Each year, Graduate Liberal Studies awards a handful of Exemplary Master’s Project designations to publicly acknowledge outstanding student scholarship or creative work. Exemplary projects represent particularly accomplished models of graduate-level interdisciplinary work. In order to be considered for this honor, a master’s project must:
- Be nominated by the faculty supervisor.
- Be notably clear, well written and well organized.
- Be of particularly high academic quality. It should demonstrate a notable measure of the following characteristics, as appropriate to the project’s particular interdisciplinary combination of disciplines and methods:
- sound and thorough research;
- sustained and insightful critical inquiry and analysis;
- evocative and meaningful creative work;
- original perspectives or innovative approaches;
- coherent synthesis of multiple perspectives or approaches; and
- lucid, precise and meaningful prose.
The following student projects received the Exemplary Master’s Project designation for 2020-2021:
Muhammad Ali
Russian Literary Conflicts Over the Nihilist Novel, 1861-1881
Supervisor: Martin Miller, History
Jennifer Chambers
Who’s Chasing Who: An Exploration of Relationships Among the Brigata in Boccaccio’s Decameron
Supervisor: Martin Eisner, Romance Studies
Di Liao
Racial and Ethnic Mixing in Chicago 1920-2020: Neighborhoods and Schools
Supervisor: Robert Healy, Nicholas School of the Environment
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
Leanora Minai
Fatal Automobile Crashes in North Carolina: A Historical and Present-Day Portrait of Grief
Supervisor: Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Graduate Liberal Studies
Paul Rehren
On the Stability of Moral Judgment Over Time
Supervisor: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Philosophy
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
