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, is asked to archive his or her project in Digital Commons so that it may be made available to the Colby community and to the world at large.
Honors Theses from 2018
From Forced to Voluntary Participation: The History of Biomedical Human Experimentation in the United States after the Second World War, Haley L. Andonian
What the Walls Say: Finding Meaning and Value in Tel Aviv’s Street Art, Rachel R. Bird
Compositional Craft and Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart
Sacrifice, Benefit, and Reciprocity: Evidence from a Trust Game, Mirco Dinelli
GEOCHEMICAL DIFFERENCES IN CALCIC HORIZONS DUE TO PARENT MATERIAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC WATER INPUT IN SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA, Alicia Fischer
From Antagonists to Protagonists: Muslims on the Hollywood Screen, Brooke K. Gentry
The Colby Community in World War I, Eleanor A. Hanson
Is It a Dragon? No, It's a Salamander. The Supreme Court's Effort to Slay the Partisan Gerrymander, Tim Harris
The Identification and Application of Generalizable Spatial Patterns of Human-Wildlife Conflict, Vivian F. Hawkinson
Drawing Borders: Images, Representation, and (In)Visibility of Migrants on the Balkan Route, Nora Hill
Parametric Polynomials for Small Galois Groups, Claire Huang
WHEN YOU MEET ME AGAIN: A NOVEL, Jacob O. Hyatt
Where My Girls At? Gendered Approach to Waterville Community Power Structure, Meredith Foy Keenan
Presence and Potential Sources of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Product Chemicals in Messalonskee Lake, Alyssa T. Kullberg
Political Philosophy of the Impossible: Authority, Domination, and Social Movements, Ryan Lam
Emerging Care Regimes: an Analysis of the Domestic Labor Market of Shanghai, Nellie S. LaValle
Strategic Nationalism: Deciphering Chinese Strategy in the South China Sea, William Levesque
“¿Qué coño es esto?”: Exploración de identidad de género y de orientación sexual en La mucama de Omicunlé, Vianny C. Lugo Aracena
African-American Poetry, Music, and Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald
Mechanism Design, Matching Theory and the Stable Roommates Problem, Yashaswi Mohanty
Arts Education: A Philanthropic Priority?, Clare Murray
Waste Reduction in Public School Cafeterias Through Sorting and Diversion: An Analysis of Three Southern Maine Schools, Jeremy P. Ravenelle
Examining molecular markers of fertility in the male germline of the soapberry bug, Jadera haematoloma, Danielle M. Smith
Haloferax volcanii for carotenoid production, Erika Smith
The Role of EGF and Insulin Pathway Cross-talk in Wing Development in Jadera haematoloma, Jane Swart
What Effects Did United Airlines' De-Hubbing of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Have on Cleveland Passengers?, Joshua A. Young
On Spectral Theorem, Muyuan Zhang
Honors Theses from 2017
Chow's Theorem, Yohannes D. Asega
“La Política del Avestruz”: The Regulation of the Black Market for Medical Abortion in Chile, Sophia M. Bartels
Temporal changes in the larval Placopecten magellanicus population in a small-scale fishery closure area in coastal Maine, USA, Jessica P. Batchelder
The Anonymous Truth: Honesty and Hostility in Public and Private Online Settings, Grace S. Carroll
Failure or Adjustment?: An Analysis of the Slowing Growth of the Chinese Economy, Kay G. DeGraw
Protein Kinase Activity Toward TaABF1 in Imbibing Grains, Taylor P. Enrico
Going beyond the Big Five: The Dark Triad, DSM-5, and prediction of normal and abnormal outcomes, Shanna Grant
Tying the Knot: Applications of Topology to Chemistry, Tarini S. Hardikar
Normal Surfaces and 3-Manifold Algorithms, Josh D. Hews
Franco, Pedro y El género, Kaleigh E. Hoffman
Small Town, Big Future: Preparing Rural Maine Students For College, Elizabeth C. Huber
Earth, Body, and Spirit: Radical Motherhood and the Female Voice in So Far From God, Kiana Kawamura
Women, War, and Social Memory in Peru: The Posthumous Careers of Edith Lagos and María Elena Moyano, Meghan Kelly
Some Examples of the Interplay Between Algebra and Topology, Joseph D. Malionek
CICIG in Guatemala: The Institutionalization of an Anti-Corruption Body, Greg M. Morano
Correcting Pedestrian Dead Reckoning with Monte Carlo Localization Boxed for Indoor Navigation, Akira T. Murphy
Social Class Identity Development and Elite Schools, Sarah Peck
Examining Interactions between Opsins and Carotenoid Biosynthetic Proteins in Halophilic Archaea, Alexandru M. Plesa
Vein patterning during juvenile wing development in Oncopeltus fasciatus and Jadera haematoloma, William R. Simmons
Constructing (Hu)man Nature: A Feminist Critique of Western IR Theory, Liberal Economics and U.S. Foreign Policy, Nadia Stovicek
America's National Parks and the Anthropocene: Addressing the Present to Accommodate the Future in Acadia National Park, Sophie A. Swetz
Dear Reader, How Do We Go On? Letters of Reflection on Community Care in Climate Activism in Maine, Ester Topolarova
From Coffee Shops to Dog Walks : Cultural Consequences of Neoliberal Gentrification, Diversity, and “Inclusive” Planning in Boston’s South End, Aliza K. Van Leesten
It’s not you, it’s— Hookup Culture and Sexual Subjectivity, Anne Vetter
Crops and Controversy: Industry’s Role in the GMO Debate, Carina Wallack
Visions for Waterville's Future: Perceptions of its Residents, Alex Wolansky
Shifts in Thermal Habitats in the Gulf of Maine under Climate Change: A Case Study on American Lobster, Xinyi Zheng
Honors Theses from 2016
Resonant Collisions of Potassium Atoms, Philip Michael Adamson
Don't Know, Do Not Resuscitate: A Principle for the Creation of the Kingdom of Ends in the ICU, Griffen Isaac Allen
Investigation of Biological, Sociological, and Statistical Factors Contributing to the Emergence and Spread of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in West Africa, Alexandra Anne Bishop
Police Impunity in Mexico: Creating Openings for Justice in a New Democracy, Emily Boyce
The Effect of Temperature on the Supply and Demand for the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) in the State of Maine, Gaby E. Carpenter
Park Politics: Political Influences on Frederick Law Olmsted & the Creation of Central Park, Kathryn Chow
Structure and Function of Melatonin Receptors in Arthropods: A Computational Approach, James W. Connelly IV
Analyzing Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment in Kasungu, Malawi, Andrew Currier
Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Irruptive Fringillid Movements, Paul J. Dougherty
A Failure to Cooperate: Why Canada, the United States, and Mexico have not Developed a Regional Energy Strategy, Timothy Dutton
There and Back Again: The Enchanted Otherworlds of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Orfeo Prefiguring the Structure of Disenchantment, Andrew D. Finn
Negotiating Order in State-Funded Care: Examining the Salience of Sponsoring Agencies in Maine's School-Based Health Centers, Susan M. Fleurant
Are the Brain and the Mind One? Neuromarketing and How Consumers Make Decisions, Emily Glaenzer
Global Reach, Local Markets: The Challenges of Leading Global Innovation, Sarah Higgins
Health Care Agency: Statewide Awareness of Patient-Centered Care in Maine’s Mental Health Care Facilities, Holly Hogan A
Assessing LakeSmart: The Development and Effectiveness of a Lake Protection Program, Alexa A. E. Junker
Using Genetic Algorithms to Evolve Artificial Neural Networks, William T. Kearney
Phenanthrene...With a Twist!, Nicholas S. Kim
Human Charged Multivesicular Body Protein 2B (CHMP2B) Causes Deficits in Morning Circadian Activity when Expressed in Drosophila Clock Neurons, Christopher Krasniak
Campaigning on YouTube: Messaging and Online Communication in the 2016 Presidential Nomination Process, Abraham Krieger
Devising Performance & Queer Futurity, Brendan F. Leonard
Multiple introductions as a trigger for invasive behavior of introduced pin oak (Quercus palustris) in central Maine, Juvenal Lopez
Shifting Baselines of Iconic Marine Species in the Caribbean, Samantha Lovell
Arts and Elite Schooling: The Accumulation of Advantaging Forms of Cultural Capital, Hannah R. Macquarrie
Part I: Photochemical Generation of Cyclohexyne from a Hydrocarbon Precursor Part II: A Triptycenyl Flower, Daniel Maurer
Detecting Stock Market Bubbles: A Price-to-Earnings Approach, Austin F. Murphy
Alexander the Great Cultural Chameleon: Changing Character & Purpose Over Time, Eva Neczypor
The Impact of Endocrine-disrupting Chemicals on Wildlife Conservation, Eda Reed
Ecological predictors and consequences of non-native earthworms in Kennebec County, Maine, Julia Rogers
The Effect of Cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata in the Belgrade Lakes, Maine, Harriet T. Rothschild
Entering Into Dialogue with Pope Francis' Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, Sarah Jeanne Shimer
The Voluntourism Encounter: Affect, Discomfort, and Transformation in Yaxunah, Caroline Tegeler
The Historical Ecology of Queensland’s Australian Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), Emily M. Walker
Environmental contingency of seed-fungi interactions in coexisting invasive purple loosestrife and native cattail, Shayla R. Williams
Experimental and Computational Study of Methylphenylvinylidene and Its Rearrangements, Xi Yang
Honors Theses from 2015
The Growing Crisis in Maine: Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, Olivia Avidan
Sociological Effects of Wind Farms in Maine, Jeanne E. Barthold and Jeanne Barthold
Mobilization and Resignation: Argentine Riparian Community Responses to the Proposed Garabí and Panambí Hydroelectric Dams, Carolyn Bennett
Beer Stein Poem, True Poem, Sick Poem, Erotic Poem, and Other Poems, Margaret Bower