Senior Thesis
The thesis marks the culmination of your academic career at Reed. It’s an opportunity to build on what you’ve learned over the past three years in order to research and write about a historical question that is intellectually meaningful for you.
The division of history and social science requires students to submit a thesis first draft. This requirement applies to both those completing the thesis in the fall and those completing in the spring. The deadlines for submitting the first draft are set each year, but generally occur about one month before the college fall and spring final thesis deadlines. Students should consult their adviser and the division’s annual thesis memoranda for specific first draft requirements and procedures for the thesis. The completion of the thesis first draft by the stipulated divisional deadline is mandatory.
Recent Thesis Titles
- “Exhibition matters: reconsidering the conditions of reception in the history of early American movie-going, 1905–1926” by Joshua Brown ’15
- “‘We are an endangered species’: labor, land, and the decline of the Pacific Northwest lumber communities” by Brian Click ’15
- “‘Satan vomitted up a set of reptiles’: men, midwives, medicine, and the monopolization of American childbirth, 1800–1980” by Rebecca Garry ’16
- “1836 : Rivière, Foucault : 1973” by Mimi Howard ’15
- “Méndez v Westminster: Mexican Americans & School Desegregation in Southern California, 1946” by Joanna Rothchild ’14