If your thesis advisers would not agree to letyou visit all the social hot spots on campus,consider a withdrawal into a world of fantasy.Sabre S. Mayhugh '92 can tell you everything aboutmid-17th century Chinese gardens, and then showyou his own design of such a horticulturaldelight.
The East Asian Studies/Visual and EnvironmentalStudies concentrator became interested in thetopic when he began translating a book written bya 17th century Chinese scholar about beautifulgardens. Gardens at the time were a means ofescaping from the political conflict caused by thechanging of dynasties.
The book's details of the garden's design laterinspired Mayhugh to paint three detailed areas ofhis concept of the garden. Mayhugh says he wasable to produce a set of paintings which depictthree distinct natural settings.
But if ancient China and the world ofhorticulture is too tame, try the underworld ofFrench women criminals as Laura A. Dickenson '92did. The history concentrator was inspired tostudy women criminals in 20th century France bytwo seminars she attended and a book whichchallenged students to examine history alonggender lines.
"I went to France to examine early 20th centuryconceptions of female virtue and vice in theinter-war period," Dickenson says.
She was surprised to find a rise in the rate ofwomen convicted of murder since World War I. The"rhetoric motherhood"--the idea that women who hadmaternal values had more virtue--had become thelast strong barrier between women and jail,Dickenson says. "Women who could be presented asvictimized mothers tended to be acquitted," shesays.
Therefore, the rise in convictions of women wasdue to the French inter-World War belief that onlymaternal women were worthy of a acquittal, as wellas French fears of depopulation.
Besides being unusual, many wacky theses areamong the best in their department. Rebecca D.Knowles '92 recently garnered a summaranking and a Hoopes Prize for her thesis onpronouns.
"I just tell everyone it's about pronouns, butit's a little more complicated than that," thelinguistics concentrator says.
Actually, complex terms like "hyper-correction"and "leveled pronouns" might confuse ordinaryreaders, but Knowles used them to effectivelybuild a thesis about everyday speech.
"Unlike languages like German or Russian,"Knowles says, "English pronouns are largelygender-neutral, which makes room for `leveledpronouns' like `you,'" meaning that their formdoes not change when used differently in asentence.
In other words, "You" will look the samewhether used as a direct object or an indirectobject in a sentence, while another pronoun like"he" would change to "him" under the samecircumstances, Knowles discovered.
Grammatical errors arise in everyday speechwhen people couple another pronoun with "you" in asentence, Knowles says. Many people incorrectlysays "He hit you and I" when the correct formshould be "you and me," she says.
Other pronouns such as "him" or "her" mustchange form according to their place in asentence. But Knowles found that people more oftenspeak in a manner that "sounds good to them" thanfollowing grammatical rules about leveledpronouns.
It was a rare senior who managed to avoidwriting a thesis and experiencing the inevitablebouts of sickness, regrettable interviews andgrumpy professors that accompany the experience.
But whatever the hardships endured bythesis-writing classmates, many thesis writingseniors say the results of their hard work areinevitably rewarding