To complete the graduating requirements for the Master’s of Arts in English Education (MAEE) some students decide to pursue a Thesis on a topic of their interest rather than take the Comprehensive Examination. Each respective thesis has a committee chair and several members who will guide, advise, and provide critical commentary to the student. Three of the students who decided to write a thesis were: Ian Rolon Romero, Laura C. Garcia de la Noceda Vazquez, and Daysha Pinto. They were kind enough to provide general information regarding their theses which consist of: the thesis title, an abstract, and the thesis committee.
Ian Rolon Romero:
Title: “Oops, I Shot Myself in the Head,” an analysis of Jungian psychoanalytic game design and autofiction as used by the videogame Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Abstract: This thesis focuses on how mechanical and narrative design of videogames allows players to insert themselves within virtual worlds as part of those worlds. Specifically, it uses my personal experience with the game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 to look at how players—and especially young adults—may use certain kinds of videogames as a means to create safe spaces in which they can work through traumatic, or difficult real-world situations in a virtual space they themselves control.
Thesis Committee:
- Committee Chair: Dr. Leonardo Flores
- Member: Dr. Ricia A. Chansky
- Member: Dr. Gregory Stephens
Laura C. Garcia De La Noceda Vazquez:
Title: “Alternate Texts, Alternate Pedagogies: Autoethnographic Research with Graduate Teaching Assistants in an ESL Environment”
Abstract: My thesis looks to examine how Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA) enrolled in UPRM’s Master’s of Arts in English Education (MAEE) program who are instructors of record in undergraduate general education courses believe the use of non-canonical texts (popular culture, digital, visual, etc.) and alternate pedagogies stimulate discussion in and use of the English language amongst their students, most of whom self-identify as ESL students.
Thesis Committee:
- Committee Chair: Dr. Ricia A. Chansky
- Member: Dr. Eric D. Lamore
- Member: Dr. Ellen Pratt
Daysha Pinto:
Title: “Slavery and Feminist Rhetoric: Phillis Wheatley’s Construction of Communities through Her Poetry and Letter”
Abstract: Phillis Wheatley remains one of the most significant figures in early African American literature. This thesis examines the ways in which the enslaved poet attempted to overcome the effects of social death by constructing access—through the act of writing—to two types of communities: imagined and living female communities.
Thesis Committee:
- Committee Chair: Dr. Eric D. Lamore
- Member: Dr. Ricia A. Chansky
- Member: Dr. Jocelyn A. Géliga