Celebrating Our Graduates


During these extraordinary times, when it is not possible to gather together for our traditional Hooding Ceremony, GLS wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary individuals who have completed their Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree this academic year. 

Summer 2020

Nadiyah Suleiman
Precarity in German Policy: The Vulnerabilities of Refugees and Asylees from Discrimination to Human Trafficking
Supervisor: Erdag Göknar, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies


Fall 2020 

Jessica Almy Pagán
:: salt mark :: open studio :: qr.2.vv :: picando portales :: hilvanando terruño :: stitching unearthed moments into place ::
Supervisor: Laurent DuBois, Romance Studies

Janet Butcher Shaw
Every Three Hours: The Walk to Independence
Supervisor: Susan Thorne, History

Lin Li
Wartime Film History in Occupied North China, 1937-1945: The Emerging Field and Subjectivity
Supervisor: Prasenjit Duara, History

Joseph E. McCarthy
How Evolution, Stories, and Irrationality Influence Decision Making in Financial Markets: Analyzing Whether We Can Leverage Our Innate Traits and Characteristics To Improve Outcomes
Supervisor: Edward Tower, Economics

Paul Rehren
On the Stability of Moral Judgment Over Time
Supervisor: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Philosophy


Spring 2021 

Muhammad Ali
Russian Literary Conflicts Over the Nihilist Novel, 1861-1881
Supervisor: Martin Miller, History

Hongyu An
An Analysis of Shaping of Female Characters in Films Directed by Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and Chinese Diasporic Female Directors
Supervisor: Carlos Rojas, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Dolores Arreguin-Carey
The Draft: A Review of Barriers and Benefits to a Gender-Neutral Selective Service Mandate
Supervisor: Amy Laura Hall, Duke Divinity School

Jennifer Chambers
Who’s Chasing Who: An Exploration of Relationships Among the Brigata in Boccaccio’s Decameron
Supervisor: Martin Eisner, Romance Studies

Ismail Ćidić
Biden’s Fight for Bosnia: An Analysis of Joe Biden’s Role in Ending the War and Genocide in Bosnia
Supervisor: John Aldrich, Political Science

Harper Feng
The Making and Unmaking of Guiyu
Supervisor: Ralph A. Litzinger, Cultural Anthropology

Anne Hammond
Farming as Formation: What Working with the Land Can Teach Us About the Human to Non-Human Relationship – An Essay In Companion With “The Land Witness” Podcast
Supervisor: Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity School

Suiyuan Jin
The World of Eurydice
Supervisor: Bill Fick, Art, Art History and Visual Studies

Di Liao
Racial and Ethnic Mixing in Chicago 1920-2020: Neighborhoods and Schools
Supervisor: Robert Healy, Nicholas School of the Environment

Thea Qianyu Liu
Swaying between Grace and Pomposity: The Imagined Modernity of Soong Mayling
Supervisor: Prasenjit Duara, History

Olivia G. Merli
The Emperor’s Two Bodies
Supervisor: Mary T. Boatwright, Classical Studies

Leanora Minai 
Fatal Automobile Crashes in North Carolina: A Historical and Present-Day Portrait of Grief

Supervisor: Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Graduate Liberal Studies

Hanxue Wang
Deconstructing Maoist Myth: Yan Lianke’s Mythorealism in The Passage of Time and Lenin’s Kisses
Supervisor: Eileen Chow, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Sheridan Wilbur
Pursuit of Faith: Navigating Ethics and Self-Referential Documentary – A Family Documentary Film and an Analytical Essay on Ethics
Supervisor: Wesley Hogan, Center for Documentary Studies