Final Project Topics — Spring 2009
Luke Angle: “Obsessive Creativity” (Comparison of MF Doom and Frank Zappa)
Alec Bart: “Frank Zappa’s Musicians”
Jason Bennett: “Frank Zappa’s Guitar and Gear: Up Close and Loud”
Graham Black: “The Necessary Contradictions of Frank Zappa”
Andrew Dittman: “The Adventures of Frank Zappa and Huckleberry Finn”
Stephen Estes: “Dominus Vo’ Bisque ‘em Et Come Spear a Church of Appliantology: Zappa and Religion”
Cody Forrest: Chasing Squirrels (an original composition styled after Frank Zappa)
Michael Garman: “The Frank Zappa Secret Riff Collection”
Jordan Gheen: “The Horn Players of Frank Zappa”
Michael Giulietti: “Frank Zappa From A Progressive Perspective”
Grant Goldberg: “Frank Zappa’s Unacknowledged Legacy”
William Green: “Frank Zappa’s Social Commentary”
Colton Harmon: “The Political and Social Views of Frank Zappa”
Allie Harris: “Stevie’s Spanking” (a biography of Steve Vai)
Jake Haygood: “Over-Nite Sensation: the Band’s Contribution”
Colin Hinton: “The Influence of Frank Zappa’s Drummers on his Music”
Adam Lockhart: “Frank Zappa: The Artist”
Brooks Martin: “Not-so Lone Rhinoceros: Adrian Belew’s Performance and Conceptual Continuities”
Derek Molacek: “Why Don’t You Like Me? The Critics’ Reactions to Frank Zappa and Frank Zappa’s Reaction to the Critics”
Brady Morrison: “How Much Chance Did Zappa Partake In?”
Ramon Muzquiz: “Frank Zappa: Punk Friend or Foe?”
Manuel Oyarce: “Where Does Frank Get Off?”
Brady Pitcher: “Breaking the Mold: How Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention Began Desensitizing Mainstream America”
L. Scott Price: “Time and Macro-Rhythms within the Project/Object”
Colby Schreck: “Frank Zappa's Drummers”
Hamilton Skrabanek: “The Guitar Wizardry of Frank Zappa: An Exploration in the Evolution of Tone and Technique”
Erik Stolpe: “Anything, Any Time, Anywhere – For No Reason At All: Frank Zappa’s Anti-Standard”
Tyler Thomas: “Zappa vs. the Audiofetishists: An In-Depth Look At Zappa’s Revisionism to We’re Only in it for the Money and Crusin’ With Ruben and the Jets”
Colton Harmon: “The Political and Social Views of Frank Zappa”
Danika Trierweiler: “Religion in the Life and Work of Frank Zappa”
Simon Weaver: "The Roxy Band"
Ashley Witherspoon: “Frank Zappa as a Teacher”

Final Project Topics — Summer 2007
Paul Thomas: “Lumpy Gravy: Investigation and Analysis”
Richard Dale, Jr.: “Frank Zappa the Guitarist"
John Guari: “I Hear That Beat, I Jump Outta My Seat: Rhythm and Meter in Frank Zappa’s Music”
Matthew Hough: “Zappa Guitar Muffin Cheese Compressor”
Thad Bonduris: “Structural Improvisation as We Know It: Frank Zappa’s Aversion of Group Democracy”
Oren Bruton: “Frank Zappa and the German Connection”
Dane Ernst: “Zappa’s Credo”
Sungjoon Lee: “Frank Zappa vs. Lou Reed”
Chaz Underriner: “Frank Zappa in 1967: A Broken Satirist”
Carolina Calvache: “Transcription of an Excerpt from ‘Inca Roads'”
Sarah Hruzek: “The Sociological Perspectives of Frank Zappa”
Gred Dixon: “Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart"
Gabriel Arreola: “Frankie Z and the Wacky World of Drugs”

Final Project Topics — Summer 2006
Levi Howard: "An Analysis of The Lyrics of Joe’s Garage as Postmodern Literature”
Mark Douglass: “Joe’s Garage and A Clockwork Orange: Shock Value for a Higher Cause?”
Joe Holmes: “FZ’s Methods of Surprise”
Emily Crow: “An Analysis of High and Low Culture in Franz Zappa’s Lyrics”
Adam Strange: “The Personal Side of Frank Zappa: FZ as a Husband/Father”
Laura Marrero: “Unity of Rhythmic Motives Throughout Frank Zappa’s Sheik Yerbouti”
Chris Douglas: “Zappa’s Percussionists”
Tim Mabrey: “Zappa and Censorship” Bret Crow: “Orchestral Maneuvers and Approaches”
Tyler Huffman: “The Studio Genius of Frank Zappa”
Jason Harron: “The Crux of Conceptual Continuity”
Brian Felker: “Zappa’s Minstrel Show” Steve DeCrow: “Zappa and Censorship”
Nick Groesch: “Frank Zappa vs. The Herd (in the Nietzschean sense)”
Dennis Pitman: “Zappa, Politics, and Government”
Tony Spiro: “Zappa the Rhythmic Fetishist”
Stephen Lucas: “The Symbolic Context of Vegetables in the Music of Frank Zappa”
Adam Lockhart: “Frank Zappa: An Artful Balance of Vernacular and Non-vernacular Musics”
Brandon James: “Being Frank About Frank”

Final Project Topics — Summer 2005
Hiro Ueno: "FZ & Captain Beefheart"
Jeff Hodges: "Xenochrony and Postmodernism"
Pete Saleh: "FZ’s Drummers"
Mark Scott: "Analysis of 'The Dog Breath Variations' and 'Envelopes'"
Tammy Walker: “Sheik Yerbouti and Broadway The Hard Way as Narrative Objects”
Sarah Renfro: "1985 Senate Hearings (FZ and PMRC)"
Clayton Freeman: "FZ and the Recording Studio"
Eric Rodis: "FZ’s Satirical Legacy"
Shannon Brady: "FZ’s Violinists"

Final Project Topics — Summer 2004
Chris Cowart: “The [Studio] Wizardry of FZ”
Jessica Leza: “My Elected Officials Want to Censor Your Mama”
Isaac Lausell: "Analysis of 'Watermelon in Easter Hay'”
Yvonne Canales: “FZ as Father and Husband”
Steve Sayed: “Frank Zappa vs. the PMRC”
Jake Vaught: “The Drummers of Frank Zappa”
Jocelyn Hund: "Analysis of 'King Kong'”
Jake Montgomery: “Zappa’s Influence on the Pop Careers of His Musicians”
Rhett Butler: “Genre-crossing, Creative Control, and Artistic Independence”
Eric Phelan: “Frank Zappa and His Involvement with Film/Video”
Matt Nicholson: “The Zolo of Zappa”
Kayo Momokawa: "FZ’s Thing Fish”
Ara Weller: “Zappa for President 2004”

Final Project Topics — Summer 2003
Jeremy Thorn: FZ’s use of quotation
Jack Forbis: Influences on FZ
Bob Lanzetti: FZ’s Synclavier compositions
Chad Wilbur: Influence of contemporary classical music on FZ
Aki Hayakawa: FZ covers done by musicians from different genres/styles
Rex Emerson: Relationships of FZ’s bandmates’ influences/styles and music
Zack Rothenbuehler: FZ’s use of other styles
Marjorie Owens: Influence of black culture on FZ
Lynnea Edwards: Use of meter in FZ’s compositions
Tim Hicks: PMRC hearings and FZ
David Hall: FZ’s influence on his performers
Ian Kelso: Recording techniques and equipment
Tim Disen: FZ’s stunt guitarists: Vai and Keneally
Lars Larson: Discussion of four albums from different periods

Final Project Topics — Summer 2002
Doug Smitherman: "Comparison of FZ’s Joe’s Garage with The Who’s Tommy and Pink Floyd’s The Wall"
Joe Ayoub: “Zappa and Dadaism”
Dallas Morris: “The Elliptical Essence of Progress as Manifested in the Work of FZ”
Lily Maase: “The Zappa Phenomenon: Analysis of Natural and Manufactured Irony in the Life and Works of Frank Zappa”
Stefan Treber: “An Analysis of 'DuPree’s Paradise' by Frank Zappa”
Todd Markey: “Arranging Zappa: Determining a Basis for Arranging 'Toads of the Short Forest'”
Jorge Valenciano: “Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: …And Re-Invention…and Re-Invention (Yet Again)”

Final Project Topics — Summer 2001
Pamela D. Ward: “Sounds Like an Ugly Guy”
Greg Turcotte: “The Fake Night Club”
Parker Trevathan: Survey of FZ band lineups
Thor F. Sanderson: FZ’s early popular music and his influence on other musicians
Danny Smolenski: “Thing-Fish versus Broadway”