Thesis Novel: Composting with Academia

Thesis Novel: Composting with Academia is an essay that places the thesis novel (romans à thèse in French) into the current socio-political and academic context. The text posits that the thesis novel is a counter-form of the conventional thesis which Susan Suleiman argues has a 'simplifying and schematizing tendency'. The 'counter' acknowledges the complexity of the world(s) that the thesis author is situated in—violent and oppressive, flourishing and hopeful, wild and transversal, etc. The thesis novel recognises that research is always done with others (co-produced, sometimes with other species), centering their perspectives and stories, with the thesis writer “simply” weaving everything together, and then giving the research back to the community. For example, in the form of bilingual and self-published printed matter, freely/affordably distributed to community members.