What was your dissertation about?

[Rdacsm]

What was YOUR dissertation on? Did you enjoy doing it? Did it make any significant impact in the field?

Mine was on the supposed improvements of inter agency co-operation after Victoria Climbe.
No impact whatsoever.
I have a copy on floppy disc somewhere but gave no way of accessing it.

Experience of vertriebener children from eastern territories in post war Germany.

Mine was on looking at differences in how female/male tattoos are perceived from an anthropological perspective. Loved writing it and found the interview process fascinating. I'm still very interested in the reasons people get tattoos and the designs chosen because it's such a personal means of expression - though I still don't have any (yet).
Later, as a mature student, my MA dissertation was on the use of short novels to teach English. It unexpectedly lead to a new career path. Through connections made in the publishing industry while doing the research, I was commissioned to write some novellas for a fiction series promoting reading in English language learning and then moved into editing.

The reason I joined mumsnet. It was about the public / parents attitude to vaccines in the early 2010s. Very interesting and eye
opening

Undergraduate dissertation was on cysteinyl leukotriene receptors in respiratory tissues. This was in the mid-eighties, about 15 years before drugs like montelukast were licensed. It was also before we had word-processors or reference-management software, so it was a bit of a chore writing it on a manual typewriter and pasting in hand-drawn graphs.

I only had access to a very basic contouring programme, and had to print everything out in black and white and colour in by hand. I got so fed up I only coloured in the submitted copy, my own copy is still unbound and half coloured in.

Maybe I should source the right pencils and finish it off.

BA - representations of fans of the Manic Street Preachers in the media

MA - representations of Russians on US TV during the Cold War

PGCE - something about school dinners (I can’t remember what now. We all had to do a special study, but were allocated onto modules by the course leader)

PhD - an international comparison of how GenAI is being used by academics in HE to support inclusive teaching practices

I’ve got bound copies of the first two. I don’t think they’ve had any impact on the world!

I worked in Environmental Science for 25 years (running the teaching labs) and did some Radon research work … the lab analysis not the written papers. Also teaching masters students in radiochemistry

Physio BSc Hons dissertation was a questionnaire study on evidence based practice (EBP), with a tilt towards barriers to using online databases for EBP. No impact but I was super proud of my really high response rate (it was 20 years ago and I sent a paper questionnaire with a stamped return envelope and had over 85% responses)

I enjoyed the qualitative research but not the statistical tests and I am envious of the maths experts here!

Undergraduate 1987 'AIDS: The Making of a Social Problem'. Was a very relevant topic at the time, when AIDS was still considered a death sentence. A couple of councils requested a copy but the data / topic was moving so quickly so not sure how relevant. I need to re-read it to compare what was written with outcomes as of now. Masters 1990 'Image Analysis of the Cornea' - again, has been overtaken by technology. Was an interesting few years!

My masters dissertation was on how teacher educators form professional identities. Impact - I use elements of the learning all the time in my job I guess.

Feminism in vampire TV shows! I loved it

BSc - how young children learn to represent 3D objects in 2D drawings. Interesting but never going to change the world.
MSc - using symbol-based communication systems with deafblind children. Presented at a couple of conferences.
MA - using radio aids with children who have cochlear implants. Learned a lot which is useful and interesting but not sure anyone else has ever read it

Mathematics behind the Gulf Stream. It was fascinating.

We had to have ours bound as hardback books. I think my copy is under the stairs in a box.

Mine was on vehicle NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), and no, it didn’t change the world. The maths nearly broke my head though 😅

Something to do with changing land use in the city where I studied. Involved going through loads of massive books that recorded land use by building every year - can’t remember their names. No idea why I chose this as actually preferred physical rather than human geography.
failed the diss with 35% ( it was rubbish tbh) and should have been given non honours degree as a result, but much better marks in everything else and a viva resulted in a 3rd class honours.
Still got on a grad scheme a few years later and been there over 30 years now so not all bad.
it definitely didn’t change the world and hopefully was binned after it was marked!

Mine was on the Art of Persuasion in Pascal’s Les Pensees (did a French degree). Absolutely zero bearing on my current job as I’m a paediatric intensive care ANP🤣

Piezoelectric Polymers and their Commercial uses.

Good cure for insomnia

End of life care in the community - the role of the district nurse

no impact whatsoever

Change of housing tenure in London Docklands. 1989.
A glance at London’s skyline today assures me that it made no impact whatsoever 😂

Systemic racism in the criminal justice system and how that racism becomes a snowball effect. Afro-Caribbeans More likely to be stopped, more likely to be arrested, more likely to be charged, less likely to get bail, etc.

A local auction sold a dissertation last week for "£110,000". Disclaimer it did just happen to be written by Alan Turing. Sadly, I think the value of mine "Regulation of the hepatic LDL receptor" is zero. I did enjoy doing it though.

I was going to say what they were. Then read this thread, laughed at myself and decided not to.

The revival of the Watteau-esque fetes galantes in 19th century French poetry. Mostly in French. I didn’t study French. I felt like a challenge.

The experienced benefits and negative effects of self-harm chat rooms.