Join us! TTL Research Presentations
Celebrate our MA Graduates
Join us on Tuesday, May 19 at noon on Webex (link is provided in this event announcement) to learn about the exciting thesis research from two of our recent MA graduates.
Corinne will present from her thesis, "Cycles of Indebtedness: The Chinese Coolie's Perpetual Labor in The Coolie Speaks and Monkey Hunting" [direced by Dr. Sharon Tran] In this project, Corinne reads Lisa Yun's The Coolie Speaks and Cristina Garcia's Monkey Hunting as counter-archives resisting dominant narratives that position 1874 as the end of the Cuban coolie trade's debt-based labor practices. These texts center the perspectives of Chinese contract laborers in Cuban history to present the compounding, renewing forms of debt that maintained their indenture throughout their lifetime and within Cuba's national legacy.
Caleb will present from his thesis "'All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter': Tolkien’s Expressions Of Shifting Masculinity In 20th-Century Wartime England As Seen Through The Characters Of Boromir, Faramir, And Aragorn" [directed by Professor Deborah Rudacille]. His thesis argues that Boromir, Faramir, and Aragorn represent three distinct responses to the pressures of warfare, corruptive influence of power, and paternal expectation -- responses which he labels as collapse, conflict, and thoughtful integration. Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings suggests that the defining test of masculinity is not the ability to wield or reject power, but the ability to demonstrate moderation and restraint through having it and being able to relinquish it.