Thesis Projects
Each year, a number of Communication, Culture, & Technology students choose to pursue the Master’s thesis. This project serves as a capstone experience that integrates and extends the knowledge acquired during studies in the program and can serve as a representation of students’ analytical abilities for professional purposes or for further graduate studies. Explore some recent examples below.
2021 Thesis
2021 Thesis
- “Cura Personalis in College Athletics: A Case Study of Student-Athletes at Georgetown University”
by Nicholas Genovese - “Autism Does Not Speak: An Analysis of the Silencing of the Autism Spectrum Disorder Community in Television Dramas”
by Michael Willson - “Decoding Ideologies in Lana Del Rey’s Celebrity Status and Artistry”
by Joseph Hammett - “Toward Ethical Applications of Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Current Uses of Facial Recognition Technology and Advancing Bias Mitigation Strategies“
by Alie Fordyce - “Military Video Games as Interactive Spectacles of War: Representations of Modern Conflict in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)”
by Ted Harrison - “Parent Reports of Children’s Parasocial Relationships with Conversational Agents: Trusted Voices in Children’s Lives“
by Anna Hoffman - “Fear, Media and Self-Confidence: Chinese Students’ Willingness to Express Opinion”
by Wei Zou - “The Han Lens: Media Representation and Public Reception of Chinese Ethnic Minorities: A Case of Ayanga”
by Zhengyan Cai - “Exploring the Use of Social Media as a Platform to Persuade the Public: A Comparative Study of the US and China”
by Fan Wang
2020 Thesis
- “The Old Puppet Masters: Content Moderation on Computer Bulletin Board Systems“
by Kevin Ackermann
- “For Us By Us: Innovating a 90’s Streetwear Brand for Today’s Fashion Industry “
by Dominique Haywood - “YouTube as an Ally of Convenience: The Platform’s Building and Breaking with the LGBTQ+ Community”
by Jill Fredenburg
- “Characteristics and Trends of the Voter Registration and Turnout Rate of Asian Americans in U.S. Elections: A Demographic Study of Asian American Political Participation“
by Zihan Xiao
- “Two Conversations For One: Synchronous Multimodal Communication“
by Shannon Mair
- “Setting Intentions: Considering Racial Justice Implications of Facial Recognition Technology“
by Taylor Vinson - “Women, Work, and Family: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Gender Identities and Archetypes in Television Dramas“
by Jiaqi Zeng - “Community Identity, Gender, and Romance: An Analysis of Galgame Fan Culture“
by Siheng Zhu - “What Do the Guards Think? Tracing the Discourse of Employee Surveillance in Academic Institutions“
by Jenny Lee - “A Modern Digital Accessibility Issue: Understanding Social Media Anxiety in Users“
by Hayley Pontia - “Sounding the Alarm for “Watchdogs”: Threats to Journalists’ Digital Safety and Protection Strategies“
by Yaolin Chen - “Mediums and Imbrication: Toward a Middle-Oriented Historiography of Technologies“
by Matthew Lindia - “A Floating History: The Korean War and China’s Political Use of War Memory“
by Huazhi Qin
- “An Economy of ‘Likes’: Instagram and Debord’s Spectacle“
by Jacob Pulitzer
2019 Thesis
- “The Medium is a Misnomer: The Missing Discussion in Online Discussion Forums“
by Roma Abhyankar - “I Feel Rejected: Alienation and Social Connection in the Personal Narratives of School Shooters“
by Mihika Sapru - “Humanizing Japan After World War II: Motifs of Sentiment and Sensibility as Expressed by the Mother Figure in Kinoshita Keisuke’s Hahamono Films“
by Fanglin Wang - “Melodramatic and Formulaic: The Global Appeal of Korean Television Dramas“
by Kathryn Hartzell - “The Myth of Women’s Empowerment: The United Nations and Athleta’s Corporate Social Responsibility“
by Grace Maliska - “Five free expression safeguards from a Facebook user’s perspective“
by Zak Rogoff - “Voter Privacy: A Transatlantic Comparative Analysis of Electoral Systems“
by Catherine Boardman - “BOLD Magazine: A Brave Space For Young Adults To Live Authentically“
by Whitney Maddox
2018 Thesis
2018 Thesis
- “Private Post: Personal Messaging in U.S. Postal and Electronic Mail”
by Rebecca Kielty - “Posts and G-G-Ghosts: Exploring the Portrayal of Stuttering in IT (2017)”
by Mary-Cecile Gayoso - “What’s in Your Face? Discrimination in Facial Recognition Technology”
by Jieshu Wang - “Unwrapping Presence: The Impact of Cell-Phones on Face-to-Face Conversations”
by Amanda Morris - “An American in Paris: Investigating the Discourse of “No-Go Zones” Through Documentary Film”
by Holly Koch - “Desegmenting a Gameworld: The Super Mario Series”
by Ojas Patel - “Tying the Knot: A Discussion with Indian Americans on Arranged Marriage through Bollywood”
by Madhavi Reddi - “Sex, Lies, and Imitation Games: The Ethical Implications of an Artificially Intelligent Girlfriend”
by Ellen Kaufman - “An Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma on Networks”
by Chen Shen - “ComicCon-Networked Culture and Participatory Business in the US, Japan, and China”
by Zhihua Wu - “NewSpace: An Era of Entrepreneurial Branding”
by Shalina Chatlani
2017 Thesis
2017 Thesis
- “Leave Me Alone: Protecting Children’s Privacy in the Digital Age”
by Katherine Hild - “Political Socialization of the Deaf Community Through New Media Accessibility”
by Julia Wardle - “Televised Feminism and Consumable Solutions: Japanese Feminism through The Lens of Female Oriented Workplace Dramas”
by Yasheng She - “Rhetoric of Beekeeping: An analysis of science, resistance, and innovation for the future of biodiversity conservation”
by Lauren Neville - “The Crypto Wars: An Interpretation of the Privacy versus National Security Debate from a Standards Perspective”
by Sushovan Sircar - “Nostalgia in Anime: Redefining Japanese Cultural Identity in Global Media Texts”
by Susan Noh - “Celebrating and Discussing the Queerly Masculine: Hollywood Superheroes Reimagined in Fan Videos on Chinese Barrage Video Websites”
by Jingyi Gu - “Chinese American Participation in the 2016 Presidential Election: The Influence of Chinese Ethnic Media”
by Siyu Yin - “Digitizing #PublicReach: How Indian Government leverages social media presence for government communication”
by Komal Sachdeva - “ICTs and the GCC: Economic Infrastructure and Policy Control”
by Mariam Karimi
2016 Thesis
2016 Thesis
- Do Political Film Adaptations Affect Voter Knowledge?
by Angela Hart - Online Lovers and Offline Liars: A Communication Theory Analysis of MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show
by Ryann Price - Exploring Political Interest as a Multidimensional Concept
by Isaac Riddle - ICT for Dictators: How Global Populists Leverage Internet for Political Gain
by William Vogt - code/quilt
by Olivia Payne - Decoding the Candidates: A Semiotic Analysis and Literacy Guide to Graphic Design Principles in Political Campaign Branding
by Jilanne Doom - The Digital Gatekeeper: How Personalization Algorithms and Mobile Applications Have Changed News Forever
by Molly Crain - Who Used Our Findings? A Study of American Foundations and the Evaluation of Policy Research
by Jaime Gonzalez-Capitel Martorel - Disrupting the Status Quo: A Case Study of Digital Mobilization and Digital Activism in Black Lives Matter
by Tyler Goodridge - Ephemerality and the Archive: Memory in the Age of Digital Remediation
by Nathan Dansky - From Social Media to Art Making: Synthesizing Filipino Diaspora Discourse on Typhoon Yolanda
by Amanda Andrei - Queer Embodiments, Abstract Drag, and Derek Jarman’s ‘Blue’
by Hannah Calkins - Communication Efficiencies: Utilizing Electromagnetic Spectrum for Wireless Broadband Services
by J. Stephanie Rose
CCT theses from previous years are available through the University’s Electronic Thesis Database.