Thesis Update: How Much is Too Much?

There is no denying that the thesis writing process is tough. Now that we are a quarter of the way through the semester, I feel that while I am on top of the deadlines and making progress writing a draft, there are still a million other things I need/want to do with this paper, that I am not sure I will have time for. It was already a struggle to find a place to start writing for my first draft last week, due to the fact that I had so many ideas I wanted to incorporate but was not fully sure where to put them or how to organize them. What I ended up writing was a basic description of the gallery spaces I will be analyzing in my thesis, just to get the ball rolling and to give the reader a sense of the space. But as I was writing, I realized that I still have a decent number of things I need to research/write about in order to give the reader all the context needed to understand the gallery spaces and the works on display in them. While my concern of adding historical context was alleviated with the confirmation from my first reader and Professor Brown that I should add historical context, I now come to the question of how much to write. I do not want to go fully art historical in this paper, and argue the meanings of the symbols of Guernica, but I do want to give the reader the proper background for this thesis. That is what I have been working on recently, trying to find this happy medium of historical context. But I do need to find sources to back up any information I cite, which is taking up a bit of time, and time is something of a luxury right now. I am trying my best with what little free time I have to get all this work done, but at the same time, this is my last semester in college, so I want to enjoy it.

Thesis Progress

Right after today's class, I am interviewing Diego Sandoval-Hernandez, an outreach librarian from the Brooklyn Public Library who deals with prison and library services. I am looking forward to talking to him and hearing about his work and experiences. I think these interviews will really contribute to my analysis of how prison libraries function today and if they are successful as libraries in the educational and recreational materials and programs they provide. My first thesis draft is pretty rough, but I am excited to continue to work on improving and further developing it. Maren, my second reader, has also provided really interesting sources on exhibiting the writings and experiences of incarcerated people and the potential issues that may arise from this, such as the exploitation of incarcerated people's trauma in promoting certain personal agendas/ideals.