International-affairs grad zooms to top honors
By Clint Talbott
Taylor Buzbee, an honors student studying international affairs at the University of Colorado, wanted to write her thesis on ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia. She spent a summer trying to find a novel line of inquiry.
“I just couldn’t find that perfect and original research question that I was so desperately looking for,” Buzbee says.
So she took a step back and shifted gears. Then she had a “eureka” moment. She recalled a question she’d repeatedly asked her dad about Formula 1 car racing, which she’d loved since childhood:
“Why were historic races in France and Germany being replaced by races in Malaysia and Singapore? Why were companies from the Persian Gulf clamoring to sponsor Formula 1 teams?”
Through extensive research, some of it based on original sources and including a trip to Monoco, Buzbee’s honors thesis was a 111-page answer to those questions. This enterprising work and her academic record are the reasons Buzbee has been named the fall 2010 outstanding graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences.
She graduated summa cum laude, a distinction that Thomas Zeiler, a CU history professor and her thesis adviser, says is well-deserved.
Buzbee’s thesis explored the relationship of the process of globalization with the elite sport of car racing. Zeiler says the thesis committee was struck by Buzbee’s “use of almost completely original sources (there is no secondary literature on the topic of Formula 1 and business/globalization).”
Zeiler says Buzbee took a novel look at globalization, arguing that “governments and states have a much larger role in the process than we have long believed.” The thesis might even help “bring the state back in” to studies of globalization in areas other than Formula 1, Zeiler suggests.
As Buzbee notes, Formula 1 racing has been seen as a tool for economic development in Asia and the Gulf States. Because those governments were more concerned about positive publicity than profitable races, governments were willing to pay larger sums to host the races than were the traditional racing venues.
The races simply followed the money.
In a speech to fellow honors students, Buzbee admitted that she was daunted by the topic, particularly because she had a lot to learn about globalization.
“And I learned a lot, but I think the most important thing I learned from the experience of choosing a thesis topic is to follow your passion, be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone and trust your instincts,” she said.
Buzbee said the implications of her thesis work extended beyond school. They affected her life. Most importantly, she said, it gave her confidence to seize the opportunities it helped create.
“I, a shy girl who once forced my mom to call and make doctor’s appointments for me because I was uncomfortable speaking on the phone, was now sending letters and making phone calls to government officials and important figures in Formula 1,” Buzbee said.
When she returned from Monaco, she finished her thesis and landed “the internship of a lifetime,” the opportunity to spend her summer traveling with Chip Ganassi Racing, the reigning Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and IZOD IndyCar series champion.
This came to pass a year after she spent a summer working in a warehouse and daydreaming about joining that very team.
She learned that dreams really do come true, “but you have to stop dreaming long enough to put in the hard work to make them happen.”
“Overall, I loved the whole thing,” Buzbee says of her research. “I had fun writing my thesis. I don’t know how many people can say that.”
Buzbee grew up in Coal Creek Canyon, just south of Boulder County. Her family had season tickets to CU football games, and she was a ski-racer in her teens. In high school, she became interested in global issues and enrolled at CU as an international-affairs major. She minored in Russian.
She says she’s loved Formula 1 racing since she was a small child. She watched the Grand Prix in Denver at the age of 3 or 4, she recalls. And she was hooked. “There’s just something about going to the races that I love.”
For now, Buzbee is weighing her options. Graduate school might be an option.
She thinks it would be interesting to do a second thesis in to determine the correlation of Formula 1 venues and democratic nations. For instance, she noted, Abu Dhabi spent billions to build a Formula 1 track. “These countries are spending money that in a democracy would never get approved.”
Working in Indianapolis in the car-racing field also interests her, and she’s weighing career options there as well.
Taylor Buzbee, an honors student studying international affairs, was named the fall 2010 outstanding graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences
Taylor Buzbee, an honors student studying international affairs at the University of Colorado, wanted to write her thesis on ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia. She spent a summer trying to find a novel line of inquiry.
“I just couldn’t find that perfect and original research question that I was so desperately looking for,” Buzbee says.
So she took a step back and shifted gears. Then she had a “eureka” moment. She recalled a question she’d repeatedly asked her dad about Formula 1 car racing, which she’d loved since childhood:
“Why were historic races in France and Germany being replaced by races in Malaysia and Singapore? Why were companies from the Persian Gulf clamoring to sponsor Formula 1 teams?”
Through extensive research, some of it based on original sources and including a trip to Monoco, Buzbee’s honors thesis was a 111-page answer to those questions. This enterprising work and her academic record are the reasons Buzbee has been named the fall 2010 outstanding graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences.
She graduated summa cum laude, a distinction that Thomas Zeiler, a CU history professor and her thesis adviser, says is well-deserved.
Buzbee’s thesis explored the relationship of the process of globalization with the elite sport of car racing. Zeiler says the thesis committee was struck by Buzbee’s “use of almost completely original sources (there is no secondary literature on the topic of Formula 1 and business/globalization).”
Zeiler says Buzbee took a novel look at globalization, arguing that “governments and states have a much larger role in the process than we have long believed.” The thesis might even help “bring the state back in” to studies of globalization in areas other than Formula 1, Zeiler suggests.
As Buzbee notes, Formula 1 racing has been seen as a tool for economic development in Asia and the Gulf States. Because those governments were more concerned about positive publicity than profitable races, governments were willing to pay larger sums to host the races than were the traditional racing venues.
The races simply followed the money.
In a speech to fellow honors students, Buzbee admitted that she was daunted by the topic, particularly because she had a lot to learn about globalization.
“And I learned a lot, but I think the most important thing I learned from the experience of choosing a thesis topic is to follow your passion, be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone and trust your instincts,” she said.
Buzbee said the implications of her thesis work extended beyond school. They affected her life. Most importantly, she said, it gave her confidence to seize the opportunities it helped create.
“I, a shy girl who once forced my mom to call and make doctor’s appointments for me because I was uncomfortable speaking on the phone, was now sending letters and making phone calls to government officials and important figures in Formula 1,” Buzbee said.
When she returned from Monaco, she finished her thesis and landed “the internship of a lifetime,” the opportunity to spend her summer traveling with Chip Ganassi Racing, the reigning Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and IZOD IndyCar series champion.
This came to pass a year after she spent a summer working in a warehouse and daydreaming about joining that very team.
She learned that dreams really do come true, “but you have to stop dreaming long enough to put in the hard work to make them happen.”
“Overall, I loved the whole thing,” Buzbee says of her research. “I had fun writing my thesis. I don’t know how many people can say that.”
Buzbee grew up in Coal Creek Canyon, just south of Boulder County. Her family had season tickets to CU football games, and she was a ski-racer in her teens. In high school, she became interested in global issues and enrolled at CU as an international-affairs major. She minored in Russian.
She says she’s loved Formula 1 racing since she was a small child. She watched the Grand Prix in Denver at the age of 3 or 4, she recalls. And she was hooked. “There’s just something about going to the races that I love.”
For now, Buzbee is weighing her options. Graduate school might be an option.
She thinks it would be interesting to do a second thesis in to determine the correlation of Formula 1 venues and democratic nations. For instance, she noted, Abu Dhabi spent billions to build a Formula 1 track. “These countries are spending money that in a democracy would never get approved.”
Working in Indianapolis in the car-racing field also interests her, and she’s weighing career options there as well.