Film and Media Studies

In its Honors Program Film and Media Studies, formerly known as Literary and Cultural Studies, awards one leve of Honors to successful student research projects (effective May 2009). The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the thesis deposited in Swem Library.

Key:

• Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
  Committee Chair + Other Committee Members

2024-2025

• Sean Dawson Burdett, "Direct Address in the Work of Obayashi Nobuhiko" (Honors) 
  Keith Johnson + Derek Vouri-Richard, Daniel Johnson
• Abigail Hannah Johnson, "More Than Just a Period Face: Sexualized Exploitation, Defiance, Complicity, and a Search for Feminist Agency in Keira Knightley's Acting Career" (Honors) 
  Timothy Barnard + Deborah Morse, Rich Lowry
• Hannah Isabella Montalvo, "From Hong Kong to Here: Minor Feelings and the Diasporic Dislocation of Asian American Identity"  (Honors) 
  Tanya Stadelmann + Keith Johnson, Stephen Sheehi
• Clara Faye Whitney, " "Carmen" a Screenplay" (Honors) 
  Brian Castleberry + Jon Pineda, Kevin Smith, Alicia Andrzejewski
• Yiyi Zheng, "K-Pop Concept Analysis in China: The Intellectual Discourse and Feminist Critical Interpretations" (Honors) 
  Daniel Johnson + Keith Johnson, Arthur Knight, Emily Wilcox

2023-2024

• No Honors students this year

2022-2023

• Nicholas Michael Hall, ""Looks Like Cotton Candy": Deconstructing Fascism in Post-War Japanese and Italian Horror Cinema" (Honors) 
  Jennifer Taylor + Keith Johnson, Sergio Ferrarese

2021-2022

• Madison Carel, "Mausoleum" (Honors)
  Jennifer Taylor + Brian Castleberry, Andrew Blossom

2020-2021

• Alexis Mays, "Creating a Professional TV Show Pitch" (Honors)
  Brian Castleberry + Arthur Knight, Jon Pineda
• Mary McCants, "Life is Ours to Choose: Empathy and Choice-Making in Detroit: Become Human" (Honors)
  Keith Johnson + Richard Lowry, Erin Minear
• Eva-Mariam Ssekibenga, "The Bermuda Dilemma" (Honors)
  Jon Pineda + Arthur Knight, Timothy Barnard
• Jiarui Sun, "Reality, Remembrance, and Self-Expression in the Language of Meta-Cinema" (Honors)
  Richard Lowry + Arthur Knight, Robin Ellis
• Mia Wilson, "Screenwriting for Television: Studying Creativity in the Genre of Murder-Mystery Shows" (Honors)
  Jon Pineda + Brian Castleberry, Kevin Michael Smith

2019-2020

• Brooke Rees, "Just Right White: The Lord of the Rings Franchise and Postmodern Race and Racism" (Honors)
  Tim Barnard + Richard Lowry, Jay Watkins

2018-19

• Alicia Devereaux, "Universal Love and “Ageless Ambiguity”: Political Erasure in Call Me By Your Name"
  Richard Lowry + Arthur Knight

2017-18

• No Honors students this year

2016-17

• No Honors students this year

2015-16

• Michael Burrows, "The Lives of Others: The Colonial Gaze in Albanian Film Coproductions" (Highest Honors) 
  Jennifer Taylor + Alexander Prokhorov, Monica Seger, Frederick Corney
• Anne Curran, "Irreconcilable Modes of Masculinity: The Prevalence of Contemporary Irish-American Double-Protagonist Films" (High Honors)
  Simon Joyce + Christy Burns, Ann Marie Stock

2014-15

• Carlton Fleenor, "A Whole Way of Life: Online Communities and Console Gaming" (Honors) 
  Arthur Knight + Keith Leslie Johnson, Brad Weiss

2013-14

• No Honors students this year

2012-13

• Shannon Crawford, "Narrative and the News: The Permeation and Potential Propaganda of the Storytelling Style through Broadcast Media" (Honors) 
  Gary Eckles + Sharon Zuber, Troy Davis
• Elizabeth Tompkins, "Synthesizing Narrative Analysis with Peace and Conflict Studies: The Case of African Child Soldier Autobiographies" (Honors) 
  Bruce Campbell + Varun Begley, John Froitzheim 

2011-12

• Catherine Barth, "Old Masters and Modern Intrigue: Reception of Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the Late Poetry of William Carlos Williams" (Honors)
  Charles Palermo + Catherine Levesque, Christopher MacGowan, Ann Marie Stock 
• Tyler Williamson, "The Ascendancy of Cinematic Imitation Narrative" (Honors) 
   Varun Begley, Colleen Kennedy, Ann Marie Stock

2010-11

• Caitlin Clements, "Rough Draft: A Film by Caitlin Clements" (Honors)
  Sharon Zuber + Tim Barnard, Lena Prokhorova
• Alexandra Volpert, "Living in a History Museum: Local Perspectives on Colonial Williamsburg" (Honors)
  Thomas Linneman + Colleen Kennedy, Ed Pease

2009-10

• No Honors students this year.

2008-09

• Salar Mohandesi, "A Communization Manifesto" (Honors)
  Simon Joyce + Varun Begley, Ruch Lowry, Bill Fisher
  

2007-08

• Kristin Boos, "The Mega-, Melo-, and Meta-Drama in Adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera" (High Honors)
  Colleen Kennedy + Simon Joyce, Katherine Preston
• Adam Miller, "A Million Little Pieces, Incorporated: How Oprah Winfrey Maintained Her (Non)Capitalist Media Empire" (High Honors)
  Suzanne Raitt + Arthur Knight, Wendy Korwin, Varun Begley
• Timothy Robinson, "Cultural Value in Historical Pastiche: Reclaiming the Past as Modern 'Parody' and Postmodern 'Pastiche' in The Hours and Marie Antoinette" (Highest Honors)
  Colleen Kennedy + Christy Burns, Michael Leruth

2006-07

• Frederica Fredericks, "25-Cent Lemonade" (Honors)
  Sharon Zuber + Troy Davis, Francis Tanglo-Aguas
• Alejandro Salinas, "Teens, Titans, and Terror: Adaptation in the Postmodern" (Honors)
  Colleen Kennedy + Arthur Knight, Silvia Tandeciarz

2005-06

• Kyle Meikle, "Franchising Fight Club: Redefining the Postmodern as Prodict" (Highest Honors)
  Colleen Kennedy + Simon Joyce, Maximilian de Gaynesford