When Changhyun entered by Research Seminar History, his reputation preceded him - the school genius;
he had taken 12 AP tests in one season and scored 5s in all of them. But he had not taken my class until then.
As he planned to graduate early, he had only a few months to complete his research project - from September
to early December, just over three months. Previously he had taken Comparative Politics class, so a topic in
recent history was a likely choice, and a topic in British history would avoid the problem of having to deal with
non-English language sources; he chose to write on Thatcherism.
Changhyun quickly did bibliographic research, ordered books of his choice and wrote a solid, detailed analysis
of Thatcherite Britain. This paper was concluded in October, and there was time left, so I suggested to him to
add a chapter on the impact of Thatcherism on the various regions of the U.K. Changhyun again ordered a few
books and went to work, handing in his paper in December.
His papers deal with the interrelations between policies and political as well as economic structures and tendencies
of the time; they are based on secondary sources. Both satisfy the criteria for university seminar presentations in
(modern) history; they are concise, of an appropriate length for a presentation, yet convincing by the depth of his
analysis. Changhyun is an efficient, sensitive analyst with an excellent command of the English language,
who here has proven that he can produce quality presentations in limited time.
December 23rd 2005
Alexander Ganse
