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Junior Project and Senior Thesis

Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts > Academics > Program of Studies > Junior Project and Senior Thesis

Through the Junior Project students have the opportunity to spend the greater part of one academic year reading the works of a single author of their choosing from within their major discipline. Juniors also consider key critical works about these authors and their writings. Near the end of the spring semester, each junior joins three members of the faculty in a thirty-minute conversation about the works of his or her chosen author.

During their final year at the college, seniors have the opportunity to write a thesis and introduce the fruit of their study to their peers and members of the faculty through a sustained presentation and discussion of their work. This opportunity is open to students who wish to graduate with honors as well as to students who have not participated in the Honors Program.

Below is list of sample theses from recent years:

Senior Thesis Source Text
Here I Am: A Reflection on Human Understanding and Divine Providence in Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy and the Book of Job The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius
Atomized Man and How He Contributes to Totalitarian Movements The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt
Jay Gatsby: A Failed Life and the Beauty Contained Within It The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
“And all these things shall be added unto you…”: Justice, Saint Louis, and the Compatibility of Sanctity and Rulership Life of St. Louis, Joinville
Leisure and Contemplation: The Fight Against Nihilism Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Pieper
A Time to Laugh: The Place of Laughter in Man’s Relationship with God The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, Camus
What We Do in Life Echoes in Eternity: A Reflection on the Nature of Spiritual Warfare Psychomachia, Prudentius
Like Father, Like Son (A Reflection on the Generations in Turgenev’s Novel Fathers and Sons) Fathers and Sons, Turgenev
A Terrible Loyalty Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
Veil What is Sacred: On The Guidelines of Portraying the Body in Art Theology of the Body, John Paul II
Seven Notes of Liturgical Development: The Parameters of Liturgical Development: According to Cardinal Newman’s Theory of Doctrinal Development and Cardinal Ratzinger’s Liturgical Theology Spirit of the Liturgy, Ratzinger
A Token of Love: A Reflection on the Beauty of Suffering with Love in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
Invisible Engines: Revisiting the Thomist Argument for an Immaterial Soul of Man Summa Theologica, Aquinas
An Inquiry into the Relationship Between Socratism and Morality, as Understood by Friederich Nietzsche The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche
A Terrible Loyalty Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
The Least of These Homilies on the First Letter of John, Augustine
Putting on the Mask: On Macbeth’s Misunderstanding of Gender Roles Macbeth, Shakespeare
Imperial Virtue: Cato as an Illuminator of Dante’s Thought in The Divine Comedy on the Virtuous Life The Divine Comedy, Dante
The Antigone Question: A Study of Man’s Response to Unjust Law Treatise on Law, Aquinas
Words, Words, Words: A Study of the Power of Language in Shakespeare’s Othello Othello, Shakespeare
Principaliter Cordis: Personhood and the Primacy of the Heart in Aquinas’ De Motu Cordis De Motu Cordis, Aquinas

Seniors who elect not to write a thesis will complete a Senior Portfolio.  In this project, the student  meets with his or her major tutor to develop and articulate a substantial, perennial question from within the student’s major discipline and to select a primary text and supporting texts that the student will consult in formulating a response (or responses) to this question.  These then become the basis for an extended consideration of a perennial question that finds its ultimate form in a dialogic journal.

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