Post #7: The Cold Numbing the Fingers that Type a Thesis

My goal over winter break is to read the sources recommended to me by my secondary advisor, Professor Casey from the Anthropology department. She provided me with a lot of sociological/anthropological sources, some of which couldn't make it into my lit review, but I will start reading them over the break. I will still be volunteering at the Air and Space Museum from Wednesdays through Saturdays, so that leaves the rest of the week to do reading. I plan to count all the articles, and then budget how many to finish each week. I'll be taking notes as I go, so hopefully, by the time Spring semester starts, I'll have a rough outline of talking points for my thesis. This will also help me compile a list of focused questions for my advisors and Dr. Lent.

Post #2: A Thesis is Conceived

Hello everyone,

I will be doing a research-based thesis on a socio-political topic, as it relates to museums. I decided to focus on this area because it is important for us to deconstruct the power structures that pervade our cultural institutions.

As of right now, I am pursuing the topic of how the practices of Euro-American museums influence those of non-Western museums. Specifically, I want to explore if or how imperialism and colonialism transmitted ideas about artistic ideals, curation, exhibition design, and administration. I was inspired to do this topic by reading about the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which seems to be greatly influenced by French art museums. So far, I have found a few sources that focus on African museums, specifically Nigerian ones. I will try to narrow my scope to a case study of one museum, and if I cannot do that, to one country.

The first topic I considered was, "How are museums sometimes used to legitimize government"? If the first topic doesn't work out, I will switch back to this one. I would explore the tactics governments use to endorse themselves through museums, including themes about propaganda, curation by elites, and financial influence.

Doing History in Corporate America: A Case Study of the Eastman Kodak Archives

My initial idea for my senior thesis project was to create a online exhibit about the Kodak Camera Club (KCC), using materials from the archive at the Eastman Kodak Company that I helped to build for my internship, as well as oral history interviews with former KCC members. Since my last update, my topic has not changed much, but I have been in contact with several individuals at Kodak who have helped me shape and narrow the scope of the project. As of right now, my research question is: How can museum and archival practices be applied to corporate settings (such as the Eastman Kodak Company), and what unique legal, ethical, and practical considerations need to be made when creating an exhibit by and for a private company? I will work with Kodak's marketing department, which is in charge of the newly-created archives, to create an exhibit about the history of the KCC, which at its height in the 1950s and 60s had thousands of members across all Kodak departments.

I am still working to hone in on a concise topic, but my discussions with Matt Stouffel at Kodak have helped me to decide how I want to approach this project, and I look forward to continuing to develop my ideas!

Thesis Topic

As I discussed in my post from early September, I've been working with a team of mechanical engineers on the Uncommon Press project, which will culminate in the creation of an English common press for the Cary Graphic Arts Collection. I have decided that I will use my experience and participation in this project as a starting point for my senior thesis. More specifically, I plan to focus on the way in which the finished press can be utilized by individuals outside of the RIT and printing communities. The idea to hone in on this area arose through conversations with various individuals, including Dr. Decker; I've been asked multiple times, "what's the end goal for this project? Is it just to have a wooden press in the Cary's collection? Will it be accessible to the general public?" I think these are important question, which deserve to be answered.

One could certainly reason that creating the press just to say you have one is an expensive and largely unnecessary endeavor. Since wooden common presses, whether they're originals or reconstructions, are quite rare, I would counter that there certainly is value in creating it so that it can be placed alongside newer, cast iron presses in the Cary. Still, that might not seem like a sufficient reason, so I plan to dig deeper, and provide at least one answer to the question: "How can a reconstruction of an English Common Press be used to benefit the public?" Currently, my brief answer would be to say that the press could be used as an educational object for students, likely those in middle school. To support my answer to this question, I plan to utilize historical data & publications related to the subject of the English common press, current scholarly reports and articles relating to education, information gleaned from the curriculum of a local school & interviews with its teachers, and my own knowledge gained from personally working on the project. It's my hope that through researching & writing my thesis, I will be able to come up with a formula through which a variety of schools could utilize any reconstruction of a common press as a contextual device to better educate their students.

(MUSE)ings On What I've Learned About Research Methods

As Hannah pointed out in her most recent post, my understanding of the thesis research & writing process has changed & grown significantly since the start of this class. One of the things that I've learned over the past 6 weeks, which has particularly stuck with me, is the way in which even a simple chart can be surprisingly beneficial for clearly laying out the data that is covered in one's thesis. This has been apparent in a few different articles, but seemed particularly clear in Whitney Baker's article on bumper sticker history. In Table 1 of her article, Baker provides an overview of a broad range of data, such as historical dates, substrate materials, ink types, and design features.¹ In her long, written out format, she examines these different pieces of information over several pages. Utilizing the table format, however, allowed her to provide, compare, and contrast the most important details in a space of less than half a page. The was one of the easier articles to digest, but even so, her use of the chart really helped me to grasp the information quickly & accurately. I expect that such a method of data conveyance could be particularly useful for my thesis, as at least a small section will likely detail physical aspects of the different wooden printing presses that have existed throughout history.

In a somewhat similar vein, the way in which Amy Starecheski used footnotes in her article on squatting history really helped me come to understand how useful Chicago-style can be when writing a thesis. For example, her twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third citations, all on one page, offer additional sources for the reader to explore, explain nuances of the squatting culture, and cite the source for a quote that she utilized.² My thesis will likely need to include a variety of footnotes, as it will be utilizing books about printing presses, scholarly articles on education, and personal conversations with various individuals involved with the Uncommon Press project. I think my writing will be far clearer with this citation style than it would be with APA or MLA, due to way in which Chicago-style will let me cite all of these sources, while also having the ability to explain specific terminology or design details.

As I've been delving into writings that are specifically related to my topic, I've found it interesting to see the differences between some of the scholarly articles we've read, and the books about printing presses that have been published. I'm really looking forward to doing further research, to learn more about my topic, but also to learn more about the process that goes into researching & writing.

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1 Whitney Baker, “Soapbox for the Automobile: Bumper Sticker History, Identification, and Preservation,” Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, 7:3, (Summer 2011) pp. 251-270.

2 Amy Starecheski, “Squatting History: The Power of Oral History as a History-Making Practice,” The Oral History Review, 41:2, (Summer/Fall 2014) pp. 187-216. ^↩

Presenting at the Poster Session

      After many hours of research and hard work, I can finally say that I have completed my senior thesis project! As stated in my last post, it sometimes felt as though this day would never arrive. Today, I had the opportunity to attend and present my findings at RIT's College of Liberal Arts (COLA) Poster Session. Featured here were posters of undergraduate student research from the Department of Psychology, the School of Communication, the Museum Studies Program, and the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences Program. 

      It was wonderful to posit my findings and discuss various aspects of my project with faculty, students, and community members. In my research, I found that 1970 was the peak year of the Second Wave Feminist Movement. I also found that editorials and lifestyle articles improved over the period I assessed and advertisements were more positive around the peak year, but regressed later in my analysis. Many people commented that they liked how my content was displayed in a magazine layout format. I conversed with several faculty members regarding their firsthand experience with mass media representation of women's roles during the time period I assessed. While my analysis is of images from nearly 50 years ago, it is interesting to see that similar messages still appear in magazines today, perhaps more subtly. However, I think mass media representation and construction of women's roles is dramatically changing in magazines, on television, and more. I believe that part of this is due to the digital age. People can express their discontent in a variety of ways online through social media posts, blogging, commenting, and emailing. I am thankful that the RIT Archive Collections' Vogue magazines and The Vogue Archive database were available to me and that I had the opportunity to analyze print media from 50 years ago. I believe mass media, such as magazines like Vogue, provide an insight to the past and its culture that otherwise would be lost or forgotten if they were not preserved physically or digitally. While I am graduating on Friday, I do see my work with this project continuing on, as I am deeply passionate about it.

Process and Progress

With the semester starting up, I wanted to give you all an update on how my intersession research progressed, where I am going with my topic, and what my goals are for senior thesis. Over intersession, I read many books and journals related to my topic; I annotated all pertinent findings and quotes that resonate with my paper. I have narrowed my focus to looking at 1 issue per year of American Vogue from 1965-1974. This timeline is more manageable and will allow me to delve into my textual and photographic analysis better. I am looking at how women’s roles are represented and constructed through the magazine by assessing how they are portrayed in editorial photographs, lifestyle articles, and advertisements. I am analyzing how these depictions relate to and portray aspects of the second wave feminist movement, as well as the social, cultural, and political happenings of the time

            I created the idea for my methodological analysis tool after reviewing 3 magazines online through The Vogue Archive and will be including the following classifications in my analysis: female form and silhouette, environment, interactions with other figures, signifiers of counterculture, and feminist focus. Each categorical term serves to be representative of larger concepts. The category female form and silhouette alludes to a woman’s pose in photographic content, the shape of her body, the shape created by what she is wearing, how her body is discussed or featured. The category environment refers to the surroundings and conditions a woman is shown in through text or the background of photographs or advertisements. The category interactions with other figures allude to who else is shown in the photograph and how a woman is shown interacting with them. The category signifiers of counterculture refer to noteworthy changes in ideology of the definition of womanhood, the social roles appropriate to this definition, shifts in clothing styles, and the cultural, social, and political events of the time. Signifiers include mentions or inferences of youth, innocence, and sexual appeal in textual and photographic content. The category of feminist focus alludes to equal rights, women’s liberation, empowerment, and individualism.

My advisors approved my proposal and I have made significant progress in the past 2 weeks, having met with both of my advisors and looked at issues of American Vogue through my newly established methodology. I even watched a 4 part documentary series entitled Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne that Dr. Lent recommended for my research, which initiated my whole writing process. At this point, I have written roughly 10 pages and will continue to make revisions, subtractions, and additions in the upcoming weeks. In this past week’s class, I reviewed 2 classmates’ thesis drafts so far. It was intriguing see how greatly some of our projects have changed since fall semester. However, everyone seems to be on a good path and change is a part of the whole writing process. I intend to incorporate feedback into my draft from my class cohort. Going forward, I need to find visuals to bring into class and set up more meetings with my advisors regarding feedback as well as my process and progress. I intend to be fully prepared for and meet all my deadlines. I am looking forward to seeing my hard work pay off and my project proposal coming to fruition. Until then, I will be writing!

Evolution of Thesis

My thesis has not changed much since I first came up with the idea of creating a project around baseball, but it has certainly evolved. I began with a very broad idea of what I wanted to research -- baseball. I played with the idea of creating a project around the Rochester Red Wings, but quickly realized that that wasn't the route I wanted to take. From there I spoke to my professor and my primary adviser, conducted research on baseball to get an idea of what kind of literature was out there regarding this topic, and was able to narrow the scope based on my discussions and research. It was through my primary adviser that I discovered my research question; she shared with me a list of questions that the NCPH was asking in regards to sports and sports museums. I modified one of the questions that I found interesting to create this research question: How are marginalized groups being represented in sports museums? Since I live near Cooperstown, NY I decided to use the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum as a case study for my research. I will most likely focus on one minority group -- African Americans -- and observe how much space the museum is devoting to this group. I plan to conduct interviews with the staff members to get their take on the representation of marginalized groups in sports museums. From here on out I definitely need to do more research on the history of baseball, Negro leagues, sports museums, etc. I will most likely create a list of questions, as well, to aid me in conducting my interviews.

Fashion, Gender Roles, Oh My! A Further Look at My Thesis Topic

          The evolution of women’s fashion in the 20^th century has always been of interest to me. I have researched extensively on the different avenues my thesis could potentially take. However, upon meeting with Dr. Lent and discussing my proposal, I have further defined my lens for examining fashion and its historical ties. We discussed how women are represented in the media as well as other mediums and how various fashions were associated with a variety of statuses. Some of these statuses include “the working woman”, “the single woman”, and “the young and married woman”. For my thesis, my working research question is: In what ways does fashion and how it is represented in different mediums reflect women’s roles in American society over the span of the 1920s through 1980s?

An advertisement for Mulsified Shampoo circa the 1920's suggesting that a young woman's role in society was to be aesthetically appealing to others.  (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/484066659919696877/) 

        I believe that after World War I, there is a cultural shift in women’s roles as well as a movement to adopt more contemporary fashion styles. I will still be using the source material of Vogue magazines as well as a few other magazines housed in the RIT Archives. Along with my thesis, I may include a virtual exhibition on Wordpress to document social issues of these times and their significance to the respective clothing and women’s roles. I will also compare and contrast decades to one another.

         I am incredibly honored that Dr. Lent, the director of RIT’s Museum Studies program and a professor in the Department of Performing Arts and Visual Culture, has agreed to serve as my primary advisor to my thesis. My next steps in regards to my thesis are to find my secondary thesis advisor and research potential books and journals to gather pertinent information for my thesis. I am looking forward to developing my thesis further and diving into my research.

Senior thesis, Susana Flores

After working on my co-op with American School of the Deaf (ASD) during recent summer with researches and cataloging their archive. I realized that American School for the Deaf has tremendous collections related to deaf studies, its history of first deaf institution, their founding fathers and e.t.c. of historical artifact but they didn't have a proper digital archive to share with their community. Right there was a breaking point for me because after taking up Museum studies course with digital age, these historical artifacts and informations should be shared with public via online. The concept of developing proper digital archive doesn't only apply to ASD but hopefully applies to other libraries with deaf studies collection / archive.

I already knew as a fact that American School of the Deaf is in the process of building their connection with Connecticut Digital Archive under University of Connecticut library. I'm uncertain about Gallaudet University with their digital archive since there is insufficient information about their historical artifacts online.  For my senior thesis project, I will need to do more research and do some interviews with curators / directors about their digital archives and their ownership rights with their archive artifacts. Hopefully, we could discuss about opportunity of develop and improvise their digital archive from there.

Senior Thesis: Possible digital collection

I'm considering about working with collaborated digital collections between few institutions  to label, categorize and tag the Laurent Clerc Collections. Laurent Clerc was a deaf teacher from France and he was one of the founding fathers who helped established American School of the Deaf in Connecticut back in 1817. He worked with Minister Thomas H.  Gallaudet and taught him French Sign Language during their voyage from France to America. 

The Laurent Clerc collections consists vary of Mr. Clerc's personal items and important documents. Hopefully, i could have the opportunity to develop a thesis on how to convince these institutions with shared collections to digitalize their parts of the collections to share with the public.  

According to my experience with my internship at American School for the Deaf, their collections wasn't entirely digitalized. It would be great to encourage these institutions to digitalize their collections staring with American School of the Deaf since this institution has larger collection of the founding fathers' personalized items than other institutions. 

American School for the Deaf

Gallaudet University

Jenna Bossert, Potential Sources for Thesis Research

I have long had a love for fashion and history; therefore, I would love to combine these interests for my senior thesis. I stumbled upon old issues of fashion magazines at the RIT Archives and instantly was struck with a moment of clarity. For my senior thesis, I want to research how women’s clothing styles of the 20^th century are tied to concurrent historical events of the time.

            As mentioned in my first blog post, my research on this topic will be extensive and span a variety of different mediums. In the past week, I have come across some helpful resources that I was not aware of previously. I will list them here. Firstly, I was looking through The Wallace Center’s Library Catalog and typed “Vogue” to see what type of results I would get. I found that through ProQuest, I have access to The Vogue Archive, which includes scans of photographs, illustrations, and articles featured in issues from 1892 to the present day. I feel that this resource will benefit my research since popular culture and fashion history are covered throughout the issues.

Screenshot of the Vogue Archive database available through ProQuest

             Secondly, I came across the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Fashion collection. Many time periods, trends, and designers are featured throughout this expansive collection. Most notably for my research, V & A has several webpages dedicated to research about 20^th Century fashion as well as an abundance of information about particular time periods of the 20th century. These webpages features exhibition information and articles about trends as well as textiles and design styles. I feel that V & A’s Fashion collection and content on its website will prove to be useful for me as I research the historical ties interwoven with clothing. I will also be looking into books, such as Dressing for the Culture Wars and other mediums.

Brainstorming: Thesis Topic Ideas

                                                         "Still Thinking About It"

           I currently have no idea what I want to do for my Senior Thesis. I am sure of a couple of things, though: I love researching, and I love baseball. My thesis will most likely be a research based paper as opposed to a project based paper. Maybe I could create a topic around the history of baseball in America. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would really like to narrow down that idea into something great that I can work with -- a more unique way of looking at baseball's history in America. Also, I know that there is a History of Baseball class taught here at RIT (that I was, unfortunately, unable to take as it did not fit in my schedule); the professor of that class could be my secondary adviser.