Chicago Studies Thesis Universe
This visualization offers direct access to Chicago Studies' internal database wherein we document/track Chicago-focused research done by students in the College. The organization is simple: large maroon nodes are UChicago faculty, large blue nodes are non-UChicago faculty, and the white nodes are individual BAs. The map may seem intimidating at first, but you'll notice a "Topics" bar at the bottom—this is your best friend navigating this map. There are 20 topics, ranging from Arts, Language, & Culture to Housing and Homelessness to Sex, Gender, and Sexuality. Mix and match to your heart's desire; as you do, the map will adjust itself in real time (this will really help to make things more coherent). Each faculty node has the topics that faculty member has advised on as well as basic contact information for each instructor. Each BA node contains the departments under which it was advised, the topics it covers and, if applicable, a link to the Bachelor's Thesis on Knowledge@UChicago (knowledge.uchicago.edu) for your reading pleasure. If the BA node doesn't have a publicly available copy, please contact Chicago Studies' Director Chris Skrable (cskrable@uchicago.edu), and we will attempt to obtain permission from the author for you to access it.
The intention of this visualization is to help students who feel lost when seeking thesis topics or subject-matter experts as research mentors for Chicago-focused research, and also to demonstrate the staggering network of Chicago-focused academic work available. We hope that it will help you to find topics that interest you, theses that inspire you, and similarly-minded academics to assist you in your studies.
Interested in adding your BA to this visualization? Current (2021) fourth-years (and faculty mentors) can submit Chicago-focused BAs via this form - submissions/nominations will be considered for the Chicago Studies Research Prize. Previous years' students should contact Chris Skrable to add their work to Chicago Studies' dataset and to the Chicago Studies collection on Knowledge@UChicago.
This visualization was developed by Will Scarborough using data gathered by Chloe Zheng, Hopie Melton, and Chris Skrable.