Thesis highlights from the fall 2023 graduating cohort: Simon Ivcevic, Gloria Nogueira, Luiza Zanardi, and Emma Hubbard

As the fall semester of 2023 drew to a close, a group of students from Bard College Berlin were diligently completing their undergraduate theses—a culmination of a year's devoted research focused on a specific area of interest. The topics presented by students over the final weeks of the semester were as varied and diverse as the graduates themselves.

True to the liberal arts curriculum essential to the BCB education, graduating students are encouraged to explore their unique academic passions and find unanswered questions they are interested in pursuing. They are free to choose a topic that aligns with their own interests and, together with support from an academic advisor, carry out the large-scale project to completion. Many students choose topics they are interested in studying further after graduating.

Simon, a graduate from the Literature and Rhetoric program, studied Tolkien’s fantasy worlds and the unique intersection between linguistics and storytelling. He was interested in “the way the fantasy genre makes use of elements from real-world cultures and languages in the creation of their worlds, and what theoretical implications that has for the genre.” He presented his thesis “Philology and the Mythopoetic in Middle Earth” on December 15, and plans to pursue the intersection between history, language, and storytelling after his time at BCB.

Gloria Nogueira had been thinking about Bo Burnham's comedy special Inside for a long time, “especially its connections to Kierkegaard's existential thought.” She combined these interests into a single thesis project titled "Inside/Outside: Viewing Bo Burnham's Critique of Internet Aestheticism Through a Kierkegaardian Lens,” which she presented on December 5th. She says both Burnham and Kierkegaard “address the theme of inner struggles between aesthetic desires and ethical drives in similar, relevant, and beautiful ways.” After graduation, Gloria plans to apply to master’s programs in philosophy, and hopes to spend some time with friends and family before continuing on her academic journey.

Luiza Zanardi, a student in the Literature and Rhetoric program, wanted to explore the tensions in García Márquez’s 100 Years of Solitude. Arguably one of the most important novels in the 20th century, the work is filled with contradictions that Luiza dedicated her thesis to exploring. “While the novel has a huge socialist following, as García Márquez was himself a socialist, it is simultaneously tinged by fatalism and this idea that things can never really change. I wanted to know how both of these things could be true about one same novel,” she says. She presented her thesis, “The Emancipation of Speculation: Reconciling Distorted Realism & Marxist Critique in One Hundred Years Of Solitude,” on December 8th.  

Emma Hubbard’s thesis is “Acceleration and Nostalgia in American Higher Education,” a topic she chose after one of her classes exposed her to readings and academic works surrounding the topic. She found a publication “that published a lot on higher education practices and how they’re related to business trends in the western world,” which led her to develop further on some of these ideas in order to produce her own fresh take on the material. To further expand on this topic, Emma will be applying to masters programs in Berlin following graduation.

The fall 2023 graduating class presented their theses on campus throughout the last few weeks of the semester, each one a unique reflection of the graduates’ varied academic interests. The thesis submissions and the ensuing presentations marked the final step of graduates' academic paths at BCB and their departure into life beyond the classroom.

Post Date: 01-08-2024