Today is Commencement Day for the Graduate Center, which means it’s also time for the annual round-up of dissertations, theses, and capstone projects submitted to the library this academic year. For those keeping track, this marks the 10th year that I’ve had the privilege of sharing my observations about these works!

While ten years of dissertation and thesis deposits is a personal milestone, this year the Graduate Center marks a much more significant moment: sixty years ago, the first two Ph.D. graduates of the City University of New York were honored at a ceremony on May 17, 1965. Presided over by the Chancellor, with an appearance from Mayor Wagner and featuring remarks from then Dean of Graduate Studies Mina S. Rees, the ceremony was famously held a month early to accommodate graduate Barbara Stern’s pregnancy timeline (see “Stork Outraced, A Ph.D. is Earned; Woman Will Be First to Get City University Degree” in the New York Times). Daniel Robinson, the other graduate earning a degree in 1965, would later return to the Graduate Center and share the Commencement stage with Stern’s daughter at the 2009 ceremony. As we head to Lincoln Center tonight to celebrate our 2025 graduates, I hope we will recall this sense of community and care for our students and their humanity that was present at the very beginning. We’ll need to carry that forward in the difficult days ahead.

Inside the May 17, 1965 commencement program for The City University of New York’s Graduate Division. (CUNY Graduate Center Archives and Special Collections, Mina Rees Library)

The Library has long recognized that our dissertations and theses constitute our most treasured collection, memorialized by the creation of our majestic dissertation reading room when the Graduate Center moved into the former B. Altman building 25 years ago. Yet, the dissertation is just the beginning for our graduates, who often continue to work on the manuscript to transform it into a formal publication. If you’ve visited the library this year you’ve undoubtedly seen our display of dissertations that became books, on view on the first floor of the library, with a growing collection of titles available to browse online. (Have you published a book based on your dissertation? We want to hear about it!)

A case from the library’s first floor display showcasing the very first dissertations at the Graduate Center.

But now to today’s graduates! The Mina Rees Library accepted 421 deposits this year: 303 doctoral dissertations, 8 doctoral capstone projects, 63 master’s theses, and 47 master’s capstone projects. While some (53%) are immediately available to read in CUNY Academic Works, others (47%) are subject to an embargo period of up to two years set by the author.

Once again, the Ph.D. Program in Psychology saw the largest number of doctoral dissertations deposited (40), followed by Biology (26), English (17), and Biochemistry (16). Anthropology, Chemistry, Physics, Sociology, and Urban Education all tied for fifth with 13 dissertations deposited in each program. For the master’s graduates, the M.S. Program in Data Analysis & Visualization produced a whopping 25 capstone projects this year, followed by Liberal Studies (24), Cognitive Neuroscience (13), Political Science (13), and Digital Humanities (7).

As always, the breadth of topics covered in these works is illuminating. We saw investigations into quantified lives and killer apps; grindhouse cinema in Times Square and tradwives; children’s unstructured play in Turkey and welcoming migrants in the Western Balkans. From the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 to South Florida’s ride-hail sector and resettled refugees in the United States, these works show that today’s graduates have an insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

Graduate Center students continue to produce research that benefits the public on key issues that help us understand our world. Our graduates in Linguistics conducted regional explorations of language in “Vital Signs: Tibetan in the Linguistic Landscape of Jackson Heights” (Olivia Mignone, June ‘25) and “Beyond Country: Southern Language and Identity in North Mississippi” (Meredith Hilliard, June ‘25 ). Changing landscapes and climate collapse are examined through a range of disciplinary approaches in works like “Just Transitions: Critical Exploration of Environmental Policy and Decision-Making Through the Lens of Lived Stories” by Mariya Marinova (Ph.D., Psychology, September ’24), “Understanding Climate Change Adaptation and Gentrification through the Framework of Uneven Coastal Development in Keansburg, New Jersey” by Zachary Paganini (Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences, September ’24), and “Future Land, Futures Lost: Planning the Crisis on the Louisiana Coast” by Sheehan Moore (Ph.D., Anthropology, September ’24).

Not surprisingly, political extremism makes an appearance in two dissertations: Stephon J. Boatwright’s “Myth, Mayhem, and Pseudo-Democracy: The Role of Political Myths in Mobilizing Nationalist Populist Movements and Political Extremists” (Ph.D., Political Science, February ’25), and “Recruiting for the Cause(s): Extremist Propaganda and Radicalization Discourse,” by Jeremiah Perez-Torres (Ph.D., Criminal Justice, June ’25). I could never cover all of the incredible contributions that came through the Dissertation Office this year, so instead I’m bringing back the word cloud! Behold, the most common terms appearing in the titles of this year’s dissertation, thesis, and capstone projects:

This year’s dissertation titles, visualized using Voyant Tools.

And then there are the bench sciences. What can one say? When we began the academic year in August no one could imagine the extent to which these fields would be turned upside down in June. Each year, I lament my inability to sufficiently elevate the work being done by our GC grads in the sciences, but I leave it to the experts to examine them in detail (please, this year especially: go read these works and see for yourselves).

Now, on a more playful note:

Longest dissertation: “Craft Schools: Forming American Craft Culture Through Sites of Collective Pedagogy, 1970–1985” by Michelle Millar Fisher (Ph.D., Art History, June ‘25) comes in at 551 pages (though 212 of them are illustrations).

Shortest dissertation: “Black Horror Film and the Role of Mood in Race Perception” by Nicholas P. Whittaker (Ph.D, Philosophy, September ‘24) at 108 pages.

Longest title: “The Role of Acculturative Stress, Discrimination in Healthcare Settings, and Migration-Related Trauma on HIV Prevention and Mental Health Among Immigrant Hispanic Sexual Minority Men: An Integrated Model of Acculturation and Minority Stress” by Jonathan Lopez Matos (Ph.D., Psychology, February ‘25)

Shortest title: “Complicity” by Eliana Luxemburg-Peck (Ph.D., Philosophy, September ‘24)

As we close out the academic year, a year of uncertainty and instability, I implore everyone to take a moment to celebrate our graduates’ achievements, from 1965 to 2025. Each one of these works represents a commitment to the creation of new knowledge through the academic enterprise. We may not know what lies ahead, but we can be sure that our graduates will be on the side of truth and justice.

Congratulations, Class of 2025!

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