Schreyer Honors College Thesis Proposal Report
If your adviser's name is missing or incorrect, please contact your academic department to make the correction.
If you are enrolled in multiple majors or simultaneous degree program: ONLY your assigned adviser in your primary major will be able access and approve any online forms.
Part B: Due one year prior to graduation.
Please note that this web form will generate your Thesis Proposal Report (TPR). The TPR document should be signed by the appropriate faculty members and turned into the Schreyer Honors College in C-4 Atherton Hall. If your thesis readers change, please send an e-mail with the new readers to Roberta Hardin at rhh1@psu.edu.
1. Enter your working thesis title (in all capital letters):
HOLY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, BATMAN!
2. Enter your name as you want it to appear on your diploma (in all capital letters):
STEVEN CHARLES DODGE
3. Please choose the semester and year you will be graduating:
Semester: Spring Year: 2011
4. Please enter your major:
Information Sciences and Technology
5. Below, please enter either the academic discipline OR the academic disciplines in which you are seeking interdisciplinary honors. You should only fill in one of the text boxes below.
Honors In: Information Sciences and Technology
Below, identify the faculty members who will be approving this TPR. Please note that the faculty members you provide below must sign your generated TPR.
Dr. Luke Zhang
Dr. Gerald Santoro
6. Please identify the faculty member who will serve as your thesis supervisor:
Supervisor Name: Dr. Gerald Santoro
Supervisor Title: Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Supervisor Email: gms@psu.edu
7. (Optional) If you have co-supervisors on your thesis, please identify the second supervisor:
8. Please identify your honors advisor below:
Honors Adviser Name: Dr. Luke Zhang
Adviser Title: Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Adviser Email: lzhang@ist.psu.edu
9. If you are pursuing interdisciplinary honors, identify your second honors adviser below:
10. (Optional) Identify a second faculty reader for your thesis, if you require one (Note that all theses must be read by two faculty readers. If your honors adviser and thesis supervisor are the same person, then a second faculty reader is required).
11. (Optional, but required by some departments) Give the name of the Department/Program Head of your department below.
Department/Program Head: Dr. David Hall
Email: dhall@ist.psu.edu
Please answer the following questions about your thesis as fully as possible at this time:
Provide a clear statement of the purpose or objective of your thesis or creative project. List any research questions or hypotheses (as appropriate). In brief, what is the rationale for conducting this work? What is the proposed design or plan of your project?
The objective of my thesis is to explore the relationship between information technology and popular culture using Batman as an exemplar. Since the creation of the character in May of 1939, Batman has appeared in many forms of media including comic books, graphic novels, movies, television shows, video games, and newspaper comic strips. I plan to determine the nature of this relationship by determining to what degree information technology has influenced the Batman mythology and to what degree the Batman mythology has influenced information technology.
I plan to explore this relationship by structuring my thesis into three phases. The first phase will explain why Batman is an important example of popular culture and why popular culture matters. The second phase will provide a definition of who Batman is and will provide the literature review for the paper by providing a brief overview of the character’s history since 1939. The third phase will provide an analysis of the relationship between Batman and information technology. The relationship is comprised of two components, which are how Batman influences information technology and how information technology influences Batman. Each component will be broken down into three sections, which define the field of information technology. These sections are information, technology, and people. The strength of the relationship presented in my thesis will be dependent on the strength of my sources.
What is the intended outcome of your project? If appropriate, how will you analyze your data and what results do you anticipate? What contributions (publications, exhibits, performance, etc.), conclusions or applications do you anticipate as a result of your thesis?
The intended outcome of my project is to show the degree to which information technology and popular culture influence each other. I believe based on the number of resources that I have collected so far for my thesis, that this degree of influence is significant. I anticipate that my thesis will serve to further define a currently unexplored area of study by the academic community but I do not expect any publications or exhibits featuring my thesis work.
What is the project budget of your project?
The project budget of my project will consist of only time spent researching and writing my thesis. I do not require any additional resources for my project as I can easily borrow many of the materials I need from the university library.
Will you apply for a Thesis Research Grant:
I will not apply for a thesis research grant.
Will your project require approval for research involving humans, animals, biohazardous materials or radioactive isotopoes?
Note that if you answered yes or unsure above, you should discuss this with your thesis supervisor, especially with reference to the information and time needed for the approval process. If using human or animal subjects, students are required to take an on-line course before submitting a research project for review. Please review the Office of Research Protections Web page at: http://www.research.psu.edu/orp/ for information about the course and review process.
This project will not require approval for research involving humans, animals, biohazardous materials or radioactive isotopes. The only research for this paper will be conducted by analyzing different forms of media involving the Batman mythology and literature about popular culture in the academic community.
OPTIONAL: According to your adviser, please list ten sources that you have already consulted on your project. These must be in a bibliographic format appropriate to the discipline of your thesis.
I have maintained a list of over 100 sources using a blog that I created called Batman 101H. To examine my blog, please visit the following link: http://batman101h.blogspot.com/.
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