Hello, I am Patrick Showers, I am majoring in Museum Studies with a minor in History. My tentative plan for my thesis is to research how museums can/do interpret substances which have been used for medicinal, spiritual, and social/recreational purposes, and how the broader cultural and historical context alters how they’re interpreted. I have always been interested in how different cultures across the globe have independently discovered substances with mind-altering properties and how they have justified their use for spiritual and medicinal purposes. This subject is (and likely will be) subject to change as it is an extremely broad subject that has some basis in nearly every culture. This topic will be combining my passion for history with museum studies by compiling historical and modern information and looking at it through a museum lens. Some other topics I am exploring are to continue my summer research project of building interest in MISHA (Multispectral Imaging for Historical Artifacts) amongst smaller organizations, to research the effects of museums architecture on how people perceive their collections, and looking into how museums can and do navigate reinterpreting historical exhibits with outdated language and interpretations.
Monday, August 31, 2026
Introductions- Alexandra Cassella
Hello everyone! I’m Alexandra, but I usually go by Allie. I’m a fifth year Museum Studies major minoring in Criminal Justice. I’m very excited (and a little nervous) to finally be starting my thesis project. The time came faster than I expected, which could partially be because I transferred into Museum Studies in my third year. I started out at RIT as a Chemical Engineering major, but found that I really was not passionate about what I was doing as a ChemE. I plan to graduate in May, and hopefully go into something in museum education or maybe curation. During my Spring 2026 semester, I started working in the Cultural Heritage Imaging lab on campus with the MISHA system. I still have an interest in chemistry, and wanted to make use of my criminal justice minor to see if there would be forensic capabilities with the system. There are paints that have animal blood in them, or artifacts made with poison materials, and I was curious if those would look different when imaged than regular paints. I briefly discussed with a professor about seeing if different drugs painted on paper could be identified under multispectral imaging, which I could also explore. I have done smaller research projects in previous semesters. Hopefully some of what I learned doing those projects I can take into my thesis and expand upon.
Looking forward to a great semester and a great year!
Allie Cassella
Introductions: Danni Kuntz
Hello, everyone! My name is Dannahe Kuntz, also known as Danni. I am a fourth-year Museum Studies major, but I also have interests in other fields, being a dual major in "Humanities, Computing, and Design" and having an immersion in Evolutionary Biology & Ecology.
In terms of my person journey in Museum Studies, it actually started off as my minor. HCD (as Humanities, Computing and Design is often abbreviated to) is my first and primary major, but as someone who has had a lifelong interest in museums, the program enraptured me, and I decided that I not only would take it on as a second major, that I also would choose it for my capstone/thesis.
I have many interests, which is a bit of a problem when deciding what to focus on for a project, or choosing a major, including for grad school, which I am in the process of applying to-- but I've narrowed it down to a few topics by now. However, what I do know is that my project will culminate in an exhibit: ideally a physical one as I already have worked on digital exhibits and want to expand my repertoire, but if necessary I can create a digital exhibit or exhibit prototype.
At the moment, these are the topics I am considering:
-Everyday life in Ancient Rome
I have always had an interest in Ancient Rome, as well as the everyday lives of Ancient people. In choosing this topic, I seek to humanize people of the past. I like this topic, because it's specific enough to develop a concise exhibit, but expansive enough for me to discuss different aspects of life, and pick whatever piques my interest. (I especially love Roman Graffiti, so if I pick this, I will definitely include it as a part of the project!)
-Design Philosophy and Cultural heritage in Genshin Impact
Yes, this is a very specific topic! I have actually already focused on this topic for another Museum Studies class years ago, but as the game continues to update, the discourse surrounding the game has expanded. Genshin Impact is particularly interesting to me, because there are many things it does regarding designs & cultural heritage that are done incredibly well, and other aspects that border on abysmal. In this hypothetical project, I can speak on the complexities of Genshin Impact's design philosophy and representation of cultural heritage. One potential downside of this topic is that because of its specificity, it may be hard to find peer-reviewed sources. I am sure I could create enough content out of this to fill an exhibit, but a larger than desired portion of information would be from less formal sources.
-Internet Communities and/or Fandom culture
These two often go hand-in-hand. This topic is sort of a love letter to my adolescence, covering communities that shaped me into the person I am today. Being a very contemporary topic (Alongside my second topic), there may not be a large pool of academic resources, but I think what exists will be sufficient, although I know that what I focus on will definitely be inspired by the range of specific internet culture topics covered by academia.
I also had other topics I was considering, such as The Permian Era and its animals, Anomalocaris, the domestication and history of cats, Carthage, and early human evolution. Many of these are related to evolutionary biology, and while it is still a topic I am very interested in, I think choosing a subject that has more room for interpretation would be beneficial.
Introduction
Hi everyone!
My name is Katie Lawson, and I'm excited to be entering my 5th (and hopefully final) year of my undergraduate degree at RIT. I was originally a Software Engineering major for the first three years of my undergraduate career, but I decided to transfer into Museum Studies before the beginning of last fall semester, and I am continually more grateful and satisfied that I did so! Not only do I enjoy the kind of work I'm doing more than I did before, but the spectrum of topics in the potential classes I can take is far more varied in a way I really like.
I am looking forward to not only completing this final year and getting my BS in Museum Studies and my minors in ASL & Deaf Cultural Studies, Art History, and Software Engineering, but to hopefully be beginning my master's journey next year to further my goal in becoming a professional archivist one day (hopefully in the near future). I've already gotten some hands-on experience under my belt (having been an intern in the Cultural Heritage Imaging lab on campus this previous summer), but I am eager to get more!
I can't wait to continue in this semester and beyond!
- Katie
Intro & Looking Ahead
Hi all!
My name is Violet Davis and I am so excited to be starting the final chapter of my undergrad experience. As a transfer student, my time at RIT has been shorter than most others in this year's thesis group, but I have enjoyed every second of it. I am so grateful for all that I have learned here, and all opportunities I have been given in the Museum Studies program to further my education and boost me towards a future career in GLAM.
My goal for this semester is to gain more hands-on experience in my desired field, archives. I am hoping to work collaboratively with the Rochester Public Library Local History and Genealogy Division on a thesis project with which I can both apply what I have learned thus far and expand my experience in archives.
I'm looking forward to a wonderful semester!
~ Violet
Just an introduction
Hello everyone. I'm Tobi, just introducing myself to anyone who reads this. Starting my thesis; not sure how I feel about it, but it will be my life for the next year, so I plan to give it my all. Thank you for your attention; you can go home now.
Introduction + Initial Thoughts
Hello!
My name is Alec and I'm in my fourth and final year in the MUSE program. I am interested in collections care, preservation, cultural heritage imaging, and digitization.
I would like to focus on the Albert R. Stone Negative Collection for my thesis. I discovered this collection while doing research for Dr. Edwards' Disability History as Public History class and feel very connected to it as a Rochester native with deep family ties to this area. I also believe that the collection contains a wealth of information that is currently underutilized, including documentation of the suffrage movement, Great Migration, and other topics related to Rochester's rich social history. I am still deciding exactly how I want to approach my thesis. I am thinking of either developing an exhibit around the collection, or developing some sort of strategic framework to improve online access to the collection. Currently, it lives on the MCLS card catalog, which can be difficult to search and is not built for the purpose of hosting digital assets. The images themselves are also low-res and hotlinked from an external website, which is far from ideal.
Once I solidify my topic, I think my biggest challenge will be time management. In the past I have struggled with making steady progress on large, open-ended projects like this, and I anticipate being quite busy this semester with schoolwork and other responsibilities. I'm always nervous about what the future holds but I'm excited to see the direction my research takes me (and to see everyone else's work take shape as well!)
That's all for now, and thanks for reading!
Alec Rouleau
Saturday, May 2, 2026
Spring Post #4
The poster session was so much fun! It was so cool seeing what other majors were working on for the year, and getting to showcase my research to others. A comment that really stuck with me was when Professor Newman said he could really see my enthusiasm when I was speaking about my thesis. I really loved this project and its outcome, and if I told myself from 1st year when I was a Biomedical Major that this was the path I would pursue, I would think I was lying. I’m so immensely grateful for being able to be in this major and pursue a career path that I love, where my creativity has no bounds. Throughout this whole process I kept looking for ways to elevate it: booking an editorial photoshoot for the runway, renting clothing from Buffalo, hosting a pop-up exhibit off campus at the Refinery, and even with the poster session, reaching out to an artist to help me create a flip-book. I learned so much about myself with this process and what drives me to continuously. I couldn’t have asked for better guidance from Dr. Decker and Professor Nasr. Thank you so much for reading and following me on my journey.
Best,
Gabi Payne