By Christian Fernandez
Months of research and writing, hours upon hours of writing and editing, all packed into a twenty-five minute presentation. Second and third year students had to endure such difficulties as MBU hosted its annual Thesis Festival on February 25 and 26. Whether with Powerpoint slideshows or groups of classmates as actors, students presented summations of their theses. Topics ranged from the origin of the character of Oberon to a comparison of early modern history plays’ appeal with the fame of modern day musicals. As Dr. Paul Menzer explained, “The annual MLitt/MFA thesis festival is an opportunity for our students to put their work into a wider conversation with our community. The Thesis Festival was designed — and is run — to expand the constituency for student work, to put this student’s scholarly project into conversation with that student’s scholarly project.”
Second year students Jacob Cornwell and Linnea Barklund were two of the presenters. Cornwell’s thesis assesses Shakespeare’s use of short lines inside plays’ verse structure and how those lines can operate in productions. Barklund’s thesis deals with “religious continuities in post-Reformation England through the lens of perpetual virginity and methods of futurity that do not include children.” Her thesis specifically focuses on Catholic women.
Cornwell’s idea for his thesis arose from a paper he wrote as a first year student for his Textual Culture class. “I traced the development of the treatment of short lines in print,” Cornwell said. “This coupled with my experiences in productions that gave inconsistent treatment to short lines, almost as if they were afraid of them.” Barklund was intrigued with her topic even before she applied to the MBU program. “In 2016, I read Virgin: the Untouched History by Hanne Blank, which sparked some questions and ideas in my mind. I read some of the books in her bibliography and decided I wanted to spend more time with the concept of virginity.” When she took Social History with Dr. Mary Hill Cole, Barklund found opportunities to narrow her ideas.
Each had their own approach to prepare for their presentations. Because his thesis dealt heavily with performance, Cornwell knew he wanted classmates to perform scenes incorporating his research. “I discovered as I was writing my thesis that it is very difficult to talk about short lines and how they work or do not work on the stage without being able to hear what I was talking about.” Barklund focused more on a lecture-style due to the more analytical nature of her paper. “I knew that I did not want to be gimmicky with my presentation. As I got closer to the festival this year, I realized that it would probably be best to let my ideas speak for themselves by simply presenting a paper with no additional people or technology.” For the three to four days prior to the festival, Barklund was able to work exclusively on expressing her thesis in the short amount of time afforded to the presentation.
Initially, both expected to be nervous about presenting. However, each of them enjoyed the experience. “I loved it,” said Cornwell,“I had so much fun because I loved my topic and material and it was material I really wanted to share with everyone.” Barklund felt prepared, having scripted the entire presentation. “I just had to read it well” she said “and trust past-Linnea that it would make sense.”
