Masters Thesis Students Prepare for Presentations

After a monthslong dive into their topics through challenging research and writing, students are preparing to give their presentations. But first, more research and writing.

Seniors Jesse Gelman, Levi Halliwell, Mert Kaplan, Nicholas Moutsatsos, Serena Sharma and Avi Zalkin, along with juniors Neena Atkins, Logan Dundas, Annadale Dyott, Rohan Lavery, Erez Erkal and Clio Foley, have selected subjects as varied as the definition of creativity, animal behavior and urban planning.

“Most of the time in school, a path is already cut out for us with specific readings, assignments, tests and questions prepared in advance,” Dundas explained. “When I was planning out my paper, I got the chance to decide what I wanted to study and which questions I wanted to spend the year finding answers for under the guidance of Mr. Ives, a very supportive and thoughtful teacher,” he said.

“One thing that I love about teaching this class is how invested students get in each other’s work,” Ives said. “There is a lot of independence in this course — students pick their own topics — but it’s also very much a group effort, with students sharing ideas and sources, and often finding connections between their topics that they might not have expected at the start of the year.”

He noted that “Neena is writing about French philosopher Jacques Ellul’s ideas about propaganda, which turns out to have very strong connections with Logan’s research into post-World War II existentialism. And Clio is exploring whether human consciousness can survive the destruction of the physical brain, a topic that has deep connections to Serena’s research into the nature of artificial intelligence.”

Ives is looking forward to seeing his students’ final papers. “This year student work has been quite strong,” he said. “For whatever reason, the trend is that the topics are very philosophical. Aristotle and Plato keep coming up. We’ve had a lot of arguments about the nature of truth.”
 
Atkins finds herself drawn to those weighty yet engaging conversations. “We usually start talking about the topic of someone's paper, and then the discussion almost takes on a life of its own,” she said. “Classes are filled with laughter and debates, and I always look forward to attending!”

The symposia dates are scheduled for late February and early March when the students will present their findings during evening sessions.