*Painting Jaume Huguet of Sts Cosmas and Damian and “The Miracle of the Black Leg,” ca.1468

In the spirit of “20 PhD Students Dumb Down Their Thesis Just For Us”, which features mostly non-humanities theses, our first reflection is about describing your thesis in plain speak, and free of the fetters of self-fashioning in academic language. Time to practice précis, defamiliarization and self-distance skills, and self-fashion as the “internet everyman.” I’ll start:

Renaissance peeps had conflicting views about the body: first they believed Plato — if you’re ugly, it’s because your spirit is rotten. Second, the spirit is perfect, trapped in an ugly rotting body. Altering the body to improve the spirit started happening way back then. Sheetal Lodhia, PhD (Queen’s), English Literature, Early Modern Non-Dramatic

Submit your Thesis below

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Submissions:

Using Kant’s theory of the imagination to reconfigure the relationship between theory and practice in artistic research. David Matcham, York St John University.

Social media make TV more interesting. Audiences do cool internet stuff in response to TV finales. Netflix is pretty important; so’s binge-viewing. Casey McCormick, PhD Candidate in English Literature, Cultural Studies and Media, McGill University

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Religious people who identify as non-cisgendered can have a very difficult time in some conservative religious communities. Human rights law often can’t help them because they can’t access it. Law needs to find another way to navigate religion to protect sexual identity. Let’s try and do that. Eliza Bateman, PhD Candidate in Law, McGill University

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I study the emotions in Shakespeare’s comedy!
Boom!

(Naturally, it gets more complicated once you bring the distinction between “emotion” and “affect” to the table, but non-experts tend to be pleasantly surprised and relieved by the quick and understandable elevator pitch!) Erin Weinberg, PhD Candidate in English Literature, Queen’s University

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I study the feeling you have when you perform an action, that feeling of ownership over that action. Of course, you don’t always feel it, so it’s important to know why you do sometimes and don’t other times. I think it’s pretty important for your feeling other emotions and moral responsibility.  Matthew Smithdeal, PhD Student in Philosophy, University of British Columbia

*Painting Jaume Huguet of Sts Cosmas and Damian and “The Miracle of the Black Leg,” ca.1468 Dans l’esprit de l’initiative « 20 PhD Students Dumb Down Their Thesis Just For Us », qui comprend principalement des thèses autres qu’en sciences humaines, notre première réflexion porte sur la manière de vulgariser une thèse, sans les obstacles posés par l’autoconditionnement à la formulation en langage savant. C’est l’occasion de s’exercer à l’art de la synthèse, de la défamiliarisation et de l’autodistanciation, ainsi qu’à la présentation de soi-même en tant que personne ordinaire sur Internet. Je vais commencer : Je montre que les gens de la Renaissance avaient des opinions divergentes sur le corps. Ils ont d’abord cru Platon : si vous êtes laid, c’est parce que votre esprit est pourri. Deuxièmement, l’esprit est parfait, mais il est pris au piège dans un corps laid et en décomposition. On a commencé dès cette époque reculée à modifier son corps pour améliorer son esprit. > Soumettez votre thèse ici <

  Soumissions: Social media make TV more interesting. Audiences do cool internet stuff in response to TV finales. Netflix is pretty important; so’s binge-viewing. Casey McCormick, PhD Candidate in English Literature, Cultural Studies and Media, McGill University – Religious people who identify as non-cisgendered can have a very difficult time in some conservative religious communities. Human rights law often can’t help them because they can’t access it. Law needs to find another way to navigate religion to protect sexual identity. Let’s try and do that. Eliza Bateman, PhD Candidate in Law, McGill University – I study the emotions in Shakespeare’s comedy! Boom! (Naturally, it gets more complicated once you bring the distinction between “emotion” and “affect” to the table, but non-experts tend to be pleasantly surprised and relieved by the quick and understandable elevator pitch!) Erin Weinberg, PhD Candidate in English Literature, Queen’s University – I study the feeling you have when you perform an action, that feeling of ownership over that action. Of course, you don’t always feel it, so it’s important to know why you do sometimes and don’t other times. I think it’s pretty important for your feeling other emotions and moral responsibility.  Matthew Smithdeal, PhD Student in Philosophy, University of British Columbia