To fulfill the department’s requirements, communication and rhetorical studies (CRS) graduate students have a choice to make: complete comps (or comprehensive exams) or work on a graduate thesis. Students who choose the latter option then dedicate their graduate career to discovering what they would like to research for a thesis that can span from 50 to 125 pages. In the final semester of the two-year program, students then present and defend their thesis. Recently, CRS first-year master’s students specified what their thesis topics are. Below, two students discuss their thesis plans.
![Yiqing Ran]()
Yiqing Ran
What is your current thesis idea?
Although I believe it will be modified later, my current thesis idea is the rhetorical analysis of the Chinese governmental response to the COVID-19 epidemic, and specifically, I want to explore the image that the Chinese government wants to convey to the world through diplomatic rhetoric during the epidemic.
What inspired you to go in this direction?
The postcolonial theory that I learned last semester in CRS 603: Contemporary Rhetorical Theories fascinated me, and my final paper for Kiewe’s class is also about this. In order to research for that paper, I learned a lot about the decolonization practice in China. And when I became familiar with this theory, I realized that the expression “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” is a practice of decolonization per se. So, I became interested in the practice of decolonization in China. During the epidemic, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued many announcements, and I saw a lot of debates with Western media. More importantly, these debates are not limited to the topic of the epidemic, but use the epidemic as a medium to debate policies, political systems, and even ideology. In particular, when the Chinese government has performed well in the prevention and control of the epidemic, it seems that the whole world has also begun to reflect on the established social order. Therefore, I feel that the post-epidemic era seems to become a completely new field, which is prompting a global reflection. Combining these ideas, I really want to know what the Chinese government is trying to convey through the epidemic, and how this message is shaped.
Do you see challenges in pursuing this topic?
In the beginning, I only had a very vague idea. I knew that my topic was related to COVID-19, to rhetorical analysis, to China, and to postcolonialism, but it was very difficult for me to express a clear idea. And I don’t know to what level my own ability boundaries will allow me to explore. Later, I had a lot of dialogues with many professors in our department. Step by step, I gave up some of the original ideas and refined my own direction to form the current idea. However, I have to admit that I still don’t know where my argument will go in the end. I don’t know if I will do a descriptive study, or try to do a critical study, or explain the Chinese government’s choice from a Chinese perspective to Western audiences.
Because I am in the stage of collecting data, even if there are some directions, I still feel that my collection is kind of aimless, and I am not sure that what I am doing will be used in the end. I collected all the news of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China during the epidemic, as well as the accusations made by the Western media on China, and I also collected the speeches of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China before the epidemic. I feel that I want to explore the Chinese government’s response to the crisis, but I have not given up on the “shifting” of diplomatic strategy brought about by the epidemic. And I have not fully confirmed that I have found a suitable framework for this topic.
I guess the biggest challenge comes from having a very ambitious idea while my own ability may not support me in realizing it.
How does your topic connect to you?
It is not difficult to find that my topic is very political. In fact, I used to have no interest in political issues. On the one hand, I feel that life in China is very different from it in the United States. In China, life is life, and personal lifestyle has nothing to do with politics, so we do not talk about politics in our daily life; on the other hand, my parents always tell me when I come to a country as an international student, it is dangerous for me to talk about politics. But when I entered the rhetorical studies field, I realized that there is almost no voice of Chinese scholars here, and there are almost no rhetorical studies in China. I think this is a pity. If we understand every discipline as the angles of looking at the world, the subject of Chinese culture is missing from the eyes of the rhetoric world, and China also lacks the angle of understanding the world from rhetorical studies. So I started to explore this. On the one hand, I hope to bring a Chinese voice to the rhetoric world. On the other hand, I also hope that I can bring something back.
If asked why I am interested in postcolonialism and decolonization or how these are related to me, I think my initial field of interest lies in women and gender studies. In my opinion, the struggle and resistance of women in the patriarchal society are essentially the same as the struggle and resistance of the colonized against the colonizers in the Western hegemony. In this sense, the female perspective is similar to the third-world countries’ perspective. I hope that in my future academic career, I can learn more and more about these two perspectives and make them benefit each other.
![Seth Knievel]()
Seth Knievel
Seth KnievelWhat is your current thesis idea?
I’m writing about how gay men talk about risk associated with casual sex during COVID-19. This includes an interesting comparison between perceived COVID-19 risk and risk of sexually transmitted infections. So far, I’ve done a half dozen interviews with gay men and have already learned so much!
What inspired you to go in this direction?
I knew I wanted to write about gay men and hookup culture, though I wasn’t sure how COVID would weigh into the discussion until I realized how much has and has not changed because of COVID-19. I was confused and concerned about it, which made me think I should probably write about it. I know in talking to gay men that they don’t read about that part of their experience very often. People will write about homophobia and queer love, but hookup culture is largely ignored despite being a big part of many gay mens’ experiences.
Do you see challenges in pursuing this topic?
It may be uncomfortable for some people and at times it’s not comfortable for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an important part of the experience of some gay men and worthy of space in the academia. Given the discomfort some may feel about this, finding participants is hard. But by using dating and hookup apps and maintaining anonymity, I’ve already found some great participants.
How does your topic connect to you?
As a gay man, I’ve been fascinated by the unique ways in which gay men interact with each other, both through sex and also through stories. By collecting the experiences of gay men, it’s been refreshing seeing commonalities in people like me, and the different ways that my participants go about their everyday lives have helped me learn so much about them and myself.
–Shewit Mikael G’22, CRS News Team