Graduate Research Excellence

Our graduate programs are designed to provide you with a comprehensive and immersive research experience. Dive deep into your chosen field of study, working closely with faculty mentors to develop expertise and contribute to the scholarly community. Engage in interdisciplinary research and connect with fellow students from diverse backgrounds. Our vibrant community encourages the exchange of ideas and perspectives, enriching your research experience.

Masters and Doctoral Research

The Master's Paper
The master's student will develop a thorough understanding of existing knowledge and the ability to apply that existing knowledge to a problem of interest. The MA Paper requires independent research at the graduate level in a sustained consideration of a critical project. The MA paper may build on work produced in coursework but must also include significant new work.

The Dissertation
The dissertation must show originality and demonstrate the student's capacity for independent research. It must embody results of research that constitute a definitive contribution to knowledge.

Recent MA Research

Fawzia S. Riji (MA, 2017) Literacy Narratives of Pre-Literate and Non-Literate Adult Refugee Women 
This study focuses on the Literacy Narratives of Pre-Literate and Non-Literate Adult Refugee Women in the Fargo-Moorhead community. Personal interviews were conducted to gather data. The recorded interviews were then ...

Margaret E. Silvernail (MA, 2017) Dancing through Issues of Class and Race in the Composition Classroom 
Within the writing classroom, teachers (and students) tend to understand writing and rhetoric as a mental activity, rarely considering the body’s role in effective communication—even more rarely do they incorporate the ...

Jesse R. Wagner (MA, 2017) Reprinting Russia: Anti-Imperial Discourse in Elias Boudinot’s Cherokee Phoenix 
While much work has explored American Indian print resistance to the encroaching United States, little scholarship has explored reprinting as a method of resistance. Building on Meredith McGill’s argument that reprinting ...

Emilee C. Ruhland (MA, 2017) “Your Legacy Is Yours to Build”: Defining Leadership in Beowulf and Its Adaptations 
This paper analyzes how narrative choice and media affect the depiction of leadership in Beowulf by studying three texts: the medieval Beowulf, the 2007 Hollywood film of the same name, and Beowulf: The Game. While the ...

Holly Hagen (MA, 2016) Christabel’s Complexity: Coleridge’s View of Science, Nature and the Supernatural 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s unfinished poem, “Christabel,” follows the meeting and interaction of a young maiden and a deceptive demonesque woman. This paper explores the interactions between the natural, supernatural, and ...

Kai J. Thorstad (MA, 2015) Literalized Metaphors in China Mieville’s Bas-Lag Novels 
In this paper, I will be discussing hybridity, Othering, and agency in China Miéville’s fantasy novels set in the world of Bas-Lag. I will be expanding upon Joan Gordon’s concept of “literalized metaphors” which suggests ...

Emily Bartz (MA, 2014) Female Heroism and Leadership in the Anglo-Saxon Judith 
In this paper, I argue that the Anglo-Saxon Judith frames its titular character’s simultaneous adoption of sacred femininity and masculine heroic violence as the acceptable and necessary response to despair in the face ...