Thesis series, Part One: Miles

Katie D.

April 22, 2010 - 7:19 PM

The undergraduate thesis is the culmination of a UO honors student's college career. It represents a single massive effort to research and create a project of our own creation. I have already written about my thesis several times (and can report that it currently stands at 59 pages), and have thesis almost permanently on my mind these days. If I'm not actively writing, I'm thinking about it. And I'm not alone-all students graduating from the Clark Honors College are simultaneously working to produce a thesis of their own. Since I am lucky enough to have a fabulously intelligent and diverse group of HC friends, this means that I'm constantly surrounded by thesis talk: page counts, woes of writer's block, writing strategies, and endless dissection of topics. That makes it sound merely stressful, but really it's been awesome to hear about everyone's interests and to track their progress.

So I want to share some of those with you. My friends' theses have become a big part of my life, and I'll be attending everyone's thesis defense and reading most of the final products. So I want to do a series of at least one blog a week, sharing people's thesis defense stories and a portion of their actual writing. All those featured have given permission.

Miles was the first of my group of friends to complete and defend his thesis. His title is "Reading and Ethical Understanding:Exploring a Form of Ethically Complex Narrative."\

Before I go into details about his topic, let me explain a bit about Miles's background and the defense process. Miles is one of the most eloquent people I know, both in writing and in speaking. He is a philosophy major, and has a finely developed sense of argumentation. I read his thesis on Sunday in preparation for his defense on Monday, and was truly impressed by the flow and creativity of the thesis. On Monday, he presented his topic for about fifteen minutes before answering questions from his three faculty advisers for a full hour. At that point, everyone but the advising committee left the room as the three professors decided whether his thesis would pass, and at what level. The options are: pass, pass with revisions (ie conditional pass), pass with honors, and pass with distinction.

Not to spoil the ending, but Miles passed with distinction: an honor he clearly deserved to the fullest.

Here is the abstract (summary) of his thesis:

This thesis engages central assertions of narrative theory in order to describe the basic tenets of ethically complex narratives and examine their potential to improve and deepen a reader's understanding of ethics. I argue that narrative is an appropriate medium for the communication and exploration of ethical theory because it provides a familiar conceptual structure within which various viewpoints and attitudes can arise, conflict, and harmonize in an intelligible fashion that fosters a reader's ethical understanding. This sense of understanding develops through the reader's discovery of the ultimate intelligibility of sub-narratives and settings that function within a narrative work. I describe four narrative strategies (tenets) that characterize the content of an ethically complex narrative: character identity, choice, will, and setting. These tenets exist and operate within an ethically complex narrative in a fashion that provides the broad narrative context required for the realization of intelligibility that leads to ethical understanding. To provide a concrete example of an ethically complex narrative, I analyze an existing book (David Simon and Edward Burns' The Corner) to demonstrate how the tenets of ethical complexity function within its pages.

I had heard Miles talk about his thesis for months, through every stage of the imagining and writing process. But the document itself is a beautiful example of what a thesis should be: imaginative, rigorous, and approachable.

It also had the feeling of something truly important, something I had toyed with often as a lifelong writer and reader but had never directly explored. We are inherently changed by the narratives we encounter during our lives. The roles we play and the lives we imagine are a part of the larger stories of society and culture, and are informed by the fiction and legend we surround ourselves with. As Miles discussed in his thesis, we embody story. This is extremely important, both in approaching literature and in working to change society: you have to work to change the stories people are ready to believe.

Aside from the document itself, his defense was a joy to watch. He's the kind of person who loves to be asked difficult questions and to get into debates. Even when his committee members asked questions that were clearly challenging, he didn't flinch. Several of our mutual friends were there, as were four or five members of the ultimate frisbee team, of which he is a part. Best of all, his mom was there, and looking extremely proud. Deservedly so-even I was proud of watching his project come together, and hearing repeated some of the ideas we had talked over in the past weeks.

Passed with distinction. That's a high bar to set on the very first defense I attend. Only ten percent of theses are supposed to receive this honor. Miles unquestionably deserved it, and I am so glad I was there to witness, from start to finish.