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 2022
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
"...Where Virtue guides not..." for tenor and chambor ensemble, Colby A. Baker
Sacrificing Mice: The Religious Nature of Scientism, Nicholas Vincent Barresi
Symmetrical Resurgence of Previously Extinguished Behaviors in Pigeons, Bethanne Bartscherer
Corporate Valuation: An Analysis of Discounted Cash Flows and Comparable Companies, Timothy Beekman
Development of an Earth Abundant Catalyst that Dehydrogenates Methanol, Michael Bender
Cognitive Control in Early Abstinent Use Disorder Patients, Christina Carlone
Making Black Catholics: The Language and Politics of Evangelization, Alden B. Coffin
High Culture Consumption: An Econometric Analysis of Live Concert Attendance, A. Joseph Dalton, IV
Solipsism and the failures of language in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, Frederick Doyle
The "Gun Nut" Perspective: Organized Responses to New Gun Control Legislation, Matthew P. Dunn
Children's Spatial-Relational Representations of the Day-Night Cycle, Alison Franco
Synthetic Studies on the C1-C15 Fragment of (+)-Sorangrin A, Amanda Fyles
Approaches to Late Victorian Poverty – A Re-Examination of the London Charity Organization, Claire S. Mahoney '15
Approaches to Late Victorian Poverty-- A Re-Examination of the London Charity Organization, Claire S. Mahoney
Silence as Agency in William Shakespeare: Identifying a Rhetoric of Concealment in The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure, Catherine McCaffery
A Topological Analysis of Targeted In-III Uptake in SPECT Images of Murine Tumors, Melissa R. McGuirl
The Power of the Female Voice in Homer's Odyssey, Lindsey Nemshick
The Language of the Idol and the Icon: Showing Julian of Norwich and Her Objects, Chase Padusniak
An Assessment of Undergraduate Business Schools, Andrew Perkins
Service of Sarcasm: Emotional Labor and Autonomy in a Unique Restaurant Setting, Jacqueline Saltarelli
Children of the OSE: Jewish Identity and Survival in World War II France, Camille Santrach
Addressing the Wound: An Artistic Exploration of Human Pain, Lorena Rose Sferlazza
An Examination of Social Motor Coordination Functions in Patients with Schizophrenia, Dominick C. Vogus
"Love Them for Who They Are": Affirming Parenting of Transgender Children and Adolescents, Amanda Williams
Developing a Robust Cell Migration Assay and its Applications in Measuring Cigarette Smoke Induced Damage in Fibroblasts, Alexander Yeo
Theses from 2014
A Reassessment of Athenian Imperial Tribute, Christine Bannan
A Reassessment of Athenian Tribute, Christine Bannan '14
The Simulation of Two-State Quantum Systems, Kevin Blanchette
Behind the Blood Rush: George Eliot's Women and their Shameful Delight in Vocation, Sara Bovat
Is There a Link between CEO and Director Compensation and Fraudulent Financial Reporting?, Christopher Brosnan
The Velocity of Hopelessness: John Keats and his Successors, Katrina Burns
Environmental Psychology: The Factors Affecting Pro-environmental Choice, Francis J. Deleo, III
Buying the Same Horse Twice: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1944-1945, John Dobbins '14
Buying the Same Horse Twice: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1944-1945, John R. Dobbins
The Art of Time: Living and Loving as Mortals, Kathryn Droumbakis
Enhancing STEM education in high-need public schools by developing and evaluating the effectiveness of low-cost, interactive demonstrations for high school physics, William J. Geddes
A Musical Mirror: Spain's Ever-changing Political Landscape and Its Reflection in Popular Music, Vera Grek '14
On the Jurisdictional and Legal Complexities of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp and Interrogation Facility, Cosmo Karalolos
Specific Determinants of the Utilization of Dental Care Among Low-Income Children in the U.S., Jeanne Ann Kiernan
Studies Toward the Synthesis of Lycorane and Aspidosperma Alkaloids, Joseph Frederick Kramkowski
Occidentalism without Abstraction: How Historical Events Shaped Occidentalism in the Arab World, John Macomber
Innovation and the Internet: A Cross-Country Analysis, Andrew Philip Marzo
The relationship between eating-disorder scales and breakdowns in cognitive control toward food cues in a non-clinical college population, Allison Matous
Characterizing the Human Anti-HIV Protein APOBEC3G: An Examination of Viral Domains, Meiling R. May
Temporal Sequence of Stress-Induced Changes in Mouse Behavior and Physiology, Ryan O'Keefe
The Mandate of Law and Nature: Reconiling Individual Freedom and Social Order, Amanda M. Osowski
Beyond Development: A Reconsideration of the Life-Course Through the Analysis of Arnett's "Emerging Adulthood", Laura Polacek
A comparative analysis of acute exposure to 17β-estradiol: effects on the development and growth of sea urchin larvae, Elizabeth Tobey
Theses from 2013
An Epic Tradition Expanded and Condensed: The Structure and the Purpose of Silius Italicus' Italian Catalogue, Matthew P. Angiolillo
Reconstructing the Dodo: Modeling hindlimb locomotion in Raphus cucullatus, Andrew Biedlingmaier
Newly Reducible Iterates of Families of Polynomiais over Number Fields and Finite Fields, Emma Colbert
The Road to Each of Us: Character, Place, and the Writing of Contemporary Fiction, David Cotrone
The Things They Carried: Object Agency and National Crisis in Morte d'Arthur and Moby Dick, Sheila Coursey
American Political Media Bias: Past, Present, and Prospects for the Future, Daniel P. DeConinck
A Historical Diagnosis: An Analysis of the Medical Discourse Concerning Threats to Women's Health and Happiness in Late Nineteenth Century America, Kathryn Mary DeFusco
Charlotte Brontё's Narrators: Evident Disguise in Shirley and Villette, Katie Ann Guandalini
Determining the Cause of Primacy Effects in Memory, Nathan Guevremont