X'unei Lance Arron Twitchell: "Coyote's Song" (Brightwell)
Master of Fine Arts
Jessica Caitlin Bryant: "Hands to Work" (Crouse)
Douglas Scott Cost: "Analog Pop" (Burleson)
Ian Dickson: "Lady on the Bell" (Burleson)
Melina Draper: "Later the House Stood Empty: Poems" (Burleson)
Kevin C. Eib: "Proof of Identity" (Crouse)
A.M. Hartley: "Almanac" (Thomas)
Ryan Henderson: "And the Night Before" (Crouse)
Kate Hove: "Ball and Chain" (Crouse)
Carol Kaynor: "Anchoring the Sky" (Crouse)
Sara Jarvis: "Reading Beneath the Surface: "Jane Austen's Craft(iness) and Her Artful Women" (Dupras)
Ann LaRee Johnson: "Animals and Men" (Heyne)
Gregory Woodrow Lyons: "Winter's Cricket" (Thomas)
Kyle Mellen: "Look At Us" (Crouse)
Tom Moran: "Boundary" (Kamerling)
Brooke O'Shay Sheridan: "Fortitude of the Ordinary World" (Burleson)
Master of Arts
Samantha Grissom: "From Ennui to Egress: Walker Percy's Sovereign Wayfarer" (Coffman)
Master of Fine Arts
Jacob Robert Stephens: "The Cedar Grove and Other Sorrows" (Thomas)
James Harris: "Other Such Matters" (Crouse)
Bryr Ludington: "The Bindle Stiffs" (Crouse)