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 2025
To Be a ‘Good Farmer’ in a Fractured World: Wabanaki, White, and Somali Bantu Perspectives on Farming and Community in Maine, Aneeza Ariana Ahmad
A President or a Prince? Tracing the Development of Unitary Executive Theory, Isabel Beck
My Love is Like Eternity: A Process in Choreography and Immersive Performance, Lola Buczkowski
“No Cause In The World Is Foreign To Us”: An Analysis of the Bloque Nacionalista Galego’s Public-Facing Rhetoric, 2016–2024, Maple Buescher
Investigating Educational Outcomes for Providence Community Advocacy, Christian Cabello
Patterns Among Ulam Words, Hopper A. Clark
The Impact of Social Distance and Temporal Distance on Thinking About a Good Life, Siyu He
“Better a Witty Fool Than a Foolish Wit”: Feminist Wit in Shakespeare’s Comedies, Eva Rioux Hynes
Women for the Home, Children, and Resistance: Motherhood as a Political Strategy in Chile’s Anti-Allende and Anti-Pinochet Movements, Keira January
Situations of Habituation: Examining Habitual versus Goal-Directed Behaviors Under de Wit’s Slips of Action Task, Olivia R. Joaquin
Resorts and Republics: Freedom and Unfreedom in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Rashad A. King
Fabricating Purity: Muslim Transhumance, Colonization, and the Racial Politics of Spanish Shepherding, Maria G. McEvoy
Effects of synesthetic photisms on visual cognition: Investigating the temporal organization of grapheme-color synesthesia and object trimming in the visual processing pathway, Rosemary J. McKerley
Internal Geographies, Xanthe Miller
“The Object, The Virgin, The Holy Figure”, An Album and Musical Dissection of the Way in Which We Come to Be, Kenyon Walker Moore
The Visual Conversation and the Politics of Curiosity in Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, Emma Sablan
Rhythmic Motor Execution Reduces Emotional Arousal, Alicia F. Sang
Executive Actions in the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies: Constitutional and Political Implications, Sarah C. Senator
Valuing the Whole Self: Luck, Oppression, and Self-Respect, Elizabeth Skillings
The Absented Maternal: The Colonial Fetishization of the Racialized Maternal Body in Shakespeare, Mary Elizabeth Wray Tune
Using CSIA-AA of Paleo Cod Bone Collagen to Uncover Changes in Basal Nitrogen Sources and Trophic Position in the Gulf of Maine Over the Past 4,400 Years, Samantha L. Turtle
Galactic Winds in MaNGA and eBOSS: A Comprehensive Study of the Relationship Between Galaxies and their Outflows Over the Last Eight Billion Years, Brandon G. Villalta Lopez
Jujubes on the Margin: Trauma, Community, and Memories of a Village in Central Shanxi, Weihang Wang
Optical Frequency Comb Stabilization as an Optical Frequency Reference, Julia White
Connecting with Your Future Self: Behavioral Interventions on Decision Making, Youer Wu
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
The Effects of Post-Identification Feedback on Witness and Photospread Administrator Behavior, Abigail M. Harkness
Anti-Asian Racism, Model Minority Myth, and Their Psychological Impact on Asian Americans, Tamaki Hashiramoto
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
The Makings of a Racial Vanguard : Black American Transactional Engagement 1848 – 1922, Sebastien Kleitman
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, Sam 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