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 2004
Sedimentological and geochemical characterization of East Pond, Belgrade Lakes watershed, central Maine, Robin H. Nesbeda
Designing and implementing a user-focused Web-based database system, Rachel Noiseux
Estimating the impact of state policy incentives on wind power development, Kellie K. Phelan
Visual expectations: using machine learning to identify patterns in psychological data, Skyler Place
Reaction of epichlorohydrin and epibromohydrin with synthetic DNA oligomers, Keith Romano
Alternative Sites of Identity Production: Going from Borderland to Homeland in a Transnational Setting, Adam Saltsman
Evaluations and Project Effectiveness : an Investigation into the Evaluation Processes of Development Projects in Bolivia, Kristin Saucier
Creating a Video Device Application, Kevin Septor
Nikki (a screenplay), Amanda Stanke
Word and Image in the Contemporary Artist's Book, Rachel Tobie
How Natural History Museums Fell From Grace, And Why They Shouldn't Have Or, Defending Museuns During the Age of Hypersensitivity, Vanessa L. Verri
Honors Theses from 2003
Sedimentological and plant taphonomic evaluation of the early Middle Devonian Trout Valley formation, Jonathan Allen
The Tender Desire of Ownership: The Function and Construction of Masculinity in Owen Wister’s The Virginian, Jayant Alter
Extending CSP to disambiguate Linda predicate operations, Kyle Burke
Double stranded DNA-binding studies of potential Rhodium(ll) antitumor complexes, Amity Elizabeth Burr
Screenplay: When It All Comes Down, Anna Capezzera
Unwilling to Explain: Deceptiveness in Robert Frost, Jamie Cowan
To Cheer or Jeer: The American Indian Mascot Dilemma, Jonathan Eck
Appearing Proper: The Woman’s Dilemma in Fanny Burney Evelina and Jane Austen’s Novels, Katrina Fletcher
A Poster, A Surfer, and E-text: Reconciling the newest roles in literary communication, Erin Hanrahan
The Bildungstroman: An Examination of Narratives of Female Development, Megan Hoar
Portraits of Poshlust in Nabakov’s Lolita and Gogol’s Dead Souls, Dennis Kuhnel
Hydrogeochemical analysis of a contaminated industrial site, Amy Lansdale
Evolving the behavior of a predator robot, Katelyn Mann
Defining microcredit success in Bolivia, Kelly Miller
Possible contraction and its effect on 2002 major league baseball attendance, Peter W. Newberry
Economic effects of British imperialism on India: an analysis of the goods and capital markets 1853-1947, Katrina Noyes
An Investigation of the Seasonal Hydrogeochemical Dynamics of a Complex Wetland in Central Maine, Justin E. Ossolinski
Quantitative Analysis of Diepoxybutane Damage within the Chicken β-globin Domain, André M. Pilon
Coolest MUD ever, Kevin Radloff
The Surface Tension of Water, Neil Reynolds
Effect of competitive balance on single game attendance in major league baseball, Thomas V. Richardson
Application of the Chan-Evans diaryl ether synthesis to the formation of Bis(bibenzyls), Eric Rosenthal
Small Castles, Christiana Salah
Flanking Sequences Modulate Diepoxide Cross-linking Efficiencies at the 5'-GNC sSte, Gregory A. Sawyer
Tradition, Transition, and Transformation: Presbyterianism from Calvin's Geneva to Noroton Presbyterian Church, Laura E. Shufelt
Arthur Miller: Spirituality Explored, Courtney M. Smith
Synthesis of Montiporynes A and B, Traci Jenelle Speed
From Maine Farms to Maine Colleges: The Symbolism and Reality behind the Local Purchasing Efforts at Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin, Kathryn L. Spirer
On the Edge of the Shadow: Searching for Evil in a Cross Cultural Comparison Of Native American and Scandinavian Trickster Figures, Justin Stempeck
Christine De Pizan and (Re)-Visionary Narratives: Writing Women in Fifteenth-Century France, Laura Thomason
The White-Picket Divide Between Self and Society: Analyzing the Contradictory Ideology of the American Dream, Kira Vassar
Negotiating Womanhood: Nineteenth-Century American Woman Writers and Constructions of Femininity, Kathleen Zimmerman
Honors Theses from 2002
Impact of monetary policy and unanticipated events on stock market value, Simon Amich
Local participation as a determinant of success in World Bank environmental projects: what is the evidence?, Catherine Benson
Open to Detection:' Dickens’ Bleak House and the Compromise for Social Candor, Todd Bergstrom
Collective memory of Vichy : Moulin, Pétain, and the Vél' d'Hiv', Kathryn W. Bondy
Integrated test for exploitation and discrimination in the National Basketball Association, Kathleen Carney
Complex systems model of aggressive and friendly competition for resources in a simple society, Douglas Casazza
The Angel in the Devil’s Mirror: Victorian Paintings and the Poetry of Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, Noah Londer Charney
Medicine men of the anti-progressive party : sacred sites, public lands, and the construction of religious liberty, Jacob Culbertson
Analysis of the Colby quarterly econometric model of the U.S. economy using the economic effects of September 11th, Alison Culpen
Synthesis and DNA binding of CIS and TRANS-RuCl2 (DMSO)4, Thomas Curran
Wordsworth’s Bioregional Imagination: How Location and Dislocation Contribute to the Poetic Expression of Ecological Values, Jennifer Dakin
Effects of melatonin on hemolymph glucose and lactate concentrations in the fiddler crab, uca pugilator, Kathryn M. Dalton
Devilish Icons: Dante’s Christian Depiction of Classical Antiquity in the Inferno, Alexis Detwiler
Strict producer liability and safety in the general aviation industry, Jim Drews
A Gaze Redirected and a World Redefined: The Power of Black Female Artists to Revise their Images in Literature and Film, Katherine Dunn
Watching Fish Swim, Erin Gardner
The high, pale cast of light': Talking, Touching, and Trauma in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, Nick Gaubinger
Ecuador's indigenous university movement, UINPI: reconstructing identity in the search for equality, Joshua Gerber
Asymmetric wealth effect : American consumption and the stock market, Jonathan Greene
Soviet history reconsidered: the reform of undergraduate history teaching in contemporary Russian universities, Amy Hirschauer
The Price of Bread and other Stories, Eleanor Jackson
Time of Pachakutik: an Examination of the Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement, Eliza Cooke Kittredge
Photochemical generation and chemistry of α-Acetoxycarbene, Jonathan Mann
Suits or pajamas: an economic analysis of the causes and consequences of telecommuting, Jonathan Marlow
"Fit or fat": an empirical analysis of the factors influencing individuals' food consumption decisions, Michelle McInnis
Private forest periphery: industrial colonization of the Maine woods, Jacob Mentlik
Signs of life: The prognosis for monastic life in America, Sarah Miller
Life Scars. Art Scars. A Collection of Sonnets, Jaime Muehl
Purification of the HMG1 protein and investigation of its interactions with diepoxide cross-linked DNA, Gayle Pageau
Chekhov and Carver: Defining Masculinity, David Prinstein
Effect of 6-Thioguanine and Methyl-6-Thioguanine on stability of DNA duplexes, Mabaera Rodwell
Role of venture capital financing in inflating the technology stock market bubble, Jessica Rosenbloom
Study of area deprivation in Connecticut and Maine, Jonathan H. Ryder
The Photochemical Generation and Intramolecular Chemistry of β-Acetoxycarbene, Martin John Schnermann
The Environment and the SUV: Any Room for Compromise?, Eliza Newbold Schnitzer
Knowing God and Nature: A Thesis on The Writing of Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry, David Seel III
Modeling a Real-time Economics Simulation with User-Coded Agents in an Object-Oriented Database, Kevin Simons
A study of ancient Near Eastern texts in relation to the Hebrew Bible, Ashley Stephanson
Frontiers of Spirit, Frontiers of Land: Investigating Representations of and by Pioneer Women, Katherine St. Germaine
Misogynists, Madwomen, and Mistresses: Relocating D.H. Lawrence in the Women’s Literary Tradition, Ericka Thoreson
Above and Beyond the Rim: An Examination of Customer Discrimination in the National Basketball Association, Carl E. Tugberk
Nightmares at Noonday': Hemingway, Bullfights, and Healing the Wound, Eric Washer
Communicator-in-chief: presidential use of television past, present, and future, Jenna Wasson
The Effect of Childhood Trauma on Contemorary American Poets, Katherine Wentzell
Natural Theology: A Reevaluation of Christianity's Relationship to the Natural World, Briana Wright
Honors Theses from 2001
Journey to the Source of Healing: The Nature of Healing and the Healing Nature In Two Native American Works, Melissa Alioto
From the Frontier to the ‘Rez’: The Evolving Role of Native Americans in Film, Stephen Bigelow
Exploratory chemistry in route to aromatic natural products, Nicholas P. Bizier
Quantification of nanomolar superoxide in aqueous solution : flow injection analysis using the chemiluminescent reagent MCLA., Nathan Boland
Inside jokes & silence, Jeff Calareso
Two hours from freedom: an examination of NGO involvement in the "Kamaiya" liberation movement of Nepal, Elicia Carmichael