Burn Your Draft

Nearly all Reedies take Hum 110, the year-long humanities conference that serves as an introduction to the Reed education. Max decided to go back to Hum 110 to study how students engage with social justice for their linguistics thesis. Reed community members can read Max's thesis, “Just Saying(s): Discursive Practices and Social Justice in a Humanities 110 Conference,” online in the Electronic The...

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: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/b0e04c31-c26d-4398-bc6e-720b9fa4b503

Evan Griggs '22 wrote a thesis in the math department, and talks about his path from community college to the math department at Reed. Reed community members can read Evan's thesis, “Cyclic Cones & Non-singular Refinements of Cyclic Fans,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/43a37e19-9ec1-40ec-8712-a13045d18a62

Ema Chomsky '21 wrote her thesis on the environmental history of Haiti by focusing on U.S. interventions in the country. Reed community members can read Ema's thesis, “Pigs and Plantations: US Environmental Interventions in Haiti in the Twentieth Century,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/11a2253e-c34c-4f69-8aee-4ee1bbe39a89

From dancing for nine hours to techno in Berlin to applying critical theory to bodies in movement, Soroa talks about her pandemic year of diving deeply into her thesis writing. Reed community members can read Soroa's thesis, “Assembled and Undone: Bodies Beyond Subjection,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/21d55ae1-47f7-47b4-bac8-4dafd1f83385

Join Misha and Amelie as they talk about Misha's thesis on Leon Trotsky's theory of revolutionary language and symbolism. You'll also learn a bit about Misha's thoughts on how the literary thesis experience is more of a reading project than a writing project. Reed community members can read Misha’s thesis, “Trotsky Writes the Russian Revolution: The Symbol of the Explosion in Trotsky’s My Life and...

Anesu spent his pandemic thesis year investigating Black conservative Republicans in the U.S., and examining how ideas of family connect Black conservatives and the Republican party. Reed community members can read Anesu's thesis, “Family Matters: Black Conservatives and Political Belonging in the Republican Party,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/3ce6c4c5-1e39-43dc...

Madhav conducted a study of college students, staff, and faculty to learn about how accepting these groups were of accommodations in higher education for various kinds of disabilities. Reed community members can read Madhav's thesis, “How Appropriate is “Appropriate”? Views of Students, Faculty, and Staff on Disability Accommodations Based on Type of Disability,” online in the Electronic Theses Ar...

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,...

Abhi discusses how he came up with the idea of subservient citizens, and what led him to want to investigate state sponsored violence in his thesis year. He was also featured in Reed Magazine's 2021 "What is a Reedie, Anyway?" article: https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2021/what-is-a-reedie/abhi-rajshekar.html This is our last episode for the fall semester, but we'll be back in late Janu...

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: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4SMqmGJPTIUt0BTv6ErYjy?si=f2e7b3e1b4474699 Reed community members can read Lauren's thesis, “Out on the Trail: Que...

Segovia wrote a cell biology thesis that focused on cell shapes and the spaces between them. She talks about the path she took to get her thesis, how it became a collaboration with work done at another institution, and the relationship between this thesis work and current cancer research. Reed community members can read Segovia's thesis, “Cytoskeletal Regulation by the Gap Junction Forming Protein...

Precious and Amelie discuss Precious's thesis work, which included creating an original comic called "MOTH," and a written thesis exploring identity in superheroes and superhero comics. Reed community members can read Precious's thesis, “Framing Heroes In Crisis: Approaches to Identity in Superhero Comics,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/6064e54b-cc48-4c11-aee7-ae6...

Our host, Amelie Andreas '24, speaks with Ethan Sandweiss '19 about his thesis on Afghanistan entitled "Highway to Hell: Afghanistan, America, and the Fragmented State." Since this episode concerned recent events, this interview focuses a little more on the content of the thesis, and a little less on the experience of writing the thesis, than our interviews usually do. It is also a little bit long...

Frank Tangherlini '22 talks to Mahalia about her thesis on microplastics, macroinvertebrates, and fresh water river systems in the Pacific Northwest. Reed's Environmental Studies program is an interdisciplinary major which requires students to select a focus in one of five disciplines: biology, chemistry, economics, history, or political science. Reed community members can read Mahalia's thesis, “...

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 stu...

Frank interviews Rowen about a thesis year like no other. Rowen's thesis experience explored some arguments about the epistemology of mathematics, or, as Rowen puts it, it was "a philosophical argument that used elements of mathematics." Rowen touches on Gödel's Theorem, Peano Arithmetic, and related theories. Reed community members can read Rowen's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive,...

Burn Your Draft is taking a break for the summer and will be back in fall 2021 with our new student producer and host, Amelie Andreas '24. We'll have a bunch of interviews with '21 grads to share, as well as a couple more from the class of 2020. We want to give huge thanks to our outgoing producer, Frank Tangherlini '22. We could not have done any of this without you Frank!

Kate Stoll '04 reflects on her thesis work on ScaR proteins with Arthur Glasfeld, Margret Geselbracht Professor of Chemistry, and her fascination with proteins, the "tiny machines that do all the work in your body." This was Frank's first interview for the podcast and took place in-person in January 2020. Kate's thesis title: "The DNA and metal ion specificity of ScaR, the Streptococcal cell adhes...

Join Seth Paskin '90 as he interviews interdisciplinary Math/Physics graduate Nate MacFadden in Fall 2019 on his research into just how predictable quantum phenomena like spin chains really are. Don't worry if that's already got your head spinning, because this episode's packed with a lot more than just math: from the hard and soft skills of thesising, to why your high school job might matter more...

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...

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): https://www.ted.com/talks/robbin_derry_and_saga_darnell_understanding_non_binary_excerpts_from_a_...

Seth Paskin '90 interviewed Mitzi Zitler '19 back in fall of 2019 about her thesis work investigating the wholesale electricity market in Oregon, and some of its interactions with California markets. Mitzi's thesis title: "Econometric analysis of real-time wholesale electricity prices at major west coast trading hubs".

Frank and Duncan talk about his thesis, "Beyond the Photo Album: Families in Photography Books," and Duncan explains why photo books are his favorite way to display photography. He also talks a bit about how the pandemic did, and didn't, affect his thesis, along with how his current role working in the Reed Admission Office is informed by his experience in writing a thesis. Reed community members...

Gerry wrote a thesis which focuses on 20th century cigarette advertisements, and the relationship which those advertisements mediated between cigarettes and the people who smoke them. Follow along with Gerry's experience writing this thesis for an ad hoc interdisciplinary major. Reed community members can read Gerry's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/f0af5aa1-...