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Dissertations and Theses

Search within this community and its collections:

About these collections

These collections contain dissertations and theses authored by University of Kansas students. Current works are posted here in fulfillment of graduation requirements.

At the author's request, staff at the KU Libraries are happy to digitize and make available in KU ScholarWorks any thesis or dissertation. Please contact Marianne Reed at [email protected] for more information.

Historical Context

Collections in this community, dissertations [4718], pre-1929 dissertations and theses [923], theses [3982], recent submissions.

Healing Far Afield 

Present Portal 

shá bik’ehgo (in the path of the sun) 

kuʻu ēwe, kuʻu piko 

The architectural criticism of Ada Louise Huxtable 

Non-Resident Applications Made to the Shawnee County Social Welfare Board, Topeka, Kansas, January 1, 1959 through June 30, 1959 

Robust and Efficient Structure-Based Radar Receive Processing 

Recording Remote Attestations on the Blockchain 

Bio-inspired Reinforcement Learning & Predictive Flight Controllers for Unmanned Aerial Systems 

Design and Evaluation of Security-Focused Service Meshes for Management of Microservice Deployments 

System Identification-based Fault Detection and Model-Based Control of an Uncrewed Aerial System 

On Equivalent Circuit Modeling for Lithium-ion Batteries Operating over Broad Current Ranges 

INTERNALLY-CURED LOW-CRACKING HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE (IC-LC-HPC) BRIDGE DECKS: DURABILITY AND CRACKING PERFORMANCE 

Multipass SAR Processing for Ice Sheet Vertical Velocity and Tomography Measurements 

Mutants: Ceramic Objects 

Spectral Cohabitation and Interference Mitigation via Physical Radar Emissions 

A thermodynamic determination of the dissociation energy of the gaseous TiO molecule 

An empirical investigation of Storms’ theory of erotic orientation development 

The treatment of childhood in autobiographies of twentieth century American women 

Synthesis of fluorine substituted medicinals 

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Theses and Dissertations

As you embark upon this important element of your academic career, you should be aware of what a dissertation or thesis looks like. After all, how can you write a dissertation chapter if you've never read one before? Advisers often focus on the content of your dissertation or thesis since this is the culmination of a stage of your academic career and as such should showcase your writing, research, and critical thinking skills-but the form of a dissertation or thesis is also important, and commensurately more difficult to teach.

For every discipline there are differing expectations as to what a dissertation or thesis should include, as well as how it should be formatted. Even though as a writer you have control over how to explain your ideas and how to organize them within the text, scholars in your field have agreed upon how a dissertation/thesis should be organized: what types of chapters you should include, the minimum number of chapters a dissertation or thesis should have, and how those are formatted. This is where seeing and reading what other writers within your discipline and department have done will be helpful. You should do this sooner rather than later.

Getting Started: 

• Start by asking your adviser if they have any suggestions of dissertations or theses you should look at. They may point you to things like the writings of an ex-advisee or a certain literature review article in a journal.
• After speaking to your adviser, you can seek out either a reference librarian or a subject librarian to find other dissertations or theses in your subject area. Find out more about how to access completed dissertations and theses at Dissertations and Theses at KU . 
• Reading not just for content but also for form will help you understand better how to put together your dissertation or thesis. Learn about thesis and dissertation formatting via  KU Libraries: Thesis and Dissertation Formatting . 
• Think about how the project as a whole is organized as well as how the individual chapters are organized: how do they separate their literature review from their discussion of their results, for example? Do they utilize headings and subheadings or bulleted lists at any point?
• Moreover, take notes about elements of the project that stand out to you: use of tables, inclusion of photographs, striking introductions, chapter titles.
• Based on what you know so far, brainstorm ideas for what to include in your project and how those ideas can be organized. See Prewriting Strategies.  

Finding and Synthesizing Sources: 

Produce a research question that you hope your research will answer. If you are at the beginning stage of this process, you may have a general or vague question or set of questions. Eventually you want to create a set of questions that focus on a specific problem within your area of interest and join an existing academic conversation. 

Begin researching. The KU Libraries has many guides and tutorials for how to use the library resources. You can also set up a meeting with a librarian . 

Compile a list of sources that seem to approach your subject of interest. In the beginning you may want to compile at least a list of 10 sources and to organize them in a matrix or an annotated bibliography where you note the subject matter of the source, its novel argument, its theoretical relationship to the subject and field, and what may be lacking within the analysis. At a later stage, you may want to synthesize what is different between each source and similar to all the sources you compile and decide on the specific problem you want your research to cover based on the existing viewpoints and conversations on the topic. Find more information on Annotated Bibliographies in our Bibliographies guide. 

Find data and a data source that is appropriate and compatible with your research problem and question. If you are collecting your own data, make sure that you complete the appropriate protocols to ensure that your project will be completed within the intended timeframe.  

Keep track of your sources through citation management tools like EndNote and Zotero. See How to Select and Use Citation Management Tools . 

Additional steps will depend on the kind of project you are completing. At this point it may be a good idea to meet with the Graduate Writing Coach for more guidance on additional steps.

Literature Reviews: 

The point of the literature review section of your thesis or dissertation is to demonstrate an understanding of the ongoing conversations, disagreements, and conceptualizations of your topic of interest. As a form of writing that tends to be highly technical, it will probably undergo several changes before you are able to reach a draft that closely resembles your final product. Your literature review should directly correspond to your research questions, research purpose, and may be used to justify the methodology of the study. Learn more through our Literature Reviews guide. 

Getting Feedback: 

Stuck in your writing process? You may benefit from a consultation with our graduate writing director. To schedule a meeting and for more information see the following: Graduate Writing Coaching | KU Writing Center  

Faculty Feedback: Throughout your thesis and dissertation process you will have to keep consistent communication with your advisor/chair and committee members. It is important to view all faculty feedback throughout this process as a conversation that will allow your research to both improve and reach the required conventions of research in your field. If you find yourself stuck with contradictory comments or unclear questions, you may want to reach out to your advisor for additional help. If you have questions throughout this process, you may also want to consider making a coaching appointment with the graduate writing director at the link above.   

Time Management: 

It is important that you learn and intentionally prioritize your thesis and dissertation research and writing.  

Set aside a direct weekly block to complete your thesis/dissertation hours.  

Use SMARTER goals to help you keep track of your progress and to split the larger semester goal into weekly goals that can be measured, are concrete, and remain specific.  

Time-block your calendar so that you can set aside concrete time to finish your weekly writing goal and to block off time to complete your other responsibilities.  

Find an accountability buddy within your department, have consistent check-in sessions with your advisor or committee member, and/or join a KU writing group to help you stay on track.  

References: 

Foss, Sonja K., and Waters, William Joseph Condon. Destination Dissertation: a Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007. 

(Updated July 2022)  

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Outstanding Master's Thesis or Research Project Award

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences' Committee on Graduate Studies has established two Outstanding Thesis/Research Project Awards. Each award carries a $750 stipend. One awardee is selected from among Summer and Fall graduates and a second from among Spring graduates. For more information and profiles of recent recipients, please visit https://coga.ku.edu/outstanding-masters-thesis-or-research-project-award .

Call for Nominations

Eligibility:.

Students must be nominated by their thesis or research project advisor with the endorsement of either the Director of Graduate Studies or the Chair of the department.

Nomination Instructions:

Departments are strongly encouraged to select no more than one nominee for each cycle of the award. However, multiple nominees from a single department will be accepted if a department determines that more than one student truly warrants the nomination. In these cases, a separate letter is required for each nominee. Letters must be explicit about the relative merits of each.

Each nomination must include the following:

• The overall quality of the thesis or research project (e.g., research design, organization of material, clarity of writing, interpretation of findings)
• The methodological rigor and/or innovation of the thesis or research project
• The significance and/or originality of the thesis or research project to the field: Why is the work "outstanding" by disciplinary standards? The thesis or research project should be described so that an audience outside of the field can understand the significance.
• The trans-disciplinary/interdisciplinary nature of the research
• Resulting publications, presentations, and performances (or the promise thereof)
• Receipt of departmental honors or other awards
• An abstract of the thesis or non-thesis project
• An electronic copy of the thesis or research project document. Print copies will not be accepted.

If you have questions or need more information, please email [email protected] or call 864-4201.

Deadlines and Nomination Form

Current year winners.

Jordan Cortesi, Psychology (2024)

Qixin Pan, Sociology (2024)

Kim Conger, Physics & Astronomy (2023)

Past recipients, outstanding master's thesis or research project award recipients.

• Chondroitin Sulfate Glycosaminoglycans Inhibit CNS Myelination with Molecular Specificity
• Day-night Differences and Long-term Trends in Dust Activities Over the Dust Belt of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the Early 21st Century.
• Whose Work is Essential? Rethinking Class in a Time of Crisis
• Rethinking Art and Virtue in Shakespeare's As You Like It
• Uncovering the early diversification of core eudicots in western North America: structurally preserved fruits from Late Cretaceous deposits of Sucia Island
• The Cumulative Cost of Care: Caregiving Over the Life Course and Severity of Depression
• Teaching Graphing Using Enhanced Written instruction: Does Chunk Size Matter?
• Culturally-Informed Theory for Disordered Eating in Black Women
• Case Study: Becoming
• "Everything is Here and Now": The Polyvocal Poetry of Naomi Long Madgett
• Postural Control Processes During Static and Dynamic Activities in Autism Spectrum Disorder
• The Association between Dimensions of Maltreatment and Academic Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care
• Assessing the Mechanisms Governing the Daytime Evolution of Marine Stratocumulus Using Large-Eddy Simulation
• First Finding of Succulence and c4/CAM-Cycling Photosynthesis in a Grass: Ecophysiology on Spinifex littoreus in Coastal Region of Taiwa n
• Delineating Sea-Level Rise Inundation: An Exploration of Data Structure and Performance Optimization
• Motivation and Hedonic Hunger and Predictors of Self-Reported Food Intake in Adolescents: Disentangling Between-Person and Within-Person Processes
• Re-Placing the Prostitute: Ruth Hall and the Spatial Politics of the Streetwalker
• Mapping Syrian Refugee Border Crossings: A Critical, Feminist Perspective
• Historical Demographics, Student Origins, and Recruitment at Off-Reservation Indian Boarding Schools, 1900
• Esse videtur: Occurrences of Heroic Clausulae in Cicero's Orations
• A Meta-Analysis of Motivational Interviewing Interventions for Pediatric Health Behavior Change
• A Redshift Dependent Color-Luminosity Relation in Type 1a Supernovae
• Frankenstein on Stage: Galvanizing the Myth and Evolving the Creature
• Department Chairs and High Chairs: The importance of perceived department chair supportiveness on faculty parents' views of departmental and institutional kid-friendliness
• Not Easy Being Mead's: Comparative Herbivory on Three Milkweeds, Including Threatened Mead's Milkweed (Asclepias meadii), and Seedling Ecology of Mead's Milkweed

Department of Science Education

• Department of Science Education (IND)
• Course overview
• Master's thesis and ot...

Master's thesis and other projects

If you want to do your master's thesis in the didactics of your subject.

The first you should do is contact Head of Department , who will suggest a supervisor among the scientific staff of the department. You will then discuss the possible themes of the thesis with the supervisor and finally the theme of the thesis must be approved by the study board, before the writing begins!

If you want to do a (bachelor) project in the didactics of your subject

You must begin by checking (with the study director or student counsellor) if it is possible to do a bachelor project in the didactics of your subject. Alternatively a subject didactical project can be included in the "free" part of the bachelor programme (at least one year can consist of freely chosen courses according to the statute). After this you should contact Head of Department , who will suggest a supervisor among the scientific staff at the department.

It is a prerequisition for project work and writing your master's at DSE, that you have completed one or more courses in didactics. Here you will most likely have gotten an impression of the topics that you would like to explore.

• Examles of Master's theses from DSE: The Student Series (in Danish)
• Litterature on writing a thesis (in Danish)

Muligheder og udfordringer ved STEM-undervisning

Nr. 116, Emilie Skaarup Bruhn, 2024, Speciale - Fysik.

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