Literature capstone projects may include experiential (such as interviews with authors and scholars), archival, and/or text-based research, or a translation with critical framework, but the capstone’s final form will be a formal, written document on a literary topic. Students write their theses in English but they are encouraged to work with texts in the original languages and to begin preparation in the relevant languages well in advance.

Activities as part of project:

In Semester 1 of Year 4, all capstone-writing students submit their formal proposal and attend a weekly seminar on advanced research methods. This culminates in a presentation by each student of the current status and plans for their capstone project. Following final submission of the project, there will be a public presentation of the work to a colloquium of Literature majors and faculty, and other interested persons from the campus community. This presentation, along with the grade for the seminar and the grade for the thesis, contributes to the final grade for the project.

Preparation of students:

Sufficient progress in the major (as determined by the Head of Studies), adequate preparation for the project (as determined by the supervisor), and consultation with the supervisor for development of the project proposal are required prior to submission of the project proposal. Proposals will be assessed by the Head of Studies. Students are further encouraged to seek advance additional means of conducting research, such as invitations to relevant archives or additional library resources.

Expectations for students-supervisor interactions

All students are expected to liaise with their supervisors at least twice per month, with the student providing a summary of recent activities and progress to the supervisor at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. While supervisors serve as domain experts and guides, the students will work largely on their own.

Format(s) of final product:

Literature capstone projects should result in a thesis of approximately 12,500 words (roughly 50 pages) that includes an abstract, an introduction, developed chapters, and a list of works cited.

Sample capstone topics by former students

To get a sense of past Literature capstone projects, this is an indicative list of the wide range of topics studied by our former students:

• Sensing Desire in the Song of Songs
• Daddy Issues: The Politics of Family, Futurity, and the State in Singapore Queer World-Making
• Claiming Kleos: Competing Female Narrative Authority in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad
• Women without Property and the Institution of Marriage in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
• Space, Trauma, and Pluralizing the African American Historical Imagination in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
• Stage Directions: Survival, AIDS, and Singapore Theatre (1989-2015)
• Liminality and Racial Passing: A Reading of Sayed Kashua’s Dancing Arabs and Second Person Singular
• Reading Palestine in Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin: Camp and Trauma