Working on my thesis at a coffee shop
Author: Olivia Elshoff | Major: Sociology, French | Semester: Fall 2023
My name is Olivia Elshoff, and I am a sociology and French student with a minor in Chinese in the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences. My mentor is Dr. Lori Holyfield, professor in the Sociology & Criminology Department. I began the bulk of my research in the spring 2023 semester and received this research grant for the fall 2023 semester. I will defend my thesis early in the spring 2024 semester before I leave to study abroad in Taiwan. After graduating, I plan to teach English in South Korea before returning to the US to pursue a master’s degree.
In my fall 2022 semester I took social psychology, a required class for my sociology major and taught by Dr. Holyfield, my now thesis director. I was really interested in this class and thought that I might want to do some of my research in this topic but wasn’t really sure what specifically I could research. So, I met with Dr. Holyfield during her office hours and asked her for help with developing a thesis topic. She asked me about any research in the class that had interested me and I mentioned a study we had read about surrogacy and moral framing. Dr. Holyfield looked up surrogacy and found that it was currently a very prevalent topic. She suggested I do my research on surrogacy and moral framing, like the study, and offered to be my thesis advisor. So, over the next couple weeks I explored current research on those topics for a potential thesis topic and stumbled across a 2012 study by Susan Markens that analyzed US newspaper articles and their comments for moral framing of surrogacy. I posed the idea of extending the research from Markens’ study, Dr. Holyfield supported my idea, and my research began.
In my research, I analyzed three popular New York Time’s articles about surrogacy and their comments to explore current public perceptions of commercial surrogacy. During my research I learned that a great part of the US public is against the practice of commercial surrogacy because they perceive it as wealthy couples benefiting off the exploitation of poor women. On the other hand, some supporters see it as an altruistic act of the surrogate mother to provide a child to loving parents who wouldn’t have the opportunity to have their own child otherwise. Other supporters of commercial surrogacy highlight a women’s right to bodily autonomy, which includes using her body to earn money though surrogacy. I compared these results to Markens’ 2012 study and overall found that public perception of commercial surrogacy has shifted to become more negative in the past decade.
As for what I learned about myself from this process, I learned that research isn’t really for me. I’m thankful for the opportunity to conduct research at the University of Arkansas and I’m proud of the work I have done despite my doubts that I could manage writing a thesis. As of writing this blog post, I am nearly done writing my thesis, a point that I wasn’t sure I could reach when starting this. However, the entire process was difficult for me. I struggled especially with setting deadlines for myself and keeping up with them. Altogether though, I improved valuable skills, such as time management and my confidence in writing, that I will be able to use in any future career. I am also glad I was able to experience what conducting research is like so I can make more informed decisions towards my future.
My thesis mentor helped me immensely while writing my thesis and I could not have completed it without her. I am incredibly grateful for her guidance and encouragement. Although I often doubted my abilities to complete my thesis, Dr. Holyfield directed me in the right direction and pushed me to get my work done.
My next steps are to study abroad in Taiwan and improve my Chinese. After graduating, I hope to teach English in South Korea. I hope to gain insight into if English teaching is something that I would like to pursue for my career. If I enjoy the experience, I hope to get a master’s degree in applied linguistics and teach English as a second language, either in the US or abroad.