Burn Your Draft

Isaac graduated in fall 2023 as a spring/fall grad in the anthropology department. His thesis was titled "Aging in The Sun: An exploration of the Jewish Retirement Community in South Beach, Florida," and his work focused on how this community in Florida appeared and disappeared. He also talks about how he found anthropology, found his topic, and found Reed (he's from Australia). Reed community mem...

We're excited to welcome Francesca back to the podcast! Francesca was our first student producer, named the podcast, and was integral as we were still figuring out what we were going to be and how we were going to do it. The voice of this podcast is largely Francesca's voice (along with the voices of all the alumni we've interviewed) and it would have been something entirely different without her....

David studied archaeometry at Reed through an ad hoc major in the chemistry and classics departments (classics at Reed is now known as Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies). He was introduced to archaeometry, the application of scientific methods and technology to archaeological study, by a research mentor after his sophomore year, and then went about petitioning to form his ad hoc prog...

Peri Joy planned for the work of her thesis year to center on race, religion, and the history of Oregon, and her writing focused on archives related to a 19th century congregation in Salem, Oregon led by Reverend Obed Dickinson. Dickinson’s decision to admit three formerly enslaved Black persons—Elizabeth Johnson and Robert and Polly Holmes—into his congregation marked the beginning of a six-year...

Sofie gets excited about the opportunity she had to write an ethnographic thesis which explored relationships between the Indigenous peoples of the Columbia River and salmon. Sofie also talks about what it took to produce her "multi-chapter document". Reed community members can read Sofie's thesis, "Salmon Pluralities: Nch’í Wána Pum, Traditional Fishing, and Indigenous Modernity," online in the E...

Betsy spent her thesis year thinking and unthinking what it's possible to know about science, and how science can be used and mis-used in the field of psychiatry. Reed community members can read Betsy's thesis, “Now Doc, Hear Me Out— Epistemic Injustice in Psychiatry and a Case for Philosophy of Science as a Resource for Intervention,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/...

LiLi's thesis focused on the struggles that Chinese women faced in the U.S. after the Civil War, and the damage done to Asian American immigrants by the Page Act of 1875. Reed community members can read LiLi's thesis, "'For Lewd and Immoral Purposes': Chinese Women in the United States and the Page Act of 1875," online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/c4ecba9a-61de-456f-8a3...

Henry discusses finding his thesis topic in the comics character of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, and accomplishing the rare feat of turning in a thesis a little early. Tommy Schacht '25, our new producer for this year, interviewed Henry last May. Welcome, Tommy! Reed community members can read Henry's thesis, “My Favorite Martian (Manhunter): Alien Immigrants in Comics,” online in the Elec...

Burn Your Draft is on break for the summer. Our next season will begin in the fall with our new host and producer, Tommy Schacht '25. Thanks to Albert Kerelis '24 for all the work and conversations, and good luck with your thesis next year!

Stephanie's thesis examines female-female love as depicted in Republican era Chinese fiction, and includes a full original translation of one of the stories she examines. Reed community members can read Stephanie's thesis, “Writing Love and Liminality: Female Homoeroticism in Early Republican Chinese Fiction,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/546e55bd-dc70-4f00-89d6-...

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: https://rdc....

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: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/c314d6ca-5b08-4319-ae65-5b752cc2b5fb

Ben used his thesis to examine connections between aggressive sports and stress. Reed community members can read Ben's thesis, "Stress, Aggression, and Performance: The Effects of Daily Hassles on High-Aggression Athletics," online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/6812806a-da94-42ff-9ea8-ca417f2cb8ff

Take a circular hair tie and set it on a table. That's an "unknot". Pick it up, cut it, twist it into a knot and then reconnect the cut ends, and now you've got the kind of knot that mathematicians study. Follow along as Erika takes us on a brief journey into her thesis focusing on knot theory. Reed community members can read Erika's thesis, “Khovanov Homology: Putting Pants on Knots,” online in t...

Albert talked with Hannah about her thesis exploring how students with chronic illnesses manage their time while in college by studying Reed students. Reed community members can read Hannah's thesis, "'Resting time is not wasted time': Chronic Illness, Time Perspectives, and The Reed Student Experience," online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/dcae56eb-a20f-4ba4-825d-e6568c...

Dive into comic book studies and some great advice on how to approach the thesis with Will in Albert's first interview for the podcast. Reed community members can read Will's thesis, “Extended Gutters: Sequencing Space and the Narrative Power of the Panel in Watchmen,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/8e6a6bc4-a8d9-4f02-85c1-7f5dbb5e6d34

This is a podcast, and that was an assertion. Joseph spent a year exploring the nature of assertions like this in his thesis (which was mostly written after midnight, apparently). This is also the last interview conducted by last year's student producer, Amelie. Thank you Amelie for all the work you did for the podcast, and for helping us get to where we are. Reed community members can read Joseph...

Natalya and Amelie talk about how Natalya found Reed and became a religion major. This is also our last episode of the semester. We'll be back after winter break with more interviews from the class of 2022. Reed community members can read Natalya's thesis, “The Ineffable Center: Islam in Borges's Intertextual Universes,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/75acb3ac-1447...

Why do two people look at the same graph and walk away with different interpretations? Rishi spent a year looking into some reasons for why this happens when people are looking at climate data. Reed community members can read Rishi's thesis, “Overt Attention and Cognitive Ability Explain Climate Graph Interpretation,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/38faede2-2f0a-4a...

Seamus's thesis focuses on the fall of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) party, and the impacts this party has had in Seamus's own family background. Reed community members can read Seamus's thesis, “The Blue Sky Falls, the White Sun Sets: a Study of the Decline of the Kuomintang,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/6fa7ed1b-3872-4bfe-b065-3ca03c110b2f

Louise talks about learning to accept criticism, and how an influential class got her interested in Aristotle. Reed community members can read Louise's thesis, “An Aristotelian Argument for Restorative Justice: How We Can Use Forgiveness Instead of Punitive Punishment to Heal from Wrongdoings,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/cc6db005-0de9-4fe6-8119-928f6433a604

When Kieran learned that high school chemistry teachers reportedly teach climate change at the lowest rate among STEM teachers, he decided to study this for his thesis. You won't learn much about climate change in this episode, but you will learn about Kieran's learning process as he discovered how education research is done (lots of analyzing of interview transcripts). Reed community members can...

Kavi wrote a thesis that centered around writing two case studies examining the fictional worlds of a 1994 Nintendo game called EarthBound, and a television series called Adventure Time. Reed community members can read Kavi's thesis, “World between Bits,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/0b9ad4ec-d439-46a4-92a1-ac7789b12a8e

Leila spent a pandemic year remotely studying the members and activities of a lab that had quickly pivoted to study COVID-19 at the beginning the pandemic. Reed community members can read Leila's thesis, “In Our Hands: How Biologists Negotiate Unpredictability to Make and Share Knowledge,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/205143b1-c33d-4912-89d2-4922bd91407c

Burn Your Draft is taking a break for the summer and will be back in fall 2022 with our new student producer and host, Albert Kerelis ’24. We’ll have a bunch of interviews with ’22 grads to share, as well as a couple more from the class of 2020 and 2021. Infinite thank yous and appreciations go to Amelie; we'll miss you! While we're on break, check out these other podcasts which have Reedies worki...