Bailey Compton
OBVIATING OEDIPUS: A STUDY OF CARETAKING IN DISNEY’S MALEFICENT
Bailey Compton studied at the intersection between literature, feminist theory, and contemporary film, with an emphasis on the fairy tale genre. Her capstone thesis performed a feminist analysis of caretaking in Disney films to reconsider traditional gender roles and reimagine non-familial intimate relationships.
Samantha Dunlap
Light Rising: Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, and the Oxford School of Fantasy
After graduating with a degree in International Studies and Spanish, and a minor in Translation, Samantha completed a Master's thesis on the relationship between fantasy literature and British nationalism in the 20th century.
Alyson Grigsby
Alliances as Recursion: Imagined Afro-Japanese Solidarities Through #BlackLivesMatter
In the Transcultural Studies Program, Alyson studied the intersections of social justice movements with racial politics. Their capstone thesis examined the historical racial alliances between African-American and Japanese communities. These alliances are then used as a lens to examine present Afro-Asian and Afro-Japanese solidarities in light of social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter.
Allison Hodge
Elisabeth: Translating Love and Death in Takarazuka
Allie Hodge practiced translation to analyze Japanese popular culture, with an emphasis on gendered performance across contemporary media forms. In their capstone they considered translation as a means of crossing boundaries both linguistically and theatrically, especially through intricacies of body and sound in a musical theater production by Takarazuka Revue. By translating with a focus on multiple performative aspects, they explored the queering of gendered bodies and roles in the all women’s genre.
Kaley Makino
The Allegory of Boy: Tracing the Hegemonic Channel of Social Informants in Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars
Kaley's capstone project examined the intersection of androcentrism and racialization in the prison industrial complex to perform a comparative reading of how patriarchal ideology in the U.S. justice system produces conditions of exploitation. Specifically, through recourse to feminist and psychoanalytic theory, she analyzed literary and cinematic narratives of violence to consider how misogyny and racism shape the production of social hierarchies.
Alex Prosi
Cultivating Faith: The Production of Religion in Meiji Japan Within the Writings of Nishi Amane and Kashiwabara Takaaki
Alex Prosi studied religion in modern Japan. In their capstone thesis they examine how the concept of “faith” emerges and is defined at key moments from the Meiji era (1868–1912) until the contemporary moment. By considering how shifting notions of of faith functioned in different discursive spaces, they demonstrate how various actors revised its definition in an effort to redefine the boundaries of religion and the secular.
Jeremy Ray
Teaching Across Linguistic Boundaries
Jeremy Ray used an anthropological lens to study the translation of educational curriculum and methodology abroad. In his capstone project, he conducted ethnographic interviews of instructors who have taught across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Rachel Willis
“Young women of Martinque, come out in great numbers!”: Jane Léro’s Union des Femmes and Post-War Feminism in Martinique
Rachel Willis’ major fields of interest are African-American literature, francophone studies, modern Caribbean history, and gender studies. Her capstone project was a traditional thesis that examines Black women’s embodiment in the francophone Caribbean during the 20th century. Specifically, she was interested in exploring the various tactics that francophone Black women sought in order to reclaim their bodies from the state, with particular focus on women’s political organization, print culture, and literary/poetic expression.
