Emma Glubiak

Branding a City Around Food: Media and Culinary Tourism in Lima, Peru.

Emma Glubiak, International Affairs, 2018
Thesis advisor: Professor Rebekah Pite

How and when did you select your advisor and the thesis committee members?
I selected my committee members fall of senior year and my advisor fall of junior year (because I was going abroad in the spring).

When did you start thinking about your thesis? How did you select your topic? How did you develop your research question?

I started to think about my thesis during junior year. I selected my topic based on what I was interested in. I developed my research question after doing some initial research over the summer and I honed it in with Professor Pite in the fall.

How did you start tackling your thesis project at the very beginning?

I started tackling my thesis over the summer by doing a lot of baseline research and getting a general feel for my topic. This was a good way to start in order to get general knowledge of your topic so you know where to go from there.

Did your advisor explain the structure of a thesis project to you?

Yes, the history department sent out a detailed packet.

Did you have to do a literature review? Had you ever done one before?

Yes, I did a brief literature review in my introduction and then brief literature reviews at the beginning of each chapter. I had done one before in research methods of International Affairs.

Do you remember receiving correspondence from the library about your honors thesis?

Yes and I met with a research librarian at the beginning of my research.

What did you find most challenging about your thesis project?

I had to submit an IRB form which I had never done before. That was a bit challenging but my advisor and the IRB committee where very helpful.

What did you find most rewarding about your thesis project?

See all of my completed work on paper, come together in a cohesive way. Doing field research in Peru and being able to apply that research to my thesis was also very rewarding.

What assistance did your advisor/department offer you throughout the course of the year?

My advisor was very helpful in answering any questions I had. We met about once a week.

Did you meet with librarians in the course of conducting your research? How many times and at what stages of your research?

I just met with librarians once at the outset of my research.

What other kind of support did you rely on throughout the year to accomplish your thesis (parents, friends, etc.)?

My advisor was incredibly supportive. My parents also were very supportive. My mom came with me on my field research in Peru since she speaks fluent Spanish.

Were you able to get access to all of the research materials you wanted for your project?

Yes. The ILL system was super helpful and the ILL librarians always got me what I needed. I highly recommend using ILL.

Would you do anything differently if you went through the process again?

I would organize my notes in a more efficient way, I just had a giant google doc with all of my notes which got very hard to navigate.

What advice would you offer other honors thesis students, especially in your department?

I would say to make a syllabus and follow it. Make the syllabus as specific as possible and stick to it as much as you can, that way you won’t be scrambling at the end.