Since 1927, Bates College has offered an Honors Program to promote, develop, and recognize academic work of higher quality than ordinarily required for the baccalaureate degree. The honors thesis is the written component of the yearlong program completed during the senior year under the guidance of a faculty advisor.
Historically, the final copy of the honors thesis has been submitted in paper format and made available for research at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library. To promote greater access to senior theses by the Bates community and the world beyond Bates, the College introduces SCARAB, the College's institutional repository.
Paper copies of honors theses from 1927 through 2011 can be viewed in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library. To see the library catalog record for paper copies of theses deposited in the Archives, click HERE.
Theses from 2024
Fashion Forward: Digitizing Historical Dress in Theory and Practice, Grace K. Acton
Metaautobiography and Identity's Paradox: de Manian and Derridean Readings of Joyce and Svevo, Giancarlo Carlucci
A Paleoseismic Investigation of the Marquesado Fault in San Juan (27-33.5°S), Argentina, Drew Cochran, Shreya Arora, Jeremy Rimando, Gustavo F. Ortiz, Melina Villalobos, and Raul Gomez
Adaptation of Immunopanning Protocols: OmpF as an External Marker for Extraction of Regenerated Retinal Neurons, Madeline S. Ewell
Anarchism, Dreaming, and Technology as Cures to Sexual Violence in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and The Word for World is Forest, Anastasia Fowler
Embracing Diversity: Exploring the Multifaceted Experiences of Asian American students at PWIs, Molly E. Furman
Carbon Dynamics Upstream and Downstream of a Tidal Restriction in Drakes Island Salt Marsh, Wells, Maine, Jamie W. Hollander
Probability Assignments Under Deep Uncertainty, Hexuan Huang
Medieval Illumination and Modern Manuscript Collections: The Journey of The Psalter-Hours of Isabelle de France, Isabelle Amy Job
Emancipatory or Merely Appropriate? Revealing the Right to Education under the Thirteenth Amendment and Its Implications for Students with Disabilities, Rachel Joyce Liazos
The Impact of Stable Modes on Saturation in Magnetorotational Turbulence, Hongke Lu
THE SELF AND THE NATION: NEW YOUTH AND EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA, 1911 TO 1925, Zhengda(Chris) Lu
To Remember, To Forget: Political Actors’ Use of Collective Memory During Democratic Transitions in Spain and Chile, Caroline Thayer Milne
Running the Risk: Why Citizens Choose to Engage in Political Protest in 21st Century Russia, Grace Murphy
The Construction of Coloured Identities: Apartheid Nostalgia & The Politics of Memory, Helena May Raddock
Examining Intimate Partner Violence: The Erasure of Gendered Violence and Coercive Control, Leah C. Ruck
Tidal restriction affects carbon dynamics in the Jones Creek Salt Marsh, Scarborough, ME, USA, Anna E. Sarrazin
Beyond the Game: Assessing the IMPACT of a Collegiate Sports Mentorship Program on Psychosocial Development in Children With Disabilities and Serious Illnesses, Samantha Shapiro
Perceived Natural Scene Sizes Modulate The Effect of Clutter In Visual Search, Wentao Si
Organically Grown: The Sprouting Eco-Kashrut Movement, Miriam Phoebe Stern
Aldicarb sensitivity is altered in two strains with novel V-ATPase mutations in C. elegans., Natalie Elizabeth Young
Dynamic Bipartite Networks: Detecting and visualizing structural change, Yuhao Zhao
Synthesis and Biochemical Evaluation of Caffeoyl-Based Phenylpropanoid Glycosides, Edmund Squires Zuis
Theses from 2023
Futures Without Faces: The Relationship Between the Arts, National Museums, and State Interests in Postcolonial Morocco, Evan M. Antonakes
Investigating the Effects of Valence and Arousal on the Boundary Extension/Constriction Phenomenon, Ava E. Axelrod
Does the “Divine Marquis” Subordinate? Pornographic Subordination in Literary Fiction, Trijit Pico Banerjee
Encountering Impossibility: Georges Bataille’s Acéphalic Lifework, Trijit Pico Banerjee
Fulfillment Through Allegiance: Ingroup/Loyalty Indirectly Predicts Life Satisfaction, Nathaniel N. Berry
Of Pawos and Bodhisattvas: The Poltico-Religious Language of Tibetan Self-Immolation, John Henry Waugh Cantor
Gardens of Oppression: In Search of Her Delight, Khushi Choudhary
Strategies to Address Spiking Demand for Treatment in College Counseling Centers, Joanna G. Cloutier
The Mark of the Beast, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the End of the World, Alice M. Cockerham
Le français et les Franco(phone)s: An exploration of the evolving significance of French in Maine, Martha Coleman
The Seekers: American Religion in the Context of Heaven’s Gate, Max D. Devon
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Conceptualizations in Research and Policy, Allison Sarah Fischman
Unfit for Motherhood: The Involuntary Sterilization and Systemic Reproductive Coercion of Black Women in the United States from 1920 to 1980, Ariel Freedman
The Alerting Congruency Interaction: A Window into the Dynamics of Attention and Response Selection, Maya Joy Golden
Colonialism as the Disaster: Retelling the Fight for Haitian Sovereignty, Samuel Jean-Francois
The Synthesis of a Novel TET Inhibitor and its Inhibition of the TET Enzyme, Elizabeth G. LaCroix
The Right Against Coercion: A Normative Conception Restricts Police Deception, Nathaniel J. Lewis
Plant Succession and Soil Chemical Weathering on Post-glacial Landscapes, SE Alaska, Alana Margerum
A Paleoseismic Investigation of the Central Seismic Gap and Rupture Extent of the AD1505 Earthquake: Northwest Himalaya, India, Natalie Meenan
An Ethnographic Examination of Belonging and Hype in Web3 Communities, Kian Moaledj
Fascism and the Invention of the “New Woman” in Mussolini’s Italy, Katherine E. North
Del ‘bárbaro’ noble a su deconstrucción: La representación del 'indio' en La Araucana y La Florida del Inca, Cody M. Pfeiffer
“Habia abido y abia y andaba en ellas duende…”: The case of a duende in early modern Spain, Cody M. Pfeiffer
Wildfires in the US and Australia: NGO Polarization Amidst Political Polarization and Climate Disasters, Kallie E. Polgrean
The Heart and Spirit of the Table: Discourses and Practices of the Sobremesa in Madrid, Spain, Isabella Andrea Sobolewski
Planar Lipid Bilayer Analysis of Candidate Rotavirus Antivirals, Emily H. Tamkin
The Forgotten Women of South Africa: Mamphela Ramphele and Her Role in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Ellie Wolfe
Getting Warmer? Motivations, Messages, and Distance to Goal in Fundraising Campaigns, Qiyun Zhang
Theses from 2022
The Emancipating Potential of Linguistic Justice: Standardized Language and Writing Practices in Higher Education and the Reproduction of Oppressive Structures, Eliana Al-Konsul
Stability Analysis of Manganese-Oxides As Cathodes for Sodium Ion Batteries, Loren Andrews
“Nobody’s More Country”: Identity in Country-Rap Crossover Music, Amanda Mai T. Becker
One Blue Bowl: A Graphic History of the Silk Roads, Maya Benziger
“These People, Do They Care?” Facilitating Connections to Post-Incarceration Reentry Supports, Emma R. Block
Reconstructing early Holocene warmth in outer Isfjorden, Svalbard using stable isotope analysis on the ocean quahog, Arctica islandica, Emma Isabelle Christman
Metaphor, Gendered Slurs, and Epistemic Injustice, Sophie Cohen
Critical Thermal Maxima and Plasticity in Metabolic Rates: A Comparison of Two Ant Species, Etti Olivia Cooper
Suite: for Woodwind Quintet, Haik Oliver Der Manuelian
Learning to Fly on the Way Down: Directing and Teaching Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn, Olivia Davidson Dimond
Preclinical Drug Development of a Novel Antiviral Target in Rotavirus, Emily-Claire Kathleen Duffy
The Role of Phosphoinositide Metabolism in the Regulation of Neuronal Activity, Abhirami Elayidom
Dancing on the Precipice: How People Reason about Threshold Problems in a Socially-Rich Real World Context, Xavier Fallone
Quantifying Crevassing, Damage, and Deformation on the Vaughan Lewis Icefall, Alaska, Cecilia G. Gichner
The ‘Forever Migrant:’ An Intersectional Analysis of L/A Workplace Discrimination on the Basis of Race, African Accent, and English Language Proficiency, Ronan Rhea Goulden
A Place Beyond all Hope, Thomas A. Hiscock
Flatness, Distortion, Nonsense, and the Ordinary in the Novels of Bolaño, O'Brien, and Bernhard, Elizabeth Claire Kissane
The Shul in the Factory: The Role of Community in Jewish American Women’s Activism in Early Twentieth Century New York City’s Garment Industry, Ashley T. Koman
Emotion in the Neutral Court: Attorney Appeals to Emotion in Jury Trial Argumentation, Elise Marie Lambert
Shanshui Reinterpreted: The Contemporary Art of Xu Bing, Yao Lu, and Yang Yongliang, Anna Landgren
Evaluating the Role of Race in Foreign Policymaking: U.S. Public Diplomacy in Latin America during Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, Sophie Mackin
Spatial Elevation Dynamics and Carbon Sequestration Variability Within Sprague Marsh, Phippsburg, Maine, Margaret R. O'Brien
Magnetic Trapping of Rubidium en Route to Bose-Einstein Condensate Formation Using an Atom Chip Based Trap, Stevens L. Shea
Humans vs. COVID-19: Data-driven Modeling of Disease Spread on College Campuses, Ognyan Simeonov
A History of Contested and Constructed Boundaries: Tracing the Torture Discourse from Northern Ireland's 'State of Exception' in the 1970s to the Global 'War on Terror', Bridget McBride Thompson
A comparison of carbon sequestration and vegetation history in two Maine salt marshes, Emily Lillian Torkelsen
Hitting Refresh: Regulating internet speech in the 21st century, Jack Charles Valentino
The Political Theory of Digital Sex Work, Christina Wang
AI in Proteomics: A Comparison Between Crystallographic and in silico Methods of Protein Modeling, Alex D. Weissman
“Dear You”: Witnessing Trauma in the World of The Handmaid’s Tale, Caroline Wood
Populist Through and Through: Consistency, Variations, and Framing Anchors of Populist Parties’ Environmental Agendas, Hermione Zhou
Theses from 2021
The Influence of Racial Bias on Jury Selection and Potential Consequences for Justice, Kate S. Abramowitz
Pestilence and Penitence: The Cyprianic Plague and the Rise of Christianity, Alan C. Bisesi
Queerness for Kids: A Content Analysis of LGBTQ Narrative Picture Books, Emma W. Bouchey
Boys to Braves: Performing an Idealized Colonial State at Ontario Canoe-Tripping Camps, Helen Moran Bruckner
Unvanquished: the Kumeyaay and the 1775 Revolt, Catherine Joan Buse
Tet2 Knockout May Lead to Selective Memory Enhancement, Mallory M. Caron
“You don’t see yourself:” On the relationship between women’s body appreciation, self-objectification, and sexual agency, Shelby Elizabeth Cronkhite
“What We Do Minister to Our Gross Selves”: Afflicted Bodies, Illicit Sex, and the Agency of Disease in Romeo & Juliet and Measure for Measure, Deon J. Custard
Bedrock Geology, Geochronology, and Tectonic History of the Bronson Hill Anticlinorium in Northern New Hampshire, Liza Anne Folsom
Stories from the Flood: Narratives of Celilo Falls, 1805-2021, Maximilian LeGrand Friedenwald-Fishman
Geometry of Brittle and Ductile Bedrock Structures Influencing Groundwater Hydrology Adjacent to the Chlor-alkali Superfund Site, Berlin, NH, Peter B. Galloway