Thesis Information

Developing a thesis project is far from an exact science. There are several things to keep in mind:

• How the thesis will be seen in relation to your other work. Is there an organic or tangible trajectory? If not, you should contextualize the project. Explain why you’ve picked that topic, or that formal approach.

• Why the project matters to you. Your passion will have to carry the project to completion through a difficult process, so your commitment should be something you think about carefully.

• Do-ability is equally important. There is no right size for a thesis, so carefully consider how much you want to take on.  While your thesis can be used as your calling card in the future, it need not be massive in scope. A well-made twenty-minute film is more than sufficient to graduate. And we recently had an outstanding thesis film that clocked in at just over seven minutes!

• Focus on impact, not duration. Show your work whenever possible, to IMA faculty and students, to visiting artists, and to friends. Consider yourself as a media producer in conversation both with other makers and with audiences that you hope to engage. Who does work that you admire? Why do you like their approach?

• Attend the IMA Thesis Show each semester. By seeing and experiencing the Thesis work of other IMA students, you will develop an understanding of the thesis process and the realm of possible topics and approaches. It will help you identify and cultivate the skills needed to navigate the obstacles that arise in every creative endeavor, particularly one as ambitious as your thesis. To grasp where you are now in your IMA journey, it helps to see the work of those completing theirs.

You cannot formally commence a Thesis Project until you have passed your Second Crit, but students sometimes work on projects that contribute to or inform their thesis prior to officially entering the thesis process. While you cannot use your thesis as a project in all your IMA classes, you can take courses and try creative work that relate to your planned thesis.  A Thesis Project that builds on prior work or incorporates pre-existing material must include “substantial new work” at the thesis stage – the precise nature and scope of this substantial new work must be specified in the Thesis Concept and the Thesis Plan.

A week prior to your Second Crit you would submit your crit documents (artist statement, list of work, 1-2 page Thesis Concept Summary) and register for the 3-credit thesis course, IMA 79600 Thesis Preproduction.

In your first thesis semester, you create a Thesis Concept, participate in a Thesis Concept Presentation, write a Thesis Plan, secure your Thesis Advisors, and are encouraged to attend the bi-monthly Thesis Practicum class. Depending on your project, it's also highly recommended to produce alot of the project and compile info for your Thesis Paper.

In the second semester of thesis, you'd register for IMA 79800 Thesis Production and in that semester you will complete your Thesis Project, Thesis Paper, organize your Thesis Defense and participate in the Thesis Show and graduate.

If significant work on the thesis is achieved in the second semester of thesis and more time is needed due to an extenuating circumstance, you'd need to ask for approval from your three advisors and the program to request a 1-credit Thesis Extension the following semester, IMA 79900.

**NOTE: We want to minimize thesis extensions. Only the primary advisor is compensated for the extension and only for 3 hours of time that extension semester. And often those same advisors are taking on new thesis students.

If challenges arise it's usually best to pivot to a smaller scope and complete the project in the thesis year. Thesis projects can be developed further and expanded after graduation.

The Thesis Practicum (Thesis Class) meets approximately every other week during each thesis semester (Spring and Fall) to provide thesis students with additional guidance and community during their capstone project.

Led by an IMA faculty member, the Thesis Practicum provides a forum to exchange ideas, show work, and share feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Since most thesis students have completed course work, the Thesis Practicum also helps you stay connected to the Program while gaining valuable perspective and insight from other thesis students.

You do not have to register separately for the Thesis Practicum. The practicum is open to all thesis students. We encourage all thesis students to attend throughout their thesis process.

It's very likely that feedback about someone else's project, no matter how different from yours, would be helpful to your own work so it's highly recommended to attend whether you're sharing your work or not that session.

The date and time of the class is dependent on the availability of the professor facilitating, but it's most often been every other Monday night, 6:30-8:30pm on zoom.

The Thesis Concept includes a one page summary of your proposed Thesis and one page of additional information about it.

One week prior to the 2nd Crit, students submit this document along with their artist statement and list of crit projects.

Crit panelists provide feedback on the Concept Summary during the crit.

And new Thesis students are expected to re-submit the document to the program after their crit, with any changes since the crit, to prepare to present their concept during the first Thesis Practicum class for feedback from the group, and as a way of welcoming the new Thesis students into the class.

The Thesis Concept Summary:

- On the first page, explain your Thesis project’s proposed subject, scope, and design.

- On a second page, provide additional information about your proposed Thesis:

• Advisor(s) (if secured)
• Anticipated semester of graduation (e.g. fall 25, spring 26, etc.)
• Sources referenced in research
• If the Thesis builds on prior work or pre-existing material, you must also:
  • Articulate precisely the nature and scope of the new work; and
  • If you worked on the Thesis in IMA classes, list the work completed in each corresponding course.
• If you are collaborating with another IMA student on Thesis, write briefly the collaborators’ respective roles and responsibilities.
  • Any subsequent changes to the respective roles and responsibilities of the collaborators must be approved by the Thesis Advisor(s)

Thesis students are encouraged to share their Thesis Concept Summaries in the first thesis class for feedback.

After the 2nd crit, there is time to re-work the Thesis Concept Summary if the student would like to do so.

At the thesis class, new thesis students would share their revised summaries with the group for feedback as well as email the Thesis Concept Summary to their prospective primary, 2nd and third advisors.

The Thesis Plan (approximately 5-pages) is created after participating in the Thesis Concept Presentation Crit, you complete the Thesis Plan in consultation with your Primary Advisor. When your Primary Advisor agrees, email your Thesis Plan to the Program Coordinator and copy your advisor who will then confirm approval via email. After the IMA Program receives your Thesis Plan, you can then secure secondary and tertiary advisors and access Hunter equipment and facilities.

The Thesis Plan should include the following sections:

•Project description: revise your 1 page Thesis Concept. Incorporate feedback from the Thesis Concept Presentation, Thesis Class, and prospective thesis advisors. Articulate your conceptual and creative approaches to the project.

•Personal component: Explain your relationship with the project and how it connects with and builds on your media making practice and other IMA projects.

•Research plan: describe your planned research, including the kinds of sources you will use, and how the project relates to an existing body of media work and/or literature.

•Audience: Identify your Thesis Project’s intended audience(s). If your project aims to promote public awareness and discussion, describe your plans for achieving this objective.

•Timeline: provide a research and production schedule that accounts for your Thesis project’s scope, available resources, and IMA Program requirements

•nitial bibliography: include at least 10 research references, such as books, articles, web sites, films, videos, etc. using the Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Style Sheet formats for bibliographic entries.

Advisors and the program may grant a one-semester Thesis Deadline extension (IMA 79900 1-credit) provided you have demonstrated substantial progress on your Thesis Project and if there are extenuating circumstances.

A written rationale must be submitted during the 2nd semester of thesis (not the first) to advisors and the program for consideration.

*We hope that everyone can complete thesis in one year as it's a strain on the faculty thesis advisors to support thesis work after the year and only the primary advisor is compensated 3 additional hours during the 1-credit Thesis Extension semester.

If it appears that more time is needed, first connect with advisors to see how to re-work the project to make it achievable by the end of the second thesis semester. Thesis work can always continue post graduation.

Since 2019 we have implemented a revised thesis program (IMA 79600 + IMA 79800) which has several benefits including that it allows us to be able to compensate our adjunct faculty members to be primary and 2nd Thesis Advisors.

The primary and 2nd advisor must be IMA faculty members. Either role can be adjunct or full time.

*Reach out to the program if you need a list of all the current faculty members.

The third advisor is not compensated and they don't have to be a faculty member or connected to Hunter or academia.

Assemble a balanced Thesis Committee. Your Thesis Project will benefit from a panel of advisors with varied analytical approaches, creative methods, and technical skills. When selecting 2nd and 3rd Thesis Advisors, consider the committee as a whole and approach potential advisors who will augment, rather than duplicate, aspects of the Thesis Project addressed by your other advisors.

The primary advisor is compensated for 9 hours for the thesis year at their usual teaching rate.

The 2nd advisor is compensated for 6 hours for the thesis year at their usual teaching rate.

The 3rd advisor is not compensated. Often students choose artists/makers in NY or abroad or IMA alumni. Students can also choose a full time IMA faculty member in this role.

The primary advisor provides the most feedback on the project, they approve the Thesis paper for upload and they introduce the student and project at the Thesis Show.

The 2nd advisor provides feedback and gives notes on the paper.

The 3rd advisor is least involved but might give notes on specific aspects of the project. The 3rd advisor doesn't have to read the paper unless they would like.

All three advisors must be at the Thesis Defense, which can be in-person or on zoom and takes place 1-2 weeks prior to the Thesis Show.

When approaching potential advisors, include your Thesis Concept Summary and explain why you want to work with them, especially in connection with your planned project.

You don't have to have had them as a class professor to ask them to be your advisor.

Potential advisors have to consider working with you in light of existing and anticipated advising commitments, so give them time to consider your request. If they decline, do not take it personally.

If you have difficulty securing a Thesis advisor on your own or you would like advisor recommendations, the IMA Director will connect you with potential primary advisors and facilitate the process.

There is a hard deadline to secure your primary and 2nd advisor. Deadlines are sent out at the start of each semester.

Important Note: It's the responsibility of the Thesis student to communicate, send works-in-progress and set up times to meet with advisors. It's not the responsibility of the advisors (including the primary) to check in with the student.

While the Thesis Paper serves as a supporting corollary to the Thesis Project, write your paper with the understanding that it may be read by some people who do not have the opportunity to experience your Thesis Project. Thesis Papers will be housed in an online repository managed by the Hunter library, searchable and viewable through any web browser. In other words, your Thesis Paper will become a public document. So take it seriously. The Thesis Paper builds on the Thesis Plan’s foundation. Your Thesis Proposal reflects your understanding at a project’s inception – a creative, intellectual, and practical plan for undertaking your Thesis. You write your Thesis Paper from the opposite perspective, so it should reflect what you learned throughout the thesis process. The distinctions between your Thesis Proposal (project conception) and Thesis Paper (project execution) illuminate fundamental lessons about media making and your thesis journey. In your Thesis Paper, present your conclusions about the central question you sought to investigate in your thesis, detail the artistic and theoretical methodologies you employed in exploring this question, and explain how this experience might influence your ensuing projects. The Thesis Paper should be between 15 and 25 pages. It should be well written and meticulously revised, with as much care as you devote to preparing your Thesis Project for exhibition. Do not treat the Thesis Paper as an afterthought – it is an integral component of the IMA Program’s graduation requirements. The Thesis Paper should generally include the following sections (although each Thesis Paper will differ based on the specific project it describes and on your writing style and creative voice):

• Abstract
  • Summarize your Thesis Project in one or two paragraphs.
• Project Description
  • Provide a detailed description of the subject matter you explored in the Thesis Project. Explain your relationship to your thesis subject, including what led you to it. How did you approach the representation of the subject? Why did you choose this particular media, or media mix, to explore the subject? Describe how your stylistic, structural, intellectual, and aesthetic decisions relate to your chosen subject.
• Research Analysis
  • Detail your Thesis Project research. Explain how your research influenced your approach to the subject. Situate your thesis within the critical and historical context of the media in which you are working. Delineate how your thesis relates to an existing body of media work and literature, and how it contributes to the particular artistic trajectory with which you engaged.
• Thesis Production Process
  • Reflect on the production process itself. Evaluate what you intended to do, what you actually accomplished, the obstacles you encountered and how you responded to them, what beneficial “mistakes” occurred during the process, and what you ultimately learned – about this particular project, about your artistic sensibility, and about how you will approach subsequent projects.
• Audience and Exhibition
  • Identify the audience you want your Thesis Project to reach. If you intend that your Thesis Project promote public awareness and discussion, how will you achieve this objective? What is your plan for exhibiting, distributing and publicizing your thesis?
  • Elaborate on any legal issues that might impact your ability to exhibit your Thesis Project outside the IMA Program. If your Thesis Project includes unlicensed copyrighted material, articulate your fair use rationale for including these third party elements in your thesis. Describe your plan to clear music, archival footage, photographs, and other proprietary materials.
• Bibliography
  • Include a bibliography of no less than 25 books, articles, web sites, films, videos, and other research sources that follows the Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Style Sheet formats. The majority of your bibliographical entries should be referenced and contextualized in the body of your paper.
• Thesis paper guidelines and specifications are listed on the Dean's website here: https://hunter.cuny.edu/artsci/graduate-academics/preparing-your-thesis/

Uploading the thesis paper to Academic Works

^ See the paper guidelines in the link above which include suggestions on font, page setup, bibliography style, and use the MFA title page provided. On the title page, only list your primary and secondary advisor and type their names on the line. No handwritten signatures.

After your paper is proofed by your primary advisor and given the green light to upload. Then notify the IMA program assistant that you are going to upload the paper.

Follow the directions on this link to upload your paper to Academic Works:

https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/pending-migration/artsci/step-by-step-guide-for-graduate-students-as-of-2024.pdf

Be sure to only include your primary and second advisor. Only list their emails in the backend of the upload and include the Program Director, Andrew Lund, if he is not your 1st or 2nd advisor. The third advisor is not part of the paper process and not included in Academic Works.

Examples of Thesis Papers

The Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet by Candace Thompson

Shared Resources (Contractual Obligations) by Jordan Lord

Better Than Before by Makia Harper

Luncheon by Tomasz Gubernat

The Market by Claudia Zamora Valencia

You must pass the Thesis Defense in order to participate in the Thesis Show and meet the degree requirements for graduation.
When a Primary Thesis Advisor determines a student is not ready to defend, that student will be told to defer the defense until a subsequent semester, which means they'd have to register for the 1-credit extension.

Once you receive approval from your Primary Advisor before or on the "Go/No Go" deadline, the student schedules their Thesis Defense with the three advisors during the Thesis Defense week (approximately the first week in December and in May). Thesis Defenses are usually scheduled in 90 minute or two-hour slots, depending on the Thesis Project’s running or presentation time. It's usually the amount of time it takes to review the entire project and then approx 30-45min of feedback after.

You must submit the Thesis Project and Thesis Paper to your advisors at least one week prior to the Thesis Defense.

At the Thesis Defense, you will present your Thesis Project. Your thesis advisors will then discuss the project and paper with you.
You then the student leaves the room (or zoom room) and the panel will confer to determine whether you have passed the defense.

Although the panel can vote not to pass you, once your Primary Advisor gives you approval to schedule the Thesis Defense, we expect you will pass the defense and move on to the Thesis Show and graduation.

Advisors sometimes agree to provisionally pass a student provided the student makes specific changes to the Thesis Project and/or Thesis Paper before the panel will give its final approval for graduation.

Ultimately there should be minimal changes needed for both the project and paper after the defense. If significant changes are needed, then the student would not be moving to the defense that semester and extending.

Thesis Defenses can be on zoom or in person and are scheduled by the student.

At the start of the semester you plan to graduate, you must file for graduation with Degree Audit. There is a hard deadline to do this included in the deadlines sent out at the start of the semester.

To do this, you will log into CUNYfirst and indicate that you would like to apply for graduation.

The directions on the Hunter site are here: https://hunter.cuny.edu/students/registration/apply-to-graduate/

Be sure to continue to check your MyHunter email for any updates from Degree Audit. Forward any emails from Degree Audit to the IMA Program Coordinator: imamfaassistant@gmail.com

If you miss the deadline to Apply for Graduation, then unfortunately Hunter will not allow you to graduate that semester. You can continue to complete your Thesis paper and project (and that's preferred if you do) you'd just have to readmit for the following semester and Apply for Graduation the next semester to be able to get your degree conferred.

Thesis papers are now deposited directly online and they are searchable on the web. There is a process for uploading your thesis paper and deadlines are provided each semester. The IMA Program Coordinator will walk you through the process of uploading your completed paper before the deadline.

• Thesis paper guidelines and specifications are listed on the Dean’s site here

Uploading the thesis paper to Academic Works

^ See the paper guidelines in the link above which include suggestions on font, page setup, bibliography style, and use the MFA title page provided. On the title page, only list your primary and secondary advisor and type their names on the line. No handwritten signatures.

After your paper is proofed by your primary advisor and given the green light to upload. Then notify the IMA program assistant that you are going to upload the paper.

Follow the directions on this link to upload your paper to Academic Works: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/artsci/repository/files/graduate-documents/step-by-step-guide-for-graduate-students-as-of-2.pdf

Be sure to only include your primary and second advisor. Only list their emails in the backend of the upload and include the Program Director, Andrew Lund, if he is not your 1st or 2nd advisor. The third advisor is not part of the paper process and not included in Academic Works.

Examples of Thesis Papers

The Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet by Candace Thompson

Shared Resources (Contractual Obligations) by Jordan Lord

Better Than Before by Makia Harper

Luncheon by Tomasz Gubernat

The Market by Claudia Zamora Valencia

The MFA Exhibition and Screening will be scheduled towards the end of Spring and Fall semester. Participation in the show is mandatory for graduation and thesis credit.
Leading up to the show, students need to be responsive to emails from the program assistant and director and provide important details to help the IMA Program plan the show and promote it, including project format, running time, technical specifications and requirements, description, and artwork.

If your thesis project is a linear film, the preferred addition to the credits sequence: