2018 Senior Thesis Topics
Members of the Class of 2018 and their senior thesis topics, alphabetically by department.
- Africana Studies
- American Studies
- Archaeology
- Art
- Art History
- Asian Studies
- Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Chinese
- Cinema and Media Studies
- Classics
- Computer Science
- Creative Writing
- Dance
- Economics
- Environmental Studies
- French
- Geosciences
- German Studies
- Government
- Hispanic Studies
- History
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- Literature
- Mathematics
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Psychology
- Public Policy
- Religious Studies
- Sociology
- Theatre
- Women's and Gender Studies
- World Politics
Africana Studies
- Tarik Desire, Kendrick Lamar and the M.A.A.D. City - a Comprehensive Study of the Musical Poetics of Rap Music as a Reflection of the Urban Pathologies of American Society
- Vanessa Galvez, Ghetto, Ratchet, and Chongalicious: How Perceptions and Stereotypes Are Affecting Girls of Color's Levels of Academic Ambitions and Achievements in Urban Public Schools
- Lucia Kello, “Though she has claim, she is not claimed”: Being versus Thriving in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- Chanel Summerset, Racism Turned Inward: Colorism in The Context of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
American Studies
- Nate Kremer, Big Data Boarding School: The Analysis of Data to Predict Enrollment at a New England Preparatory School
- Anna O’Keefe, Class Dismissed: The Effects of Campus Culture on Opportunity Program Participants at Elite Liberal Arts Colleges
Archaeology
- Petra Elfström, The geochemistry of housepit floors at the Slocan Narrows site: Household organization change through time.
- Emily Hull, Lithic raw material and social landscapes: Mica lemented quartzite tools from Slocan Narrows, Upper Columbia area
Art
Class of 2018 Senior Art Thesis
- Caitlin Becker, Natalie Burkardt, Claire Callahan, Rachel Cooley, Tulia Day, Saige Devlin, Sung Hwan Hong, Cassie Howard, Hanna Jerome, James Larson, Ella MacVeagh, Mackenzie Morshead, Paula Ortiz, Marisabel Rey, Kevin Rodriguez, Julia Smith, Elizabeth Spangenthal, Julie Suk, Maura Torres, Catherine Weppler, and Charlotte Zee
Art History
- Julia Dailey, Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels’ Vues de Port Royal and the Spirit, History, and Values of Jansenism at Port Royal des Champs
Asian Studies
- Maya Montgomery, A Japanese Woman’s Life: As Told By Women Fiction Writers in Meiji Japan
- Diana Aguilar, Life After War: Examining Censorship, Decadence, and Collective Guilt in Japan, 1946
Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
- Caitlin Anthony, Optimization of EAS Reactions Involving Halide-Substituted Pyridinium Salts.
- Andre Burnham, A study of pathogen loads in two honey bee ecotypes (Apis mellifera) and proposing propolis as a viable treatment for Nosema ceranae infections
- Sarah Hossain, Surveying Protists in the KTSA Pond
- David Kibazo, Using the trnH-psbA region to determine the parentage of Peonies
- Eric Lee, Calibrating Bacteria Killing Assays to Determine Scaling Coefficient of Innate Immune Function in Relation to Body Size in Terrestrial Mammals
- Catherine McCutcheon, Colonization of Microplastics
- Kaia Miller, Database Analysis of Ciliate Macronucleus Shapes
- Joana Mora, Establishing a Model for DSB Repair Mutations Using CHEK2 S457F Drosophila Oocytes
- Mackenzie Morshead, Synthesis and antimicrobial evaluation of tryptamine derivatives and 3-substituted-3-hydroxy-2-oxindoles
- Kalvin Nash, Exploration of the Binding Kinetics of Zanamivir to WT Neuraminidase via Free Energy Analysis of Molecular Dynamics Simulations
- Justin Sonberg, Exploration of N-(1-alkoxyvinyl)ammonium salts, an unusual class of N-quaternized ketene N,O-acetals
- Diana Suder, Fluorophores and Their Impact on Cellular Uptake of Materials
Biology
- Amanda Becker, Investigating the Cross Generational Effects of Controlled Diet on Ovarian Health in Mouse Model for Type II Diabetes.
- Aaron Beguelin, The Gut Microbiome of Two Sympatric Species of Sea Urchin from Two Locations in Fiji: Does Geographic Location or Sea Urchin Specificity Result in Differences Between Gut Microbiomes?
- Courtney Brown, The Evolution and Localized Expression of Plancitoxin in Echinoderms.
- Brendan Burke, Using Associative Olfactory Conditioning to Examine Recovery in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of a Closed-Head Traumatic Brain Injury.
- Matthew Cerveny, Identification and Elimination of Exons in Zea mays CENPC Responsible for Auto-Activating the Yeast 2-Hybrid Assay.
- Tara Cicic, Determining the Parentage of Saunders Peonies through Sequencing of the Adh Gene.
- Rachel Cooley, Modeling the Effects of Prescribed Diet and Exercise on Sub-Fertile Mice with Metabolic Disorders.
- Abigail Counihan, Use of Leg-Color Variation in Dark-Eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) as an Indicator of Condition.
- Alexie Diakite, The Role of Aurora B in Spindle Assembly
- Stephanie DiPietro, Quantifying Double-Stranded Breaks in grp Knockdown Oocytes after Challenging the Chk-1 Checkpoint.
- Emily Dumont, The Presence and Formation of Micronuclei in the Divergent Spindle-1 (dv1) Mutant Maize (Zea mays) Plant Compared to the Wild Type Maize Plant.
- Jane Gabriel, The Effects of Diet and Exercise on Oocyte Quality in Obese Mice.
- Michaela Guinee, Mapping Protein-Protein Interactions between Mis12-2, CENH3 and CENPC in the Kinetochore of Zea mays Using a Yeast Two Hybrid Assay.
- Noah Huizenga, The Bacterial Killing Ability of Bovine Serum in the Presence of Salmonella enterica.
- Laura Kwasnoski, Examining Sub-Lethal Effects of Anticoagulant Rodenticides on Parasite Load and Body Condition in Red Tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis).
- Suxian Lin, Evaluating the Effect of Lysosomotropic Detergent N-dodecylimidazole (NDI) on Ciliated Protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila.
- Anna Maglio, Development of a Trojan Horse Bacterial Vector for the Delivery of siRNA.
- Rylie Mainville, Sea Urchin Venomics: An RNA Sequence Approach to Identify Putative Toxins in the Spines and Pedicellariae of Venomous Sea Urchin Lineages.
- Martha Salas, The Role of RanGTP in Spindle Assembly of Maize Meiotic Cells.
- Annabel Sangree, Evaluating the Consequences of Physiological Trade-Offs on Immune Function in Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis).
- Mattie Seamans, Changes in p53 Activity Due to Chek2 Knockdown in Drosophila melanogaster Oocytes.
- Zoe Singer, Determining and Describing the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Macronucleus of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.
- Felipe Suarez, Protein Composition Comparison Among Species: A Study on Spliceosome Structure.
- Julie Suk, Analyzing Bighorn Sheep’s Physiological Trade-offs Within Various Populations to Understand What Correlates Immune Responses and Disease Prevalence.
- Abigail Tulchinsky, The Effect of Chk2 Knockdown on Double-Stranded Break Repair in Drosophila Oocytes.
- Abigail Uehling, Molecular Control of Lunar Spawning in the Sea Urchin Diadema setosum: Localized Expression of Cryptochrome and Timeless Genes in the Skin, Tube Feet, and Gonads on the New Moon.
Chemistry
- Matthew Bleich, Photo-redox Radical Initiation Combined with Nickel-catalyzed Cross Coupling Reaction
- David Dacres, Simulating the Binding Pathways of Sialic Acid and Oseltamivir to H274Y Neuraminidase with Molecular Dynamics Simulations
- Giovanny Dominguez, Investigation of 3-Hydroxy-2-oxindoles and Evodia Rutaecarpa Natural Products
- Jack Goodman, Use of N-(1-alkoxy)vinylpyridinium Salts in 4+2 Cycloadditions and Grignard Additions
- Priti Kharel, Morphology-Photoactivity Correlations in Electrochemically Fabricated Hematite Photoanodes
- Karl Koster, Colloidal Seed-Mediated Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Hematite for Solar-Powered Water Splitting
- Erin Lewis, Analysis of the Binding Pathways of Neuraminidase through MM/GBSA Post-Processing of Molecular Dynamics Trajectories
- Catherine Lyndaker, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Indoles for Antimicrobial Purposes
- Aaron Oh, Silver Dendrites for Effective Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Substrates
- Travis Roeder, Radical Cascade Reactions via a Photoredox/Nickel Dual Catalytic Cycle
- Caitlin Topi, Initiation of Radical Addition Reactions Using an Inexpensive Organic Photocatalyst
- Leah Weaver, The Plastic Problem: Investigating the Extent of Pollution in Lake Erie
Chinese
- Kara Burns, The relationship between China's online payment market and financial inclusion.
- Lia Jundt, Chinese Homosexuality: Societal, Media and Government Pressures.
- John Liebman, How Xi Jin Ping’s relationship with the People’s Liberation Army shapes his administration and policy.
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Anna Liu, How Ai Weiwei's Works of Art Reflect His Thoughts on the Value and State of Life
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Luka Modebadze, The role of the Chinese government in promoting entrepreneurship in China.
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Gregory Nabhan, Cui Jian: Exploring the Cultural and Political Impact of China's Greatest Rockstar
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Antonia Ng, Destructing the Iron House: Patriarchal society in Lu Xun’s works
- Foley Simons, Christianity in China: The Growth of the House Church.
- Serena Smith, The Costs of China’s Birth Planning Policies: through the lens of Domestic & International Adoption
Cinema and Media Studies
- Samantha Donohue, Smoke and Mirrors: Bias in Google versus Instagram Image Results
- Nicole Lyons, So You Think You Can Booze, film
- Melodie Rosen, Honeycomb, short film
Classics
- Kwasi Amoako, Dissection of the Greek Female Body and its Implications for Classical Reception
- Orion Krawitt, The Mis-Identification of Ithaca
- Jaeho Lee, Romani, ite domum! Imperialist Themes in Monty Python’s Life of Brian
- Zach Oscar, The Construction of Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Catullus: A Foucaldian Analysis
- Samantha Srinivasan, Misrepresentations of Cleopatra in Modern America Culture
- Jessica Williams, The Construction of Race in Ancient Greek Literature and its Reception
- Nico Yardas, Robotizing Pygmalion
Computer Science
- Eseosa Asiruwa, Lia Jundt, and Maya Montgomery, Sifting Through Sand: Displaying interactive depth-dependent text.
- Alexander Dennis and Candice Zhao, EVOLVE. Simulating biological evolution for use in the classroom.
- Matthew Goon, Samuel Pastore, and Adam Stern, Ice Hockey Stat Tracking
- Noah Kramer, Paul Magnus, David Urbont, and Ian Wilson, Regression Model Selection for Market Simulations in R.
- Muhammad Najib and Harrison Sayre, Survey App for Psychology Department.
Honors presentations
- Alexander Dennis, Matrix Factorization for Parent Selection in Genetic Programming
- Lia Jundt, Targeted Exploration of Search Spaces: Combining Lexicase Selection and Novelty Search
- Paul Magnus, PyShell: Shell Scripting for Python
- Maya Montgomery, Honors Automata Language Theory Including Navigable Graphics
- Chenchen Zhao, The Fourier Transform and its Applications
Creative Writing
Prose
- Rachel Alatalo, Any Resemblance to Reality: Stories of Past Selves
- Rebekah Brown, The Spider Jar
- Nat Colburn, Overgrown Garden
- Petra Elfstrom, The First Steps Policy
- Nelly Green, When the Sky Falls
- Grant Hamilton, Fragmentary Head of Youth
- Sarah Ostrow, Point Last Seen
- Jacqueline Schimmel, Spaceships, Spells, and Suburbs in Hell
- Audrey Stein, Stretching to Fit
- Devon Stockmayer, The Getting of Wisdom Is Generally Painful: Essays
- Heather Tomkowicz, Pucker Up: A Collection of Short Stories
- Kirsty Warren, The Conneellys
- Maddy Weller, Dragonling
- Laura Whitmer, The Farm
Poetry
- Nora Boyle, autobiography of my alter ego
- Samantha Donohue, Camera Obscura
- Ian Lunn, Flowers You Can Eat
- Joshua Rourke, sleeptalk with pretty blue pictures
- Hamilton Thompson, katie bar the door
- Gabby Troya, Tears that Humility Buys
Poetry honors theses
Dance
Economics
- Tom Bisko, Evidence of Moral Hazard in the Individual Insurance Market
- Michael Borek, How Institutional Sentiments Respond to Digital Mediums in Colombia
- Yongzheng (Neo) Liang, The Effects of the 2004 Tsunami on Education in Indonesia
- Eyad Nagori, Estimating the Income Elasticity of Healthcare Spending: An Instrumental Variable Approach
Honors theses
- Zack Baker, Do Government Grants Crowd Out Donations to Scientific Research Organizations?
- Samantha Benevelli, The Effect of Water Access on Female Education in Rural Ethiopia
- Isabella Bossa, Macroeconomic Volatility and Financial Inclusion
- Kaitlin Dunne, Do Luxury Goods Make You Happier? An Economic Analysis of Conspicuous Consumption
- Alec Karanikolas, Will Performance in a P-Beauty Contest Predict Investment Aptitude
- Theodore McKenna, The Effect of Somali Refugees in Kenya on Native Labor Market Outcomes
- Tim Nowacki, R-star and Forecast Uncertainty: Evidence from the FOMC’s Dot Plot
- Yuxin (Ken) Shen, Do Job Referrals Lead to Higher Wages? : Evidence from Urban China
- Junpei Taguchi, The (Un)insured: An Analysis of How Health Care Coverage Affects Opioid Use in the United States
- Case Tatro, The Effect of Hurricanes on Mental Health: Evidence from Mexico
- Harry Thomas, Technology in the Workplace: The Effect of IT Capital and Workplace Organizational Practices on Establishment-Level Wages
- Brandon Willett, BMI & BPI: An Exploration of The Relationship Between Childhood Obesity and Social Skills in The United States
- Mike Yang, Does Cause Marketing Negatively Affect Consumers’ Future Charitable Donations?
Environmental Studies
- Jack Anderson, Somali Bantu Food Ways as Former Refugees in Utica, New York
- Michael Mac Bolster-Houghton, When Gas is Greener: a State-By-State Comparison of Electric Vehicles, Hybrids, and Gas Powered Cars
- Evan Buitenhuis, The Effect of Water Body Size on Largemouth Bass Diet
- Mairead Carey, Finding a Diamond in the Rough: Analyzing the Institutional Differences Between Sierra Leone and Botswana
- Richard Detwiler, A Cost Analysis of New York Nuclear Power Plant Subsidies and Energy Alternatives
- Emma Karsten, Analyzing the Impact of Urban Versus Protected Areas on Mangrove Health Through Satellite Imagery
- Chloe Keating, The Effect of Bird Feeder Cleanliness and Foraging Methods on Songbird Disease Transmission
- Amanda Lodge, Spatial Patterns Associated with Soil Chemistry in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Mountains, New York
- Sarah Magee, Cohousing: Next Steps for Diversity
- Jared Mandelbaum, Justice Through Deliberation: Examining Environmental Justice Within a Deliberative Democratic Model
- Alex Miltenberg, Renewable Energy and Employment: An Empirical Analysis
- Natalie Poremba, An Evaluation of Bear Canister Effectiveness and Use in the Adirondack Park
- Gerard Pozzi, Sustainable Opportunities in Alternative Food Sourcing: Examining the Foodtech Startup Landscape
- Leigh Preston, Be Here Now: A Re-Imagining of Hamilton's Orientation Program
- Olivia Shehan, Phase I Environmental Site Assessment of 107 River Street, Oriskany, New York: a Comparison of Past and Current Data Collection Methods
- Elizabeth Wagenbach, The Yasuní-ITT Initiative: Ideological and Political Control of Climate Change
- Charlotte Wyman, Ecovillages: Redefining Sustainability in Urban Development
- Sarah Zeiberg, Equity in Domestic Climate Change Planning
French
Honors presentations
- Katherine McNally, “La Beauté est dans la rue”: graffiti, flânerie, Paris
- Alan Yeh, “C'est à nous de juger notre destin”: langue, individualité, et hybdridité identitaire dans la francophonie vietnamienne
Geosciences
- Thomas (Hughie) Auchincloss, Quantifying groundwater - surface water interaction using heat flow in Wood Creek, Oneida County, New York
- Alexandra Betrus, Occurrence of lithium in groundwater of Franklin Springs, New York
- Alison Kingston, Determining Accuracy and Constraints on Detecting Change Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Imagery and Structure from Motion (SfM) Software
- Christopher Klein, Isotopic Mass Balance Survey and Analysis of Tupper Lake in St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, New York
- Margaret O’Brien, Ostracod assemblage analysis for paleoenvironmental reconstruction from the Pleistocene to Holocene Turkwel Cliff, West Turkana, Kenya
- Elizabeth S. Perry, A Guide to Urban Paleontology: Selected Sites in Paris, France
- Danielle Reisley, A Guidebook to Selected Paleontologic Museums in Spain
German Studies
- Emma Morgan, Geschichte und Heinrich Böll: Eine Analyse von “Ansichten eines Clowns” und “Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum”
- Allison Zuckermann, Feminismus, die Vergangenheit und die Bedeutung der Sprache in den Erzählungen Ingeborg Bachmanns
Government
Honors theses
- Anna McCloskey, Democratic Outcomes from Movement-Based Party Formation: A Study of Participatory Democracy in Post-Communist Countries
- Eleni Neyland, A New Wave of Women in Politics? Examining Women’s Political Participation Post-2016
- Conor O’Shea, Is the Barrel Poisoning the Apples? Investigating the Link Between Procedural Justice in Police Administration and on the Beat
- Chidera Onyeoziri, “A Life Changing Experience”: Mayor's Youth Council Membership and Political Efficacy
Hispanic Studies
Honors presentations
- Ian Baize, Conmemorando un pasado mítico: Memorias franquistas entre historiografía y propaganda
- Henry Carmel, Eludir la censura del cine durante la dictadura franquista: un análisis de ¡Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall! (Luis García Berlanga, 1953) y El espíritu de la colmena (Víctor Erice, 1973)
- Jessica Castellanos, Una noche (2012): Balseros adolescentes del siglo XXI
- William Gordon, No todo fue de color rosa: Una investigación de las partes olvidadas de la Movida Madrileña
- Audrey Nadler, Las pioneras del rap: poesía, música, y justicia social
History
Honors presentations
- Ian Baize, A “Dirty War” against History: Historical Self-Perception in Argentina’s Proceso Militar
- Chidera Onyeoziri, “I Had No Intention of Remaining Quiet:” Renegotiating African Womanhood through Travel
- Zach Oscar, Bonds of Iron...and Blood Too: An Intellectual History of the Prominence of the Volk and Mysticism in the Origins of National Socialism
- Jake Slovin, Modeling a Gentleman: Landon Carter and the Virginian Gentry
- Shen Swartout, Our Earthly Bodies: Caught between the eternal rock and a hard place
- Allie Zuckerman, “Have the Leading Men of All Countries Lost Their Reason Completely?”: Building Transnational Communities through Race and Gender after World War I
Interdisciplinary Studies
Interdisciplinary Studies in Africana Studies and Women and Gender Studies
- Kenneth Lopez, Understanding the Experiences of Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Gender Non-Binary Students: Voices Often Lost in Predominantly Cisgender Environments Like Hamilton College
Interdisciplinary Studies in Behavioral Economics
- Noam Barnhard, How Expectations of Salary and Satisfaction Can Affect Us
Interdisciplinary Studies in Diversity and Discrimination Studies
- Juliet Miller, A Ladder to Nowhere: The Fallacy of the American Dream and the Failure of the 1996 Welfare Reform for Women
Interdisciplinary Studies in Food Studies
- Meg Josephson, Self-creation: recipes, photography and writing
Interdisciplinary Studies in Italian Studies
- Elza Harb, Notizie False e il Comunismo: La Vita di Ugo Stille e la Storia dei Relazioni Italo-Americane durante la Guerra Fredda (Fake News and Communism: The Life of Ugo Stille and the History of Italy-US Relations during the Cold War)
- Paula Weiman, Classical to Contemporary Italian Studies: A Translation of the Best-Selling Novel, Don’t Tell the Writer, by Alice Basso
Interdisciplinary Studies in Linguistic Anthropology
- Eliana Zupcich, Indexes of Non-Binary Identity in Italian, a Gendered Language
Interdisciplinary Studies in Narrative and Videogames
- Talia Vaughan, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Narrative Identity in an Intermedia World
Interdisciplinary Studies in Neuroscience and Psychology
Senior Fellowship project
- Benjamin Mittman, Influence of Learning and Inference on Intergroup Interactions
Interdisciplinary Studies in Poetic and Philosophical Explorations of Identity
Senior Fellowship project
Literature
Independent projects
- Theodore Abibtol, Brands and Products in Contemporary Fiction: Gateways toward Metadiscourses
- Annie Berman, Autotelia: Composing the Self Through Personal Critical Theory
- Tara Cicic, Discoursing with an Octopus: Illness as a Theme in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time
- Kate Gwydir, Moving Through Mediums: Plath Adaptations for Women Today
- Dana Holloway, Shamanism in an Inflexible Society: Slaughterhouse-Five and Briefing for a Descent Into Hell
- Xiaohan Chloe Hou, Peasants, Folk Culture, and Nation: the Dilemma of Modern Intellectuals
- James O’Connell, “A Way Out of Loneliness”: Connectedness in the Nonfiction of Saunders, Smith, Franzen and Wallace
- Olivia Paradice, The Prevalence of “Dead Lesbian Syndrome” in Queer Female Narratives and the Impact of These Narratives on Queer Communities
- Paula Weiman, Femininity and Heroism in Scandinavian Variants of the “Cupid and Psyche” Fairy Tale
- Alan Yeh, From the “Missing Narrative” to Becoming “Part of the Vernacular:” Representation, Language, and Identity Formation in “Korean American” Literature
Mathematics
Honors presentations
- Alex Dennis, Guardians of the Gallery
- Peter Deweirdt, Nothing but Elastic-net: NCAA Tournament Prediction Using Penalized Regression
- Sarah Hoover, Measuring Fairness: The Mathematics of Gerrymandering
- Jingxian Hu, The Effect of Demographic Factors on Hourly Wages
- Elise LePage, Calculating Clebsch-Gordan Coefficients Using Young Tableaux
- Yongzheng Liang, The Solow Growth Model and Optimal Debt Level
- Haoxiang Yang, Locally Recoverable Codes: A Technique for Creating Multiple Recovery Sets
- Lanlan Yu, US Airways Optimizes flight-crew schedule
- Candice (Chechen) Zhao, Optimizing Student Adventure
Music
Neuroscience
- Margaret Cahill, Trauma-induced stress in rats: Examining therapeutic approaches
- Tatenda Chakoma, Formation and updating of stimulus-stimulus associations following chemogenetic silencing of postrhinal cortex neurons
- Mark Colleran, Clarifying the Sign Span Discrepancy
- Kylie Davis, Elucidating the inflammatory response to TBI in Drosophila melanogaster
- Saige Devlin, Action painting and active art viewing
- Joey Dixon, Olfactory and Visual Learning in Drosophila melanogaster
- Erin Donahue, Which noise means food? The Role of postrhinal cortex in stimulus-stimulus association
- Sabrina Gattine, Perceptions of social inclusion under alcohol use
- Olivia Hack, Influence of musical training on perception and cognition
- Michael Hoffman, Inhibition of axonal degradation in TBI treated Drosophila melanogaster
- Jane Jurayi, Social interest and operant learning following GABAa receptor blockade
- Lauren Klei, Influence of baseball batting experience on learning and decision making
- Pat LeGates, Low-grade euphoria: Characterizing ASMR
- Ella MacVeagh, Dyslexie font: Appealing, but not effective
- Nanu Mehta, Gluten ingestion and TNF-a levels as mediators for depression in mice
- Amelia Mitchell, Empathy and emotion regulation: Can you have both?
- Allison Mogul, Effects of stress on ARC protein expression in the rat hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
- Farzona Muzaffar, Linking ER stress to learning and memory: Studies in Drosophila melanogaster
- Vi Pham, The exploration-exploitation dilemma: A developmental study
- Lilly Pieper, Evolution and expression of the putative neurotoxins cysteine-rich venom protein bucarin-1 and alpha-latroinsectotoxin-Lt1a in echinoid lineages
- Aly Skelly, The etiology of motivations to drink
- Katherine Spano, The serotonin transporter gene, aggression, and sport injury in student-athletes
- Emily Teichman, Assessing the relationship between the depression phenotype, the microbiome, reelin and Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor
- Hiromi Terai, The influence of affect on visual perception
Philosophy
- Matthew Bleich, Governed Happiness: A Study of Happiness Under Different Political Structures
- Ryan Bloom, Debating Free Will: Why Bother?
- Reinaldo Camacho, The Illusion of School Choice
- Isabel Grieder, Is it Morally Permissible to Change Disability?
- Young Kim, Should One Idle: An Exploration of Idleness
- Helena LaPorte-Burns, Philosophy as Conversation
- Olivia Melodia, Philosophies of Love: Approaching Underrepresentation through Pedagogy
- Conor O’Shea, Kripkenstein: The Kryptonite to Legal Formalism & Originalism? Towards a Principled Approach to American Constitutional Law
- Marquis Palmer, A Constructive Response to Black Nihilism: Sunshine in the Night, a rap EP
- Carter Sanders, A Warning Against Celebrity-like Relationships on Identity-Based Social Media
Physics
- Samantha Benevelli, Frequency Stability and Error Reduction in the BL3 Neutron Chopper Experiment
- Steve Cunden, Introduction of Mixed Particle Statistics and Chemical Potential in Black Hole Thermodynamics in a Loop Quantum Gravity Framework
- Keon Garrett, Constructing a 2-Dimensional Robotic Arm
- Elise LePage, Quantization of Plane Gravitational Waves in Loop Quantum Gravity
- Anna Mowat, Applications of Thermodynamics to Improve Home Cooling Efficiency and Investigating the Effect of Active Layer Thickness on the Power-Conversion Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells
- Clare Munroe, Assessment of α-Quartz Preparation Using Atomic Force Microscopy
- Anya E. Nugent, Developing the Anisotropic 3-Point Correlation Function as a Tool for Next-Generation Cosmology
- Emily May Teichman, Computer Modeling of AFP NMR to Explain Experimental 3HE Polarization Loss
- Josue Velasquez, Modification and Optimization of a Rubidium Magnetometer
- Houghton V. Yonge, Development of Microfluidic Devices for a Particle-Sorting Apparatus
Psychology
- Amber Aparicio, Does Defensive Self-Esteem Predict Aggressive Behavior Following an Ego Threat?
- Kyndal Burdin, Stopping the Clock: Does Time Moderate the Effect of Personality on Athletic Performance?
- Genevieve Darling, Walking in Nature in Fall and Winter: Effects on Mood and Creative Thinking
- Anna Do, Is a Meaningful Life a Happy Life?
- Fiona Griffin, Using Spatial Distancing to Enhance Creativity and Analytical Ability in Preschool-Age Children
- Dan Horgan, Shadow of the Colossus: Differing Perceptions of Threat From a Growing Population
- Emily Hull, Coping with Anxiety Through Creative Writing
- Genevieve Hurwitz, Does Believing Intelligence is Fixed Increase Self-Handicapping in Those with Academic-Contingent Self-Esteem?
- Julie Katter, The Fluidity of the Social Self: Exploring Interdependency and an Interactionist Self-Concept
- Natalie Klingher, Forgetting for the Future: Adolescent Marijuana Use and Prospective Memory
- Katie Kreider, A Proposed Self-Compassion Intervention to Reduce Female Athletes’ Negative Experiences with Sports
- Joelle Kuhns, In vs. Out: How Concealment and Minority Stress Predict Mental Health for LGB Individuals
- Lucy Marr, The Effects of Positive and Negative Humor on Coping
- Hannah Meisels, Making Meaning out of Madness: Processing the 2016 Presidential Election
- Grace Munschauer, Gendered Zero-Sum Beliefs in the Workplace
- Isabel Shaheen O’Malley, Suicide Prevention Training: Improving Peer Support Skills
- Martha Redmond, Relationship Between Love Languages, Attachment Styles, and Sex
- Anna Rich, Friendship Signals in Same-Sex Friendships
- Monika Rybak, Involuntary Autobiographical Memories in Art and Literature
- Catherine Silvestri, Internalizing Symptoms in Children with Chronic Illness: Self-Esteem as a Mediator
- Julia Summers, Dangerous Minds: Race, Gender, and Crime Affect Perceptions of Mental Illness
- Anjanae Joi Williams, “I Don’t See Color”: An Examination of Racial Discrepancies in Detection of Eating Disorder Symptomology
- Raina Wuthmann, Self-distancing and Secondary Emotions
- Adam Yecies, Virtual Reality in the Field of Psychology
- Rachel Yirigian, The Impact of Domain-Specific Character Competency on the Benefits of Role-Play in Children
- Jaclyn Zingman, Self-Disclosure and Friendship Quality in People with Defensive Self-Esteem
Public Policy
- Jay Barry, Examining Competitive Balance Across America’s Big Four Sports
- Catherine Brachman, The Effect of Policy on Immigrant Settlement: Immigrant Segregation in New York City and Toronto
- Corinne Crisfield, A Proposed Evaluation for the Produce Project, a Job Readiness Program in Troy, NY
- Preston DeLaurentis, Drafting Wide Receivers into the NFL: An analysis on wide receiver performance metrics
- Jack Gaul, Why Do States Provide Tax Incentives to Businesses?
- Nate Palmer, How a Pot of Gold Can Become an Economic Shock
- Jonathan Stanhope, The Excelsior Scholarship After One Year: Effects on Enrollments and Student Demographics
- Andrew Fox Tulloch, Can Cars be Green and Safe: Vehicle Weight, Safety, and Efficiency in the Context of New NHTSA Standards
- Alec Waugh, Taxpayers are Being Forced Support Their Local NFL Teams Despite Not Being Fans: An Equity Analysis of NFL Stadium Subsidies
- Henry Whipple, Explaining Advanced Course Offerings and Academic Tracks in New York Public High Schools
Religious Studies
- Jade Alvillar, Islamophobia in France: The Contradiction in the Implementation of laïcité in the 21st century
- Zachary Blumenkehl, How Did Healers turn into Killers? An Evaluation of Nazi Doctors and a Comparison to Non-doctor Nazis and Hutus
Sociology
- Alexandra Brantl, A Study of Community College Impact on Refugee Students’ Acculturation
- Lily Capstick, Role Conflict Among Black Law Enforcement in Light of the Black Lives Matter Movement
- Julia Carpenter, DTR on SNS: How college students use social networking sites to define and maintain their intimate relationships
- Jessica Castellanos, “Calm and rational” or one night of “utter chaos” and “wild fun”? Student orientations toward drinking on campus
- Jacqueline Cuddy, Managing the Self in an Online World: The Divided Self
- Natasha Espinosa, “Hey Guys, Welcome Back”: YouTube as a Cultural Phenomenon Amongst Young Women
- Jessica Halladay, Meaningful Work on the College Campus
- Jane Lee, “It Doesn’t Hit Home Until It Hits Close to Home”: Examining The Influences of Social Background on Political Socialization
- Sindy Liu, Challenging Whiteness: The Experiences of White Students in a Diversity Class
- Antonia Ng, Ski Bum vs workaholic: Why Some Young Adults Participate in Traditional Markers of Adulthood while others Engage in Emerging Adulthood
- Kureem Nugent, Traversing a Foreign Culture: Understanding Students Of Color’ Experiences at a Predominantly White Institution
- Margaret Revera, You Are What You Eat: Uncovering the Influences of College Eating Habits
- Chanel Summerset, From Borrowing Bikes to Stealing Food: What Constitutes a Crime at Hamilton College?
- Vincent Tran, Finding Work: Analysis on How Liberal Arts Graduates Obtain Employment in a Tight Labor Market
- Jacob Wallace, Conflict and Codependence: An Analysis of Town-Gown Relations in Clinton, New York
- Chidera White, Good without God: Morality and religious understanding in the new age of American secularism
- Erich Wohl, Political Polarization at Hamilton College: Analyzing Student Opinions of Hamilton’s Political Climate
- Charlotte Zee, “Coddled Millennials”: Exploring Anxiety in College Students at an Elite Institution
Theatre
- Tommy Bowden, directing and performing, Cowboys #2 by Sam Shepard
- Timothy Hartel, directing, my Golden empty soul
- Bridget Lavin, staged reading, Lucy
- Maria Lazgin Ciercielli, directing, Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones
- Caitlin McQuade, directing, Tatyana
- Sarah Zeiberg, Christopher Durang’s For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls
Women’s and Gender Studies
- Ysabel Coss, Marketing Desire: Sexuality in Adam & Eve Commercials
- Drey Darnis, Homonormativity in the Gay and Lesbian Nonprofit: The Failure of Transformative and Redistributive Queer Justice and Liberation
- Ellie Deveaux, Gender Expansive Parenting: Maintaining the binary or exploring childhood gender diversity?
- Sophie Dizengoff, The Political Values of College Age Women: A Comparative Analysis of the 1968 Election and the 2016 Election
- Michelle Guaman, Menstruation and Comic Books, The Influence of Sociocultural Menstrual Taboos in Shaping Young Girls Menstrual Perceptions and Identities
- Daiyan Hossain, Our (Be)Longing Here: Gender/Sexuality In The Bengali Diaspora
- Bridget Lavin, Don’t Forget to $ubscribe: An Analysis of Sponsored Content from YouTube Beauty Gurus
- Mo McDermott, Transgender Genealogies: Mapping the Emergence and Evolution of Transgender Identity in the United States
- Irina Rojas, Wonder Women, Mother Blame, and (Paid) Maternity Leave: The Experience of 41 Women with ‘High-risk’ Pregnancies A Mixed Methods Study
World Politics
Honors Theses
- Daniel Berrick, Conditions for Exploitation: How the US’s defense contract system and trade law abet European defense firms’ pursuit of profit
- Wallen Dean, The Goals of Social Movements: A Closer Look at the Amazigh Movements in Algeria and Morocco
- Charles Dunst, Due Process in Counterterrorism: Divergent Foundational Political Cultures & Evolutionary Definitions of Executive Legitimacy
- Sebastian Lissarrague, Walling Capital
- Emma Raynor, When Women Strike Back: Why Terrorist Organizations Employ Women in Violent Terrorism
- Rebecca Werrell, A Divided Union: The Effects of EU Integration on National Responses to the European Refugee Crisis
- Nicolas Yardas, Remote Disruption and the Surveillance Revolution
![2018 Three-Minute Thesis Winners](https://s3.amazonaws.com/mediacdn.hamilton.edu/images/16:9/740/180428hmlthesis045png.png)
Three-Minute Thesis Competition
Hamilton is one of only a few undergraduate institutions in the U.S. that sponsors the competition. Participants demonstrate their ability to summarize their extensive research with clarity, enthusiasm and creativity.