ThesisCrazy 2025 pt.2: Housemates, Denim, and Queer Love edition!

This is a part of our ThesisCrazy Series. You can sign up here for a short 10 min interview!

Interviews by Zoomy

Cate Goodwin Pierce ’25 (she/they), Psychology & FGSS double major, African-American Studies minor, thesis in FGSS, carrel #453

Working Title: “Riveted: A Gendered and Anti-imperialist Analysis of America’s Obsession with Denim”

On her topic: “I looked at denim throughout US history with an intimate methodology. So that meant de-centering Lees, Levis, Wranglers, all the big companies and how they worked and advertised, as well as market trends or sales or that kind of thing. I was talking about real people, real interpretations of individual feelings with denim. I framed my thesis around this YSL quote where he was like, ’I wish I had invented blue jeans, they have simplicity, modesty, self-expression, and sex appeal.’ But he’s like such a high-fashion-world business mind that my four chapters were kind of like a challenge to him of what a more intimate research of denim and blue jeans would be. My chapters were endurance, nostalgia, resistance, and transgression. I talked about everything from coal miners and the indigo interaction with denim and the rivets, to cowboys and cowgirls and how they kind of wrestle with American masculinity, to denim’s usage in social movements, like SNCC and the anti–Vietnam War movement, and then finally to transgression, which was about queer interpretations and assumptions of denim to express or pass in their sexuality.”

On how she thought of her topic: “I’ve been kind of obsessed with material history for a while. Sophomore year I took a class with Professor Kaisha Esty, which was about an intimate historical methodology. So I kind of wanted to tie those things together. I drew a lot from Saidiya Hartman. I didn’t really do critical fabulation but I use so many pictures. I think I had like 80 images in my thesis. I feel like  having pictures really brought it to life and played with form in a way. It’s hard to talk about something so visual without having pictures, and I really wanted to kind of spark people’s interests and curiosity with those images.”

On their current mental state: “Now that it’s done, it’s kind of twofold. On one hand, I feel very proud of myself. But also, I was working on this for 20 months, and so now it’s like, 'what do I think about now that I’m not thinking about denim all the time? What do I fill my time with?' I’m very bad at being just chill and rotting, which I’m trying to get better at. I think that part of me made writing a thesis so much more enjoyable, and now that it’s over, I’m like, wow, what do I do?”

On her most upsetting thesis experience: “There were definitely some sections that were really kind of emotionally hard to write. My third chapter was all about resistance movements and that all starts from like college students wearing denim, which then exploded out into much larger nationwide protest movements. Reading about the repression campaigns, the physical and mental stress and harm that universities caused their students in the 60s in the 70s, I felt like I know what these narratives are talking about quite personally. Even reading stats, the higher faculty support of a student protest, the safer the students are. So like, the highest faculty support for anti-Vietnam was at Berkeley and they had these huge wins. and the least amount of faculty support was at Kent State, which is where four students ended up dying because National Guardsmen shot into a crowd of protesters. And so thinking about that, thinking about FJP now and SJP, it was really like, 'whoa, okay, this is really applicable and really, really personal.' And that was just exhausting, honestly. But also at one point, my advisor was encouraging me to drop this to a senior essay and I really had to sit him down and was like, 'I am writing a thesis, and I’m writing a good-ass thesis, and you are gonna help me.' Because I was playing with form in a way where he was like, it’s cool, it’s good, but like, it’s just not a thesis, and I was like, 'well, it’s gonna be a thesis now, because I am writing a thesis.' I love my advisor, but there were some moments where I really had to be my own cheerleader.”

On her favorite form of procrastination: “There’s a TV show called The Traitors, which is so good. I watched a season in probably three days. I love it so much. But honestly, I am so type A, like ridiculously type A, and I set so many like incremental deadlines for myself that other than my daily rot on Instagram reels, I feel like my brain is just kind of set up for these kinds of projects. There was just never really a time that I was like, I’m just not gonna do this. I still love my topic and that just never dwindled. I feel very, very lucky to have found something that I care so much about.”

On what she did after she handed her thesis in: “I submitted on that Wednesday, so I submitted on the 16th, and so on the 17th, I went to Miller’s. I started drinking at about 3:30pm, and then went to Macbeth absolutely wasted, and then went to Bar Night and just kept on drinking and partying until about 2am. Little known story, the champagne pop was probably one of the most stressful parts. Popping that fucking cork is a lot harder than you think. And so I had a cider before to socially lubricate myself to get ready for it.”

Advice for future thesis writers: “I think what really worked for me was having those incremental deadlines, and also getting ahead on your research. I visited Levi’s headquarters during the summer of 2024, and that was kind of my initial push into my research. But then, I really spaced it out so that I had deadlines to hold myself to, and also, celebrating the little stuff was so important for me to get it done. So I would finish chapter two outline and I would take the afternoon off to celebrate that, or at the end of chapter, like writing chapter three, I would celebrate that. So, like, really breaking it up so that you have smaller goals to tackle and also have more opportunity to celebrate and feel really proud of yourself. I also think if you do not have a topic that is so exciting and thrilling and just everything to you, it’s not worth it. It just is not worth it. It’s too time consuming and stressful of a process to do something that you are not so passionate about and eager to read about and think about every single day. And if that’s not you, hey, no judgment, but it is just not worth it.”

On her favorite part of her thesis: “I really loved chapter two, which is all about nostalgia, because I end up talking about dude ranches and how they became this kind of cultural fortress for the US, and dispensing Americanism throughout the West after the military had left. But honestly, I think my favorite part of my thesis is like, telling other people what I’m writing about and everyone having an anecdote. Everyone has something to say about denim or jeans, and so my thesis as a way to connect with people outside of the actual text is my favorite part of it.”

If their thesis was a song/movie/TV show: “If it was a song, ‘Levii’s Jeans’ by Beyoncé. Okay, I talk about a couple of movies in my thesis. So I’m thinking City Slickers, maybe Back to the Future. I mean, all of those just have jeans in them. Maybe Back to the Future, because in every single time that is in Back to the Future I, II, and III, they’re all wearing jeans, if they’re in the 1850s or 2015. And I think that encapsulates it pretty well.”

On her most used word/phrase: “I mean, denim, maybe like—oh God, I say physical manifestation probably 10,000 times.”

Theses feces: “Wow. Honestly, they’ve been a lot more regular, which I’m loving.”

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Georgia Reed-Stamm '25 (any pronouns), Film and Latin American Studies double major, thesis in film.

Title: You First. 

On their topic: "Long time friends confront newfound desires after their first day of sophomore year of high school. So it's two best friends, and one of them has just transferred to a Catholic school. They've never not gone to school together, and so they're like meeting up after school and just kind of meandering around their small town. One of them is an artist, which is kind of important to the plot, and eventually a breach of trust kind of forces them to confront some feelings of desire. So overall it's a queer coming of age romance."

On how they thought of their topic: "Well, so originally I was kind of pitching it as the pretty universal queer experience of being in love with your best friend in high school. Obviously not every queer person experiences it, but I've talked to a lot of people about it and everyone has their version of that story. It usually ends badly. So the idea for the film was kind of taking that experience and sort of reimagining it in like a “what if it went kind of right” way. But definitely not without all the teenage awkwardness and angst and all of that stuff. It’s still real, just a somewhat reimagined version of that experience."

On their mental state: "I'm feeling good. Especially with it being a film, I feel like I'm at a point where you know, when you look at a word for long enough or you say it over and over again and it's just like, those are just sort of syllables and not a word. That's how I feel about it. At this point, it's like sounds and images. I was like showing it to someone recently and they laughed at a joke and I was like, “oh, right, this is like a story with words and jokes.” I've watched it so many times I feel I’ve lost any objectivity. I'm excited for other people to see it because I feel like I'll be reminded that it's actually like a film."

On their most upsetting experience: "My lead actor dropped out a week before we shot. I had a break down for like a few hours and then I was just like, all right, no time to waste. If it was any less time it would have been impossible, and if it was any more time, I might have not been so down to business about it. I just really locked in and found a new actor as quickly as I could and she's a fantastic and wonderful person. A couple weeks ago I also had sound issues that I thought would ruin everything. And ultimately it doesn't, but it's hard to not feel like that."

On their favorite form of procrastination: "I mean, I'm very talented at procrastinating in general. Definitely all the natural YouTube ways to procrastinate, but I feel like with this project in general  I had a lot of fun chatting with people, like Saskia, my DP. There were definitely a few moments where we were just having so much fun chatting and it was my assistant director’s job to be like, okay, guys, we’ve got to get back to work."

On what they did after turning it in: "The next day I just was so lazy. I just stayed in bed and listened to the Harry Potter audiobook and ate junk food. Also it's like I've been doing those things honestly anyway throughout the process, but with so much guilt attached. So it was really nice to get to do it and not have to feel guilty."

On their advice for future thesis writers/filmers: "I think that with art, it's obviously hard to not be defensive, but I also feel like the more people you show the scripts too, or like the cuts of the movie during the second semester and like the more you pitch as like, 'my feelings are not gonna be hurt, just please tell me like what could be better,' then the better it's going to be. I think that sometimes Wesleyan film students are conceited and coddled and they don't want to hear that, which is fair, but I don't think you should be doing this work then."

If their thesis was a song: "I mean, I think during the summer when I was writing it, the songs that I listened to the most and thought about were Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan and Be Sweet by Japanese Breakfast."

Theses feces: "Lately pretty good. Honestly probably better since theses were done because I’m eating better and sleeping more. I’m on the up." 

You can watch Georgia's film this weekend at the theses showings!