Past Master's Projects

The variety of master's projects produced by our students testifies to the interdisciplinary nature of the Duke GLS program.  Some take the form of a traditional master's thesis, but explore issues from a perspective that requires stepping back from disciplinary boundaries or combining the methods of different disciplines.  Others combine traditional academic analysis with other modes and genres -- whether creative, documentary or practical.   Each of them represents the culminating efforts of a student in achieving the MALS degree.  

From 2014-22, a few projects each year were awarded the designation of "Exemplary Master's Project," and marked as such in these records.  Search for the word "exemplary" to find them.  Exemplary projects were highlighted as particularly good models for students contemplating master's projects of their own.  A video showcase featuring some of our 2019-20 winners may be found here.

Starting in 2022-23, all students completing projects are invited to present their work in a public year-end Master's Project Showcase. Projects whose authors choose to present at this event are designated "Showcase Projects."

The Entrepreneurial Blueprint – Unravelling the Relationship of Personality Traits, Cognitive Strategies, and Entrepreneurial Behavior
Fall 2023
Author:
Jakob Sieber
Supervisor:

Despite its omnipresence in everyday life and economic importance, entrepreneurship remains largely disregarded in academic inquiries of cognitive and behavioral processes. This project seeks to provide a comprehensive yet concise inquiry into the different psychological facets that shape entrepreneurship. It offers valuable insights for educators, policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs themselves, aiming to foster a more supportive and effective environment for entrepreneurial endeavors. It begins by outlining the implications of personality for entrepreneurship unravelling the convoluted literature on the predictive qualities of personality in entrepreneurship. It then shifts its focus towards the implications of Judgmental Decision Theory (JDM) for the field. After evaluating Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 and 2 theory and its practical implications for entrepreneurship, the project concludes by collecting empirical evidence for the distinct ways in which entrepreneurs think and make choices. Specifically, it tests the ability of entrepreneurs to successfully overcome intuitive choices in a Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) and measuring their overconfidence (i.e., overestimation) compared to MBA candidates.

Me, Myself, and I: Understanding Identity Denial of Multiethnic and Multiracial People in White Settings
Spring 2023
Author:
Samantha Lauren Maksud
Supervisor:

How people identify themselves and the reasons behind self-identification are important in understanding the human experience and interactions in social groups. Understanding how people navigate their identity when denied access to multiple identity groups they inherently belong to is equally as important. This is known as “Identity Denial.” Identity denial is a type of social threat to acceptance that occurs when an individual goes unrecognized by a group to which they belong. This typically happens when the individual does not resemble a prototypical member of the group. I theorize that Identity Denial contributes to how multi-ethnic individuals navigate their identity in predominantly white social settings. In this project, I synthesize secondary research focusing on the four main chapters of identity denial, identity switching, negotiation of identity, and belonging in social groups.

Walking to a Place You Belong: Exploring the Impact of Walkability and Historical Factors on Durham’s Black Wall Street
Spring 2023
Author:
Alissa Goode
Supervisor:

This project investigates the significance of walkability and historical factors, such as redlining, Jim Crow laws, and Durham's Urban Renewal Project, and their impact on the emergence and demise of Durham's Black Wall Street. Additionally, the study examines how these factors contributed to fostering a sense of community and pride within the Black community in Durham. The study utilizes a GIS-based analysis and a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Story Map that includes historical maps and directories from Durham to visualize and analyze the spatial distribution of businesses and community resources in the Black Wall Street area. The study's results suggest that walkability played a crucial role in the success of Black Wall Street and that historical factors, such as redlining and urban renewal, contributed to its decline. However, despite these challenges, the Black community in Durham fostered a strong sense of community and pride, which has continued to shape the city's culture and identity.

Link to Part 2 ArcGIS Online Story Map: https://arcg.is/0e8Sbv

We Want To Live (Asé)
Spring 2023
Author:
Toya Bonita Wallace
Supervisor:

As a creative project with an exhibition as its final exposition, my Master’s project is a series of charcoal drawings, mixed-media drawings, mixed-media paintings, original essays, newspaper articles, sculptures, and poetry protesting the frequent senseless killings of unarmed Black people in America. (Also included, is a copy of a personal letter from former United States senator Richard Burr). My Master’s Thesis project was inspired in part by one of my ancestors, my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Mr. Samuel Nathaniel Nuckles, an activist, a formerly enslaved person, and a former member of The South Carolina House of Representatives from the years 1868 to 1872. (Grant 260, 533) Additionally, inspiration for this project evolved from my own experience with unnecessary/unwarranted police brutality, at the hands of South Carolina police, from which I was fortunate enough to survive. However, as history has shown us, this is not always the fate for other unarmed Black people and their encounters with police officers. Currently, we see a rash of killings of unarmed Black people. My goal is to do whatever I can to aid in bringing an end to this unfortunate chaotic trend. Therefore, I create protest artwork and protest poetry not only because the senseless killings of unarmed Black people must stop, but I also create protest artwork and protest poetry because “We Want To Live (Asé).” Asé is a term from the Yoruba language of West Africa, it is a philosophical concept representing power that makes things happen and produces change.

My graduation project exhibition time:

April 17, 2023

Exhibition Space: The Fredric Jameson Gallery-Duke East Campus

Inequality, Resistance, and Reparations: A Step Towards Justice for Puerto Rico
Spring 2023
Author:
Tatiana González Buonomo
Supervisor:

This project examines how Puerto Rico’s history has been shaped by colonialism, specifically through the construction of structural inequality from the 16th century until today. It analyzes how the Spanish colonization established social inequality through many mechanisms, including othering, the privileging of whiteness, the systematic erasure of Blackness, slavery, and the influence of the Church. Other historical moments to be highlighted are the notable events of rebellion performed by both the enslaved and the free population. These efforts of resistance were continued by three Puerto Rican feminists: Lola Rodríguez de Tió, Luisa Capetillo, and Julia de Burgos, through their lives and literary contributions. Structural inequality became further entrenched with the United States’ colonization, and I focus on the Foraker Law, the Maritime Merchant Act, the Ponce massacre, the birth control experiments, the occupation of Vieques, and the differential response to Hurricane María to show how the U.S. has benefited from and continues to harm the Puerto Rican population. In this project, I argue that there is a case to be made for reparations in which the United States acknowledges, redresses, and apologizes for the harms and atrocities committed to the Puerto Rican people. Instances in which the U.S. exploited Puerto Rico are not the exception to the rule; they reflect a pattern. I made these observations through a survey of the available scholarly literature, articles, and a literature review of the only work which posits a preliminary framework for reparations conducted by Pedro A. Malavet. My project addresses a huge gap in the literature, since the only scholarly article regarding reparations for Puerto Rico was published in 2002. Through a program for reparations, Puerto Ricans could balance structural inequalities and take a step towards justice.

Split
Fall 2023
Author:
Douglass Coleman
Supervisor:

The beginning of the 21st century comes off as familiar, the remake of a violent and divisive time in our history. Like we are all on a slippery, rapidly accelerating slide into increasing civil strife, neighbor against neighbor. Political, economic, and racial differences feel like they create extreme world views which cannot coexist, especially in the United States. As a Black man, the world feels increasingly anti-Black. How can we make alliances, build coalitions, or create unity, if we do not trust each other’s intentions? For those of us who are believers in people, we have faith in a brighter day. I have utilized speculative fiction short stories to explore these issues. What if things got worse before they got better? What if the United States split apart, how would we rebuild and reorganize society? Speculative fiction can suggest some practices and visions of a possible future? My stories navigate a dystopian world, where characters reach toward a utopian reality. Speculative fiction can serve as practice, a trial to examine issues of division, alliance, and coalition, given the current, divisive historical moment. We have all had the conversation a thousand times: what is to be done with this world we live in? We can be better informed by utilizing the fictional exploration of real-world social challenges. This piece will serve as part of the unfinished conversation with my father, my friends, and those whom I would call allies.

The Gaze of the Other: Acknowledging Autofiction
Spring 2023
Author:
Tiffany M Frye
Supervisor:

Autofiction, an emerging subgenre of contemporary literary fiction, has received attention in the last fifteen years for its depiction of the author’s life in a so-called fictional context. There are many viewpoints arguing for what makes something autofiction, but they tend to revolve around the level of factual truth contained in the work. This project argues that the question of how much a work of autofiction resembles an author’s life has critics and readers stuck in an unhelpful picture of what autofiction is. Importantly, this picture obscures the type of response these works demand from the reader. This project argues that we can better understand autofiction by examining the philosophical concepts it brings to life. Through examining the works of two exemplars of autofiction, Rachel Cusk and Karl Ove Knausgaard, this project shows how concepts of subjectivity, acknowledgement, and a rejection of skepticism combine in autofiction to steer away from a way of thinking rooted in narrative and towards something new.

Can Chinese Tourists Support Nature-Based Tourism?
Fall 2022
Author:
Di Xu
Supervisor:

Nature-based tourism is an important form of tourism, which uses natural resources as the basis for the development of tourism projects and attracts tourists to watch or interact with nature for the purpose of relaxation, education, and pleasure. Since China is now the largest single source of tourists for the world’s tourism industry, understanding Chinese tourists’ perception of nature and their behaviors and preferences when participating in nature-based tourism is helpful for the further development of nature-based tourism. This paper first reviews the theories created by Chinese literati on the relationship between humans and nature and their development in history, then analyzes Chinese tourists’ use, attitudes, and feedback on natural attractions through direct and indirect measures. Then this paper uses SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to explore the advantages and disadvantages of developing nature-based tourism in China, and finally proposes policy recommendations based on the above research.

Realism in Ancient History Documentaries
Fall 2022
Author:
Jie Yu
Supervisor:

This project focuses on the representation of realism in ancient history documentaries. While documentaries are often distinguished from fictional films for the general public by their intimate connection to reality and their strong persuasiveness, the fictional component of documentaries is higher than spectators’ expectations. Compared to other types of documentaries, the time and space distance between the producers of ancient history documentaries and the original material leads to the problem that ancient history documentaries face a greater challenge in authenticity. In order to seek the documentary mission of recording reality and to bring it closer to spectators’ expected authenticity, exploring the issue from the perspective of realistic expressions in ancient history documentaries is meaningful. Therefore, by combining theory and practice, based on realism-related theories, this project explores the expressive techniques in ancient history documentaries and provides examples and reflections on theoretical practice in filming experience. This project proposes the impossibility of restoring reality in films and emphasizes that the realism in ancient history documentaries should be pursued with a belief in the way of conducting a ritual. The results are evaluations of the realistic tendency of the commonly used expression techniques in ancient history documentaries and confirm the importance of research investments and filmmakers’ commitment during practice.

Co-location Opportunities for Dynamic Use of Existing and Proposed School Buildings
Spring 2022
Author:
Bozhena Etin
Supervisor:

We have, on average, 1,098 to 2,168 annual school closures per year. That means thousands of school buildings need to be repurposed every year or they will stand vacant, become vandalized, and bring blight and a sense of abandonment to their neighborhoods. However, at the same time, there is an ever-growing need for affordable housing, community centers, meeting and workspaces, childcare facilities, parks and recreation areas, and other community spaces that can be accommodated within these structures. In this paper, I analyze the typology of the school building through history, and through some notable examples, demonstrate how school buildings can be adapted to other uses in the community. I also present examples of schools and community spaces sharing common buildings and the unique opportunities this co-location provides for the students as well as community members. The ultimate takeaway for this paper is to show that a school building is not just a place we send our kids to get an education. It can and should be a place for all people in the community to feel a part of and welcomed.

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