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 2025
Asian American Navigation in Higher Education: Do We Belong at Colby College?, Amanda Rose Alpert
Does the 25th Amendment Merit Reform?: The Challenge of Determining Presidential Disability, Karena R. Andreassen
The Impacts of Bir1 Sumoylation on the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint under Replication Stress Conditions, Nkechi Baadi
Predicting Human Steering from Optic Flow Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Katie E. Bernard
Why Community: The Potentials and Limitations of Community Engagement in Restorative Justice, Emily P. Chauhan
Introducing Catalizer: A Framework for Prototyping Models of Biological Systems, Andy M. Day
Shouting Down Democracy: The Role of the Deeply Engaged in American Political Discourse, Annaliese Fleck
Morphology of AGN Host Galaxies During Cosmic Noon With JWST, Nico Flota Sanchez
Off the Grid: Rural Identity, Environmentalism, and Renewable Energy Policy in Rural New England, Joseph A. Grassi
Exploring the Role of optix Expression in Vanessa cardui through in situ HCR and qPCR and the Creation of a Developmental Atlas of Larval V. cardui Caterpillars, Chloe B. Hample-Forcier and David Angelini
The International Transracial Adoption Effect: Measuring The Well-Being of Korean Adoptees vs. Non-Adopted Korean Americans, Grace H. Jones
When Choice Disappears: Voter Cynicism in the Absence of Competition, Benjamin J. Kaden
Abortion on the Ballot: How Direct Democracy Shapes Abortion Policy Post-Dobbs, Serena E. Klebba
Yukon Dust from Source to Sink: Characterizing the St. Elias Mountains as a High-Latitude Dust Source, Audrey Y. Lemoine
Tracing the Lines in Comics and Life: Genealogies and My Place Within Them, Audrey M. Loo
Drivers of Heat Pump Installation in Maine: Climate Shocks, Politics, and Incentives, Micah J. Margolis
The Anatomy of a Reconstruction: From Fourier Space to Image Recovery in Computed Tomography, Charlotte P. Maurer
Understanding Perspectives of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Central Maine, Bridget B. Meehan
Wave Reflections in a Biophysically Detailed Model of Cardiac Tissue, Grace Moberg
Global Rate Pass Through: Impact of the Global Savings Market on Home Prices in the UK, Laxmi Namboodiri
Shared Tracks, Divided Rule: The Role of Polycentrism in Shaping Public Transportation in U.S. Metropolises, Dev Purohit
Assessing Factors that Impact AI Response Trustworthiness, Owen Raymond
Microbial Degradation of Kelp-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter in the Context of Carbon Sequestration, Sophia N. Riazi-Sekowski
The Value of a Vote: Vote Pivotality Information and Its Impact on Voter Willingness to Accept, Nicholas J. Sickinger
Plato and Descartes: From Informed Reason to Deformed Logic, Jordan H. Smith
"dance to keep from dyin": An Exploration of the Choreopoem, Katherine S. Spence
Mortal Rivers: A Case Study Analysis of Indigenous Water Sovereignty within the Penobscot and Lakota Nations, 19th Century to Present, Moya S. Stringer
Optimizing Radial Interfaces for Eye-Movement Authentication on Smartphones, Trey V. Tuscai
“Off to Greek Camp”: A History and Examination of Greek America and its Adaptation of American Summer Camp Culture, Julia J. Walsh
Identifying the Spread of Invasive Jumping Worms across Maine’s Forests using Soil eDNA, Rebecca Wanger
Characterization of a highly arsenic-resistant microbe, Eleanor E. Windholz
Deconstructing the Greenium: Exploring Mispricing in the Green Bond Market, Koto Yamada
Local Limit Theorems on Finitely Generated Abelian Groups, Yutong Yan
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