College Honors Program
The College Honors Program brings together academically accomplished and highly motivated students to pursue multidisciplinary studies in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. This highly selective and challenging program is composed of sophomores, juniors, and seniors from any major, and incorporates special seminars, an honors colloquium and a thesis.
The College Honors Program, established in 1962, is one of the oldest programs providing distinctive educational opportunities at Holy Cross culminating in the senior honors thesis, and the intellectual excitement of a multidisciplinary classroom, where students from all majors address significant matters with faculty who are experts in integrative teaching and scholarship.
Theses from 2023
Machiavelli on Necessity: Expansion, Founding, and Renewal, Kevin Akalski
Constructing the Social Self: Painting with Data, Brooke Bailey
How Catholic are Milton’s Angels? An Analysis of Angelic Substance and Hierarchy in Paradise Lost in the Light of Catholic Angelology, Christian Alexander Barkman
Body Stigma and Food Insecurity: How the Cultural Attitude Towards Weight Amplifies Hunger and Perpetuates Disordered Eating Pathology, Emily Mason Bouzan
The Creation and Removal of Iron and Manganese Oxides on Terracotta Surfaces, Charles Cassidy
In-Solution Detection of Chalcogen Bonding, Henry Ware Cavanaugh
“Tell Your People I’m Coming to Your Funeral”: Older Adult Relationships as Contextualized by the Assisted Living Setting, Olivia Curnen
Limitation and Creativity: A Rock Album Inspired by Mathematical Constraints, Mark Czerwinski
Reinvest in US: Reimagine the Role of Police in the U.S., Jamil Davis
Brotherly Nations? Russia, Ukraine, and a Crisis of Identity, Teresa J. Esquivel
Rhythm and Verse: Reimagining the Massachusetts K-12 English Language Arts Curriculum, Brianna Fisher
Respecting a Person’s Dignity: Kantian Approaches to Morality, Carina Gregori Asadourian
HIV/AIDS: Science and Society. The Needs of AIDS Service Organizations and the Potential of APOBEC3G, Tianci Guan
The Influence of Surface Residues on the Structure and Activity of a Salt-Dependent Halophilic Enzyme, Michelle K. Haigbea
Perpetrators of the Holocaust in a Social Psychological Context: Contrasting Motivations, Amanda Hickey
Classical Influences on Anti-Federalism in Late18th-Century America: An Analysis of References to The Roman Republic, “Cato,” and Caesar in the Anti-Federalist Papers, Anastasia Kaliabakos
Framing the American Abortion Debate: A Comparative and Longitudinal Study of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Framing Techniques, Melanie Lytle
The Rise, the Resurgence, and Resilience of the Left in Latin America, Maria Valentina Maza Izarra
In the Shadow of Cyril of Alexandria: An Ecumenical Treatment of the Chalcedonian Schism, Christopher McCormack
Dog Days are Here: Canine LMSCs as a Novel Model System, Patrick Molluso
From Carbon Dioxide to Methane: Reframing the Fight Against Climate Change, Margaret O'Leary
Forging a Catholic Modernity: American Catholic Reactions to Anticlericalism in Mexico and Spain: 1920-1945, Evan Poellinger
The Progression of Affective Polarization on Twitter: Case Studies in U.S. Presidential Politics, David Pritchard
The Social Security Debate: Unemployment Insurance in the United States, Antonio Louis Ricco III
The Ambiguity of Probable Cause and its Contentious Application by Police, Dave Sainte-Luce
The Public Persona of Gaius Gracchus: Rhetoric, Legislation, and Precedent, Coleman Smith
Angels of Many Houses: Reconciling Domesticity in 19th-Century Victorian Literature, Amanda Vierra
Heroic (Im)maturity: Domestic Rupture and the Myth of Telemachus' Coming of Age, Mary Whitney
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Child Development, Alysa Xie
“Dizzy Old Wizard” vs. “Sportsman and Hunter”: U.S. Press Views of Iranian Leadership During the Cold War, Ariana Zandi
Theses from 2022
Psychological Conceptualizations and Treatments of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Kaitlyn H. Bickerton
Parental Opioid Use and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Combatting Socioeconomic Barriers to Treatments and Interventions, Julie Brewer
The Syntax of Social Justice: Examining Post-Bellum Black Intellectual Thought & Classics, Mathew D. Cedeno
"Weak Women?": Plotting Women's Networks of Influence at Plimouth Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century, Helena Connell
Trickle-Down Central Banking: An Analysis of Quantitative Easing within the US Economy, Emily Curtis
Patriotism? Nicias, Alcibiades, and 1/6/21, Stephen Dierkes
Progress Towards Low Energy Charge Transfer Collision Experiments Using Pulse Sequencing, Alex DiResta
How Prison Systems Can Better Aid People with Substance Use Disorders, Avery Faires
Writing Dystopia: Zamyatin’s Writing Philosophy, Genre, and the Protagonist of We, Kelly A. Gallagher
The Witch in the Roman Imagination, Augusta Holyfield
Writing Home Beyond Domesticity: Elizabeth Bishop and Mascha Kaléko, Katie Knippler
Synthetic Studies on Diospongin B: A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Natural Products, Pamela Kote
Cornel West: Self and Community, Rachel Mallett
Performance, Theatricality, and Identity in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Nina Masin-Moyer
Labor Unions in the United States, Argentina, and the United Kingdom: A Comparative Study, Jake Mozeleski
High Glucose Has Sex-Specific Effects on Amyloid-β Accumulation in Alzheimer's C. elegans Model, Monica Nakhla
Analysis of Equations of State for Neutron Star Modeling, Joseph E. Nyhan
The 1001 Nights: How Compilation, Translation, and Adaptation Influenced a Global Work of Literature, Mary Evelyn Quinlan
Vaccine Hesitancy: A Deep-Dive into the Decision-Making Processes around Vaccination, Matthew Robertson
Family Life During Covid-19, Ellen B. Rogers
Woven Words in the Iliad: Gender, Narrative, and Textile Production in the Scholia of the Venetus A Manuscript, Anne-Catherine Schaaf
Species Delimitation in the Pseudanophthalmus robustus Species Group Using DNA Barcoding, Frank Spano
Transforming Trees, Transcending Binaries: Gender in Augustan Poetry, Kendall Swanson
The Potential for Non-Addictive Analgesics to Address the Opioid Crisis, Emily Taylor
Allumination: Inquiries into an Understanding of Power, Oppression, and Connection, Hannah Thompson
Interactive Effects of Food Availability and Salinity on Phenotypic Plasticity of Echinarachnius parma Larvae, Isabelle Q. Uong
Language and Cognition: A Comparison of Spatial and Mathematical Cognition in Visual and Auditory Languages, Lauren Vitelli
Salty Enzymes: Protein Splicing Dependence on Salt Concentrations, Diana Wall
The End of the 7: Chinese Catholic Immigrants in Flushing, Xiani Zhu
Theses from 2021
Primaried from the Left: The Role of a Progressive Campaign Network in Congressional Primary Challenges, Grace C. Burke
Doppelgängers and Doubles in Literature: A Comparison of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Meghan E. Cooper
Anti-Anarchist Legislation and the Road to the 1919 Red Hysteria, Evan Crumb
A Year in Syntropy: Exploring Syntropic Agriculture, Ajah Eills
Biomedical Ethics in the Medical School Curriculum: Lessons Learned from the Holocaust, Emma Flanagan
«Cuida tu alma y tu cuerpo por Dios y la Falange»: Women’s Education and la Sección Femenina in Franco’s Spain, Madeleine Fontenay
Inflammation, Diet, and Depression, Kareem F. Hamada
Ecology and Vegetation in a Passively Managed Urban Park in Worcester, MA, Raphaella Mascia
The United States and its Coercive Democratization Attempts in Japan and Iraq, Noah Shepardson
Theses from 2020
The Green Poem: An Original Play in Two Acts, Emily Arancio
Audience and Narrative in Female-Authored Diaries of the Twentieth Century: Analyzing Diaries As Modernist Texts, Rose Grosskopf
Analytic Exoplanet Transit Analysis, and Investigation into WASP, Kepler, and Qatar Systems, Colan Gulla
The Qur’ānic Doctrine of the Divine Names and the Muslim Understanding of the Divine, Sibgha Javaid
A Comparative Analysis of the Politics of Gun Control in the United States and Australia, Nicholas Leone
Matrons, Mothers, and Monsters: The Heroine in Beowulf, Grendel, and The Mere Wife, Grace Lucier
The Dietary Patterns of Fourth-Year Students at the College of the Holy Cross, Emily Rothmann
Theses from 2017
Recording Angels: Examining Female Narrators in Vampire Fiction and Film, Jacqueline T. Bashaw
Rationality vs Reality: The Dissonance between Economic Models and Experimental Data, Piotr Broda
The Demilitarization of Costa Rica, Patrick Buscone
The Convergence of Schenkerian Music Theory and Generative Linguistics: An Analysis and Composition, Michael A. Ciaramella
Concurrent Surgery and Informed Consent, Andrew M. Weller
Theses from 2016
A PCR-Based Assessment of the Etiology and Pathogenesis of Feline Chronic Rhinitis, Gabriella Motta
Talking About Aphasia: The Two Voices of Insight, Elizabeth O'Brien
Theses from 2015
Approaches to Late Victorian Poverty – A Re-Examination of the London Charity Organization, Claire S. Mahoney '15
Theses from 2014
A Reassessment of Athenian Tribute, Christine Bannan '14
Buying the Same Horse Twice: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1944-1945, John Dobbins '14
A Musical Mirror: Spain's Ever-changing Political Landscape and Its Reflection in Popular Music, Vera Grek '14
Theses from 2012
Tragedy and Transcendence: Tracing Tragedy from Early Modernity to Present, William J. Giancola '12
Between Capitalism and Socialism: Religion and Distributive Justice, Nicole Guarnieri '12
Theses from 2009
The Use of a Lock-In Amplifier to Stabilize the Frequency of a Laser Diode, Jose M. Juarez
Theses from 1991
Senegalese Women: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Development in Sine-Saloum and Dakar, Sarah-Joy Hunter