This article was originally written in June 2014 with the editorial help of Professor MaryAnne Borrelli of the Government/International Relations Department.
This year’s Oakes and Louise Ames Prize for the most outstanding honors thesis went to Jyoti Arvey ’14 of the Slavic Studies Department for “Gender in the Everyday Life of the Russian Home.” Her thesis is an ethnographic exploration of what it means to be a woman “the Russian way,” as revealed in the gendered daily practices of several families in Ufa, Russia. Having conducted four months of participatory observation and hours of interviews, Jyoti painted a vivid and nuanced picture of contemporary Russian life in the domestic sphere. As Jyoti’s advisor, I provided guiding hypotheses while letting the voices of her informants surprise us. Among the recurring topics most relevant to the identity constructions of domesticity was permanentnyi remont (ongoing home remodeling), which became an epistemological key to the gender dynamics of the Russian home.
Specifics of the topic aside, advising Jyoti in her thesis work was in and of itself a process worthy of reflection. Whatever else it is, “thesising,” a verb Sybil Bullock ’14 coined, is always collaborative. It involves so many parties that it is difficult to pay homage to all of them. An honors thesis is not accomplished in a year – it takes much longer and, in my experience, the crucial factor is building a network for mutual learning and support across students and faculty, in which advising is not a hierarchical practice but part of developing an intellectual partnership and, eventually, friendship.
In my case, it all started with Hegel. Some two and a half years ago I read Hegel’s Philosophy of History with a group of highly motivated students, as part of their self designed course on philosophies of modernity (other faculty members taught in the seminar as well). Some members of this group later resided in or frequented Earth House, which provided an emotional and intellectual atmosphere supportive for thesis projects; I was the primary advisor of two and a reader for a third. In many respects, the “earthlings” became a family and were regarded as such by its members – both faculty and students.
Arguably, the success of these students (their names were all over the Awards Ceremony list) was the result of circumstances deliberately nurtured by students and faculty alike. “Thesising” included topically relevant art projects like Juanpa’s (Juan Pablo Pacheco ’14) short film making and screening (in Film Studies), or Jyoti’s multimedia installation (in the Art Department). We learned that thesis writing is not only about the product (i.e., the thesis itself), but also about the process in which the writers acquire intellectual tools that they can continue using long after the writing itself is finished, hopefully throughout their careers.
Advising, of course, has its “technical” challenges: narrowing down the thesis topic (students usually start with mega ideas); adopting a theoretical framework and the readings that go with it; learning to do the writing in small, manageable steps while bearing in mind the overall composition of the thesis; and setting weekly priorities and small portion deadlines. Last but not least, there is a lot to be said about cooperating with faculty readers (Andrea Lanoux of Slavic Studies and Eileen Kane of the History Department in Jyoti’s case) whose fresh critical lenses defamiliarize the project and help to negotiate its completion. It takes a department (or two) to produce a successful honors thesis.
All of this said, the question remains whether “the friendship model” of thesis advising as described above is replicable, including for me. As Juanpa put it, “So what are you going to do now – replace us with another group of students?” While replacing this particular circle of friends is impossible, the model of close intellectual relationship with and among thesis writers could be sustained if students are more integrated cross generationally (with “younger” students gravitating around the seniors) and residentially (around housing that cultivates “thesis writing spirit”). •
