2023 Senior Thesis Topics

Anthropology

• Elizabeth Essaid, The Construction of Racial/Social Inequalities at the Seeds of Peace
• Billy Geach, Situating Power in Space and Context: The Performative Practice of Power Negotiation Between Students and Workers at Hamilton College
• Sophie Hill, The Hamilton College Experience: The Perpetuation of Socioeconomic Inequalities Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Ceramic Tableware from Central New York
• Zack Littlejohn,  Based & Redpilled: Defining the Online Left and Understanding Its Negotiation of Community and Structure
• Janna Perez, “Can I Pull You for a Chat?”: An Analysis of Mediatization in Online Discourse Communities Addressing Race Relations within Reality Television
• Vanessa Wang, Mobility, Hope, and Future Reimagined: College Experiences when COVID-19 Becomes the New Normality

Archaeology

• Hannah Budner, History of Home Health Care: Shifting Practices of Hygiene, Wellness, and Medicine in 18th-19th Century Central New York
• Fahrah Day, Understanding the Evolution of Value of Near East Artifacts from Antiquity to Present
• Charlie Ives, Identity through Ornamentation: An Iconographic
• Delia Hoyt, Subsistence and Space within an Historical Central New York Household
• Molly Symmonds, A Histological Investigation of Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practice in South-Western Transylvania

Art

2023 Senior Art Thesis Show 

Close Quarters, on display from May 4 through May 20, 2023, at the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art. The exhibition includes paintings, photography, sculpture, and prints.

Exhibiting seniors: Bitong (Shelly) Cao, Elliot Carlson, Surya Gowda, Rachel Han, Claire Harpel, Emlyn Harris, Olivia Holbrook, Katharine Jenkinson, Noah Jones, Daniella Metti, Fiona Murphy, Lauren Neese, Irene Park, Juasline “Juju” Plasencia, Talia Rosen, Mariam B. Saied, Zoe Sauvé, Alex Seewald, Kiera Wax, and Rory Woods.

Art History

• Frances Cannon, Refashioning Resistance: i-D, the Fanzine, and the Punk Aesthetic in London, Circa 1980-2000
• Charlotte Ives, The Maidservant’s Tale: Considering the role of Abra in depictions of Judith and Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
• Stella Karron, Nothing Lasts Forever: The Aesthetics of Teenage Temporality Within Rookie Magazine
• Daniella Metti, Experiential Learning and Experimental Printmaking in Early Modern Northern Europe
• Hannah Osinoff, Are Mothers More Marketable Than Fathers?: An Analysis of Gender Depictions in Farm Security Administration Photography
• Henry Wilson, Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Museum: An Analysis of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
• Maeve Zimmerman, Fashioning a Spectacle: Commodification in Contemporary Art and Luxury Fashion Campaigns

Biochemistry/Molecular Biology

• Sosina Abuhay, Mechanisms of Spatiotemporal Gene Regulation in Drosophila
• Stephen Cho, Studies Toward the Total Synthesis of Melokhanine A
• Luke Cohen-Abeles, Ultrasound-Assisted Disulfide Bond Formation
• Jenna Cosby, The origin of membrane vesicles in the Zea mays meiotic spindle
• Jack Dorsey, Tetrahymenia Digestion of E. coli
• Nick Garvey, Effects of PFAS on DNA damage in aquatic turtles
• Juan Guerra, Fishtrack Project: Using eDNA Water Samples to Classify Aquatic Organisms by Applying Computational Analysis
• Khady Gueye, Novel pyridinium salt reagents for the synthesis of bioactive 2-aminopyridines
• Cole Johnson, Zea maize Kinesin Facilitated Meiotic Drive
• Nyaari Kothiya, Analysis of Mnⁱⁱⁱ/Feⁱⁱⁱ cofactor in Class lc RNRs
• Sampson Lamberth, Investigation into Food Vacuoles in Tetrahymena thermophila
• Blake Levy and Ben Jakubczak, PaaA and PaaB Enzymology in the Biosynthesis of Pantocin A
• Crystal Lin, Mapping Genealogy from the genus Paeonia by Designing Universal Primers
• Subin Myong, Investigating Meiotic Spindle Structure Using Electron Microscopy and 3D Modeling

Biology

• Eric Anderson, The missing link(s) of the keyhole limpet: phylogeny and biogeography of genus Diodora
• Sophie Argay, Sickness behaviors and cognition: how disease affects food motivation and activity levels in American crows
• Sambat Bhandari, Ian Esliker, and Yasin Haffary, Vitamin C and its effects on growth and development of Manduca sexta
• Julia Brown, The effect of disease on spatial learning in American crows
• Rose Corcoran, Fluctuating selection on sexually selected traits in a wild population
• Camille Donaghey, Fertilization mode shapes within species variance in sperm morphology
• Maggie Dunne and Emily Wong, Investigating kinetochore proteins CENP-H and CENP-W in Zea mays using immunofluorescence
• Jessica Eccleston, The effect of disease on associative learning in American crows
• Ashlyn Gaulin, Population genetics of the amphipods Crangonyx pseudogracilis and Gammarus duebeni in freshwater turlough habitats in Ireland
• William Gordon, Rose McCullough, and Noelle Yoo, Barcoding the coral reef cryptobiome
• Zander Harpel, Developing a Tetrahymena thermophile model of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease
• Cameron Hood, Effects of PFAS on corticosterone levels in freshwater turtles
• Corey Jones, Determining the regulation of Otd: a critical gene in Drosophila embryogenesis and retinal development
• Dylan Koproski, The effects of lead toxicity on circadian rhythms and gut microbiota
• Francesca Lilly, Observing the effects of lead toxicity on visual development in Drosophila melanogaster
• Paul Rinzler, Assessing the role of functional traits in seed predation with native and artificial seeds
• Dana Russell, Impacts of freeze-thaw cycles in the germination and growth rates of native and non-native tree species
• Elizabeth Siminitus, Species interactions limit successful growth in Hamilton College reforestation projects
• Sammy Smock, Deer exclosures increase small mammal foraging behavior, do not affect abundance or diversity
• Slade Springer, Neurodegenerative effects due to Mirol knockout
• Ellis Strutton, The effects of acute and chronic stress on disease in American crows
• Maddie Vavra, Assessing the role of seasonality in small mammal seed predation
• Vanessa Yap, The effects of lead (Pb) on oogenesis and reproduction

Chemistry

• Dylan Badillo, Synthesis of a Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework
• Amanda Gilsten, Progress toward the synthesis of polymerizable ruthenium metallopolymers for applications in photodynamic therapy
• Rylie Mutton, Synthesis of Guanidinium-Rich Cell Penetrating Peptide
• Raf Osella, Tri-Doping Lanthanide Complexes for Access to Blue Light Emission
• Frank Valoy, Developing the Rationale Design of Ring Opening Metathesis Polymers for Improving the Activity and Selectivity of Cobalt Phthalocyanine in CO2 Reduction Electrocatalysis

Chinese

• Reagan Flores, Chinese International Students’ Perceptions of Chinese Censorship Policies and Their Influence
• Michael Hausmann, Food Videos in Mainland China as Soft Power
• Shania Kuo, “Leftover Women” and Modern Chinese Women’s Autonomy
• Crystal Lin, China’s Organ Donation Policy and Public Perceptions 
• Matthew Mirkovic, China’s Sixth-Generation Directors and Jia Zhangke
• Clayton Piantedosi, Concepts of Sports in China and the Impact of Pandemic
• Fredrick Schmitt, China’s Hukou System: Rural Perspectives on Land Use and Reform

Cinema and Media Studies

• Drew James, He’s Literally Me: Old Masculinity and New Conceptualization in American Cinema
• Huzair Latif, The British Empire and Colonial Filmmaking
• Celia Lau, The Female Gaze
• Jason Le, Exploring and Authenticating Identity Formation and Diaspora in Documentary Cinema
• Bella Ojeda, Sarita’s Blend: A Formal Film Analysis of Sara Gómez’s De Cierta Manera (1974)
• Brendan Wiseman, The Hays Code and its Effects on Women’s Portrayals in Early Hollywood

Classics

Classical Languages

• Aidan Holmgren, “And My Fame Reaches to the Heavens”: A Commentary on Odyssey Book IX
• Jonathan Setzer, How to Learn Latin like a Monk

Classical Studies

• Zihan (Arianna) Chai, Journey to the Stars: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Ancient Greek and Chinese Observations of the Night Sky
• Philip Chivily, A Study of Early Christian Martyr Cults and Mental Relics
• Laura Hester, An Overview of Female Financial Empowerment and Autonomy in Roman Egypt and a Concentrated Study on the Herakleopolite Nome through Papyri
• Jed Rifkin, From Clay to Coriander: A Contemporary Analysis of Ancient Roman Antibiotics

Computer Science

• Sosina Abuhay, Siqi Fang, Qianzi Hou, and Lucy Zhang, Philosophy of Migration
• Nicholas Adair, Michael Buttarazzi, Zichu (Peter) Pan ’24, and Charlie Ratner, Media Analysis of Corporate Ownership
• Riki Borders, Jonathan Rodriguez, Belal Shaheen, Derek Yang, and Lanjing Ye, Faculty Committee Assignment Tool
• Peter Butler, Jack Diligent, Grace Fisher, and Andrea Hayman, Online Analysis of Critical Race Theory
• Josh Harmsen, Jungwon Kim, Hyla Mosher, Jackson Vogt, and Andrew (A.J.) Zuckerman, Study Time: A Timeline Creation Tool
• Omar Lopez Alvarado, Brendan Kastner, Zaman Khan ’24, Sam Meyerowitz ’24, and Ronnak Saxena, Women in Mormon Studies Web Site

Creative Writing

• Julio Demb, Journal of Dirt and Water
• Andrew James, Sonder in a Sideways Sense
• Charles Luft, Velocity
• Morgan McCarthy, On the Liberatory Power of Diving Headfirst into the Pits of Hell
• Nicolette van Kesteren, The Gifted Friedman Women
• Whitney Ward, The Storms of Eldan
• Alexander Wong, The Snow Specter
• Zoe Woodbury, Brouhaha

Honors projects

• Sam Chen, Do Not Disturb Young Hares
• Eva Glassman, Disaster Pegasus
• Madison Lazenby, Control and Other Erotic Desires
• Charlotte Lewis, Aedem
• Bella Moses, Watering the Morgue
• RJ Steele, I Am Not As I Was
• Hannah Terao, Below

Dance and Movement Studies

• Reagan Flores, Define Feminine (film)

Economics

Honors presentations

• Campbell Benseman, Effects of Various Covid-19 Restrictions on Trust in Government
• Michael Buttrazzi, The Impact of the EU’s General Data Privacy Regulation on Artificial Intelligence Investment
• Erick Christian, COVID-19 and Retirement Expectations: Examining Age-Specific Effects and the Role of Retiree Health Insurance
• Clara Davis, Paid Parental Leave and Food Insecurity: The Effects of Statewide Policies
• Mark Harrington, Words Can Hurt: How Fed Speak Affects Financial Markets
• Natalie Harrity, Determinants of Transportation Mode Choice of American Commuters 
• Clarissa Hurley, The Semiconductor Industry’s Business Model Disparities
• Claire Kaplan, Historical Events at Hamilton and Alumni Giving
• Eda Keni, The Impacts of Neighborhood Greenness on Wellbeing: Evidence from the New York BRFSS
• Brendan Knapp, Measuring the Effectiveness of the EU Emissions Trading System: Country and Industry Level Analysis
• Angela Li, Exploring Art as an Asset Class in Portfolio Diversification
• Irene Liu, An Analysis of Housing Market Expectations: Determinants and Correlation with Real House Prices
• Michelle Jiayi Liu, Religion and Subjective Well-Being in Taiwan
• John Madigan, Does the Mafia Reduce Crime? An Analysis of Mafia Asset Seizures on the Crime Rate
• Maya Mathews, Urgent Care Center Entry Effects on Healthcare Utilization and Costs
• Sean McAvoy, Tracking Errors of Fixed Income ETFs
• Tay Meshkinyar, Groundwater Lithium Levels and Crime: Evidence from a Novel Dataset
• Zoe Sauve, The Impact of Temperature and Other Environmental Events on the Growth of the Advocacy Non-Profit Sector
• Matthew Sinning, Service Specialization and Hospital Mergers
• Khuslen Tulga ’24, Impacts of Mongolia’s Pro-Natalist Policy
• Joseph Weiland, The Effect of Market Volatility and Outcomes on Investor Mental Health
• Alan Zhao, What Changes Inflation Expectations: A VAR Approach

Environmental Studies

Capstone presentations

• Rachel Brimmer, Investigating the Use of Energy-Efficient Technology in Central and Upstate New York's Maple Syrup Industry
• Hannah Constable, The Benefits and Challenges of Agritourism in the New York State Maple Industry
• Lauren Ferguson ’24, Geographical Patterns in Street Tree Coverage and Tree Density in Utica, New York
• Natalie Harrity, The Effect of Tree Stand Density on Maple Sap Sugar Concentration
• Nicholas Hawkins, Air Temperatures, Snow Depth & Soil Temperatures: How Will a Changing Climate Impact Sugar Maple Health & Sap Flow in Central New York?
• Eda Keni, Priorities and Challenges of Maple Syrup Producers in New York State in 2023
• Brynn O’Connor, Viable Alternatives to Sugar Maples Within the Maple Syrup Industry? Exploring Variabilities in Sap Sugar Concentration of Maple and Birch Trees

Thesis research

• Emily Benson, The influence of precipitation on sap-flux scaled transpiration and variability in soil moisture in Central New York
• Kaitlyn Bieber, Winter Weather Whiplash: Examining Trends of Winter Weather Variability in Upstate New York
• Anna Edelson, Garden Gossip: The Role of Race and Interpersonal Conflict in Utica’s Urban Agriculture Organizations
• Luke Hodges, Methane Efflux Rates Throughout Hamilton College’s Small-Scale Reservoirs from Late Summer to Late Fall
• Chloe Maldonado, The Art in Artivism: How Puerto Rican Artist Mobilize Emotions for Climate Justice Movement Building
• Fatima Oliva, Representativeness of Central New York weather stations and implications for future climate monitoring
• Owen Routhier, Assessing Carbon Sequestration in Rhode Island’s Salt Marshes under Two Marsh Migration Scenarios in Response to Sea Level Rise
• Anna Sakamoto, Combating Mass Production and Consumption with Alternative Textiles and Textile Justice
• Hazel Schrader, A quantitative and qualitative study of peri-urban wetlands on the Hamilton College campus
• Tenzin Sherpa, Our Community Garden: An Analysis of Urban Agriculture and Environmental Justice in New York City
• Katherine Tanner, Carbon Export Consequences of the Proposed MPA in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

French and Francophone Studies

• Sophie Christensen, La musique : grand moyen d’unification et de résistance
• Abigail Moone, Ami ou ennemi : le rôle de la langue française en Afrique de la période coloniale à post-coloniale
• Joaquin Pacheco Criado, L’impact de la politique étrangère française sur le peuple africain
• Hazel Schrader, L’anthropomorphisme et le faux sentiment du sauvage dans trois films animaliers français : Microcosmos, La Marche de l’Empereur, et Les Saisons
• Salwa Sidahmed, Violence² : l’aliénation et la (dé)colonisation dans le roman africain
• Jiayue (Vanessa) Wang, La France et les Autres: le Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration comme un spectacle
• Joshua Zeledon, Les évolués: une construction coloniale
• Maeve Zimmerman, L’Orfèvrerie dans L’Enfant noir : un acte sacré

Honors thesis

• Arianna Robertson, De la Revue nègre au Panthéon: une étude du tokenisme

Geoarchaeology

• Claire McCaslin, Tlingit Marble Dolls: Recognizing Issues in Museum Education Policy and the Benefits of Restoration and Collaboration
• Daisy Sulavik, Environmental Traces of Indigenous Groups in Oneida County

Geosciences

• Rachel Brimmer, Investigating Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions in Oriskany Creek in Clinton, NY
• Nicholas Garvey, Geochronology and Paleo-magmatic Implications of Granitic Plutons of Swans Island, Maine
• Marvin Lopez, Strain Analysis of Lineations in the East Pilbara Craton’s “Zone of Sinking”, a Critical Structure in the Early Earth
• Sara Shedroff, Early Miocene Paleosols of Loperot and Buluk, Turkana Basin, Kenya: Geochemistry and Paleoenvironmental Implications
• Anika Tullos, A Petrological Study of Hofsjökull, Central Iceland

German Studies

• Erik Glover, Representing Identity Crisis: Collage and Repetition in Herta Müller’s Reisende auf einem Bein
• Delia Hoyt, Language, History, and Space in Yoko Tawada’s Überseezungen
• Nancy Loh, Conflicting Confrontation: East German Identity After the Berlin Wall in Jana Hensel’s Zonenkinder

Government

Honors theses

• Olivia Chandler, From Eco-Utopia to Reality: Building a Praxis of Social Ecology
• Alida Deutsch, Trust in the Face of Corruption: Explaining Legitimacy in Peru and Ecuador
• Patrick Fleischer, A Europe of Nations: A Study of Right-Wing Populist Leaders in the European Union
• Greta Garschagen, PFAS - Forever Chemicals - How Could the Precautionary Principle Be Used in the PFAS Debate?
• Clara Harding, Theorizing Anti-Democratic Ideology in the Republican Party
• Quinn Jones, Shelters or Tents? Exploring Subnational Variation in Community Response at the U.S.-Mexico Border
• Obi Nnadika, State, Economy, and the Self in the Thought of Azikiwe and Awolowo

Hispanic Studies

Honors presentations

• Sophie E Auvin, Las economías extractivas y resistencias indígenas en Redoble por Rancas de Manuel Scorza y Todas las sangres de José María Arguedas. (The extractive economies and indigenous resistances in Redoble por Rancas by Manuel Scorza and Todas las sangres by José María Arguedas.)
• Juan A. Guerra, El zapatismo, vivo a través del arte de nuestra época. (Zapatismo alive through the art of our time.) 
• Lauren R Holtzman, Más allá del espectro de visibilidad/invisibilidad: la performance y la solidaridad en la poesía neorriqueña de Pedro Pietri. (Beyond the spectrum of visibility/invisibility: performance and solidarity in the neo rican poetry of Pedro Pietri.)
• Eric Jamous, Compitiendo por la gloria: Fútbol y masculinidad en el cine iberoamericano. (Veting for glory: Soccer and masculinity in Ibero-American cinema.)
• Lucy C Kiernat, Develando la figura femenina en el Popol Vuh. (Unveiling the female figure in the Popol Vuh.)
• Katelyn R. Perruc, Cuidar el cuerpo: narrativas sobre mujeres y sus territorios de lucha en el cine latinoamericano. (Take care of the body: narratives about women and their territories of struggle in Latin American cinema.)

History

• Thomas Betts, Conflicts of Interest, Conflicts of Sovereignty: New York’s Dispossession of the Oneida
• Sam Cagnetta, “I Was Taken Out and Put to Work”: The Abandoned Memory of Black Prisoners of War at Andersonville Confederate Prison
• Isabel DiAdamo, After the Swim: Women Swimming as a Case Study for Changing Gender Relations in England over the Long Nineteenth Century
• Lydia Gross, Constructing a Russian Identity: The Role of the Slavophile-Westernizer Debate in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual Circles
• Bobby Grygiel, Quantitative Killing: Measuring Success in Vietnam
• Claire Harpel, Construction and Control of Insanity: Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond’s 19th-Century Asylum Portraits as Science, Treatment, and Art
• Eli Kanfer, Nadich and the Jews
• Dara Levy, Chinese Laborers: Depiction of Chinese Laborers in Newspapers During and After the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
• Samantha Smock, Stuart Little’s Big History: The Changing Roles of Mice in Literature
• Felix Tager, The End of Open Carry Without a Permit in California: How the Black Panthers Inspired and Guaranteed the Success of the Mulford Act
• Ravi Travers ’24, How Air India Marketed India to the World in the Jet Age (1947-1970)
• John Troast, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn: John Brown’s Most Ardent Friend and Defender
• Mikayla Worzel, In the Presence of the Divine: Transcending Worldly Boundaries within the Sacred Spaces of South Asian Sufi Saints

Honors theses

• Brooks Bradford, Mythic Mobilizations: The Frontier Myth and America’s Imperial Projects, 1898-1902.
• Philip Chivily, The Development of the Mid-Atlantic Black Catholic Community from 1807 to 1889
• Isabelle Crownhart, Physick in thy Mother Tongue: Nicholas Culpeper & the Use of Vernacular Cheap Print for the Radical Democratization of Medical Knowledge in the English Commonwealth c. 1649 to 1660.
• Liam Garcia-Quish, Francesco Carletti and the Land of Giants: Paleontology, Deep History, And The Globe In The Renaissance
• Maggie McDow, Designing a New History of the World: A Study of the Text-Image Relationship in the Nuremberg Chronicle
• Isabella Roselli, “Opprobrious Names:” Levels of Description in Medieval English Coroner Rolls and Their Causes
• Madeline Schink, Conceiving a Global Population: The Rockefeller Foundation, Imperial Laboratories, and Reproductive Politics in 20th-Century Puerto Rico.
• Brian Seiter ’24, The Battle of Algiers and its Afterlives: Interrogating the Tactics and Transmission of Modern Power, 1950s-1960s.
• Emma Tomlins, Physician Inside the System: The Botanical Contributions of Euricius Cordus’ Botanologicon, Laurent Joubert’s La Pharmacopee, and Andrea Cesalpino’s De Medicamentorum Facultatibus
• Quincy Williams, An American Conundrum: How Notions of Morality, Race, Immigration and Gender Have Shaped the Debate over the Legislation of Prostitution.
• Hope Worcester, From Imperial to Secular: The Symbolism of Rashtrapati Bhavan

Interdisciplinary Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies in Art, Sociology, and Hispanic Studies

• Kaitlyn Fudge, exhibition and zine, Single Parenting Across Cultures

Interdisciplinary Studies in Social and Environmental Sustainability

• Sarah Ferland, Sweetness and Performance of Identity: The Socially Embedded Nature of Maple Syrup

Japanese

• Riki Borders, The Differences in Yakuza Representation in Post-war Films
• Khady Gueye, Honorific expressions in textbooks and daily use
• Taryn Pastore, The effect of study abroad on bowing and nodding gestures
• Jasmine Williams, Collectivism vs Individualism: Considerations from Japanese Psychological Predicates
• Lanjing Ye, To Be or Not To Be: “Person” and “Shadow” in Kurosawa’s Kagemusha
• Athena Zeng, “Reading” Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away Through Shinto Perspectives

Literature

• Lily Barnett, “Suggsian Spirituality”: A Black, Womanist Departure from Pauline Christianity according to Toni Morrison’s Beloved
• Olivia Batal, The Home as a Critique of Society in The Virgin Suicides
• Caroline Boyd, The Anxiety of the Patriarchy: Eugenides’ Faulknerian Inspiration and Critique of the Patriarchy in The Virgin Suicides
• Sophie Christensen, Operations of Truth, “Journalism,” and Narrative Voice in Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The Virgin Suicides
• Emma Gaulin, Class, Heredity, and Social Class in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”
• Laura Jeffries, Disease and Illness in Les Liaisons Dangereuses: The Medicine for Nature and Libertines
• Katharine Jenkinson, Examining Disgust and Kink in Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir
• Zachary Relova, Faulkner to Eugenides: The Haunting Specter of Failing America
• Arianna Robertson, Constructions of the Past and Their Functions in the Present in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Toni Morrison’s Beloved
• Lena Schneck, Female Agency, the Daughter, and the Possibilities of Magical Realism
• Catherine Shaw, A Portrait of the Fall of Man: Biblical References to Original Sin in The Monk
• Jeremy Shemesh, Death in Marquise de Sade’s La Philosophie dans le Boudoir: The Ultimate Form of Pleasure
• Ariana Silva, Manipulating the Identity of the Gothic: The Use of Fear in Matthew Gregory Lewis’ The Monk
• Morghan Socha, Raymond’s Backstory: A Long-Abandoned Essential Element of The Monk
• Emma Swan, Trading Places: Replacements, Seduction, and Gender in Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses
• Henry Wilson, (Archi)textual Follies: Paratext, Authority, and the Gothic in The Monk
• Cole Wright-Schaner, The Evolving Libertine and their Dangerously Cruel Intentions
• Maeve Wroblewski, The Birds and the Bees: Nature’s Subliminal Seduction in Matthew Lewis’ The Monk

Honors presentations

• Caroline Boyd, $eeking the $ublime: The Commodification of Romanticism in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air
• Evan Robinson, Metafiction as Critique in The Master and Margarita and The Satanic Verses
• Morghan Socha, Contradicting Gender Norms in Good Morning, Midnight
• Emma Swan, “All the World’s A Stage”: Performance and the Self in Station Eleven
• Cole Wright-Schaner, The Great Gaiety in the Good (or Less Good) Gay Novel

Mathematics and Statistics

• Noah Alexander Barton, Quasi Local Energy for Constantly Accelerating Observers in Static Black Holes Space Times
• Bitong (Shelly) Cao, Quandle Coloring Invariant for Knots and Links
• David de Frutos Ostrander, Asymptotic Expansions of the Voigt Functions
• Ryan Keller, Matrices with Dominant Diagonals
• Brendan Magill and Gabriana Rosario, RNA foldings, oriented stuck knots, and state sum invariants
• Tay Meshkinyar, Non-Measurable Sets
• Trevor Scheuing, Eigenvalues of Operators on Infinite-Dimensional Spaces

Honors presentations

• Arianna Chai, How to Find a Julia Set
• Awildo Gutierrez, The Effect of Operations on the Deficiency of Chemical Reaction Networks
• Qianzi Hou, Finding the Spreading Speed for Fisher-KPP Equations in Shifting Habitats
• Sean McAvoy, Edge Determining Sets and Determining Index
• Sophie Rubenfeld, Parking Functions, Bond Lattices, and Unimodal Forests

Middle East/Islamicate Worlds Studies

• Kateryna Tsaryova, Crossing the Threshold: The Kirtimukha as a Fluid Leonine Form with a Composite Symbolic Syllabary in Pre-Modern India and Afghanistan

Music

• Annika Enzien, a paper on the notion of fate in symphonic music of the 19th century
• Michael Grapel, music composed for Jazz Ensemble
• Alejandro Ruiz, Exploring the Hardware Limitations of 8 Bit Video Games through MIDI Composition and Sound Design in Logic Pro
• Simon Stringer, composition, Music for a production of Too Close to the Sun, a play by Kullen Burnet
• Lucas Jonathan Wang Zheng, Sounds of Political Ideologies: A Comparative Study of National Anthems from East and Southeast Asia

Neuroscience

• Laura Bailey, Chemogenetic Inactivation of the Cortico-Accumbens Pathway Impairs Social Recognition in Rats
• Mac Behrhorst, MoxDl/TBHR a Protein in Search of a Function - The Role of Cell Death
• Katherine Bruno, The Impact of Varying Levels of Fantastical Elements on Children’s Word Learning from Storybooks
• Ben Coffey, Activation of Neurons that Project from the Amygdala to the Prefrontal Cortex does not Impair Social Recognition Memory in Rats
• Malik Compton, The Social Strain Model as a Proposed Reinforcement Pathway of Social Isolation
• Katherine Ekas, The Role of Executive Functions for Cue Integration Across Time in a Complex Task
• Sophia Fabiano, PANDAS: The Missing Microglial Link
• Elizabeth Gaillard, The Role of Parasympathetic Activation in Affective Perception: An Attentional Mechanism
• Ally Goldin, The Role of Sensory Stimuli in the Development of Infant Social Cognition
• Alexa Goldstein, Causal Inference for Spatial Localization
• Andrew P. Harrell, Oligodendrocyte Transcription Factor 2 as a Potential Target for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
• Lauren Holtzman, Cortisol Reactivity to Loneliness in Older Adults
• Eric Hong, Stress and Embodied Emotion: Dysregulation of Allostatic and Predictive Axes
• Maddie Hong, Exploring Delta Opioid Receptors as a Novel Preconditioning Mechanism for Neuronal lschemic Injury
• Jed Katzenstein, The Connection between the Hippocampus and the Amygdala does not Regulate Social Recognition in Rats
• Will Kieger, MoxDl/TBHR a Protein in Search of a Function - The Role of Glycosylation
• Caden J. Lemov ’24, Familial Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models as a Tool for Studying Potential Targets for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease
• Kaylee Martin, The Effects of Lead Exposure on Visual System Development
• Katlynn McGivney, The Interplay Between Strategic & Feedback-Based Motor Learning in 6- to 7-Year-Old Children
• Conor E. McManus, Evaluation of the Role of Anti-Inflammatory Cytokine Treatment of Psoriasis on Chronic Stress and Depression
• Alec Nossa, MoxDl/TBHR: A Protein in Search of a Function - The Role of ER stress
• Taryn C. Pastore, Synaptic dysfunction in Fragile X Syndrome Due to Loss of Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein in Astrocytes
• Mason Schroeder, The Exploration-Exploitation Dilemma: The Value of Information
• Riley G. Swetman, How Your Gut Controls You: Probiotics and the Behavioral Immune System

Philosophy

• Michael Altman, Kantian Conception of Public Justice: A Critique
• Jackson Dusinberre, On “Pond Scum”: Beyond Absolute Solitude
• Emily Furman, Moral Cognition in Intergroup Disagreement
• Olivia James, The Inclusion of Sexual and Gender Minorities in Evolutionary Psychology Research
• Garrett Karsten, Against Fukuyama on Capitalism
• Tony Liu, Kuhn’s Incommensurability and Scientific Objectivity
• Joshua Martin, The Necessity of Ego Dissolution for Moral Growth
• Nathalie Martinez, Pero Tu Eres Gringa: Reimagining the Boundaries of Hispanic/Latine Identity through Embodied Perspectives
• Jenna McCarthy, Cultivating Wonder for the Natural World
• Gabriana Rosario Guerrero, Pythagorean Women
• Katie Shaw, Beauty as Unconcealment: Heidegger’s Revival of Aesthetic Truth
• Kasey Shi, Implications of Philosophy in Solving Real-World Conflicts: How Different Types of Perspectivism Justify and Facilitate Gender Equality
• R.J. Steele, “Focus on the Pain”: The Dilemma of the Moral Self and the Ethics of Narrative Representation in Editorial Photography
• Bing Wang, A Defense of the Traditional Account of Scientific Progress Against Thomas Kuhn
• Yawen Zhang, An Alternative View on Human Relations with Non-Human Species

Physics

• Gregory Bauman, Modernizing Pulse NMR Code: Transition from IGOR to Python
• Zachary A. Jones, Code Improvements and Stress Analysis of Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities in a Simulated Magnetically Arrested Accretion Disk
• Lauren Kuster, Characterizing a Microfluidic Device for Sorting Nanodiamonds
• Elisabeth Lawrence, Artificial Cytoplasm: Observing Anomalous Diffusion & Progress Towards Drift-Reduction
• Richard S. McCoy, Measuring B Field Gradients using a Compact Gradiometer
• Casey E. McGrath, Quantifying Noise in Measurements of Faraday Rotation in Unpolarized
• Rubidium
• Alvaro M. Miralles, Exploring Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities in Thin Magnetically Arrested Disks Around Black Holes
• Christopher Nields, High Precision Current Measurements to Stabilize NMR Power Supply Output
• Liam Regan, Heating in Residential Homes with Heat Pumps

Psychology

• Sophie Argay, In Sickness and in Health: Changes in Friendships in the Face of Disease Threats
• Sophia Bernstein, Investigating the Relation Between Self-Esteem and Social Anxiety Disorder: The Role of Emotion Regulation
• Julia Bligh, Exploring the Effects of Sexual Orientation on Gender Discrimination in the Workplace: Influence of Sexism on Perceptions of Lesbian Leaders
• Sofia Block, Body and Mind: The Potential Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Benefits of Exercise
• Samantha Chen, How the Model Minority Myth Hurts Us All: Anti-Black Attitudes and Outgroup Denigration
• Louisa Crozier, Violence and Vulnerability: Examining the Relationships Between Socioeconomic Status, Attachment Style, and Intimate Partner Violence
• Reese Dan, Groovin’ to the Beat: How Does Music Influence Human Cognition?
• Elisabeth Donoghue, Recidivism and Rehabilitation: How Rehabilitative Attitudes Affect Willingness to Admit Certain Crimes into Mental Health Courts
• Qiran (Rex) Fan, Life-history Strategy, Political Ideology and Religiosity: The Mediating Role of Moral Intuition
• Olivia Gabriel, Exploring the Relationships Among Parental Emotion Socialization, Emotion Expressivity, Social Anxiety, and Race
• Jasmine Gess, Cross-Cultural Helping Hands: The Role of Neural Threat and Reward Systems in Facilitating Cooperation
• Emlyn Harris, Adaptive Sports: Grit, Growth Mindset, and Emotion Regulation Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Nicklaus Herbst, Effects of Social Exclusion on Just-World Beliefs and Victim Blame, Moderated by Moral Identity
• Mark Herdiech ’24, Imitation Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Rachel Hill, The Need for Identity Renegotiation After Athletic Retirement
• Whitney Hintz, How Crossing the Thought-to-Action Threshold Interacts with the Relationship Between Self-Directed Violence and Other-Directed Violence
• Olivia James, Examining the Role of Gender Expression in Mate Retention Tactics
• Elizabeth Kantrowitz, Investigating the Benefits of Imaginary Play on Regulation and Aggression in Children
• Abigail LaCasse, Self-Distancing and ADHD: Does a “Fly on the Wall” Perspective Help Regulate Negative Emotions?
• Jason Le, The Avatar Becomes Me: Does Role-playing as an Intelligent Character Improve Problem-solving?
• Allie LeeHoffman, How Do Asians Perceive Asian-White Biracials?
• Jade Levitin, Examining Empathy in Montessori and Traditional School Environments
• Jonathan Lopez, Mitigating the Effects of Stereotype Threat with a Belonging Intervention
• Yongyi (Lesley) Lu ’24, Breaking Down The Sources of Bias: How Does Occupation Interact with Race and Gender to Shape Warmth and Competence Perceptions?
• Sophie Maniscalco, Reflecting on Hardship: Efficacy of Self-Distancing in Reducing Negative Childhood Memory-Related Distress
• Elisa Matson, Positive Parenting: The Relation between Emotion Regulation and Adaptive Use of Discipline
• Yi (Kasey) Shi, Conflict Resolution: The Effects of Self-Compassion on Self- and Other-Forgiveness in a Transgression in Which No One is Innocent
• Tracey Stafford, A Model Like Me: The Effects of Race-Matched Role Models on Student Achievement
• Anthony Thompson, To Forgive or Not to Forgive: The Role of Psychological Reactance on Forgiveness in Friendships
• Clara Walling, New Interpretations of the Placebo Effect: The Influence of Expectation on Healthcare in College
• Zach Weller, Effects of Nature on Evaluative Processes: The Role of the Parasympathetic Nervous System
• Caroline Zuffante, Who’s to Blame? The Issue of Antipsychotic Medication Noncompliance in Mentally Ill Defendants

Public Policy

• Matthew Banbury ’24, Corruption as an Obstacle of Electrification
• Austin Bullock, Energy Security as National Security
• Caroline Dawson ’24, Policy Effects of the Boston Marathon Bombing
• Meredith Enslow, State Media Literacy Policy
• Maura Holden, Effectiveness and Racial Consequences of Civil Commitment Policy
• Peter Elias Huleatt, School Library Book Bans  
• George Johnson, The Future of Nuclear Energy
• Stella Karron, Countering the Effects of Fast Fashion
• Cole Kuczek, An Ethical Analysis of Urban Renewal
• Jason Lever, Congressional Perspectives on Earmarked Spending
• James Lewis ’24, Implementation of Humanitarian Parole
• Samuel Lieberman, Land Value Tax vs. Property Tax
• Katelyn Perruc, Evaluating ESOL Programs
• Margaret Phipps, Community Resilience in Planning for Climate Change
• Thomas Reilly, Wildfires and Insurance Coverage
• David Sandoz ’24, The FIFA Scandals
• Katherine Solohub, Justice Implications of Prison Location Policy 
• Elian Sorensen, Regulatory Response to the Nursing Home Crisis
• Emma Stephens, Racial Equity and Special Education Policy in Three States
• Jake Valensi, The NYPD and Promise of Racial Justice Reform
• Nicolette van Kesteren, The Effectiveness of the Hamilton College Sexual Harassment Policy

Religious Studies

• Craig Feist, Developing a Pluralist American Civil Religion
• Maggie Looney, The Valentinian Sophia
• Caity Smith, The New and the Old in Augustine’s Interpretation of the Pauline Adam

Honors presentation

• Craig Feist, Public Discourse on Religious Freedom: 1990-Present

Russian Studies

• Sarah Sandison, Crafting the Soviet Child: Children’s Poetry in the Soviet Union

Sociology

• Philip Bernstein, Bridging the Urban/Rural Divide: The Interconnected Factors Shaping Policy Preferences
• Katherine Burnham, Does it Mean to be Spicy Smart? Elucidating the Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities at an Academically Rigorous College
• Jacqueline Cleary, All you need is trust: How middle manager leadership practices impact the work environment of their employees
• Nkosi Cooper, How Did They Do It? The Path to Upward Mobility for Underprivileged African Americans
• Melissa Corporan, The ‘People’s Home’ for who?: How Social Distance Influence Swedish Politicians’ Views on Immigrant Groups
• Phoebe Hatch, [Always] Kiss-and-Tell: A Study of the Gendered Perceptions and Uses of Gossip for Female-Identifying Students on College Campuses
• Katherine Hodulik, Schools: The Gender Playground An Analytic Approach to How Elementary School Children Learn About Gender
• Shania Kuo, Asian American as a Floating Signifier: Ascribing and Redefining Racial and Ethnic Identity at PWIs
• Danny Lee, Friends in Hired Places: An Evaluation of Authority Mechanisms Among Peers in Higher Education Academic Resource Centers
• Alex Markonish, You are What You Wear: Clothing in College as a Means of Individual and Group Identity through a Social Constructionist Lens
• Violet Newhouse, Not So Sexy Sex Ed: How Sex Education Impacts Sexual Script Formation
• Anne Tulikangas, The World is Your Oyster, Right? A Study on the Career Aspirations of College Students and the Factors that Affect Their Decisions
• Eleanor Wefing, Emotional Labor in Special Education Teachers

Theatre

• Carlo Benavides, directing and design, Hold by Ruben J. Carbajal
• Juliet Davidson, directing, Chicks by Grace McKeaney
• Grace Friedman, directing, Too Close To The Sun by Kullen Burnet
• Mitch Greene, directing, Intermission by Will Eno
• Maya Nguyen-Haberneski, writing and directing, The Visibility of Female Rage
• Simon Stringer, directing, Softy Powder or Soft Power or You Will Do My Laundry by Dizzy Turek

Women’s and Gender Studies 

• Caroline Casey, We will not become what we mean to you: The Evolution of the Female Nude From Patriarchal Consumption to the Site of Feminist Protest
• Emily “Mil” Fienco, An Analysis and Reflection of Queer Nightlife and the Importance of Physical Space for Queerness and Community to Thrive
• Madison Lazenby, WMGST XXX: My Body, Not My Prison: Theories of Sex Work and Abolition, A Proposed Syllabus
• Abigail Moone, How To: Worldbuilding and Queering Concrete Futures of Hope
• Bella Moses, Living Dead: Necropower, the Human, and the Flesh in Contemporary Art
• Lillian Norton-Brainerd, The Art of Getting Lost: Counter-Cartographies and Disorientation

World Politics

Honors theses

• Gabriele Fett, Can the Military Experiences of Leaders Account for Cold War 2.0? A Quantitative Analysis of Russian-American Relations from 2000 to 2022
• Max Gersch, Personalism, Hollow Institutions, and Russian Military Failures in Ukraine
• Annabel Halaby, Europe’s “Hamiltonian Moment”? The Integrative Potential of Crises in the European Union
• Zhuoyang (Catherine) Li, US and China Relations: From Trade War to Tech War
• Sarah Sandison, Effects of War on Individual Senses of Nationalism: A Study of Ukrainians Post-Invasion
• Ari Wheeler, Rural Reach Upstages Foreign Funding: State Capacity in Senegal and Zambia