2013 Senior Thesis Topics
Members of the Class of 2013 and their senior thesis topics, alphabetically by department.
Asian Studies
- Sarah Bither, Profiteering in the Market of Dreams: Investigating the Value of Sex Work in Japan's Historic Pleasure Quarters
- Yan Zhen, Memories of Catastrophe: Narratives from Hiroshima to Fukushima
Chemistry
- Miles Blackburn, Competitive Ring Opening of a Series of 2,3-Diaryl-substituted Cyclopropylcarbinyl Radicals
- Daniel Brimberry, Radical Cascade Synthesis of Substituted Bicyclo[3.3.0]octane Derivatives via Nickel(II)-catalyzed Cross Coupling Reactions of sp3 Carbon Centers
- Elizabeth Costello, Development of New Oxygen-Mediated C-C Coupling Reactions
- Aaron Danilack, The Untapped Resource of Marine Natural Products: Cyanobacteria & Microorganisms & Attempts at the Synthesis of the (E)-11,16-Dichlorohexadec-4-enoic Acid of Dichlorobouillonamide for Chiral Characterization
- Hillary Langat, Formation of 5,5,5-Tricyclic Ring Systems from [3.0.1]-Bicyclic Ring Systems via Radical Cascade Reaction
- Joseph Lobel, Expression and Purification of Isotopically Labelled Piscidin-1 for NMR Studies
- Allison Martella, Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Eu(TTA)3•3H2O and Incorporation in to Sol-Gels
- Deric Mei, Salicylate Chelates of Europium and Terbium Incorporated into Sol-Gel Silica Glasses
- Jonathan Michel, Towards the Synthesis of Cryptomaldamide, Diastereomers, and Analogs: The Algorithm for Tripeptide Formation
- Carmen Montagnon, Investigation of the Effects of Electronic Desolvation on Oseltamivir Binding Kinetics to N1 Influenza Neuraminidase
- Akritee Shrestha, Study of Piscidin 1 in Models of Cancer Cell Membranes and Healthy Mammalian Cell Membranes
- Joshua Snyder, The Diurnal Variation of Biomarkers in Human Urine
- Alexander Thompson, Radical-Mediated Ring Expansion to 7-5 Bicyclic Systems: The Synthesis of Bicyclo[4.2.1]nonane Derivatives via Endocyclic Cyclopropane Fragmentation and Cyclization onto External Olefins
- Bret Turner, Lanthanide Complex-Doped Sol-Gel Glasses Prepared by Post Annealing Immersion
- Kathleen Vaughan, The Synthesis of Both Enantiomers of 2-((tert-Butoxycarbonyl)(methyl)amino)-3-methoxypropyl Acetate: New Serinol Derivatives & A Brief Review of Anticancer Drug Agents Derived from Cyanobacteria Secondary Metabolites
- Larry Zhang, Synthesis of Dinitrogen Molybdenum Complex Using Nitrogen-Based Ligands: A Pre-catalyst for Olefin Metathesis
Chinese
- Cailin Chang, All’s Fair in Love and Dating Game Shows: The Evolution of the Dating Culture in China
- David Goldstein, China’s Aviation Industry: Headwinds and Tailwinds
- Darius Izad, Chinese Health Care Reform of 2009: An Early Assessment
- Kimberly Rowley, The Changing Role of Women in China
- Dennis Tung, Renewable Energy in China and America: a Comparison of Each Country's Energy Policy and Its Effect on The Environment
- Hui Ling Wang, Determining the Effects of Globalization on Chinese Films
Communication
- Julia Beaty, “You’re Too Clingy”: An Examination of Obsessive Relational Intrusion Behaviors and Romantic Relationship Satisfaction
- Hennie Bosman, Message Strategies in Beer Commercials: A Content Analysis Using Taylor’s 6-Segment Strategy Wheel
- Athina Chartelain, Unleashing Fifty Shades of Erotica: An Investigation of Fifty Shades of Grey and Perceptions of Sex and Romance
- Maja Feenick, The Effect of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Varsity-Level Collegiate Athletes
- Chelsea Haight, Examining Concepts of Public and Private Information and Effects on Relational Satisfaction
- Becca Hazlett, Perceptions of Student Athletes From the View of Non-Athletes on Division I and Division III Campuses
- Brian Infante, Advice-Seeking and Implementation in a Financial Situation
- Drew Jelinek, Open Wide...Now Communicate With the Dentist: Affinity-Seeking and Liking in the Dentist-Patient Relationship
- Brad Kennedy, Jack ‘n Coke: A Content Analysis of Liquor and Soda Advertisements
- Matthew Kessler, Investigating Participation and Engagement in Online Communities
- Jing Jing Lin, Power Distance: Perception of Inequality in Intercultural Teamwork Among Multicultural Students
- Dave Meisel, Verbal Practices of Fandom: Intra-Fanbase and Inter-Fanbase Communication Among National Football League Fans
- Lily Rothman, What Does it Mean to Be a Slut? Definitions and Implications at Hamilton College
- Laurie Sadove, The Cultivation of Fear: An Evaluation of the Correlation Between the Mean World Syndrome Conspiracy Theory Belief Levels
- Yaishna Santchurn, Self Through Story: An Exploration of the Chaotic Nature of Identity
- Anna Yakabe, Self-Perceived Communication Competence of Heritage and Foreign Language Speakers
- Katie Zimmerman, Conflict Mediation and Female College Sports Teams
Comparative Literature
- Arianne Bergman, Poetry and Motion: The Experience of Technology in Proust
- Cara Bigony, The Stereoscopic Lens: Habit and Possession in the Bedrooms of Proust
- Emily Delbridge, Emplotting the Self and the Live/Tell Paradox
- Sarah Gamble, A Land Ethic: Thought and Action in Environmental Literature
- Claire Gavin, Politicized Pregnancies: The Failure of the Roe Decision
- James Lavelle, Northstar Gets Resurrected at the End: Queer Comics and the Rise of Gay Superheroes
- Sarah Song, Women on Women: Late 20th Century Korean Short Fiction
- Rachel Tiche, Predatory Pages: Canis Lupis in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature
- Evan Van Tassell, Plotting Narrative: Visual Models for Literary Analysis
Creative Writing
- Joelle Adler, Thoughts on a Family
- Seiya Asada-Johnson, 396 6th
- Martin Cain, I Know This Water
- Debbie Chen, Treasure Returned
- Philip DiDonato, Monuments
- Anna Paikert, Something About Music
- Cecelie Pikus, Fear in Plane Sight
- David Snyder, Cover Letter
- Jacob Trahan, The Dreams of God
- Sydney Wright-Schaner, Dad’s Fourth Marriage
Economics
- Ford Charman, Collective Happiness: A Study of Labor Union Membership and Life Satisfaction
- Yifei Chen, Losing Behind the Starting Line? A Study of Gender Differences in the Return to Education
- Ayebea Darko, A Cross-Country Analysis of the Effect of Educational Attainment on Urbanization Rates
- Mihai Dohotaru, Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI): A Comparative Analysis
- Andrew Dubowitz, The Impact of Education on Employment Status Across Race and Gender
- Yating Guan, Political Instability, Country Risk, and Probability of Default
- Emily Heckman, Determinants of Portfolio Allocation Among Older Adults
- Anna Heywood, Natural Resource Dependence and Educational Outcomes: A Study of the Resource Curse in Texas
- Marta Johnson, The Incidence of Profit Sharing in US Establishments
- Nina Kraus, Does Foreign Direct Investment Cause Infrastructure Growth? A Cross-Country Study
- Ben Li, Migrant Worker Wage Discrimination in the Chinese Manufacturing Sector
- James Patteson, Quality vs. Access: Does the Distribution of Education Affect Economic Growth?
- Annie Phillips, As Society Gets Happier, Who Benefits the Most?
- Linwan Ran, Exchange Rate Regimes as Shock Absorbers
- Hannah Rogge, Identifying with the Instructor: Examining the Importance of Shared Student/Teacher Race and Gender Identity
- Rachel Slivken, Determinants of the Behavior of Microfinance Institutions
- Pauline Wafula, A Cross-Country Study on Educational Attainment and HIV/AIDS Prevalence
- Hui Ling Wang, A Cross-Country Analysis of Education and Labor Productivity
- Adam Wenick, The High Cost of Crime: Evaluating the Role of Market Wages as an Opportunity Cost of Criminal Behavior
English
- Janine Barlow, Reaching into the Lumber Room: Christ Symbolism in Light in August and As I Lay Dying
- Cooper Creagan, “Thy Love to Empire I Prefer!”: The Function of Romantic Love in Nahum Tate’s King Lear
- Lindsay Kramer, The Significance of Drum-Taps to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
- Genevieve Nierman, “Colours Intolerably Bright”: The Presence of the Past in Sean O’Faolain’s The Man Who Invented Sin and Frank O’Connor’s Crab Apple Jelly
- Briana Wagner, The Manliest of Men: Exploriong Gender and Sovereignty in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
Environmental Studies
- Deandra Aversa, Food Justice: The Prevalence of Food Deserts in Urban Communities of Color
- Anna Bastidas, Restoration Debate as Applied to Garlic Mustard Invasion in Hamilton College Forests
- Rachel Bristol, Suburban Sprawl in New Jersey: Planning, Preservation, and Regionalism
- Kenneth Click, The Current State of Wind Energy in Central New York
- Gillian Dudeck, The Lionfish Invasion in the Western Atlantic Ocean: Assessing Effects and Evaluating Response Plans in the Caribbean
- Ana Fernandez-Menjivar, The Effects and Implications of Garlic Mustard on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi found in the Hamilton College Forests
- Lauren Howe, The Re-Creation of Place and Identity in Utica's Refugee and Immigrant Kitchens
- Stephanie Ingraham, Green Marketing: A Case Study of Electric Vehicles
- Michele Kahn, Cultivating Environmental Stewardship in Children: A Comparative Analysis of the Effectiveness of Two Different Environmental Education Programs in New York
- Kolya Kerz, Isotopic Analysis of Fish Creek Methane Using Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy
- Charlotte Lescroart, Geochemical changes effect the global environment: quantification of methane from Fish Creek
- Melissa Mann, The New Environmental Justice: Asthma in New York City
- Ian Nichols, Methane Ebullition in Fluvial Environments at Fish Creek
- William Pedersen, The Trouble with Wilderness in the Adirondacks
- Luke Walsh, The Spacial Distribution of Possible Methane Ebullition Sites within Oneida Lake
- Elizabeth Waters, Herbal Medicine as a Feminist, Green Critique of Mainstream Science
Geosciences
- Rachel B. Cackett, A Laboratory Exercise for Paleontology: Environmental Analysis Using Invertebrate Fossils
- Adrien Hilmy, Measuring the Matrix: An Analysis of Elemental Composition in Cultural Sediments from the Slocan Narrows Pithouse Village, Upper Columbia River Drainage, British Columbia, Canada
- James P. Keefe, Hydrograph separation using the chemical mass-balance method
- Tucker T. Keren, Investigation of folds and faults in Eocene carbonates of the Serai Formation using satellite imagery, Western Desert, Egypt
- Peter J. Laciano, Structural Analysis of NNE-SSW Ridges in the Western Desert, Egypt Using Remote Sensing Data
- Dana A. Leonard, Hydrogeology of a kettle lake, Madison, NY
- Chelsea Lewis, Cosmogenic Radionuclide and Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating of Surficial Random Scatter Archaeological Sites in Namibia
- Lyman B. Munschauer, A chemical and petrographic characterization of fine-grained volcanic rocks in the Upper Columbia River Drainage
- Marko Nikic, A Meteorological Analysis of the Winter 2011-2012: Correlating the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation to New York's Winter Weather
- Catherine Smith, Multibeam, seismic, and sediment core analysis of seafloor morphology and ice regime in the Gerlache Strait, Antarctica
- Clifford H. Yu, Characterization of Structural Features of Three Localities within the Western Desert of Egypt
Government
- Colin Hill, Understanding Nation States and the Global Climate Regime: Applying Theories of International Relations to the International Climate Negotiations
- Jasmina Hodzic, Between Assimilation and Transnationalism: The Story of a Bosnian Community in Utica, NY
- Colin Hostetter, An Insider’s Game: Elite Influence on the 2012 Republican Primary
- Katie Joyce, The French Fifth Republic: Fifty Years of Presidentialization?
- Alex Powers, The Sources of Ballistic Missile Defense Expenditures
- Will Rusche, North Star Politics: Party Evolution in the State of Minnesota
- Redwan Saleh, Judicial Review of the President’s Killing Power: Constitutional Consequences of the Case of Aulaqi
- David Schwartz, The Legislative Behavior of Self-Financed House Members
- Dylan Wulderk, Political Time Is Up: Rethinking Skowronek’s Theory of Presidential Leadership
- Hashem Zikry, Applying Bartels’ Homer Gets a Tax Cut to the Kennedy and Reagan Cuts
Hispanic Studies
- Shelagh Browne, Engaño y anagnórisis: un análisis comparativo de temas y caracterización en el Quijote y las comecias de Lope y Calderón
- Emily Hughes, La representación de la crisis personal en McOndo
- Melanie Hundt, Identidades mexicanas diseccionadas: la representación del cuerpo en La muerte de Artemio Cruz
- Jonathan Piskor, El magnetismo de un vasallo celebérrimo: un análisis socio-filosófico del Cantar de Mio Cid
- Kevin Tutasig, Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad y la visión utópica-socialista de América Latina
History
- Eryn Boyce, Henry Chapman Mercer and the Building of Fonthill Castle
- Elaheh Nozari, Political Renewal in Post-War France: The Purge of Vichy Officials from 1944 to 1952
Neuroscience
- Alex Arenson, Phantom Words and Pretending to Speak: Cortical Re-instatement of Motor aand Visual Networks during Auditory Language Comprehension
- Jamie Azdair, The Neurobiology of Joint-Action Representation
- Anisha Bhanot, Long-term Behavioral Consequences of Neonatal Exposure to a Dopamine Agonist
- Bonnie Buis, Does Learning Language Count? The Impact of Language Acquisition on Mathematics
- Charlotte Cosgrove, Memory Reinstatement of Visual and Motor Networks During Auditory Language Comprehension
- Bridget Fitzpatrick, A Neurodevelopmental Model of Infection-Induced Schizophrenia
- Robert Hawkins, Mortality and Cognition: What Death Does to Your Mind
- Emma Geduldig, The Effects of Neonatal Steroid Treatment on Behavior and the Brain
- Megan Kieltyka, If the Mad Men Had Met a Mad Scientist: Activation of the Motor Cortices and Its Role in Effective Advertising
- Megan Lander, Behavioral and Anatomical Effects of Repeated Self-Stimulation of the Ventral Tegmental Area in Rats
- Amanda O’Brien, Communication in Autism: Neural Mechanisms of Emotional Face Processing
- Anthony Ruberto, Molecular Cloning and Expression Analysis of a cDNA Encoding a Vitamin C Transporter in a Fruit Fly
- Muriel Schwinn, The Effects Of Gonadectomy and Androgen Replacement Therapy on Bone Density, Behavior, and Adipose Tissue
- Rebecca Shields, Does Early Life Stress Lead to Alcohol Intake Later in Life?
- Ashley Sutton, Self-Compassion, Parenting, and the Development of Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem
Psychology
- Gloria Bardin, Early Infant Stimulation: Using Early Stimulation to Create Less Emotional Adult Rats
- Emily Baxter, The Psychology Behind ‘Guilty’ and ‘Not Guilty’: The Decision-making Process of Jurors and Juries During a Trial
- Jane Bernard, Leader Selection at a Glance: An Examination of Leader Attributes and Stress Coping in a Naturalistic Setting
- Arielle Berti, Reducing Racial Prejudice in a Virtual Environment: A Test of Two Models
- Hallie Brown, Knowing What You Know: Age-related Changes in Memory Confidence
- Sarah Cocuzzo, Modulation of Plus-maze Behavior in Rats by the D2/D3 Dopamine Agonist Quinpirole
- Claire Corroon, The Correlation Between Environmental Factors and Eating Disorder Behavior
- Robert DeJoy, Neurochemical Mechanisms of Drug Addiction: Exploring Commonalities Across Drug Types
- Ellen Doernberg, Increasing the Class Participation and the Initiated Peer Interactions of a Child in First Grade: A Case Study
- Paige Engeldrum, Variables Related to Maternal Behaviors and Childrearing Practices
- Beril Esen, Effect of Self-Awareness on the Social Comparisons of People with Defensive and Secure Self-Esteem
- Bryar Lynn Falvey, Individual Differences in Personality and Social Cognitions
- Mia Falzarano, Directed Forgetting and the Possible Moderating Role of Concrete vs. Abstract Words
- Christina Giordano, Perceptions of Leadership Styles: The Relationship between Gender, Emotional Intelligence, and Management Success
- Kim Goidel, The Effect of Private and Public Self-Awareness on Ego Depletion
- Daniel Gorman, The Divergent Influence of Narcissism and Self-Esteem on the Ratings of Relational Aggression
- Colin Hill, Individual Differences in Need for Cognition and Minority and Majority Influence
- Matthew Hill, Contrafreeloading in Rats: The Effects of the Non-sedative GABA Agonist TCS 1105
- Livia Houston, Reading Networks in the Developing Brain: Effects of Phonological Awareness and Socioeconomic Status
- Sunyoung Hwang, Stereotype Supression in High versus Low Stigma-Conscious Women Experiencing Stereotype Threat
- Elin Lantz, The Difference Between the Left and Right Hands in a Reaching Task
- Alexis Lee, Teaching a Kindergartener to Follow Multi-step Directions Using a Sequencing Intervention
- James Lovejoy, The Musical Experience: Exploring the Mechanisms and Effects of Musical Motion
- Susanna Parkin, It Wasn’t My Fault: The Role of Self-Awareness in Rationalization Among People with Defensive and Secure Self-Esteem
- Ramya Ramnath, Hemispheric Specialization of Attentional Processes
- Daniel Schanck, Operant Conditioning and Imitation in Rats Using a Discrimination Paradigm
- Isaac Smith, Increasing Peer Interactions of a 5th Grader Through Social Skills Training: A Case Study
- Ashley Vanicek, Safety Behaviors and Self-Image: Exploring the Multiple Components of Social Anxiety
Theatre
- Michael Breslin, Medea: An exploration, extension, and expansion of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatre via the performance of female and queerness
- Kathleen Conners, A View from the Booth: An Exploration of Stage Management in the Liberal Arts Context
- Alex Dorer, The World Out of Balance: A demonstration of the female experience and committing the unthinkable in Neil LaBute's Medea Redux
- Amanda Fox, Location: Milbank Hall, Door 4
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Women's Studies
- Claire Carusillo, Crimes Against Our Humanity: The Equity Paradigm in the US Prison-Industrial Complex
- Betty House, Why Kirkland Mattered
- Maggie Lavoie, Dialogues on Dinner in the Diaspora: The Role of Utica’s Immigrant Women in Negotiating Transnational and Gender Identities Through Cooking and Food Practices
- Leigh Pomeranz, And . . . One!: How the Higher Education System Teaches Female Conductors to Conduct
- Sophie Racine, What Hath Title IX Wrought for Women in STEM?: Finding the Limits of Legislation
- Louisa Root, The Pedagogy and Politics of a Lesbian Literature Syllabus