Classics Department
Theses
Like all Reed seniors, Classics majors write a senior thesis. Senior thesis is a year long, one-on-one course with a faculty advisor. Students often start thinking about their topics during their junior year, and by the beginning of their senior year start the thesis project in earnest. During September, students read widely on their topics and talk to their advisor about the exact parameters and shape of their theses. By the end of September, students turn in a two page prospectus of their theses. During the remainder of the fall semester, students research their topics, meets regularly with their thesis advisors, and turn in preliminary written work. At the end of November, students turn in a rough draft of the first chapter (usually about 20 pages), and then meet with their thesis advisors and first readers for a 50 minute oral exam. During the oral exam, students discuss their work so far, and the faculty discuss the arguments and direction of the theses and make suggestions for improvement.
During the Spring semester, students continue to research, write, and meet with their advisors regularly, and by the end of March turn in a rough draft of their entire thesis. (Rough drafts consist of an introduction, two or three main chapters, and a conclusion, and are usually about 60-80 pages in length). Students receive written and oral comments on their drafts from their advisors, and then spend the month of April revising. Students turn in their theses during the last week of classes at the end of April, and on Friday, the final day of classes, march in the traditional and highly spirited Reed Senior Thesis Parade, which travels from the Reed Library to the Registrar's Office. The following week, seniors have a two hour oral exam on the thesis with four Reed faculty: their thesis advisor, another member of the their home department, a faculty member from the same division (for Classics majors, a faculty member for English or a foreign language department), and an "outside" reader from a non-literature department. The senior thesis and oral exam are the culmination of the student's work at Reed.
Senior thesis provides the opportunity for deep and sustained work on a topic you are really interested in, working in collaboration with your faculty advisor. Senior thesis is a lot of work, but very rewarding. All of your course work the first three years you are at Reed helps prepare you to be ready for thesis when you are a senior. Below are some titles of recent Classics senior theses to give you an idea of the wide range of topics that are possible. These and other Classics senior theses are housed in the Senior Thesis Tower in the Reed Library.
Some Recent Classics Senior Theses
Kate Aishton, "Breaking Body Rules in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe and Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon." 2004. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Miriam Aronoff, "Menstruation is the uterus weeping for lack of child" : Female Biological Theory in Ancient Medical Discourse", 2000. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Alyssa Bandow, "An Anecdotal Analysis of the Fourth Century Athenian Grain Trade", 2000. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Seth Belber, "Landscapes of Collapse: Genre, Masculinity, and Violence in the Landscapes of Ovid's Little 'Aeneid'", 2002. Advisor: Richard Tron.
Anna Bond, "'Quid illud' : The Metamorphoses of Genre in Apuleius' Asineus Aureus", 2001. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Laura Booth, "Doggy Style : Method in Diogenes the Cynic's Critique of Cultural Norms, 2000. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Katharine Cahill, "Life, the Universe and Everything : A New Look at the Iliad and the Odyssey", 2000.Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Rachel Carlson, "Versiculi Molliculi et Truces Iambi: Love and Invective in Catullus." 2006. Advisor: Alex Nice.
Gillian Christian, "Reverse Oresteia: Euripides' Electra, Orestes, and Iphigenia in Aulis in the Context of Aeschylus and the Peloponnesian War." 2006. Advisor: Ellen Millender.
Michael Cobden, "Blood Bond : The Roman Arena", 1999. Advisor: Richard Tron.
Sam Cole, "Exactly What He Could Get Away With: Alexander the Great and the Transformation of Macedonian Kingship, 336-328 BCE." 2005. Advisor: Ellen Millender.
James Flippin, "Epicurus Transformed: Epicurean Religion in Lucretius' Roman Context." 2006. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Jonathan Gilbert, "'Abortion' and Ritual in Classical Athens." 2006. Advisor: Ellen Millender.
Rhianna Gordon, "Committing an Act of Theatre : Sexual Inversion and Social Commentary in Three Plays by Euripides", 2002. (Lit/Theater Thesis) Advisor: Richard Tron.
Andrew Gray, "Prosimetric Petronius", 2003. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Liz Horn, "The Rebirth of Empire: Archaeology, Urban Planning and Architecture in Mussolini's Rome." 2004. Advisor: William Diebold.
Justin Humphreys, ""On the Arts of Love and Deception: Thucydides and Aristotle on the City and Man." 2006. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Kyle Johnson, "Heroines, Reading and Personhood in the Aithiopika : Heliodoros' Response to the Romance Tradition", 2002. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Gavin Kentch, "Euripidaristophanizing: Tragedy and Comedy in Four Plays of Aristophanes." 2004. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Denise Klymshyn, "Women in Pain : A Study of Transgressive Female Characters in Euripides", 2001. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Peter Koo, "Cosmos and the Partisan in Lucan's Bellum Civile", 2002. Advisor: Richard Tron.
Alex Leibowitz, "A Prologomena to Any Future Metaphysics: Virgil's Poem of the Farm." 2005. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Karen Mahon, "An Examination of 'Peace' in 5th Century Greece', 2001. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Crockett Marr, "Egypt-Pythagoras-Plato: Reading Plato's Egyptology Back into the Republic." 2006. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Benjamin Olson, "De Re Publica Romanorum de Cicerone." 2006. Advisor: Alex Nice.
Daniel Pachico, "Philip II and the Thraceward Region: A Study in Ancient Diplomacy," 2005. Advisor: Ellen Millender.
Rachel Preminger, "Speech and Power in Ovid's Metamorphoses: In Pursuit of the Transcendent." 2006. Advisor: Ellen Millender.
Jessica Rossknecht, " Roman Love Poetry: The Elegiac Grenre and Propertius' Fourth Book." 2005. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Rebecca Schneider, "In all men's minds" : The Rise and Fall of the Library of Alexandria in Myth", 2001. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Charles Stein, "The Nature of a Warrior's Arete in Homer's Iliad." 2005. Advisor: Walter Englert.
Tracy Steindel, "The Priapic Narrator in Martial, Book 7." 2006. Advisor: Nigel Nicholson.
Patrick Stockstill, "From God to Impulse: Madness in Seneca's Hercules Furens", 2003. Advisor: Meredith Monaghan.
