Students may complete artistic projects for their thesis

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Hernandez-Fitch also emphasized how flmed theses fundamentally difer from more conventional thesis forms, namely research papers and essays.

“I think a lot of people can’t read through a 60-page thesis, but they can watch an eight-minute movie and get the point,” Hernandez-Fitch said. “One of the best experiences I had was actually the flm showing, and seeing my work with people I love and care about.”

McKenna Kellner ’23, a studio art major, also spoke about how her thesis, a collection of architectural drawings titled “Playhouse,” doesn’t ft the mold of a traditional thesis.

“It’s more of a project than it is a thesis — we’re not required to write anything necessarily … It’s more for the development of a body of work with a specifc conceptual or material goal,” Kellner said. “It’s about thinking about where your work comes from and artists who are doing similar things to you … and trying to see how that applies to your own work.”

Kellner also spoke about how it was initially difcult for her to articulate aspects of her project, given the strictly visual nature of her thesis.

“I think it was difcult putting my project proposal into words,” Kellner said. “It’s not something that’s really taught in classes necessarily: how to talk about your artwork and your practice.”

Nevertheless, Kellner’s work is formed on the basis of a coherent narrative, one entrenched in memories of a past self. “My proposal for the project was on abstractions of foor plans and elevations in reference to personal memoir — places I had grown up in, places I had been — to sort of narrate a story about physical place and belonging and movement and misplacement,” Kellner said. “Conceptually, there’s an essay by bell hooks called ‘Homeplace’ that a lot of my project is based of of, which is … focused on the idea of building a dream house or an imaginary house, as even those imaginary feelings are rooted in a real sense of poverty.”

Kellner also emphasized the importance her peers and faculty mentors had on encouraging her to develop and expand on her ideas for her thesis.

“I took an advanced printmaking class in the fall, and the class was only six people, and a lot of them were [studio art] majors,” Killner said. “We had a really great group dynamic, so we worked a lot together.”

It is this combined sense of community and comparative progress that Kellner emphasizes refecting on her experience.

“I think [the senior thesis] is the best way to push yourself to make the best work you can and also develop relationships with faculty directly,”

Kellner said.

Underlying all of the senior theses is an overwhelming urge to seize