Last month Brasenose English undergraduates gathered to take part in a Dissertation Symposium, where third year English students presented their research to an audience of fellow students and tutors. The Dissertation forms a key part of the English Language and Literature degree at Oxford, giving final year students the opportunity to explore a topic of their choice in great depth in constructing an 8000 word essay. The Symposium was designed to provide a forum for a broad discussion and feedback on each of our third year students’ explorations, around the time that they had begun their final write ups.
An impressive breadth of topics were introduced during the presentations. For instance, Kierri Price talked about Mrs Beeton and the Philosopher's Stone: Victorian Food and the Alchemy of Value. Commented on the experience, Kierri said: “I'm writing a dissertation on Victorian recipes, and other food-related things. I am a massive fan of baking, and had lots of preconceptions about Victorian food and culture; surely everything was just boiled to a mush and tasted awful? Actually, although there a couple of dubious recipes, it is amazing how adventurous they are. There are influences from India, recipes that range from the immensely economical to the hugely extravagant, and guidelines for how to run a dinner party for 60 people. I am still working out exactly where I am going with it the Disseration, but the Symposium we had was actually really useful. Which of course I made cake for...”
Lucy Thompson-Sharpe delivered her research on Creating life: Disney, Pixar, and believable animation. Lucy said: “I was feeling apprehensive in the run up to the presentation. I would be presenting on Disney films to a room of tutors and fellow students, and was unsure about how it would go: would people take it seriously? Would they see it as academic enough? These worries were soon dispelled. I came out of the experience with a renewed confidence in and enthusiasm for my own work, knowing that I had been able to interest people in what I was interested in. Everyone was lovely and open-minded, the food and wine were appreciated, and the feedback I received was helpful and challenging. It was a great event!”
Peter Kerr-Davies is writing his dissertation on the author William Faulkner, and reflected: “Presenting your own ideas to a group of Oxford professors is a bit of a daunting prospect, but as soon as I walked in I felt at ease; they'd provided food, drinks, and invited the English students from other years to make it much less formal. The feedback and questions from both tutors and students was really helpful in sharpening the focus of my Dissertation, and it was so interesting to hear the other presentations and then chat about them afterwards. 10/10 would sympose again.”
Phoebe Bradley, a second year English student, was in the audience for the talks, and commented: “It was a great opportunity to see what everyone has been individually working on. All of the English group are very close friends anyway so any opportunities for discussion across the year groups makes for a fantastic event. It was also inspiring (and a little terrifying) for the second and first years who have it all to come”.
Other topics discussed included Thomas Hardy: Visuality, Imagination, and Pictorial Writing led by Jess Ward, Rhythm and Memory in the Works of Dylan Thomas and W.B Yeats led by Emma Woodhouse, Gay Gaze: Figuring desire in the neo-Victorian novels of Sarah Waters led by Annie Hayter, and Oh I do like to be beside the seaside! led by Harriet Astbury.
Read more about English at Brasenose.