The Honors Thesis is a research project for which eligible students apply during their junior year and complete in their senior year. Colby departments and programs that have an honors program establish the requirements for the project and its final format. Each student, upon completion of the thesis, has the opportunity to publish their project in Digital Commons so that it may be made available to the Colby community and to the world at large.
Honors Theses from 2024
Multiple Lithologies in Camel Donga 003 (CK3): Implications for the CV Parent Body, Elana Alevy
Creating Community Through Architecture: Designing Interventions in Underprivileged Communities, Elizabeth Bailey
“The Best and the Rest”: The Equity Effects of Specialized High Schools, Joseph M. Barrett
The Effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 Expansion of the Child Tax Credit on the Distribution of Household Chores, Joseph M. Barrett
Sustainable Frameworks & the Circular Economy within Digital Marketing & Advertising Agency Groups, Angelique Bautista
Map or Graph? Investigating the Structure of Spatial Representations, Ainsley K. Bonin
Responding to Hurricane Maria: The Role of Mutual Aid Societies in Withstanding Federal Failures, Caitlin Bracken
Maine as Modernism’s Vernacular Muse: The Ogunquit Artists Colony as Microcosm for the Transition to American Modernism, Lydia C. Burke
The Social Implications of Assisted Reproductive Technologies: An Analysis of Feminist Discourse and Popular Media, Charlotte S. Buswick
Music and Healing in Aotearoa New Zealand: The Harmony of The Land, Placehood, and Community in Māori and Pākehā Experiences of Healing, Katherine Elise Callahan
Reviving Caribbean Scleractinian Corals: Medication in Ex-Situ Care, Christopher E. Cho
Is Energy Localized or Gone with the Wind? An Analysis of Iberdrola’s Wind Energy Localization Initiatives in Burgos, Spain, Mia Cromwell
Measuring Nature’s Contributions to People Provided by Species in the Gulf of Maine Rocky Intertidal Ecosystem, Madelyn L. Eippert
The Future of International Climate Change Litigation, Heloise S. Evins-Mackenzie
Black Rhino Conservation and Ranger Wellness in Namibia, Terra Gallo
The Physicians' Crusade: A Forgotten War on Abortion, Feminism, and the Diversification of the United States, Lucinda B. Harden
Monetary Policy Across the Urban Rural Divide, Grace Hillis
Northern Shrimp in the Gulf of Maine and the Impacts of Climate Change, Alicia Hober
Odiar es proteger: La respuesta inevitable al origen de una pandemia, HaoWen Huang
Analysis of Speech Recognition Systems and Error Correction Approaches, Saki Imai
Characterization of SerX: A Putative Periplasmic Binding Protein in a Selenate Respiring Bacteria, Henry Jacques and Susan E. Childers
From Arrival to Citizenship: Assessing Refugee Resettlement in Canada, Ethan S. Kanef
Of Mind and Men: Replications and Rejections of Hegemonic Masculinity at Colby and Beyond, Florence O. Kane
Felling for Photovoltaics: Remote Sensing for the Detection of Solar Facilities in Maine, James A. Lane
Impacts of climate change on vector-borne disease burden in the United States: Exploring the epidemiological evidence, Leah V. Loetman
Modification of Marine Snail Microhabitats by Canopy-Forming Algae, Eleanor McGrath
Not in My Zoning Code: Understanding the Mechanisms of Policy Diffusion of Deregulatory Zoning Reform Across U.S. Cities, Fiona F. Nash
Empowering Diversity: Unveiling the Impact of Affirmative Action Policies on Intersectional Identities in Indian Village Councils, Auroshree Pani
Phenanthrene Jamboree, Alexander D. Roth
Publishing Power: A Historiographical Investigation Into Treatments of American Slave Narratives, Maya Sachs
The Elastic Empire: The Disruptive Transformation of Malaysia into Britain’s Rubber Plantation Colony and Resulting Contemporary Ethnic Tensions, Peter E. Sanford
An Endangered Sport: Examining Sentiments of Climate Anxiety Through the Perspectives of Cross Country Skiers, Isabel J. Seay
Autopathography Across Media: Trauma and Fluid Embodied Subjectivity, He (Kristen) Shen
Comparing Generative AI, Keyword Searchers, and Hiring Committees in Selecting Semi-finalist Job Candidates in Academia, Sarah Snyder
Baseball: A Vehicle for Exchange Between Two Complicated Global Powers, Cole W. Tully
SPRTN Metalloprotease as a Target to Sensitize Cancer Cells to Crosslinking Chemotherapy, Cole J. Turner
The Effect of Postpartum Depression on New Mothers' Return to Work Decisions, Nicole Walutes
Gratuity's role in final cost: An economic assessment of tipping, Haley Wims
Performance and Policy Indexes in Carbon Pricing Efficacy: A Cross-country Analysis of Policy Impact (2012-2020), Ke (Zoky) Zhou
Honors Theses from 2023
Thanks, It's Second-Hand: Shifting Values of Second-Hand Clothing in Mexico City, Sofia Arleo
Stereotype Threat in Older Adults’ Episodic Memory Tests: Susceptibility and Protection, Talia Barrett
The Lie-brary of Congress: Misinformation’s Grip on the American Legislative Process, Caleb Bitting
Tracing North Atlantic Continental Erosion Events During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, Cecilia T. Bowe
The Art of Influence: A Study of Leverage in US-Israel Relations, Joshua Brause
Elliptic Curves Over Finite Fields, Christopher S. Calger
Does tssH deletion in Paraburkholderia bonniea affect its symbiosis with Dictyostellum discoideum?, Anna Chen
Examining the Impact of Living Arrangements on Children's Academic Achievement, Rachel G. Coan
InstaDAMN –The Power of Instagram’s Platform As An Instigator and Indicator For Offline Political Participation Among Young Adults, Natalie Davidson
Indigenous Storytelling as Decolonial Praxis, Ceremony and at Colby, Georgia Goodman
Food and Fuel: Investigating expert perspectives on the intersection of solar development and farmland in Maine, Ellie Hankin
Pluralistic Ethical Personalism, Qifan Hu
Changes in Ecosystem Processes and Functional Traits over an Elevational Gradient, Tiana Issa
Portraits of Practice: A Case Study on Elementary Schools Successfully Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Catherine "Cat" Merkle
When Welfare Bites Back: The Consequences of State Intervention on the Future Attitudes and Participation of Children, Claudia L. Miner
The Effect of Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis) Extinction on Ecosystem Function in the Gulf of Maine Rocky Intertidal, Sophia K. Montague
Geology, Uranium, and Apartheid: South Africa’s Nuclear Program and the International Politics of the Cold War, Andy Rightmire
From Schleswig to Anschluss: The Plebiscites and Referendums of Interwar Germany, Matthew J. Rocha
Map, Census, Museum: Imagining the Malaysian Nation-State and the Malay Identity, Jackson Rockett
A Call Away: Investigating a Solution to Healthcare Access Barriers in Remote Communities, Tamsin Rogers
On the Pursuit of Developer Happiness: Webcam-Based Eye Tracking and Affect Recognition in the IDE, Tamsin Rogers
Finding the Common Denominator: Understanding the Shared Experiences of Female Math Majors, Abigail R. Rosenbaum
Jewish Presence in the Venetian Empire: A Challenge to Venetian Mythology, Avery Rosensweig
Trends in Cyanotoxin Production Potential in China Lake: an eDNA Analysis of Microcystis and Dolichospermum and the Environmental Drivers of Cyanotoxin Production, Gennifer M. Rubin
Merchants of Blood and Gunpowder: The English Arms Trade in West Africa, Jaime K. Schneider
Testing Evolutionary Conservation of Sex Determination in Lepidoptera Using CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing, Sophia Schroeder
Biomechanics of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor
Food as a vector for change: lessons from the third sector on improving livelihoods with nutritional knowledge in Medellín and Bogotá, Solomon Treister
Petroleum and the Politics of Decolonization in Indonesia: A Study of Economic Development and Nationalism, Jan P. Wenger
Who’s Laughing Now? Satire’s Effect on Negative Partisanship, Emma West
Complexities of Community Consultation in Chile's Lithium Industry, Isabella R. Whelan
Honors Theses from 2022
The Legislative Branch Revolves Around the White House: A Copernican Understanding of the Evolving Relationship Between the President and Congress, Lukas K. Alexander
The Bittersweet Tooth: Understanding French Identity Through the Colonial Empire, Commodity Fetishism, and Pâtisserie, Clarisse D. Allehaut
PFAS Environmental Contamination in Central Maine, Megan H. Andersen
Investigation of the LonB Protease as a Key Regulator of Carotenoid Production in Haloferax volcanii, Katherine M. Andre
Analyzing Mental Health Curriculums: Recommendations for the Implementation of a Mental Health Curriculum for Middle Grade Students, Lauren A. Bendheim
Apparatus Improvement and Characterisation for Experiments on Ultra-cold Plasmas., Jakub Bystrický
Representation Theory and its Applications in Physics, Jakub Bystrický
The Role of Socioeconomic Status in Cognition and Brain Health Across the Lifespan, Erica Chung
El cruce de fronteras cinematográficas de Carlos Reygadas: la experiencia afectiva de Japón, Luz Silenciosa, y Post Tenebras Lux, Minori K. Cohan
The Effects of Personality and Risk Preferences on Effort-Based Behavior: A Game Theoretic Approach, Hannah M. Davidsen
Growing Green: The Barriers to Sustainability in the Recreational Cannabis Industry in the State of Maine, Georgia M. Dettmann
Is Monetary Policy Neutral? The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy Transmission across the Income Distribution, Cameron Dyer
‘The Making of Mountains:' The Development of Chair-Lift Technology in the American Skiing Industry, George M. Eisenhauer
St. George’s Food Access Initiatives: Navigating Food Inequalities, Forging a Way to Food Choice Freedom, and Transgressing Culinary Borderlands in Lake County, Colorado, Mannon R. Frykholm
Discrimination Among College Football Head Coaches, Yusuke Fukuda
The Perceptions and Practices of Japanese Identity in Contemporary France, Sara Gardner
“They Were Planning on It”: Recasting the 1967 Buffalo Uprising as a Student-Driven Insurgency, Matthew P. Gawley
Community Interventions to the Food Insecurity Crisis Inuit Currently Face in Nunangat, Alyssia R. Getschow
Is France Having a Populist Moment?, Emma Gilmore
Infill Development: A Contested Solution to California’s Crises, Conrad Hampson
Municipal Reform in the Progressive Era: Spatial Spread and Fiscal Outcomes of the Commission Government, Daniel T. Hiller