I have written four previous posts on this topic, with different examples of creative theses and dissertations. Here are the first, second, third, and fourth of those posts.

Today I am showcasing: a thesis written in two different styles throughout; another which takes a multi-media approach; and a third which has been self-published as an open access comic. As a bonus, I will share a creative recording of a doctoral dissertation and its defence.

The thesis written in two different styles is by Anne Collis whose doctorate was in social policy and inclusion, with a focus on how to include people with learning disabilities in policy-making in Wales. Anne’s thesis is written in a reasonably conventional way, except that she also writes an ‘Alongsider Thesis’. This is a plain English version which is presented in the PDF of the thesis alongside the academic version. Close to the start of the Alongsider Thesis, Anne says:

“This thesis has two versions alongside each other.

• The right hand pages are written in Academic language.
• The left hand pages are written in Everyday language.

You can read just the Everyday pages to get an idea of what is in the thesis. You can start with the Everyday pages and then look across to get more details any time you want.

If you read Academic, you can read just the Academic pages. You can use the Everyday pages to make it quicker to read any parts of the thesis you aren’t so interested in. I hope some academics will get ideas by looking at the Everyday pages for ways they can try to share what they know.”

As Anne’s thesis is all about inclusivity, this creative approach makes perfect sense.

The multi-media thesis is by Elona Hoover whose doctorate was in Human Geography with a focus on urban ‘commoning projects’ in London and Paris. Elona is a musician; she plays the cello. Her thesis includes an experimentally written document, punctuated by five ‘samples’ and accompanied by a soundtrack. The written document uses a variety of fonts for different purposes: one for an ethnographic narrative, another for text taken directly from fieldnotes, a third for excerpts from documents, a fourth for quotes from interviews, and a fifth for notes for the reader, among others. The ‘samples’ are audio samples: sampling is a compositional technique that can be ironic, inclusive, and playful, among other things. And the soundtrack includes material from field recordings, Elona’s cello, people reading poems, and the sounds of turning on and off the microphone. In the PDF of the thesis, the soundtrack and samples are embedded audio files. There are invitations to the reader with each audio file, either to stop reading while listening or to listen while continuing to read. The author uses this multifaceted approach to reflect the complexity of communing with all its interpersonal, political, and conceptual interactions.

The thesis which was self-published as a comic is by Omar Bah, which is a pseudonym. The author is an African anthropologist who studied international development with a focus on expatriate aid workers who are known in some African languages as Mzungus. Omar’s PhD ‘tells stories of Mzungus and goals that were never reached’ and apparently no academic journal agreed to publish any part of it (Omar, if you’re reading this, please try the new Journal of Creative Research Methods). So Omar decided to self-publish his thesis – as an online comic, in two parts: first and second. It is a great read: insightful, uncomfortable, educational, funny, and worth the investment of time.

Vanessa Santos did a PhD in tourism with a focus on sustainability. She produced a video called ‘My Doctoral Viva’ which presents her doctoral dissertation through autoethnotheatre. In the associated text she describes her research as advocating “for context-sensitive, adaptive, experimental policymaking that balances economic growth with social sustainability, emphasizing a human-centered approach to tourism development”. The video is compelling to watch, and I’m delighted that Vanessa is coming to this year’s International Creative Research Methods Conference to present and discuss her work.