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 2018
mRNA decay in Borrelia burgdorferi under conditions of osmotic stress, Emily E. Bacon
The Alderbrook and Riverton Stages of Glacial Lake Israel and their Significance to the Indigenous Peoples of the Israel River Complex, Hazel Cashman
Opposition to a Neoclassical Scenario: Hip hop in Contemporary Jazz, Ian Thomas Clarkson
The Construction of a New Religion: L. Ron Hubbard's Use of Religious Discourse in the Transformation of Dianetics into Scientology, Robert John Daniels
Communities of Power: Rawls's Liberal Society and the Legitimate Use of Force, Matthew R. Davis
Divided We Fall: Eurosceptics in the European Parliament, Dylan Desjardins
Refugees, Racialization, and Resistance: Examining Lewiston, Maine’s Farmers’ Market, Zsofia Duarte
You Are Not Alone: HIV/AIDS Activism in Maine, Ian W. Erickson
Native Youth Contributions to Indigenous Sovereignty and Climate Justice in the #noDAPL Movement, Mary Rebecca Ferguson
Drug Use on the Coast: Examining the Opioid Epidemic in Maine Lobster Fishing Communities, Anna Rose Franceschetti
The Chorus of Cinema: Experiments in Community Filmmaking Practices and Collective Storytelling in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Dylan A. Franks
Portraying Harper Amaty Pitt: A Process, Hope French
Targeting Tet2 to Enhance Cognition: Manipulating the Methylome as a Potential Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease, Caroline Paige Gettens
"Woe to England's Manhood": Masculinity, Class and Liberalism in Britain, 1855-1874, Cristopher David Hernandez Sifontes
Queering Adrienne Rich: The Poetics of Radical Thought and Transformative Vision, Justin Ameen Hoden
Structure-Function Relationships in Pyrochlore Oxides, Samra Husremovic
Intimacy and Desire Through the Lens of an Aro-Ace Woman of Color, Christina Lang
McClellan at Sebastopol: The Delafield Commission and its Impact on the Siege of Yorktown, Joshua Elliot Leiner
The Relationship Between Purpose in Life and Salivary Cortisol Reactivity to a Social Stressor, Zachary Eli Magin
Sediment trap analysis in high-arctic lake Linnévatnet indicates a recent shift in the annual hydrological regime, Gabriel H. P. McGinn
Of Bucks, Butterflies, and Black Lives: An Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, John C. McWilliams
Structure and Kinematics of the Jefferson Oliverian Dome in the Southern Half of the Mt. Crescent 7.5’ Quadrangle, New Hampshire, Thorn King Merrill
Synthesis and incorporation of carbohydrate building blocks into O-mannosylated glycans, Catherine Field Merton
ECT and DBS: Depression Treatments and their Perceived Threat to Personal Identity, Katrina A. Muñoz
Bedrock Mapping of the Southern Portion of the 7.5 Minute Mt. Crescent Quadrangle, Northern New Hampshire, Kurt A. Niiler
Dynamics of Quantum Dot Lasers Subject to Optical Feedback, Salim Ourari
Round and Round Like a Squirrel on a Wheel: Exploring the Role of Negative Affect and Rumination in Mood Changes During Pain, Olga Revzina
The postglacial sea level history of Ingøya, northern Norway, Sam Rickerich
Targeting Terrorist Leaders, Stephen Charles Rowe
Europe’s Outsourced Refugees: Contextualizing NGO work in the “Calais of the Balkans”, John M. Sapoch
Power, Autonomy, and the Role of Law: Nudity and the Public-Private Distinction, Martin Francisco Saps
Depth of Processing in Object Substitution Masking, Gwen E. Savino
The Role of Diagnostic Objects in the Temporal Dynamics of Visual Scene Categorization, Julie Stitt Self
Urbanization: Impact on Dissolved Oxygen and Sedimentation in the Hart Brook Watershed (Lewiston, Maine), Hannah Rae Slattery
Reviving Gogol: "Diary of a Madman" in the Modern Scope, Nathaniel J. Stephenson
A Machine Learning Approach for Predicting Inpatient Discharge at Central Maine Medical Center, Mats Terwiesch
An Avian-Centered Model for the Dispersal of Ixodes scapularis by Fall Songbird Migrants, Benjamin A. Tonelli
Explaining Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: Political Settlements in Kenya and Uganda, Shanina van Gent
Investigating the Relationship between Osmotic Stress and mRNA Degradation Rates in Borrelia burgdorferi, the Causative Agent of Lyme Disease, Amelia R. Wilhelm
Synthesis of Mannose Building Blocks for Preparation of O-Mannosylated Glycans, Ke Zhao
Theses from 2017
fanditha and sihuru: Social and Political Import of Muslim-dhivehi Knowledge Forms, Fathimath Anan Ahmed
Theory of Mind Profile of School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Melody R. Altschuler
Data driven approaches for investigating molecular heterogeneity of the brain, Alexander J. Andonian
Predicting Emotional Responses to Social Exclusion: Immune Neglect, Emotion Regulation, and the Moderating Role of Dysphoria, Katherine Jaye Berger
Polarization Dynamics induced by Optical Perturbations in Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers, Niccolo Bigagli
Revealing What Recidivism Hides: Punishment, Surveillance, and Bias in Evaluating Adult Drug Court in Maine, Claire Brown
Reflection and Response of the New Latin American Cinema Movement: Feminism in the Cinema of Lucrecia Martel, Cecelia Louise Carey-Snow
Following Intellectual Genealogies: The Construction of Mare Liberum and Mare Clausum, 1603-1652, Christopher Michael Crum
A Survey of Wavelet Theory and Methods Suited for Times Series Analysis, Gregory Fitzgerald
Gibbon's Rome for Chamber Orchestra, Kevin H. Franco
Introversion-Extraversion and the Constitution of an Activist: Exploring Personality Value Patterns in Social Movement Engagement, Sofia L. Gnabasik
Lateralization of Dysregulated Gene Expression in Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome and Manipulating the Methylome to Enhance Memory, Alex R. Gogliettino
Finding Closure: Trauma Narratives in Graphic Literatures, Katharina Harling
Newly Discovered Albee Formation in the Northern Half of the Jefferson, NH 7.5’ Quadrangle: Detrital Zircons, Structure, and Tectonics, Ian W. Hillenbrand
Mi Bolivia está Cambiando: the effect of decentralization on ethno-political mobilization in Bolivia, Tessa Holtzman
Nonlinear Dynamics of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers subject to Optical Injection, Aashu Jha
Subclinical Depression, Anxiety, and Alexithymia: Implications for Implicit and Explicit Emotion Regulation, William N. Koller
How do you interpret Heartbreak?: A prototype theory based approach to understanding genre’s effect on musical persona, Madeline McLean
The Boat is My Family: Embodiment and Belonging in Shetland Fishing Communities, Katherine S. McNally
The Developmental Trajectory of Oxytocin-Dependent Changes in Psychosocial Adjustment Across Adulthood, Kate A. Moody
Waste, Time and Film in Don DeLillo’s Underworld and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Nathan T. Moreau
Not a Laughing Matter: John Oliver, Burkean Frames, and the Performance of Public Intellect, Gabriel Francis Nott
Virtuous Particularism: The Case for Contextual Value and Moral Sensitivity, Amar Ojha
The Freedom of Information Act Reimagined: Lawmaking, Transparency, and National Security In Twenty-First-Century America, Matthew F. Phillips
One Hand Clapping: Hearing Zen in «Recueil de pierre et de sable», Duncan Reehl
Examining the Interpersonal Deficits in Borderline Personality Style: Comparing Attachment and Biosocial Models, Azure Reid-Russell
Constructing Womanhood and the Female Cyborg: A Feminist Reading of Ex Machina and Westworld, Zoe E. Seaman-Grant
Intersections of Mental Illness and Legislative Changes at Androscoggin County Jail, Katherine G. Stevenson
Use of Chromatin Immunoprecipitation and qPCR in 24 Hours-post-fertilization Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos to Show Direct Regulation of nrf genes by Ahr1B, Alexandra Sharon Wyss Ulin
Vector Autoregressions with Machine Learning, Michael Allen Varner
Bedrock Geology, Stratigraphy and Geochronology in the Migmatite Terrain of the Southern Gilead 7.5’ Quadrangle, Western Maine, Audrey Wheatcroft
Theses from 2016
A Century of National Park Conflict: Class, Geography, and the Changing Values of Conservation Discourse in Maine, Adam R. Auerbach
"This Is The Story of a Man Named Stanley": Narratology, Authorship and Agency in The Stanley Parable, Rebeccah Rose Bassell
The Influence of U.S. Foreign Policy on Asylum and Refugee Admissions to the United States, Nicole Louise Bermudez
Mixed k-means clustering in computer adaptive learning, Camden G. Bock and Bonnie Shulman PhD
The Influence of pressure and temperature on the metal-silicate partitioning of V, Cr, and Mn: implications for the formation of the Earth’s core, Christopher William Bradbury
Making Americans: Negotiating the Boundaries of Somali Identities in the Public Education System of Lewiston, Maine, Ashley Anne Bryant
Chaucer's Women and Women Chaucerians: Unveiling the Modern Academy as a Medieval Institution through Chaucer's Poetry, Cheyenne J. Cannarozzo
Structure and Geochronology of the Jurassic Pliny Range Caldera Complex: 7.5’ Jefferson Quadrangle, Northern New Hampshire, Jordan Leigh Cargill
The Political Limits of Deep Ecology: Rawls and Naess on Intrinsic Value and Reasonable Pluralism, Britta A. Clark
Poetics of the Heartland: The Lyric Voices of James Wright and Stanley Plumly, William R. Cleaves
A Court Under Strain: The U.S. Supreme Court's Democratic Deficit, Brielle E. Dalvano
Safely Shooting a Quiet Woman: A Study of Patriarchy, Sexuality, Racism, and Putrefaction in John Webster’s Plays, Rebecca C. Dobbin
Applying the Neo-Functionalist Paradigm to Assess the Integrative Consequences of the European Court of Justice's Human Rights Jurisprudence, Elizabeth Sarah Dolgicer
Red maple (Acer rubrum) and red oak (Quercus rubra) exhibit spatial and temporal variation in vulnerability to embolism, Julia Laird Fisher
Re-imagining the South African Nation: Case Studies of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Josh Tancer Giesler
The Influence of Lineup Procedures on Eyewitness Decision Making, Julia B. Gordon
Methane emissions along a salinity gradient of a restored salt marsh in Casco Bay, Maine, Cailene M. Gunn
Portraits of Bhutanese Identity in America: Family, Belonging, and Hope in the Diaspora, Isabel Ann Koyama
Drops of One Ocean: Globalization, Identity Formation and Hegemony in the Baha'i Communities of Samoa, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Lithuania, Detmer Yens Kremer
La imagen de la mujer: Insatisfacción y trastornos alimentarios en Argentina, Elise I. Krims
Origami Constructions of Rings of Algebraic Integers, Juergen Desmond Kritschgau
Context Dependent Representations: Solving the Problem of Content, Jurgen Desmond Kritschgau
Mid-Holocene Marine Paleoclimate Reconstruction Through Schlerochronological Analysis of Arctica islandica from Finnmark, Rolvsøya, Northern Norway, Samuel Zimet Mark
High Resolution XRF Sediment Analysis of Late Season Precipitation Events in a High Arctic Glaciated Watershed: Svalbard, Norway, Christiane P. McCabe
Private Union, Public Conflict: Life and Labor at Michelin in the Twentieth Century, Madeleine Curtis McCabe
Conceptualizing Community: Older People's Experiences in Independent Living Facilities, Laurel E. Meyer
Reading "A Politics of Location": An Ethical Mapping of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Michela J. Moscufo
Judging Moral Evaluations: The Capabilities Approach to Female Genital Surgeries, Rachel Neckes