I'm hoping that there will be dissertation/thesis veterans here who could give some solid advice here.
I'm currently studying abroad in Canada before returning to do my dissertation in the first semester of my final year. However, I'm finding myself floundering when deciding on a topic. I've read into a few topics (Quebec nationalism, US-Canadian relations over Cuba, Language policy in Canada) that have sparked my interest but end up getting quickly discouraged and changing my mind, doubting whether I can come up with a decent enough thesis. Speaking to other people on my course, I find myself stunned by their ability to come up with such interesting, nuanced ideas. Any advice on what I may be doing wrong here? Or do I need to just keep plugging away? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you know why you're going to find out in advance, you're doing it wrong. Your reading will take you to nuanced ideas, so just keep plugging away! I started the summer of my dissertation year knowing I wanted to do something on Native Americans in the colonial south and nothing else, but finished it with fifteen thousand words of environmental history. Have faith! You will be able to see the gaps in the reading eventually, and then you can fill them in.
I'm in the middle of my undergrad thesis right now, presenting next fall. It's difficult, but for the love of god make sure you pick something you like to read on. I did, but a friend did not and he's suffering quite badly right now. Make sure you enjoy what you are going to be reading a substantial amount of material about.
On another note, nuanced ideas are a part. Start with a broad scope, then slowly narrow your way down. My process was as follows:
I love Roman history, so something Roman.
I love military history, so something Roman Military related.
Most of my knowledge and interest is in the early to mid principate, so let's go with something there.
I love middle eastern history, so let's look at something there too.
Year of the Four emperors was cool. What about Vespasian?
Vespasian's military campaigns throughout the Roman empire. But I also need something to compare against or something to help flesh out a more interesting narrative or comparison.
Trajan is really cool, Optimus Princeps and all that.
Trajan fought in Dacia and the Middle East.
compare the military campaigns of both men?
Undergrad Thesis: comparing the military campaigns of Vespasian and Trajan and calling for more research into the period.
It may be a long process or a short process. Just make sure you take the time to make sure you have a lot of source material to pull from, it's something that interests you, and that you take the time to find a narrow idea to explore. It doesn't have to be complicated, complicated will come as you read and explore the topic more and more.
Hope this helps!
I've always found that finding a workable thesis is probably the hardest part, so don't be discouraged. It's normal that it takes a lot of searching and research before you find the inspiration you are looking for. I've done a lot of research on different subjects, exactly because my interests were so broad and I was unable to limit myself to one specific casus. One thing I learned only after my first few attempts was that a good thesis must be found, not forced. Don't try and force a topic out of limited knowledge on a subject. You can't sufficiently focus or narrow down instantly. Think back through your education, which courses really interested you and why? Was there ever a question you thought was left unanswered? If so, read up on it. Try to find a lacune in the historical research or to elaborate on other research. If you can't think of anything which interested you through your education, try to look elsewhere. It does help if you are located close to the geographical boundaries of your subject though, but it's not a necessity.
Keep in mind that inspiration or motivation for a solid thesis usually only comes through advanced knowledge of a subject, but that your initial inspiration should not determine your entire research. You will rarely find what you expect to find, so keep adapting your "problem" and your research to what you find. Never stick with the "perfect idea" you had when you started, but instead keep reevaluating and reforming your entire enterprise. My most promising and interesting thesis was the one where I accidently rolled into a subject I had no interest in, but ended up pursuing questions which I found to be left unanswered.
Good luck!
Edit : Comparative or interdisciplinary research is often very much appreciated. Especially in an area which lacks contemporary research.
If you are struggling, my advice would be find the archival material first. Its much easier that way. See if you can find a particular source that seems like it could change perspectives on a topic. I did my undergraduate dissertation on Bonnie and Clyde based on the FBI's investigation into this notorious gang (the material was all available online).
I wrote my thesis in Economics but the advice still stands: right about something that you're truly passionate about.
Mine was quite a stretch but I made it work. I love the NFL; I watch week in and week out, play fantasy football, throw weekly viewing parties, the works. So when I was sitting around in your shoes trying to think of a topic I realized "hey, is there any way I can do my paper about the NFL?"
what I ended up doing is writing about salary caps and allocations of funds by position and how that affected a team's win percentage. It wasn't the strongest topic I could have picked, but I was able to easily drop down 20 pages of writing in a few hours, and with that I was able to further expand and write a solid paper.
My point is, find something you're really passionate about. Something you find yourself wanting to finish your homework so that you can do instead (video games? drawing? skiing? whatever) and go from there. If your teacher is somewhat rigid and old school, maybe you wont has the same freedom I did, but it's definitely a good place to start.
Best of luck!
My advice to all students: find a case study that lets you explore a bigger theme. Something rich. Some episode where a number of things come together at once. Then you unravel the episode, argue that it highlights X, Y, and Z about the context, and you're done. You also get a chance to seriously geek out on the microhistory, but then tie it back into the macrohistory. You can't lose and it's a lot of fun.
A 'decent' thesis isn't too difficult to generate - I think the more important questions are a) does it fill a gap in existing research? and b) am I interested in it?
Talk to your profs - they can point you to gaps in the research; and find out what kind of archival sources you would be able to access. If you're having trouble settling on a topic, maybe look at it from the angle of methodology - you could possibly do something interesting with oral history work, or archive analysis, or historiographical research.