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EBSCO Open Dissertations

Search millions of electronic theses and dissertations (etds).

With EBSCO Open Dissertations, institutions and students are offered an innovative approach to driving additional traffic to ETDs in institutional repositories. Our goal is to help make their students’ theses and dissertations as widely visible and cited as possible.

This approach extends the work started in 2014, when EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created American Doctoral Dissertations which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication, Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities, 1933-1955. In 2015, the H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to support the expansion of the scope of the American Doctoral Dissertations database to include records for dissertations and theses from 1955 to the present.

Get involved in the EBSCO Open Dissertations project and make your electronic theses and dissertations freely available to researchers everywhere. Please contact Margaret Richter for more information.

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OATD.org provides open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 6,654,285 theses and dissertations.

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Open Dissertations Project from EBSCO Information Services Goes Live

IPSWICH, Mass. — April 9, 2018 —  OpenDissertations.org,  the project from  EBSCO Information Services  (EBSCO) and  BiblioLabs , has gone live. More than 800,000 Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) are now available for public search and discovery, with more than one million expected by June. 

EBSCO Open Dissertations™  is committed to providing open and free access to ETD metadata and content. In addition to the fully open website ( www.opendissertations.org ), EBSCO will include ETD metadata in  EBSCO Discovery Service™  to facilitate access and improve content discovery for researchers. With more and more universities now hosting and distributing their own ETDs on the open web, EBSCO and BiblioLabs have created a service that freely aggregates and exposes this valuable content.  EBSCO Open Dissertations  extends access to any interested researchers worldwide and drives traffic to Institutional Repositories.

BiblioLabs CEO Mitchell Davis says the project is open to libraries around the world, and some of the first data made available for public search includes ETDs from across the U.K. that are included in the British Library’s  EThOS Service . As UKSG 2018 approaches, he says there could be no better time to launch. “We are working to drive more discovery of U.K. ETDs through this project, and what better time to launch than ahead of this important U.K. Higher Ed. event. The British Library has been an amazing  innovation partner  working with us for years, and this project is an exciting way to extend our partnership.”

Davis says the response from libraries is letting BiblioLabs and EBSCO know they are on the right track. “We know from the number of libraries that have committed to join the project (especially the reactions we have seen in such a short time) that we have hit on a real need. We intend to build on our work with EBSCO and libraries in a way that supports the ETD community and this stream of research for the long term.”

More than 30 institutions from four continents are currently participating in the  EBSCO Open Dissertations  project. These institutions represent more than one million dissertations that will be searchable from  www.opendissertations.org . Since the project was launched in November, more than 50 institutions have reached out to discuss the project and commit resources.

EBSCO Information Services’ Senior Vice President of Product Management Michael Laddin says the positive response to the project in such a short time shows that  EBSCO Open Dissertations  is meeting a real need to make ETD information more accessible. “We are committed to supporting more open source software models in the library industry. With OpenDissertations.org, we are creating new content discovery paradigms around which EBSCO and libraries can partner more closely, and we are working with BiblioLabs to unlock that potential.”

Opendissertations.org is the next step in an ongoing effort to open access to dissertations. In 2014, EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created  American Doctoral Dissertations , which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication,  Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities, 1933-1955 . In 2015, the H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to support the expansion of the scope of the  American Doctoral Dissertations  database to include records for dissertations and theses from 1955 to the present with the goal of creating a single portal for ETDs which could be added to university profiles and accessed online.

To see a demonstration during UKSG in Glasgow, visit the EBSCO booth. To learn more about the Open Dissertations project, visit  www.opendissertations.org  or find out how to become part of  EBSCO Open Dissertations . Libraries interested in participating can also contact their EBSCO representative.

About EBSCO Information Services EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 11,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries.  EBSCO Discovery Service™  (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 1,000,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com . EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family-owned company since 1944.

About BiblioLabs BiblioLabs is a leader in Open Education Resource (OER) and OA content creation, curation and distribution software to academic institutions. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, their BiblioBoard platform aims to transform student and researcher access to information by delivering a simple, intuitive and modern user experience and delivering the best OER and OA content creation tools. They work with public and academic institutions of all sizes to democratize access to information and lower costs for students.

For more information, please contact: Kathleen McEvoy Vice President of Communications (800) 653-2726 ext. 2594 [email protected]

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UBC Theses and Dissertations

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The UBC Theses and Dissertations collection promotes open and comprehensive access to a significant body of unique knowledge created by graduate students to support further research and for private study. The authors retain copyright ownership and moral rights to their theses. The content of theses may not be re-purposed or exploited for commercial gain without the explicit permission of the authors.

UBC graduate students began submitting their theses online via cIRcle, UBC’s digital repository, in fall 2007, a practice that both simplified the submission process and also ensured the availability of this research to a global audience in a timely manner. As of March 2012, UBC Library has digitized and made openly accessible the full-text of more than 32,000 theses submitted by graduate students between 1919 and 2007. In addition to providing information about specific fields of study these theses also reveal important information about changes in pedagogy at the University and within academic disciplines. Authors concerned about having their pre-2007 theses included as part of this collection can notify [email protected] to have their thesis removed. Similarly, if copyrighted material appears in a thesis the copyright owner can request that material be removed.

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Access to Cambridge theses

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How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Ph.D., M.Litt., M.Sc., and Divinity M.Phil. theses approved after 1970 are catalogued in iDiscover, as are M.D. and M.Chir. theses approved after May 2006. Earlier theses are listed in a card catalogue in the Manuscripts Reading Room and are gradually being added to iDiscover.

Since 1 October 2017, all PhD theses are being deposited in electronic form to the University repository Apollo . Many earlier theses are also in the repository, but if they are not yet in digital form it is possible to request access to these theses. There is more information on how to request a copy of a printed thesis further down this page.

Gaining access to electronic copies of theses

The author of a given thesis in Apollo can choose whether their thesis is available to be downloaded, available on request or unavailable. While many of the theses in Apollo are openly available for download, s ome theses in the repository are not open access because they have either been embargoed by the author or because they are unable to be made openly available for copyright or other r easo ns.   For an explanation of the different theses access levels,  see this page .

Open Access theses

Theses that have been made available Open Access can be downloaded from Apollo as a PDF file without any restrictions other than the license under which they have been made available . Just click on the document file in the thesis record to download a copy.

Embargoed theses

Theses with an embargo are shown in Apollo with a padlock icon over the PDF file are not open access but can be requested. If you wish to access the full thesis, click on the padlock icon on the PDF and you will be redirected to the repository’s ‘ Request a Copy ’ function. Requests for embargoed theses will be passed on to the author so they can choose to grant or refuse the request at their discretion.

Controlled theses

Theses under controlled access remain unpublished because they are not made available on the internet via the Apollo repository and as such, the rules for unpublished works in UK copyright law will apply to these theses. Controlled access theses are provided by the University Library in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1998. Theses under controlled access are shown in Apollo with a padlock icon over the PDF file are not open access but can be requested. If you wish to access the full thesis, click on the padlock icon on the PDF and you will be redirected to the repository’s ‘ Request a Copy ’ function. For further information on copying by librarians or archivists see: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/43

If a thesis has been digitised by the Digital Content Unit's image request service in the library it will be deposited in Apollo under controlled access and can be requested via the thesis record in Apollo.

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form . Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study. The agreement used for access to theses at Cambridge has been drafted using the guidance by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

Theses are not available for borrowing or inter library loan. The copyright of theses remains with the author. The law does not allow us to provide a copy for inclusion in a general library collection or for wider distribution beyond the individual receiving the copy, without the explicit permission of the author or copyright holder. Where someone approaches us asking for a copy for their library or wider distribution, they must obtain the explicit permission of the author or copyright owner.

Please note any periods of access restriction requested by the author apply to both electronic and print copies.

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What Is Open Thesis? 6 Tips to Make It More Understandable For Your Readers

Often viewed as the elusive and enigmatic element of academic writing, open thesis statements send chills down the spines of even the most experienced and seasoned scholars. Reason? Because of its wider reach than a closed thesis, which commands attention and requires meticulous scrutiny. 

Open thesis statements present a unique opportunity for creative exploration and expression. However, it is essential to ensure that these statements are lucid, succinct, and comprehensible to readers. How, then, can one demystify the complexity of open thesis statements and present them in a more accessible and discernible manner? Here are the 6 best tips to aid in crafting an open thesis statement that is approachable and lucid for your intended audience.

What Is an Open Thesis Statement?

An open thesis statement is a statement that is not fully formed or definitive in nature. It leaves room for interpretation and discussion, allowing the writer to explore various angles of a topic. 

On the one hand, it allows for more creative expression and exploration. But, on the other hand, it can be confusing and difficult to understand for readers.

6 Tips to Write the Most Efficient Open Thesis Statement

1- understanding the open thesis statement.

An open thesis statement differs from a closed thesis statement because it is not a definitive claim. It's more of a starting point for the writer to explore a topic. For example, a closed thesis statement might be something like, "The death penalty is immoral and should be abolished." On the same topic, an open thesis statement may be, "The death penalty raises ethical concerns and merits further investigation."

2- Importance of Clarity in Open Thesis Statements

The key to making open thesis statements more understandable is to ensure they are clear and concise. Avoid using vague or abstract language that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Instead, use specific language that leaves no room for confusion. Instead of expressing, "The economy is bad," say, "The unemployment rate has increased by 5% in the past year."

3- Use of Concrete Language

Open thesis statements can be made more understandable by using definite or concrete language. Concrete language is a language that refers to tangible, observable things. Abstract language, on the other hand, refers to intangible concepts or ideas. Rather than stating that "love is a powerful emotion," you may add, "When I'm with my partner, I feel happy and content."

4- Providing Context

Context helps the reader understand the writer's perspective and gives them a framework for understanding the argument. For example, instead of saying, "The education system needs to be reformed," you may say, "As a teacher, I've personally seen the negative impact of standardized testing on student learning."

5- Use of Supporting Evidence

Supporting evidence provides the reader with tangible examples illustrating the writer's argument. When selecting supporting evidence, choose relevant, reliable, and compelling examples. For example, instead of writing "Many people support gun control," state, "According to a recent poll conducted by McKinsey, 65% of Americans support stricter gun control laws."

6- Use of Examples

Examples provide the reader with concrete instances that illustrate the writer's point. When selecting examples, choose ones that are relevant, memorable, and thought-provoking. Instead of saying, "Fast food is bad for your health," for instance, say, "In 2019, a man ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and gained 17 pounds."

Hence, open thesis statements can seem daunting, but they don't have to be. Follow these six tips and make your open thesis statements more understandable and engaging for your readers. Being clear, concise, and specific is all you need to be here!

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Dissertations & theses databases.

• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) This link opens in a new window The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations. This website contains information about the initiative, how to set up Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) programmes, how to create and locate ETDs, and current research in digital libraries related to NDLTD and ETDs.
• Open Access Theses and Dissertations This link opens in a new window OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1000 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 2,311,795 theses and dissertations.
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Open Access Theses & Dissertations (OATD)

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An index of over 1.6 million electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). To the extent possible, the index is limited to records of graduate-level theses that are freely available online.

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Boston University Theses & Dissertations

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This is the master collection of contemporary BU theses and dissertations. We plan to consolidate school- and college-specific collections into this one, and add school- and college-specific metadata to enable users to browse appropriately.

Recently Added

Detecting and mitigating software security vulnerabilities through secure environment programming 

To balance the world: the development of the United States' national interest, 1919-1969 

Towards biologically plausible mechanisms of predictive learning 

Adaptive time-dependent decisions: behavior, cognition, and neural mechanisms 

Resource-efficient, performant in-memory KV stores for at-scale data centers 

A scale-invariant representation of temporal context: support and constraints from neural and behavioral data 

Broken links: millennials' quest for (re)connection during COVID-19 

Marriage postponed: the transformation of intimacy in contemporary Iran 

Interacting particle systems in multiscale environments: asymptotic analysis 

Aspects of damping in correlated quantum systems 

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OU theses and dissertations

Online theses.

Are available via Open Research Online .

Print theses

Search for OU theses in the Library Search . To see only print theses click 'In the Walton Hall library' and refine your results to resource type 'Thesis'.

OU staff and research students can  borrow a consultation copy of a thesis (if available). Please contact the Library helpdesk giving the author and title of the thesis.

UK theses and dissertations from EThOS

The Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) offers free access to the full text of UK theses.

• EThOS offers a one stop online shop providing free access to UK theses
• EThOS digitizes theses on request into PDF format, this may require payment
• EThOS is managed by the British Library in partnership with a number of UK universities
• EThOS is open to all categories of library user

What does this mean to you as a library user?

When you need to access a PhD thesis from another UK based HE institution you should check EThOS to either download a thesis which has already been digitised or to request that a UK thesis be supplied to you.

• For all UK theses EThOS will be the first point of delivery. You can use the online ordering and tracking system direct from EThOS to manage your requests for UK PhD theses, including checking the status of your requests
• As readers you will deal directly with EThOS so will not need to fill in a document delivery request
• OU staff and research students will still be entitled to access non-UK based PhD theses by filling in a document delivery request
• In some cases where EThOS is unable to supply a UK thesis OU staff and research students will be able to access it by filling in a conventional document delivery request. The thesis will be supplied through direct loan
• The EThOS system is both faster and cheaper than the previous British Theses service which was based on microfilm
• The British Library no longer arranges interlibrary loans for UK PhD theses
• Interlibrary Loan procedures for other types of request from the British Library (articles and books for example) will remain the same

If you have any queries about using EThOS contact the Document Delivery Team ( [email protected] or the Library Helpdesk ).

Note 13/03/2024: The British Library is continuing to experience a major technology outage affecting its websites and other online systems, due to a Cyber attack. as a result access to ETHOS might not be possible until the issue is fixed. 

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Digital Commons @ USF > College of Arts and Sciences > English > Theses and Dissertations

English Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Of Mētis and Cuttlefish: Employing Collective Mētis as a Theoretical Framework for Marginalized Communities , Justiss Wilder Burry

What on earth are we doing (?): A Field-Wide Exploration of Design Courses in TPC , Jessica L. Griffith

Organizations Ensuring Resilience: A Case Study of Cortez, Florida , Karla Ariel Maddox

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Using Movie Clips to Understand Vivid-Phrasal Idioms’ Meanings , Rasha Salem S. Alghamdi

An Exercise in Exceptions: Personhood, Divergency, and Ableism in the STAR TREK Franchise , Jessica A. Blackman

Vulnerable Resistance in Victorian Women’s Writing , Stephanie A. Harper

Curricular Assemblages: Understanding Student Writing Knowledge (Re)circulation Across Genres , Adam Phillips

PAD Beyond the Classroom: Integrating PAD in the Scrum Workplace , Jade S. Weiss

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Social Cues in Animated Pedagogical Agents for Second Language Learners: the Application of The Embodiment Principle in Video Design , Sahar M. Alyahya

A Field-Wide Examination of Cross-Listed Courses in Technical Professional Communication , Carolyn M. Gubala

Labor-Based Grading Contracts in the Multilingual FYC Classroom: Unpacking the Variables , Kara Kristina Larson

Land Goddesses, Divine Pigs, and Royal Tricksters: Subversive Mythologies and Imperialist Land Ownership Dispossession in Twentieth Century Irish and American Literature , Elizabeth Ricketts

Oppression, Resistance, and Empowerment: The Power Dynamics of Naming and Un-naming in African American Literature, 1794 to 2019 , Melissa "Maggie" Romigh

Generic Expectations in First Year Writing: Teaching Metadiscoursal Reflection and Revision Strategies for Increased Generic Uptake of Academic Writing , Kaelah Rose Scheff

Reframing the Gothic: Race, Gender, & Disability in Multiethnic Literature , Ashely B. Tisdale

Intersections of Race and Place in Short Fiction by New Orleans Gens de Couleur Libres , Adrienne D. Vivian

Mental Illness Diagnosis and the Construction of Stigma , Katie Lynn Walkup

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Rhetorical Roundhouse Kicks: Tae Kwon Do Pumsae Practice and Non-Western Embodied Topoi , Spencer Todd Bennington

9/11 Then and Now: How the Performance of Memorial Rhetoric by Presidents Changes to Construct Heroes , Kristen M. Grafton

Kinesthetically Speaking: Human and Animal Communication in British Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century , Dana Jolene Laitinen

Exploring Refugee Students’ Second Language (L2) Motivational Selves through Digital Visual Representations , Nhu Le

Glamour in Contemporary American Cinema , Shauna A. Maragh

Instrumentalization Theory: An Analytical Heuristic for a Heightened Social Awareness of Machine Learning Algorithms in Social Media , Andrew R. Miller

Intercessory Power: A Literary Analysis of Ethics and Care in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon , Alice Walker’s Meridian , and Toni Cade Bambara’s Those Bones Are Not My Child , Kelly Mills

The Power of Non-Compliant Logos: A New Materialist Approach to Comic Studies , Stephanie N. Phillips

Female Identity and Sexuality in Contemporary Indonesian Novels , Zita Rarastesa

"The Fiery Furnaces of Hell": Rhetorical Dynamism in Youngstown, OH , Joshua M. Rea

“We developed solidarity”: Family, Race, Identity, and Space-Time in Recent Multiethnic U.S. American Fiction , Kimber L. Wiggs

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Remembrance of a Wound: Ethical Mourning in the Works of Ana Menéndez, Elías Miguel Muñoz, and Junot Díaz , José Aparicio

Taking an “Ecological Turn” in the Evaluation of Rhetorical Interventions , Peter Cannon

New GTA’s and the Pre-Semester Orientation: The Need for Informed Refinement , Jessica L. Griffith

Reading Rape and Answering with Empathy: A New Approach to Sexual Assault Education for College Students , Brianna Jerman

The Karoo , The Veld , and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head , Elana D. Karshmer

"The weak are meat, and the strong do eat"; Representations of the Slaughterhouse in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature , Stephanie Lance

Language of Carnival: How Language and the Carnivalesque Challenge Hegemony , Yulia O. Nekrashevich

Queer Authority in Old and Middle English Literature , Elan J. Pavlinich

Because My Garmin Told Me To: A New Materialist Study of Agency and Wearable Technology , Michael Repici

No One Wants to Read What You Write: A Contextualized Analysis of Service Course Assignments , Tanya P. Zarlengo

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Beauty and the Beasts: Making Places with Literary Animals of Florida , Haili A. Alcorn

The Medievalizing Process: Religious Medievalism in Romantic and Victorian Literature , Timothy M. Curran

Seeing Trauma: The Known and the Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature , Alisa M. DeBorde

Analysis of User Interfaces in the Sharing Economy , Taylor B. Johnson

Border-Crossing Travels Across Literary Worlds: My Shamanic Conscientization , Scott Neumeister

The Spectacle of The Bomb: Rhetorical Analysis of Risk of The Nevada Test Site in Technical Communication, Popular Press, and Pop Culture , Tiffany Wilgar

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Traveling Women and Consuming Place in Eighteenth-Century Travel Letters and Journals , Cassie Patricia Childs

“The Nations of the Field and Wood”: The Uncertain Ontology of Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , J. Kevin Jordan

Modern Mythologies: The Epic Imagination in Contemporary Indian Literature , Sucheta Kanjilal

Science in the Sun: How Science is Performed as a Spatial Practice , Natalie Kass

Body as Text: Physiognomy on the Early English Stage , Curtis Le Van

Tensions Between Democracy and Expertise in the Florida Keys , Elizabeth A. Loyer

Institutional Review Boards and Writing Studies Research: A Justice-Oriented Study , Johanna Phelps-Hillen

The Spirit of Friendship: Girlfriends in Contemporary African American Literature , Tangela La'Chelle Serls

Aphra Behn on the Contemporary Stage: Behn's Feminist Legacy and Woman-Directed Revivals of The Rover , Nicole Elizabeth Stodard

(Age)ncy in Composition Studies , Alaina Tackitt

Constructing Health Narratives: Patient Feedback in Online Communities , Katie Lynn Walkup

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Rupturing the World of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Suspension of the 2011 IAAF Regulations on Hyperandrogenism , Ella Browning

Shaping Climate Citizenship: The Ethics of Inclusion in Climate Change Communication and Policy , Lauren E. Cagle

Drop, Cover, and Hold On: Analyzing FEMA's Risk Communication through Visual Rhetoric , Samantha Jo Cosgrove

Material Expertise: Applying Object-oriented Rhetoric in Marine Policy , Zachary Parke Dixon

The Non-Identical Anglophone Bildungsroman : From the Categorical to the De-Centering Literary Subject in the Black Atlantic , Jarad Heath Fennell

Instattack: Instagram and Visual Ad Hominem Political Arguments , Sophia Evangeline Gourgiotis

Hospitable Climates: Representations of the West Indies in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , Marisa Carmen Iglesias

Chosen Champions: Medieval and Early Modern Heroes as Postcolonial Reactions to Tensions between England and Europe , Jessica Trant Labossiere

Science, Policy, and Decision Making: A Case Study of Deliberative Rhetoric and Policymaking for Coastal Adaptation in Southeast Florida , Karen Patricia Langbehn

A New Materialist Approach to Visual Rhetoric in PhotoShopBattles , Jonathan Paul Ray

Tracing the Material: Spaces and Objects in British and Irish Modernist Novels , Mary Allison Wise

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Representations of Gatsby: Ninety Years of Retrospective , Christine Anne Auger

Robust, Low Power, Discrete Gate Sizing , Anthony Joseph Casagrande

Wrestling with Angels: Postsecular Contemporary American Poetry , Paul T. Corrigan

#networkedglobe: Making the Connection between Social Media and Intercultural Technical Communication , Laura Anne Ewing

Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange , Sarah Beth Hopton

'She Shall Not Be Moved': Black Women's Spiritual Practice in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Paradise, and Home , Rondrea Danielle Mathis

Relational Agency, Networked Technology, and the Social Media Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing , Megan M. Mcintyre

Now, We Hear Through a Voice Darkly: New Media and Narratology in Cinematic Art , James Anthony Ricci

Navigating Collective Activity Systems: An Approach Towards Rhetorical Inquiry , Katherine Jesse Royce

Women's Narratives of Confinement: Domestic Chores as Threads of Resistance and Healing , Jacqueline Marie Smith

Domestic Spaces in Transition: Modern Representations of Dwelling in the Texts of Elizabeth Bowen , Shannon Tivnan

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Paradise Always Already Lost: Myth, Memory, and Matter in English Literature , Elizabeth Stuart Angello

Overcoming the 5th-Century BCE Epistemological Tragedy: A Productive Reading of Protagoras of Abdera , Ryan Alan Blank

Acts of Rebellion: The Rhetoric of Rogue Cinema , Adam Breckenridge

Material and Textual Spaces in the Poetry of Montagu, Leapor, Barbauld, and Robinson , Jessica Lauren Cook

Decolonizing Shakespeare: Race, Gender, and Colonialism in Three Adaptations of Three Plays by William Shakespeare , Angela Eward-Mangione

Risk of Compliance: Tracing Safety and Efficacy in Mef-Lariam's Licensure , Julie Marie Gerdes

Beyond Performance: Rhetoric, Collective Memory, and the Motive of Imprinting Identity , Brenda M. Grau

Subversive Beauty - Victorian Bodies of Expression , Lisa Michelle Hoffman-Reyes

Integrating Reading and Writing For Florida's ESOL Program , George Douglas Mcarthur

Responsibility and Responsiveness in the Novels of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley , Katherine Marie McGee

Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison's Fiction , Jessica Mckee

The "Defective" Generation: Disability in Modernist Literature , Deborah Susan Mcleod

Science Fiction/Fantasy and the Representation of Ethnic Futurity , Joy Ann Sanchez-Taylor

Hermes, Technical Communicator of the Gods: The Theory, Design, and Creation of a Persuasive Game for Technical Communication , Eric Walsh

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Rhetorical Spirits: Spirituality as Rhetorical Device in New Age Womanist of Color Texts , Ronisha Witlee Browdy

Disciplinarity, Crisis, and Opportunity in Technical Communication , Jason Robert Carabelli

The Terror of Possibility: A Re-evaluation and Reconception of the Sublime Aesthetic , Kurt Fawver

Unbearable Weight, Unbearable Witness: The (Im)possibility of Witnessing Eating Disorders in Cyberspace , Kristen Nicole Gay

the post- 9/11 aesthetic: repositioning the zombie film in the horror genre , Alan Edward Green, Jr.

An(other) Rhetoric: Rhetoric, Ethics, and the Rhetorical Tradition , Kathleen Sandell Hardesty

Mapping Dissertation Genre Ecology , Kate Lisbeth Pantelides

Dead Man's Switch: Disaster Rhetorics in a Posthuman Age , Daniel Patrick Richards

"Of That Transfigured World" : Realism and Fantasy in Victorian Literature , Benjamin Jude Wright

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Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources.  Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down.  There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction.  A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments.  Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question.  Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list.  "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational.  An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim.  "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible.  Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

Copyright 1999, Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University

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Everything you need to know about the Miami 2024 final

Courtney Nguyen - WTA Insider

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MIAMI - The Miami Open final is set for Saturday, where World No.4 Elena Rybakina will face unseeded American Danielle Collins at Hard Rock Stadium. 

The contrasts couldn't be more stark. In Rybakina vs. Collins, you have Ice vs. Fire. Rybakina is the young veteran, bidding to win her third WTA 1000 title. Collins, 30 and playing in her final season, is the older debutante playing the first WTA 1000 final.

Rybakina has lost nearly 70 games en route to the final, more than anyone in the tournament's history. Collins? She's barely losing sets, let alone games. 

Here's what you need to know about the Miami Open final. 

When is the singles final? 

The singles final will be played on Saturday, March 30 at  3 p.m. ET. 

Miami is on Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4).

What are the points and prize money at stake?

Miami is the fourth WTA 1000 tournament of the season. By making the final, Rybakina and Collins have assured themselves 650 ranking points and $585,000 in prize money. 

A win on Saturday would give the winner a total take of 1,000 points and $1.1 million dollars.

Rybakina fights off Azarenka to make second straight Miami final

Quiz: test your knowledge of miami open history, advantage rybakina or collins making the case for the miami open finalists, how did rybakina and collins get here.

The two have had contrasting roads to the Miami final. Rybakina was a finalist here last year. Seeded No.4, she has been taken to three sets in all but one of her matches. After a first-round bye, she has defeated Clara Tauson, Taylor Townsend, No.17 Madison Keys, No.8 Maria Sakkari and No.23 Victoria Azarenka. 

Rybakina has lost 69 matches across her five wins, the most en route to the Miami final since the tournament's inception in 1985.

Unseeded and playing in her home state, Collins is into her first WTA 1000 final with a dominating fortnight in Miami. After losing the first set of her tournament to Bernarda Pera, Collins has not lost more than three games in a set. She has defeated Pera, No.30 Anastasia Potapova, Elina Avanesyan, No.19 Sorana Cirstea, No.23 Caroline Garcia and No.14 Ekaterina Alexandrova. 

Collins' last 12 set scores? 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. 

How do they stack up?

Rybakina and Collins have played four times, with Rybakina leading the head-to-head 3-1. Collins won their first match in 2021 en route to her title in San Jose, but Rybakina has taken the last three. All three of Rybakina's wins needed a third set. 

Their most recent showdown came in Abu Dhabi last month. Rybakina won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Rybakina comes from a set down to defeat Collins in Abu Dhabi

What milestones are at stake on saturday.

Rybakina is bidding to win her third title of the season and eighth overall. She is already the first woman to make four WTA finals in the first three months of the season since she did it in 2020. Miami would be her third WTA 1000 title, having won Indian Wells and Rome last year. 

Rybakina is already one of two player to have won multiple WTA 1000 titles since the start of 2023. A win would tie her with Iga Swiatek with three over that span. 

24&285 - Elena Rybakina (24 years and 285 days) is the youngest player to make consecutive finals at the Miami Open since Maria Sharapova in 2005 and 2006. Rock. #MiamiOpen | @MiamiOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/UODOHBRyhB — OptaAce (@OptaAce) March 28, 2024

With victory over Danielle Collins would tie Rybakina for second in win percentage at WTA 1000 tournaments since 2020 (73.2%, 60-22). She would trail only Swiatek (81.4%, 79-18) and move level with Simona Halep (73.5%, 25-9), Jessica Pegula (72.4%, 63-24) and Karolina Muchova (69.8%, 30-13).

By making the Miami final, Collins has made a final at all four WTA levels. Her previous three finals came at 2021 Palermo (WTA 250), 2021 San Jose (WTA 500), and 2022 Australian Open (Grand Slam). A victory on Saturday would deliver a third career title, after winning Palermo and San Jose. 

In January, Collins announced 2024 would be her final season. She is bidding to become the second unseeded champion in Miami, after Kim Clijsters in 2005. She is already the second-lowest ranked woman to make the Miami final after Naomi Osaka did so ranked No.77. 

53 - Danielle Collins (#53) has become the second-lowest ranked player to make the final at the Miami Open since the inception of the event in 1985 - only higher ranked than Naomi Osaka in 2022 (#77). Surprise. #MiamiOpen | @MiamiOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/9uNyjLDp26 — OptaAce (@OptaAce) March 29, 2024

What are they saying?

Rybakina: "Last year it was different conditions. I was coming from Indian Wells, a lot of wins. This year it's much different. I was not expecting honestly to be in the final, because I was not prepared that well for this tournament. But really happy that I managed to battle through all these matches and be in the final again."

Collins: "To have made the finals, first finals of a 1000 level in my home state during my last season, this is just great. The memories made this week on and off the court, yeah, I'm just over the moon.

"A day off tomorrow, hit the golf course, play a little tennis. Living the dream. Living the dream in Miami."

Rybakina: "For sure I can take a lot from this tournament, a lot of positive. And also, in the beginning, these long matches were helping me to get back in shape. Now I'm not in shape just because I'm tired of all these long matches, but overall, it was really successful tournament no matter how I do in the final."

Road to the Final: Collins dominates to make first WTA 1000 final in Miami

Collins: "I'm 30, but I haven't really played that long on tour. I remember when I made my first semis at Australian Open, and they were, like, Oh, Danielle Collins never won a Grand Slam match before this. I was like, I have only played, like, three Grand Slams. (Laughter.)

"So I feel like you need time to get experience and you need time to learn about yourself, what works, what doesn't work. There are so many different areas: physical, mental, emotional. Obviously with the physical challenges and the health stuff, that has been something that I have dealt with the majority of my career, and it hasn't been easy."

Rybakina: "For [Collins'] kind of game, I need to be prepared physically, to also push myself, have a good serve. First few balls I need to be very fast, which, I mean, is going to be for sure difficult for me physically, but we see who is going to win in the end, and I will try to prepare and do my best in final, of course.

Collins: "I'm looking forward to playing Elena. We have had a lot of great matches previously, some battles. That's what we play for as professional athletes, these close ones. Every time I have played her, it's neck and neck. These games are close, the points are close, they are long, challenging points. Big serves from both of us. Big returns, big groundstrokes.

"I think we will go out there and put on a great show and it will be a fun match."

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Iga Swiatek doubles down in Indian Wells

The World No.1 has won five tournaments multiple times. No active player has done it more over the last decade. After winning her second BNP Paribas Open, she joins the podcast to reflect on the unique challenges of winning a title multiple times. Does it get any easier? Your mileage may vary.

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Gunmen Kill 60 at Concert Hall Outside Moscow, Russian Authorities Say

The Islamic State claimed the attack, the deadliest in the Moscow region in more than a decade.

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By Valerie Hopkins ,  Ivan Nechepurenko ,  Aric Toler and Anton Troianovski

• March 22, 2024

Several camouflage-clad gunmen opened fire at a popular concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night, killing about 60 people and wounding more than 100, Russian authorities said, making it the deadliest attack in the capital region in more than a decade.

Hours after the mayhem began, the Russian national guard said its officers were still looking for the attackers. State media agencies reported that there had been up to five perpetrators.

As gunshots boomed through the building containing the concert hall, one of the largest and most popular music venues in the Moscow area, fire erupted in the upper floors of the structure, and the blaze intensified after an explosion, causing the roof to collapse.

The Islamic State, through an affiliated news agency, claimed responsibility. U.S. security officials, including a senior counterterrorism official, said they believed the attack was carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan , a branch of the terrorist group that is active in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Multiple videos posted on social media and verified by The New York Times show several people entering Crocus City Hall, a sprawling shopping and entertainment complex in suburban Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow, and firing rifles. Other videos show people running past bloodied victims lying on the floor or screaming at the sound of gunshots, while photos show bodies lined up outside the building.

A woman who gave her name only as Marina said in a text message that she was standing in line for a concert outside, in the cold, about 8 p.m. when people without overcoats started running out of the building, saying they had heard shots.

“As soon as I heard automatic rifle shots, I started running, too,” she said.

The state news agency TASS reported that emergency services had dispatched helicopters to try to rescue people from the building’s roof, where flames and smoke could be seen billowing into the night sky.

At least 115 people were hospitalized after the attack, five of them children, according to the Russian minister of health, Mikhail Murashko. The injured include 60 adult patients in serious condition, the minister said. Another 30 people were treated and released.

The Russian leader, Vladimir V. Putin, made no immediate direct public statement, issuing only a statement through a deputy prime minister, Tatyana Golikova, that expressed hopes for the recovery of the injured and gratitude to the doctors treating them.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s equivalent to the F.B.I., said it had opened a criminal case into a terrorist act and dispatched its investigators to the site. RIA Novosti said that a special police unit was working inside the building.

John F. Kirby, a spokesman for President Biden’s National Security Council, told reporters that the White House had “no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved.” Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a video statement that “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do” with the attack.

On March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a security alert that warned that its personnel were “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.” The statement, which did not say anything about the extremists’ affiliation, warned Americans that an attack could take place in the next 48 hours.

Pro-Kremlin voices seized on the U.S. Embassy’s warning to paint America as trying to scare Russians. On March 19, Mr. Putin called the statement “obvious blackmail” made with “the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

The attack on Friday was connected to the March 7 warning, according to American officials briefed on the matter. They added that the United States alerted Russia privately at the time about intelligence it had about Islamic State activity.

Statements of condolence and outrage came from around the world, including the leader of China, Xi Jinping, and governments of the United States and other countries that are at odds with Russia. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last month, said on social media, “All those involved in this crime must be found and brought to justice.”

The attack came on a day when 165 missiles and drones attacked Ukraine, constituting what the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, said was “the largest attack against Ukraine’s energy grid since the start of Russia’s war.”

The attack began around 8 p.m. local time, minutes before a sold-out performance by the veteran rock band Piknik was scheduled to start. The concert hall has 6,200 seats, according to its website.

“At least three people in camouflage burst into the ground floor of Crocus City Hall and opened fire with automatic weapons” and threw incendiary devices, a correspondent for RIA Novosti reported from the scene. “There are definitely wounded.”

In videos filmed inside the concert hall, audience members are heard screaming and seen crouching as repeated gunshots echo outside the hall.

Russia’s emergency service said it had sent 130 vehicles to the scene and three helicopters to drop water on the blaze that gutted the upper floors. The fire was mostly extinguished shortly before 5 a.m. Saturday, according to the regional governor, Andrey Vorobyov.

Shootings are rare in Russia, where the state tightly regulates the possession of firearms. One of the deadliest ones occurred in 2022, when a gunman killed 18 people and wounded 23 others in a school in the town of Izhevsk.

However, attacks have struck across the Russia in recent decades, events that the authorities often described as terrorism. A 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport killed 37 people, and two coordinated suicide bombings in Moscow subway stations in 2010 killed about 40 people.

In 2004, 172 people died in a siege at a Moscow theater by Chechen separatists. The police pumped a sedative gas into the theater to incapacitate the attackers, but the gas killed 132 hostages.

The complex where the attack took place on Friday was developed by the Azerbaijan-born billionaire Aras Agalarov, whose son, Emin, is a famous pop star. Former President Donald Trump held the Miss Universe pageant at the same complex in 2013, and world-famous performers like Eric Clapton, Dua Lipa and Sia have also performed there.

Alina Lobzina , Julian E. Barnes , Neil MacFarquhar and Victoria Kim contributed reporting.

Valerie Hopkins covers the war in Ukraine and how the conflict is changing Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States. She is based in Moscow. More about Valerie Hopkins

Ivan Nechepurenko covers Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the countries of the Caucasus, and Central Asia. He is based in Moscow. More about Ivan Nechepurenko

Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times where he uses emerging techniques of discovery to analyze open source information. More about Aric Toler

Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The Times. He writes about Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. More about Anton Troianovski

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The Heartbreak of an English Football Team

By Hanif Abdurraqib

Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” was already enjoying a revival, of sorts, as a number in Presley’s post-1968 comeback shows, by the time it poured from the speakers at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1973. The occasion was that year’s F.A. Cup final, featuring the Sunderland Association Football Club, an underdog team that, some might say, had no business being there, and certainly no business winning. The team was facing off against Leeds United, one of the most dominant teams in the game, and the winner of the previous season’s tournament. So it was unsurprising that Sunderland fans became overwhelmed with pride when, as their team lined up and prepared to take the pitch, Elvis’s voice rang out over the stadium speakers. They sang along, in full voice, until the swelling, infectious chorus echoed through the arena. By the end of the game, their pride turned to ecstasy. Sunderland won 1–0. After the victory, Elvis’s song, rebranded by Sunderland supporters as “Wise Men Say,” based on the song’s opening line, became a team anthem of sorts. It not only commemorated Sunderland’s luckiest moment but seemed to suggest that the bad old times were in the past. Good things lay ahead, a time of triumph and championships. Alas, that was not to be. The 1973 F.A. Cup was the club’s last major trophy for the next fifty years.

There’s one scene that haunts me most from the Netflix series “Sunderland ’Til I Die,” which concluded its third and final season last month. It is 2021, and Sunderland, after many dramatic swings in its fortunes, finds itself again playing in the third-tier league (now known as League One), engaging in a high-stakes playoff match to determine whether it’ll get promoted back to second-tier league. The scene, from the finale of Season 2, comes at the end of a playoff match against Charlton Athletic. In the first half of the game, Sunderland had got off to a 1–0 lead, but it was the kind of lead that you could tell wouldn’t last long, even if you didn’t already know the kind of luck Sunderland had been having. The viewer watches as the game’s remaining minutes tick agonizingly by. Sunderland loses a crucial possession, and Charlton levels the score, 1–1, and then it happens all at once: a ball bounces around loosely in the box, then is put away by a Charlton striker, with next to zero time left on the clock. There’s no way for Sunderland to mount an attempt at an equalizer.

This, on its own, would be ruinous enough. But there is a sequence within the scene that serves, to me, as a thesis both for fandom and for its inevitable heartbreak: a montage showing Sunderland players collapsed on the pitch while confetti falls around them. A father in the stands pulls his weeping son close and says, with painful clarity, “Been here before, haven’t we?” A teary-eyed woman lingers as the stadium empties, seemingly vacillating between rage, grief, and disbelief, a Sunderland A.F.C. flag still draped around her shoulders. She looks over at her partner and asks, “Why is it never us celebrating? Why is it never us?”

The man shrugs silently. There’s no good way to think about such a question, until, one day, the trophy is raised for you and your team.

“Sunderland ’Til I Die” has little in common with the traditional contemporary sports docuseries that have lately flooded streaming platforms. It isn’t as preoccupied with day-by-day behind-the-scenes action as, say, Amazon’s “All or Nothing,” where each season follows a team (from the N.F.L. to English football) through a single season, with miked-up shots during games and a disembodied voice as narrator. It isn’t like another Netflix series, “Last Chance U,” which follows junior college basketball and football programs that, as the title suggests, offer one last shot for young players at risk of flaming out. In those shows, the coaches are often the main points of attraction, and the game is filtered through their many eccentricities (to say the least). “Sunderland,” by contrast, is first and foremost a study of place, which makes it something slightly beyond a study of a sport. Yes, of course, the show spends plenty of time on the players, and the games themselves (and, in the second season, perhaps a touch too much time on the activities of the front office). But it shines most as a portrait of a people in a town, people who have hitched their identity to a team that is, as of today, a hundred and forty-five years old, as embedded in the geography of the city of Sunderland as its old churches and shipyards and the river that divides the city in two.

A home town is, first, a place that is chosen for you. At some point, you may decide to choose the place back, accepting all of its joys and disappointments and simply hoping that in the end you can break even. “Sunderland” rests on an understanding of this calculation, and goes further in arguing that Sunderland Football Club hasn’t lived up to its role in the balance. The series begins in the 2017-18 season, when Sunderland has been relegated after a decade in the tier-one Premier League, but the club’s entire history is pocked with spectacular failures. In the late fifties, the team became embroiled in a financial scandal when it was caught making payments to players in excess of the agreed maximum wage. The following year, amid fines and suspensions, they were first relegated, to the second division. The team’s lowest of lows came in 1987, just two years after it appeared in its first League Cup final, when it was bumped to the third division. It climbed back to the Premiership in 1990, after an opponent that it lost to in the playoff final was, coincidentally, found guilty of a financial scandal and disqualified, but they only stayed up for a season before being relegated again after a devastating loss on the last day of the 1990-91 season. As the series shows, there is material impact from this volatility, beyond the crushing of fans’ hopes. When a team gets relegated, its budget suffers. Jobs are lost. Teams can’t pursue the kind of quality of players they might be able to attract in the Premier League. The teams that go down have to fight to get back up, and they have to do it with fewer resources, which puts a strain on the team’s management, its staff, its players, and its broader community.

It might seem like the very definition of insanity to place one’s hopes into anything or anyone with a proven track record of letting you down. But the psychology of the sports fan, particularly when it is a fan who feels a deeper kinship with a place, follows a different logic. One season ends, and there is a mourning period, but each new season brings a clean slate upon which dreams can be projected. And so, in the Netflix series, we watch a fan, in his newly downsized apartment, sift through his decades-old Sunderland memorabilia. We listen as he explains, in a quiet voice, how he used to have even more memorabilia but sold some just to have a little extra money to go to more games. We follow around the cabdriver who never misses a home match, and the man who gets two large teas from McDonald’s before every game, one for him and one for his longtime friend and fellow-fan.

Your heart might break for these poor souls, or it might break with them, but what happened for me, throughout the show’s three seasons, was that I found myself reconsidering my own forms of devotion. The question in my mind shifted from How could people love a sports team this much ? to What is it that I sacrifice for and return to, again and again, even given all that I know ? I am perhaps too relentless of a romantic, but this is a part of the human condition that I gravitate toward, relate to, and almost envy when it isn’t in my immediate grasp: the desire to open oneself up to potential hurt for the sake of whatever pleasure might precede it.

The third and final season of “Sunderland” is just three episodes long, picking up in the middle of the 2021-22 campaign, when the team is near the top of the third-division standings, fighting for promotion into the second division. There are somewhat hastily drawn portraits catching us up on familiar players and introducing new ones. The defender Lynden Gooch is reaching the end of a lengthy contract that has had him with the squad since he was a teen-ager. The newest addition, a forward named Ross Stewart, was plucked from near obscurity from a Scottish team to become Sunderland’s leading scorer and fan favorite. (When he’s in a good groove on the field, fans sing, “Ross Stewart is the best on earth,” to the tune of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”) Luke O’Nien, who came to Sunderland in 2018, in the midst of a downturn, and played through a brutal stretch of seasons, is hurt and working his way back from injury. The episodes focus on the final run of the season, when Sunderland, needing to be in the top two in the league to secure immediate promotion, slips and rises and slips again.

Sunderland ends up in fifth place, which qualifies it for the League playoffs. And there the team is again, at Wembley, just as it was as champion in 1973. Sunderland, playing against the Wycombe Wanderers, took another early 1–0 lead. (It is said that 2–0 is the most dangerous lead in the sport, but I’d wager that an early 1–0 lead is most harrowing for spectators and participants alike.) With eighty minutes remaining in the match, the team races against the clock and against its entire vexed history. The wonder of the sports documentary lies in how every move can be slowed down, allowing the intensity to balloon around each touch of the ball in a way that it didn’t, for me, when I watched the same Sunderland game in real time, in May of 2022. When Stewart slides a second goal into the left corner of the net with eleven minutes remaining, bringing the score to 2–0, and Sunderland has all but secured a victory and a promotion, the show offers another montage: all of the past times they couldn’t quite do it, contrasted against the time they could.

In the late fall of last year, I was at Lower.com Field, in my home town of Columbus, Ohio, because the Columbus Crew was in the Major League Soccer final, its fifth over all. (The team won in 2020, in a game played for a nearly empty stadium.) The Crew had a new coach, and one of its star players had left the team midway through to play in Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t even the highest-ranked team in the state, yet here it was, in another M.L.S. Cup final, after a stunning, high-anxiety playoff run. It was playing the Los Angeles Football Club, and it scored twice early in the game, but in the second half it gave up a goal, bringing the score to 2–1 with about twenty-five minutes left on the clock. At that point, I could no longer bear to watch. I’d turn away from the field, or I’d pace, or I’d go up to the top of the stands and watch from farther away, as if the distance might enhance my ability to endure what I was taking in. It is comical to think about now, in hindsight, but no more comical or absurd than any other number of things I’ve done for love, or for a feeling adjacent to love.

The Crew won, and after the celebration on the pitch died down people in the stands, per the local custom, put their arms around one another. Through some combination of reverence and laziness, American soccer has borrowed many of its chants from the British. The speakers played “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and the fans sang along, replacing the “you” at the end of the chorus with “Crew.” Elvis’s song, I might note, is not only about love in a plain sense but about surrender, about having no choice but to go to a place and faithfully remain there. The part that gets me isn’t the “Crew” substitution but the first part, the lines that both Sunderland and Crew fans share: “Wise men say / Only fools rush in.” Only fools would give themselves over to something so entirely out of their control. Then again, I’ve been a fool for far less. ♦

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