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 2016
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
Follow Me Robot, Victoria M. Edwards
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
Defensive Ability and Salary Determination in Major League Baseball, Christopher B. Shorey
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
Missing the Trees for the Forest: The Socioecological Significance of Dispersed Farmland Trees in Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall
Missing the Trees for the Forest: The Socioecological Significance of Dispersed Farmland Trees in Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall and Travis W. Reynolds
Environmental contingency of seed-fungi interactions in coexisting invasive purple loosestrife and native cattail, Shayla R. Williams
The Effects of the One-Child Policy on Household Financial Decisions, Sylvia M. Xu
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
Analysis of Post-‐Earnings-‐Announcement Market Reactions: Is There Still a Delayed Price Response and Can it Be Exploited?, Nils Carlson
ACL Injuries in Female Athletes: Are Prevention Programs the Answer?, Brooke Chandor
Institutions, Distance, and Foreign Direct Investment, Charles Coffman
Experimental and Computational Investigation of Selected β-Hydroxy Carbenes, Joseph D. DeAngelo
Cost Effectiveness of Renewable Energy Policy on Military Installations, Zachary L. Esakof
A Constellation of Caring: The Dynamic and Fluctuating Nature of Pediatric Cancer Care, Anne Friedrich
The Destabilization of Hierarchy: Counter-hegemonic Attitudes in Works by Herman Melville, Morgan C. Gallagher
Co-Authorship in Action: Curation & Collaboration in American post-Judson Dance, Sara Gibbons
The Importance of Fitting In: Drinker Status, Social Inclusion, and Well-Being in College Students, Molly B. Hodgkins
Assessing the Carbon Impacts of Colby College’s Biomass Plant, Alice Hotopp
Queering the Production of Sexual Knowledge: Narrative Strategies, Gender Politics and the Promise of Feminist Focus Groups, Madeline J. Hunsicker
Reputation Effects and Hedonic Pricing at the Portland Fish Exchange, Kush Jadeja
"Trying to Resurrect People": Musical Theater and Theater for Social Change in Witness Uganda, Emilie Jensen
La (re)imaginación de una ruta milenaria: El Camino de Santiago en el modelaje de una espiritualidad moderna, Benjamin Lester
The Central Hankel Transform, Matthew J. Levine
Quantization of Analysis, Kelvin K. Lui
Quantum Effects in Gravity: The Ambiguous Vacuum, Kelvin K. Lui
The Stimulatory Effects of Acute Ethanol Exposure on the Innate Immune System of Zebrafish (Danio rerio), Paul C. Macklis
Announcement effects of convertible debt: Do firm and market characteristics affect the magnitude of abnormal stock returns?, Charles N. Madden
School Gardens: Cultivating a Child’s Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, and Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer
Mathematical modeling of Emiliania huxleyi and a host-specific virus, Julia Middleton
Nurturing Environmental Literacy at Colby College: Higher Education and the Environmental Crisis, Molly Nash
Market Microstructure and Abnormal Returns: An Analysis of NYSE and SGX Securities, Alex Ng
Bridging The Divide: The Religious and the Secular at Colby College, James O'Leary
Inequality and Involvement: Participatory Trends in the Politics of a Rural Maine Town, Shelby O'Neill
Demographics as Destiny: Modeling Population Change and Party Strategies on the Electoral Map, 2016-2040, Sam Parker
L’IDENTITÉ LIBANAISE DANS LA MÉMOIRE LITTÉRAIRE DE LA GUERRE CIVILE, Sarah J. Rockford
An Investigation of BAG3 Knockdown and its Effects on the Cytotoxicity of Laromustine, Colin Sheehan
Investigating the Endogeneity of Risk Attitudes: Experimental Evidence Involving Cooperation and Competition, Erik Solli
The Influence of Normative Feedback on Stigma of Mental Health, Carly A. Taylor
Bhabha's Hybridity and Kenyan Development: A Close Look at Banking, Land and Health, Hannah F. Tuttle and Hannah Tuttle
Generation of 2-Adamantylidenecarbene from a Phenanthrene-Based Precursor, Christine E. Wamsley
Along the Cliffs of Bray, Elizabeth J. Woodbury
Innovation and Productivity: Evidence from China, Jingying Xu
A Personalized Chatterbot Based on Facebook Update, Jinghui Yu and Bruce Maxwell
Drivers and Barriers to Financial Inclusion in Peru: a Demand-side Approach, Maria Zeta-Valladolid
Honors Theses from 2014
Macroinvertebrate Community Structure and Feeding Dynamics in Three Forested Headwater Streams in Central Maine, Emily R. Arsenault
The Effects of the Indonesian Financial Crisis On Children’s Later Life Outcomes, Lori T. Ayanian
Deformation mechanisms in mylonites at Fletcher Peak, Washington County, ME, Ariana S. Boyd
The Fluvial Sequence of a Latest Changhsingian, Pre-PT Extinction River Complex, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Tara Chizinski
Structural Characterization of the Major Guanosine-Guanosine Cross-Link Formed by Epichlorohydrin, Edward Chuang
Optimization of a Chemical Genetic Screen to Identify Druggable Targets in U138 Cells Treated with Laromustine, Kathryn Coe
Women Writing about Mental Illness: Historical and Literary Patterns of Labeling Women Deviant, Cecelia Conroy
The Economic Impact of Shale Gas Development: A Natural Experiment along the New York and Pennsylvania Border, Brendan Cosgrove
Quantumness and Coherence in Photosynthesis, Brian Doolittle
Variations in Intra- and Interspecific Response to Mobbing Calls by the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), Katerina M. Faust
The Impact of Dams on Nitrogen Cycling in the Messalonskee Stream, Rebecca K. Forgrave
Moon Jellies, Christina Garbarino
Borderline Depravity: The Impact of U.S. Immigration Policy on Human Smuggling at the Mexican Border, Chloe J. Gilroy
La puerta a Europa: Percepciones de la inmigración en Andalucía, Kristin Glasheen
Conservation Choices in the Face of Sea-Level Rise, Meagan K. Hennessey