Theses
The full complement of CMS graduate student theses — on television, games, activism, education, and more.
Theses are also available at DSpace (both CMS and Science Writing), MIT’s own repository for its community’s academic publications.
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AI-Generated Literature and the Vectorized Word
This thesis focuses on contemporary AI-generated literature that has been traditionally published in the form of a printed book.
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Media Cartographies of Broadband Access in Brazil: The Case of the Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC-1) and Rural Schools
“Through a critical media studies approach, I describe how the satellite’s sociotechnical relations reveal what remains largely obscure to Brazilian publics.”
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Theory and Practice Towards a Decentralized Internet
This thesis scrutinizes the evolution of Internet technologies, the changing paradigms of netizens’ online interactions, and the socioeconomic structures of Internet platforms in the larger context of the proposed shift from a centralized web to a decentralized one.
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Last Night a DJ Queered My Life: Disrupting the Mythologies of a Popular Media Practice
This project examines queer and feminist DJ practice through ethnographic research with women and nonbinary DJs of color.
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Operational Atmosphere: Mediating Policing in the ‘Fight Against Crime’ and ‘Rural Terrorism’ in Chile
This thesis delves into a critical study of the contemporary anatomy of power, in which mediation processes are becoming central to policing practices, with a focus on two contexts: the fight against crime in urban areas, and the battle against “rural violence” or “terrorism” in the Mapuche indigenous territories in the south of Chile.
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Manufacturing Dissent: Assessing the Methods and Impact of RT (Russia Today)
This thesis seeks to unravel and assess RT’s historical roots, its creation and evolution, its methods, and ultimately its impact on American politics and society.
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Minding the Empathy Gap: How Insights into Brains and Behaviors are Placating Polarization
Touching on neuroscience and social psychology, this thesis addresses how we come to define empathy, why and when we fail to express it, and how we can hope to recoup it.
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Incomplete Sentences: Exploitation and Empowerment in American Incarceration Media
In order to interrogate the ways in which such popular media can lift up or drown out the voices of those who are incarcerated, I critically analyze three case studies: a popular television show, an acclaimed podcast, and a recently released feature film with an accompanying documentary.
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Fission and Fury in Perry Ohio: One Town’s Fight to Save Their Nuclear Power Plant
Residents and town officials in Perry are not going quietly into the retrenchment of America’s nuclear energy industry.
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From the Sea to the Stars: The Forgotten Journeys of the Philippines’ Ancient Explorers
Modern Filipinos — who are even now making their first tentative steps into space — are heirs to a rich heritage of exploration, the story of which has yet to be fully told.
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The Promise and Perils of Personalized Learning: Keeping Students at the Center of the Ed Tech Revolution
The Kettle Moraine School District’s success in creating personalized learning experiences for their students is a case study for how other districts might approach homegrown disruptions of their own.
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Invisible Scars: How Domestic Violence Victims Have Been Left Out of the Discussion on Traumatic Brain Injuries
Although domestic violence researchers suggest that the population will develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is only diagnosed post-mortem, a lack of donated brains means the disease has yet to be found among domestic violence victims.
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Can This Burger Save the Planet?: Synthetic Beef and the Dream of an American Animal-free Diet
Opposing strategies reveal the promises and pitfalls of trying to reform the American diet and that above all else our food system is unsustainable.
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The Deepest Paradox: Seafloor Mining and Its Future
It is time to assess the paradoxical nature of seafloor mining: to mine the seafloor to support sustainable and efficient technological development on the land above.
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The People and the Park: How a Small Mexican Community Created one of the World’s Most Successful Marine Preserves
The story of Cabo Pulmo’s struggles and triumphs can provide valuable lessons for community-based conservation efforts around the world.
