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 2014
The Talbot Effect, Malia Kawamura
What’s Gender Got to Do With It?: The Effects of Women’s Decision-‐Making Power in Morocco, Shannon Hume Kooser
La Identidad de Los Carabineros de Chile: The Evolving Identity of Chile's National Police Force and the 1973 Military Coup, Jeffrey O. Lamson
The Relationships between Local Food and Food Security in Maine, Erin Love
In Search of Murmurings (Full Score), Luke Martin
Generational Dream: First Generation American Citizens and Their Relationship to the American Dream, Anna A. Mintz
Deformation Mechanisms in the Metasedimentary Rocks Within the Kellyland Fault Zone, Washington County, Maine, Morgan E. Monz
Influence of the Sea Surface Microlayer on Ozone Deposition Velocity, Kathryn Moore
Illusion of Control: The Struggle for History and Humanity, Samantha R. Nystrom
Adaptive Co-management in the Face of Environmental Change: Invasive Green Crabs and the Soft-shell Clam Fishery in Maine, Grace O’Connor
Learning By Playing: Evaluating Backward Induction, Alexandra Ojerholm
An Economic Impact Analysis of the Belgrade Lakes Watershed, Lucy G. O'Keeffe
The Chinese Social Enterprise: A Global Phenomenon with Chinese Characteristics, Amanda Jingtong O'Malley
The Social Media Tango, Anne E. Papadellis Ms.
Beyond Our Conscience: A Proposal for an Improved Model of Self-Forgiveness, Kelsey M. Park
The Effect of Azo Textile Dyes on Gross Primary Production and Community Respiration in an Artificial Environment, Theresa L. Petzoldt
Failures of Chivalry and Love in Chretien de Troyes, Adele Priestley
Feminicidios en Cd. Juárez: Sombras del evanescente olvido; luces de lucha, fuerza y resistencia, Amber Ramirez
Do Unexpected FIFA World Cup Match Results Impact the Stock Market?, Brandan Rivard
Dante’s Inferno in the Modern World: A Study of Religiosity in a World of Religious Apathy, Kristen N. Robinson
Solidifying Citizenship: Ethnonationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Morality, Joshua Rothenberg
The Historical Ecology of Sharks in New England, Elizabeth R. Schell
Was Housing to Blame? A DSGE Analysis of the Great Recession, Justin Swansburg
A New Balance: National Security and Privacy in a Post 9-11 World, Russell B. Wilson
The Role of Underutilized Fish in New England's Seafood System, Taylor Witkin
Honors Theses from 2013
Can the Stock Market Predict FDA Approvals for New Drug Applications?, Thomas D. Abe
Les Contes de fées oubliés: vision d'un monde plus égal, Deborah Amato
The Eichler-Selberg Trace Formula for Level-One Hecke Operators, Alex Barron
Metallic Mineral Mining in Maine, Kaitlyn Bernard
The American Rifled Musket: Technical Revolution or Tactical Redundancy?, Alexandre F. Caillot
Omona!: Gender Representation in Three Gender-Bending Korean Dramas, Eleni Choephel
A Monte Carlo Simulation Study of the Performance of Hypothesis Tests Under Assumption Violations, Gareth Cleveland
Remapping Nature: Motherhood, Autonomy, and Anti-Mining Activism in Íntag, Ecuador, Ellicott K. Dandy
Aiding or Abetting? An Analysis of Medical Humanitarian Aid in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies, Claire Dunn
Investigating the effects of BAG3 knockdown on the cytotoxicity of the anticancer drug Laromustine, Kayla Gross
Investigating the Interaction of Zinc-Finger Peptides and Nicked DNA Using Phage Display, Rachel Maria Guerra
Life on the Edge: Biotic and Abiotic Production of Hydrogen Production Along the Chemical Gradient, Carly Elise Hallowell
Development of a Standard and Functional Tactical Emergency Medical Curriculum -- TEMS Medic, Benjamin Hannon
The Wanderer's Journey, Jay Holman
Managing the Global Marine Aquarium Trade, Sarah Holmes
An Unexpected Verdict: Exploring the Economic Implications of an Expanding Chinese Presence in Dakar's Informal Market, Georgina Hurst
Classroom Peer Effects in Higher Education: Evidence from Colby College, Peter C. Jones
The Macroeconomic Effect of Currency Union Dissolution: Evidence from the Narrative, Marcus Josefsson
Conservation Easement Policies Across New England, Virginia A. Keesler
Massive Quiescent Disk Galaxies in the CANDELS Survey, Aurora Y. Kesseli
The Value of Truth: The Elijah Parish Lovejoy Story and an Examination of the Idea of “Truth” in Journalism, Eliza R. Larson
Political Priming: The Effect of Contextual Factors on Word Recognition and Recall, Adam LaViolet
Factors Influencing National Park Establishment: Cases to Inform the Maine Woods, Larissa N. Lee
Green Light over the Drop Zone: American Army and Marine Paratroopers in World War II, Audrey Lomax
When the Walls Talk: Political Graffiti at la Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, Colombia, Abbott Grey Matthews
The Aesthetic of Failure: Authenticity, Effort, and Imperfection in American Contemporary Dance, Delaney McDonough
L’Autre de Montaigne: vers une vision tolérante de nos perceptions, Brita L. Midness
Investigating the Role of Epibiotic Bacteria in Defense Against Chytridiomycosis in the Green Frog, Lithobates clamitans, Sarah Nalven
The Post-Crisis Relevance of Inflation Targeting, Rebecca Newman
Prenatal Choline Supplementation and MK-801 Toxicity: Protecting Memory and Preventing Neurodegeneration, Chelsea Nickerson
From the Slums of Shaolin to the Bard of Avon: The Homosocial Bond in Shakespeare and Hip Hop, Camilla Ostrow
Notes on the Politics of the Auteur: Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, and the Spectator, Michael Perreault
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man," Americanization through Education: Richard Henry Pratt's Legacy, Lindsay Peterson
Uphams Corner and "Other" Spaces: Racialized Youth Identities in Boston's Cape Verdean Community, Jessica F. Pires
Unknotting Number and Combinatorial Sutured Manifold Theory, Alexander Rasmussen
Gender, Nature, and the Fairytale Structure in Robin McKinley's Works, Molly Rogers
Finite to Fail, Infinite to Venture: Interactivism and Relational Ethics, Rachel A. Rosenbaum
Scripture and Fiction: An Aesthetic Approach to The Little Pilgrim, Brian Russo
Through the Eyes of Urban Students: Educational Inequality and Socioeconomic Disparities in Santiago, Chile, Hillary Sapanski
Repercussions on the Educational System? The Argentine Example of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program: Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH), Grace Schlesinger
First Year Collegiate Academic Achievement: Do Athletes Perform at the Same Level as Their Peers?, justine m. seraganian
Massive Gravity Theories, Greg Seyfarth
Gendered Geographies and Coded Spaces in Urban Tehran, Shireen Smalley
Relationship of Cross-Linking Potential to Mechanism of Cell Death, Adam N. Spierer
Climate Change and Epizootic Shell Disease in American Lobsters (Homarus americanus): Is Maine's Most Valuable Fishery Doomed?, Michael W. Stephens Jr.
When the Confederates Terrorized Maine: The Battle of Portland Harbor, Carter Stevens
Honors Theses from 2012
The Radon Transform and the Mathematics of Medical Imaging, Jen Beatty
Examination of Spatial Variations in Recrystallization Mechanisms in Quartz, Emma N. Beck
The Side Effects of Medical Marijuana: The Impact of Legalization on Marijuana and Alcohol Consumption, Anne M. Burton
Forecasting the Future: The Early United States Weather Bureau, Robert T. Canning
In Favor of Riding Bikes and other poems, Jenny Chen
A Poet of the Sikhs: Aesthetic Embodiment in the Poetry of a Young and Elderly Bhai Vir Singh, Todd Curcuru
Virginia Woolf and the Language of the Mind, Angelica D'Aiello
The Effectiveness of Capital Controls on Capital Inflows in Emerging Markets, Kathleen A. Davis
Knocking from the Inside: Poems, Elise DeSimone
Like a Fish in Dark Water, Lucy Dotson
The Influence of Framing Effects and Regret on Health Decision-Making, Sarah Falkof
A Violent Language: An Exploration of Gender, Class, and the Possibility of Narrative Transcendence, Veronica Foster
After the Rush and other poems, Rachel Goff
The Foundling, Jenna Gundersen
Recurrence Relations, Fractals, and Chaos: Implications for Analyzing Gene Structure, Sarah. M. Harmon
Island Voices, Sarah Hirsch
Cameras, Satellites, and Surveys: A Multi-Platform Approach to Monitoring Lake Conservation Behavior, Daniel D. Homeier
Edible Activism: Food and the Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, Sandra Johnson
Geodynamic Constraints on the Flow of Samoan-Plume Mantle into the Northern Lau Basin, Nathan Katsiaficas
“Called Her Women Together” Home Birth in Maine, Margaret Kruithoff
From Pond to Pump: Microalgae as a Feedstock for Biodiesel, Anna H. Leavitt
The Development and Morphology of Zebrafish after Embryonic Ethanol Exposure, Frances Lee
Odd or Even: Uncovering Parity of Rank in a Family of Rational Elliptic Curves, Anika Lindemann
Should She Run? The Decision for Female Congressíenal Candidates, Laura . J. Maloney
Northern Dragons: Transformations of Manchu Male Identity during the Early and Mid-Qing (1644-1795), Fiona R. Masland